Toggle Background Color

Tedious farming of the same two bats by reusing the screen transition right next to them dealt with, let's hand in the quest. Coating Liquid is new! It give us a buff to our attack for like 30 seconds or so. I haven't timed it exactly, mind, but that's how long it feel like. We'll use it plenty before we're done, don't worry, so you can tell me exactly how wrong I am then.



I also grabbed the Green Bugs like I said I would. Blue Mint we can only get from quest rewards right now, since it's technically from the second area. Haku Seeds are a very common drop from a bit of a pain that we'll be seeing much later. Rhegium Iron Ore is something we can mine now that we can roll. Getting 5 now is very convenient though...



Gonna do this quest next. If you don't have 7 after killing 12 Black Pteras, something has probably gone wrong.



Clary Sage is a material that's normally gotten in the second layer like Blue Mint, and Rain Calamity is the screen damage item we can buy. I'll have to remember to use it at some point.



Next is this. We can conveniently flip that five ore we got to instantly clear it.



3 Life's Guideposts is nice, I guess, but the real reward is that Sabre. It's a new weapon and boy am I glad to get it already.



Suppli-Extract gathering next, eh? We only have 7 right now (have used 0 after all). We could just go buy one for like $50 and move on, or just craft it, but we won't be able to do the last quest here during our next excursion and no more are unlocking until we do. We can actually get that missing Suppli-Extract for free in the ruins, so let's just use that as our excuse to delve deeper in.



The Sabre is a very good Medium Sword and we won't be able to upgrade it for a little while, sadly. We can get Small Petals and the Iron Ore we need easy enough, but Odoriferous Liquid and Glowing Talons are deeper in than we'll get to today.



I'm definitely equipping it though. Even if I upgraded the Tinku Blade, it'd be weaker than the Sabre.



Before leaving town, I decide we should craft literally anything, and make a new accessory. For beating up the undead a whole bunch, we got a new ring.



Rather nicely, we can compare it with our current bangle and see that it's objectively better in every way and immediately equip it right here.

We'll be spending most of the rest of today's update doing this one excursion into the ruins for our free Suppli-Extract. ...Look, I take saving money very seriously right now. We're two bosses away from having an easy infinite money loop!

Anyway, point is this seems like a good time to have a dungeon video. Feel free to watch it, appreciate the weirdly chill dungeon music and skip past the screenshot equivalent (ctrl+f for " End"), or don't watch it and just read the update like normal. Or do both if you like. I'm not your mother.

Ruins Exploration 01

First off, the Sabre is so good that it can now kill a slime with its 2-hit combo! We're really getting stronger!

...I will eventually stop using this as a metric for progress, I promise.



Now that we can roll, we'll hit up the top-left room first. The moth here is also two-shottable with the Sabre, it's just still a pain to get to hit twice.



Our wicked cool combat roll lets us go through small gaps like this. It's basically the morph ball but more anatomically possible.



Another moth over here that we smack twice and move on. There's also a slime here, but it's not attacking us and is.. facing the camera?



And we can talk to it. Well, why not?

Sadly, this just loops infinitely right now. Later on we'll be able to do something with this slime but that is for another day.



Directly above it, we can find the first skill book we'll be picking up today. I imagine it should be obvious what this'll be when we turn it in. Not doing that until we're completely done though.



Over to the right is another corridor with a zombie and a moth in it. Very ho hum.



Our second reward for coming over here is another skill book. We'll be picking up a couple more before we're done, even.



Not over here though. This gap is too big to get across.



Returning to the other wall we gotta roll under, we learn that we've actually hit an invisible level transition thanks to this moth. It is virtually identical to the ones we've already seen but it hits harder and has more HP. This happens occasionally and it's always very rude.



We do have a new friend here though.



It's a Pill Bug, so it rolls at us very aggressively. Just jump over it and hit it when it's getting back up from its roll. Or just jump over it and move on.



I want this tree though, since it's where we get Damp Lumber. Bent Branches too, which are pretty important.



There's a second Pill Bug over by these rocks (new resource available here: Jade). This one dropped its leg for us. How thoughtful.



Rolling past those rocks brings us to another mining point in a new room. This one is the first spot we can get Rhegium Iron Ore for ourselves. It's also where we can get crystals that are kinda important for what I consider layer one's best accessory.



There's a regular Living Dead here too. This chump is not upgraded.



Above him is another pillar we cannot break yet. That item just past it is needed for a quest much later on. The last time I played, I forgot this was here and spent perhaps a bit too long looking for it. Not making that mistake again!



Anyway, we'll take the top-right exit and hopefully ignore the two Skeletons just below us.



We gotta use moving platforms to get further across though, which is bit time-consuming.



Just past those we get to a big ol' flower. This one is pretty annoying to melee, since we can't dodge it effectively and throwing knives at it from the moving platform would take too long.



We steal one of its petals though.



Just past the Kahaku is another jump we can't make right now. Not because that bat is a jerk and will hit you for trying, but he doesn't help.



So we drop down, dodge the Pill Bug and move on.



Another Kahaku but this one I will cheese with infinite knives. Just stay still and throw them until it dies. I would fight it normally, but...



...Oh come on, really? That's gotta be its rarest drop!



Anyway, just behind that Kahaku is a Kobold. Kobolds in this game are cowardly jerks who will run away from you and snipe you with their bows from across the entire map if given the chance. This one is positioned immediately behind that Kahaku, so once you're close enough to hit it, you also draw aggro from him and that makes fighting obnoxious and annoying.

And, no, we cannot face tank the Kahaku and run past it to deal with him first.



Ghosts are somehow less obnoxious despite their main gimmick being teleporting around. They'll almost never actually hit you because their attacks are slow and easily telegraphed. If they do, they can inflict Fear which stops you from attacking for a bit. It does nothing else, so it's the least threatening ailment by default.



They also drop Thin Iron Bars, which are the second ingredient for Layer One's best accessory.



After that fun room, we get... more slimes. These ones are I think a bit stronger than we're used to, but not by much.



Before we go anywhere else, we'll take a quick trip to the top-right corner of the room.



This lets us pick up our third skill book. Can probably guess what this and Rocks do by now.



We'll take the top-left exit out since we're already up here and it's more convenient for another reason too.



The next room, and last one we'll be going to today, has a couple new enemies in it. Jack o' Lanterns are quite weak but inflict Burn on contact.

Burn is awful and I want to avoid it as much as I can. You will see how bad it is when it inevitably comes up.



On the lower half of this room is a very big, very chunky strong boy.



I'm not fighting him head on. I'm dropping down behind him and stabbing him in the back like a coward.



Ogres are... very strong, okay? If that club hits you, you get sent flying, take a ton of damage (relatively) and are stunned.



If you fall down past it, you can roll away to safety though.

I killed him because he was there, but he didn't drop anything this time.



There's another Kobold down here, just to be extra rude.



Our final skill book is here too. This is the only one of the three so out in the open like this. It's also the one that arguably matters the least for this layer. Go figure.



Only way deeper in has a snag! There's a locked door that has no keyhole. I'm not teleporting out though. I'd rather walk out wherever I can. Get more materials that way, you see.

And we still haven't gotten that Suppli-Extract either. Keeping my eye on the quest prize here.



Hopping down the steps here shows this conspicuous pink orb. Hmm...



There's an elevator platform that leads between the two halves of the room, and at the top we can find another Kobold and an item chest.



This Kobold dropped the extract. Took long enough. I was hoping it'd happen earlier, really.



Free item is a Life's Guidepost but that's not a hint this time. Don't listen to it!



Jumping down to the ground level again, I throw a knife in the general direction of the mysterious pink orb. Can't reach it right now, you see.



Rather conveniently, that knife hit it (first try) and it turns out it was a switch. One that opens the door, even.

This is kind of a tutorial of sorts. We'll run into more doors like this. The switch is always in the same room as it. Sometimes it's the room on the opposite side, but that's still the same room as it. Just, y'know, in a different sense.

Not going past that door today, though. We'll head on back now and hand in these skill books and extracts.

End

Right away, we'll head back to the Guild. Charnet has little quips for most books, but I like the Grass and Rocks ones the best. Her quip for Trees is a bit of a nothing, so I left it out.





The other two are better, though. Sad to see that she's a bit of an igneouramous when it comes to rocks.



But yeah, they all do the same thing mechanically. They're Permanent Skills, so now we can use those resources a total of 3 times each. How nice.



Bullseye gives us an Assigned Skill that increases our Accuracy. It'll help.



The Glass Lariat is the real reward for the Suppli-Extracts and it's a new accessory. We could reasonably get away with not crafting for a while if we really wanted to, huh?



Couple new quests popped up and I'll deal with 'em between updates again. Kobold killing is easy enough, and Flower Nectar is a common drop from Kahaku and obtainable from a couple gathering points we've passed already now too.



Can't upgrade any of our Medium Swords yet, but I don't let that stop me from upgrading the Short Sword to a Cutlass for... some reason. If I can think of one, I'll get back to you.



Anyway, while I'm killing Kobolds and flowers, I might as well grab some crystals from rocks and bars from Ghosts. It won't take too long after all.



Ah hell, while we're here let's hit up some recipes. Not all the ones we can do right now, though. Sica is the best knife we can make and it reveals why crafting sub-weapons sucks. We literally make them one at a time, and they have finite ammo. Caps at 99 like all items, so it's a pretty frequent thing you gotta deal with.



Shame too, because Sica is really good. Strongest knife we can have right now and inflicts Paralysis? I would love to use it.

It just sucks to be able to use it. We can't, and will never be able to, buy it. Avanc's inventory never updates. What it was last update is what it is at the end of the postgame.

If you're the kinda person who loves farming harvesting points 3 uses at a time before leaving and coming back 33 times at minimum, if you're lucky, and then drop farming Ghosts 2 at a time then you might be willing to go through with it. I'm not.

...Sadly, a later quest will ask for 20 of a different knife. I'm not looking forward to redoing that one.



Anyway, we can also make Pocket Knife. They cost $10 each. Just buy them if you want to use them.



Can make Spinning Rays too. These ones inflict Poison. They're also cheap to buy and we get a ton from quest rewards for good measure. Don't waste your time.



Told ya we could make Suppli-Extract by the way. I make 8 more for good measure, just because.

We could also make some other stuff, but I'll hold off for now.



Instead, I'm going to go beat up annoying dudes with bows, man-eating flowers and teleporting ghosts. The grind sounds more interesting if I put it that way! See you on the other side.