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Okay, into the volcano this time. This does nothing on its own; I'll need another key item to activate it.
Gotta step on this thing to open that door. What's behind the door? Why, the boss, obviously.
There's that gas mask I mentioned before, well after it would've been useful.
...apparently the game not giving me the Mirror was intended behavior; I didn't get the Mask either. Don't ask me why it's ENFORCING stumbling around blind, but I consider it more "bug" than "feature," regardless of whether it was done intentionally.
Anyway, complaints about dungeons I've already completed aside, here's the boss.
Somehow I doubt he's as intimidating as he looks. I'm probably mistaken, but I'm still optimistic here.
For reference, this is how much damage Reuben's White does. He's not even meant to be a mage!
Okay, no longer optimistic. This is WITH resistance to his Fire Breath. OW.
Thankfully, his poison's much easier to deal with. In case you're wondering, I'm playing medic while Reuben spams White.
Holy crap this guy must've rolled high. Reuben ran out of White castings before I got to his second sprite! Pretty sure I've done at least 8000 damage; might even be 9000! (Please refrain from memes.)
Sure, his HP might've been overly front-loaded, but he's still got a ridiculous amount.
After two crits (each doing about as much as White did), plus about 4 other attacks, I've finally got him on the ropes. Must've done at least 20000 damage by now.
Thankfully that last sprite didn't have nearly as many HP as the others; would've made things really hard for me otherwise, since he petrified Reuben on his last turn. Might've even needed to restart the fight after wiping if it had continued.
The reward is worthless, by the way; it's redundant due to the fact that this thing's upgrade was literally the first thing I found.
No self-respecting speedrunner would check this at this point, but I prefer to do low-effort checks first.
And it's a good thing I did; now I just need the Sky Coin for full Go Mode.
Check the basement, then off to the last region!
...After I go turn this and the Elixir in. Be right back.
I have no idea what she's saying, but Kaeli here is the first partner in the vanilla game.
She is appropriately minimalist. She resists Water, Petrify, and Silence.
The only thing she really does for you is unlock the Level Forest boss, which is, in turn, her character check.
Not gonna dignify that weakling with a screenshot because I killed him as soon as the game let me hit him. This is a pretty decent reward, though; some players conditionally prefer this over White, even!
Since I don't have White, though, this is probably gonna be a staple of my offense for a while.
Y'know how I said there was one exception to partners not leaving when their story role is done? That's Kaeli. Anyway, turning in the Elixir now.
She sure bulked up a lot in the five seconds she was out of my party, didn't she?
Some people like to use Kaeli 2 as their partner if they can't get Petrify resistance for themselves, for the record.
Anyway, off to the last region, for real this time.
First order of business: The local town.
Go grab Phoebe 2...
...who has learned White since I finished the Water region...
...and then go upstairs to pester Kaeli for the item I need to full-clear said Water region.
Examining this plant with Wakewater in your inventory thaws the region in the randomizer.
Thawing the region lets you go into the tunnel under Phoebe's house. Sure, you could get everything down there from the other end, but I'm here now, aren't I?
Not worth it.
Thawing Aquaria also lets you go back here, though; hopefully it's at least got something here.
...I honestly can't think of any checks this thing gives me at the moment, if at all.
There's also another red chest in here, but it and another one next to Spencer are locked, and I have no keys.
A-logging we will go.
Funny how I just mentioned my lack of keys...
Here's another annoying dungeon that's been tweaked to be less annoying: There're a couple of grappling puzzles that have had shortcuts added, and the number of mushrooms (basically trees) has been significantly reduced to make it less tedious to navigate. Speedrunners still hate this place.
Part of the reason is that the chest you see on the way here is blocked off until you kill this guy.
Well, after that train-wreck of a Hydra battle, this can only go better, right?
For comparison, here's White as cast by Phoebe. She's strong.
There's only so many ways I can go "here's the boss's next sprite" so I'll just skip that part. Anyway, smacking that boss down lets you open this... thoroughly disappointing chest.
Hopefully next time some mountaineering will be more lucrative.