Rune Solo Part 2

[ladyabaxa]

The last time we saw Rune he had defeated Juza a bit worse for wear but still going strong.

Rune wanted the Laser Barrier that is in a chest down in the Plate System and I knew it was going to be tough: killbots everywhere and a fragile caster with no good way of nuking them. With the Land Rover Rune drove to Monsen and hung out until he hit level 19, learning Gifoi in the process.

The second encounter was an ambush by a 4x Gunner Bit formation. Rune didn't last long. This screenshot sums up why I don't bother to fight in the Plate System with solo characters better than I could in words. If you do want words here's the summary: Rune just got Rail Gunned.

Thank you decent agility score. You've saved me from having as many deaths as Raja had doing this same trip!

Yay Laser Barrier! Rune would want Psy Shields most of the time but Laser Barriers just barely win in the magic defense department. Rune did continue down and shut off the system, HINASing out to the relative safety of the desert.

Rune drove to Termi to upgrade his equipment basking in the radiant glow of all the Mental bonuses that Psy gear gives.

Rune also made sure to stop by a local landmark that was dear to his heart.

Then it was off to Ladea Tower - otherwise known as "that dungeon I have seen entirely too much of." No seriously the brick wall that is Gy-Laguiah means I spend an inordinate amount of time grinding levels right here.

Rune fought a couple battles against lone Centaurs trying out Gifoi. Using the Gi-level spells took two casts regardless of whether it was Wat or Foi so Rune stuck with Gifoi to save some tech points. He had to use dimates between battles. From Kadary on Rune needed to stay at or near full health between battles. He didn't have the hit points to slack off.

Against groups he tried to flee. He didn't always succeed.

Fortunately Firebreath was a joke that Rune easily shrugged off. I didn't want to spend a lot of time fighting, however, when there was treasure to be had. Get the treasure, warp out, then focus on grinding after sorting out his inventory. That was the plan.

Rune then approached this staircase and some mysterious power compelled him to hop in the dimensional box so Chaz, Gryz, Rika, and Demi could hop out.

Upstairs the four of them found... Rune? I guess this proves that Rune really is a wizard! He looks kind of dazed though.

Actually this is the part where Rune would normally rejoin the party. His sprite is scripted to walk to the end of the party and the game expects said party to be four people. Since I'm playing the party select hack the party can be less than four people which would cause the game to lock up right here. After a bit of character shuffling Rune was again the sole party member but there was a problem.

The game also overwrites his equipment slots with a Psy Circlet, a Force Cane, and a Psy Robe. If he has anything else in those slots it is lost forever. One of the hazards of the party select hack is that you really have to know what's coming ahead of time to avoid stuff like this.

If he's not wearing anything he just gets a free set of equipment poofed into his hands. I can, with all honesty, say that a wizard really did do it. Thanks game! I'm not going to turn down the money for selling the extra stuff.

The real prize was the Frade Mantle near the top of the tower. It's an upgrade to the Psy Robe in every way. Rune managed to obsolete his body armor in a matter of minutes but still got plenty of use out of that Psy Robe.

Didn't do anything to protect against procs though. Flyscreamers would die in one Flaeli but that wasn't much help against swarms of them or if they got the drop on Rune.

PARALYSIS! (I have quietly shouted that many a time over the previous 7 character runs, except for Wren because he was immune, and I'll probably shout it a whole lot more before this is over.)

There was still stuff to do before worrying about the next big fight in the game so Rune drove to Aeido to accept the sandworm job then drove to Mile to carry it out. He could have RYUKAed his way around but driving got him enough experience to reach level 21 and learn Rever. Rever is useless for a solo character but like Arows he had it anyway.

At this point in the game Rune was actually pretty tanky - two Psy Shields will do that! It's not like he needed a weapon to attack. Thus the sandworm could only ever do 1 damage with its attacks. Psy Shields are the best shields defense-wise that Rune could ever equip so that tankiness comes with a steadily counting-down clock. Still he was riding high and enjoying himself.

GIWAT!

It was probably the most lopsided battle I'll ever fight with Rune.

It was worth 25k experience which put Rune at level 22.

At that level Rune was looking pretty good but I knew from experience that he wasn't anywhere near ready to take on Gy-Laguiah. While returning to Termi I had some time to think about how to efficiently grind experience in Ladea Tower. Walking back and forth between the tower and the town wasn't just a time sink. It also exposed Rune to potential attacks by fully powered sandworms. The more time he could spend in the tower the less risk of getting Earthquaked by a sandworm. I had to figure out how to use his techniques and skills in the most efficient way possible to minimize that risk.

Wat would straight up kill one Ripper, no questions asked. Rippers are weak to factor 5.

Flaeli however was showing its age. It was still a staple workhorse skill with plenty of charges and a good chunk of damage but it no longer killed things as quickly or as reliably.

Shadowsabers were at least easy to knock down into critical health where they would do nothing but spam Airslash. Their regular attacks would only do 1 damage to Rune but they could critical for significantly more. Putting them into Airslash mode just made sure they were ineffective.

Once weakened Rune could Flaeli them again or cast Foi to finish them off.

Hewn was the go-to spell for groups but skill charges for it were limited. It would reliably kill Shadowsabers and Rippers in one shot. I saved them for formations with at least three members to try to get the best bang for Rune's buck.

Centaurs couldn't hurt Rune outside of critical hits but had enough hit points to soak one Gifoi and need a second one before dying. They were the biggest drain on Rune's tech points.

From levels 23 to 30 Rune learned something new with each level up: Gigra, Diem, Nafoi, Nawat, Tandle, and Efess in that order.

And finally there was Nagra to round out the selection of Na-spells as Rune hit level 30. The new spells were a welcome addition. Rune could kill Centaurs with a Nafoi - Flaeli combo for each, better than the Gifoi - Gifoi comboes he was using. (Nafoi - Flaeli costs 9 tp and the Flaeli skill charge whereas two Gifois at 6 tp each mean a cost of 12 tech points per Centaur. Rune was looking for any good use for his Flaeli charges since the spell was rapidly getting overshadowed.) Gigra, Nagra, Tandle, and Efess target all enemies but were rather impractical. Gra spells are expensive so they were saved for 4x enemy formations when Hewn charges were out. Efess was an 'I win' button limited by a low number of charges. Tandle was the least useful of the bunch as it couldn't kill anything on its own and left Rune having to spend tech points that would have been better spent casting a Gra type spell in the first place instead.

Rune sold off the shadowblades that had accumulated in his inventory and drove to Monsen to pick up 10 dimates. He could have RYUKAed but that costs tech points (and money). Driving got him some more experience and I figured he'd need to continue grinding soon enough even if the battle against Gy went smoothly.

Rune's stats at level 30 weren't exactly encouraging (except maybe his tech points) but they would suffice. The big hurdle with Gy was scraping together enough hit points and defense to survive. With an Agility of 36 Rune didn't have a lock on initiative. He'd win most rolls but there was always a chance for an inglorious and painful death if he lost an initiative roll at low health.

Efess was up first on offense. Rune had two charges of the skill and Gy is weak to factor 13. (Remember, Efess and St. Fire are factor 13, not factor 6 like most "holy" abilities. This will be important later!)

Most of Gy-Laguiah's attacks ranged in the 40 to 60 damage range with some Firebreaths that went low on damage. Rune has no way to protect himself from factor 3 damage in particular so he just had to bank on his magic defense.

Nawat and Efess did about the same damage which was about what I expected: 315 - 330 per shot.

After a two minute fight that cost Rune 60 TP (or 6 Nawats at 10 TP each) Gy-Laguiah was dead and the Psycho Wand was Rune's. It was his first serious attempt at level 30. Maybe I'm getting better at estimating when these things will actually work? He proceded through the plot-required cutscenes before heading to Nurvus.

I was curious to see if using the Psycho Wand as a weapon would be better than magic against Zio. I had my doubts but I've seen praise for the Psycho Wand so I figured I might as well give it a shot. It wasn't even a contest. In this solo game Rune's magic was clearly superior. It wasn't just the difference in damage between them. Losing the defensive bonuses from his two Psy Shields hurt!

Take two! The first one ended abruptly when Rune took a rather nasty critical hit from Zio's physical attack. He managed to get through Nurvus with minimal damage from random encounters.

He didn't gain enough experience from Gy to level up so he's still level 30 for this fight.

Hewn flattened the two androids in a hurry. Goodbye placeholders! See you after the battle when you recover.

Efess dealt twice the damage of Nafoi but Rune still only had two charges of it. Zio resists factor 5 so Nawat was out. Rune doesn't learn the Zan line of techniques so it was up to Nafoi to do the job. For 160 - 170 damage per cast it wasn't spectacular but would do the job requested of it.

On Zio's side Hewn and Corrosion did nothing but scratch damage to Rune. Black Wave hit for a 30 - 60 point range. Zio's physical attack (and its auto-critical property because of Zio's extremely high Dexterity) was what had me worried. To stay safe from a high critical roll I tried to keep Rune's hit points at 90 or higher. That might not seem like much margin for error but with so many Hewn and Corrosion spells effectively bouncing off of him Rune was in good shape.

I did have to get aggressive with dimates but I wasn't really worried about restocking. Dimates are immediately obsolete once Dark Force 1 is cleared and the player has access to the Ice Digger. I already suspected I'd have to farm star dews  so clearing out some room by using dimates was kind like a two for one sale.

Victory! That 25,999 experience pushed Rune up to level 31.

Total deaths by this point: 48: 2 from grinding in Ladea Tower, 1 death to Gy-Laguiah, and 1 death to Zio

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxzf33qsX0

Here's the video of the fights against Gy-Laguiah and Zio. They're pretty straightforward, almost textbook, by this point.

Part One | Index | Part Three

Comments

[shining-armour.livejournal.com]

Gy-Laguiah and Zio certainly didn't look like anything that difficult. Rune's attacks are the most useful on Gy's out of every other character (Hahn as well, since he has the Wat techniques).

Also, I'm curious, is there anyway to make Rune and Kyra's Tandles (Kyra uses a different version of Tandle, her's is visually the same, but it's slightly stronger, same with her Hewn) look like the Tandles an enemy would use (the blue tandle)?

[ladyabaxa.livejournal.com]

I don't see why you couldn't if you knew where to make an edit in the animation (probably just adjust the palette). I doubt they have separate animations though. Graphics tend to be space hogs hence why they get compressed as much as possible.