Rune Solo Part 5

[ladyabaxa]

When we last saw Rune he wasn't doing too well against the Xe-A-Thouls in the Air Castle. We then had a bit of a technical diversion but things should be back on track now.

Rune dying to Giwat? Yeah that sounds about right. Rune got his butt handed to him rather thoroughly.

After several deaths I decided that Rune was barking up a tree that was all too good at barking back. He HINASed back to the entrance for some experience grinding. That would also improve his Agility. Turn order had been pretty hit or miss. While Rune could possibly manage a victory at level 37 that was only going to happen if I tried the battle over and over again until the stars aligned and the RNG rolled up a low odds series of actions. In thinking it over it seemed like getting Rune to 200 max hit points so he could get two Efesses out at the start was a reasonable goal to shoot for. He'd likely have long periods of chain using trimates to wait for an opening and there was always the possibility of dying if he lost an initiative roll.

On the plus side grinding at that point was rather straightforward. Efess, Legeon, Negatis, and Hewn all saw plenty of use. Rune could destroy entire formations quickly and at 4k to 8k experience per win he could pack on the levels pretty quickly! I even used the Laco Rod in his inventory to save spell charges when he was up against Dimension Worms or Spectors to extend the length of his stays and reduce his downtime. When Rune's tech points or skill charges got low I flew back to Dezolis. There's a recharge circle in the Air Castle Rune could reach but it takes some walking to get to and I wanted to stay by the entrance. Rune needed to use trimates to keep healed while grinding and while Shadowsabers do sometimes drop trimates I was still using more than I was finding.

At level 44 Rune made his way through the castle again. He had 11 charges of Efess (which is massive overkill for the trio but not enough on their own for Lashiec). He used a trimate to heal up before the fight then I snapped the screenshot above.

Out of curiosity I went back and checked Raja's stats about this level and he had more Strength at a lower level. It's those little details that end up standing out after all these runs. I'm not complaining. Raja had to attack with his staff so he actually used his Strength score. Rune has been all magic.

The Xe-A-Thouls were still threatening to kill Rune and I knew they would make good on it if given half a chance.

Hell even when not given half a chance they still repeatedly battered Rune down to critical health.

After several more losses Rune managed to squeak out a win. That winning Efess was risky though. I knew that if the Xe-A-Thouls didn't die Rune would almost certainly survive the resulting Thunderblast but if one of the trio won initiative on that round the retaliating combo would turn lethal. I decided the risk was worth it because Rune had to take every opportunity he could to attack. There was no telling how long he'd have to wait to get another chance.

After healing up and restocking trimates Rune headed downstairs to face Lashiec. He did get mauled down to 74 hit points on the way down but there's a treasure chest with a star dew in it right at the midsection of the path. Using that before entering Lashiec's room almost got him back up to full health. As for the Spector in the chest Rune opted to use the Laco Rod he was carrying. The Spector couldn't hurt him because Rune's Mental was so high.

So here we go: the rematch that's been brewing for 2000 years!

Lashiec is, like most bosses in the game, weak to Efess. I had Rune boost his Agility with the Swift Helm then went into an Efess barrage.

For his part Lashiec continued to love his boomstick and used it a whole bunch. Rune had no way to boost his defense but Thunder Halbert's damage isn't that great to begin with.

It was way preferable to Another Gate - which was highly variable but I've come to expect that from this game. Rune mostly resisted Possession but when it did rarely land he'd usually be down for a couple of turns.

Rune's trimate stock was a concern to me. He had to heal up after every Another Gate and could usually take two Thunder Halberts between heals. I wanted to attack as much as possible so when Rune's hit points were sitting in that precarious upper threat range of Another Gate I sometimes had him attack.

Let it be known: when you play the odds sometimes you lose.

Take two!

Also pictured: the fact that Rune had to be wasteful with his trimates most of the time. They heal 300~ish hit points so using them when Rune was down by 100~ish hit points wasted some 200 points of potential healing. It had to be trimates though in case Rune's health went lower. I'm explaining this since it might not be clear what I was talking about back when Seth was fighting Dark Force 2.

Rune led with Efess but I knew he didn't have enough charges. Nafoi did excellent damage thanks to Lashiec's weakness to fire.

Legeon did less damage than Nafoi (but at that point in the battle I wasn't sure by how much) but still put some serious dents in Lashiec's health. Legeon of course doesn't get the benefit of a x3 multiplier but it does have a higher base damage.

Rune ended up using a sol dew but I wasn't worried. He wasn't getting enough max HP boosts with his level ups to make me think that he'd need sol dews for the upcoming fight in Garuberk Tower.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQA0SUnbXI

There's the Xe-A-Thouls and Lashiec in one video. They put up some good fights!

That brought Rune to Garuberk Tower and the next serious obstacle. Rune climbed the tower gathering treasure and opening passages. A test battle against Dark Force 2 went about as well as I expected. That is to say that Shadowbreath dealt 3/4s of Rune's lifebar in damage and I didn't feel that he was absorbing Light Shower well enough to make a win plausible.

That was all expected though. After seven trips through this game I already know when and where the grind points are likely to be. My target was 250 hit points which Rune ended up overshooting a little bit. He was already going to be running on narrow margins so that didn't bother me. Also this screenshot was taken after restocking trimates but before I stopped by the inn to recharge because I am sometimes able to forget even such basic steps in my rush to get ready.

Why yes I did indeed climb all the way back up the tower before I realized the step I had forgotten. As amusing as it might have been to watch Rune try to kill Dark Force with two charges of Efess, a few charges of Legeon, and the half of his tech point pool that remained I reset. Fortunately I've got the layout of Garuberk Tower mostly memorized - lots of counter-clockwise spirals.

Okay, Demi's in place, trimates restocked, healed up, let the Nawats fly! I was pretty sure Efess wasn't going to be enough and that even adding Legeon to the mix might not crank out enough damage.

Goodbye, Demi. I would say you took one for the team but this was a group attack.

Shadow Breath was taking no prisoners. Rune managed to last a good while but again my playing the odds produced a loss.

So I just tried again. Right at the outset things turned dicey when Dark Force flattened Demi with Light Shower then began a string of Shadow Breaths (3 in total). That wasn't what I wanted to see right off the bat!

As for Rune's offense Nawat was the weakest part of his arsenal. Since I figured Efess alone wasn't going to be enough Legeon was my main gap filler. It's damage had gone up a bit with Rune's increase in level but since he had hit the Mental cap it wasn't going to get any better. It will do more damage against later bosses but that is because they have less magic defense.

Fortunately despite my initial misgivings Dark Force went heavy on the Light Showers. There was no long streak of Shadow Breaths. I was fine with that. Lashiec had already pulled out a long streak of Another Gates at the end of his battle in a desperate attempt to stall the inevitable. (Sadly, it almost worked.)

Going with the weaker of their two abilities was not a good strategy for Dark Force as one might guess.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v8UtMGHMrg

Total death count by this point: 76

Adding on to our 44 from part one Rune died in the following locations:

• Plate System: 1
• Ladea Tower: 2
• Gy-Laguiah: 1
• Zio: 1
• Dark Force 1: 11
• Nurvus (star dew farming): 4 (stasis ball!!!)
• Air Castle: 1
• Xe-A-Thouls: 8
• Lashiec: 1
• Garuberk Tower: 1
• Dark Force 2: 2

Update Four | Index | Update Six