PS4 Seth Solo Part 4

[ladyabaxa]

In Part Three we had some adventures in the asteroid belt where Parma used to exist to recover that stolen Eclipse Torch. In this part we get to use it.

With the Air Castle having exploded behind him Seth flew back to Dezolis and drove to Meese. From there he would take on the task of grinding for the second Dark Force. Normally this would be the part where I talk about Garuberk Tower but Seth had so little trouble there I didn't even bother to take any notes or screenshots of random encounters. The only thing of real note that stood out was that he was never paralyzed by ghouls despite being puked over a whole bunch. That doesn't necessarily mean Seth is immune to paralysis. It could just mean his Agility was too high for the ghouls to overcome.

At level 51 Seth stood mere steps from Dark Force 2. He had swapped back to a Laco Circlet and had bought a second Reflect Shield in Meese

The giant spider crab is never easy. I didn't expect it to be easy but Seth ran into trouble immediately.

These three screenshots are in chronological order. How was it I was doing worse over time? Well that's the difference one Reflect Shield makes. In the first attempt with two Reflect Shields Seth managed to inflict 4226 damage before dying. Afterwards as I evaluated what had happened I started having serious doubts his trimate supply would last through the long period of chipping DF2 down with use-as-item effects. Raja had managed thanks to Ataraxia and Nares. I swapped one shield for a Laco Dagger to see what he would hit for sans the Power Shield's attack boost and saw it was better.

I decided to grind up to 350 max health to try to make up for the loss of defense. Seth hit 349 at level 55. I pulled the Power Shield out of storage (I think Chaz was holding it at that time), filled up as many inventory slots with trimates as Seth could carry and marched back up the tower. He managed 3296 damage dealt in the first melee test. It wasn't actually all that encouraging. Shadow Breath could hit for up to 200 damage and to make his trimate stock last Seth had to take many risks to keep up an attack - heal - attack - heal pattern. Eventually though the fight would go on long enough that the odds would catch up.

I decided to add five more levels - taking Seth to level 60.

7524 hit points, basic attacks deal factor 1 type damage, 99 strength, 50 mental, 35 agility, 49 dexterity, 176 attack power, 25 defense, 15 magic defense, weak to factors 6 and 13 (x3), immune to factors 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14, has three abilities:

• Evil Eye: inflicts sleep to one player character with a base power of 64 modified by the user's mental, subtracting mental and checking against factor 11 resistance
• Shadow Breath: deals damage to one player character with a base power of 112 modified by the user's attack power, subtracting magic defense and checking against factor 1 resistance
• Light Shower: deals damage to all player characters with a base power of 120 modified by the user's strength, subtracting magic defense and checking against factor 7 resistance

Of these three Shadow Breath appears slightly more (4/8) often than Light Shower (3/8) with Evil Eye the rare option of the three (1/8).

Five more levels would improve Seth's melee damage slightly with a few more points of Strength but what I really wanted was more max hit points. I couldn't add more trimates to the pile or make them heal for more but I could make their usage more efficient. Thus far his trimates were somewhat wasteful because he had to use them whenever he was under 180 hit points. With more max hit points to play with he could absorb more Light Showers (what I usually think of as "chip damage" in that it chips away at a character's health to push them closer to the threat range of whatever the big attack is) or take two Shadow Breaths and still get back to almost full health with one trimate. He still had three sol dews in the event DF2 got him down to single digit health.

Now to quote myself from part 4 of Raja's run: "In hindsight using the Tornado Dagger would have been slightly better then using the Flame Sword. Flaeli checks against magic defense (here 25) while the Tornado Dagger's Hewn checks against physical defense (here 15). (Note: the actual Hewn skill checks against magic defense.) The difference ultimately doesn't amount to much. In the end it took all 10 St. Fires and 42 Flamesword Flaeli's to put the giant spider crab out of commission."

It turns out I had the defense and magic defense columns swapped. Raja was right to use the Flame Sword instead of the Tornado Dagger. They have the same power and the ten point difference between defense and magic defense is so small that once the game's damage randomizer comes into play it would take a lot of uses to rack up any significant difference between the two in this fight. I did try them both and could see how close the damage rolls were before I decided melee attacks were the way to go.

Corrosion was still the go-to attack for Seth. He will be forever capped at 18 charges but those 18 will drop DF2 by 3700 to 3800 hit points. DF2 doesn't share its predecessor's factor 1 resistance.

I was always worried about running out of trimates. Seth hadn't yet died because he had run out in an attempt but I was trying to use them as efficiently as possible anyway.

With the Power Shield's boost Seth's critical knife hits where rather respectable. They did almost as much damage as Corrosion. He was still going to need a lot of them to win.

But with persistence win he did.

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

With the Garuberk Tower destroyed Seth returned to Meese, restocked on trimates, and swapped his Laco Circlet for the Swift Helm. Then it was back to Motavia for the date with an existential crisis Seth had been dreading since the game began. In the Soldier's Temple, with the Aero Prism in hand, Seth cloned himself and headed outside.

8240 hit points, basic attacks deal factor 1 type damage, 65 strength, 172 mental, 40 agility, 213 dexterity, 299 attack power, 35 defense, 25 magic defense, weak to factors 6 and 13 (x3), immune to factors 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14, has three abilities:

• Shadowbind: reduces all player character's agility with a base power of 64 modified by the user's mental, subtracting mental and checking against factor 11 resistance
• Corrosion: deals damage to all player characters with a base power of 64 modified by the user's mental, subtracting magic defense and checking against factor 1
• Mind Blast: puts all player characters to sleep with a base power of 160 modified by the user's mental, subtracting mental and checking against factor 11

Corrosion here is the exact same Corrosion that Zio has but it will hit harder because DF3 has a much higher Mental. DF3 will use it at the same rate as which zie attacks which is 3/8s of the time each. Shadowbind and Mind Blast show up at 1/8 chance each per round. Those attacks and Corrosions would hurt but Seth was completely immune to Shadowbind and Mind Blast. DF3 was likewise completely immune to Seth's Death Spell, Shadow, and Mind Blast skills.

Well that meant it was time for more brutal hand to hand combat. Seth wasted no time buffing his attack power.

Then it was time for trading blows...

...and Corrosions. Only one shall stand and it shall be the one who thought to bring trimates to this battle!

(P.S. $@#& you Neifirst!)

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DoQRfFu0I

Oh hey the temple suddenly went all quiet and Seth got a level up.

The Aero Prism points to the sky but first Seth has to complete the Silver Soldier job to open Vahal Fort for grinding. This job is only available for a limited time and that window grows ever smaller.

Here are the Servants that attack the party when they enter Zema. They can't hurt Seth but annoyingly resist factor 1.

The Dominator trio required trimates. Thankfully Seth had plenty left over after his trip to the Solder's Temple because I wasn't particularly in the mood to fly to Dezolis and drive to Meese to buy more.

More bots that resist factor 1. Great. Good thing Seth picked up that Power Shield in Garuberk Tower.

Part Three | Index | Part Five

Comments

[shining-armour.livejournal.com]

This is something I wonder... why did Seth bother to continue tagging when the gang gets the Aero Prism, why didn't he just try to stay away from it ? He is such a silly filly.

Also, how long is the Silver Soldier job available ? If it is only for a limited time, then when does it become unable to access ? Also, what does it say when you don't get to it when you should ?

[ladyabaxa.livejournal.com]

The Silver Soldier job is available from the time you kill Dark Force 2, destroying the Garuberk Tower and gaining the Hydrofoil up until you get Elsydeon. After that the job goes red on the Hunter's Guild job board and if you try to go to Vahal Fort the barrier at the entrance is up and I think the party says whatever the place is it can't be important. It has been a long time since I did that.

The job is available because Demi shut down Nurvus letting Daughter wake up. After the player gets Elsydeon Demi has restarted Nurvus so Daughter goes back to sleep. Demi then can leave Nurvus and join the party.