Man, I can't get enough of this game. Played a lot today and couldn't put it down. I mapped all of floor 3 now, and I successfully defeated Gashtor and er, the one on floor 2. Added a Gunner and Ronin to my guild too. My party's at level 13 now. Is that good enough to do the next primary mission? My tanks hit for a lot, over 45+ DMG, and my Ronin hits over 80.

Closer and closer to getting Beast.

Update: I forgot to add that when I defeated the two FOEs, they disappeared from the game. Do they ever come back?

:shrug:

Lv 1 Double Attack is 5%

Not sure on Counter, but maxed out it should be maybe 1/4 chance...

Yes, after a certain number of days.

Level 13 is good enough to do the Mission to rescue the guard on floor 3, if that's what you're wondering. Just don't try fighting the Ragelope that stands in the way unless you head into it with a lot of Force Skills ready to go.

5%? Eeep...

Additional Spam:
Funny glitch; I screwed up on the lure bell (didn't know how to use it. Thought they'd *chase* me out, not go to the spot I used it at). I fought one of the ragealopes and warped out to rest. I came back to find that *all* the ones blocking off that knight were gone :shrug: No idea, no questions asked~

Also, wtf on a Quest for level 4. Survive there for THREE DAYS? My longer grind sessions take close to 20hrs. I've never broken 24. Three days? How does your mana hold up? :( Ward all the time to keep monsters at bay?

The "easiest" way I guess is either stock up on those anti-battle items or get a maxed out Stalker on Survivalist.

0% encounters for 250 steps, which is maybe 8 hours?

I just hit F5 and got that quest, went down to F4 to check out how tough it'd be, and noticed that a lot of battles I could just spam basic physical attacks and win without taking any (or if any, very little) damage. Just shove a lot of points into STR Up for your main attackers and they'll kill the enemies in one or two shots easy.

Or you could take the easy way out mentioned earlier.

Oh, if you do want to fight it out this way, getting maxed Ambush and putting some points into the blindside negating skill probably helps. Haven't tried it myself though (going to try that quest without and see how it goes). TP Up for the Medic should be good as well.

After a weekend of playing I'm at the 15F bosses and about 10 levels lower than I should be (a.k.a. hitting a wall). So many of the battles and floors of the third stratum are just a headache. Only the 15F fights seem worth it in terms of experience and items.

That and going back to fight bosses makes for some very easy, very nice experience, too.

I made it to floor five today ^_^

Unfortunately, I also found out that


Survivalists sure are strong.

Just started playing this today. So far, it's a lot of fun. Reminds me a lot of the old PC RPGs I used to play as a kid, back when games required effort to beat.

I got through the first floor without too many problems (aside from getting slaughtered by the boss there) but the second floor is proving to be irritating, with all of those super-strong enemies prowling the rooms. And of course, there's never enough gold around, which leaves me to have to choose between equipment and warp coils. ;)

I'm getting the impression I should be grinding for experience and gold. I'm only at level 4...

The boss on the first floor stays in one spot so you can simply walk around it. The FOEs on the second floor run in a set pattern so once you figure it out, you can avoid them. I used to have trouble with them before and now I can get past them without batting an eye. Also take note that they won't chase you if you're not in their line of sight, so pay attention to the direction they're facing on the map. This applies to those aggressive FOEs on floor 3 and above.

I learned a lot from the vets in this thread. I'm also an EO newbie :3
I normally hate 1st person dungeon crawlers, but I love this game.

Well, I gained a few levels and stupidly decided to explore the rest of level 2 instead of doing back to town and saving. I dodged around one of the FOEs, got into a random battle, the FOE joins the battle and slaughters me. I don't think I've ever been quite this close to tossing the DS into the wall...

The grind in this game is kind of annoying. At some points you can't really progress anywhere until you start taking out FOEs, and of course FOEs are ridiculous compared to the other normal monsters on the floor. So you either have to grind grind grind (I don't know how many times I've walked up and down long corridors) or go for broke and just target a FOE. Bleh.

Currently still on 3F, main party is level 10 at various exp levels. Party consists of Protector and Ronin in front, Hexer, Medic and Gunner in back. Hexer seems to be the most "useless" so far in terms of basic damage, but when Poison hits it hits hard.

I have a separate party of Survivalist farmers that I made for farming take points, but since they're low level they don't actually have many survivalist-ish skills to help them (except maxed Escape). Finally ran into a Rafflesia after maybe 80 total takes... that battle ended quickly.

I'll probably start beating on the FOEs on 2F soon, though I'm still not sure how to progress past that closed door.

You can't get past the closed door yet.

You don't need to grind that much to advance in the game. I can't beat down on the 3rd floor FOEs, yet I am currently at the 5th floor. There's absolutely no reason to even fight any FOE. Just avoid them all and beat up the regular enemies.

I've only found one unavoidable(?) FOE fight and it was on 14F. You can get past all of the FOEs on 5F without having to fight them.

As far as boss tips go for 5F

OMG your idea worked, Taco. Thank you very much! Wasn't expecting to win so soon.



Now that I got Beast, I hear a lot about how Loyalty sucks 'cause it dies too often for it to be useful. If I just wanted to make one a tank, is Loyalty needed? Also, with autocure at max, how much HP does it get back?

Update: I'm digging the writing style when you explore the dungeon. It sounds professionalk. Speaking of the 5th floor...

Another update: Man, this thread sure became dead in a hurry :(

So hey guys, I picked this up yesterday. Should I just go ahead with a new game, or try and beat the first one properly before this?

Eh, only finish the first if you really want to use your own code to input for the Town Crown (Atlus even has an official code for those who couldn't get their own to work). This game is better than the first in most aspects, and I don't see much of a point in burning yourself out on Etrian Odyssey by hurriedly completing the first game.

By the looks of it, yes.

If you were interested in the story of EO1, someone has summed it up on GameFAQs.

It is not linked to EO2 in any manner though, so it does not matter.

Oddly enough, that summary of EO1 is pretty much what you get hit with in the last stretch of the game.

Boy. How do some folks soar through this game? I do grinds and still go at my best speed, but I'm just now done with the first Strata =P Maybe I should play it more than just an hour or so a day.

Swapped out my Hexer for a Troubadour in order to do grinds on Raflesias more efficiently, so now my party's sitting at levels 18-20 for the main group and 14 on the Troubadour. I only just reached 5F, but it seems like I kind of go slowly in this game. I rarely ever make an effort to progress until I'm sure I'm prepared, and then just gun it for the stairs. Low-risk, low-speed style I guess.

May have to swap the Troubadour for Hexer again when I get to the boss, as I would need extra damage. I ran into a FOE just to test the waters and after my Ronin missed (?!?!) with her force skill, all was lost.

Maybe I'll take on 5F today.

You're right at about my pace for leveling, Saka. Beating the Chimera put me at about 22 for most party members, though I felt that I sort of rushed the process in doing so.

And it doesn't surprise me that your Ronin's Issen missed. My Ronin's misses all the damn time. Pisses me off, since you'd think Force Skills would be a guaranteed hit.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I mean, they take so long to charge they better hit all the time, right? The FOE battle was going so well, too. Protector nullified damage for one turn, Gunner used Stunshot, had Bravery going... then Ronin whiffs and FOE smacks my gunner for 140 hp, a OHKO. Managed to run away, though, so all was not lost.

I need a better method to level up my survivalists, though. They're all about level 9 right now, and since they only have points in take/chop/mine/escape (and 1 in Bow) they do really crap damage even though I forked over teh cash for the best bows. Sucks.

Really, there's no way to effectively level them besides grinding like crazy. Not fun, but them's the breaks, sadly.

What I do is keep one person from my main party in (usually my Protector, but anyone who can soak up damage or dish it out in fair amounts can be used), use a Medic with Scavenge (ie, not my main Medic, who focuses solely on healing skills), then bust out three Survivalists. At level 8 or 9, they have enough to master two of the three item-gathering skills, which is plenty to turn a profit on item runs. The party member from your normal team and your Scavenging Medic will also help keep your party alive through most fights, as well as net plenty of drops to give you that little bit of extra cash with the experience.

That's been working out for me pretty well.

Ah well I wanted to get Beast class unlocked, hence my 'rush' to the fifth floor. Now that I have it unlocked, I can play at a slower pace. I rested several of my party and now I'm just concentrating on leveling up before I start getting serious with the 2nd Stratum. The jump in difficulty there makes me want to get better skills first before I make the attempt. I mapped just a small portion of it so far.

Floor 5 spoiler.

I run my regular party Medic with four Survivalists. It's usually pretty safe for the floors I tackle (1, 2 and quick runs through 3 to a chop point), but the damage is decidedly lacking for large clumps of enemies. Right now I have Take maxed on all 4 and 2/5 for Chop/Mine. I think that's probably enough to harvest some new items for item shop unlocking purposes, so I need to start focusing on bringing their Bow up now.

Wish I could farm Raflesias with them, but one Freeze and the Survivalists are pwned.