[DS] Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard

I never played Etrian Odyssey, so I'm having a wonderfully confusing time with EO2. Luckily I've got people to harass online, so it shouldn't be too painful a process to get familiarized with the game.

So far my party consists of:

Protector
Landschsashfdsausage
Ronin
---------------
Medic
Alchemist

As far as I know that seems to be a pretty basic party, but I can tell the skills I've allocated for them are pretty messed up already. But hey, I'm only just barely scratching the surface of 2F and that's what resting guildmembers are for, right...

I'll probably end up trying to rework my main party. Taco and Lace seem to have fun abusing me in their parties (though apparently I'm SSJ or something in Taco's party) so I need to come up with classes for them in my group.

Some people probably look at the whole "11 classes, 30 character slots" thing and think "boy, that sure sounds like a lot of fun experimenting!" Me, I just get confused.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

From what I can tell, the game is "niche" enough that stores just aren't ordering many copies so it probably wouldn't take much for it to be sold out.

Not that I would really know, seeing as I didn't go to a store for this.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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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.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Generic Badass

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

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I have my Gunner in the front row for additional damage. Thankfully, their HP is high enough (and armor DEF okay enough) that they don't get totally rocked by enemies. Still squishy like a Ronin, though, but that's what my Medic is for.

Went and beat the first Stratum the other day, and lololol. Second Stratum is definitely a step up. Invisible (on the map) and physical-immune FOEs? That's a bummer.

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Originally Posted by Buffet Overflow

I haven't even managed to get past the second floor.

Locked doors are for fags.

You can't get past that locked door for a while. Just ignore it and continue moving up floors. You'll eventually return to that door at some point.

Bent Twigs are obtained from Chop points, not monster drops.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Stairs to 3F ought to be in the southwest corner, or around there. Block F-1 or so?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yeah, you have to walk over spots for them to actually be mapped, or else you'll have a blind spot against FOEs. They walk in set patterns, though, so unless your blind spots are xboxhuge, you should be okay.

Of course, none of this means anything against INVISIBLE FOES WHAT.

There's nowhere I can't reach.