Scalpel Knight
Member
I can't wait to really dive into this game and yet I'm totally intimidated by it, having struggled through the first few floors alone. I might just start over and use one of those recommended builds.
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Etrian Odyssey: The Advice Thread
- Thread starter Aadil
- Start date
That's the beauty of the game. You don't have to start all over with the game; all you have to do is reset your characters or just retire them and get new ones. You get a new party and STILL keep your map.
Another aspect of the game that is so good is you can sacrifice 10 levels and redo all your skill points if they're not up to fluff, thus saving you massive time by not having to raise another of the same character.
Another aspect of the game that is so good is you can sacrifice 10 levels and redo all your skill points if they're not up to fluff, thus saving you massive time by not having to raise another of the same character.
Scalpel Knight
Member
Awesome, for some reason I didn't think of doing that. I'll be giving it another try soon in that case!lyre said:
Wow..good advice but at the same time, I don't think most of the people who played this game know how to properly balance out your skills. I hear alot of maxing out certain skills, but honestly I've balanced my entire party's skills and have extra party members who are at a high level too and haven't come across any problem. The only concern I had was maxing out at certain levels, as i'm a grind whore, playing DQ 1 - 8 has made me a grind specialist that grinding in Etrian Odyssey is a breeze. I've only had problems in the beginning as I wasn't sure what to do, but so far, I'm in Floor 20 now, and just taking my time building up levels and doing all the side quests in the main game. My question is though, I heard there's an optional dungeon in the game?? Does that dungeon only appear after you finish the main quest, as I wouldn't mind exploring that dungeon prior to facing the last boss.
lastendconductor
Put your snobby liquids into my mouth!
I've just retaken the game after getting really tired of not advancing even a bit and getting my ass kicked.
Random advices:
- Grind
- Keep A pressed for auto battle.
- Get some fast and dirty money: there's a warp to the left chop area on the first floor, make a party of 5 level 1 survivalists and farm wood like crazy (remember, Y button sells in chunks to the store). In 5 minutes you should have enough money to stop struggling to pay your warp wires like I was.
- Make a good party, mine is; Landskertch*, Protector, Dark Hunter, Alchemist* and Medic*.
*MUST choices IMO
- Don't be afraid to escape from battles.
- While fighting though enemies, if you're not going to do anything with your back row chars, use defend instead of trying to do puny damage.
- Check walls and don't paint the floor, let yourself paint it by walking over it.
Random advices:
- Grind
- Keep A pressed for auto battle.
- Get some fast and dirty money: there's a warp to the left chop area on the first floor, make a party of 5 level 1 survivalists and farm wood like crazy (remember, Y button sells in chunks to the store). In 5 minutes you should have enough money to stop struggling to pay your warp wires like I was.
- Make a good party, mine is; Landskertch*, Protector, Dark Hunter, Alchemist* and Medic*.
*MUST choices IMO
- Don't be afraid to escape from battles.
- While fighting though enemies, if you're not going to do anything with your back row chars, use defend instead of trying to do puny damage.
- Check walls and don't paint the floor, let yourself paint it by walking over it.
I have a party which consists of an Alchemist, Survivalist, Medic (back) and Protector, Landsknect (front)
I have devised some skill builds each character:
Protector
Defender - Max
Antifire - 5sp
Anticold - 5sp
Antivolt - 5sp
HP up - 1sp
DEF up - 1sp
Landsknect
Allslash - Max
Swords - Max
ATK up - Max
DEF up - 1sp
HP up - 1sp
TP up - 1sp
Survivalist
Bows - Max
Apollon - Max
Multihit - Max
Ambush - 5
1st Turn - 5
Medic
Immunize - Max
Healer - Max
Caduceus - Max
ATK up - - Max
Alchemist
Fire up - Max
Fire - Max
Flare - Max
Flame - Max
What do you guys think?
I have devised some skill builds each character:
Protector
Defender - Max
Antifire - 5sp
Anticold - 5sp
Antivolt - 5sp
HP up - 1sp
DEF up - 1sp
Landsknect
Allslash - Max
Swords - Max
ATK up - Max
DEF up - 1sp
HP up - 1sp
TP up - 1sp
Survivalist
Bows - Max
Apollon - Max
Multihit - Max
Ambush - 5
1st Turn - 5
Medic
Immunize - Max
Healer - Max
Caduceus - Max
ATK up - - Max
Alchemist
Fire up - Max
Fire - Max
Flare - Max
Flame - Max
What do you guys think?
Some useful Protector skills need you to have a few more points pumped into HPup and Defup. I don't have my copy with me but there are far better uses for those points you put into the Anti-skills. And I suggest you try to get Formation, which ups the defense of your entire party.Aadil said:
Don't bother with Def, HP or TP if you're only going to put one point into them. If you're gonna put any points in skills, have either 5 or max. Also I have my Landsknect with a good level 2-hit, and it seems to be working out well for me (even though at max it's only 30% chance of working statwise and only with basic attacks), though that's me.
Ambush is a really useful skill to have. Try to max that out next. And while it should be obvious, Multi-hit is best used with Boost.
There's no point in maxing out attack since Medis are back row characters and will always suffer from doing half the damage they should be. Put those points towards Refresh and Salve 2. Also be sure to max out TPup asap and then TP regen afterwards. Medics will need it.
No point in wasting points in Fire if you're maxing out Flare (which is Fire2). And as with Medics, max out TP up asap and then TP regen afterwards; same reason as with Medic.
And since you're not going to have a Troubador, you will need to have your spell casters have as much TP as they can or else you'll find yourself up a river without a paddle.
madara said:
Yep Im pretty sure they do, they just dont show on the map until you get kinda near their vicinity. Then they respawn and you get some sort of text prompt (iirc). So yeah if youve accepted the said quest just mission around the floor and those badboys will turn up.
And hijack? No way! Its the EO advice thread son, it what you do I think, ask for advice. I think
I havent actually played EO for a while, got raped by the postgame so sorta put it down for a bit. Gotta at least do it before the sequel comes out
Doublethink
Banned
lyre said:
Actually, you're going to need those anti-skills in the late game, so definitely put five into each (and only five). And also, caduceus is a pretty decent skill. My medic's in the back row and does very good damage with it. Although I suppose you're going to have to choose on whether or not you want a pure healing medic or one that can also attack.
Well the way I think of it is, a level 5 Caduceus will take about as much TP as a usage of Salve 2 will. And not factoring TP recovering items and a good level TP regen, I imagine he's gonna run out of TP rather quickly.
And checking gamefaqs, it looks like anti-skills can absorb damage, definitely worth getting if that is the case.
And checking gamefaqs, it looks like anti-skills can absorb damage, definitely worth getting if that is the case.
BlackTyrano
Member
lyre said:
Nah, that's not entirely true. Medics later in the game can handle the front row fine, especially if they get some hp boosting equipment. And they do pretty good damage there with Caduceus.
I wouldn't recommend getting ATK UP and Caduceus before you get the other essential skills though(Salve II, Immunize, maybe Revive and Cure III), since they take up a lot of skill points and you'll probably want to conserve all your TP for healing your party in the early game.
combat medic > healer medic by far by the point in the game that you can equip a medic for combat and not just standing in the back and healing. But early on I see no reason not to go with a dedicated healer medic.
Also there's no reason not to put 1 point into HP/TP up if that's all you can spare - 1 point is a 10% boost, which is significant. I just wouldn't get it until a lot later.
For that protector build, you can go with defender early on, but I would try to learn smite. Smite gives your protector something to do, does some good damage (it only gets outclassed way late in the game) and your protector doesn't really have any other TP intensive skills to use.
Also there's no reason not to put 1 point into HP/TP up if that's all you can spare - 1 point is a 10% boost, which is significant. I just wouldn't get it until a lot later.
For that protector build, you can go with defender early on, but I would try to learn smite. Smite gives your protector something to do, does some good damage (it only gets outclassed way late in the game) and your protector doesn't really have any other TP intensive skills to use.
Jesus, what level are you suppose to be for final boss? I spent 3 days with boring repetitious leveling to get level 64 and this guy wipes out my whole back row with one hit each time. Aparently my healer needs to have over 400 hp now :lol Sigh, any place I can level fairly quick that isnt with same creature models from floors 21-25?
People's comments about the Protector are hilarious.
Yes, you put him in the front row - for Christ's sake he can wear the thickest armor and has the naturally highest defense of any other character. Yes, he can do reasonably good damage - it's called Smite, and you should have enough MP to do it a LOT.
A good Protector is the core of any party. Couple him with a Medic and you can beat anything once you level up sufficiently - your other choices just decide how quickly you actually manage to do so.
Yes, you put him in the front row - for Christ's sake he can wear the thickest armor and has the naturally highest defense of any other character. Yes, he can do reasonably good damage - it's called Smite, and you should have enough MP to do it a LOT.
A good Protector is the core of any party. Couple him with a Medic and you can beat anything once you level up sufficiently - your other choices just decide how quickly you actually manage to do so.
The way I did it was continuously using Immunize from my Medic. The last boss refused to attack while this was in effect, and would use his skill to wipe out all of my status boosts. So in during that time when I knew he wouldn't attack I could attack with everyone, even the ones that would normally die without defending (just my alchemist I think). So it took a long time but it worked, and I also pretty much needed my Troubadour there to cast Healing and Relaxing whenever possible or I might have run out of MP for some party members. There are probably a lot better ways to go about it, but that's how I managed with my party.madara said:
George Claw M.D.
Member
madara said:
Yeah. I remember those annoying crabs. They're the only reason I kept an Alchemist in my party. The only thing I've ever been able to hurt them with is lightning. I've built an alchemist with maxed-out Thor for the final stratum. Of course, that's not the only solution, but the one I've found to be most efficient. A couple of Thors at a high enough level will wipe out a group of those crabs. Other options are to enchant your weapons with lightning, or have a Dark Hunter use the Volt Whip. Also, the Landsknecht's element chasers will trigger on enchanted weapon strikes as well as Alchemist spells.
As for curing petrification, I don't remember if there is an alternate cure besides the Apothecary. I don't have the game on me to check, now, either. Have you tried reviving, as if the character was dead? It's been a while since I've played the game, and even then, I don't remember ever getting petrified besides the time I purposely allowed it for a quest.
I wish all this was true, but the protector really does stink for the normal game. it's the postgame where they're good. I mean, they're a good survivor, but utterly useless if you want a damage class when a landsknecht can equip most of the same armor and deal way more damage.JayDubya said:
I still stuck with mine through the whole game, just because it was easier than leveling up another character... but the biggest problem IMO is that immunize is a way better defense buff than defender, and if you use a troubadour, their other buffs (especially the big two, bravery and relaxing) are so much more useful than the extra damage reduction of defender that your protector's only crucial buff/spell is the anti-element spells. A lot of this is supposed to be fixed in EO2, such as atlus saying they will make the provoke/parry combo a lot stronger. Parry by itself is an awesome skill, it's just hard to guarantee the enemies will hit your protector... plus the further you get into the game, the more often you find enemies who can attack multiple enemies, which provoke/parry isn't really helpful against.
Semantic Continuum
Member
I came here to ask if anyone knows if a skill tree, where you can see your own build quicly, is available somewhere ? If anything I was interested to develop one, but I'm not sure of what language to use =/
Doh, yeah revive does not cure a person that is stoned. Well I beat the game but these bonus floors are just brutal to be brutal. At some point you have ask yourself if your having fun, crabs that no one in my party can harm unless I redo skills, having to go back town repeatedly for stoning andfloors where 70 percent of it drops you, yeah time to hang it up.
PillowKnight
Member
That floor's actually a puzzle, and a pretty cool one at that. I suggest you go back and try to solve it. You can quit in the map afterwards which actually is just tedium. That's where I quit anyways.madara said:
dreadfulwater
aka morbidesque
firex said:
thanks for this. I am planning on diving into this game this weekend. having some insight on character building helps me get more enjoyment out of a game. I am notoriously bad at it. that way I can focus on just playing the game instead of strategizing the beejezus out of it.
I never thought I would abandon my 360 (and Mass Effect)when I got the DS the other day. but it's happening. there is just not enough time to devote to them all. too bad we all have to work for a living.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
smash buttons get cookies
It's good to see this thread bumped. I just decided to go clear out some more of the postgame stuff this weekend, so yesterday I cleared up to the final floor of the bonus dungeon and I've taken out most of the optional bosses. Now it's just a matter of grinding up the party I need for the final optional boss... and that's not too hard to do since nobody on my team is below level 50.
If I was starting out a new party to clear through the game again, knowing what I know now, I'd seriously just go landsknecht, dark hunter, landsknecht, then troubadour and medic in the back. or swap the dark hunter for an alchemist if you really want, but you gotta level up a dark hunter a lot to make them powerful anyway, so you may as well have one from the start. Plus I'd take binds over alchemist spells, and it takes until around/after you beat the main game to unlock the best alchemist equipment, while you can get awesome dark hunter stuff much earlier. You could really swap the dark hunter for a survivalist, too. The core of this group is the landsknechts, medic and troubadour. Protector is by no means a bad class, but as you go through the main game, protector gets comparatively weaker while landsknecht/survivalist/dark hunter all get stronger much faster, and you seriously don't need any of their spells until you beat the main game. The one reason I suggested dark hunter at first is because binds are the best form of debuff you can have in this game, and dark hunters are able to bind all 3 spots while most other classes either can't bind or can only bind one spot, and with a lower success rate. My survivalist, by comparison, is a great attacker and damage dealer, but aside from 1st turn it has no utility whatsoever, and 1st turn is only huge in the postgame stuff.
I really can't imagine how frustrating/tedious the game would be if you didn't use a medic and a troubadour. the troubadour will never be a big damage dealer (unless you unlock awesome bows way before better melee weapons) but with their relaxing buff you'll be able to stay in the dungeons a lot longer, and with bravery you can deal a lot more damage. That's another reason to stack melee/physical attackers instead of having a caster. Your medic can just be a dedicated healer and you'll still kick lots of ass.
Oh yeah, with any class that has HP up/TP up, after you get all the core skills you want to the level you want, you should max those. Same with ATK/DEF up, although DEF up isn't as important. Even for classes like landsknechts who don't use TP much, or troubadours who use it even less, maxed out TP up is awesome because it'll boost the regen from relaxing. And for the most part you'll want your 3 buffs to be immunize, relaxing, and bravery (in that order of importance).
despite all this, I still recommend making other classes and screwing around with them to figure out what they're like. And I'd also expect you would want to make a party of 5 survivalists and level up their gathering skills based upon what's the easiest thing for you to exploit for money. That's another side project of sorts that I still have to do in my EO game, since I'm trying to fill out the monster/item compendiums and I have more gathered stuff to go than anything else.
If I was starting out a new party to clear through the game again, knowing what I know now, I'd seriously just go landsknecht, dark hunter, landsknecht, then troubadour and medic in the back. or swap the dark hunter for an alchemist if you really want, but you gotta level up a dark hunter a lot to make them powerful anyway, so you may as well have one from the start. Plus I'd take binds over alchemist spells, and it takes until around/after you beat the main game to unlock the best alchemist equipment, while you can get awesome dark hunter stuff much earlier. You could really swap the dark hunter for a survivalist, too. The core of this group is the landsknechts, medic and troubadour. Protector is by no means a bad class, but as you go through the main game, protector gets comparatively weaker while landsknecht/survivalist/dark hunter all get stronger much faster, and you seriously don't need any of their spells until you beat the main game. The one reason I suggested dark hunter at first is because binds are the best form of debuff you can have in this game, and dark hunters are able to bind all 3 spots while most other classes either can't bind or can only bind one spot, and with a lower success rate. My survivalist, by comparison, is a great attacker and damage dealer, but aside from 1st turn it has no utility whatsoever, and 1st turn is only huge in the postgame stuff.
I really can't imagine how frustrating/tedious the game would be if you didn't use a medic and a troubadour. the troubadour will never be a big damage dealer (unless you unlock awesome bows way before better melee weapons) but with their relaxing buff you'll be able to stay in the dungeons a lot longer, and with bravery you can deal a lot more damage. That's another reason to stack melee/physical attackers instead of having a caster. Your medic can just be a dedicated healer and you'll still kick lots of ass.
Oh yeah, with any class that has HP up/TP up, after you get all the core skills you want to the level you want, you should max those. Same with ATK/DEF up, although DEF up isn't as important. Even for classes like landsknechts who don't use TP much, or troubadours who use it even less, maxed out TP up is awesome because it'll boost the regen from relaxing. And for the most part you'll want your 3 buffs to be immunize, relaxing, and bravery (in that order of importance).
despite all this, I still recommend making other classes and screwing around with them to figure out what they're like. And I'd also expect you would want to make a party of 5 survivalists and level up their gathering skills based upon what's the easiest thing for you to exploit for money. That's another side project of sorts that I still have to do in my EO game, since I'm trying to fill out the monster/item compendiums and I have more gathered stuff to go than anything else.
Yes, you heard me. Medics in front. PLM/ST.
Attack medics are awesome to the extreme. The only other skills a medic really needs are salve II and immunize. A boosted immunize makes your party immune to pretty much everything that's not a Dragon's primary attack or Primeevil, and you can heal through the rest with salve II or items.
Anyways, for the story mode final boss. Get between level 60-70 for an easy time, and try to get some of the top end equipment from the bosses and monsters on floor 20. Use boosted immunize, but remember that he can dispel buffs (not like Primeevil though) and he has a move that stops all special attacks. He can be bound pretty easily though, which helps.
Basically good equipment, high levels, and boosted immunize will see you through to the end. I believe you can unlock the item that gives you free boost before the endgame.
Attack medics are awesome to the extreme. The only other skills a medic really needs are salve II and immunize. A boosted immunize makes your party immune to pretty much everything that's not a Dragon's primary attack or Primeevil, and you can heal through the rest with salve II or items.
Anyways, for the story mode final boss. Get between level 60-70 for an easy time, and try to get some of the top end equipment from the bosses and monsters on floor 20. Use boosted immunize, but remember that he can dispel buffs (not like Primeevil though) and he has a move that stops all special attacks. He can be bound pretty easily though, which helps.
Basically good equipment, high levels, and boosted immunize will see you through to the end. I believe you can unlock the item that gives you free boost before the endgame.
charlequin
Banned
FatalT said:
Yep! I'm currently staring down B20F, and my wife's just made it to B4F thanks to our lucky snag of a second copy.
Y2Kev said:
Well: I like to raise up one of everything, in order to pick different parties for different situations, but: IME, a Protector is better than a second Land. Later in the game they can do very good damage against FOEs and bosses using Smite, and their defensive skills are fantastic, especially for getting through FOEs at lower levels than you otherwise could. I think B./F. Guard (which are fantastic) are prereqs for Defender (which is also fantastic) anyway? So invest in that shizzle.
Troubador/Alchemist/Land is a great combo because you can get the Relaxing/Elemental Spell/Elemental Sword combo of doom going. The Troubador is probably the best bard class in any game. :lol
By the time you read this post this is all old news anyway. Oh well. :lol
Pureauthor
Member
I grind, but that's because I have every single party slot available filled up. It's either that or face the final boss at level 35.
I only have to grind for the postgame stuff, and that's more because I did some level 70 retires that made new guys I wanted to catch back up.
and I agree that battle medics > healer medics, but it's a pain in the ass getting the gear to make them durable up front first, so I just say put that off until later. but lol protectors unless you do the postgame. then they're a requirement. Smite does good damage, but the TP cost is the highest cost of any single target attack skill I've seen. well, it's tied with the second-tier elemental spells, but alchemists get a truckload more TP and they'll do more damage with those spells. I didn't think my protector sucked when I used her through the entire main game or anything, but if I had known how useless protectors are for the main game, I'd probably have made a landsknecht instead. I really found defender was a waste of a buff, so much so that I rested my protector after she hit level 70 so I could drop it in favor of more passive stuff. The only active skills a protector should get are the 3 anti-element spells, and smite.
There's only really one good build for an alchemist btw: level 10 flame, level 10 freeze, level 10 thor. You can learn the other spells if you really want, but especially in the postgame you want multi-targeted lightning damage, compared to fire or ice, and flame/freeze are more effective in general vs bosses/FOEs, especially ones you want to farm in the postgame.
oh, another recommendation that I will spoiler because it gives away the twist on B20:
and I agree that battle medics > healer medics, but it's a pain in the ass getting the gear to make them durable up front first, so I just say put that off until later. but lol protectors unless you do the postgame. then they're a requirement. Smite does good damage, but the TP cost is the highest cost of any single target attack skill I've seen. well, it's tied with the second-tier elemental spells, but alchemists get a truckload more TP and they'll do more damage with those spells. I didn't think my protector sucked when I used her through the entire main game or anything, but if I had known how useless protectors are for the main game, I'd probably have made a landsknecht instead. I really found defender was a waste of a buff, so much so that I rested my protector after she hit level 70 so I could drop it in favor of more passive stuff. The only active skills a protector should get are the 3 anti-element spells, and smite.
There's only really one good build for an alchemist btw: level 10 flame, level 10 freeze, level 10 thor. You can learn the other spells if you really want, but especially in the postgame you want multi-targeted lightning damage, compared to fire or ice, and flame/freeze are more effective in general vs bosses/FOEs, especially ones you want to farm in the postgame.
oh, another recommendation that I will spoiler because it gives away the twist on B20:
The boss respawns until you kill the FOEs wandering around. I recommend catching the boss at its spawn spot and camping it over and over again until you get its rare drop. That rare drop unlocks the medic's best armor, so naturally you want that, and I prefer that to making the boss respawn. Plus you'll level up a shitload.
I've only been playing 3 or so hours, my characters (Landschnect, Survivor, Protector, Alchemist, Medic) are ~level 13, and I just reached floor 4. Money seems to be really hard to come by, and the Inn keeps on raising their fee, any advice for getting a decent cash flow at such an early part of the game?
charlequin
Banned
djtiesto said:
Making a 5-survivalist party who live but to chop and sending them through the secret passage to the chop point on B1F is key to earning enough money for the early parts of the game.
Pureauthor
Member
Poison works as a damage dealer in the 1st and 2nd stratum simply because Poison's damage doesn't scale at all.
3rd stratum onwards, Rest your Alch and get him the other elemental spells instead.
3rd stratum onwards, Rest your Alch and get him the other elemental spells instead.
Doublethink
Banned
Sell them. You'll need to in order to unlock better items.