Etrian Odyssey: Labyrinth of the World Tree

Kiradawea

Etrian Odyssey is a game where you wander through a labyrinth of freakishly overpowered monsters with nothing but your trusty guild of self-made character and a self-drawn map to back you up, all the while being led to believe there is no story in the game until story sneaks up from behind and kicks you hard and makes you love it.

In other words, it's one of my most favourite game series.

I've run through the first, second and third, and money permitting I'll be getting a DS3 so I can get the fourth game. I consider the second game my favourite, but it's a hard pick as the first game kept blowing me away as I played it, and the third game threw a real monkey-wrench into your perception of what class fulfills which role, something I greatly enjoy. Probably would have made it the first game if it weren't for the pain of getting rare drops.

Anyone else here a fan of the series that would like to share their experiences, their guilds, or just ideas for how to make the subclassing of The Drowned City work?

Daraius

Just started playing. I love the mapping, but I'm having a tough time making enough money for proper equipment!

Kiradawea

Which game? The third game is notoriously difficult to have a lot of money on if you don't have mine/take/chop skills. I would suggest making five farmers and give them all max ranks in combat study, then, when they near level 5, rest them so regain the skillpoints and put those into gather for four of them, and safe stroll for one.

For the first game, just make five survivalists and put all their points in chop. There's a chop point very close to the entrance once you find the shortcut, so you can use that to earn more cash.

For the second game, I don't recall, but I don't think I ever had money issues there.

Daraius

Awesome. Lumberjack army, go!

Estwald

Kiradawea said:

I've run through the first, second and third, and money permitting I'll be getting a DS3 so I can get the fourth game. 

Getting a what?

Kiradawea

Nintendo 3DS. The next gen of Nintendo handhelds. I don't really want a 3DS, but I really, REALLY want Etrian Odyssey.

And yeah, lumberjack army works great. Train them up a bit later so you can bring one with you and gather from item points at the later stratums as well. Items from gathering points are great for unlocking new, powerful equipment.

Also, assuming you're playing the first game, Medic with Immunize or Protector with Defender will make the first boss go from hair-tearing frustrating to fun and difficult.

Daraius

I made the mistake of getting as many abilities as I could on all my characters instead of specializing in a helpful few, so I had to rest everyone and come up with a more organized plan. Back on track now, though. I love that enemies can team up with each other if you're not careful, and the Dark Souls-esque feeling of relief and accomplishment when you manage to open up a shortcut.

And if you're on the fence about a 3DS... do keep in mind that it had Star Fox 64 3D. :x

Kiradawea

How far down have you gone? I recall finding the 4th stratum a bit tiresome. But the 5th stratum was great. The boss fights are certainly the best part of this game, though I found the third boss somewhat easy. Probably because by then I had an Alchemist with sheer "fire" power.

Do you have an Alchemist? I suggest you do not worry too much about Poison, as it swiftly loses its edge. I've found that maxing out Thor, Flame and... whatever the 2nd level ice spell was called again is wisest.

Daraius

Agreed on all opinions vis a vis the 4th and 5th strata. That lumberjack army has come in handy with the item point right at the entrance of stratum 5, too.

Can I just say though... The sleep affliction should be a minor inconvenience, not an instant game over! >.<

Hate those dang flowers. I'm taking a break from diving deeper to do some quests.

Kiradawea

Yeah. Those flowers are hellish. Use your survivalist to have your medic/protector go first to get up defender/immunize, or if you run a Bard (bards are awesome for their TP regen skill), have her play the song of ailment recovery. At maximum level, you'll recover from an affliction the same round you're getting it about 7/10 times I've found.

Balizar

~~~

Lerad

Oooh, an EO thread.

I'm doing EO4 at the moment, just got to the equivalent of the 4th stratum in EO4 but I made the mistake of respeccing my party wrongly, and I'm facing the horrible prospect of having to grind a good 20 levels if I respec them again. The game's been sitting on my desk for the past 2 months growing mold while I'm trying to muster enough courage to give the grind a go.

Kiradawea

I thought they reduced the rest penalty in EO4 to being only 2 levels? If so, resting doesn't seem all that bad, because good selection of abilities tend to help far more than the levels lost would, meaning you can go deeper than before and get more experience per fight. EO4 hasn't been released in Norway yet, and I'm very anxious about them doing so. Until that time, I'm still toying with EO3, pondering if I'll have the skillpoints to subclass my hoplite to Wildling.

Lerad

Oh, yeah. I used the wrong word. I meant "retiring" instead. The good thing about EO4 is that, after beating the 2nd and 3rd stratum, they give you 2 "level up" tokens that take a character up to a certain level. This allows you to basically choose 2 characters to retire each time, and then boost back up to a respectable level. They'll only be behind the rest of your party by a handful of levels, and retiring gives extra skillpoints, so they'll actually be more or less equal. Part of the reason, I guess, is that they unlock new classes at the same time, so you have the choice of swapping in the new class without having to train one up from scratch.

I made the mistake of swapping out my fortress. I can actually continue with my new party, but damn, without a fortress, things are noticeably much tougher. At the rate I'm struggling against the normal dungeon, I doubt I'd be able to take on the next boss without grossly over-leveling.

Kiradawea

Ah. Yeah that makes more sense. I recall retiring my level 70s in EOI so I could build them up with a few more skill points. My medic was especially starved for skill points. It wasn't as bad as I feared, but then again I sported both immunize and relaxing early on so... yeah.

Lerad

EO1 was pretty brutal. I remember being traumatized by the early grind. Though once you got some levels, things got a little better.

Daraius

I got through to the bonus strata, but upon discovering floors I couldn't accurately map with the in game tools, I got discouraged. Might pick it up again in a few months, but right now I've got Fallout: New Vegas taking up my time, and then XCOM, and Ni No Kuni... Goodness.

Kiradawea

I don't recall how I did it for floor 29, but for floor 27 I made pit fall floors out to be empty spots and drew walls around them.