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Jul. 16th, 2010 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoWoo, the one super-elusive, super-ferocious random encounter has been met again, and this time, I won! I even got the conditional drop, so I don't have to do that again!
In the first Etrian Odyssey, there were Muckdiles. Muckdiles were FOEs that existed on floors 11 through 14. There really wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about them except for having powerful stats relative to the floors they were on (like any FOE), so they were adequately tough when first encountered, outleveled and forgotten later. There were also Kingdiles, a more powerful palette swap that existed on floors 21 through 25 (excluding 24), again with nothing special except they were adequately tough for the area they were in.
In Etrian Odyssey 2, you can go through the entire game and get the impression that, while many old FOEs came back for the sequel (damn you Stalkers), that particular line was not one of them. They are nowhere to be seen. Not FOEs, not random encounters, they simply don't exist in this game.
That is, of course, until you get all the way to floor 30, the last floor of the post-game bonus dungeon and therefore the last floor in the game. Much like (exactly like) the infamous WarMECH from the original Final Fantasy, there is a certain ridiculously powerful enemy that exists as an extremely rare random encounter. You probably won't see it just by going through the floor as normal, but if you stay there long enough to be specifically looking for it or you're just really unlucky....
DOOOOOOOOM.
Oh shit, it's a Muckdile. What's it doing on floor 30? Kicking your ass, that's what. Muckdiles have been... upgraded for this game. Yes, I know, he looks like he's kind of let himself go between games (maybe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravenworks will like him though) but trust me, he will wreck your day.
What do they have going for them now? Well, let's see....
They have two special moves which they use exclusively (they absolutely never attempt a regular physical attack).
It has two drops, both of which have a fairly generous drop rate (something like 90% I think? It's enough that I think it actually goes over 100% if anyone on your team knows Scavenge, a passive skill that just increases the drop rate for everything if you know it) but one of which is conditional--to get it, the killing blow has to be a physical element. As I said above, Muckdiles are extremely physically resistant.
Finally, there are the circumstances under which you encounter the thing itself. Since it's so rare, you'll probably only see one if you're specifically looking for it, which means you'll have been wandering around picking random fights for so long that your party should expect to be fairly worn down by the time you actually find a Muckdile. (You're getting in fights on the last floor in the game. Muckdiles are the worst, but that doesn't mean that everything else is trivial!) Furthermore, I've heard really disturbing rumors that Muckdiles can ambush you (I hope you enjoy starting out with 2/5 of your party still alive before you even get to enter a command,) though fortunately that didn't happen to me either of the two times I encountered one.
So how do you take down one of these things? Well, first you have to be lucky(?) enough to encounter it, not get ambushed, and either have enough TP (this game's equivalent to MP, mana, etc.) that everyone is good to go for another all-out fight as soon as you see it, or have enough TP-restoring items in your inventory that they can be. Because of its rarity and how menacing it is, I spent a good while each time I encountered one just absorbing the fact that I did--oh God it's a Muckdile, it really is, there it is, what do I do what do I do--before proceeding with the battle. Fortunately, this isn't Trauma Center, and having a menu-based RPG-style combat system actually allows you to do that.
Muckdile's AI is extremely simple. Every turn, it does a quick self-check for binds. If it is bound in two or more places simultaneously, it uses Frolic. If it is not, it attempts to use Bite. That's pretty much it.
The trick to getting it is to bind its head and only its head. Doing so renders it completely helpless--every turn from then until the bind wears off, it will attempt to use Bite, fail (because its head is bound,) and end up wasting its turn. Do not bind anything else or it will use Frolic. (For every other battle in the game, the Dark Hunter's "inflict every single bind at once with something like a 1,000% success rate so that it's absolutely guaranteed even after applying resistances" limit break skill Dominate is one of the better moves in the entire game, but here... don't do it.) You'll also want to do something about its physical defenses, especially if you want the conditional drop.
Fortunately, I have just the party for this sort of thing, with not one, not two, but three members who know a move that binds an enemy's head, and one who has Dampen (the ultimate defense destroyer--it's completely unavoidable, and at max level, it reduces every single physical and magical element resistance to "you're actually really weak against it now" levels) and, just for fun, Scavenge.
My party:
Ronin - Main physical damage dealer.
Dark Hunter - Knows Gag, an attack that has a chance of binding the enemy's head.
War Magus - Healer, also has a +Attack buff that, when applied to my damage dealers, is really handy for "oh God this thing needs to die as quickly as possible" situations.
Hexer - Knows Cranial, a straight up hit-or-miss "attempt to bind the enemy's head" move--no added attack/damage like Gag, but in return, a much higher success rate. Also knows Dampen. Also knows Scavenge.
Gunner - Physical damage dealer, also knows Headshot (damage + maybe head bind, like Gag).
My strategy was to bind the thing's head as fast as I could, then Dampen it, then go all out with physical stuff. That is half because my primary damage output is physically based and it's just easier to kill that way (once its resistances have been Dampened away), and half for the conditional drop.
Round 1:
The first time I encountered one of these things and lost, it was because I was going well until the head bind wore off, I tried to reapply it, Gag failed, and it bit me to death in two rounds. Learning from that, I decided to go all out with the head binds at first, having all three people with a head-binding move attempt it. The Dark Hunter went first with Gag, which did not bind Muckdile's head. Uh oh D: Then the Muckdile bit the Dark Hunter, War Magus, and Gunner to death. Crap :( The Hexer's Cranial worked, though. Thus, going into round two, the Ronin and Hexer stood alone, but at least the Muckdile's head was bound.
Round 2:
The Muckdile squirmed helplessly. The Ronin used a Nectall II (revives everyone in the party with full HP--those things are extremely hard to come by and precious and should be saved for endboss-level special occasions, but I really think this qualifies.) The Hexer cast Dampen.
Round 3+:
At this point, I just tried to kill the thing as quickly as I could, before the head bind wore off. As long as it was bound, my team was fully healthy and it couldn't do anything to oppose me at all, so I was in very good position. However, the last time I lost to one of these things was because a head bind wore off when I had maybe one round to go before killing it, and it quickly tore through me after an attempt to reapply it with Gag didn't work. :( Fortunately, this time, it stayed on all the way until I won. Yay! Conditional drop due to physical kill and everything!
And that is how you take down a Muckdile. Now all that's left for me are the two actual bosses of the bonus stratum....
In the first Etrian Odyssey, there were Muckdiles. Muckdiles were FOEs that existed on floors 11 through 14. There really wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about them except for having powerful stats relative to the floors they were on (like any FOE), so they were adequately tough when first encountered, outleveled and forgotten later. There were also Kingdiles, a more powerful palette swap that existed on floors 21 through 25 (excluding 24), again with nothing special except they were adequately tough for the area they were in.
In Etrian Odyssey 2, you can go through the entire game and get the impression that, while many old FOEs came back for the sequel (damn you Stalkers), that particular line was not one of them. They are nowhere to be seen. Not FOEs, not random encounters, they simply don't exist in this game.
That is, of course, until you get all the way to floor 30, the last floor of the post-game bonus dungeon and therefore the last floor in the game. Much like (exactly like) the infamous WarMECH from the original Final Fantasy, there is a certain ridiculously powerful enemy that exists as an extremely rare random encounter. You probably won't see it just by going through the floor as normal, but if you stay there long enough to be specifically looking for it or you're just really unlucky....
DOOOOOOOOM.
Oh shit, it's a Muckdile. What's it doing on floor 30? Kicking your ass, that's what. Muckdiles have been... upgraded for this game. Yes, I know, he looks like he's kind of let himself go between games (maybe
ravenworks will like him though) but trust me, he will wreck your day.What do they have going for them now? Well, let's see....
- Their HP can be measured in bunchtons
- Iron physical defenses
- Muckdiles are the only non-boss enemy in the game that is completely immune to instant death. (All but two bosses are immune, all FOEs and random enemies except Muckdiles are fair game.)
- Muckdiles are the only enemy in the entire game (not even bosses, not even endbosses join him them in this!) that are completely immune to stun, making "do damage + hopefully stun the enemy" skills such as Stunner, Smite, Caduceus, and even Riot Gun (which is guaranteed to stun the enemy, unless it's a Muckdile) completely useless except for the damage.
They have two special moves which they use exclusively (they absolutely never attempt a regular physical attack).
- Bite: Targets three party members, deals absolutely ridiculous damage (usually around twice that party member's maximum HP.) Basically, if this attack goes off, it outright kills 3/5 of your party. Is a head skill (can be disabled by binding its head.)
- Frolic: Attempts to inflict every bind on every member of your party, with a very decent success rate. Before you think this is less deadly than Bite, keep in mind that your skills have body part associations too, and the extent to which you will find yourself bound after this more or less means you are left completely helpless and unable to do anything. Frolic itself is not associated with a body part (it cannot be disabled by any bind.)
It has two drops, both of which have a fairly generous drop rate (something like 90% I think? It's enough that I think it actually goes over 100% if anyone on your team knows Scavenge, a passive skill that just increases the drop rate for everything if you know it) but one of which is conditional--to get it, the killing blow has to be a physical element. As I said above, Muckdiles are extremely physically resistant.
Finally, there are the circumstances under which you encounter the thing itself. Since it's so rare, you'll probably only see one if you're specifically looking for it, which means you'll have been wandering around picking random fights for so long that your party should expect to be fairly worn down by the time you actually find a Muckdile. (You're getting in fights on the last floor in the game. Muckdiles are the worst, but that doesn't mean that everything else is trivial!) Furthermore, I've heard really disturbing rumors that Muckdiles can ambush you (I hope you enjoy starting out with 2/5 of your party still alive before you even get to enter a command,) though fortunately that didn't happen to me either of the two times I encountered one.
So how do you take down one of these things? Well, first you have to be lucky(?) enough to encounter it, not get ambushed, and either have enough TP (this game's equivalent to MP, mana, etc.) that everyone is good to go for another all-out fight as soon as you see it, or have enough TP-restoring items in your inventory that they can be. Because of its rarity and how menacing it is, I spent a good while each time I encountered one just absorbing the fact that I did--oh God it's a Muckdile, it really is, there it is, what do I do what do I do--before proceeding with the battle. Fortunately, this isn't Trauma Center, and having a menu-based RPG-style combat system actually allows you to do that.
Muckdile's AI is extremely simple. Every turn, it does a quick self-check for binds. If it is bound in two or more places simultaneously, it uses Frolic. If it is not, it attempts to use Bite. That's pretty much it.
The trick to getting it is to bind its head and only its head. Doing so renders it completely helpless--every turn from then until the bind wears off, it will attempt to use Bite, fail (because its head is bound,) and end up wasting its turn. Do not bind anything else or it will use Frolic. (For every other battle in the game, the Dark Hunter's "inflict every single bind at once with something like a 1,000% success rate so that it's absolutely guaranteed even after applying resistances" limit break skill Dominate is one of the better moves in the entire game, but here... don't do it.) You'll also want to do something about its physical defenses, especially if you want the conditional drop.
Fortunately, I have just the party for this sort of thing, with not one, not two, but three members who know a move that binds an enemy's head, and one who has Dampen (the ultimate defense destroyer--it's completely unavoidable, and at max level, it reduces every single physical and magical element resistance to "you're actually really weak against it now" levels) and, just for fun, Scavenge.
My party:
Ronin - Main physical damage dealer.
Dark Hunter - Knows Gag, an attack that has a chance of binding the enemy's head.
War Magus - Healer, also has a +Attack buff that, when applied to my damage dealers, is really handy for "oh God this thing needs to die as quickly as possible" situations.
Hexer - Knows Cranial, a straight up hit-or-miss "attempt to bind the enemy's head" move--no added attack/damage like Gag, but in return, a much higher success rate. Also knows Dampen. Also knows Scavenge.
Gunner - Physical damage dealer, also knows Headshot (damage + maybe head bind, like Gag).
My strategy was to bind the thing's head as fast as I could, then Dampen it, then go all out with physical stuff. That is half because my primary damage output is physically based and it's just easier to kill that way (once its resistances have been Dampened away), and half for the conditional drop.
Round 1:
The first time I encountered one of these things and lost, it was because I was going well until the head bind wore off, I tried to reapply it, Gag failed, and it bit me to death in two rounds. Learning from that, I decided to go all out with the head binds at first, having all three people with a head-binding move attempt it. The Dark Hunter went first with Gag, which did not bind Muckdile's head. Uh oh D: Then the Muckdile bit the Dark Hunter, War Magus, and Gunner to death. Crap :( The Hexer's Cranial worked, though. Thus, going into round two, the Ronin and Hexer stood alone, but at least the Muckdile's head was bound.
Round 2:
The Muckdile squirmed helplessly. The Ronin used a Nectall II (revives everyone in the party with full HP--those things are extremely hard to come by and precious and should be saved for endboss-level special occasions, but I really think this qualifies.) The Hexer cast Dampen.
Round 3+:
At this point, I just tried to kill the thing as quickly as I could, before the head bind wore off. As long as it was bound, my team was fully healthy and it couldn't do anything to oppose me at all, so I was in very good position. However, the last time I lost to one of these things was because a head bind wore off when I had maybe one round to go before killing it, and it quickly tore through me after an attempt to reapply it with Gag didn't work. :( Fortunately, this time, it stayed on all the way until I won. Yay! Conditional drop due to physical kill and everything!
And that is how you take down a Muckdile. Now all that's left for me are the two actual bosses of the bonus stratum....
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:30 am (UTC)Also, curse your timing, I just edited the entry (specifically the caption/paragraph right below the picture) right when you were replying. :P
no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:52 am (UTC)"Hey baby wanna Frolic" AHHH NO BRAIN STOP THAT
no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 03:56 am (UTC)Granted, with whips as their weapon of choice and skills like Gag/Cuffs/Shackles for individual binds or Dominate for all of them, Ecstasy for damage, and Climax for instant death, Dark Hunters are meant to be a little suggestive anyway. But still :C
no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-17 04:30 am (UTC)