Yes, a worthless avatar riding my posts.
Hmm, I should try L again. I could rename all these savestates, but we'll just assume Z is the default name. Further name tests will be noted. My accusation of 10,000 sims failing was a mistake, that was for level 17 not level 18.
Just had a promising early Erdrick's Sword end on an Axe Knight. I failed to escape, then Z said, "I FEEL ASLEEP!" and died in two more hits.
Given that you start taking 1 to 5 damage from fights around levels 11 and 12, and it sometimes takes more steps than you might expect to get into a fight, the Magic Armour can keep you afloat a bit longer...but yeah I'll have to test inn stays legit later.
I really don't see any merit in retrieving Erdrick's Sword before anything else at level 13...first of all, it requires 6 more Herbs, requires a pointless trip just for Erdrick's Token (or maybe the Silver Shield anyway...) and it's pretty difficult to get the sword, and I've already established it's not needed to beat the Axe Knight or Golem. Forget about it, especially for single segment.
Anyway, for now I'll just take my level 13 full-power savestate and start grinding up to 18. so far away ;_;
Hm, before I get started, I see Knights have 76 attack, and at 13 I have 73 defense...in a few levels I could take on Knights like they were Wolflords. Cool.
EDIT: Grinding has started. Here are my NOTEZ:
LEVEL 13: Going into Hauksness to fight is possible, but only for kicks really. You have to run from Starwyvern, Werewolf, and Starwyvern, so only 2 encounters are viable, and even with Wizards you kind of need to get lucky with Stopspell (9/16 chance of success I think =\). Knights are still easy though. For some reason I had ridiculous bad luck with Demon Knights and never got to run away.
LEVEL 14: Agility hits 76, the exact amount needed to resist Knights. Hauksness itself doesn't change much. I think the real best way to grind for now is in the Metal Slime region. There's a 2-space tall strip of desert east of the mountain range and this is the fringe of the Metal Slime region, so you can get 1/8 encounters without having to go through bumpy hills. Sometimes Wraith Knights sit there and heal, resisting the inevitable, it's pretty annoying.
LEVEL 15: I spoke too soon. Defense shoots up to 80, giving us the ability to resist Magiwyverns, Wizards and Demon Knights. If this happens a level sooner with L, this is yet another reason to pick him for the segmented run. It's practically safer to fight Demon Knights than run away. at 86, Werewolves and Starwyverns are at our mercy; at 88, Green Dragons. The Axe Knight is at 95, that probably won't happen at a relevant level. As for actually killing Metal Slimes, the odds are almost better that Hurt is a more effective way of killing them (gamble on 1/16 chance instead of 3 or 4 1-damage hits) but that would use more MP, and we need to save it all for Stopspell. Dying when you run out of MP isn't shameful really, especially now that you can cast Repel. Actually, Magiwyverns die in 2 hits every time to Erdrick's mighty sword, so skip Stopspell for them.
I just had a fight with a Metal Slime last for many many turns, I did 3 damage and after all that he just ran away. That has to be murderous for exp/min...*sigh*
If you do go fight Wizards, skip Stopspell for them too, Hurtmore only does about 20 damage and their regular attack seems to top out at 12. I think Ryan8bit explicitly stated the range of Hurtmore when you're wearing Magic/Erdrick's Armour somewhere on GameFAQs but I don't recall exactly what it was. I think it was just 4 cases due to integer division: 20, 22, 24, 26 or 28. 22 seems to be the most frequent.
Ryan, the encounter rate in Hauksness seems really low. Does the kind of tile you step on matter for encounter rate?
LEVEL 16: Defense is now 83, so no changes to grinding pattern. But the sleep resist on Werewolves & Green Dragons is 7/16, Starwyverns have 8/16. Let's try relying on Sleep again. Well, Green Dragons don't really need it because their HP is a bit lower, and sometimes they use their lousy breath attack.
It was beginning to look like using Sleep on Starwyverns was really ace, until after 2 hits one of them woke up and immediately used Healmore. I struck it twice more while it was awake and it healed itself again. OMEGA RAGE
Next fight, I hit it, then had to cast Sleep twice to put it under to finish it off.
Sometimes they die in 2 hits, sometimes 3, but in this case, whether it's 2 or 3 makes all the difference because I believe Starwyvern AI dictates the use of Healmore based on being under 25% HP.
The good news is, if you expect Healmore, Stopspell works 100% of the time.
You know, I'm noticing that since I kill anything in 2 or 3 hits anyway, I'm also doing more damage than the enemy, and my max HP is a whopping 92...let's just stick with Stopspell, and use Sleep only for Werewolves. I don't NEED the alternate damage formula.
Werewolves tend to wake up early, or just resist Sleep...I'm going to skip that too, and save MP for emergency Heals.
Actually, I'm going to slow the game down to 100% and see what feels faster, Healing in Hauksness itself or walking around outside and fighting rabble to regenerate...
*cringes at seemingly slo-mo gameplay*
Outdoor enemies almost always take 2 hits to kill, even our old Rimuldar favourites that can be found north of the Mason-Dixon line! This is actually less efficient! Emergency Heals it is. If MP gets exhausted, die, cast Repel and walk back, it only takes 50 seconds.
The main problem, though, is trying to predict how many steps away your next encounter is. I keep trying to cheap out because Heal takes a lot of MP.
I noticed a while ago I had built up 15000 gold...interesting. It's like we don't need all that Rimuldar gold. Maybe at 7700 we could trade up for Magic Armour? It's around that point that I start fighting Warlocks due to higher strength anyway.
I just remembered...when enemies use Healmore, they recover to their literal max HP. As in, the highest they can roll for the random encounter. So if you let a Starwyvern get one off, it becomes the most powerful possible Starwyvern.
LEVEL 17: This is it, the most powerful grinding level. 86 Defense! OMG!!!1 And Healmore too! Hauksness just became paradise, especially for Z. L is already crying himself to sleep. But if L gets 86 defense one level sooner...note that there is 0 strength increase for this level, however. So we still have that "omg I can never one-shot enemies" situation.
Oh right, Green Dragons can still bash you good...score one more for L.
Werewolves become a joke. Starwyverns can still do as much as 13 damage, their breath can do 12 anyway.
Oh hey, a Wizard just took me from 11 HP to 1, hahahahaha
I just remembered, that Beach of Bastards on Rimuldar has Knight/Magiwyvern/Starwyvern/Demon Knight/Werewolf encounters. There might be merit in moving to that zone right before level 18, so we can be within striking distance and be kind of closer to an inn...
I almost forgot, Healmore makes healing during fights actually effective. Saved me during a Wizard fight, went from 29 to 1 HP.
For some reason, the most damage I've seen a Werewolf do is 11, the first double-digit hit I've taken from one, while Starwyverns are consistently dishing out 12s and 13s. I must have got their attack power wrong...no, it's exactly the same as the Werewolf. wtf?!?
I'm out of MP so now I'm just grinding Hydlide style until I get killed, even if a Starwyvern is spamming Healmore. It's actually kind of hard to die. Nah, screw this.
Hey look, a Starwyvern finally did 3 damage to me. Bastards. As far as fighting them tactically without MP, just try to crush them, if it uses Healmore then just run away.
Okay I finally died. King Leoric (wait, that's a Diablo II item) says I have 659 TNL so if this were SS I would just head to Rimuldar and finish grinding there.
Another Starwyvern tip: if your first hit is good (34 is the highest I've seen) then just try to finish them off in the next hit, it usually works.
LEVEL 18: Finally! LOL, with the HP boost, suddenly 28 HP means my frame turned from white to red. Okay, time to make an SRAM save then activate some Game Genie codes. Findings in next post.
Just had a promising early Erdrick's Sword end on an Axe Knight. I failed to escape, then Z said, "I FEEL ASLEEP!" and died in two more hits.
Given that you start taking 1 to 5 damage from fights around levels 11 and 12, and it sometimes takes more steps than you might expect to get into a fight, the Magic Armour can keep you afloat a bit longer...but yeah I'll have to test inn stays legit later.
I really don't see any merit in retrieving Erdrick's Sword before anything else at level 13...first of all, it requires 6 more Herbs, requires a pointless trip just for Erdrick's Token (or maybe the Silver Shield anyway...) and it's pretty difficult to get the sword, and I've already established it's not needed to beat the Axe Knight or Golem. Forget about it, especially for single segment.
Anyway, for now I'll just take my level 13 full-power savestate and start grinding up to 18. so far away ;_;
Hm, before I get started, I see Knights have 76 attack, and at 13 I have 73 defense...in a few levels I could take on Knights like they were Wolflords. Cool.
EDIT: Grinding has started. Here are my NOTEZ:
LEVEL 13: Going into Hauksness to fight is possible, but only for kicks really. You have to run from Starwyvern, Werewolf, and Starwyvern, so only 2 encounters are viable, and even with Wizards you kind of need to get lucky with Stopspell (9/16 chance of success I think =\). Knights are still easy though. For some reason I had ridiculous bad luck with Demon Knights and never got to run away.
LEVEL 14: Agility hits 76, the exact amount needed to resist Knights. Hauksness itself doesn't change much. I think the real best way to grind for now is in the Metal Slime region. There's a 2-space tall strip of desert east of the mountain range and this is the fringe of the Metal Slime region, so you can get 1/8 encounters without having to go through bumpy hills. Sometimes Wraith Knights sit there and heal, resisting the inevitable, it's pretty annoying.
LEVEL 15: I spoke too soon. Defense shoots up to 80, giving us the ability to resist Magiwyverns, Wizards and Demon Knights. If this happens a level sooner with L, this is yet another reason to pick him for the segmented run. It's practically safer to fight Demon Knights than run away. at 86, Werewolves and Starwyverns are at our mercy; at 88, Green Dragons. The Axe Knight is at 95, that probably won't happen at a relevant level. As for actually killing Metal Slimes, the odds are almost better that Hurt is a more effective way of killing them (gamble on 1/16 chance instead of 3 or 4 1-damage hits) but that would use more MP, and we need to save it all for Stopspell. Dying when you run out of MP isn't shameful really, especially now that you can cast Repel. Actually, Magiwyverns die in 2 hits every time to Erdrick's mighty sword, so skip Stopspell for them.
I just had a fight with a Metal Slime last for many many turns, I did 3 damage and after all that he just ran away. That has to be murderous for exp/min...*sigh*
If you do go fight Wizards, skip Stopspell for them too, Hurtmore only does about 20 damage and their regular attack seems to top out at 12. I think Ryan8bit explicitly stated the range of Hurtmore when you're wearing Magic/Erdrick's Armour somewhere on GameFAQs but I don't recall exactly what it was. I think it was just 4 cases due to integer division: 20, 22, 24, 26 or 28. 22 seems to be the most frequent.
Ryan, the encounter rate in Hauksness seems really low. Does the kind of tile you step on matter for encounter rate?
LEVEL 16: Defense is now 83, so no changes to grinding pattern. But the sleep resist on Werewolves & Green Dragons is 7/16, Starwyverns have 8/16. Let's try relying on Sleep again. Well, Green Dragons don't really need it because their HP is a bit lower, and sometimes they use their lousy breath attack.
It was beginning to look like using Sleep on Starwyverns was really ace, until after 2 hits one of them woke up and immediately used Healmore. I struck it twice more while it was awake and it healed itself again. OMEGA RAGE
Next fight, I hit it, then had to cast Sleep twice to put it under to finish it off.
Sometimes they die in 2 hits, sometimes 3, but in this case, whether it's 2 or 3 makes all the difference because I believe Starwyvern AI dictates the use of Healmore based on being under 25% HP.
The good news is, if you expect Healmore, Stopspell works 100% of the time.
You know, I'm noticing that since I kill anything in 2 or 3 hits anyway, I'm also doing more damage than the enemy, and my max HP is a whopping 92...let's just stick with Stopspell, and use Sleep only for Werewolves. I don't NEED the alternate damage formula.
Werewolves tend to wake up early, or just resist Sleep...I'm going to skip that too, and save MP for emergency Heals.
Actually, I'm going to slow the game down to 100% and see what feels faster, Healing in Hauksness itself or walking around outside and fighting rabble to regenerate...
*cringes at seemingly slo-mo gameplay*
Outdoor enemies almost always take 2 hits to kill, even our old Rimuldar favourites that can be found north of the Mason-Dixon line! This is actually less efficient! Emergency Heals it is. If MP gets exhausted, die, cast Repel and walk back, it only takes 50 seconds.
The main problem, though, is trying to predict how many steps away your next encounter is. I keep trying to cheap out because Heal takes a lot of MP.
I noticed a while ago I had built up 15000 gold...interesting. It's like we don't need all that Rimuldar gold. Maybe at 7700 we could trade up for Magic Armour? It's around that point that I start fighting Warlocks due to higher strength anyway.
I just remembered...when enemies use Healmore, they recover to their literal max HP. As in, the highest they can roll for the random encounter. So if you let a Starwyvern get one off, it becomes the most powerful possible Starwyvern.
LEVEL 17: This is it, the most powerful grinding level. 86 Defense! OMG!!!1 And Healmore too! Hauksness just became paradise, especially for Z. L is already crying himself to sleep. But if L gets 86 defense one level sooner...note that there is 0 strength increase for this level, however. So we still have that "omg I can never one-shot enemies" situation.
Oh right, Green Dragons can still bash you good...score one more for L.
Werewolves become a joke. Starwyverns can still do as much as 13 damage, their breath can do 12 anyway.
Oh hey, a Wizard just took me from 11 HP to 1, hahahahaha
I just remembered, that Beach of Bastards on Rimuldar has Knight/Magiwyvern/Starwyvern/Demon Knight/Werewolf encounters. There might be merit in moving to that zone right before level 18, so we can be within striking distance and be kind of closer to an inn...
I almost forgot, Healmore makes healing during fights actually effective. Saved me during a Wizard fight, went from 29 to 1 HP.
For some reason, the most damage I've seen a Werewolf do is 11, the first double-digit hit I've taken from one, while Starwyverns are consistently dishing out 12s and 13s. I must have got their attack power wrong...no, it's exactly the same as the Werewolf. wtf?!?
I'm out of MP so now I'm just grinding Hydlide style until I get killed, even if a Starwyvern is spamming Healmore. It's actually kind of hard to die. Nah, screw this.
Hey look, a Starwyvern finally did 3 damage to me. Bastards. As far as fighting them tactically without MP, just try to crush them, if it uses Healmore then just run away.
Okay I finally died. King Leoric (wait, that's a Diablo II item) says I have 659 TNL so if this were SS I would just head to Rimuldar and finish grinding there.
Another Starwyvern tip: if your first hit is good (34 is the highest I've seen) then just try to finish them off in the next hit, it usually works.
LEVEL 18: Finally! LOL, with the HP boost, suddenly 28 HP means my frame turned from white to red. Okay, time to make an SRAM save then activate some Game Genie codes. Findings in next post.