Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 8
- Years
- Age 27
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen Apr 11, 2024
*claps hands together*
I've got a few surprises in store for this one.
(Also this is technically the end of the first arc of the LP - this is how I organize the parts I want to read for later and keep track of how much we've grown)
[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #6 - Doom of Pharaoh[/font][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Oh hey, they changed the title screen yet again… and I have no idea who this is! (I know the battlefield, but to say what it is exactly would be spoilers.)
The grimoire and the black panther look badass though.
Ooooh, that's right - I nearly forgot to check this. Trickster has milestone rewards every time one of your characters does something significant… like upgrading to our second job class for example!
(Consider this a semi-spoiler for the rest of the game too – I mean just look at the amount of crazy shit we'd have to do to get all these rewards!)
The reward we get for promoting Star Heart into a Boxer is the extremely precious Moon Bracelet EV.
If one of your two accessory slots aren't permanently occupied by this thing, then you need to fix that.
This is because it has a weight rating of 7000, making inventory management a non-issue unless you're a hoarder. That's good by itself, but it's one of the rare equipment items that can have WT boosting items compounded onto it, further reducing the strain you'd have to bear.
(Pay close attention to my weight rating on the top left there. It was 51% before I put the Moon Bracelet on – it's that good.)
Before she can tell us the story, she wants us to get her Julio's Gold Silk Pouch. Only problem is, he's rightfully suspicious of people touching his stuff, so we have to help him and then come back here once we're done. (The book is the Adventurer's Book that we've been using all game to store the stickers we get from people.)
He's standing near the entrance to Caballa Relics Dungeon, so he should be easy to spot.
Sounds about right. I mean, he does replace the standard Storage lady while you're here.
Long story short, a monster stole one of his storage keys while he was fumbling about in Caballa Relics Dungeon and he asks us for help to get it back. He'd rather not have us get in danger, but we've gone through this cave more than enough times than I want to admit – it shouldn't be a problem.
The monsters who have the key are Limas: the least dangerous out of any monster in there. Should be pretty e… wait.
: "... Huh. So that's what that weird key I picked up earlier was."
The problem's already solved even though I forgot I had it in the first place. Hooray!
: "I need a favor..."
: "Favor? What is it? Anything for you."
Maybe you should reconsider saying "anything", my dude – people can take that in some weird directions.
: "Lend me your Gold Silk Pouch, please?"
: "G-Gold Silk Pouch? Um… that's a difficult request, but I did say anything. I am a man of my word, so I'll make an exception and lend you my pouch. I don't lend it or show it to anyone, but I feel I can trust you with it."
: "Thank you, I'll take good care of it."
You can trust this one, mate. She's a keeper.
We're only lending it right now, so we have to give it back when we're done.
The Fortune Teller remarks that the blueprint entails the ideal life of the Althean and the secret that makes their buildings so good. She also tells us that we have to find the ancient buildings in order to awaken our true Trickster energy.
: "Oops Wharf, huh? That... that name is really funny to me for some reason, but if it's more dangerous than this place..."
: "Oh right, Julio's pouch! I should probably return that."
: "Here's your pouch back, mister Julio!"
Julio spills the beans that his ancestors, the Polkan Tribe, created the architecture of the Alteo Empire. (That and they were amazing at academics and diplomacy, which I have to assume was a requirement if they built the architecture of this ancient advanced civilization to begin with)
The Gold Pouch is relevant to Julio because it was passed down the generations, so it makes even more sense that he would be reluctant to even show it to other people. He's so thankful for our help that he even gives us a present: the Weapon Ticket!
(Also directions on how to get to Oops Wharf, but I know the directions like the back of my hand. That and they're automatically listed on the cheapest Portable Port you can buy at the Megalopolis Shop.)
The weapon ticket is the epitome of it was the thought that counted, because the weapon it hands you is slightly better than even the set… but it lacks the bonuses that a completed set grants, making it not worth that much.
I sold it off without a second thought, let's be real.
I finally come back to Monkey T to do the Story Quest, so this monkey better sing before Star Heart punches his face in.
The necklace is faded, so we have to bring it to the Old Artist over in Caballa Relics Field 1.
: "Not exactly... I want to recolor the faded necklace."
: "Can I take a look at the necklace?"
: "Sure."
: "Hmm, that necklace… It may be old, but I can tell it was made with great detail and love. I know because I've painted paintings with that kind of heart. So you want me to color this?"
: "Yes, please!"
So in order for our guy to repaint the necklace, he needs to recover his stamina with some Ginseng Tea. The kicker is that we have to make it ourselves using these ingredients:
Joy. The honey is dropped by the Forest Wasps back in Emerald Forest while the Ginseng is buried under the ground in the same place. (The distilled waters are in every store under the etc. section)
Also, we have to deliver the tea to him during the day because he can't work during the night. You know, it's funny how Trickster has a day and night system that actually affects things, but most of the time you can play the game without thinking about it.
So as I was walking back to Megalopolis to buy some Portable Ports, I nearly shat myself when I saw this guy as someone's pet.
This hulking uberbeast of a minotaur man is [transmission expunged]
But to say any more would be a spoiler, so I'll just leave it at that.
Who keeps lemons and oranges buried under the ground, like really?
I should mention that Card Hunter Eugene is not always here – he's a special "travelling" NPC that appears on certain times of the day, but I don't know when those times really are.
Compounding the Ginseng Tea was surprisingly painless aside from the amount of wasps I had to kill, but then again I'm not the one who took the Shockwave to the face.
: "Holy-! That nearly gave me a heart attack."
... Where do people find these pets, like seriously. That player has this cool edgy anime pretty boy with demon wings yet all we have is a tiny pumpkin man.
He hands us this bucket and tells us to get the sacred water from Sabrina's well because if the water's dirty, the paint he'll use won't be as good. Makes sense.
That's nice and all, but to get the water, we have to contribute to the Restoration Fund again. She demands five more nuggets of gold and another gold egg. I'm kinda tired of digging around here, but thankfully someone actually is setting up their around this time.
Where were you when I needed you??
(At least I got to use his store while playing as Blanche, so at least it helped me out a ton offscreen.)
I find it oddly poetic that we have just enough money to get the golden egg we need, because even if I needed the rest of this stuff I don't have any cash.
This lady better use all these gold nuggets and eggs for what she said or I swear she'll catch these hands. (angr)
Hmmmmm. So the Old Artist tells us a story of how he had to restore a portrait of the same woman depicted on the necklace we found. He is able to recognize the likeness despite his bad memory, and we even have a name for her: Nefertiti.
She was said to be the beautiful queen of a kingdom called Fremeia, a kingdom that existed before history was even recorded (where's the proof though). The catch is that she was cursed to be unhappy because of her beauty for reasons yet to be disclosed.
He gives us the sketches of the restoration portrait he made, but he asks us for another favor: we got Nefertiti's portrait alongside Mermaid Babe's.
He wants Mermaid Babe to pay him back for a commission he did for her, but she's too obnoxious to confront so… yeah, we have to get the money ourselves.
: [Continues internally vomiting]
: "Uh... something like that..."
Mermaid Babe states that she modeled for art students, but nobody was able to satisfy her… including the old artist. Honestly, with a face like that it's not hard to see why.
We wind up showing her the portrait of Nefertiti, but Mermaid Babe actually breaks her obnoxious character for once and states that Nefertiti is part of the legend of the Mermaid Kingdom.
: "Oh~ She's as pretty as the story goes, but not as pretty as me of course. She's alright."
Bruised ego if I've ever seen one.
Anyway, she still doesn't want to pay because she thinks the portrait's terrible (even though I'm pretty sure it's an accurate one), so she tells us to fetch something called the Fantastic Hand Mirror.
And wouldn't you know, Monkey T has that too. Little bastard has his hands everywhere in this place, I swear.
He stole the mirror from some Hula Octopuses back in Desert Beach (even though they don't really drop it). Monkey T tries to sweet talk us into buying it, but he asks for two 500 galder coupons… which isn't that bad because almost every other NPC gives those to us like candy.
: "Ugh, fine..."
: "This little guy must be part of the mafia or something, because this kind of thievery is unreal..."
Things seem like they're going well but Mermaid Babe remains to be dissatisfied because the mirror is actually working just fine.
She berates the hell out of us for not bringing her a Fantastic version of the Hand Mirror and doesn't want to pay for the portrait, but at least she tells us that Louis Bitton can fix it up for us.
: ("At least the other weirdos weren't deluded like she is...")
This fuckin' guy cracks me up, alright? It's his face and smug attitude.
Anyway, we need some Fantastic Powder from Caballa Relics Field 4 to fix the mirror up, so give me a sec and…
Is he shamalama-ding-donging in front of me, like for real. I can't with this game sometimes.
Anyway, he finally enhances the mirror for us so we can end this torturous back and forth.
... He even goes out of his way to roast her. Good shit.
Thank god, because I was gonna go mad if I had to make it the Ultra Amazing Mirror now.
Anyway… Mermaid Babe continues with the story of Nefertiti. This is a story told down the generations and involves a three-headed monster called Enkicladus (I pronounce it as en-kee-claw-dus).
He kidnapped Queen Nefertiti while she was taking a walk on the beach and took her into the depths of the ocean. The great god Poseidon heard the rumors and killed Enkicladus with his trident, only to fall in love with Nefertiti shortly after. It was love at first sight so powerful that he created the Alteo Empire just for her.
Hey, if that's how he tries to win over women then I shouldn't really intervene. Mermaid Babe hands us a check for our troubles at least.
: "Who wanted Nefertiti's portrait restored?"
The Old Artist remarks it was a pretty wealthy old man. Then he says that the original portrait was painted from the original artist's dream and then some nutty as fuck explanation about how time and fate separated the old man and the model.
Even the Old Artist is confused.
This should be important information to remember for later, though… Especially the "wealthy old man" bit.
: "We'll do just that!"
: ("Maybe this time I'll actually get to punch that monkey!")
We work on Monkey T for a bit and he winds up telling us that he took it from Robin at the path of Caballa Relics.
: "Fine, but karma will get you!"
Robin's mopey that he lost the necklace, but look what we got for you, playa.
He hands us the Aquamarine Pendant for our troubles, although I haven't checked if it's actual equipment or just another quest item for the future.
When we tell him the woman on the necklace is called Nefertiti, Robin gives us a cryptic line about "someone who knows her has finally showed up" which kinda freaks me out.
: "Pardon?"
He brushes it off as nothing and just tells us to go meet up with a mysterious woman in the center of Megalopolis.
Oh mama mia, this lady. She's gonna be real important as the story goes on, but right now she's just a big mope.
She's been tired ever since she came here through Oops Wharf, only for her to notice the portrait of Nefertiti we have.
Apparently the picture is too much for her to handle, so we have to bring her some Honey Tea to calm her nerves. This also requires compounding, but this time from the Paul here in Megalopolis.
We need 1 Honey, 2 Royal Jellies and 2 vials of water, so…
: "I won't take long, miss!"
Oooh, I managed to get a Forest Wasp card during all that grinding. Not that it's… particularly useful, but every single card helps.
I'LL BE RIGHT BACK.
There we go.
Just trying to create Honey Tea was more tedious than I expected, but at least we finished.
She says the name Nefertiti sounds familiar, so hmmm. She received a package with no return address along with several indecipherable scrolls and a letter. The letter was a translation talking about Nefertiti's story, so Rosaline here is just wondering if this was all planned.
... Give Trickster some credit for creating a full-on story mode despite being a MMORPG. I'm actually invested in what the heck is happening here.
Going back to the Caballa Relics Dungeon takes us to the Weird Box scene again. He does the (tinfoil) thing again and theorizes that the box holds the secrets of the Alteo Empire, but he's missing the pieces to actually open said box.
He wants us to collect these pieces from Skipper Min over at Oops Wharf, so I guess we have to go there no matter what. I really dig how they guide you from place to place, but I might get caught up in the Oops Wharf quests before I get back to this anyway, so...
[Current OST: Felis]
: "Oh hey, Star Heart! I was wondering when I'd run into you again."
: "Wait... Blanche?!"
: "Did you manage to promote to your second job class too?"
: "Yes! I'm an Entertainer now. I just have to thank you for those stickers you handed me, because they really helped build my confidence."
: "Oh, that's great!"
: ("She seems less angry too... Maybe my words reached her after all?")
: "D-don't misunderstand me, though. I still want to be your rival."
: "But... do you mind if I ask you properly this time?"
: ("Huh? Well, some progress is better than none...")
: "Alright, I'll do it. Just don't make do anything crazy, of course."
: "Wonderful!"
: "Oh, and um... please take this small gift. I figured I should repay you for your kindness and apologize for my rudeness before."
: "Oh that's sweet, but you don't have to--"
[Blanche slips it into Rachel's hands by force and blushes]
: "Well, I'll be seeing you! I have to finish off the rest of the quests here myself. Don't fall back, you hear me?"
[Blanche walks offscreen]
: "Well that was... abrupt. At least she's becoming less of a pain."
: "What is this she handed me, anyw--"
[Star Heart glances at the check in her hands]
: "...!"
: "Mama mia! Just what kind of cash is she packing!? She really is from a rich family!"
: "... Oh well, no use letting it go to waste!"
The start of a beautiful friendship.
Before we even tackle anything Oops Wharf related, we have to settle a score here.
: "I'm ready now...! I'm not scared of any old mummy!"
Type: Magic
Level: 36
HP: 1,045
AP: 165
MA: 63
DP: 90
MD: 245
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Mana Arrow (Summons bolts of magic to strike opponent), Mana Storm (Attack that hits multiple enemies)
Element: None
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Air, Earth
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Gold G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Golden beetle with mystical properties. It summons the dead to attack with a flap of its wings."
(Increases mastery for: Galder Thrower (Charm), Magic Meltdown (Charm), Mana Web (Magic), Rust (Magic) and Shockvibe (Power))
Word of warning, there's a ton of enemies located inside of the Pyramid that we would have never seen if we didn't come back. I really like how they didn't hold back when it came to filling out these areas with the appropriate enemies, because it must have taken a long time to make all these sprites.
Type: Sense
Level: 40
HP: 1,570
AP: 185
MA: 0
DP: 127
MD: 149
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Electric, Dark
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Gold G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Undead soldier in service to King Tutankhamen that still possesses some form of rational thought. "
(Increases mastery for: Pumping Heart (Power), Shield All (Charm))
: "It's just a mummy... He's not going to hurt you..."
Why do the mummies look like plush dolls, though. The actual sprite on the overworld looks somewhat intimidating, but the portrait art? Might as well pinch his cheeks.
Type: Charm
Level: 35
HP: 1,570
AP: 185
MA: ???
DP: 127
MD: 126
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Air, Earth
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Silver G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Silver-studded beetle that acts as a sentry for the inner parts of the Pyramid."
Not much to say about this one.
Type: Magic
Level: 42
HP: 1,185
AP: 195
MA: ???
DP: 216
MD: 229
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Mana Ring (multiple strike magic rings), Wind Blade (AOE attack that surrounds user)
Element: Light
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Isis Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Isis's Song (Common / Quest Item)
* Red Feather (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Mystic guardian that takes the form of a young harpy girl. She is known as the goddess of the sky."
She's so cute for a random enemy we'll just beat up and forget later. I think she's self explanatory enough, especially since I shoved in a reference to the original Egyptian goddess for the Gear Entry.
Word of warning: the quest the Red Feather belongs to also requires a random drop from this area's boss, which is unreasonable to say the least.
Type: Charm
Level: 38
HP: 1,675
AP: 200
MA: 0
DP: 138
MD: 140
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None(?)
Element: Light
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Air, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Nephthys Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
)
* Nephthys's Song (Common / Quest Item)
* Blue Feather (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Charming guardian that takes the form of a young harpy girl. She is a goddess of protection and is Isis's younger sister."
(Increases mastery for: Burning Rave (Power), Mana Ring (Magic) and Mana Deflector (Charm))
This one, on the other hand, is a bit more obscure. Nephthys is indeed the sister of the actual goddess Isis, although she represents death and the wrappings that mummies use.
Type: Power
Level: 34
HP: 1,360
AP: 195
MA: 0
DP: 105
MD: 122
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Shockwave (Basic Power Attack), Guard Break (Nullifies opponent's avoid and block rate)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun, Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Uraeus Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Venomous Canine (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Cobra whose likeness is used on crowns as a symbol of royalty. Don't get bit by it, though."
Yeah, this is the snake that appears on Egyptian crowns from time to time. I think that's pretty neat.
Type: Sense
Level: 45
HP: 1,745
AP: 210
MA: 0
DP: 146
MD: 171
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Stone Strike (basic Sense attack), Impelling Rage (HP-based AOE attack that knocks enemies back)
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Water, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Seth Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Subject's Earrings (Common / Transfer Item)
* Subject's Mask (Common / Transfer Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "God of disorder in the form of a fierce jackal beastman. He attacks whoever he sees on impulse - no reason is necessary for him."
Yeah, Seth was the god of violence in Egyptian mythology, so it makes perfect sense that his cute little Trickster counterpart would be equally as rude.
Hall of Love Affair? What kind of stuff do you think goes on in here?
...
Type: Power
Level: 43
HP: 1,675
AP: 250
MA: 0
DP: 138
MD: 162
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Shockwave (Basic Power attack), Guard Break (Nullifies enemy avoid and block rates)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Physical, Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Rotten Mummy Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Elite soldier whose mind and body decayed as the ages trudged along."
The Rotten Mummies are dicks, but at least they're nowhere near as strong as the Naranjos from Caballa Relics. Those guys are just evil.
Oh snap, this was a thing. I was surprised to see her here despite not seeing a dot on my map anywhere in this room.
This version of Merchant Lorena randomly appears in the dungeons during certain days of the week, and she sells you Elemental Resistance Orbs in exchange for some 500 Galder Coupons.
I'm not sure if I'll ever use her shop (especially with it going everywhere), but it's cool that they've added this kind of unpredictable element to the maps.
Type: Charm
Level: 49
HP: 2,585
AP: 205
MA: 0
DP: 252
MD: 272
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Power Blow (Basic Charm attack)
* Dodge Master (Increases avoid rate)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Electric, Dark
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Queen Mummy Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Elite female guards of King Tutankhamen that relentlessly protect the royal chambers from beyond the grave."
It actually takes more than one Shockwave to kill them! That's must be pretty scary for any unpromoted person that just wandered in here.
Okay stop – we have to address this.
This is not the same Nefertiti we were talking about a few screenshots ago – this is a completely different character that's based on the actual Egyptian background of the name Nefertiti.
This one has no bearing on the actual plot of Trickster, but for some reason they share the same name as the big plot one? What the fuck? Is there a reason why it's like this?
When I did my second playthrough a year ago, this still bothered the hell out of me despite not caring as much about the plot as I do now.
Anyway, Actual Egyptian Nefertiti wants us to get her canopic jars back, but I gave up after finishing one part of it because she wants us to get a total of 60 items (15 x 4) just to finish a quest that doesn't even give that good experience anyway.
This lady frustrates me in a lot of ways, I swear.
This cutie is Bastet, the goddess of cats in Egyptian mythology. She's responsible for guarding the King, Tutankhamen, from intruders. She's one of the various "boss room transfer" NPCs in the game, and to satisfy her conditions we have to bring her 1x Servant's Earring and 1x Servant's Mask.
Thankfully we already got a few from beating up the Seths from earlier, so take me to your leader.
[Current OST: The Pits]
Hoo boy, what have we gotten ourselves into.
You can't just encounter the boss, you have to go through a series of tests in order to prove you're even worthy of fighting 'em. If you mess up at any point, you have to start from the beginning.
Combine this with how tough the upcoming boss is bound to be and the entire experience is just plain brutal.
: "I... I want to meet the king!"
So the first trial of the Pyramid is that we have to hunt the right scarab in the group, the one with the King's Seal. If we pick the wrong one, the consequences will be dire, so…
Yeesh, look at all of them! Good thing Star Heart isn't afraid of bugs otherwise this would be a nightmare.
They're all listed as level 1, but they have more or less the same stats as the monsters outside and don't have any drops.
God damn it, now I have to get another set of items just to re-enter this dungeon. The wrong scarabs use Suicide and do that much damage if you don't get rid of them in time, hence why the Lieutenant said to be careful.
How on earth are you supposed to find the right one if they're all identical, though?
Hey, this one's aggressive! The hint the Lieutenant gives you is that the correct one "moves differently" from the rest, and it's almost always on the upper right side of the screen.
When you figure it out it becomes a lot less stressful, although I do have to admit I'm using a guide on the Trickster wiki to figure out how to do some of this stuff.
You don't need to grab the King's Seal, you just have to off the right scarab to win this trial.
The next trial is the Test of Quickness where we have to evade a long hallway of obstacles to defeat the Pharoah's Mimic.
The Glyph Stones and the Uraeus on the walls will attack you if you get close, but nothing you do can hurt them: it's a mad dash from start to finish.
It's fun to imagine this part as a booby-trapped escape sequence where you have to get the treasure and run back, Indiana Jones style.(Or should I say Indiana John because god damn it, Trickster.)
The Pharoah's Mimic is even weaker than the ones we've already fought in Caballa Relics, so it's child's play to complete the hunting mission.
This is a good time to note that as long as you kill the monster(s), running out of time doesn't cancel out you completing a monster hunt quest. Small mercies, you know.
It's kinda hard to be scared when their portrait art makes them looks like collectible plush dolls.
The third trial, the Test of Knowledge, is easily the most difficult of the bunch because it requires actually knowing Egyptian terms and logic puzzles. If we get it wrong our progress is revoked and we get thrown back outside, so we definitely don't want that to happen.
The Captain here asks you to get two keys from the Lieutenant and Sergeant. There's also some bunk about them lying on specific days, but she's just messing with you – that doesn't really matter.
Fun fact: there's actually an answer key for this and I'm definitely using it because like hell I'm doing the rest of that stuff again.
Both the Lieutenant and Sergeant said it's the A key for all of their responses, so I guess I got lucky or something.
: "It's the A Key!"
Oh thank god it didn't glitch or something. That would have just pissed me off.
The next question is actually random, but the one she gave me was "what does Hapi represent out of the canopic jars". (The answer was baboon. The rest of the answers are on the answer key I linked for those curious.)
: "Oooh! This is exciting!"
Good thing the game can't detect that I'm cheating otherwise this would turn into an entirely different experience altogether.
The final trial is the Test of Power where we have to beat up the Lieutenant, Sergeant and Captain to get their differently colored bone seals.
They all go down in one Shockwave because Power-types in this game are crazy. Also, I'm not listing their stats because they're just slightly buffed versions of normal enemies.
They really wanted to build this up, sheesh. I'm digging it, though.
[All the music comes to a stop]
: "Oh man... this is creepy..."
: "Is... is he in here?"
: "Waaaah!"
Yeah, they just slam you with a full-size picture of the boss when they appear – it's pretty startling, not gonna lie.
[My OST for King Tut: Chomp Attack!]
Type: Magic
Level: 71
HP: 4,085 x 4 (16,340)
AP: 660
MA: 80
DP: 630
MD: 626
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Mana Arrow (Summons bolts of magic to strike opponent)
* Mana Shield (Shield that lowers magic damage taken)
* Mana Ring (Multiple strike magic rings)
* Rust (Lowers attack of opponent)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
* Banish (Transfers player out of the dungeon, removing their progress)
* Can summon: Mad Sergeant, Mad Lieutenant, Mad Captain (All Lv.60) and Sphinx (Level 65)
Element: Earth (48% - percentages higher than 30% will be listed)
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Magic, Air, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Tutankhamen Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Pharaoh Hat (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
* Golden Sword (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
* Golden Lion Shield (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
Gear Entry: "The famed king of Desert Beach's Pyramid who defied death and wanted to make his kingdom immortal."
Oh man, King Tut is a bastard for the first real boss of the game. Not only is his magic especially dangerous to us as a Power type, but even his physical attack is enough to reasonably threaten us.
All the bosses also have super-powerful rare equipment that they never drop unless you're actively hunting them, and even then... christ, man.
It is a damn good thing that I went and bought some Revival Scrolls for the fight with him, because this is like playing with fire.
: "... I won't let you beat me, Your Majesty! Take this!"
[Star Heart lands a devastating punch and knocks out the Pharaoh]
I was extremely lucky he didn't use Banish that entire fight, either, because the Boss versions activate faster and have a larger radius than normal.
I'm pretty sure you can fight this guy with a group of people, but I'm sticking to it solo as a testament of our own strength.
But yeah, we did it! (Even if we didn't get the special equipment, but I doubt I'll be going for them anyway.)
The boss room collapsing means that you have 30 seconds to grab the loot before the game forcibly takes you back to Paradise. There isn't an exit anyway, so it's not like Tut's dying breath attack or anything stupid like that.
: "That was so scary... I thought I was gonna die or something!"
But hey, we've finally managed to kill a boss! Excellent!
This is a great time to mention that there is a workaround to the Boss Trials in the form of Witches' Brooms - these instantly teleport you to the boss without all the busy work, but there is no way to get them without attending special events or buying it off another player who somehow has them.
: "So this is the path to Oops Wharf, huh? I wonder what's up ahead?"
This is where I'd normally end off the chapter, but...
Let's shift perspectives for a moment, yeah?
[Playing as Blanche OST: Monkey's Delivery Service]
: "Oooh, I haven't been in here yet!"
Yep, we're actually playing as Blanche! I figured I would actually show her off as not only a vehicle to complete other quests I neglected, but also – wow look at that cash
When she said that the check was a small gift, she fuckin meant it.
... If I have to be real for a sec? I'm infatuated by the Entertainer job class. Like out of every character we've seen so far, I definitely think she's the cutest.
This is also a good opportunity to show off a different perspective than simply playing Power-type.
These are Blanche's skills: Charm types prioritize defense and team support more than out-and-out offense, but while they're not tiny gods of death like the Power guys are, they're still pretty good.
Notable skills: Mana Reflector does work exactly as it says – it reduces the amount of magic damage you take and throws some of it back to the enemy.
Titanium Wrist boosts the strength of Power Blow, the primary damage dealing attack.
Sturdy Shield reduces the amount of physical damage you take, and I'm pretty sure these can all be stacked with each other and later skills. This is the main reason why the Charm characters are the quintessential tanks of Trickster and it's glorious.
: "It should be pretty easy. Snake women aren't scary to me."
I'm doing the monster guild quests because I might as well show off the rewards you get from them.
Wow, even as another character I get lucky card drops. How about that.
OH. That's actually pretty nasty: the poor card art guy!
Final Blow is an attack that does more damage the lower your health is. Here's the exact formula in case you wanted to know how it works: AP + [(Max HP - Current HP) ÷ 10] × m
Maths is funny that way.
Power Blow does this much damage in one hit, putting it on par with Shockwave but without the added benefits of Faint.
Skunk Pouch does that instead, but we don't have enough skill points to learn it, so shame.
God it's so dynamic how she flip-kicks her enemies when she criticals. It's really cool looking! (The same thing goes for the bunny who does an uppercut. These both look great when you follow up with a skill or something.)
: "What the- is that a rare penguin? Get back here!"
She actually did get it, by the way. Alas, the reward was a simple Friend Finder and not anything really cool.
I'm pretty sure I said this before but you can complete Yuri's quests over and over for extra experience.
Hunting 30 monsters without an AOE attack seems bothersome though, so I think I'll pass.
Next is the Assistant Hunter's quest: his stuff requires you to hunt down "mutated" monsters in the area, and for Caballa Relics that's these special Mandragora.
Unlike Yuri you can only do this five times, but he says you're good enough half way in anyway.
Here's the a hunting mission looks like from the quest menu, by the way. I'm thankful that it tells you exactly where the monster is, otherwise this would be a problem.
The trick behind finding these special Mandragoras is pressing ALT on the keyboard and seeing if they're five levels higher than the normal ones.
It's devious game design, but this is also optional so I don't have that much of a gripe against it.
Inane gushing aside, the Hunter Master has a pretty tall order for us to complete: she wants us to slay 20 Chimu in the Caballa Relics Dungeon and do it five times each.
That's like 100 monsters, jeez! (That, and Blanche lacks the Memory Ports Star Heart had for some reason… making it even more of a pain.)
But I'll do it for you, babe.
: "Sheesh, you're hopeless." [Blanche rolls her eyes at me]
: "Take that, you freaky demon cats! Nothing in here can slow me down!!"
: "Never mind, I'm getting outta here!"
Can't blame her for getting spooked by the Sphinx because that thing's actually dangerous even if it's just a ghost right now.
Holy wow I can't believe I got these! That's… alright, I know we're killing 100 Chimu to complete the hunting quest, but this kind of luck is ridiculous.
: [Pants] "Is it a set of your dress? Because honestly you look fantastic."
No, it's the "Hat Ticket" item instead. These are much like the weapon ticket from before, but you have to complete all of Hunter Master's quests to properly use them.
Getting all five Hat Tickets nets you a helmet item that, while slightly better than what we have now, also lacks the boost you get from the set.
The primary reason for doing the hunting missions is to gain experience and not much else, because these aren't very good.
Entertainer Elicia is the go-to person for Blanche's class. Nothing here is as game-breaking as the Power stuff but these skills are pretty neat regardless.
You can throw galder coupons at people (literally weaponizing money), boost your defense even more with the hilarious-sounding Sumo Suit ability and even remove buffs from other people.
Lemme just highlight the big one here, though:
The Evolution skill which allows us to turn into a sexy beastwoman for a limited amount of time (which is good enough by itself), but the buffs it provides are insane, like:
At level 1, it gives you a 1.3x boost in attack and removes 1 lag frame… Master level gives you a 2.5x boost in attack instead. Also, unlike Berserker, you can actually use (some) special skills while this is happening!
These are: Beast Claw, Fatal Wound (inflicts bleeding status on enemy), Sharp Scream (AOE) and Raging Nail (which ignores defense).
Some things to know about if we're going to do this, though:
* Your MP continously drains while in this state
* You can't drill and the transformation goes away when you move through different maps
* You can still use recovery potions, thankfully
* The skills listed are the only ones you can use.
The Raccoon can also turn into a sexy beastman, but it's called Metamorphosis instead. It slightly differs from this in that he can use Empty Cards to summon Card Soldiers, but there's no way I'm going to be able to show that off myself.
: "Ooooh, he looks cool! Maybe I should give this card to Star Heart if we meet up again."
... What timing too, because this was right after dealing with Tut as Rachel.
: "Whoa! This is so pretty..."
: "It even sounds romantic. I'm definitely gonna keep this one for myself as a good luck charm."
Trust me, this will save me a ton of stress later on. Good thing Blanche went into this player's shop before they possibly left for god knows how long.
She's just going to splurge cash into random junk, so I'd rather cut the chapter off here.
Next time on Trickster Online, we're going to Oops Wharf and see what kind of madness is going on over there. See you guys then!
-
Team Set-up:
(Star Heart / Rachel): "I can't believe I took out the king by myself... Sis would be so proud of me!"
* Job class: Boxer (
Tier 2)
* Type: Power
* EXP level: 71 (+3)
* TM level: 59 (+3)
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: 1 (+1)
* Guild: None
(Nebulos): "I know I left that cookbook around here somewhere... agh, the burdens of hoarding."
* Job class: Magician (
Tier 2)
* Type: Magic
* EXP level: 129
* TM level: 139
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: 1
* Guild: Remedies - Star Captain (De-facto leader)
~
Rival?:
(Blanche): [Endlessly scouring through the Item Girl's wares]
* Job class: Model (
Tier 1) >> Entertainer (
Tier 2)
* Type: Charm
* EXP level: 69 (+15)
* TM level: 59 (+19)
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None
I've got a few surprises in store for this one.
(Also this is technically the end of the first arc of the LP - this is how I organize the parts I want to read for later and keep track of how much we've grown)
[font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter #6 - Doom of Pharaoh[/font][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:
Oh hey, they changed the title screen yet again… and I have no idea who this is! (I know the battlefield, but to say what it is exactly would be spoilers.)
The grimoire and the black panther look badass though.
Ooooh, that's right - I nearly forgot to check this. Trickster has milestone rewards every time one of your characters does something significant… like upgrading to our second job class for example!
(Consider this a semi-spoiler for the rest of the game too – I mean just look at the amount of crazy shit we'd have to do to get all these rewards!)
The reward we get for promoting Star Heart into a Boxer is the extremely precious Moon Bracelet EV.
If one of your two accessory slots aren't permanently occupied by this thing, then you need to fix that.
This is because it has a weight rating of 7000, making inventory management a non-issue unless you're a hoarder. That's good by itself, but it's one of the rare equipment items that can have WT boosting items compounded onto it, further reducing the strain you'd have to bear.
(Pay close attention to my weight rating on the top left there. It was 51% before I put the Moon Bracelet on – it's that good.)
Before she can tell us the story, she wants us to get her Julio's Gold Silk Pouch. Only problem is, he's rightfully suspicious of people touching his stuff, so we have to help him and then come back here once we're done. (The book is the Adventurer's Book that we've been using all game to store the stickers we get from people.)
He's standing near the entrance to Caballa Relics Dungeon, so he should be easy to spot.
Sounds about right. I mean, he does replace the standard Storage lady while you're here.
Long story short, a monster stole one of his storage keys while he was fumbling about in Caballa Relics Dungeon and he asks us for help to get it back. He'd rather not have us get in danger, but we've gone through this cave more than enough times than I want to admit – it shouldn't be a problem.
The monsters who have the key are Limas: the least dangerous out of any monster in there. Should be pretty e… wait.
The problem's already solved even though I forgot I had it in the first place. Hooray!
Maybe you should reconsider saying "anything", my dude – people can take that in some weird directions.
You can trust this one, mate. She's a keeper.
We're only lending it right now, so we have to give it back when we're done.
The Fortune Teller remarks that the blueprint entails the ideal life of the Althean and the secret that makes their buildings so good. She also tells us that we have to find the ancient buildings in order to awaken our true Trickster energy.
Julio spills the beans that his ancestors, the Polkan Tribe, created the architecture of the Alteo Empire. (That and they were amazing at academics and diplomacy, which I have to assume was a requirement if they built the architecture of this ancient advanced civilization to begin with)
The Gold Pouch is relevant to Julio because it was passed down the generations, so it makes even more sense that he would be reluctant to even show it to other people. He's so thankful for our help that he even gives us a present: the Weapon Ticket!
(Also directions on how to get to Oops Wharf, but I know the directions like the back of my hand. That and they're automatically listed on the cheapest Portable Port you can buy at the Megalopolis Shop.)
The weapon ticket is the epitome of it was the thought that counted, because the weapon it hands you is slightly better than even the set… but it lacks the bonuses that a completed set grants, making it not worth that much.
I sold it off without a second thought, let's be real.
I finally come back to Monkey T to do the Story Quest, so this monkey better sing before Star Heart punches his face in.
The necklace is faded, so we have to bring it to the Old Artist over in Caballa Relics Field 1.
So in order for our guy to repaint the necklace, he needs to recover his stamina with some Ginseng Tea. The kicker is that we have to make it ourselves using these ingredients:
Joy. The honey is dropped by the Forest Wasps back in Emerald Forest while the Ginseng is buried under the ground in the same place. (The distilled waters are in every store under the etc. section)
Also, we have to deliver the tea to him during the day because he can't work during the night. You know, it's funny how Trickster has a day and night system that actually affects things, but most of the time you can play the game without thinking about it.
So as I was walking back to Megalopolis to buy some Portable Ports, I nearly shat myself when I saw this guy as someone's pet.
This hulking uberbeast of a minotaur man is [transmission expunged]
But to say any more would be a spoiler, so I'll just leave it at that.
Who keeps lemons and oranges buried under the ground, like really?
I should mention that Card Hunter Eugene is not always here – he's a special "travelling" NPC that appears on certain times of the day, but I don't know when those times really are.
Compounding the Ginseng Tea was surprisingly painless aside from the amount of wasps I had to kill, but then again I'm not the one who took the Shockwave to the face.
... Where do people find these pets, like seriously. That player has this cool edgy anime pretty boy with demon wings yet all we have is a tiny pumpkin man.
He hands us this bucket and tells us to get the sacred water from Sabrina's well because if the water's dirty, the paint he'll use won't be as good. Makes sense.
That's nice and all, but to get the water, we have to contribute to the Restoration Fund again. She demands five more nuggets of gold and another gold egg. I'm kinda tired of digging around here, but thankfully someone actually is setting up their around this time.
Where were you when I needed you??
(At least I got to use his store while playing as Blanche, so at least it helped me out a ton offscreen.)
I find it oddly poetic that we have just enough money to get the golden egg we need, because even if I needed the rest of this stuff I don't have any cash.
This lady better use all these gold nuggets and eggs for what she said or I swear she'll catch these hands. (angr)
Hmmmmm. So the Old Artist tells us a story of how he had to restore a portrait of the same woman depicted on the necklace we found. He is able to recognize the likeness despite his bad memory, and we even have a name for her: Nefertiti.
She was said to be the beautiful queen of a kingdom called Fremeia, a kingdom that existed before history was even recorded (where's the proof though). The catch is that she was cursed to be unhappy because of her beauty for reasons yet to be disclosed.
He gives us the sketches of the restoration portrait he made, but he asks us for another favor: we got Nefertiti's portrait alongside Mermaid Babe's.
He wants Mermaid Babe to pay him back for a commission he did for her, but she's too obnoxious to confront so… yeah, we have to get the money ourselves.
Mermaid Babe states that she modeled for art students, but nobody was able to satisfy her… including the old artist. Honestly, with a face like that it's not hard to see why.
We wind up showing her the portrait of Nefertiti, but Mermaid Babe actually breaks her obnoxious character for once and states that Nefertiti is part of the legend of the Mermaid Kingdom.
Bruised ego if I've ever seen one.
Anyway, she still doesn't want to pay because she thinks the portrait's terrible (even though I'm pretty sure it's an accurate one), so she tells us to fetch something called the Fantastic Hand Mirror.
And wouldn't you know, Monkey T has that too. Little bastard has his hands everywhere in this place, I swear.
He stole the mirror from some Hula Octopuses back in Desert Beach (even though they don't really drop it). Monkey T tries to sweet talk us into buying it, but he asks for two 500 galder coupons… which isn't that bad because almost every other NPC gives those to us like candy.
Things seem like they're going well but Mermaid Babe remains to be dissatisfied because the mirror is actually working just fine.
She berates the hell out of us for not bringing her a Fantastic version of the Hand Mirror and doesn't want to pay for the portrait, but at least she tells us that Louis Bitton can fix it up for us.
This fuckin' guy cracks me up, alright? It's his face and smug attitude.
Anyway, we need some Fantastic Powder from Caballa Relics Field 4 to fix the mirror up, so give me a sec and…
Is he shamalama-ding-donging in front of me, like for real. I can't with this game sometimes.
Anyway, he finally enhances the mirror for us so we can end this torturous back and forth.
... He even goes out of his way to roast her. Good shit.
Thank god, because I was gonna go mad if I had to make it the Ultra Amazing Mirror now.
Anyway… Mermaid Babe continues with the story of Nefertiti. This is a story told down the generations and involves a three-headed monster called Enkicladus (I pronounce it as en-kee-claw-dus).
He kidnapped Queen Nefertiti while she was taking a walk on the beach and took her into the depths of the ocean. The great god Poseidon heard the rumors and killed Enkicladus with his trident, only to fall in love with Nefertiti shortly after. It was love at first sight so powerful that he created the Alteo Empire just for her.
Hey, if that's how he tries to win over women then I shouldn't really intervene. Mermaid Babe hands us a check for our troubles at least.
The Old Artist remarks it was a pretty wealthy old man. Then he says that the original portrait was painted from the original artist's dream and then some nutty as fuck explanation about how time and fate separated the old man and the model.
Even the Old Artist is confused.
This should be important information to remember for later, though… Especially the "wealthy old man" bit.
We work on Monkey T for a bit and he winds up telling us that he took it from Robin at the path of Caballa Relics.
Robin's mopey that he lost the necklace, but look what we got for you, playa.
He hands us the Aquamarine Pendant for our troubles, although I haven't checked if it's actual equipment or just another quest item for the future.
When we tell him the woman on the necklace is called Nefertiti, Robin gives us a cryptic line about "someone who knows her has finally showed up" which kinda freaks me out.
He brushes it off as nothing and just tells us to go meet up with a mysterious woman in the center of Megalopolis.
Oh mama mia, this lady. She's gonna be real important as the story goes on, but right now she's just a big mope.
She's been tired ever since she came here through Oops Wharf, only for her to notice the portrait of Nefertiti we have.
Apparently the picture is too much for her to handle, so we have to bring her some Honey Tea to calm her nerves. This also requires compounding, but this time from the Paul here in Megalopolis.
We need 1 Honey, 2 Royal Jellies and 2 vials of water, so…
Oooh, I managed to get a Forest Wasp card during all that grinding. Not that it's… particularly useful, but every single card helps.
I'LL BE RIGHT BACK.
There we go.
Just trying to create Honey Tea was more tedious than I expected, but at least we finished.
She says the name Nefertiti sounds familiar, so hmmm. She received a package with no return address along with several indecipherable scrolls and a letter. The letter was a translation talking about Nefertiti's story, so Rosaline here is just wondering if this was all planned.
... Give Trickster some credit for creating a full-on story mode despite being a MMORPG. I'm actually invested in what the heck is happening here.
Going back to the Caballa Relics Dungeon takes us to the Weird Box scene again. He does the (tinfoil) thing again and theorizes that the box holds the secrets of the Alteo Empire, but he's missing the pieces to actually open said box.
He wants us to collect these pieces from Skipper Min over at Oops Wharf, so I guess we have to go there no matter what. I really dig how they guide you from place to place, but I might get caught up in the Oops Wharf quests before I get back to this anyway, so...
[Current OST: Felis]
[Blanche slips it into Rachel's hands by force and blushes]
[Blanche walks offscreen]
[Star Heart glances at the check in her hands]
The start of a beautiful friendship.
Before we even tackle anything Oops Wharf related, we have to settle a score here.
Type: Magic
Level: 36
HP: 1,045
AP: 165
MA: 63
DP: 90
MD: 245
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Mana Arrow (Summons bolts of magic to strike opponent), Mana Storm (Attack that hits multiple enemies)
Element: None
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Air, Earth
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Gold G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Golden beetle with mystical properties. It summons the dead to attack with a flap of its wings."
(Increases mastery for: Galder Thrower (Charm), Magic Meltdown (Charm), Mana Web (Magic), Rust (Magic) and Shockvibe (Power))
Word of warning, there's a ton of enemies located inside of the Pyramid that we would have never seen if we didn't come back. I really like how they didn't hold back when it came to filling out these areas with the appropriate enemies, because it must have taken a long time to make all these sprites.
Type: Sense
Level: 40
HP: 1,570
AP: 185
MA: 0
DP: 127
MD: 149
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Electric, Dark
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Gold G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Undead soldier in service to King Tutankhamen that still possesses some form of rational thought. "
(Increases mastery for: Pumping Heart (Power), Shield All (Charm))
Why do the mummies look like plush dolls, though. The actual sprite on the overworld looks somewhat intimidating, but the portrait art? Might as well pinch his cheeks.
Type: Charm
Level: 35
HP: 1,570
AP: 185
MA: ???
DP: 127
MD: 126
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Air, Earth
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Silver G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Silver-studded beetle that acts as a sentry for the inner parts of the Pyramid."
Not much to say about this one.
Type: Magic
Level: 42
HP: 1,185
AP: 195
MA: ???
DP: 216
MD: 229
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Mana Ring (multiple strike magic rings), Wind Blade (AOE attack that surrounds user)
Element: Light
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Isis Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Isis's Song (Common / Quest Item)
* Red Feather (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Mystic guardian that takes the form of a young harpy girl. She is known as the goddess of the sky."
She's so cute for a random enemy we'll just beat up and forget later. I think she's self explanatory enough, especially since I shoved in a reference to the original Egyptian goddess for the Gear Entry.
Word of warning: the quest the Red Feather belongs to also requires a random drop from this area's boss, which is unreasonable to say the least.
Type: Charm
Level: 38
HP: 1,675
AP: 200
MA: 0
DP: 138
MD: 140
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None(?)
Element: Light
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Air, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Nephthys Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card
* Nephthys's Song (Common / Quest Item)
* Blue Feather (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Charming guardian that takes the form of a young harpy girl. She is a goddess of protection and is Isis's younger sister."
(Increases mastery for: Burning Rave (Power), Mana Ring (Magic) and Mana Deflector (Charm))
This one, on the other hand, is a bit more obscure. Nephthys is indeed the sister of the actual goddess Isis, although she represents death and the wrappings that mummies use.
Type: Power
Level: 34
HP: 1,360
AP: 195
MA: 0
DP: 105
MD: 122
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Shockwave (Basic Power Attack), Guard Break (Nullifies opponent's avoid and block rate)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun, Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Uraeus Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Venomous Canine (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Cobra whose likeness is used on crowns as a symbol of royalty. Don't get bit by it, though."
Yeah, this is the snake that appears on Egyptian crowns from time to time. I think that's pretty neat.
Type: Sense
Level: 45
HP: 1,745
AP: 210
MA: 0
DP: 146
MD: 171
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Stone Strike (basic Sense attack), Impelling Rage (HP-based AOE attack that knocks enemies back)
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Water, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Seth Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Subject's Earrings (Common / Transfer Item)
* Subject's Mask (Common / Transfer Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "God of disorder in the form of a fierce jackal beastman. He attacks whoever he sees on impulse - no reason is necessary for him."
Yeah, Seth was the god of violence in Egyptian mythology, so it makes perfect sense that his cute little Trickster counterpart would be equally as rude.
Hall of Love Affair? What kind of stuff do you think goes on in here?
...
Type: Power
Level: 43
HP: 1,675
AP: 250
MA: 0
DP: 138
MD: 162
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: Shockwave (Basic Power attack), Guard Break (Nullifies enemy avoid and block rates)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Physical, Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Rotten Mummy Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Elite soldier whose mind and body decayed as the ages trudged along."
The Rotten Mummies are dicks, but at least they're nowhere near as strong as the Naranjos from Caballa Relics. Those guys are just evil.
Oh snap, this was a thing. I was surprised to see her here despite not seeing a dot on my map anywhere in this room.
This version of Merchant Lorena randomly appears in the dungeons during certain days of the week, and she sells you Elemental Resistance Orbs in exchange for some 500 Galder Coupons.
I'm not sure if I'll ever use her shop (especially with it going everywhere), but it's cool that they've added this kind of unpredictable element to the maps.
Type: Charm
Level: 49
HP: 2,585
AP: 205
MA: 0
DP: 252
MD: 272
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Power Blow (Basic Charm attack)
* Dodge Master (Increases avoid rate)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Electric, Dark
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Queen Mummy Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Elite female guards of King Tutankhamen that relentlessly protect the royal chambers from beyond the grave."
It actually takes more than one Shockwave to kill them! That's must be pretty scary for any unpromoted person that just wandered in here.
Okay stop – we have to address this.
This is not the same Nefertiti we were talking about a few screenshots ago – this is a completely different character that's based on the actual Egyptian background of the name Nefertiti.
This one has no bearing on the actual plot of Trickster, but for some reason they share the same name as the big plot one? What the fuck? Is there a reason why it's like this?
When I did my second playthrough a year ago, this still bothered the hell out of me despite not caring as much about the plot as I do now.
Anyway, Actual Egyptian Nefertiti wants us to get her canopic jars back, but I gave up after finishing one part of it because she wants us to get a total of 60 items (15 x 4) just to finish a quest that doesn't even give that good experience anyway.
This lady frustrates me in a lot of ways, I swear.
This cutie is Bastet, the goddess of cats in Egyptian mythology. She's responsible for guarding the King, Tutankhamen, from intruders. She's one of the various "boss room transfer" NPCs in the game, and to satisfy her conditions we have to bring her 1x Servant's Earring and 1x Servant's Mask.
Thankfully we already got a few from beating up the Seths from earlier, so take me to your leader.
[Current OST: The Pits]
Hoo boy, what have we gotten ourselves into.
You can't just encounter the boss, you have to go through a series of tests in order to prove you're even worthy of fighting 'em. If you mess up at any point, you have to start from the beginning.
Combine this with how tough the upcoming boss is bound to be and the entire experience is just plain brutal.
So the first trial of the Pyramid is that we have to hunt the right scarab in the group, the one with the King's Seal. If we pick the wrong one, the consequences will be dire, so…
Yeesh, look at all of them! Good thing Star Heart isn't afraid of bugs otherwise this would be a nightmare.
They're all listed as level 1, but they have more or less the same stats as the monsters outside and don't have any drops.
God damn it, now I have to get another set of items just to re-enter this dungeon. The wrong scarabs use Suicide and do that much damage if you don't get rid of them in time, hence why the Lieutenant said to be careful.
How on earth are you supposed to find the right one if they're all identical, though?
Hey, this one's aggressive! The hint the Lieutenant gives you is that the correct one "moves differently" from the rest, and it's almost always on the upper right side of the screen.
When you figure it out it becomes a lot less stressful, although I do have to admit I'm using a guide on the Trickster wiki to figure out how to do some of this stuff.
You don't need to grab the King's Seal, you just have to off the right scarab to win this trial.
The next trial is the Test of Quickness where we have to evade a long hallway of obstacles to defeat the Pharoah's Mimic.
The Glyph Stones and the Uraeus on the walls will attack you if you get close, but nothing you do can hurt them: it's a mad dash from start to finish.
It's fun to imagine this part as a booby-trapped escape sequence where you have to get the treasure and run back, Indiana Jones style.
The Pharoah's Mimic is even weaker than the ones we've already fought in Caballa Relics, so it's child's play to complete the hunting mission.
This is a good time to note that as long as you kill the monster(s), running out of time doesn't cancel out you completing a monster hunt quest. Small mercies, you know.
It's kinda hard to be scared when their portrait art makes them looks like collectible plush dolls.
The third trial, the Test of Knowledge, is easily the most difficult of the bunch because it requires actually knowing Egyptian terms and logic puzzles. If we get it wrong our progress is revoked and we get thrown back outside, so we definitely don't want that to happen.
The Captain here asks you to get two keys from the Lieutenant and Sergeant. There's also some bunk about them lying on specific days, but she's just messing with you – that doesn't really matter.
Fun fact: there's actually an answer key for this and I'm definitely using it because like hell I'm doing the rest of that stuff again.
Both the Lieutenant and Sergeant said it's the A key for all of their responses, so I guess I got lucky or something.
Oh thank god it didn't glitch or something. That would have just pissed me off.
The next question is actually random, but the one she gave me was "what does Hapi represent out of the canopic jars". (The answer was baboon. The rest of the answers are on the answer key I linked for those curious.)
Good thing the game can't detect that I'm cheating otherwise this would turn into an entirely different experience altogether.
The final trial is the Test of Power where we have to beat up the Lieutenant, Sergeant and Captain to get their differently colored bone seals.
They all go down in one Shockwave because Power-types in this game are crazy. Also, I'm not listing their stats because they're just slightly buffed versions of normal enemies.
They really wanted to build this up, sheesh. I'm digging it, though.
[All the music comes to a stop]
Yeah, they just slam you with a full-size picture of the boss when they appear – it's pretty startling, not gonna lie.
[My OST for King Tut: Chomp Attack!]
Type: Magic
Level: 71
HP: 4,085 x 4 (16,340)
AP: 660
MA: 80
DP: 630
MD: 626
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Mana Arrow (Summons bolts of magic to strike opponent)
* Mana Shield (Shield that lowers magic damage taken)
* Mana Ring (Multiple strike magic rings)
* Rust (Lowers attack of opponent)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
* Banish (Transfers player out of the dungeon, removing their progress)
* Can summon: Mad Sergeant, Mad Lieutenant, Mad Captain (All Lv.60) and Sphinx (Level 65)
Element: Earth (48% - percentages higher than 30% will be listed)
Weakness: Physical, Gun
Resistance: Magic, Air, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Tutankhamen Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Pharaoh Hat (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
* Golden Sword (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
* Golden Lion Shield (Extremely Rare / Special Equipment)
Gear Entry: "The famed king of Desert Beach's Pyramid who defied death and wanted to make his kingdom immortal."
Oh man, King Tut is a bastard for the first real boss of the game. Not only is his magic especially dangerous to us as a Power type, but even his physical attack is enough to reasonably threaten us.
All the bosses also have super-powerful rare equipment that they never drop unless you're actively hunting them, and even then... christ, man.
It is a damn good thing that I went and bought some Revival Scrolls for the fight with him, because this is like playing with fire.
[Star Heart lands a devastating punch and knocks out the Pharaoh]
I was extremely lucky he didn't use Banish that entire fight, either, because the Boss versions activate faster and have a larger radius than normal.
I'm pretty sure you can fight this guy with a group of people, but I'm sticking to it solo as a testament of our own strength.
But yeah, we did it! (Even if we didn't get the special equipment, but I doubt I'll be going for them anyway.)
The boss room collapsing means that you have 30 seconds to grab the loot before the game forcibly takes you back to Paradise. There isn't an exit anyway, so it's not like Tut's dying breath attack or anything stupid like that.
But hey, we've finally managed to kill a boss! Excellent!
This is a great time to mention that there is a workaround to the Boss Trials in the form of Witches' Brooms - these instantly teleport you to the boss without all the busy work, but there is no way to get them without attending special events or buying it off another player who somehow has them.
This is where I'd normally end off the chapter, but...
Let's shift perspectives for a moment, yeah?
[Playing as Blanche OST: Monkey's Delivery Service]
Yep, we're actually playing as Blanche! I figured I would actually show her off as not only a vehicle to complete other quests I neglected, but also – wow look at that cash
When she said that the check was a small gift, she fuckin meant it.
... If I have to be real for a sec? I'm infatuated by the Entertainer job class. Like out of every character we've seen so far, I definitely think she's the cutest.
This is also a good opportunity to show off a different perspective than simply playing Power-type.
These are Blanche's skills: Charm types prioritize defense and team support more than out-and-out offense, but while they're not tiny gods of death like the Power guys are, they're still pretty good.
Notable skills: Mana Reflector does work exactly as it says – it reduces the amount of magic damage you take and throws some of it back to the enemy.
Titanium Wrist boosts the strength of Power Blow, the primary damage dealing attack.
Sturdy Shield reduces the amount of physical damage you take, and I'm pretty sure these can all be stacked with each other and later skills. This is the main reason why the Charm characters are the quintessential tanks of Trickster and it's glorious.
I'm doing the monster guild quests because I might as well show off the rewards you get from them.
Wow, even as another character I get lucky card drops. How about that.
OH. That's actually pretty nasty: the poor card art guy!
Final Blow is an attack that does more damage the lower your health is. Here's the exact formula in case you wanted to know how it works: AP + [(Max HP - Current HP) ÷ 10] × m
Maths is funny that way.
Power Blow does this much damage in one hit, putting it on par with Shockwave but without the added benefits of Faint.
Skunk Pouch does that instead, but we don't have enough skill points to learn it, so shame.
God it's so dynamic how she flip-kicks her enemies when she criticals. It's really cool looking! (The same thing goes for the bunny who does an uppercut. These both look great when you follow up with a skill or something.)
She actually did get it, by the way. Alas, the reward was a simple Friend Finder and not anything really cool.
I'm pretty sure I said this before but you can complete Yuri's quests over and over for extra experience.
Hunting 30 monsters without an AOE attack seems bothersome though, so I think I'll pass.
Next is the Assistant Hunter's quest: his stuff requires you to hunt down "mutated" monsters in the area, and for Caballa Relics that's these special Mandragora.
Unlike Yuri you can only do this five times, but he says you're good enough half way in anyway.
Here's the a hunting mission looks like from the quest menu, by the way. I'm thankful that it tells you exactly where the monster is, otherwise this would be a problem.
The trick behind finding these special Mandragoras is pressing ALT on the keyboard and seeing if they're five levels higher than the normal ones.
It's devious game design, but this is also optional so I don't have that much of a gripe against it.
Inane gushing aside, the Hunter Master has a pretty tall order for us to complete: she wants us to slay 20 Chimu in the Caballa Relics Dungeon and do it five times each.
That's like 100 monsters, jeez! (That, and Blanche lacks the Memory Ports Star Heart had for some reason… making it even more of a pain.)
But I'll do it for you, babe.
Can't blame her for getting spooked by the Sphinx because that thing's actually dangerous even if it's just a ghost right now.
Holy wow I can't believe I got these! That's… alright, I know we're killing 100 Chimu to complete the hunting quest, but this kind of luck is ridiculous.
No, it's the "Hat Ticket" item instead. These are much like the weapon ticket from before, but you have to complete all of Hunter Master's quests to properly use them.
Getting all five Hat Tickets nets you a helmet item that, while slightly better than what we have now, also lacks the boost you get from the set.
The primary reason for doing the hunting missions is to gain experience and not much else, because these aren't very good.
Entertainer Elicia is the go-to person for Blanche's class. Nothing here is as game-breaking as the Power stuff but these skills are pretty neat regardless.
You can throw galder coupons at people (literally weaponizing money), boost your defense even more with the hilarious-sounding Sumo Suit ability and even remove buffs from other people.
Lemme just highlight the big one here, though:
The Evolution skill which allows us to turn into a sexy beastwoman for a limited amount of time (which is good enough by itself), but the buffs it provides are insane, like:
At level 1, it gives you a 1.3x boost in attack and removes 1 lag frame… Master level gives you a 2.5x boost in attack instead. Also, unlike Berserker, you can actually use (some) special skills while this is happening!
These are: Beast Claw, Fatal Wound (inflicts bleeding status on enemy), Sharp Scream (AOE) and Raging Nail (which ignores defense).
Some things to know about if we're going to do this, though:
* Your MP continously drains while in this state
* You can't drill and the transformation goes away when you move through different maps
* You can still use recovery potions, thankfully
* The skills listed are the only ones you can use.
The Raccoon can also turn into a sexy beastman, but it's called Metamorphosis instead. It slightly differs from this in that he can use Empty Cards to summon Card Soldiers, but there's no way I'm going to be able to show that off myself.
... What timing too, because this was right after dealing with Tut as Rachel.
Trust me, this will save me a ton of stress later on. Good thing Blanche went into this player's shop before they possibly left for god knows how long.
She's just going to splurge cash into random junk, so I'd rather cut the chapter off here.
Next time on Trickster Online, we're going to Oops Wharf and see what kind of madness is going on over there. See you guys then!
-
Team Set-up:
* Job class: Boxer (
* Type: Power
* EXP level: 71 (+3)
* TM level: 59 (+3)
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: 1 (+1)
* Guild: None
* Job class: Magician (
* Type: Magic
* EXP level: 129
* TM level: 139
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: 1
* Guild: Remedies - Star Captain (De-facto leader)
~
Rival?:
* Job class: Model (
* Type: Charm
* EXP level: 69 (+15)
* TM level: 59 (+19)
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None