Let's Play Crystal Project: Obviously Crystals are more important than Adventure.

[Torzelbaum]

Heavy shield complete with a small Vitality boost. This'll go to Frieren since GUTS is busy two-handing right now, but if you're devoted to using a shield Warrior it's good for them too.

Yeah, swording and boarding isn't really GUTS' style.

For reasons known only to me, I decide that GUTS will be our Scholar. He's got Equip Sword now it's fine.

And this seems even less so.

 

[Kalir]

Today we tackle the Seaside Cliffs. It's a pretty large area for this early on.

OH YEAH CHECK OUT THIS VERY HELPFUL MAP OF YAMAGAWA.

As far as progression goes for everyone, the only real oddball here is Werdna. As useful as Rogue is, for him the utility effects like Sleep Bomb and Run Away are going to be more useful to the Wizard set I'll move him back to eventually. And by that, I mean the moves are useful to any team.

Okay, back to it. We only briefly dipped into this area the first go around, but this time we'll clean it out to the best of our ability.

The flames here are very mobile and water-capable in most instances, so don't expect to lose them easily if they do notice you.

Turns out Cliffwolves have a Monster Magic spell, so we'll get that real quicklike.

Four actions in and the Cliffwolf refuses to do anything but basic attacks and its high Accuracy, 50% Variance attack Fury Swipes.

You are not the only seller on the market.

This jump is too far for us and it's very sad.

The Seaside Cliffs are kind of a middle ground between Delende's rolling hills and Yamagawa M.A.'s sheer verticality. You'll have to get creative with your climbing to explore all of it.

Another one for the pile, not bad.

Also like Delende, Seaside Cliffs offers you lots of possible routes to explore.

I head into the cave and get in a fight with this thing!

On top of having a pretty solid physical area attack, the Venus Mantrap is the first foe that can use a counterattack, with its Thorns skill dealing a small bit of damage to anyone using a physical attack. Counters are always listed on the enemy's bio and always say exactly what procs them, so you'll never be facechecked by some effect like, oh say, "counter any ability with instant death".

No, if they have that, you're warned right out.

Werdna is completely unthreatened by this. Even if he didn't deign to use magic, Shadow Cut ignores counters, remember!

Oooh, let's see how high we can jack up a basic Fire hit.

It's overkill, yes, but it's MY overkill.

That's pretty dang nice, yeah. Imagine that but with a Flare on it. Oooh, that's a tantalizing thought.

Oh hey we've relinked with the Soiled Den, that's cool.

There's no actual way to get back to the area where Bone Thief was. They just use the Soiled Den as a generic "under Delende" cavern.

But hey, it's a path, and we're gonna take it.

Unsurprisingly, it takes us to a slightly higher elevation of Seaside Cliffs.

Is that a greenery I see?

Yup, Seaside Cliffs has its own tiny little encampment as well.

I believe that!

hehe sheps.

theyre just fluffy little guys

very fluffy, very normal

Oh hey Reid. No progress on finding the Crystal yet?

Well, don't give up!

Anyway, let's see what all this place has to offer.

I did! But I don't know if you all did, or if I told you. So here, have a primer.

Purple chests hold key items, with the most common ones being a regional collectible that someone will ask for a large number of.

Yellow ones are money, consumables or their pouches, and probably the lowest priority as far as chests go. If you see one and don't know how to reach it, don't hurt yourself getting there.

Finally, red ones have equipment! These can be very rewarding boxes indeed, and are always worth going for, ESPECIALLY if you're playing in an area that's got flames that could kill you.

The Scope Bit is a handy Accuracy booster, which isn't especially useful for this particular team but does have its uses for some.

Tent, as usual for the region.

My current obsession is these clamshell things which are scattered around these cliffs. I am looking for exactly 13 of them. Bring me 13 Clamshells, and I'll trade you something for them.

Yep. Like that weird skeptic that wanted Black Squirrels, our collectible for this region is Clamshells. Any region that does ask for collectibles like this almost always has more sources of the collectible than demand for them, so you can basically take it any which way you like for getting more. We will, naturally, be doing this, Manana Man is as good as his word and has a very nice reward.

If you feel like you're low on healing, just use the Home Point to give everyone White Magic as a Sub-Command.

This is indeed a tactic you can pursue early on if you want. Remember, you always have access to at least one move from any moveset you have a class for, excluding Scholar, and if that one move is all you need for a fight, just make it your Sub-Command and no grinding required! (Well, there might be if that move has a scalar it needs to work.)

Anyway, let's not go down the clearly telegraphed route yet.

Yeeeeaaaah that's more like it. So glad this game doesn't have fall damage.

I will eventually get this spell, and every time I do, remember that I'll be posting an update to the Scholar writeup on the first page of the LP!

Oh by the way I can do Earth Split now.

BOOSH

Hm. Would be better if Meena hadn't started her career as a Cleric, but it's still good.

FINALLY

We already know what this move does, it's an AP generatio option.

And it's ours now.

okay thanks bye

Soon we'll get to see the sea!

Oooh, this looks nice.

A little extra Defense and Resistance, yeah, that's good.

Saaaaand!

That fight down there was enough for Frieren to get Doublecast (and Werdna to get Eye Gouge, and Meena to get Chakra). Now she can really start flexing! With this in play, she's more than ready to switch to another class for a bit. She won't be Doublecasting in that other class, but basically now Warlock is a really strong class for her. As far as what she does with Warlock now, the plan is to go for Remedy first, then Regen. And then... I dunno, whatever really, she'll probably be trying another class by then.

And that's the sea! Remember, you can walk around in water that's exactly one cube deep, so we could even try exploring to the right a bit if I was so inclined.

I got distracted by the prospect of more Monster Magic, though.

And I got excited for NOTHING. These Snails are extremely uninteresting enemies in any regard you care to name.

How do I keep getting levels from extremely anticlimactic fights.

Oh well, moving on.

Just checking out the coast.

I think this is the enemy with the spell.

Yes it is!

Jellyfish, in addition to their basic attack and a Poison Sting, have one Monster Magic spell. But we're gonna need to rough 'em up a bit before they use it.

Perfect, let's see it.

Infusion is a healing spell with a pretty significant bonus to it...

It also heals the caster for just as much! That's really cool thanks for teaching it to me.

Can't go further west along the coast from here, not yet.

Maybe if we found another way there from Delende it'd be a different story, though.

This makes seven Clamshells, that's some progress.

And eight on this route into...

Delende again. Sadly, I think our jump height means we can't quite use this route to get to that treasure, but I'm sure there's gotta be something useful here for approaching from this angle. Then again, I'm pretty sure we're just south of the dog trainer, so maybe not.

Yep, okay. Just another entrance to Seaside Cliffs, then.

YOU FOOLS, I HAVE A MAP THIS TIME.

Okay, back to the camp.

And back to the route Reid went. The Crystal is almost certainly this way.

Pretty offroad around here.

Gotta be pretty quick on your feet and sure of your footing to get past this flame!

In fact, this river path has a few Flames around the borders to look out for.

We get attacked by this one, showing another new enemy of the Seaside Cliffs. The Mountainess is a hardy physical fighter with an imposing physique. If that physique is too imposing for you, you can turn on family friendly mode, but that also filters the profanity the game (rarely) uses, and I find that profanity to be an excellent spice judiciously used. For now, I'll leave the mode as is unless that isn't kosher with some of you.

Oh sick guaranteed steal yes please.

Well... okay then, I guess.

Milk is a pretty decent MP restorative.

Anyway I remembered that I got this spell and kind of bluescreened for a bit as I realized the implications of the power. Let's do a field test.

First, the setup.

Then, a Frost spell. Again, in isolation, the damage isn't great, but we're not here just for Frost, now are we?

Okay cool! That ran Frieren 20 MP, which is about in keeping costwise with spells like Bolten, and it tagged in a damage over time effect and a resist debuff if we time it right. That's solid!

what do you mean by this

Oh hey there's a bit of a structure under the waterfall here!

Let's, like, check it out, Scoob!

Entirely new dungeon? Entirely new dungeon!

Draft Shaft Conduit is extremely short, we're gonna knock it out this update lightning quick.

That treasure up there is an extremely nice earlygame wand. Burn never goes out of style, after all.

The platforming and exploration of Draft Shaft Conduit are incredibly minor, making the real threat of the area...

The Canal Rats! This is the first time we really have a big crowd of enemies to deal with at once, and as things stand even Werdna's going to have issues wiping them all with Firen. If you have two area attackers (which we do now with Meena, and could get if someone else was a Fencer with Swallowtail), they're not too scary, but you'll have to weather a lot of bitey angry rats first.

Since they lived a Meena attack and Werdna's damage on Firen isn't much better, I'm going to give him a bit of extra help.

AND CAN YOU BLAME ME?!

After all six rats attack, Werdna is barely alive thanks to GUTS' intervention. Don't neglect your defenses, those buffs can save lives!

Meena handily cleans house, especially since these Canal Rats are a rare earth-weak enemy.

This is a really short area. Like, as in we're halfway done with it by now.

Literally just circle that Crystal until you find the route in, sometimes fight rat hordes. That's it.

Oh yeah do you remember how starting your turn below half health generates Threat? Heal up between fights! It's good for you!!!

Werdna didn't survive that time, but the combined healing of Meena and buffing of Frieren meant he was the only one who got attacked, which is still good for us overall.

And there's our route in. That was easy.

Just gotta fight this thing.

The Canal Beast, much like Sepulchra, is equally capable of using magic and physical attacks to mess with the team. It's actually roughly equal in stats, albeit preferring Water as its element rather than Thunder. Which means you might want to do Seaside Cliffs first if you have the gear needed to resist that Water damage, and the Seaside Cliffs has a few particular pieces of such gear available to choose from. Hardly a requirement, of course, and in a vacuum I consider Canal Beast slightly easier than Sepulchra anyway since Canal Beast can't inflict Fatigue. Yeah, Ink Blast is an area Blind effect and that's annoying, but it's a single turn debuff you can trivially play around with every single physically-inclined character that's not a Fencer at this stage: Warriors can Taunt, Monks can clear the effect or self-buff with Chakra or Focus Energy, and Rogues can go for the Steal I completely forgot about, do a Sleep Bomb, or, as I elected to do, just eye gouge the Canal Beast first. If you're worried about the steal I missed, I'll point it out later, but simply put, it's a very nice wand. You want a very nice wand? Get the steal from Canal Beast.

I know what I'm about. Frieren gets Scan and Meena gets Focus Energy as well.

HIT ME

Hell the damn yes. As ever, this update will have the writeup after, but Shaman is basically one of the best debuff magicalists in the game. You love to see it.

We'll close out the update with the Proving Grounds, but first, I want to check out the rest of the Soiled Den.

Let's drop down this here hole.

It drops an item which I require. That is, an Earth Bangle. If you find one, bring it back to me and I'll make a trade.

Ooooh, handy. Huntie's trade is very much worth doing if you happen to find that particular monster. Earth Bangles aren't exactly something you want to hoard for yourself in the first place anyway.

Oh I can so make that jump, hang on.

YEEEUH. Dodge Charms boost Evasion and that's nice we like that.

Aaaaaagh we're close but not quite there yet.

The south tunnel just pops out here, which isn't useful but is cool.

Maybe the eastern side of the Seaside Cliffs will have those last few Clamshells.

Well, there's another Wizard, that's worth something.

The Rocker just straight up hands us three Clamshells, more than enough to get Manana Man's reward!

You have been tremendously helpful and I wish you a prosperous journey.

Not much else we can actually do around here right now.

That's okay, I got my win condition.

Let's be absolutely sure, though.

!!!

HELL YEAH DOGG!!!!

Bit of treasure once we climb over this wall.

Great, I think that about wraps it up!

Yeah Gokue here is just saying "DONT FORGET 2 EQUIPPED PASSIVE". Yeah, I know, buddy.

And that's a bit of light armor!

It's nice if Canal Beast is the first boss in the region you're challenging but hardly required.

I APPROVE THE TRANSACTION.

I mean I'll take it?

NO YEAH WE TAKE IT NO BACKSIES

From a birds-eye view, it's pretty clear we're not done exploring the Seaside Cliffs for now, just like we're not done exploring Delende. But that's something we'll do later. Right now, the Proving Grounds call to us!

You know it!

...

Ah, I see that you have already found at least three crystals. Now... you must prove that you are worthy!

You could theoretically find three other crystals aside from the Slate, Aquamarine, and Violet crystals to gain entry here, but I don't want to embarrass this guy TOO hard.

At the most generous, one could call the Knight a statcheck. After all, you need to be able to withstand six attacks in a row without anyone dying! That would be formidable... if the Knight in question didn't have stats roughly on par with the enemies from Spawning Meadows. It's a scary opener, I guess, if you completely ignore the damage numbers.

My back...

The Knight staggers out of the way and we're free to enter.

One more thing before we do, if you don't mind.

No sooner do we enter the Trial Caves than do I get distracted by the possibility of climbing on lamps.

We'll leave that for a little bit though.

Wait what?

Wow, this is a very welcome and distracting reward! I sure hope there aren't at least three points of interest in my current field of view worth investigating!

Yo hold up we haven't seen ANYONE with this class yet. As the name suggests, this is an extremely raw tanking class, built to last.

That's cool and all but first things first.

Fittingly, both pieces of kit up here are very much suited to the new Aegis class.

The Stalwart Shield sacrifices all evasive capability in exchange for both Defense and Resistance, a pretty welcome combo for a shield.

The jump beyond that to the other chest is incredibly hard and I don't want to go into how many attempts it took to do right.

The prize there is a fancy sword, built for piling on the Defense even beyond that which your shield would afford.

To finally address the mushroom in the room, yeah, there's a not-so-hidden path behind the Yellow Crystal.

The mushrooms don't hurt, but they do obstruct, so you'll have to weave between them to progress.

The path eventually leads out into...

...Skumparadise, huh?

This must be where the trial really begins.

TO DO:

• Build the perfect starting team.
• Explore Spawning Meadows.
  • Prove the existence of black squirrels.
  • Try to find another route out of Spawning Meadows.
• Explore Delende.
  • Cross the bridge to the Proving Meadows.
  • Explore the Fish Hatchery.
  • Explore the Pale Grotto.
    • Defeat Guardian.
    • Find the Slate Crystal.
    • Find the Fencer class.
  • Explore the Soiled Den.
    • Defeat Bone Thief.
    • Trade an Earth Bangle to Huntie.
  • Explore the Basement of the Cabin on the Cliff.
    • Defeat Gran.
  • Find the dogs' bones.
• Explore Seaside Cliffs.
  • Trade 13 Clamshells to Manana Man.
  • Find a rare monster that drops an Earth Bangle.
  • Explore Draft Shaft Conduit.
    • Defeat Canal Beast.
    • Find the Violet Crystal.
    • Find the Shaman class.
• Explore Proving Meadows.
  • Find three crystals.
  • Defeat Knight.
  • Explore the Trial Caves.
    • Find the Yellow Crystal.
    • Find the Aegis class.
    • Explore Skumparadise.
• Explore Yamagawa M.A.
  • Defeat Sepulchra.
  • Find the Aquamarine Crystal.
  • Find the Scholar class.
    • Find every Monster Magic spell.
    • Prove our skill to the Master Scholar.
• Explore the Underpass.
  • Find enough Underpass Scraps for a map.
• Find the Summoner class.
  • Challenge the Deity of Fire.
• Find the Mimic class.
• Find the Hunter class.
• Find the Dervish class.

 

[Kalir]

SHAMAN
Sanguine Transmuter

STATS

• HP: 4
• MP: 7
• Strength: 3
• Vitality: 3
• Dexterity: 1
• Agility: 5
• Mind: 10
• Spirit: 4
• Speed: 3
• Luck: 8

PROFICIENCIES

• Weapons: Axes, Wands
• Armor: Light Hat, Light Armor

INNATE PASSIVES

• Spell Steal: +25% Spell Lifesteal.

Our next big offense caster class. In contrast to the Wizard's direct firepower, the Shaman's wheelhouse trends more towards inflicting debuffs, which as we've established are very strong in Crystal Project. Shamans are the fastest access you get to both Power Down and Magic Down on the same moveset, and they're also capable of wielding damage over time and disrupting the enemy's momentum with disabling abilities. They also have much more focused stats than Wizards do, with the highest Mind stat in the game, and a fair bit more survivability with HP and Vitality fueled by their innate Spell Steal passive and the twin Core buffs. Finally, their attack spells are non-elemental to a one, preventing them from getting walled out of their preferred attack spell the same way a Wizard might be (even if Wizard has Element Master for the edge on offense).

Shaman's biggest drawback for their role is that their Hex Magic really relies on the debuffs to do the heavy lifting for them. They're very lacking in raw punch, with the later high-damage spells being overpriced and underpowered on the damage side of things. They really depend on stacking damage over time for the best mileage, and yet the high costs of the spells they use to do that, both in MP and CT, mean they tend to lose out compared to more flexible characters that can apply damage over time quickly and easily, like Fencer or Warlock. And unlike Wizard, which at least has Dexterity as an option for a second moveset if pure magic death isn't working, Shaman's stuck with Agility as their only backup stat, which isn't terrible but does strongly force the Shaman to stick to magic, and leaves them pretty high and dry once their slightly-lower-than-Wizard MP is gone.

That said, Hex Magic is such a universally strong skillset that any class capable of relying on Mind for a while has no trouble whatsoever with flexing over to Shaman. Of our current options, that includes Wizard, Warlock, Rogue, and Scholar. In particular, Wizards that complement their existing spells with Hex Magic (or a Shaman that decides to brush up on Black Magic) will find their offensive and control toolkit to be incomparable, all fueled by the same peerless Mind stat and their vast pool of MP. The rare class that enjoys playing a tank and having a Mind score will also find the parcel of Drain and the two Core spells very appetizing, as well.

Spoiler: MOVESET: HEX MAGIC

Acid
Costs: 12 MP, 22 CT
Single Target Magic
Damage Formula: 60 + 1.5 Mnd
Inflicts Power Down (-35% physical damage dealt) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: 1 LP

Higher MP and CT cost than a basic attack spell for Wizard or Warlock, but it comes with Power Down on it. Shaman having easy access to both Power Down and Magic Down here makes for strong control against any boss, but the CT combined with the low duration means that keeping this effect applied will almost certainly be a fulltime job for the Shaman without someone else pitching in. Still, it's an offense debuff that's available even to a newbie Shaman, and that's awesome.

Bio
Costs: 12 MP, 22 CT
Single Target Magic
Damage Formula: 60 + 1.5 Mnd
Inflicts Magic Down (-35% magical damage dealt) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: None

Technically different in that you start with Bio outright, but have to do at least one fight as Shaman to get Acid. Juggling both debuffs at once is very hard on your own, so always pay attention to your enemies' movesets and telegraphs, and use the debuff for the job rather than just doing a funny MMO rotation. This isn't really that sort of game.

Drain
Costs: 16 MP, 20 CT
Single Target Magic
Damage Formula: 20 + 2.5 Mnd
100% Lifesteal
Prereqs: 3 LP

Weird as it sounds, Drain is actually one of Shaman's most efficient raw damage options! Like, yeah, lifesteal is awesome, and this stacks with the existing lifesteal of Spell Steal if you're in Shaman, or lets a person with a Hex Magic subcommand enjoy the effect. That's fine, that's expected from a spell named Drain. But no, straight up, if you want efficient single-target damage (and have someone else handling damage over time) Drain is the best bang for your buck. Like, the formula here is almost as good as on Wizard's Bolten. You'll deal big damage with this and probably fullheal off of it. Drain's good.

Instability
Costs: 10 MP, 4 CT
Single Target Magic
Inflicts Instability (+50% debuff duration) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: 2 LP

Instability is an extremely strong setup debuff that makes every other effect you throw on your enemy have a "buy two, get one free" deal for duration. For Acid and Bio, that means 3 turns, assuming you're fast enough to cast one or both before the enemy acts and clears this status (not likely). If you're willing to play it VERY slow with your Shaman, I think casting a second Instability while the first is active will refresh the duration to 3 turns, but absolutely do not quote me on that, I like to play a little more directly than that. But that's just me; Instability is a great option for a Shaman in it for the long haul.

Acid II
Costs: 20 MP, 26 CT
Single Target Magic
Damage Formula: 80 + 2.5 Mnd
Inflicts Burn (15% damage per turn) debuff and Fatigue (-50% AP gain) debuff on the target for 3 turns.
Prereqs: Acid, Bio, 2 LP

The beefier version of Acid (curiously not called Aciden) gives up the Power Down debuff in exchange for two new toys: damage over time from Burn, and the Fatigue debuff, which has the same issue MP Sickle does in that it only actually helps if the enemy needs their AP to use their moves, which a fair few enemies don't. Acid II bears extremely special mention for the fact that we have now, before the demo of the game has run its course, seen all possible on-demand sources of Burn that come from player abilities. Poison and Bleed are much more readily available on other classes, but if you want Burn, you're basically stuck with Blaze and Acid II, or using equipment like the Torch.

Bio II
Costs: 20 MP, 26 CT
Single Target Magic
Damage Formula: 80 + 2.5 Mnd
Inflicts Poison (15% damage per turn) debuff and Daze (+100% CT) debuff on the target for 3 turns.
Prereqs: Acid, Bio, 2 LP

Likewise, Bio II (definitely not called Bioren) goes for a more indirect way of countering magic with Daze, a really rude status effect on anyone that depends on CT in the slightest. The Hex Magic spells actually make for a pretty comprehensive array of debuffs that's sure to make any two of them great for most situations. For casters, you use Bio and Bio II to make them take longer than ever to cast and to dull the impact of it when they do. For physical enemies, you use Acid and whichever of Acid II or Drain is more effective. And so on, and so forth. It's like a more committal magical version of Swordplay, actually.

Sleep Echo
Costs: 16 MP, 10 CT
Single Target Magic
Inflicts Sleep (skips turn, removed on taking damage, only works once per battle/death) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Drain, Instability, 2 LP

Same effect as Rogue's Sleep Bomb, now tied to a spell. This makes it a fair bit harder to use than Sleep Bomb in isolation, but remember: Sleep Bomb is like the only move you can actually use from Trickery when you're at high Threat. Sleep Echo has no such restrictions, and Hex Magic also comes with Instability as a great way to bump that duration up to 3 turns. Plus, it's Sleep. It's a strong and rare debuff, why turn your nose up at another source of it even if it's not strictly numerically "optimal"?

Epidemic
Costs: 28 MP, 42 CT
Multi Target Magic
Damage Formula: 150 + 3 Mnd
Inflicts Poison (15% damage per turn) debuff on the target for 3 turns.
Prereqs: Acid II, Bio II, 4 LP

Shaman's "capstone" spell is their only area spell, and it's actually pretty solid damage for the MP cost! Somewhere roughly between Firen and Firena, plus some Poison for the hell of it. Of course, 42 CT isn't anything to sneeze at, and Shaman kinda depends on being able to deal regular hits for Spell Steal lifedrain to handle the Threat they build up. For clearing encounters, Epidemic is awesome, and it's pretty good against bosses that summon smaller fish to fry. Just, again, mind the CT and remember that you're not applying any debuffs except Poison here.

Stone Core
Costs: 20 MP
Self Only Magic
Self-applies Stone Core (-25% physical damage taken) buff for 4 physical hits taken.
Removes Mist Core buff.
Prereqs: Bio II, Safeguard, Sleep Echo, 3 LP

Shaman has two pretty unique self-buffs for defense that stack with the usual Armor Up and Resist Up, which allows for even more options to outlast targets. Sure, with their base HP and Vitality they're not gonna usually survive focused pain anyway, and your job is usually inflicting debuffs rather than saucing up with buffs. What sets the Core spells apart is the fact that they don't run out over time, but rather on a per-hit basis. This makes them a little bit better on faster builds, which might run through the duration of a similar defensive ability faster than it would the four hits you'd get off of a Core spell.

Mist Core
Costs: 20 MP
Self Only Magic
Self-applies Mist Core (-25% magical damage taken) buff for 4 magical hits taken.
Removes Stone Core buff.
Prereqs: Sleep Echo, 3 LP

The catch is that you can only have one, not both, of the Core abilities up at once. So, as usual, figure out what ability the enemy can do that you're most afraid of, and kit up for that first. Additionally, the two Core spells have no CT whatsoever, making them uniquely beneficial off of their raw speed.

Spoiler: PASSIVES

Safeguard
Costs: 2 PP
Self Only Magic
Self-applies Armor Up (-35% physical damage taken) buff and Resist Up (-35% magical damage taken) buff when critically injured for 4 turn.
Prereqs: Drain, Instability, 3 LP

This passive is in contention for best possible "critical health" passive available. With Shaman in particular, once you do get dropped to critical health, one Drain later and you're back up to full and still enjoying plenty of defense boost for later attacks, but really anyone who wants some extra insurance from stray hits and won't get instantly pasted by it will find Safeguard an attractive option, if perhaps a little expensive for anyone not already invested in Shaman.

 

[Kalir]

AEGIS
Bulwark of the Weak

STATS

• HP: 7
• MP: 3
• Strength: 4
• Vitality: 10
• Dexterity: 4
• Agility: 4
• Mind: 2
• Spirit: 8
• Speed: 1
• Luck: 4

PROFICIENCIES

• Weapons: Swords
• Armor: Shields, Heavy Helmet, Heavy Armor

INNATE PASSIVES

• White Knight: Automatically Cover allies that are at critical HP.

Aegis is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the second you grab the Crystal. By far the most defensive tank-focused class in the game, with the best Vitality stat on the market and excellent HP and Spirit to go with it, the Aegis' job on your team is to take hits for your weaker allies, a job they excel at. Instead of Threat manipulation, though, the Aegis uses the ol' standard of Cover mechanics, relying on buffing their own defensive stats and then leaping in front of their allies to take hits. In the likely event the Aegis isn't able to cover everyone at once, they even have some excellent stopgap measures that can bolster their allies in a pinch. Really is one of the most straightforward character archetypes in the game: put an Aegis on your team if you want defense and survivability above all else. Oh, and White Knight allows you to do some REALLY cheesy stuff if you, for example, drop everyone down to critical health just before fighting a tough boss that only has single-target attacks.

Of course, the extreme focus on defense comes with some significant tradeoffs, and as with a lot of classes, there are some you'd expect and accept, and some you don't. In the first category is the stat spread for Aegis, which sacrifices a lot to make those defensive stats shine. Your damage potential basically any way you slice it is gonna suffer, but again, you're here to tank so everyone ELSE can do more damage without danger, right? Unfortunately, there's two stats that are sacrificed and you REALLY don't want to be sacrificed: MP (because the Aegis uses MP for their skills) and Speed (while the lower Speed does let them stretch defensive buffs longer, Aegis is the first class you'll find that uses cooldowns, and slower turns means slower cooldowns). This makes Chivalry a really rough commitment as a moveset. Oh, and the lower offensive stats also means that trying to control enemy hits with Threat, i.e. the usual way you do damage mitigation, is much harder for Aegis than it would be for most other tanks.

The nice thing is that the laser focus on defensive stats, plus the healthy array of useful passives, make Aegis a great pick for literally anyone hoping to stretch their survivability. The two most likely archetypes to flex to Aegis are tanks (Warrior and Monk both love having extra survival and don't need the MP for anything else) and healers (Clerics and Warlocks provide extra MP to work with and are perfectly happy with the Spirit stat Aegis has). But like... anyone can use Aegis levels. It's one of those classes where you probably won't want someone to make it their main job, but which the toolkit is extremely useful for literally anyone to sample.

Spoiler: MOVESET: CHIVALRY

Cover
Costs: 4 CD
Single Target Ability, No Self-Target
Applies Cover (direct single-target attacks are redirected to the target that applied Cover) buff to the target for 3 turns.
Prereqs: None

It's a Cover move, oh boy! You all very well know the drill with this piece of work: stick it on someone that really, REALLY needs to stay alive to do their job, and rest confident that your own high defensive stats will keep them safe until that job is done. This is our first cooldown (henceforth: CD) ability, and a 4 turn CD is a HARSH one for this ability. You can't even realistically say that your target will only have a single turn of vulnerability where they're not covered, because they're almost certainly faster than your Aegis, so those three turns of buff time will wear off before the Aegis works through the four turns of not being able to reapply Cover. Time your usage of this ability well and make it count, and don't forget that a mainclass Aegis can also use White Knight to apply this particular ability even more judiciously.

Entrench
Costs: 10 MP, 4 CD
Self Only Ability
Adds 2 ticks to all active effects.
Prereqs: 1 LP

Entrench is arguably one of the most broken abilities in the game. Like yeah, on the surface, you can use it to stretch defensive buffs even longer, whether self-applied or given by a buddy, and the Aegis is likely to be a popular candidate for both. And yeah, it has an obvious drawback in that it also applies extra ticks of any debuffs they have too, not to mention the CD. Here's the thing, though: those extra ticks are applied regardless of what makes them tick. Sure, most status effects tick by turn. Some tick by hits taken, or dealt. Some tick as a reaction to a specific occurrence. Entrench gives you two extra ticks of any of those effects no matter what they are. So, for example, say you're a Monk using Focus Energy for the crit buff on your next attack, or a Fencer using Eagle Eye for a guaranteed hit on your next attack. Entrench says it's actually your next 3 attacks. You can see how this quickly becomes ridiculous, yes? Hell, even Aegis can abuse that a bit with the Stalwart passive.

Armor Boost
Costs: 6 MP
Self Only Magic
Applies Armor Boost (+100% Defense) buff for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Cover, 1 LP

As you should know by now, Armor Boost does indeed stack with Armor Up. However, the stacking is a little weird here, because Armor Up flat reduces physical damage taken, while Armor Boost doubles your Defense, which is part of the calculation before Armor Up in determining how much damage you take in the first place, and which can be ignored if the enemy is using a sufficiently evil skill. Actually getting into the formula weeds here isn't something I care to do, and from a practical standpoint Armor Boost is still a thing your Aegis will happily apply to more efficiently facetank any blows headed their way. Just watch for the gotchas of Defense-piercing attacks and Silence since this is technically a spell.

Resist Boost
Costs: 6 MP
Self Only Magic
Applies Resist Boost (+100% Resistance) buff for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Entrench, 1 LP

There's only so many times I can point to a similar-but-distinct ability that serves a similar-but-distinct niche to its sibling and say something interesting about it. But in this case, here goes: this is the stronger of the two abilities for a mainclassed Aegis. Remember, heavy armor favors Defense over Resistance, so you may need to lean on Resist Boost a little more than Armor Boost to weather scary magic attacks. For a caster in light armor having Chivalry on deck for pure survivability, Armor Boost is probably the bigger priority, absent considerations of prereqs.

Magic Break
Costs: 12 MP
Single Target Weapon Skill
Damage Formula: Atk + Atk * 0.5 Str + 0.5 Str
Never misses.
Inflicts Magic Down (-35% magical damage dealt) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Armor Boost, 2 LP

Yeah for some reason Aegis has the magic counterparts to Warrior's debuffs? They use MP and that sucks out loud because you don't have much to begin with, so Aegis isn't gonna be a reliable debuffer for your team, but the inability to miss is a tiny bit of insurance that's welcome. As mentioned, a mainclass Aegis will struggle more against magical attacks than physical ones with their heavy armor, so at least this isn't without its niche, but the high MP cost for this move really kills it in my book.

Resist Break
Costs: 12 MP
Single Target Weapon Skill
Damage Formula: Atk + Atk * 0.5 Str + 0.5 Str
Never misses.
Inflicts Resist Down (+35% magical damage taken) debuff on the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Resist Boost, 2 LP

You've gotta be REALLY desperate for sources of Resist Down to have an Aegis be your primary applier of the status effect. It's the only all-offense move in Chivalry's set, and not only does it, again, cost lots of your limited and valuable MP, Aegis doesn't even have magic attacks to capitalize on this after the attack is made. Still, at the time you get it, your only other source is... what, Frost? I guess it's an option if you're running a team of all mages with an Aegis to cover for them.

Power Wall
Costs: 8 MP
Single Target Magic, No Self-Target
Applies Power Wall (-50% physical damage taken) buff to the target for 1 turn.
Prereqs: Magic Break, 3 LP

The two Wall spells are very much emergency stopgap options for if there's an attack coming through and the Aegis isn't able to cover their target in time for whatever reason. While they're extremely dependent on timing, such that the enemy must be acting before whoever they're targeting, the sharp damage reduction makes for an excellent way to throw them a bone if they're in a questionable middle ground. Hell, sometimes it might be worth throwing this even if they're not in peril just to make sure they start their turn above half health and don't accrue Threat.

Magic Wall
Costs: 8 MP
Single Target Magic, No Self-Target
Applies Magic Wall (-50% magical damage taken) buff to the target for 1 turn.
Prereqs: Resist Break, 3 LP

Again, a mainclassed Aegis might not be willing or able to weather an especially spicy magic attack, so Magic Wall is slightly stronger for a mainclassed Aegis. Again, I'm only gonna have so many things to say about these Luigimode moves, useful though they are.

Crystal Form
Costs: 10 MP, 6 CD
Self Only Ability
Removes all debuffs.
+100% current generated Threat.
Applies Crystal Form (Sets Defense and Resistance to 9999, skips turn) buff for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Power Wall, 3 LP

Remember how I said Aegis has some trouble with pulling Threat owing to their weaker offense? Crystal Form doesn't solve that problem permanently, but it is a last-ditch option to force the enemy to target the user specifically, and to make sure absolutely nothing happens to you for the time it's active. It's also obviously got some usage as a self-wipe of debuffs, especially if you're doing the Chivalry RIGHT and using Entrench to bank points of status effects you really shouldn't be. The heavy CD on this move means that as careful as you were being with Cover? Twice as careful with Crystal Form, and make sure you have enough Threat that you'll at least get SOMETHING done by using this.

Reprisal Aura
Costs: 16 MP
Multi Target Magic
Applies Reprisal (+3 AP when damaged) buff to the target for 2 turns.
Prereqs: Magic Wall, 3 LP

Huh? What? Why is one of Chivalry's two capstone abilities an AP generation option that expects their entire team to get hit? Like, I'm not gonna complain, it's okay AP generation even if it were to just affect the Aegis and it's a good move, but the existence of this move flies completely counter to everything else Chivalry as a moveset and Aegis as a class is about. With everything else, you're expecting the Chivalry user to be the bedrock of the team that sits there and takes hits, and Reprisal Aura instead expects your entire team to have survivability to work with. I guess it's especially strong against area attacks, a notable weakpoint for basically any tank character, but still. Why are you like this.

Spoiler: PASSIVES

Natural Tank
Costs: 3 PP
Starts battle with a small amount of Threat for each enemy.
Prereqs: Cover, 2 LP

This is a very comfy passive, y'know? Like, obviously a tank wants to start each fight with enemies looking directly at them, and Aegis in particular has some issues actually earning that threat to begin with so it's great for a mainclassed Aegis. But like... if you're doing your job right, this is kind of spitting into the ocean, y'know? If your build has the PP for it, great, throw this on and keep the other guy looking at you, but for 3 PP this is a bit of a tall ask.

Equip Shield
Costs: 3 PP
Allows you to equip Shields regardless of class proficiencies.
Prereqs: Entrench, 3 LP

Probably the highest-demand proficiency passive in the game. Lots of weapons are exclusively one-handed (off the top of my head, Daggers, Rapiers, Katanas, and Wands) and plenty of characters who use those weapons would love having a big slab of metal in their hand to keep them safe. Shields aren't a complete no-brainer to equip, however: in exchange for the significant Defense boost they tend to offer, they also come with an Evasion penalty, making them less attractive to characters depending on a high Agility score to simply avoid physical attacks outright. Still, rare shields tend to have really nice statboosts that more than outweigh the indicated Evasion penalty, so any character that has room for this in their build and uses a one-handed weapon will usually happily equip it.

Stalwart
Costs: 1 PP
Applies Stalwart (Survive a killing blow with 1 HP if hit at full health) self-buff for 1 lethal attack.
Prereqs: Armor Boost, Equip Shield, 2 LP

Not at all useful for a mainclassed Aegis; if they're trying to take hits that can oneshot them from full, you're trying to fight stuff too high over your head in level. No, the real benefactors of Stalwart are characters who have no real threshold between alive and dead. This becomes a bit more significant later on, as enemies start to get really spicy with their attacks and damage-focused characters start running the risk of death if not covered by tanks properly. Like, let's be real: Mind Stance isn't gonna save your Wizard from a boss hammerblow, but Stalwart might.

Stance Tank
Costs: 3 PP
Regain 20% HP on stance change.
Prereqs: Natural Tank, Resist Boost, 2 LP

Aegis doesn't use stances, but lots of classes do, and lots of classes would REALLY like that kind of free survivability. Warrior is the standout favorite for wanting Stance Tank as a passive given their sorely lacking self-sustain for their role, but Fencer can also make some use of it, and you better believe we've more classes to see that toggle stances every so often and have much to gain from a free 20% heal each time they do. This is one I feel very happy spending the 3 PP on in pretty much any build that works with stances.

 

[Mogri]

My first reaction was oh yeah, I like Aegis, but then I read the write-up and realized I was thinking Valkyrie. Valkyrie dares to ask, what if a defensive class was good?

 

[Kalir]

One change-up to the roster to start: it's time for Frieren to get her first class change, this one to Shaman.

Here's her new equipment set. The Torch is an especially nice pick because it means she doesn't have to use Blaze to stick Burn on the enemy, but other than that this is extremely business as usual.

Anyway, on to Skumparadise as a region. If you're curious, falling off the sides to learn what the glowing stuff down there is will tell you that it's magma. Magma works exactly like water does, but without allowing for the single block depth.

The gimmick for this area is that you can use the mushrooms here as NPC platforms to get to specific areas, and are encouraged to do so to avoid the fights here. The flames here have no jump height, so just standing on a mushroom will keep you safe.

Needless to say, the mushrooms also move around, so they can frequently ferry you past danger if used well.

Do you believe in telegraphs?

This goes to Frieren, replacing the Bracer that is no longer of any real use to her build at the moment.

For the sake of being thorough, I drop down to fight some of the equally-fungal enemies here.

The trick to the enemies here is that they all have the ability Shroomy Gaze. With the defiant glare of that which cannot be killed in a way that matters, Shroomy Gaze deals a fixed 150 damage and is a free action, so these guys can then chain it into another attack. It's a far more effective statcheck than the Knight at the entrance, but remember, Skumparadise is designed such that you can try to avoid the encounters as a whole rather than fighting them.

The combo of Shroomy Gaze with a regular attack can easily deal around 250 damage to an unprepared character, so exercise caution.

I'd call that level well-earned.

You can and should use the lampposts both on the course and on the wall to find cheeky ways to progress. Frequently, they'll lead to treasure!

Yeah no this is a warning, and a dire one at that. This goes to Meena, since she and Frieren are the ones who could clear the status effect on the other two.

This particular segment is a minipuzzle where you have to get the leftmost mushroom to progress all the way. Mushrooms don't move unless stepped on, so you have to basically tap each one to get out of the way as you do.

Careful with the last one, it's very unrestrained.

Next up is this area, where the mushrooms will basically try to navigate a groundbound maze. If you don't mind fighting, you can completely ignore them.

They follow a simple movement pattern each time you step on them: one of east or west, then south, then whichever of east or west they didn't go previously, then south again, rinse and repeat.

The second one has a slight issue that makes following it by just hopping on it to reset movement each time tricky. I'm sure you can see what it is, right?

Perhaps, if you time your jump right, you can avoid it. I did not.

I also didn't heal up between fights. Ha ha!!! Darn.

Oh that's very expensive for Monk Meena. This is the price I pay for my sloppiness!

Oh, and check out that Meena got a bit of healing, too! Inner Warmth is great.

Anyway, same deal here. If you follow the mushroom to the end of its route, you'll get trapped in a fight. You have to find a way to navigate to the left exit safely.

What you're supposed to do is use the blocks on the ground to fence off the flame there and completely ignore the mushroom, since it won't be smart enough to path around them. I did not do this. I am doomed.

Didn't heal up again, but I DID get an encounter with a new source of Monster Magic! C'mere, you!

Aw.

And there's our new spell!

Atmoshear applies Confusion to everyone on the enemy team, and as usual, you can check the blurb on Scholar on the first page for the deets. We're... probably not gonna use it, but it's also the only Monster Magic to be found in Skumparadise.

Anyway, if you're using area moves, Confusion doesn't actually impede you in the slightest.

Single target moves, like, say, the bulk of your healing or tanking measures this early in the game, are considerably more likely to fail with Confusion up.

Sun Bath is so slow! Aaaaagh!

I could Run Away here, and it wouldn't be a terrible idea. Just hop back to the Home Point we planted at the entrance to Skumparadise, run outside to the tent, and come back later. But I want to test something.

Got close though!

Meh. I'll live.

More importantly, we kept Atmoshear and there's no other Monster Magic to find in Skumparadise!

Which means back to the REAL class for GUTS. I briefly considered going Aegis or Fencer, but honestly... nah. Warrior is where it's at. Not that Aegis or Fencer would be bad ideas, but they'd commit in directions I don't exactly want to build GUTS for right now.

That's the stuff. Monster Magic isn't a terrible kit option for Warrior early on, especially since moves like Barrier and Regenerate are pretty stat-independent, and Infusion in particular is excellent for a tank. The Plate of Wolf will come in very handy down here with all the fixed damage, thanks to its heavy max HP bonus.

The monsters did respawn, but again, Skumparadise is about avoiding encounters, so that's hardly an issue.

But yeah. Do this for this particular area, and you won't get into any trouble.

The platforming starts getting a little trickier from here on out, but nothing a seasoned adventurer like myself can't handle (and nothing you can't disregard if you'd prefer to just dunk on some Shroomers).

Start the mushroom off near the ledge here, then run over to meet it.

Your time window is very generous.

This baby can handle temperatures of up to 9000 degrees!

Avoiding fights here is simple enough, just hop to the mushrooms along the south.

Oh, and since I know you were going to ask about it: there's nothing in this empty nook. Sorry.

Climb time.

From here, the platforming shifts to the style we sampled on Yamagawa, almost entirely 2D.

Still gotta use mushrooms to get around, but only a little.

The exit to Skumparadise is by that chest.

Wait I know the trick here. Jump back out to the wall and they can't reach you.

There's a few goodies we can access over yonder.

First, let's grab that chest we saw.

Hmmm, tight caverns just like at the start.

And as soon as we reach this we can see more paths.

Coming to the start of the second tunnel rewards us with this nice piece of kit.

More offense-oriented than Help the Prince. We equip it to GUTS like good people.

For this box, we gotta worm on up through here. There's hidden points behind the pillars where you can climb up.

You can either use the bumpers to rotate the camera angle to see, or just mash your head into every ceiling until you find one that isn't there, old school style.

It's the Gem Ring but better! Werdna takes it.

Back to the progress tunnels. You'll have a camera shift every time you reach a tunnel with an opening above you, so don't fret too much about where to jump.

That's our goal right up there. If we were to veer west, we could find a one-way shortcut that drops us at the start of the Trial Caves, which can be convenient if you set your Home Point here first and annoying as hell if you haven't.

We're done with Skumparadise in practice, though.

All that remains is the boss of the Trial Caves.

Parasite's got more than a few tricks above the previous bosses we've fought. It's capable of summoning Funks as backup, it has Atmoshear to screw with our support options, and it can even inflict Sleep, albeit not guaranteed, with Spore. This is the first, but not the only, boss fight where area attacks are especially valuable, and fortunately we have Werdna with Firen and Meena with Earth Split to handle that pretty efficiently. Area attacks are also a great way to get around the whole Confusion thing: don't need to worry about aiming at the wrong target if you hit all of 'em! Confusion becomes much harder to handle if you're dealing with it defensively though, since it makes your healing options much harder to land where they need to. Multitarget healing still works, but this current party (and most parties) only has Sun Bath for that which is strangled by the CT. The next best thing is Remedy, since that both heals and cures the status effect the target has, be it Sleep or Confusion. Speaking of Sleep, it's actually not a huge deal for this fight! It's only a 65% infliction chance, and you can enter the fight with as many as two Awake Rings. Since both Frieren and Meena can clear the status on anyone, they got them. Not an especially fancy fight on the whole, but it's where Crystal Project really starts showing its teeth with boss fights, and they're only gonna get spicier from here.

No Crystals this time, we got that at the start of the Trial Caves. But hey, free cash.

GUTS gets Armor Break, Werdna gets Sleep Bomb, Frieren gets Acid, and APPARENTLY I completely forgot this whole time that I had Focus Energy on Meena? Why would I do that to myself?

Dang, they beat us to it. Oh well, not like it's an actual race, I did my time in Crosscode, thanks.

<Astley> Maybe you'll be able to find what you're looking for in the Land of Sequoia after all!
<Reid> Yeah, not bad. Keep it up.
<Chloe> Good work, friend. Let's catch birds together, soon.
<Reid> I'd say it's about time you really start thinking hard about what that thing is. That thing you're here to find. The start of a new beginning? The making of new friends? ...The passage of time?
<Astley> Pfft, that stoic talk doesn't suit you. Besides, can't you see they're here for the same thing we are? Adventure!
<Reid> Hey! You told me you were here because you wanted to make a real difference!
<Astley> Haha whatever, same thing. Well, we're past the trial and into the real world now so I guess it's time to get serious. Do you know where you'll go from here?

Dogg I'll be real I played the demo and just thought this was fun and now here I am LPing it after at least three playthroughs.

Anyway, the other party heads off, but Talon lags behind a bit.

What, clearing the Trial Caves? Of course not. No, if I wanted to let things go to my head, I would've sequence broken out of the Spawning Meadows and scrapped my way to a far off town.

Okay later.

Yeah, just to really drive it home, everything we've done so far? Consisting of like... at least five updates? This is the very start of the game. We are still setting out proper. The demo isn't even over yet if you're playing that.

Up the stairs out we go. The lamps don't lead to secret treasures this time.

I even checked, all I got was a low ceiling to the face.

The Capital Courtyard, huh? Well, I can see a clear route for climbing to the left, so let's do that.

I can hear birdsong.

That explains it.

Not a lot in the Capital Courtyard.

And these doors are locked. So that's something we need to look for at some point.

Oh well. Clearly we need to go up the stairs to the real area.

Chloe is already enjoying her new fishing spot.

And here we are, the hub of civilization at the heart of Sequoia! There's a lot to do here, so let's take it a bit at a time.

Oh, and don't cause any trouble!

The small camps and Nan's lodge we've seen prior to this point are all baby stuff compared to this metropolis. Loads of vendors, some unique services, and more than a couple friendly faces to chat with all reside here.

Don't cause any double trouble.

And a fair few dumb jokes, of course.

If you got your shots you shouldn't have any trouble. Now outta my way, shorty!

Cool, we can go fishing now! That'd require backtracking to the Fish Hatchery though, and that's so far away...

This establishment right here is where the mechanics of the game will be explained in pretty thorough depth. Outside of staring directly at the code, every question you'd have about what this or that bonus does is answered in here.

Most of this is stuff I've already covered in length, but I'll still use this post for some grouping up of mechanical details.

Threat is already pretty well-established by now: it's aggro. When you damage an enemy, you gain Threat for that enemy equal to damage dealt. Healing earns Threat if you heal the top Threat of an enemy, and being below half health builds some Threat roughly equivalent to missing HP. You also shed some of your Threat at the start of each turn, and since this decay is percentile, tanks have to work extra hard to maintain high Threat levels.

Everyone starts a fight at 0 AP (Adrenaline Points) and has a cap of 30, whether monster or player character. You get 6 AP at the start of your turn, when PHYSICALLY damaged, and when you make a basic attack. Some abilities, like Focus Energy and Adrenaline, can get AP as well.

There are eleven types of weapons in the game, roughly grouped into three subsets. Swords, axes, daggers and rapiers are martial/common weapons. Katanas, spears, scythes and bows are "exotic" weapons that are rarer, more expensive, and less common to find compatibility for. Staffs, wands and books are caster-oriented weapons with generally lower Attack. Daggers, rapiers, katanas, and wands are always one-handed, spears, scythes, bows, staffs and books are always two-handed, and everything else can be either one or two-handed. Each one has their own little quirks, save for the gold standard of swords: axes have Variance, daggers have crit damage, rapiers have crit chance, katanas have AP gain/elemental typing/counter ignore, spears have Defense, scythes have Defense/Resist Piercing, bows have higher power but an Accuracy penalty, staffs have Spirit, wands have Mind, and books have Max MP. While individual weapons may have unique properties or even diverge from the expected statline of their family, every weapon type has a playstyle it supports.

Turn Time is what determines how fast characters act, and is reduced by the character's Speed stat. Every aut, TT for all participants ticks down by 1, and when it hits 0, that participant gets to act. Some status effects, like Slow or Haste, can modify how much TT any given turn gains. On the first turn of most fights, monsters have more TT and players have fewer, to prevent blindsides. CT, or Charge Time, adds the listed number to your TT between selecting a move and that move's activation.

All eight of the non HP/MP stats give bonuses outside of influencing ability scalars. Strength and Mind increase Defense and Resist Pierce respectively. Vitality and Spirit increase Defense and Resistance respectively, with Vitality also reducing damage over time effects and Spirit improving regen effects. Dexterity improves crit chance and damage. Agility improves both Accuracy and Evasion. Speed is covered above. Luck is complex, but generally actualizes the Gambler's Fallacy in your favor, improving the odds of any random chance element (Variance, dodging, crits, status applications) with a greater effect if you've had bad rolls before.

Poison, Burn, Bleed and all other forms of damage over time are percentile, but the higher an enemy's level, the more resistance they have to the effect. In short, expect the tick from damage over time to be roughly equivalent to a basic attack from a competent damage dealer. Vitality, as ever, plays a role in the damage taken, reducing it further.

Percentage bonuses from gear/passives are additive, but any effect that says in text "more" or "less" is multiplicative. So, for example, something that said "Deal 20% more crit damage" would multiply your base crit damage, while a +50% crit damage bonus would just staple on to it, with the two stacking to make a +60% damage increase. Bonuses are applied in the order of flat bonuses first, then additive, then multiplicative.

Most of this I've already covered and it's not worth repeating, but there are a few new bits here.

The Favorites menu is a shortcut to accessing certain consumables and/or tools without needing to futz with menus forever. You start out with Tonics as your only favorited item, and you can pull up the menu with Y on whatever controller I'm using. Having some items be a single button press away gets very convenient, with the Home Point Stone being a popular choice, but I have other plans for this.

Flames require you to not only leave the area (or die) to respawn, but also to get physically far away enough from their spawning range. The broad result here is that as long as you stick to one region, you shouldn't expect flames to come back. Boss flames never respawn.

The first few LP you get for each class comes significantly faster than others. This is "accelerated" LP. It's meant to get you a fundamental toolkit for the class without leaving you at reduced functionality for an extended period of time every time you get a new toy.

Fun fact: one of the mods for Crystal Project "modernizes" the vocab of the Capital Sequoia kids. I'm sure you can see why, and I should hope the mod is regularly updated.

Yeet is eternal though.

Candy's actually pretty excellent for a consumable since it's percentile, but that usefulness is held back by the low carry amount.

No.

The different gear shops are divided by the groupings listed above. So in this store, we'd get...

Light armor of all flavors, plus staffs, wands, and books at the other vendor.

There's also some treasure in the back alleys, but I don't see a good route there yet. It's still very early in our exploration here, give it time.

You don't say. She only sells stew, not the cocoa.

Capital Sequoia actually has two inns, relatively evenly spaced across the capital and both with a charming red door to indicate that it's an inn. That's nice!

But seriously, don't just assume this place is a shop hive. There is offroading and exploring to do even in the capital, and I'll make the most of it.

Rogue Hideout? I have a Rogue! Lemme in!

Hey, remember the Master Scholar back on Yamagawa? Capital Sequoia has masters for the six starting classes here, although all pretty out-of-the-way and requiring some clever platforming to reach. The Rogue Hideout is, ironically, one of the easier ones to find.

Also found in Capital Sequoia are the Craftwork bits of gear. There's one for every kind of weapon and armor, and it is strongly recommended to collect all of them for reasons that will rapidly become apparent. Statwise, the Craftwork Dagger isn't much stronger than Werdna's current Poisonkiss, but Poisonkiss also has, y'know, Poison on it, so we just have it for now and aren't using it.

Hard agree.

Let's see what else we can find!

Yo penguins?

Oh no they're lost!

We'll have to find their owner. Should also be in the capital.

Wheeeeeeee

Oh, just a concussed child. But yeah, chimneys are a fun way to find other secrets.

Another penguin atop this completely ignorable market stall.

From there, we can climb up and get another penguin. We could drop down to the back alley, but I'm gonna save the alleys for a later update, there's still a lot to see and this update's getting chunky.

There's Astley. We'll talk to her later.

Falling down this chimney leads to another floor of the Know-It-All Ducks school.

These concepts aren't super advanced, and honestly most of them cover stuff I've already covered. About the only thing worth highlighting is that physical stats like Accuracy, Evasion, crit chance and damage all apply only to physical attacks, not spells. If a spell has any of those properties, it will A: list them on the spell description, and 2: not use the according physical properties in the slightest. So no matter how high your Dexterity is or how sharp your dagger is, they don't affect a spell's crit chance or damage.

Across from them is a... withered looking place.

Do you need my help? Do you NEED ME TO... hurt you a little?

Sam the Sadist here offers a very... specialized service. For the low price of free, he can drop your entire team to critical HP. If you're relying on the White Knight innate of the Aegis, this can be a great way to set up for certain boss fights.

Like so!

Digested Heads... If you find three of them, bring me them.

I would, but we only got the two now. And as easy as they were to find, the third one is gonna be a WAYS off.

Anyway we all saw that Wizard up there let's go visit.

Two of six found here.

All the Master locations except Scholar for some reason have a special title. It's kinda cute.

My book now.

Again, avoiding the alleys for the moment. They're not super dangerous or anything, I'm just keeping myself from doing all of the Capital in one update.

Boy do they. Common weapons and rare weapons alike are sold here, not that we have much need for either. Our current equipment selection is great.

One curious omission, though: the Exotic Weapons Shop doesn't sell katanas. Not that we have any way of wielding them this early, so it's not a huge deal, but a randomizer run that started with an early katana user might find that class a bit of a problem early on.

I'm skipping over most of the inventory not because it's stuff we've already seen (it isn't) but because most of it is too expensive and not interesting enough to dive into.

The two most interesting pieces of kit here are the Samurai's Glove and the Prayer Beads. Samurai's Glove imparts Katana proficiency on the wearer, which isn't useful to us right now for the above reason, and the Prayer Beads amplify healing by 15%. That's one of the few +healing bonuses we've seen, so that's neat enough to bookmark, if perhaps not buy since we're doing fine on healing right now.

Before I forget, I really do need to heal, so.

Another Craftwork for the pile. Could technically compete with the Bone Smasher if I wanted Spirit over Attack right now, which I don't.

I'm gonna go check out the Rolling Quintar Fields to the east. I've never seen a real, live Quintar before!

A sound idea for a first time visitor. The Rolling Quintar Fields are the next expected area in the progression (although by no means required) and where I'll likely go for the next update absent any other suggestions.

REFUEL MY BLOOD

This price is a bit much, and if I really wanted to I could leap from the Capital Courtyard down to the Proving Meadows and sleep at the tent there for the same effects, then Home Point Stone myself back up here. This is the price I pay for expediency.

What are ya doin back there ya little scamp?

Consumables vendor, yay!

In addition to the fundamentals, he also sells Scrolls, which telegraphs another new class in the future, namely Ninjas. While we could stock up now, 2 silver a pop is a pretty expensive asking price for an unusable consumable.

Heavy and medium armors sold here, as well as shields.

It's dangerous outside this gate. You have to have collected at least 5 crystals before I'll let you exit the city from here.

We could sequence break past this guy pretty easily were we so inclined. I'm not gonna right now, but we COULD. Almost all "you must have this many crystals to ride" checkpoints can be bypassed if you're cool enough.

I'm sure you might be able to at least partially guess at how for now.

So that side of things was the Market District. Now we're going to the Bulletin District.

I wonder how long it'll be before enough people get pissed off and try to take him out.

Don't ask me, I literally just got here. Too noob for politics.

The Training Grounds here are basically a way to measure how well your burst damage builds are doing.

That's why I only ever level up as fast Classes!

True enough. Any bit of kit that reduces TT or CT, or improves Speed, is rare and valuable, with one particularly notable piece of kit being extremely valuable long after where you acquire it for just that reason. Anyway spoilers Ninjas are fast. Wow.

Before I fight the dummy, I'm gonna do some parkour.

There's our first katana. Again, incredibly strong on a randomizer run that really needs one of them to function. Pretty useless to the team now; at most, GUTS could equip it with the Samurai's Glove for...

A pretty minor offense boost and some better AP generation. Plus hardcoding his physical attacks to Fire, which can... kinda be useful sometimes.

Anyway, the dummies can't attack, full heal every turn, and telegraph their expected level when you fight them.

Now that we're out of the Delende baby demo zone, expect new tunes for all fights.

Well that was easy.

The first time you beat a dummy, the next one in the sequence spawns in, ten levels higher. The level cap is 60, so that's how many we can expect to have here. Maybe we get a secret prize if we beat them all.

More rooftop clambering leads us to another master!

Cool cool awesome awesome cool thanks.

(monk chamber monk chamber monk chamber)

There is so much I could explore I'm kinda at a loss. Why is the hub city so explorable? Why is this game so awesome?

CHIMNY.

HELLO HI HOW ARE YOU

<Receptionist> Everything okay in there?
<Gender Changer> No worries, dear friend! False alarm! Please resume work!
<Receptionist> Right-o!

Guess they gotta be sure J. K. Rowling doesn't try to climb in and ramble at them. Fair enough.

Anyway, this couple here can change your gender for a frankly terrifying cost of 50 silver. As you can see, it DOES have some slight bearing on your stats, albeit hardly enough of one to matter, and not nearly enough of one to pigeonhole any given gender of character to a specific role. If you're THAT concerned about minute stat efficiency, the option is there, but if you ask me 50 silver is way too much for that. Five silver would be plenty. At least once you've paid for a specific character to trans their gender, repeat changes for that character are free.

This building also handles growth changes!

Remember how I said stats for each character determine both growths and modifiers? This is what I mean by the growths. Every level you get can be reduced here and then freely reallocated to any other class you have unlocked, at a pretty reasonable price. As with the gender change up above, going back to any level configs you've had on that character before are free, and none of this tampers with your learned abilities or LP in any way. This makes for an excellent way to finetune stat growth for your characters to fit the role they're here for. Here, for example, you can see a hypothetical GUTS that began the game with his three Scholar levels, then immediately changed over to Fencer and spent the rest of the game there, modified by his current, "newly chosen" Warrior class. Not too different from before, just a little faster and frailer, and slightly better at casting. I'm probably not gonna screw with this too much, but this is one of the best respec systems I've seen in many a title.

If you're short on cash and long on patience, you can even level down here for free, and then go out and earn levels the old fashioned way. Could be fun if you're up against a boss you're clearly overleveled for and want to experience on par.

Little buddy.

The level of quality and price between this and the other inn is equal. Use whichever is closer to your entry point.

Instead of a Craftwork item, this inn has a penguin.

How can they expect people to have proper adventures without being able to afford a Quintar Pass? I'm outta here.

What's a Quintar Pass? I'm pretty sure I can just go into the Rolling Quintar Fields, don't need a pass for that.

Whatever they are, Astley doesn't tell us, just storms off.

Let's read the notices for ourselves.

Dang it's like whoever wrote this custom tailored it to hating the writer. That's commendable.

Okay, so with the old rule, we could get a Quintar Pass immediately after entering the Trial Caves. But now we have to go find three other crystals somewhere around here, huh? I will admit I can think of at least three directions we can go from here, but that's still a tall ask.

Speaking of steep crystal requirements...

Do not return until you have discovered at least six Crystals.

This is one of the few crystal requirement checkpoints you can't sequence break somehow. The Quintar Pass, though, that's a different story.

Next up is this place!

The Blacksmith is extremely important for any explorers for two reasons. The first, obviously, is that it's where you can upgrade some of your weapons and armor.

The second is that they only upgrade the Craftwork items. Each weapon or armor requires three bits of Silver, whether Ore, Ingots, or Dust. The Craftwork gear and their upgraded variants are one of the cheapest ways to get your gear to a "standard" level for the point where they can be accessed. This strongly incentivizes climbing all over Capital Sequoia, as well as grabbing as much silver as you can find afield. Later on, we'll unlock other upgrade levels, of course.

This is the most important store of all.

Damn, was hoping they had Draft Shaft Conduit. Maybe I missed that one somewhere in Seaside Cliffs. Whatever, that area's done and we can find it later. For now, I grab the maps for Skumparadise, Capital Courtyard, and Capital Sequoia. The other areas will be added to our list of spots to explore. Note the price differences: some of them are much more intended as your next destinations than others.

The Archivist can, for a price, fill out the bestiary entry for any enemy you've discovered (including steals and drops if you missed them) or highlight where you can find a specific entry you haven't seen yet. Are you a completionist? Great, he's helpful! I'm not a completionist.

That's nice.

Also, sometimes you might wish you could be learning Monster Magic even while you're not a Scholar. Perhaps this could come in handy?

Is it an accessory that grants the Learning passive?

Sure is! GUTS will be wearing this until and if he gets Learning from Scholar the usual way.

Yes I have.

This guy can trade up any map scraps we find, given enough of them, to make maps for areas like the Underpass.

We won't be doing this for a while.

The Rolling Quintar Fields are right this way. Could buy the map for 'em, but I'll wait until next update to see if that's where we're going.

Yeah yeah penguin pen whatever THERE'S AN ITEMANCER CLASS HOOOOOAGH. Slamming this right onto the to do list.

Oh there's also Beastmaster that's cool I guess.

It's not a penguin so I consider this justified.

...Oh wow! Look! Those are some of my penguins! You've found them for me!

Thanks for finding some of my penguins! Please accept this token of my appreciation.

You're so nice! I have a handful of my penguins back! Please accept this reward.

Because we'd found as many as seven penguins, we get two rewards. The first is a Decent Cod, which as established is a pretty good healing consumable.

The second is this vicious piece of work. Prodder is an extremely strong spear this early on for anyone that can use it, and GUTS happily accepts it. Usually, spears don't pack the defense of using a shield with another weapon, but this one's stronk enough to make up for the shield loss here. Plus, Speed on gear and some MP drain! This is a good damn weapon!

So we did! There are still a fair few more around the Capital to find, of course, but this is a good start.

This Hunter is running around the edge of the hedge maze up here.

Leave it to me I got this.

This looks like the site of a mechanic for growing things that I lack the resources and patience to engage with right now.

Well would you look at that.

Anyway, the hedge maze isn't actually solvable, and that's by design: at the "end" of it is Castle Sequoia, which we will not be dealing with for a long time. But we can still fight the enemies inside and loot the treasures.

I'm so glad I have the Learner's Pin now.

Like the Indecent Dweller before it, the Improper Imp is a dick joke that's also an avenue for getting one of the more niche Monster Magic spells.

In its case, it's the spell Insult, aka Magic Taunt. Absolutely no reason for GUTS to use it, but some builds might like it. For the record, Threat doesn't do anything for enemies: we retain our ability to freely target.

More Craftwork stuff! Nowhere near useful compared to Prodder, but hey, more spears good.

Yeah that's fair.

Got ourselves another immunity bit here, this one for Poison. It also grants some Agility, which is nice.

The Improper Imps notably have very high Evasion, so guaranteed accuracy moves like Feathercut, Thunder Chop or spells are the way to go here.

This ought to be the last of these things.

Filling out the collection real nice.

Frieren works on her Shaman moveset some more, grabbing Instability. I also got Pocket Sand as a new passive for Werdna, not that he's going to need it for some time.

You're pretty chill. You wanna join the secret boomer society? I'll give you the password. It's overalls.

Thanks? I have no idea what this "secret boomer society" is and frankly I think I want to dismantle it just by hearing it but thanks.

I swear we're nearly done.

This is arguably the most important place to visit in all of Capital Sequoia. (Very arguably, this place has a lot of value.)

See, this is Gaea Shrine, and Shrines in Crystal Project serve one extremely important service in this game...

FAST TRAVEL!!!

Almost every Shrine in the game has an attendant who will sell you either Shards or Stones depending on your budget. Both warp you back to the Shrine in question, although Stones are the higher priority as they're reusable. They're another popular option for the favorites menu, and any serious explorer will make a point of getting these stones as soon as possible. This frees up our Home Point to go to all sorts of places now, with the Gaea Stone on deck letting us bounce back to civilization at will.

Gaea Shrine also offers four free samples if you're unwilling or unable to shell out for a Gaea Stone.

One last place to explore, but here's the map of Capital Sequoia for now. Two of the three stamps I've placed indicate where the class masters we've found are, I just got the Wizard completely wrong.

Finally, the Deity of Wind makes their home behind Gaea Shrine. Another point for our future Summoner to check out, once we find that class. The level is no less intimidating.

But wow that's a lot of stuff to check out! From here, as mentioned, I'll probably go explore Rolling Quintar Fields next, but one could also try to sneak past the west guard, or explore the back alleys for even more treasure. If I put all the stuff you could do in Capital Sequoia in one post we'd be here all day.

TO DO:

• Build the perfect starting team.
• Explore Spawning Meadows.
  • Prove the existence of black squirrels.
  • Try to find another route out of Spawning Meadows.
• Explore Delende.
  • Cross the bridge to the Proving Meadows.
  • Explore the Fish Hatchery.
  • Explore the Pale Grotto.
    • Defeat Guardian.
    • Find the Slate Crystal.
    • Find the Fencer class.
  • Explore the Soiled Den.
    • Defeat Bone Thief.
    • Trade an Earth Bangle to Huntie.
  • Explore the Basement of the Cabin on the Cliff.
    • Defeat Gran.
  • Find the dogs' bones.
• Explore Seaside Cliffs.
  • Trade 13 Clamshells to Manana Man.
  • Find a rare monster that drops an Earth Bangle.
  • Explore Draft Shaft Conduit.
    • Defeat Canal Beast.
    • Find the Violet Crystal.
    • Find the Shaman class.
• Explore Proving Meadows.
  • Find three crystals.
  • Defeat Knight.
  • Explore the Trial Caves.
    • Find the Yellow Crystal.
    • Find the Aegis class.
    • Explore Skumparadise.
      • Defeat Parasite.
• Explore Yamagawa M.A.
  • Defeat Sepulchra.
  • Find the Aquamarine Crystal.
  • Find the Scholar class.
    • Find every Monster Magic spell.
    • Prove our skill to the Master Scholar.
• Explore the Capital Courtyard.
  • Find the Courtyard Key.
• Explore Capital Sequoia.
  • Find all the penguins.
  • Find all the Craftwork gear.
  • Obtain the Gaea Stone.
  • Clear the hedge maze of Improper Imps.
  • Find a way past the hedge maze.
  • Enter the Luxury shop.
  • Get past the guard on the west gate.
  • Defeat all the training dummies.
  • Find three Digested Heads for Sam the Sadist.
  • Prove our skill to the Master Monk.
  • Prove our skill to the Master Rogue.
  • Prove our skill to the Master Wizard.
• Explore the Rolling Quintar Fields.
• Explore the Underpass.
  • Find enough Underpass Scraps for a map.
• Find the Summoner class.
  • Challenge the Deity of Fire.
  • Challenge the Deity of Wind.
• Find the Mimic class.
• Find the Hunter class.
• Find the Dervish class.
• Find the Ninja class.
• Find the Chemist class.
• Find the Beastmaster class.