Talking to Roufas presents Emelia with a proposition: infiltrate the Trinity Base, as part of the Base's leader, Yaruto's, harem, to get a lead on Joker and Cube. Emelia is disgusted and outright refuses Roufas' plan! She may be a model, but she's no floozy! That night, Emelia talks things over with Liza during dinner. Unfortunately, the obstinate Roufas has drugged Emelia and sent her off to Trinity Base anyway! Yikes.
Note: Be warned before attempting Roufas' next assignment! There are three recruitable characters in the next mission. If they join, and Emelia already has 13-15 character slots filled, the two/three characters on the back-end of the regular party will be displaced and lost forever to make room for the new ones! If this is the case, make absolutely sure to position those characters you want to lose in the final three party slots (In the third battle party) and remove all of their equipment (Or opt not to recruit the three new characters at all, but that is HIGHLY inadvisable!). This is a problem that is totally unique to Emelia's game and not found in any of the other character games.
Emelia comes to onboard the Trinity Base, already thrown into being apart of said harem, dressed in a new Dancer costume, and forced to dance with some other, possible familiar-looking, ladies. The nasty Yaruto has taken a liking to the new blonde bombshell, but so has the sinister Joker! Thankfully, before either can get their grubby mitts on her, someone, or something, has attacked Trinity Base! The lights go out, an alarm sounds, and Emelia is alone when the lights return. Exit the room to the south, then make sure you save your game before approaching the two females at the bottom of the screen! Of course, if you do not wish to recruit any of the new characters, you can ignore them.
Note: Emelia's new Dancer costume provides her with the same skill set as Annie. Annie's talent for guns and magic are as abysmal as Emelia's; so stick with Liza and the Pink Tiger costume for those, however, Annie and the Dancer outfit have an edge in sparking sword abilities and some martial skills that Liza and Pink Tiger do not.
Fellow "dancers" Asellus and White Rose are being attacked by monsters! The two are terrible ill-equipped for battle, which means that Emelia will have to account for the majority of the offense. If you're unlucky, and draw some tough enemies like I did above, you'll be in for a difficult battle. Hopefully you saved like I suggested and can reload your game if you get an unfavorable battle. Afterward, both Asellus and White Rose join your party! They also speculate that their ally, Zozma, is responsible for the monsters inside Trinity Base. Maybe we'll join up with him, too.
Note: Despite being a temporary playable character in a few other character games, White Rose is, permanently, exclusive to Emelia's game.
Both White Rose and Asellus come possessing some notable pieces of equipment, too. White Rose comes preloaded with a FlowerAmulet accessory, that you can buy in Kyo, but this freebie will save you some Credits as it is not found elsewhere. For Asellus' weapon, she has a semi-rare FiendRod sword, which is generally only available via enemy drop and will save you some effort of acquiring one. Itself, the FiendRod is barely adequate early with 13 attack, but beware not to use its special FinalStrike ability in battle or the weapon will shatter and be lost to you!
Asellus also possesses a much-rarer, and useful, ShadeRobe for armor. This armor is limited to monster drop (And one VERY unreasonable, life-threatening option!) so we're lucky to get one from her. While very light as armor, with a paltry +9 to physical defenses, but decent +24 to all others, along with a reasonable +9 to Will, its usefulness comes in the form of the MagicHeal ability. You may already be familiar with this as a monster ability, but it recovers a great amount of HP and can even heal undead monster forms, also! It's fairly useless to equip to a mec (+20 HP), however, giving them the option to recover HP with MagicHeal is certainly something to consider. Lastly, Asellus has a SilkShirt which is a limited piece of equipment in the game.
Note: Back in Baccarat, if you fought the Gargantu boss and are set to receive the "bad" ending, you can equip Asellus now with the PurpleEye accessory you received and it will allow her to cast the PhantasmShot Mystic-based spell. She can use this to begin learning Mystic magic now instead of waiting to purchase it at a later point in the game.
Note: The opposite school of magic for Evil is Mind, however, since mystics cannot obtain Mind magic, no decision must be made.
Note: Zozma's initial Mystic weapon absorb of the monster LiquidMetal should be kept until you can find more powerful monsters later in the game. It has better statistics than a basic LiquidMetal monster, at +15 Strength, Intelligence, Will, and Vitality.
Note: You may be tempted to start fighting the many enemies in the area and allocate them to your new party member's Mystic weapons, but the majority of the ones encountered in this dungeon are mystic-types and can't be absorbed at all! Once we're back out in the world, we'll do some exploration to best outfit our mystic friends, so for now, try to keep avoiding as many battles as you can.
Continue eastward, then take the first set of stairs downward, twice, then down the stairs to the southwest. Enter the nearby door and you'll see a glowing treasure. Save your game as this is the perfectly opportunity to obtain a rare drop! Searching the treasure is a guaranteed spawn of the LivingArmor monster whom carries a rare, and very useful, piece of armor. Living monsters are nearly impossible to frequently encounter outside of the Mu's Tomb chests, so don't waste this chance! Keep fighting the battle until you eventually emerge with the LivingArmor item. It has an excellent +26 defense across the board and is better than anything you likely have at the moment. The LivingArmor is not bad for mecs, either, with a +65 to HP and +13 Psychic and Vitality. If you don't pick this up now, it'll present a big headache for you to find it later!
Asellus being apart of our group presents us an opportunity to recruit a new character; or at least obtain a very useful item. Head for the Koorong port and ship-off to Owmi. Revisit the Lord's Manor and down into the basement dungeon we previously explored. Remove the DevilSquid roadblock from the stairwell and enter the left-most door at the bottom. Approach the pool and the mystic, Mesarthim, whom is a friend of Asellus will appear. She'll offer to either join you or give you an item. I would recommend taking Mesarthim along, if at anything, because she provides another Rune mastery character that is limited to Emelia, Liza, and Annie in this particular scenario. If you decide to take the item, you'll receive the excellent, and rare, SeaStone accessory.
Note: In other games, the recruitment of Mesarthim can sometimes be hindered by the mystic character, Silence, if he is already in your party. Asellus' presence with Emelia should eliminate this possibility regardless of Silence being in the party, however, I am going upon memory. If I am wrong about this, please let me know. Thanks.
If recruited, Mesarthim comes with a few notable pieces of equipment. If you didn't get one from the Frillnecks in the previous chapter, she comes with a free BlueElf armor to plunder. The ShadowDagger, while very weak, can be a bit scarce. We'll find one in a chest later and there is a limited window to purchase them, as well, but otherwise is not easy to come by. You may want to stick the ShadowDagger in an empty mystic's weapon slot even if not planning to use it as it does provide a +3 to a character's Psychic that is not raised naturally. The MellowRing accessory is a piece that is exclusive to Mesarthim. It grants her a +21 defense to heat and cold attacks, and also makes her completely invulnerable to water-based ones. Because of this, switch her BlueElf armor, which is also water-proof, to another character. Remarkably, the MellowRing also grants Mesarthim the LifeRain ability that restores the entire party's HP (Minus her) at the cost of 1 LP. This is excellent for emergencies, but should be used sparingly! Even more, when Mesarthim has acquired the MysticBoots weapon, the accessory gains the ability to cast Maelstrom that you should already be familiar with from the DevilSquid. Excellent!
If you prefer the item, the SeaStone is one of the absolute best in the game. It has complete water protection, and when equipped on a mystic who has MysticBoots learned, can produce the Maelstrom ability just like the MellowRing. It also grants a +7 to a character's Psychic and Vitality along with a +3 to all defenses besides heat, cold, force, and status that receive a +23. Even though this is an outstanding accessory, don't pick it over Mesarthim lightly. The SeaStone can be farmed fairly easy a little later on.
So now, unless you picked up Silence already, we have 4 (Including Asellus) mystics in our party, so let's talk about them for a moment. For an in-depth explanation of the race, be sure to head back over to the Prologue chapter. The biggest handicap of mystics is their forced use of the MysticMail armor that cannot be removed, however, it is not without its good benefits. It protects them completely from sleep and statuses such as angry, charm, and mess and has reasonable defenses at +23 mostly, but only a +13 to heat, cold, and electric. All mystics innately posses the gift for Mystic-based magic, also. In regards to available Mystic magic, Fascination is a simple charm spell I don't think is worth a spell slot, but the other three spells in the school should be learned as soon as possible. PhantasmShot deals a fair amount of damage, but also has the ability to inflict status effects depending on the creature that is conjured up by the spell. The amount of creatures you can summon is determined by Will, Psychic, and Charm stats. At higher numbers, the spell can produce petrify and instant-death effects.
GlassShield is an extreme effective defense spell that moonlights as a counter-offensive attack, as well. When set up, it will completely defend a character against ANY physical attack that is directly aimed at the character alone; but only once. If said attack is one where an enemy is said to make "contact" with the character, then the glass shatters and counterattacks the foe for incredible damage. MirrorShade is a nifty spell that deploys decoy targets amongst your party. Especially effective against single-targeting monsters, it loses all usefulness if the enemy is able to damage large areas at once.
Back outside Mesarthim's pool room, let's go ahead and farm the DevilSquid for a unique drop; although if you want, you can come back and do this at anytime. The DevilSquid carries one of two rare items, but we're only really looking for one: the OgreGlove. This is a good piece of equipment for mystics handing them a +10 to their Strength, but is lacking defensively compared to the buyable CyberGlove or ShellBracer you should already have. The OgreGlove is excellent for mecs, though, providing a lofty +100 HP and +20 to Strength/Vitality. Bring your monsters along to the battles and see if they can snag Maelstrom from the obstinate Squid, too; it is one of only two enemies in the game that carry it. If you happen to get the DevilSquid's rarer item, the SH-Armlet, even better, but we can find it easier on another monster when the time presents itself.
As mentioned earlier, Asellus lacks any Mystic-based magic spells to start learning other ones she is capable of. Instead of waiting until later in the game to buy them, we can pick up an accessory that can help us overcome her deficit: the PurpleEye (Which you already have if you choose the "bad" ending in the previous chapter). You can buy the PurpleEye in Manhattan, at an overwhelming 8000 Credits, if you like, but I prefer to get mine through drops. We're in luck because a guaranteed monster encounter can drop it for us; albeit rarely. Head back to Koorong and then over to Shingrow. Enter the Ruins section to the upper-left of the area map and climb the fallen tree to the right-side of the screen into the Ancient Ship dungeon. Take the northern exit, then pass by the mec and search the door that has been overgrown with vegetation to open it and explore beyond. The following room contains special bat-type monsters and battle with them produces a varying amount of Sonicbats each time. Their rarest drop is the PurpleEye we're looking for. Equipping the PurpleEye to Asellus will allow her to cast the Mystic-based PhantasmShot spell and thus learn other Mystic magic naturally through it. On its own, the PurpleEye is a fantastic accessory to have besides the allocated magic. It has a +4 defense against all types of attacks, besides status which is at a +14, and completely protects the bearer from gaze-type attacks. In addition, the PurpleEye provides an extra +7 to Psychic and a +50 to mec HP and +10 to their Psychic stat.
Sonicbats have a 100% chance, if they do not drop any of their other items, to drop the BeastLeather armor, whose availability is drop-only, and this is the best place to find it in the game, as well. There are many other monsters that carry this, though, and besides being only available from enemy drop, it has no redeeming qualities as armor unless it is all you have. If we weren't handcuffed by rising battle ranks, or if you don't care, you could easily farm Sonicbats for BeastLeather and then pawn them for 100 Credits in Koorong. Sonicbats will drop other buyable accessories the BloodChalice and WingAmulets if you want to collect some of them, also, but beware your BR rising! The Supersonic and Scream monster abilities the Sonicbats carry are great additions, too.
At this point, you should be at battle rank 5 and likely pushing, or at, 6, depending on how much you fought at the Trinity Base. Let's go ahead and take a look at the rare drops and monster abilities to look for at BR 5 before we progress further. To start, we need to learn how to respawn the special small and large treasure chests in Mu's Tomb; this is where we got the GoldIngot and Magihat earlier on. To do so, we need to draw certain fortunes in Devin. This is very simple and just requires a bit of patience. Each time you exit Devin's skyport (Just the port itself, not actually flying out and in) the fortune teller's fortunes are randomized. The great thing is all the town's fortunes are interconnected and always relate to one another; that means that if one teller has a certain fortune, all other ones in the area are guaranteed to have a specific one. Look for the skeleton psychic who is in the center, fountain area of Devin. He gives a fortune based upon the weather, and since he's the closest teller to reach from the port, always talk to him to know which of the town's fortunes are being currently drawn. We need for him to predict "rain" and "hail" to reproduce the treasures in Mu's Tomb. If rain, enter the giant-type, palm-reader to the north of town (pictured) and he'll give the you the fortune of "hamster"; this will respawn the small chest immediately. For the large chest to respawn, look for "hail" weather and visit the plant psychic on the northeastern-end of town and have it draw the "blue violet" fortune. That's all there is to it: you can repeat this as many times as needed to infinitely reproduce the treasures.
Note: Living or artifact-type monsters frequently accompany other monster parties throughout the game, but if you want to make things easier for yourself, I highly recommend that you use the small chest to try to produce these battles now. I know it's a huge hassle to have to return to Devin and respawn the chest again, but it will save you time and effort not having to look for these enemies later.
As you can see in the above screenshot, possession of the LivingSword results in the weapon, Glirandly, being locked in your character's inventory. The only way to rid yourself of it is to use its FinalStrike ability that destroys the weapon.
While searching for the LivingSword, look for its kin, LivingMusket (BR6), to show up, also. This one is much easier and without flaw: just let it possess you to obtain the LivingRifle; removable and all! It has an excellent +42 attack and +9 to Psychic, making it very useful for a mystic, as well as human. The Rifle is incredibly useful for mecs, too, boosting their stats by a +13 across the board! Try your best to absorb the monster skill, Tackle, from the Musket, too. It becomes a hard-to-find ability later, just like BladeNet.
We need female, mystic-type monsters now. There is one right at the entrance of Sei's Tomb, still in Shrike, and many more further inside we can use to our advantage. Again, we're looking for two monster abilities: Thrust and Assist, carried by the Mellow enemy. Thrust is an easy-to-acquire, and you likely already have, basic ability, but you'd be surprised how few monsters have it available to learn later on. Assist, however, is very rare and be prepared to put in a grind to acquire it for your monster. Unfortunately, while Assist (Same effect as a LuckyCoin) sounds like an excellent monster ability to use, after each round, the effect loses 20% of its ability until it dissipates completely; therefor you are only getting a real benefit during the round it is cast. Still, for those that want the maximum amount of HP for their monsters, it needs to be absorbed.
Note: If you happen to get lucky enough to pick up a SplashSword from a Mellow, make sure to save! At the next rank will we be looking for them.
Note: Nightshades still show up at later battle ranks with other creatures, so gathering additional LifeCandy is not out of he question, however, it is much easier to do this with the Nightshade being the leader monster at battle rank 5.
Personally, I ran into a huge problem trying to come up with the next monster ability. I tried beast-type monsters in every dungeon I could and none of them would produce anything besides a Unicorn (BR7) enemy. Not exactly a bad problem to have considering the Unicorn's great abilities, but it wasn't what I was looking for. The Hellhound and its FlameBlast ability were the targets needed. Thankfully, these, along with Red Dragons, who also have the ability (And only two), can spawn with male, mystic-types at BR 6 and 7 (Outside of a dungeon, like the above Shingrow Ruins) and I had to resort to this method. It's doubtful you have this problem and can just find a Hellhound still in the Lord's Manor basement. The side room, two floors up from the bottom of the plant-filled one, that had a MaxCure and RubberShoes treasure inside it on the previous visit, has two beast-type monsters you can use for your search. FlameBlast is a very good ability to have! It deals more damage than FireBreath, but has a fan-style attack range extending outward from the character that can somewhat limit it.
Note: If you have interest in ShadowDaggers, which you will find in a chest soon, and have one if you recruited Mesarthim, at BR5, look for the Shadow monsters from the human-type enemies in the backstreets of the Koorong sewers to drop them.
With the current battle rank items and abilities out of the way, let's talk about some useful Mystic weapon absorbs we can take advantage of at this rank, as well. At battle rank 5, in terms of statistical boosts, I'll list some monsters worth specifically tracking down to absorb into your Mystic weapons with recommend weapon for their most useful ability in parenthesis. Note, again, that Zozma's initial LiquidMetal absorb should be kept!
- ApeRider (Beast): +10 all stats but Charm. (Glove)
- Hellhound (Beast): +12 Strength, Quickness, Vitality (Sword)
- Scorpion (Bug): +11 Strength, Will, Vitality (Boots)
- Axebeak (Bird): +15 Strength, Vitality (Boots)
- Gaeatoad (Aquatic): +30 Vitality (Sword/Boots)
- LivingSword (Artifact): +20 Strength, Intelligence (Boots!)
- LivingMusket (Artifact): +25 Will (Boots!)
Recommend Abilities:
- LivingSword (Artifact): Assassinate (Boots)
- LivingMusket (Artifact): Assassinate (Boots)
- FrillNeck (Aquatic): SpreadBlaster (Glove)
- Unknown (Slime): SpreadBlaster (Glove)
- DevilSquid (Lord's Manor): TigerRampage (Glove), Thunderbolt (Boots)
- Sonicbat (Ancient Ship): Oscillation (Sword)
- WhipJelly (Slime): MagicHeal (Sword)
- IceCrystal (Slime): Crystalizer (Glove)
- Zombie (Undead)/Gaeatoad (Aquatic): Bloodsucker (Sword)
- Knife (If you didn't recruit Lute)
- BroadSword (If you aren't going to recruit Gen)
- KukriBlade
- WaterCannon
- HardLeather (If you didn't recruit Lute or BR9 System Data Mei-ling)
- BeamCannon
- LightBazooka (If you wanted more than the one you got in Despair)
- BrokenBumper
With the exception of the BrokenBumper, all of these items will eventually be displaced by the rising ranks of the item pool, however, as mentioned before, this does not make them missable as you can manipulate a glitch in the game to have them be available here again (See the Prologue chapter). Now we're ready to proceed with the Rune quest again, so make your way back to Shrike and return to Mu's Tomb.