Potato Flowers in Full Bloom

Potato Flowers in Full Bloom

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II: Guide to Solo Wizard
By changtau2005
Full walkthrough for a fancier potato caster
   
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Preface
This is a 100% walkthrough of the game using only a single Wizard. By 100%, I mean we would be able to explore the whole map, pick up all the treasures and beat every single mob, in order to complete all beastiary entries and item drops. This is the second solo walkthrough, after the Sorcerer's.

This was made for version 1.0, so if you're playing a future version, some skills may be different. As of v1.02, there are no significant changes, but please check the game's changelogs if you need all the details.

I think half the fun in a solo attempt or any challenge run is in figuring out the steps yourself. So if you're a veteran of dungeon crawlers, I'd suggest giving it a good shot yourself first, and only refer to this walkthrough if you get stuck.

Note: The English names of items may be different to what's written in the game, for reasons already stated in the Sorcerer walkthrough. There shouldn't be any ambiguity in I'm talking about at all because I will be very specific about the item's stats and effects.
Skill Build
This walkthrough uses the following skill build. No skill resets necessary. It's fine if you want to do things a bit differently, but be careful before you gain access to the skill reset mechanism, because it is possible to lock yourself out of further progression.

Skill points: Total | Status | Name

Early game 序盤
- 2 2/3 Fireball 火球
- 4 2/2 Firewall 炎の壁 (max)
- 8 4/6 Magician's Spell 魔法使いの詠唱術
- 11 3/4 Magic Reserve 魔力温存
- 13 2/3 Magic Barrier 魔法の障壁
- 14 1/1 Tome of Fire 炎の書 (max)
- 15 3/3 Fireball 火球 (max)
- 17 6/6 Magician's Spell 魔法使いの詠唱術 (max)

Midgame 中盤
- 18 1/1 Tome of Water 水の書 (max)
- 20 2/2 Icicle 氷柱 (max)
- 21 1/2 Tailwind 追い風
- 22 1/4 Windblade 風の刃
- 23 1/4 Stone Crush 石つぶて
- 24 1/3 Freeze 凍結
- 25 1/1 Tome of Wind 大気の書 (max)
- 26 4/4 Magic Reserve 魔力温存 (max)
- 27 3/3 Magic Barrier 魔法の障壁 (max)
- 29 3/3 Freeze 凍結 (max)
- 32 3/3 Snowdrift aka Blizzard 地吹雪 (max)
- 33 1/1 Tome of Earth 地の書 (max)
- 36 4/4 Stone Crush 石つぶて (max)

Endgame 終盤
- 37 1/3 Rain of Fire 火の雨
- 38 1/3 Rain of Thorns 降り注ぐ茨
- 40 2/2 Entangling Vines からみつく蔦 (max)
- 42 2/2 Upheaval 隆起 (max)
- 44 3/3 Rain of Thorns 降り注ぐ茨 (max)

Ultra endgame 最終盤
- 45 1/3 Northern Wind Weapon 北風の武器
- 46 2/2 Tailwind 追い風 (max)
- 49 4/4 Windblade 風の刃 (max)
- 50 1/3 Gravity Field aka Force Field 重力場
- 51 1/3 Levitation 浮遊
- 52 1/2 Staff Fighter 杖使い

Remaining points not used. I just made sure we have at least one point in all skills, in case we need to test things, or if there's future content etc.
- 54 3/3 Rain of Fire 火の雨 (max)
- 56 2/2 Chain Lightning 連鎖する稲妻 (max)
- 57 2/2 Staff Fighter 杖使い (max)
- 58 1/3 Flame Weapon 火炎の武器
- 59 1/3 Hard Weapon 高硬度の武器
- 60 1/3 Frost Weapon 降霜の武器

Preliminary analysis of solo Wizard:

Summons. No innate summon available. That makes the Wizard what I call a 'pure solo' class. That said, there's a staff in the late game that can summon in skeletons, if we absolutely need something else on the field.

Counter or damage reflection. Like the Sorcerer, the Wizard has access to Firewall, the only counter spell in the game.

AOE damage. The Wizard is the king of AOE damage, possessing no fewer than eight AOE spells, covering fire, pierce, and other-elemental, with various conditions and bonuses. Four of these require 2-turn channeling, the other four do not. Windblade is our only source of slash damage, but it is very weak against non-flying targets.

Reliable nuke. Fireball, Icicle, and Stone Crush. covering pierce, fire, and crush damage. Using the Staff of the Water Mirror, Icicle could be reduced to 0MP cost, giving the Wizard an indefinite source of MAG-scaling damage.

HP sustain. Wizard has no innate healing. This makes getting the Potion Belt, Shield of the Great Tree, and Protector's Sword high priority goals in a solo run.

MP sustain. The four tome skills reduce elemental skill costs by 1MP. Stacking with the corresponding staff reduces them by 1MP further. The obvious weakness of this setup is that these staves only reduce the cost of a single element, on top of being mutually exclusive with staves that increase elemental damage as well as all other shields and weapons.

Damage reduction. Like the Sorcerer, Wizard has access to Magic Barrier, a flat 90% reduction spell on a 4-turn cooldown. Additionally, Wizard has Tailwind, a powerful durational buff that reduces all ranged damage by 50% for 4-6 turns. Wizard has innate Freeze, which is an extremely fast-casting spell, meaning the Wizard can shut down most other dangerous enemy skills and instantly gain initiative. 8-turn cooldown. A very well-rounded set of active defenses.

Dodge. +5 eva from Tome of Air. Stacking with the Dragonhunter's Greatsword (+50 eva) and the Reckless Garb (+40 eva) makes the wizard have +95 eva, which is twice as good as the base +90 eva for most other classes against general enemies that have 100 to hit. This is an ultra late-game setup that's only relevant against very specific encounters.

The Wizard's main strength is that she has access to every single damage type in the game except poison, in the form of potent single and multi-target nukes, on top of having TWO independent freeze spells. Her drawback is that she lacks a charge move like Magic Burn to amplify her nukes, and her best AOEs are extremely expensive in MP and come with long channeling times and cooldowns attached. Compared to Sorcerer, the Wizard is dependent on having a large-enough mana pool to operate, due to her lack of Auto-Suggestion.
Chap 01: Seeking the 2nd Floor
The process for getting through the first floor is really cut and dry because we won't have enough skill points to do anything interesting at this stage. Start by creating your wizard. Then create a rogue, fully unequip him, and dismiss him if you wish. It isn't strictly necessary to create this second character, but his shield may help if you're having trouble with certain groups early in the game.

Now head back to the Hollow Below the Cliff and pick up a medium armor with 14DEF and a trophy from two chests near the entrance. Now head to the main dungeon. You should be able to pick up a short sword and 100 iron without fighting any mobs.

The strategy for this entire floor is identical to what we're using for solo sorcerer. However, the skill thresholds for key spells are different because our skill tree is different.

Put on the medium armor. Fight the single level 0 rat by whacking it twice with the starter staff. Pick up the 100 iron from the chest behind the rat. Now return to base and repeat by fighting this rat until we're level 1. Put both skill points we have into Fireball. Now keep beating the rat using either the staff or level 2 fireball until we're level 4. Put both skill points into Firewall.

Now we can add the group of 3 rats to our routine. Beat the single rat, get behind the group of 3. Cast firewall and guard. Pick up robes from the chest they were guarding. Now fight the slime+rat group by casting firewall. Then whack the slime with our staff. Repeat until we're level 5. Put the skill point into Magician's Spell for a 20% MAG increase.

Now head to the Hollow Below the Cliff instead and farm the single level 10 skeleton mob, who can drop 500 iron. Just firewall. Do this until we're level 8. This is so that we have enough HP for the upcoming fight.

Now we're ready to take on the Apprentice Wizard. Head straight to the slime+rat group upon entering the dungeon, take them out, and engage this group.

Start by casting Firewall. The opening in the screenshot is the best one available, where the rats aren't using specials or dodges, and the wizard isn't using Icicle. Under this specific opening, we can actually win at level 7.

Then just follow up with fireballs until we take out the wizard.

Try to get the Freezing Wand from him. It increases the damage of the Icicle spell by 20%. This is a core wizard spell.

Now we need to unlock the shortcut. It's being blocked by this group of 4 rats. Equip the shortsword and the shield, and engage them head-on. Make sure you're using the medium armor with +14DEF from the Hollow Below the Cliff.

We want an opening like this one, where not too many of them are using specials. Just firewall and they'll wipe themselves out. Pick up the 100 iron from the chest, unlock the shortcut, and raise the portcullis. We now have a direct path to the second floor.

Head back to base before heading down the stairs.
Chap 02: Powerleveling to 20
Start by talking to the injured elf. You should be able to pick up a shortbow from a chest in a 1x1 room without fighting any groups.

The dead end here has a hidden door. Open it to reveal a 2x1 room with a chest containing the Indomitable Cutlass, which will be the best 1-handed weapon we'll be seeing for a while.

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Now we need to engage 3 groups of bats and slimes, starting from this pair from just beyond a doorway.

These bats can use Energy Drain. Run away until you get an opening where none of them are using it. Then just cast firewall and they'll knock themselves out.

Do exactly the same thing for the next group of bat+bat+slime, then engage the last group of 3 bats + slime from the side. For this last group, cast firewall and guard.

Past this door, there should be a room with a treasure chest we can reach without engaging a group of 4 bats from the front, which is a dangerous proposition right now. Inside this chest is a stone weight. Now head back upstairs to the pulley area and put this into the NW pulley. Now head back downstairs and retrieve the second weight from the chest, which should now be accessible.

Now head upstairs again, retrieve the weight from the NW pulley, and put the two weights into the N and SW pulleys. Head back downstairs and you should be able to access a new area to the west. Ignore the group of slimes to the east for now. We need at least one more level at minimum before we can fight them.

Head into the western area but don't fight the merfolk. Instead, there should be a door leading into a roomful of mandrakes.

This isn't a difficult fight so there are lots of ways to go about this. I'm casting firewall because two enemies are attacking us. Just don't attack the mandrakes when they're in the ground. Otherwise just one-shot them with the Cutlass.

We only need to defeat one group to get the mandrake leaf for the injured elf, but these guys are easy so clear the entire room to get to the door behind them. Unlock the shortcut and retrieve the leather armor from the chest. It's not better than what we're currently wearing other than the fact that it doesn't have the -100 fire resistance.

Now head back to the injured elf to give her the leaves and she'll give us her boots in return. She'll head back upstairs herself. You can talk to her and check her shop inventory next time you see her. Now head back to the merfolk room, head up the stairs, and jump down the ledge. Explore the area without engaging anyone and you should come to a room with a rack of spears with a Greatsword hidden inside. Eventually we'll wrap back to just north of where the elf was where there's a lever to raise the portcullis for a shortcut.

Before heading upstairs, open this hidden door for a chest containing Heavy Greaves, a set of heavy armor.

Take the new set of northwestern stairs back up to the first floor and talk to the goblin NPC. You can buy a trophy from him if you wish. Now pick up Plate Armor+4 at the end of a raised passageway. There are also Daggers+3 at the southern end of a long corridor at the eastern edge of the map.

Head back to base and put on the Robes, which we've gotten from the chest behind the three rats from before. You should have 26MP. Make sure you're using a staff for the MAG bonus from Magician's Spell. If you're following the skill build, this should be at level 4.

Now engage this group of wolf+slime from the front. Just cast firewall and guard. Pick up a trophy from a chest in the area.

Before engaging the adjacent group of 3 wolves + slime, put on the Heavy Greaves. Then take them from the side, cast firewall, and guard. Unlock both shortcuts in the room behind them and pick up Halberd+1 from the chest. There should be an unexplored 2x1 room just north of the area guarded by two wolves. Take them on from the front by casting firewall. The chest inside the room has 161 iron.

If you still have at least 8MP left, there's an area directly east of the northern stairs that's still unexplored. Take out both groups of wolves and slime inside with firewall and pick up a Handaxe from the chest.

Our exploration of the immediate area is now done. The path to progress lies west, guarded by lizardmen. We don't have the imp to help us out, unlike the Sorcerer, so the rest of this section is going to deviate somewhat. Before taking on the lizardmen, we need to be able to one-shot them with a nuke, which means we need some levels. Unlike the Sorcerer playthrough, I'm going to front-load our farming right now, because we already have access to the exp mobs we need for the time being.

We'll start by farming the wolves here, who also drop skins and iron. There are 5 groups of them, so 20MP is exactly enough for 5 casts of Firewall. At level 12, we could take the 2x skeleton group in the other dungeon, but they won't give more exp than what we're currently doing. Keep farming the wolves until we're level 13. At this point, we''ll be +5 levels vs the wolves, so they'll be able to turn shiny and get boosted to level 13 themselves.

The two groups that can turn shiny is the group of 4, and the pair of wolves. At this point, just keep farming these two groups, because that'll make them turn shiny every other time we come back. Keep going until we're level 17.

If you're following the skill build, now you should have access to Magic Barrier, Tome of Fire, and maxed Fireball and Magician's Spell. Our fire spells are as powerful as they're going to get at any level. Now we're ready to take on the ashen bear on B1.

Start by engaging him from the side and open with a Fireball. In this instance, my Magician's Spell passive is at 4/6. You should be able to do 150 damage with a Fireball with that maxed.

The rules of this fight are simple:
  • If he's charged up and he's using Strong Attack (the star symbol) Magic Barrier.
  • If he's charged up and he's using body slam or normal attack, guard.
  • If he's using uncharged Strong Attack, I cast Firewall if we're at full HP. Otherwise I guard if we have full stamina or Barrier otherwise.
  • Otherwise, Firewall. Or guard if firewall is already up and he's attacking. Fireball if he's refreshing or charging. Don't let our own stamina drop too low.
He drops bearskin. Open the chest he was guarding for 417 iron.

Now in each run, take out the bear, then the wolves. Repeat until we're level 20, which is when the bear can turn shiny every other turn.

At level 20 (or a bit before) our fireballs can one-shot the lizardmen in the way of our progress. First, head back to base, and equip Robes so we have more MP to work with.

For the first lizardmen pair, run away until you get an opening where one of them is using guard, like this. Just fireball both of them.

Clear the lizardmen guarding the chests for a Flanged Mace+4 and 259 iron. Head into the room at the side and take the swordman+slime group. Fireball the lizard, then the slime. Now the last group of 2x spearmen from the side. Just fireball both of them and unlock the shortcut for a straight path to the Minotaur.
Chap 03: The Minotaur
Head back to base and put the Heavy Greaves back on. You should still have your staff equipped. Doesn't matter what kind.

Minotaur. 546HP. No resistances or weaknesses. Damage type slash. Shock 15.

This is a resource management fight. Don't squander either HP or stamina and there's no way we can lose unless we make a mistake, like let him get a free hit in. When he buffs himself, use that turn to either refresh our stamina (if below 1/2) or cast firewall. Unless he's refreshing and you have full stamina somehow, I don't think there's a window for fireball casts in this fight. If you're finding this fight difficult, maybe take the time to get a few more levels or get some practice to improve your understanding.

Grab the first set of documents in the game. Then open the chest nearby for the Candle Extinguisher Key (うろそく消しの鍵) and head back to base. This key lets us open red doors.

Alright! So let's go find those red doors. Also remember, we haven't explored the Hollow Below the Cliff since we've gotten those boots the elf has given us, so we're slightly behind in that dungeon. Let's take care of all of that now. Equip the Robes, so we have 34MP to work with.

Start by opening the red door to the west, hugging the south of the map. Open the two chests in the room with three golems for a cosmetic and the Blue Heater Shield, which increases our maximum MP by 2.

Ignore the golems and head directly east and jump down the ledge. Explore the area and unlock any shortcuts you find. We still don't have the part to complete the slime statue, so it'll have to wait a bit. You should be able to pick up 161 iron from a table in the area.

Now head to the room full of jackalopes. You should be able to see three groups blocking our way to the door. Take out the single jackalope with a Fireball, the pair with a Firewall, then engage the trio with the unique from the side. Just Firewall and guard or Magic Barrier, and finish with a Fireball. This unique jackalope drops the 'al-Mirage's skin', which we'll need to make the Potion Belt with. Come back to him until he drops it.

You can take out the last group of jackalopes if you want. Unlock the shortcut but don't go through it. Instead, drop down north to find two chests containing a trophy and Old Priest's Robes, which have better base DEF than our current robes.

Return to base and put on the Old Priest's Robes. They let us just barely tank the triple skeleton group, which means we can now get to the boss near the lever from the beginning of the game. If you haven't already, craft the Armor of the Forest Beast, using bearskin and wolfskin. This armor has 30 slash resistance.

We don't have to beat him now because he doesn't drop anything important, however since this is a challenge run to begin with, that's exactly what we're going to do.

If you're following the skill build, you should have a point in Tome of Water and maxed Icicle. This demon has 50 fire resistance, so make sure you have the Freezing Wand equipped, because our main nuke is going to be Icicle. Now equip the Armor of the Forest Beast. Under Tome of Water, we'll have 22MP to work with.

Open with icicle to chunk a quarter of his HP immediately. Then another Icicle, and Magic Barrier. At this point, if he refreshes his stamina, we win the fight. This probably isn't guaranteed, so it may take a few tries. Follow up with two more Icicle casts and the fight is ours. He drops a 2-handed sword that's pretty much useless to us.

With that sideshow done, head back to the main dungeon and go down to B2. Remember we kind of left the slime king alone? Now can just one-shot his entire group with a Firewall. Open the chest behind him for a Round Shield.

Now unlock this 1x1 room for a trophy.

Remember there's a group of 4 bats we left alone? You can see them between the treasure chests in the map above. Take them out and open the chest nearby for 161 iron. Now jump down and open the other chest for another 161 iron, and unlock a second shortcut door.

Now you should be able to see an unexplored 2x1 room in the northeast corner. Unlock the red door to find the Part of Slime Statue. Next time we head to the Hollow Below the Cliff, use this to fix the statue to unlock skill resets.

Now head back up to B1 and unlock the red door where most of the NPCs are. Pick up a trophy on the table. Before heading downstairs, turn the other way and reveal a hidden path for another trophy.
Chap 04: Exploring the 3rd Floor
Now head downstairs and talk to the chief, who has relocated here. Then pick up a trophy near the table. Now turn towards the dead-end at the north-western corner of the map and reveal another secret room. The trapdoor doesn't lead anywhere at the moment.

Open the chest for the Cavalry Hunter's Voulge. This weapon will be essential to us in the water dungeon, so make sure to pick it up.

Head back to base to replenish MP and torch fuel before heading down to B3. You can try the trapdoor but it doesn't lead anywhere right now. Head into the center area where the fish switch is, then head north. Use the water pool. Equip the Heavy Greaves. Now open the eastern room and clear the mobs with two casts of Icicle. You should get the salamander scales. Bring this to the blacksmith next time to unlock equipment enchantment. Open the chest for a poleaxe. I don't think it's particularly special, but the chief will chime in to talk about it.

Now clear the other salamander groups in the area. There's a chest for 300-something iron. Now keep clearing these groups until you get 2x of the salamander skin material. Don't engage the fire slime group.

Then head back to the leatherworker and craft the Potion Belt, using the skin and the al-Mirage's skin we got earlier form the unique jackalope.

Also craft the Fireproof Leather Armor, using Salamander Skin and Bearskin. Remember to pass the scales to the blacksmith. You should have the Bear Charm key item already, if you've crafted (I believe) at least 2 pieces of armor from the leatherworker NPC. Otherwise, get it now.

Now we need AOE spells to take on the slime group, which is blocking our progress. Our aim is to get Windblade, for starters, then eventually work our way to Upheaval, picking up Entangling Vines on the way.

I didn't have enough skill points, so let's head back to the bear for a few more levels. The bear gives more exp than mobs in B3, so there's little reason to defer this leveling because it'll only make B3 more difficult for nothing. At level 21, you should be able to 2-shot the non-shiny bear with two fireballs.

When you have one level in Windblade, we can take on the slime group. If you're following the skill build, this should be level 21, but I went at level 22. Put on the Old Priest's Robes and clear the salamander groups blocking the slime king group using Icicle. Make sure you use the water bath each time. When the way is clear, put on the Fireproof Leather Armor and use the water bath, and take the slime king group from the front. You should be using the Freezing Wand.

Their normal attack does 15 damage. Fire breath 10 damage. Flare from the king, 20 damage. We could cast Tailwind to almost completely negate all the incoming ranged fire attacks but I don't think it's necessary.

Open with Windblade to take out all the slimes and chunk the king for a third of his HP. When there are no minions around, the king is going to attempt resurrect. Just follow up with an Icicle and he should go down. Much easier than the Sorcerer solo.

Raise the portcullis and talk to the knight NPC. Buy the trophy from his inventory if you wish. Mark the pulley next to him on your map for later. Now turn the fish switch in the middle so that water pools in the west. Head back to base, swap back to the Old Priest's Robes for MP, and return here.

Reveal the hidden passageway at the south-west corner. Now use the water bath and fight the regular pyromancers from the side. Two icicle casts take them out.

Note: These pyromancers drop the Smoldering Staff, which increases Fireball damage by 20%. Make sure to get it before moving on.

Reuse the water bath. Now for the group of four, behind a red door. Just blast them with Windblade. Open the chests for 313 iron and a battle manual.

Reuse the water bath, and fight the 3 pyromancers from the front. I used Icicle for better MP efficiency. Next, pyromancer+slime. Double Icicle takes them out.

You should still have the water buff. Switch to Fireproof Leather Armor. Now take the last group of 3 with the imp from the side. Open with Windblade to isolate the imp. Then Icicle to take the imp out. Simple as that. Raise the portcullis and turn the fish switch so that water pools south.

We still have some MP left. Equip the Armor of the Forest Beast, for 20 crush resistance. Now head south and open the western door to see two lizardmen. Use the water bath and take them from the side. Double Stone Crush takes both of them out. Open the chest they were guarding for the Sniper's Longbow.

Now talk to the fairy and it'll let us pass because we have the Bear Charm. Unlock the shortcut and raise the portcullis. Now turn the fish switch so that water pools east. You should be able to find the second pulley on the floor in the area. Mark it on the map for later.

Now head back to base. Keep the Armor of the Forest Beast on.

Engage the group of triple lizardmen with the unique from behind. The unique here is a support spellcaster so it's not much of a threat. Open with Firewall to take out both minions. If they use Fire Breath instead, use Stone Crush on them. If they guard, Icicle the unique.

Now finish off the spellcaster with double Icicle.

Next group. Two lizardmen and slime. Open with firewall, guard, then icicle the slime. Open the chest containing a cosmetic. Last group of two lizardmen blocking our way into a room. Double Stone Crush. Open the chest for Magician Apprentice's Robes, that gives +4 to MP. Head back to base and put on the Heavy Greaves before moving on.

Now return to the eastern end, use the water bath, and fight the scarecrows between us and a treasure chest. Windblade clears all the groups here in a single turn. Open the chest for a Thick Gambeson.

Before moving on any further, we need the Armor of the Forest Beast at +10, in order to survive the scarecrows' melee attacks. However, if we get hit by fire attacks, we're probably not going to make it, so be ready to retry a few times. Heavy Greaves isn't going to cut it here because it lacks slash resistance. Also, before taking on the unique group, we need to level up until we're at least level 24. A few more sessions with the bear would do. With the Smoldering Staff, we should be able to 2-shot the shiny version too.

Before fighting the last group, clear the way and re-use the water bath.

Open with Windblade, then follow up with Icicle to end the fight. Again, much easier than Sorcerer thanks to our spell variety.

Head up the ladder and pick up the second set of documents.

Then head across the drawbridge and open the chests for 417 iron and the Workshop Key (工房の鍵). This key lets us open brown doors, but not those opened by the Spinning Room Key.
Chap 05: The Salamander King
First, head to the Hollow Below the Cliff and install the slime statue. Now head to the room north of where the jackalopes were and unlock the door with our new key.

From the treasure chests next to the ledge, pick up Airtight Armor and a trophy.

Before we head back, let's fight these golems on the other side of the map. We need Armor of the Forest Beast+10 and any staff equipped.

Run away if the front golem uses taunt. Open with Freeze on the mace (rightmost) golem. Then cast Stone Crush to take him out.

The next one we want to take out is the spear (leftmost) golem. However, in this turn, he's guarding, so I cast Firewall instead, to damage the axe (front) golem.

Throw a Fireball at the spear golem to take him out instantly. Smoldering Staff not necessary.

Lastly, take out the axe golem. He's actually weak to slash, but we don't have a strong slash single-target nuke.

Open the shortcut behind them for a set of Pugios and a Curved Sword of Poison and Fire? Not sure how they end translating this last one. Neither are important to us.

The item we want from the golems is the Chilled Spear that drops from the spear golem. It's a 1-handed weapon that gives +20% to MAG. This is a core item because we can pair it with a shield, so make sure to get it before moving on.

At this point, I enhanced the Potion Belt to +9 in preparation for the upcoming fight, because I'm using the Sorcerer playthrough as a rough template. However, unlike the Sorcerer, I think you can get by with a different piece of armor using Wizard at this point, especially if you lack the iron to push this to +9 (it's not that expensive). We are going to need the potion belt at +9 for a really late game fight again, against one of the four demons.

Equip the Potion Belt+9. Make sure you're using the Freezing Wand.

Now head to B3 and unlock the north-western door to reveal the Salamander King. Its original name is 'That which Crawls on Lava', aka the Lava Crawler. It has 1kHP, -30 pierce resistance. Predominantly pierce and fire damage.

Open the fight with Freeze into Stone Crush. This immediately deletes 1/3 of his HP.

Now throw an Icicle and it should force his form change. Icicle because of his -30 pierce resistance.

Upon form change, he'll channel Rain of Fire. Two Icicles take him out before that spell can even finish. A really easy boss fight for a change.

Before heading to where the gnome is, check your right for 417 iron on some kind of rack high up, near some drawers. In the room with the gnome, check some drawers for a cosmetic.

Finally, talk to the gnome to unlock a new dungeon called By the Mountain Stream.

Head back to base to prepare for a foray into the new area.
Chap 07: By the Mountain Stream
Just to recap, we're currently at level 25.

Before heading into the new dungeon, make sure you have enhanced the Cavalry Hunter's Voulge to +8 or above. This is so we can one-shot the mobs in the coming area. I believe you should have enough iron, otherwise go back to the bear for more skins. I had to do this because I had used iron to enhance the Heavy Greaves to +10, when testing against the scarecrow from before.

Now this area is governed by a series of switches. If we die or leave before pulling the last one, we'll need to pull all the other switches again, which means going through the mobs guarding them all over again. We need to be using the Armor of the Forest Beast+10 here because of how hard these mobs hit. As Wizard, we'll only have 22MP including the bonus from Tome of Water to cover the entire area. This is an endurance test, so adapt accordingly.

Equip the Armor of the Forest Beast+10 and the Cavalry Hunter's Voulge+8. We'll only be casting spells when absolutely necessary. Also, save your torch fuel if you can help it.

Note: For this area only, we'll be simply whacking all mobs with the Voulge unless I indicate otherwise, so I don't keep repeating myself.

Start by talking to the chief, then the gnome in the next room. Now pick up a trophy just next to the door by the gnome. Now head south and engage the groups of trees in the way of the first lever. For the last group, prioritize the trees first, because the bee needs two hits to be taken down. Unlock the shortcut and pull the first lever to drop the water level to half.

Now keep heading south and take out the two groups of trees, including one with a unique. The unique drops the Wild Club, which is a blunt version of the Voulge we're using. It's a good weapon, but we don't need it in this playthrough. Open the chest behind them for 672 iron.

Now head back to where the gnome is, and then cross two sets of staircases. Leave the bees alone. Fight through the trees, unlock the shortcut, and pull the lever, which sets the water level to full.

There's a whole pile of mobs in this room, and we're going to systematically take all of them out. When fighting the mushrooms, prioritize the ones trying to poison us first.

Start with the group of two mushrooms that's not in a corner. Then take out the group of 3 from the side. Open the chest behind them for 672 iron and the Heavy Tower Shield. Now take out the pair of mushrooms in the corner just because we can. Now equip any staff and engage the bees from the FRONT.

Run away if any of them are using dodge or paralysis. Then simply cast Firewall to take them out.

Now for the group of mushrooms with the unique. First, re-equip the voulge. The unique cannot poison us but it can double poison tick damage, so we want to take out the minions first. Run away if both of them are trying to poison us, otherwise take out the minions before focusing on the unique. There's nothing else to the fight.

Now look at your map and you should be able to see a treasure chest just a short way to the north, and another one further up. Jump down to the closer one to pick up a Continental 1h-Sword. Now pick up a Continental 1h-Axe from a shiny point directly opposite the chest further north. Now open that chest north for a 2h-hammer. Next, near the last switch we pulled, there's a ladder up to a chest with battle manuals in it.

Now head to the southeastern corner, climb up, talk to the masked NPC, and pull the lever, which sets the water level back to full again. Now we need to get through 3 groups of cockatrices.

First, equip any staff. Just Firewall and guard.

Do the same to the group of four guarding the switch. Now pull the switch and take out the last group of 3 cockatrices in the same manner and pull the switch.

There's a unique called the Evergreen Dryad in a 2x1 room nearby but ignore her for now. Drop down to unlock the shortcut so we have a straight path to the boss. There should be a chest down here near where the boss is containing the 'Greathelm' cosmetic. This is one of the face-covering cosmetic items that we're going to need later in the game.

At this point, I had 10MP left, so go to the Evergreen Dryad and simply 2-shot her with Fireballs. She drops the Red Scutum, a shield that gives +4 to stamina. Head into the room behind her to pick up a trophy on a table. Then pick up the Evergreen Cape from a chest. Not a useful armor to us.

Alright! So that's the exploration bit done. Before we can fight the Basilisk, we need some levels and upgrades. To do this, I use a modified version of the farming loop I used for the Sorcerer solo. Equip the Potion Belt+9 so that we have more MP to work with. Then equip the Smoldering Staff. Take out the:
  • 4 bees near the beginning. Firewall.
  • Head to the mushroom area via ladders on the east side.
  • I prever leaving the unique mushroom group. Otherwise run away if the unique is using the poison amp. Windblade and Fireball.
  • 3 bees. Shiny possible. Firewall.
  • All 3 mushroom groups. 1 pair shiny. Windblade.
  • Take out all 3 cockatrice groups. 1st group shiny. Firewall-guard-guard.
  • Bees near boss (shiny).
Skew the mob groups as you need to. Bees and mushrooms are for iron. Cockatrices are for exp. At some point our Windblade would become powerful enough to 1-shot the bees despite their 50 resistance to slash. The shells from the bees can be used to make 2 kinds of armor. HOWEVER, if you have lots of them, save them for later, because we can craft a type of armor for 1k iron each.
Chap 08: The Basilisk
So, the Basilisk. Literally called the King of Serpents in Japanese. Yeah he's got legs alright. Six of them, actually. When he moves around in the fight, he gives the impression of a really stubby millipede. I don't know if it's supposed to be some kind of jibe at him using the expression 蛇足 (dasoku), meaning 'the legs of a snake', which describes something as redundant, superfluous, or generally being a useless addition to something that doesn't need it.

He has 2kHP. 30 slash resistance, -30 pierce resistance. Immune to poison. 32 stam, 14 shock rating.

Anyway I gave him a go at level 28, like I did in the Sorcerer solo run. However, there's no way we can beat him right now. You can try him yourself and get a feel for it. The equipment in the screen is Chilled Spear, Red Scutum+10, Potion Belt+9. Don't go out of your way to enhance this set, because we're going to be using a different setup.

The shrooms, bees, and cockatrices are getting a bit too slow for exp, so I went back to B2 of the main dungeon to find the level32 Portent (the phantom). She's easier if we can get the Robes of Sorrow first, but I don't think we have any choice here. I don't think we're expected to be in this area yet, so we're going to be doing a bit of sequence breaking.

Itemize with the Smoldering Staff and the Armor of the Forest Beast+10. Run away if she opens with Energy Drain. Cast Magic Barrier if she uses Harm. If she uses anything other than Energy Drain, Fireball. Once we've fired two fireballs, Freeze --> Stone Crush to finish her off. If she uses Energy Drain, Freeze, or a turn 2 Death Spiral, counterspell with our Freeze - Stone Crush combo right then and there, and then finish her with Fireballs. Since we're at level 28, she gives +40 exp each time we take her down.

The only way she could kill us is that if she uses Freeze/Energy Drain/Death Spiral on turn 2, so we spend our own Freeze to counter, and then she uses her Energy Drain/Freeze on turn 4. Fortunately for us, she seems to pick spells at random, so such sequences are unlikely.

Open the chest behind her for 2810 iron and unlock the shortcuts. You should be able to find a group of 5 level 21 worker bees. These guys are what we're looking for. If you have the MP to spare, cast Firewall to take them all out. Loot the chest behind them for the Assassin's Jamadhars, a knuckle weapon. The shells from these bees combine with the shells from the bees earlier from the water dungeon to form an armor which we can disassemble for 1k iron.

Open the doors in the area and you should be able to find a battle manual in a chest inside a 1x1 room. There's a lever to unlock the portcullis behind the level17 merman from early in the game. Pick up a Soaked Tunic from the chest just around the corner.

Now, the mermen are protecting the Robes of Sorrow, another core item. However, the Portent is bodyblocking our way to the mermen so we'll be a bit short on MP, so we'll leave that for later. Since the elevator is not yet working, it's a bit of a pain to come back here, but that's life. Go back to base for MP.

Now if you look at your map, the Portent is also blocking our access to the bees, who should now be level 26 shinies. We'll have to go through her every time, so that's what we're gonna do. It's the same with the bees, just cast Firewall.

Alright, once we hit level 35, it's time for the Basilisk. If you're following the skill build, you could probably tell from our skill picks that we're going to just blitz him down. Equip the Potion Belt +9 and the Freezing Wand.

Start by clearing the bees beside him with a cast of Firewall. Then open the boss fight by casting Snowdrift (aka Blizzard). On the second turn, as long he doesn't use his instant poison skill on us (the frog symbol), we're good. In my case, he used Strong Attack. If he uses the poison skill, just go back to base and restart the fight.

Follow up with a cast of Stone Crush, which is now at maximum power (level 4). It will trigger his form change immediately.

He'll try to use Poison Breath. Doesn't matter one bit. Cast Freeze. It will outspeed his move and immediately disable him again. Now follow up with another Stone Crush to send him into the final phase.

Final phase. He'll always open with a move that causes paralysis if we hit him with a melee move. Free opening for us. Cast Icicle to take advantage of his -30 pierce resistance. This is why we're using the Freezing Wand.

We need to fire off one last Icicle to win the fight. If the boss uses the instant poison skill, throw up Magic Barrier and guard until we can find an opening to do so.

Open the chest he was guarding to get the Flail Key (殻竿の鍵). This one opens green doors. Open the one immediately next to us to get back to where the chief was.
Chap 09: Retainer and Sorrow
Alright, so it's time to open all the green doors before we push on any further. Before that, head to the main dungeon and craft Retainer Armor, using 3x the materials from the worker bees from earlier.

This armor will replace the Armor of the Forest Beast as our heavy armor option in the midgame. I enhanced it to +8 on the spot.

Head to the pulley room and remove both weights from the pulleys. They should still be in the N and SW pulleys. We're going to need them shortly.

Now head to the Hollow Below the Cliff. Look at your map to find a door at the southeast end of the map. Unlock it. Turn right to go up a ledge. Before the chest, there's 671 iron on the ground. The chest contains a cosmetic. On the other side, avoid the Scimitar mobs, and pick up Spidersilk Armor from the chest.

Now go back to B2 of the main dungeon and unlock the two green doors near the Portent we've been farming earlier. I intend to get the Robes of Sorrow from the mermen before we push any further into the water dungeon, but let's take care of the green doors in B3 first.

First, head down to B3 and put the stone weights into the two pulleys which should already been marked on the map. Next to the eastern pulley is the green door on this floor. Open it to find a group of three level 21 imps. We're level 35 so we should just be able to overrun them. I still have the Potion Belt+9 and the Freezing Wand equipped.

Approach them from the side and start by channeling Snowdrift. It should interrupt just about every action they have on the second turn, so we get a free turn. Now follow up with a cast of Windblade. This is what's shown in the screenshot.

Remember, Windblade has a 1-turn cooldown. Rain of Thorns would be perfect here because they're wearing light armor, but I don't have any skill points in it. Therefore I cast Tailwind, because I know that imps love to throw Fireballs and Flare.

Follow up with a second cast of Windblade to take them all out. The chest behind them contains a cosmetic.

Alright, now let's go grab our Robes of Sorrow. The merfolk may be level 25, but they do some pretty serious damage, so we want to have the Retainer's Armor+8 (or better) equipped. Swap the Freezing Wand for the Smoldering Staff. Head to the extreme south-west of the map and you should see two groups of mermen.

Engage the group without the unique from the front. Just Firewall and hope for the best. Pick up 1744 iron from behind them.

Next, the group with the unique. Take them from the side. Firewall and then guard. Only the unique should be left. The unique is a spear user (shaman I believe), so he won't be damaged by the Firewall.

No biggie. I cast Freeze, then Stone Crush, then Fireball. It took him out even through his Tailwind buff that halves ranged damage. Open the chest behind him for the Ceramic Armor.

Now the last group, directly south of the level 32 Portent we've been farming earlier. I still had 5MP so I went straight to them. Firewall and hope for the best. Cross the drawbridge behind them to pick up Red Dye and the Robes of Sorrow from two chests.

The Robes of Sorrow are a core item.
Chap 10: The Griffin
Alright, let's make some progress. Head back to base and equip the Robes of Sorrow and the Smoldering Staff.

Head upstairs to F2 of By the Mountain Stream. Immediately turn around the staircase and open the really obvious dead end for 1744 iron on the ground and the Staff-User/Staff Fighter's Cape from the chest. It increases physical damage by 60% when using a staff.

This cape is a core item. Make sure to get it.

Now talk to the dwarf. He doesn't have anything interesting to sell. Now head east and ring the bell.

Now the zombies to the west. Unlike the Sorcerer, we do not have access to Flare. Even when using a staff, our level 1 Windblade isn't powerful enough to take these guys out in one shot. However, level 3 Snowdrift IS powerful enough (and faster) than Rain of Fire.

So basically we just walk up to them from the side and channel Snowdrift. That's it. Clear the first three groups of zombies. Pick up the Continental 2h-Hammer from a dresser in the adjoining room.

Open the door to face a unique zombie. Now swap to Retainer's Armor+8. This guy loves to summon zombies, so open with Freeze --> Stone Crush and he's just dead. There's a trophy and a set of medium armor for spear specialists in the two chests behind him. Unlock the shortcut. The southern bell is now accessible.

Re-equip the Robes of Sorrow, head back to base, ring the western bell, and come back to where we were, near the southern bell.

Now open the northern door and take out those... things. Whatever they are. Just use Snowdrift. Now ring the southern bell and take out the next two groups the same way. Then ring the western bell again before taking the last group just past a doorway.

Pick up the third(?) set of documents in the game and unlock the shortcut to the west.

I still had 20MP left, so let's fight the group of ice slimes just past the doorway. Only the slime king is immune to freeze, so open by channeling Snowdrift. It will outspeed their own Freeze.

We're in the Robes of Sorrow so the King will try to Banish us. We're not exactly frail since we're level 35. Just take him out with a Fireball. Banishment is a very slow spell.

The room past them has two chests containing a trophy and a High-Quality Kite Shield. Unlock the green door to the north and raise the portcullis. So far so good.

Head just a bit east to find an NPC. He's asking for his sword.

The northern and eastern bells are now accessible. I just always mark all of these on my map. Head back to base for MP.

Now ring the western bell before engaging the first group of skeletal mobs from where we were earlier. Just cast snowdrift. Second and third groups. Same thing. Check the side room for the NPC's sword and a set of battle manuals.

Now ring the eastern bell before coming back to clear the last group of skeletons. Raise the portcullis.

There's a side room just ahead of us. Clear the mobs the same way. These axemen can stun so they can interrupt our Snowdrift. In that case just run away and cast again. Finish off any (frozen) stragglers with Stone Crush. Take the trio to the north. Same strategy. Loot the bunks for a Continental Staff.

Head back to base for MP, then give the sword to the NPC. He's now asking for his cloak.

Now ring the eastern bell. Take out the group of skeletons in the doorway from before. Now loop all the way and ring the southern bell. Come back and take the skeletons in the room to the south. Now ring the eastern bell before taking the next group. Then the southern bell (ugh...) and the last group. Two chests. 1083 iron, and the NPC's cloak.

Head back to base and equip the Retainer's Armor+8. Ring the southern bell and give the NPC his cloak. He's now asking for his pouch.

Now it's time to fight the two unique skeletons in our way. Unlike the Sorcerer, for the Wizard, these guys aren't really that difficult.

Start with Snowdrift. As long as not both of them are using their specials on the second turn, we're good. Follow up with Stone Crush to take one out.

Second guy. Just freeze him solid. Popsicles for everyone. Follow up with Stone Crush to finish the fight.

Grab the NPC's pouch from the treasure chest and give it to him. Now go to the 2x1 room just beside where he was and get the Waterway Administrator Key (水道管理者の鍵). This one also opens brown doors.

Open the only locked door on the map and raise the portcullis. Head west to reveal a hidden path to a group of level 40 imps. Head back to base. Keep the Retainer's Armor+8 and Smoldering Staff equipped.

Now go to F3 of this dungeon. It's time for the Griffin.

He always opens with Flight. A non-issue for us. Open with Fireball. It should take out a quarter of his HP. Then another fireball to trigger phase change. He tries to fly again. Non-issue. Third fireball and he goes down.

Before messing with the windmill, pick up a trophy from the fireplace nearby. Unlock the shortcut back to where the griffin was, and pick up another trophy from a chest. Head into the really obvious dead-end to reveal a path to a level 40 Hippogriff.

Now turn the windmill so that the blades' speed is at maximum. That's it for the area, so return to base. The elevator in the main dungeon is now working.
Chap 11: Elevator to B4
Put on the Robes of Sorrow and return to the main dungeon. The chief is now standing beside the elevator, so talk to her. Then take the elevator down to B2 and talk to the crafter NPC. We'll be needing his services soon enough.

Now take the elevator to B4. Talk to the knight NPC again and buy a trophy from him if you wish. Unlock the red door in front of him. It's time to farm ourselves some elementals. Unlike the Sorcerer, who only needs the fire staff, as Wizard, we want all four of them.

The exploration of this area is kind of freeform, so feel free to take your own path. Our goal is to reveal the whole floor and get all four crystals from the elementals. I'm just going to describe how I explored the area.

Take out the single fire elemental with a cast of Icicle. Ignore the ice elementals for now. Keep going east to run into a fire minotaur of sorts.

He opened with his fire-immune move. So we just cast Snowdrift. I guess you could try running away until he does this, but this was what I got. Follow up with Stone Crush, of course.

Form change. He uses a ground pound. I just ignore (we're level 35) and cast Freeze. Then second Stone Crush takes him out.

Turn back east just past his room to pick up a new (fourth?) set of documents.

Keep going east to pick up the Shield of the Evening Star from a chest. This is not quite a core item for Wizard, but nontheless this is a top-tier shield. Make sure to pick it up.

Unlock a shortcut back to where the elevator was and take the earth elemental from the side. Just fireball. Pick up the Shotel from a chest behind it. Next, group of two fire elementals just east. I had 23MP left, so I swapped to Fireproof Leather Armor. Cast Icicle twice.

Three ice elementals. Not a good idea to take them from the front. Head east and you should find a pair of chimeras. Leave them alone for now. Explore a bit further south to find the Transparent Crystal in a chest.

To the east. Thee fire elementals from the side. Snowdrift into Windblade. Pick up the Armor of Misery in a set of drawers just past them. At the south-east corner of the map, a chest with a trophy inside. Group of two ice elementals in front of a chest. I risk the freeze anyway and double casts of Stone Crush took them out.

Loot the Reinforced Quarterstaff from the chest. This replaces our Cavalry Hunter's Voulge and the Wild Club from earlier as our 2-handed smacking weapon.

Not a good idea to fight earth elemental groups without levitation, so I went back to base.

Next, two air elemental pairs that we can flank, one guarding a chest. Fireball --> Freeze --> Stone Crush. Pick up the Heavy Spiked Shield from the chest. Nothing else in the southern half.

I went back to base and fought the chimeras blocking the way up north. Freeze --> Stone Crush --> Icicle. Raise the portcullis with a lever to the east. Chest nearby constains a cosmetic. Loop north to find the dyer NPC. Talk to her and unlock a shortcut back to the trapdoor on B3. Unlock the red door to find two groups of mummies. Okay.

There are some jugs near where the chimera were with the Blue Dye. Looks like this area doesn't lead anywhere. We have to take the mummies. Put on Retainer's Armor+8.

Firewall to take out the mummy pair. Chest contains the Axe of the Brave. Take out mummy trio to the north the same way. Single manticore guarding a chest. Fire weakness. So firewall or fireball. Chest contains a lance. Adjacent 2x2 room. Pick up a trophy from the bunks. Firewall to take out more manticores. Finally we find the lever for the shortcut to the boss. You can fight the white bears if you wish. Exploration done.

Now get all four elemental ores before moving on. It'll take some time, but it'll be easier if you can take down the shiny groups. Once you have all four, return to the NPC in B2 and craft the staves. Including the Transparent Crystal which we've just picked up, we should be crafting 5 staves. From crafting so many items, we should already get the Incense from him for the fairy in Overgrown Abandoned Land.

Just so we save on confusion later, I'm calling these staves the:
  • Staff of Sparks (-1 fire MP cost)
  • Water Mirror Staff (-1 water MP cost)
  • Earthen Lump Staff (-1 earth MP cost)
  • Windward Staff (-1 wind MP cost)
  • Jeweled Staff (+5% MAG)

Before we fight the Reaper, we need the Robes of Sorrow at +10. To do this, we should be farming the manticores, mummies, and chimeras in the area. Manticores and mummies: Firewall. Chimera: Fireball -> Freeze -> Fireball, or firewall if they use jumping attack. What I do is drop down to B2, take out the portent, then B4, the manticores, two of the 3x mummy groups, then finally the chimeras.

Manticore and Chimera skins combine to make the Lion's Cloak. This is a core item, so make sure to get it.

Chap 12: The Reaper
Alright, so boss is the Reaper. 3kHP, summons skeletons, has Harm, Energy Drain, and Death Spiral.

We're currently level 38 from getting the Robes of Sorrow to +10. I'm sitting on a point in Rain of Fire, and two free skill points. Equip the said robes and the Smoldering Staff. The key to this fight is to pace our freezes, because he will purge the freeze if the freeze spell brings him over the 1/3 HP thresholds, thus wasting our valuable CC (crowd-control) skills.

Open with Freeze --> Stone Crush. Screenshot is turn 2. We'll be taking this fight on a 2-turn cadence.

Next, channel Rain of Fire. Screenshot is turn 4.

When he starts phase 2, Harm becomes available to him, but he might not use it immediately. Obviously we're supposed to Magic Barrier against it. In this case, he just decided to continue summoning skeletons. If he doesn't use Harm, channel Snowdrift immediately. It is strong enough to take out all his minions. Screenshot is turn 6, when Snowdrift finishes channeling. The risk is that he can use Harm on turn 6 while we're channeling. In that case, we have to restart the fight because we don't have 400HP to take the hit with.

Follow up with another Stone Crush to send him into the third phase.

In the third phase, he always opens with Reap. This insta-kills us if we're below 1/2 HP, but otherwise it's just a free turn for us, so just straight up Fireball. This is why we're using the Smoldering Staff. We have the other half of our HP bar to spend for the rest of the fight, but don't take too long or I think he'll use Reap again.

Correction: That was what I wrote before. Reap only works on the living, so we're safe using the Robes of Sorrow.

He's a melee attacker, so Firewall would work. I was going to use it, but then I saw Freeze will be off cooldown next turn. So Fireball instead.

He's barely hanging on by a thread. We have 2 stam, so not enough for Fireball. I just use the Freeze. If he's not dead, we could cast Stone Crush or refresh our stamina meter. Remember that Stone Crush has only one stamina cost. It's an amazing feature of the spell.

Well, Freeze itself was was enough to drop him. To be fair, we're level 38. He drops the Great Scythe, a 2-handed axe that only works against the living.

Open the chest behind him for the Bookrest Key (見台の鍵). This one opens blue doors. There was a blue door on this same floor where the knight NPC is. Open it for a way down to B5. Before progressing though, there are other blue doors to unlock first.

First, take the stairs by the knight back up to B3. Unlock both blue doors.

Now head to Hollow Below the Cliff. Unlock the door to the east. We could have come here earlier after we got the Waterway Administrator Key (水道管理者の鍵), but I kinda forgot about it. Fortunately, there's nothing important here for us, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

Open the chest for a trophy. For those eyeball things, since they're flying, just use Windblade. Unlock the shortcut and pick up Yellow Dye in the chest of drawers. Now walk up the stairs and pick up Slippery Scale Armor from the chest. If you need this armor earlier in your run, do this before fighting the Reaper.

Next room. More eyeballs. Take out the normal ones first, then engage the pair of uniques from the side. Start by channeling Snowdrift. Then Windblade to finish them.

Unlock the shortcut. Now unlock the blue door. From the chest, pick up robes that increase our outgoing healing by 30%. Useless to us. Walk up the ledge and pick up a cosmetic from the chest. That's this area done.

Next, By the Mountain Stream. Head to the roof and open the blue door. Put on a face-covering cosmetic (e.g. Greathelm) so the ghost lets us pass. It's weird because we're already non-living from wearing the Robes of Sorrow. Oh well. Head south but loop back to unlock the shortcut.

Head south until you see a group of gargoyles. Drop down and try to find a pair of stone knuckles in this lowered area. It's 2 tiles east of the gargoyles. Now walk around the lowered area around the 1x1 tower to find 1744 iron on the ground. Pick up the cosmetic in a chest in the tower itself.

Keep exploring until you find the poison frogs. There's no way for us to take these groups now, so that's our exploration done. Time to make some progress in B5.
Chap 13: The Foldable Ladder
Alright. Drop down to B4 of the main dungeon via the elevator and talk to the chief, who has relocated here. You should still have the Robes of Sorrow equipped. Now swap to the Windward Staff (-1 wind MP)

Take out the 2 groups of ghosts to the east with Windblade. Drop down and clear another pair. Drop down again and there's a group of 3 guarding a chest. Take them out. Chest contains the Hunter's Bow. Drop down yet again and take out the group of 4. This chest contains the Protector's Greatsword.

Chest below us is a mimic. We're level 38 wearing the Robes of Sorrow, so let's take the fight to him.

He decided to summon a wolf. I used Freeze. Actually Snowdrift would have been better because it would've taken out the wolf as well. Follow up with Stone Crush.

Snowdrift into Stone Crush. Takes out wolf summon. Fireball to finish.

He drops the Bag of Greed, which doubles the drop rate of anything we haven't seen yet. It's great to get this early. Remember to mark the mimic chest on your map.

Walk up the long stairs south and unlock the shortcut. Since we've burned through our MP, head back to base and return here. Okay. Continuing to explore the bottom trench. Group of 2 red ghosts and 2 slimes. Leave this group alone for now because the slimes are problematic. Group of 3 blue ghosts. Windblade. Chest contains Beastmaster's Jerkin.

Group in front of drawbridge. Windblade and fireball. Chest contains the Acrobat's Buckler. Cross the drawbridge, drop down to find a door we can't yet open. Northwest corner. Group of 3 ghosts. Snowdrift. Chest in the corner is a mimic, so mark it.

The other chest contains the War Staff. I prefer to call this the Strongman's Staff or Staff of Strength. Either way, this is a core item. Make sure to pick it up.

There should be a chest near the middle for 2.8k iron. With top-left tile as 0,0, this is position 7,7. Return to the northwest corner. Drop down east twice and take out a group of 4 ghosts and open the chest for Sharp Stilettos.

Now it's time to get ourselves the foldable ladders. Head back to base and put on the Staff-Fighter's Cape (+60% dmg when using a staff) and the Strongman's Staff we just got. Then head to this group of mobs on the map.

Engage the pair of rats. Prioritize the one trying to shoot at us. Just bash it with the staff. If both of them are shooting, Magic Barrier, otherwise we're dead. Group of 4. Fireball the slime first. Then bash the rats. Most likely we're going to survive. Otherwise just retry, no big deal.

Drop down from where the group of 4 was to face the double assassins. Equip the Retainer's Armor+8 and the Smoldering Staff. We're going for a Firewall strat. It should be easier than what I used for the Sorcerer walkthrough.

Start by casting Firewall. As long as not both of them are using their high damage melee on us, we're good. The best move to look for is backstab, which would miss us entirely.

Next turn. I use Magic Barrier because my HP is super low. The other assassin blew himself up on the Firewall. If he had used a ranged attack, well, we just gotta retry.

Now pick up the painkillers in the chest they were guarding. Head back to base, then to the north end of B1 and give these to the goblin NPC for the foldable ladders. Can you imagine a mage walking around the dungeon with this huge thing, haha. Maybe she has an attendant playing Death Stranding with all our 600 units of baggage: 'Up you go, my lady. Now just let me pull up this (wheeze) thing... '

Let's clean up B5 as much as we can before we head anywhere else. Chest on a dais, near the southeast mimic. Contains trophy. Next, shiny 4 tiles west of this spot. Rune Halberd.

Now head to this spot for 2810 iron. Step up east for a chest containing the Survivor's Chainmail.

Step up south again for a chest with the Spinning Room Key (紡績室の鍵).

Now head to the northeast corner. Chest in the corner is a mimic. The other chest contains a cosmetic. Now drop down directly south to where the slime king was and pick up the Gladius in the chest behind them. Equip the Retainer's Armor+8 and the Jeweled Staff (+5%MAG). Just Windblade, Freeze, then Fireball.

Now let's pick up the treasure chest behind the group of 2 red ghosts + slimes earlier. It contains the Armor of Devotion. Windblade, Magic Barrier, then Windblade to clear the mobs.

Let's leave the treasure chest in the middle for when we have better gear.
Chap 14: High Pyromancy: Powerleveling to 50
I'm going to do things in a different order than the Sorcerer run. Instead of exploring now, let's grab some levels first, because it makes everything else easier. This means going to the poison frogs.

Now equip the Robes of Sorrow+10 and the Jeweled Staff. If this is your first time fighting them, approach the frogs from the south. Just take them out with a single cast of Rain of Thorns.

Open the chests for 2x 4525 iron. Unlock the shortcut. Head downstairs, then upstairs, cross the drawbridge, and open two chests for a trophy and the Mystic Armor. If you've gotten the material drop from the poison frogs, bring it to the leatherworker NPC to craft Subversion, a light armor with 50 poison resistance.

I made a couple of runs to the frogs until I was level 40. If you're following the skill build, you should have 2 points in Upheaval now. Now let's switch to the high pyromancers in B3 of the main dungeon. Unlike the toss-up with the sorcerer, once we hit level 45 with Wizard, farming these guys becomes super reliable. Start by equipping the Mystic Robes and the Jeweled Staff.

Approach from the side, channel Snowdrift. It doesn't matter what they choose to do on turn 2. Snowdrift will outspeed any of their nukes.

Then channel Upheaval. They're frozen on turn 3, so no problems there. On turn 4, upheaval will outspeed any nukes they have. If we're level 45, the fight ends at this point.

Finally, finish off any stragglers. If there's more than one standing, Rain of Thorns.

The chest behind them contains the Sunlight Roundel.

At level 45 or above, Snowdrift + Upheaval, or Upheaval + Rain of Thorns will be enough to wipe them. The only way we could lose is that in the turn where we're going to release our upheaval, the front guy uses normal attack, and one of the guys in the back uses fireball. This will disrupt our cast long enough that the fireball will hit us first. This is super rare because they prefer to buff if they haven't buffed, and they prefer casting spells to begin with. They have exactly 1079HP, so we'll get 2-turn clear once Upheaval exceeds that damage.

I made about 100 runs to these guys until we're level 49. If you make another 100/100 runs, we could get to level 50/51 from these guys, but I'm already sitting on 550k iron. Level 49 should be enough for us to work with.
Chap 15: Loose Ends (Stream, Cliff)
Alright. First order of business: Let's go get the Shield of the Great Tree. This thing lies on the critical path locking us out of many other activities.

These gargoyles on the roof of By the Mountain Stream drop the shield.

We just go with the Jeweled Staff (+5%MAG) and the Robes of Sorrow. There's probably a more optimal choice of armor but it's not necessary. In the sorcerer solo, we went full Flintstones and bashed these guys up with the War/Strongman's Staff. The same strategy would probably work just as well here, however, as Wizard, we have access to Stone Crush.

Since one of them is using Stone Form, I opened with Freeze, on the one using the most threatening attack.

Follow up with Stone Crush to take it out.

Next, channel Snowdrift to freeze the remaining pair.

Double Stone Crush to finish the fight.

Loot the chest behind them for a [BALLISTA BOLT].

The shield is a pretty rare drop even with the Bag of Greed, so be prepared to fight them a few times for it. This is a core item. Make sure to get it.

We have the foldable ladder so we can explore the northeast corner of the map. No need to head back to base.

These harpies are in our way. They're flying, so Windblade would work. However, they're also using light armor, so I'd prefer to use Rain of Thorns instead.

A single Rain of Thorns takes out the whole group, even through their Tailwind buff.

The chest behind them contains the second [BALLISTA BOLT] so far.

Before we fight the Hippogriff, go to the blacksmith and enhance the Shield of the Great Tree to +10.

We're going with the Chilled Spear (+20%MAG), Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Robes of Sorrow+10.

This guy is pretty evasive, so make sure to read the accuracy of your nukes if you're not used to that. Fireball is my go-to nuke for these situations. However, he always opens with Tailwind, which outspeeds our own Freeze, which, by the way, only has 85% to hit since we don't have Staff-Fighter and we're not using a staff either. Also remember he's flying, so Entangling Vines isn't going to work. In my case, I just opened with Firewall, because this guy is melee-heavy and I intend to guard next turn.

Triplestrike. The firewall is going to destroy his HP from a move like this. He took over 1500 damage from it and changed phase immediately.

When he changes phases, his Tailwind is purged. We have a few options for nukes. I just threw a Fireball at him because Freeze has 85% to hit. Simple, but effective. He took 609 damage from it.

Triplestrike. Firewall is still on cooldown. Don't underestimate his physical moves because they can do a lot of damage. We have to guard this one. He tried Windblade again in the turn after this so I just lobbed another Fireball to trigger his last form change.

In his last phase, he'll cast Wall of Air, which cuts all ranged damage by 90%. Thing is, this move is slow, so a Fireball would outspeed it. Our stam is low but I just went greedy anyway and shot the Fireball.

He decided to do 3x triplestrike after, the first of which left me with 4HP because we had no stamina to guard. He has one tick left on Wall of Air so be prepared to Fireball him in the turn after. In this case I just use Magic Barrier because I want to save stamina.

I don't think I've ever seen him not refresh Wall of Air, but in this case that's what he did, using more random physical moves. I just guarded until he's out of stamina to finish him with another Fireball.

The chest behind him contains the Moonlight Roundel, a shield that boosts our MAG by 20%. This is a core item, so make sure to pick it up.

There's a group of imps on F2 that we're going to have to leave for later. Before we leave this area, head back to B1 and there should be an empty spot on your map to the east. Open the chest up there for 2810 iron. We've done all we can here.

Head to the Hollow Below the Cliff. There's a now-climbable ledge at the corner where the confusion ward is pointing towards. Climb up, cross the drawbridge, and open two chests for a trophy and the Evasion Tunic.

The Evasion Tunic is a core item for the demon fights later. Make sure to pick it up.

We're done here. Let's head back to the main dungeon.
Chap 16: Loose Ends (Main)
Let's start from B1 and work our way down. North-west corner. These wisps use demonic magic, so Robes of Sorrow is a must. They also self-destruct when destroyed. Wizard doesn't have any DOTs (damage over time) spells or any sacrificial summons, so that's going to complicate things.

I'm going in with the same setup we had: Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree+10, Robes of Sorrow +10. I did a test, and their self-destruct damage is 51 unguarded, so we could actually just flat out nuke them.

Run away if they use Harm on the first turn. Otherwise cast Rain of Thorns. One-turn kill. So much for strategizing. What a beautiful particle effect.

Chest behind them contains the 3rd [BALLISTA BOLT] so far.

B2 now. There should be a blank spot to the east of your map. Climb up for a trophy. Also, we kinda left the level 17 unique merman (Kraken Hunter) alone because he wasn't in the way. Just drop him now for the beastiary entry. He drops a spear with built-in Chain Lightning, but we're wizard so what good is that?

Alright, B3 now. We've already cleared the pyromancers. There should be a blank spot to the south-east of your map.

These guys are in heavy armor, so no Rain of Thorns. But they're not flying, so Entangling Vines would work. They have 50 slash resistance so don't try Windblade. They do piercing damage, so we go in Mystic Armor and the Jeweled Staff for maximum spell power.

Just cast Entangling Vines. Clean up any stragglers which used dodge.

Chest behind them contains the last and final [BALLISTA BOLT].

These spiders drop material for Spidershell Armor. We need 3x of the material. I'd say this is a core item for us, so try to get it before moving on. I'll be using this heavily as a generalist medium armor, but given the prevalence of armor, you could probably find other pieces to cover different situations.

There's nothing on B4.

Time to clean up B5 then. The only thing left is the chest in the middle of the map. First, enhance the Spidershell Armor to +10.

Equip the War/Strongman's Staff and the Staff-Fighter's Cape, and bash the group of 3 as usual. Next, equip the Spidershell Armor+10, Chilled Spear, and the Shield of the Great Tree+10, and engage the group of 4 from the side.

Start with Entangling Vines to take out both archers.

Then Firewall. I tried Rain of Thorns but they aren't using light armor, so that didn't work.

The chest they were guarding contains the Stone of Healing, used to craft a staff we don't need.
Chap 17: The Efreeti
Alright that's all the side roads we can take for now. The only thing left is to take the fight to the Efreeti. First, enhance the Lion's Cloak to +10 and equip it.

Eqiup the Windward Staff (-1 wind MP). Head to B5 and clear the group of mobs blocking the drawbridge. Cross it, unlock the door, and immediately turn right to pick up 2810 iron.

This guy has 4.4kHP. He has flying status, so no Entangling Vines or Upheaval for us. Immune to fire, shock of 14. He's kind of evasive in the beginning, but we can't use Fireball or Firewall.

Now equip the Jeweled Staff (+5%MAG) for maximum spell power. We're Wizard, so we have more than fire spells at our disposal. Therefore we're not going to bash up this guy using an anchor like some wannabe caveman, which was what I suggested for the Sorcerer solo.

He always starts the fight by shrinking himself. This is a super slow move. This means we get a free opening for Freeze --> Stone Crush. Screenshot is turn 2.

Since we interrupted his shrink move, he'll try to do it again, because that's what he does. I cast Rain of Thorns. I want to put it on cooldown because it's an awesome nuke. More importantly, I want him to instantly purge his own shrink buff with his phase change because the shrink will put our single-target nukes at 30% accuracy for 3 turns.

So he shrinks, thinks twice because the world looks a bit too large to him, then tries to make himself bigger instead, because that's what he does. He's going to do increased damage in this form, so I channel Snowdrift, because increased damage of zero is zero. I'm hoping to interrupt his next move with the freeze, whatever it may be.

He actually used Strong Attack. It would've been nasty if it had hit, but it didn't, because he's under an accuracy penalty when he's big. And now he's frozen.

So we follow up with Stone Crush. You can't see his HP but he's down to 20%. I'm actually more surprised he's not in the final phase.

Now he wants to use Kick. If we block this one, it's going to blow out our entire stamina bar. Not much reason to, because it's a low damage move. Kick is one of those moves where it's intended to be used reactively, i.e. by our side. It's a guard-clearing move. We're not guarding. I cast Icicle.

Low damage move, but it still took out a third of our HP. I guess it's not a good idea to get kicked by a lava foot as large as yourself. Now he's in the third phase so he shrinks back down to size. He always uses Blaze, a 3-turn charge spell. The thing with all spells is that their impact is tiny, so we can just guard these.

Not that we need to, because Rain of Thorns is off cooldown, so I use it and he's out.

Pick up 2810 iron from a spinning wheel behind him. Raise the portcullis like the chief asked us to, and we finally have a way down to B6.

Walk around the place, then talk to the knight NPC to the northeast. Take the third conversation option and we'll unlock Overgrown Abandoned Land. You can buy a trophy from him if you wish.

Before we head there, unlock the green door to the east and head down to the dragon. Don't leave the dungeon just yet. Go back to where the knight was, and take the new eastern elevator up to B2 and B1 to unlock the shortcuts, so we can get back here more easily. Now return to base.

The chief will get a surprise visitor in the night. The game doesn't tell us to, but head to B1 of the main dungeon where the chief now is, and talk to both her and the new NPC nearby.

Now let's head to Overgrown Abandoned Land!
Chap 18: Overgrown Abandoned Land
There are quite a few things we want from this place. All of them are the same as the Sorcerer run, so I'm going to copy-paste this list here:
  • There are two spellcasters. The dark one is the sorcerer, and the light one is the cleric. The sorcerer drops 4 different elemental ores, that make 4 different staves that boost the corresponding elemental damage by 30%. We're looking to get all of them.
  • Dragonhunter's Sword. A 2h-sword with 50% to EVA when wearing light armor. From swordsman.
  • Oil-soaked Armor. Light armor with 50% slash resistance. Chest behind area boss.
  • Ancient Sword of the Oasis. 1h-sword with passive +2 stamina regen. From skeletal swordsman.
  • Protector's Sword. 1h-sword with HP regen (10% MAG). From skeletal swordsman.
  • The Immovable. 1h-axe with fire+poison immunity. From axeman.
  • The Axe of Tenacity. 1h-axe with stun+freeze immunity. From axeman.
There is other powerful equipment, but these are the ones we need. They are all core, but their drop rates are also all quite low. Make sure to have gotten them before moving on.

Start by talking to the chief. Equip Spidershell Armor+10 and the Jeweled Staff (+5% MAG) There's only one way forward.

Single axeman. Double Fireball takes him out. Next, spearman+cleric group, from the side. Fireball the cleric, then Freeze into Stone Crush. It did over 1500 damage to the spearman. Cross the drawbridge and open the chest for the Mace of Reversal, a 1-handed mace. Way forward is blocked, so drop down and unlock the shortcut back to where we started from.

Head back to base and return to where we left off. Take the sorcerer+archer group to the south. I used Entangling Vines and then whacked the archer with the staff.

Now I don't like the fact that our Entangling Vines is too weak to one-shot the archer. So keep coming back to this one sorcerer+archer group until we've gotten all four of the elemental material. It looks like we're going to need the 30% increased damage right now.

Now equip the Staff of Earth and let's continue. Clear the sorcerer+archer group again, this time with a single Entangling Vines cast.

Now approach the group of 3 from head-on. Run away if the spearman is guarding any of those in the back. Otherwise, cast Entangling Vines, then Freeze into Stone Crush.

Head into the next room and approach the banner to pick up the Lightweight Scimitar. Raise the portcullis to the south. There are a few branches ahead, but all of them would be blocked by mobs. There should be a part up north that appears to be a dead-end where you can drop down to fish up the Anti-Air Pike from the base of a ladder. Head back to base. Let's keep going.

Start with these two groups, down by the southwest. Swordsman+rogue. Just run away if the swordsman is guarding. Otherwise Entangling Vines into Stone Crush. Next group. Hammerman+sorcerer+cleric from the side. First, change into Retainer Armor+8 so we don't have crush damage penalty. Then cast Entangling Vines, then Freeze into Stone Crush. The chest behind them contains a cosmetic and the 2-handed Hammer of Exorcism.

Return to base. Time for the next group. Change back into Spidershell Armor+10. You should recall there's the other drawbridge up north. Just take the group of 3 head-on. Same strat. Run away if the spearman is covering the others. Otherwise Entangling Vines, Freeze, Stone Crush. Drop down to find the Great Tree Bow inside a chest. Keep going north to unlock the next portcullis. You can keep exploring and unlock a shortcut back to where the chief is, but the other paths are all blocked by mobs. Return to base.

Return to where the fairy was and give her the Incense so we could pass. Unlock the shortcut behind her and pick up the 1-handed Mountainbreaker Axe.

To get to where the boss is, we need to get past a group of 4: Axeman+swordsman+sorcerer+rogue.

Run away if the axeman is guarding anybody. Otherwise cast Entangling Vines to take out both squishies in the back.

Since the axeman is guarding the swordsman, I cast Firewall. You should know that guard skills cannot reduce counter damage. Take out the axeman however you like. I just used Freeze and Stone Crush.

Raise the portcullis so we have a straight path to the area boss. Return to base and return here. Make sure you have the Staff of Earth equipped. Equip the Mystic Armor, for the 50 pierce resistance, because if you look at his group, only the cleric is using crush damage.

Run away until the spearman uses his taunt move, and the cleric is not using Acid Fog or Armor Break (the hammer symbol). We open with Entangling Vines.

The spearman is very likely to use guard next turn. I just channel Snowdrift.

This guarantees a turn where both of them are frozen. Follow up with Stone Crush to take out the spearman. Actually what I should have done is to use it on the boss because it would've take him out instantly. I didn't check his HP before I started the fight.

Next, freeze the boss. It will outspeed pretty much every move he has.

Then just Stone Crush to finish the fight. Ice mage best mage.

Climb up the ledge and pick up 2x 4525 iron from the chests. Now cross the drawbridge and pick up the wolf-ears cosmetic, a trophy, and then...

Pick up the Oil-Soaked Clothes from the ground, with 50 slash resistance. This is a core item. Make sure you've picked up everything because there's no shortcut back here.

Head back to base and change back into Spidershell Armor+10. Let's clear the last three rooms on the map clockwise.

Skeletal axeman+swordsman. I just cast Stone Crush twice to take them out. Next group of 3 from the side. I just channeled Upheaval. Chest contains the Bardiche of the Squall 2-handed axe. Unlock the shortcut. Return to base.

Next room. Swordsman+swordsman+axeman+spearman from the front. I cast Firewall, then Stone Crush. Chest contains Bonecrusher Daggers, which is actually a cleaver. Unlock the shortcut. Return to base.

Last room. Swordman+axeman+spearman, from the front. I just channeled Upheaval. Next group. Swordman+axeman+spearman+spearman, from the side. Upheaval again. Chests contain a cosmetic and a 2-handed Falcett. Unlock the shortcut, and that's the full map.

Farm the abovementioned items before moving on. If you need help with that, the guide for Sorcerer has a few pointers.

Using the Staff of Earth, at level 49, our Upheaval is now good enough to one-shot the High Pyromancers on B3 for a 2-turn takedown.
Chap 19: Demonology Part I
Okay, since we now have the pieces we need, let's drop by the demons in the Hollow Below the Cliff to pick up the gloves for +3 skill points. We need to take two boss fights back-to-back, so be prepared.

Our first target is this red guy on the right. This guy disables MAG and TEC-based skills while doubling STR-based damage.

Equip the Dragonhunter's Greatsword (+50 EVA) and the Evasion Tunic (+20 EVA), which you should have gotten earlier from the climbable ledge using the foldable ladders, in this same dungeon. No upgrades necessary. If you're following the skill build, you should also have a single point in Northern Wind Weapon. If you don't have this skill, no worries. It just makes the fight go by a bit faster. Wizard has too many skill points anyway.

Just walk up to him and open with Northern Wind Weapon. This gives us 3 free attacks at the beginning. Otherwise just pass the turn and start smacking him with the sword. That's all there is to the fight.

Open the chest beside him for the Muddy Cloak. It's a good piece of armor but I don't think it's core. Another chest further in has a trophy.

Now for this guy. He disables MAG and STR-based attacks while boosting our TEC.

We're going with Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Potion Belt +9. If you're following the skill build, you should have Tailwind at level 2.

He opens by casting his TEC manipulation buff. We open by casting Tailwind. This lasts 5 turns. We will be blocking an absolutely withering series of dagger throws from him until he runs out of mana, basically. This buys us some advantage.

Once the buff is laid down, our job is to survive until his MP runs out. If he uses Triple Daggers, Magic Barrier. Sometimes he decides to attack for whatever reason. When he does that or when he refreshes his own stamina, it's our turn to either use Cheap Potion or refresh our own stamina.

Now he will refresh the TEC buff in the middle of the fight. The best action here I think is to cast Tailwind again.

Once he runs out of MP, first thing to do is heal up using Potion Belt, because chances are the TEC buff should still be active.

I used the last tick of the TEC buff to bring our HP to full. Now it's our turn to take the fight to him.

Now we want to be careful here because 18 MP isn't much to work with at all. 6 Fireballs isn't going to cut it, so I fall back to our most MP-efficient option, which would be Firewall. Just cast it and guard and watch him self-destruct.

Once he's down, first thing to do is unlock the shortcut so we have a direct path to the back.
Chap 20: Demonology Part II
Return to base and re-requip what we fought the first demon with: Dragonhunter's Greatsword, and the Evasion Tunic.

This guy as about 6kHP and no weaknesses. We need to think carefully about how we want to approach the fight because we may not have the MP to do what we want to do.

Compared to the sorcerer solo, we have a level in Tome of Air, so we have 5% extra evasion, which means his base moves have 25% chance to hit us. When he uses these, we still need to guard. On the other hand, we don't want to take too long ourselves, so for me personally, I do not guard when he uses his normal attack, which has 25% chance to hit.

Otherwise, when he buffs himself, refreshes his stamina, otherwise uses a skill that has negative hit chance, it's our call to cast Icicle. Each Icicle does just under 300 damage, so we'll need 20 casts to finish the fight. We have 40MP to work with, so don't hesitate to use Magic Barrier if you need to.

At 33% HP, he changes phase and casts Gravity Field. We're in light armor so it's a free turn for us. Make sure to have full stamina after this turn because we'll need it.

This is when we start using our Freeze. Then follow up with Stone Crush. He decided to use Flare after this. As Sorcerer, we have high fire resist, so I channeled Snowdrift, into another Stone Crush.

He barely has any HP left after that. Icicle to end the fight.

He drops the Dexterity Gloves that give us +3 to skill points. We already have too many, but I'm not complaining.

Now for the last demon. This guy disables STR and TEC-based attacks and doubles MAG damage.

Head back to base, equip the Robes of Sorrow+10, the Immovable Axe (prevents fire), and the Moonlight Roundel shield (+20% MAG). The robes counter his Death Spiral and Energy Drain, the Axe his Ignition, and the shield is for our own magic.

He always opens with his MAG manipulation buff. I don't want to risk channeling a spell like Snowdrift because he could cast Harm next, so I just cast Tailwind. You could just pass the turn too.

When he casts his offensive spells, block. However, if he casts the spells we're immune to, Freeze into Stone Crush, then just Fireball. Our magic does some pretty insane damage under the buff, so I don't think you'll find this guy difficult whatsoever.
Chap 21: Ballistas (Golem, Wyvern)
We'll do the guardians counterclockwise, because like the Sorcerer's run, I think they get more difficult in that order.

Boulder Golem. 3.3kHP. -80 resistance to crush (lol). That's pretty much all we need to know.

We go in with our full evasion gear again. Dragonhunter's Greatsword, and the Evasion Tunic.

In the first phase, he can't actually hit us at all, so save our best spells for later. Three casts of Stone Crush will bring him into the second phase.

In the second phase, he starts using skills that can actually hit us. I think it's better to save our freezes for the lower half of his HP, so just keep using Stone Crush until then.

I believe the trigger for his sleep mode is 50% HP. When he does this, it's our cue to channel Snowdrift. Follow up with Stone Crush to send him into the 3rd phase.

3rd phase. He always starts with a body slam. Just Freeze - Stone Crush him. That's enough to take him out.

He drops the Rock Wall shield. This is a core item. I'm not sure if it's a guaranteed 1st drop from him so make sure you get it.

Loot his chest for his trophy, unlock the shortcut, head down to install the ballista bolt. Make sure to talk to the knight at some point to ask him to man the ballistas. Head back to base.

Wyvern. 5.3kHP. Access to freeze and disconcert. -30 pierce resist. 14 shock. Note that he's immune to freeze so don't bother with our own. His full name is the Hoarfrost (樹氷) Wyvern.

We go in using the Axe of Tenacity (null freeze), Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Lion's Cloak (null disconcert). It's the same setup as I used for Sorcerer.

The basic idea is to just guard when he uses his attacks (his shock is low), and retaliate when he uses the debuffs which we're immune to. Try to keep Firewall up because he's melee heavy, and take advantage of his -30 pierce with Icicle. I'm not going to do a turn-by-turn breakdown because the fight is easy but it's quite long.

Second phase. He always uses Ice Breath. This is Snowdrift without the channeling time. I just threw an Icicle back at him. Snowball fight!

Third phase. He channels some 3-turn ice spell. Just throw keep throwing Icicle I guess, and guard when it hits.

Icicle takes him out.

He drops the wyvernskin material used for some armor. Trophy from chest, lever for shortcut, ballista downstairs. Time for the third boss.
Chap 22: Ballistas (Spider, Abyss)
Giant Spider of the Belltower. 5kHP. Summons, slow and instant poisons. It has -50 crush resistance, so we know what we're going for.

We use the Immovable Axe (slow poison immunity), Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Robes of Sorrow+10 (30 poison res).

It loves to start with spider summons. So I just channel Upheaval. From the screen it looks like he resists pierce, but I checked later and it turns out he doesn't.

When it refreshes stamina, I channel Snowdrift, then Stone Crush.

Second phase. It always uses Wall of Webs, which causes melee attackers' evasion to drop to zero. I just used Stone Crush. The other choice is Firewall, but it has a preference for ranged poison attacks in the second phase. We're at half stamina, but remember we can buy initiative with Magic Barrier if he blows his own stamina. Just guard his moves and wait for openings to use Stone Crush. We're in no hurry.

Third phase. It always uses Fatal Poison, which will wipe us in 4 turns if we don't bring him down before then. Well, if it manages to cast it, that is. I cast Freeze.

It actually did manage to get the poison off. Stone Crush to follow up.

It's doing a Double Attack so I used Firewall instead of Stone Crush.

And it blew itself up on the Firewall before my Stone Crush can even finish forming.

The spider drops its material, which is used to make some kind of armor. Same thing: Trophy from chest, unlock shortcut, ballista downstairs.

The Black-robed Abyss and the Armored Wraiths. 5kHP + 2x850HP. The boss is actually weak to pierce/fire (-20/-10) while the minions are weak to crush (-30). Boss has shock of 12.

We're going with Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Oil-Soaked Clothes+10 for 50 slash resistance. Unlike the Sorcerer, we don't have the imp to help us out here, so I'm expecting this fight to be quite difficult compared to the other three we've just taken.

Try to find an opening where the boss isn't attacking. One of the minions will keep attacking us, and the other will keep guarding the boss, until they run out of MP basically. In this case, I cast Freeze on the attacking minion, because I want to take him out with Stone Crush on the second turn.

One the attacking minion is down, our goal is the other minion. Just keep guarding to heal HP until our freeze is off cooldown, then do the same to him.

Once only the boss is left, play defensively until his MP runs out. This is a battle of attrition. Once his MP runs out, we'll be healing 52HP per guard, while he'll be doing 12/4 HP/stam damage per hit. We want our HP and stamina at full before we take the fight any further.

Once you're ready, cast Firewall when his stamina is full. We'll wear him down with this. 3 hits later he's in the second phase.

He always opens with Vacuum Blade. In this phase, this skill is always the first action every new stamina bar. Guard this one because it has low impact. Keep wearing him down with Firewall. He's a melee user so there's no way he could damage us without damaging himself. When he runs out of MP he has no choice but to attack. That said, when casting Firewall, we can tank a normal hit, but I don't think it's a good idea to tank any of his skills, especially not the bleed.

Final phase. He always uses Black Blade. This takes 10% of his max HP and does some pretty sick damage. Use Magic Barrier for this. Be very careful with your MP now because it would really suck if you ran out.

I've never seen him use Harm until now, so this really came as a surprise. Since Barrier is on a 1-turn cooldown, I attempt to counterspell with Freeze, which is very expensive. The Harm outsped the freeze anyway and did 170 damage to us. I guess he's not a spellcaster, but that's still half our HP.

Since he's frozen, Stone Crush.

Black Blade again, so Magic Barrier. We'll have 4MP left. I think he might end up destroying himself but I don't know if the damage is fatal or he's gonna be left at 1HP.

Looks like it's fatal damage after all. Whodunnit? He-dunnit!

He drops the Dragonrune Heater Shield. The other two drops the Solid Golden Plate Armor, which reduces guard damage by a further half. Take care of the last trophy in the chest, shortcut, and ballistas and we're ready for the final boss.
Chap 23: Disaster Incarnate (4 Ballistas)
Disaster Incarnate. 21kHP - 10k from the ballistas. Slash damage. Shock 18. No resistances or weaknesses. Heavy armor, so Rain of Thorns wouldn't work. Gravity Field would though, but he doesn't guard.

I fought this guy initially at level 49, using the Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree+10, and Oil-Soaked Armor+10. That worked, but it took over 70 turns to take him down. That's so long that he ran out of MP 3 times. The same setup worked really well for Sorcerer because we could hunker down ourselves while amplifying the imp's damage with Infusion, but Wizard can't do any of that.

Instead, since this is a walkthrough, I'm going to just explain the farming setup that I worked out some time afterwards, which was when I'm already at level 51. We're going with the Staff of Earth and the Oil-Soaked Armor+10. Since we do not have any regeneration or healing whatsoever, you really need to know what you're doing if you're attempting this at level 49. This setup is almost as fast as the one I described for Sorcerer.

Don't get discouraged if you find it difficult; our damage output increases tremendously even with a single level's difference. Once we can force him to phase change within a single stamina bar of his, the fight becomes much easier. I think this is when we're at level 52 or above. If you find it too difficult at level 49, get to level 51 first using the High Pyromancers in B3 of the main dungeon.

If he does X, do the following:
  • Refresh, Giant Fang, Normal/Bleed/Snipe Attack, Slicing Wind: Stone Crush. HOWEVER, if he's going to refresh next turn, channel Snowdrift if it's available.
  • Headbutt: Stone Crush if it's enough to trigger the ballista. Otherwise Freeze to cancel it. The debuff is really dangerous.
  • Poison Sting: Must be guarded. What really sucks is that he can use it twice.
  • Dragon's Breath, Firebreath, Storm of Leaves, Entangling Vines: Guard these.
  • Great Roar: Guard or tank it, then Fireball/Icicle/Entangling Vines, in that priority. It wastes his stamina.
  • Tail Swipe: Levitation.
  • Evade Attack: Channel Snowdrift, Upheaval, and Rain of Fire, in that priority.
  • Strong Attack, Critical Hit: Use Magic Barrier to waste his stamina. Otherwise Freeze.
Your fastest spell after Freeze is Icicle, but remember it cannot outspeed most of his physical moves. Also, if you eat some BS from him, after a ballista shot, our MP is restored to full, so running just to restart the fight is an option.

Especially once your level is high enough to do sufficient damage, what I try to do is Snowdrift-Stonecrush-Freeze-Stonecrush to start. That sends him into phase 2 immediately. Then, once he casts Storm of Leaves, Freeze-Stonecrush-Stonecrush to end the fight right there.

This is how a typical run looks like at level 51, before it becomes easy, using the suggested setup:

Turn 1: Open with Snowdrift.

Turn 2: He used Tail Swipe. The speed seems to vary. This time we manage to freeze him before he stuns us. If he stuns us, just run away and start the fight again.

Turn 3: Tail Swipe again. I guard. He actually missed this attack.

Turn 4: Refresh. So Stone Crush.

Turn 5: Headbutt. He's close to 75%, so Stone Crush instead of Freeze. Ballista hits for 2.5k.

Turn 6: Phase 2, so Slicing Wind. I used guard. Note: It's better to use Stone Crush because we don't care about bleed and it only does half damage of his normal attack. I'm still working out the details of the fight at this stage.

Turn 7: Poison Sting. We must guard.

Turn 8: Refresh. We do the same.

Turn 9: Normal attack. We use Stone Crush. He missed the attack.

Turn 10: Poison Sting. He's close to 50%, so I spend the Freeze. Otherwise keep it in case he uses poison twice in a row.

Turn 11: He's frozen. We use Stone Crush. Ballista follow up for 2.5k.

Turn 12: Third phase, so Dragon's Breath. We guard.

Turn 13: Refresh. We have full stamina, high HP, no def down, so I channel Snowdrift. If we're low, use Stone Crush.

Turn 14: Snipe. It outspeeds the Snowdrift.

Turn 15: He's frozen. Stone Crush. I was expecting the ballista but it's just a bit short.

Turn 16: Bleed Attack. Stone Crush again. Ballista follow up for 2.5k.

Turn 17: Phase 4, so Storm of Leaves. Freeze is still on cooldown, so just guard.

Turn 18: Firebreath. We guard.

Turn 19: Strong Attack. I spend the Freeze.

Turn 20: He's frozen. Stone Crush.

Turn 21: Firebreath. We guard.

Turn 22: Refresh. I use Stone Crush.

Turn 23: Storm of Leaves. Stone Crush to finish the fight.

He doesn't drop anything. Check the treasure chests if you wish, then pull the lever and unlock the blue door. I won't spoil how to get the ending here.

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芋最高!Potatoes forever!

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A wild twin has appeared! I guess the game really needs two characters for this one screen, so it just clones the first one.
Chap 24: Peak Wizard
Alright, so we need to take this guy down 300 times in order to cap our level at 56.

"This again!?" 「またこれかよ⁉」

Our equipment remains the same as before: Staff of Earth and Oil-Soaked Clothes+10. Once we hit 52, things become easier because the ballista clears our status effects (poison, def down) within 2 turns. Also, given the fact that the dragon doesn't guard and the fact that there's no damage spread in Potato Flowers, our damage output on the dragon's HP bar is - ignoring some edge cases which I'll address below - entirely deterministic. Therefore it's possible to work out a sequence of moves that brings the dragon to 0HP, assuming we can survive incoming damage.

Unfortunately, the full potential of Wizard's earth magic is tied to the 8-turn cooldown cycle of Freeze and Snowdrift, which means the number of turns she can finish a particular fight like this isn't exactly a linear relationship with respect to her spell power.

The following are sequences of moves to use at different levels. If you're good at maintaining your mental stack of the quickbar, you can play this entirely by ear, like what I proposed for Sorcerer. However, if you hear him use Great Roar, be prepared to execute a slightly different sequence. Likewise, it's uncommon, but if he uses Evasion Attack and we don't manage to hit him, be prepared to repeat a Stone Crush if you don't hear the phase change music when you expect to.

Note: These sequences assume that our quickbar starts with the spells Stone Crush - Freeze - Snowdrift, in that order. Naturally, these sequences will make sure our quickbar ends that way so we can keep looping him.

Level 52. 16 turns expected, 34 repeats.
  • 1. [↓↓←] Snowdrift / none. Ballista click.
  • 2. (none) Snowdrift release / random
  • 3. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none
  • 4. [↓↓←] Freeze / random
  • 5. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none. Ballista click. To phase 2
  • 6. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / Slicing Wind
  • 7. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / random
  • 8. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / refresh. Ballista click. To phase 3
  • 9. [2] Guard / Dragon's Breath
  • 10. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / refresh
  • 11. [↓↓←] Snowdrift / random
  • 12. (none) Snowdrift release / random
  • 13. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none. Ballista click. To phase 4
  • 14. [↓↓←] Freeze / Storm of Leaves
  • 15. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none
  • 16. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / Storm of Leaves
If he uses Great Roar, this will always be turn 11/12. Just keep going, but insert one extra turn by Guarding [2] the Storm of Leaves, then keep going as usual: freeze - crush - crush to finish. You could also always just use this 17-turn alternative sequence if that's easier for you.

Level 53,54. 16 turns expected. 50,100 repeats.
  • 1. [↓↓←] Snowdrift / none. Ballista click.
  • 2. (none) Snowdrift release / random
  • 3. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none
  • 4. [↓↓←] Freeze / random
  • 5. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none. Ballista click. To phase 2
  • 6. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / Slicing Wind
  • 7. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / random. Ballista click. To phase 3
  • 8. [2] Guard / Dragon's Breath
  • 9. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / refresh
  • 10. [2] Guard / random *
  • 11. [↓↓←] Snowdrift / random
  • 12. (none) Snowdrift release / random
  • 13. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none. Ballista click. To phase 4
  • 14. [↓↓←] Freeze / Storm of Leaves
  • 15. [↓↓→→] Stone Crush / none
  • 16. [↓↓→] Stone Crush / Storm of Leaves
* The guard on turn 10 is so that we don't mess up the sequence in case he uses Great Roar. If he roars on turn 11/12, just do the same thing as when we're level 52. Actually, if you're playing with full attention and you know he's not gonna roar on turn 10, cast Stone Crush, and the sequence ends in 15 turns if he doesn't roar either on turn 11.

Alternatively, you could choose to insert an extra turn by guarding turn 7 and then Stone Crush after, so the sequence plays out exactly the same afterwards as when we were level 52.

Level 55. 15 turns expected. 100 repeats.
Same as the above, but we don't need turn 16.

300 runs later...

This is peak Wizard, with no equipment. As you probably already know, the base stats of all classes are the same. However, Wizard has all four Tome skills modifying base stats (+20 fire res, +2 MP, +5%HP, +5EVA), so our baseline is very slightly higher.

As a tradition, I went back to the pyromancers in B3 and used Upheaval with the Staff of Earth, as a damage test. We were doing about 1200 damage at level 49. Now it's almost 1700 with only 6 levels' difference.
Chap 25: Vampiric Scimitars
Dual Vampiric Scimitars. 2.3kHP each. Slash damage. Shock of 10. 100/100 fire/poison resistance. Note: These guys lifesteal 100% of their damage in HP.

We're going to be using roughly the same strategy the Sorcerer solo. However, thanks to our Wizard spells, we're going to be able to take this fight much faster. Itemize with Protector's Sword +10 (Regen @10%MAG), Rock Wall+10 (max shock resistance), and the Oil-Soaked Clothes (+50 slash resistance).

Begin by guarding until both scimitars are out of MP. Try to refresh our own stamina when at least one of the scimitars is refreshing itself, however try not to get inflicted by the bleed debuff if you can help it.

Once they're out of MP, make sure your own HP is close to full. This is so we can take a couple of direct hits to the face. Start by channeling Snowdrift.

Follow up with Stone Crush. Then Freeze, and another Stone Crush to nuke down one scimitar.

Then just guard until all our spells are off cooldown, and do exactly the same thing to the other scimitar.

These guys drop trophy and iron, but the thing we're after is in the treasure chest they were guarding.

These are the Garbs of the Reckless, a piece of light armor that gives +40 to EVA but disables guarding. I suggest heading to the blacksmith to get these to +10 if you have extra iron lying around. We're going to need them for the upcoming fight.
Chap 26: Immoral Imps
Immoral imps. 3x 1200HP. Light armor. 50/100 fire/poison resistance. Shock of 10. Pierce damage.

We're going with Dragonhunter's Greatsword and the Garbs of the Reckless+10. We won't be using the sword so enchanting it is not necessary.

The thing about this fight is that Acid Rain will take out just under half of our HP even when we're at level 56. We have a single cast of Magic Barrier against it, but if they use it again and again, we pretty much just have to retry. They have enough HP such that Windblade - Rain of Thorns - Windblade isn't enough to take them out, and they're flying so Upheaval and Entangling Vines aren't options.

Find an opening where they aren't casting Acid Rain or Acid Fog. Start by channeling Snowdrift. Chain Lightning and Rain of Fire are also options, but Snowdrift has the freeze component.

Then Windblade.

Rain of Thorns.

Then finally Windblade to take them out. Don't worry if they cast spells, because Windblade is really fast.

These guys drop Glittering Meteoric Iron, which is used to make a staff that gives -1 MP cost to demonic spells, but we don't have any of those. The chest behind them contains a cosmetic.

Congratulations! That's all the mobs in Potato Flowers. There's no longer anything standing between us and 100% completion.
Chap 27: Disaster Incarnate Solo
Similar to the Sorcerer solo, we're going to try to take the final boss under the following conditions:
  • No ballistas
  • No summons (doesn't apply to us)
  • No ambush
The main problem with Wizard is our limited MP pool. How on earth are we going to output 21,540 points of damage without running out of MP?

Approach 1: Evasion stacking

Consider this: Let's use the Dragonslayer Greatsword+10, and Garbs of the Reckless+10, for a total of 95 EVA with a skill point in Tome of Air. It's how we took down the imps just now. We get 40MP to work with. Let's say we use all of this mana is mainly to used to fuel Magic Barrier, against hits like Snipe with more than 5% to hit. If we have any extra, casts of Firewall would be nice. That sounds like something we can work with. It'll be thematic too, because we're relying on Tome of Air to make the evasion build twice as good as it would be otherwise.

Using Dragonhunter's Greatsword+10:
  • Basic hit: 179 dmg
  • Hard weapon (4MP 3 turns): 261 dmg
  • Fire weapon (4MP 3 turns): 179 + 124 extra = 303 dmg
  • Icicle (1MP): 372 dmg
  • Stone Crush (2MP): 460 dmg
  • Fireball (3MP): 446 dmg
  • Firewall (3MP 3 turns): 372 dmg
In terms of MP efficiency, Icicle and Firewall are equal. With Firewall, it lasts 3 turns but the dragon can only do 2 melee attacks in a row, so Icicle still comes out on top. Alright. How much total damage can we do with Icicle? 372 x 40 is 14,880, so roughly 3/4 of his HP.

Looks good on paper so far, let's do the testing:

Turns elapsed | Our HP | our MP | notes
  • Phase 2 start: Turn 41 | 644/644 | 40/40 | Dodged 0/0 Entangling Vines
  • Phase 3 start: Turn 81 | 368/644 | 40/40 | Hit by 2 normal attacks
  • Phase 4 start: Turn 102 | 84/644 | 14/40 | Hit by 2 snipes, 1 shielded breath, dodged 3 breaths
  • Yeah, well... didn't make it, because Firebreath also has 45% to hit.
That was one out of five tries.

In my experience, we need to spend at the very least half of our MP in Tailwind, in phases 3 and 4 in order to mitigate both fire breaths, and great roar, which does 50 damage because we cannot block. Even under this optimistic assumption, 20MP in Icicle means we do 7440 damage, which leaves 14,100 HP i.e. 79 normal hits. At 5% to hit, that means he's going to land 4 hits on us on average, which are about 100 damage each, that's not even including snipe. We only have 644 HP to work with. Basically this approach is really RNG-heavy.

I don't put much stock in actually executing methods that rely on trying enough times to succeed, if there exists other alternatives.

Approach 2: Canonical
I started working out the details for the above method when it's clear that fighting him normally is going to take long time, but it sounds like we're going to just have to do it.

Let's start by thinking along the lines of a spellcaster. Equipping the Water Mirror Staff for 0MP Icicle isn't an option because we're going to be limited to using the Potion Belt to heal, which itself costs MP, and the Potion Belt has pretty bad defenses to begin with. We basically have two options:

- Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree, Magician's Robes, for 52MP.
- Chilled Spear, Shield of the Great Tree, Oil-Soaked Clothes, for 40MP.

Our Icicle does 510 damage using the Chilled Spear. 52MP would be enough, but we won't have 50 slash resistance. If we're limited to 40MP, it means we'll be casting nothing but Icicle, plus we're going to need to jab the boss with the spear (81 dmg) 15 times in order to take him down. Sounds simple enough. That's what we're gonna do.

I'm going with the second option: Chilled Spear+10, Shield+10, and Oil-Soaked Clothes+10, because I'm not convinced eating 100 damage per unguarded hit without the 50 slash resistance would make the fight appreciably shorter (if at all).

As we know, he usually does attack + attack + refresh, in a cycle. Except Strong Attack, none of his other hits do more than 10 stamina damage when we're using our favorite shield, so can we can just guard + guard + refresh until he's completely out of MP. Then jab him with a couple of times with a spear, 15 times minimum. I think I jabbed him way more times than that.

We heal 73HP when guarding. His normal attacks do 11/56 damage guarded/unguarded, which means when he's out of MP there's no way he can kill us unless we let him. So, when our HP is full, jab him with the spear. If you don't want to spend any mana, you could take down his entire HP bar this way. You'll need to jab him 266 times to take him down. Accounting for regen, which roughly doubles turns taken, we're looking at about 500-600 turns. But we do have MP so it's not going to take anywhere near that long.

Use Magic Barrier only if you absolutely have to, because 3MP is 1500 damage lost, and we'll need to make that up with the spear. At level 56, Magic Barrier is completely unnecessary, but if you're attempting this at a lower level, take it into account.

Start of phase 2. Same thing. Play completely defensively until his MP is out, then use Icicle to chip down his HP.

Phase 3. Same thing.

Phase 4. Same thing again.

And thus concludes the Wizard's journey! Ice mage best mage. It was a great run.
Chap 28: The End
This took roughly half the time of the Sorcerer attempt. It comes down to:
  • Pyromancers taking less time.
  • B3 of the main dungeon and F2 of the water dungeon were much easier as a Wizard.
  • The sequence skip using the level 32 portent means we maintain a significant level advantage after the mid-game.
  • I'm not doing nearly as much trial-and-error anymore. We already know where to get all the key equipment like the Robes of Sorrow and Shield of the Great Tree.


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No epilogue this time. Thanks for reading! お付き合ってくれてありがとうございます!