Etrian Odyssey - Team Building Guide
Version 1.5
by KholdStare88
[email protected]
=================
Table of Contents
=================
I. Versions and Updates
II. Mission Statement
III. Frequently Asked Questions
IV. Class Builds
1. Protector
2. Landsknecht
3. Alchemist
4. Survivalist
5. Medic
6. Troubadour
7. Dark Hunter
V. Building a Team
VI. Credits & Acknowledgement
===============================================================================
I. Versions and Updates
===============================================================================
Version 1.0, May 14, 2011
-The bulk of the guide was created.
Version 1.5, June 12, 2011
-Removed alternate build for Protector to keep the one I think is best.
-Re-ordered SP allocation for TP Up and chaser skills for Landsknecht.
-Reduced Fire/Ice Up to level 5 and added Scavenge/Sight to Alchemist.
-Removed Scavenge for Unbind and moved 2 SP from Cure to Unbind for Medic.
-Fixed a misspelling of Scavenger -> Scavenge.
-Gave some more advice about Defender, Trickery, and Quicken.
===============================================================================
II. Mission Statement
===============================================================================
The idea of this guide started out right when I first touched this game. I did
not play this game when it first game out, so I was not involved in the all of
the discussions about it. So time passed and Etrian Odyssey III came out, which
prompted me to see what was so good about this series, and of course I have to
start with number one. Because there was not a team building guide, I was faced
with an enormous amount of information to learn: there were 7 starting classes
and each class has tons of customizable skills, and I have to pick 5 of them.
That was about the time when I spent endless hours reading through the message
boards, which were very helpful, but there were lots of read and in different
threads. And so that's when I thought to myself, I must make this guide for
those who wanted to attempt this series without being overwhelmed with the
classes and skills -- all of this before my second random encounter in the very
first floor. With that said, I hope to include concise information on how you
should proceed with this game, since with a strong team, a guide is largely
unneeded, and pre-drawn maps would actually be more useful.
In Etrian Odyssey, you start out with 3 SP (points used to raise skills) and
gain 69 levels, with a total of 72 SP available per character. My goal is to
provide 72 SP builds that are will result in strong yet easy to use characters,
which means no extra grinding or raising up another team to grind for items.
For example, by using the Retire option in the game, you can get up to 78 SP,
but this guide assumes that you do not want to such a tedious thing and would
rather know how to allocate 72 SP correctly.
There are two classes that you can unlock later, Ronin and Hexer, but would
require ditching one or two of your current characters, so I will not include
those classes into consideration. I believe that it is easiet to get through
the game with two types of teams, PL/ASM and PL/ATM, but I also included
PLD/AM and PD/ASM for those who really like Dark Hunters. For more information
about which team you should choose, then you can visit the [Building a Team]
section. Otherwise, let's jump into the FAQs then the builds themselves.
===============================================================================
III. Frequently Asked Questions
===============================================================================
This section contains some of questions that others have raised (or I myself
have raised while playing the game). Reading through this will help with some
of the basics of skills and teams Etrian Odyssey as well as hints and tips on
general gameplay.
Q: What are some crucial things I should know before playing?
A: First, pick a team and builds. Stick to it for the rest of the game, because
making a mistake means you will have to do the painful Rest, which will unlearn
all of your skills and give you back your SPs, but you lose 10 levels in the
process. Reviving is expensive, so it's best to go to the inn often (even if
that means tryign to Escape) than to have a character die. Always save when you
can. You have a 60 item limit, which means sell as much as you can. In fact,
selling is the only way to unlock new weapons and armor for you to buy.
However, read quest descriptions to know what items to not sell, because they
need to be in your inventory when you complete the quest, although to add to
the confusion, some quests require you to SELL the items...
Q: What are you implying the reader will do when they follow the guide?
A: For this guide, I expect that the reader won't challenge Fenrir until at
least level 14 and Cernunos at until at least level 30. I also expect everyone
to Rest one or two of their characters (indicated later on in the guide) at
exactly level 30 and follow the SP allocations that I suggested. Unless you
really want to rush through the game, you should be at least level 14 and 30
when you face Fenrir and Cernunos, respectively.
Q: What are some general guidelines about putting SP into skills?
A: Remember that for most skills (with some exceptions), the levels where the
skills become significantly better are 1, 5, and 10. So having level 1 is much
better than not having it at all, and after that you should think of level 5
and level 10 as checkpoints.
Q: You really mean when saying I won't need more than 5 characters?
A: For the most part, when using my guide, yes. In the beginning, you may want
to make a team of 5 survivalists, put all their SP into Mine, and mine the
spots on BF1 thirty times, rest at the inn, sell, then repeat. Doing this will
get you a lot of money to beat some items in the beginning. But later on, money
never became an issue for me, so yes, you stick to your team of 5 forever.
Q: What is Rest and will I ever have to do it?
A: You can to Rest starting at level 30, which loses 10 levels in exchange for
getting all of your SPs back so you can re-allocate your skills. This is mostly
done when you really mess up, but there are times when doing so can actually
make the game easier. If you follow my guide, then I recommend you resting 2 of
your 5 characters at level 30, which is actually not very bad at all, since you
still have 3 strong characters and regaining the levels you lost afterwards
will be actually quite easy, especially if you have a Troubadour. If you have
to rest all 5 of your characters, however, then that is very bad. You won't do
that if you do everything right.
Q: What is your favorite build?
A: There are generally 2 builds that I consider, one is really good for random
encounters, which means it's easiest to play, and one is for breezing through
bosses, but won't have as much firepower for random encounters as the first
build. I pick the first one, which is PL/ASM.
Q: What exact do you mean by PL/ASM? What do you mean by SP?
A: Those are convenient abbreviations used to refer to teams, where each letter
refers to the first letter of the class name. For example, P is Protector, and
so on. The slash is what I invented to separate the front from the back row.
Therefore, L/ASM means Front Row: Protector, Landsknecht, Back Row: Alchemist,
Survivalist, Medic. SP is my shorthand for Skill Points, those things you get
one of every level that you need to level up skills.
Q: Are there other notable builds that you're not listing?
A: Yes, they are builds with only the Protector in the front row, which means
you end up with a team with only 4 characters. In this build, the Protector
always uses Parry to completely nullify damage, which almost always work since
he/she is the only character in the front row. It's an interesting build, but
the fact that it only uses 4 characters doesn't make me happy.
Q: This game seems complicated. Should I even attempt it?
A: If you're willing to use a map and have a pretty good team, then the game
itself is pretty easy. Zaraf's maps on the GameFAQs are amazing, and if you
pick a good team from this guide, then you won't be grinding much.
Q: What is your favorite class?
A: This has to be survivalist. I always get bow upgrades before swords, so my
Survivalist ends up doing almost as much damage from the back row as my other
characters on the front row, which almost never taking damage. Add in skills
such as Ambush and Trickery, the Survivalist is great.
Q: Will you have 78 SP builds in your guide later on? Ronin and Hexer too?
A: If there's something that I also want on my guide, it's definitely this, so
look forward to it in the future. The purpose of this guide right now is to
help new players adapt to the series, so you should understand why I didn't
consider these in the first version. But sooner or later, I'll add them.
===============================================================================
IV. Class Builds
===============================================================================
============
1. Protector
============
Protectors are important in protecting your entire party from physical and
magic damage, but they are actually much needed as a good damage dealer. You
will need to have one in your front row or risk having a very tough time.
5 - HP Up
10 - TP Up
5 - DEF Up
10 - Shields
5 - Fortify
5 - Defender
3 - F. Guard
3 - B. Guard
5 - Antifire
5 - Antivolt
5 - Anticold
10 - Smite
1 - Mine
For the Protector, I favor a utility build over healer or shut down builds.
Here, you need to get 3 levels in F. Guard and B. Guard to get the very useful
Defender, which increases the physical defense of your entire party. But what
I found out is that Defender costs as lot in the early stages and should only
be uses on FOEs and bosses. In random encounters, F. Guard is very cheap and
very useful, which is sort of like the front row defending, except the other
characters can attack. Notice that I went with level 10 Smite and only level 5
in HP Up and DEF Up for a more offensive Protector.
For FOEs and bosses, the levels where you should try Fenrir and Moa are said
to be 16-17 and 20-17, but with Defender + Immunize, I easily handled those at
level 14 and 17 with lots of HP and TP to spare. In short, Defender is very
good for defeating FOEs and bosses without grinding, and F. Guard is also good
against random encounters, so by going with the Defender build, you get a nice
utility Protector that you will learn to love. Later on in the game though, 12
TP for level 5 Defender becomes cheap and you can start using it on random
encounters where there are lots of enemies, especially if you want to save your
Medic's TP for a boss.
But we're not done yet. You only get 1 SP for each level, so it's good to know
how to prioritize the allocation of your skills. In general, you should get
Defender to level 5 as soon as possible, then get Smite to level 5, then work
on the Anti skills (cold, volt, fire), and then finish off the rest. To make it
easy, I will group the SPs into what should be done first. The first number is
the SP required, and the second number is cumulative SP. To calculate what
level you need to be at to finish a group, it is the cumulative SP - 2.
12/12 SPs: Shields 1, F. Guard 3, B. Guard 3, Defender 5
24/36 SPs: Mine 1, HP Up 1, DEF Up 3, Shields 10, Fortify 5, Smite 5
18/54 SPs: TP Up 3, Anticold 5, Antivolt 5, Antifire 5
18/72 SPs: Everything else
If you follow this, then you will get level 5 Anticold by level 42, which would
make the battle with Cotrangl much easier. One thing you might ask is what's
with the HP Up 1 in Group 2? Recall way back from my FAQs that having level 1
in a skill is much better than nothing, but going from level 1 to level 2 isn't
that much of a difference. I love this build, because it means you can get
Defender early for FOEs and also Smite at level 30, which is where you should
be at when fighting the second boss, Cernunos. If you're wondering why Mine is
there, we will visit that in the [Building a Team] section.
As a final note, you may be wondering why Defender and Anti skills are only
level 5. There's a really good reason for that requires a bit of knowledge
about the individual skills themselves, but for a short explanation, just take
my word that the 5 SP you spend getting Defender from level 5 to level 10 would
not make Defender significantly better and is better off put in another skill.
==============
2. Landsknecht
==============
Landsknecht are main damage dealers that can use axes and swords. They can deal
devastating blows with their axes or hit all enemies with their swords. While
powerful, they should be supported by a Protector or Medic.
5 - HP Up
10 - TP Up
10 - ATK Up
1 - DEF Up
10 - Axes
10 - Swords
3 - 2-Hit
10 - Allslash
1 - Blazer
1 - Freezer
1 - Shocker
10 - Crush
Now I know that half of you will be screaming, "How dare you make an axe/sword
build with 72 SP?" Well, the answer is that normally, this wouldn't work. Note
that most people would do 10 HP Up instead of 5, but recall the Protector
argument from above that I assume you will follow my guide and have Defender +
Immunize, which means your Landsknecht won't need that extra 5 HP Up. This
opens up the path for a utility Landsknecht, since axes are really good against
bosses and swords are really good against random encounters, so once again, it
is a great compromise for both aspects of the game.
Allslash hits all enemies, which is great, and Crush will do great damage on
FOEs. The chaser skills (Blazer, Freezer, Shocker) are really just there for
show. Crush will often do more damage than level 1 chaser skills, but what if
you got a sword upgrade but not yet an axe upgrade? In the end, going a mixed
axe/sword build will give you weak chaser skills, but using axes and Crush with
Defender + Immunizer, will make up for them. To be clear, this does mean you
use swords during random encounters and axes on FOEs/bosses.
What's the catch? With this build and chaser builds, you won't get the required
SP for Allslash until level 12, and to get Allslash to level 5 and Swords to
level 10 for maximum damage, you'll need to be at level 22. For this reason,
many people go the Tornado method and Rest at level 30, then allocate points to
Allslash. I'm sort of indifferent about either methods, although in my opinion
you may have trouble on BF3 without Tornado, so if you think it's okay to grind
a bit in the beginning, then pick the method without using Rest. Besides, 2-Hit
is pretty okay to use until you get Allslash.
Without using Rest:
18/18 SPs: Swords 5, Axes 5, 2-Hit 3, Allslash 5
22/35 SPs: TP Up 5, HP Up 1, DEF Up 1, Crush 10, ATK Up 5
15/50 SPs: Axes 10, Allslash 10, Swords 10
17/72 SPs: Everything else
Note that with this method, you will get level 10 Crush by level 26, which will
deal massive damage to the second boss Cernunos, especially if you spend the
next 5 levels getting ATK Up to level 5, all while having level 5 Allslash for
random encounters, making your Landsknecht very nice to use.
Tornado, then Rest:
10/10 SPs: Swords 5, Tornado 5
12/22 SPs: TP Up 3, Swords 7, Blazer 1, DEF Up 1, Tornado 10
10/32 SPs: HP Up 1, ATK Up 6, Swords 10
---Rest---
18/18 SPs: Swords 5, Axes 5, 2-Hit 3, Allslash 5
4/22 SPs: TP Up 1, ATK Up 1, HP Up 1, DEF Up 1
20/42 SPs: Crush 5, TP Up 5, Crush 10, ATK Up 5, Blazer 1, Shocker 1
16/58 SPs: Axes 10, Allslash 10, Swords, Freezer 1
14/72 SPs: Everything else
Since when you rest at level 30 you get all 22 SPs at once, you can customize
a bit more, but the SP allocation after resting should be almost the same as
the first method. The first time I played this game, Tornado was pretty amazing
since in BF6-10 you rarely encounter enemies in groups of 4, and Tornado will
hit everything in groups of 3. Using this build, you will also get Blazer at
level 14 to defeat Fenrir, which makes your life much easier. This is probably
the most fun method to use since it never makes your Landsknecht weak at any
point during the game.
After Resting though, you should entertain boosting up your Landsknecht's poor
TP before doing other things. After getting Allslash, you should put 1 point
into all stat Ups. Remember that level is a big jump from nothing. Then, after
getting Crush to level 5, get TP Up to level 5 for some TP. Level 10 Crush is
pretty cheap, and when combined with TP Up 5, you'll have a very powerful axe
attack that you can use a lot. Blazer is there so that if you use a sword, then
you will still have a good combo single-target attack with your Alchemist. You
won't get Freeze on your Alchemist until later, which is why Freezer is learned
somewhat late.
============
3. Alchemist
============
Alchemist are the magic casters of Etrian Odyssey, being able to invoke fire,
ice, and volt magic along with the poisoning foes. However, high level magic is
slow, so alchemists need to be protected in the back row.
10 - TP Up
5 - Fire Up
5 - Ice Up
5 - Volt Up
5 - Scavenge
5 - Fire
10 - Flame
5 - Ice
10 - Freeze
10 - Thor
1 - Sight
1 - Warp
I know what you're thinking -- yes this is a tri-elemental build using 72 SP.
But it really works. You have 5 Fire Up & 10 Flame and 5 Ice Up & 10 Freeze,
all single target spells, for bosses, while 5 Volt Up and 10 Thor, a multi-hit
spell, for random encounters, with 10 TP Up for full usage. It is agreed upon
that most bosses will have a weakness to fire or ice, so Flame and Freeze are
best, while most enemies from random encounters do not resist volt, so Thor is
the way to go. Fire/Ice/Volt Up does not have a significant increase after
level 5, so you have better use for TP.
I decided to get Fire and Ice up to level 5 for utility. Around the 3rd Strata
or so, you will have level 10 Flame, which will pretty much OHKO everything.
But if you just want an attack to finisih off enemies, then better have level 5
Fire (which is much less TP) than level 3 Fire. Scavenge is useful later on in
the game but not really earlier. Level 5 Scavenge will really help with those
rare drops, but remember that the Alchemist needs to get the killing blow. I
also think Sight is somewhat useful.
What's the catch? Oh there's always a catch. For this build to work, you will
definitely have a miserable BF1-5 unless you go with a poison build and use
Rest later on. In fact, this is really the only way I would ever use an
Alchemist, so please bear with be. Like I said before though, resting only one
or two of your characters are not bad at all. Poison has the ability to damage
FOEs for 255 early on, which makes it incredibly useful. Thus, it will make
your life much easier to Rest your Alchemist.
Poison, then Rest:
11/11 SPs: Toxins 1, Poison 10
11/22 SPs: Fire Up 1, Fire 3, TP Up 5
10/32 SPs: Fire Up 5, Flame 1, TP Up 7, Warp 1, Fire 5, Sight 1
---Rest---
22/22 SPs: Volt Up 5, Thor 1, Fire Up 5, Fire 5, Flame 5, TP Up 1
17/39 SPs: Thor 5, TP Up 7, Warp 1, Flame 10, Sight 1
15/54 SPs: Ice Up 5, Ice 3, Freeze 5, Ice 5
18/72 SPs: Everything else
Note that in this build, you get Poison very early for those early Ragelope and
Kuyutha. Don't skimp on the Poison levels, because you need level 10 Poison to
hit them consistently! After that, you train up Fire to beat Fenrir and to also
go with your Landsknecht's Blazer. Note that while you can Poison Fenrir, it's
a very low percentage and you're better off doing Defender + Immunize then
dealing damage. You definitely should not attempt to use Flame after a few TP
Ups, since it does cost a lot of TP. Flame 1 kills everything in Strata 2, so
you should get Warp then put more into Flame if you wish.
After Resting, get Thor for random encounters. After that, just learn Flame for
the next bosses (Royalant and Cotrangl). You should also get level 5 Freeze for
a future boss (Iwaopeln) at level 50, which is good enough. Note
that the allocations are nicely planned. You will get Flame 10 at level 34,
the recommended level for Royalant, and you will also get Freeze 10 at level
52, the recommended level for Iwaopeln. After that, go crazy finishing Thor and
the rest of the skills.
==============
4. Survivalist
==============
Survivalists are great damage dealers from the back row with very useful skills
to create pre-emptive attacks and lower the enemy's accuracy. They are fast,
will strike first, and can even make the entire party faster.
5 - HP Up
10 - TP Up
5 - AGI Up
10 - Bows
10 - Ambush
5 - Trickery
5 - Quicken
1 - 1st Turn
10 - Multihit
10 - Apollon
1 - Take
This is the typical Survivalist build, with some SPs taken from HP Up to
accomodate for utility. Quicken I find to be too useful to leave at level 3,
and Trickery is good enough trained to level 5. Being in the back round, there
really is no reason to have more than level 5 HP Up. You will only need 1 SP
into 1st Turn, Multihit and Apollon are great damage skills, and we will talk
about Take in the [Building a Team] section.
14/14 SPs: AGI Up 3, Ambush 5, Bows 5, Multihit 1
15/29 SPs: Take 1, Bows 10, Apollon 5, Multihit 5
11/40 SPs: Quicken 5, Trickery 5, 1st Turn 1
17/55 SPs: TP Up 5, AGI Up 5, Apollon 10, Multihit 10
15/72 SPs: Everything Else
Everything is straightforward here. You need Ambush 5 immediately so enemies
won't luck themselves into defeating you. After that, you will get Multihit 1
at level 14 once again for Fenrir. Then, get Apollon, and alternate putting SPs
into Multihit and Apollon however you wish, stopping at level 5 to get those
great skills Trickery, Quicken, and 1st Turn. I personally love Trickery and
Quicken since it has more uses than 1st Turn. However, beware that you only
have 3 buff slots if you use Quicken during a boss fight.
========
5. Medic
========
Medics are a must have for any party for they can heal the entire party and
raise defenses. Later on, they can even learn a powerful attack to help deal
damage, and they will have plenty of TP to pull it off.
5 - HP Up
10 - TP Up
10 - ATK Up
10 - Healer
3 - Cure
10 - Salve
3 - Unbind
10 - Immunize
10 - Caduceus
1 - Chop
The first thing to note is that there are no higher level healing skills such
as Cure III or Salve II. The reasoning here is that Salve heals only slightly
less than Salve I, TP for HP. At level 10, Salve will heal 96 HP for 10 TP,
which means 9.6 HP per TP. Salve II will heal 215 HP for 20 TP, which means
10.75 HP per TP. They are almost the same, except Salve II will often overheal,
wasting your precious TP. Therefore, I elected to save up SP and just use Salve
twice as a good replacement for Salve II. Level 5 Cure isn't that impressive,
so I'd rather go with level 3 Unbind, which removes 2 binds instead of 1.
But the real argument here is that with Defender + Immunize, you won't ever
require the massive 216 HP healing that Salve II gives, because your defense
will be so incredibly high. Make sure to give your Medic a few TP Ups during
the way, since Immunize can very really expensive to cast. Caduceus is really
nice, especially when it can get you out of those ugly enemy surprise attacks
where you need damage to finish off the fight. The 10 ATK Up to learn Caduceus
is actually not wasteful at all in my opinion, because in Strata 3 or so, I was
actually impressed at the amount of damage my Medic can do with a few ATK Ups.
16/16 SPs: Healer 3, Cure 3, Salve 5, Immunize 5
10/26 SPs: Chop 1, Immunize 10, TP Up 3, Unbind 1
9/37 SPs: Salve 10, Healer 5, TP Up 5
20/57 SPs: ATK Up 10, Caduceus 10
15/72 SPs: Everything else
Your priority is to get Immunize to 5 then Salve to 5, which you should do by
level 14, right when you fight Fenrir. After that, proceed to get them both to
level 10 and start working on getting Healer, Cure, and TP Up to those level 5
checkpoints. This build will get Caduceus late (starting at level 46), but you
won't need your medic to attack before, so that's not an issue. It's better to
focus bringing the healing and buffing skills to level 5 and level 10 first. Of
course, we'll talk about Chop later in the [Building a Team] section.
=============
6. Troubadour
=============
Troubadours are masters of buffs, able to invigorate the party in many ways.
They may not very strong and may be viewed as unneeded, but once included, one
will wonder how they could survive without a Troubadour.
5 - HP Up
10 - TP Up
10 - Songs
5 - Divinity
10 - Bravery
3 - Erasure
5 - Recovery
10 - Stamina
1 - Blaze
1 - Frost
1 - Shock
10 - Relaxing
1 - Take
This is quite an interesting Troubadour build, especially with the inclusion of
Divinity. In case you didn't know, Divinity increases experience gains for the
entire party, which means it will become completely useless at level 70. But in
truth, Troubadours do not need more than level 10s in Bravery, Stamina, and
Relaxing, so the rest is quite flexible. Shelter is not worth it since there
are only 3 buff slots (more on this later). Healing isn't that good, and you
do not need a second healer in this game at all. Since you are probably going
to rest your Landsknecht and Alchemist, if you're going to use a Troubadour,
then might as well get Divinity to level 5.
Erasure can be really helpful, and level 3 is a checkpoint for this skill
because it removes two beneficial status effects from the enemy instead of only
one. Blaze, Frost, and Shock infuses an ally's weapon with an element, which is
amazing. Chaser skills are fun, but imagine using an axe infused with something
the boss is weak against then using Crush. That's powerful. You can also infuse
your Protector's weapon too. Remember, the Troubadour will replace the
Survivalist spot, which means you will be dealing less overall damage in normal
encounters, but against bosses, you will be better off.
11/11 SPs: Songs 1, Bravery 10
23/34 SPs: Take 1, Songs 7, TP Up 5, Relaxing 5, Shock 1, Divinity 5
14/48 SPs: Blaze 1, Relaxing 10, HP Up 3, Stamina 1, Erasure 3, Frost 1
24/72 SPs: Everything else
You may see that the groupings above are pretty hectic, but it's not too hard
to follow. First you need to get Bravery to level 10 because that increases
the entire party's strength. Then you want to get Relaxing to level 10, but it
is best to stop at level 5 and put get Shock, because you will be at level 27,
just before you fight Curnunos who is weak against volt. Around that time, you
also will be resting a few of your characters, so that's why you want Divinity.
After that, you'll want Blaze for Cotrangl, finish up Relaxing, get Stamina
level 1 just for that 20% HP Up (you'll max it later), get Erasure level 3 for
some annoying bosses along with Frost, and everything sort of makes sense!
Now if you really think Divinity is a waste of time (which I don't), then you
can put points into Shelter. Healing is bad if you have a medic, period. If you
read on, then you will see that Shelter can remove stronger debuffs when used
in a boss fight, so you shouldn't use it then. But against random encounters,
Shelter, like F. Guard, is incredibly useful. I will argue that with Divinity,
your levels will be higher so that you won't take as much damage anyways, but I
will grudgingly accept that having Shelter instead of Divinity is a viable
option if that's your playing style.
==============
7. Dark Hunter
==============
Dark Hunters are fighters who specialize in inflicting status effects and
binding their opponents with swords and whips. They drain HP through a sword
stab or deal major damage to a completely bound enemy.
5 - HP Up
7 - TP Up
10 - ATK Up
10 - Swords
9 - Boost Up
10 - Drain
10 - Bait
10 - Fury
1 - Take
The only Dark Hunter build I recommend is a sword build, partially because the
whip build needs some luck and/or a Hexer, which you won't get until later. But
even with a Hexer, I still like the sword build more because of Drain. Besides,
if your put your Dark Hunter in the front row so that there 3 characters in
front, then you will split the damage 3 ways instead of 2 ways, which makes
your Medic use Salve less often. However, I don't think that is enough of an
incentive to take a Dark Hunter over a Survivalist, but some people do. You can
also replace your Landsknecht with a Dark Hunter and keep your Survivalist, but
this team is way too weak physically to suit my playing style.
Bait is pretty good to use as a damage skill in FOE and boss fights, but it's
not somethign you can throw around all the time due to its highi TP cost. Drain
is really nice against random encounters. Boost Up makes the Dark Hunter be
able to use Boost more often, which means a very powerful Bait or draining more
HP using Drain. Normal Dark Hunter sword builds have 10 HP Up since they stay
on the front lines, but I would use Drain pretty often, so having low HP won't
be much of a problem.
15/15 SPs: Swords 5, ATK Up 5, Bait 5
16/31 SPs: Take 1, Drain 5, Fury 10
11/42 SPs: HP Up 1, TP Up 5, Boost Up 5
14/56 SPs: Bait 10, Drain 10, HP Up 5
16/72 SPs: Everythign else
By getting Bait to level 5 immediately, you have a good damage spell to be used
on Fenrir. Then get Drain to level 5, not higher yet because you don't need to
drain 60 HP every time. Instead, focus on getting Fury straight to level 10
with no distractions so that you can hit harder when you're below 50% health.
Then concentrate on getting a few stat ups, finish Bait and Drain, and you have
your basic Dark Hunter. Whether you should have two or three characters in the
front line will be discussed next.
===============================================================================
V. Building a Team
===============================================================================
Now comes the fun part that's actually almost finished. If you with the party I
recommended, PL/ASM, then you will pick a Protector, Landsknecht for the front
row and an Alchemist, Survivalist, and Medic for the back row, providing you
with a very balanced party. During boss fights, the Protector uses Defender and
the Medic uses Immunize. The Landsknecht and Alchemist can either work together
with chasers or attack independently. And the Survivalist will fire Apollon and
Multishot for massive damage. Here's how it would look:
[ Protector ] [ Landsknecht ]
[ Alchemist ] [ Survivalist ] [ Medic ]
Another team, replacing Survivalist with Troubadour, leads to almost the same
party that is better against bosses but is slightly weaker against random
encounters. In this team, use Defender + Immunizer like usual, except instead
of firing Apollon and Multishot, you use Relaxing and Bravery, then infusing
your allies' weapons with an element if applicable. If needed, Recovery and
Erasure are there to make the battle easier. Here's how it would look:
[ Protector ] [ Landsknecht ]
[ Alchemist ] [ Troubadour ] [ Medic ]
Now we will visit a subject that we haven't touched on yet. There are 5 skills
that I believe are essential to Etrian Odyssey but they do not make your
characters any stronger. They are Take, Mine, Chop, Warp, and Scavenge. Take,
Mine, Chop are field abilities that collect items to make better weapon and
armor, so they are definitely needed. Some people raise another party for this,
but I believe putting having 1 point of each in your party is fine. Warp is a
convenience skill, but it can also be a life-saving skill. Scavenger are along
the lines of Take, Mine, and Chop. Without Scavenge, you may never get the item
drop you want for better weapons and armors to appear.
So, for convenience's sake, I have decided that it is much better to use 5 SPs
from your pool of 72 x 5 SPs for these 5 skills. Just one point is fine, since
you won't need to Take/Mine/Chop too much to get what you want. What is missing
though, you ask? Stalker. I would love to put 1 or 5 points into Stalker, but
alas, it wasn't meant to be. In my opinion, Warp is good enough to get out of
sticky situations, but if you really want, then you can replace Divinity with
Stalker on your Troubadour. I don't recommend it though.
While I strongly recommend one of the two teams above, I will offer two more
teams using the Dark Hunter, whose special skills may attract some players. In
the first team, the Dark Hunter also replaces the Survivalist but moves to the
front line. The attraction here is that damage will now be spread between three
characters intead of two, so your Medic needs to heal less. This works because
the Dark Hunter, while weak defensively, either 1) use Drain to regain HP, or
2) would rather stay at low HP for Fury to kick in. Either way, it's not a bad
team, and here's how it would look:
[ Protector ] [ Dark Hunter ] [ Landsknecht ]
[ Alchemist ] [ Medic ]
The final build that I'm sort of okay with is one where you use the Dark Hunter
in place of your Landsknecht. Even though the Dark Hunter doesn't deal as much
damage, he or she can have more staying power with Drain, and plus you still
get the Survivalist's strong attack skills plus Ambush/Trickery/Quicken. I like
the Landsknecht better as an attack because of Allslash, as this Dark Hunter
wouldn't have all the cool binding skills (whips) nor the utility, but if you
despise button mashing A all the time (which you often do for the Landsknecht),
then you might like this team. Here's how it would look:
[ Protector ] [ Dark Hunter ]
[ Alchemist ] [ Survivalist ] [ Medic ]
And with that, you should have a very strong team if you pick one of the four
listed above, so that Etrian Odyssey won't be that boring, niche series that
people claim. Sure you may have to grind a bit at times or spend time gathering
items, but it's not as bad as other people make it to be. If you have any
questions, comments, or suggestions, please email me using the address on top
of the guide with "Etrian Odyssey" in the title. Lastly, have fun playing the
game, and I hope that this guide was a helpful read.
===============================================================================
VI. Versions and Updates
===============================================================================
-Atlus Co. for making the Etrian Odyssey series
-OatmealBob's Skill Guide, which helped with a lot of my SP allocations
-Zaraf's dungeon maps, which everyone should use along with this guide
-The Etrian Odyssey board on GameFAQs, along with the sticky FAQ V3
