EOII Rantage!

[Kimiko]

Tesla - [spoiler]Yes, isn't the third stratum just the prettiest?

Don't try on the Helldras until you're much stronger. They do a lot of damage.

Yes, elemental power is good, so do give your Gunner enough points in the elemental shots and TP to use them. Same for your Ronin. Well, if you have an Alchemist you might want to lean more towards physical attacks for the others maybe. A strong Medic is always good to have.

For the top equipment the hardest prereq is usually ental. It takes ages to get together enough money.[/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

Floor 23 boss, and beyond
[spoiler]I spent all weekend leveling back up to 71 after retiring the whole party. I didn't know about the bonus skill points when retiring at level 70. Thanks to whoever gave that tip!
I used all the money from leveling up to buy the Survivalist a nice Zamiel Bow. She now does as much damage as the Ronin.

At level 71 it took two tries, but I finally beat Colossus! Yay, victory at last!
Two party members didn't survive the battle, but that's okay since we can't get any more experience anyway. The Colossus's Red Spine sells for a nice 30k, but I'd rather use the Chimaera's conditional drop to get rich. Just throw Poison Gas at it until successful, then finish it off with a few regular attacks.

Onward to floor 24. Huh? Hey, we got attacked without taking a step. Looks like turning counts as a step now too. No fair!
And FOEs can attack too while turning, so you need to be careful when running away.

Found the stairs down to the hidden parts of floors 23 & 22 at last so I can finish another quest. Need to find some more ingredients for the medication for the innkeeper's daughter too. Yay for saving cute little girls ^_^[/spoiler]

[TeslaNewton]

Kimiko
[spoiler]The 3rd Stratum is just lovely.

I have tried to take on a Helldra just because, and, yes, my party got wiped out. If only my DH were left alive, she could've used Climax on her ass.

I have lots of elemental power. Ronin is fire, alchemist is ice & volt, and gunner is one point in each. I love elemental power!

I have ~112,000 en, but I know the really good stuff is 200K+.[/spoiler]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Paranoia]

[Kimiko]

And.. finished the game!
[spoiler]Overlord wasn't as hard as Colossus because it didn't hit as hard. The second Overlord wasn't harder than the first because it didn't heal and hit even less hard.

Got the Ducal Mark, but no nobility. Pfft.

Now I have to find some blood for the Foul Grail. Regular enemies didn't work, nor did a Dinolich. It'll probably have to be that nasty Colossus again

The town was attacked when I accepted the Sitoth Trading Nr. 4 quest. A 'golden shadow' again. I wonder what that is and where we're supposed to find out more about it.

But at least this sixth stratum looks a lot better than the one from EO1 [/spoiler]

[Paranoia]

The 5th stratum boss music owns, I left it playing for ages while I surfed the internets. Such good music.

[scy]

Post-game
[spoiler]Make sure you HAVE the Foul Grail; any FoE works, any boss works, and, hell, a lot of normal encounters work for it ... but you NEED the Grail, which comes from a completely different quest:

"Rendering assistance," -> "The second grail."[/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

Scy - [spoiler]Yes, I have that grail. I got the messages about the grail glowing briefly, then going dark again. Which enemies/FOEs work then? Apparently a Dinolich isn't good enough..[/spoiler]

Paranoia - Hmm, I still think the fourth stratum BG music is the best. I've just unlocked the Play BGM option in the menu, so I'm now listening to all of them. The end of game credits music is also quite good, and the 'Battle in the Sky' one. There are a few I don't recognize. I guess those are from sixth stratum events.

[Riseatrance]

[scy]

Grail
[spoiler]Every single FoE in the game works. Every single boss works. I think most the 5th Stratum encounters work as well. It takes like 6+ FoE kills to fill the grail, however, not just 1 or 2.[/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

Activating the Foul Grail
[spoiler]I did well over a dozen 5th and early 6th stratum enemies, without success (glows, but dims again). Some FOEs.. still nothing. Finally went and killed some bosses (Chimaera, Hellion, Scylla, Harpuia), and presto, after Harpuia the grail finally complied.[/spoiler]

A Life In The Balance
[spoiler]Whoa! That Drake is waaay too strong. I can hardly touch it, but it keeps on killing everyone in my party. Until it uses Frigid, then everyone dies at once. Guess I'll have to decline this quest [/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

More sixth stratum
[spoiler]So there I was, innocently helping out a winged one. Oh, what a nice sword. Let's pull it out. Oops, there's a Golem guarding it. Fight?
Hmm, I think we could kill this one. Darn, that critter's tough. It hits hard, and on top of that it also heals. Nothing we haven't seen before though (Overlord). There, it's dead.
WTF!?! It resurrected? Dang, and just when everyone was running out of TP. Dammit, why won't this bastard die? It keeps healing just when we've brought it down to a few more strikes.
Gamble: let's use the last HamaoII to give the Gunner some ammo (instead of keeping the Medic able to do her job).
It worked? Yes, the Golem is finally dead!
And there was much.. well, a little.. rejoicing.

And then I started mapping the rest of floor 26 and met some nice Bloodmans and an Oldcrab, which wiped out my party..[/spoiler]

I dunno, that Izuna and SN:TA are starting to look mighty tempting.

[scy]

Grail
[spoiler]I really have no idea on the amount of kills it takes. As long as you get the message that the Blood is still insufficient, the fight counted. I just walked around the 5th Stratum tapping L for the quest until I got credit, to be honest.[/spoiler]

A Life in the Balance
[spoiler]More or less, you're going to need to bring a group more focused for killing him (and the other Dragons). Either a Protector or a DH probably. Probably doable with Ymir and Mists as well. Maybe.[/spoiler]

[Seniwac]