Rogue Galaxy: Deego's Battle Preparations session 2

This might very well be the last session of preparing Deego for battle.  There will be a little backtracking to be had if I can get my hands on one of the other two keys I need, but otherwise it'll be all fighting on Vedan, with the occasional departure to see if any of the vendors that I've bought out of a few items that I need have restocked yet, and perhaps some farming of items for various things in the Factory.

So this post could be a bit short, because there's not much to say other than "I'm doing level grinding for Deego."  My goal is to get him high enough level to use the axe I found for him, which will be level 41, plus however many battles it takes to get it to the max state.

Also during the previous session, I realized that one of the quarries (essentially large bounties on unique beasts) I got is on Vedan and I have the item I need to trigger the fight and I know exactly where I need to go to use the item and trigger it.  I'll probably do that towards the end of the session as sort of a warm-up for the fight against Gale.

I probably said this in an earlier post (lol Blogger's lack of any form of a cross-referencing system), but I have no clue what a typical level curve for this game is, so I have no clue if I'm underlevelled or overlevelled.  If I'm overlevelled, it's not by much because I didn't really do any grinding at all before getting Deego.

Another thing.  I freaking hate the mines on Vedan.  All these annoying enemies that I have to jump to hit (max of 3 hit combo, then land, jump, and repeat...) that set the entire party on fire and cause lots of damage.  I guess I need to level up more or something.  I loved one-shotting everything when I backtracked to Juraika and Rosa.  If only I could freely change my party, I could see if Lillika's bow is any good against the "jump-to-hit" enemies.  Also, I need to start doing some weapon synthesis stuff, since I have a lot of weapons ready for it now.

Did you know you can actually sell things at shops in this game?  I haven't found a reason to do so yet.

Anyway.  That's the prologue to this session.  Watch it be longer than the session summary. (post-edit: lol)

Grinding levels for Deego basically consisted of running around Myna (because fuck those mines) in an area with a save point, fighting a few battles, and running over the save point to get HP/AP replenished.  It's cheap, but effective.

I was doing laps around the structure outside of Angela's Bar when I got the item I needed for another one of Deego's abilities, Wonder Howl which is an attack that hits everything.  This ability so happens to be the prerequisite for his Burning Strike, so now I have that, and I got him some Evil Resistance as well.  I began to feel a bit better about him since he finally obtained the standard repertoire of attack boost, protection, thrown item boost, and hit everything abilities.

After a while of grinding and getting bored grinding, I went and completed that quarry.  Wasn't too difficult.  In the process of all this grinding, I went up quite a few hunter ranks.  I've also noticed that the amount of experience required for the next level seems to be fixed at 11616.  I'm not quite sure why it's fixed, but it certainly makes levelling up easier.

After a while of rotating various weapons through I started doing some weapon synthesis and ended up with some pretty awesome sub-weapons for Jaster and Kisala.  After some work maxing it out, it was time to fight Gale.

Seriously.

Since starting Deego's Battle Preparations:

• He's gone up 10 levels
• He's gotten three more abilities, Top Dog, Wonder Howl, and Burning Strike Lv1; on top of Break Throw and Bone Shield.  He also got Bone Shield upgraded to Lv2.
• He's gotten three stat boosts, Attack Up Lv1, Fire Resistance Lv1, and Evil Resistance Lv1.
• I got him a much more powerful axe and a new gatling gun.

Down goes Gale!  I had to watch Deego's health during the fight, but between Bone Shield Lv2, guarding to refill the action meter and reduce damage, and the damage that the axe (Brave Spirit) that was the entire reason I levelled him up to 41 puts out (with Top Dog on at all times), Gale went down pretty quickly.  Oh and Deego's gatling, which I'd found a slightly better one than the one he had when he joined, was a big help when Gale was a bit away from Deego, since Deego's the slow and powerful archetype.

My reward?  A chest I can't open because I don't have the Star Key, a couple items for the Factory/people's Revelation Flows, and an Ancient Scroll II, which I gave to Jaster and upgraded his Burning Strike, which is now a 7 hit combo instead of a 5 hit combo.  Hopefully I'll start finding the things in shops and the wild soon...

A little more exploring would reveal a few more chests, one containing a new costume for Deego.  Also, I found the thinking circle for my other quarry, but I don't have the item to trigger the fight.  Oh well.

So, story.  Turns out the Morarty family was just using Gale, and it's likely that the Daytron Corporation is responsible for the whole thing.  That and they stole the tablet.  So I have to go back empty-handed...  Not that I could have picked that thing up anyway, it took a huge transport ship to lift it in the cutscene.

Hunter rankings-wise, I got up to rank 40.

Sub-session complete.  I suppose it's only appropriate to end a battle preparation sub-session with the defeat of the boss that caused me to need the battle preparation sub-session in the first place, so next session will be a real session again.  I didn't even leave the mines, so I haven't seen what if anything happens when I return to town (I imagine I should talk to Angela...) and when I return to the Dorgenark.