Good morning, class. Professor Tsidalb here, ready to teach you more of the mechanics of the Etrian Odyssey gameworld!
Today's topic: Status Effects.
Status effects in the Etrian Odyssey series technically fall into two categories, but I'm going to separate them into three:
- Physical Effects
- Mental Effects
- Binds
Physical Effects
Physical Effects are the status effects that appear as a symbol in the small square in a character's namebox in-battle. They are:
- Poison/Venom (A green square with bubbles in it): The afflicted character(s) take a set amount of damage at the end of each round, including the round in which they are afflicted with it. The stronger the enemy that poisons you, the harder the poison generally hits for. Though I'm not sure if it's changed since then, but in the first EO the first and weakest poisoning you run into (courtesy of Venomflies on the second floor) hits for 25 (classes in that game had much lower starting HP and HP growth compared to later games); in the same game, the Assassin FOEs' (7th and 8th floors) poison hits for a whopping 113 damage. Ouch.
- Fear (A black square with a white ghost-like figure in it): There is about a 25% chance that an "Afraid" character will forfeit their action for the round, being "too terrified to move"; this includes: Attacking, Defending, Skills, Items, Limits, Switching, and Escaping (so, generally, everything). Characters can usually shake off their fear in a few turns.
- Paralysis (A violet square with a pair of jagged lightning bolts): Pokemon-style, in that it reduces a character's speed and may prevent them from acting for the round, but in Etrian Odyssey the "immobilization" rate is a bit higher (I'd put it at around 50%).
- Sleep (The signature "Triple-Zs"): The character skips their turn entirely (unlike Fear and Paralysis, you don't get to select an action for them during the preparation phase), but will wake up immediately upon receiving damage. Sleeping party members may wake up on their own, but it is much more likely for them to be woken up via healing the ailment or attack. Sleeping characters take a lot more damage when attacked, and enemies tend to prioritize attacking sleeping characters.
- Confusion (A bluish square with a spiraling line): Confused characters cannot be controlled, only use regular attacks, and attack a random target each turn (chosen out of both the party, the enemy group, and themselves). While a confused weaker unit like a Zodiac, Ninja, or Farmer isn't something to worry about (unless your attack strategy relies on elemental magic damage and status ailments), but a Confused Gladiator, Hoplite, or Arbalist usually spells death for your party; thankfully, confusion wears off pretty quickly, and passive attack-related skills (Swashbuckler, Stun Attack, etc.) don't activate when a confused character attacks a party member.
- Blind (A purple square with a light purple Eye): The character suffers a reduction to their attack accuracy, leading to many of their attacks missing.
- Curse (a black square with a menacing red design in the middle): Curse is one of the odder ailments, but one of the most annoying (at least in my book). Cursed characters suffer damage proportional to the damage they inflict, which can turn high-power skills like Nine Smash into a double-edged sword. For skills that hit multiple targets and/or hit multiple times, the "Curse Damage" is calculated based off of the total damage the skill inflicts.
- Petrify(Probably a stone or something): The character is turned to stone, unable to act until thawed (Softened? Reverted? Un-petrified? Whatever you wanna call it). I myself have yet to encounter it in any of the games (thank the gods), but I heard that Petrified characters take more damage when hit.
- Dead (The character's namebox turns grey): The character is out of HP, unable to fight. The character can only be healed by reviving skills and items.
- Rot (no clue): New to Etrian Odyssey 3. I have no idea what this does. If anyone does and can tell me, I would be very much grateful.
Death and Petrifaction are what I call "Battle-Stopping Ailments", in that if each member of the party is afflicted by either of these ailments, it's "Game Over; Would you like to save your map data? [Yes/No]".
Mental Effects
Mental effects are effects that directly affect character parameters rather than the characters themselves. These include:
- ATK Up/Down: Raises or lowers the physical damage a character inflicts.
- DEF Up/Down: Raises or lowers the damage a character receives
- SPD Up/Down: Raises or lowers the character's initiative, affecting their position in the action order for the round.
- HIT Up/Down: Raises or lowers the character's chance to connect with attacks and offensive skills.
- Regen: The character regains some HP at the end of each turn.
- Rally: The character's Max HP is increased.
- Ailment Protection: The character gains protection from Physical Effects. I only know of two skills that grant this, and both work differently; the Prince's Prevent Order affects an entire row but only blocks one Physical Effect, while the Gladiator's White Flame blocks all Physical Effects for its duration but only works on the Gladiator.
- Fire/Ice/Volt Weapon: Imbues the character's basic attacks with an element for the duration of the effect. This only applies to Attack and skills that cause or apply to regular attacks, like the Buccaneer's Chase X rapier skills, Swashbuckling, and Counter.
- Element Down: Reduces the character's resistance to the specified element (Fire, Ice, or Volt, and for some reason Slash, Pierce, and Crush as well).
All Mental Effects follow these three rules:
- 1. All Mental Effects last for a duration (the base is 3 turns), but can be removed by applying an opposing effect. The duration can be lengthened by reapplying the effect while it is still active, but only if the same skill is used. For example, on Turn 1 Axel uses White Flame to gain ailment protection, and on turn 2 Report uses Prevent Order on the front row (which Axel is in) to grant Ailment Protection; rather than 5 turns of ailment protection, Axel now has 2 turns of White Flame ailment protection and 3 turns of Prevent Order ailment protection; if on the next turn Axel were to use White Flame again, only White Flame's duration would be extended, and Prevent Order would still only be at 2 turns remaining.2. Each character can only have a maximum of six Mental Effects applied at once (three positive, three negative). If a "fourth" effect is applied, the "oldest" effect (the one that was applied first) is removed.3. Mental Effects that affect the same thing but come from different skills stack with each other to increase the effects; examples include Attack Order and Charge Tactic, White Flame and Prevent Order, and Wolf Howl, Eagle Eye, and Primal Drums.
Currently applied Mental Effects and their durations can be view via the in-battle status (press Y while over the intended character during the Command Phase). Positive Effects are Red, while Negative Effects are blue.
Binds
Binds are unique to the Etrian Odyssey series, functioning as a sort of "Silence" effect. There are three types of binds:
- Head Bind: Skills that rely on sight, hearing, or speaking cannot be used (examples include the Monk's healing, the Prince's buffs, and the Zodiac's spells).
- Arm Bind: Skills that require the use of the arms cannot be used (examples include the Gladiator's strikes, and the Arbalist's everything).
- Leg Bind: Skills that utilize speed or formation cannot be used (examples include the Buccaneer's Chase skills).
In addition to the sealing of most skills, binds each have an additional effect that the game doesn't directly tell you:
- Head Binds slightly lower attack accuracy.
- Arm Binds slightly lower attack accuracy and physical damage.
- Leg Binds slightly lower speed and blocks the Escape command.
Physical Effects can be removed with Thericia B's or the Monk's Refresh, and Binds can be removed with Thericia A's or the Monk's Unbind. Mental Effects wear off on their own or when replaced, though you can buy an item later on in the game that does this for you.
The best part:
All Status Effects Wear Off After Battle
You heard me; everything but death and petrifaction wear off when the battle ends, so no poison sap-damage or nothin' (though you will have to fix death and petrifaction on your own).
In fact, I think the sole reason that petrifaction remains after battle is so the developers can have a quest that involves bringing a petrified member to the clinic so the doctors can test a new medicine (there's one in every game).
I think this about covers Status Effects.
Next Time: More of B2F
