Part 35

Etrian Odyssey class guide covering Medic, Alchemist, and Troubadour skills, plus 1st Stratum side quests and special monster drops.

Medic

The Medic is your standard healing class. You will want to put points into Healer immediately, and take at least a few points into Cure. Once you gain a few more levels and skill points, you should level both Healer and Cure up to 3, so that you can learn Salve. This is an essential ability for healing against enemy's that can deal damage to your entire party at once. You will eventually want to put enough points into Cure II and Healer to learn Salve II. You should avoid putting more than 3 points into Cure II, since a maxed Cure III is a more efficient heal than a maxed Cure II.

The Medic also has the standard status healing skills. Unbind removes all head, arm, and leg binds. Refresh can quickly heal the entire party of status ailments; unfortunately, you must sink many points into the skill until you are able to heal them all. Immunize is a very strong ability against bosses with elemental damage; it's the equivalent of Defender for elemental damage. Revive is a very useful skill to have if you don't feel like lugging a bunch of Nectars around, and CPR gives your entire party an 80% chance to survive mortal blows if you put 10 points into it.

The Medic has Patch Up, TP Regen, and Scavenge for passive skills. Patch Up can be useful for grinding and exploring, but it is quite useless for solo fights. TP Regen is quite the opposite, since the TP recovery doesn't begin until the 2nd round of each fight. This skill can be very useful for FOEs (Fearsome Ordinary Monsters) and Bosses, but not for most regular encounters. Scavenge simply increases your chances of getting item drops, not an essential skill.

Alchemist

The Alchemist has no less than 4 separate different skill types to choose from. Fire, Ice, and Volt are all exactly the same. There are 3 tiers of each spell. The 2nd tier seems to be the most efficient for at least the midgame, so avoid putting more than 3 points into Fire, Ice, or Volt. The 3rd tier is much stronger, but your Alchemist may not be able to cast it many times in a FOE or Boss fight till much higher levels.

Poisons are the different skill. DO not put more points into Toxins than you need for prereqs, since it doesn't increase poison damage. Putting 9-10 points into Poison can be amazing for the first few floors, since you can deal up to 255 points of damage per turn quite early on. Note that this is the maximum amount of damage for poison spells, so you'll definitely have to invest in another tree at some point.

Alchemists have TP Regen and Scavenge for passive skills. Scavenge is only useful for extra items, which isn't very important. TP Regen can be useful for really long FOE or Boss fights; however, it's not very good for normal fights.

Troubadour

The Troubadour is the classic support class. You'll be putting points into Songs to open up more skills. 1 point immediately opens up Bravery, Shleter, and Mercury. You should put at least 1 point into each of these skills so that they are available for whatever situation you encounter. Erasure is an excellent skill against some of the later FOEs and Bosses, since you will be able to remove their buffs. Recovery and Stamina are also excellent for long fights.

The Troubadour also has the ability to give his/her party members elemental damage, or increase the party's elemental defense/decrease the party's enemies' elemental defense. All in all, a Troubadour may feel slightly useless early on, since it doesn't have enough TP to toss around every fight, but it is an extremely powerful class against Bosses and FOEs.

Also, the Troubadour has a great passive skill in Divinity. This skill increases the amount of experience points the party gains. 10% at level 1 and 30% at level 10.

Side Quests: 1st Stratum

After completing the 1st Stratum, a new area opens up on B1f. If you remember where the Holy Water is located, head there and go 3 squares North and check the Eastern wall. Here, you will find a deadend to the East, so head North instead. The first door contains a Ragelope FOE and a chest with 500en. The next door contains another Ragelope and a chest with a Rapier inside. The final room contains a Ragelope and a chest with a Medica II. This final room also has a door to the North. Be careful in this area, as you will find monsters from B6F inside. Go East and around to find a chest with a Plumed Hat. Then go back to the door and go West, then North, West to the wall, and go South along a long path. Around the middle of this path, on the bottom square of B5, you will find a one-way exit on the Western wall.

Other Information: Special Monster Drops

This is a comprehensive list of ALL special monster drops. If an item or monster is not included in this list, that means that the drop in question is simply rare and does not require a special method of killing the monster. The "special" drop is always the 3rd on the list in the Monster Codex, though some monsters have a 3rd drop that is quite common.

When I use the term "Kill the monster using X," I mean the killing blow. Any other attacks may be used throughout the fight. The same applies when I say, "Kill the monster without using X."