Short guide/list of tips, tricks, and tactics specifically targetted at snail tourist martial artist. Many of these may be useful for other characters, but some (in the author's view) basic things have been left out. some parts may involve less pure actions that others may consider exploits and unfair.
Character Creation[]
This section details tips and factors to keep in mind while creating the snail.
Of the basic attributes, Constitution is the biggest factor in the PC's HP, a little over twice as effective as Strength. Maximizing Constitution and Strength will lead to a slightly stronger snail.
There are many feats, all of them unique, but some are more useful than others.
- Dimensional Move is is a great Feat and ability, for only 15 sp it is a reliable minor teleport spell. A must have starter feat, stays useful throughout the game.
- Natural Leader can boost mount speed and therefore the PC speed... if the PC has sufficient riding. It also makes allies more survivable (applies Hero buff to them).
- Touch of Sleep, the utility of not being attacked for a few turns can help escape. Ideally don't get into combat early as a snail, though.
- Vampiric Ability. Is less useful when the PC dies when looked at too intently. It also does low damage as the snail's starting will is low.
- Short Distance Runner. Is about 1/7 additional stamina at level 1. Convenient for doing stamina intensive things like mining and the buffer before being tired can be a life saver.
- Agile is +5 speed, that's 1/5th of the snail's base speed! Very Agile is also very good to get at level 5. Highly recommend if not planning to ride.
- Fire Breath. Maybe? Has ranged damage, doesn't miss. high stamina cost. [untested]
- Poison Nail. Maybe? reliable poison damage, poison is more effective the faster the opponent is relative to PC. [untested]
First days[]
Just getting to vernis is like 2 days will probably eat a ration. bash trees, eat breadsticks and those sacks of flour south of the apprentice house. buy cargo traveller's food as it's cheaper than real food. eat at innkeeper to train mental strength (save money)
I prioritize getting enough PP to learn Riding and getting my mount from the stablemaster (the gold will come with the quests). Wild horse grants faster speed and the base of 1 riding is sufficient.
With the acquisition of a mount, the PC now should have upwards of 100 speed, but still will be made out of paper and is even less likely to hit.
it's feasible to go to derphy and gamble with the starter 10 chips and try for 2 or ideally 3 potions of cure corruption (if only 2, can make up the extra with having tail with npcs) and then buying a nuke and reviving in home, activating nuke and collecting lomias and larnierre's loot.
Early game priorities:[]
- Get Mining skill.
- Get Riding and a mount (suggest wild horse).
- Follow a god (Recommend Lulwy if not riding, Kumiromi or Opatos if riding)
- Get glass equipment (if not riding)
- Acquire Potions of Cure Corruption/save scum for Feather and Hooves etherwind disease symptoms (if not riding). See Etherwind section below
[]
as a member of the signle foot family no boots, which means no boots of travel. wecan have Wings tho - wing snails!
Just reaching for a first town will take a few days, and delivery quests with the snail's base speed are difficult, but they can be done within 6 or so days [NOTE: DO TEST TRIPS AT BASE SPEED BETWEEN EVERY TOWN]
Towns
Regardless of class chosen, a snail will have a difficult time navigating through hypocritical mop-wielder infested cities like Port Kapul, Lumiest, and Palmia. In Port kapul, the port area left of the bar and wizard's house as well as the magic vendor and blackmarket and food vendor are patrolled by mop-wielders. In lumiest, the wizard/trainer house is blockaded. Additionally, the quest giver janitor is also hostile and should be eradicated with no mercy. In Palmia, the central park and the north gate are held firm by the anti-snail sentries.
The senior snail's response to these hazards are Mining, Dimensional Move (DM) special action, and Wall Creation (WC), most accessible in Rod form. Mining used to dig new access through buildings, Dimensional Move as an escape or to luck past impassible areas. Wall Creation to break line of sight/block off cleaner pass for safe passage.
Cleaners, as most npcs, do wander around town somewhat if the player stays around long enough and may enter otherwise Safe For Snail areas.
using quest board to teleport to quest npcs can be faster than walking across town.
Port Kapul
Entering Port Kapul from the bottom places the player near the food vendor/blackmarket vendor. Not recommended. Rods of Wall Creation can be used, but it's less costly to use services elsewhere. The biologist is safely reached by entering from bar area and walling off both sides. The Injured Soldier is accessible by DM-ing from the south edge of the north-east side of the canal or WC-ing the cleaner. Do not recommend quests to/from the elders, sailors, guards, nor normal citizens of port kapul without good speed. Quests from npcs are somewhat okay, as usually one or two DMs can get the PC out of the area.
Port Kapul is the most dangerous of the north tyris cities to navigate overall as a snail.
Lumiest
There is a cleaner that starts across the road of the wizard/trainer house who often moves up or down, blocking two pathways across lumiest. The wizard/trainer house is most reliably accessed by mining out the south-west corner of the house. The informer the north-west or north-east.
The janitor can be safely talked to, but will aggro onto the PC, so be sure to have good speed. Keeping the door to the janitor's house closed will nullify him otherwise.
Lumiest is the least dangerous of the cities with cleaners.
Palmia
The cleaner in the central plaza and the cleaner in the north courtyard split palmia into west and east. There is no direct passage into the castle, bakery, or library. DMing from the north-west outer edge of palmia is good, as well as mining the wall itself. Additioanlly, minig east of the bakery through to the north-west of the inn creates a usually safe passage. The casino-barracks walls and library-road walls can be mined as well for convenience. Mining the south-east of the bakery grants access to the treasure machines as well as quest board.
Cleaners enter SFS areas more often than lumiest, as much of the safe passage relies on LoS.
Vernis
Cleaner free, that dungeon cleaner machine doens't count, thankfully.
Cyber Dome.
Cleaner free
Derphy.
Diry town is cleaner free.
Yowyn.
Farmers clean up after themselves well enough, cleaner free.
Noyel.
Cleaner free.
Miral and Garok's Workshop
Cleaner freeee
Little sister place, ludus, north tyris south border, dojou are all cleaner free
Skills
gods
lulwy
essential for the unmounted snail. lulwy's trick is the shit. gemstone cool too. speeds of 300+ are feasible
opatos
hp boost, stamina boost, mining boost, weight lifting boost, magic device boost are good
kumiromi
kumiromi's scythe is the only reliable way to get super awesome chaos resistence, virtually essential to survive zeome. the fairy helps with a farmer oriented/slow play of growing herbs to increase resistence
mani
maybe? gunner snail wtih winchester seems feasible, aside from the no chaos resist vs zeome part. but if he can't cast spells there's no need for that, right?
equipment
only 3 slots. or 2 if Feathered ether disease symptom is acquired. elemental resist is very hard to come by. Keep all wearable equips with #### or greater resist.
combat
the snail's solo capability is inherently very low, not just shitty base stats but the low equipment slots means very few artifacts/bonuses like negate blindness/confusion. thus pets. pets can literally carry the pc through act1, espcially dual wielding rankis + ether dagger. also thrown shena's panty. only have as many pets as there are good equipment for.
bottles of soda, stock up during festival of jure in noyel. portable stamina. great for extended fights and spamming abilities.
Etherwind
A silver lining of having very few slots is that many etherwind disease symptoms have no additional negatives.
- Ears of beast (+PER, -head); no drawbacks, as the snail does not start with a head slot.
- Hooves (+SPD, -leg); no drawback, as the snail does not start with a leg slot.
- thick neck (+PV, -neck, -CHA); likely to reduce the PC to 1 CHA early on, do not get early if want to add party members.
- Feather (+SPD, +Float, -20% weight, -back); Feather does remove the snail's back slot though, do not recommend picking up if riding.
- Hatred/Desire for violence (+damage, +damage taken); double edged, but generally more useful than dangerous.
- Thick carapace (+PV, -SPD); greatly lowers speed, no effect on a rider. It provides a great amount of PV, especially for a character with few equipment slots.
- Having both hooves and feather bring the PC up to speed with the base speed of normal races at around level 10, and starts making the PC faster than normal races after.
- Draw Rain Cloud (+chance of rain); pros: a little more swimming training, a little better farming conditions. cons: a little more likely to have snow when travelling by snowy regions.
cursed alcohol ofc
TLDR get riding, mining, dimensional move.
become a pet master
elona+[]
this part will be more specific, detailing basically changes to playing as a snail in E+ as well as the new towns. haven't gotten to act 3 yet lol
character creation/feats kokou feat: get if solo after being able to live without mount
natural leader: pet master
getting minimal rolls will grant slightly better INI stat but worse starting potential.
greymoral: if upgrading from elona vanilla, go find a demon/grudge/anything with touch of weakness and have it weaken till all stats (including speed?) are at super low (1? 10 for speed) for INI abuse?
greymoral: acquire elona+ 1.41 and 1.42/1.43. make character in 1.41, go to a town, save, open save in 1.42, acquire 6 wonder body formers. 6 free body slots. suggest body slots for +defense, glove slots for +physical damage, and hand slots for melee. ring slot considerable for the artifact rings like palmia pride. 6 hand slots with massive dual wield damage is fun too.
first days
still pick up riding and mining and some ether disease symptoms
chance of rain helps with swim training
Navigation
travelling and swim, yo not much else to say
General
Towns
Eirel (northernmost town, closest to north tyris)
only 1 cleaner, in the pub which contains a bartender, a wizard, a guard, and a trader. the cleaner spawns on the left half of the pub but within sight distance of the other npcs. The rest of the town is free
Ruoza
like a true sanctuary, ruoza is a SFS zone.
Melkwan
Despite how dirty this town is, it's cleaner free!
Kurualm
2 Cleaners in this port town. One just south of the food storage to the west of the pub, and one just east of the food vendor. This cleaner also makes the arena master often inaccessible. The Bottom left of the town (the pirate quest giver) can be accessed by mining through the two storage houses. Also consier houzanha and just walk across the bottom half of the map.
Valm
Cleaner free!
Arcbelc
There is exactly 2 cleaner situated in the center of the town, just east of the north edge of the inn (not the spa which uses the Inn sign tiles). Sometimes they block the general vendor, but the vendor's house can be dug in from the top and right. The second one is on the east edge of town, south of the magic vendor and east of spa. Sometimes the two make it difficult to access the spa and magic guild deposit chest. Mining in from above or below works fine.
Melugas
Plot City is Cleaner Free!
Ludus
Cleaner free.
The smoke and pipe
Cleaner free.
South Tyris north border
Cleaner free.
maid mansion
cleaner free
skills
swimming and travelling obviously get
gods
lulwy
kumiromi
equipment
combat
shadow step is melee snail new best friend
gauge release is new best friend (2nd best if melee snail). it can be activated when the meter is 98% or more.
tricks
carrying
TLDR[]
use all the flipping tricks in the book and then the blackmarket book as well