Dragon Quest XI - Low Level (Draconian) Part 16: Headless Honcho

Channel:

MoogleBoss

Subscribers:

6,670

Published on April 28, 2020 5:56:56 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8UL8Hi99xw

Game:

Dragon Quest XI (2017)

Duration: 3:15

758 views

22

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c3LqgBpOYsZOtq8gBAxox9I

The intermission is over, and we're sent back to the Luminary who, much like everybody else in the party, finds himself on his lonesome. Things look rather grim at first, with the Hero being 2HKO'd in any random encounter he fails to run away immediately from, which happens when I farm items in areas and bump into enemies due to poor coordination and, to a significant degree, because my Switch's left joycon has started drifting (an infuriating experience).

Hendrik (big spoiler I guess) joins shortly, and that makes random encounters you try to run away from a bit more manageable, but he cannot be controlled for a while and when you can control him, there aren't any boss battles he can participate in for a while. Still, what a great character. Hendrik joins at a base level far higher than Luminary's in a low-level game setting, though this is going to apply to every other character rejoining in the future as well (so much of the difficulty will come from the Stronger Enemies setting rather than the low level rule now; all the pesky solo battles faced by the Luminary be damned).

Hendrik's actually better when we cannot control him in one way. I'm talking about his access to Forbearance, basically classic JRPG Knight's ability to take attacks for an ally that's familiar to me from the FF series, though I'm not sure if that's where it originated first. It really helps to prevent the hero from dying in solo fights. When he's not using that, he can also buff the hero's defence (useful because in all mandatory fights starring guest Hendrik the hero WILL have his defence debuffed) and use Midheal to restore HP. All essential services without which we wouldn't make it, because the Hero is superior at dealing damage compared to guest Hendrik (when both are controllable, Hendrik's excellent at single-target damage).

In this mandatory fight, we go against Headless Honcho and his four allies. Five enemies total is a huge risk to our survival and we need to take them out fast. It's a good question whether giving the hero a shield block buff first is a better idea than just starting to unleash multi-target attacks on the enemy party, but the former is what I end up doing. Swords over greatswords this time because we need all the defence we can get (that's what my build emphasises), which does make attacks a bit weak. I start off throwing Rockbomb Shards I'd farmed five of at the enemies, the first two often KOing at least something and the third leaving only two enemies standing, which makes the rest of the battle bearable and suddenly a lot more realistically winnable when the Hero doesn't die to a breeze any more.

Besides defence, every other stat is debuffed here too. Attack debuffs have so far been rare and not previously used by the bosses. When one or two of these lands on the hero, casting spells becomes a wise chance. When the debuff wears off and especially if the Luminary is pepped up, attacking with Flame Sword is preferred. The boss is 200% weak to fire, which is significant, and so Flame Sword actually isn't half bad as a source of damage this time around. Generally, swords are best left alone in favour of greatsword, luminary and swordmastery blade attacks.

It shouldn't take long until the Headless Honcho falls. There's no use taking risks and leaving the hero vulnerable in the endgame when the boss's demise is but a matter of time.

Time to reclaim Heliodor Castle now.

Other Statistics