Earthlock - Part 11 - Ive Got It
5Previously on Earthlock, Amon activated the ancient mechanism in Zabirum Temple that caused some stone blocks to lower down, providing a path further into the area. A short walk away, it seems, is Ive's crash site. After Gnart heals her (it feels like he's the true hero of this game so far, as he's doing the most actual helping out), Amon wastes no time in demanding to know where Benjo could be. Of course, as Ive has spent the entire time lying there injured and cut off from the rest of her squad, she wouldn't know anything about that--and Ive has problems of her own in that Taika, her Stormdog who pulled her out of the wreckage and left to find help, has not returned. To that end, Ive now joins the party as our fourth member.
You remember Ive, right? From the prologue. The tutorial for battle in this game was with her and Taika. Now, we actually get to play as her for real and see what she's capable of. She is also at Level 5 here, rather than Level 1 at the beginning. She will need to do some catching up with the others, but she can pull her weight from the moment she joins.
Ive Lavender has two abilities for combat and two for the overworld. Her first overworld one allows her to sneak around, which causes enemies to ignore her when they're far enough away, but she won't move very fast like that. Though it has its uses later, there isn't really much point in it yet as enemies you're required to get through are scaled to your party's levels or must be defeated to proceed. As you can see on the pause menu, Ive's sneaking is the opposite of Olia's taunting, which draws enemies toward her. Ive's second overworld ability is done on Plumpet Island. Ive is assigned the library, which she fixes up to not be so dusty and worn down and brings some light into the interiors. She can use Treasure Maps obtained from shops and deduce their location, though how to obtain that treasure will have to wait until later--it will need the fifth party member. (Don't mind me; I wanted to know what the other party members say when she talks to them. We also get a sweet love letter from Gnart he's been keeping his entire journey.)
By the way, the library will eventually be stocked with mementos from major bosses. Right now, only the hat worn by Varlük is here; you can spot it placed over the globe to the left.
Ive's two stances were probably supposed to be explained at the start, but they explained the concept of stances and changing them instead, so they were never fully explained. They are Slinger and Scout. In this leg of the game, Slinger will likely be your primary one for Ive. In this stance, she uses a cfantasy crossbow to deal projectile damage. This is very useful if Amon can't use his Blaster stance for whatever reason or you need to do a lot of projectile damage, and the upcoming area has a lot of flying enemies. Like Amon and his Blaster, however, Ive will need to keep a good supply of ammo, which can be obtained by growing plants and processing them in the Farmoury. The main difference is that Amon's Blaster does explosive damage whereas Ive's crossobow does piercing damage. It's hard to keep track of which enemies are weak to what, but most enemies take both kinds about the same. Ive's Scout stance, on the other hand, focus on setting traps and dealing melee-range attacks. She doesn't need to worry about ammo in this stance and can cause enemies to take damage on their own turns, but she deals less damage and, of course, can't hit flying enemies.
Ive is currently the second fastest runner in the party after Gnart. This will be important in the next major dungeon, though not this one. She can run from enemies pretty easily though.
Said upcoming area is Nomad's Hoist, another region of Zabirum, one that goblins have taken for themselves. I don't know why it's called Nomad's Hoist, as nomads, by definition, don't stay in one place for very long, and the mechanisms found here look suited for long-term inhabitation. There are a few types of goblins, though they all have about the same HP and toughness. Goblineers operate gatling guns and deal large amounts of spread damage in the form of many hits, but they are very slow and don't attack much. Gobringers are the main enemies here and are armed with hammers. As far as I can tell, they're pretty standard enemies, with nothing special about them. Goblinators are another common enemy here. They are gunners, meaning they deal exclusively in projectiles, and have propeller packs equipped allowing them to float above the ground, though certain actions, not sure which, cause them to come down. And we have Ympkins, which are classified as goblins despite not having "goblin" in their names.
Overall, there's kind of a steampunk look to this place. Pretty neat. One of the goblins took the handle to the lift mechanism, however. Not pretty neat. But it does take us to the next part of the Zabirum dungeon, and eventually, to its boss.