Crimson Shroud Walkthrough, Chapter 2: The Depths

Sinner's Gulch, The Sun-Gilt Palace of the Rahab

The Depths, Cross of Atonement

Note that starting with this chapter, a Minotaur will roam the halls of the first floor. You can return to the Western Cloister to fight it at any time; moving between areas will cause it to respawn. After the story event, head left to Walk in Reverie.

The Depths, Walk in Reverie

Just as the story sequence suggests, you're about to face a Minotaur and Goblin party. Gear up, then move southwest to the Confessional.

The Depths, the Confessional
Important treasure is highlighted in blue. From here on, all battle drops are randomized.

Encounter

x1 Goblin Shaman

HP 75 MP 185

Skills & Magic - Empower Magic, Thunderflame, Meditate

x1 Goblin Hunter

HP 84 MP 104

Skills & Magic - Flaming Blast, Inspire

x1 Minotaur
HP 286 MP 80
Skills & Magic - Despair, Focus, Bloody Strike, Spiral Scourge, Swindle, Inspire, Thor Smash

Treasure

x1 Hero's Prayer

x1 Orator's Fig

x1 Pure Azoth

x1 Saint's Tincture

x1 Mending Staff
x1 Composite Bow

This will be the last time you have an opportunity to use Bloody Strike effectively, and you'll need it to keep up with the Minotaur's damage output. This one is equipped with a Thor Hammer, an endgame-level weapon. Your primary target in this fight is the Shaman, but as it's also your tutorial on fog of war effects, you're going to be spending some time building up MP for Focus. The die roll is very difficult not to fumble--33 with 1d20, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10 and 1d12. However, once it starts up you get to repeat it in subsequent rounds should you roll a fault. Unfortunately, you do have to roll it for each character separately, so this fight is a match of stamina more than damage output.

One way to get around the fog effect is offensive magic, although it's mostly ineffective and has both a very low chance to hit the Shaman and low damage output, as Resistance replaces both Avoid and Vitality in magic calculation. This floor is where Crimson Shroud begins to go into high gear, and either this or the next coming fight will probably be your first character death. Don't assume the battle lost just because your party is small. Effective, unrelenting use of Saint's Tincture, Vigor Berries and Heal will see you through--losing one character isn't an unrecoverable loss in ground. The greatest enemy to your party isn't the monsters on this floor, but squandering of resources and a lack of caution.

The magical darkness in the Confessional is probably the point where players log the most time in the game, right before they quit. The solution is fairly obtuse. First, you need to head for a new area, and that way lies through the Squirrel's Nest.

The Depths, Squirrel's Nest

Seize the chest here.

Treasure
x10 Pure Azoth

x1 Gladius

x1 Composite Bow

x1 Mending Staff

All three weapons should be equipped immediately in preparation for the upcoming fight, though the Composite Bow is the most long-lived of the weapons here, and when properly crafted, is an endgame piece of equipment in its own right. The primary reason for this is that it saves time, but also because Flaming Blast is an amazing skill. Nothing in a first run of Shroud actually resists fire damage significantly, and every time Flaming Blast connects, Enhanced Accuracy is automatically recast on Lippi. This saves time at the start of a fight since you no longer need to cast Focus and can instead target the enemy with which you have the best base odds of hitting, but getting to recast it at no MP cost every turn ensures that it will never wear out, and the damage from Blast will climb up into the 100s the further you dive into the Rahab's lower floors.

The Mending Staff provides your first multitarget healing as well as Resurrect, letting you step up the recovery. Undead enemies also take mild damage from healing skills, though it's not as significant as in Final Fantasy because there is no instant death available, with Heal II and III as your only reliable way of exploiting it.

After visiting this area, the Gerseym Waterway will be added to your map.

The Depths, Gerseym Waterway

Recall what Frea said back in the Confessional.

"If you're going to continue to search this way, you'll need something to dispel the darkness--a gift.

"Anything with a gift like that would be an enemy to any mage," Frea notes. "More of a curse than a gift, really.""

This puzzle would take several hours to work through normally, but I'm going to at least save you the initial trouble of puzzling it out. You need a curse, which you'll only get from an enemy mage on this floor. There's a small thing which vaguely constitutes a hint given on every subsequent visit to the Squirrel's Nest.

There are actually four types of encounters that the Waterway will turn out, which I've listed below. For the purposes of this puzzle, it's necessary to know all of them to avoid wasting any excess time.

Encounter Type-A

x1 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

x2 Skeleton Archer

HP 105 MP 108
Skills & Magic - Heroism, Flaming Blast, Focus

Reinforcements
x1 Skeleton Knight

HP 180 
Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Fortify

x1 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

Treasure

x1 Gladius

x1 Bronze Helm

x1 Broadsword

x1 Ring Mail

x1 Vigor Berry

x1 Red Arcanum

x1 Composite Bow

x1 Hero's Prayer

Encounter Type-B

x1 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98
Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

x2 Skeleton Archer

HP 105 MP 108

Skills & Magic - Heroism, Flaming Blast, Focus

Reinforcements

x2 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

Treasure
x1 Brass Helm
x1 Chain Coif
x2 Hero's Resolve
x1 Red Arcanum
x1 Broadsword
x2 Ring Mail
x1 Hero's Prayer
x1 Pure Azoth

x1 Gladius

Encounter Type-C

x1 Skeleton
HP 133 MP 98
Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

x2 Skeleton Archer
HP 105 MP 108
Skills & Magic - Heroism, Flaming Blast, Focus 

Reinforcements

x2 Skeleton Knight

HP 180

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Fortify

Treasure

x1 Pure Azoth

x2 Mass Heal

x1 Orator's Fig

x1 Battle Axe

x1 Red Arcanum

x1 Heal II

x1 Hero's Prayer
x1 Slow Step
x1 Vigor Berry

x1 Light Buckler
x1 Pure Azoth
x1 Mass Heal
x2 Composite Bow
x1 Repose
x1 Gladius

Encounter Type-D

x1 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

x2 Skeleton Archer
HP 105 MP 108
Skills & Magic - Heroism, Flaming Blast, Focus

Reinforcements
x1 Skeleton Mage
HP 77 MP 172
Skills & Magic - Solid Strike II, Meditate, Enhance Magic, Slumber Waft

x1 Skeleton Knight
HP 180
Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Fortify   

Treasure
x1 Solid Cudgel
x1 Light Buckler
x1 Pure Azoth
x1 Healing Crown
x1 Obsidian Daphne
x1 Repose
x1 Hero's Prayer
x1 Poison Storm
x1 Orator's Fig
x1 Composite Bow
x1 Vigor Berry 
x1 Aqua Cudgel
x1 Battle Axe 
x1 Ring Mail 
x1 Slow Step 

Frea will want to open with Protect on herself, then probably Sacred Chant, and from there she'll be occupied with Heal and Mass Heal. Lippi should be opening with Flaming Blast every turn that he's able, to drive his accuracy up. This is your first encounter with reinforcements on the way, and there are three targets in these fights, one necessary to progress the storyline and two to improve your characters. Your first target, above all else, is the Obsidian Daphne, dropped exclusively by the Skeleton Mage. The Mage will only appear as a reinforcement for the Type-D Encounter described above, replacing Skeleton Archer A after it's defeated. However, every encounter group has the same opening party, which means that you won't be able to tell which type of encounter group you're facing until the Archer A has been cut down.

Your secondary target is the second or third Skeleton reinforcement to enter play or the Skeleton Knight. Whether or not they're what you're looking for is recognizable by the axe that that the enemy wields. This is the Battle Axe, which much like the Composite Bow (our third target) is an endgame piece of equipment. You'll likely be spending anywhere from forty minutes to two hours hunting for the Daphne, and the Gerseym Waterway is a crucial step in developing your characters. What you want to do is use all those wonderful Pure Azoths you've been accruing to meld your Battle Axes and Composite Bows together, generally ending this excursion with a Battle Axe +4 to +6, Composite Bow +6 and one Obsidian Daphne sitting in your inventory. You can go a little out of your way to line up a Battle Axe +9 and Composite Bow +9, two pieces of equipment that will stay with you all the way through subsequent runthroughs of the game. The reason that the Battle Axe is so amazing is because it teaches Spinning Strike when equipped, which hits every enemy up to two times for wind-elemental damage--an element that common enemies almost never resist across all of Crimson Shroud--and it's more effective with bigger enemy parties. Since reinforcements will only arrive if there is at least one enemy left standing at the end of a character's turn, and Giauque will be hitting the entire field for an unprecedented 180+ damage with Spinning Strike once he has a well-melded Axe in hand, this will end most fights before they truly get underway. Unfortunately, the Battle Axe is a good deal rarer to acquire than the Gladius, which both appears on more enemies and has a higher drop rate overall, but the Gladius' lack of multitarget skills makes it subpar even when comparing its raw +9 stats to an unmelded Battle Axe. The Skeletons in every encounter type drop Ring Mail, Light Bucklers, Brigandines and Chain Coif, which helps alleviate the frustration of having to sink time to make additional Battle Axes drop.

Do note that you need to get a Skeleton Mage to show up before you can even think of getting the Daphne as a drop, so once your Battle Axe and Bow are set up your first priority should be to clear out the Skeleton Archer A, see if a Mage appears, and regardless of what happens next slam the entire field with Spinning Strike. If the Mage showed up, you get a shot at the Daphne, if it didn't you get to end things quickly and resume your hunt. This would be a good time to visit our ability tree and consult for how to develop your characters, as a large chunk of tutoring happens in the Waterway.

Of the other drops, Healing Crown teaches Cure and Restore Flesh. It does provide improved stat bonuses over the Ybarra Crown, and significantly resists Silence, so it's a very nice upgrade for Frea. The Chain Coif is a similar upgrade for Giauque or Lippi; the Brass Helm is actually superior for its light weight, but is difficult to get consistent drops for, so generally you'll have a situation where you have one Chain Coif +X and one Brass Helm +X to assign among Lippi and Giauque as you see fit.

While farming for the Daphne, you can also exploit the other treasures dropped by the Skeleton encounters. Both Solid Cudgels and Mass Heal scrolls are common drops, so you can fuse them together to get rid of Reveal--the go-to "filler" spell--from the Cudgel and instead get the Mending Staff's main benefit while also having Detonate II as a fallback, nonelemental offensive spell.

Note that you can obtain the Obsidian Daphne before your first visit to the Confessional to mitigate the effect the fog of war will have on your more developed characters, but you'll have to clear out the Minotaur party first, then walk in and out of the Confessional to trigger the event with the Daphne.

The Depths, Squirrel's Nest

"Reminisce!" to learn of Lippi's background, then either return to the Gerseym Waterway to resume your hunt for the Daphne, or if you already have it, proceed to the Confessional. The new treasure chest in this room can't be opened in a first run.

The Depths, the Confessional

After the event plays out, the Daphne will be used up.

Treasure
Seal of the Rahab

Finish up any melding and reequipping to prepare for the chapter boss, then head back to the Gerseym Waterway.

The Depths, Gerseym Waterway

Encounter
x1 Skeleton

HP 133 MP 98

Skills & Magic - Invigorate, Inspire, Crimson Rage, Despair

x1 Skeleton Archer
HP 105 MP 108
Skills & Magic - Heroism, Flaming Blast, Focus

x1 Lich
HP 300
Skills & Magic - Meditate, Dread Flame, Empower Magic, Black Widow II

Treasure
x1 Great Bow
x1 Bone Mask
x1 Brigandine
x1 Pure Azoth
x1 Broadsword
x1 Circle Shield
x1 Ring Mail
x1 Break Fear
x1 Soul of the Lich
x1 Raq'sharqi
x1 Nullify Weapons
x1 Nullify Spells 

Black Widow II deals Dark damage, while Dread Flame inflicts the Terrified status effect to ban the use of skills, although by now you should have more Hero's Prayers than you can feasibly use in one playthrough. Assuming you've learned the first skill, Frea will be opening with a Fortify-Protect combo, while Lippi runs healing items and takes potshots at the Lich. Spinning Strike is pretty much guaranteed to wipe out one or two of the supporting Skeletons, but its damage versus the boss will not be stellar. You can cast Befuddle if you grabbed it to inflict Impaired Magic on the Lich should you find yourself with an empty turn for Frea, though with her running Mass Heal that's unlikely to happen. Flaming Blast will definitely be your MVP skill since all of these enemies are vulnerable to it, but compared to the road to get to the Lich, the chapter boss itself isn't very impressive. Lippi can solo it by himself within three turns of consecutive Flaming Blast and normal attacks if you've Meditated enough to start him with full MP.

The Soul of the Lich is the boss-exclusive drop, which gives at least a +1 or +2 to most stats, on top of +45 MP, as well as +6 INT and +4 RES for increased magical attack and defense, making it a natural accessory for Frea. More than this though, it gives resistance to undead, demons, Dark damage and resists the Terrified status effect while also giving access to Syphon Heart II, stealing HP from the skill's target. Syphon Heart II won't have very many targets due to Dark being the single most resisted element in Crimson Shroud, but the stat boosts make it a worthy successor to Frea's once-inseparable Aqua Ring. Less obviously, the Soul of the Lich can go to Lippi to protect his combined fragile RES and HP from enemy mages while also giving him extra MP to throw out more Flaming Blasts with. Giauque can get the same benefits if you find Spinning Strike and other skills to be similarly MP-intensive.

Following this fight, your party will automatically progress to the third chapter. Be prepared as you move into Sun-Gilt proper; we are in the endgame now.