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| The Legend of Legacy created and owned by FurYu and Atlus. Images used for educational purposes only. |
Prerequisites
Howling Valley is available as a map from the moment you set foot in Initium, though the chances that you can afford it (1,000 St) are pretty slim. You’ll need to do a bit of item collecting and general adventuring to pony up the dough. Alternatively, you can find it for free by wandering east through the Hidden Woods. The world map exit to Roaring Valley is located in the far east of East of the Ruins.
Roaring Valley - Valley Entrance
- Welcome to a brand-spankin’-new environment! Roaring Valley is pretty bleak, but it’s at least a change from all those trees. Some of the monsters from Forest Ruins make a return here, but you’ll run into one stronger noob as well:
- Coatls. Nothing big - just flying buzzards that will hit one or all of your party. They’re among the stronger foes here, and should be taken out before something else can buff ‘em. Only one of their attacks is really dangerous, and it's pretty rare.
- Stormrise Coatls. Rarer, pinker versions of Coatls. They hit a bit harder and can take more abuse. Not a huge problem.
The important thing to note here is that water is not favoured by your surroundings. If you want to use water charms you’ll have to pull out Water Contract first.
- Moments after you enter you’ll see a massive monster flying overhead, and if you touch its shadow as it circles you’ll get into a fight. The game makes it sound like you will die immediately if you dare to fight this thing, but trust me, it’s totally fightable if you’ve completed Forest Ruins - assuming you have somebody who can defend properly.
Archwing
This creature is much hardier than any of the bosses you’ve fought before. With a few thousand HP and some brutal attacks, Archwing can brutalize your team rather quickly. You must throw up a strong defence or you’re going to get slaughtered. Archwing has three attacks, and it will use two per turn: either it uses Claw (single hit to one target), Double Claw (two hits to one target), or Wingslash (damage to everyone).
Block in a Guard Formation is crucial to surviving every round… though you’ll want to spend the first round very quickly throwing up Water Contract and Water Shield to improve your defences. Give your blocker the best defensive equipment you’ve got. (You’ll have a much easier time surviving if you have Ricochet over Block, but that may not be an option yet, depending on your luck.) If you find that using Water Contract takes too long, wait until you get to the Corridor of Wisdom to fight Archwings. There's an ancient device that summons water elementals in the area.
Block in a Guard Formation is crucial to surviving every round… though you’ll want to spend the first round very quickly throwing up Water Contract and Water Shield to improve your defences. Give your blocker the best defensive equipment you’ve got. (You’ll have a much easier time surviving if you have Ricochet over Block, but that may not be an option yet, depending on your luck.) If you find that using Water Contract takes too long, wait until you get to the Corridor of Wisdom to fight Archwings. There's an ancient device that summons water elementals in the area.
You don’t get anything great for killing an Archwing, because it’s not actually a boss. What you do get is a ton of potential to awaken new Skills, as well as generally improving your stats. Set up your defences, grind for a while, get as much out of the battle as you can, and vamoose when the fight gets too heated. You’ll retreat to the entrance with a much improved team, making a repeat battle slightly easier the next time. Keep this up ’til snapping Archwings in half is old hat. (Which will, by extension, make this area a whole lot easier... though getting that strong will take a loooong time. Still, it's the best way to level your Skills and stats by far.)
One last thing. Every now and then an Archwing will turn out, instead, to be a Nest Warden. Though aesthetically similar, Nest Wardens are stronger. I don't recommend trying to fight one yet. You'll get a more predictable chance to do so later in Roaring Valley.
One last thing. Every now and then an Archwing will turn out, instead, to be a Nest Warden. Though aesthetically similar, Nest Wardens are stronger. I don't recommend trying to fight one yet. You'll get a more predictable chance to do so later in Roaring Valley.
- Enough grinding - time to wander around. Head east from the rock with the patrolling Archwings and you’ll find a split in the path. You’ll see a cactus ahead with a flower on top. If you stand near one of these for too long it will explode, and if its spines hit you the health of your characters will be reduced until you need sleep, similar to the effects of getting knocked out. Avoid these.
- The eastern path leads to some potential Sparkles, but it’s a dead end otherwise. Go northeast at the split instead and you’ll find a large, ancient device; you can probably guess what it does, but you can’t do anything about it yet. Continue northeast and you’ll find a ribcage encircled by two Archwings, one that may contain a Sparkle.
- The path splits again here. Go southeast and you might find a Sparkle. To the northwest and northeast you can find paths to a new map, the Corridor of Wisdom. Also to the northeast you’ll find ramps rising into the east; these lead to two possible Sparkles, as well as a cave. This is a new area called the Archwing Burrow, and I don’t recommend going here yet. The enemies are enough of a step up that you should venture elsewhere first.
- The only other thing of note is a set of cliffs in the west. You can access part of them via some jumping rocks along the main road, but there’s really nothing to see besides a potential Sparkle. You can reach the other half of this path via the Corridor of Wisdom, though there’s only another potential Sparkle up here. Meh.
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| Roaring Valley's Corridor of Wisdom map in The Legend of Legacy. |
Roaring Valley - Corridor of Wisdom
- First off, there’s another new enemy here which may pop up - but only if you approach the large skulls littering the place, and even then only occasionally:
- Pale Spiritbeaks. These ghostly birds use weak physical and magical attacks on your team. Their damage isn’t much to talk about, but their endurance and pack mentality (you’ll usually fight three or four at once) can hurt. Zone attacks are preferred.
- Which northbound route you take onto this map makes little difference, though you might find a Sparkle on the right path. The left path is narrower, and a fair bit safer, but it doesn’t really matter which you take, ‘cause they both lead to an ancient monument you can activate for a water boost in the region. Sweet.
- The path splits in the north, because what else is new. If you go left at the split you’ll find a southbound path that will take you to the small, otherwise unaccessible cliff edge mentioned in the Valley Entrance. Meh. It’s a long trek, and not really worth the effort - though if you look in the northwest corner of this path you can find a singing stone. It yields up a Whispering Shard, and within it the Elven Shot charm.
- Back to the ancient monument. You can potentially find a Sparkle if you take a right, though, again, the path will split, this time to north and south. Go north and you can follow a thin cliff path to a potential Chest. To the south you can find another exit to the Archwing Burrow, as well as a path to a new map, the Corridor of Hunger.