#guild card

Galeforce

-My first (main) playthrough. I actually uploaded a card weekly to help out, but I think only the first one made it on in time. It's not Heroic because it's like a NG+++++ file. This is the final card, but for the weekly set of them, um, here:

Week 0 || Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7

Stardust

-Filled with all my C-listers that couldn't fit into Galeforce. I ran them as two separate teams; the Boss Killers (shown here), who fought the FOEs/Bosses, and Team Midriff, who did all the exploration.

Sunstorm

-A Guild consisting of classes I mostly avoid using, and portraits I hadn't (as of its conception) used before. As always, there's like another three members that get used that aren't here, including a Survivalist, Nightseeker, and an Arcanist.

Maelstrom

-An attempt at a Nuzlocke-esque run, and also an 'evil' party. Characters stopped being used if they died, but only until the end of the stratum, to not make it overbearing. Being an evil party lacking in support and healing, this was an absolute slog that I considered a total failure by the Jungle.

Brilliant

-An idea for a mage-guild that kinda went askew. Starting as a Sovereign, three Zodiacs, and a Farmer, it turned this into three single-element teams; Each consisting of a unique Sovereign (all orange-haired sisters, as is the Farmer), a unique Zodiac, two other characters that get earlygame elemental skills (Survivalist's Flame Arrow, Landsknecht, etc.), but the same Farmer (Hazel) across all three. THEN, I doubled back on the idea and cut it down to a declining team of 10; at least one Sovereign (probably two), two Zodiacs, and a fourth/fifth member depending on the need. The original original goal was to focus on non-INT-using classes with high INT (Ninja, War Magus, Harbinger), but that's kind of a useless idea before subclassing. So we'll see how they shake out at that point, if they ever get there.

Wildheart

When I found the Alchemist/Buccaneer mod, I had to do something with that. And then I figured out portrait modding, so I double had to do something. AND THEN I figured out voice--well, stealing from EOV, so I triple had to do something to test THAT out, too. So here's a Bash-and-Chase heavy team with a Pugilist and Palm Alchemist for maximum frontline fistcuffs. And a Shield Hero to actually protect them, something I'll fail to do with a EO2U Guild below. Definitely have further plans to continue playing as them. Truth be told, both new classes are pretty handy to Brilliant's elemental-focus plan, so I gotta make edits to their gimmick, too. No idea what the heck happens if you try to scan the code without appropriate mods, so fair warning, maybe.

EOV -Definitely where Guild Cards are seen the most. About 2-4 times every floor, there'll be an event that'll use you GC database to have another guild interact with you in the labyrinth. If you have none, you'll be introduced to memelord Conrad of the Freeblade Guild about 110 times in your course of a playthrough. In stark contrast, Nexus only has GC events maybe a dozen times across the whole game.

Starlight

-Main guild. Not a lot to say. It's a Chain-oriented party, because I love Fencers/Landsknechts.

Bundt

-Cake pun. See, bundt is a type of cake, and the guild is filled with Brouni. As in Brownies, the fairy/pixie/sprite, but I'm punning off the--- ANYWAY. Horrific offense, but don't die easily. Kinda miserable against a few specific enemies like the coffin jerks on 15F, but otherwise worked astonishingly better than you'd expect. Which is; not GOOD, but totally serviceable.

Necrocosm

-My original 'evil' guild, featuring two Necromancers, and edge as far as the eye can see. Two Necros work pretty well together; typically Velvet summoned them and Rue made them explode. The fact Necros heal and have evil vibes let them succeed where Maelstrom would totally fail. I also didn't bench anyone for dying, so that probably helped too.

Firebird

-This playthrough is only saved at Amalgolem and took like a single weekend to get there, so I didn't remember squat about it. Amalgolem is like my single fave boss in the whole series, so I just had to leave a file there. It's heavily skewed towards non-humans, and the bottom deck of the guild is just full of nigh-on unusable cross-classed horrors, like a Celestrian Pugilist and Therian Warlock.

EO2U -Probably where Guild Cards are the most functionally useful. Lets you get the Grimoire Stones the attached character has on hand as many times as you can afford. Pretty nifty, as Grimoires are semi-random in spawning.

Skyquake

-So I didn't actually buy EO2U when it came out for a variety of factors, not least being unaware how different it was from the original EOII, my first EO game. Ultimately; great game, bosses are a bit much, time has worn me down completely on the desire to go through another brutal postgame. But not to try different builds, evidently.

Ironroot

-Holy Gift gives you extra experience, but each level costs twice as much to trade as the previous. That is, you need three level 3 Grimoires to get a level 4. Or 192 level 3s for a single level 10. So having a Guild Card with mid-lowish level Holy Gift is actually pretty dang useful to have.

Untold

-Story Guild. Haven't… uh, haven't exactly been Motivated to do Story mode in Untold 2. On paper, I really dislike the team composition. In practice, hasn't been so bad, but still not enough to make me play them more than necessary.

Fellbloom

-Now legally required Evil Guild. Probably won't ever get past Chimaera.

Testament

When I figured out how to modify portraits, I had to do at least some of a run with this knowledge. I always adored the concept of Palm Alchemists, so attempted to make that the centrepiece, alongside a dodgy Survivalist and Ailments/Binds to hopefully negate attacks. When it works, it really works; when it doesn't, the whole frontline collapses in two seconds flat. Also, when I started this run, I found kya's "Hard Mode" mod, and having tried that... I think it helps a lot with EO2U's big flaw of easy encounters and ridiculous bosses! It, uh, does nothing to bosses/FOEs, but the increased difficulty of normal encounters makes the disparity less jarring. Might even give you a hair more experience and item drops, too...

EOU -Unlike the sequel, Guild Cards don't let you choose what to get from the friend's Guild Card. You just get given a random Grimoire Stone once per playthrough per Guild Card. Kinda lame.

Untold -Unlike later games, only one save file here, and the game nigh-on requires you to play through the Story Mode before doing Classic in NG+, so, that's where we sit. EDIT: Actually finished this a long while ago, keep forgetting to update card, but it doesn't really do much, and this looks prettier than Claret Hollows anyway so.... I'll just stay with this one forever?

EOIV -First game to use QR codes. III had Guild Cards, but I don't know how you'd trade them. They do serve a purpose here; each Card gets given a random treasure, and having a Card lets you find that treasure in the overworld. Most are crap, but some are circumstantially useful, and some are permanent stat-boosts, IIRC. I don't think mine was very good…?

Zephyr

-Uh, EOIV had a glitch where your Ventured Days would go up dramatically every time you paused. I think it comes into affect if you ever do NG+. So I haven't actually played for 48 in-game years. Truth be told, now knowing of a way to back up save files, I am admittedly tempted to make a new EOIV playthrough, since it's been like a decade, but for my own sanity, I really probably shouldn't.

Monsoon