Laurelin

Laurelin
Other Names	Cat King
Roles	Boss, Summon
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 5

"*stop embarrassing my species with these larping shenanigans*"

―NoLegs, Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Laurelin is a boss that appears in Epic Battle Fantasy 5. Described as the "Cat King" by local cultists, it has apparently existed in the Mystic Woods for a long time. The local cat population uses it as their main base of operations, although it is unknown exactly what their relationship to Laurelin is.

After acquiring the Leafy Boots to walk on lily pads, the party encounters Laurelin at the end of the Mystic Woods, blocking the path to the Raftmaker. The Cat King and its "subjects" prove to be a dangerous opponent, but they overcome it to continue their quest.

Appearance

Laurelin is a very strange tree resembling a large, spherical boil. It has been hollowed out as a home for cats, which can emerge from a hole on the front of the growth. The top and sides of Laurelin are dotted with faces of what appear to be small, orange, Slime-like creatures (possibly tree sap). It is secured by several roots and branches of varying size, with light brown notches where others have been cut off. A few small twigs with green leaves clinging to them sprout from its top.

Personality

While Laurelin has enough awareness to identify the party as a threat and attack them accordingly, it has no apparent personality of its own. Instead, its combat quotes are provided by the cats living inside of it; like NoLegs, the game provides narration boxes describing their actions. Although the cats live together, they seem to lack cooperation and tend to argue with each other a lot. They are quick to blame each other and fight among themselves once the battle goes downhill, becoming disheartened if Laurelin is captured and summoned on the party's behalf.

Overview

Laurelin is one of the few enemies in the game that naturally has the ability to take two actions in a single turn; the boss itself attacks on its first action, while its cat tenants assist it in its second action. It is armed to the (figurative) teeth with powerful multi-target Earth and Bio attacks; it also uses some Holy attacks as its HP falls. On the defensive side of things, it can buff its defences, summon an endless stream of reinforcements, and cure itself and its allies from status effects with Purify. It even uses Dispel to remove the party's buffs or its own debuffs.

Laurelin is fought in Breezy weather, which tends to apply Bless to everyone in the battle. This makes applying status effects and dispelling its buffs much more difficult unless the party has some weather-changing options of their own. Laurelin can also temporarily clear the skies when severely damaged; unfortunately, this is due to it using the Mother Earth Limit Break, dealing severe Bio damage to the entire party while badly Poisoning them and giving the enemy wave a few stacks of Regen.

Laurelin absorbs Earth and Water while being immune to Holy. It is weak to Thunder, Dark, and especially Fire and Wind. It is also immune to many status effects, but unlike most bosses, it is vulnerable to damage-over-time effects like Poison and Virus; in fact, it's actually weak to Burn and Scorch. Combined with a lack of Dry or Curse resistance and its severe Fire vulnerability, Laurelin is immensely susceptible to being burned to the ground...if you can get those status effects to actually stick through all of its curative measures.

Statistics

	Laurelin	EBF5
	A huge tree-house which attacks with earth, holy and bio skills. It attacks twice per turn, because it's full of cats.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	4040	4	4	4	4	6	2	700	62	62	550	6	4
Elemental Resistance
	-80%	-50%	-	150%	-	-	150%	-80%	100%	-50%
Status Resistance
	-100%	100%	100%	-	100%	-	100%	-	50%	50%	100%	100%
Debuff Resistance
	30%	20%	20%	20%	20%	50%	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon
Name	Soft Wood	Soft Wood	Soft Wood	Amber	Emerald
Chance	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
0.756% per stack, up to 6.804%	1.512% per stack, up to 13.608%	0.36% per stack, up to 3.24%	0.72% per stack, up to 6.48%	Immune	-4%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Laurelin	EBF5
	A huge tree-house which attacks with earth, holy and bio skills. It attacks twice per turn, because it's full of cats.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	4040	4	4	4	4	6	2	700	62	62	550	6	4
Elemental Resistance
	-50%	-	-	150%	150%	-	150%	-50%	100%	-50%
Status Resistance
	-100%	100%	100%	-	100%	-	100%	-	50%	50%	100%	100%
Debuff Resistance
	30%	40%	40%	40%	40%	60%	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon
Name	Soft Wood	Soft Wood	Soft Wood	Amber	Emerald
Chance	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
0.63% per stack, up to 5.67%	1.26% per stack, up to 11.34%	-0.18% per stack, up to -1.62%	-0.36% per stack, up to -3.24%	Immune	-4%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Attacks and Abilities

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Big Root	All	60		50%	50%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Lumber	All	65/3		100%	100%	1x		150%	20%	10%
Fly Bombs	Random	245/7		50%	10%	2x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Will not target the same player twice in a row unless they have Target or no other targets are available. If catch score >55 and all players have Lovable, targets completely randomly instead.
Fairy Bombs	Random	280/7		100%	33%	1x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Will not target the same player twice in a row unless they have Target or no other targets are available. If catch score >55 and all players have Lovable, targets completely randomly instead.
Seeds	Random	260/8		100%	100%	50%		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can target dead players, leading to a chance to waste hits.
Razor Leaf	All	75/3		100%	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Seiken	Single	180		100%	25%	1x		100%	10%	10%
Arrow Rain	All	45/3		50%	50%	1x		100%	20%	10%
Notes: Status strength increased to 3x on Hard or Epic difficulties.
Gaia Bloom	Single	120		100%	100%	5x		100%	10%	10%
Protect	Allies	--	--	----	--	40%		--	--	--
Notes: Buff strength increased to 80% on Hard or Epic difficulties. Also gives 2x Good Luck to allies on Hard or Epic difficulties. Can only be used once, upon Laurelin dropping below 39% HP.
Barrier	Allies	--	--	----	--	40%		--	--	--
Notes: Buff strength increased to 80% on Hard or Epic difficulties. Also gives 2x Morale to allies on Hard or Epic difficulties. Can only be used once, upon Laurelin dropping below 74% HP.
Purify	Allies	--	--	----	--	--	--	--	--	--
Notes: Removes all negative statuses other than Freeze.
Dispel	All*	--	--	----	100%	1x		150%	--	--
Notes: *Can also be cast on the user's party to remove all debuffs instead.
Mother Earth	All	160		100%	100%	9x		200%	10%	10%
Notes: Gives 3x Regen to all allies.

Battle Logic

The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.

1st action

• <29% HP and hasn't used Mother Earth yet → Mother Earth;
• <39% HP → Fly Bombs (1/4), Fairy Bombs (1/4), Razor Leaf (1/4), Seeds (1/4);
• <74% HP → Big Root (1/4), Lumber (1/4), Fly Bombs (1/4), Fairy Bombs (1/4);
• Otherwise → Big Root (1/2), Lumber (1/2).

Summoning

• If Foe Remix is enabled;
  • Summons either a Cat Bomber or a Cat Ninja (1 level above Laurelin);
    • If playing on Hard/Epic → Summons either a Cat Bomber or a Cat Ninja (1 level above Laurelin):
      • <65% HP → Summons a Fabulous Gloop (1 level above Laurelin);
    • <65% HP → Summons a Fabulous Gloop (1 level above Laurelin);
• Otherwise;
  • Summons either a Cat Warrior or a Cat Wizard (1 level above Laurelin);
    • If playing on Hard/Epic → Summons either a Cat Warrior or a Cat Wizard (1 level above Laurelin):
      • <65% HP → Summons either a Leaf Wraith, a Wise Mirror or a Stumpy Gloop (same level as Laurelin);
    • <65% HP → Summons either a Leaf Wraith, a Wise Mirror or a Stumpy Gloop (same level as Laurelin).

2nd action

• <39% HP and hasn't used Protect yet → Protect;
• <74% HP and hasn't used Barrier yet → Barrier;
• If for Laurelin [sum of debuffs - sum of buffs] ≥ 80% → Dispel (Allies)
• If playing on Hard/Epic, and between all active players [sum of buffs - sum of debuffs] ≥ 300% → Dispel (All) (1/3);
  • If Laurelin has at least one negative status → Purify (x * 2/3), Arrow Rain (2/9-2x/9), Seiken (2/9-2x/9), Gaia Bloom (2/9-2x/9);
  • Otherwise → Arrow Rain (2/9), Seiken (2/9), Gaia Bloom (2/9);
• Otherwise;
  • If Laurelin has at least one negative status → Purify (x), Arrow Rain (1/3-x/3), Seiken (1/3-x/3), Gaia Bloom (1/3-x/3);
  • Otherwise → Arrow Rain (1/3), Seiken (1/3), Gaia Bloom (1/3).

* Seiken becomes Arrow Rain if catch score >55 and all players are Lovable.

To calculate "x" (chance of Laurelin using Purify), add 1 point for each of Burn, Poison, Weaken, Tired, Cursed and Bad Luck, 1.5 for Virus, and 3 for Scorch Laurelin is inflicted with; then substract 0.5 from the total and divide the resulting number by 4 and round down any number >1 to 1 (resulting chance will range between 1/8 to 1).

Before the v2 update, Purify and Dispel had priority over Barrier and Protect, which could lead to Laurelin skipping the latter two entirely, since it only checks to use them on the first turn after dropping below the required HP thresholds and never again.

Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)

• If Tired → 22% → Arrow Rain (1/5), Seiken (1/5), Gaia Bloom (1/5), Fairy Bombs (1/5), Fly Bombs (1/5);
• Otherwise → 33% → Arrow Rain (1/5), Seiken (1/5), Gaia Bloom (1/5), Fairy Bombs (1/5), Fly Bombs (1/5).

* Seiken becomes Arrow Rain if catch score >55 and all players are Lovable.

Strategy

Equipment

Laurelin uses primarily Earth, Bio and Holy-elemental skills. While it has many weaknesses, Fire and Wind will do the most damage; the player will probably focus on Fire as Matt, Natalie and Lance all have a Fire skill in their base moveset, though NoLegs' Tornado Tantrum is notable due to it also being able to Weaken Laurelin if Breezy weather is taken out.

The Fire Sprite summon is extremely useful in this fight as a cheap way to remove the Breezy weather normally present in this battle, and the Burn it inflicts is generally not much of a concern.

Battle

Laurelin and its allies will be protected by the Breezy weather constantly granting it Bless, making it impossible to apply status effects. Changing the weather will remove this protection, allowing status conditions to work normally on it; other than the previously mentioned Fire Sprite, the Burned Fallen summon can also work very well for this since the Dry it applies every turn will further amplify Laurelin's Fire weakness. As the weather will change back after a while, status conditions should be stacked as much as possible, and the weather-altering Summons or Limit Breaks should be recast as needed. Because of how Bless wears off and is then reapplied, if Virus is put in place somehow, it will still be able to spread very quickly, which works nicely with Laurelin's lack of resistance to the status and neutrality to Bio damage.

Laurelin uses a lot of status effects; only one of its offensive skills doesn't have a chance to afflict the party with something. However, it mostly uses Virus and Poison, so increasing resistance to that (or Bio damage) will stop a considerable number of its attempts at attrition.

Laurelin also has access to a large number of support spells, including both Protect and Barrier to buff its defences, Purify to remove any status effects you inflict on it, and Dispel (either to remove player buffs or enemy debuffs). This can be particularly annoying to deal with when trying to capture it.

Once Laurelin drops below 29% HP, it'll use Mother Earth to deal high magical Bio-elemental damage to all players and inflict high stacks of Poison, as well as giving Regen to itself and its allies.

Lance's Nuke Limit Break can be used for massive damage, though the player should try to remove the Radiation weather right afterwards to prevent its defensive debuffs.

Quotes

"*sounds of angry cats echo within this massive, twisted tree*"

―First attack

"*it sounds like the cats are arguing amongst themselves, and cannot decide on a battle plan*"

―<84% HP

"*some cats are heard muttering that they were not paid enough for this* "

―<69% HP

"*a rousing speech is heard,urging for unity within the cat species*"

―<54% HP

"*it's quiet inside - too quiet* "

―<39% HP

"*cats are heard frantically clawing at each other in their death throes*"

―<24% HP

Summon

"*the cats seem discouraged that their deity is fighting for the other team now*"

―Laurelin when summoned
This boss can be captured to be used as a summon. It casts a powered up version of Razor Leaf after buffing all allies' magic attack.

	Laurelin							SP
	Buffs the magic attack of all allies, including those in backup, and then cuts through all foes with a barrage of bio attacks.							109	Cured
Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Allies+B All	-- 330/6	--	---- 100%	--	60% --	--	-- 150%	-- 10%	-- 10%
Note: Before the v2 update, Magic Attack buff strength was only 50% and cost 119 SP. Due to an oversight, the attack's last hit doesn't properly consume stacks of status effects.

Trivia

• Laurelin and its optional counterpart Telperion are named after the Two Trees of Valinor in J.R.R. Tolkien's writings.