Etrian Odyseey II[]
Strategy[]
These Muckdiles have adapted to their harsh ecosystem by becoming even more dangerous than any other regular monster found within the Forbidden Wood (or any non-draconic boss from the lower strata). Having boss-level stats, they wait in ambush behind doors at the highest floor of Lagaard's Labyrinth. They are a rare random encounter that, as all other normal battles on the highest floor, only can be triggered by opening a door. The game uses Scatter About as the battle BGM due to how difficult these successive battles can be.
Be warned, this Muckdile is the strongest of its kind and will wipe you out no matter how high your level is if you are even slightly unprepared to face it. Chances to actually meet one are quite low, but if you're exceptionally unlucky you can meet one accompanied by Mothlords, or even two at once, so it is recommended to save every time you complete a loop on the 30th floor. Harvesting from Take/Chop/Mine spots on this floor can be quite dangerous as well, as Muckdiles tend to ambush in pairs while you do.
It normally only uses Bite as its attack, which deals heavy damage and may hit random members for up to 8 times. Binding its head will make it harmless while the bind lasts. Making it sleep is also a good strategy to keep damage to a minimum, but if you bind more than one part of its body, it will start using his second move, Frolic, which has a chance to bind your whole party in return.
This is also the only monster in the game with complete immunity to stun.
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold[]
Encountering the Dinogator[]
The most common way to encounter Dinogators is as an incredibly rare random encounter through the forced encounter doors on 30F, though sometimes it will spawn 2 Dinogators, which will present a much more difficult fight.
There is a guaranteed way to find a Dinogator. To even reach it, the player needs to pass through multiple warp tiles in 30F in sequence, with one of them eventually placing them in a secret passageway that is normally inaccessible otherwise. Once this is accomplished, there is a shortcut towards the floor entrance for later ease of access. Heading to, and opening, the door at the end will force an encounter with a shiny Dinogator.
Strategy[]
The Dinogator is probably the toughest enemy short of the Ur-Child. Its attacks hit incredibly hard, even for a high level party, and its massive HP reserves allow it to tank a lot of damage before it goes down.
Its Playful Bite attack can do high cut damage to the entire party, and Frolic can potentially completely bind the entire party. But when it reaches low HP, it will start to use its Pout attack that throws 10 random cut attacks across the entire party, potentially decimating it. As it holds immunity to instant death and petrification, there is no way to dramatically shorten the battle.
Binding its head will lock out its powerful attacks, but when it does that it will constantly Frolic non-stop, so prepare Barrier every turn once it happens. Successfully landing Fear and controlling it with Suicide Word can buy the party several turns while it attacks itself.
For those having trouble with the shiny version, consuming a "no rare breeds" food will instead force a normal variant of the Dinogator. Players who can reliably defeat it (usually on Picnic due to its high damage output) find it an easy source of experience for late-game level grinding.
Etrian Odyssey Nexus[]
Summoning the Dinogator[]
It appears as an overworld FOE, but this will only happen if the player has defeated the other three overworld FOEs and unlocked all labyrinth-related gather points. This means having reached the final floor of the Abyssal Shrine. Once these conditions are met, the Dinogator will spawn once all gather points are glowing, and in the process will ravage all of them at once. However, after this initial appearance the Dinogator prefers to restrict its movements to the Yggdrasil's and Cascade of Bluffs gather points, so all other gather points will become available for harvest again.
Strategy[]
The big issue here is that this iteration of the Dinogator holds nothing back. It uses Pout on the very first turn which is more than likely to slaughter the entire party unless it gets shut down with a lucky bind or ailment. If the party didn't even touch the Dinogator, it will continue to Pout until either it's taken damage or the party is dead. If it did take damage, it has two behaviors: Frolic will be prioritized if the party has no binds on them, and once anyone is bound it will try to go for the kill with Pout.
Once it falls to 70% HP, it uses Playful Bite, a full-party attack that surprisingly is less punishing than Pout. It will use this skill non-stop, which is a great relief compared to nonstop Pouts. However, when it falls to 50% HP, it will Pout non-stop again, so it's preferable to burst it down before hitting this threshold.
At 30% HP, its behaviour becomes more unpredictable. If none of the party is bound, the Dinogator will randomly choose between its three skills, so there's an equal chance between it leveling the party with Pout or scratching them with Playful Bite. If any bind is present on the party, it will throw out a Pout, so be careful with bind prevention.
Surviving the turn 1 Pout is key to being able to progress anywhere in the battle. Since it's immune to panic, petrification, and paralysis, your one surefire way of preventing it from unleashing this first move is to put it to sleep. Starting with Wilting Miasma and having everyone unload Sleep Gases on it is a pretty reliable way to shut it down and buy your party a few turns to set up.
Like before, binding its head causes it to cease the assault, and its AI now causes it to miss more turns than before. In fact, a head bind will render the Dinogator completely helpless for the first half of the fight. That said, a stray use of Frolic can be incredibly dangerous, but fortunately something like a Sovereign's Prevent Order can reliably defend against it (though this isn't foolproof). Since it's also harder to anticipate when Frolic comes out, a War Magus's Barrier isn't a perfect defense either. Blind is a nice failsafe as it can cause more misses from its Pout and Playful Bites in the odd turns, but be aware that stray hits will be lethal.
A popular way of cheesing the Dinogator (especially on Heroic, where shifting down to Basic difficulty isn't an option) involves a party member with as little defense as possible, but also with the Vampire subclass. Enable their Force Boost, which causes them to always endure any amount of lethal damage, and have the rest of the party try to inflict Curse on the Dinogator, which should be relatively easy due to its lack of Curse resistance. Due to its low speed the Dinogator is likely last to move, and it's guaranteed to unleash Pout on the first turn, dealing lots of damage to the entire party... and to itself, giving you the victory with one survivor. Consider throwing in a Formaldehyde to also easily get the conditional.