Balance: Mountain Boots vs Pecko Feet.

[Own]

For 400 gold you can buy Mountain Boots in the SoG shops, which gives you +5 defense.

Pecko, one of the slowest enemies to kill in the game, drops Bird Feet as a rare drop. These give +6 defense.

It seems like the balance here is a little wonky, especially since you can bash Phaseman around a bit and get +10 defense and +15 EP Regen.

Pecko Feet seem like they should have some special effect to make them worthwhile or more defense than Phaseman Boots but no special effect. Or maybe some way to make it so you can't just grind bosses a few minutes to get all their drops and move on. Maybe all enemies rarely drop Grindea Essence in Story Mode which you can use to refight the old bosses in the Hall of Memories, or you pay a gold fee, I don't know.

I'm only bothering to point this out since I keep running into this in Arcade Mode where Pecko Feet rarely drop and all I get out of it is +1 defense. A buff on them would be helpful, given how few feet items there are in arcade.

 

[Own]

It occurs to me that you can get Mountain Boots on the first floor or two, but not the next tier up (Pecko/Phaseman boots) until floors 7-8.

Maybe for the sake of Arcade players, one more type of boot could be added between the two? You have boars dropping their skin, Leather / Pigskin / Boar Boots would be a great drop for floors 3-6. Even if they just have the same defense but make it harder for you to be stunned by enemy attacks.

That or mage shoes to fill the gap, Bell-Tipped Shoes made from hitting the bells in Story Mode until they pop off.

 

[UTech]

the pecko boots were definitely disappointing when I got them, I expected more from a rare drop considering the minor difference and effort to acquire. Also thought the rare drops would have corresponding buffs/stats to their cards effects, but that's just me.