The river flowers into the desert landscape, converting what should be dry sand into a golden-brown marsh of mud and meadowgrass. The river is wider and soupier than it was the last time anyone ventured onto Monsun, dividing the fragmented island into awkward halves. The black, oily swell that swallows up the land just upstream has bled into the currents as they leak southward, painting the waters from foam-ridged blue-greens to a sickly, poisonous black. It drops the overall temperature of the river significantly.
The desert itself hasn't fared much better. Ziziphus's grasslands crop up in irregular sprouts of grass and flowers, stark against the dry curve of sand dunes. The disparity paints the landscape a dark and muddied brown with alarming inconsistency; even here, it seems that Ziziphus has been sloppily arrayed on top of Monsun, to a very tonally dissonant effect.
But the river is safe to ford or wade through, if you must. Just be careful when progressing from Monsun's east to its west. The mood shift isn't terribly radical, gradual as it is, but it can be startling to those unaccustomed to it. The western side of the island brings out your best traits - but it comes at a cost.
A crop of cacti might initially promise to be an invaluable resource, until they turn out to be anything but. Walking cacti are silent predators who prefer to slowly approach their prey, avoiding being noticed by their targets until it is too late.
Luckily, these creatures do not rely on projectiles to attack- rather, their needle thin spikes can extend up to one foot out of their bodies in a fast, powerful motion- more than enough to puncture flesh and muscle. If you've ever wanted to try death by acupuncture, these are your kind of monster... but if not, a sharp weapon or fire will certainly help whittle down their numbers.
And they're all over the region of C4. Good luck with clearing them out.
Don't Be a Prick
Fortunately, Gladio's survival skill will turn up some resources of note, even in this utter wasteland. Notably, he'll discover that not all of the cacti are of the walking, murderous variant. The more stationary types of cacti in the vicinity might be recognizable to him as Opuntia basilaris, known colloquially as the beavertail pricklypear. This particular species' highly visible, bright pink flowers are a dead giveaway.
The pricklypear's buds can be steamed or cooked, and the large seeds can be ground into an edible mush. Just be careful when harvesting it - this particular species of cactus isn't as obviously barbed as most, but its flat, fleshy pads bear hundreds of tiny bristles that can be painful to dig out of the skin.
MONSUN - C4 | Ⴄ PREDATOR -- Ɏ | VEGETABLES/ROOTS
The river flowers into the desert landscape, converting what should be dry sand into a golden-brown marsh of mud and meadowgrass. The river is wider and soupier than it was the last time anyone ventured onto Monsun, dividing the fragmented island into awkward halves. The black, oily swell that swallows up the land just upstream has bled into the currents as they leak southward, painting the waters from foam-ridged blue-greens to a sickly, poisonous black. It drops the overall temperature of the river significantly.
The desert itself hasn't fared much better. Ziziphus's grasslands crop up in irregular sprouts of grass and flowers, stark against the dry curve of sand dunes. The disparity paints the landscape a dark and muddied brown with alarming inconsistency; even here, it seems that Ziziphus has been sloppily arrayed on top of Monsun, to a very tonally dissonant effect.
But the river is safe to ford or wade through, if you must. Just be careful when progressing from Monsun's east to its west. The mood shift isn't terribly radical, gradual as it is, but it can be startling to those unaccustomed to it. The western side of the island brings out your best traits - but it comes at a cost.
A crop of cacti might initially promise to be an invaluable resource, until they turn out to be anything but. Walking cacti are silent predators who prefer to slowly approach their prey, avoiding being noticed by their targets until it is too late.
Luckily, these creatures do not rely on projectiles to attack- rather, their needle thin spikes can extend up to one foot out of their bodies in a fast, powerful motion- more than enough to puncture flesh and muscle. If you've ever wanted to try death by acupuncture, these are your kind of monster... but if not, a sharp weapon or fire will certainly help whittle down their numbers.
And they're all over the region of C4. Good luck with clearing them out.
Fortunately, Gladio's survival skill will turn up some resources of note, even in this utter wasteland. Notably, he'll discover that not all of the cacti are of the walking, murderous variant. The more stationary types of cacti in the vicinity might be recognizable to him as Opuntia basilaris, known colloquially as the beavertail pricklypear. This particular species' highly visible, bright pink flowers are a dead giveaway.
The pricklypear's buds can be steamed or cooked, and the large seeds can be ground into an edible mush. Just be careful when harvesting it - this particular species of cactus isn't as obviously barbed as most, but its flat, fleshy pads bear hundreds of tiny bristles that can be painful to dig out of the skin.