The legendary RPG series Dragon Quest is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 27, and as one of Square Enix's flagship franchises, fans are eagerly awaiting what surprises the milestone might bring.
In the meantime, one player has undertaken a celebration of their own. A video on the gaming YouTube channel "F Daruma" has gone viral, showcasing a mind-boggling feat: taking a single Slime in Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation and, while keeping it at Level 1, pumping its stats all the way to the maximum. The sheer dedication and insane grind involved have captivated the internet, pushing the video past 150,000 views.
The video comes from F Daruma, a YouTuber who specializes in pushing the limits of the Dragon Quest series. Their channel is filled with similarly wild projects, like maxing out the hero's stats during the childhood prologue of Dragon Quest V or slowly chipping away at a secret boss by dealing only 1 point of damage at a time.
This time, the star of the show is the iconic Slime. While it may be the face of the franchise, in-game it's usually just an early-game pushover.
In Dragon Quest VI, you can recruit a Slime to your party and level it up normally. But gaining stats through level-ups is far too inefficient for a challenge like this. So, F Daruma decided to do the opposite: keep the Slime at Level 1 and max out its stats purely by feeding it stat-boosting items. Just hearing the premise, you know this is going to be a time sink of epic proportions.
The chosen Slime, named "Slakichi," started with stats mostly in the single digits. In Dragon Quest VI, the cap for Strength, Agility, Resilience, Wisdom, and Style is 500. Max HP and Max MP cap out at 999.
Additionally, Attack Power is tied to Strength, and Defence Power is tied to Resilience. After calculating the number of stat-boosting items needed to hit these caps, the grand total came out to a staggering 1,460 items.
The base drop rate for these items is a brutal 1/256, which would have made the grind practically eternal. To speed things up, F Daruma used a party of four master-class Thieves, whose abilities boost the item drop rate to a more manageable (but still painful) 1/32. And so, the endless monster-grinding hell began.
After nearly a month of grinding, the inventory of Seeds of Life (which boost HP) hit the 99-item cap, so it was time to feed 67 of them to Slakichi. Because each seed grants a random amount of HP between 4 and 6, F Daruma reloaded their save after each use until they got the maximum value. Just feeding the Slime those 67 seeds took a full hour and a half.
With that done, it was back to the infinite item grind. This challenge was fundamentally a war of attrition, trading time and sanity for rare drops across the game world.
The video fast-forwards through this process, but in reality, it took several more months of grinding. In the final stretch, just feeding the remaining stat items to the Slime took another 11 hours. When it was all over, Slakichi was still Level 1, but its stats were godly:
Strength: 500
Agility: 500
Resilience: 500
Wisdom: 500
Style: 500
Attack Power: 500
Defence Power: 500
HP and MP both hit 900. The "Level 1 Max-Stat Slime" was born!
The entire project took a total of 793 hours. The grind started in late September and was finally completed in mid-April of the following year.
With the ultimate Slime ready, it was time for some field testing. First up was the Best-Dressed Contest. Even with no stat-boosting equipment, Slakichi's maxed-out Style score earned it an easy victory.
Next, Slakichi entered the highest rank of the Slime Arena. Surprisingly, it lost to a King Cureslime. After equipping some gear, however, it finally claimed victory, even winning the subsequent championship match. It needed a little help from equipment, but this was still a Level 1 Slime we're talking about!
The next challenge was the final boss, Mortamor. Initially equipped with the Miracle Sword, Slakichi fell during the boss's second form. Even after trying various other equipment setups, the result was the same. The team kept wiping, even with a stash of Yggdrasil Dew for full-party heals.
F Daruma couldn't help but joke, "I thought this part would just be a quick 'and then I steamrolled him' segment..." After numerous attempts, however, they finally defeated the final boss. While it relied heavily on gear and items, a Level 1 Slime beating the final boss is still an incredible feat.
However, the post-game superboss, Nokturnus, proved to be an insurmountable wall.
▼ Check out the full video below
The insane video left viewers stunned. Comments poured in, saying: "That Slime looks like it would be really firm to the touch," "Why are you always doing these terrifyingly weird projects...," "You're absolutely nuts (and I mean that as a compliment)," "The effort is just insane, I have nothing but respect," and "The ultimate display of pointless yet productive effort. I love it."
The F Daruma channel has plenty of other fun Dragon Quest videos, so if you understand Japanese, it's definitely worth checking out his other creative challenges!