Ugly Duckling Isle is the southern isle of the Swan Island chain. It is located in the far north, reachable by Tengri or the Sea Cow. This island is a hotspot for players wishing to farm XP from the Tokos that are resident. This area is also home to many of the familiars (Mite, Drongo, Thumbelemur, Seed Sprite, etc.) that you started off with.
Familiars[]
Forage[]
- Central forest
The Training Ground[]
Tokos can be found on this island (though they are not indigenous to this area) and can be 'farmed' in order to level up your characters and their familiars. Each Toko gives 2000 XP, which calculates to 6000 XP per group. Just to clarify, this is a lot.
However, they are flighty creatures, set to run away as you approach. They are faster than Oliver on the overworld, so the Veil ability is recommended, coupled with Jack in the Box. If you succeed in preemptively entering combat with them, they will attempt to disable you and then flee the battle.
Using text speed to catch the Toko[]
By setting the text speed to slow, you can have Oliver cast an innocuous spell like Seek Fortune (on the overworld) or any of the interior spells (Levitate, Chart Chests, etc.) to trigger on-screen text that handily alerts you to its uselessness.
While the text message is appearing in the message box, enemies will be frozen in place. This allows Oliver to catch (or avoid) enemies easily, since you can move Oliver while the text is being printed.
Note that the Veil spell (from Horace's Riddles sidequest) will allow you to sneak up on enemies with 100% success, if you've purchased the "Jack in the Box" from the Merit Awards.
Strategy[]
Immediately focus on bringing Toko down, as it will often attempt to flee. Having the "Upper Hand " perk is a huge plus, as is the "Veil " spell given to you during Horace's sidequest. Moon-aligned physical attackers will also give low-level players more of an edge. They tend to use tricks in an attempt to disable your party, and if successful they will escape, robbing you of the XP and gold. When observing that a Toko is attempting to flee, use special attacks that involve cutscenes (for example, Mite's Cut Loose) on the Toko, bringing them back into the center.
You may want to consider disabling ally's abilities via the "Tactics " option, on the off-chance that an area effect ability may KO an impressed Toko. The recommended level to fight the Toko is lv.30.