============================ Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria FAQ/Walkthrough v0.9 by tri-Ace Fanboy E-mail: rod_rasouza@hotmail.com ============================ This entire document is (C) 2006-2007 Rodrigo Alves de Souza (tri-Ace Fanboy). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. No section of this guide can be used without my permission. This includes, but is not limited to posting on your website, making links to my guide, including parts of my guide in your own, or making reference to any material contained within. All the sites mentioned below have permission to do the above. Please email me at rod_rasouza@hotmail.com to enquire about gaining permission to use this document. GameFAQs - http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Neoseeker - http://www.neoseeker.com/ Super Cheats - http://www.supercheats.com/ 1UP.com - http://www.1up.com/ Rpg Dreamers - http://www.rpgdreamers.com/ - Thanks to Michael Sarich for this Copyright notice - =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 00 - Table of Contents [00000] Use your program's search function (usually accessed by pressing Ctrl+F) and search for the numbers in brackets to go straight for the section you want to check out. For example, searching for [02000] takes you to the version history section. 00 - Table of Contents.......................................[00000] 01 - About this FAQ..........................................[01000] 02 - Version History.........................................[02000] 03 - Frequently Asked Questions..............................[03000] 04 - Main Game Walkthrough...................................[04000] 04.1 - Chapter 1............................................[04100] 04.1.01 - Beginning of the journey.........................[04101] 04.2 - Chapter 2............................................[04200] 04.2.01 - Return of the princess...........................[04201] 04.2.02 - Getting ready for a long journey.................[04202] 04.2.03 - To the west......................................[04203] 04.3 - Chapter 3............................................[04300] 04.3.01 - The quest for the orb begins.....................[04301] 04.3.02 - Sidequests, Part I...............................[04302] 04.3.03 - Checklist I......................................[04303] 04.3.04 - Water and Fire...................................[04304] 04.3.05 - Sidequests, Part II..............................[04305] 04.3.06 - Back to orb-hunting..............................[04306] 04.3.07 - Checklist II.....................................[04307] 04.4 - Chapter 4............................................[04400] 04.4.01 - Moving On........................................[04401] 04.4.02 - Sidequests, Part III.............................[04402] 04.4.03 - Fighting the shadowy gods........................[04403] 04.5 - Chapter 5............................................[04500] 04.5.01 - Last place in Midgard............................[04501] 04.5.02 - Crossing the bridge..............................[04502] 04.5.03 - The other side...................................[04503] 04.6 - Chapter 6............................................[04600] 04.6.01 - The final dungeon................................[04601] 04.6.02 - The final battles................................[04602] 05 - Seraphic Gate *NOT INCLUDED YET*........................[05000] 06 - Secrets, Extras and Side-Quests.........................[06000] 06.1 - The Poems (tri-Emblem)...............................[06100] 06.2 - The kid asking for money in Kalstad..................[06200] 06.3 - Powerleveling Items *SPOILERS*.......................[06300] 06.4 - The 3 Secret Dungeons and the Sealpouches............[06400] 06.5 - Animal Rings.........................................[06500] 06.6 - Luck Smiles (7777 / 100% Drop Rate Trick)............[06600] 06.7 - Hard Mode............................................[06700] 07 - Gameplay................................................[07000] 07.1 - Characters: classes and stats........................[07100] 07.2 - Skill System and Equipment Links.....................[07200] 07.3 - Shops/Valued Customer System.........................[07300] 07.4 - Battle System........................................[07400] 07.4.01 - The Basics.......................................[07401] 07.4.02 - Blocking, Evading and Criticals..................[07402] 07.4.03 - Attacking, Dashing and AP........................[07403] 07.4.04 - Battle Menu......................................[07404] 07.4.05 - Party control and splitting......................[07405] 07.4.06 - Breaking, Collecting Items and Break Mode........[07406] 07.4.07 - Combos, gems, crystals and attack properties.....[07407] 07.4.08 - Special Attacks: Soul Crushes and Great Magic....[07408] 07.4.09 - Elements, Status Effects and Races...............[07409] 07.5 - Einherjar System.....................................[07500] 07.6 - Dungeons.............................................[07600] 07.6.01 - Map..............................................[07601] 07.6.02 - Treasure chests and traps........................[07602] 07.6.03 - Enemies and photons..............................[07603] 07.6.04 - Sealstone System.................................[07604] 08 - Game Mechanics..........................................[08000] 08.1 - Stat-Growth: Growth Styles, Level Ranges and Tables..[08100] 08.2 - Rules of Stacking....................................[08200] 08.2.01 - When do things stack?............................[08201] 08.2.02 - How do they stack?...............................[08202] 08.3 - Critical Ranks.......................................[08300] 08.4 - Calculating Attack Damage............................[08400] 08.4.01 - Full formula.....................................[08401] 08.4.02 - Sources of elemental damage and how they work....[08402] 08.5 - Calculating Spell Damage.............................[08500] 08.5.01 - Full formula.....................................[08501] 09 - Skill List..............................................[09000] 09.1 - Status Skills........................................[09100] 09.2 - Attack Skills........................................[09200] 09.3 - Defense Skills.......................................[09300] 09.4 - Critical Skills......................................[09400] 09.5 - Reaction Skills......................................[09500] *THE NEXT SECTIONS SPOIL CHARACTER AND LOCATION NAMES* 10 - Effects List............................................[10000] 11 - Sealstone List..........................................[11000] 12 - Shop List...............................................[12000] 13 - Item Creation List......................................[13000] 14 - Release Recommendations *NOT INCLUDED YET*..............[14000] 15 - Plot characters and Einherjar List......................[15000] 15.1 - Einherjar List.......................................[15100] 15.2 - Plot Characters......................................[15200] 16 - Attacks & Spells List...................................[16000] 16.1 - Light Warrior Einherjar Attacks......................[16100] 16.2 - Heavy Warrior Einherjar Attacks......................[16200] 16.3 - Archer Einherjar Attacks.............................[16300] 16.4 - Attack Spells........................................[16400] 16.5 - Menu Spells..........................................[16500] 16.6 - Plot Character Attacks...............................[16600] 17- Credits, Contact and Thanks..............................[17000] =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 01 - About this FAQ [01000] Hello, this is my third FAQ and the first attempt at a walkthrough. Most of the "hidden" info in this guide (enemy stats, elements, etc.) is based on the Japanese Official Complete Guide, but everything you're reading here has been checked. Feel free to point out any mistakes you find. The FAQ was supposed to have simply everything on the game at first, but this just isn't practical. Good items are mentioned, but there's no full item list here. Gundam4Fun's Item Guide has all 738 items, so use that if you need more details on them. Everything about the gameplay is explained here though, so while there's no Bestiary or Item List, there's much more than just an walkthrough. Although that is the meat of the document and goes first, you really should check the next Sections for info on all gameplay aspects. I hope you enjoy this FAQ and that it's useful to you. If you want to leave feedback, or if you have any doubts about anything here, just check Section 17 and send me an e-mail. You could also post on the GameFAQs board. My username there is triAce_Fanboy. =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 02 - Version History [02000] --- v0.9 - 06/08/07 --- File size: 925kb Main game walkthrough finished! Ok, this would have been impressive 7 months ago. The FAQ is still far from over: I still need to do the bonus dungeon walkthrough, and then there's the other sections. Full list of changes: -Changed e-mail to rod_rasouza@hotmail.com. Please use this one from now on, I'm only using it for the FAQs so I shouldn't miss any anymore. Sorry for any unanswered mail, I'll answer everything from now on. -FAQ added to Rpg Dreamers! -Added some important guidelines to the beginning of the Walkthrough. Please read them before you use it. -Main game walkthrough finished. Updated some things on the old parts too. It's not perfect, but it is getting better. More fixes to come to the whole thing when I finish the bonus dungeon walkthrough. -Made improvements to the level up method in section 04.3.07. Removed some unnecessary things and added numbers to show how fast the method is under different circumstances. -Fixed some of the enemy races. -Einherjar recommendations fixed for what is hopefully the last time. -Added a new Frequently Asked Question. -Secrets section rewritten. -Shop and Item Creation sections complete. Sealstone section updated. -Updated Game Mechanics section. Still missing details on Soul Crush and Great Magic. -Added the Effects List section with equipment effects and detailed descriptions of their bonuses, not included in the game. -Added Release Recommendations section, with several setups for all parts of the game. This won't be included in the main walkthrough anymore, except for the 3 releases I recommend (Kraad, Richelle, Mithra). -Added Leone's stat growth, thanks to Gulcasa. -Rewrote most of the gameplay section. It's up to date with everything we know so far, I think. --- v0.8 - 02/02/07 --- File size: 684kb Huge update to the whole FAQ. Most of the important gameplay aspects have been figured out, so I'm focusing entirely on the Walkthrough now and will do my best to finish the main game in February. Full list of changes: -Walkthrough updated to the end of Chapter 4. Some parts are missing a few details, but this will be fixed in the next update. -Changed many things in old parts of the walkthrough. There might be some inconsistencies in it (like items being mentioned suddenly), but the next updates will take care of those. Anyway, it's better than it was before. -Added the enemies' race in the dungeon listing, to make using the right critical skills easier. Thanks to Marty81 for the idea. -Removed the Rune Locations list. That was a lot of work to do, and it's much better to just use Gundam4Fun's Items Guide instead. It's a great guide with more info than I could include here. Updated Section 01 (About this FAQ) because of this too. Please read it. -Added a Secrets and Side-Quests section, with all the optional things in the game. I plan to include a Missable/Limited Items list in this section later. This is named Section 06, and not 05, because 05 will be the Seraphic Gate Walkthrough. Thanks to Moppi for giving the idea for this section. -Game Mechanics section completely rewritten with lots of new information on several things. Thanks to MeepleLardicle, Niu, crate3333, Marty81, hpsolo, HeWhoYerfs, madsharkk and many others in the Damage Calculations topic for finding lots of stuff out. -Sealstone, Shop and Item Creation lists updated. -Character list updated with all plot characters and Einherjar, with full info on their stat-growth and their stat-ranges on different levels for most characters. There's no evaluation information for now, but I'll include an easy-to-read list with all the good and bad points of each character later. -Menu Spells list updated. They're all listed now, but might be missing some details, like the rest of Section 14. There should be a new update soon that will include one more dungeon and will polish things a bit. If anything looks weird now, please tell me and I'll try to fix it in the next update. I'll try my best to give quick updates without compromising the quality, but I'm not satisfied with how some things are now, so expect constant changes. As said above, the priority is the Walkthrough now. --- v0.7 - 12/03/06 --- File size: 421kb What the hell, I forgot to submit the previous update. Really sorry about that... anyway, lots of new stuff on this one. Full list of changes: -Two more areas included in the walkthrough. Only two more for Chapter 4. -Einherjar and release recommendations updated. Celes isn't recommended anymore. -Boss strategies written differently. Easier to check their attacks now. -New section: Sealstone list with all Sealstones in the walkthrough so far. Detailed description of their effect, price and uses. -New section: Shop list with all shops so far. There's only one shop left in the game anyway. -New section: Item creation list with most creatable items so far and the sooner you can get them, including where to get the materials. Missing one town currently in the walkthrough. -New section: Rune location list with some locations of all blue runes so far, and the skills they're needed for. Will include the missing runes/colors in the next update. Don't forget to read the update below too if you haven't seen it... sorry again for not submitting. --- v0.62 - 11/03/06 --- Update covering 3 more areas as promised. Organized information on important enemies/drops/skills and shopping differently. It should be easier to read and find what you want now. Check the beginning of the walkthrough for more details. Added more info on old places too, especially Kalstad. --- v0.6 - 10/31/06 --- It's been a while. Sorry for taking so long to update the walkthrough. It includes 3 more areas now. I know that isn't much after 1 month, but I'll update it in 3 days with 2 more, and then I'll keep it up until the end. To make updates faster and to keep my sanity, the walkthrough will be less detailed about item drops FOR NOW. There are 738 items in the game, and commenting on every single one will make this guide take FOREVER to complete. So I'll just mention the most important ones and the new runes for now. Later when I've finished the walkthrough I'll go back and include everything that's worth including. I'm sorry if this bothers anyone. Einherjar recommendations, dungeon guides and boss strategies are as detailed as before, item drops are the only difference. Added character section, still incomplete. This thing is getting HUGE for an incomplete guide. Fixed wording on parts of the gameplay section. Nothing critical, but it should be easier to read/understand. Also added more info on Break Mode chances. Thanks to Iheartkosmos, playboyskitch, Lord Treant and griffpad for some dropped item names. FAQ added to 1UP.com! --- v0.58 - 10/16/06 --- No update in the walkthrough this time, but added Attack List and lots of info on damage calculation. All incomplete, but there are many interesting things in those sections. This changes many strategies and character evaluations in the walkthrough (also the stat descriptions in the Gameplay section). Thanks to Zach Keene, Kismet87 and Rasshiu for the attack names! Also fixed Triple Edge's runes thanks to cloudbp. --- v0.55 - 10/07/06 --- Updated the walkthrough with some of Chapter 3. Some parts have been reworded, with the Battle System Section being more detailed about attacks, breaking and Special Attacks. Skill list completed (thanks for Xerain's list of name changes for skills and runes) and fixed Adversity's description thanks to Sephir0th56. More Frequently Asked Questions. --- v0.5 - 09/30/06 --- First version released to the public. Gameplay Section is complete, but everything else is still under development. Walkthrough done up to the beginning of Chapter 3. =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 03 - Frequently Asked Questions [03000] Q: Do I need to play the first Valkyrie Profile before playing this? A: Not really, but it helps. This game happens in the past, so you can play most of it even if you've never heard of Valkyrie Profile before. However you'll miss some neat references across the whole game, and many things from the first game will be spoiled as well. If you plan to play the first game, do it before playing Silmeria. If you don't, feel free to play Silmeria as you won't miss anything from the plot. Q: Is there a New Game +? What carries over? A: No. Finishing the game unlocks Hard Mode, which boosts the stats of all enemies. You also get the option of different music in battle. Beating the game again makes it even harder, up to 51 times. That's all you get though, nothing carries over to Hard Mode. Q: Do I get anything for collecting 100% treasure in a dungeon? A: No. The counter is just there to let you know if you missed something. Q: How do I learn spells? Do I need to teach them somehow? A: Just level up. Characters have their own spell list and learn different things at different levels. Most Archers and Light Warriors can learn some Menu Spells as well, but some don't. Heavy Warriors get no spells at all. Q: I missed [something], should I restart? A: Depends on how far you are into the game. If you just started Chapter 3 and missed the poem in Dipan, restarting isn't a bad idea. The only real critical things you can miss are the Sealstone pouches... I'd restart for those, but it really is up to you. Q: Can I turn the Divine Time Giver off? It's eating all my AP! A: Just don't button-mash. Proper use of combos and of the Divine Time Giver will give much better results than simply pressing everything mindlessly. It's much more fun, too! Q: Should I get the uber Chapter 3/4 weapons? Those are some really high level requirements for them... A: The weapons are strong, but not the best. You'll eventually find better stuff and simply won't use them anymore. If you think all that is a good thing, then do it. If not, don't. The game is balanced to be played WITHOUT the weapons. It doesn't take very long if you do it properly -- around 1 hour at most. They still won't save any time though. Q: Those Sealstones are way too expensive! How do I get 30,000 crystals? A: All overpriced Sealstones are ridiculously overpowered and will pretty much mean victory if you use them properly, regardless of enemy strength. So yeah, they're not something you're supposed to get without lots of effort. Direct Assaults against weak enemies are the best way to farm crystals. Q: Should I wait until I have the best equipment in the game to release the Einherjar? A: The more you wait, the better the results... but the least game left to make use of your increased strength. The enemies you need to beat for the best equipment are the strongest in the game anyway, so I recommend you just release Einherjar as you feel necessary throughout the game. The walkthrough has several recommendations. Q: Is it better to kill all enemies or just the leader? A: You'll get the same amount of experience either way. Killing other enemies can get you more items and crystals depending on your attacks and combos, but that's it. It's also safer to kill dangerous enemies than to ignore them. =============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== 04 - Walkthrough [04000] The Walkthrough contains no spoilers, unless you want to read about parts of the game you haven't reached yet. Just read as you go along and you won't be spoiled, as no plot details are ever mentioned other than character/location names when they show up. This walkthrough is full of recommendations on who to use, who to fight, what to collect and so on. Collecting items can be difficult, especially in the beginning, so don't feel forced to get them just because the guide recommends it. All recommended items and skills have their effects described, so please think if you need the item before trying to get it. Some good items may just not fit your playing style, so there's no reason to get something you won't use. Towns have an exploration part, pointing out items and other events, and a shopping part with shopping recommendations. Dungeons have enemy and item information separated from the exploration as well. Feel free to skip any part if it doesn't have the kind of information you're looking for. Bosses have a full, detailed strategy, with their stats and element/status vulnerabilities. The HP listed is the base one -- multiply it by 1.2 if you're playing for the first time, and by 2 if you're on Hard mode. This will give you the true HP value of the enemy. Sometimes mini-bosses have detailed strategies too, but not always. Finally, please enjoy the Walkthrough and the rest of the FAQ! =============================================================================== 04.1 - Chapter 1: Defiers of the Gods [04100] A short introductory chapter that teaches you the basics of gameplay. Let's make good use of it to strengthen the party for the next, more challenging chapters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.1.01 - Beginning of the journey [04101] --- Solde --- -Items: Burgundy Flask, Warrior's Arcanum -Points of interest: 1st Poem (Tri-Emblem sidequest) You'll begin the game in the streets of Solde. This isn't a very big town, but it might be a bit confusing if you're not used to the profile view in the game yet. Your party for now is Alicia (Light Warrior) and Rufus (Archer). Alicia is a very good Light Warrior with decent, unique attacks, but none of them are elemental and the early ones don't get many hits. You'll get Light Warrior Einherjar that are better than her at first (but not always later), so feel free to remove her from the party if you wish then, even though she's the main character. Still, she's great for now. Rufus is a very balanced character capable of both support and offense. He's very good for both elemental and non-elemental attacks, later focusing in Lighting attacks, an element no other Archer uses. It's good to keep him around most of the time, even more so once he starts getting menu spells. In case you don't know, elemental attacks in this game depend on both ATK and MAG, which makes them stronger than non-elemental attacks in many situations, even if the enemy doesn't have an elemental weakness. Elemental attacks are the best choices at several places. The best attacks to use for now are Three-way Attack - Absolute Wave for Rufus and Imperious Act - Mirage Pierce for Alicia. Imperious Act is weaker than Cutting Edge, but it launches. Mirage Pierce ignores the enemy's RDM, so you'll deal full damage even to tough enemies. Absolute Wave is VERY strong, strongest attack for a while outside of the Heavy Warrior stuff you don't have yet. Thunder Arrow will become a better choice than Three-way Attack once you get MAG-boosting equipment and some levels (or find an enemy weak to Lightning). You begin with just 500 OTH and a few items: 4 Warrior's Arcanum, a Union Plume and a Dwarf Tincture. That's not much, but you'll get better stuff soon. Let's just explore the town first. You start in front of the Waiting Area. Go back into it and check the right part of the screen for a Burgundy Flask. Go outside again. Explore the right part of the town if you want, but there's nothing important in there. Go left to the main street. The very first house you see has a treasure chest with a Warrior's Arcanum. Next house is the shop -- there's detailed info on what to buy/sell up ahead. Keep going left for a street. Go into it. You'll find a cat on the right here. There are 3 animals in the game you can feed to get accessories, but it's a complete waste of time. There's no reason to do it at all. If you do want to, check Section 06.5 for details. Feeding the animals won't be mentioned in the Walkthrough. On the left is a very important house: check it's left wall for the first Poem. This is part of a side-quest -- you have until half of Chapter 5 to read it. There's a chapel in this street as well, but nothing interesting on it. Back to the main street now. The next house to the left is the inn. You can sleep here for 150 OTH, but there's no point in doing so now. There's also a save point, but you will be able to save soon anyway. Continue left to leave the first town. After a cutscene you will be in the world map and the Lost Forest will show up. You can still open the menu here -- do so and save the game now. Enter the forest when you are ready. Shopping: Sell the Burgundy Flask here for 792 OTH to be able to buy stuff. The flask is a material for item creation here anyway, but you can't create it anytime soon. I recommend buying 2 Cloth Greaves (one for each character) and a Leather Mail (for Alicia). You'll still have some money left, but there's no need to buy anything else now. Important: do not sell Alicia's Robe. It's weak and worth a lot of money, but it's your only Red Body Rune for a while and it gives 30% protection from fire. With Alicia's Robe, Prancing Horse and Ruby-Eyed Bee you can learn the Regenerate Health skill, but you don't have money for these accessories yet. It's not a great skill anyway. We'll buy these later when the story takes us back to Solde. For more details on the shops and those items with question marks, check Section 07.3. --- Lost Forest --- -Items: 400 OTH, Skull Receptacle, Union Plume -Einherjar: Sorcerer [ Mithra (100%) ] -Enemies: Bullet Beetle (Insect), Dire Wolf (Beast), Skeleton (Unholy) -Overview: Very simple dungeon without any dangerous enemies. Don't bother hunting for items yet, the enemies will return in the next dungeon and it will be much easier to break stuff with more characters. -Dungeon walkthrough: You'll fight a forced battle in the first area. This works as a tutorial, but you can skip it and go straight to the battle if you want. I recommend checking it out, but you can always check Section 07.4 for info on battles. Fighting the tutorial will probably get you some items too when you enter Break Mode. After the battle you'll be able to use photons by pressing square. Hit an enemy with a photon to crystallize it. You can touch crystallized enemies without fighting them. Fire another photon and you will switch places with the crystal. Hold X while warping to jump when you materialize -- you can use this to jump twice in the air. Section 07.6.03 has more detailed information if you need. Anyway, just walk right. On the third area you'll need to step on an enemy to proceed. There's a chest here with 400 OTH. Go on and you'll get your first Einherjar, Mithra. I recommend checking Section 07.5 for details on the Einherjar system. Mithra is an Ice Sorcerer, but all this means for now is that he starts with a bad spell: Frigid Damsel. It often freezes the enemy, but the damage is low and it costs a lot of AP. It's slow too, so not good for combos. Still, Mithra is one of the best Sorcerers for good part of the game: he gets most of the spells really early and comes with the Break Up skill, which is very useful. You really shouldn't release him anytime soon. Try to use him for now, even though his damage is pretty bad. That's the last area of the dungeon, but you're still missing two treasures. Go to the left here and fire 2 Photons on the edge of the cliff above. You will switch places with a small pillar. The final treasures (Skull Receptacle and an Union Plume) are up there. The Skull Receptacle has a Blue Earth rune. Link that with the Blue Body rune to start learning the Fortify Physique skill! Again, check Section 07.2 for more on the Skill System. I'd teach Fortify Physique to Alicia first. Now save (important!) and proceed right for the next dungeon. --- Royal Underground Path --- -Items: 1800 OTH (total), Warrior's Arcanum x3, Gauntlet, Leather Boots, Elixir, Antique Pendant, Union Plume x2, Thunder Gem, Sallet, Dwarf Tincture, Shamshir -Einherjar: Light Warrior [ Richelle (25%), Sylphide (50%) or Jessica (25%) ] Heavy Warrior [ Kraad (50%) or Roland (50%) ] -Enemies: Bullet Beetle (Insect), Skeleton (Unholy), Skeleton Soldier (Unholy), Dire Wolf (Beast), Goblin (Demon) -Re-fightable Boss: Ballistic Rhino -Overview: This is a much bigger dungeon than Lost Forest. There are alternate paths, secret areas, hidden treasures and such in here. You will also need quite a bit of photon warping and air-jumping. Nothing compared to the next dungeons, of course, but good for practice. You'll also start finding Einherjar here. You can't choose who you get from the relic, so you may want to load the game in case you don't get the one you want. They're near the entrance, so that's not too much trouble. If you keep getting the same character after loading, fight a few battles before checking the relic again. Or just get whoever shows up if you don't care anyway. Everyone is good enough to be helpful. And, with random Einherjar showing up, you may want to release some of them. This is a bad idea for now, as you don't have good equipment yet. If you do want to anyway, don't equip them with anything. None of your equipment will give additional items at this point of the game, so you might as well not waste it. Once you get your additional party members you can start looking for items with enemies. Remember, you must break specific body parts for those. A good way to get some OTH is by breaking the Bullet Beetle's body for Ambers. Enemies to look out for: Breaking the Goblin's mace will make it use only a stronger attack: Spit Fire. Unless you're breaking their mace for items, attack from behind to avoid breaking it. They're also short, so some attacks can miss. Launch them first. Bullet Beetles can be killed immediately by breaking the stinger on their back. Attack from behind for that. Dire Wolfs should be attacked from the sides for quick kills, as the tail is the only non-vital part. Skeletons are so slow that they shouldn't hit you unless you forget to move or miss a dash. Good item drops: Warrior's Arcanum and Dwarf Tinctures: Healing items. You can just buy these, but since you don't have much OTH yet it's a good idea to try and get some from enemies. Break the Skeleton or Skeleton Soldier's chest for these. Skeletons will drop Warrior's Arcanum (300 HP to one character), Skeleton Soldiers drop Dwarf Tinctures (300 HP to party). Beetle Shell: Blue accessory, boosts RDM by 3% each. Break the Bullet Beetle's shell for these. Doesn't do much by itself, but can be very good with links. Amber: Just for selling, break the Bullet Beetle's body to get. Each of these is worth 1,200 OTH, making them the best way to get money for now. Runes and Skills: Blue Healing: Beetle Shells, listed above. This is necessary for 2 very good Defense Skills later, plus 2 other bad ones. Blue Weakness: Break the Bullet Beetle's stinger (attack from the back) for Insect Stingers. This is necessary for 3 good Critical Skills later, but you'll also get this by talking to a person in a village later, so you could just skip it for now if you're having trouble getting it. Blue Strengthening: Break the Goblin's body for Little Devil Hearts. This rune teaches 2 skills later, but only one is good. Not very important overall but it's easy to get. You can also get Blue Darkness and another Blue Earth here, but they aren't recommended. You already have Blue Earth and will find it for sale in the next shop anyway, and Blue Darkness will be available for sale as well later. You can't learn anything with it for now anyway. Materials for Item Creation (recommended items only): Stun Check: Good runeless accessory that protects from fire and is very simple to create. You can create it in Solde or in the next town with 2 Broken Amulets (Direct Assault Skeletons), 2 Ambers and 2 Stagnant Water (Bullet Beetle's arms, or just Direct Assault it). Leather Cloak: Armor with decent RDM and 50% Lightning protection for Archers and Sorcerers. You can't create it yet, but it's recommended that you get enough materials for one here: 1 Beast Pelt (Dire Wolf's body) and 2 Bat Wings (Goblin's wings, just attack from behind). Sabertooth Saber: Great light sword. You can't create it yet either, but the materials are all here as well and you should get enough for one. You'll need 3 Beast Pelts (Dire Wolf's body) and 3 Iron Ores (Goblin's weapon, attack from the front). Not hard to get. Sacred Guarder: Red Arm armor with decent RDM, but you should get this for the 15% chance of blocking attacks. It doesn't sound like much, but it helps more than the RDM. Only one material available here though: 1 Bonemeal (break the Skeleton's arms). Don't bother collecting it, but don't sell any Black Crystals you happen to get. You'll need them for a very good light sword, but it takes a long time until you get there. -Dungeon walkthrough: Climb on the ledge of the first area for a bag with 400 OTH. Another smaller ledge right ahead has a Warrior's Arcanum. After this you'll need to step on the flying enemy or air-jump to proceed to the next area. Go left after the cutscene for a small room with a Warrior's Arcanum and a Gauntlet. The second chest is trapped with an arrow. Go back and proceed right. Here you'll find an orb telling you about Einherjar and, to the right, your first Einherjar relic: a Light Warrior. You'll get Richelle, Sylphide or Jessica. The choice here is all about opinion. Richelle starts with very good attacks (high damage and number of hits), but doesn't get much better. Jessica eventually catches up and surpasses her on damage, but not on hits. Unfortunately, Jessica's stat-growth is very random. She might end with the highest STR for a Light Warrior, or the lowest. Assuming she gets the average, she's just ok. Sylphide is frail, with low HP and STR, but very high MAG (highest for a Light Warrior) and she gets an elemental attack very soon. She also comes with the Free Item skill, which helps a lot for a while. She has few hits, though. For releases, Richelle is the best. For battle, it depends on what you want. Pick Richelle for a solid character for a while or combos, Jessica for non-elemental damage or Sylphide for elemental damage. I prefer Sylphide, but anyone is fine. Don't think about releasing Richelle now. For attacks, Jessica should use Sunset Luster - Sneaky Throw, Richelle Ascending Sword - Double Wind and Sylphide Double Wind - Sunset Luster. Anyway, now you've got a full party. Proceed down and right. Enter the first area down for the second Einherjar Relic. A Heavy Warrior this time. Roland has better STR, but worse attacks, so his damage will be lower. Kraad has more HP, CON, starts with the Fists of Iron skill (increases ATK) and with the best Heavy Warrior attack, plus his reward for releasing in Chapter 3 is a very power heavy sword. Pick Kraad here, he's the best choice for anything. Now you've got 5 characters, but 4 spots in the party. Mithra is the least useful character for now, so I'd remove him. For attacks, Roland uses Sideswiper - Smashing Swing, and Kraad Sideswiper - Sweep Dive. If you use Sweep Dive after launching an enemy (Ascending Sword or Imperious Act) you'll get a ground bounce, which restores 8 AP. This helps a lot. Go left for a room with Leather Boots and 800 OTH, then go right. There's a ledge with an Elixir here. To the right is more money: 600 OTH. Go back up now. Proceed right and then up for another cutscene. When it's over you'll have the Antique Pendant (Blue Healing rune) and a new plot character: Dylan, a Heavy Warrior. He has bad stats compared to the other Heavy Warriors, but starts with great attacks, so he's quite strong anyway. Still, the others can easily surpass him later because of the stat difference and similar attacks. Depending on his level during a certain part of the story way later in the game you'll get some extra items, but using him for that doesn't matter much. It's up to you. Dylan joins at level 1. Best attacks for now are Double Swing - Absolute Strike. The second ground bounces when hitting launched enemies too. Just one more thing about him: do not give Dylan any of your future stat-boosting items. Now, 6 characters. 2 have to stay out of the party. If you're thinking about damage then remove a Light Warrior and Mithra. For combos I'd prefer removing Alicia and Mithra. Now jump down the bridge, keeping yourself on the left side. You'll reach a treasure chest with an Union Plume. Fall again and go down. There's a ledge here with a Thunder Gem. Don't use this yet! Gems are strong elemental items and a good way to cause status changes. Save them for when you need them. You can continue to the right now. If you want to go back up there, just go left and then up to the next screen, then climb to the right. Follow the only path to the right now until you can go left or right again. To the right is a Sallet and a ledge, but you must use an enemy to go up there. Bring one of them from the left with photons. Up there is a room with another trapped chest (arrow again). Inside it you'll find a Dwarf Tincture. Go left and pick the Warrior's Arcanum before climbing the ledge. Proceed up. You're on the right side of the broken bridge now. Go left for a Union Plume, then keep going right and then up for a save point and a treasure chest with the Shamshir. It's a light sword with 3 attacks. That's 100% for treasure in this dungeon. The next room has the first boss. Although Frigid Damsel can freeze the boss I wouldn't recommend using Mithra, magic isn't very good yet. Heavy Warriors are, and Rufus can deal good damage with Absolute Wave (keep using Three-way Attack too). Don't forget to equip the Shamshir on your Light Warrior. Richelle if you have her, otherwise Alicia. If you have Sylphide she can help a bit with her Free Item skill if you mess up. Now save and go right for the boss. __Ballistic Rhino____________________________________________________________ | | | Lv 6 680 HP 5,000 exp 870 OTH | | 30 ATK 10 MAG 10 HIT 2 AVD | | Races: Giant, Beast | | Elements: Body has no resistance/vulnerability; | | All armor has Lightning -20%, Earth +20% | | Vulnerable to Curse (100%), Paralysis (20%), Silence (20%), Freeze (50%), | | Faint (100%) and Frailty (100%) | | Leader Item: Chainmail | | Recommended level: 2 | | | |Body Parts: | | -Horn: 68 HP, 7 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Ram's Horn (80%) | | -Head (vital): 170 HP, 6 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Pact Chain (80%) | | -Body (vital): 340 HP, 6 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Baraka (75%) | | -Legs (vital): 408 HP, 6 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Black Crystal (80%) | | -Tail: 136 HP, 4 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Iron ore (40%) | | -Body Armor (armor): 102 HP, 7 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Empty Shell (65%) | | -Arms (2, armor): 204 HP, 9 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Worn Shield (50%) | | -Arrowheads (2, armor): 34 HP, 7 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Spiral Arrowhead (80%) | | -Arm Armor (2, armor): 68 HP, 9 RDM, 1 RST; Item: Baraka (60%) | | | |Attacks: | | -(Shoot Arrowhead): Long range, used from far away. 1 hit on 1 character, | | average damage. Needs Arrowhead to be used, loses | | Arrowhead when used. | | -(Stomp): Small area, 1 hit of average damage on the party, usually 2 or 3 | | characters. | | -(Tail Attack): Small range, used from behind only. 1 hit of average damage | | on party, needs Tail to be used. | | -Charge: Average frontal range, average damage on the whole party. | | -Violent Purge: Targets self, explodes arm armor, dealing high damage on who| | is on the side. Used when below around 50% HP, needs arm | | armor to be used, loses both arm armor when used. | | -Sealed Missile: Large range on the front, does very high damage on the | | whole party, only used after losing both arm armor, needs | | arms to be used. Fire elemental. | | | |Strategy: | | The first boss is a big, slow and tough creature with lots of armor. He has | | a nice variety of attacks depending on your range and will probably begin by| | shooting the arrowheads. Dash past this and try to get behind him to get to | | the tail. No armor around here, so you can deal full damage. It's easy to | | break, and the tail attack is the least dangerous in the fight. Once it's | | gone the boss can't do anything from behind, so just stay there. Circle | | around the pillars to recover AP. If you've got Sylphide make sure she's the| | only one using items if you need any. | | | | That's all if you just want to kill him, but there are some good items to | | get here: Worn Shield and Baraka. The others are good too, but much easier | | to get with other enemies in the next areas. The Baraka and Worn Shield are | | simple to get, but risky. You may get attacked by Violent Purge, and that | | hurts a lot. Just attack from the sides for both. | | | | The Ram's Horn is another good item, but too risky to get. You'll have to | | take damage as you attack the Rhino from the front. If you do want to try, | | use an attack that puts the enemy down, like Imperious Act or Ascending | | Sword. Wait for it to fall on the ground and put it's head down, then attack| | with anything that hits on a straight line. Any of Rufus' attacks should | | work, as well as Mirage Pierce (Alicia's). | | | | The Ram's Horn (Blue Strengthening) boosts ATK by 3%. You'll find one in a | | dungeon later, and there are plenty of alternatives with the same or better | | effect. Don't forget to link it to boost the effects if you get it. | | | | The Worn Shield doesn't have a rune, but gives a good chance of blocking | | attacks. It's a great accessory for when you don't have anything else to | | equip. The Baraka (Red Strengthening) is even better: it boosts max HP by | | 3%. Of course, it goes higher than that with linking. | | | | Alicia can use Red Body + Strengthening + Slashing to learn the Heat Up | | skill already, but you don't really need it yet. | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ You can fight the boss again if you want by checking the teleporter-like-thing it came from. You can do this to most bosses in the game, letting you get their items repeatedly. Don't forget this. The next room has another save point and the exit of this dungeon. Go on to finish Chapter 1. =============================================================================== 04.2 - Chapter 2: Darkness in Dipan [04200] Another short chapter, but heavier in plot development. Things will start getting complicated... and interesting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.2.01 - Return of the princess [04201] --- Dipan --- -Items: Union Plume -Points of interest: 2nd Poem (Tri-Emblem sidequest) The castle is to the right, but you can't enter yet. Go left for the town. First house is the Inn, which you probably need by now. Nothing interesting in the tavern. There's a path up to the left, but ignore it for now and enter the next house. It's the weapon shop and it has some good stuff, but do not sell materials here unless you have enough to create the items. You can't visit this shop later, so anything you sell will be lost. Again, check the Shopping section for more details on what to buy. Check the next house on the left. You'll find the 2nd Poem on the bookshelf on the right. It's VERY important that you get this now. You won't have another chance! Go to the back street now. The first house has an Union Plume, but that's all that's interesting here. Just go right until the next screen and listen to the guards talking. This will open the way to the castle to the right of the town's entrance, so go back there when you're ready. Don't forget to read the poem first! This is your last chance. Shopping: There's new equipment for everyone here. Don't bother buying a new light sword or bow because you'll find better or equal stuff in the next dungeon, but other than that you should buy the best for everyone. Still no good weapon for Sorcerers, but the Blue Apple accessory can make Mithra rather powerful. It's also great for Rufus' Thunder Arrow (remember, elemental physical attacks use MAG too), so buy one and link it. Don't bother buying more than one, you'll find a better MAG-boosting accessory soon. Buy a few Honeysuckle Dews too, to cure poison. The next boss can poison your characters easily if you mess up and that's the only way of healing that now. 5 dews should be enough. Stock on Warrior's Arcanum and Dwarf Tinctures as well. You can create Stun (recommended) and Poison Checks (not) here. Stun Checks give fire protection as mentioned before, and fire is the most dangerous element. Although the next boss can poison you, the Poison Checks still aren't worth the trouble. --- Dipan Castle --- -Items: Leather Boots, Dwarf Tincture, Union Plume, 1900 OTH (total), Crossbow, Double-check, Flare Gem, Crest Estoc, Hildr's Sword -Enemies: Skeleton Soldier (Unholy), Goblin (Demon), Warning Jewel (Magic), Living Armor (no race) -Re-fightable Boss: none -Overview: Much shorter than Royal Underground Path, but with some harder to get items. Enemies get more dangerous too, but the worst is the battlefield. It's way too narrow, making it hard to avoid attacks. Enemies to look out for: Living Armors depend on their spear to deal good damage. Break it and they're nearly harmless. Warning Jewels don't move, they just circle around in place casting Fire Storm. This is very strong and hard to dodge since the battlefield is so bad for dashing. If you have a Stun Check, equip that and Alicia's Robe on Alicia and use her as bait while the others attack from outside the attack range. Only do this if you know you can't avoid the attack. Good item drops: Blue Soul Flame: Blue accessory, gives 40% protection from Freeze. Just break the Warning Jewel's crystal to get it. Freeze is one of the most dangerous status effects, only because it's so frequent later. Remember, the effect goes up with links, so you can get immunity from this. Empty Shell: Runeless accessory. Gives 30% protection from Stone, and boosts both ATK (x1.2) and Critical Rank (+1) when the user is under the Silence status effect. Break the Living Armor's legs for this. One of the most useful items early on, but you can't get silenced yet. You'll find Living Armors more often later, but do try to collect this from any Armor you do fight here. Sharp Spearhead: Runeless accessory, also improves Critical Rank by +1. Break the Living Armor's weapon to get it. This actually stacks, so you can equip 4 on one character to boost his chances of doing critical hits a lot. Very reliable accessory, especially once you start using Critical Skills. The more you get the better. Old items from the Skeleton Soldier and Goblin can still be collected here as well. Check Royal Underground Path for these. Runes and Skills: Blue Fire: Blue Soul Flame, listed above. This teaches two GREAT skills, and you can actually get both already. Blue Body + Fire teaches Fists of Iron, a cheap and effective x1.2 boost to ATK. Blue Slashing + Weakness + Fire teaches Beast Bludgeon, your first Critical and Racial Skill. Racial skills give a x1.5 damage boost and +1 Critical Rank when you're fighting enemies of the right race. Better yet, any body part of these enemies hit by a critical hit will break INSTANTLY. That's a possible 1-hit, which you can make more likely with other Critical Rank boosts (Empty Shells and Sharp Spearheads so far). Unfortunately there aren't any beasts here, and only Heavy Warriors can learn this skill for now because of Blue Slashing. Make sure you start teaching this to your favorite Heavy Warriors already. Blue Holy: Break the Living Armor's arms for the Pact Chain. This teaches two skills you can already get as well. Blue Body + Healing + Holy teaches First Aid, a Defense Skill that gives a good chance of healing half of the damage you take when the attack is over. Anything that can kill you will still kill you, but a chance of halving damage for just 3 CP is great. Blue Slashing + Weakness + Holy teaches Unholy Purifier, another Critical and Racial Skill. This is the same as Beast Bludgeon, but for Unholy enemies, which the boss here just happens to be! Give priority to learning both of these skills. -Dungeon walkthrough: The first area doesn't have any enemies. Proceed left, then down and right up the stairs. Keep going right for Leather Boots and return to the left. Get past the save point and the path down. Go all the way to the left for a Dwarf Tincture and an Union Plume. Go back and save now, then take the path down. You'll fight a battle. Just Skeletons and Skeleton Soldiers, so nothing you're not used to already. The next areas will have enemies. Just go right and then down to the next room, then go left all the way. You'll find a strange machine you should remember if you've played VP1. Now go back to the right and then down. There's a seal on the door to the right here. Destroying the red pillar will break it, but let's check the left area first. Use a photon to switch places with the enemy on the upper left to reach 700 OTH hidden in the scenery. Now do the same with the enemy above you to get to the upper area. Go left and pick the Crossbow. That's why you shouldn't buy it in Dipan. Give it to Rufus. That's not all in this room though. Warp an enemy to the top of the treasure chest and jump on him. There's a Double-check on the top left and you can only reach it like this. This will double experience in one battle. Save it for later. Go back right to the area with the seal. Slash the red pillar to proceed. You'll reach another room with a seal and a red pillar to destroy, but it's on the top of the room. Warp up using enemies. There's 1200 OTH here, and going further up reveals the red pillar. Don't break it yet! Push it to the left and jump on top of it to reach a Flare Gem. Don't use it yet! Now you can break the pillar to remove the seal and proceed. If you did break the pillar, it's still possible to get the Flare Gem, it's just harder. You'll have to get an enemy way up there and use it as a stepping stone instead. Remember you can air-jump after warping. Now you'll find a Crest Estoc (last item in the dungeon) and an orb telling you about Soul Crushes. Yes, the Crest Estoc allows them, so equip it, even though it's weak. Alicia is the only one who can use it, but you'll get other weapons with SCs enabled soon. The Crest Estoc also gives 50% more Heat. This effect stacks with the Heat Up skill, so you shouldn't have any problems using Soul Crushes. There's a save point too. You know what that means: boss in the next room. You can't fight this one again, but there aren't any really good items in the fight and you can get everything later. For the boss, make sure you use Alicia with the Crest Estoc and that you have a combo capable of reaching 100 Heat. Equip the Heat Up skill if necessary, but that's unlikely. Heavy Warriors are also very useful in the battle because of the Unholy Purifier skill if you've got it already. This will give them a 50% damage boost on the boss, so use it over Fists of Iron or any other skill so far. It also make critical hits more frequent. Criticals ignore RDM and RST. The boss resists Lightning and has decent RST, so don't use Rufus' Thunder Arrow (and don't boost his MAG). Absolute Wave and Three-way Attack are very good if you want to use him. If you have Sylphide, use her with the Free Item skill again. Save and go right for the boss. __Primordial Ooze___________________________________________________________ | | | Lv 8 1,200 HP 9,000 exp 1,260 OTH | | 40 ATK 20 MAG 10 HIT 18 AVD | | Races: Giant, Plant, Unholy | | Elements: Fire -20%, Lightning and Earth +80%, Darkness +20% | | Vulnerable to Curse (100%), Paralysis (80%), Freeze (50%), Faint (50%) and | | Frailty (100%) | | Leader Item: Earth Gem | | Recommended level: 4 | | | |Body Parts: | | -Head: 480 HP, 5 RDM, 10 RST; Item: Eyeball (80%) | | -Body (vital): 840 HP, 5 RDM, 10 RST; Item: Heart Core (100%) | | -Upper Shoulders (2): 360 HP, 5 RDM, 10 RST; Item: Seafood (80%) | | -Upper Tentacles (2): 180 HP, 4 RDM, 8 RST; Item: Tentacles (60%) | | -Lower Shoulders (2): 360 HP, 5 RDM, 10 RST; Item: Thick Bone (80%) | | -Lower Tentacles (2): 180 HP, 4 RDM, 8 RST; Item: Bone Mace (60%) | | | |Attacks: | | -Stinking Missile: Long range only, 4 hits total on random targets for | | average damage. Needs at least 1 tentacle to use. Earth | | elemental. | | -(Tentacle Combo): Wide area in front, 4 hits on the party for high damage | | total. Needs at least 1 tentacle to use. | | -Evasive Maneuvers: Used automatically when it dodges an attack, will pull | | back and turn towards the party, getting ready to use | | the tentacle combo immediately after. | | -Regeneration: Targets self, used when any tentacle is broken, regenerates | | all tentacles and deals very high Lightning damage on a wide | | area around it. | | -Lock-On: Targets self, just a preparation for Washout. Used ALWAYS when | | under 50% HP. Needs shoulders to be used. | | -Washout: Used after Lock-On, deal heavy damage and poison the party | | ANYWHERE, regardless of where they are. Cannot be stopped. Earth | | elemental. | | | |Strategy: | | Strong attacks, but simple fight. Dash in to avoid Stinking Missile, and try| | to stay behind it to avoid the tentacle combo. If the boss dodges, stop | | attacking and reposition yourself. When attacking, just do a long combo to | | reach 100 Heat and be able to use Alicia's SC, which is a very good way of | | dealing damage here, since you don't risk breaking stuff with it (and it | | doesn't cost AP). | | | | If you do break something, stop the combo and dash away immediately. Wait | | for the boss to use Regeneration before getting close again. This is a good | | time to recover AP. If you're hit by Regeneration, then just have someone | | use a Dwarf Tincture. Remember, let Sylphide use items if you've got her. | | | | Once it's around half of it's HP it will start spamming Lock-On/Washout and | | nothing else. This is bad: it's an elemental attack, causes poison and you | | can't avoid it. Now you can stay the rest of the fight taking hits and | | getting poisoned... or you can just use the Flare Gem you've got in the | | dungeon to end the fight. If this is not possible, have the weakest | | character stay behind to use items. Repeating myself a lot here, but | | Sylphide is a very good choice. Dwarf Tinctures and Honeysuckle Dews will be| | needed. | | | | Breaking here is too risky and the items aren't really good, so you | | shouldn't bother, except for the body's Heart Core maybe. This one is easy | | to break and it gives 30% protection to Frailty and Poison, also boosting HP| | by 10%. You can get it later though. The Thick Bone and Bone Mace also | | protect from Frailty, but by the time you have to worry about that you'll | | have better protection to it. | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ Go right for a cutscene. Now you've got to leave the castle. Start going back and you'll get another cutscene near the exit of this underground area. After the scene make sure you pick up the sword on the floor to the right. It's Hildr's Sword, a weapon with 25 ATK, 5 HIT, 1 attack and Soul Crush enabled, not to mention the first weapon with an element: Holy. You'll want to give this one to your Light Warrior Einherjar with the attack that gives the most Heat. If you have Jessica give her the Heat Up skill as well. This way you'll be able to use 2 Soul Crushes. Use Nibelung Valesti first since Alicia's weapon is much weaker. If you're not using a Light Warrior Einherjar then give Hildr's Sword to Alicia and don't forget the Heat Up skill. ATK will be more important than MAG for now with the Hildr's Sword, so focus on that. Now just leave the castle and you'll get a cutscene near the entrance. Watch it first and only then keep reading this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.2.02 - Getting ready for a long journey [04202] Ok, lots of new stuff now. First, you can't go back to Dipan, but can still go to the Royal Underground Path. Also, you've got Lezard, another Sorcerer. He's your best Sorcerer for 2 dungeons because of the Fire Storm spell, but after that he's the worst. He's the only Sorcerer to miss more than one spell and has really low HP. He also starts with Thunder Storm, the best menu spell because of instant-breaking with critical skills, but you don't have many of them now, and will have a better Sorcerer than him for that when you do. Like Dylan, you'll get some items depending on his level later in the game, but don't feel forced to use him because of that. Lezard joins at level 5. Don't give him any stat-boosting items either. So the question now is who to use. Lezard is better than Mithra for now and you'll need a Sorcerer, so use him. Alicia can deal nice damage with Hildr's Sword and Mirage Pierce (enemies start getting decent RDM now). Don't boost her MAG much though, focus on ATK. There's also Soul Crushes. I'd use Rufus as well since he's pretty overpowered at this point. Thunder Arrow might be better than Three-way Attack now if you link a Blue Apple. Final character should be Kraad. If that's not possible, use Dylan. Anyway, you'll end in Lost Forest, the area where you got Mithra. If you're crazy and have released him already he will be here and will give you an item when you talk to him, the Holy Water of Mithra. This will deal 10,000 damage to one enemy. Mithra is better than his item for now, so I wouldn't release him if I were you. This will be mentioned again later when releasing him is actually a good idea. There's nothing new here, but going back to the world map a new area, Kythena Plains, will show up. I suggest getting ready before setting off to the new area of the world map, but if you want to go already then skip to Section 04.2.03. Otherwise keep reading. Go back to Solde and you'll see the shop has some new stuff: the weapons from Dipan (except the Rapier, but with the Shamshir instead) and the Blue Apple (good for the Hildr's Sword user, Rufus and the Sorcerers). Now is a good time to buy the two red rune accessories for teaching Regenerate Health to Alicia if you want. I don't find the skill very useful though. Remember that you can create Stun Checks here too. Check the Royal Underground Path for the materials. You can go there anytime, but it's more practical now. So: Stun Check: 2 Broken Amulets (Skeleton's Leader Item) 2 Amber (Bullet Beetle's left and/or right part of the body) 2 Stagnant Water (Bullet Beetle's arms or Leader Item) Other items you can't create yet, but can get the materials: Sabertooth Saber: 1 Long Sword (buy in Solde) 3 Beast Pelts (Dire Wolf's body) 2 Iron Ores (Goblin's weapon) Leather Cloak: 1 Beast Pelt 2 Bat Wings (Goblin's wings) Sacred Guarder: 1 Bonemeal (Skeleton's arms and legs) After setting as much of this as you want you can move on to Kythena Plains. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.2.03 - To the west [04203] --- Kythena Plains --- -Enemies: Goblin (Demon), Flying Fish (Scaled), Living Armor (no race), Dire Wolf (Beast), Giant Bat (Beast), Warning Jewel (Magic) -Overview: Very straightforward area with two new enemies. Battles here are easy because the battlefield is very wide, so you can dodge attacks with simple dashes. Enemies to look out for: Giant Bats can poison you, but don't have much range. Break their wings and they won't be able to do anything anymore. Just hack away from the sides. They're beasts, and any Heavy Warrior with Beast Bludgeon will destroy them with ease. Flying Fishes have one good attack with decent range, but like the bats they can't do anything if you break their tails. Just attack from behind, or have someone launch them. They'll flip in the air and you can easily hit their tails this way. Good item drops: Tome of Godspeed: Lets you run from battle from anywhere in the battlefield with no chance of failure. Direct Assault Giant Bats for these. Good item to have for emergencies. Items from old enemies are still useful here, especially the ones from the Living Armor (Empty Shell, Sharp Spearheads). Runes and Skills: Blue Ice: Break the Flying Fish's body or Direct Assault it for Fish Scales. This is needed for two skills, and one can be learned now: Blue Body + Ice teaches Mental Boost, a cheap and effective x1.2 boost to MAG. Very good skill, as important as Fists of Iron. Make sure you start learning this. Don't forget to get more Blue Holy and Blue Fire runes here with the old enemies if you need them. Materials for Item Creation (recommended items only): Elemental Edge: A heavy sword that boosts SC damage by 30%. It's a good weapon, but you should only get it if you're not planning to release Kraad, or if you like to use more than one Heavy Warrior. In that case you can get 2 Sharp Spearheads and 2 Iron Ores for this here. -Dungeon walkthrough: Nothing here, really. Just go left until you arrive at the Western Area of the world map. If you want to go back to the Northern Area now you'll have to through Kythena Plains again (that's why I told you to do everything you wanted to there already). Coriander will show up. Go there to end the Chapter. =============================================================================== 04.3 - Chapter 3: Ulterior Motives [04300] The largest Chapter in the game. The first two were more like introductions to the story and the battle system. Battles in this Chapter will be much more difficult and require well-planned tactics and setups to be won. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.3.01 - The quest for the orb begins [04301] --- Coriander --- -Items: Insect Stinger, Blue Soul Flame, Earth Gem Coriander is a very small village. It doesn't even have a shop, although there's a traveling merchant in town now. He's the first person you'll see, so talk to him to buy some new stuff. He leaves and returns depending on where you are in the game, but he always keeps his old inventory and stock of materials you sell him. Talk to the man next to the merchant and he gives you an Insect Stinger and a Blue Soul Flame. That lets you learn Beast Bludgeon for Heavy Warriors and Fists of Iron for everyone. You should have both already, but extra free runes are always nice. Go right for a house. Check the drawer on the right for an Earth Gem. You can gain them from enemies in the next dungeon so feel free to use them when necessary. There's a chest here, but you can't get it now. Leave and continue to the right. You'll see a girl with a dog. Talk to her and she tells you about the ruins in the mountains, the next dungeon we'll visit. The Inn is the next house to the right. Next you'll see a chicken. This is just like the cat in Solde, except it wants Bonemeals instead of Seafood. Again, don't bother feeding it. The house in front of the chicken is usually empty. This is where Richelle, Sylphide or Jessica will move to if you release them. Talking to Sylphide gives 50,000 OTH, while talking with Richelle gives the Expert's Experience. This item gives 300,000 experience to one character. That's enough to go from level 1 to level 17! Even so, I still don't recommend releasing. Jessica doesn't give you anything yet. If you do get the Expert's Experience now I'd recommend using it on Mithra. A level 17 Mithra has good attack spells (Lightning Bolt, Thunder Storm, Fire Storm) and Might Reinforce. Rufus is another good choice, or you could just save it for future characters . Heavy Warriors don't gain much from levels and although Light Warriors do, it's much less compared to Archers, who are much less compared to Sorcerers. The walkthrough assumes you didn't get this, even though it's highly recommended. So if you didn't get Richelle or don't want to release her you can keep following the strategies here, nothing changes. Anyway, that's all for Coriander. Keep going right for the world map. Serdberg Mountain Ruins will show up, so go there. Shopping: For regular equipment, the Blue Dolls have the Blue Darkness rune. There's also the Red Cherry with Red Activation. Getting these runes won't let you learn any new skills now, but get them anyway. About armor, the Metal Crown is good for Sorcerers, Archers and Light Warriors. It doesn't make any difference for Heavy Warriors. Suede Boots are expensive and not that much better than Cloth Greaves either. Lastly, do not buy the Long Bow. You'll find a better bow in the next dungeon again. The Striking Sword is a good purchase, but only get it if you plan to use more than one Heavy Warrior. Stock on healing items as always too. Poison is frequent, so keep a stock of 5 or more Honeysuckle Dews with you. Warrior's Arcanums, Dwarf Tinctures and Union Plumes are very necessary too. Now, creatable items. The merchant mentions creating the Falchion. You can get all materials for this with Living Armors (Kythena Plains), but you'll find at least 1 Falchion in the next dungeon anyway, so don't bother making it unless you want to use more than one Light Warrior. This is also a material for Runeslayers later. There's Leather Cloaks for Archers and Sorcerers, requiring only 1 Beast Pelt and 2 Bat Wings. It's stronger than the armor for sale and a REALLY good choice for Sorcerers: they don't get anything better for 4 dungeons. It halves Lightning damage too, so it's a good choice whenever you're facing an attack like that. Other available items here include Paralyze and Curse Checks, Foolproof Trinkets, Shadow Crystals and Prime Elixirs. None of these should be created. Icicle Plates are pretty good though, with high RDM for Heavy Warriors. They're not too hard to get, but you can't get them until much later. --- Serdberg Mountain Ruins --- -Items: Ram's Horn, 10900 OTH (total), Might Potion, Dwarf Tincture x3, Ice Gem, Prime Elixir, Gandeeva, Metal Buckler, Fireproof Trinket, Metal Greaves -Einherjar: Light Warrior [ Celes (30%) or Tyrith (70%) ] Sorcerer [ Woltar (50%) or Alm (50%) ] -Sealstones: Fog Wrath, Masochist Wrath, Black Anchor Wrath, Sword Blessing -Enemies: Thunder Hawk (Beast), Giant Hawk (Beast), Kobold Knight (Beast), Kobold (Beast), Owlbear (Beast, Giant), Ghost (Ghost, Unholy), Sack Mimic (Magic) -Mini-boss: Crust Golem (Giant) -Re-fightable Boss: Wyvern -Overview: This is pretty much the first real dungeon. Some enemies will hide behind the walls in the battlefield. They'll break the walls after a while, probably surrounding your party. Be careful not to be in their attack range when that happens. Dash a lot. It's very easy to identify the enemy you'll find before the battle. The walking spirits are Kobolds and Kobold Knights, the round flying spirits are Ghosts, the ones crawling on the floor are Owlbears and the flying bird-spirits are the hawks. Sack Mimics appear rarely with any enemy, but more frequently with Ghosts. Wait for them to come out of the walls. Most enemies here are Beasts, and they're all vulnerable to instant-breaking. Your Heavy Warriors can have Beast Bludgeon already, and the other classes will have access to it soon. Use that skill and any critical attack will break those enemies, which will kill them immediately if you hit a vital part. It also makes it much easier to get items. Any character with Beast Bludgeon should be equipped with 4 Sharp Spearheads to increase your critical chances further. If you're killing things in one hit anyway it doesn't matter how much damage you do, so just improve your critical chances. Other than that, Rufus probably has the Stony Decree attack by now or will learn it soon (level 6). The petrifying doesn't happen that often, but it's very useful when it does. Use it instead of Three-way Attack, even though it's weaker. Enemies to look out for: Kobolds and Kobold Knights are always together. They have a helmet protecting their heads and a weapon protecting their front. Try using attacks that hit them from below, like Thunder Storm from far away or Fire Storm in a combo, or you'll probably waste a few attacks hitting their helmets. If you break their weapon you can to stop their long range attacks as well. Kobold Knights can also use Sap Power to decrease your damage. This just makes the battles longer, but do your best to avoid it. Attack from behind and abuse of Fire Storm's launching. If you've got Beast Bludgeon a critical hit is all you need. Giant Hawks and Thunder Hawks are similar too. Careful with the Thunder ones, they can attack from far away for high lightning damage. They're flying enemies, so breaking their wings will stop all their movement and attacks. Easy prey to Beast Bludgeon as well. Ghosts are the first enemies you can't hit with non-elemental attacks. You'll find a good sword to use against them in this dungeon later. At first you'll just want to use magic: a single Fire Storm should be able to kill them. There's Hildr's Sword too. Owlbears deal very high damage, but all their body parts are vital. Focus your attacks on a single part until it breaks and it will die immediately. Beast Bludgeon rocks here too. Sack Mimics are rare. They are usually hiding behind the walls, but will get out after a while. They don't do much, but have high AVD. Attack from behind or use Fire Storm (they're immune to the other elements). Good item drops: Copper Coin: Blue accessory, boosts MAG by 5% each. Break the Kobold Knight's chest for these. 5% is a great boost for a colored accessory, so get as many as you can. Great to use with elemental attacks. Great Eagle Heart: Runeless accessory, ATK+15% Effect. Break the Giant Hawk's left body side, the Thunder Hawk's right body side or the Owlbear's front legs to get it. Very important accessory for a long time. Doesn't stack, so one for each character is the most you need. Earth Gem: Earth damage + Poison on one target. Just Direct Assault Ghosts to get it. This is the best way to cause Poison, but you can just buy this later. Flare Gem: Fire damage on one target. Break the Ghost's right arm. Not that great, but it's free damage with Free Item. Thunder Gem: Lightning damage + Paralysis on one target. Just kill Sack Mimics and you'll get it. Good item, but since Sack Mimics are rare you probably won't get many. Brilliant Peacemaker: Runeless accessory, Stats increase as HP decreases Effect. Break the Sack Mimic's body for a 15% chance to get this. So, it's a very rare item from a very rare enemy. Don't bother hunting Sack Mimics to collect this, as you'll find a better accessory with the same Effect later anyway, but do break the body of any Sack Mimics you find. If you get one, great. If not, no problem. Runes and Skills: Blue Training: Copper Coins, as listed above. Needed for just one skill, which you can already learn: Blue Body + Healing + Training teaches Survival, a Defense Skill that lets you survive with single-digit HP if you have over 10% of your HP when you're attacked. Yeah, it's pretty broken this early in the game. Blue Activation: Break the Giant Hawk's wings for Raptor's Talons wings, or the feather on the Owlbear's head for Indigo Plumes. This is only used for two skills, but they're good ones. You can learn one now: Blue Arm + Slashing + Activation + Strengthening teaches Break Up, which makes Break Mode easier to get. Heavy Warriors only for now, but you'll find Blue Slashing for everyone later in this dungeon. Blue Lightning: Break the left side of the Thunder Hawk's body for the Thundebreath Core. This is used for 4 skills, which you can already learn: Blue Body + Leg + Lightning teaches Reflex Movement, which is pretty much useless. Actually, it's currently unknown what exactly this does. Next is Blue Slashing + Lightning + Strengthening for Mighty Blow, another very useless skill. This just improves the chance of breaking guard, but... you can just attack from behind. Next is Blue Body + Lightning for Resist Magic, a x1.5 boost to RST. Still not a very good skill but better than the other lightning ones. Last and best is Blue Slashing + Weakness + Lightning for Descaling Might, your third Critical Racial Skill. There are many strong scaled enemies (including the next boss), so make sure you learn this one. Red Fire: Break the Ghost's left arm for the Cursed Soul, used for 4 skills. Two good, two bad, and you can learn the one of the good ones now: Red Piercing + Fire + Strengthening teaches True Seeing, a Critical Skill that boosts the Critical Rank of the user by 2. Very useful for instant-breaking, but only Archers can learn it for now because of Red Piercing. This changes later. You can also get Red Lightning here, but it isn't recommended. The drop rate is too low and you'll find it in easier places later. Materials for Item Creation (recommended items only): Supreme Crossbow: The best or second-best bow for elemental attacks, and you can create it in the next town! You need 1 Koboldapult (Kobold's weapon tip) and 3 Feathers (Owlbear's chest or back legs, Thunder Hawk's wings, Giant Hawk's left body). The Koboldapult is pretty rare, with only a 15% drop rate, but it's worth the trouble and Kobolds are very simple to break. You won't get a better weapon for archers anytime soon. Elemental Edge: Get the final material, 1 Raptor's Talon, if you're going to create this. In case you forgot, the other materials are 2 Sharp Spearheads and 2 Iron Ores. Sacred Guarder: Final materials here, too. 2 Raptor's Talon and 1 Feather. Both with the same enemy, so not hard. If you forgot, the other material is 1 Bonemeal. The Kobold's helmet and chest drop Iron Ores as well, so you can get those here if you need them. They're used for Sabertooth Sabers and Elemental Edges. -Dungeon walkthrough: Notice how the mini-map is red. This means there's a sealstone affecting the area, and we'll get to it soon. For now, just go right and up to enter the ruins. There are two enemies here and a treasure chest in a platform in the middle of the room. To reach it, crystallize both enemies and warp them close to each other, near the platform. Now jump on one of them, stand on the edge of the crystal in the OPPOSITE direction of the other one and warp it. If you did it right, you've built a "ladder". Something like this: 222 222 222 111 111 111 1111 is one enemy/crystal, 2222 is the other. Anyway, stand on top of the higher enemy and jump towards the platform. Pick the Ram's Horn in it. Go right again. Three chests here: 2500 OTH, Might Potion and Dwarf Tincture. Beware of gas traps on the last two. The Might Potion is great, but don't use it yet. Go back left and down, then right again. Sealstones! Just read Section 07.6.04 for information on it, it's a pretty complicated system. Check the Dais: it's the Fog Wrath sealstone, which stops enemies from following you while in the Dais, and removes them from the mini-map if you carry it. It's kind of useless on both, but leave it here. Go back right. There will be an enemy, so use him to proceed right. Go right until you can go down. Now there are 3 platforms here, and a mark on the floor. Just ignore it for now and go right. There's a wall, but your mini-map shows something behind it. Slash it 3 times to open a path with 3400 OTH, an Ice Gem and a Prime Elixir (be careful with the explosive trap). Further right you'll find a Light Warrior Relic. You may want to ignore it for now, as there's a save point up in this room. Save first if you want to control who you get. Anyway, it's either Celes or Tyrith. They're kind of opposites. Celes has high number of hits and good stats, but low attack multipliers (so her damage is lower). Tyrith has few hits, bad stats and good multipliers. Celes gets Energy Steal (Darkness attack), Tyrith gets Holy Smite. They both get the Might Reinforce spell (one of the best), but Tyrith gets it sooner, at level 15. That's the best thing about her overall, especially if you don't like Sorcerers. However, Celes is EXCELLENT at combos. She gets to 12 hits total at level 7 -- that's the max for a Light Warrior. She also comes with the Dismantle skill, but that's honestly not very useful. The racial critical skills are just much better, and usually cheaper. She also has the Soul Pierce attack, with 10% chance of causing Doom. The chance is too low to be helpful, so while those two things do help her they're not really a reason to choose her. Pick her for her excellent combos, or choose Tyrith for higher damage and early Might Reinforce. Go back to the platforms. There is a globe on the top, and you have to take it down to the mark on the floor. If you drop it from too high up, it will break. In that case, leave the room and come back. Warp it down with photons, one platform at a time. It's faster than pushing. Once you put it in the mark on the floor it will open a path up. Go there and you'll find a save point, so save the game. If you haven't picked Celes or Tyrith yet, go back and do it now. Just remove the globe from the mark. Now go back up, save again and move on. You'll get a scene. Watch it, then keep reading. You've got two new characters: Leone (Light Warrior, level 8) and Arngrim (Heavy Warrior, level 7). Leone just feels like a generic character. She has no exclusive attacks at all and her Soul Crush is a prettier version of the Einherjar ones. Also very low HP. Yeah, she's pretty bad, although she does get better multipliers in some attacks... while others get lower. It kind of evens out in making her not noteworthy at all. Arngrim... well, you'll obviously compare him with Dylan. He has better stats all around, but his attacks are all pretty bad. Einherjar can get better stats and better attacks, but Arngrim's SC has the highest amount of hits and Heat of all the Heavy Warriors. That and his fourth attack, Wild Break, are the only good things about him: Wild Break isn't strong, but it causes Frailty. This helps a lot in some fights, especially some bosses and trolls. Use him just enough to get that if you want, he learns it on level 8. He also comes with the Survival skill (although everyone can get it already) and the Striking Sword. Leone's and Arngrim's levels will be important later in the game as well. Do not use stat-boosting items on Leone, but feel free to give them to Arngrim. Moving on, this area has a new Dais, which means it isn't under the effects of the previous one. It also has another globe. Notice that part of the mini-map shows a path below the floor. Use photon-warping to make the globe fall from high-up on top of this part of the floor. Both the globe and the floor will break, letting you access the area below, where you'll find a Falchion. This is good for any Light Warrior. You'll also find a Shell with the Masochist Wrath Sealstone. This makes the holder take damage when attacking, so you'll kill yourself with it. Put it in the Dais in this room to make the dungeon much easier, as the enemies will start killing themselves when they attack you. This is obviously very expensive to restore (3,000 crystals). Now this part of the dungeon will be affected by both sealstones so far. Do not restore the Masochist's Wrath yet. Proceed to the right. Another globe here, with a hidden area beneath the floor. Drop the globe from high-up over the floor again to open another path. This one leads to a huge enemy you can't crystallize. This is a mini-boss, the Crust Golem, who doesn't respawn until you leave the dungeon. You'll also notice it holds a sealstone: Black Anchor Wrath. This makes the enemies heavier, so it's harder to launch it. Anyway, despite being a mini-boss, the Crust Golem (and two Kobolds) isn't dangerous at all. He's weak to Lightning, so Rufus is the best choice for damage with Thunder Arrow. Watch out for Poison Blow, which is only used if you break the claws. Only two good items in the fight: break the two tails on the back for the Blade Claw, a Blue Slashing rune! If you don't get any, run from the fight and try again. It's faster than leaving the dungeon. Anyway, this rune let's every character get skills that were for Heavy Warriors only so far: Mighty Blow (useless), Break Up, Beast Bludgeon, Unholy Purifier and Descaling Might. Great stuff! The other item is gained automatically when you kill the crab, even if you don't break anything: the Karsnaut, a light sword with Holy element and innate Ghost Buster. Now you can deal full damage to ghosts and get Cursed Souls easily! Anyway, that's all for this fight. Behind the enemy is a Dwarf Tincture and the Gandeeva (careful with the arrow trap), a very good bow with 2 attacks and Soul Crush enabled! It also helps that Rufus' Soul Crush is very good, so things will get easier with it. You don't have 4 SCs available yet, but Rufus can fill the Heat gauge in the third position as well. You can go back up now (there's a lever to lift the floor), but pick up the sealstone first. It's not very good, but go to the previous Dais and put it there. You'll want to carry the Masochist's Wrath for the next Dais to use it against the boss. Just try not to get in battles until them, which isn't very hard with the Fog Wrath setup. If you get in a fight, run. Proceed up. There's a hidden chest to the right here: 5000 OTH. There's another item on a high platform in the middle of the room, but flying enemies make it easy to get. Just keep warping up and air jumping to go up until you can reach it. It's a Metal Buckler, with a red Arm rune. Continue to the next room: a Divinity Void. Sealstones and photons don't work here. This means you can't extend the effects of the previous Dais to the next room, which is why you're carrying a negative sealstone. Time your jumps to get past the enemies. Pass this room and go down. There's a Sorcerer Relic here: Alm or Woltar. Woltar is an Earth Sorcerer, but you'll get one of these for sure in the next storyline dungeon, making him just redundant then. Alm is a Lightning Sorcerer, which makes him excellent for breaking. He joins with Lightning Bolt, and learns Thunder Storm at level 8. Both spells give him +2 Critical Rank (chance of critical hits), so he can do them much more easily than other characters. The good thing about this is that, as long as you've got Thunder Storm, you don't need to worry about his level. Give him 4 Sharp Spearheads, a critical skill and that's all he needs. He also joins with the Sap Power spell, able to make all enemies weaker! Rufus learns it at level 10, but it's still good until them. So, easy choice here: pick Alm. Do not use his Overload skill unless you know what you're doing, or you're just going to get yourself killed. Anyway, go up the stairs. Avoid the enemies here! There's a sealstone affecting the area, not to mention the one you should be carrying. On the top of the stairs you'll find a Dais with the Sword Blessing sealstone. This one is very cheap and useful: it boosts ATK by 20%. It stacks with all other ATK-boosting things, like the Fists of Iron skill. Restore it already and leave the Masochist's Wrath in it's place. Proceed right. There's a spring here, where you can pick up all restored Sealstones. So pick up the Sword Blessing and keep holding it. Battles in this part of the dungeon will be really easy now. Save point on the right, meaning a boss nearby. Before that though, go right and shoot a photon up to the edge of the platform above. There's an orb you can warp there. More treasures: Fireproof Trinket and Metal Greaves. Go back down and continue right past the path up for a hidden chest with the final treasure in the dungeon: another Dwarf Tincture. Time to get ready for the boss. There are two enemies, and they're both Scaled, so Descaling Might will make the battle much easier. The more people with it the better. They're even vulnerable to sudden death and instant breaking! Ice is the best element for the fight, so Mithra is actually pretty good with some MAG boosting, and he needs the experience. Same for Rufus with Thunder Arrow. You might want Alm for Sap Power and the critical setup with lightning spells, but it's unlikely that you've got Descaling Might on him already so you can't really break the boss. The boss uses fire attacks, so use Stun Checks if you can. Alicia's Robe is good too. If you've got Celes then don't use her Mist Phantom attack. Alicia's Turnaround is pretty much useless as well. Save and go up to fight. __Wyvern (Upper Lizard & Lower Lizard)_______________________________________ | | |Upper Lizard (Leader): | | Lv 14 1,600 HP 10,000 exp 1,750 OTH | | 95 ATK 80 MAG 34 HIT 28 AVD | | Races: Giant, Scaled | | Elements: Fire +20%, Ice -20% | | Vulnerable to Paralysis (20%), Poison (20%), Doom (50%), Freeze (75%), | | Confusion (20%), Stone (20%) and Faint (50%) | | Leader Item: Metal Buckler | | | | Body Parts: | | -Head (vital): 1600 HP, 23 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Orientation Scales (80%) | | -Body (vital): 1600 HP, 23 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Dragon Gallstones (80%) | | -Wings (2): 1600 HP, 18 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Wyvern's Wingbone (60%) | | | | Attacks: | | -Wing Flapping: Wide large range, knocks the characters back a lot, | | possibly throwing them off the battlefield. Average damage.| | -Fire Breath: Wide medium range, fire damage on the party, high damage. | | -Spit Fire: Medium range, average damage on the party. Despite the name | | it's not elemental. | | -(Tail attack): Small range, 1 hit on some characters, usually 2 or 3. | | Average damage, needs to junctioned to Lower Lizard to use.| | -Slashing Tail: Just a stronger tail attack. Needs to junctioned to Lower | | Lizard to use. | | | | _______________________________________ | | | |Lower Lizard: | | Lv 13 850 HP 6,800 exp 170 OTH | | 110 ATK 40 MAG 25 HIT 10 AVD | | Races: Scaled | | Elements: Everything -50% | | Vulnerable to Curse (100%), Paralysis (100%), Silence (100%), Poison (100%),| | Doom (50%), Freeze (100%), Confusion (50%), Stone (100%), | | Faint (50%) and Frailty (100%) | | | | Body Parts: | | -Body (vital): 595 HP, 25 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Holy Gem (60%) | | -Tail: 255 HP, 25 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Red Dragon Bile (60%) | | -Front legs (2): 255 HP, 20 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Unladen Swallow Scales (40%) | | -Back legs: 340 HP, 20 RDM, 5 RST; Item: Dragon's Talons (40%) | | | | Attacks: | | -Heavy Press: Short range, average damage on party. | | -Scale Missile: Short range, shoots several missiles on one character, high| | fire elemental damage. Needs tail to be used. | | -Poison Tail: Short range, causes poison and average earth elemental damage| | on party. Needs tail to be used. | | | |Recommended level: 8 | | | |Strategy: | | Some important things here: first, you're actually fighting 2 enemies, but | | they're attached. After getting low on HP, the Wyvern will use Schism and | | split. The Lower Lizard's parts won't drop any items if you break them while| | they're still connected. Both are also immune to instant-breaking (but not | | sudden-death) until it splits. In short, you don't want to fight it that | | way. | | | | Second, the battlefield. It's possible to fall off (Transfer status) when | | using some attacks, like Celes' Mist Phantom. Worse yet, one of the Upper | | Lizard's attacks (Wing Flapping) will push you back A LOT, so do not stand | | close to the edge of the battlefield, even if it means you'll have to step | | into an attack range. The good thing about this? You can do the same to the | | boss! You won't get any experience and will miss the chance of breaking | | parts for items, but it's fun! | | | | Finally, it's impossible to break any of the Upper Lizard's parts by HP | | without killing it, so you'll want to use critical skills to collect the | | items. Descaling Might is the only practical way, unless you got Celes and | | she's over level 10. Then you can use Dismantle, but Descaling Might really | | is better. Neither will cause instant-breaking until it splits, though. | | Breaking one of Upper Lizard's wings will leave it laying on the floor, | | completely harmless. Hack away! | | | | When near death, the Wyvern will use Schism and split. Upper Lizard will | | miss the two tail attacks, and Lower Lizard can now attack. They will both | | become vulnerable to instant-breaking at this point. Nothing else changes in| | practice, as the Upper Lizard should be near death. You can safely ignore | | the Lower Lizard. If you want to fight it, break it's tail first. | | | | So this is a really simple battle except for Wing Flapping. There's really | | nothing more to it than dashing and attacking if you're protected from fire.| | | | As for items, there's nothing very interesting here. You can try to break | | the head for Orientation Scales, a Red Lightning rune with great drop rate | | (80%). If you want to try, break the wings first to make it easier to hit | | the head. Dragon Gallstones and Unladen Swallow Scales are needed for item | | creation, but you'll have better ways to get them soon. | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ Dungeon cleared. Time to leave, or fight the boss again if you want. You might be thinking of restoring sealstones, like the Masochist's Wrath. While it is a good sealstone, it's very expensive and depends on you getting hit to work. The next storyline dungeons have more important sealstones that cost even more crystals, so save them for that. All you really need from this dungeon is Sword Blessing. Villnore will appear on the map when you leave the dungeon. Go there to proceed with the story, or check Coriander out again for a side-quest and some items. It's your choice. Just skip the Coriander section below if you don't want to go there. --- Coriander --- -Items: Golden Egg, Royal Jelly -Points of interest: Unlock the Ancient Forest There's a chicken in front of the first house. "Talk" to it to get a Golden Egg! The Golden Egg increases STR, INT, DEX and AGL by a random number from 1 to 10 each. I suggest you save before using it and just keep trying until you get a good boost to STR and INT. The other stats don't really matter. Remember, don't give stat-boosting items to Lezard, Dylan or Leone. To the right of the house are 2 people talking. Talk to man to learn about a huge bird "in the forest". This unlocks the first optional dungeon, the Ancient Forest. Getting rid of this bird is a side-quest with good rewards, so you really should do it. Not now though, there's still some stuff to do before going there. In the next area, talk to the girl with the dog. She asks if you found any treasure in the ruins. Say no and she gives you a Royal Jelly. This is a material for Golden Eggs (in Solde) and Prime Elixirs (with the merchant). Neither can be created yet, and creating Prime Elixirs isn't good anyway. Once you go back to the map, the Ancient Forest will show up. Let's take a look at Villnore first, though. Shopping: The merchant's got a new accessory. The Beryl Bracelet raises ATK by 3% and has a Green Strengthening rune. You can't link it with anything yet, but it's an easy way to get a Green Rune. --- Villnore --- -Items: Earthproof Trinket, 2000 OTH -Points of interest: Unlock the Turgen Mine A big town. The Inn is right at the entrance. Right after it is a dog. This is the same as the cat and the chicken, but it wants Meat Chops. Still useless. There's a guy walking around this area. He starts near the merchant talking to a woman and then walks around. Talk to him and he'll tell you about a temple on the water, the next storyline dungeon. There's a house to the right with a treasure chest. Inside is an Earthproof Trinket. The next house doesn't have any items or quests, but checking the right wall will give you background info for Kraad and Circe, a possible future Einherjar. This is also where Celes and Tyrith will appear when/if you release them. Neither will give you anything yet though. This part of the town ends with a woman selling Tiny Flowers for only 10 OTH each. They're runeless accessories that boost HP by 10%, so you may want to get enough for everyone. They don't stack, so 4 is all you need. You certainly have 40 OTH so that's not a problem. Continue to the right. Enter the tavern and talk to the guys inside to learn about the monsters in the Turgen Mine, the second optional dungeon. Next up is the armory, full of good stuff! Check the shopping and releasing sections below. Anyway, next is another house. This is where Kraad/Roland will be after being released. Roland just gives you 50,000 OTH, but Kraad gives an amazing weapon: the Kraadicator. This is the most overpowered item so far, even more than Richelle's Expert Experience. The Kraadicator is a Heavy Sword with 130 ATK, 20 HIT and 10 RST. 2 attacks and no Special Attack, but it really doesn't need it. Even if you don't use a Heavy Warrior, this is a great weapon for releasing. Do give it to a Heavy Warrior though, it's really good. You can also get 2000 OTH in the drawer here. Details on the releasing section below. That's all for Villnore. Go right to return to the world map, and both the Turgen Mine and Audoula Temple on the Lake should show up. If you want to skip the optional dungeons, just go to Section 04.3.04. Below are shopping and releasing recommendations -- follow these whether or not you're doing the extra dungeons. Shopping: First, make sure you buy the Map of the West Lands. This lets you access the west area of the map without going through Kythena Plains. To use it, press circle on the world map and choose the area you want to go to. You'll need other maps to do this for the eastern and northern areas. The stuff you can just buy here is very good for releasing Einherjar, but for battle you'll want the creatable stuff. The Crystal Wand is good for Sorcerers, but you'll find it in the first optional dungeon. For heads and legs, the Iron Helm is great for Heavy Warriors and the Work Boots are good for everyone. The saber is good and very easy to make. 1 Long Sword (Solde), 3 Beast Pelts (Dire Wolfs) and 3 Iron Ores (Goblins, Kobolds, Kobold Knights). 30 ATK, 3 attacks, Special Attacks enabled and the Beast Bludgeon skill effect. Meaning, every beast you attack with it will take +50% damage and be broken immediately with critical attacks for no CP cost. Beasts are VERY frequent, so get this for any Light Warrior you want to use. Remember that you can switch weapons in battle too, so even if you have a stronger weapon you can just equip this one when you need to fight a beast. The Elemental Edge isn't quite as easy to make, but still not hard and also very useful. 1 Raptor's Talon (Giant Hawks), 2 Sharp Spearheads (Living Armors) and 2 Iron Ores. It's a very damaging weapon with Special Attacks, boosting their damage by 30%. If you got the Kraadicator than you can skip this one, unless you want to use more than one Heavy Warrior. The final weapon here is the Supreme Crossbow. 32 ATK, 10 HIT, 3 attacks and SCs enabled. That's all great for now, but what makes this weapon special for the whole game is the strong Holy elemental damage it does (0.5 -- most elemental weapons are 0.2). You can easily create a MAG-boosting setup and do lots of damage with this weapon. Sometimes this will be better than bows with 100, 200 ATK even. It all depends on who you're fighting, the party you're using and the setups you have available. It requires 1 Koboldapult (Kobolds) and 3 Feathers (Giant Hawks). They're not that easy to get, but the weapon is worth it. The Sacred Guarder is created here too. Very good RDM, holy protection and 15% chance of blocking attacks, but it decreases HIT a little. HIT isn't useful, but blocking is. This is for Light and Heavy Warriors. 1 Bonemeal (Skeletons), 2 Raptor's Talons and 1 Feather (both with Giant Hawks). It's the best glove for now. The Silver Cuirass isn't very hard to make: 1 Cuirass, 2 Iron Ores and 2 Silver Sallets. The best thing about it is the 50% earth protection, but you get -50% to lightning. Ignore it for now, and come back when you need earth protection, if you ever do. Buy the Crystal Chainmail instead: it offers high AVD and some RST for only 5 less RDM and no need to collect materials. Archers should get it too, while Sorcerers keep the Leather Cloak. You'll find a Crystal Chainmail in one of the optional dungeons and another in the next plot dungeon, so you could buy less here and save some money. That's all you need here for now. Future items of note here include the Moonfalx, Fairy Garb and Vein Greaves. The Checks and the Crystal Helm aren't worth it, and the Ring of Healing is too hard to make. You'll find another item with the same effect with an enemy. The Tiara of the Holy Empress is also too difficult to make, although it's a good item. Releasing: This is the point where releasing characters becomes a good idea. However, don't go overboard -- release just as much as you need to get your characters boosted by what you consider enough. Also make sure you always keep at least 3 Einherjar with you, or you'll have problems later. I recommend releasing Richelle and Kraad at this point, but not Mithra, Alm or Sylphide. Other characters are up to you. There are 2 possible setups for releasing Richelle (or any other Light Warrior). Both will have the Walloon Sword and Crystal Chainmail. This gives: 1 Fencer's Familiarity, 2 Archer's Aptitude, 3 Thief's Thoughts and 1 Warrior's Wits. Add Metal Greaves + Metal Buckler for 1 Ambrosia, but you lose 1 Archer's Aptitude with that. Up to you: +100 HP or +5 DEX? I'd take the HP at this point. Don't forget that you'll also get a gem boosting 2 stats by +20, probably Rose (STR and DEX). It's easier for Kraad/Heavy Warriors: Screp, Iron Helm, Crystal Chainmail and Work Boots for 1 Fencer's Familiarity, 2 Thief's Thoughts, 1 Ambrosia and 1 Warrior's Wits. You'll find a Screp in the first optional dungeon, but I'd just buy it here. Don't forget to get the Kraadicator and/or Expert's Experience if you've released Kraad and/or Richelle, and don't forget to only use the Expert's Experience on a Sorcerer or Archer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04.3.02 - Sidequests, Part I [04302] Warning: The sidequests related to these dungeons must be completed in Chapter 3, or you'll lose the next sidequests. It's better to just do them now. --- Ancient Forest --- -Items: Dwarf Tincture, Screp, Flare Gem, Crystal Wand, 7200 OTH, Iron Helm -Einherjar: Archer [ Chrystie (10%) or Sha-Kon (90%) ] -Sealstones: Manacles Wrath, Poison Pin Blessing, Sheathed Power Wrath, Treasure Blessing -Enemies: Thunder Hawk (Beast), Kobold Knight (Beast), Owlbear (Beast, Giant), Sack Mimic (Magic), Goat Man (Beast, Demon), Troll (Giant), Toxic Flower (Plant, Insect) -Mini-boss: Cybersaur x4 (Scaled) -Re-fightable Boss: none -Overview: Short dungeon, but with some tricky battles. You'll need to mess with sealstones to guarantee victory. Some enemies from Serdberg appear here too, but are easier because the battlefield is much better. Beast Bludgeon is a great skill to use here too, and you should have more characters with it now. Don't forget the Sabertooth Saber for Light Warriors. Alm's greatness at breaking was already mentioned, so use him. His Thunder Storm can easily end most fights here with Beast Bludgeon and 4 Sharp Spearheads. Arngrim is great against one enemy with his Wild Break attack (learned at level 8). Add Mithra too if you've got room for him. You'll want him to reach level 12 as soon as possible to learn Might Reinforce. Enemies to look out for: Goat Men don't do anything special and don't even get much range, even though they're using bows. Just attack from the sides/behind, or break their bow. If you break their bow and horn they can't attack with anything. Lots of great items with them. Trolls are one of the hardest enemies in the game when fought without strategy, but they're simple to defeat when you know how to counter their strengths. They have the effects of the Regenerate Health skill and can reform limbs immediately when broken. There are three ways to handle them here: using Arngrim's Wild Break to cause Frailty (which stops the healing), poisoning them or using Dismantle with Celes. Poisoning is very easy with one of the Sealstones here. They can only attack from the front. Toxic Flowers can silence you with the Sound Wave attack. This is actually a good thing if it hits a character without spells, like Heavy Warriors. Equip an Empty Shell to increase your ATK and Critical Rank when affected by Silence. It will give a 20% boost to ATK, which is really good for an accessory that is so easy to get. Sack Mimics appear in larger groups here, but they're still rare. Good item drops: Lightningproof Trinkets: Protects one ally from lightning attacks temporarily. Just Direct Assault Goat Men. Not that special, but can help against the boss here. Tail Armor: Runeless accessory, boosts RDM by 15% and RST by 5%. Break the Goat Men's back for this. It's a rare item though (15% drop), and only really helps if you're making a tank. The RST boost stacks, but the RDM one doesn't. Still, you probably won't want/need to use more than one. Shell Shade: Runeless accessory, chance of negating magic damage. Break the Goat Men's waist for this. Obviously a great choice against magic casters, and not very hard to get (30% drop rate). Best item here. You can still get good, old items like the Great Eagle Heart here. Runes and Skills: Red Weakness: Break the Toxic Flower's body for the Poison Seed, or the Goat Man's right arm for the Piercing Imprint. This is used for SIX skills, and you can get 4 now. Red Leg + Strengthening + Weakness teaches Training, which lowers your stats but boosts experience received. I don't recommend this for regular battles, only if you need a character to catch up. Red Slashing + Weakness + Fire teaches Weed Whacker, and Red Slashing + Weakness + Activation teachs Magician Slayer. They're Critical Skills for plants and magic enemies, but for Light Warriors only for now. Remember, you can get Red Activation from the Red Cherry the traveling merchant sells. Last, Red Piercing + Weakness + Earth teaches Bug Swatter, Critical Skill for bugs. Archers only for now. Materials for Item Creation (recommended items only): Piercing Imprints are used to make 2 recommended weapons later, and another good one much later (Chater 6). There's also another one, but it isn't worth creating. For now, you'll need 1 for the Runeslayer (light sword, innate Magician Slayer) and 2 for the Greenery Slayer (bow, innate Weed Whacker) at most. The Greenery Slayer also needs 2 Nightshades, which you get by breaking the Toxic Flower's flower. Since they're only created later anyway you can just come back for it later, although they shouldn't be hard to collect with instant-breaking now. -Dungeon walkthrough: The first area is under the effects of the Poison Pin Blessing Sealstone, which makes it so that any attack can poison the target. So try not to get hit until you find the Sealstone, or just equip Poison Checks if you have any. Just go up from the first area and then right for the Spring. Don't pick any Sealstones, though. Continue to the left, where you'll find a Dwarf Tincture behind an object. Warp it to open the chest and go back to the right, then go right again. There's a Shell here with the Manacles Wrath, which prevents guarding. Pretty good in a Dais, so go south for one. This is the one with the Poison Pin Blessing. It's cheap but I don't recommend restoring it, poisoning is much easier with Earth Gems and you'll be able to buy them in shops soon. Put the Manacles Wrath in the Dais and carry the Poison Pin. Lightning Bolt is a great way to poison the enemies since it hits so much. Go back up and up again. Check the flowers on the left. It's hard to see, but there's an Einherjar relic here: Sha-Kon or Chrystie. Chrystie has very random stat-growth and only two elemental attacks, learned very late into the game. She's just not the good choice for damage, but she's very good for combos. Chrystie does get healing spells though, so that's a plus. Sha-Kon has better stats and attacks, starting with the very good Poison Shot attack (earth, causes poison) and most likely Flare Blast too. Those make her very strong for now, but you'll get better characters for elemental damage. Overall, Chrystie is more unique while Sha-Kon is more balanced. Choice is up to you, but Chrystie is so rare that you'll probably settle for Sha-Kon. Sha-Kon also comes with the Strength Bow. There are only two of those in the game and you need at least one to create the Mage Slayer later. It's not a good weapon to create anyway though, so don't let this change your decision. They appear in Kythena Plains when released. Chrystie gives 50000 OTH and Sha-Kon gives a Prism Gem. Go right for a Screp, then go up. Save point to the right. You can go right for the boss, but there's some stuff to the left, so go there first. Keep going left in the next area and you'll find a mini-boss with a Shell behind it. Preparations: the mini-boss has very high RDM, but average RST, so you'll want Alicia with Mirage Pierce (ignores RDM, remember?), Sorcerers and Archers with the Supreme Crossbow for elemental attacks. Ice deals high damage to them, so consider using Mithra for an easier time. Alm helps a lot in breaking the armor and reducing damage with Sap Power. Your fighters should have the highest ATK possible, or at least multi-hit attacks to help with poisoning. Sudden-death and instant-breaks don't work. Regardless, everyone should have Descaling Might for added damage. Rufus and Sha-Kon can dominate the battle easily with decent MAG-boosting. __Cybersaurs (4)_____________________________________________________________ | | | Lv 17 2,000 HP 2,200 exp 520 OTH | | 260 ATK 140 MAG 70 HIT 50 AVD | | Races: Scaled | | Elements: Weapon and Shield have Lightning -50%, Earth +20%; | | Belt has Fire and Earth -50%, Lightning +20%; | | Body parts have Ice -50%, Earth -20% | | Vulnerable to Paralysis (20%), Poison (20%), Freeze (75%), Confusion (100%),| | Stone (20%) and Faint (20%) | | Leader Item: Flare Gem | | Drop Item: Flare Gem (80%) | | Recommended level: 9 | | | |Body Parts: | | -Head (vital): 1,000 HP, 48 RDM, 20 RST; Item: Red Dragon Bile (40%) | | -Body (vital): 1,200 HP, 48 RDM, 20 RST; Item: Alligator Skin (50%) | | -Legs (vital): 1,200 HP, 48 RDM, 20 RST; Item: Vermillion Scales (60%) | | -Tail: 300 HP, 48 RDM, 20 RST; Item: Alligator Skin (30%) | | -Weapon (armor): 400 HP, 72 RDM, 16 RST; Item: Broken Sword (50%) | | -Shield (armor): 800 HP, 96 RDM, 16 RST; Item: Worn Shield (75%) | | -Belt (armor): 200 HP, 38 RDM, 16 RST; Item: Flare Gem (75%) | | | |Attacks: | | -(Shield attack): Small range, hits 2 characters at most for high damage. | | Needs shield to be used. | | -(Sword attack): Small range, hits the party (or 3 characters at least) | | twice for very high damage. Used automatically after | | dodging. Very dangerous. | | | |Strategy: | | Like with the Crust Golem, run from battle to collect items if you want | | instead of leaving the dungeon completely. There's some good stuff here and | | it's easy to get. | | | | The lizardmen are a new enemy type, and a very annoying one when fought | | carelessly. Their shield and weapon protect really well from damage from the| | sides and they will usually block attacks from the front. Fortunately the | | Manacles Wrath takes care of the guarding, but breaking the shield can still| | take a while. Just attack from behind to avoid most of the problems. Well, | | except the high RDM, but that's what magic is for. | | | | The Cybersaur wouldn't be dangerous by itself. It has two attacks, and | | although they're very strong at this point, it's very easy to avoid by | | simply staying behind it. What makes it hard is that there are four of them,| | and they can surround you easily. Dash in to lure them, then dash out to | | have some follow you and take care of them one at a time. Party splitting is| | good for this, as you won't risk being completely surrounded if the dashing | | doesn't go well. Also, since they start the battle close to each other, Sap | | Power is just perfect to use right at the start. | | | | When you actually get to attack, begin the combo with magic to avoid the | | frequent counter-attacks. Poisoning also helps, and Lightning Bolt is very | | good for that. Without the poison this will take a while, but is never | | really hard unless you mess up often. You can dash in at the start of the | | fight when they're all together and use Thunder Storm for a chance to poison| | all of them at once. This can be good for breaking their armor from a | | distance, too. | | | | Items. The Alligator Skin is a material for the Vein Greaves in Villnore, so| | get some for that. For the (new) Red Resistance rune, break their legs (use | | Alicia's Turnaround) to get Vermillion Scales. This lets you get 1 skill for| | now and more later. Red Arm + Strengthening + Resistance teaches Guard | | Motion, which is pretty good for a tank setup and when you know the enemy | | won't use status effects. It's also good when you WANT to be hit by a status| | effect. Getting silenced by the Toxic Flowers, for example. Just equip Guard| | Motion and the first Sound Wave will be enough to cause it. | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ The Shell has the Sheathed Power Wrath Sealstone, which decreases damage given to 1/4 (25%). Yeah, it divides ALL damage in the game by 4. 30,000 crystals, so don't dream of using it anywhere else without some serious farming. You'll obviously want this in a Dais, so go left and put it in the one you find there (leave the Poison Pin in the Shell for that). There's also a chest here with a Flare Gem (careful with the gas). Anyway, now everything in the dungeon will deal 1/4 damage and can't block anything, not to mention you're poisoning everyone with normal attacks. Aren't Sealstones great? Go back right, then down and right again. There's a Crystal Wand in a chest to the right (careful with the gas). Now you can go pick up Poison Pin Blessing in the Shell, but only if you DON'T have an Earth Gem. If you do, leave it there and pick Sword Blessing at the Spring instead. Go back to the save point after that. Now is the time to fight the boss, but some more preparations first: The boss has some resistance to lightning (and weakness to earth, so Sha-Kon is a great choice). Without the Earth Gem you'll want multi-hit attacks for poison, but not with Lightning Bolt. Rufus can help with Sap Power (level 10) and Stony Decree. Light Warriors are the best for the fight with the Sabertooth Saber for added damage on beasts (give Beast Bludgeon to other characters), but the sealstone setup really is the most important part of the fight. Include Mithra in the party if you have room for him. This battle cannot be fought again, so try to get the items that interest you. __Griffon____________________________________________________________________ | | | Lv 22 2,800 HP 47,000 exp 6,400 OTH | | 480 ATK 350 MAG 54 HIT 45 AVD | | Races: Giant, Beast | | Elements: Head has Lightning +50%, Earth -50%; | | Head Feather has Lightning +80%, Earth -100%; | | Other parts have Lightning +20%, Earth -20% | | Vulnerable to Curse (100%), Silence (10%), Poison (100%), Freeze (25%), | | Stone (25%), Faint (50%) and Frailty (100%) | | Leader Item: Charge Break | | Drop Item: Jade Sealpouch (100%) | | Recommended level: 10 | | | |Body Parts: | | -Head (vital): 1,120 HP, 26 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Garnet (45%) | | -Upper body (vital): 1,400 HP, 26 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Feather (45%) | | -Front legs (vital): 1,680 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Great Eagle Heart (45%)| | -Lower body (vital): 1,120 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Feather (60%) | | -Back legs (vital): 1,400 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Feather (45%) | | -Middle of back wings (2): 560 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; | | Item: Gargoyle's Arch (45%) | | -Front of back wings (2): 280 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Griffon Talon (45%) | | -Front wings (2): 560 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Wing Feather (60%) | | -Head feather (armor): 280 HP, 24 RDM, 15 RST; Item: Pure White Plume (45%) | | | |Attacks: | | -(Double Attack): Short range, 2-hit attack with high damage. | | -Call Lightning: Long, straight range. Very high Lightning damage on party. | | -Charge: Medium, straight range. Very high damage on party. | | -Sudden Descent: Short but very wide range, very high damage on the partyt, | | but won't get you if you're REALLY close. | | -Malicious Gust: Average damage on a medium range. Least dangerous attack in| | the fight. | | | |Strategy: | | Woah, that's a lot of experience. Don't use the Double-check yet though, the| | next optional boss gives even more. | | | | The Griffon's high ATK and MAG would be very problematic if you hadn't cut | | all damage in the dungeon by 75%. You can use Sap Power to decrease it even | | further. There's the choice of Lightning Trinkets for Call Lightning too, | | but that's easy to avoid so it's not really necessary. The attack list above| | says "high" and "very high", but that's without the damage reduction. It's | | an easy battle with it, really. It can't attack from behind, so stay there. | | | | Anyway, use the Earth Gem to cause Poison, or if you don't have that just | | attack and the poison will quick in sooner or later. Save some AP for | | dashing if you feel you'll need to, or just take the damage anyway. A Dwarf | | Tincture should take care of it. Poisoning him will really speed up the | | easy, almost uninteresting battle. | | | | The Pure White Plume is a great runeless accessory that boosts MAG when the | | character is poisoned. It also increases Critical rank. Try to get this. | | There's another item with the same effect later, so although this helps a | | lot you don't need to restart if you miss it. Use overhead attacks. If | | you've got Rufus to level 12 he can do it very easily with Aiming Wisp. | | | | The Wing Feather is a very good item, and it's easy to break the right body | | part by attacking from the side. It's a runeless accessory that boosts SC | | damage by 20%. You can get it later too. Everything else is quite hard to | | get as nearly everything is a vital part. | | | | The best thing about this fight is the drop item. Sealpouches let you carry | | additional Sealstones, so you can have 2 effects on you now! This means that| | you could have the Sword Blessing and Poison Pin Blessing at the same time | | now, getting additional ATK and poisoning everything. There's a limit to how| | many Sealstones can be out in a dungeon at a time, though. If you can't pick| | an additional one from the Spring, you'll have to restore one from the | | dungeon. | | | _____________________________________________________________________________ There's a Shell on the right with the Treasure Blessing Sealstone, which slows the reduction of the bonus gauge (the yellow dots on the right in battle). It's decent for bosses for their Leader Items, so you may want to restore it. To the right are two chests with the final treasures in the dungeon: 7200 OTH and an Iron Helm... yeah, all chests in the dungeon suck. Anyway, the real point of this dungeon, other than enemy drops, is the Jade Sealpouch. Poison Pin Blessing is a good sealstone that you can restore easily, but it doesn't get much use once you can buy Earth Gems. It's just more practical to use those instead of wasting a sealstone slot. Remember the Sheathed Power Wrath for when you have 30,000 crystals... probably never unless you farm for a while. That's all for the dungeon, so go back to the world map. Now go back to Coriander and talk to the guy talking to the lady to finish the sidequest and gain a Might Potion. It's important to do this to unlock the next side-quest on the forest later. --- Turgen Mine --- -Items: Prism Gem, Crystal Chainmail, Key to the Mines, 20000 OTH (total), Honeysuckle Dew, Anointed Cloak, Dwarf Tincture, Overdrive, Prime Elixir -Einherjar: Archer [ Millidia (50%) or Lylia (50%) ] -Sealstones: Alarm Blessing, Fetters Wrath, Brimstone Law, Gold Grubber Law -Enemies: Lizard Lord (Scaled), Giant Snail (Giant), Wasp Nest (Ghost, Insect), Clay Man (Giant, Plant, Unholy) -Re-fightable Boss: none -Overview: Everything here is weak to fire, so use Lezard. Boost his MAG with Copper Coins and/or Blue Apples and he should kill everything easily with Fire Storm. The Wasp Nest, main enemy in the dungeon, is a ghost, so you'll want elemental attacks and weapons. Other than spells, a Light Warrior with the Karsnaut is the best choice here. Archers with the Supreme Crossbow and/or elemental attacks are good too, while Heavy Warriors are useless (they can't hit them