SSSSS FFFFFF CCCC DDD S S F C D D S FFFF C D D S F C D D S F C D D SSSS F CCCC DDD Game: Shining Force CD (Gaiden 1) System: Sega CD and Sega Gamegear FAQ: Character FAQ Written By: NoWorries Allowed Website: www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com www.supercheats.com *If you have a website you would like to post this at just shoot me an email* **As always, the most up-to-date guide will always be found at gamefaqs** Version History: 1.0 Submitted 10 of June of 2018 Version Updates: 1.0 -Initial submission ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Forward As I may use symbols one may be unfamiliar with, I hope this short list makes sense of what I mean to say in the guide. **...** is used to bold something -...- is likewise used to bold <>...<> is used to bold (and all such symbols to grab your attention) 37> means a number less than 37 37>= means a number less than or equal to 37 37< means a number greater than 37 37=< means a number greater than or equal to 37 == means equal to = also means equal to (the above is a computer programming difference) That's about it. If something is confusing you, don't hesitate to ask me by shooting me an email (located at the end of the guide) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -Disclaimer- I am not responsible for any emotional, physical, etc etc damage caused by the misuse of this guide under any circumstances Also, when I use the term 'newb' it makes reference to a NEW PLAYer. A newb is someone who is unfamiliar with the game. A Noob is someone who sucks and ruins games. Know the difference. I. Introduction | Table of Contents [1000] II. Character Review [2000] A. Characters B. Spells C. Suggested Teams and Deeper Analysis III. Some Moogles [3000] A. Leveling Suggestions B. Items Items Items C. FAQS (specific to SFCD and Gaiden Games) IV. Contact and Closing [4000] ---------------- | Introduction | ---------------- [1000] -Who should be reading this FAQ?- #The NoWorries Contract to Greatness I put this in every faq I've ever written, and it goes something along the lines like this. By writing this, I commit to you the reader that I will bring to you not only my vastness of knowledge but with a sense of humour. I understand it's easy to get bogged down in detail as well as a mush of opinion but I strive to bring you something more than just a guide to greatness. So who should be reading this? Let me be frank: I'm not doing an extensive stat collection anymore; I don't have the time. However, to level up folks and play through a game is entirely different and I still enjoy that so anyways... Below is an extensive review of the characters from SFCD game 1 | SF Gaiden 1. The original SF Gaiden 1 never saw an english release, still, (even Final Conflict saw an english translation later with a fan translation). That being said, SF Gaiden 1 and 2 (2 being Sword of Hayja), were re-released onto the Sega CD in a game called SFCD which featured both Gaiden games remastered with better sound and graphics as well as their engines being ported to the SF2 game engine (something I'll discuss in a moment) as well as a chapter 3 being added to complete Nick's story and then an additional chapter 4 final boss battle was added for fun. So that was long, but the point is, anyone should read this if they are interested in SF Gaiden 1, be it on the game gear or the Sega CD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I should elaborate quickly on the title differences of game gear verse the Sega CD. Allow me to use SF SoH as an example. The reason that character guide is exclusive to the game gear is because the changing of the engine. Game gear version had busted Freeze 3, a different Blaze 3, and single turn bosses. Because of that, the characters used are weighed very differently. Natasha and May for instance are 2 of the best characters but when the magic gets changed, they are bottom-trash tier since the enemies STILL get their incredible HP boost but now (especially Natasha) the mages are crippled beyond belief for far too long. This game is not so much the case. I'll admit, I've not played through the Japanese game gear game (I promise I will someday but TBH I may forget to update this guide so you may never know) but I can assure you the game is not that different in the sense of no character is going to be 180 in a different direction for a review sake. For instance, the Mages aren't great regardless; their magic takes too long to learn. So yeah. While the SF SoH guide is for game gear only, this guide can be used for either one. Now that being said, a quick review of the game itself. SF Gaiden 1, SFCD calling it "the root of evil" is the first of the Gaiden games (Gaiden meaning side-quest) and is tangent to the SF series. It takes place in a somewhat distant land of Cypress. The story starts some 20 years after SF 1 where Anri is the ruler of Guardiana (Gardiana now) and Ken and Lowe are still around. Woldol, messenger from Cypress, arrives and puts Anri in a deathly sleeping spell, promising to cure her if Guardiana obeys their command. Lowe sends an army under Luke (Lug now) and they never hear back from them. With Anri's fate tied to Woldol, you have no choice but to send another group of far more inexperienced soldiers to save the day. Thus Ruce (son of Lug) arrives and says they have a new leader to take them, them being Shade (son of Hans), Wendy (Tao's sister), Sig (nephew of Gong), Apis (son of Ken), and Nick, the mysterious lad who reminds Ken so much of Max (who is of course on Parmecia with Adam, but whichever). The game features a similar number of heroes to SoH with 4 chapters and the same delightful gameplay and music. There isn't a whole lot to go over if you are familiar with SF games so let's go ahead and dive right in! -------------------- | Character Review | -------------------- [2000] -Characters can be promoted anytime after 10 and stop gaining stats essentially at level 20 promoted. My final stats below were promoted around 17-20 and leveled to 20. Healers were taken to 20, everybody else essentially at 17 or so since Healers have free EXP to work with- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nick (Swordman into Prince) Spells: Egress, Bolt 1, 2, 3, 4 The hero from SoH is here as the main hero. As with most heroes, Nick uses swords, he won't do much damage, and if he dies, the battle is over. Like the others except Max, Nick does learn Bolt. Unfortunately, he doesn't gain nearly enough MP to make use of this magic nor does he learn the spell nearly soon enough to be relevant. Bolt 4 is learned at 20 promoted (a trend we see with every caster) and Bolt 2 and 3 are learned deep into the 10+ promoted levels, something we won't see until deep into chapter 4 most likely if at all That being said, Nick is easily the worst hero in all the SF games. There is a MAJOR lacking of sword upgrades in this game meaning that Nick is only getting damage upgrades if he gets +2 attack on levels, which he tends to do about 30% of the time. Luckily, Nick DOES gain a TON of defense which is very helpful since you can only defeat the final boss once Nick whacks him with the legendary SoH that you get for that battle. Final Stats: HP 63 MP 27 AT 44 +26 DE 53 AG 33 MV 06 There is a White Ring, which is +10 DE if you want Nick to have it. +26 AT reflects the only Critical Sword in the game. The SoH is literally for the final battle only and if you Egress out you refight the previous battle and lose the sword temporarily. Your other sword option is +21 AT Broadsword ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ruce (Warrior into Gladiator) Ruce is the son of Lug, but unlike his father, he lost a movement for his game which sucks because while warriors in SF1 were some of the best characters in the game, the warriors in this one are some of the worst characters in the game. Even Lug, who later makes an appearance for the final battle, lost a movement coming in. Having just 5 movement is crippling to a melee fighter. Add that to Ruce's somewhat disappointing attack throughout most of the game and very small life total (there is a lot of enemy magic throughout most of the game) and Ruce is certainly not fit to be on your team. Leveled up and given time to shine, his final stats aren't bad, but there are way better options. I suggest you let Ruce kinda "disappear" and not bother with letting him keep up. Final Stats: HP 52 AT 46 DE 56 AG 31 MV 05 Ruce's final weapon is a Great Axe, which grants an outstanding 28 damage. There is also an Evil Axe (cursed, don't use it) that gives 34 attack. There is one Atlas Axe (sorry, Axe of Atlas) that gives +30 attack. Sadly, it is found 3 battles from the end of the game and is but a minor upgrade. Add it to Ruce's general underperformance and move on ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shade (Archer into Sniper) Shade redeems his father very much so. I still say Hans is worthwhile, but regardless, there are 2 archers in this game and like SoH, both are wonderful additions to your team. Shade may struggle through some of the early game. He can get +2 attack, but it sometimes is a struggle. When I speedrun the game, it seems that 50% of the time, Shade gets about 4-5 +2 attacks by level 10, but the other 50% of the time, Shade gets 0-1 +2 attacks. Those attacks matter for the early game until the end of chapter 1 when you get another arrow upgrade for Shade. From chapter 2 onward, Shade will be a solid ranged attacker for your team. He may not blow things apart like Graham from SoH, but he's sturdy. And one thing that sets this game apart, is that the boss battles are quite grindy since few people have an overwhelming attack power and the Power Ring comes at the end of chapter 3. So having someone with ranged attacks is very handy to have. Final Stats HP 54 AT 56 DE 48 AG 25 MV 06 The best arrow is a one of Buster Shot, collected in the second-to-last battle in chapter 3. That's a bad thing, since the Great Shot, is purchased at the beginning of chapter 3, meaning your archers really don't get much of an attack upgrade outside of levels for half the game. Still should use them though. Great Shot is +23 attack and Buster Shot is +26. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sig (Monk into Master Monk) Spells: Heal 1, 2, 3, 4 Detox 1, 2 Dispel 1 Blast (Hell) 1, 2, 3 Sig redeems his uncle heavily. While Gong was an overall waste of space in a game, constantly being overshadowed by every other character in the game, Sig does find himself a niche bit of a home. That is until Mayfair joins and you trash Sig and probably Cray because Mayfair is the boss and you don't need that much healing. That being said, Sig does get decent attack and could round out your team for you. He's a Monk, but he does get better MP than Cray. His attack suffers heavily though, so it's a bit of a toss up. He also doesn't learn Blast 4 apparently, as my Sig is now level 24 and he still hasn't gotten it. That being said, Detox is a waste of a spell, still, and Dispel doesn't do much work either. He learns the offensive spell, but it's both so weak and comes so late AND he doesn't master it, so Sig really only does exist to brawl the front lines but he can sustain himself for healing. Really, why are the warriors bad in this game? The Monks do their job, except they can heal too! Heal 4 comes at 20 promoted though so you probably won't see it in a regular game. That's fine, since Heal 3 gets you through pretty much everything since the 30ish heal is full health until the end of chapter 4. Final Stats HP 64 MP 42 AT 54 DE 53 AG 32 MV 05 Sig's best weapon is the Iron Claw. A terrible weapon that gives +20 attack. The only perk is knuckles are available in upgrades a lot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wendy (Mage into Wizard) Spells: Blaze 1, 2, 3, 4 Freeze 1, 2, 3 Sleep 1 Attack 1 So Tao must've gotten the magical talent in the family. Wendy is terrible and the worst of the 3 mages in the game. In the beginning, she knows Blaze 1, and she learns Freeze 1 at 4. Blaze 2 comes at 8. And likely, that's as far as you'll make it before you ditch her for anybody (and/or just leaving her dead) because her spell selection skreeches to a grinding halt after that. You're better off promoting her right away if you wanna keep her, because taking her up towards 20 you only learn Sleep and Freeze 2... OUCH That's really her biggest problem. She's adorable, but her magic just sucks and takes too long to come online. Blaze 4 and Attack are both great, too bad that's level 16 and 20 promoted that we're talking about! Blaze 3 and Freeze 3 also come way too late to be relevant. At the end of the day, there are two other mages, no mage is superb in this game, but Wendy probably isn't going to make the cut. I also doubt she learns Freeze 4, since a trend here it seems with mages is they only master 1 spell. Final Stats HP 38 MP 59 AT 29 DE 45 AG 27 MV 05 There's a Protect Staff available in the final battle of chapter 2, it's the best weapon for Wizards since it gives defense. They later are for purchase in chapter 4. The Staff gives +16 AT and +2 DE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Apis (Knight into Paladin) Apis is solid. There are 3 knights in this game, and he's probably the worst of them, but the Knights are good enough that you still will probably use all of them despite only having 1 best weapon and 1 second best weapon. Early on, Apis is a monster. His great range and frequent weapon upgrades will keep him at a high level. He can switch to a Spear for an attack penalty but attack from a range, which gives him great threat on the battlefield. Later on, his attack tends to fall off pretty hard, but I find him very tanky with lots of health, so I like to give him the Power Ring to boost my other better fighters since Apis isn't going to die anytime soon. His final stats look much better compared to say Randolf, but that is due largely to the double dipped levels since Randolf is prepromoted. Leveled equally, Apis falls off. Given the double dipping, Apis is likely your best due to 7-10 extra levels. Final Stats HP 64 AT 51 DE 52 AG 26 MV 07 Knights get a ton of upgrades, and their best weapon is the Valkyrie, dropped in the second battle in chapter 4. The Halberd is the second best weapon and you find it in the cave in chapter 3 (also where the Critical Sword is at). Sadly, Power Spears are your best ranged alternative, but that's fair. If you're using all the Knights, Apis probably will get the Power Ring, with Chrome Lance and Power Spear alternative while the others get the better weapons (though it is up to you). The Power Spear is +18, Chrome Lance is +22, Halberd is +24, and the Valkyrie is +28. As you can see, only one Knight gets a "really good weapon" and the others do alright. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cray (Monk into Master Monk) Spells: Heal 1, 2, 3, 4 Muddle 1, 2 Boost 1, 2 Hell 1, 2, 3 I've already talked a lot about Cray in Sig's section so let me try to focus in on just Cray here. He joins after battle 2, which is nice, as you are granted some extra healing since Sig takes a long time to get that more MP. Cray however, can't be your only healer. His MP is very small and it stays that way for a long time. That being said, his attack is "Cray-zee" and he will often be one of your best attackers, getting +3 attack a lot. If the Knuckles were better weapons, he'd be a top candidate. His spells suck, but he does better than Sig thanks to learning Boost. Sadly, Boost doesn't give EXP the way it does in SF2. I mean, it does give EXP but it doesn't seem to give more than about 15 or so which is worse than just healing yourself. To get Cray and Sig more EXP, load them up with cheap Herbs to spam heal more often since that is 10 EXP each time. Cray starts off weak, but give him a few levels and he'll impress you. Final Stats HP 56 MP 33 AT 58 DE 51 AG 27 MV 05 Cray also gets to use the Iron Claw like Sig. As far as I can remember, you don't find any glove before the other so they both just get upgrades as the game progresses. The Iron Claw is +20 remember ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Claude (Bird Man to Bird Battler) Claude is back! Errr, here!? Well, it's the same Claude from SoH. Sadly, he's not as good as the SoH form (makes sense somewhat since that's the better promoted version) but Claude is still one of your best characters and going to be used constantly. He flies, gets good attack and defense, and doesn't end your battle if he dies. Claude has 6 move, but like SoH, I often pepper him for increased movement so that he can be a true threat flying about the battlefield. I also give him the better sword upgrades over Nick for that reason (Steel Sword if found early and the Critical Sword later). Claude makes life easier when he joins at the end of chapter 1, that's for sure. Like other games, remember that movement bonuses are lost upon promotion so don't use that Turbo Pepper until after promotion Final Stats HP 51 AT 49 DE 54 AG 29 MV 06 Claude uses the Broad or Critical Sword as his final weapons, +21 and +26 attack for those. The other birdman is solid to use also, but I would stick him with a Broadsword and Claude the Critical Sword personally. There is the Dark Sword, but like the Evil Axe, it's cursed, so don't make a habit of using it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stock (Ranger into Bowknight) Stock joins at a meager level 4 in chapter 2, battle 3, when most of your party is level 8 or 9. You probably don't want to use him. That's fair, but despite that disadvantage, Stock probably hits for the same amount of damage AND this is when you get the Elven Arrow for +3 range. Stock takes some time to level up, dare I say, you must *stock* up on his EXP before using him? Alright, so that's terrible, but like SoH, the Archers are wonderful additions due to decent attack, good move, and their range being their biggest asset. As I said before, the bosses tend to be very grinding, so having the Archers blast them from a distance helps a bunch. There are also a decent number of battles where the range can shoot enemies over walls and whatnot. They really just simplify the game for you. Final Stats HP 49 AT 43 DE 48 AG 29 MV 06 Like Shade, he gets +23 or +26 attack from the Great or Buster Shot. Give the better weapon to the weaker one to spread out your damage in case one falls during the battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mayfair (Priest into Vicar) Spells: Heal 1, 2, 3, 4 Muddle 1 Hell 1, 2, 3, 4 Aura 1, 2, 3, 4 The advisor from SoH is your best healer in this game! How cool is that!? Seriously though, Mayfair is essentially Sarah from SoH, learning a full range of spells you'd expect a healer to learn. She learns them rather quickly too, getting those level 4 spells later into promoted levels, but Aura comes online earlier than you'd expect and that's +25 EXP a turn as long as you hit 3 heroes even if you don't need to heal them. She joins with Stock at the same time. You probably think that you're fine on healers and you don't need another, but she's the best in the game so take some time and put her to work. You'll find her amazingly tanky, with a ton of MP, and a weapon that self-heals her at the end of the game. Seriously, she makes the game easier by a long way so the only reason not to use her is to challenge yourself. Final Stats HP 45 MP 53 AT 41 DE 58 AG 30 MV 05 Mayfair uses the Holy Staff for her final weapon. It's +2 HP a turn if she's wounded. Admittedly, you can buy Healing Rains in this game for 20K, so for a speedrun, you're not gonna bother with Mayfair, since she takes some time to level up, but for anything outside of a speedrun, Mayfair is your dame of choice. The Staff is +20 attack ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yeesha (Mage into Wizard) Spells: Blaze 1, 2, 3 Slow 1, 2 Bolt 1, 2, 3, 4 Desoul 1, 2 Yeesha is contender for best caster in the game and is definitely one of your most valuable assets for a long time. That's because of a little spell called Slow, which she learns a second level of very quickly, and it lands on most regular enemies, and it turns your regular chumps into damage dealing machines. She never learns Blaze 4, she starts with just Blaze 2, but as you can see, she is the master of Bolt, which is kinda cool. Desoul is a joke, don't bother casting it. With Yeesha, she joins at the end of chapter 2. Since she's level 10 already, I'd Egress out of the battle in chapter 3, promote her, and give her the Guardian Staff you won from the previous battle. She doesn't really benefit from those extra levels and you'd rather get to her better magic sooner. Not only are the 11+ levels quite poor, but this game works off "true level" meaning that promoting resets your magic level back to 11 Final Stats HP 33 MP 56 AT 29 DE 46 AG 34 MV 05 Her best weapon is the Protect Staff which is +16 AT and +2 DE. Her major weakness is low health and defense (obviously) so the Protect Staff and a +5 Protect Ring can go a long way to keeping her healthy for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gyan (Something into Berserker) Well I'll be darned if Gyan from this game is actually decent. Granted, he's not really better than the Warriors, but he at least is better than his SoH version. Why is he better than the Warriors? He has Beast movement, so all of those annoying battles where nobody can move, he moves well! Sadly it's only 5 movement, but this Gyan, unlike SoH Gyan, can equip Rings, so you can see where I'm going here. At the end of the day, he's not going to overwhelm you with stats or power but I'll admit that he was useful and I'd stick him in my party over the warriors any day. Granted the final battles are all throne rooms so the movement advantage is a wash, but there are many battles with Gyan where that isn't the case. He joins at 10 unpromoted in chapter 3 after battle 1; with decent stats might I add. Another small perk. His damage will likely be lacking so giving him extra unpromoted EXP helps, but his promoted growth here is actually quite nice. Final Stats HP 66 AT 72 DE 51 AG 30 MV 05 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Domingo (Magic Creature) Spells: Blaze 1, 2, 3 Freeze 1, 2, 3, 4 Bolt 1, 2, 3 Desoul 1, 2 Our first of 2 secret characters, Domingo makes another appearance from SF1 but for all practical purposes, he's a different character. He doesn't really have anything in common with his former self except learning Freeze 4 way too late. So maybe he does have something in common I guess... He's another contender for best caster, and that's because he joins with Blaze 3 and Freeze 3 already available, and yeesha probably hasn't gained that much EXP yet. That being said, he'll likely never get anything useful in most games unless you grind excessively because he learns Bolt 1, then both ranks of Desoul, then Bolt 2 and 3, then Freeze 4 at 20. So yeah, he comes in strong and finishes with a MASSIVE wet fart. Either way, he's still powerful and a great addition to your team Final Stats HP 47 MP 47 AT 56 DE 50 AG 27 MV 06 Domingo is a secret character found in the field battle (chapter 3, battle 2) near the lake on the right side. There's a row of trees, search the most left side and you'll find him. His DE is rather low, so a Protect Ring helps a bunch. His MP is also low through most of the game, so try and figure your best ways to use his MP effectively. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kashing (Knight into Paladin) If I told you that 2 battles after Domingo you get a level 10 Knight would you believe me? Um, surprise! Kashing is part of the original force that got torn apart. Maybe it's not a surprise as to why they failed... That being said, Kashing holds his own and is a great character to fit onto your team. Apis tends to have better AT than him, but by switching the weapons around, you can balance out your attacks reasonably well to avoid losing too much damage it people fall in battle. That being said, since Kashing comes so late unpromoted, if you want to avoid using him, I can certainly see why as he does take a fair amount of time to level up. Final Stats HP 67 AT 44 DE 55 AG 29 MV 07 His final weapons are the same as Apis. Power Spear, Chrome Lance, Halberd and the Valkyrie. Their damages are +18, +22, +24, and +28. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gates (Gladiator) Another member of the original force, Gates is a prepromoted Gladiator who joins at level 3 one battle after Kashing joins you. He is, unimpressive to say the least, with small health and a small movement to boot. Gates can be useful though, since you get useful weapons like the Atlas and Heat Axe and he's already promoted, meaning you can take advantage of those without putting energy into Ruce. Now, is that enough to keep him on your team? Probably not, but it's something to mention at least. The battle he joins does have an interesting gimmick unique to SF where no magic can be casted until the Fizzle Ball is destroyed. That doesn't stop items from being used though... Final Stats HP 37 AT 40 DE 50 AG 23 MV 05 His best weapon is the Atlas Axe, +30. And since you're probably not using Ruce, don't worry about the others ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shriek (Bird Battler) Another member of the original force (jeez, how original) Shriek is your second flying tank to enter the force. Actually he's worse than Claude in every way, being prepromoted and weaker and whatnot, but the fact he flies makes all the difference. Claude flies around, whacks things to low health, and Shriek cleans em up. Since he joins for the first battle in chapter 4 which is the dreadful Edmond battle (seriously don't ask) Shriek becomes an extremely welcome member and mainstay to our team. Final Stats HP 54 AT 47 DE 43 AG 23 MV 06 You can see his stats are just subpar over Claude. But a flying death bomb is still a flying death bomb. That being said, he can use the Critical Sword but I tend to give that to Claude and stick him with a Broad Sword +26 and +21 BTW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Randolf (Paladin) Randolf is NOT a member of the original force. He, like Claude, exists in SoH, but he, unlike Claude, was a member of the Cypress Army. When Edmond came to power through Woldol, Randolf was pushed aside and he remained loyal to Nick, who was the true prince of Cypress. Claude was a member "of the resistance" which is likely tied to Cypress but in a different way. Randolf joins after Edmond is defeated, and he's extremely welcome. His stats are, really not that much better than Apis or Kashing. However, I tend to give him the Valkyrie and let him rock and roll. This is mostly due to his "power leveling" since he joins at a lower level, and Apis is usually capped out. Plus, if Apis is promoted at 10 and not the 17ish he was for these stats, Randolf would have higher attack so keep that in mind. Unless you're powering your team, Randolf is going to be your main attacking knight. Final Stats HP 65 AT 47 DE 53 AG 28 MV 07 He uses the same knight weapons, but as I said before, he joins with a Chrome Lance, and the Valkyrie is dropped in the next battle, the first one you get with him, so I give it on over to him and let him roll out ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Amigo (Magic Creature) Spells: Aura 1, 2, 3, 4 Hell 1, 2, 3, 4 Boost 1, 2 Dispel 1 The second hidden character, she's found 1 battle after Randolf, in the "gate battle". She's hiding in the far right bush. Some might describe her as the best healer, but not really. I find Mayfair to have a better selection and she suffers from "late-syndrome" in that you get her for 4 battles. She joins with only Aura 1. Admittedly she gets her magic very quickly, but you have to ask yourself is it worth it? Because she really isn't, unless you didn't bother with Mayfair, and are getting very frustrated with the lack of Aura on your team. That's about the only reason to use Amigo Final Stats HP 45 MP 49 AT 57 DE 51 AG 27 MV 06 Amigo joins at level 5 and is super fragile because of that. Try to use Aura to level and keep her safely tucked away due to her squishiness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lug (Luke) (Gladiator) Like the Nick from SoH, Lug doesn't really count as a hero. He forces himself onto your team (luckily he doesn't boot anyone, meaning that you can actually have 13 members for the final battle). However, while Nick from SoH is a respected fighter, Lug is trash. As mentioned before, he forgot a movement, so he's stuck at 5, and he joins at level 12. You can level him to 20 (it's quite easy since all those enemies give max EXP and are stupidly easy to defeat) but it's really not worth it. He joins with a Battle Axe, which is cool, but like the other games, it's the final battle, so why are we bothering trying to level him up? His only purpose is to give Nick the SoH! And I do mean that, for if you Egress out, you have to re-fight the previous battle and Nick I guess drops the sword and Lug finds it again. Also, I'll mention that Lug was supposed to be his name. Due to a translation error of SF1, Luke was the wrong name. Lug (pronounced like Loog) was closer to his original Japanese name. You can see where Loog became Luke and the rest, is history. Final Stats HP 51 AT 69 DE 53 AG 22 MV 05 Any EXP given to Lug stays when you Egress. However, any items you give him DO NOT STAY so don't try giving him new weapons. But you should just go and win so I don't know why you're bothering with experimenting! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Spells The spells in this game follow SF2 almost exactly. So I'll try to point out areas where the spells differ somehow. The first and most generic obvious thing is that spells don't deal more damage after promotion the same way they deal more in SF2. That being said... Defensive | Healing-based Spells Aura Aura is your classic heal spell but attached to the AoE principle. It's the defining spell for any healer to know, and two of them do know learn it. As long as you hit 3 allies (regardless of actual heal) you gain 25 EXP which allows for superb amounts of leveling. Heals for 15/15/30/full Costs 7/11/15/20 Affects 5/5/13/Team Range 3/3/3/All Boost Boost is the defensive status spell that gives defense and agility based on your natural numbers meaning that naturally faster or tankier heroes benefit the most here whereas the weaker heroes are less to benefit. Boosts DE/AG by about 25% Costs 5/9 Affects 5/13 Range 1/2 Detox Most versions of this spell are pretty pointless. Losing 1/4 of your available spells to simply cure poison at your convenience is pretty wasteful. Especially since poison is not hugely present throughout the game, anyone who learns this spell just practically has 3 spells instead. It gains range with level 2 and that's it DSPL (Dispel) For some reasons, healers are given the MUTE spell. Not much changes here, even if you could mute enemy caster, generally healing or killing it works a bunch better. Compared to Slow which actually lands and makes enemies easier to defeat, there is just no reason to ever use this spell. Egress Egress is a spell that needs no introduction. Here, since there is no exploration, Egress only resets and takes you out of battles. Heal Your bread and butter "heal" spell, surprisingly, Amigo does not learn it. There is not much else to say about this spell Heals for 15/15/30/full Costs 3/5/10/20 Affects 1 Range 1/2/3/1 Hell | Blast The renamed spell isn't any better here. It's a nice spell to have since your healers generally don't attack for that much... oh wait, your Monks actually hit really hard! Yeah, not much else to say about this spell Deals 6/8/10/20 Costs 2/5/8/8 Affects 1/5/5/1 Range 1/2/2/2 Muddle Don't know what this spell does because it's terrible and has been terrible in every SF game ever Offensive | Wizard-based Spells Attack The only reason to use Wendy, she learns Attack, the same bonus you from the Power Ring, she eventually gives you access to. It costs 7, but hey, it's a powerful spell that can get decent work done. Raises attack by about 25% Blaze Blaze is weakest offensive spell for mages and with a lacking of undead minions throughout the game, it is just a simple and straightforward spell for damage. Wendy is the only one who masters it and it takes her to 20 to master it so you'll likely just use Blaze 3 from time to time instead. Deals roughly 6/8/14/30 Costs 2/6/10/10 Affects 1/5/5/1 Ranges 2/2/2/2 Bolt Bolt is the strongest and most expensive offensive spell in the game. Bolt 1 is normally an appropriate response for some heroes, in this game, people who learn Bolt will never cast it as Bolt 1 is simply inefficient. Later, Bolt 2 adds a much needed AoE but Bolt 3 is where the spell begins to shine. Bolt 4 is the best single target spell in the game but at 20 MP and requiring 20 to learn it for Yeesha, you'll likely never see it or use it. Nick also learns it at 20 but like Yeesha, you'll never make it to Bolt 3 most likely. Deals roughly 12/15/25/50 Costs 8/15/20/20 Affects 5/13/13/1 Range 2/3/3/3 Desoul Desoul is a trash spell that works decently in other games but here I've had no success with it. There is a second rank of the spell that gives it an AoE but I would never both casting this spell. Costs 8/13 Freeze In most cases, Freeze is the ideal spell here since it have better range than Blaze but doesn't cost an obscene amount like Bolt. Not much else to say. Deals roughly 8/10/15/40 Costs 3/7/12/12 Affects 1/5/5/1 Range 1/2/3/3 Sleep Sleep is a pretty pointless spell, but I'll give props to Wendy since Sleep does hit enemies and can make some middle battles easier since Sleep doesn't cost that much and has AoE at level 1. It's not much of a reason to keep Wendy around, but unlike other status spells, Sleep here actually works out. Costs 4 MP, has 2 range, and tries to sleep the enemy Slow Yeesha is the only one who learns Slow and just like SF2, Slow is incredibly strong and brutally effective. It removes base defense and speed from enemies which greatly helps a number of your weaker heroes do a lot better. Slows by approx 25% Costs 3/6 Affects 5/13 Range 1/2 Suggested Teams and Deeper Analysis Much the same to SoH, there isn't "much" to discuss in terms of suggested teams since we are limited so heavily by just raw numbers of available characters. That being said, unlike SoH, we can escape with letting loose certain heroes in this case since we are unlikely to cap on EXP with our team. Basically, using Ruce as an example, there's no loss to our team in cutting him immediately since plowing through each battle, it's still hard to cap on EXP so having Ruce just wastes time and steals EXP. So that being said, let's try to really examine this is a shell before expanding out. Through Chapter 1 You can Egress and redo battle 1 as much as you want. So for an easier time, you can do that until your team is level 7 or 8. That however is both pointless and defeats the purpose. Ideally, you were intended to beat that battle in one go, but regardless, here's our character progression to the end. Nick | Ruce | Shade | Sig | Wendy | Apis | Cray We have to use Nick and Apis is one of our better characters. Even if his attack falls off, he remains tanky and a better option to Kashing largely due to Kashing joining so late and if you don't want to bother leveling him. Shade is an interesting choice as he is useful in spurts, but on the whole, I think he and later Stock are worth it to stay in our team. Cray is certainly useful as he's simply a better warrior. Let's talk about the others. Ruce is a weak warrior and one of the worst characters in the game. In any style of game (speedrun or casual) you can do much better than Ruce so it's in your favor to let him die early. Sig is inferior to Cray, and while he is a better warrior, you're better off letting Sig go as well and just replacing with Cray. Wendy is the interesting choice, as her early magic is super useful through about halfway in Chapter 2. The downside of Wendy is that she falls off super hard due to a lack of magic progression so when to cut Wendy is a difficult one I cannot say for sure. The only certainity is that you WILL want to cut her at some point during Chapter 2. Through Chapter 2 Nick | Shade | Apis | Cray | Claude | Stock | Mayfair Excluding those we've already eliminated, we pick up a few people here that are weak to seemingly useless, but they are actually the best characters in the game. For speedruns, we exclude Mayfair from that list since we don't need healing, but in a casual format, Claude is a flyer and very powerful, and Stock grows quite readily. His low level is intimidating but the Elven Arrow for purchase helps to keep him out of range as he explodes into EXP. Mayfair is the best healer in the game so for casual purposes, there really is no contest. Through Chapter 3 Nick | Shade | Apis | Cray | Claude | Stock | Mayfair Yeesha | Gyan | (Domingo) | Kashing | Gates Unlike Chapter 2, we add some low level characters and this is where you as the player must decide as to what you're looking for moving into the last chapter. If we are promoting early at level 10, then people like Gates and Kashing are pointless, whereas Domingo and Gyan are better. If we are promoting later, then Kashing is a lot better, and Domingo is a lot worse. In any case, Yeesha is our best mage thanks to Slow and Gyan is still playable but ultimately could be pushed out. Similarly, Gates is pretty useless, but in my speedrun I do stick him around due to numbers and he can use the Heat and Atlas Axe which is kinda neat. So when I say "promote at 10" I'm not strictly referring to a speedrun. The difference with Kashing and Domingo comes largely from how we're playing the game. Kashing if given time is quite reasonable and tanky, Domingo on the other hand falls off harder and harder the more you let other people catch up. Through Chapter 4 Nick | Shade | Apis | Cray | Claude | Stock Mayfair | Yeesha | Shriek | Randolf | +2 Options: Gyan, Domingo, Kashing, Gates, Amigo Shriek is a weaker version of Claude, which still makes him pretty darn useful through a number of battles. The last 2 battles he's a lot less useful since they're indoors, but he's still quite useable compared to other people. Randolf is just rock solid and an easy inclusion regardless of how you level your team. The only real difference is how strong he is and that's if you promote your team at 10 or 15. Amigo is a pretty easy one to skip I think. You never need two healers (Cray really isn't a healer) and Mayfair at this point will be leveled and strong enough. Amigo joins with a pathetic spell selection and has no offense. Admittedly Amigo levels quickly with Aura, but she joins just 4 battles from the end of the game so in reality, you can do much better. That leaves Gyan, Domingo, Kashing, or Gates, which strangely enough breaks down the discussion from the previous section. If promoting at 10, then Domingo and Gyan/Gates can round out your team. If promoting at 15+, then Kashing+Gyan is your bet. There is something to be said about an abundance of Knights, but I tend to stick the Power Ring on one of them, the weaker one, as they're tanky and unlikely to die. This gives the Valkyrie and Halberd to be spread out. So there you go. Lug joins in the final battle to give us 13 and that's our team. Feel free to experiment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some Moogles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [3000] Leveling Suggestions I've already mentioned that you can redo the first battle, and that's fine and all, but since some of your best characters join in chapter 2, I'd rather just wait to redo battles until later when Stock and Mayfair join. If you follow my above suggestions, then you can get most of your team to 8/9 by the time Marfair and Stock join up. This allows you to leave many kills for Stock, especially the lower enemies that don't give experience to your other members. Now in terms of promotions, if you're promoting early, then promote after Stock and Mayfair join. Promoting before that is pointless, no EXP available in that previous battle. Promoting after is fine, but leveling to 11 or 12 before promoting is pretty insignificant. The extra levels for "double dip" only really matter to noncasters and only if you get to 15+. For these stats, I went to 17 for most people which was about as high as I could get in 3-1 where I promoted. Which brings me to my next point, for casual play promoting in 3-1 is a good option since you can get to 17 if you really want, 15 pretty easily. To get to 20 is pretty hard and again, a few levels just don't matter. Those extra levels are only worth it if you get like 5 or 6 of them. Later on, you can moreorless just plow through the game. Into Chapter 4 after Randolf joins, you have some pretty good battles for EXP purposes if you must. I always say, "you're so close to the end, just finish it" but the end battles can get tedious and if you want those final levels for some people it's not bad. Also, if you're a completionist and want everyone to be 20, then you can happily redo the last battle by Egressing and those enemies give loads of EXP so there you go. Items Items Items There is no exploring in this game outside of battles, so everything drops but I'm not going to list every single drop. Instead, this is more to focus on where big things are and who I'd use them on. Turbo Pepper, dropped from a nearby enemy in the last battle in chapter 1 I use it on Claude after promotion. My only 5 move hero that matters is Cray, but I don't need him going faster. I enjoy having 8 movement on Claude, it let's him be a flying threat Power Ring, dropped from the Minotaur in the last battle in chapter 3 We do get the ring but so late in the game. Since Wendy is unlikely to ever get to Attack, don't slap the Power Ring on someone for damage, but give it to a tanky hero who can boost people to take down bosses Shield Ring, dropped by the healer at the end of the Mushroom Cave Also on your entire team at the start of the game (drop them, rebuy them) You can have many Shield Rings. Money pending on how much grinding you do, you can easily support your weaker characters Mobility Ring, found in the Fizzle Ball battle chest Movement is always useful, give it to a slower person Quick Ring, found in Bazoo Tower in the lower left chest Gives speed when equipped, like SF1 it does allow for some turn exploiting as well uses Egress as an item. Generally I give it to a fast person to use Egress at the beginning of the turn since Nick is fairly slow Critical Sword, found in the lower chest in Mushroom Cave The best sword in the game for Claude, pick it up dude Halberd, found in the right chest in Mushroom Cave The second best Knight weapon, give it to Apis or Randolf Valkyrie, dropped by the middle dullahan in 4-2 The best knight weapon, give it to Apis or Randolf Atlas Axe, dropped by the boss in 4-3 (the castle wall battle) Give it to Gates if he's around Buster Shot, dropped by one of the bowriders after the mushroom cave Give it to the weaker of Shade or Stock, or just the one if you only have the one since the other died Frequently Asked Questions Q: What's with the names? Gardiana versus Guardiana is a pretty straight-forward misunderstanding of a non-english speaker as both are pronounced the same but "Guard" is an existing english word and "Gard" isn't really. For Lug and Luke, that one is a bit more of a stretch, but as I hinted at early, the original name of Luke was pronounced more similarly to *loog* and spelled accordingly except with a U. However, when an English speaker looks at Lug, we are more likely to think of a Lug-nut, something that makes since, and wouldn't think to pronounce it more like Loog. Because of that, we think of Lug like a Lugnut but in reality, it's Loog and that's how you get Luke Q: What happened to the other characters from SF1? It's hard to say. We see some or at least get reference to: Anri, Lowe, Ken, Luke, Tao, Hans, Gong, Domingo, and Max. Let's break this down into some groups Max is only made reference to in the beginning by Ken. We know from Final Conflict (FC) that Max is on Parmecia with Adam (so we can include Adam now). The others, Tao, Hans, and Gong are never seen but are also made reference to as the initial party is related to them. Wendy is Tao's sister, Shade is Han's son, and Sig is Gong's uncle. This only gives us clues to who Shade's mother is, his appearance and there being only one female archer in SF1 leads us to believe that Diane is the mother, but at best it's speculation. Ken is physically seen in the game, but outside of his appearance and the fact that Apis is his son, that's all we get from him. Mae was the only female knight in SF1 so that gives some hope that Mae is the mother, but that's even more speculative outside of Diane since Shade does look like Diane. Lowe is in the game as the Mentor and that's it, Anri is in the beginning of the game and that's it (though she does at least reappear in the other Gaiden games which maintains the consistency. Domingo is in the game, but as I've said early, he seems to be a completely dfferent character with completely different spells and stats and from a story standpoint, why would Domingo even be there? It makes very little sense. In terms of Domingo connecting to Amigo, there's nothing to suggest any relationship there. Luke actually joins the party later on and we know Ruce is his son. As the only possible connection between that is the two granddaughters of Gort that live in Guardiana, it's impossible to say if one of those women would meet Luke and later give spawn to Ruce. We don't even know if those women are human or dwarf which matters since it seems that a human and dwarf would... well that gets into subject matter beyond the scope of this guide. That's a good portion of the characters. Those not mentioned have no connection in any real sense outside of extreme speculation. Q: How does this story fit into the greater story arc? There's no clear story, and when SF1 came out in Japan in 92 and 93 for others and SF2 came out in 93|94, there was at the time little to no connections between the games other than the titles. The first Gaiden was released later in 92 for Japan and never saw a US release, and SoH the second Gaiden was released in 93|94, and FC the final Gaiden which has nothing to do with the first two Gaidens was released in 95 and only saw an English fan translation much later. The point being, that an overarcing story was probably never intended, especially if we include other "Shining" titles such as Holy Ark, Darkness, or even Tears. If we focus on just those first 5 (and maybe toss Darkness in there) we can at least get something cohesive but that's largely due to FC which also seems deliberately created to just force tie-ins from the others. SF1 comes out and leaves an opening with Max and Adam on an unclear land looking for a new life. So the next title is Gaiden 1, which adds to the overall story but chooses new characters and a new land to focus on, only paying homage to the original SF1. SoH came out next which extended the story of Gaiden 1, but pays even less attention to the original SF1 story. SF2 then comes out and again, outside of title, there is no connection of characters outside of the Storytellers in Mitula's Temple. Now keep in mind, the story from those guys is from the English game; but so far I've been looking chronologically at the Japanese release. Some things, such as Max's backstory, were dropped in the English release which only further distances titles from one another whereas in the Japanese release it makes clear that Max and Kane are brothers, an important detail later in FC. Regardless, the Storytellers tell a story about Arc Valley. In no particular order: Arc Valley is a dark place where evil gathers. He who rules Arc Valley is the King of the Devils Dark Sol, Dark Dragon and Zeon fought desperately to obtain Arc Valley. The fight of the devil kings created a mighty storm Zeon won. And every devil named him the King of the Devils. The other two kings envied Zeon. They sealed his powers inside the Jewel of Evil. When Zeon lost his powers, he fell to Earth, and created a giant crater when he hit. His moan destroyed the mountains and the crater was buried by the debris Grieving over the fight, the God of Wisdom created the Jewel of Light. The Jewel of Light chose a brave man and gave him a Holy Sword. With the Holy Sword in hand, the brave man fought against the two devil kings. The Holy Sword contained holy power. Thus, the two devil kinds were defeated Evil Arc Valley was sealed beneath the Ancient Tower. Never open the door to the tower. A great evil sleeps inside In the event of Zeon awakening, the power of light will choose another. Believe us. We lie not. Attack the devil at his mouth with the Holy Sword. So the story then confirms Dark Sol and Dark Dragon existing right? Kinda. Dark Sol has existed in 3 games (Darkness, SF1, and FC) which is confusing and Dark Dragon's story seems somewhat unclear from that description to the story provided in SF1. Really, the story is more confusing initially then you would think. Remember that FC isn't out yet and for the US, we only have SF1 and now this, maybe some people have SoH. Here's 3 initial questions Chaos Breaker is or isn't the Holy Sword? Volcanon created the Jewel of Light, and is also the God of Wisdom? When exactly does this take place? That fight, I mean. Before the backstory of SF1 or sometime there after? The point of this being that the last released was FC and it attempted to connect stories that seemed to never intend to connect. Ian is the new hero and he's is Kane's son. That's fine, a nice tie in, but that means that the timeframe now from SF1 to SF2 at best is 60 years. If Max is a young soldier in SF1, then he could still realistically be in fighting shape by 80 since he is human. Kane dies in SF1 though, which means that Ian despite not being that old, is actually around 60 in that case. What does that matter? In FC, they have the Chaos Breaker, another direct tie to SF1. Galam exists too, Granseal doesn't exist, and Hawel is in the game (we assume him to be the same Hawel). In SF2 though, that Granseal city isn't in the vein of just a few decades old. Sir Astral is an old man and has seemingly lived in Granseal most of his life; there are also books talking about "Kings of Granseal" so unless Granseal rotates Kings every year, that seems out of place. If we make that Hawel different from the SF2 Hawel, then we can have some time between SF2 and FC to potentially build itself up. That also gives more to the idea of Ian being young, and Max not being that old come FC. Not to mention that Gaiden 1 and 2 are still not in the picture. So that was a long tangent, but the answer to the question is this. We have a few stories that don't necessarily all connect to one another. SF1, Gaiden 1, and Gaiden 2 are one story arc; although SF1 isn't really a part of that story outside of names, they all exist in the same universe at least. Max and FC then wrap up Max's story line (so SF1 has the broad story, but Max's story continues into FC). While the story takes place on Parmecia, the timelines simply don't connect enough to pretend that SF2 is taking place within that same time outside of simply landmass. Which leaves SF2, and like I said, allowing for Hawel to be a simple name coincidence that actually forces FC and SF2 to be but distant cousins, SF2 then is its own story about Zeon with a rather lose tie in back to SF1 in a story that may or may not make the whole thing more confusing. UGH, moving on! Q: Any suggestions for new runners regarding speedrunning? There are more suggestions than I can begin to describe and since this guide is dedicated pretty exclusively to the characters and I'll probably never bother writing a speedrunning guide since the game doesn't really need one. As a general rule of thumb, using more characters can make the game easier to beat without repeating battles and then you can exclude more characters as you get more familiar with it. IV. Contact and Closing [4000] -------------- | Copyrights | -------------- This is copyright me, Todd Lesinski AKA NoWorries. As such, you cannot use copy any part of this guide and claim it as your own. I'm not a stickler so long you make a reference somewhere saying that this guide was so helpful for whatever purpose you are using this for that would be great. If you are a cheat bastard then may a ball-eating plague be struck upon you and all consequent men in your family until you right this wrong. ----------- | Contact | ----------- If you feel the need to contact me about ANYTHING pertaining to THIS guide; you may contact me at (AT) [.] tskisoccer@yahoo.com PLEASE PLEASE in the title of the e-mail put SFCD GUIDE; where then in the body of your email you can put your praises/concerns/blasphemy. If it does not follow that format it will probably get deleted and your e-mail blocked. Cool? ENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXTENDTEXT