Breath of Fire 3 Superior Skill FAQ
Ver 1.0
Author: Allan Curtis (Forlornhope, Proudnerd)

Welcome to my FAQ to Breath of Fire 3's enemy skills. This FAQ aims to be the
definitive guide on skills in BoF3. The other FAQS dealing with this subject
either have nearly no information or are poorly written. This FAQ aims to be the
best!

Note that rather than mentioning every single area a skill can be found, to keep
things simple I have instead listed the first place a skill can be accessed
and/or an area that the skill can ALWAYS be accessed. There is little point in
my opinion of listing a boss as a skill user as once that boss is defeated you
can't gain the skill from them. Better to know a place the skill can always be
learned in. Skills are listed in alphabetical order.

Air Raid (3AP)
Bomber (Lighhthouse)

Air Raid does a fair bit of damage and can cancel the actions of the target. It
is a much better version of Intimidate. Great for shutting up annoying enemies.

Aura (20AP)
Ladon (Master)

Aura is one of the strongest attacks in Bof3. It dishes out hundreds of points
of damage and is holy element.  Shadowwalk is a better skill than Aura however.
Shadowwalk costs a lot less AP and does as much or more damage. Aura is still
really good however and with War Shout and Might it really kills bosses dead.

Backhand (0AP)
Durandal (Master)

An attack that will always leave at least 1hp remaining on any enemy. You need
to learn this to get Hondara as a master.

Bad Back (0AP)
Codger (Colony)

The first of Breath of Fire 3's useless “skills” Bad Back just wastes your turn.
It simply represents the Codger having a sore back because he’s old.

Barrier
Stallion boss fight
Emitai (Master)
Various Samples in station Myria

Barrier raises the magic defence of the character it’s used on. This is often
useful in the big fights like against the Dragon Lord or other high powered
bosses.

Benediction (20AP)
Hondara (Master)

Benediction revives all dead characters. It costs a heck of a lot of AP and
takes many levels to learn from Hondara. Don't use it lightly; 20AP is a ton. A
tough character that likely won't be dead is a good pick for this skill, making
Peco a good selection. Nina is another due to her high AP. Be aware that this
spell can fail.

Berserk (2AP)
Giotto (Master)

Berserk greatly boosts the attack power of a character and kills them after
three turns. Garr went from doing 175 to to 700 damage when I used this, so it’s
extremely powerful. If you’re sure you can end a battle that quickly it is worth
using and it can be fun.

Blind (0AP)
Learn from: Ripper (Cedar Woods)

Blind is a low powered physical attack that causes blindness if successful,
dropping enemy hit rate. Most of the time Blind isn’t really worth using. If you
build your party correctly random encounters won’t be enough of a threat to
warrant status effects and the ones that are will be immune.

Blitz (0AP)
Hyperbot (Momo's Tower, upper levels)

Blitz hits all enemies three times with damage based on current HP and causes
the user to lose half their HP afterwards. It’s not really very useful.

Blizzard (10AP)
Deis (Master)

Blizzard is a very strong ice attack on all enemies. Give it to Momo or someone
else with high int and things die.

Bone Dart (3AP)
Ghoul (Wyndia Graveyard)

Bone Dart is a pretty weak attack that can cause confusion. It works pretty
often and at the point in the game when you get it you don’t have many attacks
so you might as well use it on annoying enemies.

Burn (1AP)
Mage Goo (Cedar Woods)

Burn does very minor fire damage to one foe. At the start of the game it is
useful against the super evasive nut people Ryu meets while on his own as they
are weak to fire. It can also be useful against bosses like the Hugeslug that
need to be hit any fire damage.

Celerity (0AP)
Deis (Master)

Celerity doubles a character's stats, making them an unstoppable powerhouse for
the rest of the battle! Using this in any boss battle will really make it
impossible to lose. The downside is that it can only be used once every 3 real
time hours, so use it wisely. It also takes a very long time to learn from Deis.
You need 15 levels under her to learn it!

Charge (0AP)
Volt (McNeil Manor)

Charge does damage based on the character's defence. This can add up to a lot of
damage if you use super high defence characters like Peco. With 346 defence
after 39 levels with Fahl Peco did 376 damage to an end game Adept enemy. For no
AP that is a lot of damage. Charge has average accuracy however and more evasive
enemies (like Vampires) can dodge often.

Charm (0AP)
D'Lonzo (Master, Coffee shop)

Charm increases the chance that an enemy will drop items when defeated. A useful
skill to use when you have a spare turn and very useful if you're trying to get
the fabled Goo King Sword.

Chill (7AP)
Reverent (Communications tower)

Chill does fairly minor frost damage to all targets and can lower their speed.
Its ok against annoying, evasive enemies.

Counter (0AP)
Fahl (Master)

Counter causes the user to counter every attack that comes their way in the
round it’s used in. This means that they must be faster than the enemy for it to
have any effect at all and that they must actually be hit to attack back. This
could theoretically be useful if you only have one party member alive and there
is more than one enemy so you could attack each enemy as they hit you. Outside
of those extraordinary circumstances it’s an utterly useless skill.

Cure
Drak (Desert of Death)

To learn Cure from the Drak cure its paralysis and refrain from attacking it and
it will cast it on you and then flee. Cure is the best healing spell in the
game. It fully restores HP and removes any negative stat affect. Really useful
stuff.

Demonbane (1AP)
Hachio (Master)

Demonbane does extra damage to demons. There aren’t too many demons in the game
but it is one of only three holy attacks in the game so you might want to pick
it up.

Disembowel (0AP)
(Bunyan)  (Cedar Woods)
Assassin (Steel Grave)

Disembowel reduces the target to 1HP if it works, otherwise it does no damage
whatsoever. Each time you use it it lowers your maximum HP until you sleep at an
inn. It’s never worth using.

Double Blow (2AP)
Nut Troop (Mt. Myrneg)

Double Blow hits twice for 2/3 damage each time. If both hits connect this is
extremely useful as it does a lot of damage. If one misses you’ve wasted your AP
as it will have done less damage than a regular attack. Give it to Ryu as he is
very accurate. It can be gained very early on so make sure you don’t miss it!

Douse (1AP)
Giant Roach (Dauna Mines)

Douse makes one enemy weak to fire attacks. It works well, but there aren’t many
times it’s useful.

Evil Eye (7AP)
[Chimera]   (Station Myria)
Vampire     (Station Myria)
[Sample 4]  (Station Myria)

Evil Eye is a paralysis spell that almost always works. It comes far too late to
make use of it but it's still a nice spell.

Feign Swing (0AP)
Durandal (Master)
Mamo (Desert of Death Boss)

This skill does absolutely nothing. It simply plays an attack animation and
nothing happens. Don’t use it.

Flame Strike (2AP)
Fly Man (Chrysm Plant)

Flame Strike is another in the line of strike attacks, unsurprisingly dishing
out fire damage. It doesn’t have any nice stat effects like Frost Strike, but it
is still useful as a lot of enemies are weak to fire.

Ebonfire (3AP)
Codger (Rarely used as part of his Magic Shuffle)
Gooey (Clear game only)

Ebonfire is an interesting skill as most of the time you can only get it after
you clear the game. It’s a fairly strong non elemental attack on one enemy and
looks neat, but it’s just not very useful.

Enlighten (2AP)

Enlighten raises Int just like Meditate

Flying Kick (0AP)
Tricker   (Angel Tower)

Flying Kick does damage based on Agility. Even with Rei however this attack
doesn’t do that much damage.

Focus (0AP)

Focus increases damage by 50% and can be used twice. It is just like Meditate
but for physical attacks. It is slightly more useful however as Double Blow and
Triple Blow are greatly boosted by this and actually result in a net profit on
damage.

Frost (2AP)
Learn From: Mygas (Master, Yrall region)

Frost does minor frost damage. It is good early on when you have few spells. It
is vital to defeating the Tarmen in Mt. Myneg when Ryu is alone at the beginning
of the game. Good in Mt. Zublo too.

Frost Strike (4AP)
Patrio (During the first arena fight)
Bolt (Comm Tower)
Armour (Station Myria)

The annoying thing about Frost Strike is learning it. You can learn it from
Patrio at the area (which is danm hard as he kills you fast and you don’t really
have time to examine him). The only chances to learn it afterwards are your
first visit to the Communications Tower or at the very end of the game. When you
do learn it, it it’s a pretty useful skill. It sometimes causes sleep.

Gloom (1AP)
Night Bat (Station Myria)

Gloom turns one enemy into an undead monster. This means that Kyrie will affect
it and holy attacks will do a lot more damage. It comes too late in the game to
make much use of it.

Holy Strike
Ladon (Master)

Holy Strike is one of the very few holy attacks in the game. It does a lot of
damage vs undead and demons. For undead though you're better off using Kyrie.

Intimidate (0AP)
D'Lonzo (Master)
Hobgoblin (Factory)

Intimidate cancels the action of the target and thus is only useful if you’re
faster than they are. It’s a useless skill as it doesn’t work on anything it
would be useful on e.g. the Berserker.

Inferno (10AP)
Deis (Master)

Inferno is a super powerful fire attack on all targets. The strongest fire
attack in the game, Inferno is an excellent skill to learn. Give it to a high
int character and they can lay some serious waste. Momo is a good choice since
Nina learns it innately.

Influence (0AP)
Boss Goblin (Cedar Woods)

Influence causes all vulnerable enemies to attack the targeted enemy. This is
pretty much useless as it works on very few enemies. The main use of it is to
control Rei’s Weretiger. Weretiger will heed this skill and only attack the
targeted enemy. This prevents him going berserk and wiping out your party.

Jump (0AP)
Rocky (McNeil Manor)
Roach (Mcneil manor)

Jump inflicts random damage. It might do below 10, or it might do over 40.
Damage is also affected somewhat by power. Early on this is a useful skill as
Ryu doesn’t have much in the way of offence and this skill can hit hard. It’s
fairly useless later on in the game.

Kyrie (5AP)
Hondara (Master)

Kyrie outright kills all enemy undead and always works. A super useful skill.

Last Resort (0AP)
Orc (Momo’s Tower)

Last Resort sets DEF to 0 and adds it to attack. This means that the character
will dish out a lot of damage, but take a huge amount of damage as well. Peco is
the obvious choice for this skill. His naturally high defence lets him dish out
a ton of damage with this skill and his high HP lets him simply absorb the big
hits he will take in return. A very useful skill for Peco. Try using this, War
Shout and Shadowwalk in boss fights!

Lava Burst (7AP)
Vulcans (Mt Zublo)

Use a fire attack on the Vulcans to get them to use Lava Burst. Lava Burst
itself is a useful attack as it is a pretty high powered fire attack that hits
all enemies. It costs a fair amount of AP, but when you need magic damage it's
hard to go wrong with this.

Magic Ball (2AP)
Mygas (Master)

Magic Ball is a non-elemental attack, so it is mildly useful against elemental
creatures or ones with high defence. Early on it will be your strongest magic
attack for a while. It is a lot less useful later however, since its attack
power is quite low and it will do little damage against stronger foes.

Meditation (0AP)
Mygas (Master)

Meditation boosts Intelligence by 50% and can be used twice. It wears off after
the next spell. This is a thoroughly useless ability. Instead of using this
skill twice (Wasting two rounds) and boosting your magic you could simply cast
the spell twice and do the same amount of damage. The AP saved is not worth it.
Don’t use this skill ever!

Mighty Chop (0AP)
Hachio (Master)
Newt (Station Myria)

Mighty Chop is an attack that ignores defence. Like Spirit Blast however it has
such low attack power its rarely worth it.

Mind's Eye (0AP)
Ladon (Master)

Mind's Eye raises hit %. It's good for Momo, obviously.

Mind Flay
Slasher (Ogre Road)

Mind Flay is a normal attack that lowers enemy Int. Completely useless.

Mind Sword (2AP)
Emitai (Master, Dauna Region)

Mind Sword is a much stronger version of magic ball. It is a deadly skill with
high inf characters.

Monopolize (0AP)

Monopolize gives all EXP from the current battle to the user. Other characters
get none. This is very useful indeed when you’re trying to level up a particular
person. If the user is dead you gain no EXP for anyone.

Multistrike (0AP)
Mikba (Northern Checkpoint)
Reverent (Station Myria)

Multistrike unleashes a 1-3 attacks at 1/2 attack power. This means you need to
hit three times to get a net profit on damage. Not a good skill, use Double or
Triple Blow instead.

Myollnir (10AP)
Deis (Master)

Myollnir is one of the best attack spells in the game. It deals out extremely
heavy thunder damage to one target. This is a great spell for bosses or any
strong enemy.

Purify (4AP)
Hondara (Master)

Purify cures poison, just like the normal version of this skill that Ryu learns.
It’s useful to have another character who can cure poison. Put it on someone who
has a lot of AP they won't use, ala Peco.

Rest (0AP)
Eye Bulb (Dump)

Rest restores 5HP and 1AP. It's basically useless.

Risky Blow (0AP)
Bunyan (Cedar Woods)
Armor 	(Station Myria)

Risky Blow unleashes a normal attack with terrible accuracy. If it hits it does
critical damage. No real need to use it.

Sacrifice (1AP)

Bombseed (Tidal Caves)

Sacrifice lowers random enemies to 1HP and kills the user. An absolutely
horrible skill when used on you. The developers should be ashamed of giving it
to so many enemies. It’s useless to use yourself.

Sanctuary (5AP)
Yggdrasil (Master)

Sanctuary nullifies all buffs in combat, both yours and the enemy's. Most of the
time enemy buffs aren’t annoying enough to dispel, but if you find them
aggravating this spell will fit the bill.

Snooze
Sleepy (Tidal Caves)

Snooze restores more HP/AP than Rest but it still isn’t useful.

Shadowwalk (8AP)
Meryleep (Master, Meryleep's Forest)

Shadowwalk is probably the best skill in the game. Using it unleashes a critical
hit that never misses. It uses the element of the weapon that is equipped, not
shadow. Shadowwalk does loads of damage, more than just about any other skill
and it is superior to Aura because its element can be controlled. Use this and
War Shout and any boss fight turns into a cakewalk.

Shield (4AP)
Yggdrasil (Master)

Shield works exactly like Ryu’s spell of the same name; it boosts defences by
20% for the whole party and stacks twice. Having someone else learn it is
useful; you can cast it twice in one turn or simply have someone else cast it
twice to take the AP strain off of Ryu.

Sirocco (12AP)
Deis (Master)

Sirocco is a very strong flame/wind attack on all enemies. It is pretty much the
most powerful spell in the game, so learning it is a no brainer.

Snap (0AP)
Learn from: Pooch (McNeil Manor)

Snap lowers the defence of one enemy and does a bit of damage. It’s useful
against bosses and high defence enemies. No reason to not use it.

Spirit Blast (0AP)
Golem (in the arena fight)
Hobgoblin (Factory)

Spirit Blast is a physical attack that ignores defence. It sounds great, except
for the fact that it is a very, very weak attack done at like 1/5 of the
character’s power rating. Most of the time this equals less damage than a normal
attack would have done. This attack is only good against super-duper high
defence enemies and even then it likely won’t be of much use. If an enemy has
high physical defence use magic, not this.

Steal (0AP)
D'Lonzo (Master)

Steal is the ONLY way to steal items from enemies other than Rei’s Pilfer.
Obviously this skill is a no brainer. Steal is incredibly useful.

Sudden Death (1AP)
Giottto (Master)

Sudden Death picks a random target, friend or foe, and kills them instantly.
Since this affects your party members as well it’s pretty much useless.

Super Combo (12AP)
Learn from Bunyan (Cedar Woods)

Super Combo does damage based on how quickly you can push a set of buttons that
appear. If you have fast fingers this can be a very powerful skill.

Target (0AP)
Assassin (Steel Grave)

Target is a high accuracy normal attack done at half attack power. While it
might have been useful for Momo, who can hardly hit a barn door, the damage
penalty is not worth it.

Thunder Strike (4AP)
Mist Man (Station Myria)

Thunder Strike is another nice elemental strike that causes paralysis. It comes
too late to make much use of it however.

Transfer (10AP)
Tankbot (Container Yard)

Transfer er…transfers 10 AP from the caster to the target. This is useful to
feed a character AP for whatever reason, like to allow Ryu to stay in dragon
form or to top up a healer's AP.

Triple Blow (5AP)
Death Bot      (Station Myria)

Tripe Blow hits three times for ½ attack power. Unfortunately, it comes way too
late to be much use and can miss. Shadowwalk and Aura make it completely
obsolete.

Tornado (4AP)
Scorpion (Desert of Death)

Tornado sets random characters to 1 HP. Incredibly annoying when used on you,
but doesn’t often work on enemies. When it does work though it can drain lot of
HP for little AP.

Typhoon (7AP)
Learn From: Mygas

Typhoon is a decent enough wind attack against all foes that Ryu can get early
on. It’s useful for weakening enemies in random encounters.

Timed Blow (0AP)
Goo Titan (Ogre Road)
Thrasher (Steel Grave)

Timed Blow does damage equal to the character's current HP-1. This makes high HP
characters the best users. Peco can cause loads of damage with this skill since
his HP is naturally high.

Recall (2AP)
Yggdrasil

Recall casts a random spell, much like the Magicshuffle enemies use. They are
normally weak spells like flare or protect. A useless skill really.

Resist (2AP)
Fahl the master
Stallion boss fight
Gold Egg (Factory)

Resist makes the user completely invulnerable to any kind of damage in the round
it is used in. This is useful for preventing a weakened character from being hit
again, but its main use is for fast characters that can get an EX turn. With an
EX turn the character can use Resist in normal rounds and attack during EX
rounds. This lets them kill any foe with no risk until their AP runs out. A very
useful skill if used correctly.

Thunderclap (4AP)
Multibot (Steel Grave)

Thunderclap is Wall of Fire but thunder element instead. Good against enemies
weak to thunder, but a bit too weak to use otherwise.

Trump (0AP)
Giotto (Master)

Trump is an interesting skill that casts a random spell when the user is at 0AP.
It’s rare to be at exactly 0AP but it’s useful to give to Nina or Ryu as a
failsafe. Make sure you give them a 1AP skill (like Douse) so they can actually
hit 0AP.

Tsunami (8AP)
[Dolphin]   (Fairie Village)
[Ammonite]  (Black Ship)
[Sample 6]  (Station Myria)

Tsunami is a percentage based attack that causes enemies to lose a certain
amount of their hp. I’m not sure how it works but it can do a lot of damage.

Unmotivate (0AP)
Learn from: Goblin (Cedar Woods)

Unmotivate isn’t actually a skill. Instead it’s supposed to represent the
goblins losing the will to fight after you kill off their Bossgoblin leader. It
does nothing whatsoever. I’m not sure why you can learn it.

War Shout (8AP)
Merryleep (Master)

War Shout boosts attack power for the whole party. This is one of the best
skills in the game and makes a real difference in combat. For example vs the
Dragon Elder Ryu was doing 112 damage or so. After War Shout he was doing 180-
200. Ouch. Multiple castings stack to a point.

Wall of Fire (4AP)
Charyb, Scylla (Mt Zublo)
Multibot (Steel Grave)

Use a fire attack on Multibots to have them use Wall of Fire. Wall of Fire is a
decent enough fire attack on a single enemy.  Lava Burst is better though.

Ward of Light
Ladon (Master)

Ward of Light raises defence and counter rate. An excellent buff, this one is
worth using. Too bad you get it so late.

Wind Strike (2AP)
Lizardman (Mt Zublo)

Wind Strike is another useful strike attack.  It seems to do a little more
damage than a regular attack and it is easy enough to learn.

Credits

Me for writing this
You for reading it!
Capcom for making a really enjoyable series of games.