\^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/ <++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Brian Lundin++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++> <+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Paltheos@gmail.com+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++> <+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Version 1.2: 2/1/05++++++++++++++++++++++++++++> /VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV\ BBBBBBB RRRRRRRR EEEEEEEEE A TTTTTTTTTT HHHH HHHH BBBBBBB RR RR EEEEEEEE AAA T TT T HH HH BB BB RR RR EE E AA AA TT HH HH BB BB RR RRR EE AA AA TT HH HH BBBBBB RRRRRRRR EEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAA TT HHHHHHHHHHHH BBBBBB RR RR EEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAAA TT HH HH BB BB RR RR EE E AA AA TT HH HH BB BB RR RR EE E AA AA TT HH HH BB BB RR RR EEEEEEEEE AA AA TT HH HH BBBBBBB RRRR RR EEEEEEEEEE AAAAAA AAAAAA TT HHHH HHHH RR TT RRR ( TTTT (u) OOOOO FFFFFF FFFFFFFFFF (()) RRRRRRRR EEEEEEEEE OO OO F FFFFFFFFF u)) RR RR EEEEEEEE OO OO F FF F (((u)) RR RR EE E OO OO FFFFFF FF ((()) RR RR EE OO OO F FF IIII RR RR EEEEEEEEE OO OO F FFFFFFFFF II RRRRRRR EEEEEEEEE OOOOO F FFFFFFFFF II RR R EE E FF F II RR RR EE FF II RR RR EE E FF II RR RR EEEEEEEEEE FFFF II RRRR RR EEEEEEEEEEE II RR IIII RRR IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ___ | | | | | |__________________________________________________________ ___________| | \ | | | \ | | |-----------LOW LEVEL GAME (LLG)-----------------------------> |___________| | / | |__________________________________________________________/ | | | | |___| ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` ` ` ` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ` ` Table of Contents ` ` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ` ` ` ` #1 Version History ` ` #2 Introduction to the LLG ` ` - A Brief History ` ` - ... And the Point ` ` #3 Rules of the Challenge ` ` - My Definition of a LLG ` ` - All Experience Goes to Teepo ` ` - Mass Murdering of Randoms and the Monopolize/Death Trick ` ` - Stat-Boosting Items: The "Do"s and "Don't"s ` ` - The Ever Important Assumed ` ` #4 Experience Chart ` ` #5 Master Arrangement ` ` #6 Some Helpful Tips ` ` #7 Walkthrough ` ` - I. Nue (1st fight) ` ` - II. Nue (2nd fight) ` ` - III. Pooch ` ` - IV. Rocky ` ` - V. Torast ` ` - VI. Kassen ` ` - VII. Galtel ` ` - VIII. Doksen ` ` - IX. Amalgam ` ` - X. Balio and Sunder (1st fight) ` ` - XI. Balio and Sunder (2nd fight) ` ` - XII. Mutant ` ` - XIII. Claw ` ` - XIV. Cawer ` ` - XV. Patrio ` ` - XVI. Emitai & 2 Golems ` ` - XVII. Garr (1st fight) ` ` - XVIII. Bully 1, Bully 2, Bully 3 ` ` - XIX. Stallion ` ` - XX. Zig ` ` - XXI. Gazer ` ` - XXII. Dolphin ` ` - XXIII. Gisshan, Charybdis, Scylla ` ` - XXIV. Garr (2nd fight) ` ` - XXV. Dragon Zombie ` ` - XXVI. Weretiger ` ` - XXVII. Mikba ` ` - XXVIII. Huge Slug ` ` - XXIX. Shroom ` ` - XXX. Gaist & 2 Torches ` ` - XXXI. Angler ` ` - XXXII. 2 Ammonites ` ` - XXXIII. Elder ` ` - XXXIV. Manmo ` ` - XXXV. Chimera ` ` - XXXVI. Arwan ` ` - XXXVII. Dragon Lord ` ` - XXXVIII. 3 Sample 1s ` ` - XXXIX. 2 Sample 3s ` ` - XL. Myria ` ` #8 Frequently Asked Questions ` ` #9 Legal Information ` ` #10 Credits ` ` ` ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |--------#1 Version History--------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| Version 1.0 ----------- -Added first 10 sections (Version History, Introduction to the LLG, Rules of the Challenge, Experience Chart, Master Arrangement, Some Helpful Tips, Walkthrough, Frequently Asked Questions, Legal Information, Credits). -Personal Notes: So, I've got another BoFIII Challenge guide up and running. She looks pretty good right now, so I don't foresee any significant future modifications. -108 KB, 7/10/05 Version 1.1 ----------- -Added item lists for every area; fixed Teepo leveling error; elaborated on Emitai & 2 Golems strategy; changed "Claymore" to "Flare Sword" in Gazer equipment setup; added Frost Inoculation for Ammonites battle. -Personal Notes: Nothin' much here bar the whole item lists thing and minor error fixings, but a thanks to Xaar for finishing his game right after mine. Spotting the errors would have been much more difficult otherwise. -112 KB, 10/7/05 Version 1.2 ----------- -Attached an alternative Myria strategy, brought to you by DreemZ, minor formatting changing-- nothing too big, but it's there. -Personal Notes: After DreemZ's rather lengthy break, he finished his LLG, using some different methods from mine. I threw in his Myria strat, and I'd include a couple other of his strategies if only he'd refine them a bit. I can't help but feel I'm forgetting something. *thinks* -117 KB, 2/1/06 ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |----#2 Introduction to the LLG----> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| --------------- A Brief History --------------- A long time ago, on a GameFAQs message board not so far away, legendary GameFAQs user Black Mist took upon his shoulders the challenge of completing BoFIII at the lowest possible level. However, at some point, his project and progress were lost, forgotten, and there was no word from him on the issue ever again. And so, the Low Level Game (LLG) disappeared from the GameFAQs BoFIII forum for innumerable years until one day more than a year ago a user Mikhail appeared proposing a Boss EXP. Only Challenge (also an LLG of sorts but with more lenient rules). He provided us with a few details concerning his idea and whatever progress he had made, but his reports were rather sporadic and not very detailed (:P Maybe I just provide too many details). Around this time, Aballin (later NovaSpace and now BioSheex) and I were talking on MSN when the subject came up, and he informed me that he was an experienced amateur LLGer and that he had been working on a BoFIII LLG but stopped six months earlier. Upon some insistence from yours truly, he agreed to play the challenge "professionally" (heavy pre-planning, charts, research, etc.). He started a topic on the BoFIII message board at GameFAQs and picked up from where he had left off, Mt. Zublo against GCS. He pushed as far as the Undeground Lab before I revealed to him the unfortunate reality that defeating all the randoms in 30 encounters for Fahl without any EXP. protection kinda... you know... might throw off the leveling. Granted, this particular incident wouldn't notably disturb the leveling of all the characters (mainly because he fought beginning-of-the-game enemies), but it demonstrated that a lack of proper planning could throw the whole LLG off (he had never apprenticed anyone to D'Lonzo and thus didn't have Monopolize at his disposal). After Sheex had announced that he didn't quite have as much in-depth knowledge of BoFIII as I did, I offered the suggestion that perhaps I could join him in his LLG attempt, and, after Sheex developed the experience distribution chart, we were on our way. Early-on was trying, and delays out of boredom (especially for me >.>) were frequent. To make matters worse, Sheex's game disc was broken by accident, and he had to stop his LLG. By the time he was able to replace it, he had become so involved with other activities and impatient with his run of bad luck that he put down the challenge. However, another user, DreemZ, decided to give the challenge a go too, so I wasn't alone. Still... more delays, and DreemZ sped ahead as far as Factory while I had only just defeated Stallion. Only on June 29, 2005 did I kick my *** into gear and finish the LLG 5 days later on the American Independence Day. ----------------- ... And the Point ----------------- "That story's all good and fine, but how the **** does that help me?", right? Well, it doesn't, not at all. But it's close enough to a good start-off point, so I'll run with it. After agreeing to take on the project, the realization suddenly occurred to me that I had yet to even define a Low Level Game in the context of Breath of Fire III. Mikhail's LLG provided me with a good point of perspective, as he defined it as: "Only gaining experience unavoidably forced upon your party." Very general, IMO, and although it is a functional definition (if not the original denotation), a great deal of ambiguity remains which, after being clarified, can easily dramtically push the difficulty to an impossible extreme (more on that later). Ergo, I refined the definition: "Only gaining experience unavoidably forced upon your party, but arranging the experience distribution in a manner such that the levels of all the characters shall be kept as low and in as close proximity as possible." Technical wording to say the least, so allow me to provide a lucid albeit extremely simple example. Suppose you're given five PCs who possess average battle capabilities and are identical in every way, from growth rate and hidden attributes to base stats and abilities. Now let's say they all start at level 1, need 1 experience to reach level 2, and the amount of experience needed to reach the next level is double the amount of experience needed to reach the level the PC's on now e.g. 1 EXP. to Lv.2, 3 EXP. (1+2) to Lv.3, 7 EXP. (1+2+4) to Lv.4, 15 EXP. (1+2+4+8) to Lv.5, 31 EXP. (1+2+4+8+16) to Lv.6, 63 EXP. (1+2+4+8+16+32) to Lv.7, 127 EXP. (1+2+4+8+16+32+64) to Lv.8, 255 EXP. (1+2+4+8+16+32+64+128) to Lv.9, 511 EXP. (1+2+4+8+16+32+64+128+256) to Lv.10, and so on. Now suppose the total amount of forced EXP. in the game is 500. My definition would require that the EXP. would ideally be distributed as 100 EXP. to a character, putting them all at Lv.7. "Whoa, whoa, wait a sec there, Palth. I get it now. But isn't the goal of an LLG to have a minimum mean of your characters' levels?" Well, no, not always. "Is it yours then?" It's not exactly mine either. "Then whose is it?" It depends; that's all I can say; it depends. On what, you ask? Allot of things: Boss EXP.- 0 or whole, relative statistical signficance of equipment and level growth, existence of alterable evasion statistics, number of forced battles yielding EXP., capabilities of PCs in comparison to those of NPCs, presence of PC(s) with significantly higher battle prowess over the other PCs, general difficulty of the game, etc. The list goes on and on. What does it come down to? An answer many people don't like: More often than not, there is no single solution. Several acceptable paths exist, but the most challenging one can only be derived from analyzing all the feasible scenarios. So where does this leave us in BoFIII and why have I chosen that definition? Well, that leaves us with several possible choices. Let's analyze them one by one, shall we? 1) "Minimum mean integral level" Here's one we can easily eliminate. Experience is automatically forced upon the highest leveled member of the party, leaving poor Ryu at Lv.1 in impossible battles. Although, to be fair, EXP. could be forced upon him to make combat winnable. My question is, by the time victory is within reach, how much different will this choice be from the ones below? 2) "Choose a team and all EXP. to them" This particular LLG is the exact same one that Mikhail has attempted, although he didn't phrase it in this precise manner; it was implied. It definitely works but ultimately leaves the gamer with a team of slightly stronger PCs than they need, so it can be bumped down just a little more. 2a) "Choose a character and all EXP. to him" A corollary of sorts to the above. This one we can eliminate fairly quickly, as all the EXP. can be dumped on Ryu (see "presence of PC(s) with significantly higher battle prowess over the other PCs"), yielding a sole PC whose abilities may very well surpass a team which possesses an equal amount of EXP. dispersed amongst its members. 3) "Lowest levels for all PCs that are also closest to each other" The LLG discussed in this FAQ. The result is a group of characters that can be arranged into any team (in theory, but some PCs e.g. Nina are simply outright useless in most combat situations). Minus the exploitation of tricks, this choice is both possible and the most challenging. Ultimately, my point is that that the denotation of "LLG" must be willing to mold itself in order to both fit the connotation and produce feasible scenarios for the gamer. In other words, the verbalized meaning of the the LLG must bend itself to fit with both the spirit of the LLG and the mechanical enviornment in which the LLG is being attempted. So, without further deviation, I present to you the BoFIII LLG and its ramifications: ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |-----#3 Rules of the Challenge----> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| ---------------------- My Definition of a LLG ---------------------- I've spoken sufficiently enough on this subject in the previous section, so I'll simply reiterate the definition: "Only gaining experience forced upon your party, but arranging the experience distribution in a manner such that the levels of all the characters shall be kept as low *and* in as close proximity as possible." >_> Follow it. ---------------------------- All Experience Goes to Teepo ---------------------------- While Teepo's in your party, he receives all the EXP. from battle. Fairly obvious really, since he's not on your final team, and his EXP. by itself has no bearing on the EXP. of future incoming party members. Oh, and on a slightly different subject, don't expect to see experience distribution regulations for all bosses prior to and including Amalgam. -------------------------------------------------------- Mass Murdering of Randoms and the Monopolize/Death Trick -------------------------------------------------------- Put succinctly, don't kill randoms and don't win random encounters, unless they yield 0 EXP (like the fleeing, lone Boss Goblin, but that's one of the only examples :P). I leave open no exceptions, regardless of the existence of the Monopolize/Death Trick. For those of you not so familiar with the less known tricks of the game, the Monopolize/Death Trick is a glitch through which any battle can be won without awarding your party with experience. Essentially, the user of Monopolize is killed before you destroy your opponents. Although Monopolize is programmed to send all the experience from a battle to the user, the battle system function to not give experience to KOed party members forbids the KOed user to receive that experience and so no one gets it. Thus, 0 experience. And since we're on the topic, the Monopolize/Death Trick (MDT) is likewise forbidden. Sure, you could win all the random battles you want by throwing the MDT around all you want, but... well... it's not really supposed to be there. Wanna a different ruling? Contact Mikhail as soon as his "Lowest Level Game" project gets off the ground, in which MDT usage is permitted (but regulated). ;P ------------------------------------------- Stat-Boosting Items: The "Do"s and "Don't"s ------------------------------------------- When first asked about stat-boosting items, my initial response was overly lenient, so I'm tightening my grip *squints his eyes into a mean gaze and smirks*. Here's the ruling from me and the various invisible authorities who have contributed to this project: You can use anything you find on a field, providing that you haven't been actively searching for it. Likewise, you can never initiate any pro-active attempt to gain more stat-boosters, regardless of the method, unless you know it to be treasure in any non-randomly generated stage (a.k.a. story stages). -------------------------- The Ever Important Assumed -------------------------- And, finally, the stuff I shouldn't really need to say but will anyway: No spamming of Soul Gems/Manly Clothes No reckless and boundless usage of Save States No copying of Hourglasses No Gamesharks/cheat devices ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |--------#4 Experience Chart-------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| Below is the experience chart developed by Sheex... well... a modification of it anyway. The original prototype contained a few mistakes due to the erroneous source from which Sheex derived his information *shakes fist at whatever FAQs misled him*. Fortunately, the chart was reparable, so here's the final version: BOSS EXPERIENCE LIVING CHARACTERS Mutant 600 Ryu Claw 150 Ryu Cawer 165 Ryu Patrio 200 Ryu Emitai & Golem X2 600 Nina Bully X3 240 Nina & Ryu Stallion 800 Garr & Ryu Gazer 1500 Ryu & Nina Dolphin 900 Nina & Momo Gisshan, Charybdis & Scylla 1500 Garr Garr 400 Ryu Dragon Zombie 1000 Ryu Mikba 3000 Rei & Nina Huge Slug 2100 Rei Shroom 3900 Garr Gaist & Torch X2 1000 Ryu Angler 3000 Nina & Garr Ammonite X2 900 Momo Elder 6000 Nina Manmo 6000 Garr Chimera 9000 Ryu & Momo Arwan 5000 Ryu Dragon Lord 15000 Peco Sample 1 285 Rei Sample 3 4000 Nina & Peco If you faithfully follow this chart, all your PCs will be at Lv.21 by Myria. Again, thanks to Sheex for building the prototype chart. Oh, and I feel I should say this now for liability purposes. If you need to kill character(s) in a battle, I will never remind you of it in the strategy, ever... well, maybe just every once in a while in passing. >_> Anyway, that doesn't mean you shouldn't memorize the live/dead setup for the battle in mind and kill your own whenever the optimal opportunity avails itself. ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |-------#5 Master Arrangement------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| This mini-section is devoted to those of you too lazy to wade through my walkthrough to find master suggestions. *** |***** Ryu |Teepo *** |***** | Bunyan: Lv.1 -> Lv.11 |Mygas: Lv.1 -> Lv.8 (Final) Fahl: Lv.11 -> Lv.21 | Ladon: Final | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** |**** Rei |Nina *** |**** | Meryleep: Lv.20 -> Lv.21 |D'Lonzo: Lv.5 -> Lv.10 Ladon: Final |Durandal: Lv.10 -> Lv.12 |Meryleep: Lv.12 -> Lv.21 |Ladon: Final ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **** |**** Momo |Peco **** |**** | Fahl: Lv.10 -> Lv.21 |Fahl: Lv.1 -> Lv.21 Ladon: Final |Ladon: Final ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **** | Garr | **** | | Fahl: Lv.13 -> Lv.21 | Ladon: Final | ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |-------#6 Some Helpful Tips-------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| 1) I suppose I'll take the opportunity to say this now: This challenge is not for everybody. There's a great deal of patience and tedious work involved, so don't jump in unless you think you can stomach it. 2) Your chances of escape from battle are higher if your party contains a character with high AGL. Throw Speed Boots onto that said character (Rei or Nina) to improve your chances and maybe even get an EX turn. 3) In-and-out! Putting in mind the number of resets you'll be dealing with, the best plan for any stage with a boss is to grab all the items inside first and run outside to the World Map and save (lest it be one of those few stages with a rest and save point inside it). 4) Stealing is fun! Granted, there isn't that much good stuff you can steal due to the nature of this challenge, but there are those few stealable great items. >_> *looks at Aries Gloves* Chain Pilfer and Steal to improve your chances. 5) When unsure, Examine. Even if you're not sure whether you'll use some random enemy Skill, it never hurts to have it on you (or at least in your Skill Notes). 6) Be well-stocked, always. Keep a superfluous number of most frequently used items on you, particularly HP and AP restoratives. I won't be reminding you, unless I *really* feel the need to do so. 7) If you think the next boss will be a doozy for you, check the boss' strategy beforehand, rather than in the middle of the fight, so that you can find out the recommendations (although, considering the number of resets involved in this challenge anyway, one more really wouldn't hurt that much... >_>). 8) Before trying to kill off your own party members in a boss fight (when it's called for), change all their armor to the worst stuff you have on you. Speeds up the process. <_< 9) If you're gonna use Monopolize, use it right from the get-go, unless the threat of death is so emminent that reprieving a turn would only spell certain doom. ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |----------#7 Walkthrough----------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| Before we begin, I need to make a few notes of things to expect... or not to expect along the way. Notes: a) Vitamins is the party healing item, but Vitamin(s) is my way of signifying multiples of the classic single character healing item that can be bought in almost any shop. Honestly, I'm not sure if the former item will ever even be referred to in this walkthrough, but >_> I'm just explaining the funky parentheses now around the 's' when you see 'em so nobody asks later. b) If a comment or command of mine has the same name as a spell, then my comment/command will be in lower case and the spell name in upper case. c) I don't expect people to read my boring comments saying, "Proceed with the story," or something like that. Usually, you'll just see a one-liner under an area if it does that. If there's more than that, then I suggest you read it. I just say that when I don't really have much to say about that area in relation to the LLG. When I do have something relevant to the LLG, I probably won't make any comments pertaining to the plot at all. I only put something related to the plot under a title because... >_> <_< I don't really have much to say about that area pertaining to the LLG. >_> <_< *repeated himself* d) Places with a "?" for a name will be given a suitable, yet recognizable name. Why this note? I don't want some idiot e-mailing me saying, "Well, I don't remember any place called that on the map." e) I won't comment about every item along the way, only the important [and usually vital] ones. I STILL ADVISE YOU TO ACQUIRE EVERY ITEM IN A STAGE! In fact, a good majority of my strategies assume you do, so you're pretty screwed if you don't. f) Here's how character setups will be displayed before battle: Character name (Level of character) Weapon: Shield: Helmet: Armor: Acc. 1: Abbreviation for "Accessory 1" Acc. 2: Likewise Master: Inoc.: Inoculation Skills: Foreign Skills only Formation: ------------------------------ ---------- Dauna Mine ---------- Items: Melted Blade Not much to do here. Just fry the workers with Whelp Breath as you go. Pick up the Melted Blade amongst the BBQed corpses though. ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: Worm, Skill Ink, Ammonia, Green Apple (2), Vitamin (2) Just head to town. There aren't any particularly important items to pick up at the moment. ----------- McNeil/Farm ----------- Items: Healing Herb, Antidote, Molotov You know the deal. You get Teepo and Rei, and then you go to Yraall Road. ----------- Yraall Road ----------- Items: 40 zenny Your first combat scenario. Let the running begin... right after you learn Influence from Boss Goblins (it can return to Skill Notes for now) and Blind from Rippers! ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: Beef Jerky Again, nothing out of the ordinary. You just lose Rei until the fight with the Nue. In case you haven't done so already, strip Rei of his equipment and give it all to Teepo. ---------------- Road to Mt.Glaus ---------------- Items: Weather Vane, Vitamin, 120 zenny, Coin, 80 zenny There's one particular item here whose importance I cannot emphasize enough: the Coin. Get the Coin. You need it. -------- Mt.Glaus -------- Items: Antidote, Heavy Caro, Cloth Shield, Vitamins, Bent Sword, Molotov, 200 zenny, Ballock Knife, Talisman Up you go on the mountain and all that crap. Cloth Shield to Teepo BTW. `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------o |I. Nue (1st fight) | | | |HP=140 | |Attacks: Nue Stomp, Chlorine| o----------------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (1) Rei (5) Weapon: Dagger Melted Blade Ballock Knife Shield: Bracers Cloth Shield (empty) Helmet: (empty) (empty) (empty) Armor: Clothing Leather Armor Clothing Acc. 1: (empty) (empty) (empty) Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) (empty) Master: (none) (none) (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Since the experience yield here is 0, you don't really have any worries. Still, Nue Stomp does some good damage, hitting Ryu the hardest (around half Ryu's maxHP on average). Flare and Rei's physical smack her pretty well (relatively anyway >_>), about 20 damage. Overall, very easy. `````````````````````````````` The pursuit continues! `````````````````````````````` o------------------------------------------------------------o |II. Nue (2nd fight) | | | |HP=290 | |Attacks: Nue Stomp, Chlorine, Jolt, (moderate counter rate) | o------------------------------------------------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (1) Rei (5) Weapon: Dagger Melted Blade Ballock Knife Shield: Bracers Cloth Shield (empty) Helmet: (empty) (empty) (empty) Armor: Clothing Leather Armor Clothing Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman (empty) Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) (empty) Master: (none) (none) (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: What? The Talisman doesn't hurt. >_> Ahem, anyway, attack but with a little restraint. Only initiate a full-scale assault after Nue casts Jolt. That's it. Otherwise, it's identical to last battle, minus the whole boss running away thing. Result: Teepo Lv.1 -> Lv.4 `````````````````````````````` ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: none Head to McNeil, but only after apprenticing Teepo to Mygas. ----------- McNeil/Farm ----------- Items: none More story sequences. There are a couple things you should do before heading off to McNeil's. First, buy the basic fishing supplies in McNeil. Next, build up a high zenny supply (trading/selling Silver Knives being the best way; around 10000 zenny). Then, continue fishing for battle purposes. If you have any shopping you want to (you'll need to gather 15 weapon types for D'Lonzo, so keep that in mind in your purchases), now would be the time to do it. This will be your last opportunity to shop for a while, so take advantage of it. Finally, trade for 3 sets of Silver Knives, Iron Helmets, and Waistcloths at the Manillo shop. Then stock up on healing items and anything else you think you'll need for the next stage and speak to Loki in the shack to head off to McNeil Manor. ------------ McNeil Manor ------------ Items: Vitamin, 50 zenny, Firecracker Take care of the guards' problems and whatnot until you finally have to deal with that guard dog... `````````````````````````````` o-------------o |III. Pooch | | | |HP=260 | |Attacks: Snap| o-------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (4) Rei (5) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Waist Cloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman (empty) Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) Blind Formation: Defense Strategy: Pooch barks with a mighty ~10 damage and can bite even harder after Snap. Considering your team's "oh-so-impressive" abilities, staying alive can be problematic. Still, it's doable. And learn Snap at all costs. Result: Teepo Lv.4 -> Lv.5 `````````````````````````````` Just continue dealing with the guards until you reach a certain chicken... `````````````````````````````` o-------------------o |IV. Rocky | | | |HP=280 | |Attacks: Ovum, Jump| o-------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (5) Rei (5) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Waist Cloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman (empty) Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Blind Formation: Defense Strategy: This guy's no so tough, once you Blind him and smack him with Snap a few times. Still, Jump could really hurt (my Ryu got KOed by a single Jump -_-). After those Snaps though, Rocky doesn't stand long to the 20+ HP punches you'll lay into him with. *Pilfers his Life Shard* Result: Teepo Lv.5 -> Lv.6 `````````````````````````````` Continue with the story to reach the mansion. -------------- McNeil Mansion -------------- Items: 120 zenny, Magic Shard, Eye Drops, Taser, Gems, Vitamin (2), Panacea, MultiVitamin, Healing Herb, 600 zenny, Swallow Eye, Broad Sword And then, there were ghosts... *starts playing the main theme of "Ghostbusters"* `````````````````````````````` o--------------o |V. Torast | | | |HP=120 | |Attacks: Sleep| o--------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (6) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Formation: Attack (Teepo at point) Strategy: All these ghosts are just... sad. Basically, except for one of the four, all of them fall from two swipes of Teepo's blade (50+ HP damage). Needless to say, Sleep is but an annoyance. `````````````````````````````` o--------------------o |VI. Kassen | | | |HP=62 | |Attacks: Leech Power| o--------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (6) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Formation: Attack (Teepo at point) Strategy: Blast him away. Leech Power is, as usual, useless. `````````````````````````````` o----------------------o |VII. Galtel | | | |HP=145 | |Attacks: Blunt, Weaken| o----------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (6) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Formation: Attack (Teepo at point) Strategy: Weaken and Blunt... *yeah, those will really slow you down* Send this innocous spook to another afterlife. Result: Teepo Lv.6 -> Lv.7 `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------o |VIII. Doksen | | | |HP=140 | |Attacks: Heal, (high counter rate)| o----------------------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (7) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Formation: Attack (Teepo at point) Strategy: Sad... just sad. You should finish off Doksen with full HP, all because the Holy-elemental Silver Knife triggers his elemental Reprisal to my attacks: Heal. `````````````````````````````` Use the rest point before you go onto the roof to meet Rei. Then, prepare to bust the biggest, baddest ghost of them all (Don't worry; that's the last of my cheesy Ghostbuster jokes). `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------------o |IX. Amalgam | | | |HP=520 | |Attacks: Astral Warp, Flare, Frost, Sleep| o-----------------------------------------o Ryu (1) Teepo (7) Rei (5) Weapon: Silver Knife Silver Knife Silver Knife Shield: Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Cloth Shield Helmet: Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Iron Helmet Armor: Waistcloth Waistcloth Waist Cloth Acc. 1: (empty) Talisman (empty) Acc. 2: (empty) (empty) (empty) Master: (none) Mygas (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Snap (none) Blind Formation: Defense Strategy: *Pilfers his Magic Shard* There we go. Anyways, my response to this guy: Pain. Astral Warp easily hits for 20+ and usually more than half of Teepo's maxHP. Sleep isn't pretty either, especially when it sends out your entire party to dream world -_-. All you can do is hope he's averse to Astral Warp, and pound away with Simoon and regular attacks. Result: Teepo Lv.7 -> Lv.8 `````````````````````````````` ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: none Head into town, but only after learning Meditation and Frost from Mygas and returning them to Skill Notes. ----------- McNeil/Farm ----------- Items: none Heck, the shops are already closed to you. I hope you did all your shopping earlier. ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: none Remove all of Teepo's and Rei's equipment and replace their weapons with a Dagger and a Ballock Knife before you reach the area with your house in it. `````````````````````````````` o-------------------------------o |X. Balio and Sunder (1st fight)| | | |HP=Infinite | |Attacks: Lightning | o-------------------------------o Strategy?: Prepare for your low-level tikes to be annihilated. `````````````````````````````` Once our lone hero awakens, leave and re-enter Cedar Woods so that you can apprentice Ryu to Bunyan. Last chance to fish up some quick and easy zenny. --------- Mt.Myrneg --------- Items: Icicle, Protein, Bat Amulet, 200 zenny Bat Amulet's about it here. >_> Learn Double Blow while you're at it. --------------- Wyndian Dungeon --------------- Items: Skill Ink Time to "save" Nina. `````````````````````````````` o--------------------------------o |XI. Balio and Sunder (2nd fight)| | | |HP=??? | |Attacks: Lightning | o--------------------------------o Strategy?: Unlike the last one, this battle is theoretically winnable, but 1) Why would you want to gain avoidable experience? and 2) There's not a chance in **** a Lv.1 Ryu is defeating Balio and Sunder by himself. `````````````````````````````` Remove Nina's Soul Gem immediately. ----------------- Wyndian Catacombs ----------------- Items: Glass Domino, Panacea, Light Bangle, Wisdom Fruit Pick up the Light Bangle and Glass Domino before you head out. ------ Wyndia ------ Items: Healing Herb, Ammonia, Moxa, Bread (4) Buy a Claymore for Ryu and Life Sandals. ------------ Eygnock Road ------------ Items: Clothing Now you're captured by Balio and Sunder and sent to Genmel. ------ Genmel ------ Items: 80 zenny, Flier Buy a pair of Gauntlets, a Glass Domino, and a Magician's Rod before you make your get-away. And, while you're in the area, get a Bass. ---------- Mt.Boumore ---------- Items: Panacea, 400z, Buckler, Bent Sword, Life Shard Yay for the Buckler on the mountain! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forest by the side of Mt.Boumore in Eastern Wyndia (wordiest title ever) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Items: none Reverse gene. >_> Before heading to the Tower, fish for two Crepe Caps and a Chain Cap (I told ya to get a Bass before) and for around 10 to 15 Black Porgies. ----- Tower ----- Items: MultiVitamin, Wisdom Fruit, Ring of Ice, Silver Knife, Skill Ink, Flame Chrysm, Ice Chrysm, 800z, Moon Tears, Breastplate, Ivory Dice, Bamboo Rod, 40 zenny, Panacea Momo-ness. Yay. Bucket loads of stuff. Double yay. The end of this filler line. Triple yay. ----------------- Rocket Crash Site ----------------- Items: none Pick up the Thorn Gene while you're here for Ryu. ----------- Coffee Shop ----------- Items: Vitamin Now the 15 weapons come into play. Apprentice Nina to D'Lonzo and carry on. ----- Plant ----- Items: Ginseng, Healing Herb Talk with Palet some more and then go to the Dump. ---- Dump ---- Items: 1200 zenny, High Boots, Artemis' Cap, Magic Shard After completing treasure gathering... `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------o |XII. Mutant | | | |HP=500 | |Attacks: Dream Breath, Venom Breath| o-----------------------------------o Ryu (1) Nina (5) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Magician's Rod Flame Chrysm Shield: Buckler Gauntlet Gauntlet Helmet: Glass Domino Glass Domino Glass Domino Armor: Chain Cap Crepe Cape Crepe Cape Acc. 1: Light Bangle Talisman Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: High Boots Bat Amulet (empty) Master: Bunyan D'Lonzo (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Cursed plant. First priority: Protects on Ryu, pronto. Ryu takes 8-12 damage from attacks, so death is a constant fear. Post-Protects damage (after 3) is much better, averaging at 4-6. Nina and Momo still take heavy blows, around 12 and around 17 respectively, and Dream Breath insists on hampering you all the way. Well, after Momo casts Protects on Ryu, Ryu and Nina usually continue defending, unless HP is at a unsafe level, (in which case Nina risks her life by healing) while Momo charges forward attacking (~80-~100 and yay for Flame-elemental weapons) until Mutant's HP is low enough for Ryu to take the finishing blow (~20-~25). Result: Ryu Lv.1 -> Lv.8 `````````````````````````````` ----- Plant ----- Items: none Make sure you're done with all you want to do before you go to Genmel. ------ Genmel ------ Items: Coin, Bandana, 40 zenny Pick up a Knight's Helmet, a couple of Bucklers, and a pair of Scale Mails. Pool everyone else's equipment, and send Ryu in for the matches in the Hall of Fire. `````````````````````````````` o---------------------------o |XIII. Claw | | | |HP=220 | |Attacks: Blind, Double Blow| o---------------------------o Ryu (8) Weapon: Claymore Shield: Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Armor: Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Acc. 2: Bat Amulet Master: Bunyan Inoc.: (none) Skills: Snap Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: Claw's a big pain. After casting around 4 Protects (yay for stacking), Claw's Double Blow still deals ~8-~12 damage a blow. Still, Ryu hits for around ~50 an attack, so Claw died fairly quickly. Result: Ryu Lv.8 -> Lv.9 `````````````````````````````` o--------------------------------------------o |XIV. Cawer | | | |HP=200 | |Attacks: Speed, Might, Protect, Flare, Frost| o--------------------------------------------o Ryu (9) Weapon: Claymore Shield: Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Armor: Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Acc. 2: Ring of Ice Master: Bunyan Inoc.: (none) Skills: Snap Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: Cawer's much easier. Snap him a couple times to tear down his Protect and make it impossible for his Heal to compensate for the damage you deal. Frost is absorbed, but all his other damage is pathetic (~7, though, to be fair, all stat-ups do carry over in these battles), hammer him at 60 a shot. `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------o |XV. Patrio | | | |HP=350 | |Attacks: Frost Strike, Lucky Strike| o-----------------------------------o Ryu (9) Weapon: Claymore Shield: Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Armor: Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Acc. 2: Life Sandals Master: Bunyan Inoc.: (none) Skills: Snap Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: Ouch, Patrio's normal hits are a wimpy ~5, but intermittent Lucky Strikes slam Ryu for a devastating ~30, a.k.a. barely less than half Ryu's maxHP. Yeah, some caution must definitely be exercised here, but learn Frost Strike, so yay. Healing at even the slightest damage is needed to avoid a double Lucky Strike death. Still, fairly quick death at 50 damage a pop. Result: Ryu Lv.9 -> Lv.10 `````````````````````````````` o---------------------------------------------------o |XVI. Emitai & 2 Golems | | | |Emitai: HP=600 | | Attacks: (none, not even a standard attack)| |Golem: HP=750 each | | Attacks: Spirit Blast | o---------------------------------------------------o Ryu (10) Nina (5) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Magician's Rod Flame Chrysm Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Glass Domino Armor: Scale Mail Crepe Cape Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Talisman Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: Life Sandals High Boots Bat Amulet Master: Bunyan D'Lonzo (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Double Blow (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Aim for Emitai first and keep Nina constantly throwing Healing Herbs to Ryu and Momo (usually by alternation), who will be pummeling Emitai for 50+ and 50 damage (meh, Ryu's using Double Blow). The Golems can kill Nina in two hits though, so you'll have to hope she doesn't become a primary target. The Golems usually dealt between ~15-~30 damage, depending on whether they physicaled or used the more damaging Spirit Blast. After Emitai falls, wait for X Golem to finish Y Golem and let Nina swipe the final blow. One fair warning though: You must keep track of the Golems' HP values at all times, and, as their HP approaches 0, make sure that when one defeats the other, Nina can defeat the other (accomplished through smacking whichever Golem accordingly). Result: Nina Lv.5 -> Lv.9 `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------------o |XVII. Garr (1st fight) | | | |HP=Infinite | |Attacks: Pyrokinesis, Flare, Lucky Strike| o-----------------------------------------o Strategy?: Have fun in this no consequence boss battle. *lets you do your thing* `````````````````````````````` Buy another Knight's Helmet before leaving the Arena. ------------- Maekyss Gorge ------------- Items: none And now the conclusion of the B&S chase. `````````````````````````````` o--------------------------------o |XVIII. Bully 1, Bully 2, Bully 3| | | |Bully 1: HP=200 | | Attacks: (none) | |Bully 2: HP=200 | | Attacks: Flare | |Bully 3: HP=200 | | Attacks: Blind | o--------------------------------o Ryu (10) Nina (9) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Magician's Rod Ammo Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Glass Domino Armor: Scale Mail Crepe Cape Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Talisman Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: Life Sandals High Boots Bat Amulet Master: Bunyan D'Lonzo (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Double Blow (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Strategy: Simoon and generally pummel Bully 3 first so that he can't Blind you, then the Flare-happy Bully 2, remove Nina's Buckler, switch out the High Boots for another available accessory (only Soul Gem's there) and then defeat Bully 1. Their damage is pathetic, maxing out at ~10. Result: Nina Lv.9 -> Lv.10 `````````````````````````````` o---------------------------------------------o |XIX. Stallion | | | |HP=1500 | |Attacks: Barrier, Resist, Jolt, Utmost Attack| o---------------------------------------------o Ryu (10) Garr (13) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Spear Ammo Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Armor: Scale Mail Scale Mail Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Titan Belt Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: High Boots Life Sandals Bat Amulet Master: Bunyan (none) (none) Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Double Blow (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Simple enough. Double Blow with Ryu, charge with Garr, and have Momo put up a single Protect on everyone before joining the fray. Stallion's best damage comes from Jolt (~15) and Utmost Attack (~25), but he ultimately isn't that hard, considering you cut him down for an average of ~190 damage a turn. Result: Ryu Lv.10 -> Lv.11 `````````````````````````````` Pick up the Frost Gene on your way out of the area. In other news, freedom! To some extent, anyway. Your first order of business is grabbing Bunyan's Skills (all of them too, but Focus and Super Combo are the big motivation) and D'Lonzo's Skills (Steal and Monopolize). ------ Wyndia ------ Items: none Since you're in the neighborhood, pick up a couple Life Sandals. >_> ---------------------- Wyndia Castle/Basement ---------------------- Items: 120 zenny, Gems (2), Panacea (2), Healing Herb (2), Coin, Cheese Just proceed with the plot and escape the castle. Before heading off to the Eastern Lands, access Fahl and apprentice Ryu, Momo, Peco, and Garr under him. Don't worry, don't worry, according to DreemZ, you can still access Fahl by running from 30 battles without resting, so it's doable. Either that, or comb through hundreds of random encounters until you win 30 battles all involving a lone, fleeing Boss Goblin. Nina? I dunno. *shrugs* She's just a slab of meat in this challenge. Throw on Durandal or somethin' until Meryleep opens up shop. It doesn't really matter. ---------- Checkpoint ---------- Items: 200 zenny, Antidote Now pass through the Checkpoint. ---------------- Hut by the shore ---------------- Items: none Thunder gene. Check. *crosses it off the list* ------------- Rhapala/Wharf ------------- Items: Molotov, Panacea Ah... the Beyd training sequence, the good ol' Beyd training sequence... No, I'm not going to say what you think I'm about to say, "It's a pain in the ***," 'cuz it's not, despite the low levels. `````````````````````````````` o---------------o |XX. Zig | | | |HP=250 | |Attacks: (none)| o---------------o Strategy: Again, I return to my generic saying, "If you trained Beyd well, you shouldn't have any trouble." And with that... I'm done. *walks away* `````````````````````````````` ---------- Lighthouse ---------- Items: Coin, Mithrl Shield, Swallow Eye, Skill Ink, Dream Ring, Flame Chrysm (3), Faerie Tiara Run of the mill stage here. You walk through it, you accomplish a random, tedious task, you walk some more, and then holy-**** it's a boss! Big surprise. *is moody due to it being 3AM when he's writing this paragraph* `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------o |XXI. Gazer | | | |HP=1100 | |Attacks: Eye Beam, Hypnotize| o----------------------------o Ryu (11) Nina (10) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Magician's Rod Flame Chrysm Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Glass Domino Armor: Scale Mail Crepe Cape Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle High Boots Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: Life Sandals Life Sandals Life Sandals Master: Fahl Durandal Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Focus (none) (none) Double Blow Super Combo Formation: Defense Strategy: I don't mean to put too much pressure on your fortune, but the success or failure of this battle hinges on the first attack: more specifically, whether or not a Blunt from Nina connects, so that you can cut down Gazer's physical's damage to around half (~15, usually lower, closer to ~11, but maxing at ~17). Should luck favor you, follow up by having Nina Simoon (~40-~60) for much of the battle but toss Vitamin(s) to whoever might need one. Momo should cast Protect a couple times on Ryu and Nina (twice each, not one per >_>) before she starts attacking (~60-~70; yay for Gazer's slight weakness vs. Flame). And Ryu will Focus x2 -> Super Combo (~400 from 6-hit) and just Double Blow after that (~40 per hit). As for Eye Beam, its damage was barely manageable (40-55), except for Nina who would frequently get OHKOed, and, obviously, Hypnotize wasn't too big a problem. Result: Ryu Lv.11 -> Lv.13; Nina Lv.10 -> Lv.11 `````````````````````````````` *grabs magical Eldritch gene* ------------- Rhapala/Wharf ------------- Items: variable *pilfers treasures in chests and runs* -------------- Faerie Village -------------- Items: none Enter the cool "Jaws" ripoff followed by quite possibly the greatest VG translation introduction ever. `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------o |XXII. Dolphin | | | |HP=1200 | |Attacks: Tsunami, Intimidate| o----------------------------o Ryu (13) Nina (11) Momo (10) Weapon: Claymore Magician's Rod Ammo Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Glass Domino Armor: Scale Mail Crepe Cape Scale Mail Acc. 1: Titan Belt High Boots Artemis' Cap Acc. 2: Light Bangle Life Sandals Life Sandals Master: Fahl Durandal Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) (none) Strategy: The key here is keeping Momo and Nina in defensive stances except when at maxHP (once all their defenses are already up, of course). A Protect from Ryu and Momo on Momo and Nina (whichever order >_>), and Ryu will access into a Thunder Whelp. Momo should continue with another Protect on herself and Nina, and Nina will toss Healing Herbs... pretty much all the time *shakes fist at the surprisingly high accuracy of the usually "can't hit the broad side of a barn" Tsunami*. Otherwise, Dolphin's pretty much a cinch. Thunder Claw tears holes ranging from ~110 to ~170(!) into Dolphin while Dolphin can barely break 10 damage on anyone. As Dolphin is about to buy the farm, Nina and Momo will steal the final blow (~30 from Simoon and a tad less from Momo's physical). Result: Nina Lv.11 -> Lv.12; Momo Lv.10 -> Lv.11 `````````````````````````````` ------------- Rhapala/Wharf ------------- Items: none Yeah, blahblah, permisision to use the road. Here's a brief list of all the important tasks you need to do before crossing Mt. Zublo: 1) Gather 30000+ zenny (Silver Knife trading being the best way, trust me); 2) Reapprentice Nina to Meryleep; 3) Buy a Long Spear in Rhapala 4) Receive Flame Inoculations prior to GCS. That's it. Yes, it's true, I actually kept something important short. *stoic "yipee"* -------- Mt.Zublo -------- Items: Protein, Asbestos Armor, 800 zenny, Ring of Fire, Flame Talons, Wisdom Fruit, Life Shard Congratulations, if you're reading this, you've probably been fishing enough to make playing "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing" for all of eternity an appealing alternative. But the next few hours are only tougher! Hang tight! `````````````````````````````` o------------------------------------------o |XXIII. Gisshan, Charybdis, Scylla (GCS) | | | |Gisshan: HP=800 | | Attacks: Vitalize, Confuse, Sleep| |Charybdis: HP=1000 | | Attacks: Snap, Wall of Fire | |Scylla: HP=1000 | | Attacks: Snap, Wall of Fire | o------------------------------------------o Ryu (13) Garr (13) Momo (11) Weapon: Claymore Long Spear Ammo Shield: Buckler Buckler Buckler Helmet: Knight's Helmet Knight's Helmet Glass Domino Armor: Asbestos Armor Scale Mail Scale Mail Acc. 1: Light Bangle Life Sandals Life Sandals Acc. 2: Titan Belt Life Sandals Ring of Fire Master: Fahl Fahl Fahl Inoc.: Flame Flame Flame Skills: Focus Monopolize (none) Super Combo Frost Strike Formation: Defense Strategy: Garr cast Monopolize immediately while Momo casts Protect to make up for her relative deficit in DEF and Ryu initiates his first Focus. Ryu Focuses again while Momo and Garr attack Gisshan (~40 damage each). Then lash out with Super Combo (7-hit ~485 damage) and finish the old geezer off with regular physicals (Ryu hit for ~70 BTW) while he vainly resists with Vitalize. Then switch in Ice Chrysm for Ammo, transform Ryu into a Frost Whelp, and continue the assault. Garr has enough AP for a single Frost Strike (too bad it only inflicts ~70 damage >_>) but otherwise only hits on average ~30 damage. Momo's damage wasn't too great either, a little more than ~40. On the other hand, Ryu's Frost Claw causes a staggering ~200 damage, so the battle should end rather quickly (and he only needed one Black Porgy :P)! Charybdis and Scylla- Wall of Fire of course wasn't a problem, nor was Confuse, and C&S' physicals glanced off the party at ~20. All in all, very easy. Result: Garr Lv.13 -> Lv.15 `````````````````````````````` ---------- Urkan Tapa ---------- Items: none Now it's time for a shopping spree. Purchase sets two sets of Mithril equipment (only the defensive stuff but only one Mithril Helmet because of the one in Angel Tower) in Urkan Tapa, and a Barbarossa and Gigantess in Junk Town. ----------- Angel Tower ----------- Items: Ivory Dice, Wisdom Seed, Diamond Ring, Moon Tears, Mithril Helm, Soul Gem, Napalm Last kid Ryu dungeon... Yup... *is now writing at 4AM* Heck with it. I'll pick up writing tomorrow, right after Garr. `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------o |XXIV. Garr (2nd fight) | | | |HP=380 | |Attacks: Pyrokinesis, Fireblast | o-----------------------------------o Ryu (13) Weapon: Barbarossa Shield: Mithril Shield Helmet: Mithril Helmet Armor: Mithril Armor Acc. 1: Ring of Fire Acc. 2: Titan Belt Master: Fahl Inoc.: (none) Skills: (none) Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: All too easy, a couple Blitzes (100+ per hit) from a Behemoth blew Garr out of the water. `````````````````````````````` ---------- Dauna Mine ---------- Items: Vitamin, Life Shard, Magic Shard, Light Clothing, 200 zenny, MultiVitamin, Coupons, Feather Sword, Lion's Belt, Protein It's time for my favorite boss in the game: `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------o |XXV. Dragon Zombie | | | |HP=2500 | |Attacks: Rotten Breath, Bone Dance| o----------------------------------o Ryu (13) Garr (15) Weapon: Barbarossa Gigantess Shield: Mithril Shield Mithril Shield Helmet: Mithril Helmet Mithril Helmet Armor: Mithril Armor Mithril Armor Acc. 1: Life Sandals Light Bangle Acc. 2: Titan Belt Life Sandals Master: Fahl Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: Monopolize (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Wow. He's much easier than you'd think. First ground rule is: Don't worry about poison at all. The only times you'll ever need to worry are in confusion (only possible for a transformed Ryu in this setup) and near-death HP (easily healed). His measly physical and Bone Dance damage (~30) isn't a concern, so plow into him with a Flame Whelp's Flame Claw (~230-~300) and Pyrokinesis (~140-~170). Result: Ryu Lv.13 -> Lv.14 `````````````````````````````` --------- World Map --------- Items: none Welcome to the Adult Ryu world of the LLG. Remember how I said life would get tougher? Well, this is it. In all reality, after this, it just keeps getting easier, so >_>, yeah, what you're about to do is likely the pinnacle of tediousness and monotony in the challenge. Here we go. -------------- Faerie Village -------------- Items: none Faerie Village... you'll be spending, oh, the next several hours working on complete and total development and utilization of the Faerie Village. Sure, that's what you'd normally do, but not all in one burst. You are to have taken everything you need from the village anywhere between now and Mikba, which implies you'll be spending allot of time in random fields just running from enemies to buy time for growth. But if only that were the toughest part... Let's begin: Typical two Faeries to hunting and one to Scholarly work (Culture). I don't need to give the exact proportions to each job. >_> You can figure that out. I'll just give you directions. After more Faeries arrive, clear and build. Once the second room opens, put Job Scholar(s) inside. *lets ALLOT of time pass* Ok, now you should have more open rooms than you know what to do with and even more Faeries. Now, create Weapon Ability, Item Speed, Handyman Ability, Weapon Speed, and Distant Expedition shops. From the first four shops, you are to (inevitably) buy 1 Angling Rod, 1 Spiked Gauntlets, 1 Katzbalger, 1 Ouroboros, 1 Amber Breastplate, x Protectors, 3 Tiger's Caps, and x Soul Gems. Meanwhile, you'll send out 3 Faeries on Distant expeditions, with the main goal being the acquisition of a Dragon Tear, but, should you run across any of the following, take them: Force Armor, Mind Shield, Ivory Charm, AP Shells, and Lacquer Helmet, as you'll be getting at least one of them from the Distant Expeditions by the end of all this anyway. Open a Copy Shop and replicate Dragon Tear upon Dragon Tear. Once you have several, sell any number of them at an Antique Shop for 30000 zenny(!) and buy all the equipment I have listed above. Next, keep searching for the items listed in the Distant Expedition list and copy the Force Armor, Mind Shield, and Ivory Charm twice. On another note, also copy your Light Bangle twice. And yay! You're done with the hardest part! After all the resets you've been through, >_> you deserve a break on Ogre Road. But, before you leave, start copying Wisdom Fruits. --------- Ogre Road --------- Items: Hourglass, Horseradish (3) Prepare for everybody's favorite tiger... `````````````````````````````` o--------------------o |XXVI. Weretiger | | | |HP=930 | |Attacks: Snap, Focus| o--------------------o Note: Just in case you did Ogre Road *before* you finished your Faerie Village devlopment, I formulated a contingency strategy. Besides, it's just Rei. He's not tough. Ryu (14) Garr (15) Weapon: Barbarossa Gigantess Shield: Mithril Shield Mithril Shield Helmet: Mithril Helmet Mithril Helmet Armor: Mithril Armor Mithril Armor Acc. 1: High Boots Light Bangle Acc. 2: Titan Belt Artemis' Cap Master: Fahl Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Same strategy as the one used against Garr-2: Behemoth -> Blitz -> Rei fleeing. `````````````````````````````` --------- Mt.Levett --------- Items: 800 zenny, Gold Hairpin !Ryu! !Garr! *skips across mini-stage* ----------- Yraall Road ----------- Items: none !Ryu! !Garr! Yeah, it's annoying the road is blocked, but just keep on going with the plot. ----------- McNeil/Farm ----------- Items: none Agree with the innkeeper to take care of the tiger, and go to Cedar Woods. ----------- Cedar Woods ----------- Items: none Converse with Rei at your burnt down house and then head to McNeil Manor. ------------ McNeil Manor ------------ Items: none Head back to Syn City. -------- Syn City -------- Items: Old Painting Just take care of business here and snag the Old Painting while you're at it. ---------- Checkpoint ---------- Items: Healing Herb, 80 zenny, Deluxe Rod It's time for the "mighty" Mikba, whose very name for unknown reasons strikes fear into many gamers' hearts. =/ `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------------------------------------------o |XXVII. Mikba | | | |HP=2400 | |Attacks: Multistrike, Quake, Resist, Venom Breath, Lucky Strike, (high| | counter rate) | o----------------------------------------------------------------------o Note: I know Rei's original equipment set for this battle is: Weapon- Moon Sword, Shield- Steel Gauntlets, Helmet- Bandana, Armor- Light Clothing. I'm listing his equipment after I change it, so meh to anyone who has a problem with that. Ryu (14) Rei (19) Nina (12) Weapon: Barbarossa Katzbalger Ouroboros Shield: Mind Shield Protectors Spiked Gauntlets Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Force Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Light Bangle Soul Gem Light Bangle Master: Fahl (none) Meryleep Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) Influence Formation: Defense Strategy: Start off with the classic Ammonia revival of Rei while Ryu casts a Protect on Nina. Change Rei's equipment, have him use a Vitamin on himself, order Nina to Influence Mikba and Ryu to Protect Rei. Rei rises out of the critical zone, auto-transforms, targets Mikba, and the slaughterfest begins. Ryu casts another Protect on Nina before he changes all his armor to dirt (a.k.a. Bracers, Bandana, Clothing) and kills himself. Nina basically spends the rest of the battle defending, only stopping to heal any damage Mikba deals to her. Rei just keeps on charging, slashing off anywhere from 250+ damage on regular hits to up near ~700(!) on criticals! Should he die (he didn't for me), he'd be revived by the Soul Gem and continue this clash of the titans. Venom Breath is no problem (duh, considering the setup), Resist is only irritating in that Rei risks the deadly counter, Multistrike's damage is sad (~5 a hit), as was Mikba's regular physical (~10). Only Lucky Strike was notable, nearing ~50 at max. Result: Rei Lv.19 -> Lv.20; Nina Lv.12 -> Lv.14 `````````````````````````````` Fish for 4 Barandies while you're here, even if it doesn't save you the time of having to come back later anyway. >_> You'll know what I mean by the end. ------------ Eygnock Road ------------ Items: none Nina whining. Nothing out of the usual. ----- Plant ----- Items: none +Momo --------------------------------- (Eastern Wyndia's) Yggdrasil Tree --------------------------------- Items: none +Peco Apprentice Rei to Meryleep before re-entering the Plant. ----- Plant ----- Items: none "Holy keyboards, Batman! It's green smoke!" "Quick, Robin, to the Batmobile!" ---------------------- Secret Underground Lab ---------------------- Items: Skill Ink, Ammonia, Silver Mail, Sleep Shells, Wisdom Ring, Healing Herb, 400 zenny Ah... Force gene, my lovely Force gene. *hugs* What? >_> `````````````````````````````` o--------------------------------o |XXVIII. Huge Slug | | | |HP=2500 | |Attacks: Syphon, Molasses, Quake| o--------------------------------o Ryu (14) Rei (20) Momo (11) Weapon: Barbarossa Katzbalger AP Shells Shield: Mind Shield Mind Shield Mind Shield Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Force Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt High Boots Artemis' Cap Master: Fahl Meryleep Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) Monopolize (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Warrior... mmm... a Flame Warrior Flame Clawing Huge Slug (~480-~580) five times should do the trick. Huge Slug's damage... is not even worth mentioning. Result: Rei Lv.20 -> Lv.21 `````````````````````````````` Flame Inoculations for Ryu and Momo before the next boss battle. `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------------------------------o |XXIX. Shroom | | | |HP=3000 | |Attacks: Head Cracker, Ragnarok, Lavaburst, Blitz, Restore| o----------------------------------------------------------o Ryu (14) Garr (15) Momo (11) Weapon: Barbarossa Gigantess AP Shells Shield: Mind Shield Mind Shield Mind Shield Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Force Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Ring of Fire Artemis' Cap Master: Fahl Fahl Fahl Inoc.: Flame (none) Flame Skills: (none) Monopolize Focus Double Blow Super Combo Formation: Defense Strategy: Before the Focusing -> uber-strong physical skill fest begins, Momo should cast a Protect on herself, Garr Monopolize, and Ryu transform into a Warrior. Garr, by default, becomes the "item guy" throughout this battle, throwing a Ginseng and Black Porgies to Ryu, and Vitamin(s) to whoever needs 'em. Meanwhile, Ryu and Momo Focus x2 and Auraed (~1300) and Super Comboed (6-hit ~700), recharge, Focused x1 and Auraed (~900) and Super Comboed (7-hit ~600) again, finishing off Shroom. Ragnarok and Lavaburst glanced off my team, Blitz can hurt, and his physical inflicts only ~20 damage, Restore isn't strong enough to turn the tides, and only Head Cracker instilled any fear in me, hitting for a more than a decent ~60 damage. Although, to be honest, even if Head Cracker does kill, Garr certainly won't be the one to croak, so it doesn't really matter all that much. Result: Garr Lv.15 -> Lv.17 `````````````````````````````` ------ Wyndia ------ Items: none Not that the plot hole bothers me, since it reveals Nina to be an idiot, but what exactly was the purpose of that whole Eygnock Road speech and the Plant if you weren't going to actually use the Syn City and Plant busts to show Ryu in a good light like you said you would, Nina?! Curse you, Nina! Why must you **** at everything?! *calms down* >_> <_< >_> <_< Ahem... moving on... ---------------------- Wyndia Castle/Basement ---------------------- Items: Laurel Teleportation! Whee! ---------- Checkpoint ---------- Items: none Thanks to your new passport, you can now pass into the Rhapala region and then to Mt.Zublo. -------- Mt.Zublo -------- Items: none Since the road is now clear of lava, head straight for the Urkan region and Angel Tower. ----------- Angel Tower ----------- Items: none After Garr's failed contact with God (Myria) and Deis' message, head for Urkan Tapa. ---------- Urkan Tapa ---------- Items: none After Sudama's message, head to where you will *actually* find Gaist, Cliff, via the Tidal Caves. *trades for two Speed Boots along the way* ----------- Tidal Caves ----------- Items: Fish-head, Coin, Thunder Ring, Hawk's Ring, Deadly Blade Gross gene and various random stuff. ----- Cliff ----- Items: Beast Spear Time to kick a second Guardian's ***. >_> *runs back to Urkan Tapa and boots Gatz's/Gaw's stone body... then runs again* `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------------------o |XXX. Gaist & 2 Torches | | | |Gaist: HP=2500 | | Attacks: Corona, Risky Blow, Sanctuary| |Torch: HP=300 | | Attacks: Flare, (no regular attack) | o----------------------------------------------o Ryu (14) Weapon: Barbarossa Shield: Mind Shield Helmet: Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Acc. 1: Ring of Fire Acc. 2: Titan Belt Master: Fahl Inoc.: (none) Skills: Frost Strike Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: Frost Strike the two torches (~300) for OHKOs, then recover with a Black Porgy and Access a Frost Warrior. Keep on Frost Clawing (~400-~500) until Gaist's demise. Also, you will revert at some point (if he doesn't force you to through HP loss), so recover AP before you transform again... either way. Sanctuary was a waste, Corona a concern only when I'm transformed (and a help when not), his physical hit for a measly ~30, and Lucky Strike alone instilled any fear in me, with its mighty 80+ damage and all. Still, none of his attacks are too big a problem. Result: Ryu Lv.14 -> Lv.15 `````````````````````````````` ----------- Angel Tower ----------- Items: none You can now release Deis and witness the classic, comical scene of Deis beating up Garr. XD -------- Mt.Zublo -------- Items: none More conversation with Deis in her cave. ----------------------- Rhapala/Wharf/Junk Town ----------------------- Items: Green Apple, MultiVitamin, Tea Cup Make some trips and do some tasks between these locations until you finally gain access to the Dock. Before you visit the Dock, get the ??? Gene in that hut on the peninsula between the Inner and Outer Seas. (Item: Swallow Eye) ---- Dock ---- Items: none It's time for another scavenger hunt. Just grab Thunder Inoculations for the upcoming boss fight. ----------- Steel Beach ----------- Items: Robe of Wind Receive the Mutant Gene lying on the beach. And now you have access to... Pygmy power! *twitches from his Pygmy fanboyishness* `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------o |XXXI. Angler | | | |HP=3000 | |Attacks: Venom Breath, Thunder Clap| o-----------------------------------o Ryu (15) Garr (17) Nina (14) Weapon: Barbarossa Beast Spear Ouroboros Shield: Mind Shield Mind Shield Spiked Gauntlets Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Force Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Light Bangle Light Bangle Master: Fahl Fahl Meryleep Inoc.: Thunder Thunder Thunder Skills: (none) Double Blow (none) Formation: Defense Strategy:Ah... quite possibly the lamest boss in the game. Here we go: Warrior -> Focus x2 -> Aura (~1500, a.k.a. 1/2 Angler's maxHP) here. Meanwhile, Nina Iceblasts (~40, -_-) and Garr Double Blows (~100 a hit, pretty good, considering his regular physical does ~120). My only point of irritation was trying to have Ryu kill himself and hit for 0 damage 'cause I'd forgotten the Ivory Charm and Thunder Inoculation, so I had to have Garr do it. Thought I was gonna mention Angler's damage?! Don't make me laugh! I have 0 respect for this boss. *boots anyone who had thought I'd mention Angler's "capabilities"* Result: Garr Lv.17 -> Lv.18; Nina Lv.14 -> Lv.16 `````````````````````````````` ---- Dock ---- Items: none Momo will fix the ship, you'll unsuccessfully try to cross the Outer Sea, and then you'll go to Parch. ----- Parch ----- Items: Coin, 400 zenny Let the shisu quest begin! I... don't care what you get for it. --------------------------------------------- Rocky Sea and the "Legendary Mariner's" House --------------------------------------------- Items: Heavy Dagger, Blizzard Mail, Ice Shield Pick up the Frost-elemental equipment on the way to the mariner's house. Before you head off to the Black Ship, make sure you've done everything you've wanted to do before you go. You won't be coming back for a while. And grab a Frost Inoculation while you're at it. >_> ---------- Black Ship ---------- Items: Skill Ink (2), Protectors, Ascension, Wisdom Fruit, Light Bangle, Flash Shells, 2400 zenny, Ammonia, Ivory Dice, Soul Gem *dances to the groovin' Black Ship music while playing the Crane mini-game* `````````````````````````````` o-------------------------------------------------o |XXXII. 2 Ammonites | | | |HP=2000 each | |Attacks: Tsunami, Iceblast, Blizzard, Multistrike| o-------------------------------------------------o Ryu (15) Rei (21) Momo (11) Weapon: Barbarossa Katzbalger AP Shells Shield: Mind Shield Mind Shield Mind Shield Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Force Armor Force Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Titan Belt Speed Boots Ivory Charm Acc. 2: High Boots Speed Boots Light Bangle Master: Fahl Meryleep Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) Monopolize Influence Formation: Defense Strategy: They're strong... or maybe your weaknesses are just starting to creep through the gradually antiquating equipment your party bears. Perhaps my plan here is a bit... bold. Ready your men for an all out offensive: Rei casts Speed (for EX :D) and Weretiger; Ryu Access Thunder Warrior, while Momo casts a Protect on herself and puts a leash on Rei in the form of Influence. Weretiger and Thunder Warrior claw some impressive figures out of our jellyfish friends (~200-~300 x2 a turn for Weretiger, ~700 a turn from Thunder Claw). Fortunately, an average ~1000 damage a turn should bring the villainous duo down quickly. However, their resistance is pretty hefty. As always, Tsunami is a pain in the ***, and Blizzard and Iceblast sre absolutely devastating (~30-~60 on the team, Ryu obviously taking by far the most damage). At least their physicals and Multistrike have a lighter sting (~20-~30 max), although Confuse can really cause trouble. But poor Momo. Poor, poor Momo- having to play the role of complete party supporter. If she dies, not only will you have to stop your assault to revive her (since she does Monopolize all the EXP.; although you'd definitely whack at least one of the two before even daring revert Ryu), but your team's chances of survival would be... discouraging. So, the question posed now is: Is there a better way to approach this battle? Probably. Do you *really* want to run the dramatically increased risk of a Blizzard x2 or Tsunami -> Blizzard, effectively annihilating my party, by playing a slower strategy? I think not. Or... you could just walk far enough back before the battle to have on of the ship's main cannons keep an Ammonite busy every turn *and* deal extensive damage to him, making your life infinitely easier. On one final note, do NOT Focus x2 with Warrior. The damage yield from a double Focused Thunder Claw and three Thunder Claws is negligible (and, obviously, Aura's out of the question, as it would change the element of the attack from Thunder to Holy). Result: Momo Lv.11 -> Lv.19 (+67HP, +31AP, +31PWR, +38DEF, +8INT!) `````````````````````````````` -------- Kombinat -------- Items: Homing Bomb Buy a Piercing Edge for Rei before moving on. -------------------------- (Lost Shore) Ygdrasil Tree -------------------------- Items: none Trance Gene. ----------- Steel Grave ----------- Items: UV Glasses, Speed Boots, Spanner *steals stuff and moves on* ------ Colony ------ Items: Key, Deep Diver, Wisdom Fruit Don't forget to pick up the Failure Gene. If you followed my advice and got a fair number of Barandy, with your new Deep Diver, you can head after Spearfish and Whales so that you can acquire Ryu's Royal Sword and a Life Armor, which you'll immediately copy twice. While you're there, copy your Thunder Ring twice too. >_> ------------- Relay Point A ------------- Items: Hourglass, Lacquer Staff, 4000z, Lacquer Shield, Barbarossa, Skill Ink *fixes, grabs Radiance gene in CY, and pops in at Dragnier* -------- Dragnier -------- Items: Skill Ink, Ivory Dice *receives some Flame Inoculations before dukin' it out* `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------------------------------o |XXXIII. Elder | | | |HP=5000 | |Attacks: Bad Back, Inferno, Myollnir, Sirroco, Double Blow| o----------------------------------------------------------o Ryu (15) Rei (21) Nina (16) Weapon: Royal Sword Piercing Edge Ouroboros Shield: Mind Shield Protectors Spiked Gauntlets Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap UV Glasses Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Thunder Ring Thunder Ring Thunder Ring Master: Fahl Meryleep Meryleep Inoc.: Flame Flame Flame Skills: Influence (none) Monopolize Focus Super Combo Formation: Defense Strategy: This seems like an ideal time to Weretiger if there ever was one. Nina Monopolizes (and then... defends for most the battle, except when she was really needed for support, and, yes, I've tried Iceblast and its damage stunk [~40]) and Ryu designates Jono as Rei's target. Nina gives Rei a Ginseng, and Ryu spends a few turns putting a Protect on everyone. Weretiger hits for well over ~400 damage, approaching ~500 and criticaling for ~1000. After the Protects, Ryu starts a cycle of Focus x2 -> Super Combo (~900 damage for a 7-hit). Yeah, the battle ends rather quickly. His abilities are fairly useless against your team. Inferno hits for 0 damage, Myollnir was absorbed (:D for Thunder Ringx3), and Sirocco was his only MT damage (though ~10-~30 on my party isn't much of an accomplishment). After the Protects, even Double Blow maxed at ~20. And, of course, Bad Back is just funny. Result: Nina Lv. 16 -> Lv. 20 `````````````````````````````` :D Time to fetch Charm, Shadowwalk, and War Shout from Meryleep! Plus, Ladon's accessible now. The instant a character reaches Lv.21, reassign to Ladon, mainly because +3 Flame, +1 Status, and +1 Death resistance is incredible from just one master. ------- Factory ------- Items: Wisdom Seed, Artemis' Cap, Skill Ink, Ammonia, Rockbreaker, Aries Spear, Fish-head, Sage's Frock, Homing Bomb, Hourglass *strolls through* --------------- Desert of Death --------------- Items: variable *strolls through, albeit needing more time to do it* `````````````````````````````` o------------------------------------------o |XXXIV. Manmo | | | |HP=3200 | |Attacks: Quake, Focus, (huge counter rate)| o------------------------------------------o Ryu (15) Garr (18) Momo (19) Weapon: Royal Sword Beast Spear AP Shells Shield: Mind Shield Mind Shield Mind Shield Helmet: Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Light Bangle Light Bangle Master: Fahl Fahl Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) Monopolize Focus Double Blow War Shout Shadowwalk Formation: Defense Strategy: Easy enough >_>. Momo Protects herself, Garr Monopolizes, and Ryu Accesses Warrior. Momo follows with a Double War Shout while Garr Double Blows (~200 each blow) and Ryu Focuses x2. I was about to Focus x2 -> Shadowwalk with Momo, but Ryu's Aura (2200+) and the physical right after it (~500) slew Manmo before she had the chance. Oh well. *shrugs* As for Manmo's damage, his physical on Ryu (~60) scared me at first, but, thanks to the enemy-Focus-glitch, his damage just got worse and worse. Result: Garr Lv.18 -> Lv.21 `````````````````````````````` ----- Oasis ----- Items: 800 zenny The last actual town. >_> Shame you'll have to leave it to re-enter the DoD in order to fetch the Death Claws. *shoves you back in* -------------- Container Yard -------------- Items: none Alright, before heading in, put Steal on anybody (but Rei, duh) and bring that party member and Rei to the CY. Now, just keep wandering around, waiting for our friendly-neighborhood Berserker to drop in. Whenever you *do* encounter one, spend the first turn trying to steal, and, if you fail, run (unless you're wearing complete flame protection, in which case, you have another turn to try to steal, then you run). Once you get an Aries Gloves, run like **** and, surprise, surprise, copy them twice (unless you'd prefer two more Berserker hunts). --------- Caer Xhan --------- Items: Protein, Moon Tears Buy Momo's Atomic Bomb and a set of Sun Masks from the last equipment shop, and head on up the giant elevator to the heavens... --------------------- Myria Orbital Station --------------------- Items: Gas Shells, Wisdom Fruit, 800 zenny, Hourglass, Napalm, 400 zenny, Life Shard (2), 10000z, Holy Robe, Swallow Eye, Ammonia, Skill Ink, Ivory Dice, Slicer, HE Shells, Giant Shield, Dragon Shield, Dragon Helm, Demonsbane Push onward to reach the sleeping gas chamber, but I'd get some Frost shots for everyone if I were you. And learn Triple Blow too. `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------------------------o |XXXV. Chimera | | | |HP=7500 | |Attacks: Paralyzer, Myollnir, Blizzard, Restore| o-----------------------------------------------o Ryu (15) Rei (21) Momo (19) Weapon: Royal Sword Slicer Atomic Bomb Shield: Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Helmet: Tiger's Cap Sun Mask Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Force Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Thunder Ring Thunder Ring Master: Fahl Ladon Fahl Inoc.: Frost Frost Frost Skills: (none) Triple Blow Focus War Shout Shadowwalk Formation: Defense Strategy: Rei should Speed himself up to outrun Chimera (if he doesn't already) while cast a sole Protect on herself and Ryu transformed into a Warrior while Momo starts would should be (bar being forced to Panacea a paralyzed Rei) 3 consecutive War Shouts while Ryu Focuses x2 -> Aura (3000+). Rei served as the main healer, throwing Vitamin(s), Panaceas, and Black Porgies around almost incessantly until his suicide, while Momo and Ryu finished the Chimera off with Shadowwalk(3000+) and Aura (1400+) after both Focusing x2. Paralyzer was by far Chimera's most annoying ability (~60 + 100% paralysis), more often than not delaying all my plans for a whole turn. All his MT attacks were negated though (except Blizzard on Momo for ~25 and everything on Ryu for ~60 >_>), and Myollnir... yeah, absorbed by all but Ryu (~80 O.<). Result: Ryu Lv.15 -> Lv.19; Momo Lv.19 -> Lv.21 `````````````````````````````` Carefully tend to the Skills and Inoculations as requested in the Dragon Lord battle character set-ups. If this isn't obvious, it's *very* important that they're exactly right. Dragon Lord's one of the, if not, the toughest boss! *ceases the near-condescending speech* ---- Eden ---- Items: Protein, Magic Shard, Ginseng, Wisdom Fruit, Silver Tiara, Dragon Spear, Force Armor, Soul Gem Reunions... ----------- Ryu's Dream ----------- Itemss: Shaman's Ring, Hourglass, Gems *strolls through... in another dimension of existence* *waves finger in quasi-spooky manner* `````````````````````````````` o---------------------o |XXXVI. Arwan | | | |HP=2400 | |Attacks: Sleep, Chill| o---------------------o Ryu (19) Weapon: Royal Sword Shield: Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Armor: Life Armor Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Master: Fahl Inoc.: Frost Skills: Focus Shadowwalk Formation: Normal (Default) Strategy: Very simple: Warrior -> Focus x1 -> Aura -> 2800+ = OHKO on Arwan. Chill (~70), physical (~40), Sleep (minor annoyance) Result: Ryu Lv.19 -> Lv.21 `````````````````````````````` ---- Eden ---- Items: none There's no break between the battles. But it doesn't really matter that much. You'd have to recover Ryu's HP/AP just as much whether you completely burned him out or barely tapped into his powers. `````````````````````````````` o---------------------------------------------------------o |XXXVII. Dragon Lord | | | |HP=12500 | |Attacks: Inferno, Blizzard, Sirroco, Howling, Triple Blow| o---------------------------------------------------------o Ryu (21) Rei (21) Peco (1) Weapon: Royal Sword Slicer Death Claws Shield: Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Sun Mask Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Amber Breastplate Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Ring of Ice Ring of Fire Master: Fahl Ladon Fahl Inoc.: Frost Change Frost Skills: Focus War Shout Monopolize Shadowwalk Formation: Defense Strategy: With 58 AP, Ryu barely has enough to Access the mighty IRT Kaiser. But first, a couple Protects and Speeds on Rei are in order (Rei needs to outrun Dragon Lord for his presence to justify itself) while Peco Monopolizes and otherwise defends. Once Ryu goes IRT, Rei will continually War Shout, Ryu Focus x2, and Peco restored Ryu's AP (alternation between Black Porgy and Wisdom Fruit). Once Ryu Shadowwalks the first time (~4000), cut down the dependence on Peco and have Rei handle the AP restoration while Ryu attacks with Shadowwalk every turn now (~1800) and Peco handles the minor healing (otherwise, Peco heals wounds before they get large enough to risk death). This set-up takes care of virtually all of Dragon Lord's methods of damage. Ryu absorbs Inferno and negates Blizzard and Sirocco (until he goes IRT Kaiser, but True Kaiser is an unstoppable tank, so no worries there). Rei absorbs Blizzard, negates Inferno, and takes minimal damage from Sirocco (near single digit). And Peco... he absorbs Inferno and negates Sirocco and Blizzard. So, the only problem is Dragon Lord's physical and Triple Blow (except Howling, which was a minor irritation only to Peco). Both kill Peco on the spot, but Rei takes a measly ~40 and ~30 from them respectively. All in all, Dragon Lord could have been much worse. That you can cover all your elemental bases to a significant extent is key really. >_< If only Holocaust would be that easy to deal with... Result: Peco Lv. 1 -> Lv. 20 (+209HP, +54AP, +85PWR, +107DEF!) `````````````````````````````` --------------------------------- Myria Orbital Station: Final Area --------------------------------- Items: Swallow Eye, Moon Tears, Cupid's Lyre, Hourglass Recycled boss time. The shortest (and least EXP.) path is Sample 1 -> Sample 3 -> Final Rest/Save Point. `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------o |XXXVIII. 3 Sample 1s (3 Nues)| o-----------------------------o Ryu (21) Rei (21) Peco (20) Weapon: Royal Sword Slicer Death Claws Shield: Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Sun Mask Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Amber Breastplate Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Light Bangle Light Bangle Light Bangle Master: Ladon Ladon Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) Monopolize (none) Formation: Irrelevant, no? Strategy: "After Monopolize, there existed only one way to end this battle, one way to both destroy all the Nues and amuse myself: the mighty, the indominable Pygmy! Magma Breath (~130-~180) for life! *fries the Nues in two Magma Breaths... and then hugs Pygmy*" Heheh, that was how I dealt with the battle, but that's just my Pygmy fanboyism getting the best of me. Seriously, do whatever you want; there's no way you can lose unless you try to or your IQ is rivaled by that of a monkey's. And not just an ordinary monkey, I mean the "village idiot" monkey of a monkey community. `````````````````````````````` o-----------------------------o |XXXIX. 2 Sample 3s (2 Mikbas)| o-----------------------------o Ryu (21) Nina (20) Peco (20) Weapon: Royal Sword Ouroboros Death Claws Shield: Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Silver Tiara Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Force Armor Amber Breastplate Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Light Bangle Light Bangle Light Bangle Master: Ladon Meryleep Fahl Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: (none) (none) (none) Formation: Defense Strategy: Here's a dragon form we haven't seen throughout this entire challenge: Mammoth. You Meteor Strike the suckers. The damage is actually pretty good, descending from ~900 to ~700 to ~500 after the poison and various melees scratch the 1700 maxHP Mammoth. After Ryu reverts, have him finish one of the Mikbas, then himself, and have Peco topple the remaining Mikba while Nina hides behind her magical shield. Result: Nina Lv.20 -> Lv.21; Peco Lv.20 -> Lv.21 `````````````````````````````` Final boss time... or is it? Heheh, sorry about breaking the suspense of the moment, but no matter how you look at it, you need to restock. Here's a terse list of what you'll require: 16 or more of any combination of the following- Spearfish, Barandies, Whales, Moon Tears; 8 or more Wisdom Fruits; 7 or more of any combination of the following- Wisdom Seeds, Black Porgies. As an important note, these requirements are for an ideal scenario in which nothing goes wrong. Most likely, those items are all you'll need, but, just in case, >_> bring a few extra anyway. Oh, and a Spirit Ring would be nice too. Good luck, kinda, even though my final boss strategy is 100% full-proof. `````````````````````````````` o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o |XL. Myria | | | |HP=20000 | |Attacks: Inferno, Myollnir, Blizzard, Restore, Sirocco, Sanctuary, Evil Eye,| | Death, Venom, Holocaust | o----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Ryu (21) Garr (21) Peco (21) Weapon: Royal Sword Beast Spear Death Claws Shield: Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Sun Mask UV Glasses Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Amber Breastplate Acc. 1: Spirit Ring Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Titan Belt Light Bangle Light Bangle Master: Ladon Ladon Ladon Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Focus (none) (none) Shadowwalk Formation: Attack (Ryu at point) Strategy: And thus the mighty final battle began! "But, what's this, Palth? No Inoculations? No filled Skill banks? No Tiger's Cap on Peco? Attack Formation?" Yup, that's right. Follow my instructions perfectly, and you CANNOT LOSE (not even Holocaust is a concern, because its damage won't exceed anyone's maxHP; you'll notice how I've chosen the characters with the highest maxHP >_>). How you say? Very simple. After transforming into IRT Kaiser, initiate a repeating chain, such that each character's action will be, at its core, identical each and every turn, and you'll have the supplies to sustain it. This equipment set-up leaves you invulnerable to Death and all Myria's status attacks; Garr uses a Spearfish/Barandy/Whale/Moon Tears on the team every turn, erasing any and all damage Myria inflicts; IRT Kaiser smacks Myria with Shadowwalk (~1400-~1900), and Peco restores his AP via an alternation between Wisdom Fruits and Wisdom Seeds/Black Porgies. And so... you kill a god, completing the LLG. It's less fullproof than mine (but in exchange faster), but here's an alternative strategy by DreemZ: Ryu (21) Garr (21) Rei (21) Weapon: Royal Sword Dragon Spear Slicer Shield: Aries Gloves Giant Shield Aries Gloves Helmet: Dragon Helmet Sun Mask Tiger's Cap Armor: Life Armor Life Armor Burglar Garb Acc. 1: Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Ivory Charm Acc. 2: Spirit Ring Ring of Ice Speed Boots Master: Ladon Ladon Ladon Inoc.: (none) (none) (none) Skills: Shadowwalk (none) (none) Formation: Attack (Ryu at point) Strrategy (direct quote): "So, I have to say, there wasn't much to this battle; Rei was fast enough to outrun Myria from the get-go, which was a big help. I started off by having Ryu use Accession into IRT Kaiser, Rei cast speed on himself, and Garr used a Robe of Wind on Rei. Myria used Sanctuary, of course. Ryu used Bonebreak, Rei cast speed on himself again, and Garr used a wisdom fruit on Ryu. Myria used Sanctuary, again. Ryu used Shaddowwalk, Rei cast speed on himself, and Garr used a Robe of Wind on Rei. Myria cast Venom, which blinded Rei and Garr. Voila: Ex-turn for Rei. After this point, Myria never cast Sanctuary again, and the turns consisted of Rei attacking, Ryu using Shaddowalk, and Garr attacking. If I needed to heal, it would be done on Rei's Ex turn. Garr would always use a Wisdom Fruit on Ryu every other turn. Ryu had 62 AP, so it was 27 a turn for IRT, and 4 for Shaddowwalk. Not once did I have to use a Moon Tears, and in total I used 4 or so Wisdom Fruits. Ryu averaged around 1700 per Shaddowalk, maxing out at close to 2k. ... It was quite anti-climactic, and I'm tempted to fight her again putting Aura on Ryu, just to see how much faster the battle can go. Now, I think had she cast Holocaust, it would have given me some trouble if Rei had died, but I still think I could have recovered by simply reviving, especially since he outran Myria without having to cast Speed." [He noted earlier that he had not encountered Holcaust.] "I have a simple way of alleviating the Holocaust issue with Rei and his possible death, and the scenario of Holocaust followed by Holocaust, which, as of right now, is the only thing making my strategy inferior. (And, you should know I would have ^_^) Since Rei goes first, he simply uses Resist every turn in case Holocaust does turn up. (But, with IRT Kaiser using Aura every turn, the battles going to go pretty fast.) Garr and Ryu will take serious damage, but still be alive. On Rei's Ex turn, he'll heal everyone, and then on his normal turn he'll simply keep casting Resist. On Ex turns where he doesn't have to heal, he'll simply replenish his AP, if necessary. That was, in fact, how I intended the battle to be. What I recorded was simply what happened during my 'test battle'. And, what I was testing was whether or not Rei had enough HP to survive Holocaust, even though I considered it unlikely." `````````````````````````````` Congratulations! ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |---#8 Frequently Asked Questions--> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| Do you have a question this guide hasen't answered? Just ask me, I'll give you your answer and post your question(s) here for anyone else who has a similar question. Of course, your privacy will be protected. Unless you say so otherwise, I will not display your name/e-mail address to public eyes. Q: Palth, you keep talking about the Low Level Game and the Lowest Level Game. I thought a Low Level Game *is* a Lowest Level Game. What's the difference, if any? A: One main difference: exploitation of tricks, particularly the MDT. This Low Level Game bans the usage of MDT in order to play through the game as if the MDT didn't even exist. The Lowest Level Game's goal is to play the hardest possible LLG through the usage of any and all available glitches and tricks. Q: What other challenges are there for this game? A: Glad you asked. Among others (to avoid seeming far too overly redudant, I've removed the words "challenge" and "game" from the end of these): Initial Equipment No Equipment (First Victor - Best of the Worst) No Masters No Skills Boss EXP. Only (First Victor - Mikhail) Lowest Level (Mikhail's Current Project) No Items Only Items (First Victor - DavidK5) Speed (Known Records: 10:03(!), 11:31, 13:50 - DavidK5; 14:24- SharpPaper) No Physicals No Abilities Only Physicals Only Abilities Only Skills No Fishing No Faerie Village Natural Character No Accession No Weretiger Single/Solo Character Single/Solo Straight Character (Check out my SSCC guide, if you haven't already ;P) (combinations of the above and other stuff that's not coming to mind >_>) etc. (Yeah, I could probably keep going, but I'm too lazy) ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |-------#9 Legal Information-------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| This section is just some legal information. This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This may be exhibited only within www.GameFAQs.com, www.neoseeker.com, and www.dragon-tear.net. ============================================================================== _ | | | |_________________________________ _______| | \ |_______| |------------#10 Credits-----------> | |_________________________________/ | | |_| Thanks to Capcom for making this game. Thanks to GameFAQs and Neoseeker for featuring this BOF3 LLG Guide. Arigato to DavidK5 for, as usual, his top-notch FAQ/General Walkthrough as a reference source and his personal suggestions. Kudos goes to BioSheex for the chart and pulling me into this >_>, even if he didn't make it to the very end. Gracias to Mikhail for tolerating his original philosophy towards LLGing in BoFIII being used as a stepping stone in my introduction and also for "upping the ante" in his current project, the Lowest Level Game. And thanks to Xaar and DreemZ for a few original ideas in addition to, ya know, playing through the LLG. Aw, what the heck. I'll give a yay to Black Mist, if just for his omnipresence and overall coolness in general. Finally, if anyone has any questions, contributions, or comments about this guide, please e-mail me at Paltheos@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Until next time, this has been Paltheos, wishing you good luck and happy gaming. -------------------------------- Copyright 2005-2006 Brian Lundin