Dragon Warrior IV

Somebody has asked about this in an archived post, and I didn't see this answered by anyone, so I started a new topic. Yes, you can get the metal babble helm without giving 20 small medals away to the medal king.

Either go to Gottside or to the Final Cave with your wagon where you fight King Metals randomly. To do this, you'll need Taloon in your party. When you have him in your party in Chapter 5, he does all kinds of random actions during battle, but one of them, if you're very lucky, is to steal from an enemy. King Metals tend to run away pretty quickly, so it can be a nearly impossible feat to get that lucky without some help. One of Taloon's actions is to hypnotize a monster, which will paralyze them for the entire battle, but since he does all sorts of random things, I wouldn't use him to start.

Your best bet it to equip four characters with venomous daggers (randomly paralyzes enemy after hit), switch the tactics to Offensive, and drain your characters of their mp so your characters will only attack with their weapon. Once you're able to paralyze a King Metal, put everybody in the wagon except for Taloon, and keep your fingers crossed. It would be wise to empty Taloon of all his belongings because he's dumb enough to try using any item in his inventory to waste a turn. When you see the message "Taloon has caught King Metal off guard and grabs the treasure chest", he'll have a metal babble helm in his possession.

Notes:

1) After extensive testing I found that you can only steal one metal babble helm
2) You cannot get one if you already gave up 20 small medals to get a metal babble helm, but you can use those medals to equip members with the sword of miracles. (Metal Babbles hold the shoes of happiness, and you can get as many of these as you want)
3) Any item you steal from an enemy is the same item the enemy would have randomly dropped at the end of battle, but I never got a King Metal to drop the lone metal babble helm in the game.

I believe there was a "Use No MP" tactic as well, no? As long as you emptied all other usable items, that should serve well enough...

Well, I stand corrected...

I put the metal babble helm in the vault, then used this code I found on Paulygon's code list:

AAUOPXZG +
AAKPGXYL : Always get a treasure chest after winning a battle! The item
received will be from the last enemy defeated. A few enemies don't have an
item assigned to them, so in those cases, a treasure chest will not appear.
NOTE: The first code is sufficient for most monsters, but there are a few
that have an additional element of chance. To get treasure chests from
those, both codes are required.. for example, the Plesiosaur and King Metal.

To play safe, I went to Gottside because King Metal's appear by themselves. After beating one, I got the Metal Babble Helm again.

Good stuff...enjoy!

A few months ago, this question came up and I did some hacking to confirm this.

The following list are items that you are allowed to have only ONE of them. Note that this list is used when calculating item drops, not necessarily used for other things. (I never confirmed this list's other uses, except for item drops)

20 = Zenithian Sword
30 = Magma Staff
33 = Zenithian Sword
55 = Zenithian Armor
68 = Zenithian Shield
75 = Zenithian Helm
79 = Metal Babble Helm
80 = Meteorite Armband
82 = Baron's Horn
87 = Leaf of World Tree
91 = Dew of World Tree
92 = Flute of Uncovering
93 = Sphere of Silence
95 = Sandglass of Regression
96 = Sage's Stone
102 = Mirror of Ra
103 = Lamp of Darkness
104 = Staff of Transform
107 = Iron Safe
108 = Flying Shoes
109 = Silver Statuette
110 = Treasure Map
111 = Symbol of Faith
112 = Gunpowder Jar
113 = Thief's Key
114 = Magic Key
115 = Final Key
117 = Birdsong Nectar
118 = Golden Bracelet
119 = Prince's Letter
120 = Royal Scroll
122 = Boarding Pass
123 = Padequia Root
124 = Fire of Serenity
125 = Gas Canister
126 = Padequia Seed

Here is the relevant code that I have in my notes for item drop calculation:

$921C:C9 7F CMP #$7F
$921E:85 C4 STA $C4 = #$FF
$9220:F0 62 BEQ $9284 ( Is there an item from this enemy? )

$9222:00 BRK ( Calculate if we are allowed to have more than 1 of this )
$9223:10 0F BPL $9234
$9225:90 05 BCC $922C ( Are we allowed to have more than 1 of this? )

$9227:00 BRK ( Calculate if we got one of this already )
$9228:66 73 ROR $73 = #$75
$922A:B0 58 BCS $9284 ( Does player already have 1 of this? )

$922C:00 BRK ( Calculate probability of getting item )
$922D:25 B3 AND $B3 = #$00
$922F:F0 14 BEQ $9245 ( Did player get lucky enough to get this? )

Here are some additional notes I added in my... notes file... I can't remember right now the details about this, but if I added this in my notes file, there must be some truth to it. :)


--------------------
Calculate if we got one of this already

If none of the allies in the immediate party
( those that show up when selecting the Item menu )
do not possess the item, it is considered that
the player does not have the item in possession.

Storage and any player not listed in the current
party may possess the item without being considered
to be in possession.
--------------------


So in answer to the question, the algorithm that determines item drops after a battle will check to see if you got the Metal Babble Helm already, and if you do, you will not get another one again. However, keeping the item in the vault or with an ally not active will allow you to get another one. (note: must be an ally that cannot be switched out from the wagon either! Best to keep it in the vault...)

The only thing I would recommend to watch out for is getting too many Metal Babble Helms... this item cannot be sold or dropped, which is why the game includes it as an item that can only be acquired one at a time...

The other thing I will mention is: Metal Babble Helm + Hat of Happiness = can be acquired from enemy drops, so everyone can get one. Sword of Miracles = you can only get 2, but you really only need 2. Staff of Jubilation = crap. In conclusion, don't even bother wasting your small medals... save them for bragging rights that the king already has all 31 of them in possession... But I would keep 1 for myself as a souvenir :)

An old question I had, but was unsure if answered...if Taloon steals an item, is it possible to get one at the end of the same battle, whether from a different monster or not?