Walkthrough for Suikoden III for the PS2, North American Release
Version 2.25 copyright dan crenshaw (dshaw999@bellsouth.net) 2002
Last update 1/28/2003
************************* SPOILER WARNING ********************************
************************* SPOILER WARNING ********************************
This walkthrough contains spoilers related to Suikoden III. The spoilers have
been put in so that nothing that happens later in the story is mentioned in an
earlier section of the walkthrough. However, later sections of the walkthrough
may mention key previous events as reference points. If you'd rather not risk
having something related to the story ruined for you, stop reading now.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
Legal Junk:
Whatever you do with this Walkthrough in terms of private use is no concern of
mine. Please do not alter it, distribute it, post it, or do anything related
to public use without permission. If you intend to print it out, make sure
your printer/word processor's option for word wrap is off.
This Walkthrough should only be posted at gamefaqs.com. If you see this
document posted anywhere else in part or in its entirety, it is without the
author's permission.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact info:
I WILL NOT reply to any e-mails that ask questions already answered in this
document. This applies especially to recruiting questions.
Comments, suggestions, corrections are welcome as long as they pertain to this
document. It's very helpful if you put "Suikoden" in the e-mail's subject
header so I'll know it's related to this document. Any information you provide
to me will be properly credited via e-mail name (minus the domain name) unless
you prefer another way to be credited or do not wish to be credited at all. I
will credit such information as from "anonymous".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update info:
The changes for this version:
-Added Chris level 99 trick in detail per e-mail requests. Credit and many
thanks to Blue Moon for permitting me to put the trick in this document
This document contains all the content I planned for it (and then some). Any
further updates, beyond some minor clarifications/corrections, are not planned
unless a major secret is discovered.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
----------------------------------------
Part I: Introduction and Walkthrough
----------------------------------------
1. Introduction (How do I find stuff in this document?)
2. Top 10 e-Mail Questions
2a. What do I get for loading Suikoden II data?
2b. Should I play Suikoden I and II first?
2c. How long does this game take to complete?
2d. All about recruiting
2e. What skills should my characters learn?
2f. Why do you recommend doing...?
2g. Agh! I can't get [Recruit/Item] and I'm going to smash my PS2!
2h. Why can't I go to chapter 4?
2i. Why aren't the lottery results switching like you said?
2j. Where can I get a Statue S?
3. General Questions
3a. Introduction
3b. The Trinity Sight System
3c. Why this order of play?
3d. Skills/Stats
3e. Support Characters
3f. Runes and Magic
3g. Battle Formations/The Pair System
3h. Strategy Battles
3i. Duels
3j. Character Types
3k. Treasure bosses
3l. Recipes, Old Books, Medal Sets, Antiques, Bath Items, and Scripts
3m. What's the Chris Level 99 trick? Should I do it?
3n. What is the stat stones trick?
3o. I need money and lots of it!
3p. I was just walking around minding my own business, then the screen
turned yellow and this funny music played and this monster killed me!
3q. Looting corpses
3r. What's a Tank?
3s. What are the Armor Sets and what do they do?
3t. Where do I get the Blinking Mirror?
3u. No offense, but can you suggest another Walkthrough?
4. Walkthrough
4a. Introduction
4b. Hugo Chapter 1
4c. Chris Chapter 1
4d. Geddoe Chapter 1
4e. Break--Time to Decide about Thomas
4f. Chris Chapter 2
4g. Hugo Chapter 2
4h. Geddoe Chapter 2
4i. Geddoe Chapter 3
4j. Hugo Chapter 3
4k. Chris Chapter 3
4l. Thomas Chapter 1 (Optional)
4m. Thomas Chapter 2 (Optional)
4n. Interlude--The Big Question (Spoilers)
4o. Chapter 4
4p. Chapter 5
----------------------------------------
Part II: Reference Guide (Spoilers)
----------------------------------------
5. 108 Stars of Destiny Recruit List
6. My Really Important Items List
6a. Introduction
6b. Runes
6c. Armor
6d. Hammers
6e. Medal Sets
6f. Accessories
6g. Scripts
7. Duels
8. Ernie's Quiz
9. Boss/Battle Strategies
----------------------------------------
Part III: Secrets (HUGE SPOILERS)
----------------------------------------
10. 108 Stars of Destiny Bonus
11. Miscellaneous Q&A's
12. So why did you choose this play and recruiting order?
----------------------------------------
Part IV: Thanks and Version History
----------------------------------------
13. Acknowledgements
14. Version History
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
----------------------------------------
Part I: Introduction and Walkthrough
----------------------------------------
1. Introduction (How do I find stuff in this document?)
This Walkthrough covers how to get through Suikoden III with detailed content
on how to make the story advance, battle and recruiting strategies, and lots of
other stuff. What it does NOT include are comprehensive lists for the items
in the game such as recipes, old books, runes, etc. I cover how to get most of
these items in the Walkthrough with a mini-list of important items, but for
comprehensive lists, I refer you to Ryvius' FAQ here at gamefaqs and to the
lists available at suikosource.com.
This document is broken up into four parts. Part I has general questions along
with the actual Walkthrough. *Please* check the questions in sections 2 and 3
before e-mailing me about something.
Part II is the Reference Guide. I put this in mainly for people who have a
specific question about how to recruit someone, how to beat a certain boss, or
how to get an item without having to plow through the Walkthrough. There are
spoilers here but only minor ones for sections 5-8. Beyond some very minor
story points and the character names, nothing is revealed. Because section 9
details the main boss/strategy battles in the game, key story events ARE
revealed in this section. To reduce spoilers, an expanded content list for
Part II is not in the main Table of Contents but instead placed at the start of
Part II.
Part III covers the Secrets of the game. Needless to say, the biggest spoilers
are in this section. If you really want to know the reasons why I chose the
play and recruiting order of this Walkthrough, check section 12 in this part.
Part IV has the Acknowledgements and Version History sections.
If you want to zip to a part of this document quickly, open it up in WordPad or
NotePad+ and make use of the Find tool. Activate both Match whole word and
Match case by checking them. Type in the following keywords in the quote marks
then hit Find Next until you get to each topic. You will have to hit Find Next
a few times before you get to the actual topic content:
"4. Walkthrough" --goes to the actual Walkthrough
"5. 108 Stars" --goes to the Recruit List
"6. My Really" --goes to the mini-list of Items
"7. Duels" --goes to the Duels section
"9. Boss/Battle" --goes to boss/strategy battles section
"Part III:" --goes to Secrets section
You can do this with any other keyword topic you want such as the name of a
particular rune, character, item, boss, etc. If you'd like to go to a main
character's specific chapter, type in the phrase:
"[character name] [chapter] [chapter #]"
To get to Geddoe's chapter 2, for example, you'd type "Geddoe chapter 2" then
hit Find Next until you got to the actual content. Using the Find Tool is a
lot better than scrolling with your mouse or using the Page Up/Down keys.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
2. Top 10 e-Mail Questions
2a. What do I get for loading Suikoden II data?
The only things you get for loading Suikoden II data into Suikoden III are two
extra scripts (with plays related to events in Suikoden I and II), boosted
levels for three characters, and references to the names you gave to the heroes
and armies of the previous games. The Suikoden II data you load must be a save
game after defeating the final boss in that game. To load Suikoden II data,
insert the PSOne memory card with the data into one of the slots in your PS2
with a PS2 memory card in the other slot. Access the PS2 browser and copy the
Suikoden II data from the PSOne memory card to the PS2 memory card. At the
start of Suikoden III you will be prompted to load Suikoden II data and can do
so at that time. I have written this walkthrough to include the minor
differences if you did or did not load Suikoden II data.
Suikoden II data that meets the requirements for Suikoden III is available for
download via the DexDrive at gamefaqs. Go to the PSOne/PSX section, then to
Suikoden II, then Game Saves. The Game Save by CDexter will enable you to get
the Scripts, which is the biggest reason to load Suikoden II data, really.
Download this file to your hard drive, then copy it to a PSOne memory card via
the DexDrive. AFAIK, the DexDrives for the PSOne and PS2 are NOT compatible.
If you have to spend more than $5 on this endeavor (in terms of getting a PSOne
Memory Card and PSOne DexDrive), it's not worth it, IMO.
Thanks to CDexter for providing the Suikoden II game save.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2b. Should I play Suikoden I and II first?
Suikoden III can be enjoyed as a standalone game-its story and characters have
only very minor ties to the previous two games. I suggest you play Suikoden I
and II moreso because they are great games (better than Suikoden III, IMHO)
rather than as an issue of continuity. Blue Moon's web site, suikosource.com,
has story summaries of the first two games if you're interested.
In terms of acquiring the old games, your best bet is the bargain bin/used
section of a local retailer. A couple of friends of mine have been able to get
the old games by asking their local store to hold on to a copy if someone
trades it in. Your other avenue is ebay or half.com, but I imagine because of
their scarcity you'll have to pay more than the original price.
nihon e-mailed me about a site called gametz.com where you may also be able to
get a copy of Suikoden I and II. I don't know too much about this site nor
have I ever tried it, but I am including it for those who'd like to look into
it further. In no way am I endorsing gametz.com or suggesting you go there-I'm
putting it in here mainly because 1/3 of the e-mails I get are related to how
someone can get a hold of the older games outside of ebay or half.com. Use it
at your own risk. Thanks to nihon for providing info. about gametz.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2c. How long does this game take to complete?
If you blew through the game with the sole intent of beating it, probably 40
hours or so. If you take the time to do all the mini-games, level up, get all
the recruits, etc., it will take at least 60 hours I believe. I wrote this
Walkthrough as I was playing the game and it took me 52 hours. Keep in mind
that this was my fourth play through so I knew ahead of time where everything
was, how to get set up for battles, and so forth.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2d. All about recruiting
A major gameplay/story device for Suikoden III is the 108 Stars of Destiny.
These are the main figures of the story who determine the ultimate course of
history and the world's fate. Over the course of the game, you will have the
chance to gather all 108 Stars with your main characters. The 108 Stars can
be separated into two groups, Automatic Stars and Non-Automatic Stars. As you
would guess, the Automatic Stars are the recruits who will join you for story
reasons so you won't have to do anything special to get them. The Non-
Automatic Stars will need to be recruited with some effort and it's possible
you can miss out on getting them.
To start recruiting any of the non-automatic stars, you need to visit Lake
Castle first. Therefore, Geddoe can start recruiting in his chapter 1, Chris
can start recruiting in her chapter 2, and Hugo can recruit starting in his
chapter 3. Hugo can technically get 1 recruit in his chapter 2 but for all
intents and purposes, chapter 3 is when he can really start to recruit.
Thanks to SimUser for providing info. on when Hugo can start recruiting.
If you want to get all the Stars of Destiny without having to check this guide
further, recruit Kidd and make use of his Scout option. Kidd will gather
detailed information for you on how to get all the possible Stars. It's how I
was able to figure out how to recruit everyone on my own.
An important thing to keep in mind is that you can only use characters with the
person who recruited them until ch. 4. That is, if you recruit someone in
Geddoe's chapter 1, only Geddoe can put that character into his party until
ch. 4. Chris and Hugo will not have access to that recruit until then. If
a recruit is someone who runs a shop, the other characters can still visit
them at their shop but they cannot put them in their party.
You can recruit all the way up until the very last boss battle in ch. 5. There
is also no restriction on who can recruit who-I suggest a recruiting order in
the actual Walkthrough but there's no one that can't be recruited by Chris,
Hugo, or Geddoe. If you can't recruit someone because they're either not there
or they're not giving you the option to recruit, just try again in a later
chapter. Some non-automatic stars will not show up or join until you have
gathered a certain number of recruits (similar to Bob in Suikoden II).
The level of the non-automatic stars is either preset or it's dependent on the
level of the person recruiting them. Mel, for example, will always be at
level 32 when you recruit her. Sanae Y, on the other hand, will be 1 level
lower than whoever recruited her. To avoid too many spoilers, I've put a
complete list of which category the non-automatic stars fall under in section
5e.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2e. What skills should my characters learn?
I'm reluctant to answer this since a lot of the fun from the game involves
customizing your roster the way you see fit through the skills system. I will
go ahead and make a few comments on it, though. A good "default" skill,
meaning if you don't have any real preference for anything, in the early
chapters is Accuracy. This is because the SKL stat of your characters is low
at the start and they'll have a hard time hitting enemies with good Repel
rates, especially the Golem bosses. Later on, this skill isn't real necessary
for characters with SKL stats topping 125. For the later chapters, two good
default skills are Armor Protect and Magic Resistance. This mainly applies for
strategy and boss battles.
The best advice I can give you is just to try everything. You'll have a great
opportunity for this in chapters 4 and 5. A good method for experimenting is
to gather skill points for your characters then saving before visiting the
Tutor or bujutsu teacher. Add some skills you want to try out and if you like
them, keep them. If not, just reload and try something else out. The game
balances it out so you can never have uberwarriors like McDohl from the first
two Suikodens. However, with the skills system there's no one in the game you
can't make strong enough to deserve a spot in your regular party.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2f. Why do you recommend doing...?
If I don't clearly state why I suggest you do something, it's for spoiler
reasons. I say it a bunch of times in this Walkthrough but it's worth it-all
my suggestions are just that. If you've found a better way or rather do it
a different way than I recommend, by all means, do so. If you'd really like to
know the reason behind a recommendation and don't mind being spoiled about it,
feel free to e-mail me and please be as specific as possible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2g. Agh! I can't get [Recruit/Item] and I'm going to smash my PS2!
This game can certainly cause a lot of frustration in terms of a few recruits
and rare items you try to pick up. I don't compare it on the level of some of
the extras in the Final Fantasy series (dodging 200 lightning bolts, anyone?)
but you may hit some rough patches to be sure. Keep in mind that in MOST cases
you can come back to getting a recruit or an item in a later part of the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2h. Why can't I go to chapter 4?
In order to proceed to chapter 4, you must complete Geddoe, Chris, and Hugo's
chapter 3's first. Thomas' chapters are completely optional and you do not
have to play his story to complete the game. If you want to play Thomas'
story, you must do so before advancing to chapter 4.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2i. Why aren't the lottery results switching like you said?
The way I suggest to play the lottery is:
-Buy 10 tickets, 5 sequential and 5 random
-Kill 20-30 minutes of real time by doing random battles, story events, etc.
-Come back to the town with the lottery and SAVE your game
-Check the lottery board
-If the results aren't up yet, go back out and kill 5 minutes then come back,
SAVE again, then check the results. Keep repeating this until the results are
posted
-If you did not get the results you wanted, soft reset by pressing the shoulder
buttons plus Start & Select then check the results again. Keep soft resetting
until you get the desired results
The lottery results are totally random until:
-You check the board
-You talk to the lottery seller, who tells you "Current winning numbers are up"
The numbers will also be set if:
-You waited until the next chapter to check the results
-You waited TWO more lottery periods to check your tickets (i.e. you bought
tickets for lottery period #1 but don't check until lottery #3 is already up)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2j. Where can I get a Statue S?
If you fight the treasure bosses in each character's chapter, eventually you
will get items that are marked ?Statue and ?Figurine. These items need to be
appraised to find out what they actually are. You can get items appraised by
visiting Appraisal Shops located at Vinay del Zexay, Duck Village, Chisha, and
Iksay. Once you recruit the Appraiser you can visit him at Lake Castle to get
this done as well.
I've been able to confirm two guaranteed Statue S from treasure bosses:
-?Statue from first OR second battle with Mt. Path treasure boss, Hex Doll S
-?Statue from first OR second battle with Sindar Ruins treasure boss, usually
the second time, Dragon Statue S
You can also get a Knight Statue S and a Goddess Statue S by fighting all the
possible treasure bosses at least once during each main characters' chapters.
In addition, you can get a Hex Doll S as a random prize for winning Kathy's
races. The winning times for each of her races are:
No obstacles: 49-50 secs, default prize is Deer Antler (49.677)
Some obstacles: 49-51 secs, default prize is Mini-Cactus (49.853)
Lots of obstacles: 49-52 secs, default prize is Mini-Cactus (49.677)
These are just estimates based on my experience. The times in parentheses are
my personal bests. Start with the no obstacles course and work your way up.
The only strategy I can really give you is to stay to the inside of the track
and don't take really wide turns. Lame advice, I know, but that's all there
really is to it.
Note that if you use Hugo to run these races and Fubar is in your party, Hugo
will race with Fubar instead of a horse. The times and prizes I mention are
only with the horse, not Fubar. To race Hugo without Fubar, just take Fubar
out of your active party. If you keep getting the default prize more than
twice in a row, then you've exhausted the prizes for that course so try the
next one higher up. You will eventually get a Hex Doll S in one of the three
races.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
3. General Questions
3a. Introduction
This section covers aspects of game play that include and go beyond what's in
the instruction manual as well as some general questions you may have. If
information on a topic is readily available in the instruction manual, I will
not cover it. If you're renting this game or borrowing it and don't have the
manual, you'll still be able to complete the game fine with this walkthrough.
The information below is really just supplementary content. If you feel like
you already have a good grasp of the game mechanics, just skip ahead to the
walkthrough.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3b. The Trinity Sight System
Suikoden III employs a gameplay device called the Trinity Sight System. This
simply means that the overall story is played through the perspective of
several different characters. At the start of the game, you can elect to
choose the perspective of Hugo, Chris, or Geddoe. After completing a chapter,
you can continue with that character or switch to somebody else. That is, you
could choose to do Hugo's chapter 1-3 or alternate chapter 1's or go back and
forth. This Walkthrough is written as a first play through and goes the route
of alternating characters from one chapter to the next.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3c. Why this order of play?
The order of play I have used for this walkthrough is meant for players who are
playing the game for the first time. This order gives the player the chance to
see as much of the story as possible while being given options for duels and
dialogue choices. Thomas' chapters are entirely optional and something of an
acquired taste. I have put his chapters at the end in case the reader tries
out his scenario and doesn't care for it. Parts of his story WILL be revealed
in the other main characters' stories so if you're the type that hates any
spoilers at all, you should play his chapter 1 after completing Geddoe's
chapter 1. I have written the walkthrough with this option in mind. I
actually think people will want to play his chapters more after going through
the suggested order because the events pique their curiosity.
I highly recommend that if you've already played through the game to play each
character's story in blocks (1-3 consecutively for each) the second time
around. Doing it this way gives you a much better feel for each individual
character and you may be surprised how your opinion of them can change by doing
it this way.
The Trinity Sight System also lends itself to built-in difficulty levels. In
this way, Chris is the "Easy" mode, Hugo "Medium", and Geddoe "Hard". I've
used this order for the walkthrough with players who are either new to the
series or new to RPG's in general in mind.
If you want to know my personal opinion of the super-duper, all story, most
minimal spoilers order of play, it would be:
Hugo 1
Chris 1
Geddoe 1
Thomas 1
Chris 2
Hugo 2
Geddoe 2
Hugo 3
Thomas 2
Geddoe 3
Chris 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
I gave it a lot of thought before deciding the Walkthrough's order and have
chosen the one in section 4. If you're _really_ curious as to know why I
chose the play/recruiting order for the Walkthrough, go to section 12. Be
warned that it does contain some spoilers, including a really big one. The
explanation is meant for people who are at least on chapter 5 already.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3d. Skills/Stats
Skills and stats are essential to winning the game so I'm going to take some
time to discuss them in detail. Skills are abilities that provide specific
benefits for each character. No character has access to all the skills in the
game and some characters can acquire only a few of them. Stats are the numeric
measure of the 8 general abilities every character possesses. You can view a
character's skills and their stats by choosing the status option from the main
options menu.
You can raise a character's stats through two ways-by using Stones that boost
stats (usually by 1-3 points) or the more common way by winning battles to get
experience and raising your level. Every time your characters go up a level
they will get an increase to their stats. The amount of experience you gain
per encounter is based on a comparison between your level and the level of the
monster you are fighting, without taking the number of party members into
account. An example:
You have a party of 4, 3 of them are at level 27 and the other is at level 60.
You face the monster Copper Sun, whose level is 54, and win. The 3 characters
at level 27 get a few thousand experience points and gain 4 levels each to get
to level 31. Your level 60 character, however, gets only a handful of
experience points. Note that you can't see a monster's level (or any of their
other stats for that matter). The way the AI computes how many experience
points you get _is_ based on this type of formula, though. I have no idea if
the Copper Sun's level is really 54, but based on how much experience you get
for him, the above example is an accurate analogy. The amount of experience
and how they're distributed is the same regardless of how many people you had
in your party.
Skills work a little differently. Each skill that a character can acquire has
levels that tell you how good they are in that skill. These levels are noted
by a simple grading scale that goes from "E" (practically no talent in that
skill) to "S" (godlike with that skill). The only way to raise skill levels is
by acquiring skill points then visiting a bujutsu teacher or Tutor to raise the
levels. A character's ability to activate the skill as well as how powerful
the skill is depends on their grade level.
For example, let's say you have a character with the skill Lightning Magic. A
character whose rank is a "B" will take about a turn and a half to cast the
Soaring Bolt spell which will do about 900 points of damage. A character with
similar stats but who has an "A+" in Lightning Magic casting the same spell
will only take a half a turn to get the spell off and will do about 1400 points
of damage.
Another example is if a character has the ability Adrenaline Power. When a
character's Hit Points reach 0, this skill will bring them back to life, albeit
with only a few Hit Points. If a character has a "C" in this skill, it will
activate maybe 5-10% of the time. A character who has an "A+" with similar
stats will activate this skill closer to 30-50% of the time.
The examples I used are based on experience. Because I don't know the exact
formula for calculating the differences in letter grades, the numbers I used
in the examples are meant only as a general guide. I _have_ noticed very
dramatic differences between the higher level grades. That is, there's a big
improvement between going from an "A" to an "A+" and going from an "A+" to an
"S". Certain skills are also affected by the general stats, such as Swing
being influenced by a character's SPD.
There are two types of skills in the game: physical and magical. Physical
skills are learned and improved by visiting a bujutsu teacher. Magical skills
are likewise the domain of tutors. There are certain skills that every
character can learn. Conversely, there are some skills that are available only
to specific characters. In addition, each character has a natural terminal
grade they can achieve in each skill. Lastly, each character has a speed
measuring how quickly they can move up in skill level. Let's take an example
to make sense of this:
Hugo comes with the abilities Swing and Heavy Damage. The Swing ability can be
learned by any of the characters in the game by going to a bujutsu teacher. On
the other hand, the Heavy Damage skill cannot be learned by every one and is
activated when a character reaches a certain experience level. Hugo comes with
it automatically but he has not yet reached the level necessary to activate
another skill, Continual Attack. Hugo's Swing ability naturally tops out at an
"A". Because this is a pretty good match for him, he will need to invest
around 750 skill points to reach that "A" level from his starting "E" level.
When you visit a bujutsu teacher or tutor, you can select the "Test" option.
This will give you a general idea of the terminal grade and speed of learning
for a character's skill level. The comments and what they mean:
-Perfect Match! = S
-Fairly Good Match = A to A+
-Natural Ability Exists = B+
-Average = B
-It Will Take Time = C
I stress the words "general idea"-some characters who test at "Perfect Match!"
will only go up to a B+ and others who test at "It Will Take Time" can go up to
an A+. The vast majority of the time, however, the test results coincide with
the guide above.
As far as acquiring skill points, each monster you encounter has a set amount
of skill points that they are worth. After winning a battle, these skill
points are divided up among the surviving party members, regardless of your
experience level. An example to illustrate:
You have a party of 4 and you face the Twin-Head Snake boss, who is worth 800
skill points. You defeat it but 2 of your members got knocked out and are
unconscious when you win. The 2 conscious party members each get 400 skill
points. If you had been able to win with all 4 party members still conscious,
each member would've gotten 200 skill points. The amount of skill points and
how they are distributed is the same no matter if you were at level 30 when you
won or if you were at level 60.
The instruction manual has a detailed list of the skills and what they do. For
the purpose of this walkthrough, I will suggest certain skills to learn as well
as point out some other character-specific comments but that's the extent of
it. Because the general stats aren't described in the instruction manual, I
have listed them below and what they mean:
-PWR (Power): Measures how much damage you give for a successful melee attack.
-SKL (Skill): Measures a character's ability to get past an enemy's defenses
to land a successful attack. Goes hand in hand with the Accuracy skill.
-MGC (Magic): Primarily measures the number of spells per level and how high
a level of spell a character can cast. For example, the character below on
the left has a MGC stat of 84 and the character on the right has a stat of
152, both are equipped with a Lightning Rune and neither has any skill in
Lightning Magic. You can see the difference in the number of spells per level
each can cast and that the character with the higher MGC stat has access to the
4th level spell.
Character A: Character B:
Level 1 6 9
Level 2 3 6
Level 3 1 3
Level 4 0 1
The skills for specific magic, like Fire Magic and Water Magic skill, primarily
measure how fast a spell is cast and how much damage it will do.
-REP (Repel): Measures a character's natural evade ability to avoid enemy
melee attacks. Goes with the Repel skill.
-PDF (Physical Defense): Determines how much damage a character will receive
when an enemy lands a successful melee attack. Monster characters like Fubar
will have a natural PDF rating since they can't wear armor. Everyone else's
PDF starts at 0 because this is determined by what armor and accessories they
are wearing. The skills Armor Protect and Shield Protect will enhance PDF.
Note that some characters can get much more mileage out of armor than others.
-MDF (Magic Defense): Determines how much damage a character will receive when
an enemy lands a successful magic attack. The skills Magic Resistance and
Magic Repel can enhance MDF.
-SPD (Speed): This influences how many physical actions a character can
perform during their turn, specifically running and attacking. A character
with good speed can run up to an enemy far away and still get off their normal
number of attacks. Others who are slow will have a hard time just getting into
position to attack or delivering their usual number of hits. The skills Holy
Dash and Swing can augment speedy characters and aid slower ones.
-LUK (Luck): Not too sure about this because it's a stat that I haven't paid
much attention to. Piccolo mentions in the game that characters with low luck
tend to be targeted first by the enemy but I haven't seen enough evidence to
suggest this is definitely true.
You do not acquire skill points through strategy battles, only through the
regular field battles in boss fights and random encounters. With the exception
of one unique strategy battle, this is also true for experience points. In
terms of what's more important, skills or stats, my own experience clearly
points to skills. Using the stat stones trick (described below in part 3n.),
I boosted Chris' REP stat up to 503, with her Repel skill at a "B". In a
a series of battles, the enemy was still able to hit her a few times. On the
other hand, Hugo had a REP stat of 169 with a Repel skill at "A+" and he didn't
get hit once in those same battles. This is just one example, I know, but I'm
very confident that if you have a level 60 character with great stats and only
mediocre skill levels, they're likely to be on par with or below a level 45
character with outstanding skill levels.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3e. Support Characters
These are characters who are in your party but do not show up on screen when
you have a random encounter or run into a boss fight. The instruction manual
provides detailed descriptions of the support skills and what they do so I'm
not going to cover them here. Note that some characters that are active during
the regular battles, such as Juan and Ace, also have support skills. While all
support skills provide some benefit, others can also be accessed directly to be
used just like their equivalents at a shop.
For example, Jeane has the Rune Sage support skill. This benefits spell
casting during battles. In addition to this, if you access this skill through
the skills option, you can remove and affix runes on your characters just like
you would at a Rune Shop. Similarly, Juan has the Bujutsu Teacher support
skill. By accessing this skill, you can test, forget, and get lessons anywhere
at any time as long as Juan is in your party. There is no way to boost the
skill level of characters who are only support characters. There's only one
instance I know of where you can boost the support skill of one of the regular
characters, which is Sanae Y's Healing support skill through one of Jefferson's
appointments.
The effects of support skills are not cumulative. For example, Ace and Martha
both have the Discount support skills. You can have both of them in your party
at the same time but only the person with the higher grade in the support skill
(in this case Martha) will have any effect.
For those characters who have either the Tutor or Bujutsu Teacher support
skill, the grades for these abilities only affect battle encounters. That is,
regardless of the grade, if you access these skills to Learn, Forget, or Test
skills it's all the same. For example, Ernie has a higher grade in Tutor than
Nadir. If you have her in your party during random battles, she does a better
job of aiding your magic attacks than Nadir. However, if you were to access
the Tutor skill from the main Skills option, their abilities in Lesson, Forget,
and Test are completely the same-you would not have to invest more skill points
to learn a skill from Nadir than you would from Ernie or anything else related
to skills.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3f. Runes and Magic
All magical ability in Suikoden III revolves around runes. Basically, magical
power is stored in rune crystals. Rune sages can unseal the crystals and
embed characters with the runes inside and the magical properties that come
with them. A description of 12 of the major runes in the game is included in
the instruction manual. I will note the relevant runes as they come up during
the course of the walkthrough. As a general rule, I'm heavily biased against
using Fire and Earth Magic. The first because it has a tendency to hit your
own party members and the latter because it's virtually useless until very late
in the game.
The only way to replenish your spells is by resting at an Inn and when story
elements dictate (usually when a chapter turns over).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3g. Battle Formation/The Pairs System
When you access the formation screen from the main options menu, it shows 7
slots like this:
------
------
(Pair 1, bottom left on battle screen)
------
------
(Pair 2, middle on the battle screen)
------
------
(Pair 3, top right on battle screen)
------
(Support Character)
You can have up to six party members in your group plus one support person.
The pairs system means that during a random encounter or boss battle, you will
give only 3 commands for all six characters. You never give commands during a
battle to support characters. Item use is restricted to each individual pair.
That is, someone in Pair 1 can never use Medicine or a similar item on someone
who is in Pair 2 or 3. This also dictates that it's a bad idea to pair 2
magic users together. Since you can only give one command to both of them per
turn, you negate their ability to both cast spells during the same turn.
By pairing certain characters together, you can access combos. These combos
range from the 2-person variety all the way to combos that involve up to 5
characters. In addition, you can pair 3 characters with their mounts in order
to form a mounted unit. To not spoil anything, I will mention these characters
in turn during the course of the walkthrough.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3h. Strategy Battles
These battles represent confrontations between entire armies rather than the
random/boss battles involving small groups. Strategy battles are initiated
only by the story, meaning there are no "random" strategy battles in the game.
Each strategy battle has a specific goal given to you, such as staying alive
for [X] amount of turns or defeating a certain enemy unit. Depending on how
well you did in accomplishing the given goal, you may receive loot afterwards.
You do not receive skill points for fighting these battles. With the exception
of the first strategy battle in Chris' chapter 1 (which involves the level 99
trick), you do not gain experience or levels either.
The most important thing to note about these strategy battles is that certain
characters can die permanently in them. The way you can tell if someone has
died forever is if they meet ALL the following criteria:
-They are not a unit leader
-Their HP are reduced to 0 _and_ the unit leader's HP were reduced to 0 in
the same field battle
-They have a dialogue box after the battle and say something. This comes after
the unit leader's dialogue box which always pops up if a unit is defeated
If a character dies permanently in these strategy battles, you will not receive
the 108 Stars of Destiny bonus at the end of the game and you can't use them in
your party again. One of the options for the formation setup screen, which I
discuss in detail later in this section, is Story VIPs. To see if someone is
vulnerable to dying permanently in battle, select this option then Confirm.
The characters that get switched into the Reserve boxes are the ones that can
die forever in the strategy battles. Note that the Story VIPs can change from
battle to battle.
The actual gameplay for these battles is highly simplified. The battlefield is
represented by a group of circles connected together by dotted lines. The
starting position of your Army units and the enemy's is preset before each
battle. Actions are turn-based, meaning you will do everything you want with
your units then end your turn then the AI will do the same. You can only give
1 command to each unit per turn. When a unit is moved into a circle occupied
by an opposing unit, a field battle will commence. The field battle screen is
the same as those for random/boss battles, except you only have commands to
Attack, Defend, and Retreat. The field battle ends if 1 of the 3 occurs:
1. A unit leader's HP is reduced to 0 or
2. A unit chooses the retreat option or
3. Three turns elapse and 1 or 2 did not occur
From the main battlefield screen, you will have the option to Move (the Boot
symbol), Defend (the Shield symbol), or use a Special Skill (the Lightning Bolt
symbol). Moving is self-explanatory. Choosing Defend will reduce a unit's
damage taken by 1/2 if they're attacked and get into a field battle. Special
skills are various offensive and defensive abilities that affect entire units.
Certain characters on your roster possess these skills. The most notable
Special Skills are:
-Lightning. Reduces each member of a target unit's HP by 1/3. Affects only
one individual unit and has a range of two connected circles.
-Fire. Reduces each member of a target unit's HP by 1/5. Affects ALL units in
the target circle and has a range of one connected circle.
-Water. Heals all of a unit's HP and has a range of one connected circle.
-Heal. Heals 1/2 of each member's HP in the target unit. Can only be cast on
a unit in the same circle.
Some battlefield circles also have effects. To check what these effects may
be, move the pointer over a circle. Some Plains circles, for examples, heal
the HP of an occupying unit. You can view what comprises an enemy unit by
placing the pointer over them and hitting X. If more than one enemy unit is
stacked together on the same circle, you can switch to the one you want to
target/view by hitting X then moving the D-Pad left or right.
If you're able to flank an enemy unit, you can put your teams into a Cover
position. When you do this, you bolster the damage down by the attacking unit
who's being covered. The more units covering from different circles, the more
damage. Each cover unit bolsters damage done by about 50%. Putting units into
a Cover position does not influence the Retreat success of the enemy nor does
it bolster your attacking units' defense. In the strategy battles in chapters
4 and 5, moving your units into Cover positions can mean the difference between
Victories and Major Victories.
During the actual field battle, you have three available commands: Attack,
Defend, and Retreat. If you choose Attack, your unit will do just that.
However, you have no control over their actions after that, meaning you can't
choose who they attack, what type of attack they will use, or anything else.
Choosing Defend will boost your characters' defenses as they normally would in
a regular battle. Unless your characters are stunned or unbalanced, there is
no reason to ever choose the Defend option. Retreat will cause your unit to
leave the field. Most of the time when you do this, the enemy will get a free
turn to attack you. Note that you cannot Retreat if there is no open circle to
go to on the main strategy battle screen.
Before most, but not all, strategy battles you will talk to either Salome or
Caesar and they will ask you to organize your units. This screen is different
from the main formation screen used for regular/boss battles. You will be
given the options of Alter, Auto, Story VIPs, and AllReserve. Alter allows you
to swap your characters around. Auto allows the AI to organize your units for
you. NEVER pick this option. Story VIPs will put all characters who can die
permanently in the upcoming strategy battle into reserve to keep them safe.
AllReserve will empty all the units out except the unit commanders. A very
important thing to remember about organizing your units is that after you tell
Salome or Caesar that you're ready to battle, you cannot go back to change the
formation again. As long as you tell them to wait or you're not ready to
proceed, you can talk to them again to change the formation.
In terms of individual unit formation, it looks like this:
-------- (Slot 1)
-------- (Slot 2)
-------- (Slot 3)
-------- (Slot 4)
-------- (Support)
Like in regular/boss battles, the Support character does not show up on the
field battle screen but provides some benefit to the unit. Slot 1 will be at
the front of the unit on the field battle screen and will be the first choice
of an enemy attack. This changes if you have special runes or items that
affect the enemy's choice of target such as Blue Ribbons, Skunk Runes, and
Firefly Runes. Slot 4 is usually occupied by the unit leader. The unit
leader's position can never be changed. Slots 1 & 2 and slots 3 & 4 are
considered pairs to a certain extent. No unite attacks or mounted units will
be in effect but how each character reacts will still be dictated by the pairs
system. That is, if you place a Berserker type character who always attacks
into Slot 3, they will drag up the person in Slot 4 with them, just like if
they're paired in a regular or boss battle.
This watered down version of the pairs system affects your formation choice in
a few ways. First, the person in Slot 1 should have good defense and, if at
all possible, high attack skills as well. This is because they're usually the
first person to attack as well as be attacked. If the unit leader is in Slot
4, it's a bad idea to put a magic user or archer in Slot 3. This is because
the enemy always starts far away from you in the field battle and only the
fastest unit leaders will be able to drag up the magic user/archer with them.
Slot 2 is the best for magic users and archers since it's close enough to the
enemy to allow the person in Slot 1 to still attack.
The best way to ensure your success in these strategy battles is to train up
and properly equip the characters who will participate in them. It's really
not more complicated than that until the game's last strategy battle.
Strategies are provided for each of the battles in the Walkthrough itself and
in section 9.
The most useful items for strategy battles are Sacrificial Jizos, Firefly
Runes, Skunk Runes, and Haziness Runes. Sacrificial Jizos need to be equipped
in a character's personal inventory. They essentially add 1/3 of the wearer's
HP to their total HP. For example, a character with 300 HP wearing a
Sacrificial Jizo would really have 400 HP. When a character's HP are reduced
to 0, the Jizo will activate and restore that 1/3 of HP back. However, if a
character receives a damage amount that exceeds what the Jizo can provide, they
will still get knocked out. To take the above example further, let's say the
wearer is down to 100 HP. They get hit for 400 HP of damage--200 HP more than
what the Jizo provides for. They would then get knocked out. However, if they
got hit for exactly 200 HP, they would get 100 HP back and not get knocked out.
This is not the exact formula for Jizos, but it is an accurate analogy. Jizos
are active during strategy battles and you can equip up to three of them on one
person.
Firefly Runes make the wearer the first choice of an enemy attack. This is
invaluable when placed on a Tank (characters who receive very little damage
from melee attacks). Because most of the field battles involve melee attacks,
the enemy will go after the Tank first and ignore everyone else, even if the
rest of the Tank's unit is ripping them to shreds. You can recruit someone who
has a removable Firefly Rune. In Thomas' chapters 1 and 2, the Purple Creepers
in the North Cavern drop them.
Skunk Runes are the opposite of Firefly Runes. The wearer is the last choice
of an enemy melee attack. This is not a 100% guarantee, though. I have found
that it's fairly effective but I highly recommend that you don't take the
approach of equipping everyone except a Tank with a Skunk Rune. I just haven't
seen this work consistently enough. It is a good choice for more vulnerable
characters, though. Skunk Runes can be bought at the Duck Village Rune Shop
from chapter 3 onward. Blue Ribbons are an accessory that function like Skunk
Runes but have a higher rate of success. Only females can wear them. They are
a Rarity at the Duck Village Item Shop from chapter 3 onward.
Haziness Runes improve the wearer's chances of evading an enemy melee attack.
I've probably fought around 50 strategy battles and these Runes activate quite
often, probably around 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. Best used for characters with
low HP or bad defense but who are really good attackers. It seems to activate
more often for characters with good Repel, Armor Protect, Shield Protect, and
Parry skills. They are a Rarity at the Duck Village and Le Buque Item Stores
from chapter 3 onward.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3i. Duels
Duels are one-on-one contests where you are given 3 options: Defend, Attack,
or Deathblow. It's a rock-paper-scissors type battle with an advantage meter
thrown in. Basically:
When your Enemy does: You Should:
Attack Deathblow
Defend Attack
Deathblow Defend
You'll note a small green circle at the bottom near the duel gauge. This
indicates a DISadvantage. That means if the circle is under your character's
portrait, your enemy has the upper hand. In this case, the usual rules above
will be bent somewhat in favor of the person with the advantage. For example,
normally if you Deathblow when your enemy Attacks, you take no damage. On the
other hand, if they have the advantage, they will still get in an Attack and
cause you damage. Therefore, if the advantage is totally in your favor, you
have some leeway to make a mistake and not pay for it. It works the other way
as well.
An important thing to remember about duels is that some Runes that affect your
status will be in effect when you duel. This can be good in the case if you
have something like a Fury Rune or very bad if you forgot to remove that
Hunter Rune you were messing around with. I've covered every winnable duel in
the game to let you know what your enemy's comments mean so you can counter
accordingly. I probably have missed a few of the comments but have supplied
more than enough so you can win every duel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3j. Character Types
Each character has a personality "type" that describes their tendency in
battle. The manual describes these tendencies on page 24. The vast majority
of your non-support characters are Offensive Fighters. The two classes to note
are Berserkers and Magic Users. Berserkers will always attack even if you give
them the Defend command. Magic Users are the opposite--they almost never do a
melee attack even if you give them the Attack command. This is especially true
for Magic Users if they're paired with someone else. To avoid spoilers, I have
noted which characters are Berserkers and Magic Users in the 108 Stars of
Destiny section. When I make suggestions for formations in the walkthrough, I
take the various character types into account.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3k. Treasure bosses
During the course of the game, you will run into monsters that are guarding
treasure chests. Each of these treasure bosses are located in a specific area
and by the end of the game there are 6 of them in all. When you defeat the
boss, there's usually around 2-24 items in the chest plus a nice cash reward.
If you loot the entire contents of a chest, that treasure boss will re-spawn
after about 30-45 minutes, with more loot in the chest and more cash. If you
don't loot all the contents, it will take _much_ longer for the treasure boss
(and his treasure) to re-appear, usually at least a few hours. There are
benefits to doing one or the other depending on whether or not you want to
keep fighting a certain boss.
The location of the treasure bosses and the earliest chapter they appear for
each character in parentheses:
1. Mt. Hei-Tou, Geddoe (1), Chris (2), Hugo (3)
2. North Cavern, Geddoe (2), Chris (2), Hugo (3), Thomas (1)
3. Mt. Path, Geddoe (1), Chris (3), Hugo (3)
4. Mt. Senai, Geddoe (2), Chris (4), Hugo (4)
5. Hideaway, All (3)
6. Cyndar Ruins, All (5)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3l. Recipes, Old Books, Medal Sets, Antiques, Bath Items, and Scripts
-Once you recruit the chef character in the game, you can give this person the
Recipes you find from corpses, treasure bosses, and lottery prizes. With these
recipes and the right spices, you can put together usable food items that heal
Hit Points as well as put your character into various states.
-Once you get the librarian character, you can give them Old Books and read
them. The Old Books contain various information such as a bestiary, listing
where to find rare items, histories on the Suikoden world, and so forth.
-Once you get the Appointer, you can give him Medal Sets. These Sets contain
Titles (like "Top Commander") that give boosts to your characters' skills such
as Accuracy, Swing, etc.
-Antiques include Paintings, Statues (big and small), and Figurines such as
vases and urns. You can place all these items for display at Lake Castle. To
place a Painting, walk up to an empty picture frame and hit X. To display
Statues, go up the stairs to the 2nd floor and go to the first room on the
left. This is the statue room with several pedestals where you can place the
Statues. For Figurines, walk up to any of the desks inside the Castle and hit
X to display them. Most of the time when you first get an antique, it will
have a ? symbol next to it, meaning it needs to be identified first. Take the
item to an appraiser shop and they will identify it for you.
-Once you get the bath character, you can take a soak in the bath house at Lake
Castle. If you equip your character with a bath item, you will see different
effects while in the bath house.
-Once you get the theater director, you can put on plays at Lake Castle. The
director comes with one script but you can find others to give him to perform
different plays.
As I stated earlier, this walkthrough isn't intended to grab all these items.
I haven't included it because Ryvius' FAQ here on gamefaqs covers it quite
comprehensively. During the course of the walkthrough, you will get most of
the items but I don't make it a point to get _all_ of them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3m. What's the Chris Level 99 trick? Should I do it?
This trick was first posted by Blue Moon at his site, suikosource.com. Many
thanks to him for graciously permitting me to include it in this Walkthrough
with some of my own additions.
As the question title suggests, this is a gameplay trick that allows the player
to get Chris up to level 99. Like past Suikoden games, the ceiling experience
level is around 60 for Suikoden III. That is, when you reach level 60 you'll
only gain a few experience points for even the toughest random battles. As for
the trick itself, there's a battle that Chris can win in her chapter 1 that
gives her a boost of 2 experience levels every time she wins it. This boost is
still given even at the highest levels so it overcomes the ceiling problem for
her.
In terms of should or should you not do it, here's some pros and cons:
Pros:
-----
1. Allows you to get up to 16 characters at level 99 or very close to it
2. Along with #1, this means you get to see these characters at their maxed
out stat levels. One big benefit of this is that Chris will be able to
cast level 4 spells
3. Makes most strategy battles ridiculously easy
4. You can breeze through Chris' chapters in terms of random battles as well
because she can win most of them outright or Let Go of them
Cons:
-----
1. Removes a lot of the challenge out of the game
2. Takes a good 12-20 hours to complete
3. Is extremely tedious, as you'll be viewing the same cutscene and fighting
the same battles ad nauseum
4. It's difficult at the outset to do and the frustration level can be very
high, especially watching the AI cost you the win over and over again by
controlling your units in the stupidest ways possible
It's up to you if you want to try it. I'm not one of those people who say that
it's cheating or you're taking advantage of a game loophole. It's YOUR game
that you paid for so you should play it any way you darn well please. I didn't
do it until my second playthrough and thought it was worth it because it
allowed me to try some things that would not have been possible otherwise. I
will never do it again though because it's just too tedious and time consuming.
You absolutely do NOT need to do it to win any of the battles in the game.
Practically all of them are still relatively easy as long you prepare for them.
I cover the trick in-depth below and it does contain some minor story spoilers
for Chris' chapter 1 & 2 so be warned. *Please* read through the whole section
on how to do the trick before e-mailing me about something. The trick as it
was originally posted by Blue Moon can be found here:
http://suikosource.com/games/gs3/secrets/level.php
Before actually doing the trick in Chris' chapter 1, do these things:
-Get a radio, CD, or MP3 player. You're going to need it later while doing the
trick or there's a good chance you will die from boredom. If you see this
light and a dead relative beckoning to you, it's time to put down your
controller and step slowly away from the console.
-When you get Borus, Salome, and Roland in your party, go to the Vinay del
Zexay Guild Hall. Upgrade all of your equipment possible, including Winged
Boots, Fine Helms, and Fine Casques. Sell any of the old gear you replaced.
If they have better Chainmail for Roland, buy that for him, too. Remove
Roland's Great Hawk Rune. Buy a Sacrificial Jizo for everyone but don't equip
them. Leave the Guild Hall and buy 3 Earth Runes at the regular Rune Shop but
only affix one to Salome.
-Exit VdZ and go to Brass Castle. Head east to get a cutscene. After that,
go to the east courtyard for another cutscene. Go up to the knights' parlor
and talk to Salome. Put Roland and Borus in your party.
-Head back to the east courtyard and sharpen their weapons to level 8. If they
have Flame Amulets at the Item Stand, buy those for Roland and Chris and
replace their Gauntlet/Power Gloves with it. Go to the inn and SAVE.
-Go to Chris' room and tell Louis you want to rest. An extended cutscene will
follow and a strategy battle will commence.
This is it-winning this battle by eliminating all the enemy units will boost
Chris, Roland, Borus, and Salome's levels by 2 every time. It is next to
impossible to actually win this battle the first time you play it--a reasonable
level for your characters at this point is level 23. You'll need to be at
least level 32 to win it and I recommend being at level 34. Therefore, the
first time you get into this battle, just go for the Safe Retreat with this
strategy:
-During the first turn, move Roland and the other Zexen unit into the same
circle as Chris. End your turn. During the Grasslanders' turn, Lucia and
Beecham will show up with some Karaya Units. Salome will then suggest you
break through. Use Roland's unit to attack the Karayan Unit (Unit #12) that's
blocking your exit. If you didn't win, or somehow lost, send the mounted unit
(Unit #4) after them. This should take out the Karayan Unit. Send Chris into
the now empty circle that the Karayans were occupying. Defend with the
remaining Zexen units. The Grasslanders will no doubt attack you in the next
turn. Just pick the retreat option. You'll get attacked most of the time but
should make it into Chris' circle without much problems. When your turn comes
up again, move any of the Zexen units into the exit circle (it doesn't have to
be Chris' unit). This will conclude the strategy battle.
You will end up at Plain Amur. Do NOT save on this screen or exit north on the
mini-map. Stay on this screen and fight the random battles until you get to
at least level 32. As I stated earlier, I recommend level 34 at least or even
better 35 if you have the patience. This will take you a good few hours
because after you reach level 30, the amount of experience points you get will
drop off dramatically. Your best bets for experience are the Dark Hares and
the Troll Dragon rare encounter.
Once you reach the level you want, remove everyone's armor/accessories and
discard them. Don't worry because you'll be getting it all back soon. Die
from a random battle. When you get to the Continue screen, choose No Way!
You will be back at the Brass Castle inn with your levels and skill points
intact from the random battles at Plain Amur. Go talk to the Bujutsu Teacher
to bump up your skills. The most important to get are Swing for all of them
and Armor Protect for Chris and Borus. After that, Accuracy, Heavy Damage, and
Damage. NEVER bump up their Repel or Parry skills. Equip the Sacrificial
Jizos you got earlier on them. Affix the Earth runes you got earlier on Chris
and Roland.
From here on out, you will repeat the following steps until you get to level 99
or however high you want to get Chris' level:
-Save at the Brass Castle inn. Talk to Louis and pick Rest.
-When the strategy battle starts, your goal is now to win it. An important
thing to keep in mind is that only Chris has to survive to win. You can lose
everyone else, including Borus, and still get the victory. Also, Chris' unit
will get HP back (about 1/5) for each member of her unit at the start of her
turn. Dupa is the most dangerous because of his Fury rune. Removing Lucia
ASAP is the key to winning. Without her, the enemy can only move 3 units a
turn. Because Chris is the most important unit, everyone else is just fodder.
-Here's a diagram for the areas of note:
A-----B
/ \ \
/ \ Exit
/ \
C ------ D
During your first turn, move Chris and Unit #4 into circle D. Move Roland and
the other Zexen unit into circle A. Use Chris' unit if you get attacked in
circle D. During the next turn, send Roland's unit to circle B to clear out
the Karayan unit and send Chris' unit into circle D. Almost always the AI
will use Lucia to meet her. If you were able to take down Lucia, congrats--
this battle is now 100x easier.
-Whether or not Lucia went down, your strategy now is to maintain at least
circles A & B so you'll have a safe place to retreat. Note that you can move
off circle B once you touch it and it will still count as an occupied circle.
-Once Lucia is gone, the enemy can only move 3 units a turn, making it a lot
easier to shuffle your troops around so that Chris can attack and take attacks
until her HP get low. You can then use another unit to take an attack for her
until she gets HP back at the start of your turn. The first time I won this
battle, I had to retreat my units all the way to circle B and only Chris was
left standing at the end.
-Later on when your levels are higher, instead of retreating to circles A & B,
take out all the enemy units SE of circle D. By maintaining circles A & D,
you put your teams in a Cover position to attack the enemy in circle C.
-If it looks like you definitely won't win, just go for the Safe Retreat again.
At Plain Amur, get some more skill points and levels if you didn't already get
to level 34. With a Swing grade of B and in the low 30's level, Chris will
get two attacks/turn. Getting this is critical to winning the actual strategy
battle. Once you get the levels you want at Plain Amur, die again and repeat.
-If you were able to wipe out all the Grasslanders, move any of the surviving
units to the Exit. Your party will chat and you'll get the message that
Chris, Borus, Roland, and Salome gained two levels.
-At Plain Amur, discard all their armor and gear. Die in a random battle and
repeat from the top, starting with saving at the inn.
Now for the dying part in detail. Once all their armor is gone, you'll want to
find a random battle with a Wild Boar. Anyone else will take you much longer
to die, especially once you get to the 50's level or so. I recommend this
formation for your troops:
Chris
-----
Borus
-----
Roland
Salome
Have Chris and Roland cast the 3rd level Earth Magic spell and have Borus cast
the 2nd level Sword of Magic spell. Casting these spells will make your party
totally vulnerable to attacks. For every turn thereafter, choose to recast the
Earth spells with Chris and Roland so they start over again--doing this will
prevent them from ever getting off their spells and keep them vulnerable. For
Borus, once he runs out of the 2nd level Sword of Magic spell, choose to grab
an item from the bag. You can do this 3 times if you emptied out his item
slots and have some Medicine in the main inventory. If he's still alive after
doing that, just have him defend. Once Roland's gone, have Salome cast any
Earth Magic spell that takes more than 1 turn to complete. Keep doing this
until everyone dies.
Once you reach higher levels, in the mid-40's or so, the strategy battle can be
won with just Chris. In addition, Borus and Roland will be a big help once
they're leveled up and you can use Roland's unit to help out with the attacks.
Also, in the low 60's level, Roland will get 2 attacks a turn if his Swing is a
B. At that time, put the Great Hawk Rune back on him.
To see which characters you should recruit with Chris so their levels are also
around 99, check section 5e.
There's an alternate way to doing a part of this trick that can save you a
couple of hours. The only drawback to this method is that Salome will not go
up to level 99 like the others. Instead, he'll be about 12-16 levels lower.
To do it this alternate way, the first time you get to Plain Amur (after the
Safe Retreat) go up to level 28, which shouldn't take too long by fighting the
Dark Hares.
Leave Plain Amur and go to Karaya to proceed with the story. Keep progressing
with the story until you end it by going to Chris' house in VdZ. When you get
to the Trinity Site, pick Chris' chapter 2. DO NOT SAVE at any time--your last
save should still be the one at the Brass Castle inn. Keep proceeding with
Chris' chapter 2 until after the knights have had dinner and Chris gives them
their new orders. The next day, talk to Salome and choose organize formation.
Put Borus and Roland in your party.
Fight random battles at Yaza Plain. In about 15-20 minutes, you'll be at level
34. You can spend another 10 minutes out there and get to level 36. Once you
reach the level you want, discard all their armor and die. Make sure Borus and
Roland are in your party when you die. Select No Way! at the Continue screen
and you'll be back at the Brass Castle inn in chapter 1 with your boosted
levels/skills.
Doing it this way will save you at least an hour or two from leveling all the
way up to the mid-30's level at Plain Amur. With this method, from the time
you get to level 28 at Plain Amur until you die will not take more than an
hour and 15 minutes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3n. What's the stat stones trick?
This trick takes advantage of the same gameplay mechanism that makes the Chris
level 99 trick work. Save your game with some Stat Stones in your inventory.
Use the Stat Stones to boost some stats. Die, then select No Way! when you're
asked if you want to give up. When you continue from the save point, you will
still have the Stat Stones along with the boosted stats. Keep repeating as
many times as you want. As I mentioned in the Skills/Stats section, it appears
that Skills are much more important than Stats.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3o. I need money and lots of it!
The best way to earn money early in the game with Hugo, Geddoe, and Thomas is
through the lottery. Later on, treasure boss monsters are the best way to go
for Geddoe and Hugo. Chris starts with 200,000 potch so money isn't really an
issue for her. Later on in the game (chapter 4) you'll have the opportunity to
acquire the Prosperity Set, a group of items that includes the Tunic of
Prosperity, the Prosperity Hat, and the Prosperity Ring. I have described this
method in detail in the Walkthrough. Full credit for the Prosperity Set method
goes to Abraxas from the gamefaqs message board who first posted about it.
As for the lottery, buy 5 Sequential tickets and 5 Random tickets. The lottery
results turn over every 20-50 minutes of real time. BEFORE checking the
results on the lottery board, save your game. Check the board and if you did
not get the prize you wanted, soft reset by pressing all shoulder buttons along
with Start and Select. Check the board and keep repeating until you get what
you want. On average, it takes me 5-10 minutes before getting the 2nd prize
(100,000 potch). I've hit the 500,000 prize a few times. I have never hit the
grand prize so I don't know what it is.
sim st-pierre e-mailed me with this helpful tip to get money in chapters 4-5:
"hi, i checked a bit ur walkthrough. i just want to say that when it comes to
money, there's something really really easy to do. with the trade centers.
simply buy a lot of gold bars and pearls. lets say 15 gold bars and 30
pearls. gold bars can be bought at caleria and vinay del zexay and pearls at
budehuc and another place. anyway, get as much as u can and go to caleria.(
for the pearls, if u can have the rumor about a town being a sea
something,cant remember, u can get a lot of pearls for less than 10000)
sell all ur gold bar and buy all the pearls at caleria(do the oposite if
gold bars are low, 25000 and below) well when u come back in, lets say, 10
minutes, the ones u sold will be pretty low(gold bars are suposed to be
15000 and pearls are 13333, depends which u sold) and the other should be
high. anyway i was doing, one time i was selling my gold bar a around 60000
and buying the pearls at 13333, and when i come back, i was selling my
pearls at 30000 and buying my gold bars at 15000. so with not much time, u
can get a lot of money. if u want u can do the same thing with deer antlers,
then are sold a 2500 and bought at 7000-10000.
the trick is that the trade is having a lot of one item so they drop the
price and when its very low u buy it, after it will rise greatly. takes not
much time for the price to change. so u do something, u teleport to caleria,
u buy/sell u come back. takes about 10 minutes for each set of cash. i was
doing this at the same time i was forging everyone and equiping after. it
works as long as u want, the game is too stupid. (at one point, i had 25
gold bars and 40 pearls, i was selling like 23 goldbars and i had 1 million
this include the rebuy of the pearls. same thing with pearls, selling 35 and
had 1 million with the rebuy of the gold bars.)
this is the easiest and fastest way i think to make money, because the card
games sucks. u get the hang of it pretty fast(i had the pearls and gold bars
accumulated since the beginning of the game.)"
Thanks to sim st-pierre for this tip.
The method I have laid out in the Walkthrough is to play the lottery in the
early chapters then get money by way of treasure bosses from chapter 3 onward.
With this method, I _never_ had to play Mike at Kabu to get cash.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3p. I was just walking around minding my own business, then the screen
turned yellow and this funny music played and this monster killed me!
Yes, you ran into a rare encounter. On most of the areas where random battles
can occur, there is a monster that will show up about 5-10% of the time. You
can tell because the screen will fade out in white and yellow before going to
the battle screen. The bad news is that these monsters are usually super tough
and can wipe out your entire party pretty easily. The good news is that
they're worth a ton of skill points and give a nice load of cash. I will
mention these as they come up in the Walkthrough section.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3q. Looting corpses
It used to be you got random treasure by finding treasure chests in the
Suikoden world but I suppose Konami thought it was unrealistic that shiny metal
treasure boxes were just lying around everywhere. Instead, they've replaced
the treasure chests with corpses you can loot. Amazingly enough, after you
loot these corpses someone else will come around and die in the exact same
spot, leaving more loot! I like to think they were philanthropists who just
continue to give from the great beyond.
Most of the time, the first item you can get for looting a corpse is a fixed
item. After that, the item is random. I'm quite sure although not 100% that
the items you can get rotate after 30-45 minutes. That is, it doesn't work
like the lottery where you can save your game, check the corpse, then re-load
if you didn't get what you want. Instead, the random items that are there just
naturally turn over after a period of time.
Some of the better runes and items you can get will be found as random items
on the corpses, but they're very rare. I will note the good stuff in the
course of the Walkthrough section. Hugo and Geddoe can loot any time all the
time. Chris takes some time to get over her squeaky clean image and will loot
corpses from her chapter 3 onward. Thomas will never loot corpses but I love
trying to get him to do it anyway because he says, "What? Oh, cruel world!"
which never fails to crack me up (it reminds me of an associate over in the
English department).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3r. What's a Tank?
The term "Tank" was coined a while ago to describe characters who take very
little damage from physical attacks. These characters were ideal for putting
on the front line to absorb enemy attacks. In Suikoden III, the value of these
characters has been drastically increased because of certain skills and runes.
Specifically, the skills Armor Protect, Shield Protect, and Adrenaline Power.
The first two skills are self-explanatory and the third automatically revives
a character if their HP go down to 0. Characters like Leo and Fred can go up
pretty far with Adrenaline Power and one of Jefferson's appointments will boost
this grade by two levels.
With regard to runes, Firefly and Double-Strike are of particular note. The
Firefly Rune makes the wearer the first choice of enemy attacks. In strategy
battles where most of the attackers do melee damage, a Tank with Firefly can
take all the hits while the rest of your party destroys the enemy. It's the
same in boss battles where the enemy primarily deals melee damage. The Double-
Strike Rune multiplies the damage given and received by 2 for the wearer.
Because Tank characters receive 0 or 1 damage from physical attacks, this Rune
only benefits them without the inherent penalty from melee damage.
The primary drawback to Tank characters is they generally have horrible magic
defense, and this is true for the most part in Suikoden III. In addition,
they generally can't equip more than 1 Rune even at the highest levels (60+).
Finally, their speed is usually way below average or just plain average,
meaning they will never get more than 1 or 2 attacks per turn. This speed
problem is made worse if your enemy is lined up far away and your characters
have to run a long way to attack them.
To avoid spoilers, I have denoted which characters are Tanks in section 5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3s. What are the Armor Sets and what do they do?
There are five Armor Sets in Suikoden III. When a complete set is equipped on
a character in the active party, it gives certain bonuses. The sets and what
they do:
-Prosperity Set. Includes Prosperity Hat, Tunic of Prosperity, and Prosperity
Ring. Money from battles is x7. The Hat is a Rarity at Chisha's Armor Shop.
Estella comes with it. The Tunic is a random prize for the 5,000 bet in
Billy's card game. The Ring is a Rarity at Chisha's Item Shop. Placing
someone with the support skill Potch Finder into the party raises the amount
of potch received further.
-Destiny Set. Includes Crown of Destiny, Robe of Destiny, and Gloves of
Destiny. Money from battles is x3. The Crown is a Rarity at the Great Hollow
Armor Shop. Estella comes with the Robe. The Gloves are a Rarity at the
Caleria Armor Shop. Chris automatically gets them at the end of her chapter
2. Placing someone with the support skill Potch Finder into the party raises
the amount of potch received further.
-Pale Moon Set. Includes Pale Moon Casque, Pale Moon Leather, and Pale Moon
Necklace. Adds 25% of melee damage done back to HP. For example, if you hit
for 240 pts. of damage, you get 60 HP back. The Casque is a Rarity at the Le
Buque Armor Stand. Landis also comes with it. The Leather is a prize for
Kathy's races. The Necklace is a Rarity at the Le Buque Item Stand. It can
also be won as a random prize for Kathy's races.
-Guardian Set. Includes the Guardian Casque, Guardian Chainmail, and Guardian
Shield. Boosts Counterattack rate. Yumi and Yuiri come with the Casque. The
Chainmail is a Rarity at the Caleria Armor Shop. The Shield is a Rarity at
the Vinay del Zexay Guild Hall Armor Stand. Mua also comes with it.
-Mole Set. Includes the Mole Helm, Mole Armor, Mole Shield, and Mole Gloves.
Makes squishy noises when you walk and may boost the occurrence of random
battles (not sure). The Helm is a random item for the Magician treasure boss
in Thomas' chapters. It is also a random treasure for the corpse closest to
the Blue Mantrix at Mt. Hei-Tou. The Armor can be bought for 40,000 potch
from Dominic. The Shield is a Rarity at the Le Buque Armor Stand. Twaikin
also comes with it. Cecile comes with the Gloves.
Credit and thanks to TexasAndroid who provided most of the content for this
section.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3t. Where do I get the Blinking Mirror?
You can obtain it in chapter 4 after visiting Lake Castle. To avoid spoilers,
check the recruit list in section 5c and entries 100 to 101 to find out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3u. No offense, but can you suggest another Walkthrough?
No offense taken. To the best of my knowledge, neither Prima nor Brady are
planning an official strategy guide for the US version. The Japanese strategy
guide is the only one I know of. In terms of other available resources, I've
heard good things about Ruse's Walkthrough/FAQ here at gamefaqs on the message
boards but I've never checked it out. Ryvius' FAQ also here at gamefaqs is
great if you want to know where to get items and has a spoiler-free recruit
list. The best internet resource for all things Suikoden is definitely Blue
Moon's web site, suikosource.com. The site contains comprehensive lists,
story summaries for the games, secrets, links to other useful Suikoden sites,
and lots of other goodies.
If you have a quick question, the message boards at gamefaqs and suikosource
are both great resources. Be warned that you may see spoilers in the topic
headers at both places and please avoid doing the same with any questions you
may ask there.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
4. Walkthrough
4a. Introduction
The Walkthrough is intended mainly to get you through the story with some
helpful suggestions thrown in. If you want to deviate from it to level up,
walk around and talk to the townspeople, watch some plays, and so on, by all
means, do so. I have clearly noted what will make the story advance so if you
don't want to proceed at that time to do something else, go for it. If you've
got a radio, CD, or MP3 player handy, it makes getting through some of the
leveling up/lottery sequences much easier. This is especially true if you're
going for the Chris Level 99 trick.
In terms of skill selection, I have a tendency to go for physical skills then
healing magic. I am severely biased against Fire and Earth Magic-the first one
because it generally will hit your own group and the second because it's only
useful in a fight at the very end. I go for physical skills first because your
characters will either be too low of a level to effectively use most offensive
magic or you won't get better magic users until later in the game. The skills
system is meant so you can customize your characters the way you see fit so the
ultimate decisions are up to you. When I mention what skills to boost, they
are also just meant as recommendations.
I have denoted when you recruit and how many stars with brackets [ ] at the end
of each chapter so as to avoid spoilers before they happen. If a character is
marked with an asterisk (*) it means they are one of the NON-automatic stars.
In terms of when you should save, I will mention it at key times but other
times I leave it up to your common sense. It goes without saying but it's the
angriest player who beats the Super-Mega Boss From Hell then the console resets
and 40 hours of game play time are lost forever.
It is always a good idea to fight all the possible treasure bosses in a chapter
at least once. To make them re-spawn after 30-45 minutes, loot the entire
chest. The only time you don't want them to do that is if you really don't
want to fight them again-leaving some items in the chest will make the bosses
re-spawn at a much slower rate (usually a few hours). Fighting treasure boss
monsters is a great way to make a lot of money not to mention getting a nice
stash of skill points. In my walkthrough I generally suggest fighting these
bosses at least more than once per chapter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4b. Hugo Chapter 1
Pick Hugo's story from the Trinity Site. After the cutscene, pick his story
again to start playing. When the conversation's done between Hugo, Lulu, and
Sgt. Joe, I suggest you put and keep your team in this formation:
Hugo
Fubar
-----
-----
Lulu
Sgt. Joe
(No Support)
Walk to the right of the screen to talk to the man with his arms folded outside
of the hut. This is the bujutsu teacher. Talk to him and select Notes to get
a quick primer on how skills work. Select lesson next and raise these skills
for your characters:
Hugo-Swing up to a D, Accuracy up to a C
Fubar-Accuracy up to a C
Lulu-Repel up to a C
Sgt. Joe-Accuracy up to a C
Hugo's Repel skill (which you'd have to add for him) can naturally go up to an
S but I don't give him this skill until chapter 3 at the earliest. He is at
his best when paired with Fubar. Lulu is similar to Hugo in that his best
asset is his speed. Sgt. Joe is a serviceable healer and his melee attacks do
good damage but his speed, like all duck characters, is below average.
You can walk around and talk to all the villagers if you like. Talk to the
little girl running around up the main street outside to get an Antitoxin. You
can also talk to a duck clan member inside the inn to get a Medicine D. Go to
the item hut and buy another Medicine D and also an Antitoxin. To make the
story progress, go to the front of the village and talk to the man shining some
armor outside his hut. This is Jimba and he will (not) tell you the story
about the armor.
Luce and Lucia come out at this time to tell Hugo to deliver a message. Cycle
through the dialogue options from top to bottom to get filled in on the
mission. When you're given the choice of whether or not to accept Lucia's
request, you can pick the top choice if you're confident ("I'm up to it") or
the second choice ("Um...") if you want some encouragement. When Lulu says he
wants to go, too, you can say that you'll look out for him or that everyone
will be fine together. After everyone's done talking, you'll receive the
!Letter to Zexen. You can wander around the village some more if you like but
you can't exit. When you're ready to make the story progress, enter the top
hut on your mini-map and choose "I suppose so."
The next morning everyone will gather to give your group a proper send off.
When Lucia gives Hugo a hug, you can pick the first choice ("Well then, I'm
off") to properly say goodbye or pick the second choice ("I'll be fine!") to
act snippy with Lucia. When you exit the village, you'll run into Jimba, who
will ask you to do a favor for him. Hugo will accept and you'll receive the
item !Pentacle. After you leave the village the world map will open up. Go
back to Karaya and save at the inn or at Lucia's house. Exit Karaya again.
Here's the first lull in the game when I recommend taking some time to get some
money. As I said before, the first chapters for each character except Chris
will be similar to this. It really pays off to take the time to do this now
rather than later but again it's up to you. Head to Plain of Amur-North. If
you run into some spiders and get poisoned, wait until after the battle to
heal. Access Sgt. Joe's Water Rune by going into the Rune options and heal
with the Kindness Drops. If you run out of that spell then use the Antitoxin.
Cross the plains to get to Duck Village.
Time to play the lottery! You have an option here. I like to go to the Rune
Shop and remove the Sword of Cyclone Rune from Lulu and sell it at the item
shop. All the Magic Sword runes have 2 spells-the first level one adds
elemental damage to your attacks and the other reduces elemental damage. You
can tell what element each Magic Sword rune corresponds to by its name. The
Magic Sword runes aren't that great until later in the game when your
characters can deal more damage so I feel it's pretty worthless early. If you
_really_ want to hang on to it, then you can go back out to the Plains and
fight until you get 1,000 potch.
Either way, when you get the money, go to the lottery board and hit X. A duck
in a boat will come up. Buy 5 Sequential tickets and 5 Random tickets. From
here on, when I say buy tickets for the lottery, this is what I mean. You can
go around the village talking to the ducks if you want but I suggest you don't
pick up anything they offer you. This is because Hugo has limited inventory
space compared to the other main characters and he'll need it later on. If you
need to rest up to replenish spells, go to the inn and rest/save.
You need to kill about 20-30 minutes for the lottery to turn over. I spend
this time going out and fighting random battles to get experience and skill
points. I recommend you do so because they'll come in handy. If you don't
care to do that, send Hugo out to Plain Amur North and let the console sit
while you talk on the phone or watch TV. Your best bets for exp/skill points
is fighting the yellow spiders at Plain Amur North and the Purple Creepers at
just Plain Amur. The Blade Bunnies drop Gale Runes, which boosts the SPD stat
of the wearer by 50%, but this is a very rare event. The Purple Creepers will
sometimes drop an item called a !Screw. If you get one of these, hang on to
it-you'll need it to recruit a character later. You only need one !Screw so if
you get more just toss the extras.
The rare encounter for the Plains is the Wild Boar. If you run into him, I
recommend that you be at least level 14 with all your characters. Just defend
with Lulu and Sgt. Joe and attack with Hugo/Fubar. When anyone gets hurt
pretty bad, use Sgt. Joe's water rune to cast Kindness Drops. Use your healing
items once that spell runs out. You can get up to level 15 by just fighting
the yellow spiders for a while.
After 20 minutes is up, go back to Duck Village and save at the Inn. Check the
lottery board. If the results aren't in yet, go back out and check back in
after every 5 minutes or so. When the results are up, check through your
tickets. If you didn't get at least 2nd prize (100,000 potch) soft reset by
holding down the shoulder buttons plus Start and Select. You should then load
your most recent game which is the one at the inn. Check the board again and
keep soft resetting until you get at least 2nd prize. It usually takes me on
average 5-10 minutes to get the 2nd prize but it may take you longer some
times. I've won the 1st prize (500,000 potch) a few times but it'll probably
take you considerably longer before hitting it. There's no reason to keep
losing lottery tickets so just discard those.
The complimentary lottery prize for Duck Village is Recipe #3. After you get
that, the complimentary prize will always be a Fish Badge, which you can buy at
item stores later on and isn't that great. If you were lucky (or patient)
enough to get the 500,000 potch prize, congrats-you won't have to worry about
money for Hugo again until his chapter 3! The 100,000 potch prize will do you
just fine for now, though.
After you get the money, save your game. Go to the item shop and buy Sgt. Joe
a Silver Beak. Buy a couple of Escape Scrolls as well. Escape Scrolls are
very handy items. Any time you're in a dungeon area, you can use an Escape
Scroll to immediately go back to the exit regardless of where you are. Very
nice for leaving quickly after beating a tough boss all the way at the end of a
dungeon. Try to always have one or two of these in your party inventory for
each of your characters.
Head out of Duck Village and go to Brass Castle. At the first screen of Brass
Castle, there will be a man with a black turban standing around by the
easternmost bench. Talk to him and buy any Ancient Texts and Salt he has. The
Ancient Texts are a rare item so he usually won't have it. Keep going west
another screen and you'll come to an area with a Blacksmith, an Armor Shop, and
an Item Store. Go to the Blacksmith and sharpen Sgt. Joe, Lulu, and Hugo's
weapons up to level 7. Go to the Armor Shop and check their Rarity section.
If they have Byakko Chainmail, get it for Sgt. Joe. Buy Boots for Hugo and
Lulu each (replace their sandals). Go to the Item Store and buy a Belt of
Strength for Hugo and Lulu each.
You can talk to all the people if you like. Most of them don't say anything
interesting but some of it is kind of funny. Head west one more screen and
you'll trigger a cutscene. When Hugo's given the option to respond, pick the
first choice ("And who might YOU be?"). After everyone's done talking head
east to go back inside the castle. In case you're wondering, there's nothing
you can do with the hungry knight outside the dining hall who likes Super
Pickles. Just trust me on that and don't go out of your way to get Super
Pickles. Head to the bottom of the screen and go into the last room on the
right. Walk up to the man behind the desk-this is the bujutsu teacher. These
are the skills I suggest you get:
Sgt. Joe-Accuracy and Damage up to C, Accuracy to a B after that
Lulu-Swing and Repel up to C, if possible get Repel up to B after that
Hugo-Accuracy up to a B, focus on Swing after that
Fubar-Accuracy up to a B, Damage up to a B, focus on Accuracy after that
There's a reason why I choose to focus on Accuracy and you'll find out why in
chapter 2. Whatever you do, I highly recommend that you don't train up any
skill magic-related. This includes Sgt. Joe's Water ability and Hugo's Wind
ability. If you took time out to level up a lot in the Plains area you may
have more skill points left over even after getting the above. Spend it on
whatever else you want except magic and don't bother to add new skills.
Head back out west and you'll be in the western courtyard. In this area is a
Rune Shop and a Tutor, but there's nothing to do at either place so keep
heading west until you get to the blue save point. Save then exit west to get
back to the world map.
Head to the Zexen Forest and you'll trigger another cutscene. You'll notice
herbs growing in certain areas of the forest. I never bother to pick them. In
the Zexen Forest, these herbs include Medicine and AsianHerbs. Depending on
how far along they are, you can get these items at A, B, C, and D level. You
can sell the AsianHerbs to the Trader at Brass Castle and later on at another
location in chapter 2. The rare encounter for Zexen Forest is the Father
Holly, who is super dangerous. If you run into him go for Escape ASAP. He can
wipe out your characters at this point in a hurry.
At the first fork, take the bottom path. The top path leads to the same spot
but I usually take the other out of habit. Keep heading west another couple of
screens until you get to an area where there's three paths on your mini-map.
You will see a small sliver of yellow on the center bottom of the mini-map,
indicating a small pathway. Head towards it and you'll trigger a cutscene
where you meet Fred and Rico. When he asks if you know anything about evil
brewing, pick either choice, it doesn't really matter. After that encounter,
head to the small pathway where you'll find your first corpse. You can loot it
to get Recipe #2. Head back and take the bottom exit this time. Continue on
the path and you'll be back on the World Map.
Head to Vinay del Zexay (VdZ) to trigger yet another cutscene. Head into town
and you'll trigger still another cutscene. After this, you can walk around to
talk to the townspeople. Again, if anyone offers you something, I recommend
you not take it yet. From the entrance where you came in, go to the lower
left exit on the mini-map. On this next screen, head to the small gate to the
left and hit X to enter. This is Chris Lightfellow's house. You will trigger
a cutscene where Hugo delivers Jimba's pentacle to Chris' butler. When the
butler asks if you want anything, you can pick money and he'll give you potch.
Pick food and you'll get some food items. I always refuse both since the
Karayans are an honorable people -_^ Plus, you don't need either reward.
After you're done with that, exit and head to the large red building in the
center of the mini-map (it's the building with steps leading up to it and the
big fountain outside). This is the Guild Hall where you need to go to deliver
Lucia's letter. Walk up to it to trigger a cutscene with the guard. After
everyone's done talking, head to the middle bottom exit on the mini-map. This
next screen is the area with all of the city's shops, including a Blacksmith,
an Item Shop, a Trade Shop, an Appraiser, an Armor Shop, a Rune Shop, and a
Lottery Stand.
If you didn't get the 500,000 potch prize in Duck Village, buy 10 more lottery
tickets here. Head to the Trade Shop. Go up to the counter and hit X to call
the Trader. Sell any Ancient Text and Salt you bought before. Buy any Deer
Antler and Crystal Balls they may have. Head to the Armor Shop and check their
Rarity Section. If they have Turtle Tunics or New Leather/Chainmail buy those
for Lulu and Hugo. Exit this screen to the bottom right.
The next screen you see should have a red building in the lower right corner on
your mini-map. This is the inn but you don't want to go there yet. Head to
the middle area in the center of all the stands to see a cutscene between
Melville and Guillaume. After this, exit the screen to the lower left on the
mini-map to get back to the area with all the shops. Keep heading left and
you'll see a little girl in a red outfit outside the Rune Shop. Get close to
her and you'll trigger a cutscene. The little girl is Alanis and she meets
with her friend Elliot.
After they're done talking, follow them into the alley on the top right before
the exit at the very top on the mini-map. Head into the alley until you come
to a dead end. Walk up to the ladder at the center top of the screen and hit
X then up for Hugo to climb. Climb up another ladder and make your way to the
window. Hit X and choose "The Three Knights of Zexen". After Melville shows
up and everything gets straightened out, just pick all three dialogue options
one at a time from top to bottom.
Exit the Saint Loa Knights' hideaway. If you need to replenish your spells or
HP, go to the inn and rest. Make your way back to the city entrance. You'll
see the 3 kids standing next to the guard. Walk up and talk to them. After
the talking is over, set up your formation like this:
Hugo
Lulu
Sgt. Joe
-----
Melville
Alanis
Elliot (Support-this is automatic)
Leave the city and save at the blue crystal before going to the World Map.
When you get out to the World Map, a new area has opened up-The North Cavern.
Go there and you'll see some more conversation with your group. After that's
over, head inside. The Cavern is completely straightforward with no path
branches so just keep heading straight through. During random battles, always
use Melville and Alanis' Child Combo attack. Not only is it hilarious, but
it's quite useful once they get up some levels. They'll have a hard time
surviving some of the early battles, but once they level up they'll be fine.
There are no rare encounters in the North Cavern.
Once you reach a clearing, your group will decide to make camp. Head up the
very long circular pathway. Go through the next tunnel. At the screen after
you'll see some more dialogue. When you're given the choice pick the top one
("We better go in, too"). Now head down this equally long circular pathway.
At the bottom you'll fight a battle with some of the bandits. If you're at
level 18 or so you shouldn't have any problems. Head into the tunnel. Midway
through here you'll see a blue crystal save point. Save your game then keep
going forward.
You'll see another cutscene where you find out the truth about Guillaume. After
that, Hugo, Lulu, and Sgt. Joe will fight 4 bandits. You shouldn't have much
problems with them-concentrate on taking them down one at a time. Once that
battle is over, Melville will duel Guillaume. There's no way to win this duel
so pick whatever choices you like and it will end shortly. After it's over,
you'll see another series of dialogue between your characters.
Once that's through, you'll be outside the North Cavern. If you didn't level
up to at least 20 with Lulu, Sgt. Joe, and Hugo, go back inside and do it now.
It shouldn't take too long with the Banshee and Dark Wings. Don't bother to
get Melville and Alanis up to that level, though. Just keep heading as far as
you want inside the Cavern. Once you're done leveling up, use one of your
Escape Scrolls to get back to the exit. In case you're wondering, there's
usually a treasure boss at the very end of the Cavern (where you confronted
Guillaume) but there isn't one in this chapter.
After you're done leveling up, check your skill points for Hugo, Lulu, and Sgt.
Joe by going to the status menu option. You should have enough points to
boost some of their physical skills. If so, go back to VdZ first and save at
the blue crystal outside of the city. Head to the Zexen Forest and go back to
Brass Castle to get to the bujutsu teacher. These were the skills I had at
this point after visiting the teacher:
Hugo: Sgt. Joe: Lulu:
Heavy Damage-D Damage-C Continual Attack-E
Counter Attack-D Accuracy-B Swing-B
Continual Attack-E Water Magic-C Repel-B
Swing-B
Accuracy-B
Wind Magic-E
If you want, you can continue fighting some more to level Sgt. Joe's Damage to
a B as well but that's only if you like leveling up. It's not necessary to
level up anything for Alanis or Melville since they'll be leaving your party
shortly. Leave Brass Castle and enter Zexen Forest.
Go through it again to get to VdZ. Enter the city and you'll see some dialogue
with the kids. After that's over, you'll be outside the inn. Go inside, talk
to the man behind the counter and select Stay. Head back outside and you'll
get more dialogue with your party. Instead of going to the Guild Hall, go back
to the inn and just Save, don't pick Stay again. Head to the lottery board and
keep soft resetting again until you get the 100,000 prize or better again. The
complimentary prize for the VdZ lottery is one of the Old Books. After you win
that, it's a regular Knight Statue. After getting the potch, check the Armor
Shop again to see what Rarity items they may have. If you can buy better armor
for your party, go ahead and do it. Go back to the Trade Shop and buy any Deer
Antler or Crystal Balls they may have again. Once you're done go back to the
Guild Hall.
Once inside, you'll see a conversation between a Zexen messenger and your
party. When you get a dialogue option, just pick "Here it is". If you keep
insisting on meeting with the Council in person, you'll just get more ticked
off and they're not worth the trouble. Once you get control of Hugo, head to
the inn and you'll get another cutscene.
Head west to exit the screen. Keep going straight and you'll run into a group
of 3 Zexen regulars. The soldiers in orange will take damage for the armored
knight so take them out first. After the battle, heal with Medicine if you
need to and head for the northwest exit on your mini-map. Continue up the ramp
and you'll get into a fight with 4 Zexen regulars. Use the same strategy as
before and you won't have a problem. If you have a problem winning these
fights, you can cast Hugo's Wind of Sleep spell from his Wind Rune to soften
them up but you probably won't need to do that. Continue toward the city gate
and you'll be confronted by Percival and Leo. They'll fill you in on some
interesting developments and why they came to arrest you.
When you're given the dialogue option, I highly advise you to pick the bottom
choice ("There's no reason to believe you!"). After that, set up your original
formation:
Hugo
Fubar
-----
-----
Lulu
Sgt. Joe
(No support)
Go through Zexen Forest and back to Brass Castle. Keep going east and your
party will stop to talk. When they're done, keep heading east until you get to
the screen where the Super Pickles knight is standing. Make a left and you'll
see a set of stairs. To the left of that screen is the entrance to the inn.
Go there and save your game. Afterward, go back out to the main hall and go
south on the screen toward the checkpoint, triggering another cutscene. When
you can move Hugo again, just head north down the hallway until you get to the
end. The rare encounter for this hallway is the Devil Eye with a couple of
Mega Watts. They're not too tough. When you get to the door, you'll get some
more talk from your party and you'll exit.
Talk to the Trader again and buy any Ancient Text he may have, don't bother
with the Salt this time. If you picked any AsianHerbs in Zexen Forest, you can
sell them to him now. Exit the screen to the east to get back to the World
Map. Go to Plain Amur. The enemies have changed to include Wolves, Dark
Bunnies, and Wild Boars. None of them should give your party much of a hassle.
I believe the rare encounter for this area now is the Troll Dragon but I'm not
sure. You can deal with him without too much fuss. I know the Dark Bunnies
give you a lot of experience but don't spend time leveling up here-there's
really no point.
When you reach the second screen of Plain Amur, you'll see a quick conversation
with your party. Save at the blue crystal. Unequip all of Lulu's equipment.
Exit the screen north to get to the World Map. You'll automatically go to
Karaya Village. After everyone's done talking, head into the village. After
another brief talk with Sgt. Joe, proceed into the village.
After Lulu's confrontation with Chris, you will have two options with Hugo.
Picking "Why?!" will result in an angry conversation with Chris. Choosing the
other option pits Hugo in a duel with her. You can choose whatever option you
feel like. If you choose to duel, you'll get 3 rounds to do so. Whether you
win, lose, or draw, the scene that follows is always the same. After the
Zexen group leaves, you will immediately go to another cutscene and Hugo's
chapter 1 will come to an end and you'll be back at the Trinity Site. Save
your game then pick Chris' chapter 1.
Hugo [1/108]
Sgt. Joe [2/108]
Fubar [3/108]
Jimba [4/108]
Lucia [5/108]
Luce [6/108]
Anne [7/108]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4c. Chris Chapter 1
After the opening cutscene, pick Chris' story again to start playing. You'll
see another extended cutscene with Louis and Chris meeting the Zexen Council.
When you are given the dialogue option, picking the first choice, "Certainly"
and Chris will agree without question. Picking the second choice, "Certainly,
but..." will have Chris question the Council's decision. I go for the second
choice but it really doesn't change anything. After this meeting, Borus and
Salome will drop you off back at your house. Go ahead and enter the gate.
Pick "I need some rest..." to make the story progress. Save if you want but
it's not necessary. You can't play the lottery with Chris until her Chapter 3
but you really don't need to until then (if at all) anyway. Chris also won't
loot corpses until Chapter 3.
You will then see a scene where the Six Mighty Knights of Zexen are at the
front gate. When you're given the dialogue option, pick the second choice, "I
don't mind..." to put Percival in his place. Pick the first choice if you'd
rather demure. After that scene, you will head out the front gate. Instead
of going out, go back into the city.
If you talk to the townspeople, their reaction to you is quite different than
when you played as Hugo, huh? From the screen with the city gate, head to the
southwest exit on your mini-map. Along the way you will see a tubby Zexen man
in a dark green outfit. Talk to him to get Recipe #12. Exit down the ramp to
the southwest. Enter the Guild Hall. Inbetween the two stairways are three
doors. Take the one on the left and talk to the bujutsu teacher (he's the one
in armor). Raise whatever skills you like. I tend to raise each skill so the
grades are equal for Chris' group (i.e. raise all skills to a D, then a C,
etc.). I go for Accuracy and Damage first for the most part. After you're
done there, take the far right door and you'll enter the shops area.
Here is a Rune Shop, an Armor Shop, and an Item Shop. Go to the Armor Shop and
replace their Boots with Winged Boots. Buy Power Gloves for Chris, Roland, and
Salome. Buy a Fine Casque for Salome. Buy Fine Helms for Chris, Roland, and
Borus. If you want, you can remove Borus' Sword of Rage rune and sell it. Buy
a Sacrificial Jizo at the Item Shop but don't equip it on anyone yet.
Exit the Guild Hall and go to the screen with the inn. Go to where the
musicians are performing. You should see an old tubby lady with a cane
standing with two kids. Talk to her to get Herb Seeds. Enter the inn. You
should see a little girl going up and down the stairs. Talk to her and you'll
get Script #2. Exit the inn and go to the screen with all the shops. Visit
the Blacksmith and sharpen everyone's weapon to level 7. Go to the Item Shop
and buy a couple of Medicine D and Antitoxin. Go to the Trade Shop and buy a
GrapeC. They almost always have it, but if they don't just check back in a
later chapter. Once you're done, head for the city gate and exit VdZ. Save at
the blue crystal then go on to the World Map. Head to Zexen Forest.
I recommend you set up your formation like this:
Chris
-----
-----
Roland
Borus
Salome
Louis (Support)
The Father Holly is the rare encounter again. You have a decent shot to take
him down but I wouldn't go out of my way to try and run into him. Just head
east through Zexen Forest to get to Brass Castle. When you arrive, keep going
east until you reach the inside of the castle. You will see the same scene
in Hugo's chapter 1 but from Chris' perspective this time. After that scene
and when you're done talking to Louis, exit and head to the east courtyard.
You will see a cutscene with Chris and Dupa, a member of the Lizard Clan. When
you're given a dialogue option, you can pick the first choice ("What is he
saying?") and Salome will explain it to you. Pick the second choice and Chris
will agree; Salome will then explain to Borus what Dupa meant. Head back
inside and up the stairs to the hallway where Chris' room was. Instead of
going in there, go into the room with the double doors-this is the Knights'
Parlor/Tea Room. Talk to Salome and put Borus and Roland in your party.
Head downstairs back out to the east courtyard. Go to the Blacksmith there and
sharpen their weapons to level 8. This should pretty much be it for your
spending-you'll want to keep your money around 50,000 potch or more for
something in Chris' chapter 2. If you have enough skill points to upgrade your
skills, go ahead and do so with the bujutsu teacher.
In the same room as that teacher is a warehouse keeper-he's hard to see but
he's to the far right of where the bujutsu teacher is sitting. You can store
up to 24 items in this mini-warehouse. Later on when you have access to Lake
Castle's warehouse, they will function like the magic boxes in Resident Evil.
That is, any item you put in one area will be available in the other, although
the maximum capacity will stay at 24 until ch. 4.
When you're done walking around Brass Castle, save at the inn. To make the
story progress, go back to Chris' room and talk to Louis. Pick the first
option ("I think I will rest"). An extended cutscene follows. When Chris
mentions the Zexen Rune, this is a mistranslation according to Blue Moon at
suikosource.com. It's actually supposed to say Zexen Crest.
After everyone's done talking, you'll be thrown into your first strategy
battle. During the first turn, move Roland and the other Zexen unit into the
same circle as Chris. End your turn. During the Grasslanders' turn, Lucia
and Beecham will show up with some Karaya Units. Salome will then suggest you
break through. Use Roland's unit to attack the Karayan Unit (Unit #12) that's
blocking your exit. If you didn't win, or somehow lost, send the mounted Zexen
unit (Unit #4) after them. This should take out the Karayan Unit. Send Chris
into the now empty circle that the Karayans were occupying. Defend with the
remaining Zexen units. The Grasslanders will no doubt attack you in the next
turn. Just pick the retreat option. You'll get attacked most of the time but
should make it into Chris' circle without much problems. When your turn comes
up again, move any of the Zexen units into the exit circle (it doesn't have to
be Chris' unit). This will conclude the strategy battle.
You will then see a brief cutscene at Plain Amur. You can spend some time out
here to level up if you like but it's not necessary (unless you're going for
the Chris level 99 trick). Put the Sacrificial Jizo you bought earlier on
Salome to replace his Medicine A. Save at the blue crystal and continue to
head north. When you get to the World Map, head to Karaya Village.
After everyone leaves, head into the village. There will be a cutscene and you
will see the confrontation in Hugo's chapter 1 from Chris' perspective. When
that's over, just keep the computer's default formation. Head to the back of
the village. You'll have to fight 2 groups of Karayan fighters but they aren't
much trouble. When you reach the back of the village there will be another
short cutscene and Chris will order the Zexens to pull out. Another series of
cutscenes detailing the aftermath follows.
When you get control of Chris, head to the Knights' Parlor. View the scene
there then head downstairs toward the west courtyard. You'll run into Leo and
Percival and have a brief chat. Go out to the west courtyard and meet up with
Borus. Pick the second choice if you want the story to progress. If you want
to do other things, pick the first choice instead.
Exit Brass Castle to the west and go through Zexen Forest. You'll run into
Fred and Rico again (the face Louis makes when he thinks of what Borus was like
as a kid is priceless). Continue to VdZ. You'll see a brief conversation
between Chris and Borus outside the city. Enter the city and head to the
Guild Hall. You'll get more storyline here and another meeting with the Zexen
Council. You probably now have to resist a conditioned response to hurl
something at your TV whenever someone from the Council opens their mouth. When
the meeting's over, you'll talk to Borus and Louis. To make the story move on,
simply go to Chris' house. You will see a cutscene where her butler delivers
Jimba's pentacle to Chris. Chris' chapter 1 will then end you'll be back at
the Trinity Site. Pick Geddoe's chapter 1 next.
Chris [8/108]
Borus [9/108]
Percival [10/108]
Salome [11/108]
Leo [12/108]
Roland [13/108]
Louis [14/108]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4d. Geddoe Chapter 1
After the cutscene, pick Geddoe's chapter 1 again to start playing. When you
get the dialogue option for Geddoe, pick the first choice ("It's necessary,
right?"). Walk downstairs and your group will decide to head to the Lizard
Clan. Once you leave the inn, set up your formation like this:
Queen
Geddoe
-----
Jacques
Ace
Joker
(No Support)
Unless you _really_ want to use Fire Magic, I suggest you go to the Rune Shop
and remove the Fire rune from Joker. Buy a Water Rune and affix it to him.
Go to the lottery stand and buy 10 tickets. Go to the item shop and buy a
Belt of Strength for Geddoe and Jacques. Use what money you have left over to
buy an Antitoxin and Medicine. Don't worry if you spend all your cash. Exit
VdZ and save outside the city. Go to the World Map and cross Zexen Forest.
When you encounter a clump of weak enemies like Holly Boys or Vermitors, use
Ace and Joker's Mercenary A combo-it will take them out or put them close to
death. The rare encounter is the Father Holly again and he can wipe out your
team at this point so just Escape.
Go to Yaza Plains to fight random battles to kill time so the lottery will turn
over. The VdZ lottery can really be annoying because it seems to take longer
to roll over during Geddoe's story. I've had to wait 45-50 minutes some times
but I suggest you check in after 25 minutes or so. Your best bets for skill
and experience points are the Wild Boars and Arachnivores.
The rare encounter for Yaza Plains is a gray boar called Peckles, along with 3
Blade Bunnies. He's pretty tough but beatable. Use the Mercenary A combo
to take out the Bunnies. Have Geddoe cast Soaring Bolt and have Jacques
attack. The Peckles will usually charge Jacques since he's in the middle.
At the start of your turn, take note of who the Peckles is facing-this is the
person he will attack when it's his turn. If he's facing Jacques, have him
defend. When Ace can act again, use his Double Tusk Rune. Heal when you need
to with your food items or Joker's Kindness Drops if you took my advice to get
the Water Rune. In the next rounds, use Geddoe's Berserk Blow. Geddoe's
spells at this point will take 2 rounds to complete so just continue casting
them until he gets them off. After about 5-6 turns, you'll kill him. The nice
thing about the Peckles is he'll bump you up a few levels every time you kill
him until about level 28. When Queen has 235 Skill points, head to Brass
Castle to boost your skills.
Go to the Tutor in the west courtyard first. If you put the Water Rune on
Joker, choose to Forget Fire Magic and Learn Water Magic to add it. After
visiting the Tutor and bujutsu teacher, this is what my skills looked like:
Queen Geddoe Jacques Ace Joker
Swing-D Parry-C Sharpshoot-C Accuracy-C Accuracy-E
Accuracy-C Damage-D Accuracy-C Repel-C Repel-D
Repel-B Accuracy-E Damage-C Water-B
Lightning-B Repel-E
After enough time has passed, head back to VdZ to check the lottery. Once you
get the 100,000 potch prize, go to the Blacksmith and upgrade everyone's
weapon to level 7. Go to the Trade Shop and buy a Deer Antler if they have it.
You can buy another 10 lottery tickets if you like but it's not essential.
Exit VdZ, go through Zexen Forest, past Yaza Plain to get to the Great Hollow.
When you arrive, you'll be greeted by Shiba and some Lizard fighters. After
entering, just follow Shiba around until you get to the room of the Chief,
Zepon.
After some cutscenes/dialogue, you're given freedom to roam the Great Hollow.
The second floor has a Trade Shop (where you can sell any AsianHerbs you
picked in Zexen Forest), a bujutsu teacher, and the Chief's room which is
always guarded by two lizard fighters. On the first floor is an Inn, an Item
Shop, an Armor Shop, and a Blacksmith.
Talk to the lizard fighter on the right guarding the Chief's room to get a
Sunbeam Rune. Talk to the lizard outside the bujutsu teacher room to get Old
Book Vol. 3. Talk to the lizard inside the Armor Shop/Blacksmith to get Grape
Seeds. You can talk to the human inside the Trade Shop to get the Iron Hammer
but don't do this yet. Visit the Blacksmith to sharpen everyone's weapon to
level 8. At the Armor Shop, buy Geddoe Byakko Chainmail if they have it in the
Rarity Section. Buy a Gauntlet for Queen to replace her Gloves. Buy New
Leather for Joker.
To make the story advance, head to the southeast corner of the first floor on
your mini-map. You'll overhear some lizard fighters talking. Follow them
into the tunnel. When you get midway through, you'll get into a fight with 3
lizards. Just use your melee attacks and you should be fine. Afterward, Shiba
will fill you in on what's happening. I recommend setting up your formation
like this:
Jacques
Joker
Queen
Geddoe
Ace
Shiba
(No Support)
Head north on the mini-map and you'll exit the tunnel. Head to the northwest
exit on your mini-map. It will trigger a cutscene with another lizard fighter.
Here's a decision option for you. The next fight you get into is probably the
hardest in the game because it's all a matter of luck whether you win or not.
If you're one of those players that likes to be able to win every battle, I
suggest you go back to the inn now and save. Keep in mind that it doesn't
matter if you win or lose this next fight. If it's not a big deal, proceed
to the northwest exit on the mini-map. Either way, once you go through this
exit you'll end up in another tunnel. This tunnel has random encounters that
give very nice boosts to your experience and skills. You can run around a
little to level up if you like. Follow this tunnel to its exit and you'll get
the fight I mentioned before.
After Chris and Shiba discuss their differences, you'll get into a battle with
Chris and 5 Zexen Regulars. The reason I say this battle is all luck is
because it all depends on whether or not Chris casts the Breath of Ice spell.
If she does, your party is dead meat-it will knock out most of your party
outright and only Shiba and Geddoe will probably still be alive. Not only does
this spell do tons of damage, Chris can get it off before anyone in your party
can act. In order to win this battle, you just have to hope she attacks with
her sword or casts a healing spell first. If so, you can use the following
strategy:
Have Geddoe cast Soaring Bolt. Have Ace do his Double Tusk attack on Chris.
Have Jacques attack Chris as well. After that, concentrate your attacks on
Chris-she can cast Kindness Rain which heals all of her troops. Use only
Items and Joker's Kindness Drops spell to heal. If you kept Joker's Fire Rune,
you can try to get off some spells but keep in mind that most of those spells
will hit your own troops. It usually takes about 3-5 turns before you win.
The loot you get is a few thousand potch and a nice bit of skill points. All
my guys were at level 24 when I won and I didn't get enough experience points
to go up any levels. The best items I ever got were some Damaged Helms, New
Chainmail, and Mega Medicine D, so nothing all that great.
If you won the battle, Chris tells Geddoe he's tough and wants to know his
name. If you lost, Chris simply sheathes her sword and says this was enough.
Either way, she and the Zexen Knights then walk away without further incident.
You're probably confused at this point about what's going on. Don't worry,
everything will get explained in due time. Make note of Jacques' comment about
how the Knights' tracks were too light. After Geddoe and his group talk it
over, head back up to Zepon's room. Your group will then decide to head to
Karaya Village.
Leave the Great Hollow and go to Plain Amur. I recommend taking the time to
fight random battles to get up to level 26. It shouldn't take long with the
Dark Bunnies in this area. When you reach that point, head back to Brass
Castle to visit the Tutor and bujutsu teacher. Here's how my skills looked
after this visit:
Queen Geddoe Jacques Ace Joker
Swing-C Parry-C Sharpshoot-B Accuracy-B Counter-E
Accuracy-B Damage-D Accuracy-B Repel-C Accuracy-C
Repel-B Accuracy-D Damage-C Repel-C
Lightning-B+ Repel-E Water-B
If you bought 10 more lottery tickets earlier at VdZ, go back there to check
the results now. While you're there, if you didn't get a Deer Antler from the
Trade Shop before, try to buy one while you're there. After you're done with
this, head back to Plain Amur and save at the blue crystal right before you get
to the World Map. If you haven't already, put your team back in the original
formation I suggested:
Queen
Geddoe
-----
Jacques
Ace
Joker
(No Support)
Make sure all your guys are healed up. Head to Karaya Village. As you enter,
you'll be greeted by Aila and 4 Karaya Fighters. This battle is pretty
straightforward-use the Mercenary A combo, have Jacques attack Aila, and have
Geddoe use Soaring Bolt. In the 2nd round, heal Queen and finish off Aila.
Once things get squared away, you'll have control of Geddoe again. Avoid the
back of the village for right now-going back there will make the story
advance. Go to the inn and Stay/Save. Visit the Item Shop/Armor Shop hut.
Buy a Sacrificial Jizo for Queen and replace her Gauntlet with it. Buy
another one for Geddoe and replace his Belt of Strength with it. The Armor
Shop some times has Winged Boots in their Rarity section. You can buy some of
those for your guys if you like. Visit the bujutsu teacher (the guy with his
arms folded standing outside) if you want to level up some skills. When you're
ready to advance the story, head to the back of the village. Enter the hut to
the far northwest on your mini-map.
Your group will have a talk then you'll get control of Ace. Head to the front
of the village to make the story progress. You'll see Aila confronting a
visitor at the gate. Run after her and head to Plain Amur. When you can move
Ace again, go to the right where two stone pillars are leaning against each
other (you should see Aila next to them crouched on the ground).
You'll then see a bunch of cutscenes in a row. When you get control of Ace,
head toward Karaya Village and save at the blue crystal. Go to Karaya Village.
You will then pick a formation for Queen and Geddoe. I sugges