Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland

Version 2.6 - Jan. 29, 2013

• Updated:
• Deleted 1st Playthrough Heading (use NG+ Walkthrough)
• Fixed massive amount of typos

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First of all, thanks for reading my FAQ.

A thing you should know before stepping into the world of Meruru's is that the game is much easier than the previous Arland series games. It would be a good idea to read through and print out the Ending Requirements and Character Events/Recruitment sections.

With many different endings, each with its own requirements, you will need to make multiple saves through the game to make sure you don't make any mistakes. I will explain this more in the ending section of this guide. I will try and guide you through this overwhelming information in the least amount of playthroughs possible, but mistakes are possible and you do not have to follow my advice.

If you want me to add something or notice a mistake, please email me at the above address with the correct information.

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The controls for Atelier Totori are straight forward and easy to understand.

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Each character has their own skills that they can use in battle.

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Meruru is the Princess of Arls Kingdom and Totori's apprentice. She's bright and optimistic, but has a tendency to act without thinking. She admires Arland, but wishes for her own kingdom to become equally as prosperous. Because of this, she decides to set out and use alchemy to develop the land.

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Keina is our heroine's childhood companion. She serves as Meruru's devoted caretaker and best friend. Being forced to deal with Meruru's constant state of pandemonium has made her very mature for her age.

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Totori is a renowned alchemist dispatched to Arls from Arland. She takes on Meruru as an apprentice and helps guide and teach her.

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Lias is a soldier in training and Rufus's younger brother. He is very serious-minded and tense. He worships the ground Rufus walks on, and his ultimate goal is to become as much like his brother as possible.

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Rufus acts as the official butler of Arls Kingdom. He's very intelligent despite his age, and he handles nearly all of the kingdom's political issues as well as Meruru's education.

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Mimi is an Arland Adventurer Guild member and Totori's best friend. She appears in Arls as if she only has Totori on her mind.

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A former knight of Arland, Sterk still lives as a self-proclaimed knight. He acts as the guardian of the local adventurers while he continues to search for the retired king of Arland, who seems to have wandered off.

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Rorona is the official alchemist of Arland, as well as Totori's master. She was supposed to head to Arls along with the others, but thanks to Astrid's interference, Totori was forced to go in her place.

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Gino is an adventurer from the Arland Guild, as well as Sterk's student. He came to Arls to further his training in hopes of surpassing his master. He also has hopes of encountering new and more powerful foes.

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Acting as Arland's secret investigator, Esty has left the guild in her sister Filly's hands to pursue a career in espionage. She also has no choice but to act as Gio's chaperone in Arls.

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Hanna manages a shop in Arls. She doesn't fret over tiny details and she considers herself a good friend of Meruru.

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Filly worked as a receptionist in Arland and came to Arls with Totori. She used to get really nervous around strangers, but her job has forced her to deal with her phobia. Her powers of imagination have also powered up, so any regular relationship becomes a target of her delusions.

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Rorona's alchemy master. She's supposedly a genius at what she does, but she's very lazy and never works.

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The head of the Arland Republic and the world's greatest known swordsman still enjoys wandering the land aimlessly. For whatever reason, he has decided to make Arls his base of operations for the time being.

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The Hom's are utterly loyal to their master(s) and assist in a variety of tasks, including alchemy. Their primary order is to look after the tiny Rorona, but they receive another order to help out Meruru while Rorona is left in her care. They've also started to display a small amount of emotion, bringing them one step closer to real humans.

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This game is a standard turn-based one, with no real learning curve for previous JRPG players.

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Battle Commands

Every character has the below options:

• Fight
• Skill
• Defend
• Escape

Meruru, Totori and Rorona also have the addition option to use items that you are carrying in your bag.

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HP/MP/LP

Like every other RPG, and unlike Atelier Rorona, you use MP for skills and your HP is your life. The only addition to this is atelier's LP. This is used when traveling and taking part in combat. When you characters reaches zero, they get negative stats like ATK and DEF down in battle.

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Turn Order

On the right side of the screen you will notice that your characters and enemies have image cards placed on the bar. The bar represents your turn order, with the top image being the NEXT individual/enemy to go. The blank cards represent the time between each individual/enemies turn. This is important because sometimes your character will take a turn and it's card will appear below its previous position, but above another individual/enemy. You can tell where a characters next turn will be by selecting the action, but not confirming it. This bar will help you determine when you need to prepare to heal, sleep the enemy, or defend.

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Assist System

On the bottom of the screen, next to the character images, you will notice a bar that fills blue as you fight. When the bar is full, the characters on Meruru's right and left can assist her. This can be used in the following ways:

• Assist with damage when Meruru uses and item
• Defend Meruru when she is targeted for an attack
• Other actions taken by Meruru

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Unlike the more well known games by Gust, Mana Khemia and Atelier Iris, where synthesis was less of a focus, this game revolves around alchemy synthesis as a basis to get items and advance the story. The game gives you a decent tutorial for what synthesis is so I will skip to the details.

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MP to Synth

Like Skills in battle, crafting takes a certain amount of MP per synth. When Meruru drops to 0, the success rate greatly decreases and she will pass out afterwards. You can restore her MP with items or by sleeping on the couch in her workshop. As sleeping takes up valuable time, I suggest using items (except early in the game when the couch is your only choice).

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Synthesis Takes Time

Unlike Atelier Iris, where time didn't exist, Meruru is all about time management. Every synthesis takes time to craft, SO BE CAREFUL.

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Synthesis Level

Every synthesis has a level to it, which determines Meruru's success rate. The higher the level, the more likely you are to fail. You can fix this by crafting often, as every synthesis increases her Alchemy Level (which is separate from her Adventuring Level). When synthing, a percent will appear that lets you know your chances.

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Item Traits, Effects, and Cost Level

Every item you use to make your synthesis may have traits and effects. Also any item you make has it's own traits and effects. Like Atelier Totori, the traits of the ingredients determine what traits you get to choose for the final product. Everytime you synth, your ingredients will provide a cost level. The higher the cost the more points you have to use on your traits. Also, using previously synthed items in your synth will boost cost level a great deal.

Item effects work differently though. Certain items have the ability to get effects depending on the quality of the items you use to make them. An Arland Crystal, for example, has 5 different effect possibilities (Crimson, Sapphire, Topaz, Emerald, and Diamond). You will know what trait you are getting because the item slot that determines it, a [Jewel] in this case, will have the word Effect under the picture of the ingredient slot. When you go in to choose the item it will also say effect in the bottom right, indicating the outcome if you use that ingredient.

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When you visit any area on the world map, you will see bubbles floating around. These points can be harvested for items you will use during synthesis.

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Normal Bubbles

• Most bubbles will be light blue in appearance. These are generic points.

Special Bubbles

• Some bubbles will actually have a yellow center. These are higher quality items.

Gathering Time

• Like everything else in Atelier Meruru, gathering on a field takes time. Without any bonus, from items, gathering will take almost half a day.

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The basket, which I call your bag, and the container are your inventory space.

Most items will automatically be in your container. The container has all the room you will need and you won't need more space until late game. Whenever you return to the atelier you will be asked if you want to store the items in your container. You will almost always say yes, unless it is something like healing items or bombs you want to use on the field or in battle.

Your bag is where your items will temporary be stored in between your trips to the atelier.

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Front Quests are something that has been carried over from Atelier Rorona/Totori, but with their own new twist. These are random quests that are offered by Filly at the Tavern and can be fulfilled for money. The other aspect you will need to watch, which is affected by Front Quests, is popularity. If your popularity reaches zero, it's game over.

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Each quest has the following aspects to take into consideration:

• Amount
• This is the amount of each item you will need to turn in to complete the request. For items, you will need that many crafted or harvested. For hunt quests, this is the number of enemies you will need to defeat.
• Reward
• This is the money reward you will receive.
• Client
• Not really important unless it is a Friend Request.
• Owned
• The amount of each item you own already. In the case of hunt quests it will keep track of how many enemies you have killed of that type.

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Friend Requests will be possible once Gio settles in Arls.

Unlike Rorona, where the character was on the map, and Totori, where they visited your workshop, your friends will make requests through the Adventurer Guild. This means you will want to check Filly's requests often. You will be able to tell it is a friend request by the image of a head. To know which client it is, check the item. The requests work the same as the Front Quests otherwise.

It is always a good idea to fill a Friend Request if you can do so with moderate ease.

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Instead of Atelier Totori's License Points, we now have Development Points. These are received through completing the Development Tasks requested by Rufus and the townspeople. You will want to check the mailbox outside the Workshop for letters and then take them to Rufus to receive the actual request.

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Each development has the following aspects to take into consideration:

• Description
• The description will generally tell you WHAT you need to deliver/hunt and where/why.
• Mini-Memo
• The descriptive guidelines for the quest. This will give you an estimate of how many items you need to deliver or what you are hunting.
• Points
• How many points you receive for completing the quest.
• Reward
• What you earn by finishing the quest, such as Max HP Up or Population +
• Success Rate
• This will only appear on developments with a 10-star rating. If you do not complete a development all at once, this will show you your progress.

As you complete developments you will receive points to increase your Kingdom Rank and use for Building Facilities. Note that the development points may be used for facilities, but will NOT disappear from your Kingdom Rank progression.

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There are 10 different endings that you can get based on certain actions you make throughout the game.

It should be noted that while some endings are only available by themselves through the requirements, other requirements can be met for multiple endings. If you meet multiple ending requirements, then there is a hidden priority that is followed:

• Miss Popular
• Alchemist!
• Strongest Princess
• Witch's Tea Party
• Boy's Bath
• Now, Go Bravely
• Finally, As Planned
• A Rich Nation
• Topsy-Turvy

The only ending that will be met without any other endings even possibly being met is Castle Life.

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The major factors that determine the endings are:

• Population at the end of Year 3.
• Friendship Levels (particularly Gio's, who needs 50 to recruit for some endings)
• Mt. Yuvel, Yuvel, and Airshatter events
• Modis Ruins/Hart Outpost Lizard development quests

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Officially the goal is to complete the game with less than 100,000 population. This means you can fail at the extension OR the end of Year 5.

The issue is that if you make the extension requirement, you will need to sleep through another 2 years. For this reason, I suggest making a save at around 15,000 population and sleep until the extension and fail quickly.

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This ending can only be possible from a "Clear Save" (New Game +) due to Gio's events.

You must:

• Meet the extension requirements
• See all character events (see Character Events/Recruitment below)

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This is only available in New Game+.

• Complete all of Gio's Events to get the trophy Look into the Past and have him join the party.

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Meet all the requirements for Finally, As Planned except that you MUST reach Alchemy Level 50.

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The girls that you need to invite to advance the Hot Spring event is as follows:

• Totori
• Female Hom
• Rorona
• Mimi
• Hanna
• Filly
• Esty
• Astrid
• Pamela
• Keina

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DO NOT REACH ALCHEMY LEVEL 50, or you will trigger Witch's Tea Party

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This ending requires that you meet the requirement of 100,000 population, but that you do not meet any other ending requirements by Year 6: 4/1.

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Almost all of the events required for endings are easy to get. This list is a list of all the events I found and it should be noted that not ALL are required for endings.

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Trophies: How Do I Look? & Stars Never Change

• For Keina's "Stop By More Often", I have gotten this as early as Year 2: 3/1, but also much later. The conditions seem to be based on her friendship level and how long it has been since you last used her in your party. I almost always get this at about Friendship 60+ (about 62-63) and 100 days since I dropped her from party.

Non-Trophy Related

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Trophy: Brothers Together

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Trophy: Atelier Totori (Current)

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Trophy: Pie Shop

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Trophy: Friendship, Love

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Trophy: End of the Duel

Non-Trophy Related I'm not really sure what these are related to, but they are connected.

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Trophy: Certain Sisters''

Non-Trophy Related Due to these all being about age, they may be related to the Potion of Youth trophy.

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Trophy: Masked Man Reappears

Trophy: Look into the Past

• This event seems to require you being past a certain date, like many other events in the game. I have not tested this. It may also be related to a certain amount of days after Kingdom Rank V.

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Trophy: Resemblance''

• The event where Sterk recounts his day with Rorona seems to be timed. I did not get this until Year 3: 7/24 and was over 50 friendship. I will need to test this more later, unless someone wants to email me their findings.

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These are events that are similar in requirement, relate to more than one character, are not relate to a trophy, or are pretty much impossible to miss.

In Town

World Map

• There are probably more for other character combinations that I have not discovered, yet.

Field Map

• There are probably more for other characters that I have not discovered, yet.

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Trophies: Drunken Legend EX & Waterside Encounter

Non-Trophy Related These events seem to require certain dates or Kingdom Rank, but I have not tested them to find the exact dates.

In order to keep track of Hanna's presents and where you are, they are as follows:

• Blue Fruit, Red Fruit, and Purple Fruit x2
• Wheat, Magic Grass, and Serenity Flower, x2
• Flower Nectar, Mandra Root, Goat Horn x2
• Dead Beast, Nuse, and Quake Stone x2
• Gravistone, Uni, and Lizard Tail x2
• Pendelook, Devil Horn, and Green Leaf x2
• Jewel Bean, Wheat Grain, and Hard Potato x2

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Trophy: Secret Tea Party

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• Hagel also has a bunch of small events when you synthesize some of the weapons.

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