"Would you like to go on an immortal journey?"
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_______ _________ _ _________ _ _______
( ____ \|\ /|\__ __/( ( /|\__ __/( ( /|( ____ \
| ( \/| ) ( | ) ( | \ ( | ) ( | \ ( || ( \/
| (_____ | (___) | | | | \ | | | | | \ | || |
(_____ )| ___ | | | | (\ \) | | | | (\ \) || | ____
) || ( ) | | | | | \ | | | | | \ || | \_ )
/\____) || ) ( |___) (___| ) \ |___) (___| ) \ || (___) |
\_______)|/ \|\_______/|/ )_)\_______/|/ )_)(_______)
_______ _______ _______ _______ _______
( ____ \( ___ )( ____ )( ____ \( ____ \
| ( \/| ( ) || ( )|| ( \/| ( \/
| (__ | | | || (____)|| | | (__
| __) | | | || __)| | | __)
| ( | | | || (\ ( | | | (
| ) | (___) || ) \ \__| (____/\| (____/\
|/ (_______)|/ \__/(_______/(_______/
_______ _______
( ____ \|\ /|( ___ )
| ( \/( \ / )| ( ) |
| (__ \ (_) / | (___) |
| __) ) _ ( | ___ |
| ( / ( ) \ | ( ) |
| (____/\( / \ )| ) ( |
(_______/|/ \||/ \|
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#####################################################################
Supplemental Guide/Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Version 1.23
by Kamatari47 ([email protected])
#####################################################################
DISCLAIMER:
This guide is intended for private, personal use. Any unauthorized
reproduction, publication, or distribution of this guide without my
express written permission is strictly prohibited. At this time,
this guide may be published with permission by gamefaqs.com only; any
unauthorized publishers of this guide is committing a violation of
copyright. Of course, I can't really do anything to stop you from
ripping this thing off GameFAQs and putting it up wherever you please,
but it'll be interesting to see if you take the time to delete this
sentence first. All information found in this guide was derived from
and/or verified through my personal gaming experience. I have
endeavored to properly credit all contributions to the best of my
knowledge.
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Tips and Tricks
III. Lists
IV. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
V. Glitches
VI. Save Files
VII. Update History/Special Thanks
=====================================================================
I. Introduction
=====================================================================
This guide is intended to be a comprehensive repository of in-depth
information for Sega's Shining Force EXA. It contains little-known
information on gameplay principles and strategies derived through
the simplest method possible: lots and lots of gameplay. I've spent
well over 400 hours on this game, as can be verified through the
save files I've contributed to GameFAQs (the latest of which is a
Chapter 12 save that shows 300.2 hours of game time). I've made a
thorough effort to verify all of my findings, though it's possible
that you disagree with the relevance of some of them. You may also
disagree with some of the conclusions I've drawn where game strategy
is concerned. In both cases, I exhort you to write me -- I will
endeavor to post all valid reader contributions in this guide and
give proper credit where credit is due. To contribute your tips and
tricks or to ask me questions (I will try to post all quality
questions, as well as my answers to each question, in Section IV:
Frequently Asked Questions), you may either email me at the address
listed at the top (and bottom) of the guide or post to the Shining
Force EXA board at GameFAQs.
The five main sections of the guide are as follows:
- Section II: Tips and Tricks is where I will offer strategy-related
suggestions and make observations on key points of gameplay. This
is also where I will talk about some of the more obscure Shining
Force EXA gameplay principles.
- Section III: Lists is where I will present a few lists of interest
(Ancient Arena locations, Healing Water locations, a complete listing
of Core Metal locations, etc.) which, so far, have not been covered
in any of the existing guides found on GameFAQs.
- Section IV: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) features popular and/or
"good" (i.e. thought-provoking, intriguing, and/or worthy of detailed
exploration) questions I've collected from emails and the Shining
Force EXA message board here at GameFAQs, as well as my attempt to
answer each question to the best of my ability. Feel free to ask
me questions -- you just may see them answered in this section.
- Section V: Glitches charts some of the most unusual (and most likely
unintended) occurrences in Shining Force EXA.
- Section VI: Save Files is simply a place for me to post more detailed
descriptions of the game saves I've uploaded to GameFAQs.
Please note that this is NOT meant to be a comprehensive walkthrough.
Others have already written those and, for the most part, the
walkthrough portions of their guides are functional and useful (many
other points of gameplay advice they offer are less useful to
erroneous, however, and will be addressed in this guide). This document
is meant to be a "companion" text for those in need of further
elaboration of points mentioned in the walkthroughs, as well as for
those who simply wish to be better Shining Force EXA gamers.
You're advised to use the CTRL + F search function to quickly scan
this document for a particular topic of interest.
=====================================================================
II. Tips and Tricks
=====================================================================
GEO-FORTRESS BUILD ORDER
* Energy Generator (Mandatory)
1. Training Ground
2. Radar
3(tie). Repair Function
3(tie). Robot Factory
5. Barrier
6. Cannon
The above is my personal recommendation for the order in which you
should seek to upgrade the Geo-Fortress. The Energy Generator must
be upgraded before you can raise the levels of each individual function,
so there isn't much to say there. The Training Ground is by far
the most useful Geo-Fortress upgrade -- prior to beating the game, it
is simply the most effective way to level up and find top-notch
equipment corresponding to your current power level. With one notable
exception (see the "Infinite Healing Water" sub-section), there is
simply no need to "grind" anywhere out in the world (i.e. outside the
Geo-Fortress) if you've been spending your Core Metals on the Training
Ground. The Training Ground also doubles as the most effective defense
for your Geo-Fortress: you won't have much need for any of the purely
defensive functions (Repair, Robot Factory, and Barrier) if all of your
characters are strong and properly outfitted thanks to runs through the
Training Ground -- your Geo-Fortress won't ever be in any danger if your
party simply slaughters all comers during Defensive Battles, after all.
Radar is the second most useful Geo-Fortress upgrade -- aside from its
ability to show you the locations of boss monsters, monster generators,
and visible treasure chests, Radar is particularly valuable for its
ability to pinpoint the locations of hidden treasures on any map within
its effective radius. No matter how good you are at ferreting out hidden
treasures, believe me when I say that Radar will show you many items
that you'll never find without it. Even better, once you've upgraded
this function to its maximum level, you do not even need to switch the
Geo-Fortress into Search Mode in order to receive telemetry -- Radar will
automatically be "on" regardless of which map you're currently exploring
(it still doesn't work on most locations accessed solely from within the
Geo-Fortress, however, so you can't scout the Training Ground, Dimension
X Metal Tunnel, or Dungeon of Ordeal with it -- though Radar does work
within Xeyon Castle) and regardless of which Geo-Fortress mode is
currently active.
If you've maxed out both the Training Ground and Radar, it's time to
pay some attention to the defensive functions. If you've been actively
acquiring and spending Core Metals, though, defense is not a problem
for you -- the high level of your Energy Generator is enough to ensure
that, outside of the last couple of chapters, few Defensive Battles
will seriously threaten your Geo-Fortress. Since there isn't anything
else to upgrade, however, we might as well invest our extra Cores in
one of the three defensive functions (Repair, Robot Factory, Barrier).
As you can see above, I favor the approach of upgrading Repair and
Robot Factory in equal increments. A souped-up Repair function
coupled with switching the Geo-Fortress into Recovery Mode will allow
your Photon Converters to rapidly and continuously regenerate any HP
they lose during Defensive Battles, and the Converters will also heal
any allied units standing near them. Beside your main character and
his/her NPC party, there is another group of potential beneficiaries
of this healing effect -- robots purchased from the Robot Factory.
Defensive-type robots will always hang around the Photon Converter
and, as long as you've upgraded your robots to a decent level, they
will serve as nigh-impregnable defense for your Photon Converter,
leaving your party free to seek out the strategic targets you need to
destroy to end the Defensive Battle. It does take a good bit of gold
to upgrade the Robot Factory and all its robots, but gold should come
easily from your Training Ground runs (selling equipment that you
don't need is a particularly profitable endeavor), and with the
Repair-and-Robots upgrade approach, you do not need to ever pay any
repair fees for your army of robots (unless, of course, you activate
the special S-Type robot, which I recommend against except in an
emergency -- the firepower it adds is seldom necessary with the
overall strength and healing ability of your Geo-Fortress setup, and
it simply isn't worth the repair costs to activate the S-Type).
An alternative to the Repair-and-Robots upgrade approach is to devote
singular focus to upgrading the Barrier function. There are many
gamers who swear by Barrier; I am not one of them. The Geo-Fortress
Barrier serves as all-purpose damage reduction, and a high-level
Barrier does indeed make it nearly impossible to damage your Photon
Converters. If you diligently acquire and spend your Core Metals,
though, you will seldom need Barrier to make your Photon Converters
hard to damage -- the high HP value granted by a high level Energy
Generator combined with steady healing from your Repair function once
the Defensive Battle has concluded will almost certainly ensure that
your Photon Converters all have full HP by the time the next Defensive
Battle starts. The Barrier upgrade approach is inferior to the
Repair-and-Robots approach in that you lose the robot army defending
your Photon Converter (or, to be more exact, the robot army earning
experience and gold for you while you go off destroying strategic
targets) and that you also lose the healing aura around the Photon
Converter, which can be a lifesaver in certain particularly nasty
Defensive Battles. You're free to choose whichever approach you like,
of course (or experiment with both and try to decide which one you
like better), with one caveat: do NOT prioritize the Barrier above the
Training Ground. That proposition is just crazy -- there is no way
that some damage reduction on your Photon Converters offers equal
value to all the character levels/quality equipment/gold/Mythril you
stand to gain from making runs through the Training Ground.
The Cannon function is useless. Do NOT spend any Core Metals on it
whatsoever unless you've already maxed out every other function.
Upgrading the Cannon only affects the blast radius of a Cannon shot
(a higher-level Cannon has a larger blast radius), the recharge speed
of the mechanism (a higher-level Cannon recharges faster), and how
much damage it deals when you "call in" a shot -- contrary to what some
believe, it does NOT extend the range of potential blasts. Cannon
range can only be extended through storyline advancement. With
adequately powered-up characters, you should never need to resort to
your slow-firing, limited-area-of-effect Cannon to deal damage, and
you certainly should not spend any Core Metals on it when there are
far worthier functions to upgrade.
THE EXPERIENCE SYSTEM
Ever wondered how your newly-acquired NPC allies gain levels so
quickly at first before dropping to the same leveling pace as your
main characters? That phenomenon demonstrates one aspect of Shining
Force EXA's experience (EXP) system. Every location in Shining Force
EXA has a hidden statistic that I like to call its "area level". The
amount of experience your characters receive from each monster kill
is never fixed -- rather, the amount of EXP each character receives
from a kill depends on two factors: the character's current level and
the area level of the location. If the character's current level is
lower than the area level, the amount of EXP you receive will be
multiplied -- the larger the difference between the two, the higher
the multiplier. This is how you receive EXP in the tens of thousands
for a low-level NPC ally when you kill a monster, even though the
typical "base EXP" (that is, the amount of experience a character
receives when his/her level is only slightly lower than the area level)
is almost always several hundred to a couple thousand EXP. This is
the secret mechanism behind the "rapid leveling" phenomenon you
experience when you take a low-level character into a high-level
location and defeat the enemies populating that area.
On the flip side of the token, once your character level becomes equal
to the area level of a location, your EXP gains will grind to a halt:
you will receive one (1) EXP point for every kill in that area,
regardless of the size and power level of the monsters you kill. In
the deeper parts of the Training Ground, this can cause a twisted
phenomenon where enemies that can one-hit KO your characters (due to
their inherently high power levels, your inadequate gear/Power Art/
Secret Art setups, or both) will yield only 1 EXP each when you kill
them. Please note also that there seem to be a few glitches related
to the EXP system -- I've personally noticed that, in the lowest
levels of the Training Ground, NPC party members need to be within
one character level of the main character in order to advance to the
level "cap" of a floor. If they're not within one character level
when the main character hits the area level of the floor, they will
start earning the minimum of 1 EXP per kill just as if they have
reached the level cap (even though they actually have not). For
example, on Training Ground floor B49F (area level 184), any NPCs
who have not reached level 183 when your main character reaches level
184 will only earn 1 exp per kill made on that floor (assuming that
you keep using the same lead character and that he/she stays at level
184), even though they *should* be earning several hundred to a couple
thousand EXP per kill (because they have yet to reach the level cap
of the location). Perplexingly, any NPC allies who did manage to reach
level 183 when your main character "hit the cap" will earn the normal
amount of experience. This phenomenon appears again once you've
reached the Place Beyond Darkness in Xeyon Castle -- any NPC allies
not within one character level of the main character leading the party
will hit the cap 3 levels early.
I do not have a complete list of area levels for every location in
the game (compiling such a list might consume the rest of my natural
life), but here are a couple of tidbits: prior to the game-ending
chapters, the highest character level you can reach through "normal"
adventuring (i.e. journeying through locations out in the world that
are easily accessible prior to the game-ending sequence of events)
is level 111 (the area level of the Lake Bark Caverns), whereas the
highest character level you can reach through specific training (i.e.
through usage of the Training Ground) is level 187 (the level cap of
the Training Ground Depths/B50F). After beating the game, you can
advance your characters to the maximum level of 200 -- but only one
location in the game has sufficiently high area level for you to do so:
the Place Beyond Darkness located within the depths of Xeyon Castle.
GETTING AHEAD OF THE POWER CURVE
The "power curve" is a term I use to refer to the rate of increase in
the power levels of the monsters you face at each point of storyline
progression. "Getting ahead of the power curve", therefore, means to
train your party so that they comfortably exceed the power levels of
the threats they face at each storyline juncture. The simplest way
to do this is to increase your character levels and collect powerful
equipment drops by "grinding" the Training Ground. This method,
however, requires that you obtain lots of Core Metals, and it largely
neglects a key component of character strength in Shining Force EXA:
Power Arts and Secret Arts.
There is a simple but often-overlooked way to remedy both problems:
explore the "optional" areas! In Chapter 3, you'll be allowed to
access a number of locations that may prove initially challenging but
will yield great rewards in the long run. These areas contain many
Power Art tablets, Prison Rocks (each of which yields a Secret Art
as a reward for defeating the imprisoned monster), and Ancient Arenas.
If you clear them all, spend the Core Metals you obtain on the
Training Ground, and make a few runs through the lowest block of
floors you can access in the Training Ground, and you'll find that
your characters are now powerful enough that the next few chapters,
at least, will be a walk in the park. In other words, you'll have
effectively gotten ahead of the power curve. Some of these areas are
accompanied by a marked increase in the ferocity of the local fauna,
however (your first trips to the Stone Arena, the Dragon Arena, the
Lake Bark Caverns, and the Golem Arena located within the Lake Bark
Caverns can be nasty surprises of the fatal variety), so you're advised
to mix up your exploration with time devoted to strengthening your
characters (leveling up, collecting equipment, acquiring Mythril for
your Power Arts) at the lowest block of the Training Ground that you
can access. The areas you should explore (and what's to be found at
each location) are as follows:
- North Paora Plains (Prison Rock, Critical Resist Lv2, Ancient
Arena: Wolfling)
- Northwest Paora Plains (Knockback Resist Lv3)
- West Paora Plains (Lightning Resist Lv1, HP Boost Lv5, Ancient
Arena: Giant, 3 bottles of Goddess Tears)
- West Paora, Sewer (Critical Rate Lv3, leads to Prison Rock and
Ancient Arena: Stalker)
- Paoraburr Cavern (leads to Altar of Darkness and 5 Darkness Runes)
- Paoraburr Trail (Ancient Arena: Lightning)
- Ranburr's Tomb (Prison Rock, Critical Rate Lv1)
- Ranburr's Tomb, Underpass (Master Guard Lv4, leads to Ancient
Arena: Stone)
- East Paora Plains (Ancient Arena: Lizard)
- Ancient Runed Temple (Prison Rock, Flame Resist Lv1, Avalon's
Torso)
- Rune Mountain Path (just to see the place)
- Clanup Island (ditto)
- Paora Plains, East Coast (Prison Rock, Skill Boost Lv5, Ancient
Arena: Dragon)
- Lake Bark Cavern, North (Concentration Lv2)
- Lake Bark Cavern, South (HP Boost Lv8, Ancient Arena: Golem)
- Lake Bark, South Point (Petrify Resist Lv2, 5 Darkness Runes)
Later in Chapter 10, don't forget to employ the same principle and
explore the Sidora Snow Mountain, Canyon optional area, which leads
to Ancient Arena: Demon and a crucial Power Art -- Darkness Resist Lv2.
DEFENSIVE BATTLES
There are two categories of Defensive Battles in Shining Force EXA:
mandatory Defensive Battles (which occur when you reach a certain
point in the storyline) and "timer" Defensive Battles (which occur
after you spend a certain amount of time out in the world). I'm not
here to teach you how to fight them; instead, I'm here to explain how
you can use Defensive Battles as a primary resource for obtaining
precious Core Metals. Up to a certain point in the story, Gilnay, the
young Foxling who lives in the Geo-Fortress, will "stock" a Core Metal
after every mandatory Defensive Battle you win (you get about 7 of
these total -- Gilnay stops stocking Core Metals once all four exits
of the Geo-Fortress have been unlocked). Gilnay will also stock a Core
after every five "timer" Defensive Battles you win (there is an infinite
number of these, of course, but Gilnay does have a "cap" on his stock:
by my calculation, he'll stop selling you Core Metals this way after
you complete your 12th set of five "timer" Defensive Battles, or 60
"timer" Defensive Battles in all). When you return to the Geo-Fortress
after a Defensive Battle, you can buy each Core Metal in Gilnay's
inventory for 10,000 gold (if you're crazy, you can also pay him
1,000,000 gold -- you would still get only one Core Metal in return).
Early in the game, you can "farm" the timer-based variety of Defensive
Battles in order to obtain a large number of Core Metals and use them
to upgrade your Training Ground (thus gaining access to a facility
where you can strengthen your characters to the point that you really
out-distance your opposition in overall power level once you choose to
resume the storyline). "Timer" Defensive Battles occur whenever a
timer of fixed length (about 20 minutes of real time) counts down to
zero (the indicator on the top-right corner of the screen will flash
red). The timer will run as long as you're out in the world (i.e. not
inside your Geo-Fortress or at one of the locations where no combat
normally takes place -- Ruins of Yi'el Village, Cantore Village, and
Emperor's Hall, just to name a few): you do not have to be running or
fighting for the timer to run down. A little simple math tells us that
you'll be allowed to purchase a Core Metal from Gilnay for every two
hours of real time (an hour and 40 minutes of waiting around on the
world map, about 20 minutes total to fight the five Defensive Battles);
that might seem like a lot of time, but hey -- no one said you have to
pay attention to your PS2 at all during the waiting! During every
20-minute waiting period, you're perfectly free to (and should) surf
the internet, do homework, work on your house/lawn/garden, or even
play another video game on a different console -- do whatever you feel
like and just check in every 20 minutes to fight a quick Defensive
Battle. 24 hours of this will mine Gilnay dry of his 12 Core Metals
allocated to "timer" Defensive Battles, and you can easily combine
these with the Cores you've found from other adventures to open up
four to five new blocks of the Training Ground (strictly speaking,
you only need 4-5 Cores for the Training Ground itself, but you'll
also need a handful to upgrade your Energy Generator). This is how I
managed to upgrade to Training Ground Level 7 before finishing
Chapter 3: I found a good spot to grind at Lake Bark and ended up
fighting 40 "timer" Defensive Battles there). You can do the same
(or better, since I didn't actually milk Gilnay dry of all his "timer"
Defensive Battle Cores until much later).
NPC (NON-PLAYABLE CHARACTER) PARTY MEMBER RANKING
1. Avalon
2. Garyu
3. Faulklin
4. Duga
5. Maebelle
6. Amitaliri
7. Adam
8. Gadfort
First, let's make something very clear: all your NPC party members
stink compared to the main characters. Once you start carving Power
Arts and finding good equipment, your main characters will outgrow
their NPC buddies rapidly (it's a terrible pity that NPCs do not have
access to Power Arts), so from the midpoint of the game on, you
should not be depending on your NPC allies to deal damage. Instead,
you should use them as "meat shields" who draw enemy fire, as support
characters who can aid you with healing and status ailment-curing
spells (this is why Faulklin is rated so highly), and, once in a while,
as characters who can hurt a monster that has an elemental weakness to
one of your NPCs' attacks. Also be cautioned that ALL of your NPC
allies have terrible resistance ratings versus magic attacks (except
attacks of any elemental types they may be immune to) -- against a
high-level monster such as a Ghost Master, your NPCs may end up being
hindrances which drain your of your Healing Water as you spend bottle
upon bottle trying to save them from magic attacks that drain their HP
precipitously with every hit. With that said, let's look at the
rankings in a bit more detail.
Avalon and Garyu are the Tier I NPC allies (and, incidentally, the two
secret NPCs) in Shining Force EXA. They have the highest hit points
of all the NPCs, and their physical defense values aren't bad, either.
With his high-level Light spells, Avalon is probably the most
offensively-gifted NPC of them all; Garyu, on the other hand, is the
best "meat shield" in the game -- he can really soak up all kinds of
damage -- well, unless it's magic damage -- and has the largest sprite
among all your characters, making him a perfect candidate for Cyrille
to hide behind. Do be advised, though, that neither character has any
natural HP recovery -- if they take damage, they will never heal any
of that damage if you do not expend a Healing Water or visit a Goddess
Fountain (well, they'll get a little extra HP if they level up, but
the effect of that is miniscule and whatever wounds they've taken will
not go away as a result of the level-up).
As the best healer of all the NPCs (though there isn't much
competition -- Maebelle is the only other character with healing
capabilities), Faulklin is in a tier by himself. His healing is
always helpful (and don't overlook the power of his Defense Charm-like
spell that reduces petrification time), and he's also capable of
dealing a little damage once you've upgraded his equipment to Saint
of Light or better. He's physically weak, though, and he does have
a penchant for running straight at powerful monsters that can (and do)
knock him out with one blow.
Duga is the next best character. He moves fast, heals fast, and is
particularly good versus enemies who petrify or are weak against Frost
Magic. He is not, however, very sturdy at all versus either physical
or magic attacks. Maebelle is listed next simply because she has the
ability to heal (though her healing is vastly inferior to Faulklin's
healing) and because she can do a little long-distance damage,
particularly after she learns her Light Magic spells. Amitaliri is
actually one of the best damage-dealing NPC allies due to her large
variety of potent magic spells, but she just isn't sturdy enough to
be ranked any higher.
Adam and Gadfort are clearly the most inferior characters of the lot.
Both of them take damage badly from physical or magic attacks (and
especially from magic attacks), and neither offers enough of an
offensive punch to counteract their defensive shortcomings. At least
Adam heals fast; Gadfort is just a failure all around.
THE PRIMER ON CHARACTER STRENGTH
When RPG gamers talk to each other about a game, it's common for them
to refer to their characters by character level ("hey, my Undead
Warlock got to level 60! He's awesome now!"). You really can't do that
with Shining Force EXA, however, because character level alone is a poor
measuring statistic for character strength. This is because, relatively
speaking, character stats rise very slowly if leveling up is your sole
method of character advancement. In fact, leveling up probably ranks
a distant third in terms of impact among the various factors that
contribute to overall character strength:
1. Power Arts
2. Equipment
3. Character level
4. Secret Arts
Power Arts are by far the speediest and most substantial way to "beef
up" your playable characters, though it is highly expensive in terms
of the Mythril required -- it costs a lot of Mythril just to max out
one level of a given Power Art, and there are certain Power Arts that
you absolutely want to keep maxed (i.e. fully carve every level of
that Power Art that you've so far obtained) at all times. If you
devote some time to Mythril collection and carve your Power Arts
dutifully, however, you'll certainly like the results -- a well-carved
set of Power Arts can easily make advancement through the storyline
segments a breeze, and you're going to have to max a slew of Power Arts
to stand even a chance of surviving the toughest monsters in the game
(i.e. those found on the lower floors of the Training Ground and in
Xeyon Castle). In the next sub-section, I will talk a little more
about which Power Arts you should prioritize over others for each
character.
The next most important thing to do on your quest for stronger characters
is to seek out better equipment for them. Finding "better" equipment
is only a very small part of this endeavor: for the most part, you can
find higher-class equipment in places with higher area level (there
are a few "activated drops" which require a little work -- more on
this later). You'll also spend a little time getting together the gold
necessary for Gantetsu to temper your gear for maximum enhancement
bonuses (especially if his forging level is high). However, by far
the most time-consuming -- yet ultimately the most rewarding -- part
of equipment hunting will be to find gear with a proper combination of
useful enchantment mods (hereafter referred to as simply "mods").
More on all of this in a later sub-section.
Character level ranks a distant third compared to the two factors
discussed above. Yes, you do gain some HP, MP, STR, DEX, and INT (and,
towards the end of your character level progression [i.e. from level
100 to 200], a few points of Absolute Defense as well), but the
magnitude of these stat increases is pitifully small compared to the
overall strength you gain from Power Arts and premium equipment mods.
In fact, it could take upwards of 30-40 level-ups for you to match the
stat gain from fully carving just one level of a Power Art. This is
why you can't really say "my character is level xx" and expect that to
mean much of anything -- it'd be much more productive if you list the
Power Arts you've maxed and the general equipment setup you're using
instead. A level 50 character with maxed Power Arts (insofar as the
ones you can find at that stage of the game) and decent equipment can
easily outfight, say, a level 100 character who hasn't been carving
Power Arts or swapping for better gear.
Secret Arts are fairly limited in scope -- you can only carve one per
equipment type at a time -- and that translates into their generally
low impact on gameplay. Aside from one notable exception (Goddess
Blessing), Secret Arts are mostly used so that their special
characteristics can help cover up some weaknesses in your characters'
stats (e.g. carving Conceal Weakness on Toma's shield to protect
yourself against high-critical rate monsters such as Arc Dragons), to
add an extra dimension to your strategy (e.g. using Devil Spark to
raise two-handed weapon attack speed up a class, using Darkness
Awakened to add a HP Absorb effect to your melee attacks), or to
simply get a minor boost for your stats (e.g. Oracle's Shield, Earth
Talisman).
"BEST" POWER ARTS
The first rule of carving Power Arts is this: if the Power Art is of
the "Killer" (increases attack power against an enemy race/type) or
"Pursuit" (increases attack power against enemies of an elemental
classification) type, max it. Yes, it'll cost an arm and a leg (or
whatever the Mythril equivalent is for such limb loss), but it's
worth it -- maxed Killer/Pursuit Power Arts can and often do make the
difference between a long, grueling 30 minute fight (longer if you're
only dealing 1 damage per hit and therefore trying to give a monster
the death of a thousand paper cuts -- trust me, something like this
will happen to you sooner or later) and an easy, breezy 10-second
skirmish. You also have a far higher chance of surviving against
hard-hitting monsters if you can deal enough damage to finish them
off quickly, and that's exactly what Killer/Pursuit Power Arts are for.
The next Power Art you should try to max is HP Boost. As I will
explain in greater detail later on, HP is the most important stat when
it comes to survival -- your characters simply have a lot more HP than
DEF (physical defense), elemental resistance, and Absolute Defense, so
any percentage gains you make in HP nets you a larger numerical increase
compared to similar gains in any of the other defense-based stats.
HP Boost is more effective for Toma than it is for Cyrille, because
Toma has a far higher base HP and a higher HP increase multiplier
(meaning he gets much more HP from leveling up than does Cyrille),
but both characters should definitely prioritize this Power Art and
keep it maxed.
The next most important Power Art is Master Guard. This is also a Power
Art that both characters should keep maxed at all times, because it
boosts the DEF (physical defense) stat, and the majority of the enemies
in the game attack with primarily physical attacks (as opposed to heavy
usage of magic attacks, a strategy employed by a much smaller percentage
of monsters). This Power Art isn't as effective as HP Boost, however,
because there still are some tough enemies which primarily use magic,
and 100% magic attacks (i.e. a pure magic spell as opposed to a
physical attack boosted with some magic damage conferred by an elemental
magic property like Lightning Attack) against your characters ignore
the DEF stat when calculating how much damage will be inflicted.
There's one more "vital" Power Art that you should try to keep maxed:
Weapon Attack. This increases base attack power and is another Power
Art better suited for Toma's game than Cyrille's. In fact, if you favor
a magic-based approach for Cyrille, you do not NEED this Power Art at all;
however, I would advise you to keep it maxed nonetheless, because Cyrille
is physically fragile (a function of her relatively low HP) and you'll
probably need to use some of her crossbow tricks to dispatch a few of
the toughest monsters or to get yourself out of a tight spot. By maxing
your Weapon Attack Power Art, you'll be able to deliver more damage with
each crossbow bolt, and that could be a timesaver (and, occasionally,
a lifesaver as well).
After those "big four" Power Arts, what you carve is largely up to you.
A melee-minded Toma should max Quick Swing and then start carving the
various tech-effect Power Arts: Critical Attack, Critical Rate, Knockback
Attack, Stun Attack, etc. An "archer" Cyrille should probably carve the
same set of Power Arts -- except for Quick Swing (which has no effect on
crossbows). A "mage" Cyrille should instead go for MP Boost, MP
Regenerate, Concentration, and Magic Casting before moving on to the
various magic attack-boosting Power Arts (i.e. Flame Magic, Frost Magic,
Lightning Magic, Light Magic, Dark Magic). If you're having trouble
dealing with enemy magic attacks in the latter chapters of the storyline
or in the various dungeons (Training Ground, Dimension X Metal Tunnel,
Dungeon of Ordeal, Xeyon Castle), prioritize the elemental magic resistance
Power Arts (Flame Resist, Frost Resist, Lightning Resist, Light Resist,
Darkness Resist) and Absolute Defense. Among those Power Arts, Darkness
Resist is particularly useful -- a heavy percentage of the toughest
enemies you'll face use Dark Magic and Darkness-aligned elemental attacks.
Malxatra, the final boss of the storyline segments of the game, is one
of those, and the easiest way to render him impotent is for you to max
out both levels of Darkness Resist -- we (the Shining Force EXA board)
have had our share of gamers (*cough* SBaby *cough*) who claim that
Malxatra is impossible to defeat, and it almost always turns out that
those gamers simply haven't bothered to max their Darkness Resist Power
Art. If petrification is a problem, you could try to max Petrify Resist,
though it's usually more effective to carry some Defense Charms, take
Faulklin along to "thaw" you if you do get petrified, and collect
equipment that increase your Recover Stone rating.
EQUIPMENT HUNTING
The quest to find quality equipment comprises a key component of the
overall drive to bolster character strength, and there are a few things
you should be aware of. First, don't pay any attention at all to
Bornay -- the power level of the equipment he sells is tied to the
advancement of the storyline, and if you get ahead of the power curve
early on and use the Training Ground, the equipment drops you'll
collect will generally be much, much better than anything Bornay has
to offer. Secondly, be sure to limit your gear hunting to locations
with a sufficiently high area level -- while area level does not affect
your probability of getting a particular piece of gear as an item drop,
you MUST grind places with high area level in order to get quality mods
on an item. For example, you can find the Storm Shot -- a top-tier
crossbow -- from the low-level mobs at Raska Snowfield, and it drops
about equally as often as the lower-tier items the monsters there drop.
If you want a Storm Shot with a high-end mod like Attack +100, however,
Raska Snowfield is completely useless to you -- that mod is simply
"too good" for that area, and you must grind locations with higher
area level to acquire a Storm Shot with that mod. Chests and monsters
in Xeyon Castle will yield the highest-tier gear in the game (including
the best equipment in both the armor and headgear classes for each
character) with the best selection of mods and highest enhancement
numbers (though you can get gear drops with an equal range of possible
mods and an equal "ceiling" for enhancement numbers -- +9 -- at Training
Ground floors B46F to B49F), but that's not a practical spot for
equipment hunting because you can't access it until after you beat the
game. Those looking to jump way ahead of the power curve in the early
chapters should grind Training Ground floors B34F to B49F (gear is
only available on the non-boss floors, of course). "Elite" (large and
glowing) monsters and treasure chests on those floors will yield the
best possible equipment, in terms of both gear types and potential
mods, that you can get prior to beating the game, and I personally
recommend heavy usage of either B34F (the Legion swarms on that floor
are far less threatening than the fauna found on B36F and later) or
B36F-B39F (by repeatedly grinding this block of the Training Ground,
you can rack up a ton of Mythril by exploiting the Hell Guardians on
B40F before you warp back to the Geo-Fortress). Keep in mind that
mods with higher Mythril values (this being how much you get from that
particular mod when you go to the Power Arts/Secret Arts control panel
and choose to extract Mythril from a piece of equipment) will drop
less frequently than mods with lower equivalent values, so some
patience is necessary during your equipment-hunting runs if you want
to find gear with a set of two fantastic mods. If you ever run into
a room containing three to six treasure chests on an equipment-hunting
run at the Training Ground, it's a good idea to hit R3 and save your
game at the Geo-Fortress before opening the chests -- that way, you
can repeatedly load your game until the chests yield a quality piece
of gear.
Some of the best equipment in the game are what I call "activated
drops" -- they will not drop even in areas with sufficiently high area
level unless you've found your first specimen of that type of gear at
a specific location. After you get your first item of that type, it
will be "activated" and start dropping from the usual sources (chests,
elite monsters) just about anywhere in the game (yes, you can get the
likes of the Metal Pain and Evil Worship as drops from, say, the
Monster Generator in Lakton Highlands -- as long as you've activated
those items). After activating these drops, however, you should try
to hunt for them in high-level areas -- since the quality of equipment
mods is tied to area level, you'll get drops with much better mods
in places with high area level. Here's a list of the items I'm aware
of that are activated drops, as well as the locations that contain the
first specimens of each of these items:
- Stone Bracelet (Ancient Arena: Ice)
- Quickness Ring (Ancient Arena: Succubus)
- Necromancer (Ancient Arena: Skeleton)
- Mephisto Brace (Ancient Arena: Steel)
- Evil Ring (Ancient Arena: Impact)
- Chaos Breaker (Ancient Arena: Stone)
- Evil Worship (Ancient Arena: Demon)
- Metal Pain (Ancient Arena: Sand Worm)
- Berserk Ring (Ancient Arena: Dragon)
- *Aurora Bow (Ancient Arena: Golem)
- **Phoenix Clothes (Xeyon Castle)
- **Phoenix Helm (Xeyon Castle)
- **Noble White (Xeyon Castle)
- **Blue Rose (Xeyon Castle)
- ***Kill Bracelet (Ancient Arena: Legion)
* You can also "activate" this item by talking to Maebelle after she
reaches level 90.
** These are not exactly "activated drops" in the same way as the
other items -- they're not found in specific spots like the
Arena-based items, but will instead drop normally (i.e. from
monsters and chests) in Xeyon Castle. You must, however, get your
first pieces of these items in Xeyon before they will drop anywhere
else, which means that they're strictly post-game equipment (and
shouldn't be counted on to get you ahead of the power curve).
*** This is the key reward from the 21st and final Ancient Arena. You
will not be able to acquire this item before beating the game,
though it does drop normally once you've "activated" it by
clearing the Legion Arena.
"BEST" EQUIPMENT
The first thing you should be aware of is that the term "best" is far
less dependent on the name of the gear than it is on what mods that
piece of gear carries; you'll often find that great mods can and do
make inferior base material better than higher-class gear with weak
mods. You should also know that some statistically inferior items may
have "keep value" because of the special properties unique to that item
(the Pandemonium is a perfect example). Look below for summaries on
what's generally considered to be the "best" items of each equipment
class, as well as which mods are considered to be the most effective
when found on those items.
A. One-Handed Weapons
The Oni Cleaver has the highest base attack rating, but it's disqualified
from the conversation on account of being extremely slow and unreliable.
The Aerial Saber and Chaos Breaker are basically tied as the second-best
items in this class -- the Aerial Saber has faster attack speed and longer
combos, whereas the Chaos Breaker has a higher base attack rating
(second-best among all one-handed weapons, in fact). It is the Darkness
Sword, however, that takes the prize as the hands-down best one-handed
weapon and, indeed, the best weapon in the game. It has a base attack
value of 62, good for only third among one-handed weapons, but nothing
can compete with the Darkness Sword for the length of its combo -- a
whopping 16 hits! Because you deliver more damage with each successive
hit of a combo, it's possible to cobble together a setup which combine
the Darkness Sword's obscenely-long combo with combo damage multipliers
and the HP Absorb status effect to deliver unparalleled damage AND
healing with every hit (more on this setup later). The Darkness Sword
also has fast attack speed (on par with the Aerial Saber), MP Absorb
(you recover MP whenever you land a hit on an enemy), and Stone Attack
(this is particularly useful, as it petrifies enemies and allows for
quick kills).
The mods you're looking for on one-handed weapons are Attack +100 (which
dramatically increases the attack power of the weapon) and Chain Attack+
(which increases attack power by 20% with each successive hit of a
combo -- highly useful because the best one-handed weapons are known for
long combos executed with blinding speed). Life Drain+ is also a mod
of some interest, because the HP Absorb effect it offers is a key
ingredient in the ultimate Darkness Sword setup, and you should certainly
seek the mod for your Darkness Sword if you're unable to find an
"ultimate" specimen with both Attack +100 and Chain Attack+ (and trust
me, this exact combination of mods is very hard to find -- you can get
one or the other without too much trouble, but these two mods just
don't appear together very often). The Critical++ mod is also useful
in certain setups (e.g. the Critical Saber setup) that exploit high
critical attack rates and high critical damage modifiers.
B. Two-Handed Weapons
The best two-handed weapons are the Taros Sword and Metal Pain. Those
two weapons have the highest base attack values among two-handed weapons
(243 for Taros Sword, 263 for Metal Pain). With higher base attack,
longer combos, a higher critical attack multiplier, and a higher Knockback
Attack rating, the Metal Pain is generally superior -- do note, however,
that the Taros Sword has a higher critical rate and slightly faster
attack speed. It may behoove you to use the Taros Sword over the Metal
Pain if, by some combination of Quick Swing and Secret Arts (Rough and
Ready, Devil Spark), you can raise your Taros Sword to a higher attack
speed class and can't quite do the same with a Metal Pain. Another
two-handed weapon of interest is the Pandemonium. This weapon simply
can't compare with the top two for attack power (its base attack value
is only 181), but it has a slew of useful effects: HP Absorb, MP Absorb,
Stone Attack, and a charge attack that confers temporary invincibility
(Unrivaled Attack). The Pandemonium's ability to petrify enemies and
critical-hit them to death while absorbing their HP makes it Toma's
weapon of choice for the middle floors of the Training Ground, though
you really want to switch to a Darkness Sword for the lowest three
blocks of floors -- the number of monsters immune to either HP Absorb
or Stone Attack will increase on those floors, and you'll be better
served there by switching to a one-handed weapon to improve your
physical defense, as well as allow your shield protect you from
Float/Knockdown/Knockback/Stun and other unsavory/potentially fatal
tech effects.
Two-handed weapons specialize in sheer attack power, so the primary mod
you're looking for is Attack +100. Just one of these mods will net you
a major increase in attack power, and it'll be even better if you can
find a Taros Sword or Metal Pain with Attack +100 & Attack +50 (rare)
or two Attack +100 mods (two-handed weapons, crossbows, and bracelets
are the only equipment classes capable of this amazing mod combination,
but it's nearly impossible to find). A second mod of interest for
two-handed weapons is Godspeed, which can combine with Devil Spark to
elevate your weapon's attack speed rating to a higher class -- a highly
useful combination to utilize if you don't yet have enough levels of
the Quick Swing Power Art to really rev up the speed of your two-handed
weapon swings.
C. Crossbows
Three crossbows share the highest base attack value of 32 for this
weapon class: Lunar Shot, Aurora Bow, and Storm Shot. Since the
primary strength of crossbows is their ability to get off a lot of shots
in a short amount of time, the Lunar Shot is not going to be what you're
looking for -- it has by far the slowest attack speed of the three.
The Aurora Bow has an 8-hit combo to the Storm Shot's 4-hit combo
(though the impact of this is limited by the fact that crossbows do not
inflict more damage with each successive combo hit like the other three
weapon types), a higher critical rate, and a higher critical damage
multiplier; that said, I'm going to give the Storm Shot a slight edge
as the "best" crossbow because, in addition to a better Stun Attack and
Knockback rating, the Storm Shot has the best attack speed of any
crossbow, and attack speed is everything for this weapon type. Note
that the Storm Shot has an elemental attack attribute (in this case,
Lightning Attack): this means that bolts from this crossbow will inflict
extra damage on enemies vulnerable to Lightning magic (on the flip side,
it will inflict less damage on enemies with high resistance against
Lightning magic), which can be an extra boost if you find yourself trying
to peck to death monsters with high physical constitution but a general
weakness to elemental magic attacks.
Like with Toma's weapons, the first mod you shoot for on a crossbow
is Attack +100. As with Toma's two-handed weapons, an Attack +100/Attack
+100 mod combination is theoretically possible for crossbows as well,
though I have yet to see it on a crossbow drop myself. It's eminently
possible, however, for you to procure a crossbow with an Attack +100/
Attack +50 mod combination, and such a bow would be sufficiently
devastating in its own right. If you cannot find a good crossbow with
two Attack + mods, a good candidate for the secondary mod slot is the
Critical++ mod, which dramatically increases your critical hit rate
and critical damage multiplier -- a way to deliver even more damage
to your enemies when you roll a critical hit with your crossbow bolts.
D. Books
There isn't a single "best" book: there are six books that each offer
something that the others don't. The Volcanon Logs has the highest
Flame Magic attack power and the most complete collection of Flame
Magic spells; the Absolute Zero has the most complete collection of
Frost Magic spells; the Book of Thor has the most complete collection
of Lightning Magic spells and the highest melee attack power for books
(for whatever that's worth); the Creation Book has the highest magic
attack power for Frost Magic and Lightning Magic, as well as the
second-highest attack power for Flame Magic, but does not have the
most useful spells for any of the three elemental magic types (though
it does give access to Hell Blast Lv.3); the Evil Worship has the
highest attack power for both Light Magic and Dark Magic, as well as
the best Dark Magic spells and some of the best Light Magic spells
(i.e. Holy Lv.3, Avalon Nova); and you'll need the Gaia Codex
(second-highest Light Magic attack power) to use Gaia Nova, a very
powerful class of anti-unit Light Magic spells.
Unlike the other three weapon classes, you are NOT looking for the
Attack +100 mod for your books: slow attack speed and pitiful reach
make books the most pathetic weapons in the game when used in melee
situations (you also have to get very close to enemy mobs in order
to use your books as melee weapons, and that could be a fatal disaster
for Cyrille -- her HP is simply too low to risk going toe-to-toe with
powerful monsters instead of picking them off from a safe distance).
The mod of choice for books is Chaos Element, which raises the attack
power of all elemental magic types by 30%. If you cannot find Chaos
Element for your book, you can also try for the "Element" mod that best
suits your book, where the specific element you're looking for is
whatever elemental magic type your book specializes in. In other words,
Flame Element is good for Volcanon Logs, Ice Element is good for Absolute
Zero, Thunder Element is good for Book of Thor, Shining Element is good
for Gaia Codex, so on and so forth. The secondary mod you're looking
for here is Soul +50, which gives you quite a bit more MP to cast all
those nifty spells with.
E. Shields/Chains
The Zenus Shield is hands-down the best shield in the game: it has the
best stats all around (DEF, tech resistance, petrify resistance), and
also confers a +15 boost to your resistance against all types of
elementally-aligned (that is, non-neutral) magic attacks. Likewise,
the Zhirra Chain offers the same caliber of bonuses for Cyrille: best
stats for its equipment class, +15 boost to elemental magic resistance,
as well as 20 extra points of Absolute Defense to boot. One thing to
keep in mind is that at a high character strength rating (i.e. maxed
Power Arts, character level 100 and above), top-tier shields and chains
completely eliminate any possibility of a Float/Stun/Knockback/Knockdown
attack succeeding on your character (even if your character is not using
Secret Arts or equipment mods tailored to counter those tech effects).
Have Toma switch to a two-handed weapon, however, and you'll find that
you're once again susceptible to all such effects despite your maxed
Power Arts. This is another reason why, against high-level monsters,
it's far more productive for Toma to swap to a one-handed weapon
(preferably a quality Darkness Sword) instead of sticking with a
two-handed weapon.
The developers of Shining Force EXA did something really annoying when
it came to shield/chain mods: they made the top four mods for this
equipment class -- Shield Guard+, Counterattack+, Medusa Guard, and
Resist Critical +30 -- mutually exclusive. In other words, it is
impossible to find a shield or chain that carries two of those four
mods in any combination. The best mod of the four is probably Shield
Guard+ (simply because every little bit of physical defense helps
against the toughest monsters in the game, and that's what this mod
provides), though you really should store backup shields and chains
with the Counterattack+ mod (in situations where you find that you
need to deal some extra damage) and ones with the Medusa Guard mod
(to be used when venturing into areas populated by enemies with
powerful Stone Attacks). In case you're wondering -- no, you cannot
find two Shield Guard+ mods on the same shield or chain, and the same
holds true for Counterattack+ and Medusa Guard. Resist Critical +30
is also useful, but it's not as useful as the three mods listed above,
and you could always just carve the Conceal Weakness Secret Art on
your shield/chain or the Third Eye Secret Art on your armor to
compensate for not using a shield or chain enchanted with this mod.
The best candidate for the second mod slot on your shields and chains
is Technique +100. The Balance +50, Resist Knockback +30, and Resist
Stun +30 mods may provide larger numerical stat boosts, but as I've
mentioned, you're practically immune against those effects at a
sufficiently high character strength rating (this characteristic is
evident for Cyrille at all times and for Toma when he's using a
one-handed weapon), so there's no point in further improving your
defenses against them. Technique +100 will provide minor boosts to two
of those three non-essential stats (Resist Knockback and Resist Stun),
and it will also confer a bonus to your critical attack rating, which
in turn grant you a higher chance of scoring a critical hit. Note
that your critical attack rating only applies to melee attacks -- those
who play "mage" Cyrille (who usually does not do any melee fighting at
all) may want to grab the Balance +50 mod instead.
F. Headgear
The Phoenix Helm (for Toma) and the Blue Rose (for Cyrille) are widely
held to be the best defensive headgear in the game. Problem is, they
do not start dropping until after you've beaten the game and gained
access to Xeyon Castle. Since you'll be doing the bulk of your
training/grinding long before you gain access to Xeyon, you should cast
your sights on the headgear you can acquire prior to finishing the game.
The best among them are the Shining Guard for Toma and the Geo-Circlet
for Cyrille. Both provide some of the highest magic resistance values
you'll see for items of this classprior to Xeyon, and resistance against
magic attacks is the strong suit of headgear in general. Toma's Blood
Helm also deserves a mention, because while it does not offer as high
of a DEF increase and tech stats boost as the Shining Guard, it does
have superior magic resistance values against three of the five elements
(Light, Flame, Lightning), and it also has a special property that
grants a decent boost to attack power. I recommend keeping a decently
modded Blood Helm in storage and using it whenever you feel the need
to use a setup dedicated to maximum offense. Also, please note that
the Geo-Circlet increases attack power, whereas the Blue Rose does not.
Even after gaining access to Xeyon, it may behoove you to equip a
Geo-Circlet when using crossbows as Cyrille (and use the Blue Rose
instead when you're using books).
The best headgear in the game have a peculiar tendency of only showing
up with one mod instead of two, and you'll be looking for different
mods to fill that one slot for each character. Toma players and
"archer" Cyrille players should seek the Resist Chaos+++ mod, which
offers a marked increase in magic resistance against all five elemental
magic types. "Mage" Cyrille players, on the other hand, should shoot
for the Magic Power +50 mod, which will dramatically increase the potency
of her magic attacks, thereby making them even more devastating.
G. Armor
Toma's Phoenix Clothes and Cyrille's Noble White are generally
considered the best armor in the game; however, they're also not
available until after you've beaten the game and reached Xeyon. In
terms of base statistics, the Wild Vest 2 is actually the second-best
armor for Toma and the White Coat 2 is the best armor for Cyrille.
Since these are unique items obtainable solely from the Magus
Blacksmith sidequest (and cannot be acquired as drops from monsters
and chests), however, you probably won't be using them much (the Wild
Vest 2 and White Coat 2 you'll receive from the sidequest have subpar
mods). For training and grinding purposes, the armor to keep an eye
out for are Toma's Shining Armor and Cyrille's Saint Armor. These
have the third-best base stats among all items of their class, and
they do drop normally in places with sufficiently high area level.
The mod combination to pursue on your armor drops is a set of two HP
+100 mods. For damage calculation purposes, one point of HP is the
equivalent of one point of Absolute Defense (and also the equivalent
of one point of the DEF stat -- that is, physical defense -- if the
source of the damage is a 100% physical attack). All other factors
being equal (maxed Power Arts, sufficiently high character level),
your characters have much more HP than they do DEF and Absolute Defense
(the differential is especially marked with the latter, because your
characters will never get more than about 1000 Absolute Defense each,
even at level 200 and with all three levels of the Absolute Defense
Power Art maxed). Therefore, you'll get much more "extra" HP from
a HP +100 mod on your armor than you will DEF from a Guard +25 mod and
Absolute Defense from an Absolute Defense +100 mod. Two HP +100 mods
on your armor will go a longer way toward ensuring your survival than
any other combination of armor mods, and that's why that mod set is
absolutely the #1 mod combination you should look for.
H. Rings
There are no clear-cut "best" rings in Shining Force EXA. Outside of
the special properties offered by each particular ring, all rings grant
similar bonuses to physical defense (the size of the bonus is contingent
on the ring's enhancement level) -- in other words, there's basically
no "tier" hierarchy for rings the way there is for other equipment
types (note that the Mythril Ring is a clearly inferior exception
because, unlike the other ring types, it possesses no special properties
beyond the standard DEF boost). Therefore, the main thing you should
do is to look for rings with special properties that either compensate
for your character's weaknesses or is a good fit for your character's
fighting style. When using one-handed weapons as Toma, equip a good
Chain Ring: its special property bolsters your combo damage multiplier
and lets you deliver even more damage with each successive combo hit,
an effect particularly useful for the Darkness Sword. When using
two-handed weapons, Toma should equip a Berserk Ring: you're no longer
as dependent on combo damage multipliers, and the Berserk Ring grants
a healthy attack power bonus against all enemy types. An "archer"
Cyrille should equip a quality Berserk Ring as well. A "mage" Cyrille
should use a quality Quickness Ring (because this ring has built-in
increases in attack power for all types of offensive magic spells) or
a quality Evil Ring (because this ring increases Dark Magic attack
power and can potentially match the benefits offered by the Quickness
Ring -- as long as you use Dark Magic instead of magic attacks with
any other elemental alignment).
Most of the time, you should shoot for two HP +100 mods on your rings:
what I said in the "Armor" sub-section above is just as valid for rings.
You do, however, want to keep an eye out for a Chain Ring with the Life
Drain+ mod -- the HP Absorb effect it confers is a key ingredient in
Toma's devastating Darkness Sword setup.
Keep in mind that rings cannot be enhanced at Gantetsu's forge; in order
to find rings with high enhancement level numbers, you should grind
high-area level locations. The highest enhancement level number you
can find on a ring drop is +9, and +9 rings are found primarily on
Training Ground floors B46F to B49F and in Xeyon Castle. Also be
advised that accessories (rings and bracelets) drop less frequently
than all other equipment types, so some extra patience is necessary
during your hunt for a quality ring.
I. Bracelets
With one notable exception, all bracelets in the game offer similar
increases to elemental resistance ratios (as with rings, the size
of the increase is contingent on the bracelet's enhancement level).
Therefore, there aren't any clear-cut "best" bracelets either -- the
Chaos Moebius, Mephisto Brace, Stone Bracelet, and Kill Bracelet are
all useful in their respective ways (note that I didn't mention the
plain Bracelet -- it's clearly inferior because of the fact that it
doesn't possess any special properties beyond the standard elemental
resistance boost). Beware, though, that it takes a Herculean set of
labors to acquire the Kill Bracelet, which is the lone exception to
the elemental resistance rule of thumb (it grants a higher boost to
elemental resistance ratios than any other bracelet) and is also one
of the best bracelets for melee fighters (because it adds to attack
power against nearly all enemy races): you must beat the game, access
Xeyon Castle, and then clear the Legion Arena (which is not accessible
until after you clear all 20 other Ancient Arenas in the game).
Of the bracelets you can find prior to beating the game, the Chaos
Moebius is better suited for Toma and "archer" Cyrille (because it
boosts attack power), whereas the Mephisto Brace is better suited for
"mage" Cyrille (it offers a sizable boost to magic attack power for all
five elemental magic types). You should also look to store a Stone
Bracelet (which raises your Recover Stone stat) with good mods as a
"backup" bracelet to equip when venturing into areas infested by
monsters with potent Stone Attack capabilities.
When using a Chaos Moebius, the mod set you want above all others is
a set of two Attack +100 mods. This is, however, rare to the point
of being impossible to find (I've found a Mephisto Brace with this mod
combination, but have not had any luck with a Chaos Moebius). You can,
however, find a Chaos Moebius with an Attack +100 mod and an Attack
+50 mod, and the attack power increase offered by this mod set will be
only slightly less potent. You should also keep an eye out for the
Chain Attack+ mod (increases attack power by 20% for each successive
hit in a combo), which is a key ingredient of Toma's ultimate Darkness
Sword setup. When searching for a quality Mephisto Brace for "mage"
Cyrille, the mod set you want to see is two Magic Power +50 mods, though
this is very rare (I've yet to see this mod set on a Mephisto Brace,
though I have found it on a Chaos Moebius -- it's almost comical that
the game gives me both of the best mod sets on EXACTLY the wrong type
of bracelet), so you'll likely have to settle for a single Magic Power
+50 mod (or Magic Power +40/Magic Power +50 if you're lucky enough to
get that mod set to appear on a Mephisto Brace) instead. In any case,
utilizing the Magic Power + series of mods will bolster Cyrille's magic
attack power and make her even more efficient at mob control, the pillar
of "mage" Cyrille's game. When considering what to get for "mage"
Cyrille's other bracelet mod slot (if you did not get two Magic + mods
on your Mephisto Brace), you should give consideration to the Guard +25
mod (which boosts physical defense dramatically) and the Medusa Guard
mod (which grants a significant increase to your Recover Stone stat).
As for the Stone Bracelet you'll be using against monsters with high
Stone Attack ratings, the mod set you want is a pair of Medusa Guard
mods, a combination which elevates your Recover Stone stat dramatically
and can combine with the Oracle's Shield Secret Art to help you shrug
off petrification attempts from even the most fearsome "stoner" monsters.
Bracelets also cannot be enhanced at Gantetsu's forge; in order to find
bracelets with high enhancement level numbers, you must do your grinding
at high-area level locations. The highest enhancement level number you
can find on a bracelet drop is +9, and +9 bracelets are primarily found
on Training Ground floors B46F-B49F and in Xeyon Castle. Also remember
that accessories (rings and bracelets) drop less frequently than all
other equipment types, so some extra patience is again necessary for
the duration of your bracelet-minded equipment hunting.
"BEST" SECRET ARTS
Generally, the most useful Secret Art to carve on one-handed weapons,
two-handed weapons, and crossbows is Hymn of Power, which grants a bonus
to STR-based stats as well as attack power. You may also want to consider
Devil Spark for those weapon classes: as a rule of thumb, carve Devil
Spark instead of Hymn of Power if doing so will elevate your weapon
attack speed to a higher letter class. Players utilizing Toma's Darkness
Sword setup, however, should carve Darkness Awakened: this Secret Art
simulates the Life Drain/Life Drain+ mod class's HP Absorb effect, and
it essentially frees a mod slot on your ring that you could fill with
a HP +100 mod (provided you find a ring enchanted with that mod, of
course) to make a more durable character. Magic-casting Cyrille players
should carve the "Nucleus" class of Secret Arts (which boosts magic power
and resistance for each of the five elemental magic types) on their books;
the specific Secret Art to carve on each book should correspond to the
elemental magic type that that book specializes in. In other words,
carve Fire Nucleus on Volcanon Logs, Ice Nucleus on Absolute Zero,
Thunder Nucleus on Book of Thor, Light Nucleus on Gaia Codex, so on
and so forth. Players using the Evil Worship, which is strong in both
Light Magic and Dark Magic, should carve whichever Nucleus would give
Cyrille a higher neutral magic attack power (your neutral magic attack
power equals the highest elemental magic attack power found among all
five elemental magic types, so this is really a question of whether
your Light Magic or your Dark Magic is more potent at that point in
time). If you keep your Light Magic and Dark Magic Power Arts maxed,
then the answer here will most likely be Light Nucleus (because you
can carve all six levels of the Light Magic Power Art before beating
the game, whereas you can't do so for Dark Magic until you gain access
to Xeyon Castle). Note that I have not addressed the Demonic Pact
Secret Art -- it's potentially more useful than the Hymn of Power
Secret Art for Toma (because it grants a massive HP increase at the
cost of MP, which Toma doesn't use anyway), but the focus of this
guide happens to be on equipment, Power Arts, Secret Arts, and mods
that you can obtain prior to beating the game. By the time you
acquire Demonic Pact, you've already effectively beaten the game -- at
the very least, you will no longer be able to train or explore the
world in a "normal" fashion and with your entire complement of playable
and non-playable characters. You will also not be to acquire Demonic
Pact if you're going for Cyrille's ending.
The most useful Secret Art for shields and chains is Oracle's Shield,
which raises magic resistance, resistance against stun attacks, and
your Recover Stone stat. You'll also find it necessary to carve
Conceal Weakness (raises resistance against critical hits by 100%)
against certain boss-level enemies (*cough* Arc Dragon *cough*), and
this Secret Art can be a real lifesaver when used properly.
Toma and "archer" Cyrille should employ the Earth Talisman Secret Art
on their headgear -- doing so will bolster resistance against magic
attacks of all elemental alignments. "Mage" Cyrille, on the other
hand, should carve Wizard's Lore, which will further supercharge her
myriad of deadly magic attacks. The most powerful Secret Art for
"mage" Cyrille is actually Magic of Insanity (greatly increases magic
attack power at the cost of HP), but I decline to recommend it for
much the same reasons as with the Demonic Pact Secret Art for weapons.
It is simply not available for training and exploration prior to the
sequences leading up to the end of the game, and you can't obtain it
if you're trying to beat the game as Toma.
Goddess Blessing, which grants a dramatic increase to physical defense,
is hands-down the best armor-based Secret Art to use at all times. If
you've advanced far enough in the game to have found this Secret Art,
carve it and keep it carved.
DAMAGE, DEFENSE, AND ABSOLUTE DEFENSE
In Shining Force EXA, the basic equation for the relationship between
attack, defense, and damage is as follows:
Attack Power [of attacking entity] - Total Defense [of defending
entity] = Damage
Attack power comprises of your base attack value (the stat you see
listed under "Attack Power" on your character's info screen), plus
whatever bonuses apply to that particular attack (elemental and Killer
Art-based attack bonuses, combo damage multiplier, critical damage
multiplier [only applies if that particular hit is a critical hit],
charge attack multipliers [only applies if that attack is a charge
attack], etc.). Total defense is equal to the DEF stat (i.e. physical
defense) plus elemental magic resistance (your elemental magic resistance
values are represented as percentages, but they're actually stored and
calculated as integers similar to the DEF stat -- otherwise, it would
not be possible for a sufficiently high elemental resistance percentage
to reduce the damage you take from a magic attack to the bare minimum
of 1 damage) plus Absolute Defense. For 100% physical attacks, elemental
magic resistance is ignored (your resistance values do not add anything
to the Total Defense number regardless of how high they are); for
100% magic attacks, the physical defense stat is ignored (basically
the reverse of the 100% physical attack scenario). Absolute Defense,
the third component in damage reduction, is always "on" -- its value
is always subtracted from the attack power value prior to the output
of a damage sum for any particular attack. After all three components
of damage reduction take effect (i.e. are subtracted from the attack
power value), the difference is how much damage the defending entity
takes from the attack -- this is the amount of HP the defending entity
will lose from being the recipient of the attack, down to a minimum
of 1.
At a glance of that system, you might think that Absolute Defense is
very good... after all, it's always active and reducing damage for you,
right? The problem with that conclusion lies in the fact that you'll
never get much Absolute Defense -- under 1000 even if your character
reaches level 200 and max all three levels of the Absolute Defense
Power Art. It's useful to max this Power Art, of course -- free damage
reduction is free damage reduction, even if the size of the reduction
won't be much help in offsetting damage from high-class monsters that
deal 15000 or more damage with every hit. Some players, however, assert
that an Absolute Defense +100 mod on your armor is better than a HP +100
mod, and that is just not true. With level 180-ish characters who enjoy
a moderately high level of HP Boost (level 8) and a high level of Master
Guard (maxed out up to level 10), swapping a HP +100 mod for an Absolute
Defense +100 mod results in the gain of about 800 all-purpose damage
reduction and the loss of around 6000 (for Toma)/3000 (for Cyrille) HP.
Since the "attack-defense=damage" equation tells us that for physical
attacks, one point of damage reduction is equivalent to one point of HP,
the above trade in armor mods simply makes no mathematical sense: you're
absorbing a net loss of about 5000 (Toma)/2000 (Cyrille) whenever you
make the trade. The outlook is slightly better for magic attacks: there
is the possibility that the extra little bit of damage reduction you
gain helps you attain a sufficiently high elemental resistance value
that reduces the damage you take from a particular magic attack to the
minimum value of 1. This is not a practical possibility to count on,
however -- magic attacks that weak aren't likely to deal that much more
damage to you had you utilized a HP +100 mod instead, and you'll
frequently find that the scenario simply does not materialize -- you're
still receiving massive damage from magic attacks, at which point you'll
probably really appreciate getting back that extra 5000/2000 HP you
traded away via the mod swap. Also, high-level monsters tend to use
powerful physical attacks far more often than they use magic (though
there are a few that wield magic predominantly -- for example, Ghost
Masters and Queen Masters), and you've already seen how bad a proposition
it is to trade HP +100 for Absolute Defense +100 when dealing with
physical attacks. Absolute Defense is a nice "bonus", but it's nothing
more than a distant third among the stats you should increase when
trying to improve your durability. HP is the main key to survival.
STONE COLD: THINGS YOU SHOULD DO TO PREVENT DEATH BY PETRIFICATION
Petrification is one of the most pernicious sources of instant death
in Shining Force EXA. This arises from the fact that once petrified,
every hit you receive is automatically scored as a critical hit
(critical hits inflict the normal amount of damage PLUS an amount of
damage equal to the normal amount multiplied by the attacker's critical
damage multiplier, so they always really, really hurt). In order to
construct more effective defenses against petrification, we had best
take a look at the basic equation that governs the amount of time a
character will be petrified after being hit by an attack bearing the
"Stone Attack" special property:
Inflict Stone - Recover Stone = Time Petrified
Every character, enemy or ally, capable of using a Stone Attack
possesses a hidden "Inflict Stone" (my word for it, not official or
anything) stat for each Stone Attack within that character's repetoire.
On the flip side, every character is also equipped with a "Recover
Stone" stat (unlike the Inflict Stone stat, this is visible on your
playable characters' info screens and does not change depending on
the specific move used). When the Inflict Stone stat of a Stone Attack
is numerically larger than the Recover Stone stat of the entity
receiving the attack, the difference between the two numbers will be
used to determine the amount of time that the receiving entity will be
petrified (and vulnerable to follow-up critical hits). When the
receiving entity's Recover Stone stat is numerically larger than the
Inflict Stone stat of a Stone Attack, however, the receiving entity
will not be petrified at all. In other words, the best way to render
enemy Stone Attacks totally ineffective is to boost your Recover Stone
stat. Below is a list of mods, Arts, and accessories that improve your
Recover Stone rating:
- Petrify Resist (Power Art)
- Oracle's Shield (Secret Art)
- Stone Bracelet (accessory)
- Cockatrice Guard/Basilisk Guard/Medusa Guard (equipment mods)
I hope the above has sufficiently illustrated why I advised you to seek
out a Stone Bracelet with two Medusa Guard mods in an earlier sub-section.
In addition to doing that, maxing your Petrify Resist Power Arts, carving
the Oracle's Shield Secret Art, and equipping a shield that also has
the Medusa Guard mod, there are a couple of other things you could do
when facing monsters with potent Stone Attacks. For one, you should
always pack a couple of Defense Charms -- when used, this item confers
a temporary but dramatic boost to your Recover Stone stat, an increase
that is usually enough to render you invulnerable to all Stone Attacks
for the duration of the Defense Charm's effect. You can also slot
Faulklin as one of your NPC party members, as Faulklin is capable of
casting a spell that cures petrified allies. Duga is also a useful
party member against "stoner" monsters, because he frequently casts
magic that renders him immune to petrification before leaping into
battle, and that makes him an effective "meat shield" who should be used
to draw enemy Stone Attacks while you get busy hacking to piece the
enemies launching those attacks.
INFINITE HEALING WATER
Another thing you could do to ensure your survival is to, well, drink
a bottle of Healing Water every time you get hurt. However, since
you can only obtain 23 bottles of Healing Water for each main character
via normal methods, that kind of approach is going to leave you dry of
Healing Water in a hurry. Luckily, there's an inexhaustible source of
Healing Water -- Diablo's Palm.
Diablo's Palm is an area to the north of East Balcan Desert that you
will not be able to access until Chapter 10 at the earliest. It's
populated by Medusae, Blaze Golems, and Sand Worms of all shapes and
sizes. Diablo's Palm is "quirky" in a number of ways -- the Medusae
there will occasionally drop enchanted (i.e. equipped with mods) Chaos
Shields and the Blaze Golems there will occasionally drop enchanted
Laevateinns and Volcanon Logs, a highly unusual phenomenon since there
are no "elite" (i.e. larger, fiercer specimens glowing with a reddish
aura) or mini-boss (i.e. larger but not glowing like elites) versions
of these monsters present in the area, and you almost never see
non-elite, non-mini-boss enemies drop enchanted items anywhere else.
It's the Sand Worms in the area, however, that are truly remarkable.
The Worm Master of Diablo's Palm (large red-and-brown Sand Worm found
inside a pit in the center of the area) will drop 2 bottles of Healing
Water for each character when you defeat it the first time, and if you
defeat it on any return trips to the areas, you will almost always
score an enchanted accessory drop (that is, a ring or bracelet).
However, the Worm Master is capable of occasionally dropping 2 bottles
of Healing Water of either color instead of an accessory. Likewise,
the Greater Worms (both the green ones and the blue-and-green "alpha"
variants) in the area are capable of occasionally dropping 1 bottle
of Healing Water of either color. In fact, it's more productive to
"farm" Greater Worms rather than the Worm Master for Healing Water:
since an "alpha" Greater Worm spawns a pack of normal Greater Worms
half of the time (the other half of the time, they spawn the much
less useful Lesser Worms), you give yourself more chances at a Healing
Water drop by hunting packs of Greater Worms (as long as you try to
kill all of the normal Greater Worms before killing the "alpha" Worm),
and there are also many more Greater Worms in Diablo's Palm than Worm
Masters (you'll only be able to fight one Worm Master each trip, after
all). Please note, however, that there are three "alpha" Greater Worms
which are rooted to specific spots at the corners of the map, and those
do not spawn packs of other Sand Worms. Both types of Healing Water
drops are rare occurrences, so you shouldn't expect to rack up any
appreciable sum of extra Healing Water in a short period of time.
With that said, a good 20-30 hours invested in Diablo's Palm after I
hit Chapter 10 left me with 50 bottles of Healing Water for each
character, a tremendous boost in my late-game/post-game battles against
the toughest monsters in the game.
TOMA'S ULTIMATE DARKNESS SWORD SETUP
I've talked about it in previous sub-sections, but here I will outline
the exact details behind Toma's most potent Darkness Sword setup. The
ingredients are as follows:
- Darkness Sword with Attack +100 mod (strictly speaking, the mod is
optional, but I strongly urge you to find it so that you can craft
the most potent setup possible)
- Zenus Shield with good mods (bolsters defense and eliminates any
chance of being stricken by unsavory tech effects like Knockdown
and Float)
- Chain Attack+ mod (either on your Darkness Sword or on a bracelet)
- HP Absorb status effect (either via the Life Drain/Life Drain+ mod
on a ring or the Darkness Awakened Secret Art carved on your
Darkness Sword)
- Bracelet (preferably Chaos Moebius) with at least one Attack +100
mod (again, this attack boost is optional, but I really recommend it)
The star of this setup is Chain Attack+. The mod increases attack power
by 20% for each successive hit of a combo, and since the Darkness Sword
has the longest combo of any weapon at 16 hits and a natural combo
damage multiplier to begin with, the amount of damage you can deliver
with a Chain Attack+ Darkness Sword bloats to astronomical numbers
once you get a few hits into your combo. By the back end of the combo,
you'll be dealing upwards of ten million damage to many enemies (as
long as you've kept your Power Arts maxed), and few monsters in the
game can withstand that kind of onslaught. Heck, with maxed Power Arts
and a Critical++/Attack +100 Darkness Sword, I was able to deal over
900 million damage in a single hit to a Lizard Master found on Training
Ground floor B48F -- and all that damage came on the 11th or 12th hit
of the combo (think of the astronomical damage number if I'd caught
it with the 16th hit of my combo!). If you were lucky enough to find
both a Chain Attack+/Attack +100 Darkness Sword and a Chain Attack+/
Attack +100 Chaos Moebius (which combine to add a whopping 40% more
damage to each successive hit of a combo), then you'll have no problem
dealing around 5 billion damage per hit to many Master-level enemies
with the back end of your combo, and yes -- that kind of damage is
simply absurd (and elegantly illustrates the sheer power of this setup).
The HP Absorb effect is fantastic compensation for the one weakness of
the setup -- the Darkness Sword's lack of reach. The need to melee
enemies at close range to get a Darkness Sword combo going means that
you'll be at higher risk of being swarmed by enemies in return, and that
could easily result in a speedy and untimely death. HP Absorb nullifies
that danger: you'll be gaining as health a percentage of the damage you
dish out, and since you're dishing out humongous chunks of damage with
your Chain Attack+ Darkness Sword (particularly as you approach the end
of your 16-hit combo), every hit is pretty much guaranteed to replenish
your entire life bar. As long as you're fighting enemies vulnerable to
the HP Absorb status effect, you have enough defense that no monster in
the area can knock you out in one hit, and you take care not to fight
too many monsters at a time, your Toma literally cannot die. You do need
to amend your tactics against enemies immune to HP Absorb (among others,
several classes of demons and golems possess such immunity, and they're
fairly common sights on the lower floors of the Training Ground and in
Xeyon), but this Chain Attack+/Life Drain approach is amazingly effective
against most of the toughest monsters in the game, including the quintet
of powerful Arc Dragons that populate the 50th and final floor of the
Training Ground.
Visit the link below to see a video of how I utilized this setup to
conquer the final floor of the Training Ground in Chapter 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJPLb-zC_54
You can attempt a two-handed weapon version of this setup with a Metal
Pain (preferably one with the Godspeed mod), but it's not going to be
quite as effective -- the length of a Metal Pain combo is only 7 hits,
so the maximum damage of the setup (on the 7th hit of your combo) would
fall far short of the maximum damage of the Darkness Sword setup (which
comes on the 16th hit of its combo -- the Darkness Sword has 9 more
hits to let the Chain Attack+ damage compound-multiply). Furthermore,
the attack speed of the Metal Pain will almost certainly be slower,
and you will also be vulnerable to the Knockback/Knockdown/Stun/Float
series of tech effects because you're no longer equipping your Zenus
Shield. On the plus side, you do enjoy greater reach and a higher
damage value for each hit of your 7-hit combo, since the initial attack
power of your Metal Pain will certainly be much higher than that of the
Darkness Sword.
CYRILLE'S "CRIT CROSS" SETUP
While not as powerful as Toma's Darkness Sword setup, this is a setup
that can prove to be fairly useful for "archer" Cyrille players,
especially when journeying through Xeyon Castle. As you may have
guessed from the title of this sub-section, this setup utilizes a
crossbow, and the main ingredients are as follows:
- Aurora Bow with Critical++ mod and Attack +100 mod (the Attack +100
mod is not strictly necessary, but it certainly makes the setup much
more effective), carved with the Perfect Blow Secret Art
- Any ring (preferably Berserk Ring) with Critical++ mod and HP +100
mod (the HP +100 mod is also not strictly necessary, but it does grant
Cyrille a great deal of much-needed durability)
- Bracelet (preferably Chaos Moebius) with at least one Attack +100
mod (again, the Attack boost is optional, but your setup will suffer
greatly without it -- in fact, I'd suggest finding an Attack +100/
Attack +100 mod set or, failing that, an Attack +100/Attack +50 mod
set for your bracelet)
The main concept of this setup is to dramatically elevate your critical
attack rate (which increases the likelihood of scoring a critical hit)
and your critical damage multiplier (which increases the amount of extra
damage you inflict when you do score that critical hit). The setup
"cashes in" on two Critical++ mods (one on your crossbow, one on your
ring): together, the two mods will elevate a +18 Aurora Bow (which is
the optimum crossbow to use in this setup) to some truly, truly gaudy
numbers -- a critical attack rate of 1321% and a critical damage
multiplier of 3.8. To further spice up your critical hit prowess, you
should carve one of two Secret Arts on your crossbow: the choices are
Swordsman's Secret (which will raise your critical rate to 2147%) and
Perfect Blow (which will raise your critical damage multiplier to 5.0).
Personally, I find Perfect Blow much better in this situation: a 1300%+
critical rate means that you'll be scoring critical hits on AT LEAST 80%
of your attacks against even the most critical-resistant enemies
(critical-immune enemies are a whole 'nother animal, and I'll talk about
that in more detail later), and instead of raising that probability to
95%+ (which is what you'll do if you carve Swordsman's Secret), you'd
be much better served to boost your critical damage multiplier so that
when you do score a critical hit (and you will get them most of the
time, even without ramping up your critical rate with Swordsman's
Secret), you'll do much more damage. The amount of damage you deal on
a critical hit is equal to either 4.8 times your base Attack Power (if
using Swordsman's Secret) or 6 times your base Attack Power (if using
Perfect Blow), and it's easy to see that you'll be dealing much more
damage with a higher multiplier, especially when taking into consideration
the fact that the number of critical hits you lose (in the Secret Art
trade-off) computes as a very small percentage of the high number of
shots you're firing off with your crossbow. In any case, the high
frequency of critical hits, the high critical damage multiplier on
those hits, and the sheer speed and volume of bolts fired in crossbow
attacks combine in this setup to allow you to deal much, much more damage
than normally possible for "archer" Cyrille.
The Crit Cross setup does have some major flaws, however. It requires
you to sacrifice a mod slot (on your ring) that you'd normally use on a
HP +100 mod, which is going to cost you a significant amount of HP -- a
dicey exchange because Cyrille's HP is low to begin with, and losing
that chunk of bonus HP is going to adversely affect her durability.
The lower HP total means that you're going to have to employ "meat
shield" NPC allies, and take special care to ensure that Cyrille is
well-shielded behind them; even that's not a perfect solution, however,
and you may suffer one-hit KOs now and then while utilizing this setup.
The setup is also completely ineffective against monsters immune to
critical hits: you'd be much better off switching back to, for example,
a good Attack +100/Attack +50 crossbow and a HP +100/HP +100 ring against
those kinds of enemies. All golems, all robots, Arc Dragons, and several
forms of high-class undead are immune to critical hits, which renders
the Crit Cross setup mostly useless in the lower floors of the Training
Ground. The setup is, however, extremely effective at another high-area
level location: the Place Beyond Darkness in Xeyon Castle. All ten
enemies populating that area (shadow Ragnadaam, shadow Riemsianne,
shadow Toma, shadow Cyrille, and the six copies of Malxatra's thrall)
are vulnerable to critical hits, and they will go down like flies under
the barrage of the Crit Cross. Usage of the Crit Cross at the Place
Beyond Darkness will make the fight half as long and twice as easy, and
that by itself is enough to establish the setup as a potent tactic in
"archer" Cyrille's bag of tricks.
TOMA'S "CRIT SABER" SETUP
This is essentially Toma's answer for Cyrille's Crit Cross setup. In
terms of damage throughput, this setup is inferior to the ultimate
Darkness Sword setup, and it also suffers from the same flaws that
plague the Crit Cross setup (lower HP, ineffectiveness against monsters
immune to critical hits). This setup will, however, dispatch the
enemies at the Place Beyond Darkness faster than the Darkness Sword
setup, especially if you charge the Spin Attack special move at the
end of your combo and keep using the charge attack until you run out.
Due to the superiority of the Darkness Sword setup in most situations,
you should consider the Crit Saber no more than a specialty setup
designed solely for usage at the Place Beyond Darkness. The components
of the setup are as follows:
- Aerial Saber with Critical++ mod and Attack +100 mod, carved with
the Perfect Blow Secret Art
- Zenus Shield with Technique +100 mod and either Shield Guard+ mod
(if your DEF is low) or Counterattack+ mod (if your DEF is high)
- Any ring (preferably Chain Ring) with Critical++ mod and HP +100 mod
- Bracelet (preferably Chaos Moebius) with Chain Attack+ mod and
Attack +100 mod
The Aerial Saber is the weapon of choice here because it owns the best
critical attack rate and critical damage multiplier out of all the
high-class one-handed weapons. If you cannot find the right mod
combination on your Aerial Saber, the Chaos Breaker is also a decent
candidate for this setup. The Darkness Sword is a poor candidate for
Crit Saber tactics, though, because it has very little reach and does
not possess a charge attack that can be repeatedly abused like Spin
Attack. Your Zenus Shield will offer extra defense (against damage
and tech effects) as well as an additional critical rate boost via
the Technique +100 mod. You'll be using a Chain Ring instead of a
Berserk Ring for Crit Saber, because this is really a hybrid setup:
you're increasing damage through both your critical damage multiplier
and your combo damage multiplier, and the Chain Ring boosts the latter
where the Berserk Ring does not. The Chain Attack+ mod on your bracelet
is recommended for exactly the same reason.
This setup can be used to dispatch the enemies at the Place Beyond
Darkness with incredible speed. The key to doing so is to build up
your combo damage through the 9 hits of the Aerial Saber's combo, and
then charging and unleashing a rapid succession of the Aerial Saber's
Spin Attack special move. Each hit of each Spin Attack will benefit
from your gaudy, compounding (thanks to Chain Attack+) combo damage
multiplier as well as your enormous critical damage multiplier, and
by the time you launch your second or third Spin Attack, you'll be
able to deal in excess of 500,000 damage per hit to shadow Toma. It
usually takes the Crit Saber setup less than one standard combo (i.e.
a full-length 9-hit Aerial Saber combo with no charge attacks) to
finish shadow Cyrille and less than one full combo (i.e. the standard
combo PLUS successive charged Spin Attacks) to dispatch shadow Toma.
Visit the link below to see a gamer utilize a setup similar to the
Crit Saber (the main differences being that he uses the Feat of Striking
Secret Art in place of Perfect Blow and a second Attack +100 mod on
his bracelet instead of Chain Attack+) to breeze through the Place
Beyond Darkness in less than 30 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO6YGeAL4XE
Video courtesy of diabloex2000.
Visit the link below to see a composite video of solo runs I made
through the Place Beyond Darkness with both Toma and Cyrille:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVQE0z5czZc
Toma uses a hybrid Darkness Sword/Crit Saber setup (Critical++/Attack
+100 Darkness Sword carved with Perfect Blow, Critical++ Chain Ring,
Chain Attack+/Attack +100 Chaos Moebius) for his run, whereas Cyrille
uses a pretty standard Crit Cross setup. I did make a couple of
significant alterations to my playing style for both runs: I used a
Chain Ring with the Absolute Defense +100 mod and also equipped both
characters with Guard +25/Guard +25 versions of their best armor
(Phoenix Clothes and Noble White, respectively). In this special
instance, I was willing to take such huge net losses in HP (from not
equipping a HP +100/HP +100 armor and a HP +100/HP +100 ring) because
doing so meant that my total defense was so high that none of the
enemies populating the Place Beyond Darkness -- including shadow Toma --
could deal more than 1 damage to me with any attack. This is nothing
more than a situational tactic that works because the overall strength
levels of my characters were at the top of the curve -- I do NOT
recommend ever trying this with sub-optimal characters.
CYRILLE'S CROSSBOW TRICKS
Leveling Cyrille up to her level cap is a terrible chore -- while Toma
eventually gains enough HP and total defense to survive just about all
single-hit attacks in the game, Cyrille's HP will always be too low for
her to be anywhere near as sturdy. This means that Cyrille will always
be at risk of receiving a one-hit knockout from an enemy physical attack.
You really can't try to duplicate Toma's Darkness Sword setup to improve
her chances of survival -- you don't get an opportunity to constantly
replenish your HP if you die from a single blow. The Crit Cross setup
is a decent substitute, but its mileage varies greatly depending on
the monsters you're facing. Cyrille is capable, however, of exploiting
certain "glitches" in monster behavior and use a couple of crossbow
"tricks" to pick off monsters too powerful for her to fight in a normal
manner.
A. The Phasing Arrow Trick
Cyrille's crossbow bolts can shoot through most unopened doors (this
works just about anywhere inside Training Ground, for example) if you
stand right behind the door, so you can kill a lot of monsters idling
in the next room without fear of retaliation (most of the time).
Beware, however, of monsters capable of opening doors and monsters
which "phase" through walls (e.g. Ghost Masters).
B. The Off-Screen Arrow Trick
Against monsters with large enough sprites, you can also figure out
where exactly they're standing relative to your position and stand just
far enough that the monster is off screen and therefore does not detect
your presence (thus preventing retaliation), but close enough that your
crossbow bolts can hit the enemy as they fly off the screen. This is
difficult to grasp the first couple of times you try it, but it can be
a foolproof (if often time-consuming) way of killing boss-level monsters.
As a matter of fact, this crossbow trick is how I was able to clear
many high-difficulty areas (e.g. Ancient Arena: Dragon, Ancient Arena:
Golem) when I first encountered them in Chapter 3 during my exploration
of the areas outlined in the "getting ahead of the power curve"
sub-section. This trick also works with some magic spells, though that
variation is even more time-consuming, given the time you'll need to
allocate to natural MP recovery (since you'll always have a very limited
number of Goddess Tears to use for "instant" MP recovery).
C. The Boar-Slaying Arrow
This is not really a separate trick, but rather an extension of the
Phasing Arrow tactic. It is possible to slay the giant mother boar
at North Ilnad Forest with a very low-level character by luring the
boar toward the exit to the southeast, trapping it behind the
signposts, running back to the other side of the signposts (you should
now be standing to the northwest of the trapped boar), and then using
crossbow bolts or two-handed weapon swings (provided that you use
a two-handed weapon with good reach) to give the boar the death of
a thousand paper cuts. The boar's sprite is too large for it to
navigate back out of the obstacles, and it can't reach you with its
charging attacks if you position yourself carefully. Credit goes to
_MasterQ_ for originally posting this on the Shining Force EXA board,
and you can watch a clip of the trick in action here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoPB_tCxFmo
Video courtesy of 4skwhyme.
MYTHRIL FARMING
As you no doubt know, it takes A LOT of Mythril to keep your Power Arts
maxed (especially if you're trying to max out all your Killer Arts, the
most prohibitively expensive Power Arts of the lot). Millions of Mythril
will come easily once you gain access to Xeyon, but what are you to do
before then? Well, the first thing you should know is that the Training
Ground is a better source for Mythril than any location out in the world:
comparatively speaking, you may not get much Mythril from breaking the
crystal formations inside the Training Ground, but they're renewable,
which you can't say for the crystal clumps found out in the world.
The Training Ground will also provide a lot of equipment drops, and
you can and should extract the unwanted drops for Mythril back at the
Geo-Fortress. Be advised, however, that the amount of Mythril you
receive from extraction is not at all dictated by how "good" the base
material is; instead, the Mythril value of a piece of gear is equal to
the combined Mythril value of its mods -- the better the mods, the more
Mythril you get when choosing to extract from that piece of equipment.
A Dark Edge with Attack +100, for example, will trade for 32400 Mythril,
whereas a Darkness Sword with Anti-Lightning would only fetch 2000
Mythril, despite the fact that the Darkness Sword is generally a much
better weapon. You can find out how much Mythril a piece of gear is
worth by having Bornay identify the item -- the cost of identifying an
item is equal to the combined Mythril value of its mods.
A few locations you should visit frequently to gather a lot of Mythril
in a short amount of time:
- Training Ground B10F
- Training Ground B15F
- Ancient Arena: Steel
- Training Ground B30F
- Training Ground B40F
All of these places feature heavy concentrations of certain mechanical
enemies (specifically, Artillery and Hell Guardians) that always drop a
piece of Mythril when defeated. Your strategy should be to ignore the
boss monsters at these locations and concentrate on taking out every
enemy capable of dropping Mythril. Note that the four Training Ground
locations are "boss" floors -- unlike other Training Ground floors,
these are not randomly generated, so any Mythril you leave on the ground
at these locations will still be there on a future visit. Therefore,
it's both possible and recommended for you to use these floors as
"Mythril banks" where you can accumulate Mythril drops for future use,
especially if you've already hit the maximum Mythril cap of 9,999,999.
I'd like to note that Training Ground floor B40F is particularly good
for Mythril farming -- as long as you refrain from engaging the Dragotts
and Dragonian (the bosses of the area), you can trigger two spawns of
reinforcement Hell Guardians (for a total of three sets of Hell Guardians)
by killing all Hell Guardians on the map. Since each Hell Guardian will
drop a crystal containing 15,000 to 19,000 Mythril, you'll be able to
accumulate an incredible sum of Mythril with some repeat visits to
this floor. I've personally "banked" 15-20 million Mythril on B40F as
a result of repeat visits to the floor, as you can see in this screenshot:
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k253/Kamatari47/Shining%20Force%20EXA/
Mythril.jpg
While the Change Mythril equipment mod and Reincarnation Secret Art are
also capable of boosting your Mythril acquisition (by turning defeated
enemies into Mythril), they're not really worth the effort. Change
Mythril's conversion rate is simply too low at 10%, and the paltry
amounts of Mythril it adds to your coffers just isn't enough to justify
sacrificing a valuable mod slot for it. Quantitatively speaking,
Reincarnation is better than Change Mythril, as its conversion rate is
higher and it occupies a Secret Art slot rather than an equipment mod
slot. The fact that you can't get it until after clearing Ancient
Arena: Legion, however, renders it even more useless than Change
Mythril: by the time you're finally able to acquire Reincarnation, you'll
already be able to access areas where a 15-20 minute training run can
get you millions of Mythril, thus eliminating the need for the meager
gains made by using Reincarnation.
EXPLORING XEYON
Once you've beaten the game, you'll be able to access Xeyon Castle (aka
the Dark Castle from Shining Force NEO) via a new entry in the warp
gate system. Xeyon Castle is full of reasonably tough enemies (though
not as tough as the enemies found on the bottom two blocks of the
Training Ground) and fantastic treasures (for example, there is a Power
Art tablet in just about every area). Many of Xeyon's treasures are
accessible only through secret passages not visible on your mini-map,
so be sure to investigate every dead-end that looks to be a possible
false wall (on your mini-map, these passages tend to look like paths
that terminate abruptly after branching off, so they're somewhat
distinguishable). There are several areas that contain three to six
special chests (treasure chests that look more colorful than the
standard variety), and I advise you to warp back to your Geo-Fortress
and save before opening them -- each chest of this type contain an
armor or headgear for either Toma or Cyrille, and you can use the
"save & load" technique to repeatedly pilfer the contents of each batch
of chests until you get a Phoenix Clothes, Noble White, Phoenix Helm,
or Blue Rose with awesome mods. The room on the northern edge of
Xeyon, Central 1F is also of some interest: each of the four cannons
atop the staircase will usually drop a large piece of Mythril (each piece
being worth 15000-19000 Mythril) when destroyed, though occasionally they
will drop a Lunar Fox or Geo Headgear (each enchanted with two mods, a
rarity among high-end headgear) instead; each of the two Monster
Generators atop the staircase will usually drop a large piece of Mythril
when destroyed as well, though around 20% of the time, you'll get a
random weapon drop (i.e. a one-handed weapon, two-handed weapon, crossbow,
or book) instead. Since you can quickly use either of the stair exits
to ascend to Xeyon, Central 2F and then backtrack down to 1F (respawning
the enemies on 1F in the process), this is a fantastic location for you
to grind for Mythril and, more importantly, high-end weapons with great
mods.
The very last area within Xeyon Castle -- the Place Beyond Darkness --
owns the highest area level in the game. This is the only place where
you can advance your characters beyond level 187 and up to the maximum
of level 200, though it'll a fairly time-consuming task: you can advance
your characters up to level 195 fairly easily, but leveling will slow
beyond that point, and it takes 26 trips to the Place Beyond Darkness
to advance a character from level 199 to level 200. The Place Beyond
Darkness is rewarding in ways beyond experience points, however -- once
you've cleared the area of enemies, six special chests will materialize.
The chest to the southwest contains 10 million gold, and the chest to
the southeast contains 1 million Mythril. The chest to the northwest
contains a high-end armor for Toma, and the chest to the northeast
contains a high-end armor for Cyrille. The chest located due west
contains a random accessory (i.e. a ring or bracelet), whereas the
chest located due east contains a random high-end armor, shield/chain,
headgear, or accessory for either character. Items found in these chests
are enchanted with the best selection of possible mods available in the
game, and they're also capable of being found with the highest possible
enhancement level (+9) for any equipment drop in the game. With liberal
application of the "save & load" technique, you can use these chests as
a great source for procuring a well-modded Phoenix Clothes or Noble White
(via usage of the two chests to the north), as well as the best source
in the game for acquiring well-modded, well-enhanced accessories (via
the chest located due west).
When trying to advance your characters to their maximum character level
of 200, you'll find that the Place Beyond Darkness is afflicted by the
"EXP Freeze" glitch. Unless you took extreme care to ensure that all
your NPC allies stay within one character level of your main characters,
you will not be able to fully level all your characters -- up to four
of your NPC allies may hit the level cap early and end up stuck at
level 197, earning only 1 EXP with each monster kill.
WILD VEST 2 & WHITE COAT 2
In Chapter 13, careful exploration will lead you to a Magus blacksmith
who's just chilling amid all the chaos and carnage at the Roof level
of the Crimson Palace. Context clues gained from conversation
throughout the game will tell you that this is the blacksmith who taught
Gantetsu everything he knows, and he will demonstrate his skills for
you if you bring him the right kind of ingredients for his armor alchemy.
The ingredients he's looking for are your Wild Vest and White Coat:
the armor-class equipment your two main characters were using at the
very beginning of the game. Bring the Vest and Coat to the blacksmith
to have him transform them into the Wild Vest 2 and White Coat 2
(you'll have to make two trips -- he'll only work on the Wild Vest if
Toma is the one bringing it to him, and likewise with Cyrille and the
White Coat), sturdy armor with the best (in the case of the White
Coat 2) and second-best (in the case of the Wild Vest 2) base stats
for all items of their class (the Phoenix Clothes is the only item
with better base stats for Toma, and nothing is better than the White
Coat 2 for Cyrille). You will not be able to obtain the Wild Vest 2
or White Coat 2 via any other method (you can't find them from treasure
chests and monster drops), so you should certainly pay a visit to Fadrin,
the Magus blacksmith, once you hit Chapter 13. The mods found on your
Wild Vest 2 and White Coat 2, however, are substandard (Resist Darkness+
and HP +60) and I would not advise equipping them in place of a good
HP +100/HP +100 Shining Armor or Saint Armor -- those are the armor
you're likely equipping at that stage of the game, and the large HP
boost from the HP +100/HP +100 mod combination push their effectiveness
above that of the Wild Vest 2 and White Coat 2.
A WORD ABOUT HIDDEN TREASURES
There are secret treasures (i.e. treasures hidden in places other than
inside treasure chests and locked chests) to be found on at least 75%
of the non-Dungeon maps (that is to say, locations out in the world)
in Shining Force EXA. The majority of these require very little work
to procure -- simply position your character near the right patch of
grass/cluster of rocks/storm drain and press Circle. Many of these
secret treasures are VERY well-hidden, however, and the aforementioned
Radar function of your Geo-Fortress will be a tremendous help in your
effort to sniff them all out. There are, however, a few treasures
which can be frustratingly hard to procure, and here I'll give a few
pointers on how to get them:
- West Il'Gonia Valley (treasure chest on a faraway cliff near Narda
Checkpoint): 1 Goddess Tears
- Cantore Snowfield (treasure chest on an unreachable island): 1
Healing Water (Green)
Both of these treasures are contained within chests that you simply
can't get to. Luckily, you don't need to make physical contact at
all -- simply call in Cyrille, equip a crossbow, and let a crossbow
bolt break the chest. The contents of the chest will home in on
your location, thereby allowing easy pickup.
- West Paora Plains (treasure chest on an island in the stream):
2 Goddess Tears
Your first instinct might be to use the crossbow here as well, but
that just doesn't work. Instead, try equipping Cyrille with a book
capable of casting the "Dark Arrow" class of Dark Magic spells (the
level of the spell doesn't matter, since all Dark Arrow spells behave
similarly). Cast Dark Arrow toward the island and the energy wave
will home in on the chest, and you'll be able to pick up the Goddess
Tears after the energy wave breaks the treasure chest.
- Raska Snowfield (treasure chest lodged inside a pillar of ice):
3 Light Charms
This treasure has probably stymied more Shining Force EXA gamers than
anything else in the game. The trick here is to have Cyrille equip a
book capable of casting the Ice Spike Lv.2 spell, position her to the
northwest of the pillar, highlight Ice Spike Lv.2, and then press
AND hold down the Triangle button. Adjust the area-of-effect radius
of the spell until the indicator circle is climbing up the northwest
face of the pillar, and then release the Triangle button to cast the
spell. If done correctly, your ice magic will break the chest and
allow you to make off with your hard-earned Light Charms.
- Great Bridge, Lower (hidden treasures located on top of lightposts):
Gold
There are four secret treasures hidden atop the light posts in this
area. Only two magic spells are capable of reaching that high --
Hell Blast and Avalon Nova. Equip your character with a weapon that
gives access to either spell, stand beneath the light post, and let
loose with your spell. Collect the gold when it drops to ground
level.
=====================================================================
III. Lists
=====================================================================
DARKNESS RUNE LOCATIONS
Darkness Runes come in sets of 5. There are four sets in the game,
which are respectively located at:
1. Ancient Arena: Birdling.
2. Paoraburr Cavern (defeat the Lesser Vampire mini-boss).
3. Gradium Mine (destroy the iron fence with the Geo-Fortress Cannon
-- the effective radius of which will not reach this area until
Chapter 10 -- and look within the circumference of the fence).
4. Lake Bark, South Point (defeat the Devil Mother mini-boss).
Rune set #1 is found in Chapter 2. Sets #2 and #4 can be found as
early as Chapter 3. You will not be able to get set #3 until Chapter
9.
ANCIENT ARENA LOCATIONS
These are sorted according to area level. The earliest chapter during
which you can access each arena is parenthesized.
*1. Birdling - Lakton Highlands (Chapter 2)
2. Orc - South Ilnad Forest (Chapter 3)
3. Ghost - Cantore Snowfield (Chapter 5)
4. Wolfling - North Paora Plains (Chapter 3)
5. Giant - West Paora Plains (Chapter 3)
6. Lightning - Paoraburr Trail (Chapter 3)
7. Stone - Ranburr's Tomb (Chapter 3)
8. Ice - Raska Snowfield (Chapter 7)
9. Lizard - East Paora Plains (Chapter 3)
10. Impact - West Balcan Desert (Chapter 9)
11. Stalker - West Paora Plains (Chapter 3)
12. Vampire - Gradium Mine (Chapter 10)
13. Succubus - Lake Sidora (Chapter 10)
14. Skeleton - Sidora Snow Mountain (Chapter 10)
15. Steel - Gundestor Cavern (Chapter 5)
16. Demon - Sidora Snow Mountain, Canyon (Chapter 10)
17. Sand Worm - East Balcan Desert (Chapter 10)
18. Flame - Magma Prison, B3F (Chapter 11)
19. Dragon - Paora Plains, East Coast (Chapter 3)
20. Golem - Lake Bark Cavern, South (Chapter 3)
**21. Legion - Xeyon, Central 1F (post-game)
* Does not have a Geo-Fortress warp gate entry
** Not accessible until after you clear all 20 of the other arenas;
does not require a Darkness Rune to access
AVALON'S BODY PART LOCATIONS
This is a list of locations at which you can find altars containing
body parts you need to collect and assemble before resurrecting Avalon
as a NPC party member. The locations are generally well-known, but
I've also included (in parentheses) information about the earliest
chapter during which you can acquire each body part.
1. Sword - Lakton Village (Chapter 2)
2. Left Arm - Altar of Darkness (Chapter 3)
3. Torso - Ancient Runed Temple (Chapter 3)*
4. Right Arm - Goran-Goran Cave 1F (Chapter 5)
5. Left Leg - Gundestor Cavern (Chapter 5)
6. Right Foot - Old Noswald Castle, Yard (Chapter 5)
7. Right Leg - Gradium Mine (Chapter 10)**
8. Left Foot - Mt. Fyrgarum, Base (Chapter 11)
* This body part isn't actually inside the Ancient Runed Temple itself;
it's found on a mountain path to the south
** This body part is inside a small cabin beyond the iron fence that
cannot be destroyed until Chapter 10
HEALING WATER LOCATIONS (GREEN)
This is a list of locations where you'll find Healing Water for Toma,
as well as how many bottles are found at each location. You can acquire
23 bottles in all without making use of the "infinite" source in
Diablo's Palm. The list is sorted according to how early you can
acquire each batch of Healing Water, though you may need to visit
optional areas or employ the Radar function to find some of these.
1. Ruins of Yi'el Village - 3 (Chapter 1)*
2. Geo-Fortress, Control Room - 5 (Chapter 2)
3. Ancient Arena: Wolfling - 1 (Chapter 3)
4. Ancient Arena: Giant - 1 (Chapter 3)
5. Ancient Arena: Lizard - 1 (Chapter 3)
6. Goran-Goran Cave, 1F - 1 (Chapter 4)
7. Cantore Snowfield - 1 (Chapter 5)**
8. Ancient Arena: Ghost - 1 (Chapter 5)
9. East Il'Gonia Valley - 1 (Chapter 5)***
10. Tsungura Ice Field - 1 (Chapter 5)
11. Dimension X Metal Tunnel - 2 (Chapter 8)
12. Gradium Mine - 1 (Chapter 10)****
13. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 1 (Chapter 11)*****
14. Diablo's Palm - 2 (Chapter 11)******
15. Crimson Palace, 3F - 1 (Chapter 13)
* Talk to Hikanay
** Treasure chest on an island in the frozen lake -- use a crossbow
*** Hidden treasure located near the entrance to the Temple Ruins
**** Access via Gradium Mine, North Quarry
***** Talk to Adam after he joins your party
****** Dropped by the Worm Master the first time you defeat it
HEALING WATER LOCATIONS (RED)
This is a list of locations where you'll find Healing Water for Cyrille,
as well as how many bottles are found at each location. You can acquire
23 bottles in all without making use of the "infinite" source in
Diablo's Palm. The list is sorted according to how early you can
acquire each batch of Healing Water, though you may need to visit
optional areas or employ the Radar function to find some of these.
1. West Il'Gonia Valley - 3 (Chapter 1)
2. Geo-Fortress, Control Room - 5 (Chapter 2)
3. Ancient Arena: Birdling - 1 (Chapter 2)
4. Ancient Arena: Orc - 1 (Chapter 3)
5. Paoraburr Cavern - 1 (Chapter 3)
6. Ancient Arena: Lightning - 1 (Chapter 3)
7. Ancient Arena: Stalker - 1 (Chapter 3)
8. Il'Gonia Valley, Lake Narda - 1 (Chapter 4)
9. Goran-Goran Cave, 1F - 1 (Chapter 5)*
10. Geo-Fortress, West Tower - 1 (Chapter 8)**
11. Ancient Arena: Vampire - 1 (Chapter 10)
12. Gradium Mine - 1 (Chapter 10)***
13. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 1 (Chapter 11)****
14. Diablo's Palm - 2 (Chapter 11)*****
15. Ancient Arena: Flame - 1 (Chapter 11)
16. Crimson Palace, 3F - 1 (Chapter 13)
* Use the alternate exit from Goran-Goran Cave, 2F that leads to an
isolated section of Goran-Goran Cave, 1F
** Check Cyrille's dresser
*** Access via Gradium Mine, North Quarry
**** Talk to Adam after he's joined your party AND you've advanced
him to at least level 60
***** Dropped by the Worm Master the first time you defeat it
GODDESS TEARS LOCATIONS
This is a list of locations where you'll find Goddess Tears, as well
as how many vials are found at each location. The list is sorted
according to how early you can acquire each batch of Goddess Tears,
though you may need to visit optional areas to do so.
1. East Il'Gonia Valley - 2 (Chapter 1)
2. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 1 (Chapter 2)
3. West Il'Gonia Valley - 1 (Chapter 3)*
4. West Paora Plains - 2 (Chapter 3)**
5. Cantore Village - 1 (Chapter 5)***
6. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 3 (Chapter 11)****
* Located inside a chest perched on a distant cliff to the northeast
of the entrance to Narda Checkpoint; use a crossbow to break the
chest
** Inside a chest sitting on an island in the stream; use the Dark
Arrow (any level) magic spell to break the chest
*** Inside a chest found within Mayor Yoseph's dwelling
**** Talk to Adam after he's joined your party AND you've advanced
him to at least level 80
LIGHT CHARM LOCATIONS
This a list of locations where you'll find Light Charms, as well as
how many Charms are found at each location. There are 9 Light Charms
total that you can find as "treasures"; do note, however, that Bornay
will occasionally put up Light Charms for sale at a price of 5 million
gold each, so there is technically an unlimited number of Light Charms
in the game (especially after you beat the game -- Bornay will always
have Light Charms available for purchase once you have done so).
This list is sorted according to how early you can acquire each set of
Light Charms, and you may need to visit optional areas to obtain some
of them.
1. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 1 (Chapter 2)
2. Geo-Fortress, Residential Block - 1 (Chapter 2)*
3. Il'Gonia Valley, Lake Narda - 1 (Chapter 4)
4. Raska Snowfield - 3 (Chapter 7)**
5. Gradium Mine - 1 (Chapter 10)***
6. Geo-Fortress, Engineering Block - 1 (Chapter 11)****
7. Great Bridge, Front Gate - 1 (Chapter 12)
* This Light Charm is lodged within one of the bookshelves in the
library
** Found in the chest frozen inside a pillar of ice; use the Ice Spike
Lv.2 magic spell to break the chest
*** Investigate a bookshelf in the small cabin just beyond the iron
fence
**** Talk to Adam after he's joined your party AND you've advanced
him to at least level 110
LEGION GENERATOR LOCATIONS
This is a list of areas in Chapter 14 which contain a Legion Generator.
You must use the Geo-Fortress Cannon to destroy a Legion Generator, and
doing so will earn you a Core Metal. There are 13 Legion Generators
in all, and destroying them all may or may not be related to the chest
of gold which appears in Lakton Village after you beat the game. This
list is sorted according to area level.
1. Lakton Village
2. Northwest Paora Plains
3. Old Noswald Castle, Yard
4. East Paora Plains
5. Ranburr's Tomb
6. Gradium Mine
7. Ancient Runed Temple
8. Clanup Island
9. Raska Snowfield, East Valley
10. Lake Sidora
11. Sidora Snow Mountain, Canyon
12. Mt. Fyrgarum, Base
13. Mt. Fyrgarum, Halfway
NPC REWARDS
Each of your eight NPC allies will give you items or Power Arts as
gifts once you advance them to a sufficiently high level. This is
a list of the rewards from each NPC ally, as well as the character
level number that triggers each reward. To receive a reward, simply
visit the NPC ally and converse with him/her. Some NPC allies will
only give their rewards to a specific main character (for example,
Gadfort gives his rewards to Toma, Maebelle gives hers to Cyrille, and
Garyu gives his to whomever was the active character when you defeated
him). The designated recipient for each NPC ally's rewards is listed
in parentheses at the top of the sub-section; the word "active" means
that the designated recipient is whichever character who was the active
character when you recruited that ally.
A. Gadfort (Toma)
Curved Blade - Level 5
Fang Tienchi - Level 25
Dragon Slayer - Level 45
Ordeal - Level 85
B. Maebelle (Cyrille)
Steel Crossbow - Level 10
Guard Crossbow - Level 30
Air Crossbow - Level 50
Aurora Bow - Level 90
C. Amitaliri (Cyrille)
MP Boost Lv1 (Power Art) - Level 10
MP Boost Lv2 (Power Art) - Level 20
MP Boost Lv3 (Power Art) - Level 35
MP Boost Lv4 (Power Art) - Level 55
MP Boost Lv5 (Power Art) - Level 95
MP Boost Lv6 (Power Art) - Level 120
D. Faulklin (Cyrille)
Light Magic Lv1 (Power Art) - Level 10
Light Magic Lv2 (Power Art) - Level 20
Light Magic Lv3 (Power Art) - Level 35
Light Magic Lv4 (Power Art) - Level 55
Light Magic Lv5 (Power Art) - Level 95
Light Magic Lv6 (Power Art) - Level 120
E. Duga (Toma)
Critical Attack Lv1 (Power Art) - Level 30*
Critical Attack Lv2 (Power Art) - Level 50
Critical Attack Lv3 (Power Art) - Level 75
Critical Attack Lv4 (Power Art) - Level 90
Critical Attack Lv5 (Power Art) - Level 110
F. Adam (Active)
1 Healing Water (Green) - Level 40*
1 Healing Water (Red) - Level 60
3 Goddess Tears - Level 80
1 Light Charm - Level 110
G. Garyu (Active)
1 Core Metal - Level 60*
1 Core Metal - Level 70
1 Core Metal - Level 80
1 Core Metal - Level 90
1 Core Metal - Level 100
1 Core Metal - Level 110
H. Avalon (Active)
Absolute Defense Lv1 (Power Art) - Level 80
Absolute Defense Lv2 (Power Art) - Level 130
Absolute Defense Lv3 (Power Art) - Level 150
* Denotes a situation where the NPC ally joins your party with a
character level equal to this level number; no leveling necessary
to receive this reward -- simply converse with the NPC ally
CORE METAL LOCATIONS
This is the big one: my attempt to list the locations for all the
Core Metals in the game, as well as how many Cores you can find at
each location. For the most part, this list is sorted according to
how early in the game you can access each location. The last five
entries address Core Metals you can acquire via Defensive Battles,
Ancient Arenas, Legion Generators, and conversations with Garyu. You
need 117 Core Metals to max out every function in the Geo-Fortress,
and there are 119 Core Metals to be found in the game, though you
need to beat the game at least once to find all 119 Cores (you must
beat the game once in order to access the Dungeon of Ordeal with both
main characters). Since you can acquire 117 of the 119 Core Metals
before beating the game, it is therefore possible to fully upgrade
your Geo-Fortress before finishing the game.
1. Geo-Fortress, Control Room - 1 (Chapter 3)*
2. North Ilnad Forest - 1 (Chapter 3)**
3. North Paora Plains - 1 (Chapter 3)
4. Altar of Darkness - 1 (Chapter 3)
5. Lake Bark, South Point - 3 (Chapter 3)
6. Ilnad Forest, Cave - 2 (Chapter 3)
7. Narda Checkpoint - 1 (Chapter 4)
8. Il'Gonia Valley, Lake Narda - 1 (Chapter 4)
9. Goran-Goran Cave, 1F - 2 (Chapter 4)
10. North Il'Gonia Valley - 1 (Chapter 4)
11. Goran-Goran Cave, 2F - 1 (Chapter 5)
12. Goran-Goran Cave, 1F - 2 (Chapter 5)***
13. Old Noswald Castle, Yard - 1 (Chapter 5)
14. Tsungura Ice Field - 1 (Chapter 5)
15. Ranburr's Tomb - 1 (Chapter 6)****
16. Above Ranburr's Tomb - 2 (Chapter 6)
17. Gradium Mine, Inside - 3 (Chapter 7)
18. Ancient Runed Temple - 1 (Chapter 7)
19. Geo-Fortress, West Tower - 1 (Chapter 8)
20. Dimension X Metal Tunnel, B5F - 2 (Chapter 8)
21. Dimension X Metal Tunnel, B10F - 1 (Chapter 8)
22. West Balcan Desert - 1 (Chapter 9)
23. Northwest Paora, Falls - 1 (Chapter 10)*****
24. North Balcan, Underpass - 1 (Chapter 10)******
25. Diablo's Palm - 1 (Chapter 10)
26. Ancient Ruins, B1F - 4 (Chapter 10)
27. Ancient Ruins, B2F - 1 (Chapter 10)
28. Magma Prison, B1F - 1 (Chapter 11)
29. Magma Prison, B2F - 1 (Chapter 11)
30. Magma Prison, B3F - 3 (Chapter 11)
31. Great Bridge, Lower - 2 (Chapter 12)
32. Great Bridge, Front Gate - 2 (Chapter 12)
33. Emperor's Hall - 2 (Chapter 12)
34. Magma Prison, B1F - 1 (Chapter 13)*******
35. Crimson Palace, Roof - 3 (Chapter 13)
36. Crimson Palace, 3F - 1 (Chapter 13)
37. Crimson Palace, 1F - 3 (Chapter 13)
38. Dungeon of Ordeal, Depths - 2 (Chapter 14)********
39. Ancient Arenas - 21 (various)#
40. Mandatory Defensive Battles - 7 (various)##
41. "Timer" Defensive Battles - 12 (various)###
42. Garyu - 6 (Chapter 4)####
43. Legion Generators - 13 (Chapter 14)#####
* Acquired through conversation with Zenus
** Defeat the mother boar sleeping in the center of the area
*** You have to descend back onto 1F from 2F to get these Cores
**** Defeat the Life Drainer mini-boss
***** Use the Geo-Fortress Cannon to destroy the rocks blocking the
entrance to a cave at West Paora Plains; pass through the cave
to reach the entrance to a second cave containing this Core
Metal
****** Inside the tunnel, there is a contraption with two lights (one
red, one green) and a statue that glows either red or green;
strike the "switch" in front of the light that corresponds to the
color of the statue's glow and repeat this procedure until the
statue breaks, granting access to the Core Metal
******* Use the alternate entrance at Mt. Fyrgarum, Base (near the
exit to Mt. Fyrgarum, Halfway)
******** Both Toma and Cyrille can get a Core Metal here, but you must
beat the game at least once in order to access the Dungeon of
Ordeal with both characters and get both Cores
# There is a Core Metal to be found in every Ancient Arena in the
game; refer to the "Ancient Arena Locations" sub-section for location
information and the earliest point in the storyline at which you can
access each arena
## You can buy a Core Metal from Gilnay after each mandatory (i.e.
occurs once you reach a certain point of storyline progression)
Defensive Battle, up until the point that all four exits of the
Geo-Fortress have been unlocked; there is, by my count, a total
of 7 mandatory Defensive Battles that take place before then
### You can buy a Core Metal from Gilnay after every 5 "timer" (i.e.
occurs because your Defensive Battle timer elapses, not because
of storyline progression) Defensive Battles you win; the number
given here is extrapolated from the fact that there are 19 total
Defensive Battle Cores available and that 7 of those (by my count)
are tied to mandatory Defensive Battles: 19 - 7 = 12 "timer"
Defensive Battle Cores
#### Obtained by speaking to Garyu after he reaches a specific
character level number; refer to the sub-section above
("NPC Rewards") to find out the exact levels at which Garyu
rewards you with Cores; the "chapter 4" in parentheses here
refers to the earliest chapter during which you can recruit
Garyu
##### Each Legion Generator you destroy in Chapter 14 yields a Core
Metal, and there are 13 Legion Generators in all
CURE METAL LOCATIONS
Yeah, this is a bit of a "joke" of a list, because I think everyone
knows by now that there's an infinite number of Cure Metals available
in the game -- most Defensive Battle bosses drop one when they die,
and upon reaching Chapter 8, you can farm an infinite number of these
from the Dimension X Metal Tunnel floors B5F (yields 1 Cure Metal on
every visit) and B10F (yields 2 Cure Metals on every visit). The
other locations at which you can find Cure Metals, as well as how many
Cure Metals you can find at each location, are listed below. These
are sorted according to the earliest chapter during which you can
access each location.
1. Geo-Fortress, Hallway - 4 (Chapter 2-6)*
2. Goran-Goran Cave, 1F - 1 (Chapter 4)
3. Dungeon of Ordeal, Depths - 2 (Chapter 14)**
* There is a Cure Metal near each of the four teleport pads leading
out of the Geo-Fortress; you will not be able to acquire the Cure
Metal located near a currently-locked exit -- the Number 2 Gate opens
in Chapter 2, the Number 4 Gate opens in Chapter 5, the Number 1 Gate
opens in Chapter 5, and the Number 3 Gate opens in Chapter 6
** You can obtain a Cure Metal at this location with both Toma and
Cyrille, but you must beat the game at least once in order to
access the Dungeon of Ordeal with both characters
MYTHRIL VALUES FOR EQUIPMENT MODS
As mentioned earlier, the rule of thumb for equipment mods is this:
the higher the Mythril value, the more useful the mod. For gear
enchanted with one mod only, the Mythril value of the mod is equal to
the amount of Mythril you receive when you choose to extract from that
piece of equipment (and also the amount of gold it costs to identify
that piece of equipment). For equipment enchanted with two mods, the
total Mythril value of the item is equal to the sum of the individual
Mythril values of both its mods. Since the cost to identify an item
is equal to its total Mythril value, you can generally expect gear
with high identification costs to provide better mods than gear with
low identification costs. The list below is an attempt to document
the Mythril values of all equipment mods in the game, and it's a
complete list as far as I know. Special thanks to SolidSnake X for
filling in the necessary blanks for completion of the list!
---------------------------------------------
Mod Name | Mythril Value
------------------------|--------------------
Balance +10 | 200
Knockback +10 | 200
Resist Critical +10 | 200
Resist Knockback +10 | 200
Resist Stun +10 | 200
Soul +10 | 200
Striker +10 | 200
HP +20 | 200
Technique +20 | 200
Quick Recover | 200
Resist Flame | 200
Resist Frost | 200
Resist Lightning | 200
Guard +5 | 300
Intellect +20 | 300
Power +20 | 300
Knockdown | 300
Resist Darkness | 300
Attack +10 | 400
Counterattack | 400
Shield Guard | 400
Beast's Weak Spot | 400
Harpy's Weak Spot | 400
Lizard's Weak Spot | 400
Orc's Weak Spot | 400
Snake's Weak Spot | 400
Healing Wisdom | 400
Magic Power +10 | 500
Critical | 500
Flame Seed | 500
Ice Seed | 500
Thunder Seed | 500
Life Drain | 500
Balance +20 | 600
Knockback +20 | 600
Resist Critical +20 | 600
Resist Knockback +20 | 600
Resist Stun +20 | 600
Soul +20 | 600
Striker +20 | 600
HP +40 | 600
Power +40 | 600
Technique +40 | 600
Quick Recover+ | 600
Resist Flame+ | 600
Resist Frost+ | 600
Resist Lightning+ | 600
Holy Lv.2 | 600
Dark Seed | 700
Shining Seed | 700
Chain Attack | 800
Float Attack | 800
Dragon's Weak Spot | 800
Giant's Weak Spot | 800
Blaze Lv.2 | 800
Blazing Feather | 800
Charged Shot | 800
Death Critical | 800
Gaia Quake | 800
Grand Uppercut | 800
Ice Arrow | 800
Rolling Buster | 800
Stun Smash | 800
Unrivaled Attack | 800
Vital Drain | 800
Guard +10 | 900
Intellect +40 | 900
Knockdown+ | 900
Resist Darkness+ | 900
Resist Chaos | 1000
Chaos Seed | 1000
Cockatrice Guard | 1000
Bone Drill | 1000
Counter Straight | 1000
Dark Arrow Lv.1 | 1000
Dark Arrow Lv.2 | 1000
Impact Crush | 1000
Power Press | 1000
Rush Blade | 1000
Spark Lv.2 | 1000
Spin Attack | 1000
Sky Slash | 1000
Wide Shot | 1000
Attack +20 | 1200
Absolute Defense +25 | 1200
Power +60 | 1200
Accelerate | 1200
Counterattack+ | 1200
Shield Guard+ | 1200
Demon's Weak Spot | 1200
Golem's Weak Spot | 1200
Robot's Weak Spot | 1200
Undead's Weak Spot | 1200
Assassin Needle | 1200
Ice Shell | 1200
Ice Spike Lv.1 | 1200
Shine Lv.2 | 1200
Stone Shell | 1400
Magic Power +20 | 1500
Critical+ | 1500
Life Drain+ | 1500
Flame Spirit | 1500
Ice Spirit | 1500
Thunder Spirit | 1500
Anti-Armor | 1600
Anti-Scale | 1600
Anti-Weapon | 1600
Anti-Wing | 1600
Avalon Nova | 1600
Gatling Arrow | 1600
Balance +30 | 1800
Knockback +30 | 1800
Resist Critical +30 | 1800
Resist Knockback +30 | 1800
Resist Stun +30 | 1800
Striker +30 | 1800
Soul +30 | 1800
HP +60 | 1800
Technique +60 | 1800
Quick Recover++ | 1800
Resist Flame++ | 1800
Resist Frost++ | 1800
Resist Lightning++ | 1800
Angel's Smile | 2000
Speed Up | 2000
Anti-Darkness | 2000
Anti-Flame | 2000
Anti-Frost | 2000
Anti-Light | 2000
Anti-Lightning | 2000
Anti-Multiple | 2000
Character Flaw | 2000
Crush | 2000
Dark Spirit | 2100
Shining Spirit | 2100
Power +100 | 2400
Chain Attack+ | 2400
Bless | 2400
Curse | 2400
Electric Charge | 2400
Freeze | 2400
Inflame | 2400
Fire Breath | 2400
Hell Blast Lv.1 | 2400
Ice Breath | 2400
Spark Lv.1 | 2400
Spark Breath | 2400
Guard +15 | 2700
Intellect +60 | 2700
Knockdown++ | 2700
Resist Darkness++ | 2700
Resist Chaos+ | 3000
Chaos Spirit | 3000
Basilisk Guard | 3000
Air Buster | 3200
Brutality | 3200
Attack +30 | 3600
Absolute Defense +50 | 3600
Ultrarapid | 3600
Chaos Gate Lv.1 | 3600
Stone Breath | 3600
Magic Power +30 | 4500
Critical++ | 4500
Flame Element | 4500
Ice Element | 4500
Thunder Element | 4500
MP Drain | 4500
Aura | 5000
Balance +40 | 5400
Soul +40 | 5400
HP +80 | 5400
Technique +100 | 5400
Resist Flame+++ | 5400
Resist Frost+++ | 5400
Resist Lightning+++ | 5400
Angel's Blessing | 6000
Speed Up+ | 6000
Dark Element | 6300
Shining Element | 6300
Guard +20 | 8100
Intellect +100 | 8100
Resist Darkness+++ | 8100
Resist Chaos++ | 9000
Chaos Element | 9000
Medusa Guard | 9000
Change Mythril | 10000
Attack +50 | 10800
Absolute Defense +75 | 10800
Godspeed | 10800
Magic Power +40 | 13500
MP Drain+ | 13500
Balance +50 | 16200
Soul +50 | 16200
HP +100 | 16200
Angel's Kiss | 18000
Guard +25 | 24300
Resist Chaos+++ | 27000
Absolute Defense +100 | 32400
Attack +100 | 32400
Magic Power +50 | 40500
Angel's Embrace | 54000
ENDGAME EQUIPMENT SETUPS
This sub-section is a list of the equipment I utilize for each of the
four fighting styles (one-handed weapon Toma, two-handed weapon Toma,
"archer" Cyrille, "mage" Cyrille) at the zenith of each character's
strength level progression (i.e. level 200, maxed Power Arts). This
is by no means intended to represent the best possible setups for
each fighting style (I have not had any luck in finding the Chain
Attack+/Attack +100 mod set for the Darkness Sword, the Attack +100/
Attack +100 mod set for the Chaos Moebius, or the Magic Power +50/
Magic Power +50 mod set for the Mephisto Brace, just to name a few).
Mod sets and Secret Arts are listed within brackets.
I. One-handed weapon Toma
Weapon: +18 Darkness Sword [Critical++/Attack +100; Darkness Awakened]
Shield: +18 Zenus Shield [Technique +100/Counterattack+; Oracle's Shield]
Headgear: +18 Blood Helm [Resist Chaos+++; Earth Talisman]
Armor: +18 Phoenix Clothes [HP +100/HP +100; Goddess Blessing]
Ring: +9 Chain Ring [HP +100/HP +100]
Bracelet: +9 Chaos Moebius [Chain Attack+/Attack +100]
II. Two-handed weapon Toma
Weapon: +18 Metal Pain [Attack +100/Attack +100; Devil Spark]
Shield: --NOT ACTIVE--
Headgear: +18 Phoenix Helm [Resist Chaos+++; Modest Charm]
Armor: +18 Phoenix Clothes [HP +100/HP +100; Goddess Blessing]
Ring: +9 Chain Ring [HP +100/HP +100]
Bracelet: +9 Mephisto Brace [Attack +100/Attack +100]
III. "Archer" Cyrille
Weapon: +18 Aurora Bow [Attack +100/Attack +50; Demonic Pact]
Chain: +18 Zhirra Chain [Technique +100/Counterattack+; Oracle's Shield]
Headgear: +18 Geo-Circlet [Resist Chaos+++; Modest Charm]
Armor: +18 Noble White [HP +100/HP +100; Goddess Blessing]
Ring: +9 Quickness Ring [HP +100/HP +100]
Bracelet: +9 Mephisto Brace [Attack +100/Attack +100]
IV. "Mage" Cyrille
Weapon: +18 Evil Worship [Chaos Element/Soul +50; Light Nucleus]
Chain: +18 Zhirra Chain [Technique +100/Shield Guard+; Oracle's Shield]
Headgear: +18 Blue Rose [Magic Power +50; Magic of Insanity]
Armor: +18 Noble White [HP +100/HP +100; Goddess Blessing]
Ring: +9 Quickness Ring [HP +100/HP +100]
Bracelet: Chaos Moebius [Magic Power +50/Magic Power +50]
ENDGAME CHARACTER STATS
This is a list of the most pertinent character stats for each of the
four endgame equipment setups above. This is by no means intended
to represent the maximum values attainable for each stat -- the
equipment setups would have to be a lot more specilalized and use
several types of overall inferior gear (that grant bonuses to the stat
being "maxed") if that were the goal. Some of the more inconsequential
stats (e.g. tech effect ratings, tech effect resistance values) have
been omitted from the list.
I. One-handed weapon Toma
Attack Power: 26413
Attack Speed: A
Elemental Resistance: 20%/96%/94%/96%/96%/96%
HP: 41625
MP: 1795
Defense: 18158
Recover Stone: 205
Movement Speed: S
II. Two-handed weapon Toma
Attack Power: 116780
Attack Speed: C
Elemental Resistance: 20%/96%/91%/94%/94%/94%
HP: 41625
MP: 1795
Defense: 17294
Recover Stone: 125
Movement Speed: S
III. "Archer" Cyrille
Attack Power: 16699
Attack Speed: A
Elemental Resistance: 20%/95%/95%/95%/96%/96%
HP: 25680
MP: 360
Defense: 18061
Recover Stone: 220
Movement Speed: S
IV. "Mage" Cyrille
Magic Attack Power: 18170 (Light)/15697 (Dark)
Elemental Resistance: 20%/86%/86%/86%/96%/96%
HP: 19260
MP: 2693
Defense: 18291
Recover Stone: 220
Movement Speed: S
=====================================================================
IV. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
=====================================================================
Credit for the questions go to the people who asked them (mostly on
the Shining Force EXA board at GameFAQs). Many of these questions
have been paraphrased for brevity and precision.
QUESTION>> Where is Gundestor Cavern?
ANSWER>> Veterans of the Shining Force EXA board should recognize this
one: it is by far the most frequently asked question in the
history of the board. To answer the question, you can reach
Gundestor Cavern by leaving the Geo-Fortress via the Number 4
Gate (which does not open until Chapter 5) and take the exit
leading south from the Defensive Battle area.
QUESTION>> Where is the Altar of Darkness?
ANSWER>> Clear out the enemies inside Paoraburr Cavern and look for
an exit on the northeastern side of the area.
QUESTION>> How do I extend the range of the Geo-Fortress Cannon?
ANSWER>> You don't. Cannon range is automatically extended as you
advance the storyline -- nothing else affects Cannon range.
QUESTION>> How do I reach Ancient Arena: Stalker?
ANSWER>> Find the entrance to the Sewers at West Paora Plains, and
make your way through the sewers. You will eventually
emerge on an isolated plateau, and the entrance to the Stalker
Arena is practically "next door."
QUESTION>> I'm trying to train inside the Training Ground, but I keep
getting killed when large numbers of monsters spawn after
I open a treasure chest. What should I do?
ANSWER>> "Chest spawns" is one of the more pernicious characteristics
of the dungeons in Shining Force EXA. Large numbers of
monsters can and will spawn from the opening of a treasure
chest, and this can cause abrupt, premature death for your
party. If Cyrille is your lead character, you should always
try to break chests with crossbow bolts or a ranged magic
attacks instead of opening them manually (of course, this is
not going to work for locked chests). Doing so will put some
distance between you and any potential monster spawns, thereby
ensuring that they won't be able to surround you. Toma,
however, will just have to brave it -- short of using weapons
capable of ranged magic attacks (these weapons are seldom
comparable in power level to the best weapons you possess),
the most you can do is equip a two-handed weapon with a large
radius of attack (i.e. a lot of "reach") and try to swing at
the chests from as far away as possible.
QUESTION>> I've picked up a lot of bottles of Healing Water, and
they're really taking up space in my inventory. Is there
any way to combine them into larger lots?
ANSWER>> In Chapter 4, a "suspicious individual" will start hanging
around the Geo-Fortress hallway just outside the door leading
to the Number 1 Gate. He will bundle your Healing Water into
lots of 9 bottles each in exchange for some gold. Note that
the price for his services increases as you advance the story:
since the cost of his services is equal to 2000 times X, where
X is the current Chapter number, it'll cost quite a bit more
to bundle your Healing Water in, say, Chapter 12 than it does
back in Chapter 5.
QUESTION>> Is there any way to combine other non-equipment items? You
know... stuff like Goddess Tears, Light Charms, Defense
Charms, Fairy Dust, and Darkness Runes?
ANSWER>> Unfortunately, no.
QUESTION>> How do I transfer items between characters?
ANSWER>> Access your storage bin and hit either L1 or R1 to change to
the inventory of the currently inactive character. Select
the item you wish to transfer and hit X to move it from one
character to the other.
QUESTION>> Is there any way to speed up dialogue sequences?
ANSWER>> Yes. Press and hold the START button to skip through dialogue
sequences at a rapid pace.
QUESTION>> How many consecutive charge attacks can you make with a
weapon?
ANSWER>> That depends on which weapon you're talking about. Each
weapon in the game has a different "maximum" number of charge
attacks that you can execute in one sequence (i.e. by holding
X for a charge attack after having executed approximately 80%
of the maximum combo length of that weapon, releasing X to
perform the first charge attack, then holding X again to prepare
a second charge attack while the first is still taking place,
and keep repeating the charge-while-charge-attacking procedure
until you run out of follow-up charge attacks). On the whole,
weapons that utilize magic attacks as their charge specials
(most books, Saint Cannon, Storm Shot, Dark Edge, Darkness
Sword) tend to have short sequences of no more than three
consecutive charge attacks, whereas dextrous one-handed weapons
(such as the Aerial Saber) can pull off long sequences of up
to six charge attacks in a row -- assuming that you have the
MP needed to fuel such a barrage.
QUESTION>> What am I supposed to do with the snake statue in the
North Balcan, Underpass area?
ANSWER>> Keep striking the switch in front of the light (red or green)
that corresponds to the current color of the light glowing
atop the large statue in the center. Make enough "correct"
responses in a row (by my count, you need to make 9 straight
correct responses) and the statue will break; you will earn a
Core Metal for your efforts.
QUESTION>> What is the difference between the Nullify Knockdown
Secret Art and the Golem's Soul Secret Art?
ANSWER>> As far as I know, there is no difference.
QUESTION>> Why does the sign outside of Ancient Arena: Steel read
"Ancient Arena: Legion"?
ANSWER>> This is a careless mistake made by the localization team.
Shining Force EXA recycles many of the maps from its
predecessor, Shining Force NEO. The location of the Steel
Arena in Shining Force EXA is the same as the location of
the Legion Arena in Shining Force NEO. The programmers of
EXA simply did not bother to change the text on the sign.
As far as I know, this mistake did not make it into the
Japanese version of EXA (one of the game testers probably
caught it), but it is obviously present in the overseas
release.
QUESTION>> So, um, where exactly IS the Training Ground?
ANSWER>> Provided that you've unlocked the function and upgraded it
with a few Core Metals, you can find the entrance to the
Training Ground by going south from the Geo-Fortress Control
Room and keep heading south along the Engineering Block
corridor.
QUESTION>> Where is the Geo-Fortress Library and Armory?
ANSWER>> Head toward the exit leading west out of the Control Room and
take the stairs down into the Residential Block. Take the
stairs up to the second level of the Residential Block and
head north through either exit. You should now be in a
hallway just outside your destination(s): the Library
occupies the western half of this area, while the Armory
occupies the eastern half.
QUESTION>> Ancient Arena: Stone is sealed off from the rest of Ranburr's
Tomb. How do I get to it?
ANSWER>> Search the fenced plots of tombs for the entrance to an
underpass. The underpass leads straight to the entrance of
the Stone Arena.
QUESTION>> Where exactly is the Fire Dragon party equipment? I've
searched throughout Ranburr's Tomb, and I can't find it.
ANSWER>> There is a mini-boss fight that starts after you investigate
one of the graves in a fenced plot of tombs. Win the fight
and the chest containing Fire Dragon will appear at the very
top of Ranburr's Tomb (at the apex of the tomb structure
itself).
QUESTION>> What exactly does the "Heaven and Earth" Secret Art do?
ANSWER>> Confuse you with description text that can be nothing but a
terribly botched attempt at translation. To actually answer
your question, the Secret Art increases attack power against
floating enemies (Harpies, Ghosts, etc.).
QUESTION>> Should Toma use a one-handed weapon or a two-handed weapon?
ANSWER>> This depends mostly on your playing style. The most powerful
weapon setup in the game features a one-handed weapon (the
"ultimate" Darkness Sword setup), and one-handed weapons
tend to have faster attack speed, as well as the ability to
allow you to equip shields -- an invaluable bonus against
higher-level enemies (since the shield completely nullifies
most, if not all, of the most annoying tech effects -- Float,
Knockback, Knockdown, Stun). Two-handed weapons are great
once you've strengthened your characters and start journeying
through "easy" areas -- your axes and hammers are much better
at clearing large crowds of enemies with one swing. Two-handed
weapons tend to deal much more damage in a single hit (rather
than letting the damage build up via combo damage multipliers
like one-handed weapons), and their attack speed deficiencies
can be addressed with the Godspeed mod and the Devil Spark
Secret Art.
QUESTION>> Must I connect with a melee attack in order for my combo
damage multiplier to apply and grant bonus damage to the
next hit of my combo?
ANSWER>> No. Your combo damage multiplier applies to strikes made by
any eligible weapon (i.e. any non-crossbow weapon), regardless
of whether the strike makes contact with an enemy. With a
Darkness Sword, for example, you can swing at empty space
fifteen times, turn around, and unload a massive amount of
damage (courtesy of your combo damage multiplier) on a nearby
enemy with the sixteenth and final hit of your combo. In fact,
this is a crafty and effective strategy to use against enemies
which are slow but physically powerful (Mythril Golems, Hell
Golems, Arc Dragons): basically, you stand a fair distance
away from the approaching enemy, slash empty space to build
up your damage (without the risk of being hit by powerful
attacks, which is not the case if you decide to confront the
enemy and build up your combo with solid hits instead), and
try to knock out the monster by landing a few solid hits with
souped-up attacks from the tail end of your combo.
QUESTION>> Why doesn't my physical defense stat increase when I
pay Gantetsu to enhance my shield or chain?
ANSWER>> The point of emphasis for shields and chains is not DEF but
rather your DEX-based stats (Critical Attack rate, Stun Attack
rating, Resist Stun ratio, Resist Knockback ratio). These
WILL increase when you enhance your shield or chain.
QUESTION>> Which is better, Nullify Float or Nullify Knockdown?
ANSWER>> Nullify Float is the better of the two, but you don't actually
need either Secret Art. At a sufficiently high character
strength rating, your characters are effectively immune to
both Float and Knockdown as long as they're equipped with
a shield or chain.
QUESTION>> How many floors are there in the Training Ground?
ANSWER>> 50, grouped into ten blocks of 5 floors each. Each block
consists of 4 randomly-generated floors and 1 "boss" floor.
Unlike the randomly-generated floors, the layout of the boss
floor never changes, and any items/gold/Mythril you leave
lying on the battlefield of a boss floor will still be
available for retrieval the next time you visit that floor.
QUESTION>> Does Bornay ever sell any decent gear?
ANSWER>> Not really. You can always find far better gear via treasure
chests and monster drops.
QUESTION>> Where exactly is Ancient Arena: Legion located?
ANSWER>> The entrance to the arena is a magic circle found in Xeyon
Castle, Central 1F (look on the southeastern side of the
map). The door leading to the magic circle will be locked
unless you've already cleared all 20 of the other arenas in
the game.
QUESTION>> If I have the MP Drain+ mod on a book, do I gain the
benefits of the status effect when I use the book's magic
spells?
ANSWER>> No. The effects of Life Drain/Life Drain+ and MP Drain/MP
Drain+ only kick in if you hit an enemy with a melee attack.
QUESTION>> Why is my weapon highlighted with a different color?
ANSWER>> You hit L1 or R1 by accident while checking out that weapon
in your Equip or Item menu. L1 and R1 allow you to change
the highlighting color of your items for sorting purposes.
QUESTION>> I've destroyed all 13 Legion Generators, but why is it
still raining in the Ruins of Yi'el Village?
ANSWER>> No one knows for sure. Some have suggested that it's
because the Gusk is hovering over the area, and that's as
valid a guess as any.
QUESTION>> Those Ghost Masters are just murdering me. What should I
do?
ANSWER>> Find both levels of the Darkness Resist Power Art and fully
carve both levels. That should raise your resistance against
Dark Magic to a high enough level that Ghost Masters can't
do anything to really hurt you.
QUESTION>> Malxatra is kicking my butt. Are there any Power Arts that
really help in the fight against him?
ANSWER>> Beef up your character's defensive capabilities by maxing out
HP Boost, Master Guard, and the aforementioned Darkness Resist
(you should also carve the Goddess Blessing Secret Art on your
armor). By fully carving both levels of the Darkness Resist
Power Art, you'll render most of Malxatra's attacks (i.e. the
ones which are Dark Magic attacks) impotent; Master Guard and
Goddess Blessing will help against his "seeking fog" attack,
which is a mixed-type attack that possesses both a Dark Magic
component and a physical attack component (in other words, it
deals two types of damage simultaneously). Offensively, max
out Weapon Attack, Armor Killer, Robot Killer, and Darkness
Pursuit.
QUESTION>> What should I do to increase the power of Toma's magic
attacks?
ANSWER>> Don't bother. Magic is a lost cause for Toma -- he is
simply incapable of ever doing much damage with magic attacks.
QUESTION>> What's your favorite team of NPC allies for each character?
ANSWER>> For Toma, Avalon and Faulklin. For Cyrille, Garyu and Faulklin.
QUESTION>> Where do I find Fiend Horns and Black Wool Caps?
ANSWER>> A poster said that Devil Fathers drop Fiend Horns, but I have
yet to see them do so myself. Devil Daughters in the Lake
Bark Caverns (and possibly elsewhere as well) occasionally
drop Black Wool Caps. Both of these items are among the class
of inferior (compared to what you can find in the lower floors
of the Training Ground) gear that aren't dropped in the dungeons;
you'll most likely encounter these items only when looking
through Bornay's inventory. Other examples of such items are
Cyrille's Twin Ribbons and Mitra Tiara.
QUESTION>> What are the most powerful magic spells in the game?
ANSWER>> There are several magic spells which can lay claim to the
title of "most powerful", and each of them is particularly
effective when used in a certain capacity. For area-of-effect
damage and crowd control, the best spell is Holy Lv.3 (Light
elemental magic); for concentrated anti-unit damage, the best
spell is Gaia Nova Lv.3 (Light elemental magic); for
area-of-effect damage with status ailments, use Chaos Gate Lv.3
(Dark elemental magic); and for the highest damage output
-- with a chance to petrify the enemy -- at the cost of
massive MP expenditure, use Avalon Nova (Light elemental
magic).
QUESTION>> Which class of mods is better, Attack+ or Power+?
ANSWER>> Attack+. The attack power boost from this class of mods is
always much larger than the boost from comparable Power+ mods,
even for Cyrille. The higher Stun Recovery, Knockback Attack,
and similar STR-related stat bonuses you get for a Power+ mod
are never enough to offset the much higher boost in attack
power you gain with an Attack+ mod.
QUESTION>> Which status ailment is the best to use against enemies?
And which status ailment is the worst to get hit with?
ANSWER>> The answer to both questions is petrification.
QUESTION>> Does changing the party equipment used by your NPC allies
also effect any changes to those character's stats? Or
does it simply change which attacks they use?
ANSWER>> Generally, party equipment found in higher level areas
have higher attack power, both for physical attacks and magic
attacks. Garyu's Iron Dragon is particularly notable for
also boosting physical defense. It's hard to tell if any
other party equipment affects DEF or if any party equipment
affects stats other than attack power and physical defense.
QUESTION>> I've played through all of the storyline sequences thus
far with the same character. Am I missing out on any of
the story?
ANSWER>> Well, the two main characters do have different lines of
dialogue depending on which one is "active" for a particular
storyline sequence, but you don't really miss anything of any
real significance.
QUESTION>> Which "Anti" class mod is better, Character Flaw or
Anti-Multiple?
ANSWER>> Anti-Multiple, but a simple Attack +50 (or, even better,
Attack +100) mod is better than both of those mods and should
be what you're looking for instead.
QUESTION>> I'm trying to fight a monster that has an impenetrable
barrier around it. How do I get the barrier to go away?
ANSWER>> If a monster is surrounded by a magic barrier, simply kill
all other enemies in the general vicinity and the barrier
will disappear.
QUESTION>> There are two Barrier system-like devices found on Block 2
of the Gusk. What is their significance?
ANSWER>> Those are energy flow switches that are currently set to
suppress Malxatra's power. If you've already beaten the game
at least once, you can hit Circle when standing near these
devices and choose to open the energy flow to Malxatra.
Turning these switches on will make Malxatra much stronger in
the final battle -- think of it as a way to "ramp up" the
difficulty level of the battle if you find Malxatra to be not
much of a challenge.
QUESTION>> I'm having a hard time killing Mythril Golems, as I'm only
dealing 1 damage per hit to them. Any suggestions?
ANSWER>> Mythril Golems have a very high physical defense rating, so
physical attacks don't work well against them unless you've
maxed out Weapon Attack, Golem Killer, and Light Pursuit.
You can also use high-class Dark Magic spells against them.
The wisest thing to do against them, though, is to just
ignore them and move on -- Mythril Golems are so sturdy
and hit so hard that they're what I classify a dangerous
waste of time. Devil Fathers are another type of enemy
that qualifies for this category, because they combine
incredibly high HP with powerful physical and magic attacks.
You save a lot of time and effort if you just skip them (if
you CAN skip them, anyway -- these enemies sometimes appear
as mini-bosses you must fight) and move on.
QUESTION>> What does the Aura mod do?
ANSWER>> Aura grants you an extra attack (press the attack button
after using a charge attack) that isn't really an attack at
all: instead, it's a spell-like effect that heals a decent
percentage of your HP (as well as the HP of your NPC allies
if they're standing reasonably close to you). The strategic
value of the Aura mod lies in the fact that it allows you to
field a lineup consisting of two "brute force" NPC allies
backed up by Cyrille's ranged attacks and group healing (the
healing will be done via the Aura effect, of course). As
a matter fact, usage of Aura means that you no longer have to
worry about protecting a fragile NPC healer (i.e. Faulklin)
or trying to survive while your NPC healer ...slowly... casts
her healing magic (i.e. what happens when Maebelle is your
designated healer). Aura is also extremely valuable in the
early game (i.e. before Faulklin joins your party), because
the availability of a healing effect in your arsenals allows
you to challenge higher-level monsters while maintaining a
fair chance of survival.
QUESTION>> What is the highest level that a character can advance to
in the game?
ANSWER>> Prior to beating the game (and gaining access to Xeyon Castle),
level 187. After gaining access to Xeyon, level 200 (be
warned that only the Place Beyond Darkness has a sufficiently
high area level to advance your characters past level 187).
QUESTION>> Is there no way to improve the enhancement numbers on
rings and bracelets?
ANSWER>> Correct. Since Gantetsu doesn't do accessories, whatever
enhancement number you get when you acquire the ring or
bracelet is the number it'll keep for the rest of the game.
QUESTION>> Is it possible to fully upgrade all Geo-Fortress functions
in one playthrough of the game and without farming "timer"
Defensive Battles?
ANSWER>> It's possible, but not very likely. You need 117 Core Metals
to fully upgrade all functions of the Geo-Fortress, and you
can indeed acquire 117 before finishing the game. By my
count, 12 of the 117 Cores are tied to "timer" Defensive
Battles, meaning that you must trigger at least 60 such
battles throughout the game. Most players trigger no more
than 30 in one playthrough of the game, and some finish the
game have triggered no more than 15 "timer" Defensive Battles.
You'd need to be a mighty slow and... thorough... player to
spend enough time out in the world that you trigger 60 "timer"
Defensive Battles prior to beating the game without trying
to "farm" that variety of Defensive Battle.
QUESTION>> What is the best party equipment item for each NPC ally?
ANSWER>> Party equipment generally get stronger the higher the area
level of the location you find them at, though this is less a
stone-cold fact than a rule of thumb: certain "less powerful"
party equipment items offer useful effects and attacks that
may prompt you to use them over higher-rated party equipment.
A good example is Maebelle's Tender Archer, which you'd likely
equip over more powerful "Archer" gear if your party is in
dire need of healing. Overall, the list below indicate what
are considered the most powerful party equipment items in the
game. Aside from Avalon's Hero & Emperor -- which is a reward
for clearing the lowest floor of the Training Ground -- all
of these are found near the entrance of Xeyon Castle, Central
1F:
Gadfort - Golden Knight
Maebelle - Enraged Archer
Amitaliri - Witch Teaching
Faulklin - Noble Saint
Garyu - Black Dragon
Duga - Berserk Wolf
Adam - Break Virus C
Avalon - Hero & Emperor
QUESTION>> I'm trying to do my equipment hunting on the lower floors
of the Training Ground, but the monsters there are
slaughtering me. How do you manage to do your training
and equipment hunting with such ease?
ANSWER>> I would never say that my grinding was done "with ease," as
I died quite a lot my first few times through the bottom 15
floors of the Training Ground. The monsters there are
fierce, and you will always be at risk of suffering a one-hit
knockout (especially if you are unable to max out some of
the key Power Arts). The keys to breezing through those
floors is to prioritize HP first (pay special attention to
finding and equipping armor and rings with two HP +100 mods
each), address physical defense second (don't forget to carve
the Goddess Blessing Secret Art on your armor), and then try
to pump up your physical attack power (as "mage" Cyrille, your
point of emphasis should instead be magic attack power) as
much as you can without sacrificing HP and DEF. Always carve
all the Power Arts you've found, and place special emphasis
on Killer Arts and Power Arts which add to magic resistance
(since some of the most insidious enemies on the lower floors
of the Training Ground are the monsters which wield Dark
Magic). Try to kill your enemies before they get an opportunity
to try and hurt you: before you piece together Toma's deadly
Darkness Sword setup, you should probably look for a Pandemonium
with good mods and petrify your way through the more powerful
mobs. As Cyrille, you should employ "meat shield" NPC allies
and try to crossbow everything to death from a distance and
through obstacles if necessary (by utilizing her crossbow
tricks). To master the lower blocks of the Training Ground,
it is essential to study your opposition (in order to learn
the kind of behavior each monster is likely to exhibit) and
to plan assiduously (to set up your equipment, carve the right
Secret Arts, and implement more effective tactics). You should
certainly expect to die every now and then, but eventually
you will gain the necessary experience to employ more effective
strategies against your enemies. You'll then find that you're
having a much easier time.
QUESTION>> I just found a weapon with the "Puppet" special ability.
What does it do?
ANSWER>> Puppet is a special status effect unique to the Soul Stealer
(one-handed weapon), Scarecrow (two-handed weapon), Caster's
Book (book), and Necromancer (book). To use Puppet, simply
strike the corpse of an enemy with a Puppet-capable weapon
(you must use a melee attack -- using magic from either of
the two Puppet-capable books will not work), and the monster
will be temporarily resurrected to fight as your ally. Puppet
does not work against monsters that don't leave corpses behind
when they die (e.g. ghosts), golems, boss-level monsters,
mechanical monsters (i.e. those with the "robot" race type),
and several species of undead. Puppet also does not work
against monsters with character level equal to or higher than
that of your active character. Most enemies in the lower blocks
of the Training Ground and in Xeyon Castle are immune to
Puppet, so it's a mostly useless effect once you move on to
the tougher areas of the game. You shouldn't expect Puppet
to do much of anything in any area with area level greater
than 110 or so.
QUESTION>> Must I use Toma as the active character to recruit Garyu?
ANSWER>> No. You can recruit Garyu with either Toma or Cyrille as
the active character.
QUESTION>> Who is the better character, Toma or Cyrille? Which of the
two should I use to tackle the toughest areas of the game?
ANSWER>> As a rule of thumb, it's more practical to use Toma against
high-level enemies which pose a credible threat to you -- Toma
has much better durability than Cyrille due to his higher
physical defense and his much higher HP. Toma also enjoys
huge combo damage multipliers with a number of weapon setups
(such as the ultimate Darkness Sword setup), which allow him
to deliver much more damage in a given period of time than
Cyrille is capable of. With her magic-related Power Arts
maxed, Cyrille can probably deal as much or more damage than
an one-handed weapon-wielding Toma on the scale of a single
hit, provided that you're hitting a monster that's weak
against Light Magic (many of the most menacing monsters are,
though some -- Mythril Golems, for example -- are actually
immune to Light Magic) and you use a powerful spell like Gaia
Nova Lv.3. Over time, however, Toma's multiplier-enhanced
combo damage quickly outdistances anything Cyrille can do,
and he doesn't have to worry about his MP depleting from
casting all those high-level spells. Cyrille is, however,
much better against enemies that both characters can kill
easily: a good area-of-effect spell (e.g. Holy Lv.3) can
eliminate 15-20 monsters with one use, and thus achieve in
2 seconds a result that would take Toma 20 seconds of
slashing to match.
To summarize, use Toma in the lower blocks of the Training
Ground, in the other optional dungeons, and in any other
places where the indigenous fauna are credible threats to
your prospects of survival. Use Cyrille in "storyline" areas
and other low-area level locations where the monsters are no
threat and where your primary goal is to get from point A to
point B in a short amount of time.
QUESTION>> What exactly do I get from technique boosts and agility
boosts?
ANSWER>> Anything that increases your "technique" is raising your DEX
(Dexterity) stat. The stats that increase with higher DEX
are the following: Stun Attack rating, Critical Attack rate,
Resist Stun ratio, and Resist Knockback ratio. Equipment
with high DEX stats also tend to confer better Movement Speed,
but the Movement Speed stat is not determined by Dexterity;
rather, it's an independent stat that's also referred to as
"agility" by the game. The Secret Arts Rough and Ready and
Devil Spark, as well as the Speed Up and Speed Up+ family of
equipment mods, are the most common ways for you to raise
your character's agility, and when you do so, Movement Speed
is the only stat being increased -- none of your DEX stats
are affected.
QUESTION>> You recommend the Earth Talisman Secret Art for headgear,
but isn't the Modest Charm Secret Art better? You lose
4% to 6% of magic resistance per element, but you gain
about 1000 more DEF.
ANSWER>> By my count, you gain 990 points of DEF/physical defense, and
that's just not enough of a boost to constitute a worthy
trade-off. Since magic resistance values are displayed as
percentages but are actually stored (and calculated) as
integers, 4% of the total resistance value for all five
elemental magic classes almost certainly computes as a larger
integer sum than 990. High elemental magic resistance values
help tremendously -- life is so much easier down on the lower
floors of the Training Ground if you don't have to worry
about taking any damage from magic attacks (especially the
HP Absorbing attacks from those pesky Ghost Masters), and
that's why I prefer to build toward impregnable defenses
against magic attacks rather than getting another small boost
to my physical defense stat. If your elemental magic
resistance values are already high enough that you suffer no
damage from any enemy magic attacks, however, you should
certainly carve Modest Charm instead.
QUESTION>> Since you preach that HP is more important than DEF/physical
defense, then isn't the Source of Life Secret Art better
than Goddess Blessing? I get about 2000 HP from Source of
Life and about 2000 DEF from Goddess Blessing.
ANSWER>> Yes, HP is generally more useful than DEF (because HP adds to
your durability against both physical attacks and magic attacks,
whereas DEF affects resilience against physical attacks only),
but that doesn't mean that Source of Life is better than
Goddess Blessing. Most of the time, Goddess Blessing is vastly
superior, simply because you gain much more DEF from carving
it than you'd gain HP from carving Source of Life (you do gain
some MP from Source of Life as well, but MP is usually rather
unimportant in Shining Force EXA). This is because both
Secret Arts confer a percentage increase to the key stat in
question (DEF for Goddess Blessing, HP for Source of Life),
and Goddess Blessing simply increases its stat by a larger
percentage value than does Source of Life. It's a quirk of
your current character strength level that you happen to get
approximately equal increases with both Secret Arts (your HP
is probably much higher than your DEF at the moment -- a
phenomenon possibly caused by having carved a higher level of
the HP Boost Power Art than you've carved the Master Guard
Power Art). With "maxed out" characters, both Toma and Cyrille
would gain about 6000 DEF from Goddess Blessing. In contrast,
Toma would gain about 4000 HP from Source of Life, and Cyrille
would only gain about 2000 HP. It's fairly easy to see that
you get a much larger boost from Goddess Blessing there, and
that's why it's considered the "better" Secret Art.
QUESTION>> Why am I getting less Mythril from clearing a floor of the
Training Ground than I did from an earlier visit to that
floor?
ANSWER>> The amount of Mythril you get from clearing a floor (i.e. from
killing all the monsters on that floor) of the Training Ground
(or a similar dungeon like the Dimension X Metal Tunnel) is
determined by the total number of enemies found on that floor.
Since non-boss floors are randomly generated, you'll get less
Mythril from clearing a floor if the luck of the draw happened
to deal you a smaller floor populated by fewer enemies. Note
that the amount of Mythril you receive from destroying the
crystal formations on a floor is also tied to the number of
enemies on the floor, but to a much lesser degree -- the "base"
amount of Mythril you get from each crystal formation fragment
is set according to the area level of the floor (this value
does not change no matter what the floor looks like on a
particular visit), and while you may receive a "bonus" amount
of Mythril per fragment if the floor is large and well-populated,
the size of the bonus usually isn't much.
QUESTION>> How many Light Charms do I need to make it through the game?
ANSWER>> Zero. I'm not a fan of Light Charms at all -- in my humble
opinion, they provide an unnecessary "crutch" of expedience
that takes away all the joy of legitimately overpowering your
enemies. I have personally never used one in any battle (I
used my first Light Charm just out of curiosity, and once I
saw what it does, I reloaded my game), and you certainly don't
need to, either. Instead of relying on Light Charms, you can
clear every single area in the game through a combination of
training and planning, and you're bound to have more fun that
way.
QUESTION>> What is added to the game after you finish it?
ANSWER>> After beating the game, you'll be given the opportunity to
make a "cleared data" save in any slot you wish. When you
load this save file, you'll be returned to the start of
Chapter 14, and several significant things have changed:
-- Should you decide to finish the game a second time,
you'll be allowed to activate two switches (which look
like the Barrier system back in the Geo-Fortress) on
Block 2 of the Gusk to make Malxatra much more powerful
in the final battle.
-- You can now access Xeyon, Castle of Mysteries (a tough
yet most rewarding optional dungeon) via a new Warp Gate
entry.
-- The Geo-Fortress is now capable of Defense Mode. While
the Geo-Fortress is in Defense Mode, no Defensive Battles
will occur and your Cannon range is maximized (despite
the fact that the Geo-Fortress is not in Cannon Mode).
-- You can now fulfill all of Gantetsu's requests and raise
his forging level to the maximum level of 18. At forging
level 18, you can pay him to temper your equipment up to
a maximum enhancement bonus of +18.
-- Bornay will always have Light Charms in stock from now on.
-- You can now warp straight to Lakton Village to fight the
first "storyline" battle of Chapter 14 (instead of having
to walk through Gundestor Cavern, Ancient Runed Temple,
and Lakton Cave). There will be a large chest of gold in
the center of Lakton Village -- another reward for having
completed the game.
QUESTION>> Does the warp gate at North Paora Plains ever activate?
ANSWER>> This is a question occasionally asked by those who played
Shining Force NEO, where the map EXA gamers know as North
Paora Plains is the entry point to a huge optional dungeon.
In EXA, however, nothing ever happens within the ringed area
at the center of North Paora Plains; it remains dormant
throughout the game.
=====================================================================
V. Glitches
=====================================================================
Aside from Cyrille's crossbow tricks (particularly the Boar-Slaying
Arrow), which exploit enemy patterns which may either be "glitches"
or intended behavior (it's hard to say for sure), there have been
several other ...interesting... occurrences reported by Shining Force
EXA gamers which are definitely bugs or glitches with the programming
code.
EXP FREEZE
As touched on earlier, some of your NPC party members will hit the
level cap a few character levels earlier than the area level of the
place you're grinding. This first occurred to me on the lowest block
of floors in the Training Ground, where I discovered that NPC allies
must stay within one level of your main character when your main
character hits the level cap of the area. Otherwise, your NPC allies
will "hit the cap early" and only receive 1 EXP per kill, despite the
fact that their own character levels have not yet hit the level cap
of the area. The glitch rears its ugly head again at the Place Beyond
Darkness in Xeyon Castle, where it may keep you from fully leveling
up to four of your NPC allies -- if both of your main characters have
reached level 200, then any remaining NPC allies will stop receiving
the normal amount of experience for each kill once they reach level
197.
It's dawned on me recently that the glitch is not really area-related;
instead, it's a side effect of high character level numbers. I believe
that the glitch takes effect once your main characters go into the 180s
level-wise: once this has happened, you're advised to try your darnedest
to keep all your NPC allies within one character level of your main
character at all times or their EXP acquisition rate WILL get capped
out early. The glitch is only noticeable on the last block of the
Training Ground and at the Place Beyond Darkness for one simple reason:
those are the only areas in the game with area level above 180.
AVALON'S VANISHING HP
First reported by _MasterQ_ on the Shining Force EXA board, this is a
phenomenon where a high-level Avalon (level 198-200) suffers sudden and
massive HP loss without having engaged in battle. Upon entering any
area populated by monsters, you'll notice that Avalon suddenly and
rapidly loses 98% to 99.5% of his HP for no reason whatsoever; the
exact percentage of HP you lose varies according to Avalon's level: at
level 198, for example, he loses all but 348 of his 65884 HP (which is
a meager 0.5% of his maximum HP), whereas at level 200 he loses all but
1464 of his 67000 HP (which translates to 2% of his maximum HP retained).
Since Avalon has no natural HP recovery, this glitch is a drain on your
Healing Water, and it makes Avalon an ironically unreliable NPC ally
once he reaches the pinnacle of his strength.
UPDATE: Many people have written in to point out that the glitch is
caused by the fact that the programmers of EXA foolishly allocated a
single unsigned int container for Avalon's HP (did they think that no
one would try to fully level the character?). Since the maximum value
you can store in an unsigned int container is 65536, the game essentially
"starts over" if the maximum HP for Avalon exceeds that number. Whenever
you enter an area when Avalon's current HP is higher than 65536, his HP
will automatically become [Current HP - 65536] due to overflow of the
data container. This glitch is, in a nutshell, a poorly checked piece
of game code.
MALFUNCTIONING FENCE
First reported on the Shining Force EXA Japanese Wiki, this is a
phenomenon tied to a fence that goes up during a mini-boss battle in
Xeyon Castle, Central 2F. For reasons unknown, this fence has, for
some gamers, failed to lower even after the destruction of all enemies
in the area (thereby forcing a game reset).
CHARMED WORMS
First reported by tera_majin on the Shining Force EXA board, this is a
phenomenon where Sand Worm-class monsters will pop out of the ground
but neither attack nor approach you if you're standing sufficiently far
away from them (the proper distance is almost the full length of the
screen). I've noticed this myself during my frequent trips to Diablo's
Palm, and I believe this may simply be scripted behavior for this
enemy type -- they're simply not programmed to either attack OR move
unless there is a hostile within a reasonable distance, and it creates
a "glitchy" look where the Worms appear to be doing absolutely nothing
besides hanging out above the ground.
DUPLICATE ALLIES
This is a fairly rare occurrence: by my recollection, no more than than
two gamers have reported having this happen to them. Those players
report that duplicates of their NPC party members appear following a
normal attempt to switch party members. You can view a video of the
phenomenon here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh6x30T60ek
Video courtesy of ChangeV.
UPDATE: I've now encountered the phenomenon myself, and I believe I
know exactly how to trigger it. There are several points in the game
where your NPC allies are gathered in the Geo-Fortress Control Room
for a group discussion (instead of being positioned at their respective
places in the Residential Block or, in the case of Adam, in the
Engineering Block). If you exit the Control Room for any reason at
one such point of the game, everyone will have returned to their
respective places in the Residential Block or Engineering Block upon
your return. If you are returning from a visit to a dungeon or any
other area accessible via the Warp Gate system (as opposed to coming
from a different part of the Geo-Fortress), your current NPC allies
should still be active (i.e. following you around instead of returning
to their places). If you swap main characters at this point, then
the current NPC allies of the character being swapped out will usually
stick around the Control Room (standing still at the places they were
occupying when you performed the main character swap) instead of going
back to their respective places in the Residential/Engineering Block.
If you speak to Zenus and choose to equip the new lead character with
the same NPC allies, then you'll trigger the glitch and experience
"double vision" for each affected NPC ally. Any duplicates created
with this process will disappear when you leave the Geo-Fortress
Control Room.
Here's a sample procedure for triggering the glitch (this is a concrete
example from my own experience with the glitch):
- At the "decision" point of Chapter 14 (the point of the game where
you must choose which character goes off to the Dungeon of Ordeal),
choose Toma as your active character and equip him with Adam and
Amitaliri as NPC allies
- Leave the Geo-Fortress via the Warp Gate, then press the R3 button
to return
- Switch with Cyrille; you'll notice that Adam and Amitaliri linger
around the Control Room instead of going to their respective places
in the Residential/Engineering Block
- Talk to Zenus as Cyrille and equip her with Adam and Amitaliri as
NPC allies
- You should now see two Adams and two Amitaliris following Cyrille
around the Control Room
The "decision" point of Chapter 14 referenced above is the point of
the game where I did all my testing of this glitch. I can vouch for
the reliability of the procedure at that point of the game, though
it should also work at any other point in the game that fulfills the
criteria outlined above.
UNATTAINABLE TREASURE
Put your Geo-Fortress in Search Mode (if you've already maxed out the
Geo-Fortress's Radar function, any mode will do) and use the Number 3
Gate to access the Geo-Fortress Arena Stage. Go as far north as you
can and press L2 to access the radar view of the area. You'll see a
glowing red dot -- the radar view indicator for a secret treasure --
at a location off the northern edge of the map. Since this presumed
secret treasure is located at a position outside of the boundaries of
the Arena Stage map, you can't get to it, nor can you get anything to
happen by launching crossbow bolts or ranged magic attacks toward that
position. The majority of Shining Force EXA gamers believe that
the glowing red dot is caused by a glitch in the programming code,
but we may never know for sure.
=====================================================================
VI. Save Files
=====================================================================
This section is dedicated to offering more detailed (and, in some
instances, more accurate) descriptions of the series of Shining Force
EXA save game files I've uploaded to GameFAQs. In these save games,
all available Power Arts have been maxed (insofar as the Power Arts
you're capable of acquiring at that stage of the game), and I've
acquired all Secret Arts and party equipment for NPC allies available
at that point of the game. Except for Saves #1 and #2, gold and
Mythril are maxed in each of these saved games. You may view and
download these files using the URL below:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/save/934417.html
These saves are in *.sps (SharkPort 2 Save) format, simply because the
SharkPort 2 is the only PS2 memory management device I own. Those who
wish to convert these saves for use with Action Replay Max, CodeBreaker,
Memory Linker, etc. should use the PS2 Save Builder utility available
here:
http://www.ps2savetools.com/download.php?op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=74
SAVE #1: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 20. Saved in Chapter 2,
just before the first battle against Philip. Both main
characters at level 16 with better gear than the "starter"
items following training at the Path of Carnage in the Lakton
Highlands. Visit Ancient Arena: Birdling and collect the Red
Metal to advance the storyline.
SAVE #2: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 19. Saved in Chapter 2,
just before the encounter with Amitaliri and Faulklin in
Ilnad Forest. Toma, Cyrille, Gadfort, and Maebelle are all
at level 21 following training at Lakton Highlands. Head
west from the Ruins of Yi'el Village to advance the storyline.
SAVE #3: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 17. Saved near the end
of Chapter 3. Toma and Cyrille are at level 130, Amitaliri
and Faulklin are at level 131, and Maebelle and Gadfort are
at level 58 following training at the Training Ground and
in Defensive Battles. 10 Ancient Arenas cleared (Birdling,
Orc, Wolfling, Giant, Lightning, Stone, Lizard, Stalker,
Dragon, Golem). The Energy Generator and Training Ground
functions of the Geo-Fortress are both at level 7. Both
main characters are outfitted with quality gear found from
the Training Ground. Warp to the Wild Boar Cave to advance
the storyline.
SAVE #4: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 16. Saved near the end
of Chapter 4. Garyu has been recruited and is at level 153.
Toma and Cyrille are at level 153 as well, whereas Gadfort,
Maebelle, Amitaliri, and Faulklin are at level 150. 10 Ancient
Arenas cleared (Birdling, Orc, Wolfling, Giant, Lightning,
Stone, Lizard, Stalker, Dragon, Golem). Energy Generator and
Training Ground both at level 8. Main characters have
slightly better gear than in Save #3. Warp to the Noswald
Encampment at North Il'Gonia Valley to advance the storyline.
SAVE #5: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 15. Saved near the end
of Chapter 6. Toma, Cyrille, and Faulklin are at level 177,
whereas Gadfort, Maebelle, Amitaliri, and Garyu are all at
level 175 following training on the lowest floors of the
Training Ground. Both main characters have high-quality
equipment acquired from the lowest floors of the Training
Ground. 12 Ancient Arenas cleared (Birdling, Orc, Wolfling,
Giant, Lightning, Stone, Lizard, Stalker, Dragon, Golem,
Ghost, Steel). Both the Energy Generator and Training Ground
functions of the Geo-Fortress have been fully upgraded, and
all 50 floors of the Training Ground have been cleared. Use
the mini-teleport in the center of the Geo-Fortress Control
Room to warp to Ranburr's Tomb and pick up the Blue Metal
there to advance the storyline.
SAVE #6: Uploaded 5/14/07, occupies save slot 14. Saved near the end
of Chapter 7. Toma and Cyrille are at level 178, Faulklin is
at level 180, Duga is at level 177, whereas Gadfort, Maebelle,
Amitaliri, and Garyu are all at level 175. 13 Ancient Arenas
cleared (Birdling, Orc, Wolfling, Giant, Lightning, Stone,
Lizard, Stalker, Dragon, Golem, Ghost, Steel, Ice). As noted
in Save #5, the Energy Generator and Training Ground functions
have both been "maxed" and the Training Ground has been fully
cleared. Main character have roughly the same gear as in
Save #5. Use the "Gradium Mine, Inside" warp gate entry to
proceed to the battle against the Zircon Lotus.
SAVE #7: Uploaded 7/3/2007, occupies save slot 13. Saved near the end
of Chapter 12. Toma, Cyrille, Gadfort, Maebelle, Amitaliri,
Garyu, and Adam are all at level 187 (the level cap of Training
Ground floor B50F/Depths), whereas Faulklin is at level 185,
Duga is at level 185, and Avalon is at level 184 on account of
the "EXP Freeze" glitch. All 20 non-Legion Ancient Arenas have
been cleared. Four of the seven Geo-Fortress functions have
been fully upgraded: Energy Generator, Training Ground, Radar,
and Robot Factory. The Barrier function is at level 7, the
Repair function is at level 5, and the Geo-Fortress Cannon is
at level 2. Each main character owns 50 bottles of Healing
Water following many trips to Diablo's Palm, each main character
is equipped with gear of the highest quality obtainable prior
to beating the game, and there is also quality "backup"
(i.e. enchanted with mods that are particularly strong in
certain specific situations) equipment in storage. All secret
treasures on maps accessible thus far have been acquired through
usage of the maxed Radar function. Use the "Emperor's Hall"
warp gate entry and enter Ragnadaam III's throne room to advance
the storyline.
SAVE #8: Uploaded 1/15/2008, occupies save slot 12. Saved just before
the Dungeon of Ordeal event in Chapter 14. All character
levels are the same as in Save #7. All 20 non-Legion Ancient
Arenas have been cleared. Character equipment is largely the
same as in Save #7, and all secret treasures available have
been obtained. Each main character now owns 54 bottles of
Healing Water. All Geo-Fortress functions have been maxed
except for Cannon, which is at level 9. Choose the main
character you want and head to his/her Geo-Fortress quarters
to tackle the Dungeon of Ordeal and embark on the sequence
of events that ends the game.
SAVE #9: Uploaded 2/6/2008, occupies save slot 11. Cleared data saved
after finishing the game with both characters. Toma, Cyrille,
Avalon, Garyu, Duga, and Faulklin are at level 200, whereas
Maebelle, Gadfort, Amitaliri, and Adam are stuck at level 197
thanks to the EXP Freeze glitch. All Power Arts have been
obtained and maxed, all Secret Arts have been found, all 21
Ancient Arenas have been cleared, and all secret treasures
have been obtained. Xeyon Castle has been completely cleared.
Each main character owns 54 bottles of Healing Water, and all
Geo-Fortress functions have been maxed (with 2 Core Metals
left over and 100 Cure Metals in storage). The main characters
are outfitted with the superb equipment listed at the end of
Section III, and there's a bevy of fantastic gear for situational
use in storage. All non-accessory equipment have been enhanced
to +18, and both gold and Mythril are maxed. In short, there
isn't much left to do in the game, though I'd certainly like
for someone to use this save as a basis and try to find the
items I've always coveted but have never been able to find as
drops. Those items are listed below, with mods (the important
part!) in parentheses:
- Aerial Saber (Critical++/Attack +100)
- Chaos Breaker (Angel's Embrace/Attack +100)
- Darkness Sword (Chain Attack+/Attack +100)
- Aurora Bow (Attack +100/Attack +100)
- Storm Shot (Attack +100/Attack +100)
- Book of Thor (Chaos Element/Soul +50)
- Book of Thor (Critical++/Attack +100)
- +9 Berserk Ring (HP +100/HP +100)
- +9 Chaos Moebius (Attack +100/Attack +100)
- +9 Mephisto Brace (Magic Power +50/Magic Power +50)
- +9 Stone Bracelet (Medusa Guard/Medusa Guard)
=====================================================================
VII. Update History/Special Thanks
=====================================================================
April 28, 2008 -- Updated the entry for the Avalon HP bug and added a
a couple of FAQ entries.
February 21, 2008 -- Deleted a dangling space (heh) and added a couple
of FAQ entries.
February 13, 2008 -- Minor fixes and additions.
February 7, 2008 -- Added some sub-sections, some FAQ entries, and info
about the last save file in my series. Happy
(Chinese) New Year, everybody!
January 28, 2008 -- More fixes and updates.
January 21, 2008 -- Minor fixes and a new FAQ entry.
January 15, 2008 -- Minor fixes here and there.
January 14, 2008 -- Made some grammatical/stylistic corrections, added
many entries to the Mythril Values list, and added
another entry to the "Glitches" section. Fielded
some more questions in the FAQ section.
January 9, 2008 -- Version 1.0 completed (talk about some serious
slacking, eh?).
May 2007 -- Started work on this guide.
Special thanks to Sega for producing and localizing this great game
for us all to enjoy. Thanks to the contributors to the Japanese
Shining Force EXA Wiki (http://sfx.gkwiki.com/) for providing a great
deal of raw data used in many of the lists in Section III. Thanks to
my fellow Shining Force EXA board denizens at GameFAQs for inspiring
me to write this guide, for contributing to the content found in this
guide, and for providing the kick in the pants that spurred me to
finally finish it. Thanks to SolidSnake X for reminding me to talk
about Demonic Pact and Magic of Insanity (and why I included neither
in my recommendations for Secret Arts), and for providing some missing
Mythril values. Thanks to jisher for letting me know that it's possible
to access the East Balcan Desert locations as early as Chapter 10.
Thanks to Mew seeker and others for pointing out the source of the
Avalon HP bug. Thanks also to GameFAQs for graciously hosting this
guide and for offering a great place for Shining Force EXA lovers to
congregate and converse. ASCII art header courtesy of the ASCII
Generator at http://www.network-science.de/ascii/.
Questions? Comments? Corrections? Was there something I missed?
Or do you think I'm just flat out wrong about something? Send email
feedback to [email protected].
(C) 2007-2008 Wei Chen
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