NoWorries presents:
the "How to" for speedrunning Shining Force
Game: Shining Force I
System: Sega Genesis
FAQ: Beating Shining Force I in under 7 hours
Written By: NoWorries
Allowed Website: www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com
www.supercheats.com
*If you have a website you would like to post this at just shoot me an email*
**As always, the most up-to-date guide will always be found at gamefaqs**
Version History: 1.0 Submitted 28 of May of 2014
AUTHOR'S SIDENOTE
I have an actual recorded run available to watch.
It's slightly slower than my best time, but it at
a minimum gives a decent showing of strategy and
movements for you to "follow along" if you need.
HOWEVER
It is NOT currently uploaded yet. I'm still in the
process of debugging and making the video quality
better so it may take some time. When it is
uploaded, I will update this so you can know. You
can also check my youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tskisoccer
To watch for yourself when it gets loaded. Warning,
I'm not a big contributer of youtube so my channel
is extremely boring. Though, I hope to get several
runs up sometime in the near future. It's just time
consuming and frankly time is what I don't have a
lot of. Thank you
~NoWorries, aka tskisoccer
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Character Overview
2. The Guidelines
3. The Walkthrough
Chapter 1
Sidenote: Stat Consumables
Sidenote: Hero Deaths
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Sidenote: Levels
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Sidenote: End Team
Chapter 8
4. Discussion
End Remarks
Collecting the Sidenotes
Abuses and Glitches
5. Conclusion
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-Who should be reading this FAQ?- #The NoWorries Contract to Greatness
I put this in every faq I've ever written, and it goes something along the
lines like this. By writing this, I commit to you the reader that I will bring
to you not only my vastness of knowledge but do it with a sense of humour. I
understand it's easy to get bogged down in detail as well as a mush of opinion
but I strive to bring you something more than just a guide to greatness.
So who should be reading this? This is a guide on how to beat the game,
Shining Force, in under 7 hours. It's a speed run. It's hard, it's tedious,
it may test you at moments, but rest assured it is a good feeling beating the
game with half a team of level 6 promoted heroes. There is a great level of
expert required skill for this run so if you are a newer player I don't want
to discourage you from trying this but it is going to be hard. For the more
veteran players, I wish you the best of luck.
There will also be an accompanying video available on youtube on my
channel which will be a complete runthrough of the game. That particular run
is 6:55 which is far from my best though it still shows the good helpful ways
to beat things as well as it was my first time recording myself so there were
definitely mistakes made. But besides that! Let's move on with this
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When it comes to speedrunning, there's always some rules, restrictions, and
guidelines to be set forth. For Shining Force, there's nothing completely
radical or insane to be made aware of. The game itself is extremely simple,
take Max and your team of up to eleven other characters and go forth into the
rather ordinary world of Rune as you battle your way through thirty battles
to vanquish Dark Dragon and accomplish one of the more reasonable RPG's for
speed running. Oddly enough, later Shining Force games are much more difficult
to even consider speed running as the games themselves are much longer as well
as the victory conditions for a number of battles is "kill them all" whereas
in glorious Shining Force I, we will be killing them all only a handful of
times.
Right away you're probably thinking well that's just dumb. The game takes 10
hours at least, your party would be far too weak to actually beat some of the
battles, and just a couple of those first missions: how do you not kill
everything? What about the rng (random number generators)? How do you now
kill yourself over that?
Trust me, this is a question and a topic I've debated a number of times with
my older brother Frolki a number of times. The beauty of the situation is
that because the game operates on rng (but not TRUE randomness) there are
certain patterns and exploits to be worked out. Things like, Domingo's and
Max's tendencies to get focused over their allies is an exploitable factoid;
whereas getting Max to point A in a number of spots, winning the battle
despite there being a batallion of Rune Knights storming down his throat is
a purposeful aspect that they the game programmers put into the game that one
might as well exploit.
So how long does it take? As of right now, the time is highly variable as the
path continues to get improved and continues to change as newer methods are
developed. Dark Kobold would say that it takes just under 2 hours to beat the
game using tas (tool assisted speedrun) and that's using Lua and matlab to
really take advantage of the rng. Some of the people on the sgd (speed
gaming demos) would say the time is right around 7 hours. The ideal time I
have plotted right now is on the lower end of that, about 6 hours, maybe 6
and a half. My personal best right now is the 6:45 mark.
As for some of the most "specific" things regarding speed running, the first
and foremost is that this is "rts" or "real time strategy" or "real time
playing" AKA playing on a console and not an emulator. This is done for a
number of reasons and the biggest is the obvious difference between tas
and real time running. This is where the rng would seemingly get in your way
and make a glorious mess of things but that's where knowledge and skill come
into play and give us the advantage over the enemy.
So what do we have going for us? Luckily, there's not a whole lot of variable
concerning the things that matter most. Misses, level ups, enemy movements,
those are all rng and for the most part, we cannot control those. We can
control however things like, starting stats, people in our party, our hero
movements, in battle saving, as well as things like enemy placement and
victory conditions never change so we know exactly what we are up against
every step of the way.
We also have something else handy, and that's magic. Shining Force I was the
only Shining Force to include this style of magic and I'll explain slightly
better how this works.
In Shining Force (SF), your hero's level is continually remembered by the game
engine. You can promote at 10 all the way up through level 20, and when you
promote your level number resets to 1, but your hero's level stays at where
it was at. The biggest and most obvious way to see how this is exploited is
using Khris as she learns Heal 4 at level 21. If you don't see where this is
going, try leveling her to 20 and then promoting her; she'll learn the spell
with the promotion as she is now "21" even though she was 20 just a moment
ago. The advantage here is that we have access to some extremely powerful
magic in the game that normally is impossible to learn due to the learning
curve of experience caps. Tao learns Blaze 4 at 20, Anri learns Freeze 4 at
23, and Domingo is a pain in my bottom but he learns it at 26 so even among
those 3 heroes you can see how much more effective the ladies are as they
learn their spells much quicker as they never have an experience cap problem.
In SFII and later, they fixed this by giving hero's "true level" which resets
upon promotion to the original amount, 20, so a spell that was learned at 44
for example, could only be learned at level 24 promoted which for speed
running purposes is impossible. In any case, let's get on with this.
Character Overview
This is a very quick "spoiler" style section so that you can have an idea just
what each character will do for this run. As it is a speed run, every action,
every choice, every character; they must be important otherwise we are losing
out on valuable precious seconds. Things like moving right to the shop as
opposed to left to do other stuff first... it all makes a difference and adds
up. I suppose a quick note; I'm not getting all the characters. Some people
have discussed "100%" for this game including all the characters but let's be
realistic. There is nothing in this game that actually counts (or is countable
towards a goal) that could be considered "100%". For example, Donkey Kong 1,
2, and 3 all give the percent completion due to the sidequests in the game.
Banjo Kazooie has a definitive "100%" if you get all the notes, puzzle pieces,
and break all the doors getting all the cool stuff (Cheato maybe not needed).
In Shining Force, there is none of that. What's 100%? Grab all the chests?
Kill all the monsters? Find all the useless items hidden throughout the game?
It makes no sense. Therefore, the game is technically "any percent" as we
don't grab all the characters though frankly, defining "100%" as getting all
the characters is lame in my opinion. Anyways:
If you are familiar with my character guide available on gamefaqs, that will
help you to understand my stance towards certain heroes.
The "Required Bunch"
This is everyone you either use, are forced to use, or serve some
purpose. It is different than the next section which includes some
required characters, but they are never placed on our team and we
will never need their services
Max
You have to have him. It's alright, he's quite good at the end with Bolt
2 and Freeze 3. However, through most of the game he is an absolute pain
in the ass to deal with trying to not have him die
Ken
A much better Knight than Mae, his shining moment is his starting spot
for Battle 9 allowing you to "skip" it one turn faster. Allow him to
perish in Battle 10 as Pelle is superior
Though, if (and this is getting ahead of myself) your gladiator is not
level 10 by Chapter 4 (so if Gort isn't a level 10 Warrior), I'd suggest
in lieu of using Gort, just keep using Ken until you later have him perish
as the Power Spear provides much more utility than Gort with the Middle
Axe. Gladiators are cool but if you can't have one by Chapter 4 it is
not worth it. Trust me
Mae
She's useless. Her Bronze Lance is good for Ken, and she can tank some,
but as a fighter she's useless. Use her for Battle 3 and let her taste
the cold steel of a Rune Knight
Pelle
He's amazing. He comes and is fantastically strong and stays that way for
this run. With no 20/20 Arthur to contend with, Pelle will nearly always
be used and you'll be very happy
Vankar
The less incredible knight, Vankar tends to stick around for a while. He
is much better than Ken but not as good as Pelle. He'll be in your final
party most likely
Kokichi
The winged knight of legends. He's awesome for this run and largely the
reason why this works
Luke
Our first Gladiator to be, he's very useful thanks to how utterly obscene
his base damage is. However, his growth is much more akin to Arthur and
after Chapter 3, we will be encouraging him to "seek alternative means
for success"
In a more recent run, Luke perished just after performing his task in
Battle 2. I forgot to revive him, and went ahead and just played through
without him. Surprisingly, you don't need him. So don't freak out if he
dies sooner on you
Gort
This beefy Warrior is the ideal choice for a Gladiator who can wield the
Atlas with much success
Tao
She's a pretty lady and useful for power runs. Here for a speed run she's
beyond ideal and works wonderfully. If things go long she only gets better
with age with Blaze 4 one shotting almost any unit in the game and Boost
if it goes really long is very helpful
Anri
She's honestly the worst of the mages for this run due to her very low
levels. That aside though, having another Freeze 3 for the end is very
helpful and magic damage will almost always be better than physical for
much of the game outside of bosses
Alef
You really only need her for 2 battles which is fine though she needs to
be in for others because she needs to level twice. Bolt 2 is just that
helpful here that it is worth it. In 28, Colossus, bolt 2 works on the
Chimaera/Dragon force as well as later against the line of Armed Skeletons
and Horsemen. For Dark Sol those enemies group up nicely and she roasts
them well for us
Domingo
He's really the other reason why this works. Once you have Domingo and
Kokichi it pretty much becomes the flying duo run while Max flits along
with them hoping not to die. His ability to get focused is very helpful,
but the flying mage portion is helpful for setting up kills, snipes, and
skipping battles
Lowe
He's useless and I hope you have him perish in the first battle. We don't
need healers in this run
Khris
She's rather useless too though you need one of them for the Shade Abbey
battle and since she joins later than Lowe, I'd say use her. Afterwards
you can prepare her for the "Great Beyond" and never use her services
again
Torasu
This guy is also largely useless. However, as we can't really have 4 mages
Max and 7 other strong fighters (not enough experience to go around) the
reason Torasu works is Aura but mostly, he starts with Shield which is
invaluable against Dark Dragon and Colossus to some extent. Shielding Max
and positioning him so allies can't get affected is a great way to abuse
beating Dark Dragon at such low levels. Note that it is useless against
Demon Breath so the main head needs to be brute forced
Hans
He's the only required archer for this run and his use lasts two battles.
Archers barely gain attack and are dependent on arrows they may never get
to use. We won't be using them much, mostly because Kokichi fills that
role way better
Balbaroy
Ah ha he's much better than his wife. Better starting stats and better
promoted stats, while he won't be in the final fights (no reference
intended) he is simply invaluable for sniping until Kokichi and
Domingo come along
Amon
Sadly we won't be using this chick (no pun intended) a whole lot. Balbs
has better starting stats so let her get axed right away
Zylo
He's invaluable again for several battles. However, DON'T EVER promote
him and be prepared to part ways with "Zappa" once his attack doesn't
get above 30 or so. Don't even think about promoting him and then trying
to work with him, 22 attack is simply not going to cut it
Musashi
There are few words worthy to describe Musashi. He brings your best non
legendary sword weapon to the team, he hits hard, he has amazing defense,
he simply rocks this shit
Hanzou
Hanzou is underwhelming to say the least, though he joins and will
probably be better than almost every person on your team except Musashi.
His high speed is an ideal Power Ring wielder not to mention giving him
Shower of Cure is nice too as he can refresh your team for ya
The "Not so helpful for the Speed Run"
^^^Pretty self explanatory no?
Arthur
We won't be seeing much of him this run. Shame
Guntz
The huge tank-like Guntz will not be seen this run
Though, in my most recent run, Guntz was still waiting for me in Pao,
despite not having done any of the requirements to get him. I don't know
if it was a glitch or if Kokichi is the only hero you actually have to do
the stuff for to recruit him but it was quite amusing
Ernst
We are forced to recruit him but don't use him. He kinda sucks
Gong
Thankfully we don't ever have to see Gong as he both doesn't get a weapon
and is a slow healing healer. Skip him
Diane
Yup you don't actually have to recruit Diane. I'd suggest taking advantage
of that situation as you really don't need her, at all
Lyle
He seems like he'd be amazing, but what you find is that he only gets to
fight with your team about 7 times and is expected to both get promoted
and not suck. It really doesn't work out. I'd leave him with the children,
they need a guardian
Bleu
The baby dragon couldn't hurt a fly. He's slow, and doesn't move far. Bleu
simply has no place on your team for this run
Jogurt
HAHAHAHAHA
Adam
He is actually required though his recruitment is very easy and doesn't
take any extra time. But I still wouldn't use him, ever. Probably not
even for a power run, he's really not worth it
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2. The Guidelines
As with any good challenge, we have to have order and guidelines to measure
fairness and have accuracy for what we are accomplishing. So here's the list:
1. Time starts after naming Max. Not in that screen, but when you actually
accept the name for him and the game begins. This is done mostly to reduce
the frustration of speeding through naming, not to mention gives you a
chance to be creative with the name and not worry about it adding time.
Time ends with the lethal damage being dealt to Dark Dragon. Not at the
beginning of your attack, but once the damage is dealt and he has faded
from sight.
2. For Chapter times, (with the exception of the first chapter starting),
time starts after you get the option "would you like to save?" That is
coincidentally the end time of the previous chapter. This is the only
real moment when taking breaks is acceptable as the chapter has ended but
the next one doesn't start until you click yes save.
For Battle times, time starts when the screen goes black and you hear the
"click click click" of the battle starting. Just like for Dark Dragon, time
ends when you "finish" the battle. For boss/kill all battles, when you
have dealt the final blow is your victory. However, for entering town win
conditions, you're time ends once you say "yes" to Nova to leave enemies
on the battlefield
3. Just to reiterate, this should be done on console and not emulator. I
understand many people don't have consoles or would prefer to play on an
emulator. That's fine, just be prepared to receive grief as it's not what
is "standard" by the guidelines set forth. Assuming you don't use any save
states to "abuse" the rng, it could be questionably OK though a number of
spots use in battle saves (IBS) which for an emulator takes less than a
second to both use and to save whereas the console can take 5 seconds each
time rather easily.
Other than that, I don't think there's a whole lot else. There's no known
obvious glitches to abuse, there's no super skipping ahead or anything like
that. Just our wits versus the game! Let's do this!
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3. The Walkthrough
Chapter 1
It makes hardly any difference, but naming Max only a single letter as opposed
to Max (call him Z or A for example) is a tiny bit faster, or as Kobold put
it, saves 29 frames I think is what he said. Not a lot, but certainly "worthy"
of mentioning. Anyways... the game starts up, you talk to Lowe and we're ready
to go. Now, I imagine we can't skip getting the basic core heroes without
tasing so go right to the King (the lady in the central walkway can block you
so be careful). For text, always holding up or down makes it scroll faster and
I found holding B instead of A or C is safer as you can't try then talking to
someone after it ends. Just be mindful of spots where you need to say yes so
you don't cancel out right away! Now head south, get your team to join, return
to the king (not return of the king) and get your 100 gold from the king. I
suggest spending it all on medical herbs, giving 2 to Max, Luke, and Ken, 3 to
Tao, and 1 to Hans. You could sell both wooden staves here as well but we
shan't be needing more than 10 herbs until we start buying seeds. Now head to
the gate and get this thing started!
Once inside the battle, I turn off battle messages and turn up the message
speed to 4. The only place where this makes a difference is in healing which
we will use some. If you really need the messages on so you know how much you
did, that's fine. It really doesn't make that much of a difference and Dark
Kobold has said something like, "doesn't actually save that much time," or
something like that though it would be interesting for him to replicate his
two hour run with messages on to see if it does add time. Anyways
Battle 1
Ideal 3:34:5
My Best 3:34:5
This is about as ideal as it gets, as such this is the current ideal time
which is also my best time. The strategy is simple, but what has to happen
in this battle is rather complicated so here's a short list:
-Max must level (+1 attack, +1 defense is a minimum)
-Tao must level (+3 magic points is a minimum)
-Lowe must die
-Hans must die
Those four requirements set up Chapter 1 to be extremely fast for you, so if
it doesn't happen, I'd consider restarting. Tao can get 2 MP, it's not like
"huge" but it's certainly annoying as +3 gives her an extra Blaze for the next
battle. It's more important that Max and Tao both level, and Hans and Lowe
both die. We don't need either of them and they slow us down by about four
minutes or so in this chapter.
Strategy-wise, it's pretty simple. With Ken/Luke positioned on the right side
with Hans or Tao within range, you can take out the Rune Knight in a single
round. The trigger for the movement of the second batallion is that Goblin
who is offset from the others. It looks like
Space | Goblin | Wall | This row is the trigger
Hole | Goblin | Goblin | Space
Once you move up there, they move down. I tend to put Lowe on the "Space"
while moving the others up the side. He takes a few hits but like I said,
getting him killed is super helpful for speeding things up.
Once the Rune Knight dies, the battle ends. Go ahead and give Max the Short
Sword and Luke the Middle Sword.
Battle 2
Ideal 9:00
My Best 9:22
I hope you did those four requirements, as it makes such a difference (this
is really the only spot in the entire game where stats matter, Max getting
+1 attack and Tao getting +3 MP as opposed to +2). With Hans and Lowe dead,
our movement is very easy. Ken can move up one, Tao move 2, Luke move 2, and
Max complete that little trio. Now as you're moving up, don't block Tao or
Luke.
For Goblins, Ken/Max will do ~4, Luke will do a minimum of 8, and Tao does
6-7. As you can see, a Luke+4 kills a Goblin while Tao can roast several
bringing them low. However, Dark Dwarves pose a problem (2-3 from Ken/Max) so
guaranteeing Tao has 6 MP to Blaze all 3 Dark Dwarves helps a bunch (minimizes
attacks on them then with Luke killing them instantly).
To win, have Max one spot to the right of the bridge. Luke attacks the dwarf
and Tao blazes; then Max sneaks in for the win.
If Luke dies, I wouldn't bother reviving him. On my most recent run he
perished and I completely forgot to revive him and was like "oh shit" but
I actually crushed my best/ideal time for Battle 3 without him there. He's
not a required character, and really only serves a purpose for Shade Abbey in
all reality though with him not stealing experience your team will be much
better equipped to deal with Shade Abbey (and Luke only blocked a single
Zombie anyway) so having him die is actually not a big deal. Obviousy if Luke
dies, don't buy him a Short Axe.
Inside Guardiana, there's a couple things to do. First, go recruit Gort and
then go and buy Luke a Short Axe (giving the Middle Sword back to Max). Go
watch the King die, recruit Mae, plunder the top two chests in the treasury
(not the most top one, just the top ones left/right in either column), and
then head to Nova.
THIS IS IMPORTANT. Whenever you have quite a bit of swapping to do (items)
using Nova can save quite a bit of time as he is less clunky than just manual
swapping as he allows for multiple swaps.
Anyway, while there make sure to give Mae's Bronze Lance to Ken and then head
out. Don't worry about healing items unless you used all 10 Herbs already
(because you only need about 10 for most of Chapter 1). Use the Defense Potion
on Max if you haven't already.
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#side note#
We get 5 stat increasing items in this game, defense pots, power pots, breads
of life, legs of haste, and the turbo pepper. This is the rule of thumb:
Defense pots --> Max
Max needs to be hit a number of times so making sure he can get hit 3 times as
opposed to 2 is helpful through these. By level 3 Max should gain +3 defense
but he can easily have 1 or 0 so use these liberally as these are the most
useless in the run. Any leftover use on Domingo (Max should stop getting hit
after chapter 2 so you can save them from then on, though it is important to
ensure that Max does not die in 2 hits from a Gargoyle. As their attack is 26,
making sure Max has a ratio to require 3 hits is very important)
Power pots --> Balbaroy
These things serve really one purpose, letting Balbaroy snipe. The first 2 you
get in the game are going to Balbs for +4 to his attack, this alone cuts down
90% of the trouble later in the game. Later on, he'll get promoted once you
get the handy dandy Broad Sword as that basically gives him +4 more attack.
The other Power Potion we will most likely skip as it is out of our way and at
that stage of the game +2 will hardly make a difference
Breads of life --> Domingo
His best use outside of having magic is drawing aggro, so give him the bread
to help him out. You can consider saving a couple though to make sure people
have at least 22 life in chapter 7 and 8 to survive the beam attack from the
robots. But I'd mostly just use them on Domingo =)
Legs of haste --> You only get 1...
This thing is worthless due to the fact you only get 1. As it is, use it on
Anri. Her agility is not stellar and just +5 (from the Speed Ring too) helps
her a bit. Alternatively, I've used it on Balbaroy to ensure that he goes
before Kokichi in the Tower of the Ancients.
Turbo Pepper --> Musashi
I'd prefer the Mobility Ring to have another, but as it is, the most important
person to increase is Musashi as he can't fly like Kokichi can. Without the
Turbo Pepper, Musashi is much slower, so give it to him
#ring side note#
While we're at it, let's address the rings
Power Ring --> Generally not to be put on your best person; it needs to be
on a fast person capable of boosting your team. Often Balbaroy will hold it
for sniping bosses
Speed Ring --> Generally it's going to be on Anri (though before she is 6
be careful otherwise she'll go before Tao and that's not good). There are a
couple spots though where this will go on your sniping hero to be used for a
neat little glitch, the Speed glitch. Basically it works this way. By moving
someone, then equipping this at the end of their turn, they will get their
turn much sooner the next round as their agility is boosted (as close as we
can get to tas manipulation). This only works at low levels (like not post 6
or 7 so much) and only in a handful of spots, but it can be helpful (most
noteably for Balbaroy in chapter 5)
Mobility Ring --> This thing gets handed around a lot to whomever needs it.
Generally it'll be on Tao or Musashi, though it'll be everywhere
#End side note#
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Battle 3
Ideal 8:32
My Best 8:32
This is a tricky battle but surprisingly short when you sneak Max in like a
fairy. With Mae, move her to the spot that is up one, left one from the bridge
(basically not the point where the rivers connect, but one lower). This will
choke the bats off and she's rather expendable so it works well. Everyone else
needs to kill the Dwarves as best they can while Tao can blaze each bat
individually leaving them for someone to hit them. If you don't miss them at
all, you're set up for a sub 9 minute.
Now moving up, we need to do two things, herb anyone who is wounded (only herb
Mae if everyone else is healed), and be mindful of the trigger. Notice that
strange strip of land above the other spot where the rivers connect? Not the
connection closer to the Rune Knights, but the other one. That line is the
trigger for the remaining enemies to charge. The gameplan (while healing) is
to position ourselves on that line. It should look something like
Mae | Ken | Tao | Gort | Max | River
| Rvr | Rver | Rvr | River
There will be some space between you and the Rune Knights. Now we want to
avoid deaths here, and the movements need to go something like this. If you
can, time your moves with the enemy taking their turn (a good clue of this
is when the Bats get their turn as they are very fast and tend to lead each
round). From where Max is currently, he needs two turns to make it into
Alterone so you need to move people up. Your best bet is to try and "wall" so
that no Rune Knight can block Max entirely into Alterone. It basically looks
something like
RKnt | Alterone
RKnt | Alterone
1 | 2 |
3 | 4 |
5 | 6 | River
7 | Rver | River
8 | Rver | River
That is your basic target region to get there. Max in any of those spots can
make it to Alterone, but obviously you need him to not die/get surrounded.
Ideally, you can get Max to spot 2 or 4, Gort to 1, 2, or 4, and Ken to 1 or
3. Tao can't mvoe well but she can usually get to 5, 6, or 7, while Mae can
move up almost anywhere and stand in a blocking position. It's tricky, but
not hard.
Anyway, now that we're inside things are very cool. Go ahead and strip Max of
all his stuff (give his sword to Luke or Gort) and begin looting Alterone. In
the shop where you talk to the fine gentlemen letting you into the castle, just
grab the left most chest (healing seed), and in the top right house, just grab
4
3
2 1
chests 1 and 3. Don't forget to get pushed by the lady into the river for the
other chest as well; but skip everything else. Inside the castle, loot the
backroom (skip the right chest) and that's all (the chest nearest the dragon
head has a healing seed, grab it now if you're very low on healing though we
get to have Khris for a couple battles now. Otherwise grab it on your way out
of the chapter). Do what you need to do and start the next battle. IF Luke is
dead, the middle chest in that backroom is the other Middle Sword. You can
skip it: Bread of Life
Middle Sword Medical Herb
Defense Potion
See so normally you grab all 3 on the left but if Luke is dead, you don't need
a third Middle Sword so let it go, let it go, can't hold it back anymore. Let
it go, let it go, This song is too addicting >.>
Battle 4
Ideal 11:36:5
My Best 11:36:5
You don't need Hans, Mae, or Lowe for this (or Luke!) By going clockwise
(which is up as opposed to right) the enemies group up much better into 4
groups basically, the bats and rune knights (2 and 2), the reinforcements (2
more bats), the never moving bridge knights (2 of them), and the final
frontier which is the 4 dwarves and archers and mage so you can see the
importance of Tao having at least 17 magic so she can get off 3 blaze 2's and
a blaze 1. Mine only had 16 so I opted for 3 blaze 1's but in either case, the
battle is much easier this way due to enemy groupings and if you can happen
to not get misses on bats (combined with at least 1 blaze 2) sub 12 is very
much possible. Just know that the end group (the Dark mage, 2 Elves, and the
Dark Dwarves) don't ever move once they're in position.
Once you end the battle (first kill them all we've had darn it!) sprint to the
king then use the dragon head and bail out on this chapter!
Ideal 45:00
My Best 45:46:8
For this best run, my second battle was slow about 40 seconds and
I bought a Short Axe for Luke though he was dead >.> but sometimes
you forget things like that
To think that my first runs at this game I was over an hour and now I'm
under the sub 50 minute mark... It's amazing and shows (1) how the rng
can really mess with you and (2) how the strategies continue to improve and
get better and even less rng dependent. In fact, I am trying very hard NOT to
have any rng dependent things happen because it's hard to replicate. If you do
get rng lucky (like double crits on Marionette or something) that's awesome
but don't count on it, ever. Vice versa, it's why we're not relying on levels
or stat growth because those are so rng dependent. Anyone familiar with my
character guide should be familiar with that, and in particular, if you look
at Musashi you can see his 11-13 levels have had some nice bumps; though not
one time so far have I managed to get him to gain an attack. He may get more
tankier, but at that point it's pointless due to all the defense piercing.
It's a seemingly short chapter, though actually one of the longer ones in the
run. Things that can screw you up: unlucky misses, unlucky enemy crits, and
unlucky movement. If all goes off well, you may break 50 minutes which would
be awesome. The question you're probably asking is what about hero deaths, so
let's side note for a moment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#side note, Hero Deaths#
If Max dies, if it's chapter 1 just restart the run. Later on, just hope he
dies quickly as opposed to being almost done with the battle.
If Tao, Anri, Domingo, Gort, Pelle, Vankar, Musashi, Hanzou, Torasu, Alef, or
Kokichi die, you probably want to revive them after the battle.
If Lowe dies, never revive him
If Mae dies, never revive her
If Hans dies, never revive him
If Ken dies before the end of Chapter 2, we need to revive him. We simply can
not use Mae as a substitute due to her positioning in Chapter 3 battle 9 as
she starts one space to the left of where Ken does and Ken starts just perfect
for moving to block for Balbaroy. After that, if he dies don't revive him. It
is possible if he has 30 health, 12 base attack (27 with Power Spear) and 11
defense that he could be a more viable choice than Vankar though that is
extremely unlikely (and Vankar tends to get axed by Chapter 8 anyway so it
doesn't matter that much).
If Luke dies after Battle 2, he's served his purpose.
If Khris dies before Shade Abbey, you'll need to revive her or Lowe for Shade
Abbey, and then have them die again soon
That's it for now, we'll cover more later
#End side note#
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 2
In Rindo, all you've got to do is grab the Speed Ring (second row, third
house), talk to the Mayor and move out (leave the Speed Ring on Max)
Battle 5
Ideal 11:59
My Best 12:02
This is one of my most exciting improvements. First things first, if you still
haven't gotten rid of Lowe, Hans, or Mae now is the time. The next thing is
make sure Max has the Speed Ring not equipped. Take out the dwarves and bats
(if you move to max movement each time, Ken or Max should be able to kill one
of the dwarves that Tao blazes) allowing you to put people through to avoid
getting choked. Try to get off as many blaze 2's here to clear things out, and
with any luck by about 6-7 minutes you're heading towards Manarina. Send
everyone left and careful to not block Max or Tao. By all going left, the
troops never organize leaving themselves spread out which is quite nice as Max
is less likely to die though you have to be careful as they tend to not aggro
unless they can move within range and attack.
As Max can only move 3 spaces through the desert, he needs 3 turns, going 1,
3, and then 3 into Manarina so good positioning is key, and basically on the
turn before moving into Manarina equip the Speed Ring. This is an interesting
little glitch that when dealing with similar agilities, will give the newly
raised agility priority thus you can "cheat" and people will get their turns
sooner with equipping the speed ring. Fighting up here is not nearly as
important anymore because of this, it's just much more about positioning
Inside Manarina, we have only 2 things to do so talk to Anri, then follow her
but grab the Domingo Egg first, and then talk to her recruiting her. Give her
the Speed Ring but don't equip that on her yet. Go ahead and dive into the
earth...
Battle 6
Ideal 10:00
My Best 10:42
This is definitely a sub 10 goal of mine. Giving Anri the speed ring before
(but not equipping it) would be helpful to then not do it in battle. Tao
should blaze the zombie, then Anri should (equipping the ring) kill it. Your
other troops can now surround the other zombie while Anri goes and zaps the
zombie near the bridge, now this is important. Do not move Tao in and blaze
2 all the bridge unless that dark mage has gotten its turn, otherwise Anri
will get roasted and die. If possible, moving Ken over to spear it (if
his turn comes up for example) would be a slightly safer alternative. Move
and continue brute forcing, though before sending one person past the bridge,
(that's the bat trigger) try to time movement with the bats turns so you can
get 2-3 people across before the bats swarm. Massacre the bats and move forth,
sending Ken to get the power ring. With any luck, Tao will have 24 MP (mine
was no where close) but you need at least 17 for 3 blaze 2's and a blaze,
but having leftover for the skeleton and mages is nice. If you have at least
2 blazes leftover, that's the best way to down the skeleton otherwise you
have to get the power ring and you have to boost someone
Time to go advance some story and head back to Rindo
Battle 7
Ideal 5:45
My Best 6:27
Ideally, Ken and Gort could be at Marionette in 3 turns, boosted, and kill
her on their fourth turn. Problem is this battle is super tricky and the lack
of levels is beginning to be a problem so a slightly, 1-2 turns more approach
is probably the best bet. Tao should blaze 2 the puppets off to the left and
you should try to kill them asap (evil puppets the priority) and make sure Ken
gets on the tent floor on this turn (go ahead, equip the ring now). This will
draw the other 3 puppets down. Send Luke to the right, to draw the bats and
the one evil puppet to him while everyone else forces up. The clowns don't
need to be killed, the most important thing here is to BS on Ken's second turn
before he boosts, that wave he can boost Gort and himself (technically, you
could boost ken on his first turn though if he takes damage that's a problem
we'll address here in a moment). Basically, you need 2 boosted hits to kill
Marionette as no other damage really is going to make a difference. So the
best way is to BS guaranteeing you get 2 boosts (so the ring doesn't break)
not to mention that you don't miss a ton. It's definitely tricky but if done
right with a little luck, nobody should die and you do it fast.
Basic rule of thumb. If you're boosting someone you want to fight a boss, do
not let them level or take damage. This will keep boost on despite any
message saying otherwise
After that, just grab the most top right chest for the defense pot then head
out. Chat to the mayor do the whole burning thing and head out, but PS before
you do. The PS is to avoid having to do a huge revival fest if this battle
goes poorly. Before starting Shade Abbey, equip the Speed Ring on Max, make
sure the Power Ring ain't broke (and it's equipped on Ken), and make sure
Max has some combination of life/defense enough to survive 2 attacks (18/21
damage from zombies/skeletons). Use that defense pot on Max most likely
Battle 8
Ideal 5:46
My Best 5:46
Boy this battle can be tricky. The general idea is for Gort, Ken, and Max in
that order to choke enemies (positioning between the pews as opposed to one
space below the pews is better, it draws the skeletons over faster). Tao blaze
2 liberally, Luke fight the zombie on the right, and Anri do what she can.
Khris should heal whoever needs it but obviously Max is the priority. On
their first turn, have Tao/Anri roast the zombie on the left while you get set
up. Ken should boost Gort on his first turn so Gort can smack Skeletons in one
attack. If it doesn't break, boost Max too. If still not broken, he can boost
himself as well at this point. Either way, the battle is short and fast and
optimal depends on how much usage you get out of your power ring
Get your birds and move along
Ideal 40:30, 1:25:15
My Best 44:38, 1:36:28
A collection of my best times would put me much closer, only about two
minutes off the ideal time. However, the individual best battle times
may not reflect the overall best chapter time
Things are going to get exciting now! Meet your most helpful recruit for the
next 3 chapters, Balbaroy. Amon, not so useful. This chapter was definitely
one approaching the hour mark when things first started but due to some huge
improvements (over 6 minutes on the desert, 4 minutes on Marionette) things
have improved drastically. One thing that has made a noticeable difference,
no important deaths. I know I've played this a few times, but let me stress
just how tedious it is to go to priests for revival. My non battle time for
chapter 2 this past run was less than 8 minutes; that's from the very end of
chapter 1, all the walking around, and all the way to the very end of chapter
2, only 8 minutes! To go to the priest is first a detour, but to revive can
take close to 30 seconds a hero and later in the game it can get extremely
time consuming skipping the 6 dead heroes we need to stay dead. I cannot
stress enough smart movements, trying to avoid the death of important heroes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 3
Get excited for some new weapons! First, make sure the Power Ring is
good and repaired. Second, sell Ken's, Luke's, Gort's, Tao's, Lowe's,
Anri's, Khris's, and Han's weapons. Now buy 2 middle axes and buy
3 Power Spears (put them all on Mae except for one for Ken). While we're
here, buy any healing seeds if you have money left over. If you can't afford
3 Power Spears, it's not a crime as we can get more in Chapter 4 without
adding too much time. Go talk to the Queen but don't bother grabbing Diane,
we don't need her cute face, though if you need money her steel arrow sells
for a pretty penny and at this point she doesn't have to get swapped out.
Alright, there's a little battle prep here. On a previous run, my 38 damage
Balbs (19+4+15 or boosted with power ring) did 22 points of damage and killed
the dark mage by himself. Amazing. The problem is that won't happen, ever.
Now take it from me, relying on killing the mage on turn 3 is tricky, as the
Dark Priest will likely heal the mage and by turn 4 you're approaching 5, 6
minutes and problems. If you don't see where this is going, before going to
the battle head to the Priest and save your game. Now use your two power
potions on Balbs to raise his attack by 4. Could 3 be enough? Maybe, but I'd
rather not risk it, as 2 is definitely not enough. If you get a +1 attack,
reset, using that PS. While each game reset takes about 10-15 seconds
depending on how old the console and whatnot (or Wii versus Genesis) you can
safely do this 7 or 8 times before you should really get concerned about
wasting too much time because it really does make that big of a deal. Not
just for this battle big of a deal, but down the road it just makes Balbs a
much more viable ally to keep on your team as opposed to ditching after
chapter 5 like many of your allies.
In a more recent run, it took almost 4 minutes to get the +4
attack for Balbaroy. It is still worth it.
I just want to stress that
Battle 9
Ideal 1:33
My Best 1:33
All you do: Balbs moves one spot right of the stairs, Amon below him, and Ken
below her. With Balbs boosted, he kills the mage on his second turn and thus
you end the battle very quickly, potentially closer to a minute depending on
when Balbs feels like getting his turn.
It would be nice to turn around and leave but we need that moonstone. Have
Max grab it (Tao's dress is her searching down in the bottom left corner if
you want) and head out. Get the Lunar Dew and go recruit Zylo (just stand in
front of him and use it, don't talk to him). Now we need him and we need to
start planning a bit here so head to Nova. Also don't forget to 'recruit'
Kokichi by watching him fly his cruiser.
Battle 10
Ideal 13:30
My Best 14:09
The strategy stays largely the same though the tactics are different. At the
beginning of the level boost Zylo, if it breaks, head back and repair it. Now
don't let him take damage and he can kill up to 4 units, though 2 skeletons
and a pegasus knight work well. Basically move Max up everytime, and use
everyone else to fend off the troops. But kill everything, it's faster than
walking into the bridge. Try to have Ken, Luke, Amon, and Khris perish here
because their services are no longer needed.
Strangely enough for Zylo, IBS is faster than going and repairing so I would
just opt to do that for this battle instead
Battle 11
Ideal 4:59
My Best 5:04
Not much to say, fly Balbaroy over and kill the Silver Knight before the
Laser Eye attacks. Boost him about a turn before getting there and I'd suggest
Speed Ring glitching on his second turn (equipping it at the end of his second
turn) as this bypasses the Pegasus Knight movement and keeps his speed higher
for the battle.
Ideal 28:00, 1:53:00
My Best 29:30, 2:07:32
If you get a sub 2 minute for 9 and a sub 5 minute for 11 you are set up to
go out quicker than 30 minutes for this chapter which would be outstanding.
As it is, sub 35 is really what you're aiming for and that comes from cutting
out (or what I call from here on out, skipping) battles 9 and 11 and just
doing the best you can in 10.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4
Holy crap, quite a bit to do now. First, go right to Elliot and talk to him.
Now return to the first wagon and grab the chest and talk to the shopkeep;
selling Pelle's, Max's, Balbaroy's, and Amon's weapons. Buy 2 long swords
and any power spears you skipped earlier. Go talk to the "queen" (grab those
treasures too) and let Pao leave. Kokichi will join as well as Vankar can be
found standing bored. Now head up to Nova for some serious swappage. Our team
is going to be Max, Pelle, Vankar, Gort, Tao, Anri, Balbaroy, Kokichi, and
Zylo with 3 dead people. It's weird isn't it? We almost have our final team
it's kind of scary.
Battle 12
Ideal 15:00
My Best 15:39
An update from the previous run. It is "faster" to do a sneak and just try to
get the heat axe and avoid killing everything. However, it is barely faster,
maybe a minute or two, and you miss out on tons of experience. The best bet
is to plunge forth into the wild and massacre everything for experience. Once
you get near Elliot boost people who are not close to leveling (and ranged
helps) and beat him down.
Now, head into Pao. Hopefully Gort is 10, promote him and give him that Heat
Axe (keep the Speed Ring on him) but hand the Power Ring over to Balbaroy.
Go recruit Domingo (sorry, no Guntz this time), make sure the Power Ring is
fixed and your team stacked and head to Uranbatol. In this battle, if Tao or
Anri are close to 12/8, it is ok to let them kill a bit extra to hit those.
Anri in particular, is balls useless in the next 4 battles if she hasn't
gotten blaze 2 yet.
# Side note, Gladiators #
Gladiators are awesome. The Atlas is a beast of burden and the Heat Axe turns
your gladiators into a slaying machine, not to mention access to another
blaze 2 and later, two atlases for blaze 3. It's awesome and they tend to get
a good solid amount of defence early on as well allowing for slightly better
tanking especially after your paladins are promoted and die if you sneeze on
them. Here's the catch, if your warriors (Luke or Gort) are not 10 by this
point, boot them. If by the end of chapter 5, they're not 10, they will be
more of a drag than anything, as they will not get the experience they need
and having a level 1 gladiator post Kane is quite worthless. Experience is
very tight around here that is for certain, but take note, that if Gort or
Luke have not reached 10 by this battle (though really chapter 5) they will
need their walking papers signed. The last time I had a Gladiator under
leveled and what not he got booted anyway as he couldn't hurt anything. Save
yourself. It may increase your chapter 5 by a minute or two, but it's more
experience for the people who need it and they won't be missed blocking
anyway!
# End side note #
Battle 13
Ideal 8:00
My Best 9:01
These things give great experience! Too bad we're not fighting most of the
enemies... The basic plan is to always move to the max, and kill the top
door guard before the right one to end the battle (Hellhound, then Artillery).
You can always attack, but just make sure you're moving well. Pelle, Vankar,
and Zylo should march north (always moving to the max) so they take out the
Hellhound (the two things next to it never move). Balbaroy should try to keep
up but his target is the Artillery (29+ magic number so boost is fine here).
You'll likely only kill the 7 most closest units towards you, but that's fine.
Try to avoid getting blocked on the stairs/ladders by the silver knight/priest
combo because dear god that's annoying
Head through the door now, go recruit Ernst (doing it this way, we skip his
long animation), make sure people are alive, the ring is solid, and then head
to Balbazak (a PS here probably worth it).
Battle 14
Ideal 9:45
My Best 10:15
I'm definitely intrigued about reducing this, though it's just a chaotic
bloodbath. The safest plan, seems to be all squishy heroes crowding into a
corner to reduce impact, while Pelle, Vankar, Kokichi (make sure he has the
Power Ring back), Gort, and Tao (oh, I HOPE your Tao is 12 now) force up the
left side and get to Balbazak quickly. The seabats are swarmy and annoying,
but Zylo should tank them well, so if the artillery are dead you've got
little to worry about other than wasting a ton of time fighting sea bats. You
may want to BS here as well if things are going well because 2 boosts help
quite a bit against Balbazak. The only reason I say may is because this battle
is so quick that simply egressing out and starting over if things go badly
won't murder your time and the experience is always nice
Ideal 39:50, 2:32:50
My Best 45:19, 2:52:54
You can see that I have a bit of improving to do myself, though to be honest,
this chapter signifies the start of "boss rng" becoming an issue as most of
these fights become directly correlated with their length depending on how
many boost misses you have to endure. Anyway, I feel it's time for another
important side note
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#Levels Side Note#
You're probably wondering how the hell is this possible and what level my team
is. Well, they're low. But it's not a huge deal. Because of how SFI works with
levels, each level from one to another matters so little, that short of
getting 4 or 5 levels, you have no guarantee that your hero is going to be
like noticeably better than before (hence, the trend of always taking the new
people and replacing old ones). But, there are some important levels to keep
track of, if you remember, magic is one, so let's dive into this.
Max, should be 9 by chapter 6, 10 by chapter 7 (no more than 10) (unpromoted
of course) he becomes a caster with the sword of light
Gort should be 10 by chapter 4
Pelle and Vankar at least 10 by chapter 6, though 14 and 12 respectively by
chapter 6 works better
Kokichi should be at least 10 by chapter 6
Tao should be 4 by battle 3 (during it is fine), 12 by battle 14, and 20 by
chapter 8
Anri should be 6 by Shade Abbey (hopefully), 13 by battle 14 (highly unlikely)
and 16/23 by chapter 8
Domingo needs 4 asap, and 13 asap
The latter 3, are the only ones that matter. As for everyone else
Lowe never levels
Ken will probably by about 9 when you replace him
Luke will be about 5 to 7
Khris may be 4, though 2 is always possible
Hans could be 1 or 5, he doesn't change
Amon may level but it doesn't matter
Balbaroy can be amazing or useless, though I ditched him level 4 promoted
as his attack just sucks, similar to Zylo. And Kokichi is better for
sniping at that point anyway
Zylo typically gets to about 16, though his usage is largely dependent on
getting attack, at least 35 by chapter 6 if he wants to continue to be
used otherwise he's scrapped
Alef should level at least twice (to get Bolt 2) but even if she hits 20 don't
promote her (unless somehow she is 20 by battle 28) but in that case you
have other problems
Torasu may level twice, he may also just sit there
Musashi can go up to 5 levels, but he could also only level twice
Hanzou probably won't level but once, maybe twice
Gong, Arthur, Guntz, Diane, Ernst, Bleu, Lyle, and Adam are either skipped or
never used so naturally they won't level.
Basically, don't stress too much about levels. The most recent run I had only
half a team, with Max, Pelle, Anri, Tao, Domingo, Kokichi, Torasu, and
Musashi (Hanzou had died against Dark Sol) and things worked out. Magic is key
here, as well as Musashi, Evil Lance, and the Valkyre all hit very hard so
physical levels aren't important for stats. The magic numbers matter, so I'll
ID those for you. Can stats make a difference? Yes, but we're not relying on
them.
#End Side Note#
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 5
Battle 15
Ideal 8:00
My Best 8:56
This battle is another kill em all (what, like the third one?) and isn't hard,
but it can be tricky thanks to low levels and potential bad level ups. You
want to divide up not because we're strong but because getting the units to us
is half the battle. Pelle can head down the left side and brute force those
enemies, while Max, Kokichi, and Anri are good to handle those sea bats.
Domingo should move right to draw down those two, but he can move lower to the
stairs, they'll follow him. Gort, Zylo, and Tao are good for helping out the
right side. Zylo should just focus on moving down, once you approach the mast
the P Knights will start moving (you can retreat back now) that speeds things
up. For Vankar and Balbs send them wherever you can fit them in
Now that we're here, grab all 4 of those chests (skip the most right one) and
when you're done, get in your boat and head to the next battle. Make sure
Balbs has the Power, Speed, and Mobility Ring and head out (yes there's just
that little to do, like you don't even have to talk to the King).
Battle 16
Ideal 3:59
My Best 4:09
We're using all the abuses here! Well not quite. We need only to kill the Mage
and it takes Balbs 3 turns to get there and believe it or not he won't get
attacked, especially if you fly Domingo out just a little to draw aggro
(everyone else should be cramming into the stairwell to avoid fighting). Have
Balbs with the Mobility Ring fly up, up and up boosting on his second turn to
kill the mage on his third turn. Don't believe me? The middle group of enemies
will move to Domingo and head down avoiding Balbs. The worms move up to the
mage with the skeleton, and the hellhounds move down. You have nothing to fear
except Balbs getting his turn before the worms have a chance to move at all.
The only reason I say to give Balbs the speed ring IF you are feeling lucky
you can use the speed ring glitch on the same turn you boost Balbs to maybe
get his turn sooner (hence, breaking 4 minutes). I say if you're lucky though
as the speed ring gives him 14 agility (assuming no levels) so it's possible
that the left worm (the one we need to move) won't get his turn until after
Balbs. It's not a huge deal, but it's safer to have Balbs just not get his
turn right away as opposed to waiting an entire extra round. As for fighting
the things that make it to your stationary force, if Balbs is less than a turn
away, then just sit (unless you can kill, unless you're a mage). If Balbs has
only had 1 turn, go ahead and kill whatever it is (seabat most likely). The
path for Balbs, for me, was move to the max on the left side (he was one space
over from the main path, and in that corner) then moved 9 spaces up, and then
moved in and equipped the power ring to deliver the fatal blow
Afterwards, avoid talking to people best you can and go to the king. Maybe
repair if need be, otherwise, head on out. I have (on a more recent run) had
Kokichi and Balbaroy both 10 at this point so I elected to promote them before
leaving Waral so they could get some more experience. Balbaroy, switching to
a Steel Sword stays about the same with attack and Kokichi similarly with the
Lance swap stays about the same. This doesn't always happen and doesn't
always have to happen. The reason why promoting them at 10 and not later than
10 is their "kept" stats post 10 are really bad until 16+. For full details,
you can check out my character guide available at Gamefaqs.
Battle 17
Ideal 8:59
My Best 12:02
This battle is deceivingly easy if you have some level reqs, Blaze 3, and
Freeze 2 on Domingo and Anri. So being 12, 13, and 4 are very important. The
general plan is, Vankar and Pelle choke the left side, Domingo and Gort choke
the right side (hence, why the promotion was so important so he can level and
hopefuly get one of those +5 defense levels not to mention using the Heat Axe
here is quite helpful). Blast away repeatedly with magic and hopefully those P
Knights stay down as opposed to go and worry me. The Gargoyle largely is
useless and may try to cast muddle
Ideal 25:30, 2:57:20
My Best 30:54, 3:30:48
My mages are massively underleved but things are still working out. Tao hit
12 this battle and Anri is 10. Just shows that the magic is helpful though
not 100% necessary
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6
And now the fun begins. Chapter 6 is absolutely the hardest chapter in the
game and will take well over an hour though how much longer we will try to
deal with the best we can. What happens next depends on your choice though for
now, I'm heavily inclined that leveling is not good and this first run will
reflect no leveling in Kane. As for getting started here, this is probably
the longest part of the game before we even start fighting! I spent about 8
minutes and had to do the following, promote Kokichi, Vankar, Pelle, and I did
Gort and Balbaroy as well because I have a strategy for Balbs for the next
couple spots though I'm not planning on using him in Dark Dragon (he has a
hefty 30 attack promoted with broad sword, which isn't great, but boosted it
becomes 45 for an entire level or damage so hopefully some boost glitches).
I also buy 2 chrome lances (because we're getting the Halberd soon) and stock
everyone full on healing seeds as hopefully this is the last time ever needing
to shop except for repairs and a new axe for Gort in Prompt maybe if Gort has
leveled though he will probably get axed no pun intended. As I'm not leveling
I want everything I can take advantage of. I also sold all the useless weapons
as I actually don't have much gold and chrome lances are expensive. All in all
promotions take far too long but 8 minutes in and I'm ready to roll.
Battle 18
Ideal 5:50
My Best 5:50
Yeah looks ideal right?? It's pretty simple, with the Mobility Ring on Domingo
and the Power and Speed Ring on Kokichi roll out, using your other troops to
take out the artillery. We have to be careful not to trigger the extra troops
now so don't move anyone else forward except Kokichi who is in the mountains
and Domingo who hugs the mountains. Freeze 2 + Boosted Kokichi takes out the
Durahan and wins the battle. Of course use the speed ring glitch to try and
get Kokichi to get his turn sooner as that's about the only thing to slow you
down, of course unless he misses. But for now, 5:50 is ideal unless I manage
to lower it which would probably be only to more optimized turns and movement.
Inside Dragonia there's not much to do. If the ring broke repair it, and if
you promoted Balbs the Broadsword is in the top right house. Other than that
head into the main house to grab the halberd and shower of cure and start
things up. Equipment-wise, give Kokichi the Halberd, but I'd leave everything
else (Gort can take back the Speed Ring, or Pelle if Gort's not there). I
would definitely priest save though because we're going to rely heavily on the
boost glitch here coming up.
Battle 19
Ideal 10:30
My Best 12:13
This battle isn't hard, but it is annoying. For one thing, don't move to fight
Kane until you are very ready otherwise the Dullahans move and well they kill
things. Very quickly.
Anyway, Vankar is not so good (you could use Zylo for this though my Zylo is
too weak to damage Gargoyles low enough for Max) so Vankar+Max fought the
Gargoyles. This works well for two reasons:
1) Vankar sends them to ~4 health for Max
2) Max needs to hit 10 here and these things don't ignore you forever
Everyone else moves forward to Kane. The Golems/Mages are blown apart by magic
quite easily. You can move in people to fight just be very careful as Freeze 2
hurts and Golems can hurt the underleveled. Moving to Kane, I highly suggest a
BS here to get off multiple boosts. While boosting, take out the lower
Dullahan and Mage to remove them from the posse. Once they're down, you can
move in though before focusing Kane I highly suggest killing the other two of
his posse as both can insta-kill your party (though always have the boosts
fight Kane). Kane doesn't regenerate health so assuming no bad misses you can
end this and move on without too much trouble.
From here you gotta head back to Rudo after doing the Kane thing; talk to both
sisters and then head out (making sure everything is repaired again)
Battle 20
Ideal 18:45
My Best 20:17
This is the longest battle in the game outside of 28 or getting unlucky. So
let's do all we can to counter that. Once again, we're going to be boosting
here, if it breaks, just head back and restart. Kokichi needs to boost himself
and Balbaroy and not have the ring break. From there, they will fly south and
take out 2 Belial (one will go to your party) and then their goal is to take
out that southern group of enemies near the Castle (the other Mages if they
do very well). Everyone else will focus on moving forward. Assuming Max is 10,
have him drop his sword and try to always move forward without exposing
himself to the enemy. Hopefully you have a Gladiator, Gort, so give him the
Mobility Ring to keep up with Domingo. There really isn't much strategy, just
make it happen. High Priests and Bowriders hurt like hell though.
Battle 21
Ideal 12:45
My Best 16:26
It's tricky but not overly hard due to one really cool trick we have on our
side, the boost glitch and now really introducing the Max glitch. But first,
Domingo can aggro the gargoyles and tank that up; with any luck you can aoe
them to death in 1-3 rounds depending on what levels your folks are at. Next,
do the same with the bow riders using Domingo as a shield. Now, for the mages
you cannot go past them else they charge you which is bad. So I suggest
patiently setting up and then after they all move (you're slow and weak, get
used to moving last now) and blasting with magic and moving in. At this
point we have to take out the other Mishaela units, the belials are easy to
lure with Domingo, the Durahans not so much, but here's what's tricky now.
Boost glitch, to the max. Not yet, but when killing off these last couple of
units, pay attention to where your team is at experience wise because it is
vitally important to have them not at 80+ for fighting Mishaela because we
need as much boost up as possible. Max will be used here to prevent
damages from happening as she loves to bolt 2 just him despite this wall of
heroes near her. If he has at least 20+ health, he can't die. A crit from bolt
2 could do about 20 damage if you get extremely unlucky, but that shouldn't
happen and you just healing seed after each round.
Make sure to grab the important 5 chests, the top three right (sword, cure,
and white ring), the bottom right has a power pot (you can really skip this
one...), and the most left one has an evil ring which you HAVE to grab. Next
to it is a healing seed if you so desire. I'd skip the Black Ring, it sucks
Ideal 59:59 , 3:57:20
My Best 1:10:16, 4:41:04
It seems insane to think that Chaper 6, the Chapter 6 of destruction, could
be done in under an hour (hence the 59:59) but as my times continue to dip
lower and lower it's only then do I realize how possible it is. The first
battle is optimized, it just depends on turns (so 5:50 to about 6:30 or so)
and then the second battle is optimized-ish as I have the path down it just
requires better execution, which can easily save almost 2 minutes from my best
and then the long dreaded battle, that's only been improved every run yet
Balbs walked around and missed 8 times? Yes that means there's improvement, a
lot of it as that many misses is very atypical meaning you can have misses but
that many is beyond bad luck. That leaves Mishaela and her castle of mystery.
It's not hard, it's just execution perfect to break 13 minutes which is more
than doable even at these levels. Kokichi is going to want the Evil Ring,
(Musashi will have the Turbo Pepper, leaving Pelle to have the
Power Ring and Evil Lance (Kokichi gets the Valkyrie), (and the Mobility Ring
bounces around). The beauty of this is you will never need to uncurse anyone
except maybe Kokichi once to take off the Evil Lance but that's only if his
magic number is too low for comfort for taking down the Demon Master. You
could always just grab and use the Valkyrie in the battle but that is an
extra turn too much. Anyway, to think that I've dropped over 20 minutes in
this chapter since my first run is amazing, and I can't wait to see it
dropped even lower.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7
This chapter is short and easy but not without tricky dicky moments, mostly
the Tower Battle but for all the wrong reasons. Anyway, revive anyone you
need, repair any broken weapons, buy Gort a new Axe, and head down and do
the whole jail thing. At this point, go recruit Musashi, and then go to Nova
and swap out everyone who isn't Max, Balbaroy, Domingo, or Kokichi, we only
need those 4 for the next 2 battles (oh, you don't need to revive right away
as long as none of those 4 are dead, just less swapping). Go ahead and give
Balbaroy Musashi's Katana, Max the Mobility Ring (I hope he's 10 and able to
promote...), and Kokichi the Power and Evil Ring (Speed Ring to Balbaroy).
You're set up now for the next 2 battles. Don't equip the evil ring yet though
Battle 22
Ideal 7:24
My Best 7:24
The only thing I can do to improve this battle is for Max to have much higher
agility to get his turn faster on he last round. As it is, use the evil ring
liberally when in doubt of missing and only use it on Wyverns at the end to
avoid missing. Balbs with the Katana hits like a truck and you can take down
enemies quickly, always moving Max 4 spaces towards your goal. The only real
tricky spots are the very beginning and the very end. On Kokichi/Balbs first
turn, don't move them to the max, but move them just a few spaces right of the
town. This should lure 1, maybe both the Belial but not the Jets. Later, when
near the Tower, that peak of the mountain? (just past the pathway) is two
spaces long. Move Domingo to the right square and Max to the left square. This
will allow you to take down the Wyvern and not have anything else drawn to you
because Torch Eyes = Bad. Oh and if Balbs misses here (Kokichi should always
use the Evil Ring unless for some reason it's broken) you'll get around 9
minutes. If Balbs doesn't miss, that's how you'll get to 7:40 because if he
does miss Max has to use the Sword and not move otherwise Torch Eyes come and
moving Max up like that doesn't get you any closer to your goal. Sucks
doesn't it. Oh well, 7:40 or 9:15 isn't bad or much of a difference on rng.
Go ahead and grab both treasures but you shouldn't need to do anything with
them yet. The Demon Master's magic number is 51 and Kokichi with Boost and
equipping the Evil Ring is +23 attack (+19 from the Power Ring) so you're
looking at +25, +23 or +48 from Halberd/boosting and Kokichi has a minimum of
11 attack from promotion so +59 is his attack (or 8 more than the magic
number). Bottom line, he should kill it without Devil Lance. This is important
as to not need to uncurse Kokichi to give it to Pelle later (if the Evil Ring
breaks, sucks) but it's our best bet. Also, take note of agility here. Part
of this strategy is Balbs moving before Kokichi on his third turn (others
don't matter) and Balbs is going to speed ring glitch here on his second turn
for another +4 to agility. If Balbs doesn't have a comfortable amount of
agility more than Kokichi at this point, use the Legs of Haste (I needed to)
otherwise you should be good. My Balbs had about 18 agility and Kokichi had
about 18 as well so the glitch works fine, but the 1 legs of haste is
otherwise worthless so it's fine to use anyway.
Battle 23
Ideal 4:14
My Best 4:14
The easiest battle in the whole game and you don't even need rng here to go
for you, just not horrible against you. Here's basically how it plays out:
-Balbs third turn he gets the Valkyrie (please make sure he has an open slot,
things get cluttered with broad sword/katana/speed ring)
-Kokichi's third turn he kills Demon Master, ending battle in around 4 minutes
-Domingo stands there and tries not to die
The longer version goes something like this. Domingo from where he starts is
going to move up approximately 3 spaces, and then 5 spaces on his next turn
(if you're confused, he's going to end up 3 spaces from the Torch Eye south of
the chest, but in the middle of the wall). This allows for good enemy
movement, something we'll get into here in a moment. After Domingo's first
move, the two worms will move, one away, the other closer. Have Kokichi and
Balbs kill this one (I'd suggest using the Evil Ring if you can just so
Kokichi can move up 1 space further, oh and the mobility ring should be
equipped here). The Steel Claw (the nearby one) will attack Kokichi. He should
live if you've done things properly up to this point and he's about level 6
or so (or has at least 22 life to take a beam). Here's the first rng scary
spot. They attack for 43 and he has 9 base defence on promotion with 15 health
so as long as you've gained a mediocre bunch of stats, (about 20 points
divided between health and defence) you'll be OK otherwise you need to mod
things slightly so Kokichi isn't exposed to get attacked.
The second turn (Domingo moving up 5 spaces) has Balbs moving to a spot 2 away
from Domingo, up one left one, so he's diagonal from Domingo. Make sure to
equip the Speed Ring here. Kokichi moves up to the max and boosts himself.
Several things will attack Domingo but he should live, nothing will attack
Balbs or Kokichi if you've done this right (the Torch Eyes don't move
threateningly and the Steel Claw in front of the chest moves to the spot right
below the stairs so that's why keeping people away from there helps). From
here, Domingo needs to do nothing (if he has 85+ exp he can cast a spell to
go up a level) and Balbs grabs the Valkyrie, and Kokichi once at the Demon
Master equips the Evil Ring and takes him out. All in 4 glorious terrifying
minutes.
Now, this battle relies very little on RNG however because of how bad it can
get (steel claw kills Kokichi, Balbs doesn't move before Kokichi on the third
turn, Kokichi misses Demon Master, super mega death crits) it takes a long
time to return to battle. I'd suggest on Domingo's first turn doing a BS that
way if things go bad it's an easy fix. You could even do one on Kokichi's
third turn AFTER you've gotten the valkyrie if you feel really afraid however
it's really not necessary. Even if you miss the whole battle only takes 4
minutes so redoing that isn't that big of a deal especially as you aren't
that likely to miss (Demon Masters aren't known for their evade) so I would
not worry about it.
Do the whole story thing, go get your party back together. We're going to use
Torasu just not now because he dies right away unless Domingo is faster than
Jets, which he may or may not be. They have 33 agility so be aware. In any
case, our team is setting up for the end, so it looks like a side note.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Side note, End team #
Max - Sword/Chaos Break + White Ring + Shower of Cure
Max is useless, he can be a caster kinda but you really have to be careful
Pelle - Evil Lance + Power Ring + Halberd
Pelle is great. Just be mindful of two things. That Power Ring is moving
to Hanzou once you get him, and that Vankar may get all the praise if he
is doing better than Pelle. The Halberd is for guaranteed damage and/or
you can't get to the target
Tao, Anri - Lots of healing items
Torasu - Use Shield liberally
Kokichi - Evil Ring + Valkyrie
Kokichi is great, the whole reason this works
Domingo - healing
Domingo is great, but not for casting
Musashi - Turbo Pepper + Katana
Musashi is awesome
Hanzou - Doom Blade + Power Ring + Healing Seed + Shower of Cure
His speed is very high and very useful. He gets the Power Ring because
you will always get to boost and attack in the same turn
Alef - Lots of healing
Gort - Heat/Great/Atlas/Atlas
If you have Gort, that's his set up (drop the Great Axe later for some
healing) and he does decently. Like Vankar, he may not make the cut
Vankar - I give him a Halberd and later he blocks Armed Skeletons from
spawning
Balbs - Probably won't get used. He's much better with the power pot boost
from Chapter 3, but promoted he just doesn't gain stats and his good
weapons are only +20/+25 as opposed to +35 like everyone else. For this
reason alone really, he won't see much use in a bit. He's been very
helpful through 7 but he will get his hand shook, his sword sold, and
his services never used again
# End side note #
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we prepare to enter battle 24, we need to bring members back in but most
importantly is making sure Musashi gets +2 from the Turbo Pepper. This calls
for a PS and a restart if it doesn't. +1 seems like it may cut it however
there are several spots I know from experience that +2 does make the
difference where +1 wouldn't.
Battle 24
Ideal 6:55
My Best 7:08
I've been saying for a long time breaking 7 minutes would be awesome and
damnit it's possible though for now hovering at 7 minutes is pretty much
ideal. Whole battle takes less than 2 rounds can you believe that? Here's
the general idea:
-Domingo blocks off the 3 jets on the right
-Everyone else crushes things on the left
That's the general idea. My weaker Domingo (12) takes about 7 damage from
Jets which is fine as he won't even get hit all that much. Everyone else is
pounding the left side of the map. Here's the step by step more or less:
The nearby jet needs to be killed, Musashi or Pelle is good for this task
The left side group, 2 worms, Demon Master, and Torch Eye tend to group up
nicely before your slow team moves. If you can have someone over there, the
Torch Eye will move into the perfect position for Bolt 2/3 excellence. For
reference, the Demon Master moves down 3 spaces from your team, and the worm
tends to move down up 1 right 1 from that spot, so positioning someone near
there (right above it) will bring over the Torch Eye (assuming is hasn't
moved yet) making a nice 4 for getting bolted. If that doesn't happen, still
make use of your spells for wiping. Pelle and Kokichi can fight, but magic
is always an option. Incidentally, don't equip the Evil Lance on Pelle unless
you need to otherwise you risk him taking needless damage (so basically the
same for Musashi). Use Max and bolt 2 liberally here as well.
Because I got off a great bolt 3, Pelle didn't even have anything to attack
that was nearby (ignoring those 3 jets on the right which I suggest doing so,
don't even attack them unless Domingo is close to leveling) so I had him
boost Kokichi (because the Evil Ring broke, otherwise bolt 3 is very helpful
coming up, so boosting himself instead is better). Everything comes down very
clumpy (this is the enemy second round, which is another reason why getting
someone, Gort or Musashi) to that spot is so important. Basically we're going
to win this round so throw everything we've got (except Domingo) up and at
Chaos who goes down quickly though magic sucks hard against him. Blaze 3 does
about 5 damage, Freeze 2 does about 4 damage, and Bolt 1/2 does about 6
damage so use those spells to clear out the enemies so Musashi, Pelle, and
Kokichi can attack Chaos. With just a little bit of luck, Chaos goes down and
nobody dies. Just for the record, Max used bolt 2 to deal the final 5 damage
to Chaos for my 7:08 run which was awesome. The only way that run could've
gone better is if I hadn't wasted 3 spells on Jets (it's a waste, is better to
have Domingo just stay/heal and Anri to not go over there) and if someone had
crit Chaos. Musashi didn't even attack Chaos so that alone is room for
improvement potentially. This round also included the magnificent bolt 3 so
that alone keeps it at 2 rounds and not 3 rounds. If you can't get that
awesome bolt off it slows things a bit as you need to be a bit more careful,
as Max dies to everything on this battlefield unless spells are thrown his
way, which he might die anyway so it's risky business.
From here, it'd be awesome to just head right and into the next battle though
I need to repair which you may need to as well. Even if people die, don't
revive them just yet (unless they're Kokichi/Domingo) because they're all we
need coming up. I have experimented with swapping out but honestly that takes
a bit longer than I care to do and since my team is super slow anyway, they
all take their 1 second turn at the same time so it's no big deal.
Battle 25
Ideal 7:23
My Best 7:23
Technically speaking it's ideal though the time could always be dropped by
getting turns sooner which is unlikely to happen. Basically Kokichi and
Domingo get to go attack the very back guard skeleton and end the battle.
There's just not much to be said, except to be mindful of those units as
they can and will charge if they can.
Ideal 43:30, 4:41:50
My Best 44:14, 5:25:18
This chapter is near optimized and it really makes me happy. The first, second
and last battles are all ideal in the sense that the only way those times will
increase is by mere seconds with possibly more determined movement and those
"winning" turns coming seconds sooner; but other than that they are ideal. The
Chaos battle is one that continues to drop time, and it very well may be ideal
however I always like to leave room assuming that I wil be able to lower the
time more. If you get off multiply disgusting bolt 3's against Chaos that's
how the time melts lower as things just die very quickly to bolt 3. It's a
shame Alef will probably never even learn bolt 2 but it's just unrealistic to
think she will level. FYI here's my levels just so you know that it is still
very much doable even at extremely low levels.
Max - 1
Pelle - 4
Vankar - 3
Gort - 10
Tao - 17
Anri - 16
Alef - 15*
Domingo - 12
Torasu - 16*
Kokichi - 9
Musashi - 10*
Hanzou - 10*
The * indicates people who haven't leveled (obviously I haven't gotten Hanzou
quite yet) and the mages are all unpromoted. Tao won't get Blaze 4 this round,
seeing as she will not level to 20 in 5 battles, it's not possible. While I'm
definitely way underleveled, it just goes to show with good team management
and knowing exactly where to go and how to beat battles allows such extreme
low levels to beat the game without tassing
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 8
Ahhh Runefaust, the glorious end. This chapter is easily the longest and
hardest but to be honest that's OK as we've skipped large quantities of the
game so far so it makes sense to have a chapter where skipping is out of the
question for the most part. As it is, we have one more glorious beat em up,
with 4 boss battles though the Ramladu battle is easily the most difficult
battle in the game and the Colossus battle being the most time consuming. Even
a level 26 Domingo and Kokichi took a long time to fly around and beat the
main baddie as there are so many defense piercing jerks in this chapter. The
fight with Ramladu isn't much fun either, as you are on a constant timer of
Torch Eyes approaching on your position.
As for getting this started, find Hanzou at the entrance, head to Mahato to
gain entry into the castle, and then head to Nova for the last swapping to
bring in Hanzou for another dead person, bringing your party up to potentially
a full 12, though Gort and Vankar could both easily be dead and forgotten, so
10 members could be what we're working with. Pelle will be my potential bolter
if he can't fight which is no big deal and Hanzou has the Power Ring.
As for who should be your dead person (if you have any) you need to be mindful
now of Dark Dragon (sorry yeah it's kind of a big deal) in that your party
gets arranged with Max in the middle, then the next 4 on the left, the next 4
on the right, and the remaining 3 with Max. This normally isn't an issue, but
it just so happens people can die off and if Torasu is all by his lonesome
over there he can die very easily to the Armed Skeleton which is scary and
almost a reason why not to have all shower of cure on him (which is why Max,
Hanzou, and then Torasu will each have one). As it is, your party looks (will
look) something like this for Dark Dragon
Pod 1: Pelle, Vankar, Gort, Tao
Pod 2: Max, Kokichi, Musashi, Hanzou
Pod 3: Anri, Alef, Domingo, Torasu
So you can see that Torasu shouldn't be alone, you can just see how things
become sketchy with dead people. As it is, if Alef isn't used and you don't
use Vankar or Gort and have more dead healers in your party, that's how
Torasu ends up by himself. So by mindful
Battle 26
Ideal 12:30
My Best 12:50
The only way to break 13 minutes is through a combination of Musashi hitting
Chimaera, and the Evil Ring not breaking. If you can get off 3 casts with it,
and get some physical hits against Chimaera, then there's not too much of a
problem. That being said, the battle becomes much easier once they are dead
as nothing else on the battlefield moves so take advantage of that. Try to
combo spells on the outside groups so the priest can't heal himself. For
casting bolt 3 on the skeletons, make sure to cast your other spell first
otherwise the priest will die and that takes more time for individual casts.
Should you get the chests? Depends on your team. I'm using Gort mostly for
casting blaze 3 so I used him to grab both of them, that way there will be
spare halberds for both Kokichi and Pelle incase they can't reach enemies and
the evil ring is broke/not needed for bolt 3. The next battle is insane.
Battle 27
Ideal 6:30
My Best 6:55
Ideally, Pelle, Musashi, Hanzou, Kokichi, and Max all survive the robot
rampage to make it to Ramladu who then dies in 2-3 rounds of attacks. That's
how the ideal (it's one I've actually gotten) can happen. That being said,
that particular run of 6:30 was for a much slower run at the game so my team
was far stronger and capable of pulling that off. As it is, my team is too
weak to try and do that so I ended up doing this:
I boosted Kokichi with Hanzou and used him and Domingo to make a "wall" to
reduce the movement of the robots. Kokichi, Max, Musashi, and Pelle all were
able to get to Ramladu and everyone else eventually died a horrible death
though Alef got Bolt 2 which is helpful in the next two battles. It's a rush
against time and not a pleasant one at that.
Heading into Colossus, make sure everything is repaired. Stocked I wouldn't
worry so much about, I did 1 huge stocking and it's been fine. The general
strategy here is to try and minimize needing to go back to town, however, it
makes no sense to take 35 minutes if you don't use anything so keep that in
mind.
Battle 28
Ideal 20:00
My Best 20:03
The difference between ideal and my best is that the ideal time does not
include (non battle time) the three and a half minutes you saw after my 20:03
that had several important dead people and some important broken items. As it
currently stands this is the most questionable battle and I've run it about
10 times with mixed results. The exciting thing is that the essence of the
battle is true, it's just pulling it off consistently. Here's the basic plan:
Koki
Wall Wall Hanz Wall
Domi Wall Anri Wall
Musa Max Alef
Tao
Gort
Tora Pelle
Hole
Basically, the walls are the walls, the hole marks the entry way, and most of
the people are interchangeable although that particular set up is best. That
way only Domingo and Musashi are attacked by Chimaeras so hopefully no double
criticals of death. This will line up the Chimaera on the left nicely for a
Bolt 3/Bolt 2 from Kokichi and Alef nearly killing them (40+ damage) and the
Blue Dragon on the right won't attack anyone allowing you to burst it down.
After that, 2 more from the right (another Chimaera and Dragon) will start
coming towards us but Musashi/Hanzou can choke these easily in that mid
pathway. Meanwhile, Kokichi and Domingo can start taking out the center mid
area with the skeletons and archers. The key is that until you break into that
area, none of that moves, and none of the jets move, but the other flying
units will move. Always trying to use Musashi and Hanzou to choke, you can get
them to fly in and hopefully not attack all that much while you then burst
down with magic. As it is, my Tao does not know blaze 4 (major bummer), my
Anri does not know freeze 3 (super mega ultra bummer), but my Alef knows Bolt
2 so those two casts need to hit 3+ units and preferably most of them being
high evasion monsters.
With regards to winning this thing, and this is why it's so frustrating as
the two deaths I had to fix were just dumb movement on my part, is Kokichi
(boosted) and Domingo sneaking up the right side and past the Colossus. Blaze
3 isn't particularly dangerous and in fact shielding Max with Torasu will be
the perfect distraction. If you can save 20 MP for Domingo to use two of his
Freeze 3's against the main Colossus, that accounts then for a maybe miss from
Kokichi otherwise you need Kokichi to hit twice. It can happen, but saving MP
is a safer route.
As it is, you definitely want to avoid going to town if you can. If someone
useless died, then who cares. Gort or Vankar are considered useless, and any
non 4 using mage is useless except for Domingo. Alef is useful for Dark Sol,
but Dark Dragon is greater than any non 4 elemental magic so if Anri and Tao
die off and don't know good magic don't rush to revive them. The people you
really need are
Max, Pelle, Domingo, Kokichi, Hanzou, Musashi
Alef if she knows bolt 2 (just for battle 29, she's useless in Dark Dragon)
Tao if she knows blaze 4
Anri if she knows at least freeze 3
Torasu is expendable. Just make sure he doesn't have showers on him
Gort is expendable unless fat. Mine at level 7 whacked for a pitiful amount
so he was worth the blaze 3 that Atlas came with. When the Armed Skeleton
annihilated him in Dark Dragon's battle, I didn't even blink
Vankar really doesn't matter much
As for broken items, the only one that matters is the Power Ring which should
not be used yet so no big deal. That's why we have atlases and halberds; it's
OK if they break. It's better if the Evil Ring doesn't break, but don't sweat
if it does, just don't use it again. Anyway, let's do this. I'd BS as soon as
you get into Dark Sol in all honesty.
Battle 29
Ideal 8:15
My Best 8:30:9
Anything around a low 8 minute is ideal according to my last run. It's tricky,
but if Alef isn't dead so she can bolt and if (well if everyone is alive) the
battle goes rather smoothly. Basically, try to get Max, Musashi, Hanzou, and
Kokichi up near Dark Sol as fast as they can. Use everyone else on their turns
to kill the Torch Eyes. Slowly work your way up (your second round needs to be
preparing for the Dragons to come down). On your third turn you should try to
defeat Dark Sol if everything has gone well. Fourth turn if it takes that long
will be his final moments.
Battle 30
Ideal 11:00
My Best 12:13:9
This battle is 1000% easier with level 4 magic but actually only speeds
things up by about 3 minutes. It's just a lot easier if Tao knows Blaze 4,
let me say that. As it is, focusing the heads down together works best, but
due to my team being extremely weak and crappy I ended up tackling the outer
heads and then moving in. This was due to no good magic, so I wanted to take
out the weaker ones and then throw everything I had at the last one. The good
graces gave me all the boosts I needed, and Dark Dragon fell in just twelve
minutes, thus ending the game. It was a great run, and I have notes a mile
long only to improve it myself. I certainly hope it helps you.
Ideal 1:07:10, 5:49:00 <--Yes under 6 hours can you believe it?
My Best 1:13:06, 6:44:41
There. We've done it!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Discussion
End Remarks
As you can see, the ideal time for the game runs in just under 6 hours. What
that time gets you is everything I just did, just optimized with no power
deaths, no crappy annoying misses (8 of them or something) and excellent
moving on your part (on and no deaths). It seems highly unlikely to actually
break 6 hours on this game though you can rest assured I will try my best to
do it. As it is, I managed to cut down well over 25 minutes from my previous
run with some new paths, some of which have only been ran once, so there's
easy time there to melt not to mention the most obvious problem, my under
leveled mages. I brought along all the mages and Alef was the only one
pulling her weight. An obvious side effect brought on by the increased number
of skips is the lower levels to be distributed. While annoying, it obviously
is faster so now we have to figure out how to optimize what we get so that
this doesn't happen in the future. As strange as it is, even Freeze 2 is still
helpful to have in the end. It's just really useless in 28, 29, and 30 for the
most part. Part of the problem may have been leaving the Mobility Ring on
Domingo when normally I shift it to Tao, ensuring her Blaze 4. It's all
interesting and definitely just leaves room for improvement.
----------------------------------
Collecting the Sidenotes
----------------------------------
Side Note: Stat Items and Rings
Defense Potions: Max
These things are rather useless for the most part. However, they are quite
essential early for Max not dying as there are a number of spots (like Shade
Abbey) where he must get attacked. Later, you can use these on Domingo if
you so desire as Max shouldn't ever get attacked post Chapter 2 for the
most part.
Power Potions: Balbaroy
These things are helpful for one reason, Balbaroy killing the Master Mage
in a single attack. But really, they do help him contribute as the +4
damage makes him not terrible until you ditch him in Chapter 7. The last one
in the Demon Castle I skip as it's meaningless
Bread of Life: Domingo
These things are the epitome of useless. Even if you stacked them all on
someone for +4 or +6 health, that makes no difference. As it is, it takes
a few seconds to grab them and putting them on Domingo who is used mainly
for tanking isn't horrible. You could use them to try and get to the 22
health barrier for surviving Torch Eye beams but I have found there aren't
many people who fit that bill. The last run I had I could have used it on
Tao to put her at 22 but who would have known she would have had 21 life at
that point considering I used these on Domingo several chapters ago
Legs of Haste: Balbaroy
You only get one, so using it to guarantee he goes before Kokichi in the
Tower of the Ancients is best. My last run Kokichi ended up vastly quicker
but hey, that's just bad luck for me I guess (not really)
Turbo Pepper: Musashi
Use it on him. Make sure he gets +2 movement
Power Ring: Ken/Balbaroy/Zylo/Kokichi/Hanzou
Generally speaking, the Power Ring is -never- on our best attacker as we
prefer them to be boosting other allies. Ken will do some fighting with it
though he generally boosts others first. Balbaroy has it for sniping, and
Zylo for his one battle does it for very much the same. Then Kokichi has it
until Zylo gets it as Kokichi is the stud and we want him to attack for as
much as possible
Speed Ring: As needed, then Musashi
Until Musashi gets it (and always holds it because he is a slowass) the ring
is always moved around to perform "Speed Ring" glitches. Often it will be on
Gort if no glitching is necessary as Gort is also a bit slower
Mobility Ring: As needed
This thing is invaluable and I wish we had more of them. As it is, once you
get it in chapter 5 you basically never keep it on one person, giving it to
whomever needs it most. For you, here is a quick rundown of what to expect:
Battle 16 (first time we have it) - Balbaroy (optimization)
Battle 17 - Tao (Blaze 3)
Battle 18 - Kokichi (optimization)
Battle 19 - Tao (or Anri/Domingo if they know Freeze 3)
Battle 20 - Gort (optimization)
Battle 21 - Tao (or Anri/Domingo if they know Freeze 3)
Battle 22 - Max (optimization)
Battle 23 - Kokichi (optimization)
Battle 24 - Tao (or Anri if she knows Freeze 3)
Battle 25 - Domingo (optimization)
Chapter 8 - Tao (or best spellcaster)
So you can see that if switches literally every battle, the exception being
for Chapter 8 when you plop and leave it on your best spellcaster. Often it
will be Tao which is why she is listed.
----------------
Side Note: Hero Deaths
Basically, we don't want people to die. It's a pain having to revive them and
in certain cases if they die we are forced to restart because of how crucial
they are. There are some heroes who do die; those are either forced or "we
want them dead" kind of deaths. Here's the general breakdown:
If Max dies at any point beyond Chapter 1 just do the best you can. In Chapter
1 I would say restart your run. Post Chapter 1 as long as the run isn't
horrible you shouldn't restart because of how long this is. The run even ideal
takes six hours so restarting at the end because of a Max death would be awful
I mean you don't want to die but restarting sometimes is just out of the
question.
If Tao, Anri, Domingo, Gort, Pelle, Vankar, Musashi, Hanzou, Torasu, Alef, or
Kokichi die, revive them after the battle. There are some exceptions (like if
you're sniping with Kokichi) but otherwise just deal the best you can. If
someone dies in Battle 28 against Colossus I'd advice against reviving unless
it's Kokichi, Musashi, Pelle, or Blaze 4/Freeze 3 (mostly because they're not
that needed for the last couple battles).
If Lowe, Mae, Hans, or Amon die, never revive them. In fact, it is heavily
advised to have them die at some point (this is because we need dead bodies
for Chapter 7 (at least 8 of them).
If Ken dies before the end of Chapter 2, we need to revive him. We simply can
not use Mae as a substitute due to her positioning in Chapter 3 battle 9 as
she starts one space to the left of where Ken does and Ken starts just perfect
for moving to block for Balbaroy. After that, if he dies don't revive him. It
is possible if he has 30 health, 12 base attack (27 with Power Spear) and 11
defense that he could be a more viable choice than Vankar though that is
extremely unlikely (and Vankar tends to get axed by Chapter 8 anyway so it
doesn't matter that much).
If Luke dies at all, you'll want to revive him afterwards though he like Ken
won't be getting used much post chapter 2, though the forest in Chapter 3 is
his last use.
If Khris dies before Shade Abbey, you'll need to revive her or Lowe for Shade
Abbey because it is essential to have a Healer for that battle.
Note that Ken, Luke, and Khris are all better off dead once you no longer need
them (see that's 7 dead bodies) so we need one more. Your choices are Zylo,
Balbaroy, Ernst, or Bleu. As Balbaroy gets used in Chapter 7, that leaves Zylo
for your other death. Bleu and Ernst never get used so it's clunky to use them
whereas Zylo is used and is useless post Chapter 5 unless he has 35+ attack.
Mine tends to stick around mostly for utility and healing but it is entirely
possible and recommended to kill off Zylo at some point through Chapter 6 or
even at the end of Chapter 5, making him your last necessary death person:
Lowe, Mae, Hans, Amon, Ken, Luke, Khris, and Zylo.
Balbaroy may join this list later but either way...
----------------
Side Note: Levels
You're probably wondering how the hell is this possible and what level my team
is. Well, they're low. But it's not a huge deal. Because of how SFI works with
levels, each level from one to another matters so little, that short of
getting 4 or 5 levels, you have no guarantee that your hero is going to be
like noticeably better than before (hence, the trend of always taking the new
people and replacing old ones). But, there are some important levels to keep
track of, if you remember, magic is one, so let's dive into this:
Max: 10 by Chapter 7
Gort: 10 by Chapter 4
Pelle/Vankar: 10 by Chapter 6 (though 14/12 is great)
Kokichi: 10 by Chapter 6
Tao: 4 by Battle 3, 12 by battle 14, and 20 by Chapter 8
Anri: 8 as soon as possible (no later than Chapter 4 if possible), and 16 by
Chapter 8 (23 if possible)
Domingo: 4 as soon as possible, and 13 as soon as possible (Chapter 8 strongly
recommended)
The latter 3 are the most important. As for your other teammates:
Lowe should die in Battle 1
Ken will be between 7 and 9 when he dies/is replaced
Luke will be between 5 and 8 when he dies/is replaced
Khris may be level 2 but it doesn't matter
Hans should die in Battle 3. His level does not matter
Amon should die before the end of Chapter 3. Her level does not matter
Balbaroy should aim to get promoted by Chapter 6 (the Broadsword is just that
awesome). He will probably be about level 4 promoted once you ditch him.
Zylo will be between 12 and 16 when he dies/is replaced. If his attack is
over 35 then he could still be used some but it is very unlikely to
happen unless you are very lucky.
Alef needs to be 17 by Battle 28 as that's the only reason to use her. If she
dies in Battle 28 it's OK, though getting her through 29 is helpful
Torasu will probably not level nor does he need to
Musashi can go up about 5 levels but again he does not need to
Hanzou probably won't level but he too can go up about 3 levels though he
does not need to either.
Gong, Arthur, Guntz, Diane, Ernst, Bleu, Lyle, and Adam are either skipped or
never used so naturally they won't level.
Basically, don't stress too much about levels. The most recent run I had only
half a team, with Max, Pelle, Anri, Tao, Domingo, Kokichi, Torasu, and
Musashi (Hanzou had died against Dark Sol) and things worked out. Magic is key
here, as well as Musashi, Evil Lance, and the Valkyre all hit very hard so
physical levels aren't important for stats. The magic numbers matter, so I'll
ID those for you. Can stats make a difference? Yes, but we're not relying on
them.
----------------
Side Note: End Team
This is basically how our end team will look:
Max - Sword of Light/Chaos Breaker + White Ring + Shower of Cure
Use him exclusively for healing and Bolt 2/Freeze 3
Pelle - Evil Lance + Power Ring + Halberd
Pelle is great. Just be mindful of two things. That Power Ring is moving
to Hanzou once you get him, and that Vankar may get all the praise if he
is doing better than Pelle
Tao, Anri - Lots of healing items and maybe the Mobility Ring
Torasu - 1 Shower of Cure + 3 Healing Seeds
Kokichi - Evil Ring + Valkyrie + 2 Healing Seeds
Domingo - Healing Seeds and maybe the Mobility Ring
Musashi - Turbo Pepper + Katana + Speed Ring + Healing Seed
Hanzou - Doom Blade + Power Ring + Healing Seeds (maybe even a Shower)
Alef - Itemless
She can hold onto Healing Seeds if you want but she usually does not
survive into Dark Dragon
Gort - Heat/Atlas/Atlas + Healing Seed
You may not have a Gladiator due to levels
Vankar - Halberd + 3 Healing Seeds
He is usually much weaker than Pelle and tends to just blocked Armed
Skeletons from spawning. You will probably only use him for Bolt in the
end battles (consider even giving it to Pelle in Battle 29).
----------------
Discussing the Glitches/Abuses
The Speed Ring
Not so useful later on, but early that +4 agility can make someone get their
turn much faster. It can be used on someone to get 2 attacks in a row, or
more importantly to allow Max to move twice in a row. Later on, the Speed Ring
should be on someone slower who needs more turns.
Max/Domingo
The game programmers decided these two almost always have priority. In fact,
it goes something like
Max > Domingo > Healers/Mages > Archers/Flying Units > Everything else
To the point to where enemies will move past viable targets to stand in line
and not attack just because they're closer to someone. As a result, this is a
very helpful abuse especially once Domingo can take a hit or two. For Max
sadly this run you won't be using this so much later on however early you can
still get some nice use out of it
The Boost Glitch
This is definitely a glitch as the game will even say "boost has ended" but it
actually hasn't. Boost is supposed to go away after 1-4 turns, but in fact
stays until you've taken damage, or gone up a level. Curse damage does not
count as damage; you have to be attacked. This is the most helpful and abusive
of all the glitches as you can boost someone for 8 or 9 minutes so long as
your careful. It reduces the need to BS as much as well as allows you to take
out many more enemies being able to take advantage of knowing not to level or
who recently leveled and whatnot. Many thanks to Darkkobold for this one
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Conclusion
Copyright
This is copyright me, Todd Lesinski AKA NoWorries. As such, you cannot use
copy any part of this guide and claim it as your own. I'm not a stickler so
long you make a reference somewhere saying that this guide was so helpful for
whatever purpose you are using this for that would be great. If you are a
cheat bastard then may a ball-eating plague be struck upon you and all
consequent men in your family until you right this wrong.
Contact Info
If you feel the need to contact me about ANYTHING pertaining to THIS guide;
you may contact me at (AT) [.]
[email protected]
Please specify "SHINING FORCE I SPEED RUN" to differentiate from my other
Shining Force guides/works out on the webs. I do appreciate your time. If you
don't do this, I probably won't respond. I may also not respond because I'm
very busy but I will do the best I can.
Acknowledgements
Gamefaqs - For getting me into guide writing
Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) - For getting me into Speed Running. It is
technically run through the Speed Game Demos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCId5mQSBVAOrOdLdfY1J4VQ
Which is their channel. AGDQ is their charity event that raises money for
Cancer and it's fascinating even if you are not big into video games. But
big thanks and shout out to them for getting me serious into actually
doing this and maybe you'll see me at AGDQ 2015 running this game if I
can consistently get it down to six, six and a half hours.
DarkKobold - The brave soul who TASed this game in under two hours. Your
video was both awesome to watch and extremely helpful for giving me ideas
how to run this faster. Naturally I'm not tassing so I can't get the
double crits like you do with Lua but I think I worked it out pretty well
for myself =)
But the Boost Glitch was invaluable, thank you
His webpage: http://tasvideos.org/DarkKobold.html
Myself - For enjoying this game far too much. It's unhealthy
You the reader - Well, without you folks, this isn't nearly as fun. Also, I
hope you enjoy the video. Just don't be too harsh as it's far from
perfect; I just wanted you to have something to have in tangent with
this guide as words aren't perfect sometimes
Camelot Software Planning and Sega - obviously, for making the game
Length - 109016
END TEXT
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