=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | A Guide To Competitive Battling | | v1.10 (05/05/03) | | by AstralFire (starphoenix12@hotmail.com) | +--------------------------------------------+ ===================== 01. Table of Contents ===================== 01. You're Sitting In It (Table of Contents) 02. The Author & Rationale 03. The Legal Stuff 04. Version History 05. Before We Begin... 06. Choosing your Class 07. A Trip to the Armory 08. The Djinn 09. Summoning 10. Clauses 11. Sample Teams 12. Thanks & Credits ========================== 02. The Author & Rationale ========================== I'm AstralFire. yep. All you need to know, really. I frequent the Pokemon R/S, Golden Sun Social, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Anime & Manga, Cartoons & Animation, and Pokemon boards, among others on GameFAQs. I'm no Terence, but I am pretty decent at battle strategy and planning. So here I am to help you become just a teensy bit better. =================== 03. The Legal Stuff =================== While Golden Sun is trademark and copyright 2002-2003 Nintendo/Camelot... This guide was made and researched by me, with some help from the friendly people at the Golden Sun boards. It is therefore Copyright ©2002-2003 Christopher Lee Rollins, alias "AstralFire." All rights are reserved. You're going to be pressed with violation of international copyright law if you alter it in any way, shape, or form and claim it as your own. Neither may you sell any copies of this document. Feel free to use the information in this guide as a resource, simply cite it. If you have any questions about this, contact me at my email address, starphoenix12@hotmail.com, or on AOL Instant Messenger; I'm Bathrobe Paladin. This guide may ONLY be hosted by the following sites: -GameFAQs (Http://www.gameFAQs.com/) If you want to host it, then let me know in advance so that I may approve it. =================== 04. Version History =================== v1.20 - May 06, 2003 - More minor errors corrected, two new sample teams added to section 11. v1.10 - May 05, 2003 - Some minor errors corrected, more data added. v1.00 - May 04, 2003 - This has all the information I originally want to have, but it could have more at a later date. ====================== 05. Before We Begin... ====================== Alright, let's get something clear. This is going to consider level 99 (as it is extremely easy to reach that in The Lost Age), all 72 djinn, and enough time to get all these rare item drops and forged weapons. With those considerations, the following should make a bit more sense: -Psynergy Points are ONLY important in Battle Mode. Link Play will probably be over before you've exhausted your Psy Crystals (and usually before you've used more than 1, if that.) -Attack Points are disregarded on any class with 150% Attack or higher, because of the ease to reach 999 Attack with a single impact/djinni unleash. 140% is considered borderline generally, but it will be given slightly less consideration than the 150+ percent multipliers. -Psynergy attacks other than Element Physical Attacks are nearly disregardable in any sense. Their damage is minimal. Element Physical Attacks are any unleash, Liquify, Heatwave, Odyssey, Ragnarok, Thunder Mine, Astral Blast, Planetary, Planet Diver, Diamond Dust, Diamond Berg, Cutting Edge, Plume Edge, Shuriken, Annihilation, Death Plunge, Death Leap, Skull Splitter, Helm Splitter, Quick Strike, Call Dullahan, Call Demon, Call Zombie, Whiplash, Wild Wolf, Emu, Roc, Orc, Harpy, Wyvern, Dinox, Gryphon, Living Armor, Troll, Minotaur, Ghost Soldier, Sabre Dance, Backstab, and the item Trident of Ankohl. (Whew!) Basically, if I mention an attack psynergy and praise it, it's an element physical attack. Summons work like element physical attacks on an area rather than a single target. -Luck is a very important stat. It controls your chance of: Poisoning, Sleeping, being Stunned, One Hit Killed*, Left with One HP*, being Haunted, being Condemned, being Paralyzed, having your stats dropped, and being bound by a seal. * - This of course, means your chance of being affected by things with those specific effects rather than your chance of being knocked out in a single hit by a ridiculously powerful blow. -Critical Hitting equipment is *extremely* useful. It ups your chance of both having your weapon unleash and having its secondary effect kick in. Just about anything else, I will explain along the way. Got it? Good. Let's roll. ======================= 06. Choosing your Class ======================= Here, I will analyze the usefulness of each of the 'final' classes. By that, I mean those which require 9 Djinni, or 8 if they're all the same element as the character's normal element. Modifiers go like this, from best to worst: Sweet Mary!, Very High, High, Good, Average, Low, Poor This will be organized by the base element of the characters. The 3 Item classes will have their own section as they're the same for all 8 Characters. PLEASE Keep in mind what I said in the previous section ('Before We Begin...'). I would also like to note that while making your team unbalanced usually isn't a concern in link play (due to only three of your eight being allowed), you should avoid making more than one character drop below a final class or be forced to use more than one character in a class ranked 7 or below. ___________ |Mars Adepts| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Hero: (Garet only) Requirements: 8-9 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 120% (Low) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 110% (Poor) Luck: 100% (Good) Analysis: Liquify is superior in damage to everything Garet can do but Excalibur, and is a good choice if you're facing someone with high Wind resistance. He can Defense Up the entire party, something you'll really want at these higher levels, as well as lower the opponents' defenses. The slow agility can be rectified, but we'll discuss that later. The ability to summon Daedalus, Meteor, Megaera, Ulysses, and Iris easily, as well as break out Flash without any serious stat losses is a giant plus. A fairly useful class; still not something you'd be psycho about using, but it wouldn't hurt you to use this in order to get a kickass setup with the others. Rating: 8/10 Justice: (Jenna only) Requirements: 8-9 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 160% (High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: This is one of those classes that is simply awesome in the beginning, and makes you want to cry near the end. Healing that can be nigh equaled by a Mist Potion (purchaseable in Prox), and the uselessness of psynergy attacks at high levels makes this class' psynergy selections all but useless. In her favor is the ability to use the Tisiphone Edge or Atropos' Rod, but... She's screwed against things with high resist on either. Dragon Fume does a whole whopping... 230 damage. She's not terrible, no, but you can find much better for her. The ability to summon Daedalus, Meteor, Megaera, Ulysses, and Iris easily, as well as break out Flash without any serious stat losses is a giant plus, though. Rating: 7.5/10 War Adept(F): Requirements: 7 Jupiter Djinni, 2 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 170% (Very High) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: This happens to be one of my favorite classes because it has Impact, Guard, and Resist, and Excalibur and Lachesis' Rule get a nice fat damage bonus from all the Wind Djinn. War Adepts can even lower the opponent's defense, although that's not as important. It's basically a slightly faster, slightly weaker Ronin alternative that can summon and unleash a bit better. Rating: 10/10 Radiant: Requirements: 7 Mercury Djinni, 2 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 140% (Good) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 140% (Good) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: Radiant is nice, very nice. Almost as nice as Protector, in fact. Radiant can do damage, and heal the party very effectively, working well with both Garet and Jenna's equipment choices. The best thing about it is that it has the rare "Break" spell, which will get rid of those nasty bonuses they start collecting. It's not an all purpose healer as it can't revive, but it comes pretty close. It also gets a useful defense up spell. Rating: 9.5/10 Chaos Lord: Requirements: 7 Venus Djinni, 2 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 120% (Poor) Attack: 170% (Very High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 70% (Poor) Analysis: The attack rating of 170% is pretty amazing, but the ability to use Impact kind of makes it a bit in excess at the high levels we're considering. In it's defense, however, it can deliver strong physical damage with a Tisiphone Edge equipped AND Planetary, a very useful Element Physical Attack like Liquify. Summoning and Djinn unleashing can be done with this, although it's not recommended. Revive is a definite plus. Rating: 8/10 Ronin: Requirements: 5 Venus Djinni, 4 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 210% (Very High) PP: 140% (Good) Attack: 160% (Very High) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 150% (Good) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: Often considered "la creme de la creme" for an Earth or Fire Adept, Ronin does extremely well in offense, defense, agility, stamina, and special techniques. What's its weakness? Complex typing. Unleashing more than a single Jupiter Djinni from this class can severely mess with your strategem. Still, this flaw is not a major one, making it one of the most useful classes out there. Rating: 9/10 Paladin: Requirements: 5 Mercury Djinni, 4 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 150% (Good) Attack: 160% (Very High) Defense: 160% (Very High) Agility: 130% (Average) Luck: 130% (Very High) Analysis: THIS is a superclass. It can heal like a nut, and high physical stats ensures it's one hell of a brawler. Ridiculous luck (especially if it's Jenna - more on that later) makes it extremely hard to affect with a status problem, and the low agility can be countered the same way Hero does (although that's recommended primarily for Garet, due to higher natural defense. Again, more on that later.) It can't revive, but that can be stomached considering its good points. I heart this class - but again, avoid unleashing more than a single Mercury Djinni or you risk having a dramatic - and unfriendly - class change. Rating: 10/10 Master: Requirements: 5 Jupiter Djinni, 4 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 160% (High) Attack: 170% (Very High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Luck: 80% (Low) Analysis: A bit unusual. Also extremely powerful. While he doesn't seem to be anything special other than his speed - no healing, no stat ups, excessive attack, decent defense, cruddy luck - he has Death Plunge and Annihilation, which do high damage to a single target, and Shuriken, an element physical attack that hits up to three people. O_O; While the damage on an individual is somewhat lacking, it can hit an entire link battle party with a physical, non- summon attack. Nice. Just watch out for things that Bind/Seal your psynergy, or any other status effects for that matter, because you are highly susceptible. Rating: 9.5/10 ______________ |Mercury Adepts| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Angel: (Mia only) Requirements: 8-9 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 160% (Average) PP: 170% (Very High) Attack: 130% (Average) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 120% (Low) Luck: 130% (Very High) Analysis: Eww. The strongest point is her ability to make Pure Wish heal 720 HP simply by having a Clear Bracelet, but... While that is pretty good, is that something you really feel like risking? Mia needs a lot of stat ups to stay in the game, and her damage isn't spectacular like this. It wouldn't be so bad if she could Revive, but she can't for some stupid reason. It does get Break, and unleashes Eclipse, Azul, Boreas, Iris and Coatlicue easily, but... Rating: 8/10 Admiral: (Piers only) Requirements: 8-9 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 130% (Average) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 130% (Average) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: Well, he's mighty similar to Garet... But he doesn't have that defense up I like so much. On the plus side, he has Ply, but... meh, Potions can do Ply! The choice between Excalibur and Diamond Burg is similar to that between Excalibur and Liquify, so points for him. Shade is always available, like a weaker Flash, and he is strong with summoning - better than Mia thanks to higher attack - but to me he seems too much like he's got all of Slayer and Hero's weakpoints and few of their bonuses. Rating: 7/10 Guru (W): Requirements: 7 Mars Djinni, 2 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 170% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: This is another of my favorite classes. You get the Wish series and Break, and the stats are just nice, particularly for a water class. I like to think of it as Mia on steroids, matching or exceeding her best abilities and stats except for Luck... and a 10% drop isn't too bad. Rating: 8.5/10 Wizard: Requirements: 7 Jupiter Djinni, 2 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 130% (Average) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 180% (Very High) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: On the one hand, it doesn't have the attack power or staying power of the Guru. On the other, it can boost attack, has ridiculous speed, and can do Guru's best two tricks, Wish and Break, while adding a third: Bind. Take that, pesky Necromages! It even gets a nice Impact to top it off. Rating: 10/10 Oracle (W): Requirements: 7 Venus Djinni, 2 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 180% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 100% (Good) Analysis: This is a pretty decent class, although you would probably want to use Piers for this rather than Mia; he gets a much better Earth-based weapon to take advantage of the element boost. This class gets Revive, Wish, Restore, and Cure Poison, but at the expense at losing the ridiculous luck typical of a healer class. It's a poor man's Pure Mage, and worth using. Rating: 9/10 Dark Mage (Medium): Requirements: 5 Venus Djinni, 4 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: No. Just... no. No. No. The only spell it has worth using is freaking REVIVE, it can't stat up, defense is nothing amazing, nor is attack, nor is luck. No, those stats aren't terrible, but there's nothing in their djinn or psynergy selection to make that worth it. All speed and no substance. If you want a reviving attacker, there are better choices. It's not even good to summon with! Rating: 5/10 Mia, 6/10 Piers Warlock: Requirements: 5 Mars Djinni, 4 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 180% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 180% (Very High) Luck: 120% (Good) Analysis: Well, it has nice stats, so how well does it perform? Sadly, not as well as you'd hope. Warlock is better at low levels where the psynergy it uses inflicts large amounts of damage. On the plus side, it can Bind and use Resist... both of which are situationally useful. Well, it's better than Dark Mage, but that's not saying much. Use it if you must, but there are better. Rating: 7/10 Pure Mage: Requirements: 5 Jupiter Djinni, 4 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 130% (Average) Analysis: See kids, this is why it's always better to be a good guy than a bad guy. Pure Mage owns the Dark Mage six times sideways to Chicago. Not only are the stats good, the psynergy rocks. It gets Resist, Wish, Revive, Cure Poison, and Restore, and phenomenal luck! If it could only get Impact or Bind it'd be godly... *sigh*. Rating: 10/10 ____________ |Venus Adepts| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Slayer: Requirements: 8-9 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 120% (Low) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 150% (Good) Luck: 100% (Good) Analysis: You can pretty much look at my notes for Garet's Hero on this. While he does lack a Defense Up spell like Piers, he gets Revive instead, which is useful. Odyssey probably won't help too much because you'll probably be busy using Sol Blade or Tisiphone Edge instead, but it can if you give him an Excalibur. Just a word to the wise - Charon isn't worth it unless your opponent was an idiot and used a bunch of low luck classes. Rating: 8/10 Chaos Lord: Requirements: 7 Mars Djinni, 2 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 120% (Poor) Attack: 170% (Very High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 70% (Poor) Analysis: The attack rating of 170% is pretty amazing, but the ability to use Impact kind of makes it a bit in excess at the high levels we're considering. In it's defense, however, it can deliver strong physical damage with a Tisiphone Edge equipped AND Planetary, a very useful Element Physical Attack like Liquify. Summoning and Djinn unleashing can be done with this, although it's not recommended. Revive is a definite plus. Rating: 8/10 War Adept(E): Requirements: 7 Jupiter Djinni, 2 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 170% (Very High) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: This happens to be one of my favorite classes because it has Impact and Resist, and Excalibur and Lachesis' Rule get a nice fat damage bonus from all the Wind Djinn. War Adepts can even lower the opponent's defense, although that's not as important. It's basically a slightly faster, slightly weaker Ronin alternative that can summon and unleash a bit better. The Earth version of the War Adept's a bit lacking compared to the Fire version though; no Guard. Rating: 9/10 Protector: Requirements: 7 Mercury Djinni, 2 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 190% (High) PP: 140% (Good) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 140% (Good) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: Protector is my absolute favorite class for an Earth Adept. It can do damage, and heal the party very effectively, working well with Isaac & Felix's equipment choices. The best thing about it is that it has both the rare "Break" spell, which will get rid of those nasty bonuses they start collecting, and can Revive! Rating: 10/10 Ronin: Requirements: 5 Mars Djinni, 4 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 210% (Very High) PP: 140% (Good) Attack: 160% (Very High) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 150% (Good) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: Often considered "la creme de la creme" for an Earth or Fire Adept, Ronin does extremely well in offense, defense, agility, stamina, and special techniques. What's its weakness? Complex typing. Unleashing more than a single Jupiter Djinni from this class can severely mess with your strategem. Still, this flaw is not a major one, making it one of the most useful classes out there. Rating: 9/10 Paladin: Requirements: 5 Mercury Djinni, 4 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 150% (Good) Attack: 160% (Very High) Defense: 160% (Very High) Agility: 130% (Average) Luck: 130% (Very High) Analysis: THIS is a superclass. It can heal like a nut, and high physical stats ensures it's one hell of a brawler. Ridiculous luck (especially if it's Jenna - more on that later) makes it extremely hard to affect with a status problem, and the low agility can be countered the same way Hero does (although that's recommended primarily for Garet, due to higher natural defense. Again, more on that later.) It can't revive, but that can be stomached considering its good points. I heart this class - but again, avoid unleashing more than a single Mercury Djinni or you risk having a dramatic - and unfriendly - class change. Rating: 10/10 Master: Requirements: 5 Jupiter Djinni, 4 Mars Djinni Stats: HP: 200% (Very High) PP: 160% (High) Attack: 170% (Very High) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Luck: 80% (Low) Analysis: A bit unusual. Also extremely powerful. While he doesn't seem to be anything special other than his speed - no healing, no stat ups, excessive attack, decent defense, cruddy luck - he has Death Plunge and Annihilation, which do high damage to a single target, and Shuriken, an element physical attack that hits up to three people. O_O; While the damage on an individual is somewhat lacking, it can hit an entire link battle party with a physical, non- summon attack. Nice. Just watch out for things that Bind/Seal your psynergy, or any other status effects for that matter, because you are highly susceptible. Rating: 9.5/10 ______________ |Jupiter Adepts| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Sorcerer: Requirements: 8-9 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 150% (Poor) PP: 180% (Very High) Attack: 120% (Poor) Defense: 130% (Poor) Agility: 170% (High) Luck: 110% (High) Analysis: Do I have to tell you how much it sucks? Please don't make me have to tell you. The only strong points of this class are Bind, Resist, and Impact, all of which can be done better by others. The fact that Ivan and Sheba are the youngest and weakest is painfully apparent with this class. Rating: 5/10 Guru (A): Requirements: 7 Mars Djinni, 2 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 170% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: Well, on the plus side, it keeps Resist and Bind, and has much better attack and luck. On the down side, it's really just another Warlock that's meant for lower levels where it does pwn with Pyroclasm. Rating: 7/10 Wizard: Requirements: 7 Mercury Djinni, 2 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 130% (Average) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 180% (Very High) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: On the one hand, it doesn't have the attack power or staying power of the Guru. On the other, it can boost attack, has ridiculous speed, and can do Wish, Break, and Bind. Take that, pesky Necromages! It even gets a nice Impact to top it off. One of Ivan and Sheba's best classes. Rating: 10/10 Oracle (A): Requirements: 7 Venus Djinni, 2 Jupiter Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 180% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 100% (Good) Analysis: This is a pretty sucky class; if you must use it, use Ivan for this rather than Sheba; he gets a much better Earth-based weapon to take advantage of the element boost. This class gets Resist & Revive, but none of the other things typical of a healer class. It's better than Sorcerer at any rate. Rating: 6/10 Dark Mage (Medium): Requirements: 5 Venus Djinni, 4 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: No. Just... no. No. No. The only spell it has worth using is freaking REVIVE, it can't stat up, defense is nothing amazing, nor is attack, nor is luck. No, those stats aren't terrible, but there's nothing in their djinn or psynergy selection to make that worth it. All speed and no substance. If you want a reviving attacker, there are better choices. It's not even good to summon with! Rating: 5/10 Sheba, 7/10 Ivan Warlock: Requirements: 5 Mars Djinni, 4 Mercury Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 180% (Very High) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 180% (Very High) Luck: 120% (Good) Analysis: Well, it has nice stats, so how well does it perform? Sadly, not as well as you'd hope. Warlock is better at low levels where the psynergy it uses inflicts large amounts of damage. On the plus side, it can Bind and use Resist... both of which are situationally useful. Well, it's better than Dark Mage, but that's not saying much. Use it if you must, but there are better. Rating: 7/10 Pure Mage: Requirements: 5 Mercury Djinni, 4 Venus Djinni Stats: HP: 170% (Good) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (High) Luck: 130% (Average) Analysis: See kids, this is why it's always better to be a good guy than a bad guy. Pure Mage owns the Dark Mage six times sideways to Chicago. Not only are the stats good, the psynergy rocks. It gets Resist, Wish, Revive, Cure Poison, and Restore, and phenomenal luck! If it could only get Impact or Bind it'd be godly... *sigh*. Rating: 10/10 ____________ |Item Classes| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Acrobat: Requirements: Mysterious Card Item, 3 of each Djinn other than the character's normal element. Stats: HP: 190% (Good) PP: 120% (Low) Attack: 140% (Good) Defense: 140% (Good) Agility: 160% (Good) Luck: 120% (High) Analysis: A pretty good class, the main attractions for it are Sabre Dance and Backstab; Sabre Dance is about half as powerful as a Sol Blade unleash, and Backstab can One Hit Kill many of the lower luck classes. It can also lower the opponent's attack, something you don't see much in the playable characters. Not amazing, but useable. As always, the special thing about these tetra-element classes is they can summon or unleash everything fairly well, particularly the level 2 combo summons. Rating: 8.5/10 Beast Lord: Requirements: Trainer's Whip Item, 3 of each Djinn other than the character's normal element. Stats: HP: 190% (Good) PP: 110% (Poor) Attack: 150% (High) Defense: 150% (High) Agility: 120% (Low) Luck: 80% (Low) Analysis: This is one hell of a novelty class. Ghost Soldier hits the opponent pretty damn hard, Phoenix and Lich let you revive, Manticore lets you heal, you can Impact, Restore, and Cure Poison regardless of the amount of Djinni set... I like it. A lot. Low Luck skill doesn't make this as useful as it could be, though. Rating: 9.5/10 Necromage: Requirements: Tomegathericon Item, 3 of each Djinn other than the character's normal element. Stats: HP: 160% (Average) PP: 190% (Sweet Mary!) Attack: 130% (Average) Defense: 130% (Average) Agility: 170% (Very High) Luck: 90% (Average) Analysis: Two words: Call. Dullahan. It can revive at any level of the series chain as well, a definite plus. One of the best damn classes out there. Rating: 9.5/10 ======================== 07. A Trip to the Armory ======================== Okay, so you've chosen your classes. You go into battle arena, ready to face Dullahan... and then you notice they're naked and trying to punch the dickens out of the headless suit of armor. Eep. We're here for you. Here's a runthrough of each character's equipment-wielding ability and when you should use them. Garet: Weapons: Long Swords, Light Blades, Axes, Maces Head: Helms, Hats, Hiotoko Mask Hands: Shields & Gauntlets Body: Armor, Mail, Jackets, Garb Shirt: Anything but Silk Shirt Mia: Weapons: Staffs, Wands, Maces Head: Hats, Circlets, Otafuku Mask Hands: Armlets & Gauntlets Body: Jackets, Garb, Robes Shirts: All Isaac: Weapons: Long Swords, Light Blades, Axes, Maces, Sol Blade Head: Helms, Hats, Hiotoko Mask Hands: Shields & Gauntlets Body: Armor, Mail, Jackets, Garb Shirt: Anything but Silk Shirt Ivan: Weapons: Staffs, Wands, Light Blades Head: Hats, Circlets, Hiotoko Mask Hands: Armlets & Gauntlets Body: Jackets, Garb, Robes Shirt: Anything but Silk Shirt Piers: Weapons: Long Swords, Light Blades, Axes, Maces Head: Helms, Hats, Hiotoko Mask Hands: Shields & Gauntlets Body: Armor, Mail, Jackets, Garb Shirt: Anything but Silk Shirt Jenna: Weapons: Staffs, Wands, Light Blades Head: Hats, Circlets, Okafuku Mask Hands: Armlets & Gauntlets Body: Jackets, Garb, Robes Shirt: All Felix: Weapons: Long Swords, Light Blades, Axes, Maces, Sol Blade Head: Helms, Hats, Hiotoko Mask Hands: Shields & Gauntlets Body: Armor, Mail, Jackets, Garb Shirt: Anything but Silk Shirt Sheba: Weapons: Staffs, Wands, Maces Head: Hats, Circlets, Otafuku Mask Hands: Armlets & Gauntlets Body: Jackets, Garb, Robes Shirts: All Rings, Boots, Gems, and the Trident can go on any character. Now, pay close attention class. Here are the items that are going to be your friends. Long Swords: Sol Blade, Excalibur, Levatine, Masamune Light Blades: Tisiphone Edge Staffs: Lachesis' Rule, Atropos' Rod Wands: Nebula Wand Helms: Mythril Helm Hats: Crown of Glory, Floating Hat Circlets: Psychic Circlet, Demon Circlet Shields: Flame Shield, Fujin Shield, Terra Shield, Cosmos Shield Gauntlets: Big Bang Gloves, Aerial Gloves, Riot Gloves, Titan's Gloves Armlets: Clear Bracelet, Leda's Bracelet, Mythril Armlet Jackets: Triton's Ward, Storm Gear Garb: Erinyes Tunic, Mythril Clothes, Elven Shirt Mail: Valkyrie Mail, Chronos Mail Armor: Xylion Armor, Dragon Scales, Phantasmal Armor, Planet Armor Robes: Iris Robe, Ardagh Robe, Mysterious Robe, Aeolian Cassock Shirts: Silk Shirt, Mythril Shirt, Golden Shirt Boots: Golden Boots, Hyper Boots, Dragon Boots Rings: Guardian Ring, Cleric's Ring Items: Mist Potion, Potion, Water of Life, Elixir, Antidote, Psy Crystal, Unicorn Ring, Fairy Ring, War Ring If I didn't mention it, don't use it. You have a lot of things to consider when trying to put together your equipment setup. Of course, how much something directly adds to Attack or Defense is important, but there are other things that can hold more weight at times. Luck is vital to have on characters that can revive, cure poison or restore. Critical Hit upping equipment should be given to anyone who is going to spend most of their time attacking with the Attack command rather than using support spells or Element Physical Attack psynergy (Only the Beast Lord and Necromage should be using EPA psynergy more than their physical attack). 2nd Unleash is VERY important. That is, the chance that a random effect will happen during an artifact weapon's attack. Raised damage 2nd Unleashes (On that list, Excalibur & Tisiphone Edge) are in high demand, and Excalibur and Tisiphone Edge can actually do more damage than Sol Blade this way. Atropos' Rod has a low chance of one-hit killing someone, and that's very nice. Attacks that do an effect, however - like poison, or sleep - are a bad idea generally. It's too easy to heal. Only Stun and Sleep are worth having of the status effects. Elemental resist is BIG! Give someone a Cosmo Shield and Storm Gear and watch them take 1/2 to 3/4 the normal damage. Elemental Power should generally be considered for group healing spells (Fire for Manticore and Aura spells, Water for Wish spells) and sometimes for direct damage. This is somewhat rare, though, because Power's not going to help against most human players as well as say, Unleashing or healing (because generally you have to make the choice between high Element power and something to raise Critical Hits). Characters that have high defense but low agility can have the matter rectified by something rather useful; that is, the Elven Shirt. Whoever gets the Elven Shirt should have their equipment re-geared towards making up the defense loss, though. Here's something important - do *not* give things like Mist Potions to people with Wish in link mode. That is, don't get redundant with the item functions. In Battle Mode, this is allowed for something like Dullahan where you could lose your class in a blink of an eye. And make sure you spread out your item distribution! PsyCrystals are a lot more useful than regenerating PP every turn/high PP classes except in Battle Mode. Remember attack power for anything higher than 140% is generally unimportant, so you can be lax on your attack for the most part then. Items that have a special effect when USED rather than when equipped (such as the Fairy Ring or War Ring) do NOT need to be equipped to be usable in battle. Here's an example of a Beast Lord Garet I've built for Link Play with these rules in mind. Garet Class: Beast Lord (3 Mercury Djinni, 3 Jupiter Djinni, 3 Venus Djinni, Trainer's Whip) Weapon: Darksword Head: Floating Hat Hands: Big Bang Gloves Body: Elven Shirt Shirt: Golden Shirt Boots: Golden Boots Ring: Cleric's Ring Items: PsyCrystal (5), Potion (7) He'll be mostly using Ghost Soldier, so Critical Hit items are unimportant, as is Darksword's crappy unleash. The Golden Items help account for his defense loss due to the Elven Shirt, and the Floating Hat not only boosts his Low luck from a crappy 80% to a respectable 96%, it gives him Wind Resistance for the popularity of Excalibur. Big Bang Gloves gives not only nice defense, it boosts the strength of his Manticore healing spell. If damage with Ghost Soldier is a bit lacking, summon Procne with the three Jupiter Djinn and boost your Wind Power. For Battle Arena, it could easily be modified thus: Garet Class: Beast Lord (3 Mercury Djinni, 3 Jupiter Djinni, 3 Venus Djinni, Trainer's Whip) Weapon: Darksword Head: Crown of Glory Hands: Aerial Gloves/Big Bang Gloves/Cosmo Shield Body: Xylion Armor/Storm Gear Shirt: Golden Shirt Boots: Golden Boots Ring: Cleric's Ring Items: PsyCrystal (5), Potion (7), Mist Potion (30), Water of Life (5) Now Speed is not as important as simply staying alive, and he'll probably be your secondary healer anyway. ============= 08. The Djinn ============= I've already noted which classes it would be simply disastrous to unleash with in section 06, so I'm going to presume you know what you're doing about that. Here are the things to know about Djinn: -Unless you only have a single djinn that is in "Ready to be summoned" mode, it is a better idea to summon than it is to simply set if you want to get them back. -Flash, Shade or Granite should ALWAYS be on your team. It is a cardinal rule. Have more than one and they should be on different people. -Same goes for Tonic, Balm, Tinder, Coal, Zephyr, Haze, Lull and Crystal. -Same for Eddy in Battle mode. -The stat bonuses a single djinn gives to a character is minimal and can be ignored for the most part. Luck boosts tend to be the exception to this rule. ============= 09. Summoning ============= There is one final aspect of Djinni I have not covered. Summons. General rule for summons: Any summon that requires more than five (5) djinni to use is wasteful, generally. That is, Coatlicue, Azul, Daedalus, Catastrophe, Iris and Charon, the Ultimate Summons. Coatlicue heals you every turn for five turns with 60% of your max HP, something that can be generally better performed by an Angel Mia which won't cost you any Djinni. Good in Battle mode against Dullahans, though. Daedalus is actually an exception to what I said. It does nice damage for two turns (the second turn doing very close to equal damage to everyone, regardless of who was the main target). It's still not something to use a *lot*, but you should use it more than the others. Azul's kind of iffy. The chance of stun is nice, but most things in battle mode are too weak to bother with the difficult requirements or have too high luck to be stunned. Still, damage is good. Like Daedalus, you won't use it a lot, but more often than some others. Catastrophe's secondary effect (-10% opponent's PP) is bleh. Charon is similar to Azul, only he can one hit kill. It's worth digging out if your opponent uses low Luck classes. Iris does *very* nice damage, but the main reason for the high cost is her ability to heal all of your teammates. In Link Mode, there's only 3 people. =p So not worth it. The others are fair game and very useful. I personally like Megaera and Moloch a lot, as well as Meteor, Eclipse, and Ulysses. It's pretty standard in link play to start out with high level summons with all three characters on turn 1. If you don't play with any clauses on, prepare for someone to do that to you. Turn 1, cast Flash, Guard, and Resist. Watch and see for what they do... then make your moves. =========== 10. Clauses =========== If you want good competitive play, you will probably prefer to play with clauses rather than raw. Unsure of what I mean? For the most part, Flash, Granite, Balm, and Shade all make for rather boring battles. No one will be hurting ANYONE enough to actually matter. The solution? Don't allow either player Flash or Balm, and only one of either Granite or Shade. I call this the "Controlled" Djinni Clause. I personally prefer use of the stricter "Fair Play" Djinni Clause, which prevents unleashing of ANY of those four Djinni. Other than "Raw" Djinni Clause (AKA, no holds barred) the last choice is the "Exclusion" Djinni Clause, which prevents unleashing of ANY Djinn other than to summon. This Clause is a bit strong in my opinion, and limits some of the strategy. The problem with these "Djinni Clauses" is that the battle NOW becomes decided in the first two rounds with summons. I'll give you three guesses on the solution. First two don't count. Yep, that's right. We also have clauses for summons, too. "Raw" Summon Clause: All summons are usable. "Controlled" Summon Clause: Iris, Charon, Catastrophe, Eclipse, Daedalus, and Coatlicue are banned from use. "Fair Play" Summon Clause: Any summon which requires more than 4 Djinni is banned from use. More than 12 Djinni summoned every 2 turns is not allowed. "Exclusion" Summon Clause: All summons are banned from use. As a general rule, it's best to match Summon Clauses with their matching Djinni Clauses. I generally play with a "Fair Play" Djinni Clause, and "Fair Play" or "Exclusion" Summon Clause. ================ 11. Sample Teams ================ These are teams I've created for Link Battle play. Feel free to send in your own, I may post it if it's any good. |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| | Link Play | |_______________| _________________ |Guardians of Halo| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Garet Class: Paladin Weapon: Levatine Head: Mythril Helm Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Valkyrie Mail Shirt: Running Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Ring: Guardian Ring Jenna Class: War Adept(F) Weapon: Lachesis' Rule Head: Demon Circlet Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Mythril Clothes Shirt: Golden Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Ring: Cleric's Ring Isaac Class: Protector Weapon: Sol Blade Head: Mythril Helm Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Valkyrie Mail Shirt: Running Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Djinni Clause: Fair Play, Controlled, Exclusion Summon Clause: Fair Play, Controlled, Exclusion ____________ |Savage Noble| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Garet Class: Beast Lord Weapon: Darksword Head: Floating Hat Hands: Big Bang Gloves Body: Elven Shirt Shirt: Golden Shirt Boots: Golden Boots Ring: Cleric's Ring Isaac Class: Ronin Weapon: Sol Blade Head: Mythril Helm Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Valkyrie Mail Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Mia Class: Pure Mage Weapon: Lachesis' Rule Head: Floating Hat Hands: Clear Bracelet Body: Triton's Ward Shirt: Silk Shirt Boots: Dragon Boots Ring: Guardian Ring Items: War Ring Djinni Clause: Fair Play, Controlled, Exclusion Summon Clause: Fair Play, Controlled, Exclusion _________________ |Quick 'n Painless| sent in by: RagnarokWielder1 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Felix Class: Chaos Lord Weapon: Excalibur Head: Minerva Helm Hands: Cosmos Shield Body: Valkyrie Mail Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Quick Boots Isaac Class: Ronin Weapon: Sol Blade Head: Lucky Cap Hands: Aegis Shield Body: Asura's Armor Shirt: Golden Shirt Boots: Golden Boots Garet Class: Master Weapon: Tisiphone Edge Head: Fear Helm Hands: Terra Shield Body: Demon Mail Shirt: Running Shirt Boots: Fur Boots The problems with this? Chaos Lord is an OK class at L99 for Link Play, not something I'd use, but I won't fault you that much for using it. Ronin and Master are a great combo, so bonus points for that. I run into problems with your equipment choices. Minerva Helm's almost useless for Link Play, particularly for a class like Chaos Lord that at most only uses Planetary and Revive from its list of spells. If you want a lot of PP, use the Crown of Glory, but still... Chaos Lord has no business worrying about PP. Quick Boots are a redundancy on a class that naturally fast, meaning you'd be better served with Dragon or Hyper Boots, particularly Hyper to raise your critical hit ratio. I can see why you gave Isaac the Lucky Cap, Aegis Shield, and Asura's Armor, but there are better items to raise both your critical ratio & your defense. A Master has no need for added speed of a Running Shirt, Fear Helm and Demon Mail suck, and why Fur Boots? This trio gets a 8/10. Room for improvement, but not bad. |¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯| | Battle Mode | |_________________| _________ |Cry Havoc| ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Garet Class: War Adept Weapon: Excalibur/Levatine Head: Mythril Helm Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Valkyrie Mail Chest: Golden Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Mia: Class: Pure Mage Weapon: Nebula Wand/Lachesis' Rule Head: Psychic Circlet Hands: Clear Bracelet Body: Iris Robe Chest: Silk Shirt Boots: Golden Boots Ring: Guardian Ring Isaac: Class: Protector Weapon: Sol Blade Head: Crown of Glory Hands: Cosmos Shield Body: Triton's Ward Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Jenna: Class: Ronin Weapon: Tisiphone Edge/Atropos' Rod Head: Psychic Circlet Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Mythril Clothes Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Felix: Class: Chaos Lord Weapon: Tisiphone Edge/Levatine Head: Mythril Helm Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Mythril Clothes Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Hyper Boots Piers: Class: Cavalier Weapon: Excalibur/Levatine Head: Crown of Glory Hands: Aerial Gloves Body: Triton's Ward Shirt: Running Shirt Boots: Quick Boots Sheba: Class: Wizard Weapon: Lachesis' Rule Head: Psychic Circlet Hands: Riot Gloves/Titan Gloves Body: Triton's Ward Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Dragon Boots Ivan: Class: Dark Mage Weapon: Tisiphone Edge Head: Demon Circlet Hands: Riot Gloves Body: Mythril Clothes Shirt: Mythril Shirt Boots: Dragon Boots Ring: Cleric's Ring Summons Iris easily, high attack and psynergy (which IS useful in battle mode), Four Revivers. Nice. ==================== 12. Thanks & Credits ==================== Thanks go to: Inferno8, for discussing the merits of battling with me many a time. Yadotian Spy, for some VERY helpful data on Critical Hit-upping items. Terence, for his excellent Battle Mechanics FAQ, without which this wouldn't have been a possibility. I used his weapon, class, djinn, and stat data for this document. Aspartate, for their quite nice Item FAQ which I used many times to refer to since my GBA is currently BROKEN. (Thank you father. -_-;) The Ubiquitous CJayC, for hosting this and many other fine documents.