ARC THE LAD COLLECTION Walkthrough and FAQ By The Pauliwog (aka Paul Stillman) Current version: .1 _Introduction_ This is an FAQ on the Arc the lad collection for the play station (PSX). This FAQ does contain spoilers in it so be forewarned. Arc the Lad is an RPG quite different from many I have seen. This is by no means complete and I can use all the help I can get. My e-mail is thepauliwog@yahoo.com. If you e-mail me please make sure that the info is not already in this faq or I will become annoyed, also, make sure to put your name as you want it to appear when I give you credit for the info. Also, if you have any questions feel free to email me asking them! Also, I expect that you have read the manual, and I will give some small tips that might be said in it, but I will not go over things like how to equip stuff or use items, unless I get a lot of e-mail about it. _Legal_ This FAQ copyright 2002 Paul Stillman. Everything in this FAQ is mine, so don’t steal it. Don’t change anything or put it on your site without asking me first (e-mail me if you want to). _Version History_ 4/18/02- got the game, started playing ver .01 4/22/02- got the idea to write an FAQ, started. Did intro legal and table of contents, also a bit with characters. Ver .02 4/23/02- finished Arc character , started items accessories and walkthrough (for arc 1). Ver .03 4/26/02- the weekend finally! got back to my moms, got a lot more of the walkthrough done. 4/27/02- did a lot of the characters for ATL1 and some more of the walkthrough 4/28/02- Big thunderstorm, don’t want to use the comp. Might add some monster stuff. Also did some small items and accessories. Ver .1 6/22/04 - Finally got back to writing this thing. Sorry to all for not doing it for so long, but I hope to complete it this time. Did some more off the walkthrough. 6/23/04 - Added Iga to the characters, did some more walkthrough. 6/24/04 - Did more on the walkthrough for Arc the Lad 1 (hope to be done with it soon) 6/27/04 - More Walkthrough... 6/29/04 - Got up to Zariban in the walkthrough Table of contents 1. Arc the lad 1 A. General tips B. Characters C. Walkthrough D. Other things to do E. Items/accessories F. Monster list* 2. Arc the lad 2* A. General tips* B. Characters* C. Walkthrough* D. Items/accessories* E. Monster list* 3. Arc the lad monster arena * 4. Arc the lad 3* A. Story B. Characters* C. Walkthrough * D. Items/accessories* E. Monster list* 5. Miscellaneous stuff 6. Credits *Denotes coming soon 1 ___ARC THE LAD I___ _General Tips_ Here is where I put some tips that I thought up, these all have exception so don’t e-mail me saying that one doesn’t work on a specific area and such. 1. Some items are all over the place, herbs are 1 example, you can use these whenever necessary, don’t bother holding onto them. Items such as revival tonics are not found in multitude, and Kukuru will get the ability resurrect, always use this instead of Revival tonics. Thus, only use revival tonics if: you are out of MP and NEED the character, Kukuru is down and you NEED her back, You have enough revival tonics to spare. 2. Hp and Mp are always fully healed after a battle is over. 3. Because of the above, if you are in a battle and the only goal of it is to train, never waste a turn. What I mean is: never chose “end your turn” always cast a spell or attack or something”. Almost everyone has a spell that they can cast on themselves or others, anytime, thus getting them more experience. Do this and you will level up faster. 4. When I mention “training” I am talking about re-entering a battle level (take sembara marsh for example) for no reason other than leveling up your characters, and to get items dropped by monsters (or those in treasure chests). 4. Hp= hit points. It’s the amount of damage you can take. It is lowered by being hit and raised by being healed. 5. MP= Magic points. It’s the stuff you use to cast spells. 6. It’s always better to attack from the side or rear rather than from head on, but it is always better to attack head on then not at all (unless the guy has a mean counter attack). 7. Stick together if you don’t think you are strong enough. If you stick together, you can team up on an enemy and cure everyone with one spell. 8. Treasure chests are opend by hitting them, or by using an offensive spell against them. Some treasure chests can not reached unless you use either Chongara’s make floor summon, or a spell with good range. Also, most chest re-incarnate if you re-enter the level, but some (mostly the ones with rarer items in them) do not. 9. Sometimes, when you re-enter a battle after the first time, you start out at a different location, and the enemies are different. Colbo plain is a good example of this: the first time you go through it, there are ghosts and you get a power apple and a palo nut, the second time and on, there are just some green slimes and zombies. 10. It sucks to be you if you are cornerd and can not move. Try to avoid this. 11. Some accessories become useless after a while. The Kaiser glove is one of these: It gives the wearer level 1 throw, but once all your characters have level 1 throw it is useless. It does NOT add another level to your throwing ability. 12. Most items are won in battle, but a few are found by searching your surroundings. I will try to get every searching item in this guide, but you never no, I might have missed 1 or 2 items. Always search your surroundings (by pressing X) That’s all I have now, when I get more ideas I will put them here. _Characters_ Note: for most of the spells and character descriptions, I tried to make up myself, but I did steal a few from the manual. I also stole the MP points from the Manual. Arc Our brave hero, he’s the guy who has been chosen by the guardian to save the human race from devouring it’s self. He is also the only one who can use the Ark. He’s the righteous dude who goes around saving people just because it’s the right thing. He is strong and can use semi-effective curative spells but his strength main magical strength is in offensive spells. And his range is also nice! Spells: Burn ground - Burns the ground below the enemy (duh) Level 1: 4 MP Level 2: 8 MP Level 3: 16 MP Slow foe- Reduces enemies agility Level 1: 6 MP Level 2: 9 MP level 3: 14 MP Meteor shower- Hits monster with a big meteorite Level 1: 9 MP Level 2: 14 MP Level 3: 21 MP Total healing- Heals most status affects and restores a _little_ Hp Level 1: 7 MP Level 2: 10 MP Level 3: 15 MP Gale flash- Transient bursts of light pummel the enemy at high speeds Level 1: 12 MP Level 2: 16 MP Level 3: 24 MP Kukuru: The girl who is accompanying Arc on his quest, she is in the race of protectors of the flame cion. She goes to extinguish it, and crazy stuff starts to happen. She is a very good curer, with some offensive spells. Her physical attacks are quite strong and her range is excellent. Antidote- Cures poison Level 1: 3 MP Level 2: 5 MP Level 3: 8 MP Cure- Recovers Hp, gets better as Kukuru levels up Level 1- 4 MP Level 2- 8 MP Level 3- 12 MP Silencer- Enemy can’t cast magic Level 1: 6 MP Level 2: 9 MP Level 3: 14 MP Refreshment- Cures abnormal statuses Level 1: 8 MP Level 2: 12 MP Level 3: 18 MP Judgment day- An angel comes down to kick your enemies butt. Level 1- 9 MP Level 2: 14 MP Level 3: 21 MP Resurrect- Brings a party member back from the dead Level 1: 12 MP Level 2: 18 MP level 3: 27 MP Divide- Takes Hp from your opponents and gives it your party members Level 1: 14 MP Level : 21 MP Level 3: 32 MP Poco This guy is the guy who strikes fear into the enemy and rage (the good type) into the his friends… Or so he should be, but most often the enemies frighten him and his friends get enraged (the bad kind) with him. He is the instrumental guy, who doesn’t do much fighting under the king. He is always talking about food, and gets braver as he travels with Arc. He also is somewhat unrespectful towards Gogen and that turns out to be humorous quite a few times. Like Arc, he has a curative spell, but unlike Arc, his spell focus is on helping friends and hurting enemies by lowering or raising their stats temporarily. Battle drum- Makes every friend in range temporarily stronger Level 1: 3 MP Level 2: 5 MP Level 3: 8 MP Healing harp- Cures allies Level 1: 3 MP Level 2: 5 MP Level 3: 8 MP Slow bass- Reduces enemies agility Level 1: 7 MP Level 2: 11 MP Level 3: 17 MP Speed ocarina- Raises friends agility Level 1: 4 MP Level 2: 6 MP Level 3: 9 MP Lion drum- Poco shoots a burst of energy at the enemies in front of him Level 1: N/A MP Level 2: 12 MP Level 3: 16 MP Shift flute- causes everyone to face the dame direction as Poco Level 1: 10 MP Level 2: 14 MP Level 3: 18 MP Atrophy horn- Causes darkness to enemies Level 1: 12 MP Level 2: 16 MP Level 3: 24 MP Cheer trumpet- Attacks enemies using spooks Level 1: 8 MP Level 2: 12 MP Level 3: 18 MP Tosh The noble swordsman, who stuck out for the people and got thrown into jail. He is one of the remainders of an ancient clan of swordsman and rocks total butt on the field. He doesn’t take any crap and can rip open steel bars (like the ones on a jail cell, hint hint). All of his spells are attack oriented and his range is phenomenal. Jubakuzen- Attacks the enemy with a sword that causes paralysis Level 1: 5 MP Level 2: 8 MP Level 3: 12 MP Shinkuzen- Attacks an ememy 2 squares away from him Level 1: 16 MP Level 2: 18 MP Level 3: 20 MP Koei-Zen- Attacks with the ferocity of a tiger Level 1: 20 MP Level 2: 24 MP Level 3: 28 MP Ouka-Raibaku-Zen - Attacks an enemy very strongly Level 1: 24 MP Level 2: 32 MP Level 3: 40 MP Gogen The 3,000-year-old mage, predominantly black mage. He is sorta like the guy who you feel knows more than he’s telling you, and the guy who can really get on your nerves because of it. When you first get him, his Hp, attack, and range all stink, and he only has 2 spells (only one of which is actually useful in directly hurting an opponent). But, if you work with him enough, he will become a key member in you party. Explosion- A big explosion encircles the enemies (hope your not prone to seizures) Level 1: 10 MP Level 2: 16 MP Level 3: 22 MP Dream knock- Puts enemies to sleep Level 1: 6 MP Level 2: 10 MP Level 3: 6(?)MP Diamond dust- Ice attack where shards of ice fall from the sky Level 1: 14 MP Level 2: 20 MP Level 3: 26 MP Wind slash- A tornado attacks the enemies Level 1: 16 MP Level 2: 24 MP Level 3: 32 MP Fire barrier- Creates a fire barrier Level 1: 13 MP Level 2: 20 MP Level 3: 30 MP Thunderstorm- Lightning fries the enemies Level 1: 18 MP Level 2: 28 MP Level 3: 38 MP Teleport- Teleports Gogen and those around him Level 1: 10 MP Level 2: 15 MP Level 3: 23 MP Chongara The business man in the game. He tends to always know where to go next and what to do, but is rarely forthcoming with his information. At first he does everything for personal gain, but learns with his adventures with Arc. His spells are all summons, except for search. Mofly- Makes a floor where there was none: 6 MP Kelack- heals your party and attacks opponents: 12 MP Search- Adds that monster to Chongara’s private monster manual: 1MP Odon- transforms to look like a friend or foe: 12 MP Hemo-Ji- Turns enemies into magic deficient Hemo-Ji’s Fu-Jin - Use with Rai-Jin for storm: 30 MP Rai-Jin- Use with Fu-Jin for storm (1 must be one 1 side of the enemy, the other on the other side): 30 MP Chocko- Supposedly a mysterious strong girl, see "Forbidden ruins revisited" for more info. Iga The brute strength man who was manipulated. When you first meet him he is attempting to kill you, as was the bidding of his master. He realizes the errors of his ways and joins Arc in order to shape his spiritual aspect of his fighting. He is incredibly strong, and will (if you let him) become a key member of your party. Shingan Ho - Marks an enemy (follow up with Taima Kodan) Level 1: 2 MP Level 2: 4 MP Level 3: 6 MP Taima Kodan: Attacks all enemies which have the Shingan Ho mark on them Level 1: 6 MP Level 2: 9 MP Level 3: 14 MP Shippu Gekishu: Foot sweep attack to all the enemies around him. Level 1: 8 MP Level 2: 12 MP Level 3: 18 MP Ryusei Baku: A tornado/ground attack that engulfs multiple enemies. Level 1: 9 MP Level 2: 14 MP Level 3: 21 MP Kishinryu Eiha: A physical attack that can be done a distance away. Level 1: 11 MP Level 2: 30 MP Level 3: 26 MP Messho Reppa: Kills an enemy if their level is lower than Iga's. Level 1: 13 MP Level 2: 20 MP Level 3: 30 MP *Walkthrough* The first continent The story opens with Kukuru talking to the mayor about going up to extinguish the cion flame, which her clan has protected for 3,000 years. Once she extinguishes the flame (making sure to give the long I hate this god damn thing speech), she hears a strange voice talking about finally being free. Once she is down, she gives you the feeling of impending doom, the mayor says not to worry. However, once she is out of site, he says something about Andel rewarding him greatly. That night, the first blizzard in ten years happens. The scene abruptly switches to arcs house where he is trying to get the chest with his fathers sword and armor, his mom comes in and opens it for him, then asks him to please not to go blah blah blah, the whole overprotective mom thing. Arc tells her that he must find out what happened to his father, who mysteriously disappeared 10 years ago. The mom goes into the other room and has a flashback. When you have control, check the chest (press X) to get suited up. Now, check the jar closest to the top of the screen on the left for an herb, and the furnace looking thing for a stone (refer to the items section for what these do). Then talk to your mom who gives you: a Kaiser glove, a revival tonic, energy fruit, and sacred water. Arc then runs up to the mountain. At the mountain Kukuru and Arc talk a little and then Arc runs up to relight the cion. On the way there Arc runs into the Ark Ghoul, who asks if Arc is the one who freed him, then he decks him (knocks him over). Then, a strange light encircles Arc and a “guardian” tells Arc about how 3,000 years ago humankind was threatened to be destroyed because of it’s greed, which angered the gods. He/she/it tells you that the thing that saved mankind was an Ark. It then says that humankind is once again on the brink of extinction and that Arc is the only one that can use the ark. The guardian then bestows upon you the power of the guardian, which means you can now actually have a standing chance against the enemies. !Battle on the mountain! Enemies: 5 green slimes 1 treasure chest First thing about green slimes, they deal 8 damage, you have 15 Hp. So, 2 hits and your dead, but you should only have to take . Another thing about green slime is that it can split, leaving 2 green slimes instead of 1. Third thing about green slime, is that it can’t go down cliffs, this can be very tactfully used to avoid them. Fifth thing about green slime, if you kill 5 of them (and if your at level one) you level up giving you both burn ground lv. 1, and a few extra Hp (so you can get 1 extra time after leveling up). Last thing about green slime: 1 hit of yours kills them. All that out of the way Kill the guys on the bottom, then make sure that the guys on the next level are in your range so you ca n kill em without them hitting you. Also, try to go for the treasure chest (just hit it and you will get the treasure), because it has an energy fruit in it. ! After that, Arc goes up to light the cion, and just as the ark ghoul is about to kill Kukuru, he vanishes. After this whole thing, Arc becomes well known and receives an invitation to go see the king. He leaves after Kukuru says that once she hones her skills, she will be joining him. At long last your at the main map screen and can save (yeah!). After that select Palencia castle. As you enter you will see a bunch of troops marching by, and then someone else running behind them. This is Poco, who you will learn about later. You go and meet the king and tell him about how mankind is dying. The minister will say a few things and you get the feeling that he’s a “jerk” (not the word I would use but I want to keep this clean). The king talks about his brother having the same feeling about humanity dying and left the kingdom 20 years ago. The minister feels he must “test” you in order to see if you are indeed the hero’s talked about. He sends you to colbo plain. !Colbo Plain! 3 zombies 3 ghosts 3 green slime 1 fire elemental When you arrive, you find that all the troops except for Poco are dead, Poco joins you and battle commences. Have Poco and Arc stick together for most of this because Poco has healing abilities, and you want to avoid delving into your item supply, which should be low at this point. You should start off by using Poco’s battle drum, which will boost both of your members attack power (if Arc is in range). After that most enemies fall to 1 or 2 hits of either Poco or Arc and the zombies/ghosts (which are the guys you have to watch out for) will fall. The fire elemental is a coward and you might have to split up at the end and corner it by one person going 1 way and the other person going in the opposite direction. Oddly enough, you get a power apple and a palo nut for your efforts and these are awesome items, which you should covet. Revisited 6 green slime 4 zombies 2 fire elemental No palo nut or power apple :( ! When you go back to Palencia the minister doesn’t believe that you could have defeated the monsters that the finest soldiers could not. He says you are lying, just then, someone comes in and says that monsters are approaching. Now the king is watching, and the minister gets his second test. !Battle at Palencia castle! 3 green slime 3 ghost 1 evil bonze 1 witch doctor At the start of the battle, you see Kukuru in the middle and ready to fight! She is strong, but don’t overdue it with her. Kill a few green slime at the front, but don’t get into the battle until Arc and Poco arrive, or else you will probably have a dead Kukuru on your hands. Poco’s battle drum is effective once again, and Kukuru has cure. Watch out for the evil bonze, his sword hurts and his Hp is high. Also, the witch doctor will try to put you to sleep. You get the jump boots and magic card for this battle. ! After the battle, the king is very impressed, but the minister is annoying once again. The king tells ANDEL(!!!) to pipe down, he then talks about the ark and his brother some more. He says that humans almost died of greed and the only thing that saved them was the ark. The kings brother believed in it and went on a quest to find the ark. The last place he was seen was entering toyoke forest in millmana. The king sends you there to find out more. The minister (aka andel, who was the guy who the mayor mentioned when Kukuru put out the cion) goes into a back room and talks to a mirror about Arc. The mirror insults him and talks about general Yagun “putting him to rest”. The plot thickens. Go to seirya sky port and head to millmana! _Millmana_ Since the only place you can go is the HQ, go there. You speak to general Yagun (doesn’t that name sound familier? [hehe])and you (or at least I did) get the same feeling as you got with the minister. He too must “test” you (in case you havn’t noticed, all these tests are attempts to kill you) before letting you into toyoke forest, so he sends you to kill the monsters in ruvag woods and sembara marsh. One of the people that you can talk to hints that you should train a little bit at nicarus forest. When your ready to leave, talk to the guide at the bottom of the screen, and Kukuru will use a sleep bomb on him :). There are 3 places you can go to: Nicarus forest, ruvag woods, and sembara woods. I advise that you train a little at Nicarus forest, because the other places are probably to tough for you unless you leveled up at seirya. !Nicarus forest! 4 skeleton 2 witch doctor 2 evil bonze 1 treasure chest- energy fruit Everyone in this battle comes to you, so there is little need to move around a lot, except for exact locations to hit the enemies. The skeletons will be knocked over paralyzed when you hit them enough and then you will have to hit them once more in order for them to die (I do not think they ever recover from this paralysis, but I could be wrong). Unless you have leveled up Arc’s burn ground technique so it has a respectable range, you can’t get the treasure chest, so stop trying. ! !Ruvag woods! 4 wraith 2 warlord 2 bloodweed 1 Treasure chest- small bomb Initially, you should stick together until all the warlords are killed, after that, the enemies will probably stay where they are (since blood weeds don’t move and wraiths are cowards by themselves). The blood weeds are quiet interesting. There pollen attack does around 25 damage! And they have high Hp BUT when they do their duplication move the copies Hp is low enough to kill in one hit. Same deal with the inaccessible treasure chest in this level too. ! !Sembrara marsh! 4 warlords 3 mighty fly 1 treasure chest- sacred water If you are confident in your skills, you can send one person (probably Arc) up the top part from where you start to kill 2 warlords and 1 mighty fly, but I don’t recommend this if your level is low (basically, if this is your first trip to the marsh and you have not done extensive leveling up, this is suicide). The mighty flies range is really good, and so is there defense, watch out for them. The warlords are the same in this level, but they are also put where other enemies are, so watch your back! ! Return to the HQ and talk to Yagun. He says that you have accomplished nothing, and sends you off saying that it’s your hide. You leave. After that, you see Yagun and a mysterious figure appears, and Yagun tells him to kill Arc and his friends. A train comes and goes. If you talk to the people in the HQ, you find that the train used to be Romalian, the largest country in the world, but now was used to carry food to other parts of Millmana. With that, head to toyoke forest. !Toyoke forest showdown! 2 ninja (guy summoned by Yagun) 3 wraith 2 mighty flies 2 bloodweed (almost always ends up becoming 4-6) Once you enter, your guide ditches you. This can be a tough battle if you don’t watch your Hp, because you do NOT want to use a revival tonic at this point, but herbs are expendable. Make sure everyone is kept healthy, use Poco’s battle drum for more combat efficiency, and watch out for the ninjas! The second one is in a spot where probably only 1 person can hit them at a time, so make sure the 1 person has full Hp. I suggest leaving Poco in the first little clearing where you start in order to get all the mighty flies out of the way (they will flock to him). By the time you get to the blood weeds, they have multiplied so many times that they are weak as anything. ! You will then go into a clearing and see the forest spirit, who says that both Arc’s dad, and the crowned prince were there, in fact they are the same person! And, as every major character has so far, she talks about mankind dying, and that humanities destiny is in Arc’s hand. She gives Arc the hero crest and tells him to return to touvil (in seirya). Unlimited cure-all trick: Re-enter toyoke forest and the spirit will give you a cure all, this can be done over and over. TRAIN IN MILLMANA BEFORE LEAVING BACK TO SEIRYA!!! There is a boss battle coming up which is very difficult, and the only place that you will be able to train is colbo plain, which gives you very little experience points (there are 2 other levels that you can fight, but the monsters there are tougher than the boss). With that, it's off to seirya! Once you get there a messenger comes and tells you to go to Palencia castle, do so. Do NOT go to quina hill or karagan plain, the monsters there are extremely difficult and will eat you alive at this point. At Palencia, you see a man being carried of in chains escorted by many guards. This is Tosh, and you learn from the guards that he was one of the best warriors, but was thrown into jail because of his beliefs. You then see Tosh being thrown into jail, and the guards talk, and they sound quite like the minister (who shall now be called Andel) and Yagun. You Talk to Andel who says that the king is sick, and that he would transmit your message to the king. You don’t get very far when a guard comes in to say the prisoner was imprisoned, With that, Andel dismisses you. Arc and Kukuru decide that they should see what is going on in the dungeon, and they unanimously decide that since Poco knows the way, he should lead them. Needless to say, Poco had no say in the matter. The scene changes to the jail cell where the guards say that Tosh is to be put to death. Tosh has a flashbacks which involves his clan. Back in the real world, Tosh gets a burst of energy and rips open the bars on his cell (sweeeeeeeet). The scene goes back to Arc and friends as they enter a room, and the guards start talking Seirya falling to Romalia because of corruption, and the guards wouldn’t have to do a thing. And after that long speech to Tosh about loyalty. That's when Tosh runs into the room, and starts bustin up the guards, cept the problem is THEY TURN INTO MONSTERS!! The plot thickens. !Battle of the kings guards! 3 ninja 3 ghoul 2 doll master Tosh is assisting you in this battle, and his range and offensive power is great! But, as when you fought with Kukuru, he can die, so don’t overdue it. What I advise is that you make 2 groups, making sure to split up Arc and Tosh (I like Tosh-Poco, Arc-Kukuru), and have one take the enemies to the left and the other group take the enemies to the right. It isn’t to hard if you leveld up. You get a senior bandana and a fiend statue for winning the battle. ! After this battle, Tosh walks away and you go to see the king once more. Andel does not believe that you are the son of the crowned prince so Arc shows him the hero crest, which proves his lineage. They talk more about humanity, and Arc leaves. Once again, Andel talks to the mirror about Arc, and once again the mirror gets POed at him again. What is this mirror? Why are the kings guards monsters? How does Romalia fit into this? Stay tuned, for the next excit… oops, lost control, anyways, these will hopefully all be answered soon. You now should go to Touvil, when you get there, the city is destroyed, and there is no sign of your mom, but your house is burned to the ground. A delivery guy comes along with a letter for Arc, it is from his dad. It talks about the guardians and the Ark, then it tells Arc to go to the ancient monolith near Touvil. (if you can't find it on the map, it’s the little yellow dot above touvil). You will leave Touvil, however re-enter and you can search the remains of Arc’s house. If you search the Top-right corner, you will find a romancing stone. Your next stop is the Monolith and the first real boss! Ancient monolith When you get there, you will approach the monolith, and it wants to see your power too. You are transported into the illusion world where battle commences !!!!!Illusionary world showdown!!!!! 4 illusion flame 1 illusion lord <- boss This is tough even if you did level up. The illusion lord will cast strong magical spells, or he will put you to sleep. When you get closer to him, he will smack you, which does a LOT of damage. In addition to this, there are 4 illusion flames (like fire elemental, but stronger, and these guys are not cowards) who will annoy you. My strategy requires that Kukuru can not be killed by 2 smacks of the illusion lord (this is somewhat of a problem if you are weak). It also requires that she has cure level 2. Kill the 4 illusion flames (curing when needed) then make your way up to the boss. Situate you self with Kukuru behind him, Poco to the right, and Arc to the left. You can switch Arc and Poco, but Kukuru needs to be in the back, like this K A B P Have Arc and Poco hit him every turn (by now you should already have done Poco’s battle drum move), and have Kukuru cast cure 2 (if she is situated correctly, it should heal her, Poco and Arc). Just keep hitting him and he should go down fast. !!!!! After this battle, you meet Gogen, who comes off eccentric, but nice. He gives you a romancing stone and says that you should go to Alatos. Poco observes that you need an airship to get there, so go ask the king for one. (don’t forget to save) The king gives you all-time use of his airship, the silver noah. He also gives Poco his wild lion drum ability (see characters for more detail). On the map, select Seirya sky port and it will jump to a scene with Tosh, who talks to the spirit in his sword. The sword tells him to follow Arc. The camera then goes to Arc and friends who are about to board the airship, but just as they are about to board, tosh runs out saying he wants to join you. Gogen says some creepy stuff and Tosh joins. With that you take off and it’s off for Alatos! _Alatos and the first guardian_ When you get off the airship, a weird man comes up to you. This is Chongara. He tells you to visit his shop. Do so. You arrive at his house and there is more discussion about the end of the earth, and about the gaurdians. Gogen knows the location of the light gaurdian, but he wants something in return. He wants an item called the summon pot, which is located on the fifth floor of a place called the Forbidden ruins. Leave and go to the ruins. Here is some information about the ruins: It has 50 floors. -As you prgress down through the floors the monsters get increasingly difficult. -You go down to another floor by having one character end their turn on the "down" staircase, you do NOT need to kill all the monsters. -You do NOT regain HP or MP between levels, however, all status aliments are cured. -A secret character named Choco is on the bottom of the ruins, as is the final romancing stone. You want to get both of these before going on to Arc the Lad II (more on Choco later, at this point there is no way you are getting down to the 5oth floor) -When you want to get out of the ruins, you have to go back up every floor, this means ending one of your characters turns on the "up" staircase, this becomes really annoying. Luckily for you, the Summon pot that Chongara desires is on the fifth floor. The first 5 floors really aren't difficult. Just have everyone stick together so healing is easy, make sure you don't use up all your MP on the first 2 floors. The fifth floor can be tricky, what with all the blood knights, but just have Tosh and Arc take them, with somebody healing and you shouldn't have any trouble. On the fifth floor the summon pot is in a treasure chest. If, at the end of the fifth floor, you think you can survive another floor, it is worth it to get the power gauntlet from the sixth floor, it will help you in the upcoming battle. Once your out of the ruins, return to Chongara's shop, he tells you where the gaurdian is and agrees to help you find him. Prepare for a long battle. !!Battle for the light Gaurdian!! 7 - Ginat Bat 3 - Stone Jackal 1 - Stone Golem 5 - Treasure Chests (Palo nut, magic leaf, revival tonic, recos grass, power nut) This battle can be difficult. The Bats hurt, and their range is good. The Jackals move slowly, and usually don't move towards you. This allows you to encounter them when you want, however, their attacks are quite potent. I suggest having Arc and Tosh attacking them, while having someone healing them. The Stone Golem never moves so go for him last. The real goal in this stage is to get all the treasure chests, there are very good items in them. To get all the chests, you are going to need to summon Mofly (Chongara ability) and use his "create floor" ability, try not to let the Bats or the Jackals kill him. At the end, confront the Stone Golem. He is situated such that you can only have one person attack him. Make it either Tosh or Arc, whichever is better. Have kukuru as a healer and Poco on status boost, if you havn't already. Also you can have People cast magic on him from a distance. ! There is a cutscene with the light gaurdian in which he gives you the kings image and the light stone. After that you say goodbye to Chongara. When you can, go to the skyport. Chongara will rejoin your party. Next stop Greyshine! _Greyshine_ When you arrive, Chongara talks about the marshall artistists. The only place you can go is Amaidar Temple, however, there are two battles in succession, the second being a boss battle. If you don't think you are strong enough, go back to the ruins and train. !Arc Vs. Iga! This battle is a one-on-one between Arc and Iga, and depends mostly on your level. If you are around level 26, you shouldn't have too much trouble. Make sure to watch you health and either cast total healing or use an item. If your having a lot of trouble, go back and train, you can beat him using tricky tactics like keeping your distance, spellcasting/items using alternating with healing and running, but if you have to do this you are going to have trouble with the upcomming boss battle. ! !!!!Battle against the Archmonk!!!! 5 - Novice Monks 1 - Amaidar Monk <- Boss You have Iga for this battle, which is nice but be sure not to overuse him, his HP starts out low. Both the Novice Monks and the Amaidar Monk pack a punch so approach them in groups and with caution. You do NOT want 2 novice monks gaining up on one of your characters, they will die quickly. Your characters start out spread apart so I advise making one group take the left two, and the another group to take the right three. As usual, approach the Amaidar monk last, he will not engage you very often. When you do engage him, be careful. He ALWAYS counterattacks, dealing up to 50 damage. Make sure you have someone standing by to heal. Also, unlike the novice monks, most spells have little effect on him (Gogens thunderbolt does 1 damage) so stick with physical attacks. He only has 158 HP so a few hard hits and he will be out. ! After the battle there is a brief cutscene, then it's off to Mount Amaidar. !Battle on Mount Amaidar! 5 - Wild Hemo-Ji 4 - Boogie Men 7 - Water Slime The main focus in this battle are the 4 Boogie men, the other enemies are just anoyances. The water slime do not go out of their way to attack you so and if you have Burn Ground 3 it will kill them in one hit. The problem with the Hemo-Ji's is that they will sometimes inflict the Hemo-Ji status on your characters. This can be cured by Total Healing or by Refresh, but until it is cured that particular character will be rather useless. The Boogie men travel in a group, and attack in a group. You can expect 2-3 windslashes every time they attack, which is enough to kill your characters. Make sure you have a healer at the ready. Use Gogen or Arc to cast spells that affect a large range, so that you can hit all four with one spell. Once the Boogie Men are dead, it's pretty simple from then on as long as you have enough MP to keep doing Burn Ground 3 and Explosion on the water slimes. ! A cutscene with the Earth Gaurdian follows, he gives you the earth stone. Following that, Iga joins your party permanantly. At this point I suggest you stay and train some at the Amaidar training grounds (see More Stuff to Do section for more info), especially since Iga will need the expierience (he starts off really slow) once you think you are leveled enough (I personally made it up to Wave 10 before going on) head to the Greyshine skyport. At the skyport, you will determine that you need to go to a place called west Niedel, but there are a few things to do first. The first thing to do is to go back to Touvil and check your mailbox, there is a letter from your father about your journey, inside is also the second romancing stone (you should have 3 by now). The second thing to do is to return to Toyoke Forrest, where the gaurdian will give you a throw scroll. _Niedel_ When you get to Niedel, you are informed that the tournament is about to begin, head to the tournament. The tournament consists of 5 battles, plus a sixth one that happens a bit after the tournament (but before you get to save). The 5 tournament battles are done with one character (the same for all 5 battles), you are fully restored after each battle. Go with one of your best characters. I went with Poco, here's why: *Battle Drum & Speed Ocarina - I cast these at the start of every battle from battle 3 onwards. *Lion Drum - This is one of the few attacks in the game that has a different range other than the standard diamond-shaped attack range, which makes you able to damage your opponent on the first turn. Also, it hurts most enemies quite a bit. *Slow Bass- This is useful on the first and fifth battles, where the enemy is often faster than you. *Healing harp - This one is self-explanitory, healing yourself without the need of items is good. Of course there is always using your best character and hitting the enemy over and over and over :) Here are the 5 enemies you must fight in the tournament: Battle 1: Blood Knight - Should be a easy, you get a revival tonic for winning. Battle 2: Boggie Man - Another simple one, he casts windslash, but goes down fast. You get a power nut for winning Battle 3: Dark Knight - This one is hard, he hits for very high damage and can cure himself, make sure you keep yourself healed. You win a Magic Sprig for winning this fight. Battle 4: Mad Monk - His one attack is Divine Judgement, which does about 10 damage, he falls in two lions drums (if you used battle drum). You win Recons Grass from this one. Battle 5: This one is hard, the assasin is fast and deadly, dealing around 30 damage to you each hit. The worst part is that when he starts to die, he does a suicide attack, dealing from 80-100 damage to your character, so be sure to keep your HP high! After all the battles are over, you win the wind orb, but then you have to fight those who gave it to you (greedy bastards). !Fight for the Wind Orb! 6 - Boogie Men 1 - Blood Fiend In past battles where there are multiple easier enemies and one harder one, generally the difficult enemy stays where he is and waits for you to come to him. This is not the case for this battle, the blood fiend jumps right in. As was with the battle on mount amaidar, the Boogie Men cause problems. Since there are six of them in a small area, expect a lot of wind slashes. However, hopefully your party is a little strong than on Mount Amaidar, and the wind slashes won't do as much damage. As said above, the Blood Fiend Jumps right in the battle, I advise having Tosh and Arc deal with him (Getting cured regularly, as he can deal upwards of 50 damage, depending on your level) while the others take care of the Boggie Men (Have Gogen kill things with Explosion and Diamond dust). It sucks to loose this battle because if you do then you are forced to redo the tournament, so if you loose once, and if you were badly beaten, save yourself the time of playing through the tournament and go train at the Amaidar Temple or in the Forbidden Ruins. ! After that Gogen "releases" the wind gaurdian from the wind orb, he gives you the wind stone, and all is Happy. Return to the skyporty where you learn you next destination, Zariban! That's all I have for the walkthrough thus far, I have to go to a camp for 2 weeks, during which I will be unable to work on this, but unlike last time I WILL get back to it! Promise! _More Stuff to Do_ -Forbidden Ruins- *Coming Soon* -Amaidar Training Grounds- There are two things one can do here, Fight or trivia. Trivia: This consists of nine questions, each with four options. Answer all the questions right and you win the Monolith crest. If you answer a question wrong three times, you get the dumb stone. The answers are as follows: 1: Seven 2: Kukuru 3: Ouka Raibaku Zen 4: Andel 5: None 6: Silver Noah 7: Autoharp 8: Gale Flash 9: Gate to Palencia castle The other thing to do at the Amaidar training grounds is to fight. You fight a wave of 16 monsters (all the same type) at a time. Once you win you can either choose to fight the next wave or leave, either way your HP and MP is recoverd and if you choose to leave (and save) it will remember what set of monsters you were on. In other words you do not have to do this all in one sitting. The wave listings (and special items won from them) are listed below, but are not complete. Wave 1: Green Slime Wave 2: Fire Elemental Wave 3: Doll Master Wave 4: Giant Bat Wave 5: Blue Slime Wave 6: Hemo-Ji Special Item won: Chongara gets the Hemo-Ji summon ability. Wave 7: Vampire Bat Wave 8: Soul Flame Wave 9: Mad Puppeteer Wave 10: Blood Slime _Items_ Most of these I took straight from the game, but I have tweeked with some a little. (Alphabetically) An asterisk (*) Means that you should covet these items* Atrophy Ball- decreases attack/defense Attack Tonic- Temporarily increases attack Big Bomb- Big explosion Bitter Leaf- Temporary defense increase Blindness Grass- Causes Blindness Cure-All- Recovers statuses Energy Fruit - Restores 60 HP Hard Nettle- Cures silence Herb- Restores 20 Hp Neba Neba- Temporarily decreases agility *Nettle- Cures stone *Palo Nut- Ups agility Paralysis Apple- Causes paralysis Poison Apple- Causes poison *Power Apple- Gain a level *Power Jelly- Cures hemo-ji status *Recos Grass- Raises defense *Revival Tonic- Resurrects dead Rue Satchel- Cures paralysis Sacred Water- Cures poison Sleep Ball- Causes sleep Small Bomb- Small explosion Speed Satchel- Temporarily increases agility Stone- Causes damage when thrown Summon Pot- let’s Chongara use summons _Accessories_ Same deal with accessories, I copied most of the stuff, but added a few little tidbits. (Alphabetically) Armor Stone- +10% defensive ability Counter Bracelet- Counter attack level 2 Deity Fist- Ups strength against certain foes Fiend Statue- +dodge ability Hero Crest- Recovers MP every turn (Arc only) Hit scroll- +attack hit success Insomnia Card- Prevents against sleep Jump Boots- Level 1 jump ability Kaiser Glove- Level 1 throw ability King’s Image- Get experience of the guardians (Chongara) Magic Card- +10% magic ability Power Gauntlet - Increases defence 30% (Chongara) Romancing Stone (there are 4)-Equip all on a character and their spell cost is 0 Senior Bandana- +attack hit success Short Sword - Attack up 10% Skill Bracelet- Grab becomes through back. 6. Credits: The following people helped me with various tips and information: Jason Garvin - Information on Choco and the romancing stones. Justin schmitz - Information on Choco and the forbidden ruins.