=============================================================================== Vagrant Story Stat Wheel Guide By Graham Moore AKA Redefiner (savage289@hotmail.com) =============================================================================== I was surprised to discover that a guide about the stat wheels hasn't already been written. It's my first FAQ and there's bound to be some mistakes or important omissions. Let me know if there is. =============================================================================== Version History 2005-09-25 – Wrote first version of the guide. =============================================================================== Contents 1) What is the Stat Wheel? 2) What Determines Which Stat Wheel You Get? 3) The Stat Wheels 4) Wheel Contents Summarised 5) How to Manipulate the Wheels 6) Advice and Further Info =============================================================================== 1) What is the Stat Wheel? The stat wheel is the ‘roulette’ wheel that appears after you have defeated a boss. It allows you to increase a stat by pressing Circle at the right moment. Chances are it hasn’t caught your eye before now as anything significant, as regardless of when you press Circle, you always seem to come out with a random stat. It turns out however, that it is almost anything but random. There are, in fact, three different wheels; the “STR”, “INT” and “AGL” wheel. Each one has 16 stat increases on it, though some of them are the same, and the stats always appear in a set order. If you’re aiming to max all your stats to 999 and finding all except HP difficult to raise, or if you just want to be able to have more control over which stat you raise, it’s helpful to know how the wheels work. =============================================================================== 2) What Determines Which Stat Wheel You Get? Which wheel appears after you defeat a boss depends on which stat out of STR, INT and AGL was lowest before you fought the boss. The game goes by the “ORG” stats, not the “EQP” stats. That is to say, it is the stats you have when no weapon equipped that determines which wheel you get. If you have two stats that are joint lowest (e.g. STR and INT are both 100 and AGL is 101) then one is chosen randomly out of the lowest two. Your HP and MP do not affect which wheel you get. Even if you managed to get your HP lower than your other stats, you would still get one of these three wheels. =============================================================================== 3) The Stat Wheels Remember these lists join up at the top and bottom. The stats appear in the order listed below, but the wheel may start on any stat. I merely listed them putting the rarest stat increase at the top. If your lowest stat is STR you get the “STR Wheel”:- STR + 3 HP + 4 HP + 4 MP + 1 STR + 2 HP + 3 MP + 2 INT + 1 HP + 4 AGL + 1 STR + 2 HP + 3 HP + 5 STR + 1 MP + 2 HP + 3 If your lowest stat is INT you get the “INT Wheel”: - INT + 3 AGL + 1 MP + 2 HP + 4 STR + 1 INT + 2 HP + 4 HP + 5 HP + 3 INT + 1 HP + 4 MP + 1 HP + 3 HP + 3 INT + 2 HP + 4 If your lowest stat is AGL you get the “AGL Wheel”: - AGL + 3 HP + 3 MP + 1 AGL + 1 MP + 2 HP + 4 AGL + 2 INT + 1 HP + 4 STR + 1 HP + 3 MP + 2 AGL + 2 HP + 5 HP + 3 HP + 4 =============================================================================== 4) Wheel Contents Summarised Each wheel has: HP + 5 x 1 HP + 4 x 3 HP + 3 x 3 MP + 2 x 1 MP + 1 x 1 STR + 1 x 1 INT + 1 x 1 AGL + 1 x 1 But, the STR wheel also has the extra stats; STR + 3 x 1 STR + 2 x 2 MP + 2 x 1 The INT wheel also has the extra stats; INT + 3 x 1 INT + 2 x 2 HP + 4 x 1 And the AGL wheel also has the extra stats: AGL + 3 x 1 AGL + 2 x 2 MP + 2 x 1 =============================================================================== 5) How to Manipulate the Wheels i) Letting it Roll * Make a note of what your lowest stat was before you deal the finishing blow to the boss. This will allow you to anticipate which wheel you get. If you fail to do this, you will have to work out which wheel you have visually. The obvious giveaway is if you see “AGL + 3” or “AGL + 2” fly past, then you know you have the AGL wheel. * Make a note of which stat appears immediately after you are given your Riskbreaker rank. Also make note of the stat that come after it. This will allow you to determine where the wheel started from. * Refer to the wheels listed above and count 5 stats down from the first stat. This stat will be the stat the wheel will land on if you just let it roll. Example 1: Let’s say your STR was the lowest stat before fighting a boss. After defeating it and getting your Riskbreaker rank, let’s say that the stat that appears on the wheel first is STR + 2, immediately followed by AGL + 1. Look at the STR stat wheel and find where AGL + 1 appears above STR + 2. If you count five spaces down from STR + 2, the stat is HP + 3. So if you let the wheel roll without pressing Circle, it will land on HP + 3. Example 2: Let’s say your INT was the lowest stat before fighting a boss. After defeating it and getting your Riskbreaker rank, let’s say that the stat that appears on the wheel first is HP + 3, immediately followed by HP + 3. Look at the INT stat wheel and find where HP + 3 appears above HP + 3. If you count five spaces down from the bottom HP + 3, the stat is MP + 2. So if you let the wheel roll without pressing Circle, it will land on MP + 2. ii) Pressing Circle * If you decide that you don’t want it to land on the stat you will get by letting it roll, then you will have to press Circle at the right moment. You have to press Circle on the stat 7 stats above the one you want. Using Example 1 above: HP + 3 is an undesirable stat as far as I am concerned. I want it to land on STR + 3. So counting seven up from this, you get AGL + 1. So I have to press Circle as AGL + 1 flies past on the stat wheel to get STR + 3. * This requires you to have speedy eyes and even speedier reactions. It may seem impossible at first, and it does take a bit of practice, but I can usually get it to land on the stat I want 70% of the time. * If you keep missing, you either need to press Circle a bit earlier or a bit later. * A good one to go for is AGL + 1 on the INT wheel. You have to hit the HP + 4 that appears after the MP + 1. But if you press too early or too late, you will get INT + 3 or MP + 2 instead, both of which are good stat increases. =============================================================================== 6) Advice and Further Info * A full revolution of the wheel once it has sped up takes 1.75 seconds. * The wheel spins for one minute and ten seconds before stopping. * My advice is to avoid aiming to raise your HP. If you’re intending to max your stats, then your HP will inevitably reach 999 first, as your HP is the highest stat at the game's start and Elixir of Queens is the most common elixir in the game. Also, raising your HP by accident by hitting the wrong stat on the wheel is very common, as nearly half the stats are HP increases. It’s a pain having gotten your HP to 999 and then getting “HP + 4” on a stat wheel when you want to increase your MP. As far as I’m concerned, getting STR + 1 is better than getting HP + 5. * If you find one wheel easier to raise your MP on than the others, you can aim to get that wheel as often as possible. Example: Let’s say you can nearly always get MP + 2 on the AGL wheel. Deliberately raise your STR and INT and keep your AGL at least 4 points behind the second lowest one. Say your STR is 320 and your INT is 315, then don’t use any Volares or Elixirs of Dragoons if it means your AGL will go higher than 311 – this is because you might hit AGL + 3 by accident and lose your choice of wheel. Wait until after you have defeated Nightmare before using the Elixirs. * Stat wheels do not appear for every boss. Each of the following bosses provide a stat wheel: - Wine Cellar: Minotaur, Dullahan Catacombs: None Sanctum: Golem, Dragon Town Centre West: Duane + 2 Knights All City walls: None Abandoned Mines B1: Wyvern, Fire Elemental, Ogre Undercity West: Giant Crab, Dark Elemental Snowfly Forest: Earth Dragon, Grissom + Dark Crusader The Keep: None Snowfly Forest East: None Abandoned Mines B2: Air Elemental, Earth Elemental, Sky Dragon Town Centre East: None Undercity East: Lich, Nightstalker Limestone Quarry: Water Elemental, Ogre Lord, Snow Dragon Temple of Kiltia: Kali Forgotten Pathway: None Escapeway: None Iron Maiden B1: Iron Golem Iron Maiden B2: None Iron Maiden B3: Asura Great Cathedral B1: Marid, Ifreet, Iron Crab Great Cathedral L1: Djinn Great Cathedral L2: Nightmare Great Cathedral L3: Dao Great Cathedral L4: None That's a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 29 stat wheels per game. =============================================================================== This guide has been written for www.gamefaqs.com No part of this FAQ may be reproduced on any format without my permission. Vagrant Story is Copyright © 2000 Squaresoft Ltd. FAQ Copyright 2005 © Graham Moore AKA Redefiner