THE ATELIER IRIS ULTIMATE WEAPON SYNTHESIS FAQ version 2.5 By David Myers. A compendium of game information obtained from players active on the message boards of gamefaqs.com, with especial thanks to the contributors to the "I have a Weapons Synthesis Chart, Anyone interested" thread. contacting the author: by email, dwm042@email.com If you email me, please use the subject: ATELIER IRIS I'm on the GameFaqs Atelier Iris message boards as dwm042. ============================================================ i. Legal Stuff This Faq is copyrighted (C) 2005 by David Myers. All rights are reserved. This FAQ is not to be distributed unless you are explicitly listed on the distribution list below. Authors that I have quoted retain their own copyright to their words. I use their comments under fair use. Please treat their contributions as having a copyright of their own, and if you quote them, please say so. Distribution List: 1) The author 2) Gamefaqs.com That's it! All other distribution points are unauthorized. ============================================================ Table of Contents 0. Updates 1. Introduction 1A. About This FAQ 1B. What are Mana Stones? 1C. What can I do with Mana Stones? 1D. Where can I get Mana Stones? 1E. Is there any advantage to making Mana Crystals early in the game? 1F. What are these named effects you've been talking about? 1G. What's a combo? What does DA mean? What does 3xDA mean? 1H. Which named effects add an attack? Which named effects increase critical hits? 1I. Is any of this synthesis required? 1J. How should I handle the rare Mana Stones? 1K. I don't have any use for Blue or Dark Mana. What to do? 1L. Can Mana Stones be purchased? 1M. So What's this Ring of Love cycle? 1N. So what's the most cost effective stone? 1O. I heard about another cycle involving Palm Fish? 1P. Does double attack work for Klein? 1Q. So what should I do to win Zeldalia's challenge for Norn? 2-I. Basics 2A. One Shots 2B. Combos 2-II. Fundamental Syntheses 2C. Making Double Attack 2D. Making Pierce 2E. Making Animal Instinct 2-III. Intermediate Syntheses 2F. Magic Stone 2G. Battle Protect 2H. Holy Weapon 3. In Depth 3A. The Mana 3B. Synthesis Combinations 3C. Okay, what do all those effects mean? 3D. What's that (S) mean after the Skill? 3E. A Partial List of Items that can accept Mana. 3F. Accessories and Mana. 3G. The Japanese Site 3H. GameFreeek's Basic Mana synthesis chart 3I. Direct Synthesis Effects by Alphabet 3J. Cost of Synthesis Chart (Combinations) 3K. Holy Weapon from Scratch 4. Ultimate Stat Boost Combos 4A. Theories of the Ultimate Stat Combo. 4B. Early Game Tools 4C. After Silencia. 4D. Nico Silius 4E. Dr Zero 7's formula 4F. Kimber Boh's Technique 4G. Gundam4fun's Approach 4H. BaKuRi 4I. Dragonne 4J. 10124241 4K. My Opinions 5. Things I need for this FAQ to Grow 6. Resources and Notes 7. About the Author ============================================================ 0. UPDATES ver 2.5 - Added a section in the intro explaining which effects add additional attacks. Added sections to Part 2 to help people who can't read charts or are confused by the in-depth discussion. ver 2.4 - Simplified the Holy Weapon pathway, reducing the number of mana used by one. Simplified Mana Stone listing for Magic Stone. Added a couple new introductory segments. ver 2.3 - Added the guts of an excellent thread on Life Up (S)-(M). Added a section at the end of the ultimate combo section that plainly states what I use when I fight. I added new step-by-step synthesis pathways as well. ver 2.2 - Cleanup, added more explicit instructions to Crimson stones. The section on other sources has been rewritten to explain what Kimber Boh's FAQ does well. Thank yous have been added to the end. ver 2.1 - Mostly typo fixes. Added Zidane15's discovery of the more efficient Pierce formula. ver 2.0 - Daniel Guidotti wrote an interesting email, and some of the things he spoke of are in this version. There are also some typo fixes. ver 1.9 - Noted that Hute gives Mana away late in the game. Added entry for Divine Cane and some notes about Divine Cane stats. Odds and ends were added, and 10124241's recent posts and comments integrated into the text. ver 1.8 - Added a list of Mana. Alphabetized some major charts. Added some new quotes, most importantly 10124241's "Why DA is better" post. ver 1.7 - Added a Fundamental Syntheses section to get beginners started. Cleaned up text otherwise and added a quote here and there. ver 1.6 - Eliminated inconsistencies between cost charts in the introduction and the stone summaries later in this document. Added a cycle I'm calling the Hell Soju cycle. ver 1.5 - Data on elements that can be extracted from Mana Stones has been removed and replaced by the cost of Mana Stones in the stores. Mention of the Ring of Love cycle is included. A short discussion of the theories of ultimate weapon combinations has been added. A small section talking about the game post-Silencia has been added. ver 1.4 - Sections have been added to the introduction, and the depth of coverage improved. Gundam4fun's approach to ultimate weapons has been added. Nice quotes by drzero7, Nico Silius, and dragontears969 have been added. A Cost of Combinations Chart has been added. ver 1.3 - added info about Mana stones; added Red Mana stone to 1B. Added a section 3A, to touch on how to start synthesizing. Added a Resources section. ver 1.2 - added an email address where I can be reached, I began the development of section 2H, an ease of synthesis chart. Fixed various typos and inaccuracies. ver 1.1 - A new section 2B, which describes the various effects found on Mana Crystals, has been added. The text in the introduction has been enhanced. Some typos have been removed. More details on ultimate weapons combos have been added. ver 1.0 - initial version of the FAQ. ============================================================ 1. INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------ 1A. About this FAQ: The style of this FAQ is what I call a compendium. I'm not the author of many of the ideas in this document (except for large parts of the introduction). Other people are. I am going to try and give as much credit to the people who actually did the hard work on a per-section basis. If you see someone's name or handle in parentheses, that means that a gamefaq player contributed directly to this document. So if you see something like: --------~ ( Foo) Then Foo wrote a message on a message board that I read and used as source material in this FAQ. Often I will quote authors directly, in which case this document is using their words under fair use and my use does not invalidate any copyright of their own. Quotes may be edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. From Calvin Coolidge: "Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." ------------------------------------------------------------ 1B. What are Mana Stones? Mana stones are these Hershey's kisses-like things you collect as you wander through the game. There are different kinds of these stones. Color Commonality Useful? Cost if purchased ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Common marginal 6800 cole Black Common yes 6800 cole Red Common yes 6800 cole Yellow Common yes 9880 cole Blue Common marginal 9880 cole Green Common yes 12500 cole Glowing Uncommon yes 12500 cole Silver Uncommon* yes 17500 cole Gold Rare yes n/a Jade Rare yes n/a Crimson Rare yes n/a * Silver becomes a 100% drop once Jin Riders can be found consistently. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1C. What Can I do with Mana Stones? Once you get the anvil from the fairies, you can turn Mana stones into Mana Crystals. The Mana Crystals in turn, can confer properties onto weapons and accessories that contain these crystals. The power of Mana Crystals is that they allow weapons customization. Mana Crystals can be added to or removed from weapons or accessories. Only one Mana crystal can be present on a weapon (or accessory) at one time. The largest number of effects that can be in a single Mana crystal is three. So, it's possible for a Mana Crystal to have, say, Pierce and Double Attack and the Sky Sonata effects. To get these more powerful effects, Mana Crystals can be fused with other Mana crystals. Fusing two Crystals with attack +2 will yield attack +4. Not every combination does something useful, but many do. The charts offered below often assume you know that numeric stats are maximized at +9 (or in the case of certain defense stats, +5) and that the combination of named effects can lead to pretty exotic results. If a character has a weapon and a crystal accepting accessory, then they can have as many as 6 combined effects. If they have a weapon and 2 crystal accepting accessories, they can have as many as 9 combined effects. Creating named effects, is, as of July 2005, an active area of game reseach by players. The activity has tailed off into August but still new syntheses are being discovered. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1D. Where Can I get Mana Stones? ( EvilOne, Stormy Night, Ghost-Bear, utawoutau ) Some Mana Stones are found randomly scattered throughout the game. Some are sold by the fairy in the portal. Others are sold by the renegade fairy, Pattote. Some are given to you freely by the fairy at the forge in Iris's Resting Place. If you shop long enough at the Mines with Hute, she eventually starts giving you Red Mana if you come back to her after some fighting. This I noticed when using the Ring of Love cycle. Other Mana are drops by monsters and indicated in the table below. You should assume, unless otherwise indicated, that the drop is rare. Dark: Red Puni, Golden Puni, Mandragora, Hell Kitty, Mull Beast Black: Faux Puni, Black-Belt Kero, Fly Trapper, Sentry, Nocturne Element, Baphy. Red: Baby Pig, Salamander, Ghost, Brownie, Mountain Pig, Cerebus, Vine Trap, Lantern Jack. Yellow: Jin, Shock Element, Vulture, Totem Blue: Puni, Mini Puni, Giant Puni, Ice Puni, Super Puni Green: Wood Golem Glowing: Baal, Phantom Silver: Jin Rider (100%), Supreme Wolf Jade: Master Kero (very rare) Crimson: Flame Viriums (confirmed, very rare) ------------------------------------------------------------ 1E. Is there any advantage to making Mana Crystals early in the game? Yes there is. You can store more "stuff" in the form of Mana Crystals than by carrying Mana Stones alone. Reducing stones to things like attack+3 Crystals and Defense+5 Crystals reduces storage space and sets you up for more complex syntheses later on without having to come back and pick up stones you couldn't carry because of the 9 stone limit. By the time your party is through the Land of Mana, you'll have more stones than you can carry. It's around this time that you should consider making Mana Crystals and fusing them into components for later use. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1F. What are these named effects you've been talking about? The Atelier Iris game designers decided that some Mana Crystal effects would be level based and others would be fixed in character. I'm calling the latter named effects because they go by names like "Pierce" instead of attack +5. Generally, named effects are created by mixing two other effects, though there are quite a number of cases where the named effect is created by the action of a Mana on a crystal, typically an "activated" Mana (Mana transformed by a aroma material) acting on a rare stone. See sections 3B and 3C for examples of named effects. The synthesis chart in section 3H also shows named effects that are created directly by the action of Mana on stones. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1G. What's a combo? What does DA mean? What does 3xDA mean? By combo, we mean a Mana crystal that has more than one effect, and that was created by combining 2 or more mana crystals. It is short for combination, implying a combined mana crystal. Named effects in Combos are often abbreviated. Common abbreviations are: DA - Double Attack AI - Animal Instinct HW - Holy Weapon SS - Sky Sonata BLP - Battle Lord Power 3xDA means that there is a crystal that has 3 double attacks. Often people using the abbreviations assume the player in question has more just a weapon, so if you see a total of 6 effects, you have to assume they are speaking of a weapon and an accessory. If you see 9 total effects they have a character who has a weapon, and 2 crystal accepting accessories. If someone says something like 3xDA + 2xPierce + AI, they usually aren't specifying which effects are on the weapon or accessory. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1H. Which named effects add an attack? Which named effects increase critical hits? Double Attack, Sky Sonata, and Holy Weapon add additional attacks. Pierce and Animal Instinct increase critical hit probability. Pierce also increases attack by 30, and Animal Instinct increases speed by 30. Holy Weapon differs from Double Attack by adding increased damage to unholy monsters; however, this additional effect is only seen with 1 Holy Weapon, so adding more than one Holy Weapon to a crystal is a bad idea. Sky Sonata adds a fire-based attack, and so people have differing opinions on its usefulness. Fire can heal Flame Viriums and other fire based monsters. For Klein and Norn the rules are different. Their attacking power is increased by the strength of their Magic, and so boosting Magic is the major technique making them attack harder. The named effect that does this best is Magic Stone. Magic Stone also increases the chance of a critical hit with Klein or Norn's wand. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1I. Is any of this synthesis required? It's commonly related that players didn't need to make any weapons until the bonus dungeon and the fight with the Golden Pigs. My experience was that by Ka Luda's Playground, I could have used some more powerful weapons. Certainly by Avenberry, more powerful weapons and hitting power make a substantial difference in how Lita and Arlis fight. By the end of the game, having a full set of crystals on my weapons turned the fight with the final boss into a very easy contest. He never hit me once as Lita would skill break his attacks every time. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1J. How should I handle the rare Mana Stones? ~~~ Gold ~~~ Gold does not appear to make anything that can't be made by more common stones, so using it to make things like Battle Lord Power and Bless Power make sense, since this takes the "load" off a heavily used stone, such as Glowing. ~~~ Jade ~~~ From drzero7: "From what I've been testing, Jade should only be used for either making Holy Weapon or Holy Sanctuary. (Cause Holy Sanc makes +50 DEF +75 D DEF, which is good.) Anything else making for Jade Mana is a waste. BTW, there's a Jade Mana in that Ocean Mist area. (That first part to enter Land of Mana that's below Duran.) To get the Jade mana from the trees, get to the highest point on the map, use Stone Mana to stand on top, and use flight to go all the way back to the beginning part to take your Jade Mana." ~~~ Crimson ~~~ From korican04: "There are 3 I found before the bonus dungeon. One in Avenberry Library where you fight the book eater. One in the path of heavens. And the last one in Selk's Cry." The Selk's Cry one is, if I recall correctly, past the lava beds. The one in the Path to Heavens is in a bird's nest, requires fly and requires some tricks with stone stacks to get the necessary height. The one found in the room with the Book Eater also requires some height gaining tricks to recover. From myouga2: "You can also get one from the fairy in Iris's Resting place, it'll take a while of cycling through the others from least rare to rarest though." From Daniel Guidotti: "Crimson mana drop from flame virum, but very rarely. They seem to drop at around the same rate that Jade mana drop from the master keros (I've never found a Jade). Based on this logic, I wouldn't be surprised if someone discovered that gold mana drop from the gold colored lord keros. Seeing as how I've only obtained one extra crimson mana (I have five in total), I would expect that verifying this will be difficult." How people feel about Crimson is affected by how people judge Sky Sonata. Sky Sonata adds an extra attack, but it is a fire based attack, useless against monsters that heal when exposed to fire. Otherwise the big ticket effect for Crimson is Spirit Stone, which can be used to make various defensive effects, including Holy Sanctuary. One common "oops" point is that Klein's staff has a Spirit Stone. If you attempt to add a Crystal with Magic Stone in it, the Spirit Stone in Klein's staff will merge with the Magic Stone and suddenly you have Holy Sanctuary instead. The effect is, thankfully, reversible. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1K. I don't have any use for Blue or Dark Mana. What to do? Sell them to buy blacks and reds. Lyla, who runs the grocery in Kavoc, will buy them for 3400 cole for black stones, 4940 for blues. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1L. Can Mana Stones be purchased? Some Mana are sold at the Fairy waypoint (Dark, Black, and Red) as you travel from town to town. But if you have enough money (30,000 cole or more) a fairy will appear on the roof opposite the weapons shop. You can purchase Yellows and Greens, and even Glowing and Silver from Pattote, the renegade fairy. As in all shops, these two reset their goods after you leave. In the case of Pattote, you can just walk out of Kavoc and back in. At the waypoint you can teleport back and forth (though I think you need to do more than that to get him to reset). If you use the Ring of Love cycle, available after Silencia is completed, then the only barrier to acquiring stones is simply your patience. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1M. So what's this Ring of Love cycle? Start out in Arcose, buy 9 Salt from Villa. Go to the mines, and from Hute buy 9 silver legions and 9 wax. Leave if she doesn't have enough and come back, the store will reset when you leave the Mines. At this point, stand in front of the door to Hute's shop and select fly using the square button. Fly to the scaffolding that holds the machinery for the mine shaft. You'll be at exactly the right height; if you see a comet stone take it. Repeat until you have 9 stones. At this point head to Kavoc through Arcose and to Veola's shop. Make 9 comet jewels with stone and salt. Then make 9 Rings of Love with the jewels, the wax and the silver legions. Take the rings to the weapons shop and sell them. This makes enough money to buy 2 silver or 3 glowing Mana stones. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1N. So whats the most cost effective stone? Purchased? Glowing, by far. Green is probably the worst buy from the fairies. After glowing, then equally cost effective are silver, black, and red. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1O. I heard about another cycle involving Palm Fish? After Silencia, across the pond in the cleft of Nelvia, you can find Palm Fish as a regenerating item. Palm Fish are worth 1750 cole each. But if that's all you're collecting it's boring. I'll note that if you're going to make Smartinis in quantity, you're going to have to make a lot of Hell Sojus. Hell Sojus are necessary to make the Herbal Elixirs necessary for Nectar, and Hell Sojus are necessary to make the Dragon Slayers for God's Dance. So, looking at the problem in general, you can get Milk and Maple Syrup from Villa, though you may have to leave town to regenerate the milk. Ale and Red Wine are sold by Norman. Dragon Tongue and Crark Snake are sold by Oscar, who restocks if you walk out of his current location (in my game, that was Lector's Caravan). Cat's Eyes are rare drops by Bugbears, and Shifty Eyes, which I found work about as well for Demon Slaves, are fairly common drops by Bugbears. Cats and Shifties then, limit production; well that and Hell Sojus. So what's the deal with Hell Sojus? They require Belgrade Potatoes, Pure Water and Red Peppers. All three of these ingredients are in Nelvia (the Springs for Water, the Cliffs for peppers and potatoes) AS WELL AS PALM FISH. Further, Herbal Elixers require Belgrade Potatoes, Dragon Slayer requires Red Peppers, as does Demon Slayers. So, by my count, it would take a minimum of 4 trips to Nelvia to satisfy the demand for Hell Sojus and the the additional potatoes and peppers. So, make those 4 trips and make yourself 9 Smartinis. In the meantime, pick up 4 batches of Palm Fish and sell them for 15,750 x 4 = 63,000 cole. It'll help pay for those Dragon Tongues you bought from Oscar, and maybe a Mana Stone or two. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1P. Does double attack work for Klein? Yes, *if* you use Mace Attack all the time and spend the mana to do so. Otherwise, if you wish to conserve mana, use Klein's Elemental Extract and maximize your use of Wide Item and Power Item, Klein's two most important skills, then you really want to boost magic stats, and Dirty Power and Magic Stones are best for that. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1Q. So what should I do to win Zeldalia's challenge for Norn? Both Klein and Norn should be treated as mages and their magic boosted as high as possible. I'd beg, borrow and lend Magic Stones for this fight, boost Illusion as high as possible (maxed is good, use Smartinis to hasten this process), and I'd use it for every fight. The last fight, with the Lilith, Illusion didn't take her out, so I beat her up with Norn's cane instead and healed when necessary. Magic Stones are a good thing, and equipping her with Paltia wouldn't hurt either. ============================================================ 2-I. Basics ------------------------------------------------------------ 2A. One Shots These are the simplest single step syntheses, posted here for people who don't have the time or patience to pore through the graphs in the In Depth section. Unless we say otherwise, the odds of these syntheses are 100% NOTE: If a synthesis has only a 50% chance of success, save before you attempt it, and save if you are successful. Battle Lord Power: Diemia + Gold, Fanatos + Glowing (50% chance) With +35 Attack and +35 Hit Points each, 2 Battle Lord Powers are far better than Attack level 9 + Life level 9. Blessing Power: Paltia + Silver (50% chance) Mental Curse: Diemia + Glowing Disease Curse: Diemia + Silver Holy Sanctuary: Eital + Jade (50% chance), Luplus + Jade Holy Power: Diemia + Jade Sky Sonata: Eital + Crimson (50% chance), Luplus + Crimson Attack + 3: Aion + Silver Magic + 3: Eital + Glowing ------------------------------------------------------------ 2B. Combos. These 3 effect Magic Crystals are recommended for use with weapons, accessories, and magic users. For the purposes of this game, Klien and Norn are considered magic users. Everyone else is considered a fighter. These recommendations are for those who don't have the time or patience to read the In Depth sections. Fighter Weapons: * 3 Double Attacks * 1 Holy Weapon and 2 Double Attacks * 1 Holy Weapon, 1 Sky Sonata, and 1 Double Attack * 2 Double Attacks and 1 Pierce * 2 Double Attacks and 1 Animal Instinct * 3 Pierce Fighter Accessories: * 1 Double Attack, 1 Pierce, and 1 Animal Instinct * 3 Battle Lord Power * 2 Battle Protect, 1 Double Attack Mage Weapons and Accessories: * 3 Magic Stone * 2 Magic Stone, 1 Holy Power * 2 Dirty Power, 1 Holy Power * 2 Magic Stone, 1 Holy Sanctuary (for Norn, as her defense is low) ============================================================ 2-II. Fundamental Syntheses If you're already close to finishing the game, this is probably too simple for you. For a beginner, this section can get you started as you're figuring the whole synthesis thing out. We assume no aroma materials in these methods. If you have an aroma material, replace Uru and Plua with Grupt. Grupt+Black, Grupt+Glowing, and Grupt+Yellow are 100% success. From Kiem417: "3x DA + 2x Pierce + Animal Instinct for your main fighters. You won't hit Critical Hits 100% of the time but its close; like the best damn setup for insane damage, if you're not into speed." Critical Hits cause skill breaks. Consequently, I use this effects combination with Lita. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2C. Making Double Attack Mana needed: Uru, Diemia, or Plua. Stones needed: 5 Black, 7 Red or Yellow NOTE: Save before you start. Save after every successful synthesis. Part 1) Use Uru + Black Stone to make Attack+1. This has a 50% chance of success. Make 5 of these. Combine the 5 Attack+1 crystals into a single Attack+5 crystal. Part 2) Use Diemia + Red Stones to make Speed+1. This has a 100% chance of success. If you need to use Yellow stones, you would use Plua + Yellow, but this has only a 50% chance of success. You need to make 7 Speed+1 crystals and fuse them into 1 Speed+7 crystal. Part 3) Fuse the Attack+5 crystal and the Speed+7 crystal into a single crystal. This will be a Double Attack crystal. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2D. Making Pierce Mana Required: Uru Mana Stones Required: 3 Glowing and 2 Black NOTE: Save before you start. Save after every successful synthesis. Part 1) Use Uru + Black Stone to make Attack+1. This has a 50% chance of success, so save after every successful step. Reload if the step fails. Combine 2 Attack+1 crystals into a single Attack+2 crystal. Part 2) Use Uru + Glowing Stone to make Attack Comp Level 1. This has a 50% chance of success, so save. When you successfully make 3 of these, fuse them into a single Attack Comp L3 crystal. Part 3) Fuse the two crystals you just made into Pierce. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2E. Making Animal Instinct Mana Required: Uru, Diemia (Plua) Mana Stones Required: 3 Glowing and 5 Red (Yellow) NOTE: Save before you start. Save after every successful synthesis. Part 1) Use Uru + Glowing Stone to make Attack Comp Level 1. This has a 50% chance of success, so save. When you successfully make 3 of these, fuse them into a single Attack Comp L3 crystal. Part 2) Use Diemia + Red Stones to make Speed+1. This has a 100% chance of success. If you need to use Yellow stones, you would use Plua + Yellow, but this has only a 50% chance of success. You need to make 5 Speed+1 Crystals and fuse them into 1 Speed+5 crystal. Part 3) Fuse the two crystals you just made into Animal Instinct ============================================================ 2-III. INTERMEDIATE SYNTHESES These synthesis pathways assume a plentiful supply of glowing and silver stones, perhaps some rare stones, that you have all the Mana but Luplus, and that you have at least one aroma material. Because these stones are harder to come by, consider making these crystals after completing Silencia and acquiring flight. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2F. Making Magic Stone Mana Required: Eital, Diemia and perhaps Aion. Mana Stones Required: 4 Glowing, 1 Silver. 1-3 Glowing can be replaced with 3-8 Green stones and the Silver can be replaced with a Gold mana stone. Part 1) Make a Magic+8 or Magic+9 crystal by creating either Magic+3 crystals with Eital and Glowing or Magic+1 crystals with Diemia and Green. These syntheses are 100% effective. Part 2) Make a Mental Curse crystal with Diemia and 1 Glowing. Part 3) Make a Bless Power crystal with Eital and Silver (50% effective) or with Aion and Gold (100% effective). Save before you synthesize if you use Eital. Part 4) Combine Magic+8 and Mental Curse to make Dirty Power. Combine the resultant Dirty Power crystal with Bless Power to make Magic Stone. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2G. Making Battle Protect Mana Required: Silwest and Diemia, perhaps Paltia or Zeilia Mana Stones Required: 3 Glowing, 3 Silver, 1 Gold. The Gold can be replaced with 1 Glowing, and the 3 Silver can be replaced with 3 Glowing. Part 1) Use Silwest and 3 Glowing to make 3 Avoid+1 crystals. Combine these. Alternatively, use Paltia and Glowing. Both syntheses are 50% effective, so save in advance. Part 2) Use Silwest and 3 Silver to make 3 Accuracy+1 crystals. You can also use Paltia and 3 Silver. Both are 50% effective, so save before making an attempt. Combine the 3 Accuracy+1 crystals into a single crystal. Part 3) Combine the Accuracy+3 and Avoid+3 into a single Master's Karma crystal. Part 4) Use Diemia plus Gold or Paltia plus Glowing to make a Battle Lord Power crystal. Diemia is 100%, but Paltia is 50%. Part 5) Combine Master's Karma and Battle Lord Power (BLP) into a single Battle Protect crystal. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2H. Making Holy Weapon Mana required: Aion, Eital, Diemia, perhaps Grupt Mana Stones required: 5 Silver, 2 Glowing, 2 Jade. 2 Silver can be replaced with 6 Black, and 1 Silver can be replaced with 1 Gold. Part 1) Use Aion and Silver twice to make 2 Attack+3 crystals. Alternatively, use Grupt and Black six times. Use Aion plus Jade to make Holy Power. Combine the Attack+6 and Holy Power to make a Demon Slayer crystal. Part 2) Use Eital plus Jade to make Holy Sanctuary. This synthesis only has a 50% chance of success, so save first. Combine Holy Sanctuary with Demon Slayer to make Evil Slayer. Part 3) Use Diemia plus Glowing twice to make 2 Mental Curse. Use Diemia plus Silver twice to make 2 Disease Curse crystals. Combine the Mental Curse crystals to make a single Mind Curse crystal. Combine the Disease curse crystals to make a Death Curse Crystal. Combine the Death Curse crystal with a Mind Curse crystal to make Ancient Curse. Part 4) Use Eital and Silver or Aion plus Gold to make a Blessing Power. Eital has only a 50% chance of success, so save first. Combine the Ancient Curse and the Blessing Power to make a Single Power crystal. Part 5) Combine Single Power with Evil Slayer to make a Holy Weapon. ============================================================ 3. IN DEPTH ------------------------------------------------------------ 3A The Mana. ( VeghEsther ) From VeghEsther, edited for brevity "Also just in case for those who don't know: Uru Fire Mana Diemia Stone/Earth Mana Aion Life Mana Silwest Air Mana Dour (Popo) Wood Mana Nymph Water Mana Plua Dark Mana Eital Light Mana Luplus Time Mana using Aroma materials: Grupt Power Mana (upgraded Uru) Fanatos Evil Mana (upgraded Plua) Zeilia Thunder Mana (upgraded Silwest) Flay Ghost Mana (upgraded Nymph) Paltia Holy Mana (upgraded Eital) All the Mana Spirits except for Luplus the Time one can be gotten during the main story line/subquest. Luplus is only gotten in the bonus optional dungeon (beat main games final dungeon then save.)" To be more explicit, you can have all the mana but Luplus by Avenberry, and you will get an aroma material then. Avenberry is regarded as the half way point in the game. You can get a second aroma material post-Silencia via a quest. ------------------------------------------------------------ 3B. Synthesis Combinations ( Blood Drive, with help from Nico Silius, etc. Zidane15 discovered the more efficient Pierce formula. ) Ancient Curse.... Mind Curse & Death Curse Animal Instinct.. Attack Comp Lv 3 & Speed+5 Battle Protect... Masters Karma + Battle Lord Beast Killer..... Animal Instinct & Attack+3 Death Curse ..... Disease Curse & Disease Curse Demon Slayer..... Att+6 & Holy Power Dirty Power...... Mental Curse & Mag+8 Double Attack.... Att+5 & Spd+7 Dragon Slayer.... Ice Attack Lv5 & Attack+6 Evil Slayer...... Demon Slayer & Holy Sanctuary Fire Protect..... Spirit Stone & F Res+7 Heavy Blow....... Very Heavy & Attack Comp Lv 4 Holy Protect..... D. Res+5 & Def+5 Holy Sanctuary... Spirit Stone & Magic Stone Holy Weapon..... Evil Slayer & Single Power Magic Stone...... Dirty Power & Blessing of Power Mana Slayer...... Attack+6 & Ancient Curse Masters Karma.... Avoid Lv 3 & Acc Lv 3 Mind Curse....... Mental Curse & Mental Curse PAR RES.......... Par+5 + Holy Protect Pierce........... Attack Comp Lv 3 & Attack+2 POISON RES....... Psn+5 + Holy Protect Puni Slayer...... Fire Attack Lv1 & Attack+3 Single Power..... Ancient Curse & Blessing Power SLEEP RES........ Slp+5 + Holy Protect Thunder Protect.. Spirit Stone & L Res+7 Very Heavy....... Heavy & Heavy Water Protect.... Spirit Stone & I Res+7 Dark has no protect combo with a Spirit Stone. Paralysis Sleep and Poison Resistances, have a MAX level of +5. Fire Ice Lightning and Dark Attack have max level of 5. ------------------------------------------------------------ 3C. Okay, what do all those effects mean? ( Renren245 ) Notes: SLEEP RES is not the same as Sleep Res. The former is made by combining a +5 crystal of the latter with Holy Protect. The same is true for Poison and Paralysis. Accuracy + - Increase Chances to Hit enemies. Ancient Curse - Life -35 Mana -35. Animal Instinct- Speed +30 Crit rate up. Atk Comp + - Increase Hit rates of Physical attacks. Atk + lv 9 - Atk +45. Avoid + - Increase Chances to Dodge attacks. Battle L Pwr - Life +35 Atk +35. Battle Protect - Atk +50. Beast Killer - Increase Damage to beast monsters (Probably effective versus the Golden Pigs.) Blessing Power - Life +35 Mana +35. D RES + Lv 9 - D RES +30. Death Curse - Life -35 Mana +40. Def + lv 9 - Def +45. Demon Slayer - Increase Damage to Demon Monsters. Dirty Power - Magic +50 -2 mana per turn. Disease Curse - Life -20 Mana +25. Double Attack - Gives chance to add a extra attack to normal attack and most skills. Dragon Slayer - Increase Damage to Dragon monsters. FIRE RES - F RES+50. F RES + lv 9 - F RES +30. Heavy - Atk +8 Speed -25. Heavy Blow - Unknown. Holy Power - Regen 5 mana and 5 life per turn. Removes Poison and Sleep. Holy Protect - Def +25 D RES +25 . Holy Sanctuary - Def +50 D RES +75. Holy Weapon - Additional Holy Attack. I RES + lv 9 - I RES +30. Life + lv 9 - Life +45. Life UP (S) (M) (L) (XL) - Restore (Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large ) amount of life per turn. L RES + Lv 9 - L RES +30. Magic Comp + - Increase Hit Rates of Magical attacks. Magic + lv 9 - Magic +45. Magic Stone - Magic +40 Crit rate up for magic attacks. Mana + Lv9 - Mana +45. Mana Up (S) (M) (L) (XL) - Restore (Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large) amount of mana per turn. Mana Slayer - Increase damage to Mana Monsters (This seems to be ghost type monsters.) Master's Karma - Increase Evade and Hit rates. Mental curse - Life +25 Mana -20. Mind Curse - Life +40 Mana -35. PARA RES - Immunity to Paralyze. Para Res - Increase RES to Paralyze. Pierce - Atk+30 Crit rate up. POISON RES - Immunity to Poison. Poison Res - Increase RES to poison. Poison Blow - Gives Chance to Poison with attack. Puni Slayer - Increase Damage to Puni Monsters. Seductive - Gives Chance to charm with attack. Single Power - D RES +100. Sky Sonata - Add a Extra Fire attack (This does not work with ELEMENTAL extract) SLEEP RES - Immunity to Sleep. Sleep Res - Increase RES to Sleep. Speed + lv9 - Speed +45. Spirit Stone - Magic +10. Sure Hit - Gives chance to sleep with attack. Thunder Protect- L RES +50. Very Heavy - Atk +15 Speed -50. Water Protect - I RES +50. ------------------------------------------------------------ 3D. What's that (S) mean after the skill? ( Gundam4Fun, Kimber Boh, rikkublue, Enmityblaze ) From Kimber Boh: "Mana Up (S) means that you restore a small amount of mana each turn. Mana +lvl 1 gives a boost to your max mana points (this caps out at Mana +lvl 9)." (S) - Small (M) - Medium (L) - Large (XL) - Xtra Large For Mana Crystals that begin, with, say LIFE UP (S), combining them with similar Mana Crystals will increase the potency of the effect. From: rikkublue "I figured fusing two Life Up (S)'s would give me a Life Up (M) and that I could continue the combo until I got to XL, but it didn't work. The two Life Up (S)'s just combined to form one single Life Up (S). How do I get to M, L and XL?" From: Enmityblaze "Just keep adding more. It's going to stay at (S) for two or three combines but the name of the crystal should change. Eventually, you'll get more out of it." ------------------------------------------------------------ 3E. A List of Weapons that can accept Mana. (Pdaimaoh) ~~~ Canes ~~~ Klein's Cane.......................Klein's starting weapon. Wing Staff.........................Norn's starting weapon. Fairy Cane.........................Purchasable, Norn can equip. Astral Cane........................Finish Lector's list + bonus dungeon. Divine Cane........................Chest in Flawless Marvel, Req. flight. ~~~ Claws ~~~ Fairy Claw.........................Purchasable. Ebony Claw.........................Bonus. Astral Gauntlet....................Purchasable late in game, weapons shop. ~~~ Swords ~~~ Whip Sword.........................Marietta starts with this. Fairy Blade........................Purchasable. Eden Blade.........................Mull's dungeon (post game). Phantom Blade......................Found late in game. Para Sword.........................Path to Heaven. Req. flight to get it. ~~~ Bows ~~~ Galgazit Bow.......................Found in Silencia. The Divine Cane is better than all the canes Klein can equip before it, and comes with an installed "Holy Power". The Phantom Blade has an Ancient Curse on it, as a kind of game designer's joke. It forces you to use a Crystal with Attack+6, which then changes the effect to Mana Slayer, disclosing the blade's real intention. Only Arlin can equip the Phantom Blade. From suka44, Schatzie52 and korican04: Where do I get the items for the astral cane, and who does it go to? You get the Astral Sphere from Lector when you completely finish her list, and the Infinity wings item is in the bonus dungeon. The Astral Cane goes to Klein. From Bakuri: "Eden Blade can be found in Mull's Dungeon(post game) in a treasure chest in a room off all by itself(the room has a growloon some mana stones and the one chest). Since it already has Single power and you're adding Holy weapon Double attack and Sky Sonata(this seems to be the best weapon Synth combo) its one of the best weapons period (Way better then poor mariettas ParaSword. . Ick Very heavy)." ------------------------------------------------------------ 3F. Accessories and Mana. ( Kimber Boh, dragontears969 ) Only a few accessories can accept Mana Crystals. The list below can accept Mana Crystals. 1. Locket of Love 2. Bio Frame 3. Locket of Wishes 4. Fairy Bracelet 5. Siglis Breath From Xaintrix: "Fairy Bracer is one of the first crystal accepting accessories one can get - purchasable from the fairy smith shop. Sure, later on you get some other accessories that accept crystals that naturally have better stats." From dragontears969: "You can also get an accessory called siglis breath (I think out of a treasure chest in Forest of Ocean Mist once you can fly) that you can synth into. So that brings the total to 5 accessories that I know of - the 2 lockets, bio frame, fairy bracer and siglis. By the way siglis breath has no stats or bonuses except 120 dark resistance" Notes from Kimber Boh: "The Bio Frame is what Veola makes when you try to synthesize the Chronolex. The Bio Frame can be equipped by anyone, and is probably the best accessory in the game. After you've synthesized the Bio Frame/Chronolex, talk to Veola again, and she'll open up the Lockets. The Locket of Love can only be worn by Lita (yes, Lita, despite its title), and the Locket of Wishes is for Klein only." ------------------------------------------------------------ 3G. The Japanese Site (Pdaimaoh) If you're into JP-EN translators such as Babelfish, there is good information here too. http://tekipaki.jp/~iwashi/iris/mana/manastone.html ------------------------------------------------------------ 3H. GameFreeek's Basic Mana synthesis chart ( GameFreeek ) This chart is online at http://www.wirefiles.com/uploads/chart.txt _____________________________________________________________________ |Dark |Black |Red |Yellow |Blue |Green | |Glowing |Silver |Gold |Jade |Crimson | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Uru |Life+1 |Att+1 |F Res+2 |Speed+1 |Def+1 |M Comp+1 | |Def+1 |Heavy | |Life+1 |Mana+1 |Mag+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |A Comp+1 |A Comp+1 |BLP |Holy Pow |SStone | | |Mental C |Disease C|Bless Pow| | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Silwest |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1|Slp Res+1|L Res+2 |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1| |Life+1 | |Speed+1 | |Mana+1 |Mag+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |Mental C |Disease C|BLP |PSN RES |PAR RES | | |Avoid+1 |Acc+1 |Sleep Res|Holy Pow |SStone | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Nymph |F Res+1 |D Res+1 |F Res+1 |Life+1 |I Res+2 |Mag+1 | |Life+1 |Heavy |Speed+1 |L Res+1 | |I Res+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |D Res+1 |L Res+1 |Bless Pow|Holy Pow |SStone | | |Mental C |Disease C|BLP | | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Diemia |Def+2 |Heavy |Speed+1 |Life+1 |Mana+1 |Mag+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |Mental C |Disease C|BLP |Holy Pow |SStone | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Popo |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1|F Res+1 |Slp Res+1|Psn Res+1|Mana Up S| |F Res+1 |D Res+1 |Slp Res+1|Life+1 |I Res+1 | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |D Res+1 |L Res+1 |Bless Pow|PSN RES |SStone | | |Avoid+1 |Disease C|Sleep Res|Holy Pow | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Aion |F Res+1 |D Res+1 |F Res+1 |L Res+1 |I Res+1 |I Res+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |D Res+1 |Att+3 |Bless Pow|Holy Pow |SStone | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Luplus |Life+2 |D Mag+1 |F Mag+1 |L Mag+1 |I Mag+1 |Life Up S| ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |BLP |Bless Pow|Holy Prot|Holy Sanc|SSonata | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Eital |F Res+1 |D Mag+1 |F Mag+1 |L Mag+1 |I Mag+1 |I Res+1 | |Def+1 |D Res+1 |F Res+1 |Speed+1 |I Res+1 |M Comp+1 | |Life+2 |Att+1 |Att+1 |L Res+1 |Def+1 |Life Up S| ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |Mag+3 |Bless Pow|BLP |Holy Pow |SSonata | | | |L Res+1 |Bless Pow|Holy Sanc|SStone | | | | | | | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Plua |Def+1 |D Res+2 |Att+1 |Speed+1 |Def+1 |Life Up S| |F Res+1 | |F Mag+1 |L Mag+1 |I Mag+1 |M Comp+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |A Comp+1 |L Res+1 |Bless Pow|Holy Sanc|SStone | | |D Res+1 |A Comp+1 |BLP |Holy Pow | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Paltia |Psn Res+1|D Mag+1 |Slp Res+1|Slp Res+1|I Mag+1 |Life Up S| |Life+2 |Par Res+1|F Mag+1 |L Mag+1 |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1| ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |BLP |Bless Pow|SLP RES |Mag Stone|PAR RES | | |Avoid+1 |Acc+1 |BLP | | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Fanatos |Def+1 |D Mag+1 |F Mag+1 |L Mag+1 |Def+1 |M Comp+1 | |Life+2 | |Att+1 |Speed+1 |I Mag+1 |Life Up S| ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |A Comp+1 |Bless Pow|Bless Pow|Holy Pow |Single P | | |BLP |A Comp+1 |BLP |Holy Sanc| | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Grupt |Def+1 |Att+1 |F Res+2 |Speed+1 |Def+1 |M Comp+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |A Comp+1 |A Comp+1 |Bless Pow|Holy Pow |SStone | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Flay |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1|F Res+1 |L Res+1 |I Res+1 |Par Res+1| |F Res+1 |D Res+1 | |Speed+1 |Def+1 |I Res+1 | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |D Res+1 |Att+3 |Bless Pow|PSN RES |SStone | | |A Comp+1 | |SLP RES |Holy Pow | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| Zeilia |Def+1 |Par Res+1|Slp Res+1|L Res+2 |Psn Res+1|Par Res+1| |Psn Res+1| | | |Def+1 |M Comp+1 | |F Res+1 | | | | | | | | | | | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| |Avoid+1 |SLP RES |SLP RES |PSN RES |PAR RES | | |D Res+1 |Bless Pow|Bless Pow|Holy Pow | | | |A Comp+1 | | | | | | |Acc+1 | | | | | | ________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________|_________| M/Mag : Magic A/Att : Attack SStone : Spirit Stone SSonata : Sky Sonata Holy Sanc : Holy Sanctuary Holy Prot : Holy Protect Holy Pow : Holy Power Single P : Single Power Bless Pow : Bless Power BLP : Battle Lord Power C : Curse Par : Paralysis Psn : Poison Slp : Sleep Def : Defence Acc : Accuracy I : Ice L : Lightning F : Fire D : Dark ------------------------------------------------------------ 3I. Direct Synthesis Effects by Alphabet This chart doesn't attempt to be exhaustive. If a couple good syntheses exist, it reports them and moves on. Most important about this chart is the ease of synthesis code. ==- Ease of Synthesis Code -== 1 - requires first 5 Mana: Popo, Uru, Plua, Diemia, Silwest 2 - requires Aion too. 3 - requires Eital. A - requires aroma material L - requires Luplus C - requires common Mana Stones U - requires an uncommon Mana Stone R - requires a rare Mana Stone Effect Ease How To ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Accuracy+1 1U Paltia+Silver, Silwest+Silver(50%), Zeilia+Glowing (33%) Attack+1 1C Uru+Black (50%), Grupt+Black, Plua+Red(50%), Fanatos+Red(50%) Attack+3 2U Aion+Silver, Flay+Silver Att Comp L1 1U Uru+Glowing(50%), Uru+Silver(50%), Grupt+Glowing, Grupt+Silver, Fanatos+Glowing(50%) Flay+Glowing(50%), Zeilia+Glowing(33%) Avoid+1 1U Popo+Glowing(50%), Silwest+Glowing(50%), Paltia+Glowing(50%) Batt Lrd Pwr 1R, Diemia+Gold, Silwest+Gold(50%), AU Nymph+Gold(50%), Uru+Gold(50%), Plua+Gold(50%), Paltia+Glowing(50%), Fanatos+Glowing(50%), Luplus+Glowing Bless Pwr 1R, Uru+Gold(50%), Nymph+Gold(50%), 3U Aion+Gold, Grupt+Gold, Eital+Silver(50%), Paltia+Silver(50%), Fanatos+Silver(50%), Luplus+Silver Dark Mag+1 AC Fanatos+Black, Paltia+Black(50%), etc. Dark Res+1 1C Nymph+Black(50%), Popo+Black(50%), etc. Dark Res+2 1C Plua+Black Defense+1 1C Uru+Blue(50%), Uru+Dark(50%), Plua+Dark(50%), etc. Defense+2 1C Deimia+Dark Disease C 1U Uru+Silver(50%), Popo+Silver(50%), etc. Fire Mag+1 1C Plua+Red(50%), Fanatos+Red(50%), Luplus+Red Fire Res+1 1C Nymph+Red(50%), Flay+Red, Aion+Red, etc. Fire Res+2 1C Uru+Red, Grupt+Red Holy Power 1R Uru+Jade, Nymph+Jade, Diemia+Jade, etc. Holy Protect LR Luplus+Gold Holy Sanct 1R Plua+Jade(50%), Fanatos+Jade(50%), Luplus+Jade Ice Mag+1 1C Plua+Blue(50%), Luplus+Blue Ice Res+1 1C Popo+Blue(50%),Aion+Blue Ice Res+2 1C Nymph+Blue Life+1 1C Uru+Dark(50%), Silwest+Dark(50%), Diemia+Yellow, Nymph+Yellow(50%) etc. Life Up (S) 1C Plua+Green(50%), Luplus+Green Ltng Mag+1 1C Plua+Yellow(50%), Luplus+Yellow Ltng Res+1 1C Nymph+Yellow(50%), etc. Ltng Res+2 1C Silwest+Yellow Mag+1 1C Diemia+Green, etc. Mag+3 3U Eital+Glowing Mag Comp L1 1C Uru+Green(50%), Grupt+Green, etc. Magic Stone AR Paltia+Jade Mana+1 1C Uru+Blue(50%), Silwest+Blue(50%) Mana Up (S) 1C Popo+Green Mental C 1U Diemia+Glowing, etc. Par Res+1 1C Silwest+Green(50%), etc Poison Res+1 1C Silwest+Blue(50%) Single Power AR Fanatos+Crimson Sleep Res+1 1C Silwest+Red(50%), Popo+Yellow(50%) etc. Speed+1 1C Diemia+Red, Plua+Yellow(50%) Spirit Stone 1R Uru+Crimson, etc. Sky Sonata 3R Eital+Crimson(50%), Luplus+Crimson. ----------------------------------------------------------- 3J. Cost of Synthesis Chart (Combinations) We use Blacks for Attack+1 rather than Silver for Attack+3. We point out the cheapest, simplest synthesis when we can. Since Red or Yellow can be used for Speed, you will see the occasional Red(Yellow) in use. The Black Equivalents section of the chart compares stones by purchasable cost, using the following equivalency chart: Dark, Black, Red = 1 Yellow, Blue = 1.5 Green, Glowing = 2 Silver = 3 The presence of Jade or Crimson is denoted by NP (not purchasable) Effect............ Stones.................................Black Equivalents Ancient Curse.... 2 Glowing, 2 Silver 10 Animal Instinct.. 3 Glowing, 5 Red(Yellow) 11 Battle Protect... 7 Glowing 14 Beast Killer..... 3 Glowing, 3 Black, 5 Red(Yellow) 14 Death Curse ..... 2 Silver 6 Demon Slayer..... 6 Black, 1 Jade 6 + 1 NP Dirty Power...... 4 Glowing 8 Double Attack.... 5 Black, 7 Red(Yellow) 12 Dragon Slayer.... Ice Attack? N/A Evil Slayer...... 6 Black, 2 Jade 6 + 2 NP Fire Protect..... 1 Crimson, 7 Red 7 + 1 NP Heavy Blow....... 2 Black, 4 Glowing 10 Holy Protect..... 3 Black, 3 Dark 6 Holy Sanctuary... 1 Jade NP Holy Weapon..... 6 Black, 2 Glowing, 3 Silver, 2 Jade 19 + 2 NP Magic Stone...... 4 Glowing, 1 Silver 11 Mana Slayer...... 6 Black, 2 Glowing, 2 Silver 16 Masters Karma.... 6 Glowing 12 Mind Curse....... 2 Glowing 4 PAR RES ........ 8 Black, 3 Dark 11 Pierce........... 3 Glowing, 2 Black 8 POISON RES....... 5 Blue, 3 Black, 3 Dark 13.5 Puni Slayer...... Fire Attack? N/A Single Power..... 2 Glowing, 3 Silver 13 SLEEP RES........ 5 Red(Yellow), 3 Black, 3 Dark 11 Thunder Protect.. 1 Crimson, 7 Yellow 10.5 + 1 NP Very Heavy....... 2 Black 2 Water Protect.... 1 Crimson, 7 Blue 10.5 + 1 NP ----------------------------------------------------------- 3K. Holy Weapon from Scratch From Xaintrix: "So doing some simple algebra to get Holy Weapon from scratch we would use... Evil Slayer & Single Power = Holy Weapon Demon Slayer & Holy Sanctuary = Evil Slayer Plua & Jade = Holy Sanctuary Att +6 & Holy Power = Demon Slayer Other & Jade = Holy Power 2x Flay & Silver = Att + 3 Ancient Curse & Blessing Power = Single Power Plua + Silver = Blessing Power Mind Curse & Death Curse = Ancient Curse Mental Curse X 2 = Mind Curse Disease Curse X 2 = Death Curse Diemia & Silver = Disease Curse Uru + Glowing = Mental Curse Which in line with the combinations we would need... [2(Flay * Silver) + (Other * Jade)] + (Plua * Jade) + [2(Diemia * Silver) + 2(Uru * Glowing) + (Plua * Silver)] Then since we're concerned with mana stones and not the mana... 2 Silver + 1 Jade + 1 Jade + 2 Silver + 2 Glowing + 1 Silver Final Reduction 5 Silver + 2 Jade + 2 Glowing = Holy Weapon Mind you this is FROM SCRATCH." ============================================================ 4. Ultimate Stat Boost Combos: ------------------------------------------------------------ 4A. Theories on the Ultimate Stat Combo. Since people's idea of the Ultimate Combo depends on what they think boosts combat performance the most, it is a good idea to look at the underlying assumptions behind the schemes in the first place. There are: 1) The Boost Stats advocates 2) The Boost Attacks advocates 3) The Boost Criticals advocates The most common result of the boost stats advocates is that they complain loudly and often about their lack of success. Stats grow slowly in this game and the degree they help performance isn't at all understood. The most recent permutation of the boost stats school is 10124241, who doesn't boost stats in a naive fashion but believes Battle Protect + Double Attack is the best way to obtain a combat advantage. The boost attacks group is one of the responses to the early lack of success in boosting stats. This is a fairly diverse group in which you can find players such as Dr Zero 7. These people have a tendency to spend a huge amount of time arguing about the relative merits of one extra attack path or another. In my opinion they can be inordinately fond of expensive effects, ones that use huge amounts of crystals or extremely rare crystals. Nonetheless, Double Attack uses the most common kinds of crystals and therefore is very easy to add to weapons and accessories quickly. The boost crits group of players are relatively new and represented by players such as Gundam4fun. In this case these players believe a critical hit is worth more than an extra attack and so they emphasize things such as Pierce and Animal Instinct as foundations rather than Double Attack or the exceptionally expensive Holy Weapon. Note that a critical hit has an offensive (harder hit) and a defensive (skill break) function. Hence the view of battle performance in this school is based not only on raw damage but also on the ability to disable and suppress enemy attack. Now, regardless of tendency, almost everyone seems to agree that Klein and Norn benefit most from magic boosts and crit improvements. It is well known that Klein does not really benefit from double attack. Comments From Kensyu: "I think the best add on is double attack as it stacks to give more attacks(even if it's on the same weapon).... Holy weapon also doesn't stack and only adds damage to a single attack." From 10124241: "Double Attack and Holy Weapon are both guaranteed as long as the enemy will survive your attack. Holy Weapon adds additional damage to dark monsters and it also adds additional non elemental atk. Having more than 1 will make no difference than having only 1 + Double Attack (in place of the other Holy Weapon), so fusing 1 is a good idea. Also, crit always skill breaks." Comments From kalv625: "In my experience i put double attack on both a weapon and accessory in this case if the enemy has enough hp 95% of the time double attack will trigger, and around 45% of the time triple attack triggers with lita. The key note is the enemy has to have enough hp, if its a puni with 60 hp and lita does 200 damage with a single attack the skill wont even activate. However if its a sentry with 600 hp the skill will activate, the more hp the target has the more likely it will activate. Also you have a higher chance of activiating the skill by putting it on a weapon, i tried 2 double attacks on the fairy bracer, and it activated more with one on each fairy bracer and weapon. Just need some damm crimsons and jades now =/" ------------------------------------------------------------ 4B. Early Game Tools Goals: 1) On the fighters, give them Double Attacks and Animal Instinct. You can use as goals Pierce and Animal Instinct if you fall into the "crits" school. 2) On the mages (Klein and Norn), boost their magic. Klein and Norn's attacking skills depend on their magic stat. The earliest period a player has a fighting chance to do synthesis is after the Cleft of Nelvia, when Silwest becomes available and the player now has 5 Mana. By now you should notice that some monsters are dropping mana. Ice puni drop blue mana, and the vultures sometimes drop yellow mana. By the completion of the Land of Mana, a player will end up with so many Mana some will need to be sold. At this stage a player needs to start making Mana Crystals and stockpiling the results, in particular: * Use Uru and Black stones to make Attack+1. Combine Attack+1s into Attack+3 (for Animal Instinct and Pierce) and Attack+5 (for Double Attack) * Use Diemia on Reds and Plua on Yellows to make Speed+1. Combine Speed+1s into Speed+7 (For Double Attack). * Convert Greens into Magic+1 Crystals and stack them to Magic+8. The ultimate target of these Magic stacks is Magic Stone (through Dirty Power). * If you have enough Glowing to afford to do this, you might try making Attack Comp +3. * Save before you synthesize, and save after every synthesis. Too many syntheses are 50% before you get an aroma material. The goal in these early stages is to make some Double Attacks or Pierce and perhaps an Animal Instinct or two. Getting a Double Attack or Pierce on Lita's Fairy Claw or Arlin's Fairy Sword can make a huge difference. By Avenberry, I was fighting with 2 double attacks on Lita and 1 Animal Instinct and 1 Double Attack on Klein. I recall the boss fight took 2 rounds and was not hard at all. When Avenberry is complete, if you've been careful, you should have all the Mana and an aroma material, and synthesis becomes much easier. In these middle stages, the weapons you can find for Klein and Norn are better than the staves you can synthesize. Magic Stone and the good Magic related skills require rare Mana Stones and so good synthesized staves appear to be more a post-Silencia tool. ------------------------------------------------------------ 4C. After Silencia The game changes in marked ways after Silencia. First, the acquisition of flight gives you access to a whole new selection of stones, including Jade and Crimson stones. Second, at this point it is relatively straightforward to assemble the Bio Frame and collect all 5 accessories. Third, since the Ring of Love cycle is now available, you are only limited by your tolerance for drudgery in terms of the purchasable stones you can collect. At this point it makes sense to begin to build a deeper collection of Mana Crystals, in preparation for Mull's Castle, which ends the game. In terms of weapons, at this stage you should get the Divine Cane, the Galgazit bow, and the Astral Gauntlet. The Divine Cane is superior to any cane at this point. It comes equipped with a "Holy Power", which heals life and mana -and- cures poison and sleep. In terms of stats, I recently received the following from Daniel Guidotti, which can be termed a caution against raising your characters stats too much: "If you max a stat out to 500 using stat up synthesis, stat growth stops for the maxed stat. I tested this for about 10 levels (from 65-75 on Arlin and Norn), and maxing the stat (attack and magic respectively) stopped growth completely even though the stat's natural level was nowhere near 500. What this means is that if you want to level your characters to conserve accessories and slots, leaving stats in the 460-480 range seems like a good idea." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4D. Nico Silius ( Nico Silius ) "I decided to pimp out Arlin and give him nearly the best of everything. At level 56 he had on an Eden Blade (Holy Weapon, Sky Sonata, Double Attack); a Bio Frame (Mana/Life Up M, Holy Weapon, Sky Sonata, Battle Protect); and a Fairy Bracer (Holy Weapon, Double Attack, Pierce). I then had him attack a Baal with full hp with Double. It was a 1-h KO... I saw at least 10 seperate damage values roll up on the screen. So yeah, if you spend a bit of extra time (Silver mana from Jin Riders in Mull's Dungeon) you can get amazing results." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4E. Dr Zero 7's formula (drzero7) I've reformatted to save space. Klein => Weapon: Divine Cane Acc: Locket of Wishes Effects: Magic Stone x 5 MAG lvl 9 Lita => Weapon: Astral Claw Acc: Locket of Love Effects: Double x 5 (Thanks to Astral Claw) Holy Weapon SSonata Norn => Weapon: Astral Cane Acc: Fairy Bracer + Sigis Breath Effects: SSonata Mag Stone x5 MAG lvl 9 Speed lvl 9 Animal Instinct x 2 ~~~~~~~~~ Norn is my ultimate CRIT hitter Arlin => Weapon: Eden Blade Acc: Bio Frame Effects: Double x 4 Sky Sonata Holy Weapon Delsus => Weapon: Galzet Bow Acc: None Effects: Double x 3 Marietta => Wpn: Para Sword Acc: None Effects: Double x 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ 4F. Kimber Boh's Technique (Kimber Boh) Kimber Boh had this to say about critical crystal stats and the 5 main characters: "There are only 5 accessories in the game, so you will be one accessory short (and two of em haveta be equipped by either Klein or Lita). For the 4 main attackers (Arlin, Delsus, Lita and Marietta), the most important abilities are Double Attack (like 3-4 works well), Holy Weapon (yet another attack), Battle Protect (+50 Atk and increased accuracy), Pierce (+30 Atk and +Critical), and Animal Instinct (+30 Speed and +Critical). Lita doesn't need Animal Instinct, but I feel it is very important on the other three. For Klein and Norn, pile on Magic Stones or Dirty Powers to give them extremely high magic stats. Throw on some Speed +9s too if you have room, or Holy Sanctuary." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4G. Gundam4Fun's approach ( Gundam4fun ) "IMO, PIERCE is better than Double Attack and Holy Weapon, this is the setup i have to Lita: Fairy Claw ( 3x Pierce) + Fairy Bracer ( 2x Blessing Power, 1x Animal Instinct) = 90 Atk, 30 Spd, 70 HP, 70 Mana, Critical Hit Rate up (4x), and almost always i get a critical hit when a make an attack, i'm happier with this setup than using Double Attack.." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4H. BaKuRi ( BaKuRi ) "Has Anyone Come up with an 'Ultimate' Skill set up for fighters? Heres what I think I'm going to get for my Arlin and Marietta (and eventually Delsus and Lita) Weapon: Holy Weapon, Sky Sonata, Double Attack Accessory1: Double Attack, Battle Protect, Battle Lord Power Accessory2: Life up(XL) Mana up(XL) Speed + lvl 9 It seems that would turn most anyone into a very powerful fighting force. However If Holy santuary DOES regen and IF it stacks that might be more effective then life and mana up XL." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4I. Dragonne ( Dragonne ) "I put two accessories on Arlin and pimped him out (Double Attack x5, sky sonata, holy weapon, battle protect, pierce) along with Norn. For Marietta and Delsus, I just gave them 3x Battle LORD Pwr (underrated...35 to attack and HP is pretty damn good). That puts them at 400+ HP and 330ish attack each. And for Klein's Divine Cane, I put a Def lvl 9, life lvl 9, and speed lvl 9. And for the Locket of Wishes, I put Magic lvl 9, magic stone, and def lvl 9. For Lita, she has double attack x3, pierce, battle protect, and battle LORD Pwr." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4J. 10124241 ( 10124241 ) 10124241 has recently added data to his logic, and as his logic is densely written and his numbers fairly clear, I've replaced the section of rationale with his numbers. From 10124241: "These are the numbers.. lvl: 70 atk:204 1. no pluses ave dmg of non crit = 71.1 2. +90 (from 3x pierce) ave dmg of non crit = 93.45 ave dmg of crit = 139.1 3. +150 (from 3x battle protect) ave dmg of non crit = 108 4. +240 (from 3x pierce + 3x battle protect) ave dmg of non crit = 128.6 ave dmg of crit = 193.1 so with #1, my # of atk = 11 if i have 9 DA's equipped +1 DA (from astral gauntlet)+1(normal atk)..so multiplying the ave dmg of non crit and # of attacks, dmg in a single turn = 782.1 With #2,my # of atk = 8 because of 3x pierce then add the damage difference of ave non crit and ave crit..so in turn, dmg in a single turn = 793.25 with #3,my # of atks = 8, so dmg in a single turn = 864 with #4, my # of atk = 5 because of pierce and battle protect..so using the same computation as #2, dmg in single turn = 707.5 With that, I conclude that battle protect deals more damage than pierces or pure DAs. I've conducted similar tests on how many battle protects and DAs will deal the most damage and I ended up with 3x battle protect and 6 DA for Lita and 2x battle protect and 7 DA for Arlin. Note: I obtained these numbers by attacking flame viriums 20 times and got the averages..I have gained 6 levels(+4 in atk) while doing so, but I believe the attack improvement due to leveling is negligible." ------------------------------------------------------------ 4K. My Opinions Let me reiterate what I believe: no one really knows what the "ultimate" combination is at this time. There are, however, many good combinations that work exceptionally well. In the words of Kimber Boh, any of the good combinations will annihilate any enemy in the game. What follows are my idea of good but easy-to-make crystal combinations. Typical combos for fighters are (assuming one weapon and one accessory on each fighter): 3-4 Double Attacks, with the remaining a mix of Pierce, Animal Instinct, Holy Weapon, Sky Sonata, and Battle Protect. 1 Animal Instinct is pretty much "required" on everyone but Lita, because the remaining fighters are slow. My personal Lita combo is 3xDA, 2xPierce, and 1 AI. I get a 4th double attack because she uses the Astral Gauntlet which contains a double attack. That gives me +60 attack, 3 boosts to critical hit probability, +30 speed, and as many as 5 attacks in a single round. I add the speed because I like beating Mull Beasts to the first strike. If Lita can hit 3 times before the enemy hits back, they're dead. I tend to make 2 kinds of crystals, 1 being: Double Attack Double Attack Pierce and I put that on weapons, and on accessories I use Double Attack Pierce Animal Instinct I've tinkered with replacing the Pierce in the accessory crystal with Battle Protect. I haven't noticed much difference. Double Attack is, by reputation, better kept on weapons. So you might prefer a mana crystal with three Double Attacks on a weapon and 2 Pierce and a single Animal Instinct on the accessory. ~~~~~ Typical for mages is: 4x Magic Stone, 1x Holy Sanctuary or Holy Power, 1x Speedx9. You don't want to boost magic to 500, but 460-480 is where you want it to be. Feel free to drop the Holy effect and add another Magic Stone. This isn't the "ultimate" combo, but it's one that works well and is straightforward to make. ============================================================ 5. Things I need for this FAQ to Grow If you know of something I've missed, or should include, write me some email! Yes, if you do, and I use what you send me, your name WILL be used in the FAQ. See the email address at the top for information. Many thanks to Daniel Guidotti for his recent email! To Yasmine Li: Thank you! Your kind words are much appreciated. To Shawn Kelly nee Zidane 15: Thanks for writing, I'm more explicit about your contributions now. ============================================================ 6. Resources and Notes There are two other FAQS that cover similar material to this one. There is the Mana/Crystallization FAQ of Shawada_Shuhei and the Accessory/ Synthesis FAQ of Kimber Boh/Hunter Rose. Both are good, both deserve your time and attention. Kimber's FAQ is the ultimate FAQ if you want to compare various accessories. He also covers a lot of weapons synthing in a cookbook how-to-do-it fashion. Starvenus should have a lot of this material covered in his latest general walkthrough FAQ (v1.1). Starvenus puts a lot of time and trouble into his tables and I've been living with a copy of his shop synthesis FAQ for ages now. PeterL90 recently asked if he could use some material from this FAQ as a reference and resource for weapon synthesis in his own general FAQ. My reply was to note that the difference between good scholarship and plagiarism is referencing your sources, and so, properly referenced, he has my blessings. I'm looking forward to how he presents the material. ============================================================ 7. About the Author I'm male, in my 40s. I have a bachelors in Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry from Rice University that I don't use much anymore. Still, the education was worth the trip, in a Bull Durham kind of way. I write these things largely to help me understand the game I play. I do believe if you can explain a topic to mostly anyone, then you have a shot at explaining it to yourself. Or so the logic goes. I co-wrote a FAQ a few years ago that was well received, legend_of_mana_tempering.txt. The editor I used then and now was vim.