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/ /
/ /
/ Introduction / What is this guide? /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~I
This guide explains the mechanics of both ordinary battles and ship battles in
the game "Skies of Arcadia", originally known as "Eternal Arcadia" in Japan,
and aims to empower the player with the knowledge required to make good
strategic decisions.
Much of the finer details of the game's mechanics are left unanswered or
vaguely specified in the game's manual and in-game descriptions/dialog, which
may leave players feeling somewhat lost amongst all the numbers, rules, and
statistics. Perhaps most famously, the manual's element effectiveness table is
incorrect, for instance. Information on the web is also limited, scattered, and
hard to find.
While this guide does not answer everything - indeed the game still holds many
secrets - hopefully the level of detail in this guide will sate the vast
majority of players' appetites for strategic knowledge.
This guide also includes details regarding the mechanics of ship battles,
alongside ordinary battles, information for which is even harder to find.
Although this guide was written with the Dreamcast version at its root, it
should be largely applicable to the GameCube version also. Additionally, I have
the European version of the game, so primarily cite the European enemy names,
but I've also put in what I understand to be the US names where they differ.
Regarding Spoilers:
I've tried to minimize the amount of spoilers in this guide, but some are
inevitable. Spoilers include level names, the order level names appear in the
game, the names of all the ships the player can own, enemy names,
names/identities of bosses, names of Super Moves, the names/identities of all
recruitable Crew Members, what each of the Crew Members does, and the
names/identities of characters that can join the party. The "FAQ" section
contains a few in its answers, as well.
Sources / Acknowledgements
While this guide contains mostly original research, it also draws from two
sources.
- Eso Arcadia, //esoarcadia.org.
A website filled to bursting with figures, property values, and raw statistics,
that serve as input to the game's mechanisms, much of which were pulled out of
the game data itself, as well as holding a good deal of general information
about the game. Exact figures and statistics are largely outside the scope of
this guide, but for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the game's
individual enemies, Armors, Accessories, and so on, this is the place to go.
Suffice to say that the research required to make this guide would have been
prohibitively difficult were it not for the data contained on this site.
- Porcupine's Special Items & Damage Formula FAQ
A widely-cited guide detailing fundamental formula for how damage is
calculated, some interesting information about the rules battles follow, and
the first guide published to specify the correct elemental effectiveness table,
alongside the elements of each enemy. Available alongside this guide on
GameFAQs at time of writing. Recommended reading!
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/ /
/ /
/ Attributes - What All the Numbers Mean /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~A
Will, Agile, Hit%, what do they all mean exactly, and where do they come from?
This section sheds some light on what these Attributes are, and what they
affect.
Attributes of characters and ships can be divided into two types - Base
Attributes, and Calculated Attributes. Base Attributes represent the
character's or ship's raw abilities, and improve when the character levels up,
a Seed is consumed, or a Captain's Stripe is used. Calculated Attributes are,
well, calculated, from Base Attributes, equipped items such as Armor /
Accessories / ship equipment, and Active Crew Members.
Enemies also have the Calculated Attributes and some of the Base Attributes,
though since enemies can't equip items, many of the Calculated Attributes are
specified manually in the game's data. For instance, since enemies don't have
equippable weapons that they attack with, they don't have a Power Attribute,
and instead have their Attack Attribute specified manually rather than being
calculated from a Power Base Attribute.
Perhaps somewhat confusingly, there are some Base Attributes that are also
Calculated Attributes, notably Will, Quick, and most of the Ship Attributes.
The game's menus only display the Calculated Attribute of these instances, and
not the Base Attribute. So, in order to determine the value of one of these
Base Attributes, such as Will, it is necessary to remove all equipped items
affecting Will. For ships, it is also necessary to move any Active Crew Members
affecting the Attribute to Stand-By. For instance, to determine the Base
Attribute value for a ship's Defense, Brabham must not be an Active Crew
Member. Alternatively, adding up all of these values affecting the Attribute
and subtracting them from the displayed Calculated Attribute will give the
value of the Base Attribute.
============================== =============================
============================= Character Attributes ============================
============================== =======================~AC===
Character Base Attributes
Most Character Base Attributes have an associated Seed, such as Paranta Seeds
and Dexus Seeds. Spirit and Max SP are the only Attributes with no associated
Seed, and so can only be improved by leveling up. All Seeds except the fabled
Dexus Seed can be bought from Ilchymis' shop, so all other Attributes bar Agile
can be boosted requiring only gold. The Seed and the moon it grows under are
displayed next to the Base Attribute below. Aside Ilchymis' shop, Seeds can be
found in chests, including the "chests" in the Dark Rift and Maw of Tartas, and
are dropped rarely by certain enemies, and by some bosses; see Eso Arcadia for
full details of enemy drops, including the chances of each drop. Pinta Quest
can also be a good source for Seeds, if patient enough to reach level 100.
Max HP, Vidal Seed, Green Moon:
Hopefully fairly obvious; the maximum health of the character.
The boss Bleigock (Catacombs), a green elemental, drops one of these.
Max MP, Magus Seed, Silver Moon:
Alongside Max HP, the maximum magic points a character can have. Aside from
resting and consuming Magic Droplets and Magic Dew, MP itself can also be
restored with Aika's Epsilon Mirror Super Move, and the Crew Member Polly's
Crew Command, which both restore 10MP.
The boss Sinistra & Destra (Daccat's Island) drops one of these.
Spirit:
During a battle, Spirit is accumulated at the start of each turn, and by
Focusing. The amount of Spirit gained by Focusing with a certain character is
the value of this Attribute, the character's Spirit Attribute. For ship
battles, the Spirit gained by Focusing is twice the value of this Attribute.
The amount of Spirit gained at the start of each turn is the sum of all
characters' Spirit in the party who are not Unconscious or afflicted with the
Fatigue Status Effect. For ship battles, the ship's Spirit Attribute is also
added to the accumulated Spirit.
This Base Attribute has no Seed, and can only be raised by leveling up.
Starting from level 65, the Spirit of all characters synchronize and
accelerate, ending at 20 at level 99.
Max SP:
Maximum Spirit. The Spirit bar has a maximum amount, which is the sum of all
characters' Max SP in the party, even those Unconscious or afflicted with
Fatigue. For ship battles, the ship's Max SP Attribute also counts towards this
maximum; maximum Spirit for ship battles will always be higher than for
ordinary battles (given party characters at the same level, obviously).
This Base Attribute has no Seed, and can only be raised by leveling up. The
maximum value of Max SP is 25 for the primary characters Vyse, Aika, and Fina,
and 24 for the secondary characters Drachma, Gilder, and Enrique. With a party
of four, these add up to a "maximum maximum Spirit" of 25+25+25+24 = 99 for
ordinary battles. For ship battles, maximum Spirit can actually go above 99,
though the displayed gauge only goes up to 99, and starts behaving a little
strangely.
Power, Paranta Seed, Red Moon:
This Base Attribute determines a character's Attack Calculated Attribute. For
ship battles, this figure contributes to the Attack of the Primary Cannon or
Super Cannon that the character fires, determining how much damage is dealt.
The boss Vigoro (Dangral Island), a red elemental, drops one of these.
Vigor, Zaal Seed, Yellow Moon:
This Base Attribute determines a character's Defense and Magic Defense
Calculated Attributes. Critical Hits ignore defense, so when on the receiving
end of one, this Attribute has no affect. For ship battles, this figure
contributes to the Defense and Magic Defense of the ship during that
character's Round.
Vigor also determines the amount of damage sustained from the Poison Status
Effect at the end of each turn, which is simply Vigor * 2, making this
Attribute the only Attribute with a drawback to increasing.
Will, Icyl Seed, Purple Moon:
This Base Attribute determines a character's Will Calculated Attribute.
The boss Sinistra & Destra (Daccat's Island) drops one of these.
The fact that this Seed grows under the purple moon offers a hint as to the
answer of one of the queries posed by Glacia's Guardian Stones.
Agile, Dexus Seed, All Moons:
The infamous Agile Attribute determines the character's chances of making
Critical Hits, including in ship battles, and their chances of dodging non-
critical attacks. Agile is the only Base Attribute that does not increase as a
character levels up; it can only increase by consuming Seeds.
This Base Attribute also determines a character's Dodge Calculated Attribute.
The Dexus Seed is the only Seed that cannot be bought in Ilchymis' shop, and so
when combined with the fact that it is the only way to increase a character's
Agile it becomes notoriously valuable.
According to Eso Arcadia, it is dropped by all forms of Loopers (1% chance),
Nairads (Maw of Tartas, 1%), occasionally by Zivilyn Bane, and about 30% of the
time by Elcian. Elcian, unfortunately, does not stop dropping Moonberries in
favor of Dexus Seeds once the player has 99 Moonberries. So, the easiest way of
obtaining them, short of fighting Elcian when he becomes available, is to
defeat Loopers, a plentiful supply of which are available in the Looper's Nest
airspace. See the section "Loopers. What's the deal with them, anyway?" for
more information.
Quick, Sylph Seed, Blue Moon:
This Base Attribute determines a character's Quick Calculated Attribute.
The boss Rik'talish (Rixis) drops one of these.
Character Calculated Attributes
These Attributes can be increased by equipping certain Armors and Accessories,
and are the Attributes affected by Status Effects.
Attack:
Attack is calculated by adding together a character's Power and the Attack of
their equipped weapon, and then adding on any bonuses from the character's
equipped Armor and Accessory. Attack determines how much damage a character
deals out with their attacks, and how much damage characters except Aika and
Fina deal out with their Super Moves. Attack is affected by the Strengthened
and Weakened Status Effects.
Will:
Will is calculated from a character's base Will, and adding onto that any
bonuses from the character's equipped Armor and Accessory. Will is basically
the same as Attack except for magic; it determines how much damage a character
deals out when casting magic, and how much damage the characters Aika and Fina
deal out with their Super Moves. Aika's and Fina's Super Moves are unusual in
that they are like offensive magic, except they cost no MP. Will is not
affected by the Strengthened Status Effect. Will is also not affected by the
Weakened Status Effect, despite the game's/manual's description that Weakened
lowers all (Calculated) Attributes.
In what is probably a glitch, in ship battles, the Will Calculated Attribute is
used to determine the damage done by magical attacks fired by that character,
instead of the Will Base Attribute. This means it is possible to boost the
attack power of magical attacks for a ship battle by equipping Will-boosting
Accessories on the desired characters before the ship battle begins. The same
is not possible for Attack and Defense / Magic Defense, however; Power and
Vigor are used.
Defense:
Defense is calculated from a character's Vigor, adding on to that any bonuses
from the character's equipped Armor and Accessory. Defense determines how much
damage a character is able to knock off from a non-critical attack. Critical
Hits, which feature in both ordinary and ship battles, ignore defense; thus
this Attribute has no effect on damage from Critical Hits. Defense is affected
by the Strengthened and Weakened Status Effects.
Magic Defense:
Magic Defense is calculated from a character's Vigor, adding on to that any
bonuses from the character's equipped Armor and Accessory; with no items
equipped affecting Defense or Magic Defense, the values for the two Attributes
will always be the same. Magic Defense determines how much damage a character
is able to knock off from a magic attack. For enemies, this includes Aika's and
Fina's Super Moves; this is why Aika's Alpha Storm is not much use against
Loopers at early levels, unlike Vyse's Cutlass Fury. Magic attacks are never
Critical Hits. Magic Defense is affected by the Weakened Status Effect.
However, unlike Defense, Magic Defense is not affected by the Strengthened
Status Effect.
Quick:
Quick is calculated from a character's base Quick, and adding onto that any
bonuses from the character's equipped Armor and Accessory. The Quick Attribute
of characters and enemies determines the order in which their moves execute,
although a certain amount of randomness is thrown in, meaning that characters
and enemies with closer values for Quick have an increasing chance of executing
their moves the other way around. I believe it also affects the success of
running away from battles. Additionally, I think it may affect chances for
First Strike, either by the characters or enemies; this would explain why
groups of enemies with a high Quick often have the advantage of First Strike
over the player. Quick is doubled by the Quickened Status Effect, and
presumably also affected by the Weakened Status Effect.
Hit:
Hit, or Hit%, unlike other Calculated Attributes, is not drawn from any Base
Attribute of the character; it is calculated from the Hit% of the character's
equipped Weapon, adding onto that any bonuses from the character's equipped
Armor and Accessory. When attacking normally, this is combined with the
target's Dodge to determine the chances of hitting the target. Critical Hits
never miss, along with Super Moves and magic attacks.
Dodge:
Dodge, or Dodge%, is calculated from the character's Agile, adding onto that
any bonuses from the character's equipped Armor and Accessory. Additionally,
for Fina, there are three forms of Cupil that give boosts to her Dodge,
specifically Cupil Cannon (5%), Cupil Spike (10%), and Cupil Weight (15%), all
requiring Abirik Chams. When on the receiving end of a normal attack, this is
combined with the attacker's Hit to determine the chances of dodging the
attack. It is not possible to dodge Critical Hits, along with Super Moves and
magic attacks. Dodge is doubled by the Quickened Status Effect, and presumably
also affected by the Weakened Status Effect.
Counterattack:
According to Eso Arcadia this is hidden Attribute not shown in the game's
menus, in the form of a percentage. Determines the chances of Counterattacking
a normal attack that did not miss, or a Critical Hit that was guarded against.
Critical Hits sustained when the target was not guarding cannot be
Counterattacked. Not much is known about this Attribute; it is thought to be
fixed for each character, affected by the Quickened and Weakened Status
Effects, and slightly increased if the character is guarding. Obviously moves
such as Counter Stance and Vyse's Counterstrike override this, making the
chances 100%. The Armor Vengeance Armor, available in the Sailors' Island
weapons shop after obtaining the yellow Moon Crystal, and the Accessory Counter
Bracer, dropped by Gravers located in South Ocean airspace, both give a boost
to this Attribute.
Ship Base Attributes
Whereas character Base Attributes improve through a character leveling up, ship
Base Attributes improve by consuming Captain's Stripes. Captain's Stripes are a
limited item, only appearing a set number of times in the game. An important
characteristic to realize about Captain's Stripes is that, despite what the
menu mechanism suggests, they apply to the ship's captain, Vyse, not the ship
itself. Which is to say, a ship's Base Attributes depend on how many Captain's
Stripes have been consumed throughout the game, not how many Captain's Stripes
have been applied to that ship in particular. This means there's no need to
"save" Captain's Stripes for a particular ship; since they effectively apply to
all ships, they might as well be used right away.
Some definitions to note - a "Turn" is a set of Rounds, one Round for each
party character, where the player chooses what to do in each Round before the
Turn executes. A "Round" consists of the two ships executing one action, in a
particular order determined by various factors. The Evasive Action or guard
command is unaffected by whether it executes first or second; it always
applies.
Max HP:
Again, hopefully fairly obvious; the maximum health of the ship. Health of
party characters plays no part in ship battles, although characters' MP does.
For each Captain's Stripe, the Little Jack's Max HP increases by 1,000, and the
Delphinus' by 2,000.
Spirit:
At the start of each Turn a certain amount of Spirit is gained. The amount
gained is the value of this Attribute, plus the sum of all party characters'
Spirit. This Attribute has no effect on the amount of Spirit gained by a
particular character Focusing, which is simply double that character's Spirit.
Spirit is fixed for ships, and not affected by Captain's Stripes.
Max SP:
Maximum Spirit. As mentioned earlier, the Spirit bar has a maximum amount. This
maximum is determined from the value of this Attribute, plus the sum of all
party characters' Max SP. Note that, with four characters at level 99, their
combined Max SP will be 25+25+25+24 = 99; this will then be added onto the
ship's Max SP, resulting in a number greater than 99. It is in fact possible to
have more than 99 Spirit in a ship battle, at least in the Dreamcast version of
the game, although the displayed Spirit gauge only goes up to 99, and so
behaves a little strangely.
Max SP is fixed for ships, and not affected by Captain's Stripes.
Defense:
This Base Attribute determines the ship's Defense Calculated Attribute.
For each Captain's Stripe, the Little Jack's Defense increases by 1, and the
Delphinus' by 2.
Magic Defense:
This Base Attribute determines the ship's Magic Defense Calculated Attribute.
For each Captain's Stripe, the Little Jack's Magic Defense increases by 1, and
the Delphinus' by 2.
Quick:
This Base Attribute determines the ship's Quick Calculated Attribute.
For each Captain's Stripe, the Delphinus' Quick increases by 2. The Little
Jack's Quick is unaffected.
Dodge:
This Base Attribute determines the ship's Dodge Calculated Attribute.
Dodge is fixed for ships, and not affected by Captain's Stripes.
Value:
This Base Attribute determines the ship's Value Calculated Attribute. Value is
not affected by Captain's Stripes; instead, it increases when certain
enhancements are added to the ship. For the Little Jack, it increases by 50,000
once the Harpoon Cannon is installed, and for the Delphinus, it increases by
1,000,000 for each of the first two enhancements that Brabham installs.
Ship Calculated Attributes
These Attributes can be increased by equipping ship equipment onto the ship,
and by having certain Crew Members as Active. There are four types of ship
equipment, each raising an exclusive set of Attributes - Armor, Magic Armor,
Engine Parts, and Valuables.
Defense:
Defense is calculated from the ship's base Defense, and adding onto that any
bonuses from equipped Armor. It is also raised further if Brabham is the Active
Engineer of the ship's crew. Defense is combined with the Vigor of the
character for the current Round to determine how much damage the ship is able
to knock off from a non-critical attack. Critical Hits ignore defense; thus
this Attribute along with characters' Vigor have no effect on damage from
Critical Hits. Ship Defense is affected by the Strengthened and Weakened Status
Effects and Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax, although characters' Vigor is
not affected.
Magic Defense:
Magic Defense is calculated from the ship's base Magic Defense, and adding onto
that any bonuses from equipped Magic Armor. It is also raised further if Hans
is the Active Engineer of the ship's crew. Magic Defense is combined with the
Vigor of the character for the current Round to determine how much damage the
ship is able to knock off from a magic attack. Magic attacks are never Critical
Hits. Ship Magic Defense is affected by the Weakened Status Effect and
Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax, although characters' Vigor is not
affected. However, unlike Defense, Magic Defense is not affected by the
Strengthened Status Effect, although it is multiplied when using Ilchymis' Crew
Command or the Hybrid Wax.
Quick:
Quick is calculated from the ship's base Quick, and adding onto that any
bonuses from equipped Engine Parts. It is also raised further if Lawrence is
the Active Helmsman of the ship's crew. Quick affects the chances of who fires
first in a particular Round, although for some Rounds this is fixed. As far as
I can determine, the Quick of the character active for that Round has no effect
on who fires first. Quick is not relevant for the Evasive Action or guard
command, as guarding will be in effect regardless of whether the move is
executed first or second. Quick is doubled by the Quickened Status Effect, and
is probably also affected by Ilchymis' Crew Command and the Hybrid Wax.
Dodge:
Dodge is calculated from the ship's base Dodge, and adding onto that any
bonuses from equipped Engine Parts. It is also raised further if Don is the
Active Helmsman of the ship's crew. When on the receiving end of a normal
attack, this is combined with the attacking weapon's Hit% to determine the
chances of dodging the attack. It is not possible to dodge magic attacks and
enemy super moves, and presumably the Super Cannon cannot be dodged either. Of
course, magic attacks can still fail if the target is "Lost", or if the
attacker is afflicted with the Silenced Status Effect. Dodge is doubled by the
Quickened Status Effect, and is probably also affected by Ilchymis' Crew
Command and the Hybrid Wax.
Value:
The ship's Value is calculated from its base Value, adding onto that any
bonuses from equipped Valuables. It is also raised further if Merida is the
Active Jester of the ship's crew, specifically by 10,000.
The Value Attribute appears to be the remnants of an unused feature of the
game, whereby the player was able to sell their ship. It most likely has no
effect in the final game; I've tried various experiments with Valuables
equipped and haven't noticed any differences, including elemental resistances,
one thing that's missing from equippable ship items.
Weapon Specific Attributes
There are a few Attributes that are specific to ship weaponry, rather than the
ship itself. These are explained below.
Attack:
For Primary Cannons and the Super Cannon, this is combined with the Power of
the character for the current Round to determine the damage dealt. For
Secondary Cannons and Torpedoes, it is not combined, and so will deal the same
damage regardless of what character fires it. Attack is affected by the
Strengthened Status Effect and Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax, though
neither of these affects characters' Power. The Weakened Status Effect does not
affect the Attack of enemy ship weapons / attacks, but it does affect the
Attack of the player's ship's weapons.
Hit:
This is combined with the target's Dodge to determine the chances of hitting
the target with the weapon used. Presumably, if an attack is to be a Critical
Hit, it will never miss, as for ordinary battles.
Spirit:
How much Spirit it costs to fire the weapon. For Secondary Cannons, this is the
Spirit cost for each Round in which the weapon is fired.
Limit:
This one isn't widely understood; Limit is an Attribute for weapons that can
fire into subsequent rounds, specifically Secondary Cannons and Torpedoes. It
indicates the limit as to how far the weapon can reach into subsequent rounds.
For example, a Torpedo with a Limit of 2 can only strike up to 2 Rounds ahead
from when it was launched. As another example, the 5' Cannon Secondary Cannon
is more powerful and more accurate than the 3' Cannon, and both cost the same
Spirit to fire, but the 3' cannon has a better Limit of 3 compared to the 5'
Cannon's 2. This means that the 3' Cannon can be fired for 3 additional Rounds
after it starts firing, so 4 Rounds in total, whereas the 5' Cannon can only be
fired for 2 additional Rounds after it starts firing, 3 Rounds in total.
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/ /
/ Characters - Strengths and Weaknesses /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~C
We now know where a character's Calculated Attributes come from, but what about
their Base Attributes? How do they increase as each character levels up
relative to other characters? This is the subject of this section.
For each Attribute I give a rating out of 10 describing approximately how well
a particular Attribute levels up relative to other characters. I've chosen Vyse
as the arbitrary "average" for most Attributes.
Agile does not increase when leveling up, and can only be increased with Dexus
Seeds. See further below for details on how Spirit and Maximum Spirit increase.
Vyse:
An all around good character, with a little more emphasis on physical
attributes than magical attributes.
- Power - 5.0/10, around 4.68 per level
- Vigor - 3.1/10, around 3.78 per level, making it about 80% of Power
- Max HP - 5.8/10, around 106.4 per level
- Will - 5.0/10, around 3.26 per level, making it about 70% of Power
- Max MP - 3.1/10, +1 around every 3 1/8 levels
- Quick - 6.3/10, around 4.43 per level
- Agile - starts at 11
Aika:
The fastest character, Aika is great when you need to heal a character quickly,
and also for performing a pair of moves that should be done in a particular
order; the second move can be given to a slow character. Other than speed,
Aika's magical abilities are pretty good, though not as powerful as Fina's.
- Power - 2.4/10, around 3.46 per level
- Vigor - 2.7/10, around 3.58 per level, it stays fairly close to Power,
drifting ahead slightly
- Max HP - 4.6/10, around 96.9 per level
- Will - 7.3/10, around 4.24 per level, making it about 125% of Power
- Max MP - 5.0/10, +1 around every 2 1/3 levels
- Quick - 7.9/10, around 4.76 per level
- Agile - starts at 22
Fina:
A very powerful magical character, with average speed, but otherwise quite
vulnerable. She has the lowest Power, Vigor, and Maximum HP of all the
characters, but makes up for it with very good Will and Maximum MP.
- Power - 0.6/10, around 2.60 per level
- Vigor - 1.3/10, around 2.95 per level, making it about 115% of Power
- Max HP - 2.5/10, around 79.8 per level
- Will - 9.0/10, around 5.00 per level, making it almost 200% of Power
- Max MP - 9.2/10, +1 around every 1 1/2 levels
- Quick - 5.0/10, around 4.16 per level
- Agile - starts at 12
Drachma:
Drachma is a character of extremes; he's either the best or worst of each of
the Attributes. He's basically the opposite of Fina - a powerhouse of raw
offensive and defensive physical abilities, but almost no magical ability, and
the slowest character.
- Power - 7.1/10, around 5.65 per level
- Vigor - 7.1/10, around 5.65 per level, it always stays very close to Power
- Max HP - 9.8/10, around 138.4 per level
- Will - 3.1/10, around 2.44 per level, making it less than 50% of Power
- Max MP - 1.0/10, +1 fairly predictably every 5 levels
- Quick - 0.4/10, around 3.20 per level
- Agile - starts at 4
Gilder:
Basically a more physical version of Vyse, with improved physical abilities at
the cost of lowered magical abilities, and slightly slower.
- Power - 6.0/10, around 5.15 per level
- Vigor - 3.7/10, around 4.06 per level, making it about 80% of Power
- Max HP - 7.9/10, around 122.8 per level
- Will - 4.4/10, around 3.00 per level, making it about 60% of Power
- Max MP - 2.8/10, +1 fairly predictably every 3 1/3 levels
- Quick - 4.7/10, around 4.09 per level, only just behind Fina
- Agile - starts at 14
Enrique:
A bit like an improved version of Aika, physically he's between Aika and Vyse,
and magically he's slightly better than Aika. His main weakness is his speed,
which is fairly low.
- Power - 3.2/10, around 3.86 per level
- Vigor - 2.9/10, around 3.71 per level, it stays fairly close to Power,
drifting behind slightly
- Max HP - 4.8/10, around 98.1 per level
- Will - 8.1/10, around 4.59 per level, making it about 120% of Power
- Max MP - 5.5/10, +1 around every 2 1/5 levels
- Quick - 3.1/10, around 3.76 per level
- Agile - starts at 16
Spirit
Unlike the other Attributes, Spirit and Maximum Spirit increase in a set way.
Spirit increases by 1 every 20 levels for each character, starting at a
particular level. For Vyse, this is level 5, where Spirit increases to 2. It
increases again at levels 25 and 45. For Aika, this is level 16, increasing
again at levels 36 and 56. For Fina, this is level 18, increasing again at
levels 38 and 58. For Drachma, this is level 14, increasing again at levels 34
and 54. For Gilder, this is level 10, increasing again at levels 30 and 50. For
Enrique, this is level 12, increasing again at levels 32 and 52.
So, to summarize at what levels Spirit increases for each character:
2, 3, 4
Vyse 5, 25, 45
Gilder 10, 30, 50
Enrique 12, 32, 52
Drachma 14, 34, 54
Aika 16, 36, 56
Fina 18, 38, 58
Starting at level 65 of each character, which would be the level Vyse's Spirit
increases to 5, the rules change. When any character reaches level 65, their
Spirit is increased and synchronized at 5. From level 65 onwards, Spirit
increases at the same points for all characters, accelerating towards 20.
To begin with, Spirit increases by 1 at every 4 levels after level 65 and up to
level 81. At level 84 it accelerates to every 2 levels, and at level 95 it
increases to every 1 level. So, to summarize at what levels Spirit increases at
and after level 65:
Maximum Spirit is much simpler. It increases once every 4 levels, the first
increase being at level 5, and starts at 4 at level 1. It increases at the same
levels for every character. Once it reaches 25 for the primary characters Vyse,
Aika, and Fina, it no longer increases, and once it reaches 24 for the
secondary characters, it no longer increases.
=============================== ==============================
============================== Super Move Attacks =============================
=============================== ========================~CS===
This section briefly compares the various offensive Super Moves of each
character.
Damage for offensive Super Moves, with the exception of Aika's and Fina's, is
calculated as for normal attack damage, and is then multiplied by a certain
number. This is what makes Super Moves much more powerful than ordinary
attacks. For Aika's and Fina's Super Moves, they behave as for magic - normal
attack damage is calculated except using Will rather than Power, and then a
fixed amount of damage is added. This has the effect of making their Super
Moves less and less useful from a raw damage perspective as the game
progresses. Additionally, their Super Moves have a fixed non-changeable
Element, Aika's being Red and Fina's being Silver, regardless of what Element
is equipped on their weapon.
As the heading for each Super Move, I list the owning character, Super Move
name, Spirit cost, whether the Super Move attacks one enemy or all enemies, and
finally the damage multiplier, or damage added for Aika's and Fina's Super
Moves. Bear in mind that the comparisons assume that characters' Power, or Will
in the case of Aika and Fina, are relatively close, which may not always be the
case.
Vyse, Cutlass Fury, Spirit - 7, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 2.5:
A good Super Move with a decent amount of damage for the Spirit cost. Pretty
much the only reliable way of defeating Loopers early in the game.
Vyse, Rain of Swords, Spirit - 14, Attacks - All, Multiplier - 1.5:
An alternative to Pyri magic for attacking all enemies. Magic tends to work
better against large groups of weak enemies, with a lower Spirit cost so that
it may be used on the first turn.
Vyse, Pirates' Wrath, Spirit - 21, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 7.5:
Exactly the same as three Cutlass Furies in one.
Drachma, Tackle, Spirit - 10, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 3:
Not quite as efficient as Cutlass Fury, but nonetheless it does more damage in
a single turn. For long battles, Cutlass Fury may be better.
Drachma, Hand of Fate, Spirit - 25, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 9:
Slightly more efficient than Pirates' Wrath, and on top of that it's instant
death for non-immune enemies. Even without the instant death effect it's a
great move to use, and the most powerful.
Gilder, Gunslinger, Spirit - 9, Attacks - Line, Multiplier - 3:
Good against more than one enemy, and potentially better than Rain of Swords,
though for a single enemy it is slightly less efficient than Cutlass Fury;
depending on Gilder's Power, other Super Moves may be better.
Gilder, The Claudia, Spirit - 18, Attacks - All, Multiplier - 2.5:
More efficient than Rain of Swords, though in many situations it may be
overkill; Rain of Swords usually handles large groups of strong enemies for
less Spirit, and itself may be overkill compared to magic when up against
weaker enemies.
Enrique, Royal Blade, Spirit - 8, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 4:
The most damaging Super Move available for the Spirit cost, and basically an
even better version of Cutlass Fury. Although Enrique's Power will probably be
lower than Vyse's, in my experience this has always dealt more damage.
Enrique, The Judgment, Spirit - 16, Attacks - One, Multiplier - 8:
Exactly the same as two Royal Blades in one. Although Pirate's Wrath deals more
damage in a single turn, this move deals more damage in terms of the Spirit
cost, so may be a better option for long battles.
Aika, Alpha Storm, Spirit - 4, Attacks - Line, Extra Damage - 120:
Equivalent to Wevli and Electri in terms of damage. Incredibly useful early in
the game against multiple enemies, when there's little offensive magic
available. In any case, it's definitely worth getting if only for being able to
get Delta Shield.
Aika, Lambda Burst, Spirit - 8, Attacks - All, Extra Damage - 200:
Equivalent to Noxus in terms of damage, in between Pyres and Pyrum, and just
below Wevles and Electres. Can be useful if Moonberries are going spare and
some of the more powerful magic has yet to be learnt, though its usefulness may
be short-lived.
Aika, Omega Psyclone, Spirit - 12, Attacks - All, Extra Damage - 330:
Slightly stronger than Pyrulen, and a little stronger than Wevlum and Electrum.
By the time enough Moonberries have been collected to unlock this move, there
will most likely be magic and other more efficient Super Moves available for
effectively dealing with large groups of enemies.
Fina, Lunar Glyph, Spirit - 3, Attacks - One, Extra Damage - 50:
Intended more as a Status Effect inducing move than for damaging enemies;
Crystali is almost three times as powerful at one-third the cost.
Fina, Lunar Winds, Spirit - 6, Attacks - All, Extra Damage - 150:
Again, more useful for its effect than for damaging enemies; it's less powerful
than Pyres, and substantially less than Wevles and Electres, which will
probably be available by the time the move becomes available.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ /
/ /
/ Elements /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~E
This section explains which enemy Elements each Element is effective and
ineffective against, how these strengths and weaknesses affect damage dealt,
and the various exceptions to the usual rules.
Each enemy in the game, excluding enemy ships in ship battles, is of a
particular Element. An enemy's Element can be determined from the border color
of their icon when selecting an enemy to attack. An enemy's Element determines
two things - the Element of its attacks, and what Elements it is more
vulnerable to when being attacked, though there are some minor exceptions.
When a character attacks normally, their attacking Element is the Element
equipped on their weapon. When a character or enemy attacks with magic, the
attacking Element is the Element of the magic used. When a character attacks
with a Super Move, the attacking Element is the Element equipped on their
weapon, except for Aika and Fina; Aika's Super Moves are always Red, and Fina's
Super Moves are always Silver.
The table of what Elements enemies of a particular Element are strong and weak
against provided in the game's manual is famously incorrect, so here's a
correct one:
Green Purple Blue Red Yellow Silver
Enemy Element
Green = < < > > =
Purple > << < >> = =
Blue > > = < < =
Red < >> > << = =
Yellow < = > = < >
Silver = = = = > <
To read this table, locate the row corresponding to the Element of the enemy in
question. The cells in that row indicate the effectiveness of each Element
against that enemy-
= - neither effective nor ineffective, no change to damage dealt
< - ineffective, only 90% of damage applies
> - effective, damage multiplied by 110%
<< - highly ineffective, only 70% of damage applies
>> - highly effective, damage multiplied by 140%
So, when against an enemy of a particular Element, the best Elements to use
against it, either magic or as equipped on a weapon, will be columns marked
with > or >>, and the Elements to avoid will be the columns marked with < and
<<. So, to summarize:
Enemy Element Weak Against Strong Against
Green Red, Yellow Blue, Purple
Purple Red+, Green Purple+, Blue
Blue Purple, Green Yellow, Red
Red Purple+, Blue Red+, Green
Yellow Blue, Silver Yellow, Green
Silver Yellow Silver
A few things can be observed about the resistances and vulnerabilities of
Elements:
- All Elements balance out in terms of strengths and weaknesses
- Elements are never effective against themselves
- Elements that are neither effective nor ineffective against other Elements
observe a reflexive relationship; that is, if Element A is neither effective
nor ineffective against Element B, Element B is neither effective nor
ineffective against Element A
- Elements that are effective against other Elements tend to observe an
asymmetric relationship; that is, if Element A is effective against Element B,
Element B is ineffective against Element A; the two exceptions to the rule are
Red and Purple, and Silver and Yellow, which are effective both ways
- Red and Purple are opposites of each other in terms of strengths and
weaknesses
- Green and Purple have the same strengths
- Blue is strong against what Green is weak to
Understanding that most elemental strengths are asymmetric, the rules for those
Elements can be simplified to the following:
Wins Loses
Electricity Burns Earth
Fire Burns Earth
Water Puts Out Fire
Water Shorts Electricity
Ice Freezes Water
Earth Channels Water
Earth Channels Ice
Remembering that Fire/Ice and Yellow/Silver destroy each other and resist
themselves.
An enemy's attacking Element only becomes relevant for elementally resistant
Armor and Accessories, and even Weapons. Having these items equipped will grant
resistance to attacks of those Elements, typically 20% each according to Eso
Arcadia; equipping one item resistant to a particular Element makes attacks of
that Element, including magic, only 80% effective; two items reduces the
effectiveness to 60%, and three to 40%. Despite the description of many of
these items, they grant resistance to normal attacks of their specified
Element, not just magic attacks. These items and how to obtain them follow; the
Armor and Accessories listed can be equipped by any character. Many of the
Accessories are dropped by enemies; Eso Arcadia has exact details on which
enemies drop what items, and the chances of the drop.
Armor:
Yellow-
Elastamor, Sailors' Island weapons shop once Fina is in the party
Red-
Nasrean Mail, Maramba weapons shop
Green-
Ixa'takan Armor, Sailors' Island weapons shop after acquiring the Delphinus
Blue-
Daccat's Tunic, Esparanza merchant
Purple-
Insulated Mail, Ryu-kan's shop
Silver-
Silver Armor, two available in chests at the Great Silver Shrine, and so only
available for a limited time
Accessories:
Green-
Ivy Band, dropped by most enemies that can inflict Poison via a regular attack
Purple-
Revered Voice, dropped by enemies that can inflict Silence via a regular attack
Eye of Truth, enemy drop
Thermo Ring, Mystery Merchant
Yellow-
Behemoth's Ring, Nasr Kingdom / Pyrynn enemy drop
Silver-
Silvite Ring, enemy drop
Cupil Ring, rare Soltis enemy drop
Blue-
Wind Gem Ring, dropped by some enemies that can inflict Sleep via a regular
attack
Red-
Thermo Ring, Mystery Merchant
Weapons:
According to Eso Arcadia, the following weapons also boost a character's
elemental resistance of a particular element when equipped:
Green-
Aika's Grendel Wing, obtained from the Green Gigas
Red-
Gilder's Nasr Pistol, available in the Nasr weapons shop
Blue-
Vyse's Dream Cutlass, in a ship "treasure chest" in the Dark Rift
Purple-
Aika's Ice Splitter, in a chest in the Ruins of Ice
Yellow-
Vyse's Thunder Cutlass, obtained from the Yellow Gigas
Silver-
Drachma's Silver Arm, a rare Soltis enemy drop
There is one item that deserves particular attention, and that is the Accessory
Thermo Ring, sold by the Mystery Merchant. Not only does this grant resistance
to two Elements, Red and Purple, but according to Eso Arcadia the resistance it
offers is a huge 50%. Suffice to say that this is an incredibly useful
Accessory to have. It is particularly useful against Sinistra and Destra of
Daccat's Island. Combined with two other equipped items granting either Red or
Purple resistance, and it is possible to get up to 90% resistance to Red or
Purple attacks, in other words making those attacks only 10% effective.
Exceptions
There are some exceptions to the rules above regarding an enemy's strengths and
weaknesses to Elements, and its attacking Element. The latter exceptions are
few and usually fairly obvious; for example, Tortigar is a Blue enemy, but its
Ice Storm attack is Purple.
Information on the exceptions detailed in this section was data-mined from Eso
Arcadia's enemy pages. Which is to say, I have scoured through their enemy
pages to find exceptions to the above rules, and done some testing of my own to
verify the results.
Enemies that are Defensively Neutral:
Some enemies don't have any weaknesses or strengths against any Elements; there
are no Elements which deal more or less damage than normal to the enemy.
However, the attacks of these enemies are still of their Element. These enemies
are-
- The first enemies in the game, Praeses/Guard, Ferratus/Soldier, and Antonio,
all yellow, but not similar enemies appearing later
- Ramirez, silver
- Elcian, yellow
Enemies that are Highly Weak and Strong against their Elements:
Some enemies are more vulnerable to Elements their Element is weak against, and
with it stronger against Elements their Element is strong against. For these
enemies, Elements they are vulnerable to multiply damage by 140% instead of
110%, and Elements they are resistant to only deal 70% of damage instead of
90%.
- Scorfly, Nasr Kingdom airspace, purple
- The related Scorpon, Valuan Empire airspace, purple
Enemies that are Extremely Weak and Strong against their Elements:
Similar to the enemies above, some enemies are even more vulnerable against
their weaknesses, those Elements multiplying damage by 200%, and even stronger
against their strengths, those Elements only dealing 50% of damage.
- Maroccas, Mid Ocean airspace, blue
- The related Buroccas, Frontier Lands airspace, blue
- Ferliths, Rixis, green
- The related Feralisks, Daccat's Island, green
- Grapors, Deserted Island / Crescent Isle, green
Red and Purple Enemies only weak and strong against Purple and Red:
Some Red/Purple enemies are extremely weak to Purple/Red, those attacks being
multiplied by 190%, and massively resistant against Red/Purple, those attacks
only dealing 10% of damage. Against all other Elements they are neither weak
nor strong, those Elements dealing normal damage.
- Rokwyrm of Pyrynn, red
- Sinistra of Daccat's Island, red
- Destra of Daccat's Island, purple
Enemies that are Not Highly Weak and Strong against certain Elements:
Purple and Red Elements are usually highly effective against Red and Purple
enemies, respectively, and highly ineffective against Purple and Red enemies,
respectively. For some enemies this is not the case; they are merely normally
effective/ineffective against those enemies. For these enemies, the normally
highly effective Element multiplies damage dealt by 110% instead of 140%, and
the normally highly ineffective Element deals 90% of damage instead of 70%.
Most of these enemies are bosses or boss-like enemies.
- Zivilyn Bane, red
- Gordo, red
- Furiosus / Mad Chef, red
- Vigoro, red
- Dralkor Lacus / Dralkor Tank, red
Other Unusual Enemies:
- Gelu Vermis / Frost Worms of the Ruins of Ice, purple elementals, are
extremely vulnerable to Red and completely immune to Purple; see its Eso
Arcadia page for full details
- The Sentrees/Sentries of Dangral Island, yellow elementals, are completely
immune to Yellow and highly vulnerable to the Yellow weaknesses Blue and
Silver; see its Eso Arcadia page for full details
============================ ===========================
=========================== Elements in Ship Battles ==========================
============================ =====================~ES===
Elements also play a role in ship battles, although to a lesser extent. As for
ordinary enemies, each enemy ship has a set of resistances to particular
Elements, although unlike enemies there is no obvious pattern.
The Elemental strengths and weaknesses of enemy ships become relevant not only
when attacking with magic, but also when attacking with certain ship weapons
and bombs. These are listed below, along with how to obtain them. Unfortunately
however, many of them become available too late.
The player's ships have no elemental strengths or weaknesses, nor are there any
equippable items that grant such resistances, unlike in ordinary battles.
Blue-
Wevl Cannon, Secondary Cannon, available in Belle's/Khazim's store
Wave Bomb, sometimes dropped by Valuan Spellship, a ship roaming between the
Grand Fortress and Sailors' Island
Red-
Pyril Cannon, Primary Cannon, available in the Sailors' Island ship store after
obtaining the yellow Moon Crystal
Pyro Bomb, available in the Maramba ship store, and dropped by the Spell
Pirates in the Southwest of North Ocean, and the Tenkou Spellship
Purple-
Crystil Cannon, Primary Cannon, dropped by Galcian's Elite providing Kalifa is
an Active Crew Member, a ship battle before facing the Hydra
Frost Bomb, sometimes dropped by Valuan Mage Ship, a ship fought before facing
the Hydra also available to fight near the crater lake in Valua for a time, and
sometimes dropped by Valuan Phantom, a ship encountered on the southern borders
of Ixa'taka
Yellow-
Thunder Bomb, dropped by Valuan Mage Ship, described above
For full details on enemy ship elemental vulnerabilities, I recommend reading
Eso Arcadia's highly detailed enemy ship pages. As a few general rules, Valuan
ships tend to be resistant to Yellow, and often also to Red and Purple, and
least resistant to Blue, and ships later in the game tend to be more resistant
to elemental attacks in general. Also, interestingly, the Gigas are completely
immune to their Elements. I've listed a few notable weaknesses/strengths of
enemy ships below, details for which come from the game data as extracted and
displayed by Eso Arcadia.
Valuan Phantom-
Strong against Yellow and Red, which only do 50% damage.
Valuan Gunboat-
Also strong against Yellow and Red, which only do 50% damage.
Valuan Spectre-
Very resistant to all elemental attacks, especially Yellow which only does 30%
damage.
Valuan Mage Ship-
Extremely resistant against Yellow which only does 30% damage, and highly
resistant against Red and Purple which only do 50% damage.
Galcian's Elite-
Highly resistant to all elemental attacks, and extremely resistant to Purple
which only does 20% damage. Stick to non-elemental weapons for this one.
Black Pirates-
Extremely vulnerable to Yellow, damage for which is multiplied by 200%. So
Electri away.
Tenkou Spellship-
Pretty resistant to all elemental attacks with no particular strengths of
weaknesses, elemental attacks doing only 70% damage.
Obispo-
This is a weird one. Highly vulnerable to Blue and Red which multiply damage by
150% and 130% respectively, and extremely resistant to all other Elements. The
Wevl Cannon can be useful here.
Roc-
Highly vulnerable to Yellow and Red which multiply damage by 150% and 130%
respectively.
Alaina-
Highly vulnerable to Red which multiplies damage by 150%, and extremely
resistant to Purple which only does 10% of damage.
Raja-
Highly vulnerable to Purple which multiplies damage by 150%, and suitably
highly resistant to Yellow which only does 50% damage. Purple magic attacks
that never miss can be useful here.
Anguila-
The Anguila is massively vulnerable to Red, damage for which is multiplied by
250%. In fact, if it's attacked with Red magic, you're rewarded with a little
extra dialog.
The Blackbeard-
The Blackbeard has no particular weaknesses or strengths, and later on all
Elemental attacks do only 30% damage.
The Chameleon-
Very strong against Yellow, which only does 50% damage, but extremely weak
against Blue, damage for which is multiplied by 200%. However, later in the
game it is completely immune to Yellow alongside the Hydra, and all other
elemental attacks do only 30% damage, so those always-hitting magic attacks are
considerably less effective.
The Auriga-
Very resistant against Red and Purple, only doing 50% damage, and extremely
resistant against Yellow, which only does 30% damage.
The Hydra-
The Hydra is the same as the Yellow Gigas, completely immune to Yellow, with
other elemental attacks doing regular damage. Go ahead and try firing
Electrulen at it.
Green Gigas-
Elemental attacks only do 50% damage, except for Red, which does normal damage.
Blue Gigas-
As well as being immune to Blue, strangely it is vulnerable to Red attacks,
which multiply damage by 150%.
Silver Gigas-
Somewhat resistant to elemental attacks, which only do 80% of damage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ /
/ /
/ Status Effects /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~U
Here the various Status Effects that characters, enemies, and ships can have
during battles are explained in terms of what effects they have, and also how
enemies are classified in terms of their vulnerabilities to the various
effects. Additionally I list how they can be acquired, what enemies and what
moves can inflict them (although this listing may not be complete), and what
Accessories can stop them. Unless otherwise specified, protecting Accessories
can be equipped by all characters. Interestingly, enemies that induce a
particular Status Effect tend to drop the Accessory that protects against it. I
believe all protecting Accessories can also be obtained in Pinta Quest.
Some Status Effects override other Status Effects. When inflicted with such a
Status Effect, any Status Effects the target is afflicted with that the new
Status Effect overrides disappear, replaced by the new Status Effect. Also, a
target afflicted with a Status Effect cannot be inflicted with a Status Effect
that that Status Effect overrides. For instance, Poison overrides Regenerate.
If a target with the Regenerate Status Effect is successfully inflicted with
Poison, the Regenerate Status Effect will disappear, replaced with the Poison
Status Effect. Attempting to regain the Regenerate Status Effect will not work
whilst afflicted with Poison.
There are a few Accessories that affect resistance to adverse Status Effects in
general, notably the Pipes which can only be equipped by Drachma and Gilder.
These Accessories are:
- Gem of Purity, originally a Pipe, which gives a boost to adverse Status
Effect resistance, available from the Lower City weapons shop
- Immunity Ring, originally a Pipe, which gives a boost to adverse Status
Effect resistance, available from the Nasrad weapons shop
- Shard of Purity, originally a Pipe, which gives a boost to adverse Status
Effect resistance, available from Ryu-kan's shop once upgraded
- Chance Ring, equippable by all, a very rare enemy drop in the Dark Rift,
which gives a big boost to defense at the cost of increased vulnerability to
adverse Status Effects; can be useful if used carefully
- Constitution Gem, equippable by all, another very rare enemy drop in the Dark
Rift; a very valuable item that grants complete immunity to all adverse Status
Effects, including Instant Death and Eternum
Vyse's Skull Shield, although it blocks damage from ordinary attacks, does not
block any potential adverse Status Effects from those attacks; this is most
noticeable against Elcian. The Defensive Aura, however, does seem to block
adverse Status Effects from normal attacks. Enrique's Justice Shield puts all
characters into a guarding state, even those afflicted with Stone or Sleep.
Strengthened, a.k.a. "Increm":
Popularly referred to by the magic that induces it, Strengthened affects the
target's Attack and Defense. Specifically, it increases the target's Attack and
Defense Calculated Attributes by 125%. One thing in particular to note about
Strengthened is that it does not affect Magic Defense, and it does not affect
Will, so it is less useful for magical characters or when against magical
enemies. To put it another way, offensively, while Strengthened increases a
character's/enemy's physical attacks, it does not increase their magical
attacks, which includes Aika's and Fina's Super Moves. Defensively, while
Strengthened fortifies a character's/enemy's defense against physical attacks,
their defense against magical attacks remains unaffected.
- Overridden by - Weakened, Stone
- Spells that induce - Increm, Incremus (Red)
- Items that induce - Glyph of Might, available in shops later in the game
- Enemies knowing Increm - Venificus / Spell Warden (appears with
Carcer/Executioner), Loopalon (red Loopers), Tenkou (Tenkou Island), Muraji,
Nadnarb (Maw of Tartas)
- Enemies knowing Incremus - Fossor / Mine Patrol (Moon Stone Mtn.), Ferlith
(Rixis) and Feralisk (Daccat's Island), Nairad (Maw of Tartas)
Quickened, a.k.a. "Quika":
Quickened doubles the target's Quick and Dodge, and makes it easier for them to
run from battles. It may also increase a target's Counterattack, making them
more likely to Counterattack. Not only does Quickened significantly increase
the target's chances of executing their moves before others, it also gives them
a boosted chance of dodging attacks.
- Overridden by - Weakened, Stone
- Spells that induce - Quika (Blue)
- Items that induce - Glyph of Speed, available alongside Glyph of Might
- Enemies knowing Quika - Crylhound (Catacombs) and Crylbeast (Mount Kazai),
Custos / Patrol Guard (Upper City), Ballista Rostram / Stonebeak (Nasr Kingdom
airspace), Varkris (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace) and Iridzu (Dark Rift airspace),
Fiendo / Flat Fiend (Dark Rift) and Monstrum / Stalk Fiend (Maw of Tartas),
Tenkou (Tenkou Island), Muraji
Regenerate:
This unusual effect adds a set amount of health onto the target at the end of
each turn, providing the battle isn't over.
- Overridden by - Poison, Stone
- Items that induce - Healing Salve, regenerates 250, available alongside Glyph
of Might
- Super Moves that induce - Fina's Lunar Blessing, regenerates 200
- Enemy Moves that induce - One of Ramirez's moves can induce this,
regenerating 600
Poison:
The opposite of Regenerate; subtracts a set amount of health from the target at
the end of each turn, providing the battle isn't over. This has the potential
to kill the target, potentially ending the battle (which abruptly stops the
background music, sounding a little strange :P). The amount subtracted is the
target's Vigor * 2. I haven't ever encountered a situation where both sides die
from poisoning at the end of the same turn, though the result is probably game
over.
- Overrides - Regenerate
- Overridden by - Stone
- Spells that induce - Noxi, Noxus (Green); presumably Noxus has a higher
chance, as it is more powerful per-target than Noxi
- Weapons that induce - Vyse's Assassin Blade, in a chest in the Catacombs
- Enemies knowing Noxi - Ferlith (Rixis) and Feralisk (Daccat's Island)
- Enemies knowing Noxus - Florast and Flyst (Dark Rift), Ghrost (Yafutoma
airspace)
- Enemies that induce - Dralnog (Catacombs), Dementis (Catacombs), Bleigock
(Catacombs), Furiosus / Mad Chef, Veles' / Shock Troop's Poison Gas (Grand
Fortress), Jellikra (Yafutoma airspace) and Medulizk (Lands of Ice airspace),
Praeses Elite's / Elite Guard's Poison Gas
- Protecting Items - Ivy Band, dropped by most enemies that can induce Poison
from normal attacks
Stone:
Puts the target out of action for several turns, also stopping them from
dodging attacks. Can be very useful against multiple strong enemies, Stoning
one while dealing with the other. Stone overrides all Status Effects, both
positive and adverse; all will be removed upon being inflicted with Stone.
Vyse's Skull Shield has no effect on characters afflicted with Stone. However,
the Defensive Aura still works.
- Overrides - All Status Effects
- Super Moves that induce - Fina's Lunar Glyph, which has a fairly decent
chance of success
- Weapons that induce - Enrique's Stoneblade, from Ryu-kan's shop once
upgraded, and Enrique's Serpent Strike, a rare Soltis enemy drop
- Enemies that induce - Death's / Death's Head's Stone Breath (Pyrynn),
Rokwyrm's Cinder Storm (Pyrynn), Polraxis (Rixis), Alusphere (Mount Kazai),
Tortigar (Mount Kazai), Nadnarb's and Nairad's Stone Ooze (Maw of Tartas),
Eliminator's Laser Blast (underneath Dangral Island), Hopril's & Dorntak's
Laser Blast (Soltis)
- Protecting Items - Gem of Fluidity, one in a chest in Maramba, also a rare
enemy drop in Rixis, and sometimes dropped by the Aluspheres in Mount Kazai
Sleep:
Puts the target out of action and also stops them from dodging attacks for a
few turns, or until they are woken by being attacked. Sleep is also removed if
the target is successfully inflicted with an adverse Status Effect, but not a
positive one. For characters afflicted with Sleep, Vyse's Skull Shield does not
Counterattack, though still negates damage. If a character afflicted with Sleep
is hit and has the Defensive Aura equipped, the Defensive Aura has the effect
of protecting them from the hit, and so they will not wake.
- Overrides - Fatigue
- Overridden by - Confuse, Stone
- Spells that induce - Slipara (Blue)
- Weapons that induce - Vyse's Sword of Daccat and Gilder's Daccat Custom, both
enemy drops in Daccat's Island, and Aika's Yin Wing and Enrique's Blade of
Slumber, both available in the Yafutoma weapons shop
- Enemies knowing Slipara - Scarabee / Durel Beetle (Nasr Kingdom airspace),
Oestrus / Dung Fly (Pyrynn), Varkris (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace) and Iridzu
(Dark Rift airspace), Golooper (Blue Loopers), Elcian
- Enemies that induce - Flestik (Shrine Island) and Centralk (Daccat's Island),
Langry (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace) and Tsurak (Dark Rift airspace), Roseln's
(Ixa'taka airspace) and Carnilak's (Maw of Tartas) Slumber Dust, Rik'talish's
Ring of Sleep (Rixis)
- Protecting Items - Wind Gem Ring, an enemy drop
Confuse:
Each turn for a few turns, or until they are hit and "knocked out of it", the
target panics and uncontrollably attacks the nearest target. Unlike Sleep, it
is not removed if the target is successfully inflicted with another Status
Effect. Has the advantage of stopping enemies from using their special moves
and magic. Confuse appears to override Sleep; it does not seem possible to
inflict Sleep on a target afflicted with Confuse. For characters afflicted with
Confuse, as for Sleep Vyse's Skull Shield will not Counterattack, though will
still negate damage. If a character afflicted with Confuse is hit and has the
Defensive Aura equipped, the Defensive Aura has the effect of protecting them
from the hit, and so they will not recover from Confuse.
- Overrides - Sleep
- Overridden by - Stone
- Spells that induce - Panika (Purple)
- Weapons that induce - Drachma's Beak Hand, available in the Sailor's Island
weapons shop once Fina is in the party, Aika's Flutter Blade, available in the
Sailors' Island weapons shop after obtaining the yellow Moon Crystal
- Enemies knowing Panika - Grouder (Shrine Island) and Drogerp (Dark Rift
airspace), Walrenk (Daccat's Island) and Cerosik (Ruins of Ice), Gelu Vermis /
Frost Worm (Ruins of Ice)
- Enemies that induce - Tsorok (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace), Slothstra (Rixis)
and Dolthstra (Ruins of Ice), Rik'talish's Circle of Panic (Rixis), Vigoro,
Florast and Flyst (Dark Rift), Veltarn (Ruins of Ice)
- Protecting Items - Eye of Truth, enemy drop
Silence:
The target is no longer capable of casting magic, and any magic cast will not
execute.
- Overridden by - Stone
- Spells that induce - Sylenis (Purple)
- Weapons that induce - Enrique's Rapier, Enrique's Imperial Blade, in a chest
in Dangral Island, and some forms of Cupil, specifically Blade, Sword, Cutlass,
and Claymore, all on the normal evolutionary path
- Enemies knowing Sylenis - Custodiae / Mage Warden (Grand Fortress), Arclooper
(Purple Loopers), Umbra/Shadow (alongside Ramirez), Sorcerer (Hydra),
Assassinata/Assassin (Hydra)
- Enemies that induce - Scorfly (Nasr Kingdom airspace) and Scorpon (Valuan
Empire airspace)
- Protecting Items - Revered Voice, dropped by enemies that induce Silence
through regular attacks
Fatigue:
The target is no longer capable of focusing and will not regain any Spirit at
the start of each turn, even if Warrior's Heart is equipped. Any attempt to
Focus will "Miss". Interestingly, Sleep overrides Fatigue, so one way of
"curing" Fatigue is to become afflicted with Sleep. Since this only affects
Spirit, it is the only Status Effect that cannot be induced on enemies, only
characters.
- Overridden by - Sleep, Stone
- Enemies that induce - Ballista Rostram / Stonebeak (Nasr Kingdom airspace)
and Razorbeak (Valuan Empire airspace), Pinalisk's Fatigue Breath (Ixa'taka
Kingdom airspace), Digger's Fatigue Gas (Moon Stone Mtn.), Serpantis (Moon
Stone Mtn.) and Mantoid (Mount Kazai), Fiendo / Flat Fiend (Dark Rift) and
Monstrum / Stalk Fiend (Maw of Tartas), Dracolurg's (Maw of Tartas) and
Dracoslyth's (Soltis) Terrible Bite, Garagor (Soltis), Elcian
- Protecting Items - Everlasting Gem, dropped by some enemies that can induce
Fatigue through regular attacks
Weakened, a.k.a. "Driln":
According to the game's manual and in-game descriptions, Weakened affects "all"
of the target's (Calculated) Attributes. There is at least one exception,
however - Weakened does not affect Will; any magic cast will have the same
effect as if the target was not Weakened. Weakened lowers the target's Attack,
Defense, and Magic Defense to 75% of their value. Note that, unlike
Strengthened, Magic Defense is affected by Weakened. Presumably Weakened also
affects the target's Quick, Dodge, and Counterattack.
- Overrides - Strengthen, Quicken
- Overridden by - Stone
- Spells that induce - Driln, Drilnos (Yellow)
- Weapons that induce - Aika's Storm Wing, an enemy drop in Pyrynn
- Enemies knowing Driln - Scarabee / Durel Beetle (Nasr Kingdom airspace),
Oestrus / Dung Fly (Pyrynn), Custodiae / Mage Warden (Grand Fortress), Florast
and Flyst (Dark Rift),
- Enemies knowing Drilnos - Jellikra (Yafutoma airspace) and Medulizk (Lands of
Ice airspace), Shrilp (Maw of Tartas), Ramirez, Garagor (Soltis)
- Enemies that induce - Rik'talish (Rixis), Alusphere's Drain (Mount Kazai),
Shrilp, Ramirez
- Protecting Items - Behemoth's Ring, a Nasr Kingdom / Pyrynn enemy drop
Unconscious, a.k.a. "Instant Death"/"Eterni":
There are a few moves that can instantly drain a target's health, removing them
from the battle. Bosses are immune to Instant Death, including when they appear
as normal enemies with the exception of Hydra / Hydra Elite (Hydra). The
Eternum-casting Gravers (South Ocean airspace) and Elcian are also immune.
However, Zivilyn Bane is not immune to Instant Death, making him very easy to
dispose of late in the game.
- Spells that may induce - Eterni, Eternes (Silver)
- Spells that will induce - Eternum (Silver)
- Super Moves that will induce - Drachma's Hand of Fate
- Weapons that may induce - Drachma's De Loco Drill, in a chest in Moon Stone
Mtn., Vyse's Soul Sword, available in Ryu-kan's shop once upgraded, and
Gilder's Marksman Gun, an enemy drop on the Hydra
- Enemies that know Eterni - Dralnog (Catacombs) and Lucich (Moon Stone Mtn.),
Azbeth (Nasr Kingdom airspace) and Jynnus (Valuan Empire airspace)
- Enemies that know Eternes - Delzool (Dark Rift), Sorcerer (Hydra), Galcian
- Enemies that know Eternum - Graver (South Ocean airspace), Ramirez, Galcian
- Enemies' Moves that may induce - Veltarn's Death Laser (Ruins of Ice),
Umbra's/Shadow's and Assassinata's/Assassin's Death Strike,
Susceptor's/Guardian's Crypt Laser
- Protecting Items - Silvite Ring, an enemy drop, Valuan Medallion, dropped by
Galcian, and also sometimes dropped by Elcian
- Items that increase resistance to - Cupil Ring, only equippable by Fina, a
rare Soltis enemy drop
Protecting against Instant Death and Eternum:
Aside the Eternum-negating Silvite Ring and Valuan Medallion mentioned above,
the rare but valuable Constitution Gem mentioned earlier also negates Eternum
and Instant Death. It's also worth remembering that Aika's Delta Shield can
block inbound magic, which is the easiest accessible defense against Eterni
magic. Of course Sylenis or otherwise inducing Silence is another option,
though less reliable. Lacking these, and aside Drachma's and Gilder's Pipe
Accessories and Fina's Cupil Ring that increase resistance to Instant Death
moves, the defense becomes reactionary - Riselem, a supply of Riselem Crystals,
and Fina's Lunar Light Super Move.
====================== ======================
===================== Enemy Status Effect Vulnerabilities =====================
====================== ================~UE===
In ordinary battles, adverse Status Effect inducing magic doesn't always induce
the Status Effect on its target, unlike positive Status Effect inducing magic;
in fact they frequently miss. The same holds true for weapons, though probably
to an even greater extent due to their frequency of use compared to magic. The
chances of an enemy successfully being inflicted with an adverse Status Effect
depends on their vulnerability to that particular Status Effect, and for magic
it also depends on the attacker's Will, and probably also the target's Magic
Defense.
Enemies can be immune to certain Status Effects; see Eso Arcadia's enemy pages
for complete details. As a general guide:
- If an enemy can induce a particular Status Effect either normally or with one
of its special moves, it will probably be immune to that Status Effect; the
same kind-of holds the other way around, though less so
- Galcian, Ramirez, Elcian, and also Sinistra & Destra, are immune to all
adverse Status Effects; the latter pair of enemies are probably immune due to
coding issues with the special attack they have
- Curiously, all Silver enemies, except Loopers, are immune to Poison
- Machines tend to be immune to Poison
- There are a number of additional enemies that are immune to Poison that have
no attacks that inflict Poison
- Aside the immune-to-all enemies, the only other enemy immune to Weakened is
the Alusphere of Mount Kazai; Shrilps (Maw of Tartas) are not immune
- Aside the immune-to-all enemies, the only other enemies immune to Confuse are
the ones that never attack, and so it would make no sense to induce Confuse on
them; namely Eversors/Destroyers in the Grand Fortress, and Muraji
- Following from this, enemies with Confuse-inducing attacks are more resistant
to Confuse rather than immune to it
- Muraji is immune to Silence, probably because it's one of the few ways he can
attack
- Almost all non-magic enemies are immune to Silence
- All bosses, and also Elcian, are immune to Instant Death, including almost
all regular enemies that appeared earlier as bosses
- Zivilyn Bane is not immune to Instant Death
In most cases, there are two things that determine how vulnerable an enemy is
to a particular Status Effect that it is not immune to; their vulnerability to
Status Effects in general, and their Element. The former has the most
significant effect, and the latter slightly tweaks resistances against
particular Status Effects.
General Status Effect Vulnerabilities
Most non-boss enemies can be put into one of four "bands" of general
vulnerability to Status Effects. These bands are-
- Regular, average resistance to adverse Status Effects
- Resistant, difficult to induce adverse Status Effects on
- Vulnerable, somewhat easy to induce adverse Status Effects on
- Extremely Vulnerable, adverse Status Effects will usually take hold
Most bosses, and also Zivilyn Bane, have a fixed resistance for all Status
Effects they are not immune to, roughly equivalent to the Resistant band of
non-boss enemies. Bosses appearing later in the game as normal enemies retain
the same resistances as before. Status Effects usually aren't too worthwhile
against bosses, with some notable exceptions. Fina's Lunar Glyph Super Move may
still produce results, however, as it appears to be quite strong.
Listings of what non-boss enemies fall into what bands follow; all other non-
boss enemies fall into the Regular band. This listing and its exceptions was
data-mined from Eso Arcadia's enemy pages; which is to say, I've scoured
through the enemy data to find those that fall into the "bands" that I've
defined above:
Enemies falling into the Vulnerable band-
- Tsirat (Catacombs) and Tsorok (Ixa'taka Kingdom)
- Azbeth (Nasr Kingdom airspace) and Jynnus (Valuan Empire airspace)
- Ballista Rostram / Stonebeak (Nasr Kingdom airspace) and Razorbeak (Valuan
Empire airspace)
- Varkris (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace) and Iridzu (Dark Rift airspace)
- Pinalisk (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace)
- Kilite (Lands of Ice airspace)
Enemies falling into the Extremely Vulnerable band-
- Marocca (Mid Ocean airspace) and Burocca (Frontier Lands airspace)
- Flestik (Shrine Island) and Centralk (Daccat's Island)
- Dementis / Mind Stealer (Catacombs) and Death / Death's Head (Pyrynn)
- Scorfly (Nasr Kingdom airspace) and Scorpon (Valuan Empire airspace)
- Scarabee / Durel Beetle (Nasr Kingdom airspace)
- Oestrus / Dung Fly (Pyrynn)
- The infamous Gravers of South Ocean; be sure to take advantage!
- Langry (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace) and Tsurak (Dark Rift airspace)
Enemies falling into the Resistant band-
- Slothstra (Rixis) and Dolthstra (Ruins of Ice)
- Gelu Vermis / Frost Worm (Ruins of Ice)
- Shrilp (Maw of Tartas)
- Dracolurg (Maw of Tartas) and Dracoslyth (Soltis)
- Garagor (Soltis)
- Linark (Soltis)
Notable non-boss enemy exceptions to these rules are as follows:
- Many of the Valua soldier enemies that can cast magic, a few similar enemies
appearing later on the Hydra, are Extremely Vulnerable to Silence
- Totelm (Rixis) is Extremely Vulnerable to Confuse and Sleep
- Slothstra (Rixis) and Dolthstra (Ruins of Ice) fall into the Resistant band
except, suitably enough, they are Extremely Vulnerable to Sleep; a good tactic
is to put them to Sleep and then focus up for a powerful set of moves
- Venificus / Spell Warden, Umbra/Shadow (alongside Ramirez), and
Assassinata/Assassin (Hydra) fall into the Resistant band except for Silence,
to which they have average resistance to
- Gelu Vermis / Frost Worm (Ruins of Ice) and Garagor (Soltis) fall into the
Resistant band except for Silence, to which they have average resistance to
Notable boss exceptions to these rules are as follows:
- Bleigock (Catacombs) is a weird one; its resistance to Confuse, Sleep, and
Weakened, is roughly on par with the Regular band of non-boss enemies rather
than the Resistant band
- Carcer/Executioner, and its later appearance as Hydra / Hydra Elite on the
Hydra, is Extremely Vulnerable to Silence
- Rik'talish's (Rixis) resistance to Poison and Stone is roughly on par with
the Regular band of non-boss enemies rather than the Resistant band; knowing it
is less resistant to Stone can make it very easy to defeat with Fina's Super
Move
- Jao's and Mao's vulnerabilities to Poison and Confuse are on par with the
Regular band of non-boss enemies
- Muraji, aside from his immunities, is Extremely Vulnerable to everything
- Dralkor Lacus / Dralkor Tank are Extremely Vulnerable to Confuse and Sleep;
like Slothstra and Dolthstra, a good strategy is to send them to Sleep, and
save up Spirit for a powerful set of attacks
Elemental Status Effect Vulnerabilities
Non-boss enemies are slightly more vulnerable and slightly less vulnerable to
certain Status Effects depending on their Element. Enemies' vulnerabilities to
Status Effects depending on their Element are similar to their vulnerabilities
to Elements depending on their Element. The table below describes what non-boss
enemies of a particular Element are slightly more and less vulnerable to.
Poison Confuse Silence Sleep Weak Instant Death Stone
Enemy Element
Green < < = < > = =
Purple > < = < = = =
Blue > > < = < = =
Red < > > > = = =
Yellow < = > > < > =
Silver = = = = > < =
As an example, let's consider Scarabees, known as Durel Beetles in the US
version. Scarabee falls into the Extremely Vulnerable band, so adverse Status
Effect inducing moves will often succeed against it. However, it will be
slightly more vulnerable, and slightly less vulnerable, to certain Status
Effects, depending on its Element. Scarabee's Element is Blue. According to the
table above, Blue elemental enemies are slightly more vulnerable to Poison and
Confuse, and slightly less vulnerable to Silence and Weakened. This is the case
for Scarabee, except it is immune to Silence.
There are a few interesting patterns to note about the table above-
- No enemy elements are more or less vulnerable to Stone
- Where Poison is Green, Confuse is Purple, Sleep is Blue, Weak is Yellow, and
Instant Death is Silver, the table becomes very similar to the enemy elemental
resistances/vulnerabilities table; for example, Silver enemies are slightly
more resistant to Instant Death / Silver, slightly more vulnerable to Weak /
Yellow, and normally vulnerable to all others
There are some enemies whose vulnerabilities do not vary, and are instead
"fixed", according to the band they are in:
- The first enemies in the game, Praeses/Guard and Ferratus/Soldier, whose
elemental resistances also specially do not vary
- Grapors of Deserted Island / Crescent Isle
- Maroccas (Mid Ocean airspace), Buroccas (Frontier Lands airspace), Langries
(Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace), Tsuraks (Dark Rift airspace)
========================= ========================
======================== Status Effects in Ship Battles =======================
========================= ==================~US===
The positive Status Effects Strengthened and Quickened, and the adverse Status
Effects Silence and Weakened, are also available in ship battles. Unlike in
ordinary battles, Status Effects in ship battles always take hold, unless the
target has a conflicting Status Effect. Alongside of this, there are no enemy
ships/Gigas/e.t.c. with immunities to any of these Status Effects, and no
equippable items to negate them. And yes, this means you can Driln and Sylenis
all the Gigas :P.
Strengthened, a.k.a. "Increm":
Strengthened affects the ship's Defense, and the Attack of all the ship's
weapons. Specifically, it increases those Attributes by 150%, even greater than
for ordinary battles. As before, it does not affect Magic Defense. It also does
not affect character Attributes that contribute to attacking and defensive
power, including Will for magic attacks, Power for Primary Cannon and Super
Cannon attacks, and Vigor for defense. There is one particular thing to note
about this Status Effect however, and that is that it can be combined with
Ilchymis' effect or the Hybrid Wax; this will make the ship's weapons,
including its Super Cannon, more than twice as powerful. Ilchymis' Crew Command
and the Hybrid Wax, the latter of which is dropped late in the game, both do
the same thing; combining them has no extra effect.
- Spells that induce - Increm, Incremus (Red)
- Items that induce - Apa Wax available in the Maramba and Nasrad ship stores,
Apo Wax available in the Sailors' Island ship store upon obtaining the yellow
Moon Crystal
- Crew Members that induce - Ryu-kan, the same as Incremus
- Enemy ships knowing Increm/Incremus - The Lynx
Quickened, a.k.a. "Quika":
Just as for ordinary battles; doubles the ship's Quick and Dodge, making it
more likely to fire first and dodge attacks.
- Spells that induce - Quika (Blue)
- Items that induce - Speed Wax, available in the Sailors' Island ship store
upon obtaining the yellow Moon Crystal
- Enemy ships knowing Quika - Valuan Spectre, Silver Gigas
Silence:
The target is no longer capable of firing or casting magic. This can be
extremely effective against some enemies, though perhaps a little too
effective. With use of this move, ship Magic Armor becomes less useful, and can
be exchanged for another Armor or Engine Part, giving an additional boost to
the ship's Defense or Quick and Dodge. Of course, in order to fire it, the
attacker must not itself be Silenced.
- Spells that induce - Sylenis (Purple)
- Enemy ships knowing Sylenis - The Chameleon (Deep Sky), Silver Gigas
Weakened, a.k.a. "Driln":
This is a bit of an inconsistent one. As before, according to the in-game
descriptions, Weakened affects "all" of a ship's (Calculated) Attributes. Note
this does not include character Attributes such as Power, Will, and Vigor,
which affect attack power and defense. Additionally, for enemy ships, it does
not affect the Attack of the ship or its weapons. Weakened affects the ship's
Defense, Magic Defense, and presumably also Quick and Dodge, lowering them to
75% of their value. For the player's ship, Weakened also lowers the Attack of
its weapons, though I think there's only one ship battle enemy that's capable
of inflicting this Status Effect on the player's ship. Neither Strengthened nor
Weakened have any effect on the attack power of magic, as this is not based on
the Attributes of the ship or any of its weapons.
- Spells that induce - Driln, Drilnos (Yellow)
- Enemy ships knowing Driln/Drilnos - Silver Gigas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ /
/ /
/ Mechanics: Ordinary Battles /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~B
Here the mechanisms of ordinary battles are explained, including strategies for
how to take the upper hand for each characteristic of battles. How damage is
calculated is explained here, along with some other equations, explaining how
much of the concepts described earlier affect damage dealt. This section
largely builds upon the other sections in the guide, and there is some
repetition for clarity.
================ ===============
=============== Before the Battle Begins - Random Encounter Rate ==============
================ =========~BB===
The Accessory White Map, the conceptual opposite of the Black Map and only
equippable by Vyse, reduces the rate of random encounters in the game, which
can be useful when simply exploring or passing through an area, or when after
something that was missed earlier. It would also be extremely useful for
Discovery hunting, but in order to get it 50 out of 64 located Discoveries are
required, by which point its usefulness for that purpose will be minimal.
The White Map also enables running from battles to almost always succeed, the
converse-inverse of the Black Map. The Stealth Ring also makes it easy to run
away, and is available earlier in the game, but only for a limited time as it
is sold in the Nasrad marketplace. The Stealth Ring is equippable by all
characters.
The Black Map allegedly increases the rate of random encounters, though I have
doubts as to whether this is actually the case. There is certainly a difference
with the White Map.
================================== =================================
================================= First Strike ================================
================================== ===========================~BF===
First Strike is where either the characters or the enemies have a free turn
against their opponents at the start of a battle, without their opponents able
to do any actions in that turn. It is indicated by one of the sides facing the
wrong direction, away from the other side, at the start of the battle; the side
facing the correct direction is the side with the advantage of First Strike.
I believe First Strike is calculated based on the Quick of each side, so
similar to how chances for running away may be calculated. This would explain
why, when the characters are ambushed, it is often by enemies with high Quick.
The chances for First Strike for the characters can be further increased by
certain Accessories. The Accessory Black Map, dropped by Loopers except white
Loopers, increases the chances for First Strike. The Accessory Assassin Ring,
available alongside the Stealth Ring for a limited time and a sort-of opposite
to it, also increases the chances. The Assassin Ring can be equipped by all
characters; I'm not sure what the effect of equipping four would be, one on
each character, whether the boost to the chances for First Strike would stack
or not. Guaranteed First Strikes, maybe?
At the start of each turn, including the first turn, a certain amount of Spirit
is gained, often referred to as "regenerated" by the game's various
descriptions. The amount of Spirit gained at the start of each turn is the sum
of all characters' Spirit Attributes, who are not afflicted with Fatigue or
Unconscious. Characters inflicted with Sleep and Stone still contribute to the
Spirit gained at the start of each turn. Appropriately enough, one way to
"cure" Fatigue is to be inflicted with Sleep, which overrides the Fatigue
Status Effect, and allows the character to contribute to the Spirit Pool at the
start of each turn once more.
The maximum size of the Spirit Pool is calculated from the sum of all
characters' Max SP Attributes, even those afflicted with Fatigue or
Unconscious.
When Focusing, the amount of Spirit gained is equal to that character's Spirit
Attribute. In the case of Drachma's Spirit Charge Super Move, the amount of
Spirit gained is equal to his Spirit *2, and also makes him guard against
attacks, effectively rendering his Focus obsolete. Spirit Charge is unavailable
along with Focus when afflicted with Fatigue.
When choosing which character to Focus with, Vyse is invariably the best; his
Spirit Attribute increases a full 5 levels before the next best character,
Gilder. Gilder is followed by Enrique, then Drachma, then Aika, and finally
Fina, who's Spirit increases the latest. Unfortunately, characters that tend to
be good at Focusing are the ones best used at the front lines of a battle, and
not support-type characters.
There are a few Accessories that affect Spirit, though they appear late in the
game. The Accessory Warrior's Heart, a rare Soltis enemy drop, increases the
amount of Spirit gained at the start of each turn, except the first turn, by 2,
provided the character it is equipped on is not afflicted with Fatigue or
Unconscious. It does not increase the amount of Spirit gained by that character
Focusing, which will remain equal to that character's Spirit Attribute. It can
be equipped by all characters except Drachma and Gilder. Unfortunately
Warrior's Heart cannot be used to boost Spirit available on the first turn, as
it only boosts Spirit gained from the second turn onwards. As an example,
consider a party where Vyse has 4 Spirit, Fina has 2 Spirit, and the remaining
two characters have 3 Spirit. Ordinarily, at the start of each turn, there will
be 4+3+3+2 = 12 Spirit added to the Spirit Pool. If Fina is equipped with
Warrior's Heart, this boosts the Spirit she gains at the start of each turn bar
the first by 2. So, the amount of Spirit gained becomes 4+3+3+(2+2) = 14. If
Fina is afflicted with Fatigue however, then the amount of Spirit gained falls
to 4+3+3+0 = 10, and not 12, as the Accessory has no effect if the character is
Fatigued. Note that if Warrior's Heart is equipped on Vyse the effect is no
different; Spirit gained will still be (4+2)+3+3+2 = 14.
The other Accessory affecting Spirit is the Ominous Mask, a rare enemy drop on
the Hydra. This gives a big boost to a character's Attack and Defense, but it
comes at the heavy price of no Spirit. It can be equipped by Warriors (Vyse,
Drachma, Gilder). To be more specific, at the start of each turn when it is
equipped, the party's Spirit is reset to 0. It is still possible to Focus and
use Spirit Charge and generally accumulate Spirit during the turn, but this
Spirit can never be used while this Accessory is equipped, because the
accumulated Spirit is immediately drained to 0 at the start of the next turn.
Equipping the Warrior's Heart along with the Ominous Mask has no effect; Spirit
is still drained to 0 at the start of each turn.
================== =================
================= Chances of Hitting/Dodging and Critical Hits ================
================== ===========~BH===
The chances of hitting a target with a normal attack, or the chances of the
target not dodging a normal attack, depend on the difference between the
attacker's Hit% and the target's Dodge%. Hit% largely depends on the weapon in
use, and can be boosted with Agile-type Armor and various Accessories. Dodge%
comes from a character's Agile, and is doubled by the Quickened Status Effect,
as well as improvable by Agile-type armor and Accessories, the Moonlight Robe
dropped by Tortigar in Mount Kazai in particular. Presumably Dodge is also
affected by the Weakened Status Effect. The chances of hitting a target are
calculated as follows:
50% - ((Target Dodge - Hit) / 2)
Where "Hit" is the value of the attacker's Hit Calculated Attribute, and
"Target Dodge" is the value of the target's Dodge Calculated Attribute. So,
basically, to have a 50% chance of hitting a target, the attacker's Hit must
equal the target's Dodge, and to have a 100% chance, the attacker's Hit must be
100 higher than the target's Dodge.
Targets afflicted with the Sleep or Stone Status Effects cannot dodge attacks.
When facing enemies that Dodge a lot, it can be effective to limit attacking
them to characters whose weapons have high Hit, such as Aika and Fina, and of
course with non-missing moves such as magic attacks and Super Moves. Weapons
with high Hit such as Aika's Storm Wing dropped in Pyrynn and Grendel Wing
acquired after the Green Gigas, and in particular late in the game Gilder's
Marksman Gun, an enemy drop on the Hydra, and Vyse's Vorlik Blade can prove
particularly advantageous. Additionally, the Sleep and Stone Status Effects can
stop an enemy dodging altogether if successfully applied.
A Critical Hit is simply an attack that "goes through" or ignores the target's
defense. The chances of a Critical Hit are based on the attacker's Agile
Attribute. The chances of a Critical Hit override the chances of hitting the
target, as explained above, so the chances of hitting a target with a normal or
critical hit are actually slightly higher than calculated above. For example, a
character with 999 Agile will nearly always land critical hits on all targets,
regardless of their Hit or the target's Dodge.
Critical Hits never miss, along with Super Moves, magic attacks, and
Counterattacks. Additionally, a target afflicted with Sleep or Stone cannot
dodge attacks.
There's not much that can be done to defend against Critical Hits, aside Vyse's
Skull Shield; Armor and Defense-increasing items have no effect on the damage
received, as Critical Hits ignore defense, going straight through them, and a
high Dodge does not affect the chances of a Critical Hit. Increasing elemental
defense does affect the damage done by Critical Hits however, so equipping
items that resist the enemy's attacking Element reduce the damage received.
Stopping the enemy from attacking with Sleep or Stone is another strategy,
Confuse being one to avoid. The Weakened Status Effect will reduce the damage
the enemy deals out, including from Critical Hits.
================================= ================================
================================ Order of Moves ===============================
================================= ==========================~BO===
The order in which each character's/enemy's move executes in a battle is
determined by that character's/enemy's Quick, with a certain amount of
randomness thrown in, and excepting certain defensive moves such as Counter
Stance and Spirit Charge which always occur first. The Quickened Status Effect
doubles Quick, and so has a substantial effect as to the order in which moves
execute.
Moving first is advantageous for various reasons. Among them, disposing of weak
enemies before they have a chance to attack, healing characters low on health
before enemies have a chance to damage them further, and gaining or inflicting
Status Effects that hinder later enemy attacks. Aika is particularly useful
against large groups of weak enemies; her high Quick and Will allow her to
dispose of them with magic attacks before they can do any serious damage.
The damage done by a normal attack depends on the attacker's Attack Attribute,
which is affected by their Power Attribute and equipped Weapon alongside any
equipped Armor and Accessory, the target's Defense Attribute, which is affected
by their Vigor Attribute alongside the equipped Armor and Accessory, the
Element of the attack and the target's resistance to that Element, and the
Status Effects Strengthened and Weakened.
Vyse's Skull Shield, and also the Accessory Defensive Aura, negates damage from
normal attacks, including Critical Hits.
Offensively, Strengthened and Weakened have the effect of increasing and
decreasing the attacker's attacking power. Defensively, Strengthened and
Weakened have the effect of increasing and decreasing the target's defending
power, though for Critical Hits they have no effect, as defense is ignored.
So, for maximum offensive power, use a character with high Power, a Weapon with
high Attack, use the Element the target is most vulnerable to for the Weapon's
Element, equip an Attack-boosting Armor and Accessory, gain the Strengthened
Status Effect, and inflict the Weakened Status Effect on the target. For
maximum defensive power, the character should have high Vigor, equip a Defense-
boosting Armor and Accessory, or better still equip an Armor and Accessory that
resist the enemy's attacking Element, equip a Weapon that resists the enemy's
attacking Element, gain the Strengthened Status Effect, and inflict the
Weakened Status Effect on the enemy.
Guarding halves damage received. Enrique's Justice Shield puts all characters
into a guarding state; both guarding with a character and using Justice Shield
does not half damage again, so guarding with Justice Shield applied has no
extra effect.
The amount of damage done by normal attacks can be calculated with the
following, bearing in mind there will be some variance in the final figure.
Note that although a character's Attack and Defense Calculated Attributes are
capped at 999, the Strengthened Status Effect can raise attacking and defending
power above this limit. Final damage is capped at 9999.
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Critical Damage = Attack Power * 2
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
The terms are explained below:
- Damage - The damage sustained from the attack if it is not guarded, provided
it is not a Critical Hit
- Guarded Damage - The damage sustained from the attack if it is guarded
against, provided it is not a Critical Hit
- Critical Damage - The damage sustained from an attack that is a Critical Hit
if it is not guarded
- Guarded Critical Damage - The damage sustained from an attack that is a
Critical Hit if it is guarded against
- Elemental Effectiveness - The percentage effectiveness of the attacker's
attacking Element against the target, mostly one of 100%, 110%, 90%, 140%, and
70%; see the section "Elements" for more information
- Attack - The value of the Attack Attribute of the attacker
- Target Defense - The value of the Defense Attribute of the target
- Status Effect - If the attacker has the Strengthened Status Effect this is
125%, if the attacker has the Weakened Status Effect this is 75%, otherwise it
is 100%
- Target Status Effect - If the target has the Strengthened Status Effect this
is 125%, if the target has the Weakened Status Effect this is 75%, otherwise it
is 100%
Let's go through an example. Suppose we're fighting a Ballista Rostram in Nasr
Kingdom airspace, known as a Stonebeak in the US version. Stonebeaks are Yellow
enemies, can inflict Fatigue, and according to Eso Arcadia have an Attack of
160 and a Defense of 118. Suppose Aika attacks with her Scout Wing, with a
Power of 47, the weapon's Element Purple, and the weapon's Attack being 53.
With no Attack-boosting Armor or Accessory equipped, Aika's Attack Calculated
Attribute will be 47+53 = 100. We can now calculate about what damage Aika will
inflict:
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Attack Power = 100 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened
Attack Power = 100 * 100% = 100
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Target Defense Power = 118 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened
Target Defense Power = 118 * 100% = 118
Standard Critical Damage = Attack Power * 2
Standard Critical Damage = 100 * 2 = 200
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 200 - 118 = 82
Elemental Effectiveness = Purple versus Stonebeak
Stonebeak is a Yellow enemy, and so Purple attacks are 100% effective
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
So, Aika will inflict about 82 damage, or about 200 if she manages a Critical
Hit, both assuming the enemy isn't guarding. We can improve on this quite a
bit. We can use a more powerful character, such as Vyse, whose Power is say 65.
His weapons are usually more powerful; say he has the Nasr Cutlass, with an
Attack of 70. We can equip him with the Nasr Combat Mail that boosts Attack by
5, and a Thorkryn's Scale that boosts Attack by 10. We can change the Element
of his Weapon to one that Yellow enemies are weak to, namely Silver. Finally,
we can cast Increm or use a Glyph of Might on him for the Strengthened Status
Effect, and suppose one of the other characters in the party have managed to
inflict Weakened on the enemy. Vyse's Attack is now 65+70+5+10 = 150, and the
damage works out as follows:
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Attack Power = 150 * Strengthened
Attack Power = 150 * 125% = 187.5
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Target Defense Power = 118 * Weakened
Target Defense Power = 118 * 75% = 88.5
Standard Critical Damage = Attack Power * 2
Standard Critical Damage = 187.5 * 2 = 375
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 375 - 88.5 = 286.5
Elemental Effectiveness = Silver versus Stonebeak
Stonebeak is a Yellow enemy, and so Silver attacks are 110% effective
Elemental Effectiveness = 110%
So, Vyse will inflict about 315 damage, or about 412 if he manages a Critical
Hit, both assuming the enemy isn't guarding, a vast improvement.
Suppose now the Stonebeak attacks Vyse. Let's assume Vyse has a Vigor of 54.
The Nasr Combat Mail he's equipped with boosts his Defense by 66, giving him a
Defense of 120. The amount of damage he receives will be about the following:
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Attack Power = 160 * Weakened
Attack Power = 160 * 75% = 120
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Target Defense Power = 120 * Strengthened
Target Defense Power = 120 * 125% = 150
Standard Critical Damage = Attack Power * 2
Standard Critical Damage = 120 * 2 = 240
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 240 - 150 = 90
So, we can expect to receive about 90 damage, or about 240 if the enemy manages
a Critical Hit. Already both of these values have been improved by the Weakened
Status Effect inflicted on the enemy, and the non-critical damage is improved
further by the Strengthened Status Effect on Vyse. We can further improve this
by equipping Vyse with the Ceramic Armor that boosts Defense by 73, and the
Slayer Ring that boosts Defense by 8, improving Vyse's Defense to 54+73+8 =
135, which changes the calculation as follows:
Attack Power = 120
Target Defense Power = 135 * 125% = 168.75
Standard Critical Damage = 240
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 240 - 168.75 = 71.25
This improves the damage received slightly, but it doesn't affect Critical Hit
damage. Now let's try a different strategy; we will equip Vyse with the Yellow-
resistant Elastamor Armor that also boosts Defense by 54, and the Yellow-
resistant Behemoth's Ring that also boosts Defense by 5. Vyse's Defense is now
54+54+5 = 113, lower than before:
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Attack Power = 160 * Weakened
Attack Power = 160 * 75% = 120
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Target Defense Power = 113 * Strengthened
Target Defense Power = 113 * 125% = 141.25
Standard Critical Damage = Attack Power * 2
Standard Critical Damage = 120 * 2 = 240
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 240 - 141.25 = 98.75
By equipping elementally resistant items, the damage has been reduced further,
from about 70 to about 60, and even the damage from Critical Hits has been
reduced. Elementally resistant items don't always reduce damage more than
strong Armor, but most of the time they are a good bet, especially two or more.
=============================== ==============================
============================== Super Move Attacks =============================
=============================== ========================~BU===
Damage from Super Move attacks apart from Aika's and Fina's Super Moves is
almost identical to normal attacks; the main difference is that the attack and
defense power is multiplied by a multiplier specific to each Super Move.
Character Super Moves and their multipliers are described in the subsection
"Super Move Attacks" of "Characters - Strengths and Weaknesses", though I list
the multipliers again below. Super Move attacks also differ from normal attacks
in that they never miss, and are never Critical Hits. Damage for Aika's and
Fina's Super Moves is calculated as if they were magic attacks, explained
further below.
Super Move Multipliers:
Cutlass Fury (7, single) - 1.5
Rain of Swords (14, multiple) - 1.5
Pirate's Wrath (21, single) - 7.5
Tackle (10, single) - 3
Hand of Fate (25, single) - 9
Gunslinger (9, multiple) - 3
The Claudia (18, multiple) - 2.5
Royal Blade (8, single) - 4
The Judgment (16, single) - 8
With these figures at hand, approximate damage from Super Move Attacks can be
calculated as follows:
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Super Defense Power
Standard Critical Damage = Super Attack Power * 2
Super Attack Power = Attack Power * Super Move Multiplier
Target Super Defense Power = Target Defense Power * Super Move Multiplier
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Where "Super Move Multiplier" is the multiplier specific to the Super Move
used.
Let's go through another example - Vyse's Cutlass Fury versus the Rokwyrm.
Suppose Vyse's Power is 65 and he's using the Nasr Cutlass with Attack of 70
and Blue as its Element, making Vyse's Attack 135. According to Eso Arcadia the
Rokwyrm has a Defense of 148. The multiplier for Vyse's Cutlass Fury is 2.5. A
normal attack on the Rokwyrm under these conditions would do about (135*2)-148
= 122.
Attack Power = Attack * Status Effect
Attack Power = 135 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened
Attack Power = 135 * 100% = 135
Target Defense Power = Target Defense * Target Status Effect
Target Defense Power = 148 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened
Target Defense Power = 148 * 100% = 148
Super Attack Power = Attack Power * Super Move Multiplier
Super Attack Power = 135 * 2.5 = 337.5
Target Super Defense Power = Target Defense Power * Super Move Multiplier
Target Super Defense Power = 148 * 2.5 = 370
Standard Critical Damage = Super Attack Power * 2
Standard Critical Damage = 337.5 * 2 = 675
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Super Defense Power
Standard Damage = 675 - 370 = 305
Elemental Effectiveness = Blue versus Rokwyrm
Although the Rokwyrm is a Red enemy, according to Eso Arcadia its elemental
resistances are exceptional in that it is only vulnerable to Purple and only
resistant to Red
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
However, again from its Eso Arcadia page, the Rokwyrm is unusually extremely
vulnerable to Purple attacks, which are 190% effective. If Vyse changed his
weapon's Element to Purple, this would change the last part of the calculation
to:
Damage for magical attacks is a little different. Like Super Moves, they can
never miss, and are never Critical Hits. Unlike other attacks, the Strengthened
Status Effect has no effect on magic attacks, and the Weakened Status Effect
has only a limited effect. The basic attack power of a magical attack uses a
character's Will rather than their Attack, and then a fixed amount specific to
the magic used is added to the damage. These fixed amounts are listed below,
along with the Spirit cost of magic in brackets:
Magic that attacks a range of enemies, rather than all enemies as with Red
magic, is more powerful, and magic that damages a single enemy is more powerful
still. So, when attacking multiple enemies, Blue and Yellow magic should be
used if possible, otherwise Red magic can be used at the cost of lower damage,
enemy elemental resistances notwithstanding. Purple magic gets progressively
stronger than comparable magic down the levels, and costs half as much. Noxus
can be a pretty effective replacement for Pyrum when against enemies resistant
to Red attacks. Pyrulen is perhaps a little overrated; a well-placed Wevlen or
Electrulen will have enough range to hit most enemies anyway, and will do more
damage per enemy hit. However, Pyrulen becomes available sooner, so it may be
useful before other magic becomes available. That and, well, it looks awesome.
The attacking Element of Aika's Super Moves is always Red, and of Fina's Super
Moves is always Silver, regardless of what Element is on their weapon. Alpha
Storm is a bit like an early version of Electri, Lambda Burst fits in between
Pyres and Pyrum in terms of damage, and Omega Psyclone beats Pyrulen in its
destructive power, but not Wevlen or Electrulen.
Aika's Delta Shield complements Vyse's Skull Shield, in that it blocks all
inbound magic attacks.
It's worth pointing out that, looking at the game data as extracted and
displayed in Eso Arcadia's enemy pages, the Maroccas of Mid Ocean and the
related Buroccas of the Frontier Lands airspace have an unusually low Magic
Defense compared to Defense, so attacking these enemies with magic can be very
effective compared to regular attacks.
The approximate damage caused by a magic attack or one of Aika's or Fina's
Super Moves against a particular target can be calculated as follows:
Standard Damage = Attack Power - Target Defense Power
Attack Power = (2 * Will) + Magic Power
Target Defense Power = Target Magic Defense * Weakened
Where "Will" is the attacker's Will Calculated Attribute, "Magic Power" is the
fixed amount of damage added for the magic used as defined above, "Target Magic
Defense" is the Magic Defense Attribute of the target, and "Weakened" is 75% if
the target is inflicted with the Weakened Status Effect, and 100% otherwise.
Strengthened does not affect Magic Defense.
As an example, let's consider Loopers, specifically red Loopalons. According to
Eso Arcadia they have a very high Magic Defense of 435 compared to their
Defense of 136, typical of Loopers, and a total health of 62. Say Fina is at
level 15, with a Will of 95. Casting Crystales against a Loopalon yields the
following:
Attack Power = (2 * Will) + Magic Power
Attack Power = (2 * 95) + 240 = 430
Target Defense Power = Target Magic Defense * Weakened
Target Defense Power = 435 * 100% = 435
Standard Damage = Attack Power - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 430 - 435 = -5 = 0
Elemental Effectiveness = Purple versus Loopalon
Loopalons are Red enemies, which are 140% vulnerable to Purple attacks
Elemental Effectiveness = 140%
Enough damage to defeat the Looper in one hit, and even without the elemental
bonus, most of the Looper's health is gone. So, basically, magic tends to
either work well against Loopers, if a character's Will is high enough, or not
work at all.
============================== =============================
============================= HP Absorb and Poison ============================
============================== =======================~BP===
A few enemies in the game know a move called HP Absorb, which transfers a
certain amount of health from the target to the enemy. HP Absorb and the Poison
Status Effect behave almost identically in terms of the damage they do. The
amount of damage sustained from HP Absorb depends on the Vigor of the attacker,
and the amount of damage sustained from the Poison Status Effect at the end of
each turn depends on the Vigor of the character or enemy poisoned.
Additionally, the amount of damage sustained from HP Absorb is halved by
guarding. Things that don't affect damage sustained for either of these include
the total health of the target, the Strengthened and Weakened Status Effects,
the elemental resistances of the target, and the Defense of the target,
including any equipped items.
HP Absorb is treated like an enemy Super Move, so neither Vyse's Skull Shield
nor the Defensive Aura protect against it. Aika's Epsilon Mirror does negate
it, though, which looks rather amusing. Aika's Epsilon Mirror does not negate
damage from Poison at the end of a turn; it wears off before the poison then
takes effect.
The fact that the amount of damage sustained from Poison increases as a
character's Vigor Attribute increases makes the Vigor Attribute the only
Attribute where there's a drawback to increasing it. As mentioned above, unlike
what may be commonly thought, Poison damage is not dependant on a character's
Maximum HP; you can test this out yourself by buying a load of Zaal Seeds and
giving them to Fina, comparing how much damage she sustains from Poison before
and after.
Enemies knowing HP Absorb along with their Vigor are listed below:
- Ghastling (Mid Ocean airspace), 64
- Graver (South Ocean airspace), 212
- Lurker (Frontier Lands), 144
- Ghrost (Yafutoma airspace), 176
- Tsirat (Catacombs), 126
- Tsorok (Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace), 232
- Shrilp (Maw of Tartas), 444
- Garagor (Soltis), 504
As a side-effect of these enemies having higher Vigor than usual, they receive
greater damage from the Poison Status Effect, although this isn't too
significant as the enemies either have low health or are resistant to being
inflicted with Poison. It may be a useful exploit against Garagor however, who
can be inflicted with Poison with some persistence.
The approximate amount of health absorbed by HP Absorb can be calculated as
follows:
Where "Attacker Vigor" is the Vigor Attribute of the enemy using HP Absorb. As
can be seen, the only defense against this is guarding; Armor and Accessories
have no effect. The amount of damage sustained at the end of each turn from the
Poison Status Effect can be similarly calculated:
Damage = Poisoned Vigor * 2
Where "Poisoned Vigor" is the Vigor Attribute of the character or enemy that is
poisoned. The only difference is where the Vigor Attribute comes from, and the
fact that there's no random variance in the figure; it is always exactly
Vigor*2.
After a normal non-critical attack that does not miss, or a Critical Hit that
was guarded against, there is a chance that the target will Counterattack,
provided the original attack was not fatal. It is thought that the chances for
Counterattacking are slightly raised when guarding, with the Quickened Status
Effect, and slightly lowered with the Weakened Status Effect.
There are a few items which raise the chances of Counterattacking for a
character. The Vengeance Armor, a Physical-type Armor equippable by Men, and
available from the Sailors' Island weapons shop after obtaining the yellow Moon
Crystal; and the Accessory Counter Bracer, equippable by Blue Rogues (all
characters except Fina and Enrique), a rare enemy drop in South Ocean. The
Accessory Defensive Aura disables Counterattacks, as normal attacks effectively
never reach the character. Aika's Epsilon Mirror also seems to stop her from
Counterattacking.
Enemies with Counterattack Moves:
There are certain defensive moves that guarantee a Counterattack, although the
target may still dodge the attack. Among them are Vyse's Counterstrike, which
guarantees Counterattacks from him, and Vyse's Skull Shield, which guarantees
Counterattacks from all characters, except those afflicted with Sleep and
Confuse for which it merely defends, and except those afflicted with Stone
where it doesn't work at all. The following enemies have Counterattack-
guaranteeing moves, though this list may be incomplete:
- Sceptrum Praeses / Royal Guard (Upper City), Executor/Officer (Grand
Fortress), and Defensor/Defender (Hydra), Counter Stance
- Mereo/Soldier (aboard the Delphinus at a certain point in the game), Counter
Stance
- Galcian, Devolver
I haven't really experimented with this, so I don't know much about it. The
Quickened Status Effect makes it easier to run from battles, so presumably it
is linked to Quick; the chances of successfully running away may be similar to
the chances for First Strike. Enemies can also run away, and many attempt to do
so frequently if the characters are at relatively high levels.
According to Kalifa, the Swashbuckler Rating is also a factor of being able to
successfully run away; the lower the rating, the easier it is to run away.
Some items make running away almost always succeed, if equipped. The Stealth
Ring, equippable by all characters, is available for a limited time in the
Nasrad marketplace. The White Map, equippable only by Vyse, is obtainable from
Domingo after finding 50 or more Discoveries. To stop enemies from running
away, notably Loopers, Vyse can equip the Black Map, which reduces chances of
enemies running away to almost zero. It is still possible for enemies to
successfully run away, but very rare, only about once or twice per playthrough.
The Black Map is occasionally dropped by non-white Loopers.
So, the easiest way to run away, aside from simply equipping one of the
Accessories above, would be to gain the Quickened Status Effect, equip Quick-
boosting Armor and Accessories, and otherwise have a low Swashbuckler Rating
and high Quick for all the characters.
At the end of each battle, a certain amount of Experience and Gold is given,
based on the enemies defeated. If no enemies were defeated, none is given.
Magic Experience is always awarded after battles unless the characters ran
away, but not if the enemies ran away, and is awarded in fixed amounts,
increasing from 1 to 5 as the game progresses.
Each enemy in the game is worth a certain amount of Experience and Gold, which
is awarded if that enemy is defeated. A Kanezl enemy, for example, is worth
1,000 Gold, so defeating a group of three of them with no other enemies would
earn 3,000 Gold. The amount of Experience enemies yield varies between the
Dreamcast and GameCube versions, though seems to differ by about a factor of 4.
Elcian, for example, is worth 7,500 Experience in my version, though I hear he
nets 30,000 in the GameCube version.
Loopers invariably yield very high Experience, and often Gold too, especially
when compared to their health. Defeating them is a good way of leveling
characters.
The amount of Magic Experience awarded increases as the game progresses,
starting at 1. The amount of Magic Experience awarded from bosses is always
double, although I think Gordo is an exception. The points at which Magic
Experience awarded progresses are:
- Game start - 1
- Into Nasr Kingdom - 2
- Into Dark Rift airspace - 3
- Ramirez's second appearance - 4
- Inside Soltis - 5
However, going back to areas from earlier in the game reduces the Magic
Experience gained back to the amount awarded for that area. For example, in
Dark Rift airspace once it is accessible, Magic Experience awarded is 3, but
traveling back to Mid Ocean and fighting enemies there will yield only 1.
Exceptions to these rules include:
- Gordo, who gives 2 instead of 4
- Kantor (Grand Fortress), which gives 12; only appears once Eversor/Destroyer
uses its Emergency move
- Elcian, who gives 20
The amount of Magic Experience gained by a character for a particular Element
of magic will be a multiple of the amount of Magic Experience awarded. To
determine this multiple, count the number of characters with that Element on
their weapon, and add 1 if the character in question had that Element on their
weapon. For example, at the end of a battle that awards 2 Magic Experience,
suppose Vyse had Red equipped on his weapon, Aika had Blue, Fina had Silver,
and Drachma had Red. The amount of Magic Experience Fina gains in Red will be 2
multiplied by the number of characters with Red equipped, plus 1 if she had it
equipped herself. 2 characters had Red equipped, and she did not have it
equipped herself, so the amount of Magic Experience gained for Red is 2*(2+0) =
4. The amount of Magic Experience gained for Silver will be the number of
characters with Silver equipped, which is 1, plus 1 if Fina had Silver equipped
herself, which she did, giving 2*(1+1) = 4 Magic Experience. The amount of
Magic Experience Vyse gains in Red will be 2 multiplied by the number of
characters with Red equipped, 2, plus 1 if he had Red equipped himself, which
is true, so the result is 2*(2+1) = 6. This can be expressed as follows:
Magic Experience Gained =
Magic Experience Awarded * (Characters with Element + Own with Element)
Where "Characters with Element" is the number of characters with the Element in
question on their weapon, and "Own with Element" is 1 if the character in
question had the Element in question on their weapon, and otherwise 0.
The total amount of Magic Experience gained for all Elements for each character
is always the same; it is not possible to equip Elements on weapons in such a
way that more Magic Experience is awarded in total. For instance, after a
battle awarding 2 Magic Experience, if all characters are equipped with Red,
then the amount of Magic Experience each will gain in Red will be 2*(4+1) = 10.
If each character has a different color equipped, they will each gain 2*(1+0) =
2 for the three Elements others have equipped that they don't, totaling 6, and
2*(1+1) = 4 for the Element they have equipped, which all together totals 10
Magic Experience gained, as before. If two characters have one Element equipped
and the other two have another equipped, the amount of Magic Experience gained
for the Element not equipped will be 2*(2+0) = 4, and the amount of Magic
Experience gained for the Element that is equipped will be 2*(2+1) = 6, all
together still totaling 10. The total amount of Magic Experience gained by each
character can be calculated simply as follows:
Total Magic Experience Gained =
Magic Experience Awarded * (Characters in Party + 1)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ /
/ /
/ Mechanics: Ship Battles /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~S
Here the mechanisms of ship battles are explained, including details on how
damage is calculated, taking into account Status Effects and various Crew
Members.
An important fact about the damage in ship battles is that damage values always
have a "0" appended onto the end; this is why they seem much higher than the
values for Attack, Defense, and so on, associated with the ship and its
weapons. The key to understanding damage values in ship battles is to ignore
the "0" on the end of the figure. Throughout this section, I write damage
values with a "(0)" on the end, emphasizing the figure before the final "0".
Some terminology - A "Turn" comprises of entering a sequence of moves to
execute, three or four, and then those moves executing, along with the enemy's
moves. A "Round" comprises of each ship executing a single move, three or four
of which comprise a Turn.
The optional ship battles that can be fought repeatedly are listed below:
- Black Pirates, wandering around near the Temple of Pyrynn
- Valuan Spellship, in Mid Ocean about between the Guidestones and the Grand
Fortress gate
- Valuan Phantom, on the East side of about where Ixa'taka meets South Ocean
- Spell Pirates, North Ocean near Ixa'taka
- Valuan Gunboat, North Ocean, can be found after the Spell Pirates on the way
to Valua, and may also be wandering around near the Grand Fortress gate
- Valuan Mage Ship, flying over an enormous crater on the Valuan continent that
used to be a lake, once on Disc 2; if I remember rightly the Ancient Palace
Discovery is to the Southwest of this lake
- Valuan Spectre, near the Grand Fortress gate later in the game
- Raja, Deep Sky, upon an "incorrect guess"
- Obispo, the giant squid just West of the island with the Giant Squid Nest
Discovery, near the Dark Rift
- Alaina, wandering around over the Lands of Ice continent
- Roc, flying high above the Northwestern border/corner of Ixa'taka
Spirit plays a bigger role in ship battles, as it is needed to do just about
anything, one rare exception being attacking with Bombs. As a result, Spirit is
slightly different for ship battles, though remains largely the same.
The amount of Spirit gained at the start of each turn is equal to the sum of
all characters' Spirit, as before, except the ship's Spirit is added to the
result. For instance, if each of the four party characters has 3 Spirit, the
Delphinus having 4 Spirit, the Spirit gained at the start of each turn will be
3+3+3+3+4 = 16.
Similarly, the maximum size of the Spirit Pool is calculated as before, the sum
of all characters' Max SP, and the ship's Max SP is added to the result. This
means that the maximum size of the Spirit Pool can go above 99, even though the
gauge displayed is only capable of going up to 99. It is entirely possible to
have more than 99 Spirit in the Spirit Pool, though the gauge will behave a
little odd.
When Focusing in a ship battle, the Spirit gained is now double that of the
character's Spirit; if a character's Spirit is 3, Focusing with them in a ship
battle gains 6 Spirit. The Warrior's Heart Accessory has no effect in ship
battles.
However... in what is probably a glitch, the Ominous Mask Accessory does have
an effect. If a character in the party has the Ominous Mask equipped upon
entering a ship battle, characters will not gain Spirit at the start of each
turn, only the ship will. So, aboard the Delphinus with a Spirit of 4, only 4
Spirit will be gained at the start of each turn; no Spirit from any of the
characters will be gained. Characters can still Focus, which yields the normal
amount of Spirit, and unlike in ordinary battles, Spirit is not drained at the
start of each turn.
Various items and Crew Members affect Spirit. Gear Grease adds 10 Spirit to the
Spirit Pool. Rudder Grease halves all Spirit consumption from after the point
it is used for one turn, and Robinson's Crew Command can be used for the same
effect; multiple applications do not continually half Spirit consumption.
Machine Oil doubles the Spirit gained at the start of the next turn, and
Marco's Crew Command can be used for the same effect; multiple applications do
not further multiply Spirit gained. For instance, after using Machine Oil,
rather than gaining 16 Spirit at the start of the next turn, 32 Spirit will be
gained. Urala's Crew Command will fill the Spirit Pool to full, minus 15, the
cost of executing the command, essentially doing the same thing as the Aura of
Valor Potion item. This can be useful at the start of a battle, to save
Focusing later.
================== =================
================= Chances of Hitting/Dodging and Critical Hits ================
================== ===========~SH===
The chances of hitting a target with an attack are just as for ordinary
battles; the only difference is where the Hit% and Dodge% Attributes come from.
Hit% comes from the weapon used, Torpedoes having notoriously low Hit%. Dodge%
is an Attribute of the ship, and for the player's ship it is improved by
equipping Engine Parts on the ship. Presumably Dodge is doubled by the
Quickened Status Effect, and so the primary benefit of gaining this Status
Effect, and reduced by the Weakened Status Effect. Magic attacks and Bombs
never miss, although they can be "Lost". Torpedoes can never be "Lost", so can
be advantageous to fire in those Rounds in lieu of anything else.
Having Don as the Active Helmsman increases the ship's Dodge by 15%. Having
Tikatika as the Active Lookout Crew Member raises the Hit% of the ship's
Torpedoes by, according to Eso Arcadia, a massive 80%, effectively turning
Torpedoes from an often-missing weapon to a highly accurate one, almost
guaranteeing a hit against all enemies. You can pretty much ignore the Hit
Attribute of Torpedoes if Tikatika is Active. Combine this with the fact that
Torpedoes can never be "Lost", and they become quite useful against certain
enemies.
Critical Hits also feature in ship battles, although unfortunately there
doesn't seem to be any indication as to when they occur. Just as before, they
are basically attacks that ignore defense. The chances of a Critical Hit depend
on the Agile of the character firing the weapon. So, it is always most
advantageous to fire Secondary Cannons with the character with the highest
Agile, usually Aika. Magic attacks and Bombs cannot be Critical Hits, and the
Super Cannon doesn't seem able to be a Critical Hit either.
Domingo's Crew Command raises the chances of getting Critical Hits on the
enemy, though by how much and for how long is uncertain. Having Tikatika as the
Lookout is probably more desirable.
The Quickened Status Effect can be particularly useful against enemy ships that
fire Torpedoes often.
For enemies that dodge attacks a lot, notably Alaina in the Lands of Ice
airspace, the Blue Gigas, and the Deep Sky battles, aside using/equipping more
accurate weapons, always-hitting magic attacks can also be used. Inflicting
Weakened on them may also help.
As before, there's not much defense against Critical Hits, aside Pinta and
guarding. Unlike in ordinary battles, the Weakened Status Effect won't reduce
the target's attack power.
================================= ================================
================================ Order of Moves ===============================
================================= ==========================~SO===
For each Round, who moves first is usually determined by the Quick of each
ship, though for some Rounds it is fixed. The Quick of the character active for
the Round doesn't seem to have any effect. As before, the Quickened Status
Effect has a significant impact on who moves first.
Having Lawrence as the Active Helmsman Crew Member increases the ship's Quick
by a small amount. Don is probably the more useful to have as a Helmsman, who
increases Dodge. Also, Pow's Crew Command supposedly increases chances of being
the first to move for each subsequent Round of the Turn, though I've seldom
used it.
Moving first isn't as advantageous as in ordinary battles, but it is still
useful when needing to heal quickly, and inflicting the enemy with Silence
before they can fire a magic attack.
====================== =====================
===================== Primary Cannons and the Super Cannon ====================
====================== ===============~SP===
The damage done by Primary Cannons and the Super Cannon depends on the Power
Attribute of the character firing them, the Attack Attribute of the weapon
fired, the target's Defense Attribute which can be raised by equipping ship
Armor and having Brabham as the Active Engineer, the Vigor of the character
active for that Round in the target ship, the Status Effect Strengthened, the
Status Effect Weakened for the player's ship but not enemy ships, if Ilchymis'
Crew Command / Hybrid Wax is in effect, the Round in which the weapon is fired,
and for elemental cannons the effectiveness of that Element against the target.
Each Round in a ship battle has a pair of multipliers associated with it; one
multiplier is for the player's attacks, and the other for the enemy ship's
attacks. The approximate relative value of these multipliers is indicated by
the background color and icon displayed at the top of that Round's column on
the command grid. Rounds with a green background typically have a multiplier of
100% for the enemy and 100% for the player, Rounds with a yellow background
typically have a multiplier of around 120%-200% for the enemy and sometimes a
multiplier of around 90% for the player, and Rounds with a red background
typically have a multiplier of around 150%-300% for the enemy and sometimes a
multiplier of around 50% for the player. Rounds with a "C!" icon, called
"Chance" Rounds, have a multiplier of around 150%-250% for the player, and
Rounds with a Super Cannon icon have a multiplier of around 200%-300%. However,
these figures are approximate, and they can vary tremendously. Additionally,
the color and icon of the Round does not always indicate when the multiplier
changes, though if the multipliers do change it won't be by a significant
amount.
An important fact to realize is that Super Cannon Rounds are like extra
effective "C!" rounds, so if the Super Cannon isn't being fired in them, it's
still advantageous to concentrate firepower into those Rounds.
Offensively, Strengthened and Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax have the
effect of increasing the attacker's attacking power, and Weakened has no effect
on enemy ships. Defensively, Strengthened, Weakened, and Ilchymis' Crew Command
/ Hybrid Wax have the effect of increasing and decreasing the target's
defending power, though for Critical Hits they have no effect, as defense is
ignored.
The Strengthened Status Effect in ship battles is more powerful - it raises
Attack by 150% rather than 125%, whereas the Weakened Status Effect has the
same reduction factor of 75%. Also, it is worth noting that the Strengthened
Status Effect can be combined with Ilchymis' Crew Command or the Hybrid Wax,
which also boost Attack by 150% among other Attributes for the duration of the
Turn; this more than doubles Attack at 225%. Ilchymis' Crew Command and the
Hybrid Wax themselves cannot be combined for an extra boost, however, as they
do the same thing.
Ryu-kan's Crew Command is basically the same as Incremus and the Apo Wax,
giving the Strengthened Status Effect for four Turns, and probably more
accessible than Incremus as it will most likely be available earlier. This is
at the cost of having Ilchymis as the Active Artisan, however.
Gunner Crew Members can add small bonuses to the Attack of weapons when they
are Active. Khazim adds 35 to the Attack of Primary Cannons, boosting their
damage by about 70(0), and Belle adds 50 to the Attack of Secondary Cannons,
boosting their damage by about 100(0). Also, the Builder Izmael increases the
Attack of the Super Cannon by 100 when he is Active.
The only Primary Cannons that have elemental properties are the Pyril Cannon,
available from the Sailors' Island ship store upon obtaining the yellow Moon
Crystal, which has Red elemental properties, and the Crystil Cannon, dropped by
Galcian's Elite before facing the Hydra provided Kalifa is the Active Merchant
of the crew, which has Purple elemental properties. Super Cannons don't have
any elemental properties.
So, for maximum offensive power, use a character with high Power, a weapon with
high Attack, obtain the Strengthened Status Effect, combine it with Ilchymis'
Crew Command or the Hybrid Wax, inflict the Weakened Status Effect on the
target, use a weapon with elemental properties that the target is most
vulnerable to if they have any vulnerabilities at all, and fire it on a Round
with a high player multiplier, such as on a Super Cannon round, avoiding red
and yellow Rounds without an icon. For maximum defensive power, equip multiple
Armor items on the ship with high Defense, guard with a character with high
Vigor, obtain the Strengthened Status Effect, combine it with Ilchymis' Crew
Command or the Hybrid Wax, and don't bother inflicting the Weakened Status
Effect.
The amount of damage done by Primary Cannons and the Super Cannon can be
calculated with the following, remembering to append a "0" to the final figure,
and bearing in mind that the result will be approximate. Unlike ordinary
battles, the attack power of cannons is not capped, and neither is final
damage, though the characters' Power and Vigor are still capped at 999.
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Status Effect * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
The terms are explained below:
- Damage - The damage sustained from the attack if it is not guarded, provided
it is not a Critical Hit
- Guarded Damage - The damage sustained from the attack if it is guarded
against, provided it is not a Critical Hit
- Critical Damage - The damage sustained from an attack that is a Critical Hit
if it is not guarded
- Guarded Critical Damage - The damage sustained from an attack that is a
Critical Hit if it is guarded against
- Elemental Effectiveness - If the player attacks with a weapon with elemental
properties, such as the Pyril Cannon or Frost Bomb, this is the percentage
vulnerability to the Element of the attack, otherwise this is simply 100%
- Round Multiplier - The damage multiplier for the Round, explained earlier,
roughly indicated by the color and icon for the round indicated on the command
grid
- Character Power - The Power Attribute of the character that fired the weapon,
0 for enemy ships
- Character Vigor - The Vigor Attribute of the character that is active in the
Round when attacked, 0 for enemy ships
- Weapon Attack - The Attack Attribute of the weapon fired
- Target Ship Defense - The Defense Attribute of the target ship
- Status - 150% if the attacker has the Strengthened Status Effect, 75% if the
player is the one attacking and has the Weakened Status Effect, 100% otherwise
- Target Status Effect - 150% if the target has the Strengthened Status Effect,
75% if the target is afflicted with the Weakened Status Effect, 100% otherwise
- Ilchymis - 150% if Ilchymis' Crew Command or the Hybrid Wax has been applied
earlier in the Turn, 100% otherwise
- Target Ilchymis - as above, but for the target ship
Let's go through an example. We're in the Delphinus, with a Defense of 50 and
armed with Prototype Cannons with an Attack of 100, and we're up against the
Auriga, which according to Eso Arcadia has a health of 50,000 and a Defense of
300. Vyse has a Power of 120 and a Vigor of 100, and Enrique has a Power of 105
and say an unusually high Vigor of 130. Firing the Prototype Cannon with
Enrique in a green Round with a multiplier of 100% will deal about the
following damage:
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 100 * not Strengthened * no Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 100 * 100% * 100% = 100
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * 100% * 100% = 300
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 300 + 0 = 300
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (100 + 105) * 2 = 410
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 410 - 300 = 110
Elemental Effectiveness = Prototype Cannon has no Element
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
We only manage damage of about 1,100, or about 4,100 if we're lucky with a
Critical Hit. We can improve this in a number of ways. We can use Vyse rather
than Enrique, who has a higher Power of 120. We can use a more powerful weapon,
such as the Advanced Cannon with Attack of 150. We can have Khazim as the
Active Gunner of the crew, increasing the Advanced Cannon's Attack to 150+35 =
185. We can obtain the Strengthened Status Effect by casting Increm or Incremus
or using Apa Wax or Apo Wax. Let's say we have Ilchymis in our crew; we can
combine this with Ilchymis' Crew Command, executed in an earlier Round. We can
inflict the Auriga with the Weakened Status Effect. Finally, we can fire on a
"C!" Round, with a multiplier of say 150%. This gives us the following:
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 185 * is Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 185 * 150% * 150% = 416.25
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * 75% * 100% = 225
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 225 + 0 = 225
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (416.25 + 120) * 2 = 1072.5
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 1072.5 - 225 = 847.5
Elemental Effectiveness = Advanced Cannon has no Element
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
With all those improvements, we have increased the damage dealt by over a
factor of 10, to around 12,710, and a sizable chunk of the Auriga's health.
Suppose now the Auriga returns fire with its AP Cannon, which according to Eso
Arcadia has an Attack of 300, and the "C!" Round we're in is a yellow Round
with an enemy ship multiplier of 120%:
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * not Strengthened * no Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * 100% * 100% = 300
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 50 * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 50 * 150% * 150% = 112.5
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 112.5 + 100 = 212.5
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (300 + 0) * 2 = 600
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 600 - 212.5 = 387.5
Elemental Effectiveness = Player ships have no elemental vulnerabilities or
resistances
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
Note that the Weakened Status Effect on the Auriga had no effect on the final
damage. Even with the Strengthened Status Effect boosting our Defense, around
4,650 damage is still painful. But, we can make some improvements; suppose we
have four Captain's Stripes we haven't used. We can apply them, raising the
ship's Defense to 58, and equip some ship Armor, such as three Compound Decks,
each increasing Defense by 40 for a total of 120, raising the ship's Defense
further to 178. Finally, we can have Enrique active in the Round when the
Auriga attacks, with his unusually higher Vigor of 130.
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * not Strengthened * no Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 300 * 100% * 100% = 300
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 178 * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 178 * 150% * 150% = 400.5
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 400.5 + 130 = 530.5
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (300 + 0) * 2 = 600
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 600 - 530.5 = 69.5
Elemental Effectiveness = Player ships have no elemental vulnerabilities or
resistances
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
Although damage from a Critical Hit hasn't changed, normal damage has improved
considerably to around 830. This is thanks largely to ship Armor equipped,
raising the ship's Defense, and the Strengthened Status Effect and Ilchymis'
effect, which now have a much larger number to multiply.
As a final example, let's fire the Super Cannon. The Super Cannon has an Attack
of 800, and can only be fired on Super Cannon Rounds, which have a high
multiplier. Say this multiplier is 250%; I'm not sure of the actual figure.
We'll use Enrique first.
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 800 * not Strengthened * no Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 800 * 100% * 100% = 800
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * neither Strengthened nor Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * 100% * 100% = 300
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 300 + 0 = 300
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (800 + 105) * 2 = 1810
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 1810 - 300 = 1510
Elemental Effectiveness = Super Cannon has no Element
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
A damage of around 37,750, though this will be around 18,880 if the Auriga is
guarding. A good chunk of the Auriga's health either way, but let's make the
attack even more powerful. We can fire the Super Cannon with Vyse with his
higher Power of 120. We can have Izmael as the Active Builder to increase the
Super Cannon's Attack to 800+100 = 900. Finally, we can apply Status Effects
and use Ilchymis' Crew Command as before.
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 900 * is Strengthened * Ilchymis
Weapon Attack Power = 900 * 150% * 150% = 2025
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 300 * 75% * 100% = 225
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 225 + 0 = 225
Standard Critical Damage = (Weapon Attack Power + Character Power) * 2
Standard Critical Damage = (2025 + 120) * 2 = 4290
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 4290 - 225 = 4065
Elemental Effectiveness = Super Cannon has no Element
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
We have increased normal damage to around an astronomical 101,620, enough to
one-shot the Auriga twice over, and enough to one-shot it even if it's
guarding. This is largely due to the Strengthened Status Effect and Ilchymis'
Crew Command multiplying the already high power of the Super Cannon. Note that
in contrast the Weakened Status Effect has little effect on the damage dealt.
Other ship weapons behave exactly as for Primary Cannons, except they don't
take the firing character's Power into account. They otherwise depend on the
same things; their Attack Attribute, the target's Defense, Status Effects and
Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax, the Round multiplier, and their attacking
element.
The Attack of Secondary Cannons can be increased by 50 by having Belle as the
Active Gunner of the crew. Alongside of this, having Tikatika as the Active
Lookout will increase the accuracy, specifically the Hit, of Torpedoes.
There is only one Secondary Cannon with elemental properties; the Wevl Cannon,
available in Belle's ship store, has Blue elemental properties.
There are four Bombs with elemental properties, each with a different element.
The Pyro Bomb is a Red elemental Bomb, dropped by the Spell Pirates, and the
Tenkou Spellship. It is the only elemental Bomb also available in a shop,
specifically the Maramba ship store. The Frost Bomb is a Purple elemental Bomb,
dropped by the Valuan Mage Ship, which can also be fought optionally for a time
near the dried lake/crater on the Valuan continent. It is also sometimes
dropped by the Valuan Phantom. The Thunder Bomb is a Yellow elemental Bomb,
also dropped by the Valuan Mage Ship. The Wave Bomb is a Blue elemental Bomb,
sometimes dropped by the Valuan Spellship.
Bombs are a bit like Secondary Cannons in terms of the damage they can do, and
cost no Spirit to fire, but are not affected by the Strengthened Status Effect
or Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax. Like magic, Bombs have no Hit%, and so
never "Miss", but can still be "Lost". They can be effective early in the game,
but upon getting the Delphinus most become underpowered in comparison. Bombs
have an Attack Attribute that determines how much damage is done, just like
other weapons, although it's not shown. Bombs are listed below, in order of
increasing power.
- Bomb
- Big Bomb
- Concussion Bomb
- Elemental Bombs, all with the same power - Pyro/Frost/Thunder/Wave Bomb
- Shredder Bomb; along with the elemental Bombs these can be useful on the
Delphinus for a time, but upon getting the 3' Cannon and Heavy Torpedo their
usefulness begins to dwindle
Regarding enemy attacks, as a general rule Torpedoes tend to do the most
damage, followed by Primary Cannons, and finally Secondary Cannons. However, as
explained earlier, Torpedoes have low Hit, so gaining the Quickened Status
Effect may increase chances for dodging them.
The damage done by these other weapons can be calculated using a slightly
simpler version of the formula for Primary Cannons:
Standard Damage = Standard Critical Damage - Target Defense Power
>>> Standard Critical Damage = Weapon Attack Power * 2 <<<
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Weapon Attack Power = Weapon Attack * Status Effect * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power =
Target Ship Defense * Target Status Effect * Target Ilchymis
The only line that's changed is the line calculating "Standard Critical
Damage", which no longer adds the firing character's Power Attribute before
multiplying. The only Attributes of the firing character used are the
character's Agile for determining the chances of a Critical Hit, and their
Vigor for defense if the enemy attacks in the same Round.
These behave much the same as in ordinary battles, with one noteworthy
difference - the constant values for each spell are a little different. As
before, they can never be Critical Hits, and can never miss, though can be
"Lost", and the Strengthened Status Effect has no effect, the Weakened Status
Effect having only a limited effect. The attack power of magic is determined
from a character's Will, and a fixed constant value specific to each spell. The
defensive power of the target ship is determined from its Magic Defense, which
can be raised by equipping Magic Armor on the ship and by having Hans as the
Active Engineer.
Firing magic costs MP as before, from the character firing the magic. Polly's
Crew Command is essentially a Magic Dew, restoring 10 MP of the character
executing it.
The constant values added to the attacking power for each spell are slightly
different in ship battles, slightly lower and more consistent, and are listed
below.
As far as I can tell, Pyrulen doesn't do any more damage than Wevlen and
Electrulen, despite costing more Spirit, enemy elemental vulnerabilities
notwithstanding; this could be explained again by the fact that Pyrulen can be
learned sooner than the other two. Purple magic except Crystalen doesn't seem
to be as efficient in terms of the damage bonus per unit of Spirit cost, again
enemy ship elemental vulnerabilities notwithstanding. For more information
about enemy ship vulnerabilities and resistances to elemental attacks, see the
section "Elements in Ship Battles", although most ships are resistant to
elemental attacks.
As mentioned above, this constant is combined with the firing character's Will
to determine attack power. However... in what is probably another glitch, the
firing character's Will Calculated Attribute is used, rather than their Will
Base Attribute. This means that equipping Will-boosting Accessories before
entering a ship battle increases damage done by magic attacks. Will still
cannot go above 999, however.
Moegi's Crew Command is essentially the same as the Magic Shell ship item,
which is dropped by the Chameleon (Deep Sky), and behaves as if the enemy has
been inflicted with Silence for one Turn. Although seeing as Sylenis costs a
fraction as much and lasts longer, save only that it may be "Lost" and costs
MP, Pinta is probably more valuable, who brings damage from all non-magic
attacks down to 0.
The approximate damage from a magic attack can be calculated in a very similar
way as for ordinary battles, the only differences being that the defending
character's Vigor is taken into account, Ilchymis' Crew Command / Hybrid Wax
can raise the ship's Magic Defense, and of course the Round multiplier:
Standard Damage = Attack Power - Target Defense Power
Attack Power = (2 * Character Calculated Will) + Magic Power
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Ship Defense Power = Target Magic Defense * Target Weakened * Ilchymis
Where "Character Calculated Will" is the attacking character's Will after
applying any bonuses from their equipped Accessory and Armor, "Magic Power" is
the damage bonus associated with the particular spell used as listed above,
"Character Vigor" is the Vigor of the character active in the Round when the
ship was hit, "Target Magic Defense" is the Magic Defense Attribute of the
target ship, "Target Weakened" is 75% if the target is afflicted with the
Weakened Status Effect otherwise 100%, and "Ilchymis" is 150% if Ilchymis' Crew
Command or the Hybrid Wax has been executed in an earlier Round of the same
Turn otherwise 100%.
As an example, let's fire Electres at the Black Pirates with Fina, Will 90, in
a normal green Round with a player multiplier of 100%. According to Eso Arcadia
the Black Pirates have a Magic Defense of 10, and a vulnerability to Yellow
attacks of 200%. Suppose our ship has the Strengthened Status Effect, and the
Black Pirates are already afflicted with the Weakened Status Effect.
Attack Power = (2 * Character Calculated Will) + Magic Power
Attack Power = (2 * 90) + 180 = 360
Ship Defense Power = Target Magic Defense * Target Weakened * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 10 * is Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 10 * 75% * 100% = 7.5
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 7.5 + 0 = 7.5
Standard Damage = Attack Power - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 360 - 7.5 = 352.5
Elemental Effectiveness = Yellow versus Black Pirates
Black Pirates are 200% vulnerable to Yellow
Elemental Effectiveness = 200%
A damage of around 7,050. Note the fact our ship had the Strengthened Status
Effect had no bearing on the damage caused, and would still have no bearing if
the target ship was Strengthened. Also, due to the target's low Magic Defense,
the Weakened Status Effect had negligible effect on the damage, adding only 50
damage ((10-7.5)*200%*10); it tends to be more useful against ships with higher
Defense and Magic Defense.
For another example, suppose we're late in the game, and a certain enemy with a
Will of 240 fires Crystalen in a yellow Round with a multiplier of 200%. Our
ship has a Magic Defense of 120, and has the Spherical Figure Magic Armor
equipped, boosting Magic Defense by 300 to 420. Suppose Drachma is active in
the Round we're attacked, at around level 40 with a Vigor of 245.
Attack Power = (2 * Character Calculated Will) + Magic Power
Attack Power = (2 * 240) + 180 = 660
Ship Defense Power = Target Magic Defense * Target Weakened * Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 420 * not Weakened * no Ilchymis
Ship Defense Power = 420 * 100% * 100% = 420
Target Defense Power = Ship Defense Power + Character Vigor
Target Defense Power = 420 + 245 = 665
Standard Damage = Attack Power - Target Defense Power
Standard Damage = 660 - 665 = -5 = 0
Elemental Effectiveness = Purple versus player ship
Player ships do not have any vulnerabilities or resistances to elemental
attacks
Elemental Effectiveness = 100%
Thanks largely to the Spherical Figure Magic Armor and Drachma's high Vigor
compared to other characters, the damage from the magic attack has been
completely eliminated, without even the need to guard. The fact that it was
fired on a yellow Round with a significant enemy multiplier of 200% makes no
difference.
============================== ==============================
============================= Experience and Gold =============================
============================== ========================~SE===
Just as for ordinary battles, each enemy ship is worth a certain amount of
Experience and Gold, which is awarded if defeated. Magic Experience is not
awarded for ship battles.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ /
/ /
/ Loopers. What's the deal with them, anyway? /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~L
Loopers are cute little things that often run away. They're notoriously hard to
hit, and seem to be almost immune to never-missing magical attacks. Most of the
time they will run at the first sign of danger, or if lucky they'll cast a
spell and then flee at the start of the next turn. Likely you'll have a few
encounters with a lone Looper only to have it immediately run off before you
have a chance to do anything.
So what's up with them, exactly? If all they seem to do is run off, avoid most
attacks anyway, and are immune to magic that cannot be avoided, then... why
bother with them?
Well, mainly, Experience and Gold. When compared to other enemies, Loopers are
worth -a lot-. Combine this with their fairly frequent appearances, and
defeating them can be quite lucrative. The later they appear in the game, the
more valuable they are, ending with the purple Arcloopers as the most valuable.
On top of this, Loopers have a chance of dropping the sought after Dexus Seed,
and non-white Loopers have a chance of dropping the Black Map Accessory.
What about the Kanezl plants? They seem a lot like Loopers, always dodging
attacks, running often, and really resistant to magic. Are they the same?
Not quite. The Kanezl plants appearing in Frontier Lands airspace and Dark Rift
airspace don't give much Experience. However, they do give a lot of Gold -
1,000 each. This is why you'll often see your gold total shoot up at about the
point in the game where they appear. This is more than most Loopers. In fact,
their original name in the Japanese version is something akin to "Revenue",
hinting at their purpose.
On the other hand, their bluer-toned cousins, the Imezl plants, are much more
like normal enemies, yield an average amount of Experience and Gold, and don't
dodge attacks anywhere near as much nor have especially high Magic Defense.
Okay, so Loopers and Kanezl plants are worth a lot of Experience and Gold. How
do I defeat them?
In short, Super Moves. But unfortunately not Aika's or Fina's with their low
Spirit cost, as their Super Moves do magical damage rather than ordinary
physical damage, which Loopers have a very high resistance to. Earlier in the
game, you may have to wait a turn in order for enough Spirit to accumulate for
a Super Move, and very early on some Focusing will be needed. While waiting,
you can fire a few pot-shots at them in the hope of hitting.
But let's look at Loopers' Attributes more in depth (ignoring Elcian).
According to the game data as extracted and displayed by Eso Arcadia, they all
have a very high Dodge, 150%, a Dodge beaten only by Centralks of Daccat's
Island (160%). Kanezls have a slightly lower Dodge of 120%. This means that,
with a Hit% of 100%, there's only a 25% chance of hitting Loopers with a normal
attack, and no chance at all with a Hit% of 50% or less. In order to have even
a 50% chance of hitting them with a normal attack, a character needs a Hit%
equal to their Dodge%, at 150%.
So, one strategy is to raise a character's Hit as much as possible. Hit is
determined from the weapon the character has equipped, plus any bonuses from
the equipped Armor and Accessory. Two of Aika's weapons obtainable early in the
game have a high Hit of 150%, which are the Storm Wing sometimes dropped in
Pyrynn, and the Grendel Wing dropped by the Green Gigas. When firing pot-shots
at Loopers these particular weapons can be very effective, with a 50% chance of
hitting alone. Without these weapons, many of the forms of Cupil are pretty
accurate, more so than Aika's common weapons; forms with high Hit include the
basic/first form, Cupicone, Star, Lance, and Spear, and forms to avoid include
Cannon, Spike, and Weight. Other highly accurate weapons, obtained much later
in the game, are Vyse's Vorlik Blade, crafted by Ryu-kan upon finding the
material Velorium, and Gilder's Marksman Gun, dropped by enemies on the Hydra.
Both of these have a massive 200% Hit, giving them a 75% chance of hitting.
Combine these with Hit boosting Armor and Accessories for maximum effect, which
include the following-
- Agile-type Armor equippable by Fina and Enrique
- Skyseer Goggles for Vyse and Aika, 5%, owned by Vyse
- Slayer Ring for all characters, 10%, available from the Mystery Merchant
- Crylhound's Claw for Blue Rogues (not Fina or Enrique), 20%, available in the
Lower City weapons shop
- Counter Bracer for Blue Rogues, 20%, rare enemy drop in South Ocean
- Hunter's Hand for Blue Rogues, 40%, enemy drop in Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace
- Assassin Ring for all characters, 40%, available for a limited time in the
Nasrad marketplace
- Nocturnal Sight for Vyse and Aika, 60%, available from the Esparanza merchant
- Vigoro's Chain for Warriors (Vyse, Drachma, Gilder), 30%, available from the
Esparanza merchant
- Critical Vision for Vyse and Aika, 50%, available from Ryu-kan's shop once
upgraded
- Warrior's Rune for all except Drachma and Enrique, 20%, very rare enemy drop
on Dangral Island; may be easier to get from Pinta Quest
- Ancient Bracer for Blue Rogues, 40%, a Soltis enemy drop
A good combination for raising Hit early in the game is to get Aika's Storm
Wing from the enemies in Pyrynn and combine it with a Crylhound's Claw
Accessory from Lower City, creating a Hit of 150+20 = 170%, or combine it with
a Hunter's Hand Accessory dropped by enemies in Ixa'taka, creating a Hit of
150+40 = 190%. Later in the game the ultimate Hit-boosting Accessory becomes
available, Nocturnal Sight, although this is only equippable by Vyse and Aika.
The best Hit boosting item for Fina, along with all other characters, is the
Assassin Ring, only available for a limited time. A good combination for Fina,
a little later in the game, would be to evolve Cupil into Cupil Lance or Cupil
Star with 12 Chams, feeding an Abirik after the second Cham for Lance, combined
with the Moss Armor found in a ship "treasure chest" in the Dark Rift and
Assassin's Ring, giving a Hit of 120+20+40 = 180%.
Another strategy for getting around the high Dodge of Loopers is to take
advantage of attacks that never miss. These include magical attacks,
Counterattacks, and of course Super Moves. Additionally, inflicting Loopers
with Sleep or Stone will ignore their Dodge altogether, as targets afflicted
with Sleep or Stone cannot dodge attacks. But we hit another snag with magical
attacks, often executable before Super Moves in a battle - Loopers have a very
high Magic Defense, increasing for Loopers appearing later in the game.
This means that magic will only be effective against Loopers with a high enough
Will, or a powerful enough spell, or both. Magic is often effective when facing
"old" Loopers, already encountered earlier in the game, though much less so
against the later appearing Loopers. Fina is the obvious choice for powerful
magic, with her rapidly progressing Will and ease of learning magic. Don't
worry about the Element of magic used against Loopers; this factor merely
multiplies the damage received, which most of the time is either going to be 0
or much higher than the Looper's health. What matters more is how powerful the
magic is. Purple magic, for instance, is much more powerful than comparable
Blue and Yellow magic, and Red magic is progressively weaker than comparable
Blue and Yellow magic.
Counterattacking doesn't happen often, but it can be a useful extra weapon
against Loopers, as it's not too uncommon that they attack. Chances for
Counterattacking are raised with the Counter Bracer, a rare South Ocean enemy
drop, and with Vengeance Armor available from the Sailors' Island weapons shop
after obtaining the yellow Moon Crystal. Chances are also thought to be
increased by the Quickened Status Effect, and by guarding. Vyse's Counterstrike
is a very good move to use whilst waiting or Focusing for enough Spirit for a
Super Move, as it guarantees a Counterattack if a Looper attacks normally and
the attack hits. Furthermore, a little later in the game and against groups of
Loopers, Vyse's Skull Shield is even more effective, as it guarantees a
Counterattack from any character if a Looper attacks normally and hits,
provided the character is not afflicted with Sleep, Confuse, or Stone.
All of these strategies can be used whilst waiting or Focusing for enough
Spirit to attack a Looper with a Super Move, to increase the chances of
defeating Loopers before they run away. The ultimate Super Move to use against
groups of Loopers is Rain of Swords, which will wipe them all out. To have
enough Spirit for this on the first turn, the characters need to be at around
level 50-54. Specifically, Vyse and the secondary character need to have 4
Spirit, and Aika and Fina 3 Spirit, making 4+4+3+3 = 14. Vyse will have 4
Spirit by level 45, and the secondary characters have 4 Spirit by levels 50-54,
Gilder being the soonest and Drachma the latest. Before reaching this point,
though, Loopers will have ample opportunity to run away. An alternative
technique would be to equip the Assassin's Ring Accessory, available for a
limited time in the Nasrad marketplace, increasing chances for First Strike,
which gives a free turn in which to accumulate Spirit, but its effect on the
problem is limited.
So how best to stop them running away? There's the Sleep and Stone Status
Effects, but there we run into the problem of Loopers being highly resistant to
magic again. The chances of an enemy running away are, I believe, calculated
based on that enemy's Quick and the Quick of the party. Quick can be raised by
equipping various Accessories, notably the Dhabu Hide available for a limited
time in the Nasrad marketplace. Though much more effective is the Quickened
Status Effect, obtainable with the magic Quika, or at no Spirit cost with Glyph
of Speed. I'm actually not sure just how effective this is for stopping Loopers
from running away, as I've never tried it on normally leveled characters; it
may turn out to be very effective indeed.
However, the ultimate way to stop Loopers running away, Elcian with them, is
the Black Map. This Accessory, when equipped and only equippable by Vyse,
reduces the chances of enemies running away to almost zero. It is still
possible for enemies to escape, but very rarely, only about once maybe twice
per playthrough. With this equipped, you are free to guard and wait for
sufficient Spirit for a Super Move.
So then, where to find this incredibly useful, Looper-owning Black Map? Well...
it is dropped exclusively by non-white Loopers :P. Elcian also drops it a bit
more often, but only appears right near the end of the game, and the Black Map
is almost a requirement for defeating him regardless.
Okay, so you want to go fight some Loopers, maybe to do a bit of power leveling
before a difficult bit in the game. Where to find them?
White Loopers are found in Mid Ocean airspace and Shrine Island. Red Loopalons
are found in Nasr Kingdom airspace, Pyrynn, and appear frequently in the
Eastern half of South Ocean. Green Eloopers appear frequently in the Western
half of South Ocean, and in Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace and Moon Stone Mtn..
Yellow Yuloopers appear in Valuan Empire airspace. Blue Goloopers are found in
Yafutoma airspace and Mount Kazai. Purple Arcloopers are found in Lands of Ice
airspace and the Ruins of Ice.
However, there is another area where Loopers appear, in all varieties, and in
great numbers. The Looper's Nest airspace is hidden away north of North Ocean,
contained within a large triangle formed by a turbulent sky rift and a stone
reef. At the very least, you'll need to be at a point in the game where the
ship is able to fly through gray stone reefs in order to access it. There's a
large group of Kite Rays roaming around close to the Northern sky rift
bordering the area, which can be fun to catch between battles.
Gadianos, an "enemy ship" enemy that appears just before landing at Soltis, is
very much the Looper of ship battles. A non-repeatable ship battle, it's good
at dodging attacks, its Magic Defense is enormous so always-hitting magic
attacks don't fare well against it, it usually attacks first, and it runs off
if not defeated quickly. Combine this with the fact that it's not particularly
powerful, and... What's the point of it?
Simple - If defeated before it escapes, it drops two very valuable items. The
first is the Sparkling Deck ship Armor, extremely effective armor more than
seven times the strength of the next best armor. The second is the Moon Gun
Secondary Cannon, very powerful, very accurate, can fire for four rounds, and
uses less Spirit than the 3' and 5' Cannons. Goes with the Moon Cannon Primary
Cannon dropped by the Hydra, and the Moon Torpedo also dropped by the Hydra.
Don't miss your chance.
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/ /
/ /
/ FAQ /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~Q
There are some small spoilers in some of the answers in this section, so read
with discretion.
- What version of the game did you use?
The Dreamcast version, specifically the European version.
- What in the world is a Ballista Rostram / Praeses / <insert weird enemy name
here>?
The European version of the game, including the version sold here in England,
has different names for some of the enemies. Since these are the names I'm
familiar with, they're the ones I primarily use, though I've tried to include
what I understand are the US names alongside of them, where they differ. The
enemy called "Hydra Elite" in the US version, for example, is just called
"Hydra" over here, making the name particularly confusing.
- I have the GameCube version; where does Disc 1 end and Disc 2 begin in the
original?
At the end of the Yafutoma part of the game. Specifically, after the event
where the player receives the Blue Moon Crystal and the Book of Polarity, a
prompt appears indicating that the end of Disc 1 has been reached, and to
insert Disc 2. Following insertion of Disc 2, the player is back in world-
space, by Yafutoma.
- Why are the damages in ship battles so high compared to ship and weapon
attributes?
All damage in ship battles have a "0" appended onto the end of them. The key to
understanding damage in ship battles is to ignore this final "0" in the damage
figures; things should then start to make sense. Also remember that "C!" and
Super Cannon Rounds multiply damage dealt by your ship by around 150%-300%, and
similarly for yellow and red Rounds for enemy ships.
- What's the difference between a boss and a normal enemy? Is Zivilyn Bane a
boss?
Easy - the background music. So no, Zivilyn Bane is not a boss, and nor is
Elcian.
- Enemy drops? What are they?
After battles, sometimes a notice is displayed listing items that you've
acquired. These items have been "dropped" each by a particular enemy that was
defeated in the battle. Each item that an enemy can drop, usually just one if
anything at all, has a certain chance that, upon being defeated, the enemy will
drop that item. Different enemies drop different items with varying chances.
Only enemies that are defeated drop items; if an enemy manages to escape, it
will not drop any items. Many of the items dropped by enemies are not available
in shops. The Eso Arcadia website has extensive information about enemy item
drops and their chances; see there for full details.
- What's the ship's Value Attribute for?
Apparently the game was to have a feature allowing the player to sell their
ship, for which this Attribute would be relevant. Why the Value Attribute was
left in and not also removed I don't know; it doesn't seem to have any effect,
alongside the various items that increase it. I hear there's some sort of
achievement in the GameCube version for collecting all those items, though.
- Where are the Frontier Lands?
For the purposes of this guide, the Frontier Lands airspace is the airspace
home to Nasrad, Crescent Isle, Daccat's Island, and the airspace North of the
Valuan continent, home to Ilchymis' Island. So basically it's the airspace
North of the South Dannel Strait, up to the ordinary sky rift North of Daccat's
Island, and most of the airspace North of Valua.
- Where's the Looper's Nest?
The Looper's Nest airspace is North of North Ocean on the map. It is accessible
late in the game, not far into Disc 2, when you gain the ability to fly through
gray stone reefs. It is roughly a large triangle on the map, with two sides
formed by a turbulent sky rift and one side formed by a stone reef. I named the
airspace after the Discovery found there; it doesn't have a name on the map.
See also the section "Appendix: Enemy Airspaces" for more information on the
various airspaces in the world where enemies appear.
- Where's the Nasrad marketplace with all these limited-time items?
The Nasrad marketplace area is accessible by going up the stairs between the
ship store / Sailors' Guild building, and the tavern building. The Accessory
items sold there by one of the merchants are potentially quite useful, but all
items sold there are only available for a limited time. Be sure to buy
everything you want from the merchants there before completing Daccat's Island.
- Where are all the optional ship battles?
I've listed them near the start of the section "Mechanics: Ship Battles". I'm
not exactly sure when some of them appear and disappear, the three giant
monsters in particular.
- Where's Ryu-kan's weapons shop?
Ryu-kan needs to be recruited into the ship's Crew, upon which he will open a
shop on Crescent Isle, located in the round cave. In order to recruit Ryu-kan,
I believe Vyse's Swashbuckler Rating needs to be Daring or higher. He can
originally be found on Ryu-kan's Island, an island far North of Yafutoma and
through a normal sky rift.
- Where's Ilchymis' Potions/Seeds shop?
Ilchymis needs to be recruited into the ship's Crew, upon which he will open a
shop on Crescent Isle, located in the round cave. In order to recruit Ilchymis,
I think at least one character needs to know the spell Riselem; I'm not sure if
Vyse himself has to know it or not. He can originally be found on Ilchymis'
Island, an island high above the clouds at about the center of the large
airspace North of the Valuan continent. His shop needs to be upgraded before he
sells Seeds.
- How do I "upgrade" Ryu-kan's/Ilchymis' shop?
Upgrading a shop owned by one of the Crew Members basically involves speaking
to the owner and giving them some funds to make improvements, in return for
which they will start selling new and improved items. The upgrade is not
immediate; as for building modifications, you'll need to leave and return to
the island for it to take effect. To upgrade Ilchymis' shop, simply speak to
him. He may tell you a story first, in which case speak to him again
afterwards. Unfortunately it's not as easy with Ryu-kan, who tends to moan
about being tired a lot when spoken to. At some point in the game, I think
after visiting Dangral Island, he will suddenly start complaining about his
paltry shop environment when spoken to, and you'll be able to get him to
upgrade it, making it "adequate" :P.
- Where is Belle's ship store?
Belle or Khazim need to be recruited into the ship's crew, upon which one of
them will open a shop on Crescent Isle, located in the underground port near
the gantry leading to the ship, next to the save point. Belle can initially be
found right next to this building when you arrive, and joins the crew upon
spoken to.
- How do I get the Black Map?
The Black Map is dropped by all non-white Loopers. So, basically, fight loads
of Loopers. There's a plentiful supply of Loopers as random encounters in the
Looper's Nest airspace, if you don't have the Black Map by the time that area
becomes available.
- How do I get the White Map?
It's one of the items Domingo gives you as a reward for finding a set number of
Discoveries, when he's a member of the crew. Find at least 50 out of the 64
Discoveries, and talk to him up in the Crescent Isle meeting room. If he's not
already in the crew, he can be found in Gordo's Bistro, which appears in the
middle of North Ocean once you can get back there again. You'll need to have
found at least 30 Discoveries for him to join. There's no other way of getting
it, so whatever you do don't sell it :P.
- How do I get Captain's Stripes?
There are a fixed number of Captain's Stripes in the game, and you always get
them during the normal course of the game. Unfortunately there is no recurring
enemy or enemy ship that drops them.
- I'm after Seeds - Who's Zivilyn Bane?
Zivilyn Bane only appears a fixed amount of times during the game, so is only a
very finite source for Seeds. All his battles are optional, and are entered
upon attempting to open a chest containing a valuable item he's after.
- Who exactly is this Elcian fellow I keep hearing about? (some spoilers)
Elcian is a special Looper that enables fast leveling of characters, due to the
very large amount of Experience, Magic Experience, and also Gold that is
awarded for defeating him. Contrary to what is often said, he does not appear
after Soltis; he appears right next to the end of the game, after the Hydra and
just before the fight with Gadianos. He appears in the last pocket of the Dark
Rift before the Eastern blue exit pocket, near the save point, as a large gray
Looper. It is necessary to press "A" when near him to start the battle, rather
than simply colliding with him. He reappears each time the Dark Rift level is
entered. Be warned - he is extremely powerful. Save before you first fight him.
As for how to defeat him, I think there's a guide dedicated to him on GameFAQs,
or if not at least one of the guides there gives a good technique.
- What are the forms of Cupil and how do I get them?
A few of the guides on GameFAQs have already covered the subject of Cupil quite
nicely; see them for further details about Cupil.
- What exactly does Aika's Delta Shield block?
Delta Shield blocks inbound magic, including magic cast upon the same character
that casts it. It does not, however, block outbound magic, and it does not
block Crystals. Delta Shield will block enemy magic attacks, and healing and
positive Status Effect magic from allies. Delta Shield will not block allies'
magical attacks on enemies, and will not block healing and positive Status
Effect magic used by enemies. Delta Shield will block Vyse casting Sacri on
himself, but will not block Vyse using a Sacri Crystal on himself.
- Why do guides like these always stick to boring ASCII characters, and never
take advantage of the plethora of vibrant characters and combining punctuation
offered by the now well-established Unicode standard? Why, you could have
spelled ScarabeÌe correctly!
- What's up with the weird "i>?" thing at the start of the guide?
Uh... ignore that ^^;. If it's showing. In fact, better ignore the previous
question too, as it will also be a load of garbage.
If you must know, it's something called a BOM; switch your Browser's display
encoding to UTF-8 to get rid of it, and with that the previous question should
make more sense.
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/ /
/ /
/ Copyright /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~Y
As I've stated in my other guide, I don't know what all the fuss is about
regarding copyright. The basic terms of copyright, largely concerning ownership
rather than copying, are implied and automatic anyway. Besides, the culture of
the Web has historically been a free and open one, and I see no reason to
argue. Even if I wanted to stop you from making multiple copies of this guide,
storing it on all your devices, or mass-printing it for some reason, would I be
able to? Not really.
So, basically, use this guide how you like. Publish where you like. Just don't
plagiarize. Common sense, really.
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/ /
/ /
/ Appendix: Enemy Airspaces /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~.E
The world-space is divided into several airspaces in which encounters with
certain enemies can occur. Throughout the guide I've given these airspaces
names suffixed with "airspace"; I've listed where to find them below. These
airspaces do not always exactly correspond with how they are listed on the map.
There are some spoilers as to what's in the world and where in this section.
Mid Ocean airspace-
The first sky of the game, within the boundaries of the sky rifts enclosing the
area, up to the rock tunnel Northeast of Shrine Island.
Mid Ocean North airspace-
The sky through the rock tunnel Northeast of Shrine Island, home to Sailors'
Island. Its borders are the surrounding sky rifts and stone reefs, and goes up
to the South Dannel Strait.
Nasr Kingdom airspace-
The sky through the stone reef in Mid Ocean North airspace, bordered by sky
rifts and the Nasr mountains, up to the approach to South Ocean. Home to
Maramba.
South Ocean airspace-
More-or-less as it is on the map, bordered by its North and South sky rifts,
except the West border of it may be further East than on the map.
Ixa'taka Kingdom airspace-
The sky after South Ocean, surrounded by sky rifts and the stone reef, up to
the Iron Net in the far North. Some of the enemies that appear in this airspace
also appear in North Ocean airspace.
North Ocean airspace-
The sky through the Iron Net of Ixa'taka airspace, surrounded by sky rifts,
including a turbulent sky rift to the North, and a "V" of sky rifts to the
Southwest. Goes up to a little before the start of the Valuan continent.
Valuan Empire airspace-
The sky over the Valuan continent. This also extends slightly into the airspace
North of Nasrad, close to the Valuan continent, and slightly into the airspace
North of the Valuan continent.
Frontier Lands airspace-
The sky starting from Nasr's South Dannel Strait and extending North, with
Valuan Empire airspace bordering it on the West and a turbulent sky rift
bordering it on the East. This includes all the airspace around Nasrad, despite
what it says on the map. This also includes most of the airspace North of the
Valuan continent, a short distance North from its Northern edge, bordered by
sky rifts. Home to Nasrad, Crescent Isle, and Daccat's Island.
Dark Rift airspace-
The Dark Rift is surrounded by an ordinary sky rift, which must be passed
through to reach Esparanza. This airspace forms the skies within that
surrounding sky rift to the West of the Dark Rift. Home to Esparanza.
Yafutoma airspace-
An entire North-South slice of the map, stretching from the bordering Dark
Rift's sky rift Eastwards all the way to the stone reef. This includes the area
inside the ordinary sky rift surrounding the Dark Rift.
Lands of Ice airspace-
The sky South of South Ocean, bordered by sky rifts. It extends a little
further to the South than the continent's Southern edge.
Looper's Nest airspace-
The large triangle on the map North of North Ocean, formed by a turbulent sky
rift and a stone reef.
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/ /
/ /
/ Appendix: Armor Classifications /
/ /
/ /
/________________________________________________________________________/ ~.C
Characters can equip one Armor, and one Accessory. Armor, and to a lesser
extent Accessories, can be categorized into two sets of groups. Firstly, they
can be categorized into what group of characters can equip them, and secondly,
they can be categorized into what Attributes they boost and to what
proportions. I don't list all of the Armor here, but I give a few examples.
Among other things, knowing what categories an Armor falls into by looking at
who can equip it and the Attributes it improves can help with deciding when to
sell it, when a stronger equivalent Armor is bought or found.
Let's start with who can equip Armor. Each Armor can be equipped by a specific
group of characters. These groups are as follows-
- Warriors - Vyse, Drachma, Gilder
- Mages - opposite of Warriors; Aika, Fina, Enrique
- Blue Rogues - Vyse, Aika, Drachma, Gilder
- Regal - opposite of Blue Rogues; Fina, Enrique
- Men - Vyse, Drachma, Enrique, Gilder
- Women - Aika, Fina
- General - equippable by all characters
There are a few exceptions; Vyse's Uniform is equippable by Blue Rogues except
Drachma, Drachma's Shirt is only equippable by Drachma, and Enrique's Coat is
only equippable by Enrique.
All the General Armor either gives resistance to a certain Element, or gives a
slight boost to Attack and Will.
The second way of categorizing Armor is by what Attributes they improve and to
what proportions. These groups are as follows-
- Basic - improves Defense and Magic Defense in equal measure, all the General
and Blue Rogue Armor fits into this group
- Physical - improves Defense a little more and Magic Defense a little less,
all Armor for Warriors and Men fits into this group, including Drachma's Shirt
- Magical - improves Magic Defense a little more and Defense a little less, all
Armor for Mages and Women fits into this group
- Agile - improves Defense and Magic Defense in equal measure, and also
improves Hit and Dodge, all the Regal Armor fits into this group, including
Enrique's Coat
Armor that boosts additional Attributes to those mentioned above includes the
Nasr Combat Mail and Victory Mail General/Basic Armor that slightly improve
Attack and Will, the Moonlight Robe Women/Magical Armor that boosts Dodge, the
Swift Dress Women/Magical Armor that improves Quick, and the Vengeance Armor
Men/Physical Armor that improves Counterattack.
