Lufia: The Ruins of Lore Anti-Core Mini FAQ
This FAQ is copyright 2003 by Paul Sche. No part of this document may
be altered. Distribution of this document is free of charge and may
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requires the consent from the author, whom can be contacted by email at
[email protected].
Version 1.00
November 10, 2003- Although this is the first version, all sections are
completed. However, feel free to email me if there is a mistake
somewhere. Credit will be acknowledged to where it's due.
Version 1.1
February 2, 2004- Added the Retry? Section in response to the lack of
retry option in the game. Mastersord has contributed information
including the locations of enemies with relevant skills as well as
recommended skills and improvements to the Anti-Core DM.
Version 1.2
May 30, 2005- Removed the skill Green Air from the list of skills that
causes confusion status, as thriceborn phoenix have pointed out the
skill causes sleep and poison instead.
The purpose of this mini FAQ is to describe the capture and development
of the monster Anti-Core, which has the highest speed in the entire
roster of monsters that can be captured. The skills of the compendium
can be found in Jimbobqwerty15's Monster Guide. However keep in mind
that the skills listed there aren't everything that monster would
learn.
Contents
I. The monster Anti-Core
II. Preparations
III. Development
IV. Retry?
I. The monster Anti-Core
Core type monsters have been around since the very first Lufia. The
characteristics of this family of monsters are the extremely high
agility and defense power coupled with extremely low HP. Even though a
core has little HP, their tendency to run away actually makes it
difficult to defeat them in battle. As such, the rewards for killing a
core monster are usually a large amount of gold and/or experience.
The core monsters in Lufia: The Ruins of Lore, however, have largely
been stripped of their agility. Most types of core monsters are the
slowest of any monster. Even though they still retain high DFP, there
are many skills that ignore defense and can eliminate their paltry HP
in a single round.
The sole exception here is the Anti-Core within the core type monsters
encountered. They retain the high agility signified by the core
monsters in previous Lufia games. As a result, the Anti-Cores often
pre-empts the player characters and escape immediately. Defeating an
Anti-Core is difficult already let alone capturing one.
II. Preparations
In order to capture an Anti-Core the first preparations are to find a
place to capture it and creating a tool for the capture.
1. A place to capture
Anti-Cores appear throughout many dungeons in the later parts of the
game. However in most cases the Anti-Core attacks in tandem with other
monsters. It's not a good idea to attempt a capture in these battles
because if the Anti-Core flees you'll end up catching an undesirable
monster, then you'd have to go all the way back to Gruberik to set it
free.
Thus a place with an enemy party consists entirely of Anti-Cores is the
ideal place to fight. Not only do you get a higher chance to capture
one but you also won't run the risk of using up discs or running out of
room in Gruberik. The recommended dungeon is Inside the Behemoth in
Eristol: Past. When you first drop into the Behemoth you start in the
innermost room, which contains two sections. If you drop into the hole
or go down the vein from the second section you will enter the second
innermost room where the first section contains a large pool of acid.
The exit to the second section is in the northwest and that is the
section with the desirable enemy party (Anti-Core x 2).
However, unless you are well prepared it's not a good idea to attempt a
capture the first time you come across this room. This is because the
next save point isn't available until you finish the dungeon. Having
no access to save can erase hours of hard work, so memorize this
section so you can return when you have access to a save point. It is
possible to capture the Anti-Core before you return from the past,
provided that you have empty slots for monster in your party. However,
ideally it's best to wait until you return to the present and have
access to Gruberik. Either way it is extremely important to have an
empty slot for you to be able to capture the monster.
2. A Disc Monster Tool for the capture:
To create a tool to capture the Anti-Core, it must be understood that
it is of little use trying to beat out the agility of the monster,
since it does have the highest agility of any monster outside the
Ancient Cave. Therefore you'll have to use the game system to your
advantage.
Among the status ailments that you can inflict on the enemy, confuse,
sleep, and stun will prevent the enemy from using the usual actions
their AI normally uses. However, since characters (enemy or ally) can
recover from sleep and stun in a few turns, these status ailments will
be of little help since the Anti-Core can take multiple actions before
your characters can actually act. Therefore even if the status ailment
is successfully inflicted on the Anti-Core, it may wear off before you
can attempt to capture it. However, the rules for wearing off
confusion are different from sleep and stun. If the confusion status
is inflicted it will be harder for the enemy to wear it off. Therefore
you will need a disc monster (DM) with the ability to confuse the
entire enemy group.
There are a number of abilities that inflict confusion, either alone or
in conjunction with another status such as aforementioned sleep and
stun. This includes:
[Location of monsters contributed by Mastersord]
Confuse (3Ap), learn by Desert Rose, Giant Bloom, Fire Dragon (Ancient
Cave level 15-35 for all three).
Dark Breath (2Ap), learn by Dark Dragon (Land of the Dead), Incubus
(Inside the Behemoth).
Since you'll most likely be fighting the group of Anti-Cores over and
over, and there aren't any AP recharging facilities conveniently
nearby, it's best if the skill cost as few AP as possible on a DM with
as many AP as possible, so the recommended skill to use is Dark Breath.
The earliest place to capture a DM with this skill is the Dark Dragon
in the Land of the Dead. However, if you're already past that point,
the Incubus monsters, also found Inside the Behemoth, can learn this
skill.
As for the DM with high AP, the Shell Snake appears in the Border
Forest comes with an amazing 300AP. That means if you teach it Dark
Breath, the Shell Snake can use it 150 times consecutively without
having to recover. Make sure to change its skills so that the Dark
Breath is the only skill selected among the three slots. This will
guarantee that the DM will use it every time.
3. Capturing the Anti-Core
This is the tricky part. As mentioned before the group of all Anti-
Cores is located in the second section of the second innermost room,
near the inner exit. However in order to reach it from the outside you
must traverse all the way from Rangoon. The area of interest has a
bridge activated by hitting a pillar 4 times when you enter from the
outer side. Go through this section first, and when you reach the
section flooded with acid turn around and enter the room of interest
again. The best party setup for the capture is to have Eldin, Torma,
Rami all at level 25 or above (other human characters cannot use discs
to capture!) plus the Shell Snake. Walk one step up and swing 3 times.
When you pursue the enemy it will face away from you and you will be
able to surprise the enemy.
Even when surprised the Anti-Core will still get to act first! Most
likely it will run away from battle. If all enemies flee simply exit
the section and return to try again using the steps above to get a
surprise attack on the enemy.
However, if the Anti-Core does not run, it will use Spark or Leech on
your party. You can then choose the actions for your party members.
Let all three of the human characters choose to use the Void Disc.
Your DM will take the next action and cast Dark Breath. If the DM
successfully inflicts confuse on the Anti-Core, the target will cast
healing spells on your party rather than run. The Void Discs will be
able to capture it provided that there's an empty slot in Gruberik or
in your party (if it's in your party, only characters without having
one DM assigned can capture it). If you already have three DM in your
party you will have to trek back to Gruberik to assign it to a party
member.
III. Development
The Anti-Core you capture will have the following starting parameters:
Presto
Lv. 25
HP 8
AP 92
F:Object
E: Light
ATK 150
DEF 600
AGL 450
INT 35
MGR 40
Even though its HP is low, you will gain HP fast as it levels up. When
given the chance feed it a Sacred Fruit to evolve it into a Gold Core
and increase stat gains on level up.
The most prominent feature of this DM is that it usually pre-empt the
enemy party and attack first. It can attack up to eight times per
round, making its damage potential extremely high. Also as it levels
the maximum AP also exhibits a favorable growth rate (about 10 HP and
10 AP per level if evolved). The best skill for attacking the enemy
party is the Octo Strike, which can be learned from Devilfish in
Eristol (easier to access from the Time Portal).
Unfortunately the DM does not start with a high ATK, so it will take a
lot of Power Sources to beef up the Anti-Core. The second floor of the
Lugwa Tower features Neo Goblins which drop the stat raising item. It
can take awhile before you accumulate enough to raise the ATK to a high
level (about 400 or so will let you kill pretty much any non-boss
enemies in one hit using Octo Strike).
However, if you don't have the patience, you can instead teach your
Anti-Core the Giant Stomp skill. This skill can be learned from Teio
(in Gratze before Nazare Village becomes inaccessible again) or Sky
Horse (in the Land of the Dead- for some reason the monster compendium
doesn't list this skill.) This skill inflicts 64 points of damage to
all enemies regardless of their DEF or MGR (more if it critical hits)
at the cost of 4 AP, which is of no object if you teach it Absorb
(absorbs 15 AP or the amount the target currently has, whichever is
smaller) which can be learned from Demon Eye, Inside the Behemoth.
Alternatively you can just abuse the infinite nectar glitch. To get
the glitch to work you must have the recipe and the ingredients to make
Nectar. When you ask the smith to make it the smith will give you a
nectar-without taking the ingredients. So you can just keep asking
until you have 99 in your inventory. However this DM isn't totally
invincible. Enemies that can use Giant Stomp can still damage or kill
your Anti-Core if you allowed it to surprise you. Such enemies are few
and far between and you can use this DM to conquer the Ancient Cave or
the final boss quite easily.
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[Contributed by Mastersord]
I recommend you teach it Vampire (Vampire Rose skill) and Octo-strike
(Octopus skill) as well as Pickpocket (Faux chest skill).
1) Vampire: Learned by vampire Rose. Steals AP for your DM at the cost
of 1 AP.
Vampire Rose can be caught in the border forest right before entering
gratze. It can also be found in the ancient cave on floors B19, B20,
B25, and B26. Use forest disks to catch it. Train it until you have
the skill. Do not evolve it.
2) Octo strike: Learned by Octopus. Nice multi-hit skill which
attacks all enemies and costs 0 AP.
Octopus can be found in Eristole in the past as well as the ancient
cave on floors B32, B33, and B34. Train it until you have the propper
skill. Do not evolve it.
Now you'll notice that although the anti-core is quite capable of
holding it's own throughout the game and in the ancient cave, it's
attack power is quite mediocre (my core was 200 compared to Eldin's 950
with Gaia's sword equipped). This becomes a problem because there are
several monsters down there that it can only get 1 or 2 damage on. It
cannot face other cores.
Another minor problem is it's low HP. Not too bad because it's high
defense means no monster can do more than 2 damage on it (not even big
jelly!)
Both of these can be fixed by leveling, bright ores, and sources.
3) Pickpocket: Learned from neo bat, goblin, imp, faux chest, and
shadow.
Neo bats can be found at mount Ruhie (first trip), and in the ancient
cave on floors B05, B06, and B07. Raise until you have the skill but
don't evolve it.
Imps can be found in the tower of Dohain and in the ancient cave on
floors B14 and B15.
Now once you have pickpocket, teach it to the anti-core. To make it a
stealer, remove all skills but pickpocket. It will get 2-3 swipes per
round no matter what. Teach pickpocket to eldin and to the rest of
your human party, and you get 5-6 swipes per round!
As a stealer, it becomes quite easy to get sources. Lugwa tower has
neo goblins in the first room. Neo goblins hold power sources. You'll
need pickpocket for this though. You could get 99 power sources in 2
hours if you're patient and careful.
If you want more speed, go to Mera Volcano and steal speed sources from
Puchis (the duck-like yellow birds on the map). They come as 1 or 2 and
like to run away, so be patient.
Please note that an enemy only carries one of its item, so you can only
steal the item once per enemy, per battle. For example, you can only
get one power source from each neo goblins you face.
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IV. Retry?
Lufia: The Ruins of Lore is the only Lufia game to not support a retry
option (i.e. new game plus) which usually gives more EXP, gold, etc.
from battles. However, since it is possible to transfer DMs between
games using a link cable, you can artificially create a similar effect
by transferring your developed Anti-Core to a friend's copy, start a
new game and have the Anti-Core be transferred back once you reach
Gruberik. With this powerful DM it might be possible to attempt a "no
job" challenge where no one becomes an apprentice of a master.
Thanks to Mastersord for contributing information on monster locations
and customizing the Anti-Core DM in an authorization to use his FAQ.
In his FAQ he also credits jimbobquerty for enemy locations, bhr for
ancient cave enemy locations, and Phoenix 1911 for monster skill data.
Thanks to thriceborn phoenix for pointing out that the Green Air
inflicts sleep and poison rather than sleep and confusion. The in game
description of the skill is incorrect.
Lufia: The Ruins of Lore is licenced by Taito Corp., and published by
Atlus USA. All work done on this FAQ is by the author, except for
sources referenced in the FAQ to reduce redundancy.
