===============================================
Final Fantasy Solo White Mage Guide
Version 1.0 5/12/2004
anomie <
[email protected]>
===============================================
INTRODUCTION
============
One of the great challenges in Final Fantasy is to complete the game with
only one living character: a Solo Quest. Fighter and Black Belt are
(relatively) easy, and Red Mage isn't too bad. Thief would be hard, but
allowing for Ninja would make it a bit easier. Black Mage would be very
difficult, you can kill things with magic but your supply is limited and
your defense sucks. White Mage can't do much damage at all, but RUSE and
healing magic make up for the defense.
This guide will attempt to take you through a Solo White Mage game. Note
that I will not be wasting my time telling you exactly where to go, or how
to beat most monsters, or even the monster's stats or attacks unless they're
particularly relevant. Refer to a general walkthrough and monster list for
that sort of information.
RULES
=====
Nothing fancy:
1. You must kill off all Light Warriors except your chosen White Mage in the
very first battle, preferably before you ever attack the first Imp. After
that, they must never be revived, not even as decoys when fighting a
fiend or Chaos. At the end of the game, just before Chaos, you should be
able to look at their Status screen and see "EXP.POINTS 0".
If this is too tough, you are allowed to make things somewhat easier on
yourself:
1. You must kill off all Light Warriors except your chosen 2 (or 3 or 4)
White Mages in the very first battle, preferably before you ever attack
the first Imp. After that, they must never be revived, not even as decoys
when fighting a fiend or Chaos.
If you want more of a challenge, try adding some of these to either of the
above:
2. No class change, make it really a White MAGE challenge. This limits you
to the Silver Hammer (no Thor Hammer) until you find the Masmune, and no
EXIT, CUR4, FADE, or WALL.
3. No emulator savestates. All saving must be done with Inns, TENTs, CABINs
or HOUSEs, and no saving mid-dungeon or mid-battle.
The walkthrough will be written with the original rule #1 in force, as well
as rule #2. Rule #3 only adds greater luck requirement, a greater skill
requirement, and probably a need for higher levels. No change in strategy is
required.
If you do not use rule #2, the only real differences are that you can equip
the Thor Hammer and you can learn EXIT, CUR4, HRM4, FADE, WALL, and a bunch
of useless spells. So the only real strategy changes will be that you can
cure yourself more effectively, kill undead more effectively, and with FADE
you can cause some major damage to anything at your discretion (i.e. Chaos,
a Fiend or two, etc instead of chipping away with your hammer).
If you weaken rule #1, many strategy changes are possible. The simplest is
to just have all your Mages follow the 1-Mage strategy as best as possible.
Of course, INV2 can make the RUSEing faster, and LIFE/LIF2 suddenly become
useful, you have multiple chances per round to MUTE something, etc. On the
down side, you'll have to spend more on magic, weapons, and armor. And later
in the game, you have to divide up the magic-casting equipment, only one
Mage gets an Opal Bracelet and Masmune, there are only 3 Ribbons in the
game, and so on.
If you do have more than one Mage, you'll probably want to rotate them,
since the first in line gets attacked twice as often as the next, and the
second gets it twice as often as either of the last two.
TACTICS
=======
For the beginning of the game, you will be running from everything unless
you're specifically leveling. And if you do fight a battle, you'll probably
RUSE up so they're less likely to kill you before you hammer them to death.
Undead can be HARMed for a quicker kill, but they're still not really 'easy'
(especially the paralyzing types).
Eventually, you'll get enough HP and armor that you can stand toe to toe
with Ogres and Creeps without RUSEing, and still survive consistently. This
can help your leveling, since you'll no longer need to stop by the Inn so
frequently.
The Zeus Gauntlet brings a major change in tactics, you can kill everything
much faster when you never miss, you hit all enemies each round, and you do
more damage than by attacking. Sea monsters are particularly easy, since
they're all weak against LIT2.
The Defense Sword and the Heal Staff reduce further your need to sleep. Heal
Staff brings your HP up cheaply, and Defense conserves spell charges that
would otherwise need refilling if you're going after difficult opponents.
You now have four ways to heal: CURE/CUR2/CUR3/HEL3, Heal Staff, Heal Potion
in battle, and Heal Potion out of battle. The Staff is cheapest, and should
be used whenever you're RUSEd up and facing enemies that can't hurt you too
badly. A Potion in battle is equivalent to a CURE spell (16-32 HP), compared
to 12-24 HP from the Staff. A Potion out of battle will always restore 30
HP, so if you are trying to heal mid-battle with potions you should probably
use a minimal number and fill up afterwords. You should do that anyway if
you can't do the Heal Staff thing to conserve your magic. CUR2 is roughly
equivalent to 2 CUREs, and CUR3 to 2 CUR2s. HEL3 is worth 3 CUREs.
Beyond this point, nothing much changes until the very end. You get better
armor, higher HP, and more attack spell casting items, but it's all more of
the same.
Then, just before you reach Chaos, you get the Masmune. Finally, you can
attack again! And just in time too, since Chaos is strong against all
elemental magic so your magic-casting items would be rather less useful
(FADE could still work though).
WALKTHROUGH
===========
1. THOSE FOREST IMPS ARE *TOUGH*
--------------------------------
Get yourself a White Mage and three bodies (for maximum irony, get 3 burly
fighters). Buy a hammer, a cloth, and a RUSE spell for your Mage, and get
wooden staves (or small daggers, they're both cheap) for the three suckers.
Give your Mage three meat shields, then go out and find some imps. Cast RUSE
twice with everyone who can ;) and let everyone else show off their sticks.
Taunt the imps with your Hammer of Justice while they constantly miss you
and slowly pound your compatriots into the ground. Then knock their heads
off.
2. I CAN HIT YOU BUT YOU CAN'T HIT ME!
--------------------------------------
Now it's time for some leveling (although with some luck you could dash to
Garland, RUSE twice before being killed, and beat him at Level 1). Without
too much luck, 3 Imps will fall before they kill you even without RUSEs. But
nothing can hit you through two RUSEs, unless they get a critical hit. So
kill some Imps and sleep often until you gain a level or two. 5 Imps will
give you enough cash to break even at the Inn, so money shouldn't be that
much of a problem. Buy a CURE spell and head to the forest slightly north to
hammer some GrImps, Wolves, and MadPonies. If you're really brave, the
shoreline west of the Temple has Creeps for you to try, but the journey up
and back is probably not worth it at this point.
Eventually, you'll get bored and want to tackle Garland. Take along a TENT
and some potions to conserve your precious spell charges. Once inside the
Temple, you may want to run to the left and grab a Cap to keep your head
warm (if you relaxed rule #1, you'll probably want to rotate it until you
can buy more in Elfland). Bones can be RUSEd or HARMed easily enough, but
watch out for the stunning undead critters. Make sure you save two RUSEs for
Garland (or run back to the Inn after you get your headgear). As mentioned
above, RUSE twice and chip away at his HP until he gives up. Unkidnap the
princess, collect your fabulous prizes, and prepare for a long run.
3. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! ARRRRR!!
-------------------------------
Load up on potions and a tent or two and take a nap in the Inn. Check your
gold reserves, you'll probably want 110g if you make it to Provoka (more if
you relaxed rule #1). The plan is to run from everything and head straight
across, don't stop for cookies at the witch's cave. Once you arrive, the Inn
costs 50g, and some gloves cost 60g.
Then go kill the pirates, RUSE twice and attack as usual. Get the boat. Yay.
4. MORE LEVELING...
-------------------
The southern forest has good enemies, or fight sea monsters around Coneria
and use the cheaper Inn there. You could try fighting around Elfland, too.
Eventually, you'll want to buy a Copper Bracelet (1000g per Mage), CUR2
(1500g), MUTE (400g), maybe HRM2 (1500g), some TENTs, and a hell of a lot of
HEAL potions.
If you decide to try the Power Peninsula, it certainly is possible. Just
remember you'll probably have 2-3 battles to run from on the way there and
on the way back, and you'll probably want to TENT both before and after.
Some monsters need 3 RUSEs to be sufficiently confused, and pray they don't
hit you critically. MUTE can work on frost enemies, but getting it to work
well enough to keep you alive might be iffy. And be prepared for a long
battle, Zombulls can be HRM2ed into oblivion but anything else will need to
be hammered a few hundred times...
5. ADVANCING THE PLOT
---------------------
Hike over to the Marsh Cave, running from everything. Go through the Marsh
Cave, running from everything and hoping you don't get paralyzed by the
undead. The Wizards will be tough, but there is no new strategy. Their
criticals will do about 100 damage. After they're knocked out, grab the
CROWN and run to Astos. MUTE him, RUSE a few times, and put your hammer
marks in his head too. He's easier than the Wizards once MUTE succeeds.
Take the CRYSTAL to Matoya, then take the HERB to the Elf Prince's doctor.
Swipe the key from the prince, then head off to the treasure room to get a
shiny hammer to replace your rusty one. If you feel lucky, go get the Silver
Bracelet from the Marsh Cave, and the crap from Astos's castle (at least
there's no random encounters in there, and if you have any HRM2s left the
Mummies give good experience). Clean out the Temple of Fiends (the swords
sell for nice money), then loot Coneria Castle, go give the TNT to the dwarf
to blow himself up, loot their cave, and sail off to Melmond and buy some
CUR3 and HRM3. Sell all the crap you can't equip for cash. If you have more
than 1 Mage (or you skipped excavating the Marsh Cave), you'll probably want
to get more Silver Bracelets in Melmond and Silver Hammers from Crescent
Lake.
If you can handle it, you may want to do all this early to get the weapons
and armor to more efficiently kill things on the Power Peninsula to level up
easier.
6. DIRT PLOT
------------
Go to the Earth cave. Unless you want cash, you can skip the chests (check
a comprehensive walkthrough to find which chests have what, and where the
guardians are). A lone Earth CAN be beaten, if you get lucky about the
critical hits and the damages before you get your 3 RUSEs in. I wouldn't
recommend seeking them out, though, unless you're making a trip just for
treasure and experience. One HRM3 should kill the Vampire, if not a second
will. Swipe the RUBY, and hope you don't get killed on the way out.
If necessary restock, then go feed the Titan, get the Rod, dig deeper into
the Earth Cave, and find Lich. Fortunately for you, Lich is undead, so HRM3
him into oblivion. Theoretically, it could take as few as 2 or as many as 7
castings, depending on just how lucky you get with the damages. Hopefully
Lich will waste his turns casting FAST or SLOW/SLO2, and miss you if he
attacks. But if he gets lucky with ICE2 damages, or critical hits, or stuns
you (attack effect, SLP2, HOLD, SLEP) you could be in trouble.
7. OUT OF ORDER
---------------
Head to Crescent Lake and get your canoe. Now the sages will try to ship
you off to Gurgu Volcano to fight Kary. However, you can dock at any river
mouth, it's time to head to the Castle of Ordeals and get your first
magic-casting items. You can also swap your tarnished old Silver Bracelet
for a sparkly new Gold version.
From now on, your basic strategy should be RUSE (if necessary, you're strong
enough now (and with ~26 absorb) that some monsters can't do much
non-critical damage) then rain death from above with the Zeus Gauntlet. If
you're facing critters that can't even critical you too badly, Heal Staff
yourself up to full HP before you finish Zeusing them.
8. FROZEN EYE SCREAM
--------------------
Now, it's off to the dreaded Ice Cavern. The plan is to get the FLOATER and
get out, nothing fancy. Remember, you can't run from Wizard battles, but you
can Zeus them to death in a few rounds. Potion yourself up afterwords.
There are two possible strategies for the Eye: either MUTE the thing, or
just hope you get big damages with Zeus while the Eye's death spells pass
you by. I've had MUTE succeed the first try or fail four rounds in a row, and
I've had Zeus kill it in two rounds or six.
Then just make it back to your boat safely, and you should have no trouble
sailing down to the desert to claim your airship! Fly over to Coneria to
restock, save, and celebrate.
9. SHOPPING SPREE
-----------------
Now that you have your flying boat, there are a number of things you can do.
Gaia has ProRings for sale to replace your threadbare gloves and Gold
Bracelets if you have need for more than one, the BOTTLE needs purchasing to
get your OXYALE, the Cardia Islands need looting (if you need cash), HEL3
could be bought in Onrac, and if you allow yourself class change you can do
that and buy a ton of magic.
10. WHY DOES THE ROBOT HIDE AT THE *BACK* OF THE WATERFALL?
-----------------------------------------------------------
The waterfall should be your next goal, in order to obtain the Ribbon and
the Defense Sword. Ditch the baseball hat for the hair bow, and put the
Defense Sword in an easily accessible place. You'll never have to cast RUSE
again, so you can save all your level 1 spell charges for uber-useful CURE
spells! Instead, wave Defense at your opponents a few times before showing
them your Zeus.
Of course, before all this you'll have to face a random group of WzMummies,
Mummies, Coctrices, and Perilisks. Best bet, as usual, is probably to RUSE
up and Zeus them to death, or HRM3 if there are no Coctrices. Going in is
more dangerous, since you have to worry about the mummies putting you to
sleep and possibly the Coctrices/Perilisks getting you stoned.
11. LEVEL LEVEL LEVEL...
------------------------
Now, you're basically all set to level yourself up as high as you want to
go (unless you want to go higher than level 50). You have the Defense so you
no longer need to refill your magic charges frequently. You have the Heal
Staff to heal yourself when battling wimpy monsters. You have the Zeus
gauntlet, so you don't need to rely on your pathetic little mallet. You have
the ProRing and the Ribbon, so you have little to fear from instant death
attacks. In fact, all you lack is a ProCape (and a Thor Hammer or a Mage
Staff to replace the Zeus gauntlet then), an Opal Bracelet, and a Masmune ;)
As you know if you've read just about any decent walkthrough, the best place
to level up now is the Eye back in the Ice Cave. His myriad instant kill
attacks shouldn't kill you, he'll seldom attack, and if it really worries
you you have an unlimited supply of RUSE. Getting to him isn't much tougher,
Mages and Sorcerers shouldn't instant kill you anymore, so you only need to
worry about running before they attack you to death. You'll need only take
two steps between each Eye battle, and you get 3225 experience points per
Eye slaughtered. Once you get to level 30 or so, you'll be leveling up every
10 or 11 Eyes you harvest.
A warning: The Ribbon and ProRing don't make you completely immune to
instant death (there's approximately a 3/256 chance), so you may want to
save every once in a while. Or go fight the ZombieDs where you got the TAIL,
they hit harder but no instant death. Remember, you can park the boat much
closer than you can the airship. Or try those Mummies back in Astos's place,
especially after you get the Mage Staff.
12. WOULD YOU LIKE SOME WATER WITH YOUR PLOT?
---------------------------------------------
Head to Onrac, wave your effervescent booze at the person blocking the sub,
and head down to the Sea Shrine. Remember that many critters here are weak
against your Zeus Gauntlet, but don't forget to use your Heal Staff if they
do manage to hit you too hard. Or just run from everything, doesn't matter
too much. Ghosts are the major exception, they can hit you for 100+ HP on a
*normal* attack, 200+ for a critical. Waters aren't too nice either.
As usual, head for the Mermaids first. Grab the Mage staff on the way (and
stick it in your weapon list), but feel free to skip everything else. Once
you reach the top floor, the right-hand chest in the room directly above you
has your ultimate armor: the Opal Bracelet. Replace your old Gold with
opalescent Opal, grab the SLAB (rightmost box in the "hard" to reach room),
and head back downstairs. Exit and stop at Ye Olde Onrac Inn if you want,
then continue down to Kraken.
Kraken can be difficult, since with its 8 hits it can deal over 200HP to you
each round. On the other hand, each individual hit could miss (especially
when RUSEd), so the damages could be quite a bit less. With a little luck
and a high enough level, you should be able to survive your 3 rounds of
RUSEing. Then CUR3 yourself decently in case he gets a critical hit, and
brandish your Zeus Gauntlet until the mutant Wizard (notice the
resemblance?) bites the dust.
13. "LU....PA....?" SURE HAS MANY MEANINGS
------------------------------------------
Take the slab to Unne in Melmond, learn Lefeinish, then fly over and take
the long walk over there. Watch the old Power Peninsula foes run from you
for a change, if you've spend enough time leveling. Grab the CHIME ("Made in
Lefein" indeed), and buy LIF2 if you really feel the need. Sell your crap
and rest up in Coneria, and head over to the surprisingly solid Mirage
Tower.
14. A BIRD? A PLANE? THE PLOT!
------------------------------
Again, skip most of the chests, you need neither the weapons nor the cash.
Do grab the Thor Hammer from the leftmost chest on the second floor, though.
Grab the HOUSE too if you feel like it. If you allowed yourself class
change, equip the Thor Hammer in place of your Elvish weapon and skip the
rest of this paragraph. Otherwise you have a decision. You have 4
magic-casting weapons: Heal Staff, Defense, Mage Staff, and Thor Hammer
(which you can't actually equip). You have only 3 available weapon slots, so
which magic item to give up? The answer: none of the above. Since you never
attack, ditch the Silver Hammer, and equip the weaker Heal Staff if you
really feel the need for a weapon.
The Blue Dragon is not terribly easy, only because he has a strong THUNDER
magic and MUTE doesn't like to work on him. So just RUSE thrice and Mage
Staff him to death, using CUR3 if he gets you too injured.
Once in the Floating Castle, you can get the Bane Sword if you really want,
but otherwise skip the chests on the first floor. On the second floor, you
may want the Black Shirt (on the right) for the ICE2 it can cast, but skip
the White Shirt unless you have more than one living Light Warrior. The
White Shirt is actually slightly worse armor than your Gold Bracelets, only
because it takes an extra point off your evade stat (not that you'd
notice...).
On the third floor, go grab the ProCape. Now you have a real dilemma: do you
wear the ProCape for an extra 8 absorb, or do you keep the Black Shirt for
ICE2? ICE2 is probably more useful, but the absorb could help too.
Eventually, you'll reach Tiamat. Yes, you could take the easy way and wave
your stinky Bane Sword around until he chokes, but it IS possible to beat
him without. RUSE thrice and show him your Black Shirt 34 or so times until
he's encased in a block of ice, casting CUR3 as necessary. If you're lucky,
he'll run out of HP before you run out of CUR3s.
Is WarMech possible, without using savestates to make him always miss? I
believe so, you'll just need more luck since he has more strength and
NUCLEAR takes off much more HP than Tiamat's magic. I haven't accomplished
it myself, the only time I found WarMech so far he got to attack first which
put me at an incredible disadvantage. Beating both Tiamat and WarMech in one
go would be very difficult without Bane.
Of course, if you had CUR4 both would become MUCH easier, since CUR3 only
restores 100 or so HP while CUR4 will always restore you to the max. FADE
would also help immensely, since it does 3-4 times as much damage.
15. PLOT FLAMBE
---------------
(subtitle: Did i forget something?)
One orb left to relight, so head to the volcano to do so. Skip all the
treasures, and remember that walking on lava is a way to avoid unnecessary
battles. Kary seems to have a pretty high critical hit rate, and she's
strong against all elements, but the same old Tiamat strategy will work. Or
you could break out your silver hammer and attack, if you have enough
strength you might hit as well as the Black Shirt and the chance for
criticals always helps.
16. THE 2000 YEAR OLD PLOT JOKE
-------------------------------
First, check your levels, potion stock, and such. Some important milestone
levels: At levels 12, 13, 15, 18, 22, 27, 32, 40, and 47 you gain a Level 5
spell point (more CUR3). At level 42, you gain the ability to do 4 hits with
the Masmune. Starting at level 30, the experience required for level up
levels off, alternating between 32799 and 32800 per level.
Head over to the Temple of Friends, and head back into the past. Remember
that once you do so, there is no way to return unless you allowed class
change and bought EXIT. Run from everything you can, use the Defense & Heal
Staff combo to refill your HP when you find weak enemies, and hope you don't
run into too many GasDs (at least they're weak against ICE) or Worms. The
Phantom is undead, but I recommend Mage Staffing it to death instead of
using your precious Level 5 spell charges.
Lich has much stronger magic this time around, but unless you get unlucky
with NUKE you can probably Defense and Mage Staff him to death to save your
precious spell charges. Kary is the same as before except with stronger
magic. Kraken isn't much more difficult, sure he has new spells but LIT2
doesn't compare to NUKE or FIR3 you've faced already.
Finally, you can upgrade your weapon. Go get the Masmune, and equip it ASAP!
You probably never thought you could see your poor little White Mage do 300+
damage. At this point, you'll probably want to switch to the ProCape if
you've been using the Black Shirt.
You can Defense against Tiamat if you want, otherwise just pound him into the
ground with your new toy. If you're lucky, he'll waste his time casting LIT2
and FIR2 instead of attacking you. Take the stairs, and prepare to meat
Chaos.
Do not think the best strategy is to attack and attack and hope for the
best! Chaos has 8 spells (ICE3 LIT3 SLO2 CUR4 FIR3 ICE2 FAST and NUKE), and
he always casts these IN ORDER. So Defense yourself good and make use of
your CUR2, HEL3, and CUR3 to keep your HP as high as possible until he
wastes his CUR4. Then attack and attack until your arms fall off ;) If you
get lucky with critical hits, you can finish him off with over 400 HP
remaining. If you get unlucky, he'll zip through his spell list and CUR4
just before you would have killed him.
With 4 White Mages/Wizards, first stick the one with the Masmune in the very
back! Then i'd probably cast INV2s the first round or two and attack with
the Masmune, then HEAL/CURE as necessary and keep attacking. WALL the
Ribbonless one if you can, and FADE if you have it and no one needs healing.
Continue until Chaos dies.
If you want to try something with a very low chance of success, MUTE has a
3/256 chance of working. If you get XFER to work (55/256), it improves to
12/256.
Once Chaos finally falls, enjoy the same old ending with the knowledge
you've completed one of the hardest Final Fantasy challenges.
EQUIPMENT
=========
For weapons, you get the Iron Hammer, the Silver Hammer, maybe the Thor
Hammer, and the Masmune. For armor, you get Cloth->Copper Bracelet->Silver
Bracelet->Gold Bracelet->Opal Bracelet. Headgear is either Cap or Ribbon.
Hand coverings are Gloves or ProRing. And eventually, you get a ProCape to
fill your shield slot (ditch this if you ever feel a need for magic-casting
armor, i.e. the Black Shirt).
From when you get it until you get a Black Shirt/ProCape, the Zeus Gauntlet
should fill the empty spot in your armor list. The Defense Sword, the Heal
Staff, the Mage Staff, and the Thor Hammer (even if you can't equip it) fill
your weapon box.
Your final equipment:
+------------------------+
| Heal Staff |
| Defense |
|E-Masmune |
| Thor Hammer/Mage Staff|
+------------------------+
|E-ProCape/Black Shirt |
|E-ProRing |
|E-Opal Bracelet |
|E-Ribbon |
+------------------------+
This will give you an absorb of either 43 or 51, and only subtract 3 or 5
from your evade.
With 4 White Mages, you might do this:
+---------------+--------------------------+---------------+---------------+
| Thor Hammer | Bane Sword | Mage Staff | Defense |
| Light Axe | Light Axe | Heal Staff | E-Masmune |
|E-Silver Hammer|E-Silver Hammer |E-Silver Hammer| |
| Wizard Staff | | | |
+---------------+--------------------------+---------------+---------------+
| Heal Helmet | Black Shirt | White Shirt |E-ProCape |
|E-Ribbon |E-ProCape, Zeus, or Heal H|E-Ribbon |E-Ribbon |
|E-ProRing |E-ProRing |E-ProRing |E-ProRing |
|E-Gold Bracelet|E-Gold Bracelet |E-Gold Bracelet|E-Opal Bracelet|
+---------------+--------------------------+---------------+---------------+
Of course, pick the mage with the highest Strength stat to wield the
Masmune. With White Wizards, you can equip the Thor Hammer, and you can
replace a Gold Bracelet with the White Shirt (and thus open up a slot for
another magic-casting item or a ProCape).
MAGIC
=====
This lists the magic I would bother to buy. Starred magics can only be
learned by Wizards. Parenthesized magics are not particularly useful, and I
would skip them unless you want to waste money.
ONE WHITE MAGE GAME | NORMAL GAME (for comparison)
-----------------------+---------------------
1 RUSE CURE HARM | CURE HARM
2 MUTE | INVS MUTE
3 CUR2 HRM2 | CUR2 HRM2
4 (AICE) | (AICE)
5 CUR3 HRM3 | [Any 3 of the 4, thanks to the HEL2 bug]
6 *EXIT (INV2) | INV2 *EXIT
7 *CUR4 *HRM4 or HEL3 | *CUR4 *HRM4
8 *FADE (*WALL) | *LIF2 *FADE *WALL
RUSE is essential to winning many of the game's battles, since the enemies
can't kill you if they always miss. For the most part, two RUSEs will keep
anything except critical hits (and magic) from hitting you. INVS only does
half as well as RUSE, so it's less than half as useful, and its selling
point over RUSE (cast on one ally instead of only the caster) doesn't matter
here. INV2 does the same as INVS to everyone, and costs 50 times more. But
INVS/INV2 would be useful if you relax rule #1. Yes, it is possible to win
without RUSE, but that's quite a bit more difficult.
HRM3 (and HRM2 to a lesser extent) is mildly helpful if you go after the
Power Peninsula and find some Zombulls, and quite helpful for the Vampire in
the Earth cave and for Lich. As for HARM, it's up to you but you don't
really see enough undead that early that you want to fight. Get it if you
really want to. HRM4 could be skipped as well, it's up to you.
Why nothing for level 4? None of it is that useful, unless you want AICE.
Sure, you could buy PURE, or you could buy 53 PURE potions.
Speaking of AICE, i never seem to use any of the elemental defense spells.
If anything, i might get AICE for the Ice Cave, but wasting the chance of
running might not be worth it. AFIR would be nice if it worked against NUKE
or NUCLEAR, but it doesn't, and by that time you have plenty of Ribbons and
maybe WALL.
Level 5 presents a minor dilemma in a normal game, since all 4 spells can be
useful. You would always want LIFE and CUR3, and HRM3 or HEL2 depends on
whether you use healing magic often or if you would rather kill undead. With
only one living Light warrior, however, neither LIFE nor HEL2 are terribly
useful useful.
LIFE and LIF2 are useless. You can't revive yourself, and the whole point of
a "one white mage" challenge is that you don't revive the other three. I
suppose if you really wanted to be cruel, you could revive the three Level 1
fighters with no experience just in time to fight Chaos, and watch them die
of fright ;) Of course, if you allow yourself more than one White Mage
the ability to revive people becomes infinitely more useful. Same for HEAL
spells, the CUREs at the same levels do much more for your one character.
So why "or HEL3" for Level 7, if all the HEAL spells are worse than their
corresponding CUREs? If you're not getting class change, you can't learn
CUR4 so you're not getting said corresponding CURE spell. So you may as well
buy HEL3 in case you can ever use 48-96 HP and you're out of CUR3s. If you
*are* getting class change, definitely buy CUR4 instead since it's at least
18 times better.
WALL is useless for anyone with a Ribbon equipped, since the Ribbon protects
against everything WALL does. For the technically inclined, Ribbon sets your
elemental defense byte to FF, while WALL sets your elemental defense byte to
FF--in other words, having either one is the same as having both. So unless
you have all 4 Light Warriors, you may as well skip WALL.
A NOTE ON EMULATOR SAVESTATES
=============================
If you're using an emulator and allow yourself savestates, these are a few
points to keep in mind:
* The number of steps to the next battle, which battle that will be, who
gets to strike first, and the number of each enemy in the battle (where
that is variable) are rather deterministic. Particularly, if you
savestate, then walk 3 steps and get attacked, you will always get
attacked by the same monsters 3 steps after loading that savestate. And
if they strike first and RUB you, they will always strike first and RUB
you.
- However, on the world map you can always try changing attack domains.
Battle #3 might be much easier 3 steps to the north than 3 steps to the
east, if you're near a boundary.
- Boat 'steps' count for 1/3 a walking step, BTW. And sea monsters are
different, so perhaps an easier battle.
- River monsters are also different, and so possibly something easier.
- You could tent and reset, that changes at least the battle you'll face
if not the number of steps.
- If you're near a spiked square, jumping into that battle will at least
change some of the parameters if not the battle number.
* What happens IN the battle, for example missing, damages, critical hits,
stats gained at level up, the order everyone attacks in, and such are
determined after your last action is selected. So if you savestate, then
select fight, and get critically hit and killed, just reload and things
may well go differently. This can also help you if you're going for max
Str: savestate just before you hit fight to kill the last enemy, and keep
reloading until you get what you want.
- This works because the game is constantly cycling through its random
numbers while it's waiting for you to decide what to do.
=========================================================================
Legal Crap: This document is Copyright (c) 2004 by me, anomie. Do whatever
you want with this, just acknowledge where you got the info (see the email
address above) and don't charge for it. If for some reason you need to
contact me and the email address at the top doesn't work, curse all spammers
and try the snes9x forums.
For anyone who cares, I've read through the White Mage Party Guide and the
various Solo guides on gamefaqs before trying this, and I've referred to
some of the comprehensive guides for treasure locations. Yes, I've seen the
other (incomplete) One White Mage Guide, but there's much there that I have
bettered and not much that isn't elsewhere. Then again, there's not much
here that isn't elsewhere either besides the savestate info and some of the
spell chances.
Special thanks to BSulpher's walkthrough (as my general walkthrough more
than any specific tips) and Patbuns17's Character Lists (for many specific
numbers).
=========================================================================
