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Vagrant Story Stat Wheel Guide

By Graham Moore AKA Redefiner ([email protected])

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I was surprised to discover that a guide about the stat wheels hasn't
already been written. It's my first FAQ and there's bound to be some
mistakes or important omissions. Let me know if there is.

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Version History

2005-09-25 – Wrote first version of the guide.

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Contents

1) What is the Stat Wheel?
2) What Determines Which Stat Wheel You Get?
3) The Stat Wheels
4) Wheel Contents Summarised
5) How to Manipulate the Wheels
6) Advice and Further Info

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1) What is the Stat Wheel?

The stat wheel is the ‘roulette’ wheel that appears after you have
defeated a boss. It allows you to increase a stat by pressing Circle
at the right moment. Chances are it hasn’t caught your eye before now
as anything significant, as regardless of when you press Circle, you
always seem to come out with a random stat. It turns out however, that
it is almost anything but random.

There are, in fact, three different wheels; the “STR”, “INT” and “AGL”
wheel. Each one has 16 stat increases on it, though some of them are
the same, and the stats always appear in a set order.

If you’re aiming to max all your stats to 999 and finding all except
HP difficult to raise, or if you just want to be able to have more
control over which stat you raise, it’s helpful to know how the wheels
work.

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2) What Determines Which Stat Wheel You Get?

Which wheel appears after you defeat a boss depends on which stat out
of STR, INT and AGL was lowest before you fought the boss. The game
goes by the “ORG” stats, not the “EQP” stats. That is to say, it is
the stats you have when no weapon equipped that determines which wheel
you get. If you have two stats that are joint lowest (e.g. STR and INT
are both 100 and AGL is 101) then one is chosen randomly out of the
lowest two.

Your HP and MP do not affect which wheel you get. Even if you managed
to get your HP lower than your other stats, you would still get one of
these three wheels.

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3) The Stat Wheels

Remember these lists join up at the top and bottom. The stats appear in
the order listed below, but the wheel may start on any stat. I merely
listed them putting the rarest stat increase at the top.

If your lowest stat is STR you get the “STR Wheel”:-

STR + 3
HP + 4
HP + 4
MP + 1
STR + 2
HP + 3
MP + 2
INT + 1
HP + 4
AGL + 1
STR + 2
HP + 3
HP + 5
STR + 1
MP + 2
HP + 3

If your lowest stat is INT you get the “INT Wheel”: -

INT + 3
AGL + 1
MP + 2
HP + 4
STR + 1
INT + 2
HP + 4
HP + 5
HP + 3
INT + 1
HP + 4
MP + 1
HP + 3
HP + 3
INT + 2
HP + 4

If your lowest stat is AGL you get the “AGL Wheel”: -

AGL + 3
HP + 3
MP + 1
AGL + 1
MP + 2
HP + 4
AGL + 2
INT + 1
HP + 4
STR + 1
HP + 3
MP + 2
AGL + 2
HP + 5
HP + 3
HP + 4

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4) Wheel Contents Summarised

Each wheel has:

HP + 5 x 1
HP + 4 x 3
HP + 3 x 3
MP + 2 x 1
MP + 1 x 1
STR + 1 x 1
INT + 1 x 1
AGL + 1 x 1

But, the STR wheel also has the extra stats;

STR + 3 x 1
STR + 2 x 2
MP + 2 x 1

The INT wheel also has the extra stats;

INT + 3 x 1
INT + 2 x 2
HP + 4 x 1

And the AGL wheel also has the extra stats:

AGL + 3 x 1
AGL + 2 x 2
MP + 2 x 1

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5) How to Manipulate the Wheels

i) Letting it Roll

* Make a note of what your lowest stat was before you deal the
finishing blow to the boss. This will allow you to anticipate which
wheel you get. If you fail to do this, you will have to work out which
wheel you have visually. The obvious giveaway is if you see “AGL + 3”
or “AGL + 2” fly past, then you know you have the AGL wheel.

* Make a note of which stat appears immediately after you are given
your Riskbreaker rank. Also make note of the stat that come after it.
This will allow you to determine where the wheel started from.

* Refer to the wheels listed above and count 5 stats down from the
first stat. This stat will be the stat the wheel will land on if you
just let it roll.

Example 1: Let’s say your STR was the lowest stat before fighting a
boss. After defeating it and getting your Riskbreaker rank, let’s say
that the stat that appears on the wheel first is STR + 2, immediately
followed by AGL + 1. Look at the STR stat wheel and find where AGL + 1
appears above STR + 2. If you count five spaces down from STR + 2, the
stat is HP + 3. So if you let the wheel roll without pressing Circle,
it will land on HP + 3.

Example 2: Let’s say your INT was the lowest stat before fighting a
boss. After defeating it and getting your Riskbreaker rank, let’s say
that the stat that appears on the wheel first is HP + 3, immediately
followed by HP + 3. Look at the INT stat wheel and find where HP + 3
appears above HP + 3. If you count five spaces down from the bottom
HP + 3, the stat is MP + 2. So if you let the wheel roll without
pressing Circle, it will land on MP + 2.

ii) Pressing Circle

* If you decide that you don’t want it to land on the stat you will get
by letting it roll, then you will have to press Circle at the right
moment. You have to press Circle on the stat 7 stats above the one you
want.

Using Example 1 above: HP + 3 is an undesirable stat as far as I am
concerned. I want it to land on STR + 3. So counting seven up from
this, you get AGL + 1. So I have to press Circle as AGL + 1 flies past
on the stat wheel to get STR + 3.

* This requires you to have speedy eyes and even speedier reactions.
It may seem impossible at first, and it does take a bit of practice,
but I can usually get it to land on the stat I want 70% of the time.

* If you keep missing, you either need to press Circle a bit earlier
or a bit later.

* A good one to go for is AGL + 1 on the INT wheel. You have to hit
the HP + 4 that appears after the MP + 1. But if you press too early
or too late, you will get INT + 3 or MP + 2 instead, both of which are
good stat increases.

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6) Advice and Further Info

* A full revolution of the wheel once it has sped up takes 1.75 seconds.

* The wheel spins for one minute and ten seconds before stopping.

* My advice is to avoid aiming to raise your HP. If you’re intending
to max your stats, then your HP will inevitably reach 999 first, as
your HP is the highest stat at the game's start and Elixir of Queens
is the most common elixir in the game. Also, raising your HP by accident
by hitting the wrong stat on the wheel is very common, as nearly half
the stats are HP increases. It’s a pain having gotten your HP to 999
and then getting “HP + 4” on a stat wheel when you want to increase
your MP. As far as I’m concerned, getting STR + 1 is better than
getting HP + 5.

* If you find one wheel easier to raise your MP on than the others,
you can aim to get that wheel as often as possible.

Example: Let’s say you can nearly always get MP + 2 on the AGL wheel.
Deliberately raise your STR and INT and keep your AGL at least 4 points
behind the second lowest one. Say your STR is 320 and your INT is 315,
then don’t use any Volares or Elixirs of Dragoons if it means your AGL
will go higher than 311 – this is because you might hit AGL + 3 by
accident and lose your choice of wheel. Wait until after you have
defeated Nightmare before using the Elixirs.

* Stat wheels do not appear for every boss. Each of the following
bosses provide a stat wheel: -

Wine Cellar: Minotaur, Dullahan
Catacombs: None
Sanctum: Golem, Dragon
Town Centre West: Duane + 2 Knights
All City walls: None
Abandoned Mines B1: Wyvern, Fire Elemental, Ogre
Undercity West: Giant Crab, Dark Elemental
Snowfly Forest: Earth Dragon, Grissom + Dark Crusader
The Keep: None
Snowfly Forest East: None
Abandoned Mines B2: Air Elemental, Earth Elemental, Sky Dragon
Town Centre East: None
Undercity East: Lich, Nightstalker
Limestone Quarry: Water Elemental, Ogre Lord, Snow Dragon
Temple of Kiltia: Kali
Forgotten Pathway: None
Escapeway: None
Iron Maiden B1: Iron Golem
Iron Maiden B2: None
Iron Maiden B3: Asura
Great Cathedral B1: Marid, Ifreet, Iron Crab
Great Cathedral L1: Djinn
Great Cathedral L2: Nightmare
Great Cathedral L3: Dao
Great Cathedral L4: None

That's a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 29 stat wheels per game.

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This guide has been written for www.gamefaqs.com
No part of this FAQ may be reproduced on any format without my
permission.

Vagrant Story is Copyright © 2000 Squaresoft Ltd.

FAQ Copyright 2005 © Graham Moore AKA Redefiner

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