Breath of Fire : Dragon Quarter - Tips and Tricks v1.0
------------------------------------------------------
by Elkayhm -
[email protected]
Copyright Elkayhm 2003
==================
Version History
==================
SEP 06 2003 Version 1.0
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Table of Contents
===================
1) Foreword
2) Dragon Run
A) Bosch Run
B) Zeno Run
C) AP and HP Run
D) Longfoot Run
E) Zenny Run
F) PowerMeal/Protein/Juju/Reflex Run
3) Ultimate Equipments
4) The Ultimate Trick
A) The Trick
B) Behind the Scenes
C) Optimum Save File
5) Getting 1/4 D-Ratio
6) Final Words
7) Frequently Asked Questions
==========
Foreword
==========
Breathe of Fire : Dragon Quarter is an entirely new game. Unlike its
previous installments, approaching this game the same way as you would
with other RPGs like Final Fantasy X would be a big mistake. If it
really were to be compared with, the gameplay resembles more of a
dungeon-crawling game like Diablo.
The intention of this FAQ was never meant to be a fully comprehensive
walkthrough. Instead, it is recommended that it is to be used as a
complementary guide to what's already written by other wonderful FAQ
writers out there. If you're looking for :
1) Complete Walkthrough
a) Cyril's Full Walkthrough and Guide
b) Billy Lee's FAQ/Walkthrough
c) David Kovaz's Strategy Guide and Walkthrough
2) D-Ratio guide
- Kouli's Breath of Fire V D-Ratio FAQ
4) Other FAQs
- All can be downloaded for free, thanks to Gamefaqs.
http://www.gamefaqs.com
Look under Playstation 2, Breath of Fire:Dragon Quarter - FAQs.
As a beginner, you should at least play the game for a while. If
you're stuck in a situation like you couldn't find the way out, refer to
the full walkthroughs by other authors. You will always find your
answers there. If you want more comprehensive instructions, you may
want to seek help from fellow gamers all around the world in the
discussion board. Only when you have run out of help, constantly having
to restart the game and need some serious tips to get more powerful,
should you continue reading this. It's because in what follows, I will
assume that you have some basic knowledge of the game. I will not waste
time explaining the difference between D-Dive, D-Dash and D-Counter etc.
Sorry if it sounded harsh, but saying this will save time of both yours
and mine. If you're ready, let's move on.
============
Dragon Run
============
If you have prior knowledge of other FAQs, you would have probably
come across tips on how to gain experience quickly by exploiting the
SOL:Restore. This is what I would refer to as 'Dragon run' for easy
reference. But little is mentioned on how it should be done and
where the most rewarding place to do so. Instead of repeating the
basics which is already covered by others, I'll get straight to the
point. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please spend
some time reading some other great FAQs available on the Internet
which cover the subject more intensively.
If you wish to come up with your own Dragon run tactics, you are most
welcomed to do so. To get you started, here are some few guidelines.
First of all, in all Dragon Run, there must be something that
motivates you to do the run in the first place. The main obvious reason
would be to gain more exp. But there would be other reasons as well
like getting more zenny, more stat-boosting items, rare dropped/stolen
items from monsters etc. Whichever it is, once you see something you
like, next is to determine the nearest starting and finishing point.
An ideal starting point can be anywhere with a telecorder, preferably
with the ID girl around so that you can retrieve things like Gold Exp.,
Present and Tracker which can facilitate your run.
The finishing point doesn't require you to have a telecorder around
but the ID girl may be needed. You will need to store all the important
items back into the locker. It will also make a great finishing point
if the item girl is there as well so that you can sell off excessive
stuffs.
Luckily, despite having said all that, the three main factors in
determining the ideal starting and finishing points - the telecorder,
the ID girl and the item girl - often comes together. So most of the
time, the starting and the finishing point often end up to be in the
exact same place.
The steps for Dragon run will almost always be the same.
1) load the game
2) get items from the locker
3) head out to the designated area
4) transform into Dragon
5) kill everything in sight
6) destroy all boxes
7) pick up all items
8) go to finish point
9) store items in the locker
10) sell off everything else
11) do NOT save
12) SOL:Restore
You know the drill. But to save time, there are times where you may
want to skip unnecessary battles. Try not to stretch a session for too
long. 5 minutes a run is the most ideal. So in planning out a Dragon
run best suited for you, you may want to remember this formula - to get
maximum rewards in the shortest amount of time.
To be able to do that, here's some tips:
1) Always separate your gameplay into two sessions - one is to do the
run, the other is to do the actual walkthrough. Only in the actual
walkthrough that you keep a watch on your D-Counter. Try to avoid
transforming into a Dragon so that you'll have plenty left in the
end.
2) Whereas when doing the run, D-dash as much as possible to save time.
3) Boxes can be categorised as common and rare. Common boxes often
drop things like zenny, party experience, curative and healing items
etc. Rare boxes however are more profitable - items can be as good
like stat-boosting items and Gold XP - depends on the colour of the
boxes.
4) To maximize party XP, finish up a battle in 1 round - in the extra
turn is even better. For this purpose, always have a PETS item
with you - to flock all the monsters together and then finish them
off.
5) When you know you're reaching a save point, try not to break any of
the boxes along the way. Remember this rule - save then break.
The boxes will always be there, with different items, if you
choose to SOL:Restore every time after the save.
I have developed a range of different examples according to the
principles outlined above, just for your convenience. Hope it helps.
(The names sounded silly, I know :P. But it's just for easy reference
to be used in the rest of the guide)
Legend :
S Point - starting point
F Point - finishing point
Min time - the amount of time taken, as can be seen in the game
Max reward - all possible experience, items that you can get along the
way; doesn't mean you will get it all the time, it MAY
just happen if you're extremely lucky.
Instructions - general pointers on how to get from S point to F point
Comments - extra stuffs that you should know
---------
Bosch Run
---------
S Point : End Sector Borough
F Point : End Sector Borough
Min time : 5 minutes
Max reward : Fang(Bosch);
6000z(Bosch);
minor rewards from his goons if you can steal from them;
600 xp - 240 party xp (destroy all in 1 round)
6 white boxes - 4 common, 2 rare (discounting the ones
where the rustphages are - they are commoners anyway)
Instructions :
At the end of the battle, you would end up in Lift : Lowsector 1 when
you wake up. Getting to the finishing point can be tricky. Look at the
radar - to reach to the finishing point, you must take the upper left
path and cover quite some distance to get there. But that's what D-dash
is for. When you encounter those rustphages and bats, don't waste your
time and just D-Dash past them. Eventually you will end up being in the
End Sector Borough again.
Comments :
It is most recommended for beginners. This should be the first time
you get familiar with everything involved in doing a Dragon Run -
Dragon transformation, AP cost and D-Counter rise for each action taken
etc. - as at the end of it you will end up with 00.00% in D-Counter.
So no fear about screwing up your D-Counter.
The exp. you can get from here is pathetic, but the 6000 zenny reward
is perhaps the main purpose of doing this run. No other boss in the
game is as generous as Bosch, so you might want to do a few rounds to be
able to afford more decent equipments for your characters. For first
timer, you may also want to stick around to get one of the kind skill
from Bosch - Fang. If you're lucky, you may also get two different stat-
boosting items from the two rare white boxes in the area where you woke
up.
--------
Zeno Run
--------
S Point : Frozen Road 4F
F Point : Frozen Road 4F
Min time : 5 minutes
Max reward : minor rewards from enemies if you can steal from them,
Violet Blade - dropped by Captain Zeno
First Battle : 3981 xp - 5772 party xp;
Second Battle : 1026 xp - 102 party xp;
Third Battle : 3840 xp - 1728 party xp;
Total : 8847 xp - 7602 party xp;
With 20 G.Exp : 17694 xp - 15204 party xp;
6 white boxes - 5 common, 1 rare;
5 yellow boxes - 3 common, 2 save token
Instructions :
Upon reaching Frozen Road 4F, try not to break any box. But kill
all the cows in the area right before the save point. This is also
where you will find the rare white box. So everytime you do a Zeno run,
first make a brief detour - get back to this room, smash the box and
grab the item. Only then make your way to the battle ground - Storage.
After the battle, grab the Violet Blade on the floor - should sell
well for some zenny. Then go to the upper left room for the 5 yellow
boxes.
Retrace your way back to the Frozen Road 4F save point, store the
items and then SOL:Restore. Don't forget to D-Dash.
Comments :
This is where you get some serious boost in experience. If it is
your first time you may want to toy around - stealing the stuffs from
the enemies - which would take longer that it should. But once you
got all the skills and items that you want, it's time to get serious
and try to finish every fight in one round - to maximise exp. earned.
At this point it is highly recommended that you have a couple of
Gold Exp. with you.
-------------
AP and HP Run
-------------
S Point : Corplab 5F
F Point : Corplab 5F
Min time : 4 minutes
Max reward : 10 white boxes - 10 common
1 yellow box - save token
Drillbug and GooSap. : 552 xp - 833 party xp
5 AP plus plus minor rewards from GooSap.
Agrosser and Frogressor : 867 xp - 1335 party xp
8 HP plus plus minor reward from Frogressor
skill:Greetings
Instructions :
Upon reaching Corplab 5F, try not to break any box. Save first,
then only break them. The one yellow box is in the only other room on
Corplab 5F. Before you head out, you may want to buy a Confushroom or
two from the Item girl.
Go to north, make your way to Frozen Road 1F. Turn right and you'll
come across 5 Drillbug and 2 Goosapphire. Throw a Confushroom at them
and see them flock together. Engage one of them and start the fight.
If you kill all of them at once, you'll get the max exp.
You can stop now, or you can choose to go on and fight the Aggrossers
in the room to your right. There are actually 8 Aggrossers and 1
Frogressor so you can see the room is quite packed. It's hard to engage
all of them into a fight - the best I did was to destroy 6 Agrossers and 1
Frogressor, which leads to the xp data as you can see from above.
Retrace your way back to the Corplab 5F save point, store the items
and then SOL:Restore. Don't forget to D-Dash.
Comments :
This is the best way I can think of in getting lots HP and AP plus.
Possibly 2 HP plus and 1 AP plus per minute in average, that's pretty
good.
Since the main purpose here is to get the stat-boosting item - HP and
AP plus, dragon transformation may not be necessary. But to increase
your chance of getting more HP and AP plus, make sure you have Present in
your inventory.
------------
Longfoot Run
------------
S Point : Corplab Entrance
F Point : Corplab Entrance
Min time : 3 minutes
Max reward : 7 white boxes - 7 common
10 Buzz : 42 party xp each, total 420 party xp
10 Longfoot
Instructions :
Go past the door and you will come to a hallway. Look at the radar,
turn left(usually, it's Ryu's right). Take a short detour to the room
on Ryu's right. There are 3 common white boxes. After that, continue
on and take the lift to Corplab 2F. Walk straight then turn right.
Once past the door, take the first door to your right. You should be
able to see a white box there. Past that, you will usually encounter
your first Buzz. If Lin is strong enough, she can kill the Buzz
without having to engage in a turn-based battle. Not only does it
saves time, it will net you max party xp. In the next room, there will
be two Rafflesias. I suggest that you D-Dash past them. Waste of
time. Go to the next door and you will see the rest of the Buzz. Kill
them all, go to the next room. Then turn right, you'll be in a room
with another 4 common white boxes. Exit the room and you will end up in
a familiar main corridor. D-Dash your way back to the Corplab entrance,
store your items and SOL:Restore. Phew..
Comments :
It's complicated, I know. But you'll be amazed at how many Longfoot
that you can get from a single run. Only do this if Lin is strong
enough. If not, it would take much longer than it should.
Since the main purpose here is to get the stat-boosting item -
Longfoot, dragon transformation may not be necessary. But to increase
your chance of getting more Longfoot make sure you have Present in your
inventory.
---------
Zenny Run
---------
S Point : Corplab Entrance
F Point : Corplab Entrance
Min time : 2 minutes
Max reward : 10 white boxes - 9 common, 1 rare
Kansphage: 102 xp - 13 party xp
10,000z
Instructions :
Basically the same if you have been doing Longfoot run, except that
you don't stop until you reach Corplab 3F North. There you will meet
with Kansphage. The trick is to kill it in ONE blow. If Lin is strong
enough, have her use Shatter! in close range. That should do it. If
not have Ryu turn into Dragon and kill it. But the Dragon
transformation would drag the overall time. Beware.
Comments :
It's the best way to earn zenny early on, if you know your way in the
Corplab. Although there are two Kansphage in the same room, getting to
the other one requires you to defeat some Goos along the way. To me,
it's not worth the effort. But break the boxes though, there should be
at least one that contains a stat-boosting item.
---------------------------------
PowerMeal/Protein/Juju/Reflex Run
---------------------------------
S Point : Midsector Mall
F Point : Midsector Mall
Min time : 1 minute
Max reward : 12 white boxes - 10 common, 2 rare
1 yellow box - save token
Instructions :
This is the same place that you will encounter the boss Tantra +
Deegon + Geegagis (depends on how you play it). The boxes can be found
in the area after the fight, before reaching the Midsector Mall. To do
this run, don't break any of the the boxes yet. Save your game in
Midsector Mall, then return here to collect the goodies. After that,
return to Midsector Mall and store your items, SOL:Restore. Since there
are no enemies around, you can do this REALLY fast. Don't forget to
D-Dash.
Comments :
This is the best way that I can of to get other types of stat-
boosting items - Power Meal, Reflex, Juju and Protein. 2 stat-boosting
items in 1 minute - seems good enough, but the problem is the items you
get are totally random, which makes it difficult if you're only looking
for some specific ones. My advice would be - if you didn't see anything
you like, simply quit the game by using 'QUIT' and start again. Don't
bother going back to Midsector Mall.
=====================
Ultimate Equipments
=====================
Giving a Legend Blade + 9 to a level 1 Ryu can easily kill a fully
grown Deathcow without taking damage. That basically describes how
important it is to have the right equipments. Since equipments are one
of the few things that carries over to a new game, it might be worth to
go the extra mile to get some of the rarest equipments in the game as
soon as possible.
You can find the listing of all the equipments from other FAQs. At
first I was thinking about making a list of the ultimate equipments
for every character. But later I decided that the whole thing is
really rather subjective. So instead, we'll just discuss some of the
issues when deciding which equipment deserves a place in your inventory.
For weapons - Although it is only natural to choose weapon with the
highest damage as the main weapon, the bonus to accuracy
shouldn't be neglected either. Remember, the damage
value is only meaningful when you can actually land a hit.
For shields - The benefits from equipping a shield often comes from
the special effects it bestows, not from the defense value
it provides.
Warning : Rumors - read at your own risk
One special mention that I would want to make is Soul
Shell/Ring/Ribbon. Little is mentioned about these
wonderful babies. First of all, the shield doesn't
provide any defense value, it only has a special skill
pre-threaded onto it. It's called Willguard. It vaguely
states that its defensive value changes as HP does. What
it truly wanted to say is, the lesser HP you have, the
stronger the shield will be. Don't quote me for this
because I haven't done some serious testing on these yet.
But from what I can observe, the shield has a very direct
relationship with the wielder's HP. It seems that if
let's say Ryu has only 10% HP left, the damage received
will be also reduced to 10%! That's 90% damage reduction.
Now I think this is a very interesting fact. Since the
game provided a way to make it possible to have low HP at
all times, immediately the one skill that may be the
motivation of it all - reversal - crossed my mind. Now,
reversal is a skill that works according to the same
principle - the less HP you have, the more damage you
deal. Although I can't say with certainty right now, if
reversal works regardless of the enemies' defense, maybe
this is the solution for defeating those annoying Duke
Lords in Kokon Horay! Think about it.
For armors - The variety of armors often comes from the various status
abnormalities that each can protect from. But some
armors also provide a significant boost on movement which
proves to be useful in some occasion that requires lots
of movement. So interchanging both types of armor can
usually lead to a winning strategy.
====================
The Ultimate Trick
====================
For those who still find the game difficult after knowing all of the
afore-mentioned and yet helped little. But know that this is by no mean
that I encourage any kind of cheating especially in a fantastic game
like BOF:DQ. But believe me when I say that the reason I'm sharing
this tip with you all is that I hope to enlighten as many people as
possible into liking this game more by taking a portion of frustrations
out of their gameplay. If you despise any form of cheating and get
disturbed just by knowing other players are taking such cheap shortcut
while playing the game, please do not read further.
Although I do wish to claim that I'm the first to make this
discovery :P, I also know that plagiarism is something that only a few
FAQ writers can prevent. Asking to be given credits for it is simply too
much to ask for. But please, if some of you find that this is a cool
trick and want to include it in your guide, do it tactfully. Write it
in your own words so that people won't notice it, or better, improvise
it so that more people can benefit from it.
Enough of that, let's get on with it. First of all, I have to admit
that claiming this tip as the 'ultimate trick' is a bit of exaggeration.
But hey, I got you interested this far, didn't I? So as not to
disappoint, I'll try to explain it as best as I can.
The Trick
---------
1) Have a save game in your memory card. The optimum save game should
be fairly levelled up, with a few stat-boosting items of your choice
in the locker(not in the inventory/backpack), and a good amount of
Party Exp still unused. Also preferably, the girl who identifies
stuffs is anywhere within reach. Most important of all, there must
be at least one save token in your inventory.
2) Load the game as usual.
3) Before doing anything, save the game by selecting 'QUIT' in the game
menu. The game will prompt you to make a soft-save. Do that.
Automatically, you will be booted out to the main screen where you
first started. Select 'LOAD GAME'.
4) You will now have two identical saves in your memory card, correct?
Load the one on the top (the hard-save, NOT the one that you've just
made).
5) Now, apply all the Party Exp without hesitation and use up all the
stat-boosting items in your inventory. You can also sell all of
your equipments that you may have with you if you wish to make some
money as well. After doing all that, save your game by using the
telecorder (this will use up a save token). At this point, you may
think it is crazy to do so, but trust me, I know what I'm doing.
6) Return to the game menu. While pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. You
will be given two choices - SOL:Restart and SOL:Restore. Select
the one at the bottom (SOL:Restore), and you will be prompted to
save the game again. Select 'YES'.
7) You will be back at main screen yet again. This time, select 'LOAD
GAME' and load up the soft-save instead (the one at the bottom,
that will disappear after being loaded).
8) Without doing anything, go to the game menu and while pressing L2,
select 'GIVE UP'. Select 'SOL:Restore' just like before, and select
'YES' when prompted to overwrite the hard-save.
9) If everything is done correctly, load the game this time and you
will notice that all of the Party Exp, stat-boosting items and all
of your equipments are all nicely in place just like before, as if
nothing happened. But run a check on your status, you will notice
that you have indeed gained a few levels, gained boosts on some
stats and ended up with more zenny that you can spend. So what
does this mean? With all those things intact, you can repeat the
process as many times as you want until you get really sick of it.
So, ladies and gentlemen, you have just successfully done the
cheapest of all the cheap tricks in the whole video game history
ever, the omnipotent duplication trick!!!
Oh, don't feel too bad about it if this is your first time. Almost
everyone who played Final Fantasy Tactics has done it, abused it and not
feeling a bit ashamed about it. If it comforts you, well this cheat is
actually different from applying codes with CodeBreaker or the likes, in
the sense that if the developer from Capcom(the people who made this
game) were to run a check on your save game(yeah, as if that will ever
happen), you will not be sued for tampering with the game. It's because
it's completely legitimate, done within the game environment itself and
probably only a few people who can actually prove that you didn't
actually spend that amount of time to reach those godly stats. So
don't worry that you will end up being in Capcom's ban-list that will
prevent you from buying all of their future kick-*ss games :).
And don't let the complexity of it intimidates you either. Once you
get the hang of it, you can easily repeat the whole process in less than
two minutes. Although I can't offer you ways to lower the D-counter,
I hope that this trick will relieve some of the tension that you may
have, especially for the fear for the rapid rise of the D-counter - by
making you much stronger and thus reducing the number of occasion where
you must transform into a Dragon in order to win.
Behind the Scenes
-----------------
For those of you who might be interested on how I come across this trick,
or if you are simply fascinated by how Capcom could have overlooked this
loophole and wish to learn more.
The basics :
1) What exactly does a save file do?
Simply put, if you play a game for a while and decide to save, some
information or should we say the progress that you've made thus far
will be saved onto a save file. The information stored actually
varies from game to game. If you wish to know what kind of
information is stored in a BOF:DQ save file, you can actually see
some of it on the save file itself as if you want to load it.
2) What does SOL:Restore/Restart do?
This is where the confusion revolves around. Well, let's look at
this way. Let's start with SOL:Restore, since this is the one you
will be using most of the time. When you SOL:Restore, the game is
giving you the choice to make a save. That's right, it's basically
a saving process but with a twist. You are only allowed to retain
a selected few information of the progress you have made. This is
actually a mean to penalize you for not thinking carefully enough.
So unlike a normal save, you only get to retain the following
information.
a) Party Exp
b) Equipments equipped
c) Skills learned
d) Amount of Zenny
e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack)
f) All other equipments stored in the locker
Of course there are other information like game time, D-ratio etc.
that are stored as well but they are not the primary concern here.
What's important now is what NOT stored:
a) The percentage on the D-Counter
b) The exp/level and stats of your characters
c) All the items in your backpack
d) The game progress
3) If those information is not stored, what will I get once I load the
save file?
a) The percentage will be the same as the last time
you make a hard save. That's right, it does NOT
matter what D-Counter that you may have at the
time you SOL:Restore, it takes the whatever value
as can be seen on the save file and use that
instead when saving. Thus, this makes the
fundamental principle behind the Dragon run -
where you can transform and abuse the dragon
form regardless of the D-counter that you may
have heard about.
b) The exp/level and stats remain unchanged as in
the last save. So any party experience and
stat-boosting items that you used up on your
characters will be lost forever.
c) No matter what you may have in your inventory at
the moment you SOL:Restore, you will lose ALL of
it and replaced by the same set of items every
time.
i) Heal Kit X 5
ii) Tonic X 1
iii) Save Token X 1
d) The game progress is the same as the last time you
hard save. But there is an exception to this
rule - the advancement of the fairy colony. Not
too sure about Kokon Horay though, but I'll get
into that later.
Get it so far? As you can see, SOL:Restore is actually trying to
penalize you by taking away all of the items in your inventory/
backpack; but at the same time, giving you one more chance to make
better use of your D-Counter. It's not too scary now, is it?
But it's important that you understand it so far - try to remember
what carries over and what's not, because here comes the more
difficult parts.
4) So what about SOL:Restart?
It's basically the same as SOL:Restore except that you start at the
beginning of the game with a 00.00% on the D-Counter. Everything
else remains the same. You also get to see some cutscenes if you
progressed far enough, but that's not important.
5) What's the difference between a soft-save and a hard-save?
Well, to start, one is in yellow and the other is in red. You can
only make a hard-save where there's a Telecorder around, whereas
you can make a soft-save anywhere in the game. The only real
difference - the one that truly matters is that when you load a
soft-save, it will be deleted. Meaning, you can never load from a
soft-save twice. Once you load it, it's gone. Other than that,
it's a perfectly healthy... err... save file.
The application :
Now that the basics is covered, let's go through the trick one step at a
time.
1) Have a save game in your memory card.
2) Load the game as usual.
3) Before doing anything, save the game by selecting 'QUIT' in the game
menu. The game will prompt you to make a soft-save. Do that.
Automatically, you will be booted out to the main screen where you
first started. Select 'LOAD GAME'.
Explanation : This step is to make a backup copy of the save file
that you're going to manipulate with. Since the game
does not allow you to make a separate save file (at
least not from the game menu), we will have to make
use of soft-save instead. As explained earlier, a
soft-save acts just like a normal save file, so it
can be used as a back-up as long as you don't load
it up unnecessarily.
Example : Both hard-save and soft-save
a) Party Exp - 300000
b) Equipments equipped
Ryu : Legend Blade
Nina : Divine Coat
Lin : Grenade
c) Skills learned
Ryu : Side Slash
d) Amount of Zenny - 1000
e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack)
i) Power Meal X 1
ii) Juju X 1
f) All other weapons stored in the locker
i) Strong Sword
ii) Stun Check
iii) Sniper Scope
g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25%
h) The level/stats of your characters
Ryu : Level 1
Nina : Level 1
Lin : Level 1
i) All the items in your backpack
Mega Panacea X 2
thrust (skill item) X 1
Reflex X 1
4) Load the one on the top (the hard-save, NOT the one that you've just
made).
Explanation : It's very important that you load from the hard-save.
Remember, the soft-save will disappear if you load
from it now.
5) Now, apply all the Party Exp without hesitation and use up all the
stat-boosting items in your inventory. You can also sell all of
your equipments that you may have with you if you wish to make some
money as well. After doing all that, save your game by using the
telecorder (this will use up a save token).
Explanation : After applying all those party experience and any
other stuff, you do a hard-save. What this mean -
officially, everything that you have used up and
what's left will be saved and carried over. Which
usually means an empty locker, 0 party experience,
naked party members etc. But make sure at this point
when you save, there is a backup copy in the slot
right below you.
Example : Soft-save remains unchanged;
Hard-save
a) Party Exp - 0
b) Equipments equipped
Ryu : Strong Sword
(Legend Blade - sold : 5000z)
Nina : Stun Check
(Divine Coat - sold : 5000z)
Lin : Sniper Scope
(Grenade - sold : 5000z)
c) Skills learned
Ryu : Side Slash
Thrust
d) Amount of Zenny - 16000z
e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack)
i) Power Meal X 0 (consumed by Ryu)
ii) Juju X 0 (consumed by Nina)
f) All other weapons stored in the locker
i) none
g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.30%
h) The level/stats of your characters
Ryu : Level 31 (Str + 1)
Nina : Level 31 (Mag + 1)
Lin : Level 31 (Spd + 1)
i) All the items in your backpack
Mega Panacea X 2
thrust (skill item) X 0 (consumed by Ryu)
Reflex X 0 (consumed by Lin)
6) Return to the game menu. While pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. You
will be given two choices - SOL:Restart and SOL:Restore. Select
the one at the bottom (SOL:Restore), and you will be prompted to
save the game again. Select 'YES'.
Explanation : Now this part can actually be done in two ways, one
is to SOL:Restore and the other is to manually
restart the game with the restart button on your
PS/2. I choose the former because it's easier.
Doesn't matter which way you take as long as you
end up in the load game screen again. But, DO NOT
use 'QUIT' - it will overwrite your most precious
backup copy instead! If at this point you
accidentally overwritten your soft-save, or you
simply forgot to make one in the first place, sorry
to say that there is nothing I can do to help.
7) You will be back on the main screen yet again. This time, select
'LOAD GAME' and load up the soft-save instead (the one at the
bottom that will disappear after being loaded).
Explanation : Once you load this soft-save, you will notice that
this save-file remains untouched by all of your
previous actions. Meaning - everything is just like
before. You can still do anything and everything
just like a normal game.
Example : Hard-save is the same as before - with powered-up
characters.
Soft-save
a) Party Exp - 300000
b) Equipments equipped
Ryu : Legend Blade
Nina : Divine Coat
Lin : Grenade
c) Skills learned
Ryu : Side Slash
d) Amount of Zenny - 1000
e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack)
i) Power Meal X 1
ii) Juju X 1
f) All other weapons stored in the locker
i) Strong Sword
ii) Stun Check
iii) Sniper Scope
g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25%
h) The level/stats of your characters
Ryu : Level 1
Nina : Level 1
Lin : Level 1
i) All the items in your backpack
Mega Panacea X 2
thrust (skill item) X 1
Reflex X 1
8) Without doing anything, go to the game menu and while pressing L2,
select 'GIVE UP'. Select 'SOL:Restore' just like before, and select
'YES' when prompted to overwrite the hard-save.
Explanation : Now here comes the most exciting part - I would
consider this process as 'the merger of the best
parts of two save-files'. As mentioned earlier,
when you SOL:Restore, you only save certain
information. Since you're now playing the game from
soft-save, all of the best parts of the soft-save -
the party exp, the equipments, the zenny, the items
in the locker, will all be saved onto the hard-save.
Great, isn't it? That's not all, since SOL:Restore
will not save the D-Counter value and the level/stats
of the soft-save, it uses its own instead. But
remember all of those power-ups that you have applied
and saved on your hard-save, well THAT's exactly
what the game is going to use as the mean to
'penalize' you! :)
Example : The new hard-save
a) Party Exp - 300000
b) Equipments equipped
Ryu : Legend Blade
Nina : Divine Coat
Lin : Grenade
c) Skills learned
Ryu : Side Slash
Thrust
d) Amount of Zenny - 16000z
e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack)
i) Power Meal X 1
ii) Juju X 1
f) All other weapons stored in the locker
i) Strong Sword
ii) Stun Check
iii) Sniper Scope
g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25%
h) The level/stats of your characters
Ryu : Level 31 (Str + 1)
Nina : Level 31 (Mag + 1)
Lin : Level 31 (Spd + 1)
i) All the items in your backpack
i) Heal Kit X 5
ii) Tonic X 1
iii) Save Token X 1
As you can see, instead of penalizing you, the game essentially
combined the best parts of two seemingly different saves - the
untouched consumables of the soft-save and the powered-up characters
by using the consumables of the hard-save - with nothing ended up
being consumed at all in the new hard save.
Optimum Save File
-----------------
Let's face it. For any duplication trick, it's only good if you actually
have great things to duplicate. In Final Fantasy Tactics, it's not until
the moment you can get your hands on Orlandu's Excalibur does the
duplication trick really shines. It's the same in BOF:DQ. The trick is
only as good as the save file that you can create. So what constitutes
a good save file for duplication purposes?
1) Lots of Party Exp
Refer to Dragon Run section above on tips to get exp quickly.
300,000 is a good number - 100,000 for every character - which means
roughly making 40 Zeno runs, 20 if you have 20 Gold Exp. Up to you.
2) Expensive Equipments
This is another alternative way of making money. Selling off Ryu's
Legend Blade and Lin's Grenade can be quite profitable for this
purpose.
3) Abundance of Stat-Boosting Items
Of course, knowing the trick, you would want to get your hands on
as many stat-boosting items as you can. Imagine having these in
your locker:
HP Plus X 10
HP Plus X 10
AP Plus X 10
AP Plus X 10
Power Meal X 10
Power Meal X 10
Protein X 10
Protein X 10
Juju X 10
Juju X 10
Which means everytime you do the duplication trick, you would also
apply those stat-boosts anyway you want - whether to distribute it
evenly among the three characters or give it all to your favorites.
However, I wouldn't mention this if things were only this easy.
With so many precious things to store, so very little space is
provided. Most of the time you will be forced to make some hard
choices, to throw some of the things out to make room for others.
But knowing the duplication trick, your choice will now be critical.
Here's a few example.
a) Gold Exp
With 20 of them in you backpack, these babies double the amount
of experience gained, effectively cutting your leveling efforts
by half! But it requires you to store them in the locker
everytime you need to do SOL:Restore/Restart. That means you
may want to reserve two slots in the locker just to store them.
b) Present
You may want to have it all the time in you inventory/backpack
while fighting enemies, since it raises your chance of getting
rare items. So naturally, one slot in the locker will be
allocated for it.
c) Tracker
While not as essential as the other two, you may want it in
your inventory all the time if you're playing for the D-ratio.
It shows all the enemies as white dots on your radar, thus
reducing the number of ambush you get from the enemies. You
only need one, so you may allocate one slot to store this.
d) Rare items
Occasionally you would come across super recovery or stat-
enhancer items like Mega Panacea or 7th Sense; which is too
precious to use in non-boss battle, too wasteful to just throw
away or even sell it. You may end up tucking it away safely in
the locker until the 'right' moment comes.
So what space is left for stat-boosting items - the ones that truly
matter if you use the trick? If you're having the same dilemma,
here's a few guidelines that you may find useful.
If you find the locker simply too packed with items, give
priorities according to the sequence below:
i) AP Plus
Since every action requires AP, there's no such
thing as too much AP.
ii) Power Meal
As you play the game a couple of times, you will be
using Nina less often (not because her spells are
becoming weak, simply because you will lose the patience
waiting for her spells to execute). So you will end up
playing Ryu and Lin more instead. And as you crave for
more speed, more strength is needed. That's why you
will find yourself asking for more Power Meal.
iii)Juju
Magic - a good stat to boost since it is essentially
your defence against magic as well as Nina's main source
of power. You can't go wrong with it.
iv) Reflex
Having high Speed means you get to hit enemies before
they hit you. Coupled with high Strength and high
AP, you can finish up a battle right on the first round,
thus net you more Party Exp in the long run. Of course,
this will also save you a lot of healing items -
reducing the need to backtrack to the Item lady.
v) Protein
While it seems important enough, you can do without
it if you can manage to kill all enemies before they hit
you. Therefore, high Speed and Strength (or Magic, in
Nina's case) can offset the need for high Defence.
vi) HP Plus
Same as Protein, if you can kill enemies fast, how
much HP you have doesn't really matter, does it?
vii)Longfoot
Since it is the only stat that does not increase
with level, you may find the need to boost movement for
some characters. Great movement coupled with lots of
AP, you'll be able to move to virtually anywhere. But
since you don't actually need the ability to travel
from one corner of the room to another, this remains
optional.
Acquiring 10 of those stat-boosting items is not easy either. But
if you have successfully conquered Final Fantasy X, this is NOTHING!
(At the time of writing, the author is still on his attempt on evading
the dreaded 200 lightning bolts... urggh!!) It takes time but you can
be sure it will pay off in the long run.
=====================
Getting 1/4 D-Ratio
=====================
Disclaimer : This section is written on the assumption that the
information found in Kouli's D-Ratio FAQ
(
[email protected]) is accurate at the time of press.
With the new-found knowledge and the ultimate trick up in your
sleeves, it's only natural that the next thing to conquer is to get the
perfect D-Ratio in BOF:DQ. I suppose I should do a guide on this one as
well, but I decided to leave it for others to do it instead. It's like
if you see more people aiming to get 1/4 D-Ratio and get frustrated by
it, it shows that people have seen past the initial misconception of the
game and beginning to like the game better. And that would be the
sweetest feedback that I can possibly get from writing this non-
profitable FAQ. Despite having said that, I do have some tips that I
want to share with you. If you want, you can use it as reference.
Here goes:
1) Don't do it in your first game.
- I don't believe you can either. You will need a respectable D-
Ratio to gain access to some area and some chests. Common sense,
you shouldn't be able to achieve 100% map completion and 100%
chests opened. So just take the opportunity to gather more party
exp and stat-boosting items in your first game, and let it all go
in the next game.
2) Have a Tracker with you all the time.
- I believe that the main reason I couldn't get 1/4 D-Ratio in my
second playthrough lies in the number of ambush I couldn't avoid.
Don't underestimate this.
3) Don't do Kokon Horay until the final save point
- You get to have the most number of pages in your backpack and get
to buy the strongest recovery item money can buy(Trauma Kits). I
do not recommend you to do Kokon-Horay in your EVERY playthrough.
It takes me about 3 hours straight to complete - pretty
exhausting. Only when you're sure that you have done every other
requirements perfectly - under 8 hours, always have extra turn,
opened all chests, uncover all maps etc. - that you should
consider doing Kokon-Horay. Here's what I recommend you to do.
Have at least two save token by the time you reach the last save
point. Use up the first save token and save. Make a backup copy
by using the soft-save. Play through the game as usual until the
end. See the ending and save to see the new D-Ratio. If it's
1/16, then you're right. You have done everything correctly.
Then load up the backup copy. Use the remaining save token and
save. Only now that you should seriously play through Kokon-
Horay. If you reached B50F and successfully defeat Dover, and
finish the game after that, you should be able to get 1/4 D-Ratio.
(Finishing Kokon-Horay is worth 10 points, remember?)
4) Neglect the number of saves.
- By doing this, you get to apply the ultimate trick for unlimited
number of times. This way, you are more confident that you can
finish the game in under 8 hours.
5) Watch your game time.
- if you have been wondering why I would include the minimum time
for every section in Dragon Run, this is the reason. When
trying to get 1/4 D-Ratio, every second counts. So, use the
information wisely - time your run and don't do it excessively.
Then you'll be fine.
That's all I can think of. But this should be enough to get you started.
So, good luck.
=============
Final Words
=============
Everyone has their own expectation on how this game could have been.
Some welcomed the change, many preferred the old school. But remember,
any hostile comments and complaints will eventually end up in Capcom's
discussion room. Although criticism is good, but if they receive too
much of it, the next thing you know, you might not be seeing another
BOF game in the future. And that's bad. So if you love the game and
the BOF series, please show your support.
============================
Frequently Asked Questions
============================
This is section is dedicated to provide support and help for gamers.
If using the trick had caused some glitches in your game, I would love
to hear from you and see what I can do to help. You can reach me
through this email address -
[email protected]. Please state the
subject as BOF:DQ so that I know what game you're referring to. Send
in your problems as you want it to be printed, because I seldom do
personal reply. I mean I used to, but it seems like the problems that
people have are at most of the time the same. So the more effectve way
to do it is to answer the question right here on the FAQ itself. I
believe more people will benefit from this approach.
