(1.2) April 13, 2005 - Made a minor tweak to the 'Introduction' section to more
accurately describe how levels affect the total number of skills a character
can possess. Thanks to those who wrote me with this correction.
(1.1) April 5, 2005 - Finished updating this guide so that it is now complete.
It's possible that I will make changes later, but they likely will be minor and
will not affect the guide's overall quality to any major degree. The official
copyright notice is also now included.
(1.0) March 7, 2005 - Near the end of the game, it occurred to me that it would
have been nice to have a guide telling me about the various Mantra as I
progressed through the adventure. I decided to write a guide of my own to help
others less fortunate than myself.
Search Tip: You can hop around this guide easily by copying the line from the
contents above that corresponds to the area where you need help, then pressing
'CTRL+F' on your keyboard to bring up the box. Paste the line into that box,
then search to skip immediately to the desired portion of the guide.
As you may have discovered--or as you soon will learn--there are numerous ways
to buff up each of your party members in Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil
Saga. Any skills you obtain are learned by downloading items known as Mantra.
Each character can download every Mantra once certain conditions are met (that
is, once you've downloaded the Mantra located on a given 'path'), but later
ones are costly and the time required to gain skills can be daunting. As such,
it makes sense to compile a Mantra guide for the game. That's what this is.
Skills fall into four categories: Physical, Magic, Shield and Auto. You start
out with the ability to choose four skills in total. This number increases to
six once your characters reach level 10, which they will likely do early in
the game. Then at level 20, you gain the ability to use a total of eight
skills, which will remain your maximum throughout the remainder of the game.
As such, there are many abilities that you will have to leave unused as you
progress through the game. Any skills you wish to use must first be 'Set' to
the character that has learned that skill.
Acquiring skills is both relatively simple, and complex. It's simple because
the process never changes; you just keep paying for those downloads you desire,
then having your characters devour enough enemies to gain new abilities. Yet
the process is also complex, in that learning skills in a certain order may
speed up the process, while making oversights can double or even triple the
time required. With that in mind, it's time to look at a few basics.
============
002. Hunting
============
As you play through the game, you'll discover that the easiest way to quickly
improve your available skills is to devour your opponents. When you do so, it
means you've used what is known as a 'Hunt' skill. You will find them in the
'Physical' skill category.
Hunting is a risky business, particularly early in the game before you've
learned improved hunting skills. Despite being fused with demons, the
protagonists have rather delicate stomachs and do not take kindly to the notion
of devouring their opponents. Therefore, you'll want to quickly change that by
learning skills such a 'Devour.'
The problem with this and other low-level hunting skills is that it doesn't do
much damage to the opponent. Suppose you're fighting a monster. First you
wear it down with physical attacks. Then you decide to eat it. However, doing
so costs some of your protagonist's health points, and the attempt may not be
successful. If the monster has too much life left--or if you just happen to be
rather unfortunate--then you will simply watch the enemy flash red but not
vanish. This is not a happy circumstance.
As you learn better hunt skills, this will occur less frequently. Your attacks
will do more damage and in some cases you can even scarf down multiple enemies
at once, provided their health is low enough. This is especially true of
enemies who are frightened. You'll know your enemy is especially susceptible
to a hunting attack when you see fearful bubbles appear over its head. The
game will let you know that an enemy is vulnerable, but sometimes only one or
two monsters in a group is afraid.
When a monster is frightened, your attack will do around twice the damage.
This is very good, but you need to remember that a monster may be frightened
before its health has run low enough that you can safely consume it. Proceed
carefully.
There's something else to remember, too. You may recall that I said the
protagonists don't always take kindly to what's on the menu. Suppose you've
had Heat devour a few monsters. The next time he does, you may watch in
surprise as he develops a stomach ache. Supposing he does, he won't gain any
points from that battle unless you cure him before it ends. Not only that, but
some of his turns may be wasted (if the battle is not over) as he pats his
stomach and groans uselessly.
Therefore, it makes sense to follow a general strategy. Have each character
quickly learn the first three Mantra skill sets, up to and including the 'Holy
Beast' Mantra. This one includes the 'Iron Stomach' skill, which prevents your
characters from ever developing stomach aches when it is equipped. This will
be a valuable friend for the game's duration. It also will allow your
characters to develop any other skills you wish for them to learn much more
rapidly. By spending the time to start out with those abilities, you will save
yourself much grief down the road.
Because the game will keep moving as you're building up your skills, you may
deviate from this slightly. That's fine. Just make sure those early skills
remain your priority whenever possible. You'll thank me later.
Because there are numerous Mantra skill sets to download, you could easily
spend twice the time it takes to beat the game just learning skills. Unless
you find this notion particularly appealing, you'll want to instead focus on
just those skills that will be necessary for monster battles. More
importantly, you'll want to remain mindful of what powers will make you a
powerhouse when it comes time to contend with the game's difficult bosses. No
matter how good you are, many of the boss monsters will mop the floor with you
if you've been foolish in your choices.
Fortunately, it's really not that difficult to build up your power. While it
may seem rather limiting, just follow what the game prescribes. Your
characters have pre-determined specialties, and there's no reason to fight
those or to try much in the way of augmentation. Follow the general rule:
Serph = Ice
Heat = Fire
Argilla = Earth
Gale = Force
Cielo = Bolt
What this means is that when you choose new Mantra for Serph, you'll want to
avoid maxing out anything other than his Ice skill set. Additionally, it pays
to learn the opposing skills that he is otherwise weak against. Have him learn
how to absorb fire damage, or else enemies will hit him with that as a way to
get extra turns in battle. Do so with each of the five characters, as you
never know when a favorite character will be called away from your party for a
time as the plot dictates.
Additionally, it's never a bad idea to learn at least a few healing skills,
even if you are satisfied with Dia. And there are plenty of spells that can
beef up your party members for long, drawn-out boss encounters. Fail to put
those to use and you may come to regret it by the end of the game.
Now that you know the basics, it's time to take a look at the grid.
=============
004. The Grid
=============
Mantra downloads are positioned along a grid that sort of runs a series of
lines and sort of doesn't. To gain skills, you must follow certain paths. For
example, you can't jump right to the most powerful of lightening spells if you
haven't learned the simple ones. Additionally, special Mantra downloads will
sometimes become available for apparently unrelated reasons.
Below, you'll find a copy of the primary chart, with a list of the Mantra
names. Details about each specific Mantra will follow in the next section.
As closely as my limited diagramming skills allow, the above chart reflects
what you should see if you use the 'Get Mantra' command at any save terminal.
You can view the 'zoomed out' version of the grid in-game by pressing the
'square' button. What you see there will roughly mirror the chart above. When
you begin the game, the vast majority of the final icons will not be lit. That
happens as you access low-level skills up above.
It's also important to know that there are some hidden Mantra that only appear
for each character if you fully maximize any one skill set. The easiest way to
do this is to acquire the Wikipedia Mantra, which will then reveal the final
set of Mantra. The Wikipedia Mantra itself is only available once the
character in question has obtained both the Godly Beast and Queen Mantras.
Once you have the Wikepedia Mantra earned, then you can gain the final secret
Mantras (which are not listed on the chart above).
Now that you know how the grid is laid out, let's look at each of the Mantra
downloads in detail.
Each Mantra you may unlock has certain skills associated with it. This section
will serve as a quick reference tool. It will explain what each numbered
Mantra (numbered in relation to the chart above) allows you to learn. Also,
you'll find the price to unlock the Mantra and various other details. The
final three Mantra downloads listed on this site are the 'secret' ones
mentioned above, and do not appear on the chart.
This guide may not be as thorough as perhaps it could be, but it should give
you a good idea of what your path should be as you train each of your
characters. As always, keep in mind that though the game will allow you to
customize any character as you see fit so that he or she is a virtual
powerhouse, your time is best spent just maximizing those skills you'll find
most valuable. There's not really much point in having one guy who has the
best ice and fire skills in the game. But in the same token, it's worth
learning how to defend against powerful skills of various other types.
With some tinkering, you should find yourself playing through the game rather
easily. Max out one elemental skill set for each character, learn some
powerful healing and attack skills, and you're on your way. And if you need
any help from there, well, you should consult a full walkthrough.
This FAQ may be posted only on sites listed immediately below. The list in the
master FAQ is the only one you should reference when determining whether or not
the FAQ is allowed to be posted on a given site. You can always find the
master FAQ at its primary host site, HonestGamers.com. The following sites
have permission to host this FAQ:
Please note that any other sites hosting this FAQ are doing so without my
permission. If you see other sites hosting and they are not referenced in the
list included in the 'master' edition of this FAQ, please let me know so that I
can take appropriate action.
If you would like to use this FAQ as a reference for a FAQ of your own that you
are writing, you may do so provided you include proper reference to this FAQ
(including a link back to its primary host site, HonestGamers.com). Thank you
for your understanding.
