Cladun x2 - FAQ/Walkthrough
!@# Legal Information
This guide is being written expressly for the GameFAQs FAQ Bounty system. If it
weren't for gift cards that take about a month to deliver and are for a vendor
I need/want nothing from, this guide wouldn't have been written in the first
place.
If you wish to post this guide on your website, please E-Mail me ahead of time
at
[email protected], you don't even need my permission, I just like to
know where it's going up for bragging rights.
!@# About Me
My name is Toaster J. Forkington, I'm not a weeaboo, but I try really, really
hard, thus my affection for NIS games. If it weren't for video games that play
specifically into the hands of typical white people, then I'd probably be a
productive member of society. Go team!
!@# Important decision #1
Should I buy a digital copy or the retail copy?
That's a trick question, it's a digital only release. The flaws? Unlike some
Digital copy games, this doesn't include an instruction manual. While the
denizens of Hiyo's Ship are extremely useful, some things aren't self
explanatory and will leave you guessing.
The benefit, at least, is that the handy dandy screenshot through the select
button is available, so time to share your copyright infringement in better
quality than your crappy webcam in your poorly lit room. yay!
*v1.02 update, There is an instruction manual, and it carries over to every PSP
Digital game. I just forgot that you have to hit the Triangle button before
selecting the game to get to the Software Manual.
!@# Version Information
Version 1.00; Current Version. Includes Game full walkthrough. Future updates
will be done in the Formatted format, which will include images of maps.
Version 1.02; Corrected; Spear damage type, correctly under Slash category.
Instruction manual instructions added. Removed some offensive subject matter.
!@# Basics
This game might look like classic Zelda, the only problem is that anything NIS
publishes is bound to make you head bang if you play it like standard main
stream games. What does this mean? Until you're over leveled, don't expect to
get more than 50 fame. Plain and simple, until you've got sub characters, Magic
Circles and artifacts to support reckless play, you'll only give yourself an
annuerism if you try to play this game like Zelda.
Combat is very simple in this game, get behind something and combo or jab and
dive. It's slightly more complicated, but I'll get to that in a moment. As you
can see, until you're over leveled, through out the game everything will be
between 4~6 hits to kill, depending on your weapon. Another benefit to the
combat system is that your skills level with you, as well as their SP cost, and
in the case of most characters, you wont have enough SP to spam spells and
abilities, so you'll have to learn how to play conservatively. It sucks, but by
the time you're level 60, you'll have enough Artifact support to just start
face rolling dungeons.
The damage types are simple;
- Slashing, default to Swords and Spears.
- Piercing, default to Daggers and Bows.
- Impact, default to Blunt weapons, and the melee part of Staves. Any
attack made while jumping counts as impact damage.
- Fire, elemental damage, some staves have one of the three elements for their
special attack affects. Strong and weak Vs. Ice. Fire overwrites any other
apparent damage type on the melee part of weapon attacks.
- Ice, elemental damage, strong and weak Vs. fire. Ice overwrites any other
apparent damage type on the melee part of weapon attacks.
- Mind, elemental damage, some enemies are greatly weak against this and
resistant to both other elements.
Weapons that allow the use of Shields;
- Swords, quite possibly the easiest and useful weapon to use, only slightly
behind bows. It's the only weapon that has Combos. The combos are either going
to be amazing or degrading to your playstyle, that's as simple as it goes, but
you can add a slight delay into the button mashing to just use the base single
strike attack. The combo is two normal strikes, followed by a lunge. The first
strike doesn't move you, the second edges you closer, and the third straight
out launches you. The lunge has a decent knockback to it, so it'll usually hit
enemies multiple times, especially if you can nail them against a wall so they
can't escape. Score. The biggest benefit to using swords is Charge, which I'll
get more in depth later.
- Daggers, low range, quick attacks and the best attack skills in the game.
This weapon is sheer amazing after you've hit 99 on a Ninja. Shadow Run will
make life easier for Fame Farming, as well as Thunderbolt, which is great AoE,
Damage and Mind flavored, it even has invinicibility frames. A lot of daggers
have a high crit stat and damage is on par with swords with a faster swing
speed in a lot of cases with bonus to walk/run. God tier in the right
circumstances.
- Spears, it's a great weapon with fast swing speeds and great damage, the flaw
is that their effective hit radius is incredibly low, so where you can sit
there with a sword and keep attacking to keep pushing the enemy out of range,
if the foe moves slightly up and towards you, all of your spear hits might
completely miss. Requires a lot of practice to get used to this weapon.
- Staves, if you look at a staff, you'll see it's attack power and elemental
type. This affects it's special attack damage. When you swing a staff, it'll
shoot something out that does damage. The Atk stat only counts towards it's
melee swing hits, which in most cases will make your special shots miss. Also,
you can't just spam a hundred fireballs per minute, your Staves have a recharge
time that's featured on the bottom left of your screen. If it's grey, you're
only swinging for melee, if it's pinkish orange, you're using special attacks.
Early on these are best paired with a Wizard or Shaman to give them an SP
boost, but in late game when you have artifact support, I personally just use
melee weapons for non-skill damage since spells aren't limited to staves.
Weapons that don't allow the use of a shield;
- Bows, if you don't care about speed, this is your weapon. Both weapon types
that don't allow the use of a shield both allow charging. The difference is
that Bows prevent you from moving while charging. Charge level 1 is a stronger
hit, usually about 2~4x damage, charge level 2 however makes a piercing arrow
that blasts through a row of enemies. Flaws? The arrow effective hit radius is
low, so half the time to hit a full charge you'll be abusing wall hanging for
melee opponents or hitting fully stationary foes. Bows also allow impact
swinging from jumps, which helps to deal with fast opponents that are zooming
passed your arrows.
- Blunt weapons are partly two categories; Maces and Axes. The weapon functions
the same, but from what I've noticed there's one major difference.
* Maces have a higher variable damage, ranging from 0% up to 140%~. Maces also
tend to have -walk/-run attached to them, while Axes aren't exempt from that,
it's less common. Damage is usually the same, as well as swing times on
comparable weapons.
* Axes have a lower variable damage, usually ranging from 60~90%. If you're
going to be swinging often, stick with the axe. It's unverified, but charging
up to charge level 2 with a blunt weapon seems to lower the chance of lower
damage variance, so if you charge a lot the mace might be your weapon of
choice.
Anyways, back to blunt weapons as a whole. They make walls go boom. In the
second stage of the map, you get to see a boar do it, and if you equip a blunt
weapon, you can do it faster. As with bows, they allow charging, and this time
you can move! Albeit exceptionally slow. The damage range for charged hits are
massive, so you can follow an enemy from behind or just wait for it's pat to
unleash a massive strike hit that will hit it's back when it just gets passed
you. Also to top it all off, Blunt Weapon charges have an impact point that has
a splash affect, so you can use it to hit switches behind doors and walls
within 3~4 spaces.
And that's not it, blunt weapons allow Part Destroy! Which is randomly
inflicted status debuff that wears off over time. It lowers Attack, Defense and
something else I'm forgetting, but the bros in Hiyo's ship will gladly clarify
for you.
To top it all off, the blunt weapon category of weapons have conceivably the
best single target skills in the game. Multi Chop is a two hitter, with a
regular damage swing first, followed by a high damage swing that has a high
part destroy chance. Brandish is your standard whirlwind attack, and to top it
all off you can use your Mace as a Boomerang, which is exploitable with
stationary foes (it swings a few times at it's zennith for multi hits before
coming back), and it also goes through walls, so you can skip dungeons cheesing
through with this skill.
It still goes on, blunt weapons have a great amount of Knockback, as you'll see
when trying out Neo-Geons during the cat burglar levels, if you time strikes
well enough, you'll be immune to smaller enemies by forcing them back as they
begin their attack.
Finally, a drawback to blunt weapons - They have slow swings. How is this
remedied? Jump attacks. You leave yourself slightly vulnerable while jump
swinging, but your attack speed is comparable to a 2/2 or higher, and hell your
attacks are already doing impact damage, so why the hell not. Side note, some
enemies can send you flying while doing this, so in that case just charge up
for them by the time they approach you.
That was a doozy, and I'm sure you can tell by now I'm greatly biased and favor
using blunties in every Ran-Geon situation aside from speed running with Shadow
Run.
!@# Shields
Shields are very misunderstood and poorly promoted during the tutorial stages.
Well, the action of blocking reduces damage. You can block even without a
shield equipped. The only thing that shields do is increase your defense and
resistance, which decay as you use them. The important thing to blocking is
that they prevent status affects.
!@# Avoiding Damage
It's hard, but it's possible. The easiest way? You can slide through almost
everything. Skills like Charge and Shadow Run also ignore damage as you travel,
so keep those skills on the ready for emergencies.
- Sliding, the biggest flaw with sliding is that you can only do it while
running, so if you use SP Debt (often) you lose your primary source of evasion
and are thus forced to reserve a shield for mitigation. Essentially though, the
biggest problem is that running reduces your Def by half, which means if you
start running and slide incorrectly, you can end up ganking your human shields,
whereas if you stood and took the damage they'd still be alive since you just
ran into a god damned fireball and took six hits for 12 damage instead of 1 for
6 damage.
- Charging, even with Affect lvl -90%, this skill still costs 9 sp, so on
main/sub switches, instead of primary sub characters being bred for mains, you
have a limited amount of uses. It's my favorite skill for busting through a
knight's face since in a lot of cases, they wont turn around if you need to use
this to get through them. Benefit to this skill instead of Shadow Run is that
it costs 2 less SP and it does damage, so it's ideal for boss fights to avoid
damage and deal it at the same time, or just to get behind their weak spot.
- Shadow Running, no damage, incredibly range. Often times you'll leave
yourself inside a trap or burning/ice zone. Last ditch effort and solely used
for speed running. Just like Charge is limited to Swords, Shadow Run is limited
to Daggers, so it depends primarily on your comfort zone since you can only
switch weapons outside of stages. Some people like Thunderbolt instead of
elemental slashes, or just quick swing speeds that don't move your character.
- Running Jumps, the most dangerous method of avoiding damage since it doesn't
give you immunity frames like the above three. What do you do? Well, you hold
down R to run, then you jump, then you let go of R. It'll launch you off into
whichever direction you were facing, and while in the air if you let go of the
running button, your defense goes back up to full. This will probably come
naturally to you, and you might even do your best to never do it again since
it's dangerous and can screw up your floor 70+ runs in Ran-Geons. Why is it
natural? Fastest mode of travel is running bunny hops. Dashes are slowed down
by area affects, as well as flat out running. Running leaps remove the terrain
affects as soon as you hit the air.
!@# Traps
Oh, goodie. This game is based on traps and enemies. Simple, right? This
deserves to be right below Avoiding Damage, since a lot of damage you'll take
will be from traps! Basic strategies include, but aren't limited to..
Moving. Off. The. Tile.
Seriously.
If you're in a T shaped hall, and you step on a fire trap along the north wall,
move south and you avoid it. Not all traps can be avoided that easily, though,
there are traps that spread out and require delicate running jumps or slides.
More in depth, there are two types of traps. The kind you can see and are meant
to make your life a living hell, and the kind that only appear as you approach
them, and are there to surprise you and then make your life a living hell.
Most, if not all visible traps can be slid through. These range from burning
blasts of fire, burning blasts of ice (hey, ice feels like it burns) and blade
traps that come in the stationary and spinning variety, frog in a blender
style. They just sit there and mock you, telling you to hit the button, then
surprise spin attack and human shield ganking!
The fun kind of traps include..
- Fire, balls of flame. Multihits if you're moving in it's range of affect, sit
still or shield block them.
- Triple Fire, zone of fire, it explodes near the tile and spreads out slowly.
Dodge run to get out, but most of the time these are there to give you the
burning (and elemental fire damage) effect, either for good reason or bad.
- Blue Diamond, ice. See the above fire definition.
- Triple Blue Diamond, zone of ice. Seriously, just look at fire. They're all
like this.
- Triangle, pierce from a wall.
- Triple Triangle, zone of piercing from the ground, there solely for damage.
- Skull, Curse. Can be manipulated to curse certain types of enemies, but it's
a health degeneration status affect, something like -25% hp over the duration.
- Crown, bless. Most amazing trap in the game. It's a buff that restores about
50% of your hp over the duration, to each shield.
- Heart, healing. This is split amongst all of your sub characters whether
they're in need of healing or not. You wont actually feel that 50 hp heal until
all of your shields are dead!
- Mechanical looking with a red eye, Monster Traps! They summon monsters
present on the level! Always fun to hit in the case you have a Hiyoki on that
floor, if not it's still Exp.
- Turtle Shell, slow. Slows your speed, I think the tutorial also said damage
you take is decreased while affected, not verified.
- Cat paw, haste. Speeds you the eff up. You'll shoot through the zone, dash
about twice as far and twice as fast, running leaps that even Superman can't
compare to. Might increase damage taken, as if you're running according to some
tutorial sign that I vaguely remember but am too lazy to verify.
- I forgot! It's the earth quake trap, I usually hit these as soon as I get
into a Doom Gate and die before I can make not of what it looks like.
- Little brown 3x3 grid, explosion traps! They go kaboom, incredibly fun since
avoiding the damage is easy and they come with enemies in most cases to use
against them!
- More that I can't remember! Maybe.
!@# Just who is the M and who is the S?
Main and Sub characters, nice and back asswards. While a character is in a sub
character slot, if it gains a level it has higher chances for Atk, Def and SP
growth. If a character is in the main slot, it has a higher chance of Hp and
Mana growth. What does this mean? Since Atk, SP and Def aren't of consequence
as Sub Characters, and HP and Mana don't matter until your subs are dead as a
main character, it's a way to force you to switch characters often during the
regular game.
As another important note, this only increases their chances for growth in
those particular stats. Each class has it's own specific growth rate, Shamans
that never sit on the main character slot will still have on average about 200
mana by level 99.
My basic strategy is simple, you'll get enough artifacts for Attack and Defense
to get up into post game, and it's more effective to power level characters as
the main so they're effective subs after rejobbing. That's why the two
characters you'll use to level should be done 5 on and 5 off the main character
slot.
The Ranger and Wizard are only there because of their Magic Circles they learn
eventually. Wizard's final MC at level 56 is the best Ran-Geon farming magic
circle for two established characters, and Ranger's 16th magic circle (Crazy)
is the best sub leveling circle in the game.
This is just a very general solution, in fact I'd suggest you level one
character as a Main only for shield fodder, but once you get your first widen
and a few HP joint artifacts, only the Mana is important since you'll be able
to stack +800 hp on a defend 100% slot with 6~12 mana per artifact. At this
point, keep your Swordmage or Dragoon as the primary main character outside of
staggering their levels for the easiest time dealing with dungeons.
!@# Magic Circles!
Each class has 20 Magic Circles, these will slot Sub Characters and Artifacts.
The full list is a work in progress and will have it's own section completely
devoted. General tips and strategies are to stick to 4 Subs and 1 Main through
out the game. Defend 50% is god tier if it's linked to HP Artifacts. This means
that 50% of all incoming damage will be taken by that one character, so while
all characters are taking damage, you have one single tank eating the brute end
of the strikes and the common HP Heal traps are spreading equally.
!@# Classes~
Beginner classes;
Warrior, skill is long slide, where they slide longer and with job level slots,
slightly faster! They have a balanced Def and Atk stat as well as common, easy
to use Magic Circles. Gains skills for Swords, Blunt and Spears.
Wizards, Debt Eraser-Wiz, which decreases the time taken to go from -sp up to 0
sp, increasing with Job Level slots. They have high SP and Mana growth, next to
nothing in other slots. Their Magic Circles are sometimes complicated, but
often revolving around boosting certain skills. Only learns black magic.
Saint, skill is Immortal's End! It has a chance to completely destroy
Skeletons, and that's about it! The magic circles aren't very complicated but
mostly worthless. They earn skills for Blunt weapons, Bows and Dagger. The most
important is White magic, where they learn Bless. Screw wound heal, as soon as
you get bless (level 40), attach a Magic Effect -90% to it and never require a
heal ever again. Immortal's End isn't that great (at least not great enough to
constitute Saint as a final class) it sometimes takes 10+ times to kill the
skeleton even at level 99, but when you do they're worth good exp.
Guardian, Front Shield Bonus, as a whole, this class gains Sub growth Magic
Circles. As a Sub character, they increase the shield bonus (I think, I wish I
wasn't too lazy to find the instruction manual.) They learn skills for Spears,
Blunt and basic white magic (Status removal and wound heal by level 30.)
Intermediate classes;
Ranger, skill is GrFrSt. It increases movement speed. They learn skills for Red
magic, Daggers and Bows, and their Magic Circles are.. unique..? They have the
best sub leveling circle in the game, but a lot of others revolve around Gate
Revival, which as far as I know revives subs when going through a gate in Ran-
Geons.
Merchant, skill is death money - you retain up to 90% of your G when killed in
a level. They're pretty weak, get Spear, Bow and Dagger skills, but you'll
probably only use a bow. They also learn some Green and White magic, but
nothing amazing. They have the best money farming skills available to them, but
you wont be using them much until post game. Their final Magic Circle, True
Champion is god tier for starting out. It has a lot of Attack and Defense
slots, along with ability 1, 2 and 3 support. Best part is that it works best
without using more characters.
Swordmage, Fastcaster - the name leads me to believe that it makes them cast
50% faster, so yay! They have decent Atk and Def, but their Atk is a bit higher
than Warriors. They elarn skills for Swords, Spears, Bows as well as Green and
Black magic. Best choice for a staggered main until you purchase Dragoon. After
that it's not as impressive, it doesn't have that many decent Magic Circles.
!@# Advanced Classes
An important note before I start ranting about these classes, is that they all
start with the Awakening skill, and most of their Magic Circles make good use
of it. What does it mean? If there's a magic circle slot that has an
"Awakening" slot blocking passage, when you're under the affect of Awakening it
it'll open passage to those artifacts! Usually paired with Manax2 slots.
Sometimes awakening will super power one sub while killing another. Much fun.
Ninja, Dark Slayer - does bonus damage (up to 42%) to Black enemies. This skill
helps offset the fact that black enemies tend to have higher attributes. They
gain Dagger skills, as well as Black Magic. As their class flavor dictates,
their magic circles are complicated as all hell. Have very high Walk and Run
speeds compared to other classes. The last few magic circles are highly
Awakening reliant, so it's best to take Ninja after another class. Otherwise a
great all around job. Unlocked by paying 2000g in the back alley.
Dragoon, Part Destroy +1 - chance to part destroy increased by 10%. This is
another somewhat unique class, they have the highest Atk growth in the game,
learn skills for Sword and Blunt weapons, and have a default SP Value of a
whopping 0. That's right, they hit harder with melee hits, and that's just
about it. Magic Circles are usually an awakened variety of Warrior and
Guardians. It's a great main character to finish with at the eleventh job due
to the fact it'll have an easier time hitting 999 attack.
Shamans, Debt Erase-Sha - increases SP debt recovery rate, faster than wizards!
This is essentially the advanced Wizard Class. They have higher SP and mana,
and start with more advanced spells and don't go back to learn some of the
chump ones. They only gain abilities revovling around black magic, and their
magic circles are as complicated as a Wizard's.. on crack.
That's all there is to classes!
!@# Re-Jobbing.
Okay, a little more about classes. If you rejob into another class, you take a
30~40% stat decrease and start over at level 1, retaining all previously
learned skills and Magic Circles. If you're familiar with the reincarnation
system in other NIS titles, it's much the same, except simpler.
If you hit level 99 in every job, you'll only take a 10% stat cut when
rejobbing instead of 30%. There are no stored levels like in Disgaea, so the
only optimal time to Rejob is at Job level 99.
An unfortunate side note that belongs with Re-Jobbing is to make an uber stat
character, you'll need at least 4 Widens. This all amounts to a lot of
pointless Leveling and Grinding to do things faster, that you could already
complete just as fast with a set of 2~5 level 99s.
And one final note, don't rejob all at once. Ran-Geon experience isn't decided
primarily by your main character, if you are on a floor with level 99 enemies
with a group full of level 98s, you'd get about 5 experience a kill. If you
include a level 1, you'll then get 12 experience a kill. Of course it all
settles differently when being distributed, but even if you're wasting
experience on a maxed character, it might be beneficial to wait a run or two to
lower the average.
!@# Fame!
Fame, used to unlock things. You get your first Widen at 30 fame, which is easy
enough to get in Trial Island by the time you can make use of it.
Fame is rewarded 1 point for every 1 second you beat a dungeon's designated
time of completion. If you beat this 39 second dungeon in 16 seconds, that'll
land you 13 Fame. Easy, right? If you're not that great, you can purchase Fame
to unlock features! Be warned, however, that buying fame will make your fame a
poopy brown instead of white, but hey, it's about two hours of saved time, so.
!@# Editing!
Alright, if you didn't just buy this game to write an FAQ for a 20 dollar gift
card like me, you probably bought the game for this! The imperfect, sometimes
infuriating Editing System!
What can we edit? Swords! Shields! Blunt Weapons! Bows! Armor! Faces! and
that's about it.
Swords, Spears, Daggers and Staves all share a very basic family. You can only
edit their one side view.
Blunt weapons have two things you can edit, their regular view, and their view
when swinging upwards or downwards. Making a psuedo realistic 3-D image of your
super awesome weapon that isn't incredibly pixelated is nigh impossible, but
still interesting. This overhead edit isn't shared with swinging left or right,
so you'll have weapon matching swings that wont match with your up and down
swings. Also, it appears that anything you draw will turn pure white while
charging, I haven't figured out how to make it flash yet.
Bows, you can edit the bow itself and the projectile! It sucks, but it's the
only way to make projectiles fire from the character. It never matches left to
right, so it'll always come from the Center, or the neck in one side and the
junk on the other. My very first edit was Overlord Zetta in book form, and I'll
never be happy that his Zetta Beam could only come from his eyes while facing
right. Long live copyright infringement!
Shields, you can edit them from 8 different perspectives. It's fun, but really
hard to get them to match up since you need all 8 to support moving in any
direction. It took me a while to figure it out, but Square+Triggers move
through those alternate shield sides.
Armor, it encompasses the Chest, feet and hands. Notice how I didn't say Legs
and Arms? It's nigh impossible to get a character to have functioning Arms and
Legs in this game through editing. So you'll have to choose to be Rayman, or
make an awesome sprite that looks amazing from all angles, but cannot move. The
area between the waist and feet is also very limited in pixel area, so don't
expect to have long legs, it's best to use two different shades in your legs so
it looks like it's just an above angle camera view on a real three dimensional
object. The benefit is that you can make Jiggly boobs from side views with
hands. Tee-hee.
*Version 1.02 Update, My biggest fan, Stephanie, was apparently offended by the
above statement about jiggly boobs. I'd like to clarify right now that I'm not
trying to itemize women into something as simple as a pair of melons. In fact,
to even it up, you can use the leg slot to make waggling wieners for male
characters. It's only fair that we correctly turn both genders into eye candy,
so you female players aren't left out.
Faces, includes running, death and walking specifics. It's very limited, but
you'll probably spend hours creating the perfect looking face on the limited
palette size. Face edits can't interact with Armor edits during motion, the
arms and legs will always move the same way.
~~~~
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Only Chapter...........[Ch1]
- Trial Island.........................[TIs]
- Initiation Woodsea...................[IWS]
- Dark Elf Grotto......................[DEG]
- Pirate Ship Wreck....................[PSW]
- Azure Corridor.......................[AzC]
- Jungle Ruins.........................[JnR]
- Ordeal Desert........................[OrD]
- White Death Hills....................[WDH]
- Cursed Catacomb......................[CCa]
- Ancient Coliseum.....................[AnC]
- Labyrinth Garden.....................[LbG]
- Castle of No Return..................[CNR]
- Madness Pantheon.....................[MaP]
- Perfect World........................[PeW]
- The Final Guardian...................[TFG]
~~~~
Post Game!.............................[Pst]
- Purgatory............................[Pur]
- Descend of Might Symbol..............[DMS]
~~~~
Post Post Game!........................[PPs]
- Detonation 1000
- Former Final Boss
- Time Attack
~~~~
Ran-Geons..............................[RnG]
- Neo-Geon.............................[Neo]
- Tri-Geon.............................[Tri]
~~~~
Magic Circles..........................[MaC]
- Basics
- What MCs should I work towards?
~~~~
Frequently Asked Questions.............[FAQ]
~~~~
Credits................................[Crd]
~
!@# Chapter 1 - The Only Chapter [Ch1]
Daunting, isn't it? But alas, unlike the typical NIS game, this game doesn't
have much story exposition. You're on an island filled with criminals! You're
prisoners! There's no escape, but there is a doorway leading you to slaughter
the many denizens of the forest. Yaaaaay.
- Trial Island [TIs]
Essentially the intro zone to this area. All of the areas are littered with
tips and signs, and it introduces you to some of the dungeoneering mechanics
you need to pick up.
1F, Familiarize yourself with the controls.
Easy map, follow the path eastward. You can avoid all enemies and go for the
fame, the black bunny only controls the black bricks that lead to the entrance,
skip him if he's giving you problems.
2F, Wanna test the ffect of the trap?
Linear path, introduced to Boars that like to break through walls as well as
Switches, Mushrooms and almost every trap in the game in a safe environment. To
get the fame clear, equip a blunt weapon and go straight south, destroy the
blocks to get through and head east. Red chests also don't respawn, this is
where we learn that lesson!
3F, Hiyokki is a rare monster.
Never seen one spawn here, but whatever. Boar far up north, lure it to destroy
the buildings or kill it to unlock the path to the exit stairs.
4F, Rachel is a prodigal rich person.
The signs and Hiyos will tell you about Fame, also introduces you to slow
moving terrain. Three exit gates around the area, hit up any and avoid any
fights if you want.
- Initiation Woodsea [IWS]
This is where the real game begins. The difficulty curve is low, but still.
Safely completing these floors helps you get accustomed to upcoming fights.
1F Defeat the master of the swamp.
Still linear, defeat the gate boss to proceed. Simple enough.
2F Advance as you defeat gate guardians!
Very linear progression, nothing important to look out for. Teaches you that
the gate symbol (I didn't realize it until purgatory, tee-hee) means that the
enemy controls a gate (shared in lots of cases).
3F Enter the hazardous territories.
This is a good map to come back and level on, especially with a merchant that
has some decent SP. The lizard on the far right controls the gate to the inner
area. In the inner area, you've got two boars that control the exit map and
umpteen Totems. Totems are fun, jump and attack for the best damage (while not
burning or iced over), decent exp and money. The totems control the red chest
room.
4F Defeat the guardian of the fort.
First long map, full of grass and level 30 black mushrooms, these things curse.
Anyways, we get to meet a new enemy (the semi-boss) the baby knight. It has a
spear attack in a barrage going only forward, and it's invulnerable to all
damage!.. from anywhere but the back. If these Baby knights are stationed
somewhere, they wont chase you. Enjoy it, it doesn't happen often.
The skeleton will warn you that you're a weakling, so you can't get to the red
chests yet. Come back at level 20 and we'll show him. The boss is the first
type of clown caster, the icicle master. He has two(three really) attacks that
he does. One is the round-the-clock-icing. he creates 8 spikes in a circle
around you, they all shoot towards the center dealing damage as they proceed
and shoot out of the map (he reverses it, I'm fairly sure.) His other attack is
a barrage of icicles down the center of the map. His weakness? Slide through
his attacks, baby. That's all there is to it. It just helps to come back at
level 20 when you have more than 5 attack to defeat him.
- Dark Elf Grotto [DEG]
Uh-Oh, Archers introduced. If that does't make things any worse, we also have
to deal with the first boss of the game.
1F Defending the door is an archer duo.
Know when I said that some gates are shared? Yeah, that's now. Two archers, not
a huge deal.
2F A future you can access with a switch.
There's multiple switches that you need to hit to end the map. Get used to it.
It sucks, but it's not a hard map. Take your time your first time through.
3F Enter...deep and silent.
Not Lamb, you pervert. As the Skeleton suggests, discretion, Metal Gear Solid
style. It teaches you how poorible (yeah, I just combined poor and horrible)
the enemy AI is on their patrols. Follow them at a decent distance and they'll
never see you. No gates to worry about.
4F There exists a divine tree of darkness.
How divine could it be if it's of darkness. God damnit, RPGs.
First things first, this is the boss. There's two paths that split off that
contain red chests, ignore them for now. Seriously, just do it.
Straight ahead is the boss room. If you're using a Warrior, get ready to Fire
Slash. If using anything else, and even a Warrior, there's a trap that sets up
a 3 square radius of Fire which burns you. Burning you is important (like being
iced) because it makes all of your attacks fire elemental (ice in the iced
version). The tree just so happens to be weak to Fire. His attacks are simple,
He'll make a small diamond shaped set of spikes underneath you. He'll also
shoot along a wave of spikes down the center. He'll also surround himself with
a barrier of spikes. This is the best time to learn when to safely attack.
- Pirate Ship Wreck [PSW]
This area sucks. It introduces you to Skeletons. These wonderful bastards that
have a huge block radius and can't be killed unless you're a Saint or using
Light on your weapons, and even then it's a chance. To top it all off, we also
meet the physical attack invulnerable ghosts.
1F Be careful with water.
Yeah, my favorite enemy Lady of the Lake. Not her real name, but it fits. She's
a moving puddle that has two attack types. If when she gets near you, you're
diagonal, she'll create a pillar of multi-hitting water (can be fire damage) in
the four squares at her corner. If you're in front of her, she'll make a cross
shape instead of an X. Simple, right? Still a pain. How you deal with her is to
hug her then move out of her attacks to hit her. You can't hit her with a three
chain of sword attacks without being hit, this is where we learn to
conservatively attack.
2F Patrol the area.
This is where we meet the ghosts. Knights patrol the area as well as some Cat
Burglars. Go to the far east to hit a switch then work your way back. Go back
east again, go north. Avoid the knight by ducking into the bunny room or kill
it. The lizardman guards the gate. Go west and hit the switch to unlock the
path to the exit. The ghost is in this room, if you have elemental damage,
sweet, you just got some red chests. If not, hit the switch and run.
3F A running cat, a leaping swine.
Cat burglars and Boars, not a huge deal.
4F Skeletons laugh and rattle.
Ugh, Skeletons. You wont get it yet, but you'll learn to love them when they
block you into a corner while other things come up and kill you. Seriously,
they chase you and have a wider block zone than their body. Can't jump over
them, so if you kill them in a corner you're stuck there.
- Azure Corridor [AzC]
It's apparently an ancient submerged megalopolis.
1F Beware of dangerous traps.
Burner traps, spinner traps. Squids and Knights. Not a huge deal, just slide
through visible traps and avoid invisible traps, golden rule.
2F What matters is timing.
So like, anyways. Follow the path, the skeleton tells you to use your shield
properly. But it's only mentioning one part, where you have to run against
Totem beams. Just slide through them. Two Knights each control a gate, kill one
or both (sweet, sweet exp.). Hit the blue switch, avoid the ghost or kill it,
then kill the boar to finish the map. Go back and hit the switch again if you
want to kill the last of the totems.
3F Outside - an illusion. Inside - an inferno.
Bunnos, new enemy. Easy to kill. Let her attack and hit her back. Other than
that stay one square off of her direct aim and one square away to avoid her
whirlwinds. Lady of the lake controls the gate, time your dashes through or
charge to victory, oil sucks, fire moreso. The fire dragon is going to make you
rage if you don't have any attacks to use. Dragon babies are easy, they have a
charge attack that goes through you or breathes an element. But all hits will
heal him to max if you're burning. The only exclusion to this rule is an
ability, those type damages never change.
4F Get crazy with warping.
I hate this map. Each room has a guardian. Go north through the traps, then
follow each teleporter path starting from the left, right then middle. Now go
north, north, north - the gate to the red chests, then that teleporter, east
then to the exit.
- Jungle Ruins [JnR]
1F All that taketh form someday breaketh.
If you came with a blunt weapon, you'll be happy. Go west immediately to hit
the blue switch, then make your way north and exit. If not, then follow the
path around.
2F A sanctuary under an idol's auspice.
Bring a sword and lvl-% charge. Take the teleporter to the right, kill all of
the guardians by charging behind them then attacking. Kill all then proceed to
the exit. The other method is to wait for totems to break walls, and that's
boring.
3F A trap hidden in the door.
Alright, the totems break the walls. Enter with a blunt weapon and you don't
worry about switches, otherwise you're at their mercy. Make your way around and
destroy the Yeti caster after the Sylph, namely because the Yetis are bulky and
the Sylphs heal.
4F Hello from inside the wall.
Green dragon baby controls the gate. Kill the totems before they can unleash
all of the caged enemies. Next room is the same, two squids that destroy walls,
very annoying enemies, kill them then proceed. Next room is a lillith with two
bombers, she's annoying. Two types, one is the cross that surrounds the
character, shadows from the ground, other is an extra large one. She's easy to
kill. If you're using a blunt weapon, break the brick behind her to follow the
invisible path to the red chests.
- Ordeal Desert [OrD]
1F Don't let the enemies seize you.
The three drakes control the exit. The gas clouds control the other door. Kill
them to exit to the north.
2F Explode, explode and explode some more.
Very fun, but also annoying map. The first bomb layers often leave a bomb, then
run at you at super sonic speeds (trigeons chaos side they do at least), when
you kill them they sometimes leave another bomb. The other are the exploder
demons, when they die they blow up damaging everything near them, including
allies. Kill three and the other two will die. At the end we meet an old
friend, a pink tree! Kill it and get the red chests then leave. Also the
lilliths along the way are annoying.
3F Fort in the desert, hard to fell.
Run straight down the hall, hit the blue switch, run back and down the hall
with the knights. Run north and kill the two red lizardmen to unlock the gate
to the exit.
4F Intercept the knight of the darkness.
Another portal map. It's not as bad, though. I took the left path, right path,
right path and was in the boss room with the demon. Demons are annoying,
they're immune while their summoning circle is active. They summon enemies near
death. They have low hp and defense though so they're not as bad, if you're
having problems Charging through them works well.
- White Death Hills [WDH]
1F Don't let the foe's moves bewilder you.
Icey map, bring along status removal and go slowly, or fire based attacks to
get through without healing the ice elementals. Wild boar is the gate keeper to
the exit.
2F Laugh at the ice, cry on the ice.
Mad dash through the zone, lilliths control gates, totems control the chest
gate and the shinobi controls the exit gate.
3F Demolish the deity on the snowfield.
Golem enemy, fun fun. It has two close range attacks, shockwaves. One that you
can jump, and one that comes in three strikes that you need to jump away and
jump back towards him. The ranged attack is a barrage of boulders falling.
- Cursed Catacomb [CCa]
1F Watch your step.
As if we haven't been doing that already. (seriously, I haven't. :[)
Annoying but straight forward, lots of curse traps in the bushes. Follow it
around, one room has a boss, slight backtracking and enter through the gates to
proceed.
2F Dart through the darkness.
Ugh. The name of this map is correct, don't stop. Lots of monster summoning
traps. Head straight north and hit the switch, back track, none of the paths
that look like they lead off actually lead off, so go back down and head west.
After that, there's an obvious offshoot to the right for a green switch. Hit
every path like that after the teleporter while mad dashing southwards to hit
the final two switches and complete the map.
3F Do not awaken the dead.
This map is simple. You make it harder for yourself if you get close to
Skeletons. They will un-agro, but they get on your nerves. Easily.
4F Corpses without souls.
This guy looks familiar. He's the hidden boss controlling the red chests all
the way back in 2-4.
- Ancient Coliseum [AnC]
1F Eye to eye, enemy to enemy.
Okay, big boss knight. I hate these guys. They only take lots of damage from
behind, but aren't invulnerable to the front. This also introduces the warring
elements. Hit the switch to let the enemies flood in and weaken the big
knights, then kill the knights to join them. Hit the switch to proceed south
and kill the final gate enemies. Take the right path to end the map faster.
2F The Hundred Years' War.
It's a big old gang fight. Head north then northwest, the Yeti guards the door.
Head straight south to kill the lillith that guards the door to the exit. Also
includes lots of red chests, Golem, and guardians. Agro too many without
killing them off and it's game over.
3F Welcome to the torture chamber.
Very obvious map. Head west, take the north teleporter (only one), then pick
your paths. You have to hit up both to fully unlock the end gate (green and
blue) the mobs in the area control the teleporter out. The switch with the exit
gate leads to an optional boss and phat loots. You can hit that switch with
Axes and Swords with the gate up!
4F The mightiest gladiator.
Fun map, you can either go in and face the boss immediately, or go around and
hit switches while killing enemies to flood his room with weaklings that will
weaken him and make him a near one shot. The boss controls the exit, every
enemy controls the loot room.
- Labyrinth Garden [LbG]
1F Which is the right route?
The one that ends the map.
No literal explanation of this map until the formatted image, sorry guys. All
teleporter leads to another, and I just rushed through them. Left side goes to
right, right side goes to left. You'll know you're out in a large open path
with an open gate.
2F Don't fall to the temptation of riches.
Sounds like a bunch of mimics up in this biznitch.
Anyways, each path has a switch and a themed trap room. Go west, East, North
then South, then go east to follow the path to the exit, which is to the south
after all the way east. Simple, right?
3F Ask the skeleton for hints.
Alright, the skeletons give you hints, I'll list them all. The hints are based
on the colored pegs in the center of each room. Bring Charge or Shadowrun to
get behind the knights quicker!
* Blue 1 Down
* Blue 3 Down
* Red 3 Down
* Red 4 Left
* Green 3 Down
* Green 2 Left
* Green 4 Right
What does this mean? If the area has 4 Green dots, go to the right teleporter.
I spent like 20 minutes my first time through this because I was too stubborn
to write the hints down! Too bad I didn't put them in the proper order.
4F Pierrot, Pierrot why do you dance?
The other clown type of enemy, yay! He has plasma balls that aren't easy to
dodge, but aren't hard to deal with. Color coded switches, not a hard deal.
- Castle of No Return [CNR]
1F Don't fear the traps.
I'm just gonna say this right nyah, don't fear the traps because you can
destroy them. Makes life easier in this zone.
2F Going is good; returning is terrifying.
I love/hate this map. Take the north teleporter, hit the switch. The switch
forces traps to come out and destroy all the enemies in the room, so you can
effectively ignore everything. It's all linear, so no need to worry about
directions either. My kinda map. The final room has a demon, ignore it to
leave, kill it for the treasure room to open.
3F Harken the clock that beats death.
Ughhhh, bring a shield. The Totem opens and closes doors like clockwork. That's
all, it's hard to get lost.
4F Fallen angels die thrice.
Lucy, you're in trooooouble. Semi-boss character, not a problem to deal with.
Why's that? If you're in range, they'll always do a dashing X-shaped slash. Sit
in front of her until you understand how she attacks then move horizontally if
she's facing vertically or vice versa. Attack her back. Other method is to just
defend her slow attacks. She also has a Semen-Lightning attack if you're out of
range, very easy to avoid since it's not accurate at all.
Three different paths, each leads to the end and a red chest. Redo it for more
fat loots. You only have to kill one Lucy each attempt.
- Madness Pantheon [MaP]
1F, What chases...
Alright, this isn't a hard map. Prepare by Maining your Sword users with a
spammable charge or Shadow Runner if you've unlocked Ninja.
As soon as you enter, the skeleton will give you a hint about the Beholder
(immortal maybe?) it does high bump damage and it chases you! Aside from that,
you wont have much time to kill anything in this map, the quick and short about
it.
There's no designated path (That I'm providing, lol!) to get from the start to
the end, but suffice it's first southeast, then northeast, then east then north
and northwest. If the beholder gets close, just charge through him and start
bunny hopping and slide dashing to safety.
2F, The great breaking-free-from-jail-game.
I just have to say that I really, really love this map.
There are Two Yellow Beholders that patrol, as well as a bunch of guards. IF
you care about puzzle solving and that wasteful junk, there are four
teleporters in the corners of the room, each teleporter contains a clue.
But that's all boring and no fun, so let's go slaughter some knights. Each
Knight controls a door, we're looking for a knight that controls a room on the
lower west side of the prison, which has a blue switch that controls exit
stairs door.
So let's get to slaughtering! There are two Red Chests on the east side and one
on the West side.
3F, If you would survive, know this...
One thing to look out for, there are traps that summon beholders all around!
Luckily enough though, they appear early.
There's also at least three mimics, so attack chests accordingly.
The way to complete this dungeon is simple, it follows a linear fashion, and
the haste traps mark the way to the exit. The semi-boss controls the door to
the Red Chests, skip him if you're low on health, run south and you'll complete
the map.
After this floor, slight story exposition. Pekora, Lamb and Mutton decide to
stop being cowards and join you. If you haven't been to the Back Alley, these
will be your first Ninja, Dragoon and Shaman, respectively. Parchmin also
reveals some massive spoilers and some good old copyright infringement (almost,
alright.)
- Perfect World [PeW]
1F, Exert every skill thee knows.
Another fun level. It's a very linear path with a few bosslike enemies and
beholder traps. Each room has a very specific theme. Kill everything there to
progress. In the room with the Archers, you get four Bless traps, so ignore
defense and just sit there spamming attack while you can't die. After that
you've got a beholder on your tail with a room full of bunny wabbits that
wequest immediate death. Oblige, get the chests, spawn more beholders and dash
out for victory.
2F, The world of opposing mirrors.
Bring along your best ranged attack, and if it's fire then bring it's icey
brother as well. You'll need it for at least one room, but it helps with the
bosses as well.
It's a mix match level. Well, as the floor description dictates, it's a mirror.
Fire element on the west side, Ice on the east. You hit a switch on one side to
progress through the other. Not very dangerous, but it includes those stupid
puddle ladies that I love to hate so much because I'm too lazy to block
effectively. Bitches.
Anyways, the basic run down is to go Red Flies, Blue Flies, Blue lady and sylph
crew's switch, Red lady and sylph crew's switch, red mushroom gate, blue
mushroom gate, unmoving gas clouds, bosses.
The bosses are dual Demons, one fire, one Ice, and they'll effectively be your
gear and artifact check. Level isn't as important in this game, but properly
stacking Gear for resistance and Artifacts for survival is. If you're having
excessive problems completing this floor, hit up Tri-Geons or Neo-Geons, </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
whichever you feel more comfortable in. It's just that the heaven side of Tri-
Geons are excessively easy, overstocked with Bless and all around a good time.
I found it easiest to use my sole Widen with a two sub magic circle that had a
large structure path. With careful manipulation of joint HP artifacts I was
able to get up to 80 atk (you only really need 60 to defeat this stage) and two
999 hp shields. The rest was actually equipping elemental resistance gear
instead of just any piece of crap. The red controls the exit stairs, the blue
controls the red chests. Logical.
3F, As my fate dictates.
Black monsters, as black as the black can black. Stronger, more aggressive.
Simple map after you get passed the first area. Rock it out with a ninja in
your main slot or somewhere that it's giving you increased damage against these
guys.
4F, The final ordeal.
I don't like the sound of that.
It's another gimmick map, so don't fret. Keep the black support at the surface,
as soon as you enter you're faced with a beholder (I swear, I'm going to regret
calling them this since I'm sure they're immortals). Rush down the hall. He
takes a while to get to you (about 30 seconds) and at the end of the hall you
have to face a Black Knight. He's a bit of a bastard with traps going back and
forth to your right, just charge through him and attack with something big when
he's turned, or hop around him and keep air attacking him for some decent
damage to his side.
- The Final Guardian [TFG]
1F The fires of darkness incinerate all.
Well then, spoiler alert, this is the fight with Death Glutton. He's a god
damned dragon, way to classic RPG, NIS.
He's a very, very simple fight, only level 60. His primary attack is looking in
one direction and then spewing a large all of flames. Charge, Shadow Run or
just slide by him and then attack or combo him from behind. His other attack is
that he explodes in a cloud of smoke, releasing several drakelings. Any AoE
will drop them quickly since their HP is rather low. Rinse and repeat, you'll
probably get a few fame on your first try.
Widder will suck up a bit, the credits will roll, the game will end. If you're
a typical gamer, enjoy your day's length of a video game! If you're a typical
NIS fan, you've got about another week of collecting stupid stuff for stupid
reasons that are only there to brag about. If you're like me, you've got
another month worth of copyright infringement!
!@# Post Game [Pst] - [Pur]
Just kidding, well kinda.. this is the real final zone, Purgatory. The game
technically ended, but we've got a terrible ending to obliterate.
1F, The first step toward Death Glutton.
It's an artifically annoying level. Fire and Ice based, everything is healed or
invulnerable to what is surrounding everything in the area. Blach.
The right teleporter is fire then ice, the left teleporter is ice then fire.
There's a Green Golem to deal with in the center either path you take, and the
layouts are generally the same, except the final room is horizontal for ice and
vertical for fire, which doesn't amount to much aside exploiting enemy
mechanics.
I find the immediate right path (Fire first, then finishing in Ice) to be a
little easier to deal with since you can hide in the nooks of the walls to
abuse the gas flames attacks and still hit it back.
2F, Two perilous paths.
This stage fills me with so much rage. Lot of hard hitting enemies, everything
is level 70, and it's full of visible traps. Near the end, you're forced to
down a White Golem, which will take a while so just figure out how to jump to
avoid the ground pounds.
3F, Enter with your life on the line!
Wow, prepare to rage. This map isn't hard, but annoying as all hell. Proceed
slowly or recklessly with weakness removers. Either or.
4F, Get ready for an enduring battle.
Another annoying fire and ice level. Head down the fire path to the left first.
Then after, head right to kill the ice clown. Then follow the path, it's purely
linear at this point. just remember to hit all the switches along the way,
since when you hit the final switch you get a black immortal chasing you down
like you just stole his bike.
5F, A whirling chance at victory.
Very easy, power leveling map. It features every boss and a bunch of smaller
enemies and chests to infinity. Love it. Do it a lot if Death Glutton is giving
you problems, even though that's likely just a bad artifact setup. <3
- Descent of Might Symbol [DMS]
The final final level! There's more to come, but this is the final final boss.
He has multiple forms and no rest between each kill. It appears just above
purgatory. Few tips to remember, Defense is important, but you honestly wont be
able to get enough to make it matter. If you can't avoid the attacks, you wont
beat him. Clean and simple. 300 attack is about enough to clear every stage.
Stay away from Fatemates, in all honesty if you're getting hit at all during
any stage, you just need to focus on practicing, even if it does mean losing
every attempt.
1F A Clash of Forces.
Stage 1, he has two attacks. He'll either make two swords spin rapidly in
circles then throw them at you in an X shaped pattern or Slash at you with one
sword like Large Knights. He'll summon Yellow Lizardmen in groups of 3.
Stage 2, Tree mode up in this bitch. He'll start ultra-spiking with the Tree's
ground spikes. It's not a typical strike, strike pattern, it'll keep striking
as long as it's up, and he attacks with this quickly. This is where you decide
if you need to waste SP on a high level Heaven Slash or drag the fight on. He
summons archers. Vulnerable to bash, so jump attacking him during the six spike
phase is easiest.
Stage 3, Ultra Exploder mode. Really annoying, he has the massive explosions
that Golems have. He summons Defense Bombers in this stage, it's best to use a
fast character in all of these fights, and just rush out whenever he prepares
something big and try to finish him with whatever you've got. Axe Boomerang is
god here because you can kill him while he's teleporting in. Otherwise
Thunderbolt is good if a dagger user because it provides slight immunity
frames. His first attack is four explosions, best to lure then run out. The
next he'll teleport in, then face you and he'll send out massive amounts of
shockwaves in that direction.
Stage 4, Widder-Glutton-Mode. Super easy, lure him to attack one way then stab
him in the back to infinity. He also summons will-o-wisps that attack and
disperse, high damage, just lure his teleports far away. He'll teleport
immediately without fire breathing if he does this attack. It's easiest to rush
forward, sit still until he begins his attack and shadowrun/charge through him
and open up on his back. Otherwise you'll get a stage full of homing attacks
and fire exploders.
Stage 5, Icicle Boss, easy to dodge his attacks. Just slide twice during the
circle, and just get out of his way during the middle line. Summons lady of the
lakes.
Stage 6, Clown+Lucy boss, he'll either shoot plasma balls or the semen
lightning. He summons two black Immortals, so go all out.
Stage 7, Probably even more annoying than the last. He'll dash across the
screen. Dash through him and avoid it until he starts doing his Smaller Clown
plasma ball attacks. Luckily enough his attacks are basic and easy to follow
and this is his final stage. Also if you're having problems, just switch to
Divine Excess and any 1/1 spear you can find. Most of his phases are more
vulnerable to Impact type damage (who'da thunk it with spears) and just joint
up any high Atk and Crit artifacts you have. Whenever he teleports in just spam
attack and you win (done at 900 attack).
!@# Post, Post Game [PPs]
Alright, now we're into the Post, Post Game. How Meta can we get here, guys?
The answer is Pretty. Death Glutton seperates from his evil side, and now lusts
for battle. Yay. The following are all unlocked after you beat the final final
boss, and time attack, which should be included here just because.
- Detonation 1000
This features Death Glutton at level 1,000. It goes all the way up to 9,999. I
however, will not cover this. At all. Get over it, darlings. <3
- Fight Former Last Boss, Lv999.
As the area name suggests, this is the final boss from Cladun, This is an RPG.
He's essentially an active M, I don't get it, but whatever. I also wont cover
this because I'm done with the metagame. <3
- Time Attack
This I don't mind covering. It's a time attack. That's all there is to it.
Oh, also, the enemies are all level 9,999. There's some guides that help you to
complete it, but let me just say it right now, it's only really useful for
farming high level equipment.
First of all, 10 rejobs on two characters is suggested, with attack perfecting
the Main-to-be, and getting as much Mana as you can on the Sub-To-Be. Divine
Excess breaks this place apart.
Divine Excess, joint as best as you can to get to 4,000 attack. Lower your
Shadowrun level as low as you can get it, then power up your thunderbolt within
a healthy range to use it multiple times.
It also helps to equip ice resistance armor, but that's just what I've heard
and only helps if you're careless.
Anyways, it's a mad dash with Shadow Run. Get to the exits of each floor until
you reach an ice path with 4 Zeta Totems at the end. You kill these. Get loot?
Awesome, continue on. Get nothing? Too bad, give up to speed up the process.
After the Totems, the only other thing you have to do is clear a room full of
Squids at level 100. Simple enough, race through and you're done. Get some Fame
(yeah, right.) and high level equipment. It's not good for much of anything
else, by the time you can easily handle these level 9,999 enemies, you wont
need their Experience, and running with level+1000 G Obtain from floor 1 up to
floor 50 of a Tri-Geon will money cap you. Pointless dungeon is pointless.
Credit rolls once again! Leaving you only with Time Attack and higher level
versions of Death Glutton!
!@# Ran-Geons [RnG]
The best place for post game leveling. It's also the only place to farm Widens
effectively!
There's some clue differences betweeon both Geons that I'll get into when I get
to them, but the basis is that you enter the dungeon. You kill things or find
gates. Each floor has anywhere between 1 to 3 gates that spawn nearby each
other. Every tenth floor has a Boss-like opponent, followed by one of each;
Exit, Devil's, Hell, Gambler and Angel gate.
Gates include;
- Stairs, most obvious of stairs if you've been playing through the main game.
They're the exit stairs! When you run through them, you're not immune. If a foe
is chasing you, prepare to die if you mash buttons. It'll open as a "Do you
wish to leave the dungeon" with the cursor defaultly placed on "No", so in
emergencies get used to quickly pressing up and X to stay alive. I repeat, you
can die while selecting yes or no.
- Angelic Gate, they look like two golden angels. They're the gate you should
always prompt to take after you've reached your desired monster level. They
have low monster level growth, single floor progression and moderate to high
drop rate gains. Another benefit to these lovely bastards is that they will
restore either your SP or your HP, randomly. If a character has died and you
don't have the gate revival skill, if you get HP restored then everybody will
be restored to full health and revived if dead. SP is just a full SP restore,
which is also amazing on a 99 floor dungeon, I tell you what. These gates tend
to level fairly fast.
- Gambler's Gate, two cloaked individuals with scythes. You'll either love them
or hate them. They usually start off with a 1~5 monster level rate, and they
level up quickly (lot of times the very first gate) up to a 1~20 level rate.
They usually only have high gains for drop rates, but it's usually either gain
20 or lose 20. Single floor advancement, like every other gate besides Warp.
- Warp Gate, a beautiful rainbow! They're like Angelic Gates that don't restore
HP/SP, but they let you advance passed floors. Have problems with a certain
boss? Pray to hit one of these suckers at floor 9 and you're gold. Floor
advancement is based on Gate level, with a max I've seen of a 4 floor skip at
level 1.
- Devil's Gate two wonderful bat-like fellows, high monster rates, negative
drop rates. Sounds a-frickin-mazing, right? This is the second best gate to
take on floor 1 to skip along your enemy monster levels nicely, since they
often have -rate drops, it's best to get all the bad luck out at the start
since you wont drop below 1. It shares a secret with Hell's Gates.
- Hell's Gate, a gorgeous looking black and red gaping maw. They're Devil's
Gates on crack. Higher rates and negative rates on everything. Now the secret
that the two share? They can both suddenly transform into Angels gates, usually
if you roll low on monster level, where the roll starts again fresh and you
have a chance for hp/sp restoration. These two gates are the second best gate
to take if you really need a heal and you don't have stairs nearby.
- Transition Gate! The only gate that looks like a gate. It'll take you from
one area to the next! Amazing, ain't it?
- Normal Gate, Ivy green looking gateway, it's fairly normal. It has low,
usually negative rate decreases.
- Judgment Gate, turns into Abysmal, Angel, Hell or Transition gates. It's
primarily a better chance to stay in Heaven. Supposedly they can turn into Doom
Gates on later floors, unverified at this moment. The only way to access
Abysmal gates.
- Abysmal Gate, Transition and Emergence gate rates. It's a gate that restores
HP and lets you roll for the emergence of Exit and Transition gates. This only
really comes into play in Chaos, since you'll get a transition gate in heaven
9/10 times, easily. The biggest benefit is that it only can appear through a
Judgment gate, and as far as I've seen always restores HP, SP or heals all.
- Doom Gates, they look like the Rolling Stones lips. Better known as the "Trap
Gate", they're nearly invisible until you're just about on them. Everything on
the floor has a random level, it's wonderful and also hazardous. You might be
slaughtering a level 2 dragon when a level 6,640 black immortal spots you from
a map away, and you just so happen to run into a level 2,000 golem that one
shots you.
It also transports you to a special doom room! Filled with super dangerous
monsters, including dragons that spew fire and rush back and forth quickly. To
top it all off, Earthquake and Exploding traps freaking everywhere. It's a
blast, really. These floors tend to come pre-stocked with Monster Traps, and a
good chance of Hiyokki spawns. And as we discussed earlier with Monster Traps,
it'll only spawn an active monster on that level, there's the rumored Hiyokki
Paradise Doom Gate, where there's nothing but the cowardly birds. This is the
easiest way to get high level equipment, but the chests are often mimics, so
just run them through exploding or earthquake traps to survive.
This floor is also the only floor in the game that has Hiyokki traps, little
canary traps that summon a Hiyokki around your level.
- Neo-Geon [Neo]
The first type of Ran-Geon, it has 99 floors and the enemies always start at
level 1. The dungeon itself isn't that hard, but it can be annoying to deal
with for one main reason, the floors are all themed. Where one typical
character might do amazingly, in the next set of levels it might do horribly.
That as well as the fact that it starts at level 1 is detrimental in comparison
to Tri-Geons, which are a lot easier to exploit. Gates only level up (and down)
in Neo-Geons.
- Tri-Geon [Tri]
On the one hand of Neo-Geons, that start at level 1 and have 99 levels, Tri-
Geons enemies start at a level based on your current main character. There's
also one more very important factor to Tri-Geons, there are three dungeons in
one. As I mentioned earlier, Transition gates can appear in Neo-Geons, but
they're designed for Tri-Geons, since it's the only way to go between Normal,
Chaos and Heaven.
* Normal, you'd face levels that progress exactly the same as a Neo-Geon.
* Chaos, you encounter a lot of enemies, lot more traps. Best EXPing.
* Heaven, less enemies but it has the highest chest spawn.
You always start in normal, and the way to get to either Chaos or Heaven is to
hit a transition gate. When entering a gate from Normal, there will always be
two gates together, a Devil's gate and a Normal gate. There's no exception to
this rule. If you enter the Normal gate, you go back to Normal. If you go into
the Devil's gate you go into chaos. The only way to get to Heaven from Normal
is if the Devil's gate turns into an Angel Gate.
Transition zones aren't that big of a deal, the enemies are jerks but easy to
deal with using skills instead of normal attacks until you break a certain
attack barrier, which in large part varies. Most of the treasures are Mimics,
and are easily enough disposed of by comboing or charging from a safe distance,
or using an attack that can one shot it. There's also Immortal traps scattered
all around the place. Another note, if you have left over Immortals from traps
in Heaven or Chaos, they seem to appear in Transition gates until their life
span counts to 0.
Ideally, while you're just there to collect artifacts and items, you want to
hit a few hell gates to get the enemies to about twice your level, then
desperately get to a Transition gate, go into a Devil's gate and rush to find
another transition to make it to Heaven, where you can safely attempt to farm
chests until the cows come home.
Now, Heaven? It's great, hard to die, not many problems to deal with, hit an
earth quake and jump to weaken nearby enemies or destroy chests to loot the
miniscule amounts of gold. The real problem is that most of the time, you'll
get only a Judgment gate and a Devil's or Hell gate. The problem with this is
that you want a Transition gate for better farming. Devil's and Hell gates
don't always send you over to Chaos, but there's a chance that they will send
you straight there without going through a transition gate.
So Tri-Geons? Risky, but the easiest way to get high level gear early on. Hell
gates, hell gates, hell gates. Do your best to avoid doom gates (they'll kill
you and waste your effort immediately, unless you land in Hiyokki heaven) and
exit when you're given the chance.
More important factoids about Ran-Geons;
- If the enemy level is above yours (it appears to be based on Tiers) and you
successfully exit the dungeon without dying, you'll have a massive Exp modifier
based on your earned experience. It's usually around 90%, but sometimes it'll
be higher than 2.5x.
My favorite method of exploiting this is to kill everything on every floor,
going to Heaven ASAP and switching between Transition and Heaven every floor.
After a while in Heaven, only Lucy, Bunnos and Totems will spawn. If you're not
used to fighting these guys, they're the easiest enemies to trick in the game.
What this means is, until you're doing less than 5% of their max hp a strike,
they're your EXPing enemies. Anything after that then it's a waste of time.
Also in Transition rooms, solo Eyefamily members are easy to trick and kill, or
gather and AoE, they have decent Exp rates (slightly higher than Totems).
After that, it's just running through the dungeons, finding any Hiyokki and
safely killing them (They have the best EXP rates, aside from dropping Widens).
The next best thing to do is run through dungeons until you start struggling to
survive, then hit the first exit gate you see. That 5,000 exp you earned on the
first thirty floors is magically multiplied up to 15,000, and you just finished
super powering any subs. The average Exp from 1~99 is somewhere around 39k.
Advanced classes take about 42k and Beginner classes take about 35k.
- The strategy was included in the above, but farming chests for better
equipment and artifacts while ignoring experience as a whole is effective.
Daggers and Bows, Ninjas and Rangers. They each have their strong suits, and
because of enemy blocking, I prefer Ninjas for Shadow Run emergency situations.
The Rangers are effective using any fast speed bow (early on Killer bows work
amazingly since you get a first level charge in a split second, it adds to
mimic knockback if it awakens them).
Basically keep running between Transition and Heaven looting chests. In Heaven
you never have to worry about Mimics, but always attack the chests in
transition from behind or while running through. They only start immediately
attacking if you're touching them, stand away and attack and you have a safe
distance to run for your life.
- Greed almost always leads to wasted effort. Even running with speed stacked
Ninjas and Rangers, you can knock each floor to about a minute long, max. I can
assure you though, the longer you go on, the higher chance you'll accidentally
pop through a doom gate, and the crew will be waiting to welcome you. Exit
gates in Heaven and Transition are fairly rare, so about 50 floors in, if
you've gotten some nice things, hit up Chaos and go home.
My first time doing chest runs with my Ranger, I got up to around floor 80
abusing this method, and I slid through a doom gate with an exit stairway in
sight. It turned into an epic struggle, dodging Immortals, tricking Dragons,
dashing through boulders. The exit was in sight, and I didn't notice an earth
quake trap.
Moral of this story? As some inbred hick once said, know when to hold 'em and
know when to fold 'em.
!@# Magic Circles [MaC]
There are 20 Magic Circles for each class, the levels they gain them all vary.
Every class starts with the "False Mind" magic circle, which is an unflavored,
somewhat useful Magic Circle that will top the more intricate first level
Circles.
o---------------------------o
|~~~~~~~~False Mind~~~~~~~~~|
o---------------------------o This is a Magic Circle.
| 1 2 |
| A, S/C>[ ]<-60%hp* | This row signifies the artifact path available.
| Spx3, Dx3>[ ] | Mana can be placed anywhere and be active, any
| [X][X][O][X][X] | other artifact requires a linked path.
| [X] |
| [X] | The [O] signifies the Main Character.
| 3 4 | The [ ] are the Sub Character slots.
o---------------------------o The [X] are the unavailable Sub Character slots.
| A = Attack |
| D = Defense | A, S/C>[ ]<-60hp* translates quite simply.
| S = Speed | A is an unlinked Attack Artifact slot.
| C = Crit | S/C is a shared Speed or Crit Artifact slot.
| Sp = Sp | -60%hp* is a fixed slot that lowers that sub's HP
| Hp = Hp | by 60% for placing it there.
| * dictates a fixed slot |
o---------------------------o
Spx3, Dx3>[ ] translates a bit differently. Spx3 means that there are 3 linked
SP artifact slots. Dx3 means that there are 3 linked defense Artifact slots.
o---------------------------o o-----------------------------------------o
|~~~~~~~Divine Excess~~~~~~~| | Quardrant 3, 1 link in; |
o---------------------------o | |
| | | [ Ab1 ] [ Ab1 ] [ A/D ] [Man3x]-| | |
| [X] | | | | | | |sub 7| |
| [X] | | [Sp/S ]-[ Sp ]-[ A/D ]-[Man3x] | | |
| [X][X][O][X][X] | | | | | | |
| Quadrant 3-[7]-Quadrant 4 | | [ Ab2 ] [ Ab2 ] [ A/D ] [Hp/D ] | | |
| [X] | | | | | | | X | |
| | | [ Ab3 ] [ Ab3 ] [ A/C ] [HP/D ] | | |
o---------------------------o | |
| This circle explains why | o-----------------------------------------o
| I will absolutely not do | | Quadrant 4, 1 link in; |
| every circle piece by | | |
| piece. | | [ ]-[XHeal] [Hp/D ] [ Ab1 ] [ Ab1 ] |
o---------------------------o | |sub 7| | | | |
| XHeal is "Wont Heal" | | [ ]-[ Sp ]-[ A/D ]-[Sp/S ]-[SP/S ] |
| [sub 7] is sub slot 7 | | | | | | |
| [ X ] is sub slot 8 | | [ ] [ Sp ] [ A/D ] [ Ab2 ] [ Ab2 ] |
| Sub 7 - Job Skill 4 | | | X | | | | | |
| | | [ ] [ Sp ] [ A/C ] [Ab456] [Ab456] |
| Wizard 20th MC, level 56 | | |
o---------------------------o o-----------------------------------------o
Analysis: Quadrant 3 synergizes well with Jointed artifacts, where Quadrant 4
can make use of a Widened Artifact without breaking joints. This doesn't mean
"Don't use Widen!", it just means that slotting mid level rare jointed
artifacts on the right side is more effective than breaking a linking joint
between an attack core and 11 possible joint links, Quadrant 3 can only widen 8
joints max. One of the better Ran-Geon Magic Circles, especially for leveling
new Subs. Although it wont allow you to heal, it doesn't prevent you from
healing at Angel and Abysmal gates.
General Artifact placement tips:
- Mana can be placed anywhere to give it's affect, meaning if you're avoiding a
row of artifact slots behind a very negative fixed slot, you can place Mana
artifacts behind it to gain their affect without having to link and activate
that negative slot.
- HP Jointed artifacts come in two varieties. The lower HP gains for 0 Mana
cost, and the slightly higher versions for miniscule amounts of Mana. The 0
Mana are amazingly nice to slot since it adds to the point per mana ratio. Best
when paired with Rare jointed artifacts that already have a low point to mana
ratio.
- Widen, it's hard to choose where to place these. Until you start leveling
shaman specifically for the sub slots, you probably wont have enough Mana to
Widen anything more than low cost joints and rares. Until you've looted some
rare jointed artifacts, it might be best to use these on the longest rows
you've got available with the highest level artifact you can. Widen effectively
doubles the amount of mana gained from Mana artifacts if they're placed
anywhere behind it.
- Sometimes you're better off just putting Mana there if you're not breaking a
joint. Defense is important in this game, until the enemies get about to +300
levels, then they're going to start doing 25~100% of a sub's hp with every
strike. At this point you have to choose if having SP, Atk or Speed is more
important.
- SP Debt is a powerful, yet debilitating game mechanic. With proper Debt-
Eraser support, it's incredibly powerful when teamed up with Sorcery and Magic
Lvl+1000%. The flaw behind SP Debt, and which makes it much weaker outside of
Story Dungeons is that you can't run while you're in debt. I personally find it
much easier to focus on using weapons. Great when paired with Awakening, as
long as your SP Debt sub is alive you'll be able to stay awakened.
- HP artifacts are only important if you're taking unmitigated damage. Even
without a shield, you can block to reduce incoming damage, shields just raise
your defense and resistances while blocking. If you avoid traps and damage, HP
is a wash of a stat.
!@#Which Magic Circles should I use?
Here I'll go over useful Magic Circles. See: Useful as not complicated unless
overall amazing.
- Warrior
Warriors will probably have the best leveling Magic Circles in the game. Not
all are good, but in the main game it'll probably be what you stick to. Kaiser
is the 20th MC and is the most balanced of all.
* Chivalry, Warrior's Fourth Magic Circle, this one is great for early on. It
has Defend 100% in the front slot as well as 4 HP slots, although two are
shared with atk and two with def. Ultimate choice is up to you. It'll last you
until..
* Delegate, Warrior's Seventh Magic Circle. It's Chivalry but boosted, it has
a lot more slots and Job Skill 3 from every supporting character. As with
Chivalry, it falls apart if the front sub dies. Also alike the former, it has a
heavy reliance on a Main leveled character.
* Wounded Wolf, Warrior's Eleventh Magic Circle. It's like the former two
except your subs are all affected by Wont Heal. Manax2 as well as 8 Attack
boosts and 1 Speed boost that can lead for a 6 joint 2x widened attack setup or
9 jointed. When one character falls, it's essentially game over. Only good for
story Dungeons.
* Challenger, Warrior's Twelfth Magic Circle. It's unlike the former 3, in
this one we've got Defend 50% (a lot better than 100%) connected with many HP
Artifacts. The only flaw is that every other slot is affected by hp-20% and not
much room for HP artifacts for them. It lasted me until Kaiser, though.
* Kaiser, Warrior's Twentieth Magic Circle. Amazing MC, it has 5 sub slots,
Back and front inner with Job Skill 2, Full front with Job Skill 4 and flanks
with Atk Up. Mana x2 slots with the flanks as well as many Attack and Defense
artifact slots. Doesn't have much Widen support, but it works well with high
cost joints.
- Wizard
In all honesty, don't use your Wizard. It's less effective than running through
an ice patch or a fire patch to do elemental damage. Staves are nice, but
anybody can use them and they have some serious drawbacks. You make a wizard
for decent mana as a Sub, but most importantly Divine Excess, which is fully
covered at the top of this guide. Scroll up you lazy bum.
- Saint
Not much for Magic Circles in Story Dungeons. You should be leveling a saint
almost exclusively for Bless at level 40, which you'll only really use at level
1~9 in Ran-Geons. There are some decent story Magic Circles, though, but only
because they're decently balanced.
* Kindness, Saint's fourth Magic Circle. It's balanced artifact wise, but not
many slots to joint. Inside characters are affected by hp-60%, the real flaw is
that every character has Divide 25%, which distributes 25% of incoming damage
to all other sub characters.
* Honor, Saint's fifth Magic Circle. It's your first good Ran-Geon MC. Inner
back sub slot has Gate Revive, 20 Mana revives all fallen characters with 10%hp
at Ran-Geon Gates. It has decent Attack and HP slots, as well as two Ability 1
slots for lowering Bless (when you get it much later.)
* Total War, Saint's ninth Magic Circle. It's an 8 sub slot magic circle! It
has lots of room for Attack and Defense as well as SP boosting. It's amazing,
even has Gate Revive. However every slot has Fatemate. If you slot a character
in the Gate Revive slot, it also lowers elemental resistances by 20. Very risky
but if you're decent, lots of leveling to go around.
* Army of Light, Saint's tenth Magic Circle. Exp up on all four sub slots.
Gate Revive on both inner slots as well as Defend 25%, which means they both
take 25% of incoming damage from the real shields. Only 3 slots for Attack
Artifacts, three of which are shared with the six slots for Defense. Luckily
enough there's lots of speed up top, so it's a great Ran-Geon setup. Kill
everything for as long as you can, when you can no longer, get your enemy level
up to twice yours and find the nearest exit for massive experience.
* Skill Power, Saint's twelfth Magic Circle. Another Ran-Geon MC. It has good
support coming from both flanks (25% defend) and the rear (50% defend). Every
sub slot has Job Skill 4, the front slot has Gate Revive and HP slots. Not much
for Attack and Defense.
* Dual Wield, Saint's sixteenth Magic Circle. Inner fron has Receive Mana,
four sub slots give the Mana. It has room for up to 4 atk joints and 4 def
joints on the right flank, but only 3 hp/sp on the lower left, works best with
a single widen there. The interesting part is that if characters are missing
(see: dead) from the Give Mana slots, there's a bonus 15 atk/def, so it doesn't
crumble as badly if the side characters aren't slotted or die.
- Guardian
Guardian gets a (almost always) better Magic Circle at every tier until
Megalomana and Core, which you'll have to choose between yourself.
* Megalomana, Guardian's nineteenth Magic Circle. It has two Manax2 spaces,
one on each flank. Right side focuses on Defense, left side focuses on Attack.
Not much for Joints, but it has a lot more Growth slots, which as we all know
are useless.
* Core, Guardian's twentieth Magic Circle. It has eight manax2 spaces, and
they both have 8 sub slots. The real difference is that all slots aside from
the front outer have hp-60% as well as no Defend spaces. It's fairly fragile,
but if you play it well it's a good leveling circle.
- Ranger
Crazy. Let me say it again, Crazy. Ranger has some great Ran-Geon magic
circles, but it doesn't really justify creating a Ranger from the Get-go, but
better for reclassing your former Ran-geon main into Ranger to get some better
Ran-Geon support Circles. The difference between Ranger and Saint (aside from
speed, which is much better) is that Rangers have Gate Restore, which has a 10%
chance to restore a character to 100% hp at a gate.
* Speedstar, Ranger's tenth Magic Circle. It's the best treasure farming Magic
Circle in the game. It's only useful for Tri-Geon heaven cycling with 13 Speed
slots. It lacks Gate Restore and only has 4 Attack slots, so it's not that
great overall (see: safe).
* Meticulous, Ranger's eleventh Magic Circle. This is the more balanced
version of the above, which is better for actually slaying your way through a
dungeon. Inner characters have 4 Gate Restore slots a piece as well as Job
Skill 1. 7 attack slots, 4 shared with hp, 1 shared with defense, and the same
with defense on the other side. Biggest draw is the 80% chance to restore
characters at gates.
* Crazy, Ranger's sixteenth Magic Circle. This is the stat maxing magic
circle. It has lots of Attack and Defense support, as well as three Ability 123
slots. Let me explain this to be specific. You put your Main-To-Be in the far
front slot. On the right side, you slot 4 Widens then the best Large growth
artifact you can get for the desired stat to power level (see: rarest). Until
you get the Luck Excess (see: never) this is the best Uber character leveling
circle.
- Merchant
Overall crappy Magic Circles until.. True Champion. I've discussed it further
up (under the Merchant job category) but it's really, really amazing. I use it
whenever I'm not using Divine Excess. It's the final slot, unfortunately, bu
tit only gets even more amazing with a higher mana character in the front slot.
Each flank has Absent Atk+50 (both left side) and Absent Def+50 (both right
side.) The rear slot has massive SP support as well as Crit slots and 1, 2, 3
abilities. All Flank characters give their mana to the front character, which
has activatable Defend 25% slots (4, up to 100%) and many Jointable Attack
artifacts on the left side, as well as weakening ability artifact paths on the
right. Always leave the left flank empty until you've gotten a few high Mana
characters (See: 800+ range to justify higher level joints). Very easy to get
to 300 drop rating and 500 attack with one amazing former Main.
- Swordmage
Swordmage is the only intermediate class that gets reliant on Awakening. The
final is decent, but outclassed by other Magic Circles. Dark Child has many
slots for Attack and SP, with quite a few Crit and Speed. The furthest front
character has 4 HP and 4SP with two spd/crt but wont Heal. Awakening gives 500
mana and leads down a path to ability 1, 2 and 3 with three joined Atk/Def,
Atk/Spd and Crt. Flanks have (left) 3x Ability 1 and Ability 4 with 4 SP and
(right) 3x Ability 2 and Ability 3 with 4 SP slots. Decent Attack and Growth
means that it wont crumble with one character down.
- Ninja
Ninjas are either complicated, weak or amazing in the right conditions. I'm
confused by a lot of them, but their eighteenth, Sarutobi Sasuke is the best.
It's the much weaker version of Divine Excess. It's a great justification for
Rejobbing into Ninja and not starting off with one. The only exception to this
rule is their very first Magic Circle, which has one sub support with Job Skill
4 and two Widens built into each side, 1spd 2atk with hp-20% on each path.
- Dragoon
Ignore all of these magic circles. They're fairly complicated and highly
Awakening reliant. The class as a whole isn't weak, but it's great to re-job
into this before you use it as a main character, thus you'll have better Magic
Circles at your disposal. If you invest your time and artifacts into Awakening
support, their circles can be amazingly powerful.
- Shaman
The final Shaman Magic Circle is just about the only good one, even though it
is Awakening Reliant, it provides 2,000 mana, 1,000 to each flank when
awakened, both of which are great to be widened before hand. The front slot is
your core defenender with 100%, 123 and 456 ability slots and two HP artifact
locations. Either widen 1x or 2x with a high hp joint, or just use your highest
hp joints available. The back slot is the backup with defend 25%, but it's
there almost more importantly for 2x Mana and two built in widens with a 2 link
slot for Joint Attack or Defense. Two SP slots and Four HP/SP slots as well as
one slot for each ability slot aside from 2 and 3, which both have two. When
the front character dies, the rest of the group crumbles. Flanks affected by
hp-80% overall, the 25% defend on the outside wont protect them for long.
!@# Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ]
Q: I don't know what all of these sub character slot affects mean!
A: Neither do I! Luckily enough, it's not explained in Magic Circles or the
wonderful denizens of Hiyo's Ship! The Atk/Def up have an associated level and
point allocation relevant to them. Receive and Give Mana are obvious, what I'm
not completely sure of is the Job Skill levels; whether it affects the job
level of the main or confers the skill of the subs.
Q: Is there anything to do besides farm high level items and create custom
character designs?
A: Nope. After you beat the game it's infinite grind mode. The only thing
you'll need an uber character for is Time Attack, unlocking God Excess and all
the levels of the final final boss.
Q: What's God Excess?
A: It's the Magic Circle rewarded by finishing a Ran-Geon with a monster level
of 9,999. You think that's bad? You have to finish one at level 777 to award
the other. And by finish I mean complete the 99th floor, not just leave at the
appropriate level. God Excess is Divine Excess on crack, and the Luck based one
is Crazy on crack.
Q: How do I get to level 9,999 in a Ran-Geon?
A: Your best bet is a Neo-Geon, since it has more chances for Hell Gates as
well as different level gates which will increase your target monster level per
floor. What this means is that you need an average of 103 monster levels per
gate. Considering how rare a 600+ ML hell gate is, it'll be almost, if not
harder than getting the luck based MC.
Q: Do you have either MCs?
A: God no, I spent three hours grinding six jobs to 99 and decided that I'm
done with this game. Every minute of time on this game after that was
exclusively for collecting data (aka: maps for a formated update in the near
future and exact MC gain levels.)
Q: By six jobs to 99 do you mean six different characters?
A: This isn't a loaded question, I had three of my friends I introduced to
Cladun x2 ask me this already. It doesn't produce the best of stat gains, but
after your first rejob on one character, it's smooth sailing. I average about
10k exp every 10 minutes using Kaiser and True Champion on two different
characters. The trick is to keep a level 1 somewhere in the MC in Tri-Geons and
you get the max amount of Exp for the current level monster available. After
that it's just hitting every hell gate until floor 8 then getting into Chaos
until floor 14, then going back to normal or Heaven. Heaven offers lots of
Lucies, and Normal offers, on average, more enemies to fight.
But as you progress, by floor 20 that 150 exp per floor will quickly become 600
~1,000 per floor, then it's just grinding safely until you find an Exit. The
problem with grinding in Heaven is getting stuck in Chaos, which can be
extremely dangerous with lurking Immortals and a flurry of exploding enemies.
Floor 24~ is when you stop getting those types of enemies in Normal, but they
put you at a type disadvantage in the random draw areas.
Leveling in Heaven is almost guaranteed to get back into Heaven every second
floor, if you're extremely unlucky every fourth floor. This is best paired with
a piercing weapon (Daggers work well) to slaughter every Eyefamily on
transition floors for two hit kills and medium EXP.
Anyways, if you stagger levels properly you'll always be maining a level 1~65
and subbing your next main between 66~99 to cycle two characters through every
job and a variety of other support characters which are only being leveled to
become 10% rejob shamans. True Champion and Kaiser were just there for me,
since I was lazy and grinding G for my second Widen when I started this and it
worked out much faster.
The slower method is running to floor 10 in Tri-Geons and exiting. This is best
paired up with a Ninja or Ranger for faster movement along the floor, one
shotting everything up to the boss and you'll be able to exit with 4k exp every
5 minutes. Great while pairing with M/A Lvl+1000% G-Obtain buffing. It'll last
you about five floors and turn everything into fountains of red coins.
Q: Shouldn't the above have it's own section? And shouldn't you delete that
earlier written crap strategy of grinding items in heaven?
A: I dun wanna.
!@# Credits [Crd]
I credit myself for being awesome. That's about it. nobody else deserves
acknowledgement yet.
Future versions will be formatted with Maps. It wont be for a long, long while,
though, since I don't have a decent tablet to combine 50+ screen shots for one
zone.
Stephanie, for pointing out some minor flaws in the guide. If she wasn't a
feminist, version 1.02 wouldn't exist and we'd only have version 2.00 in a few
months.
