A guide to playing Dark Cloud by John Laughlin Version 1.0 Version history: 1.0 First version done Table of contents I. Introduction A. About this FAQ B. Fighting C. A word on dungeons II. Weapons A. Characters & their weapons B. Maintenance C. Special attributes D. Upgrading E. Building up III. Stealing A. How it works B. Stealing list IV. Fishing guide A. How to fish B. Choosing your bait V. Boss Strategies VI. Miscellaneous I. Introduction A. About this FAQ This is intended to be mostly a hint and strategy guide and it is my intention to keep it as spoiler-free as possible. To that end, I will only tackle some of the major issues people will have with the game, and I will not address every event that will occur in the course of the story. This FAQ is also a work-in-progress. Meaning I am adding to it as I play though the game, so make sure to check back every now and again for a new version. B. Fighting The instruction guide gives you the basics about how to fight, and I'm certain that most people will get a feel for it themselves. Still, here are a few tidbits to remember: 1. The battle system is mostly similar to Zelda 64 in that you have a 360 degree area around your enemy to maneuver in along with a lock-on system that allows you to focus on one enemy at a time. If you are having trouble getting solid hits on an enemy, or if an enemy is ripping you apart with ease, try attacking it from a different angle or direction. Being mobile is a key element to successful fighting in this game. 2. All of the characters have a special move that can be done by holding down the X button for a second. For instance, Toan does a jumping slash. Xiao holds her shot waiting for you to let her fire it. And so on. An interesting note is that the characters who use melee weapons are temporarily invulnerable while they are doing their special move. This is important to remember for times when you need to get dangerously close to an enemy, especially bosses. 3. This one I cannot stress enough: there are some enemies that are far easier to beat for some characters than others. Certainly, you can use any character to kill any enemy, but some characters just have a far easier time of killing some enemies than others. For instance, Xiao and Ruby have distance attacks, and can beat some slower moving enemies easily. Goro's weapons are slow, but he is particularly good against mimics. C. A word on dungeons This FAQ will NOT contain a walkthrough for the game and for a very good reason that I'm sure you will all find out as soon as you start. With a few rare exceptions, every time you visit or re-visit any given floor of a dungeon, it will be different. So don't waste time making your own maps of every dungeon, because they will be worthless as soon as you leave. One thing I will mention is about the back areas to the dungeons. Each dungeon has an entrance to an area where the enemies are smarter and do a lot more damage to you while you do 1/2 damage to them. You won't find any more Atla spehres in the back areas, but you will find a lot of normally rare items. Usually there is sime item you need to access the back areas, but most of these are fairly obvious items. For the mine carts in the Divine Beast Cave, you need oil. For the rivers in the Wise Owl Forest, you use Sun Dew to turn a leaf into a boat. And so on. II. Weapons A. Characters and their weapons The game is won and lost by what weapons you use. Whenever you get a new character, make a concerted effort to get used to their weaponry and their style of fighting. I guarantee you that you will need to use every character at some point in the game, no matter how worthless you may think any of the characters are. Here's a quick breakdown of who uses what weapons: Toan - daggers and swords Xiao - slingshots Goro - hammers and axes Ruby - rings Ungaga - staves and spears Osmond - guns and lasers B. Maintenance Now we come to the x-factor in Dark Cloud: weapons can and do break with extensive use. Annoying concept, isn't it? The key to keeping up your weapons is simply to have a healthy supply of Repair Powder on hand at all times. The complicating factor here is that the more characters you get, the more Repair Powder you should try and keep on you. Ultimately it is up to you to decide how much is enough, but I feel having at least 8-12 Repair Powders on me at all times is a good comfort level. C. Special Abilities Certain weapons have special abilities innate in them, and some of these abilities will be crucial to winning the game. So try to keep any weapons that have these special qualities on them and either build them up into stronger weapons, or Status Break them and add them onto another weapon so you can keep the abilities (see below for more info on upgrading, Build Ups, and Status Breaks.) Here is a list of the special abilities some weapons can have, and what they do: Steal - steals items from the target enemy BigBucks - doubles the money you get when you kill an enemy and it leaves behind a pouch of money Heal - regenerated HP over time, but slowly Critical - chance that your weapon instantly kills the enemy with every stroke, regardless of the power of the attack Fragile - a negative ability, makes the weapon take more damage from use than normal D. Upgrading And here is the key to it all, upgrading. As you fight and kill monsters, your weapons will accrue Abs. When you have enough Abs, you can upgrade your weapon to its next stage. All weapons also have a certain number of attachment slots that can hold attachments to augment the weapon's statistics whenever you upgrade it. Here is a list of the items that can augment your weapons: Attack - +1 to +3 to Attack attribute Endurance - +1 to +3 to Endurance attribute Speed - +1 to +3 to Speed attribute Mp - +1 to +3 to Mp attribute Fire - +3 to Fire attribute Ice - +3 to Ice attribute Thunder - +3 to Thunder attribute Wind - +3 to Wind attribute Holy - +3 to Holy attribute Beast slayer - +3 to Beast slayer attribute Plant killer - +3 to Plant killer attribute Stone breaker - +3 to Stone breaker attribute Metal breaker - +3 to Metal breaker attribute Mimic breaker - +3 to Mimic breaker attribute Mage slayer - +3 to Mage slayer attribute Sea killer - +3 to Sea killer attribute Sky killer - +3 to Sky killer attribute Undead slayer - +3 to Undead slayer attribute Dino slayer - +3 to Dino slayer attribute Special note on Gems Gems are *the* way of choice to upgrade your weapons. Each Gem increases multiple attributes by amounts much more than any of the aforementioned items. Gems are fairly hard to get, however, as your best best in getting them is either by doing a dungeon's back area or by doing a lot of fishing. The work is worth it, though, when you watch your weapon's attributes shoot through the roof when you upgrade. Here is a list of the various Gems and their effects: Emerald - + 10 Mp, +10 Dino slayer, +10 Plant killer Ruby - +10 Speed, +10 Fire, +10 Mimic breaker Garnet - +10 Beast slayer, +10 Stone breaker, +10 Fire Topaz - +5 Atk, +10 Speed, +10 Undead slayer, +10 Sky killer Peridot - +5 Atk, +10 Holy, +10 Beast slayer, +10 Plant Killer Pearl - +10 Thunder, +10 Undead slayer, +10 Endurance Opal - +10 Endurance, +10 Metal breaker, +10 Mage slayer Diamond - +5 to all creature-related attributes except Metal breaker, which is +10 Amethyst - +10 Ice, +10 Dino slayer, +10 Mage slayer Aquamarine - +10 Sea Killer, +10 Sky killer, +10 Ice Sapphire - +10 Mp, +10 Wind, +10 Sky killer Turquoise - +10 Stone breaker, +10 Mimic breaker, +10 Ice Sun - +10 Atk, +10 all elemental attributes, +3 all creature-related attributes As you can see, the Gems are all a much mroe potent way of upgrading. As for the Sun Gem, I have only gotten one so far and for all I know right now it is the only one you get. It's a slightly complicated process, but well worth it for the upgrading power of the Sun Gem. In Matataki Village you get a special leaf that can be used to cure illnesses from Treant. While you're rebuilding Queens, you give the leaf to Baker, who runs the trading post. He'll give you the item "Foundation" which makes a person beautiful. Then, when you're rebuilding Muska Lacka you give the Foundation to the guy who's all caught up in his appearance and he gives you a clay doll. Finally, at Yellow Drops you give the Clay Doll to the person standing at the end of the first walkway nearest the Moon factory. She will give you the Sun Gem in exchange for the Clay Doll. Special note on Status Break It is entirely possible to be working on one weapon for a long time only to come across another weapon that has much more power and potential for growth than the one you're currently working on. In such cases, you can do what's called a Status Break on the weapon you've been working on and turn it into an attachment that carries 60% of the powers of the original weapon along with any Special Abilities such as Steal. This is, in truth, the best way to work on weapons. I have done a Status Break on a sword, put it onto a newly Built-Up sword and after one upgrade was able to do yet another Build Up on the sword. Supposedly you need to use the attachments gotten from Status Breaks to achieve the ultimate weapons in the game. I will add more information on this as I get further into the game. E. Building up Most weapons have an ultimate upgrade called a Build Up. These forms represent a step up in the evolution of the weapon and increase the maximum values of the various attributes for the weapon. These Build Up forms are only achievable when certain attributes are built up to a given level. Furthermore, some weapons have more than one Build Up form. It's your choice if you want to work on a weapon enough to be able to choose which form you want to take, though so far in my own playing I have gone with whatever becomes available first. III. Stealing A. How it works Without a doubt, the most useful of the special attributes a weapon can have is Steal. Here's how it works. Every time you strike an enemy with a weapon that has the Steal ability, there is a chance that you will steal an item from them. This item is not the same as items that the enemy may drop. It will be very clear to you when you have stolen an item, since you'll see it come flying to your character from the targeted enemy. If you're trying to be thorough, it follows that using a weaker weapon with a Steal ability increases your chances of Stealing since it will take more hits to actually kill the enemy, but each hit represents a chance to steal. The only caution I will give on this tactic is that you will go through a lot of Repair Powder using weak weapons. B. Steal List Here is a list of enemies in the game and what item can be stolen from them: Creature Name Item Stolen ----------------------------------- --------------------------- Earth Digger Minon (fishing bait) Mimic Repair Powder King Mimic Escape Powder Mask of Prajna Antidote drink Captain Repair Powder Gyon Antigoo Amulet Auntie Medu Throbbing Cherry Pirate Chariot Bomb Scm Ice Gem Phantom Antidote Drink Golem Repair Powder IV. Fishing Guide A. How to Fish Sounds simple enough, right? Well, fishing in Dark Cloud is a little tricky. After you've cast, it's a matter of patience. You'll want to watch the bobber on the line more than anything else. When it starts to move and shake, there's a nearby fish that may try and bite. When you see the bobber duck underwater, quickly hit the X button to try and pull the fish in. With some practice, you should quickly get the hang of fishing. What's the point of it all? Each fish you catch gives you a certain amount of Fish Points. You can exchange Fish Points for some items, weapon attachments, Gems, and even some weapons. My personal opinion is that the best use of your Fish Points is to get Gems to use to upgrade weapons, but do whatever you see fit with them. B. Choosing bait There are some baits that will only work in some fishing areas. Here is a list of the various baits and where to use them: Minon - Fresh water fishing ponds (Norune, Matataki) Prickly - Fresh water fishing ponds (Norune, Matataki) Mimi - Fresh water fishing ponds, Sea (Norune, Matataki, Queens) Evi - Sea (Queens) Battan - Fresh water fishing ponds (Norune, Matataki) Carrot - unknown Potato Cake - Use only at Oasis (Muska Lacka) Petite Fish - Sea, Oasis (Queens, Muska Lacka) Gooey Peach - Oasis (Muska Lacka) There may be other locations you can use the Gooey Peach, but I haven't tried them yet. I'll update this another time. I cannot stress this enough: save your potato cakes, DO NOT SELL THEM. While using them to fish at the Oasis there's a chance that you can catch a rare fish that is worth about 400 or so Fish Points. Not only that, but the fish has a special function as well. Whenever you try and open a large treature chest, usually you have the option of leaving it alone, using a treasure chest key to open it, or guessing the trap on it. With this fish caught, it will point out to you the trap that is on any given large treasure chest, so no guess work. This is good in two ways: first, of course, you can collect weapons like they're going out of style. Second, you can sell any Treasure Chest Keys you come across now, and they go for 400 coins a piece. That's some serious cash. V. Boss Strategies Boss 1 - Divine Beast Dran Dran flies around constantly, so you need to ground him. Switch to Xiao and maneuver around until you can get a good shot at Dran, then fire off a single shot. Dran will immediately look for a place to land and rest, so keep an eye on him and get in close. Switch to Toan and use his special leaping slash on Dran while he's stunned. Continue this until Dran gives up. Boss 2 - Forest Keeper Mastertutan Mastertutan is a bit tougher than Dran, in that he's a lot more aggressive. You'll need Goro for this task. Avoid when he fires his seeds at you, and wait for him to move in close. Charge up Goro's special move, and when Mastertutan winds up for his big punch, let loose with Goro's move. It should catch Mastertutan's foot, which will be enough to stun him long enough for you to switch to Toan and do just as you did with Dran and use your leaping slash on him. Continue this until Mastertutan gives up. Boss 3 - Ice Queen La Saia La Saia is rather tricky, between the ice beams she shoots and the small whirlwinds all around the landscape. This fight is a lot different from the prior two bosses. Using Toan, work your way around La Saia until you're within striking range. La Saia should have an ice shield around part of her. Strike the shield with Toan's sword, using the Fire element if you have it available. Once the shield is down, retreat a bit and switch to Ruby. Lock on to La Saia while her shield is down and rain down shots from Ruby's ring on her, again using the Fire element. Continue this until La Saia gives up. Boss 4 - King's Curse Compared to La Saia, this boss fight is a walk in the park. Ungaga is your ally of choice for this battle. Lock onto the figure of black mist and use Ungaga's spinning staff technique. When the figure comes in contact with the whirlwind created from Ungaga's attack, the coffin will become visible and vulnerable. Switch to Toan and hit the coffin with his hardest attack. Continue this until the King's Curse is broken. Boss 5 - ? VI. Miscellaneous Watch for miscellaneous stuff to go here! To be included in future versions: Full item list More Boss strategies More Steal items Weapon list and Build Up information More Fishing information Monster list with weaknesses For more information, or to clarify anything here, or if you have information you'd like to see added to this FAQ in the future, e-mail me at j.laughlin@worldnet.att.net. If your information gets in here, I'll make sure to give a special credit to you for the info! Good luck to you all!