Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 00:26:17 -0700 Tactics Ogre Sub-Guide Version 2 ***Correction: A Terror Knight uses an AXE, not a hammer! Copyright (who gives a damn?) 1998 By: Henry Chan Please read this part: Before anything else, I think I said it before, but I HAVE to say this again: the FAQ is not possible if none of you emailed me with many of your contributions, your encouragement and comments. This guide is a combination effort of many Tactics Ogre fans that Cling Together ^__~ And again, thank you very much for letting me enjoy the world of Tactics Ogre in a different perspective. Also, I added a Tactics Ogre gallery section in my homepage. Please take a look (URL at the end of this guide), and if you think you can contribute to the gallery I really hope you can email me about it! What I have for version 2.0: I looked like a jerk after I post the sub-guide. I really feel bad about the tricks that I said that will be posted in this update. Many people emailed me, being a nice guy all my life(one way or the other), I had to make a decision to refuse people...I apologize to all those who was even a bit troubled by my last guide. I feel really sorry because I had given Tactics Ogre players, those who are like me, a hard time. As for this guide, I added a trick or so (Brian's), and make some of the tricks easier to comprehend, AND I got the English name counter parts to the cities, so you won't get confused with cities in my FAQs. Again, I have to apologize about the fact that I didn't have the US version names earlier... And again, I don't want to spoil the game. But since people have played it for a while, it doesn't matter, does it? No I didn't bother telling you many of the spells and items you can pick up in the game...what for? BUT just one hint, if you are fighting some guys/gals that were equipped with some neat items and spells, KILL them and you might be rewarded with goodies! As for the Four Element spells, their Japanese names are: Wind is Thunder Bird, Fire is Salamander, Earth is Gnome, and Water is Feline. I heard the US names are different... Before anything else: I think my words were quite confusing on the section about Kachua. If you save the game, then talk to her, even if she suicides, you can load the game and talk to her again! There are two possibilities: 1) she dies, a dramatic scene, but that sucks big time, or 2) you save her, another dramatic scene. I will not go into details, but since you can save, you can try it over and over, right? Her class, a Princess, is a great class. Besides, she is my favorite character in the whole game. She is selfish, she is emotional, she is strong, she is beautiful, and the list goes on. Paladin Lancelot is what I like after her. But I really hope them made her a fighter (Holy Guardian, maybe, hahahah) instead of a High-Priestess and then a Princess. I am not sure if I will update this guide again, but if I found anything big I will update it. Other than that, since Tactics Ogre players are all very smart (since you bought the game you proved yourself to be very smart already, any objections?), I bet you can finish the rest on your own. And if you found anything that you want to share with other TO fans, I really want you to tell me and contribute to yet another update! And, again, Let Us Cling Together. (you can skip those inside the *) * As the emails flooded in asking more and more questions, I realized that my FAQ is not enough to cover what Tactics Ogre fans needed. At first the FAQ was intended for nothing but to start players playing and to get them understand more about it. This "Tactics Ogre Sub-Guide" is written by Henry Y. Chan. If you wanna post it on your site, I hope you can inform me first. Please email me regarding any questions about this guide. Thanks to all who emailed me. Many of the questions were very constructive (to this guide)! And I got a lot of helps from them. BUT one thing I want to make clear: some one emailed me concerning a mistake (which doesn't exist.) In a description of Vice Beserg (from the first FAQ I did), I said that, Vice was the guy where Quest got idea for making Delita of Final Fantasy Tactics. But he/she misunderstood and he/she went on and explain that Quest made Tactics Ogre first for the Super Famicom and all that, which I already knew too well. This is not a complaint to him, but merely making the story clear: Tactics Ogre (TO) came out in 1995 for the SFC, programmed, developed and published by QUEST. TO have a lot of fans, including me; Big time fan, that is. Then when the PSX came out, Artdink published the game to this next generation system in 1997. Many things were kept. ONLY many sound effects were improved, while some music were re-arranged for the worst (and making the Theme of Walstan Liberal Organization/Army sounds really really weak and un-energized). That version (the one I'm playing), is of course, a must have for collectors. Then as 1998 came closer, Atlus, the company that has been famous for the Megami Tensei series (Persona), decided to bring it here in the USA. In the US version, many things were kept...except that Vice, who was supposed to admire Kachua, called Kachua a BITCH in chapter one after seeing the Paladin Lancelot. And of course, Atlus changed Lancelot's name to Lans, two of them, that is. But since Atlus had all the right to the US version of the game, so I will stick with the version I'm more familiar with. Some time after Artdink published the game, Square soft, hired many of the Quest staffs (or many of them went over to Sqaure, I'm not sure of), and together made Final Fantasy Tactics. Many things in the FFT were copied from TO, including the landscapes, the Chapter number (both have 4 chapters, BUT Tactics Ogre has few distinctive chapters for 2 and 3, therefore making it has more than 4), the betrayal of Vice/Dileeta, and the Dark Knights/Temple Knights. And today, after years of next generation games came out, Tactics Ogre stood fiercely on her grounds (at least in my game room). BEFORE the sub-guide: if you want to see a walkthrough, DON'T email me because personally I hate walkthroughs and word by word translations (unless there is no US version, that is). And don't ask me things like "How do I defeat this or that," because that is the point of the game: You should rely on your own strength. But others like how to use a knight/warlock wisely is highly welcomed!! I think that you can enjoy more of the game if you get stuck and finish the battle with your own strategies. Both of my guides are only like tools sharpening your sword, but the actual battle will be fought with your own hands and sword.* Updated MISC tricks: Newly added: name counterparts. Special thanks to Louis-Daniel Blanchet who gave me the English names. Louis gave me the names and descriptions on where they are, so I matched them with my Japanese Valeria map, there might be a wrong match. If you found such a thing please tell me about it. (hate to say but, the names in the Japanese sound more European) (Left being US version) (Words like "Fort" and "Castle" can be in front OR after the city names, that I'm not sure of. Doesn't matter anyway) Griate---Goliath Amorika Castle---Amorica Castle Tanmas Hills---Tynemouth Hills Krizar City---Clitheroe City Fort Kadoriga ---Fortress Qundriga Lakeside Bordo---Lakeside Balldoo Zodo March---Zord Marshland Baramus City---Barmamutha Ashton Port Town---Port Town Ashton (no change) Hedon---Hedon (no change) Banhamuda Shrine---Banhamooba Palace Damsa Fort---Fortress Damntha Coritani Castle---Castle Cortani Vahanna Plains---Vahanna Heights Brigantes Castle---Castle Brigantes Hell Gate---Death Palace Wyubiru Mount (volcano)---Mount Weobley Rime(old capital)---Lyme Gruborza Plains---Gorboliza Plain Bodo Fort---Fortress Board Fiduc Castle---Castle Fidach Lanbees Hills---Lambreth Hills Banisha Castle---Castle Bernicia Yomlahaba---Joronizah Canyon (this one is off by ten million light years) William City---Wareham (another million light years) Heigm Capital---Castle Heim Eden---I think it is the Garden of the Sky, or Garden of Heaven. But in many Asia cultures Sky means Heaven, so these two words are interchangeable. But "Eden" carries a stronger religious theme. I heard one of the 7 wonders of the world is something called Garden of the Sky (written in Japanese), while the name they used in the Japanese version of TO is the name of that wonder. Boulder Canyon---Ballder Desert (canyon and desert, off yet another few light years...) Fort Gerdo---Fortress Geldo Grimby City---Grimsby City Nimuraba Forest---Forest of Nymlahaba I found out that the US names are not really the actual names but the pronunciation of the Japanese names. For example, Bernicia in Japanese is read as "Banishia," and the English is "Banisha." Banisha is closer to Ba-ni-shi-a while not so close to "Bernicia." Another example, "Damntha" is read as "Da-mu- sa" in Japanese, while in US it is "Damsa." "Damsa" is closer to the pronunciation rather then the actaul name. Phew, that's all, I hope... Okay, first thing first, to Brian Meermans' tricks. To reduce the level of confusion, I will just take the bodies of his emails. Since I have not tried the tricks yet, so it is best to put it in his own words. First I will include a trick that I think many of you found out already From Meerman "Here is a quick tip you can put on your faq ^_^ The warrior items in the hell gate that look like they have no importance, equip them and each level you get with them on you gain 1 luck according to how many you have on. Have 4 warrior items equiped, you gain 4 luck. With a 100 luck rating, you are virtually impossible to hit from the front or the side, and it drastically reduces the damage (most of the time 1 hit % and 1 dam) and in return you can do about 90% critical hits. Make your whole team like this, and you are unstoppable. -Brian Meermans" Another one he noticed. But I am not sure if you know or not "Found out another few tips with the equipment. It seems that certain equipment when paired up with the other matching equipment will greatly boost stats. ie: all 4 ogre equipments will make you phsycal and long ranged attack power automatically 999, but in this case you need somebody who is fast enough to hold that kind of power, if you want give it to your hero and even though your attack is 999 and not your defense, the enemies and your own character can do no more than 1 damage to you in attack. I don't know how many equipment groups there are but I have only found 1 other right now and I know there are others. The other ones are the 4 instruments of destruction *you can tell something about what group the equipment belongs in by looking at the description of the item, these will say This is one of the instruments of Destruction.* These 4 will make your defense 999: skull helmet, grim armor, evil ring, and dark hammer. ---Brian" Okay, to the best one "Found an even bigger tip/cheat just after this 100 luck one. The necro spell always alluded me as something I wanted, but I finally just saved and started turning people into undead(editor's note: if he freaks any of your Holy people out there, excuse him!). Well, they lost half their HPs and mana (editor: MP) but kept all their status otherwise. Then I decided to use the dragon magic (editor: gain in Death Palace randomly) "Retissue" on these new undead. I realized that after I did this it made the characters level 1...with the same status. So here we have level 1 character, who level if they even look at another character of a higher level they will go up (editor: petrify one high level guy/gal, let this reborn walking-dead throws rocks at him/her). By the time they are back to the level of the rest of your party, they have double the status + about 100-200 HPs extra. No matter what attack you try on them with a regular enemy or one of your regular party members, it will have 1 damage for 1% since their weight is down to about 150-250. Have a few people like this and they are completely invincible (editor: therefore reducing the game difficulty). You can even do it more than once, even doubling their status again. I feel this is a cheat but I liked having just Presance taking out every mob in the hell gate with one Starion spell (999 magic power). One thing though, before you retissue someone, save the game in the battle, then retissue, if the person does not come back with the alignment you want them to, load the game again. You can even do this to characters who are not supposed to change classes, but be warned, that they cannot go back to the special classes like hawkman, or even dragon or whatever they were. They become human. (Good to do on Haborym cause we all know SwordMaster blows ;) (editor: he blows BIG time. BUT, incase you don't know, for some reason if Haborym is equipped with the magic Petrify, the hit rate is higher then anyone else! So you can use this sword master and stone the whole enemy force in no time. If you are not reading this then you missed this trick and I'm not gonna repeat it ^__^). -Brian Meermans" Later of the month I received yet another letter from Brian concerning the same trick "that last one about necroing and retissuing, I found a side effect that I don't know if it affects the games ending (I haven't actually gone to beat the game yet, want to find everything first), but if you do this stuff to the main characters *any that are under characters in Warrern's report* they will be listed as killed in battle under warren's report yet they are still alive and kicking in your party, and I still have 0 death toll. *shrug* I don't know." Editor: This is what I am afraid of. In TO, all those guys/gals who survived the battles will mostly do something in the ending. It is like many loops. If you have one guy he will trigger one loop to appear in the ending, or another gal will trigger another ending. For example, (spoiler ahead) if Ovilia is not dead, her loop will be that she went after Denim to Highland. If she is dead, then that scene will not be shown and she is dead for good. But if you do that "Retissue" magic to her, I am not sure if she will appear (and I can't guarantee if her flesh and bones will remind on her skinny corpse ^__^). Use the trick at your own risk. But an adventurous soul stops at nothing. And we all thank Brian (the green magician ^__^) for this trick. Oh boy. To get beyond the third level of Death Palace (Hell Gate), you have to stand in front of an archway, which is on the right side of the door where you entered. There are two, one on each side of the door where you entered the third level, and there is one on the right, which has no poison ground in front of it. Step on this one to enter Hell! (Special thanks to: Andrew who emailed me about many things!) And incase you missed any items for the Fire Crest, too bad! You have to replay the whole thing. The Fire Crest will increase you defense 30 Percent, and that is pretty much the most you can ask of any item, right? How to get beyond level 50: I have forgotten it, and didn't have the time to re- try, so maybe the next update... How to become shaman (for the Four Troublesome-Sisters): after you saved their father, go to Cortani Castle, and choose the right answer when he asked if you really want to use the legendary magic (the answer should obvious), and then go back to the Banhamooba Palace with the sisters. After they became shamans, you can go to four hidden stages (please refer to my first FAQ for the locations of the stages). After you beat each stage, each stage will give you an Element shield. With the shields you will be able to open 4 more stages. Go back to where you get the shields and you will open one magic per sister. HOW TO GET MORE AND MORE AND EVEN MORE ORBS!!!!! Play to chapter three, go and fight random battles in Balldoo River/Swamp. Every Small unit you kill will give you one orb according to his/her Alignment. The most important item (next to the Fire Crest) should be crowned to the ORB! If the USA's name if the stage is different, then you should figure out the USA's name by yourself...the place is a bit on the left and bottom side of the center of the land. Good luck. If the trick didn't work, make sure you are on level three (or more) and you kill a SMALL unit. PRIESTESS requirement correction: I made a mistake (which happens all the time, incase you don't already know ^__~). I said she has to kill at most 1. That is wrong. As long as her killing is under 15, an L female could turn into a Priestess...also, in the training that is NOT consider a kill. It is call knocking-your-pal's-head-with-a-staff (as a refusal for an invitation to a dinner together). How to get the undead ring: KILL THE COCKATRICE AT FORT KADORIGA FOR THE UNDEAD RING. THEN EQUIP IT ON ANY CHARACTER THAT HAS THE FOLLOWING STATUS OR MORE: MP > 114, INT > 162, & MEN > 147. THEN KILL HIM / HER. How to get Pumpkin head: go to Death Palace, fight until you get an item called Pumpkin. Go to Denev's (USA her name is Deneb) shop and you can recruit it! (IMPORTANT: for those who didn't read it clearly from my first FAQ, classes such as Holy Guardians and High Knights and Tarot Warriors were FICTIONAL and were made up by me. I said clearly that sword master is too weak, so I want some greater classes for the Law route, and I just made some up. Sorry if I confused you.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- GROWTH CHART: The growth chart was make by Duke Robert. The points were copied statically, and the actual number should be one point more of less. How to read this chart (which was converted lazily by me...hey, TXT is hard to deal with!!) First it is the CLASS name (Philosophy 201, Science 100, etc...). Then the number directly below it is the increment in the status accordingly. You can see that the status (HP, MP, STR, etc) after the class name. The first number, let us take a berserker for example, is 10, that means when levels up he gets extra 10 HP points (one point more or less), the second number (MP) means he will get 2 (less or more) MP when leveled up. The following is the corresponding representations of the numbers: Class Name HP (first number) MP (second number) STR (third number) VIT (you know more than that!) INT MEN AGI DEX BEAST TAMER (aka. Dog Whipper) 9 0 7 7 5 6 5 6 BERSERKER (aka. Good-O-American) 10 2 7 6 4 7 5 6 DRAGON SLAYER (Red Neck) 9 0 8 5 4 5 4 8 EXORCIST 7 7 4 5 8 6 4 5 FIGHTER 8 4 6 5 6 6 6 6 GUNNER (That Postal-Guy) 7 0 5 4 5 5 7 7 KNIGHT ("For whom is the sword drawn?") 9 2 7 5 5 6 5 7 NINJA (NOT a Chinese martial artist) 8 3 5 5 5 6 8 7 SWORD MASTER 8 4 5 4 6 7 7 9 TERROR KNIGHT 10 0 7 7 4 6 4 6 WARLOCK 6 8 4 2 7 9 3 4 WIZARD 6 6 4 3 8 7 5 5 Female classes AMAZON 8 4 6 5 6 6 6 6 ARCHER 8 3 5 6 5 6 7 8 CLERIC 7 5 5 4 8 7 5 4 DRAGON TAMER 9 2 7 3 6 7 5 7 PRIEST 6 7 4 3 9 7 4 5 SIREN 5 7 4 3 9 7 4 5 VALKYIRE 9 3 7 5 7 6 5 6 WITCH 6 6 4 4 7 8 5 5 SPECIAL CLASSES (damn he is good!!) ANGEL KNIGHT 9 6 8 5 8 6 6 6 LICH 5 8 2 2 8 8 4 4 LORD (Kill your sister to be one) 9 5 7 6 6 6 7 7 PUMPKIN HEAD (up there in MISC tricks) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Okay, done with that. ------------------------------------------------------ Classes in depth discussions. First of all, many people have asked me about the requirements of the classes. Even though I feel that this is the last thing you really need in this game, but to drive away some letters, this is the information I got from a guy name SPAM. And please thank HIM for all the status: Male classes: Ninja str 45 agi 46 dex 44 Beast tamer (lamer) str 45 vit 44 men 46 Wizard mp 16 int 44 men 42 (N,C) Knight str 45 vit 44 men 42 (L,N) Berserker str 45 vit 46 dex 44 (N,C) Male high classes: Exorcist vit 44 int 42 men 44 (L) Warlock mp 84 int 124 men 112 (L,N) Sword Master str 95 agi 102 dex 126 (L) Dragoon/Dragon Slayer str 115 vit 106 dex 114 (N) Gunner str 120 agi 164 dex 150 (N) Terror knight str 117 vit 114 dex 104 (C) > 30 kills (kill more than 30 people/beasts) Female classes: Witch mp 15 int 45 men 51 (N,C) Archer vit 44 agi 44 dex 48 (N,C) Cleric mp 16 int 42 men 41 (L,N) < 10 kills Female high classes: Siren mp 36 int 75 men 71 (L,N) Dragon Tamer hp 180 str 115 men 103 Valkyrie str 44 vit 46 int 42 (L,N) Priest mp 70 int 125 men 110 * < 15 kills Dragons: White drag hp 170 str 133 vit 90 (L,N) dex 55 Black drag hp 170 str 133 vit 90 (N,C) dex 57 > 30 kills Specials: Lich mp 114 int 162 men 147 Angel knight mp 92 str 135 vit 122 (L) int 144, men 119 agi 122 dex 124 luk 56 HOLY DRAGON: Its requirement is double of the White Dragon, and must be L. Tiamat: must be C, and killed over 40, and status is double of Black dragon. (info from "Duke" Robert, as well as the growth chart). Okay, let us CLING to the part I want to talk about: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Categories of Units: Attack unit: those whose main use is to attack. One way or the other the reason for their existence is to attack enemies and get attacked by enemies. They are: knights, berserker, terror knight, dragon slayer. Sub-attack unit: classes that are not that strong with attacks/defense, but still have something to offer. They are: sword master, ninja, dragon tamer (female), beast tamer(male), valkyrie. Defense unit: Units that have great defense and little weak points. They are: Golem, dragon, and all other Large size units. Support unit: They are those who attack/defense with specials such as magic and/or special attacks. They are: Witch, warlock, clerics, wizard, siren, shaman, siren, and all other magicians such as summoner (which you can't get). Sniper Unit: They are good at using projectiles but not so well with taking attacks from enemies. They are: archer, gunner (or a ninja with a bow. The ninja's good AGI and low WT make him a good sniper as well, not to mention the high jumps he has). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- How the UNITS position in the field: (1 is the front and 5 is back) 1)Defense Units 2)Attack units 3)Sub-attack units 4)Sniper units 5)Support units. If you don't have any defense unit, let the attack units take its place. The Art of Positioning: Defense units in front of the attack units don't mean the attack units can sit and relax. The attack units should be very close behind the defense units, or even mixed with them for any possible chances to attack the enemies. Sub-attack units should also be mixed with the attack units. Since many times a sub-attack unit is weak with taking attacks, how they could be useful is depend on how well you mix the moves of the attack units and sub- attack units. For example, don't use a sub-unit to attack unless you are sure that the target will die after the attack, other wise the counter attack is not what you wanted, especially the sub-attack unit will open him/herself up for the follow-ups when he/she charges to attack. Make sure the attack units will inflict enough damage to the target before the sub-attack unit should make his/her move. You don't have to worry about counter attacks if your sub-attack unit is using long range weapons, but still be careful about the fact that they can get attacked by the enemies' sniper units and attack units behind the front line. After the attack units finished attacking, and if many of the enemies have some very low HP, they can still inflict some BIG damage to your units before they die. So the sub-attack units and snipers will make sure the low-HP enemies will not do anything funny before they go to the Hell Gate/Death Palace. You don't always have to kill off the target with the sub-attack units/sniper units. Just make sure the lower HP targets are dead so that you won't regret from losing 100+ HP from an enemy who only had 6 HP (and that happens everyday). But since using one attack unit to kill off an enemy of 10 or 20 HP is not worth it, so you can use other units to take care of the dirty job. Sniper Units are very useful. They are far more useful then the Sub-attack units. You should keep them behind the attack units, and mixed with sub-attack units. Since their attacks are strong, many times you don't have to send the sub-attackers to kill those with low HP, just let an archer shoot the hell out of the low-HPs. But since sniper units have high attack power, you might want them to attack the big and strong enemies. You can inflict some damage on the enemy front lines with these units, so when attack units get in, they can kill off the enemy attack/defense units with ease. So even though sniper units are positioned behind the attack units, they are actually the first attackers!!! Please keep this in mind before any battle you should take!! And sniper units are simply great. And the best of all, the higher you go, the farther you can spread the arrows of death! Use this to your advantage!!!! Support units should stay all the way in the back. Usually they have some long range magic, so you don't have to worry about that. Use the magic wisely to aid the front units and support unit as well. "A hungry man has no food to offer," (by Me, actually,) so you should make the support units support themselves before they should use magic on the other units. What I mean by this is, make sure they have enough MP, and in later part of the game, cast the Quick Move magic on themselves before anything else!! Because the faster they move, the faster the whole army moves!! DON'T think that since these units are not that strong in attacking they are not useful. These units can eliminate the whole damn enemy force with the right magics. For example, use Quick Move to lessen the WT, then let two of them begin using magics like Stun Looter AND Petrify to stone and stun enemies. If you did the things right, you can totally annihilate the whole enemy forces without any bloodshed. REMEMBER: "Strategy is NOT strategy if there was nothing but bloodshed!"---Me How to chose units for battles: Some point of this game you will feel that you are having too many good and fun characters for you to use. Especially when you got the two White Knights and the sisters. Please don't feel bad if you can't bring some units you like to certain battles. A battle should be fought with the suitable units. If you know that some units will be more useful in a battle while some are not, then bring those that are useful. I understand the pain of not bring the units you like. But, hey, this is life. You can be stubborn and bring the units you love to any battles, and you can certainly test you skills at such clumsy situations (which actually I do often). But again, what I am saying is, there are many classes and units that were make to suit different situations and users, so you don't have to blame yourself for not bring the most beautiful witch when you have the Four Sisters to a battle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Classes Soldier/Amazon: (weapon: none/any) They are the basic classes of male and female. They are the classes of your units in at the beginning of the game. Good or bad you are stuck with them until you get enough status points to change into something else. These two classes don't have any ideal weapons. Therefore they can use anything. Their parameters level up in a fairly equal manner, so there is not much you can worry/happy about these two classes. Knight: (sword) this is a somewhat useful. But I felt that this class doesn't live up to the names of the ancient knights. I consider this class to be the lowest of the Attack unit. You can change into them really earlier on of the game, and they are like the escape of basic class. Since at the beginning of the game you have quite a few male classes, you can change, maybe half of them, into knights, and the other half into berserkers and ninjas. Keep if you don't feel like using this class, do not use it then, because this class will give you no surprise. It is formidable in some battles when you fight other units like ninja and valkyrie, but a knight is only good in places like grass plains and concrete grounds. It has weaker attack and defense then the berserker, and the WT is the same. Ninja will have better dexterity, and it can use double-attack, while a berserker is unstoppable with an axe. This unit can be mixed on with the sub-attack units. But make sure you don't just have knights in the front line. Knights are not that great with defense. If you equip him with a lot of things, it will move very slow, and the hit-rate will be awful. The most important thing you can remember is: don't rely on the knights that much. Ninja:(claws)This unit can jump three levels higher and four lower. But that is not so until later of the game. This class is never useful in the game. But you can use this class wisely to max out your status. This class has some good DEX and agility. You will soon find out that many other male classes such as knights and berserker (and especially terror knights) have some lousy DEX and AGI, as well as big WT. When the clumsiness of the heavy classes become intolerable, change them into a ninja for a while. Gain a few levels with the ninja. This way the AGI (as well as DEX) will increase for a few levels, and when you change the class back to an attack unit, the AGI and DEX will be better. BUT be careful you don't change everyone into a ninja. You should change only one or two of the whole male attack-units so that as these ninja level up (I don't use plural form for Japanese words), the battle could be taken care of by other attack-units. When you do change an unit into a ninja, you should tell yourself one thing before anything else: ninja is not God, and he is certainly NOT the same ninja they have in that Final Fantasy Tactics. When you use double-attack, the ninja will attack once, then the enemy will counter attack once, then he will do the second attack. BUT since the enemy already countered, so he/she will be facing the ninja, therefore the second attack's hit-rate will NOT as high as the first attack. These roof-jumping units like to use claws. But in the beginning you don't have any claws, you can use daggers or short swords, or even bows. Since this class has some really great speed, please don't equip him with heavy armor. If you do, you will lost the agility and the defense will never be as great as a pure attack-unit, so don't even bother doing so. The most basic form of defense is great (gear, weapons, and no other parts such as gauntlet/helmet.) Like I said before, mix his attacks with the attack-units. Let an attack unit take down most of the target's HP, then use a ninja to do the final attack. Don't do it the other way around. Beast tamer: (whip) This class sucks. And I really want to end this class's explanation but I have to give some reasons just incase some one might not agree with me. I don't know the point of making this unit when there are ONLY 2 OR 3 WHIPS in the whole game. This unit is fairly strong, actually, but no one wants to use him because 1) in the beginning there is NO whip, 2) and there is NO good and strong monsters until later of the game. This class will make the beasts around him attack stronger, and you can only take TWO monsters with you in one battle. So these three units must stick together in order to be useful. But since the beast tame is slow, clumsy, and can't fly, he can't keep up with some of the monsters. And bring this sub-attack unit with the Defense units (beasts) is the last thing any strategic player would do. I am not saying that you can't use this class, but many times the other units offer more of everything, so this class gets very un-useful later of the game. He uses a whip, and the whip can't attack two units at the same time, therefore you can't stab two enemies at the same time. You can use him as a sub-attack unit, but then his special ability will not be able to be useful without beasts. But if you put him too much in the front, he will get hanged with his own whip! Berserker: (axe) personally second most favored next to the terror knight. This class is, eventhough weak agility, but you can average it out by using the "change into ninja then level up" trick. This class has great attack and defense power. He can stay in between the attack units and defense units. So if you don't have any defense units, consider this viking-helmet guy. He uses an axe, which is only ONE POINT heavier than the sword, but inflicts much more damage than the sword. Since the berserker has greater power than the knight, so when he is equipped with the axe, his attack will be much more useful then the knight's sword. This class has the same WT as the knight, and you can equip him with a little more than the basic defense set: weapon, armor, then a gauntlet OR a shield. But for some reason the gauntlets in this game are more useful than the shields, I would recommend the gauntlets. You should take a healing item with you for this class because he will get a lot of chops and cuts from the enemies' attack units. Take two or three with you. But don't always stick with this class. You might want to change some of them into a terror knight or dragon slayer. I usually use two or three of them in the beginning of the game. But later this class will not be that useful. Wizard: (staff) again, another useless junk. The problems with this class is like those of beast tamer: there is no good magic at the beginning, and the Siren (female) class is more useful then this one. This is a slow, weak, and unimpressive unit. A wizard can't use those support magic such as Quick Move, and he is hard to level up with his MP/INT due to the fact that you don't want to use him until later where you get great magic. But since many of the good male classes are great with physical attacks, you don't have many with great MP/INT. So you can leave most of the magic-casting jobs to the ladies. Female classes: Witch: (staff) this witch is one of the most useful class in the game. She can equip a lot of support magic such as Stun looter, quick move, charge spell, etc. She has some great speed (better than cleric and warlock). Like any other magicians, her defense is really weak, so don't expect anything from that. Preferred magic: Stun Looter, Charge Spell, Quick Move. (All magicians use staff. If you want to know how you should equip staffs, please refer to my other FAQ. There is one big paragraph about the staffs.) Archer: (bow) this is the heart of sniper units. Her bow is strong and there are a lot of greater bows to be discovered later on! As you already know, the higher you go, the farther you shoot. And the advantage of going high doesn't stop there: If you get higher then enemy archers, you can kill them without them doing a thing because if they are pretty low on the battle field, their arrows can't shoot high to where you are standing. I can't tell you how important this is until you try it yourself. Just keep in mind, this unit, even though fast, should not go too deep into the front line. Keep three of this class. You don't have to use all of them for a battle, but sometimes you will regret Big time if you don't have enough archers. Such as the battle where you are to save the blind Sword Master on Chapter Three (opps! No more spoiler). Keep her mixed with the sub-attack units. But if she can go high, that mixing is no longer important. Just give her some great area to stand on! She could go to water but I would not do that if I'm you. Also, unless it is an octopus, don't send ANYTHING else into water in a sticky situation, otherwise that would be the last move possible! Cleric: (staff) this is the heart of the support unit; you can go to battle with no other support unit but not this. Keep at least two or three in order to advance in some really trouble some battles. Her healing is great. She later can use Healing Plus, a magic that covers a big area. Very useful if you have many attack (or sub attack) units. She could use up to three magic books. Preferred magic: Healing, Healing Plus, Clear Lance. Male High Class: Dragon Slayer: (sword...BIG sword, that is) this is highest N class in the game. Characters like Farcus will be a dragon slayer (DS): DS has great STR to slayer dragons within two or three hits. He has great defense to with stand the dragon's claws. Don't misunderstood his name: he is also great with any other big big big beasts!! Even though the description says that he is not so great with the other units, but since this class levels up a lot on the STR and VIT departments, you can use back-stab and kill a magician with one blow! Use Quick Move on him to make him more useful. But if you don't use Quick Move he is very very slow, and is very very vulnerable to attacks. And since he has low hit rate, so if he got ganged up you will expect some really not-so-impressive countering attacks. But since NO class in this game is god, keep one is good for any situation! Give him the sword Dragon Slayer and other dragon killing swords so he can be a real dragon slayer! Terror Knight: (Axe!)this bastard, or son of a gun if you want to call him that, is the meanest class ever invented by any human being/character designer. He is like a monster truck; you just feel GREAT when you use him! With a axe, a pair of warp shoes, he is unstoppable. As you can see, you need to have over 30 kills in order to change in this bastard, and since he is not really that fast, so I usually make the main character a terror knight. What I'm saying is, he is great to have, but quite slow in many areas. A terror knight has great attack power, GREAT GREAT defense because the enemies in front of, and next of a terror knight, will have less attack power because a TK has cursed souls which he slew to haunt his enemies, therefore you can just send him to the front line and smash heads. Since his defense is great, and his attack is great as well, so he is the only class that I consider the combination of a defense-unit and an attack-unit. To use him wisely, sometimes you don't have to worry too much with him because when enemies counter attack, he/she will be facing you, so his/her attack will be degraded. But be careful don't get trapped by tons of magicians and archers! He can be combined with other types of units to maximize the function of a terror knight. But again, don't ever rely everything on one unit/class. Since this is a pure attack unit, there aren't much die-hard strategy to use him (like you don't need much skill driving a monster truck, period), but use one trick wisely: send him to the front line (of course Quick Move him first), then do some massive damages to different enemy units, then let the attack and sub- attack units take care of the rest! Exorcist: (staff) this is not really any "high" class. He is useful to kill undead (one magic and BOMMMB!) Other than that special skill he is good for nothing. A Cleric can do better healing, a witch or a warlock can use better magic then him. But when you do get to stages that have a lot of undead, REMEMBER to bring him other wise you will regret. You can change the exorcist you get earlier on to a warlock, then change back to a exorcist when you need to use one. But ONE is more than enough in many cases! Gunner: (gun) like an archer, he use projectile attacks...but not as great. The gun can shoot to the end of the map, but they are not at all that strong. Even an archer will inflict more damage. And a gunner is quite slow, not only that, bullets travel linearly, therefore whoever gets in the way will get hurt! Therefore he is not at all that great to stick with the sub-attack units. You can give him a wrap shoe/ring and send him to the highest possible platform and begin hunting, or send him to the side of the battle-field so that he will hurt no friendly units that happen to stand in the bullet's way. Again, he is slow so you have to Quick Move him. Keep one is enough, because gunners are NOT that fun to have. And for some reason I really hate people who use a gun to hurt people...especially in the battle field...a Brave One uses a sword/axe/hammer/spear, not some .45 caliber. Warlock: (staff) he can use some really neat magic, such as the Petrify. He is slower than the witch, but he could use some magic that no witch (EXCEPT Denev) could use. Keep one is great, two is optional. Preferred magic: Quick Move, Charge Spell, Petrify, Slow Move (if you want). Sword master: (two swords) think of him like an advanced ninja...But with out all those speed. This class is my least favored. I just feel that making the main character a Sword master after all those discouraging encounters in the Law route is doubling the discouragement. This unit is a sub-attack unit, so don't rely on his double attack that much. If you attack with him most of the time enemy will do a counter before he/she dies, and the damage is not so worth. So a Smaster is best to kill off enemies that have little HP left. And this really decreases the fun of an attack unit. In the Japanese class description, a Sword Master is the one who "Encountered over a 100 battles, knows the way of battle way too well, and is the master of all swords." I guess that he survived all 100 battles because he was doing nothing but picking those who were about to die, and let other attack units do the dirty jobs before he get the experience... Anyway, one of this class is way more than enough. Preferred magic: Quick Move so that he could at least help out a little bit... Female High Classes: Valkyrie: (spear) this is an impressive class. She can use one magic, but that is not very useful because after all, she is on the physical attack side, but since she can attack with a distance with her spear, so she could stay with the attack-units. She can attack enemies without them counter attacking (unless enemy also using spear/whip), so she could inflict some damages to an enemy before the attack units crush that enemy. But don't over use her. After all, she is just a sub-attack unit. Keep one is more than enough. If you really want a female attack unit, get her to be a dragon tamer. Dragon tamer is great with dealing with dragons, and is a bit faster than the dragon slayer (Male) as well. She could go into water but that is not at all a good idea if there is better grounds to stand. Priestess: (staff) she is like another form of Cleric, but she could use Heal All (heal one unit max. HP), and she could use the revival magic Resurrection, which is very important! But get one is good enough because she can't use Heal Plus. Get one or two Cleric(s) and one Priestess in the later part of the game will get you through almost any situation! Preferred magic: Heal All, Resurrection, Clear Lance. Siren: (staff) she is like a female wizard but stronger and more charming. She could use a lot of magic. Keep one if you want...more than that is not really useful. Use her like any other support units. Preferred magic: the Summon Magic of HER Element (very important because Summon Magic is very strong). Dragon Tamer: (sword) this is like the combination of a Dragon Slayer and a valkyrie, but the status is even out. Her attacks are not as strong as a DS, but has better speed. Like the valkyrie she could use one magic, but please don't depend on that. Her special power is to increase the attack power of the dragons in front and next to her, but I feel that she is a sub-attack unit, so again, combining her with the defense units is not so wise. Preferred magic: Up to you. Use attack magic of her Element. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------- What I had above me is nothing but my standard set up of the classes and strategy. That without considering some of the many cases where quick strategy and wits are needed. Players like you have to react according to the situation...NO strategy is good unless they are ALIVE, that means changeable, manageable, and shall not lock the planner to a set of rules which you must follow. What I'm saying is, DON'T blame me for loosing your own battles. Some of the possibilities with the formations. You don't always have to stick with the same formation and members for every battle. Some times if you bring just one type of units, the result could be better than anything else. Here are some of the possibilities. The Elegant Rose of Red: Only the main character is male, other members in the battle field are females. Among them 7 are archers, and one cleric, one witch. The main force of archers attack with arrows in sneaky places. The main attack form should be keep away and attack with nothing but arrows around the main character's side. Concentrate on a few enemies and don't spread your targets. This formation is not that useful in open plains. Best in towns, swamps (not elegant any more), mountains, and other tricky landscapes. The Emeriti Mahou (Magic)-Troopers: Main character (best if strong in defense) and nine other magicians. One warlock, one witch, two healers of any type. Three Sirens, one lich, and one terror knight/dragon slayer. The sirens should be equipped with the Summon Magic according to their Elements, therefore the three sirens must have different elements. The lich should equip the last Summon Magic of his Element. The main form of attack is to send the main character and the other attack unit to the front line, while the two healers will do nothing but heal the two. The other magicians such as witch and warlock will use Quick Move (make other magicians faster) and Petrify and Stun Looter...among others. The sirens and lich will have enough magic recovery items to summon enough Beasts to kill whoever touches the main character. The main form of attack is the keep enemies away from the Mahou (magic) units while aiding the main character's move. This combination takes a while to get use to. But devastating once you get used to it. The Sunset Warriors: Main character should be an attack unit. You need two healers, best if one cleric and one priest. And all others are terror knights, dragon slayers, and those White Knights. The strategy is easy: send those bastards to the front line and do nothing but chopping and slashing. The healers will concentrate on healing, while the attackers are careless of their life because a priest will bring them back to life. The BEST kind of terrain to use this really mind-less formation is in open plains and grasslands and towns. Have fun. The Snipers of the Silver Knight: Main character could be whatever. You need one or two healer. If you have one healer then get a warlock or witch to use Quick Move. Then you need two gunners. If you want you can kill your sister and get the last gun to make it three gunners. The other members will be all archers. You really need items like Wing Rings/Shoes and Warp Rings/Shoes to support this formation. With those items send the snipers to sneaky and unreachable places and spread the rains of death. Quick Move them to send enemies to hell earlier then anything else. The Gathering of Heroes: Main character is an attack or sub-attack unit. Two or one White Knight. One or two healers, one or two witches/warlocks. Other members including dragon slayers, dragon tamers, valkyries (not that important), terror knights, and archers...a combination that can handle any situation. Use the terrain to your advantage and help each other out to maintain a decent defense as well as offense. The March of the True-Ogres: One healer, one warlock/witch, and ALL others are Terror Knights. Send the T knights to the front line and kill, while the support units look at the battle field and count the heads chopped off. Getting the T knights are not easy ( Over 30 kills for each), so have fun when you are insane enough to try this one out. PS. Just to annoy your guys again, the Japanese version could put Kanji (Chinese characters). So all those names (Elegant Rose and Gathering of Heroes, etc) could be entered into the name for your troop when Ronway asked, while the English version is limited to the few characters you can use. If you have the Japanese version, do try around with the names and have fun!!! My group's name: The Skeletor Trooper of the Silver-Paladin. Other Classes: Lizard: (Hammer) he is great for in stormy and swamps. He could go into water but again, that is the last thing I would do. He is like a knight, but has stronger defense and attack. Keep one is good. Keep this unit strong and use him wisely: when there is a battle to be fought in any of the swamps, take him with you and he could be the best attack unit for that battle. His power is good but not very impressive on dry land. Use him like any other attack units. He could not change class, therefore don't expect too much from this reptile. Hawk man: (hammer) this barbaric being could fly, and is strong with hammers. But like a lizard, he could not change class or uses any of Canopus's special attacks (Canopus is a "Vultan"). Therefore he might be strong at the beginning, but gets fairly unimpressive later on. One is good to have fun with. Dragons: any dragon will use great special Breath attacks and has great, thick scale, so you can use them for both attack and defense units. They can change classes as well so it is a good idea to keep two or three. You can use them in any battles. Just Quick Move them to make them more useful. They are fairly great, but there aren't much strategy using them so I don't like them. Other LARGE monster units: they are all quite strong, and many times their special attacks are quite devastating, so use as you please. But again, I don't like using them. You don't have to keep one of every single monster due to the fact that you can only use two in one battle. Fairy: (weapon: none) she is fun to have, and will have some cool skills later, but don't expect anything from this little mascot. Give her a good name and just leave her there to rust... It seems that I forgot to mention HOW TO RECRUIT MONSTERS on my last FAQ: To recruit the UNITs other than human, you need to go to a certain city on a particular time period. (the numbers indicate the day of the month to be at that town in order to recruit that unit) Towns 1