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BREATH OF FIRE III  FAERIE VILLAGE MINI-GUIDE  Version 1.3 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
                       by Alex Pelton 
                          (c) 1998 
  
This guide covers just about everything you might want to know 
about the faerie village in Breath of Fire 3.  In case it is not 
obvious, there are serious SPOILERS included here, so if you read 
on, consider yourself warned. 
  
I. GAME MECHANICS & GETTING STARTED 
When you are first allowed access to developing the village, you 
will start with only three faeries and one room.  Talk to the faerie 
outside the small hut to learn about development and to assign 
faeries to certain tasks. 
The three basic tasks that faeries can do outdoors, are hunting, 
clearing, and building.  Hunting is essential to sustaining your 
faeries and expanding population.  Clearing is necessary to expand 
the village. And building is necessary to create new rooms. 
Each faerie is endowed with four different statistics to represent 
skill in various areas: 
  Red:        Hunting/Exploring 
  Green:      Clearing/Building 
  Dark Blue:  Merchant Skill 
  Sky Blue:   Intelligence 
Obviously, you want faeries to be assigned according to their skill, 
but when it comes to hunting, clearing, and building, raw numbers are 
more important than the actual skill level (ie. two faeries with 50% 
skill level are more effective than one faerie with 100% skill). 
When it comes to clearing and building, it is important to use several 
faeries, preferably three or more to get the job done.  One or two 
faeries, even with 100% skill level will take an extremely long time 
to clear or build additional rooms. 
For any given task to be completed, it takes time, and a specific 
kind of time at that.  Faerie development progresses from advancing 
the plot of the game and fighting battles.  Spending time in the 
village, walking around the overworld, and fishing will not allow the 
village to advance.  Fighting battles (regardless of experience), and 
moving the story along will do the trick, so check back periodically, 
especially after finishing dungeons or doing some level building. 
When you enter the faerie village, make sure you check the bulletin 
board to find out exactly what progress has been made since your last 
visit. 
In the beginning, it is important to increase your food stock more 
than anything else.  Thus, you should put two of your initial faeries 
into hunting. By increasing your food stock, you can increase your 
population.  Although if roughly a quarter to a third of your population 

is hunting, you will be able to sustain life, you must increase food 
stock for more faeries to be born.  Your third faerie should become a 
scholar, the first indoor job that you may use.  Keep at least one 
scholar until you have achieved maximum culture level and discovered 
all jobs.  Scholars may develop culture, up to a MAXIMUM of LEVEL 7. 
Although the specific effects of culture advancement are unclear, 
higher culture will allow you to advance more rapidly and think of new 
jobs.  There are NINE different jobs that scholars may create: 
  Merchant (Weapons, Items, Handyman) 
  Inn 
  Gift 
  Fortune 
  Explorer 
  Antiques 
  Music 
  Casino 
  Copy 
Each job will be covered in detail later in the guide. 
To assign a faerie to any one of these specific jobs (including 
scholar), you will need a room for her to operate.  Up to three 
faeries may be assigned per room, with certain advantages offered 
by using extra faeries, depending on the job.  It is also possible to 
create more than one room for a specific job.  Merchants, gift shops, 
and copy shops are prime examples of shops for which you might want 
multiples.  Although you CAN change a shop at any time, you must be 
careful in so doing.  If you change a merchant shop, the inventory will 

reset to the beginning; the music player will reset to just one song; 
and the copy shop will lose any item it is currently working on, so 
watch your step. 
At first you will want to keep 50% or more of your population hunting, 
so that you will have a rapid birthrate.  It is a good idea to keep this 

ratio or close to it at least, until you reach ZPG, at 20 faeries. 
Once you have 20, you will not have any more births unless there is a 
death first.  At this point, you can cut back to about 1/3 hunting and 
you should be fine.  Monitor your food level to be sure, and if it 
begins to drop, you need to have more faeries hunt. 
When new faeries are born, always keep in mind their strengths and 
assign them accordingly.  When you've got enough, start clearing and 
building to expand the village.  You may clear up to a MAXIMUM of 3 
times (I think...), and build up to 7 additional rooms (for a total 
of 8).  If you are uncertain as to whether you need to clear more 
space or not, assign a faerie to build, but none to clear, then talk 
to the faerie in person.  If the faerie says there's no more room to 
build, you need to clear first.  If you are unsure as to whether you 
cleared all you can, assign a faerie to clear, but none to build and 
talk to that faerie.  If she says there's no more room, you've cleared 
all that you can.  You can also check on your scholars this way.  If 
they say they cannot think of any new jobs, they've reached the peak 
and need to be reassigned. 
  
II. JOB DESCRIPTIONS 
This section explains in detail all of the functions/uses for each of 
the jobs created by scholars.  The benefits faeries provide to you 
through these jobs are the whole purpose of developing the village. 
  
1. MERCHANT 
USE:    Six unique stores which sell rare items 
SKILL:  Dark Blue 
The first new job you will learn is the merchant.  There are six 
different stores you can create, each with a specific inventory list 
that it can develop.  Each merchant store you create, will begin with 
just one rather worthless item, and increase its inventory over time. 
The higher the faerie's merchant skill, whose running the store, the 
more rapidly the store will accumulate new inventory.  100% merchant 
skill faeries will gain inventory much faster than anyone else. 
Adding additional fairies to the same shop will allow the faeries to 
generate new inventory more rapidly as well. 
There are three basic types of stores:  Weapon, Item, and 
Handyman.  For each type, you can choose either "Speed" or 
"Ability."  "Speed" stores will acquire inventory more rapidly, but 
have a bit different, and generally not as good items.  Although 
looking at the inventory that each shop gets, you might think that 
there is an element of randomness to it, each of the six different 
stores has a specific list that is generated and never changes. 
This means opening more than one of an identical store is 
pointless. 
Among the stores, there are two very useful items that you will 
unlikely find anywhere else in the game.  Weapons "Ability" will get 
the Ouroboros, an excellent weapon for Nina (+80Pow, +10Int), and 
Handyman (either type) will get the Angling Rod, one of the best 
rods in the game. Although it isn't quite as strong as the Spanner, 
it has a much longer range (50M), which is almost required to have 
any hope of catching fish like the Barandy and Whale (I know, not 
actually a fish).  Here is a complete list of items and prices 
available in stores: 
WEAPON (SPEED)            ITEM (SPEED)            HANDYMAN (SPEED) 
Pointed Stick-   10       Green Apple-     5      Berries-         5 
Waistcloth-     210       Vitamin-        50      Beef Jerky-     50 
Bronze Sword-   240       Panacea-       100      Clothing-       50 
Buckler-       1100       MultiVitamin-  300      Flame Chrysm-  500 
Wind Cutter-   2200       Ammonia-       200      Napalm-        800 
Crepe Cape-    1300       Talisman-      500      Bell Collar- 10000 
Flame Talons-  3300       Life Sandals-  500      Angling Rod-  2000 
Laurel-        1800       High Boots-   3000      Belladonna-    200 
Royal Dagger-  6200       Titan Belt-   3000      Royal Dagger- 6200 
Spiked Gntlts- 6800       Dream Ring-   1000      Holy Mantle- 10000 
Ice Halberd-  12500       Balance Ring- 1000      Soul Gem-     3000 
WEAPON (ABILITY)          ITEM (ABILITY)          HANDYMAN (ABILITY) 
Pointed Stick-   10       Green Apple-     5      Berries-         5 
Waistcloth-     210       Vitamin-        50      Beef Jerky-     50 
Bronze Sword-   240       Panacea-       100      Taser-         200 
Crepe Cape-    1300       Ammonia-       200      Tiger Claws-  3800 
Flame Talons-  3300       High Boots-   3000      Angling Rod-  2000 
Amber BPlate-  6100       Lion's Belt-  3000      Lion's Belt-  3000 
Piercing Pike- 7400       Napalm-        800      Bell Collar- 10000 
Katzbalger-    9200       Dream Ring-   1000      Soul Gem-     3000 
Protectors-   11000       Balance Ring- 1000      Holy Mantle- 10000 
Tiger's Cap-   5300       Barrier Ring- 3000      Molotov-        10 
Ouroboros-    22000       Diamond Ring- 3000      HiddenDagger- 7000 
Once a store has filled the menu with all 11 items, it is a good idea 
to buy anything and everything that you want from it that you haven't 
already, then change it to a different store or job. 
  
2. INN 
USE:    Resting, saving, special party information 
SKILL:  Dark Blue 
The Inn is just that: a basic inn, like all others in the game.  It 
costs a very reasonable 10Z to stay and allows you to save.  Later in 
your faerie development, having a save spot is very convenient and 
highly recommended for those players who like to use explorers and 
casinos.  If a second faerie is added to an inn, she will tell you 
how many hours you have been playing, the number of enemy encounters 
you have engaged, and the total zenny you have accumulated since the 
beginning of the game, each time you visit.  And if a third faerie is 
added, she will tell you how many people's drawers you've looked in, 
how many treasures you've found, and how many times you've gone 
fishing since the beginning of the game. 
  
3. GIFT 
USE:    Free stat-boost items 
SKILL:  None 
At the gift shop, you will receive a special item for free whenever 
you visit.  Each time you visit the gift store, assuming at least 
some time has passed, you will be rewarded with a free gift. The gift 
you get depends on the time elapsed since your last visit, so don't 
go too often if you want something nice.  Note: Even if you visit the 
village, as long as you don't talk to the gift shop owner, your item 
won't be determined until you finally speak to her.  The items you 
can get include the following list, roughly in order of length of time 
waited between visits: 
1.  Antidote 
2.  Healing Herb 
3.  Panacea 
4.  Icicle 
5.  Firecracker 
6.  Life Shard 
7.  Magic Shard 
8.  Protein 
9.  Power Food 
10. Swallow Eye 
11. Fish-head 
12. Wisdom Fruit 
13. Shaman'sRing 
14. Spirit Ring 
If you want a specific type of stat-boost, visit the village fairly 
frequently, and save before talking to the owner.  If you wait a long 
time,  you will get a Wisdom Fruit.  If you wait a very long time after 

that, you will eventually get a Shaman'sRing, then finally a Spirit 
Ring.  This is a VERY long wait though, so if you are shooting for 
this, you must have a lot of patience.  When you claim an item, the 
cycle repeats, and you must wait again if you want another good item. 
The gift shop is totally unskilled labor, so any faerie will be suited 
to this task.  Adding additional faeries will allow you to collect one 
gift per faerie per visit.  If you know of additional items on this 
list, or know of any corrections to the order, please let me know. 
  
4. FORTUNE 
USE:    In-game secrets revealed, humor 
SKILL:  Sky Blue 
The fortune teller is a fun, though rather low-priority job that you 
can do, recommended for those who have already cycled through all the 
different types of merchants.  Visiting the fortune teller will give 
you a fortune, which might be anything from a cryptic message, a silly 
comment, or a special insight about the game.  If you didn't realize 
it already, you can learn from the fortune teller that Garr has 
natural resistance to fire (though not immunity like she says), 
healing magic harms undead, breath attacks are affected by current hit 
points, and you will encounter fewer monsters by walking instead of 
running. 
Some things that she says are interesting but still remain a mystery: 
-The stronger your flame magic gets... You'll meet monsters with more 
 and more experience. 
-What you're looking for is to the west.  (At the end of the game--this 

 one is probably just nonsense, but perhaps not) 
So if you get enough fortunes from the fortune teller, you're bound to 
hear something interesting, maybe even find out what your name was in a 

former life. :)  Note that intelligence affects fortune telling, so if 
you want more useful fortunes more often, assign a smart faerie for 
this job. Assigning additional faeries will allow you to get one fortune 

per faerie per visit (so three faeries will give you three different 
fortunes every time you go). 
  
5. EXPLORER 
USE:    Finding special items, killing off substandard faeries 
SKILL:  Red 
This is the job that is least appealing to most players at first and for 

good reason. This is the one job that can be (and often is) fatal.  But 

it is also one of the most rewarding, and if used correctly, can result 

in finding plenty of useful or valuable ($$$) items. 
Exploring is the one indoor job where the red bar affects performance, 
so try to use faeries with 100% skill in this area.  Since each faerie 
who is assigned has a chance of finding an item, you can benefit from 
having 2 or 3 in the same house for this. 
When you create explorers, you must tell them the distance of the 
exploration: Daytrip, Nearby, or Distant (in order from shortest to 
longest).  The closer the trip, the quicker the faeries will return, 
and the less dangerous it is.  But the item quality will be less, and 
the likelihood of finding something will also be less, so if you want 
the best stuff, only make distant explorations. 
Now, if you decide to explore, making distant explorations, you will 
want to SAVE just before entering the faerie village.  When you enter, 
check the bulletin board for results.  If you have waited long enough, 
there will be a message that your faeries have succeeded or failed. 
Failure results in death, and means you should hold SELECT + START for 2 

seconds to reset.  Reload until you don't fail, then check to see what 
you've found, or SAVE FIRST, if you have an INN.  Because failure is 
frequent, you should never use more than 2 faeries for exploration, lest 

you find yourself reloading many times to avoid having one of them die. 

An interesting use for exploration, however, is to intentionally kill 
faeries.  Once you've maxed at 20 population, if you have a faerie who 
is just plain worthless, and you need one with better skills, send the 
little under-achiever to her death.  A new one will soon be born. 
For those using INNs, you can save once you know the expedition has been 

successful, but before you actually receive items, then reload if the 
haul is not up to satisfaction for random items every time.  Note: 
Distant trips by faeries with high red skill, USUALLY yield items, but 
if 
they fail to find anything, reloading once inside the village will not 
help.  In short, whether or not they found anything is determined once 
you step inside the village.  The actual item, however is not determined 

until you speak to the faeries. 
Here is a list of available items from exploration.  There are a few I 
know are missing, but wasn't able to verify once I started compiling a 
list.  Only included are those items I am 100% sure about.  The items 
with 
numbers after them are antiques, with their resale value denoted (in the 

Antiques shop only). 
ITEM                 WEAPON              ARMOR              OPTION 
Moon Tears           AP Shells           Breastplate        Artemis' Cap 

Wisdom Seed          Demonsbane          Flame Shield       Hawk's Ring 

Wisdom Fruit         Ghostbuster         Force Armor        Ivory Charm 

Life Shard           HiddenDagger        Ice Shield         Ring of Fire 

Magic Shard                              Lacquer Helm       Spirit Ring 

Power Food                               Magma Armor 
Protein                                  Mind Shield 
Swallow Eye                              Mithril Helm 
Fish-head 
Moxa 
Clay Vase   (100Z) 
Marbles     (500Z) 
Moldy Vase  (1,000Z) 
Dirty Rags  (1,500Z) 
Tea Cup     (2,000Z) 
Beads       (3,000Z) 
Rare Book   (4,000Z) 
Old Painting(6,000Z) 
Myria Icon  (8,000Z) 
Ladon Icon  (8,000Z) 
Lithograph  (15,000Z) 
Dragon Tear (30,000Z) 
The Ivory Charm and Spirit Ring are two of the most useful option items 
in 
the game.  The Ivory Charm grants protection from all attacks (which 
means 
resistance to all elements), regenerates HP (both in and out of combat), 

and improves effectiveness of healing magic cast on the character 
(roughly 
doubles the amount of HP healed by any give spell).  The Spirit Ring 
cuts 
AP consumption by 50% (though it cannot be stacked with a second Spirit 

Ring or a Shamans Ring).  If anyone confirms more items for this list, 
please send them to me. 
  
6. ANTIQUES 
USE:    Selling antique items for full value 
SKILL:  None 
The antiques shop is the only place in the game where you can sell 
(most) 
items that have a description "Appears valuable" for their true value. 
Since this shop has such a limited use, it might be one that you only 
create when you have antiques to sell, then immediately change back to 
something else (but remember to be careful about changing shops).  Once 

you've sold all of your antiques, or if you are not in need of cash, 
this 
is not a productive use of space.  There are no skill requirements for 
antiques dealers.  A second and third faerie will just offer comments 
telling you there are 12 different types of antiques and one of them 
(the 
most valuable) is the Dragon Tear.  There are actually more than 12 
"Appears valuable" items in the game, but a few of them are not true 
antiques, and the antique shop will give you the same price for these 
items as any other store. 
  
7. MUSIC 
USE:    In-game music test 
SKILL:  None 
This is basically a "for-fun" establishment that is the in-game music 
test. 
When you first open a Music shop, only one song will be available to 
hear, 
but as you progress, more songs will rapidly be added until all 40 songs 

are available for your listening enjoyment.  The last song you will have 

access to is "Castle in the Sky," so if this one is available, you know 

you've gained them all.  Unfortunately, not every tune in the game is 
included amongst these 40 (didn't realize there was that much music did 

you?)  There are no skill requirements for musicians.  Adding additional 

faeries will allow them to generate songs more rapidly.  If you have a 
second faerie in your music shop, she will play the final theme music 
played during the credits, "Pure Again" or a karaoke version of the 
same song (volume on vocals is greatly reduced).  When you select to 
hear 
one of these songs, you must listen to it in its entirety, as it 
cannot be stopped once in progress..  The final theme music option 
is only available in a "Clear" save game (after completing the game). 
  
8. CASINO 
USE:    Gambling for money & special items, changing names 
SKILL:  None 
Ah, yes... just about every good RPG has to have one of these, and here 
you 
can win big if you have some brains and a good dose of luck.  There are 
two 
different games you can play at the casino: High & Low and Numbers 
Guessing. 
High & Low is a game where you must guess based on one or more upturned 

cards, whether the next card will be higher or lower than the last.  
There 
are 9 cards, one for each number between 1 and 9.  You can wager from 
1-100 
zenny, and get bigger payoffs, the more correct cards you guess in a 
row. 
You can guess on just one card, all eight, or any number in-between-your 

choice, but if any card is off, you lose the entire pot.  When you win, 
you 
can risk it all and continue or quit while you're ahead.  Note that if 
the 
pot gets too big, you will be prevented from continuing. 
The way this game is structured, guessing on just one or two cards will 
get 
you nowhere, as the payoffs are terrible.  The only reason to guess on 
just 
one (and guessing on 2, statistically is pointless), is if you are 
gambling 
with a large pot (after already winning) and trying to preserve it, in 
hopes 
that a later deal will give you a better chance of winning.  This can be 
a 
good strategy, as occasionally, more than just the first card are 
revealed. 
As many as five may be revealed before you begin, so take advantage of 
these 
opportunities when they come along. 
The pay-offs for correct guesses are as follows: 
1 correct:  X 1.0 
2 correct:  X 1.1 
3 correct:  X 2.4 
4 correct:  X 9.2 
5 correct:  X 29.0 
6 correct:  X 58.0 
7 correct:  X 217.0 
8 correct:  X 560.0 
As you can see, the pay-offs for 1-2 are pathetic, especially for 2, 
while 
7-8 are astronomical.  It's actually not too hard to get 7 or 8 right, 
especially if you get a few key cards revealed ahead of time, so don't 
bother going for just one or two or three guesses: you'd just be wasting 

time. 
The second game you can play is the Numbers Guessing game, where you put 

up 500 zenny each game, to try to guess a number in as few guesses as 
possible.  The number has three digits, ranging from 1-9, with no digit 

used more than once.  Each time you guess, you're told how many digits 
are 
correct and in the correct sequence (called at "Hit") and how many 
digits 
are correct, but out of sequence (called a "Blow").  Hmm... are we 
smoking 
the 500Z pot here?  By guessing the correct number within 8 attempts, 
you 
win a prize, receiving better prizes for fewer guesses.  Assuming you 
play 
intelligently, you should typically be able to guess a number in 4-6 
guesses.  If it takes you 7 or 8, or you fail, you either had really bad 

luck, or (probably) need to re-evaluate your strategy.  If you have a 
little luck, 3 guesses is not uncommon, but 1 or 2 guesses takes a great 

deal of luck, and really no skill to accomplish.  The odds of guessing 
in 
exactly one try are  504 to 1; the odds of guessing in exactly two tries 

are 63 to 1; and the odds of guessing in 1-2 tries are 56 to 1, assuming 

you don't do something weird like guess more than one of the same digit 
in 
the same guess, or make guesses that are inconsistent with previous 
results. 
But I think the game might be slanted in favor of the player, as I 
solved it 
in one guess, twice in less than 100 attempts (it came up 123 both 
times, 
which is what I always guessed first).  The possible prizes are as 
follows: 
8 guesses:  Croc Tear, Rice Ball 
7 guesses:  Green Apple, Rice Ball 
6 guesses:  Healing Herb, Vitamin 
5 guesses:  Panacea, MultiVitamin, Vitamins 
4 guesses:  Soul Gem, Wisdom Fruit, Vitamins 
3 guesses:  Wisdom Fruit, Light Bangle, Ascension 
2 guesses:  ShotgunShell, Lifestealer, Divine Helm 
1 guess:    Spirit Ring 
Ascension is a decent (but not great) weapon for Ryu, while Lifestealer 

is one of the best weapons for Rei--it's not quite as strong as the Holy 

Avenger, but it is lighter, and has a chance of causing instant death. 
The Spirit Ring is a very powerful item, but is easier acquired through 

explorers (see above section).  The Divine Helm is a strong helmet which 

protects against death.  There may be other prizes for succeeding in 1-2 

guesses, but my data here is limited.  Unless you want to stock up on 
Wisdom Fruit or VITAMINS (not to be confused with VITAMIN), a good 
strategy 
to save time, is to give up if you fail after 2-3 guesses, since there 
really aren't any good items past 3.  Once you've failed on the second 
or 
third guess, just hit the button repeatedly until you lose and are able 
to 
start a new game.  Of course this strategy will deplete your zenny 
rapidly, 
so only do it if you have plenty of cash (which you can win from high & 

low), or if you have an inn in the village where you can save/reload 
(SELECT 
+ START will reset) if you lose too many times in a row. 
The casino requires no skill to operate, so any faerie may do this job 
effectively.  If a second faerie is added, nothing happens, but if a 
third 
faerie is added to the casino, she will allow you to change the names of 
any 
of the faeries in your village and any of your party members. 
  
10. COPY 
USE:    Item duplication 
SKILL:  Sky Blue 
The copy shop is one of the most useful functions of the faerie village.  
If 
you give up one of your items, the faerie will attempt to copy it, 
returning 
two of the same item after a period of time.  Since one shop can only 
work on 
one item at a time per worker, you may want to open up two or three 
shops 
later in the game.  Although you may attempt to have any normal item 
copied, 
you need to exercise a little caution here.  First of all, you must live 

without the item while it is being copied, and though copying usually 
doesn't 
take terribly long, it's long enough to pose an inconvenience, depending 
on 
the item.  Further, the copy may fail.  Failure is fairly common, but 
you 
usually have a reasonable chance of it being a success.  Success rate 
and 
duration until completion are affected by intelligence of the faerie and 

monetary value of the item being copied.  Since copying requires 
intelligence, only use 100% intelligence faeries if you want to have a 
high success rate.  Finally, though it is not common, sometimes copying 
can 
go horribly  wrong, turning your item into a Rice Ball (a worthless 
piece of 
mush).  Though you shouldn't expect this to happen often, if you have a 

particularly valuable or unique item being copied, make sure you SAVE 
before 
entering the village.  If you SAVE inside the village, once the copy is 

complete, success or failure has already been determined, so reloading 
at this 
point will not help.  Adding additional faeries to the copy shop will 
allow 
all faeries in the shop to work on copying different items at the same 
time. 
  
III. FINAL THOUGHTS 
Thanks to Capcom for making such a surprisingly good RPG and bringing it 
over 
to the States. 
Thanks to Jim Irwin for additional input and correcting a couple of 
mistakes. 
If you have any information to contribute or comments, please e-mail me, 

Alex Pelton:  sparhawk@diac.com 
If you are thinking of re-posting this info anywhere in any way shape or 
form, 
plagiarizing it, publishing it, selling it, giving it away, or anything 
else 
that might be considered at all morally reprehensible, without MY PRIOR 
WRITTEN 
APPROVAL, think again.  I swear I will make your life miserable for 
doing so. 
I'm a nice guy, but I don't put up with people thieving my work. 
Assuming you are not one of the slimy individuals to whom the above 
statement 
is directed, I hope you find this useful.  Enjoy!