Legend of Mana Mastery Guide FAQ 2.5 (6/27/2000) By Matthew Emirzian Email : mtemisan@aol.com ICQ : 35989900 This FAQ : Up to date versions of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com Introduction: Welcome to the LOM mastery guide. This is my second FAQ, after "Xenogears Secrets, Tidbits & Tips". After this brief introduction, feel free to jump around to whatever interests you. This guide is not about listing every single thing to be found in the game, or every quest, every item, every thing, etc. It's about understanding the system the game runs by and getting as much enjoyment as you can out of it! There aren't many spoilers here, or any large ones, so don't worry if you're a beginner looking to buff up on some LOM strategies. But be warned, this guide isn't going to baby walk you through anything. Don't try to swallow this guide in one sitting and then go play the game for the first time. Alternately, a good warm-up for this FAQ is to read the manual that came with the game, so you can familiarize yourself with terms that will be referred to without stopping to explain them. Part XII has info on how you can contribute, and some questions I have about the game that you might be able to answer! Go take a look if you want to help out. Part XII also has info on hosting my FAQ on your web page or publicly available resource. Please note : Sorry, I don't provide personal help for gameplay questions - that's what this and other FAQs are for! Just look at any of the other Legend of Mana FAQs on gamefaqs.com. Thank you. -- Updates: Version 2.5 adds some really great discoveries I made shortly after 2.0. Check the playing music for spirits and tempering your armor. I also fixed a few errors in the index and other things. Credits: Unless credit is otherwise given, all parts of this FAQ have been written by me through my own experience and discoveries within the game. If you submitted something but I already knew it, sorry. ^_^; To find the submitted part, just search for the email address. -- Index: Part I : World Map/Artifact Placement 1a - Starting Off 2a - The Mana/Artifact System Rules 2b - The Mana/Artifact System Rules Advanced 3a - List of Artifacts Inherent Mana Levels 4a - Towns and the World Map 4b - Towns and the World Map Advanced 5a - Dungeons and the World Map 5b - Dungeons and the World Map Advanced 6a - Spirits and the World Map 7a - Placement Strategy Part II : The Combat System 1a - Plunge Attacks 1b - Plunge Attacks and Combos 1c - Plunge Attacks and Combos Advanced 2a - Choosing a Weapon 3a - Equipping Heavy Weapons Strategies 3b - The Two Handed Sword 3c - The Two Handed Axe 3d - The Spear and Staff 3e - The Hammer 4a - Equipping Light Weapons 4b - The Knife 4c - The Gloves 4d - The Flail 4e - The Sword 4f - The Axe 5a - Light Weapons vs. Heavy Weapons 6a - Ability/Technique Learning System 7a - General Combat Strategy Part III : Quests 1a - Game Breakdown 1b - Game Breakdown Advanced 2a - Missable Quests 3a - Quest Rewards Part IV : Catching Monster Eggs & Playing Music 1a - Monster Egg Strategies 2a - Egg Location List 3a - Playing Music for Spirits 4a - List of Songs Spirits Enjoy 5a - Sneaky Spirit Game Bug Part V : Monster Breeding 1a - Personalities 2a - Raising Strategies - Picking out Food 2b - Raising Strategies - Raising a High Quality Pet 3a - Getting Your Pet EXP - Grazing 3b - Getting Your Pet EXP - Battle 4a - Demi-Human Pets 5a - Recommended Pets 6a - Raising Monster Luck Part VI : Blacksmithing 1a - Overview of Weapons Forging 1b - Overview of Armor Forging 2a - The Tempering System 2b - The Tempering System Advanced 3a - The Mystic Power System 3b - The Mystic Power System Advanced 4a - Overview of Items 5a - Tempering Your Weapon 5b - Tempering Your Weapon Advanced 6a - Tempering Your Armor 6b - Tempering Your Armor Advanced 7a - Mystic Powers List Part VII : Seed Planting 1a - Seed Overview 2a - Seed List 3a - What Affects a Planted Seed? Part VIII: Golem Building 1a - Golem Building Overview Part X : Instrument Creation 1a - Instrument Creation Overview Part XI : Miscellaneous 1a - Saved Game Secrets 2a - Shadow-Zero Mini Game in Domina 3a - Tic-Tac-Toe & Whack a Mole on World Map 4a - Chumpy 5a - Gaeus' Words of Wisdom 6a - Blackpearl at Bejeweled City 7a - L.99 Tropicallo Part X : Instrument Creation 1a - Instrument Creation Overview 2a - Choosing a Material Part XII : After The First Game 1a - New Game Modes Part XIII : Character Development 1a - Luck and Rare Items 1b - Rare Items On Monsters List 2a - Gaining EXP Faster 2b - Getting Money Faster Part XIV : Submissions/Legal 1a - Questions 1b - Legal Stuff 2a - Previous Version Submission Credits -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part I : World Map/Artifact Placement The World Map and Artifact Placement require a little bit of planning before attempting to create a good map. The system governing the mana system and other functions within the game aren't too hard to get a grasp of, though. Your general mission for creating your map is to have student shops at all four quality levels, shade and wisp levels at 3 in Domina, dryad levels at 3 in Duma Desert, and the Orchard and at least one dungeon placed next to the Mana Tree. (See Part I,7a) 1a - Starting Off : Begin your quest in a wide open space. The north-east continent is perfect, if you find the right spot. Next, for home, build it near a corner where it has eight free spaces around it. When you place Domina, make sure it's facing the most open space available. 2a - The Mana/Artifact System Rules : The placement of an artifact always results in neighboring lands acquiring the mana levels of the newly placed land. The newly placed land will also absorb any other neighboring lands mana levels, minus 1. Lands diagonal to the newly placed artifact are not affected, and are not considered neighboring lands. You can preview the results of your placement anytime by pressing the triangle button while holding an artifact on the map. 2b - The Mana/Artifact System Rules Advanced : The crippling limitation of the system is that mana levels will not pass on or spread mana levels between lands, and there is always a penalty of minus 1 when trying to place a new land to absorb an existing lands levels. Because of this, the best strategy to take is to put down the artifact you want to absorb levels in first, then put down the desired artifact to distribute all the levels to it. If you do it the other way around, you'll incur the minus 1 penalty. Once an area becomes surrounded, it's impossible to change it's levels! Be careful not to close in an area unless you're sure you won't regret it later. Obviously, once you start playing the game, you're going to be doing a whole lot of improvisation! Don't expect yourself to map out the entire game, only the important sections like around Domina, Home, Duma Desert, all towns, and the Orchard. Have fun and experiment. 3a - List of Artifacts Inherent Mana Levels : Key : W = Wisp, Sh = Shade, D = Dryad, A = Aura, G = Gnome, Sa = Salamander J = Jinn, U = Undine * = Placemark for Lvl.2 Home/Mailbox - W1, D1, G1 Domina/Blocks - *A2, Sa1 Caverns/Jade Egg - Sh1, G1 Lumina/Lamp - W1, *Sh2 Lake/Stone Eye - W1, D1, U1 Highway/Wheel - D1, G1, J1 Gato/Flame - Sa1, J1 Jungle/Medallion - *D2, Sa1, G1 Ruins/Tablet - D1, Sa1, G1 Desert/Sand Rose - W1, Sa1, J1 Beach/Coral - W1, J1, *U2 Polpota/Anchor - W1, A1, U1 Mines/Bottle - A2, G1 Snowland/Heart - J1, U1 Ship/Hook - *U2, A1 Underworld/Spoon - *Sh2, *Sa2 Junkyard/Doll - W1, Sh1, U1 Peaks/Lantern - W1, G1, J1 B. Dragon/D.Bone - A1, Sa1, G1 W. Forest/G.Cane - W1, D1, J1 Lucemia/Brooch - B.City/J.Staff - Sh1, *A2 Tree/Golden Seed - *D2, G1 M. Sword/M. Tree - All spirits L.3 Leires/M.Mirror - Sh1, Sa1, J1 Geo/Tome - A1, Sa1, Sh1 4a - Towns and the World Map : In towns, mining-students and some shops will have more valuable items the farther you place the artifact from home, and the later the artifact is placed in the game. 4b - Towns and the World Map Advanced : There are four levels that a student can have when selling you items. Domina will always be level 1, and you will miss levels 2 and 4 if you're not careful. Make sure to save Geo for a far away space on the map! A good way to get shop level 2 is to place a town far off just as you're about to begin the first of the three major quests. 1. Cheap Manastones, etc. 2. Steel, Silver, Obsidian, etc. 3. Gold, Ebony, Hemp, etc. 4. Platinum, Maple, Iron, etc. The same principle applies to the instruments shop in Geo. If the student shop is level d, then all materials there will be IshePlatinum type weapons/armor/instruments. 5a - Dungeons and the World Map : In dungeons, the monsters levels will become higher the farther you place the artifact from home, and the later the artifact is placed in the game. 5b - Dungeons and the World Map Advanced : Monsters all have four inherent strength and weakness points in areas with certain mana levels. (you can look them up in the monster encyclopedia). Since there are 3 levels per spirit and 4 variables, there's 6 levels a monster can have in terms of higher or lower levels. You can calculate it by combining the strength and weakness numbers, then subtracting the smaller number. The day of the week will also affect a monsters levels. V.Weak Weak Neutral Strong V.Strong -6 -3 0 3 6 6a - Spirits and the World Map : Mana levels will determine what spirits you'll come across to play music to when you enter a certain area - usually the spot where a boss or major event previously was. A mana level of 0 in the land means the associated spirit will not show up. Level 1 is rare, 2 is fairly common, and 3 is dominant and will appear over other spirits. 7a - Placement Strategy : You're going to want to have key areas planned out before creating your map. These important areas are Domina, Home, Mana Tree, and the Orchard. You'll want to have the Mana Tree next to Domina if you want to complete the two quests there that require those levels. You also will want to put the Orchard next to the Tree, so that you have a tree that grows produce faster due to the maxed out mana levels. Make sure a dungeon is next to the tree, also - so you can find any spirit you want there to play music for. Below is a good example of the placement: 1=Home, 2=Domina, 3=Orchard, 4=Mana Tree, x=Any Dungeon. It's best to place the Orchard before the tree, so the tree can give all it's mana levels without a -1 penalty. x 24x 13 Your other mission is to get all four student shop levels (see Part I,4b), and get Dryad level 3 for Duma Desert, to complete a quest there. As an option, you might want to do further mapping in order to get Demi-Human pets, which only appear if mana levels are high enough in the area you're looking for them in. See Part V,4a for the list and requirements of the demi-human pets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part II : The Combat System Legend of Mana brings forth the classic Mana-esque system of equipping yourself with a weapon, going out, and doing battles in real-time with attacks, abilities, and techniques. While underneath the hood, the system is definitely a numbers game, there is a large amount of gameplay to master and play around with. 1a - Plunge Attacks : All weapons minus the bow have the same three special plunge attacks. They are thrust, uppercut, and jump. 1. Thrust is an attack that can be cancelled into a second plunge move, either another thrust, or an uppercut. It moves your character forward somewhat, and has a long delay. It's performed by a simple strong attack, but to cancel into a second one requires pressing forward and then strong. 2. Uppercut can be performed anytime by pressing down, forward, and strong, and has very little delay time. It smacks the enemy away from you, so it's a good move to use right after thrust. 3. Jump attacks can be used when you are at a distance from a land-based enemy, and press strong. 1b - Plunge Attacks and Combos : The most common form of a combo in LOMs weapon system is attacking with the maximum amount of weak hits, then linking that into a strong then a plunge attack. The amount of max weak hits varies between different weapons, but generally, the bigger and heavier the weapon, the less weak attacks can be performed in a row before stopping with a delay. Try to get a feel for each weapon. The way to master these basic stringed attacks is by learning to control your button presses. After a while with a weapon, doing a 5-6 hit attack will be natural. Button pounders are the losers here! After some practice, pulling off a complete string of weak-plunge attacks should be natural. 1c - Plunge Attacks and Combos Advanced : All commands in battle are performed in queues and lined up to be executed. You'll notice that if you press the ability button twice, you will perform the assigned ability twice without interruption. You can queue your attack by pressing the correct button sequences, and watch it go off. It's also possible to screw up your string of combos. If you press weak attack four times with a weapon that only has three weak attacks, you won't be able to move into the strong attack, and you'll be left vulnerable in delay. The queuing system is hard and unforgiving - the only way to break out is if you get smacked by a baddie. 2a - Choosing a Weapon : Picking the weapon you're going to use for a significant portion of your fighting is important, because you'll want to know what you're getting into! There are two basic types of weapons, heavy and light, and then a variant, the long-distance bow. The major tradeoff between the two is that heavy weapons are generally stronger, with more reach, while light weapons are weaker, with less reach, but much more movement speed in battles and a higher max-weak attack limit, meaning a higher combo count, and easier dizzies. The weapons in the heavy category are, in order of speed of movement, the Two Handed Sword, the Two Handed Axe, the Spear & Staff and the Hammer. The weapons in the light category are, in order of speed of movement, the Knife, Gloves, Flail, Sword, and Axe. The bow is like a light weapon, except it fires long distances, and has different plunge attacks which I will cover in a later version. If anyone wants to share their bow mastery with me, please do. 3a - Equipping Heavy Weapons Strategies : Heavy weapons have their advantage early in the game with brute strength. They are by far the strongest weapons for a long time into the game, until you have enough resources to make your own powerful weapon. After that, you should think about switching to something lighter and faster. The two biggest crippling disadvantages of heavy weapons is your movement in battle, and the lack of speed in hits and weak attacks. When you're later in the game, you need to keep the enemies pinned down unflinchingly, and heavy weapons just don't do the trick. My personal favorite of the heavy weapons is the spear. It's weak attacks are versatile, fast, and have four weak hits, even though movement speed is still slow. 3b - The Two Handed Sword : (Next Version!) 3c - The Two Handed Axe : (Next Version!) 3d - The Spear and Staff : The spear is a great weapon to master, because it's very flexible and fast. Most people consider it weak because of the 3'rd weak attack being very close range, but I don't think it's a problem. The biggest weakness of the spear is your characters speed, but you learn to live with it and enjoy it, eventually. The staff is a very unused weapon that has the same attacks as the spear, but it's much weaker, and the techniques are mainly used to raise your own magic power for spell casting. Attack 1 - Keep away tap. This is a great way to use the spears potential to keep baddies away from you. Just tap weak enough so that you keep doing the 1'st weak attack over and over. Attack 2 - Distance hit. Attack weak 3 times, then go into two plunge attacks. Attack 3 - Toss-Blender. This is one of my favorite spear attacks, and it looks painful too. Equip yourself with the toss ability. Go up to an enemy, and toss them. As soon as you can, begin the weak attack button combinations. Your first hit will miss, but the enemy will get pulverized as they fall through your 2'nd, 3'rd, and get smacked by the fourth close weak. Finish it off with a thrust and an uppercut. Ouch! This one takes a little time to master, but it's worth it because it's so unavoidable. Attack 4 - Super Toss-Blender. A bone-crushing 9 hit combo, almost completely unavoidable. Attack with four weaks, do a toss, four more weaks (the first one will miss as usual), then follow up into a thrust and uppercut. Requires good timing. 3e - The Hammer : (Next Version!) 4a - Equipping Light Weapons : If you're using a lighter weapon, you'll need to master the combo system in order to maximize damage. Forging and tempering an extremely strong weapon is also a good idea. With an axe or sword, take advantage of the shields defense - it can be worn with full body armor, and is very good with the defend ability. 4b - The Knife : (Next Version!) 4c - The Gloves : (Next Version!) 4d - The Flail : I really like the flail because of it's excellent speed and damage. The normal attack is 7 hits long, takes very little time to execute, and if your flail is powerful enough, will demolish the enemies in no time. Another great benefit is that you can stand slightly behind or "inside" enemies and still connect your hits. The weakness here is that the five weak attacks are almost identical, and the reach isn't that great. Watch out for attacking weak too many times : you may find yourself swinging at thin air while the enemy has moved. The flail is also a good weapon to have equipped with a pet, golem, or NPC. Since the weak hits are slow enough to allow the monster some twitch time to pull off an attack or move a little, you'll want to have a partner keeping them in line so you can finish them off quickly. 4e - The Sword : (Next Version!) 4f - The Axe : (Next Version!) 5a - Light Weapons vs. Heavy Weapons : Heavy weapons are good for players who are just starting out. Once you get to nightmare mode, or no future mode, though, you're going to need to have something that's going to do more damage to enemies faster. At some point in the game, you're going to have to forge yourself a more powerful weapon than what you can find in shops and on monsters - this is where you can balance out the differences between attack damage in light vs. heavy weapon power. Light weapons with equal power to heavy weapons are almost always better to use in normal combat. There's no damage bonus for using a heavy weapon, so there's no difference in how much damage you'll be doing to an enemy. The important statistic, therefore, is how much damage you can do in the shortest amount of time. A dagger or flail can pull off much more damage than can a two handed sword or axe, even when it's weaker than the heavy weapon. A 100 damage light weapon, or a spear, is better than a 100 damage heavy weapon. 6a - Ability/Technique Learning System : Learning abilities and techniques is sometimes a very frustrating measure. I think the technique learning system is very poorly implemented, myself. Don't be ashamed to look up a skills list to see what abilities you'll need to get that extreme damage technique. The system works like this : each ability has a proficiency counter attached to it, which is equal to the number of battles you've fought with that ability equipped, regardless of whether you used it or not, and regardless of the exp or strength of the enemy in battle. Once the ability(ies) proficiency reaches the requirements for a new ability/technique, you'll learn it. The counter is the same for every weapon you'll equip - that's why you gain a whole bunch of techniques when you try out a new weapon. To learn a three or four ability technique, all you need to do is raise them separately, and eventually, when all four are high enough, you learn the new technique. Some of the extreme damage techniques take a long time to learn, so be patient. There are plenty of 'tricks' people say will get you the techniques faster, but in the end, the proficiency is the bottom line, case closed. mettythemetool@aol.com has submitted the tip that if you go into battle with a character from another saved game, you can learn new abilities/techniques based off of their proficiency levels. 7a - General Combat Strategy : Once you get out there on the battlefield, there's always some good strategies to keep in mind when playing. 1. Don't let yourself get ganged up on or stuck in a corner. The biggest danger you'll be in is when enemies pummel you from all sides. Use abilities like spin, or moon jump to escape from tight situations. 2. Take one enemy at a time. The biggest complaint I have about the battle system is that it's no longer possible to hit two enemies at once with normal attacks, unlike previous Seiken Densetsu games. Because of this, you'll want to use the bash ability to spread out the enemies and concentrate on one, hopefully killing it or dizzying it before the thrown enemies return after you. 3. Don't overload on techniques - use the most powerful one and learn to live with it, or learn each one over a period of time, instead of being chaotic and throwing on whatever and using whatever button. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part III : Quests 1a - Game Breakdown : The game has three main quests which progress the storyline forward. After completing any one of the three main quests, an event takes place in which you get the artifact used to complete the game. 1b - Game Breakdown Advanced : When you begin the game, you can complete either a or b. Getting to c before a or b depends on the chance that you got the Tome of Magic artifact to create Geo. The most common quest where you get the Tome is Infernal Doll in the Junkyard. The broken doll artifact to create the Junkyard can be acquired during quest a. Usually, you'll complete a, b and c in order. Most of the other quests are optional, although always fun to complete. 1. Dragons Quest - will have a dragon in the initiation picture 2. Fairies Quest - will have a fairy in the initiation picture 3. Jumis Quest - will have a decorated gemstone in the initiation picture 4. Niccolos Quest 5. Gilbert/Monique/Elles Quest 6. Kristie/Sotherbee/Skippie&Samsons Quest 7. Capella/Diddles Quest 8. Bud/Lisa/Lil' Cactus' Quest 9. Pirate/Dudbears Quest 10. Misc. Others 2a - Missable Quests : Almost every quest can be completed any time. The quests listed below require special circumstances to initiate and complete them, though, so make sure not to miss them! Quest No. #3 During Niccolos quest, find Daena at the Highway and tell her you're going to see the Gaeus. Go to see Gaeus, then complete the quest. Go back to Domina, and she should be in the lower right room of Yuka's Inn. Have her join you, and you'll initiate the quest. Quest No. #18 Complete Infernal Doll, then head home - go upstairs and find Lil' Cactus missing. Go back downstairs and talk with Lisa, which will initiate the quest. This one can be very elusive, so keep trying. Quest No. #43 Domina L.3 Shade is required, starts in the first part of town. Quest No. #66 Duma Desert L.3 Dryad is required, bring your pet. Quest No. #67 Domina L.3 Wisp is required, talk to Miss Yuka. 3a - Quest Rewards In some scenarios, you'll be awarded with metals and good items for completing the quest. The more times you complete the game, the better the rewards will be for all quests where you get a reward. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part IV : Catching Monster Eggs & Playing Music Almost all dungeons have areas where you've cleared out a boss battle. These are frequently repopulated by monster eggs and spirits who you can play music for. It's a random chance that you enter the former-boss room and have this encounter, so if it doesn't work, head right back in. 1a - Monster Egg Strategies : Monster eggs all have different personalities, and act and move differently from one another. That being said, there are two approaches to catching one. The first method is food : drop food down and wait for it to wander over and pick it up and eat it. You have to snatch him right after he's finished with the hearts in the indicators, and is showing a light blue "z" mark. Sometimes it might need to eat two items before it shows the "z". If it doesn't show a "z", don't bother trying to nab it, because it won't be receptive. beanbagwj@worldspy.net : The poltergeist egg will only eat produce, not meat. The second method, which I prefer, is to simply stay behind the egg and not let it notice you. Eventually, it'll stand still with "..." coming across the status indicator. Run up from behind and grab the little sucker! This is sometimes not useful for Poltergeist and Odd eggs, whose movement patterns are chaotic at best. 2a - Egg Location List It's possible to get as a pet any monster in the game, by catching the eggs of the monster type. The usual place to find these eggs is where a boss battle used to be. There's only one egg-type per room, so if you fought two bosses in an area, try the other area if the first one doesn't have the egg you want. Beast Egg - Lake Kilma Aerial Egg - Luon Highway, Norn Mountains Poltergeist Egg - Junkyard Plant Egg - Lake Kilma, Jungle Morph Egg - Tower of Leires, Gato Grottoes, Madora Beach Oddity Egg - Ulkan Mines Reptile Egg - Luon Highway, Mekiv Caverns Fish Egg - Madora Beach, S.S. Buccaneer Demon Egg - Jungle Undead Egg - Bone Fortress Arthropod Egg - Duma Desert Dragon Egg - Fieg Snowfields 3a - Playing Music for Spirits : You find spirits in the same areas as eggs, where bosses used to be. A mana level of 0 in the land means the associated spirit will not show up. Level 1 is rare, 2 is fairly common, and 3 is dominant and will appear over other spirits. The day of the week also affects whether a spirit will show up for you. Playing music for spirits is pretty fun. You have your choice of four instruments, and you can play up to 8 at a time. I've gotten plenty of emails telling me the best way is playing all 8 instruments - but I think that's a waste of time to have to set up. It's very important to understand that the key modifier as to whether a spirit will like your song is what type of song it is, not the instrument, or number of instruments. You can just use one simple instrument and still get a spirit to like a song. After you have the spirit close enough, stop the music, and go up to it and speak. Usually, you can be a few steps to them, and if you run, you can still make it to them. Getting silver or gold coins is completely random, and I haven't found any ways to raise the chance of a gold coin. 4a - List of Songs Spirits Enjoy : Below is a list of songs that spirits will generally react positively to. However, the system is slightly chaotic, and if one doesn't work, try the second one. I've made this list myself over a lot of music playing, and it works well. Key: Se = Serene, So = Sorrowful, C = Cheerful, M = Mysterious Spirit 1 2 Sala C So Shade So C Undine Se M Jinn So Se Wisp M So Dryad So M Gnome C So Aura C Se 5a - Sneaky Spirit Game Bug : I discovered this bug wandering around Gato Grottoes. When you come back to the meditation room in the dungeon, there are eggs and spirits there. What's cool about this place though, is that if there are two spirits, the second one will be to the northeast of you - and get this, it's so close, you can reach it even if you don't play music for it! Just say no to playing music, run up, and nab it, and you'll get the coins anyway! This is a pretty exploitative bug, but hey, if it works, do it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part V : Monster Breeding Monster Breeding is a very long term investment, compared to the quick assembly of a golem. You'll have to raise a good quality monster over a long period of time, possibly over two whole games, to get it to a good level where it'll kick some butt. The general concept of raising monsters is to feed it fruit with good stats/personality traits, and stay away or negate food with bad stats/personality traits. The fruit in the game is set up around a tug of war between fruit with good stats but bad personality, and fruit with ok stats and no bad personality. 1a - Personalities : Your monster will gain personality traits as you feed it more food. It's very easy to pick up a bad trait, so be careful. Sometimes bad traits can be a hard stumbling block for your raising - be very careful with what you're feeding your monster. Bad Traits: Lazy - Your monster does almost nothing in battle. Arrogant - Your monster rushes head first into battle. Lonely - Your monster will cling to you in battle. Scheming - Your monster will stay away from the battle and generally avoid fighting. Good Traits: Calm - Your monster attacks strategically instead of blindly. Aggressive - Your monster will concentrate on one opponent instead of wandering around attacking stupidly. Friendly - Your monster will help you in attacking an opponent, and will follow you in the battlefield towards an enemy. Pet your monster to find out what personality it has. It has no other effect. 2a - Raising Strategies - Picking out Food : Go through the produce encyclopedia and make out a 'grocery list' of the kinds of food you want to feed your pet, along with their stats and color type. Use this grocery list when you're planting seeds to make sure you've always got a steady supply of food to feed your pet. My favorites for attack pets are peach puppies (+strength/aggressive/friendly) and apricats (+calm/defense). Depending on how much effort you want to put into it, you might want to go through the tricky process of feeding your monster food with bad traits, but good stats, and other food that negates those bad traits. Balancing food out is a tricky business - and on some monsters, bad stats are very hard to rub off, even with a long time. Every time your pet levels up once, it instantly eats what's in it's feed box and gains the stat mods of the produce. 2b - Raising Strategies - Raising a High Quality Pet : The key to raising a high quality pet is to devote time to it. You can take your monster out to battle, and when it levels up, head back to your corral and enter the shed. As soon as you enter it, your pet will eat the food provided, and you can refill it, go out, get it another level, and come back and repeat the process. This way, you can be sure you're not missing feeding your pet when it's grazing and you're out adventuring. It takes a longer time and it drains your food resources, but it's the only way to get a really high quality pet, especially with weaker monsters such as the Rabite. This is also a good way to cure bad stats, and good for high level monsters that require you to take them to battle if you want them to level up at a decent rate. 3a - Getting Your Pet EXP - Grazing : The amount of experience your monster gets while grazing is determined by how many monsters are grazing. If there's one monster, he'll get 50% of your experience, two monsters will split at 25% of your experience, and three monsters will split at 15% of your exp. 3b - Getting Your Pet EXP - Battle : Nothing beats good old battle experience. Bring your monster out into the world at around level. 25, and let it get in on a few battles. It's combat abilities will improve greatly, if it doesn't have any bad traits. At level 50, your monster should be ready to be taken out regularly on quests, as grazing doesn't provide adequate exp for the monster to level up any longer, unless you make it the only one grazing. Equip yourself with the ForbiddenRing, which you get on quest #3 with Daena. The ring holds the mystic ability "Fertility Goddess", which splits your exp amongst your party members. This is useful if you want to share experience with your pet, so it can level up. 4a - Demi-Human Pets : Thanks to all the people who wrote in with their monster finds. The basis of this list was submitted by insanerest@aol.com, from a part of Ah King's LOM FAQ. I then verified and located the monsters myself. 1. Chobin Hood - Jungle Dryad L.3 - Near entrance. 2. Mad Mallard - Lake Wisp L.3 - At the first bend, near entrance. 3. Tomato Man - Norn Peaks Sala L.3 - Near entrance. 4. Sahagin - Duma Desert Dryad L.3 - Near entrance. 5. Succubus - Fieg Snowfield Shade L.3 - South of the save point. 6. Narcissos - Junkyard Gnome L.3 - Near entrance. 7. Goblin - Lumina Dryad & Shade L.3 - At the Crescent Moon Alley. 5a - Recommended Pets : These pets are all useful in one way or another! Poltergeist Box - Synchronization increases rare item chances. Rabite - Gains luck in great amounts. (at lv.99 - luck is around 50) Land Dragon - The strongest pet in the game, hands down. Springball - Synchronization is invincibility. beanbagwj@worldspy.net suggested the Malboro monster, because it's bad breath attack gives all status damage, their kisses shrink the enemy, and you can use the bow in conjunction with the effect: paralysis synchronization to stone the enemies before they can touch you. Thanks. ^_^ 6a - Raising Monster Luck : Since your main character is always stuck at 5 luck, even with stat bonuses you're never going to be lucky enough to get anything really good by yourself at a steady rate. So, that's where your pet comes in! Raising luck on your pet is best done with mush-in-a-box, common black produce. The only problem is, there's no way to constantly grow them, so you'll be at a shortage, unless you go out and get tons of spiny and long seeds and spend time to grow them. The other option you have is to spend around 95,000 lucre for 95 mush-in- a-boxes from the Bone Fortress shop. (50,000 for the Rabite). Either way, you're going to have to devote 32 levels to constant mush-in-a-box feeding. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part VI : Blacksmithing Forging and tempering weapons is hands down the only way to get the best equipment in the game. It's also a complicated and flexible system that's very easy to screw up! Since weapon and armor creation are different from one another, I've split up this section so that it covers them separately. To see a list of where to get some of the metals mentioned in this section, see Part XIII, 1b. 1a - Overview of Weapons Forging : All weapons are forged with primary materials, which are metal, wood, stone, hide, scales, bone, fabric, and aerolite. The main goal of forging a good weapon is getting the highest attack power possible. With the exception of aerolite and a few other metals, primary materials don't have any inherent stats when you forge a weapon. Metals and high level aerolite are the strongest material you can use to make a weapon. IshePlatinum is good for all weapons, and Adamantium is the best. TuttleAerolite is also good, and has some inherent stat bonuses and elemental levels. I haven't found any stone, wood, or bone that's made as good a weapon as Adamantium can. After you've created the weapon of your choice, your next step is to temper it! Tempering weapons is a fun process with lots of experimentation and options. 1b - Overview of Armor Forging : Armor is forged with primary materials, also, but is much more varied in terms of types of armor and material. You need to have a more accurate idea of the type of material vs. the type of item you're trying to make. For example, using metal, stone, or wood to make a robe isn't going to do very well, because you obviously want your robe to be made out of fabric. Making a piece of full- body armor out of silk won't get you very far in battle, either. Armor falls into three categories - heavy armor, light armor, and accessories. Heavy armor is the hauberk, the shield, the helm, the boots, and the armor. Light armor is the hat, the robe, the shoes, and the mantle. Accessories are the ring and necklace. You'll generally want to use metal, wood, stone, and aerolite for heavy armor, and hide, scales, and fabric for light armor. Accessories work best with expensive gems such as the emerald, pearl, and lapis. 2a - The Tempering System : The tempering system is very flexible. If it's listed as an item, you can temper your weapon with it. This leaves the door wide open for you to screw your weapon up royally and send you back to the drawing board. Make sure you save often! While there is a great amount of types of items, they can all be narrowed down into two general categories. The first type of item has a mystic power imbedded in it, with no stat changes to your equipment. The second type of item has no mystic power, but can change the stats of your equipment directly. 2b - The Tempering System Advanced : Each piece of equipment has four mystic power slots, and two direct stat modifier slots. The first stat modifier slot is for the vial item type, and is very easily cancelled out by doing any further tempering. Add the vial item last. The second slot has room for one other item that modifies stats - eyes, produce, fangs & claws, feathers, bottles, urns, pellets, powders, and pouches all fall into this category. Any new stat modifier item that's tempered into your equipment will replace the old one. 3a - The Mystic Power System : Mystic powers are an integral part of tempering equipment. When active in your equipment, they will alter its stats and other various natures. Depending on whether a power is on a piece of armor, or a weapon, it might not have any noticeable effect. A piece of equipment is able to have three active cards at a time. There are two types of mystic powers - spirit cards, and all other cards. Spirit cards go with all eight spirits, and leave an essence in your weapon, even after their card leaves your equipment. The highest essence level for each spirit is four. Spirits which are opponents of each other (i.e. Shade vs. Wisp) can not normally coexist in your weapon. All other mystic powers have stat modifications, or different types of battle- gameplay alterations. Some mystic powers simply won't work with weapons, some won't work with armor. 3b - The Mystic Power System Advanced : What most people don't realize is that there's actually a fourth slot underneath the first three, that lies dormant until another mystic power pushes it up into prominence. This means that in order to activate a mystic power in an item, you have to put in another mystic power that's going to push the 4'th slot into the 3'rd. Anything at the top is removed when the slots are all full. For example, say you have three silver Dryad coins, two silver Salamander coins, and a dagger. You temper the dagger with the Dryad coins, and your slot list should look like this. 1. ---------- 2. Dryad 3. Dryad 4. (invisible, dormant) Dryad To get the third Dryad to activate, you need to add your Salamander coin. 1. Dryad 2. Dryad 3. Dryad 4. (invisible, dormant) Salamander Now say you want to push the salamander up. You add your second Salamander coin (or any other item with a mystic power). The first Dryad is kicked out of the weapon, because it was pushed out, and your Salamander becomes active in slot 3. This is how all mystic powers work, with the exception of the Pixie powers. Thanks to GerwalkSV7@worldnet.att.net for pointing me in the right direction about this. 1. Dryad 2. Dryad 3. Salamander 4. (invisible, dormant) Salamander 4a - Overview of Items : Below is an overview of the various types of items you can temper/alter your weapons/armor with. Mana Stones - The equivalent to silver coins that spirits give you for playing music for them. They come in fire, earth, wind, and water varieties. You can buy them from the student in Domina in Yuka's Inn. See Elemental Coins. Mana Crystals - Special mana items that you can temper your equipment with for good mystic powers. There are only four in the game, and they're sold in jewelry shops in Geo, Lumina, and the Bejeweled City. The Chaos Crystal adds a mystic power that allows compatibility between opposing spirit levels, which allows for your equipment to be maxed out in all eight spirit levels. Elemental Coins - Silver coins will raise your spirit levels in equipment at +1 up to level 2, and gold coins will raise the levels +2, and can go up to level 4. As your elemental levels increase, the power in weapons will increase. In armor, your equipment will have natural defenses or weaknesses based on the spirit you've added. Seeds - Will always give you a dryad mystic power. Produce - With armor, produce will give some status resistance and other bonuses. With weapons, certain produce can increase attack power. Stat mod produce reaches it's limit at around 10 or so, and then it won't accept any more bonuses. You can not accumulate one produce, you must use different kinds. Eyes - Eyes are dangerous to put into your equipment, because they contain Pixies, mystic powers that are almost impossible to expel from your item. Add that to the fact that pixies all lower your stats in one way or another, makes eyes a good item to avoid. Vials - These items have their own separate slot from other stat modification items, but are very fragile and will be cancelled as soon as your equipment is tempered/altered again. Fangs & Claws, Feathers, Bottles, Urns, Pellets, Powders, Pouches, Urns, etc. - All these items have different mystic powers, etc. The best thing to do is to look at the mystic power list at Part VI,7a. 5a - Tempering Your Weapon : The first thing you want to do to your weapon is to max out all spirit levels. This method was first posted by Ramuh Edge (nick10512@aol.com), on the LOM message board at www.gamefaqs.com. I'm going to describe the technique in my own words. Each element has an opponent that it will cancel if it exists in your weapon. The Chaos Stones, however, add the Ancient Moon mystic power, which allows them to co-exist. Requirements : 4 Chaos Crystals, 2 silvers & a gold coin each for the first four cooperating elements, and 2 gold coins for each for the last four conflicting elements. 1. Add in two silvers and a gold coin (do silver before gold) for four spirits that cooperate with one another : Wisp, Dryad, Salamander, and Jinn, OR Shade, Aura, Undine, and Gnome. They should now be level 4. 2. For this step, add a chaos crystal, and then another one for every two spirit coins you add. To speed the process up, and to lower the required number of chaos crystals, you should use two golds, instead of two silvers and a gold. Do this for all four spirits, and your equipment should have maxed out spirit levels. Afterwards, it's safe to temper/alter your equipment without needing to add additional chaos crystals. 5b - Tempering Your Weapon Advanced : To finish off your weapon, use Holy Water and fill your mystic power slots with "Cleric". Then, add a poison fang and then dragons breath to top it all off. Using this method, I got a 301 damage Adamantite flail. 6a - Tempering Your Armor : The best way I've found to increase your armor value is to alter it with four Needletuce produces. They give the mystic power "Bed of Thorn", which raises your armor power to ridiculous amounts. I brought my Adamantite Full- Body Armor to defense 241 (strikes=81, slashes=48, pierces=99, magic=13). Go do it now and kick some booty. 6b - Tempering Your Armor Advanced : (Next Version!) 7a - Item And Effects List : The bulk of the mystic powers list here was taken from Dude101+101's (killjherf@hotmail.com) Blacksmithing guide, and recompiled in my own format. Dude101+101's list did not include any of the stats, though - I've done that. Many people also submitted other mystic cards. Credits are at the bottom of this list. Item Type Name Mystic Power Stats Seeds All Seeds Dryad Card Dryad Essence+1 Eyes All Eyes Pixie (various) negative stats Slv. Coins Spirit Name Spirit Card Spirit Essence+1 Gld. Coins Spirit Name Spirit Card Spirit Essence+2 Produce Bellgrapes - Mag+1 Produce Diceberry - Lck+1 Produce Mangoelephant - Hp+1 Produce Loquat Shoes - Skl+1 Produce Pear O' Heels Spirit (Old Man) Produce Squalphin - Undine+1 Produce *Citrisquid - +strikes -slashes Produce *Springanana Heaven's Scale Produce Apricat - Skl+1 Produce Applesocks - Skl+2 Produce Whalamato Produce Pine O' Clock - Def sleep Produce Boaramelon - Str+1 Produce Rhinoloupe - Def poison Produce Sweet Moai - Def+1 Produce Cornflower - Wsp+1 Produce *Needlettuce Bed of Thorn +strikes+slashes+pierce+magic Produce Cherry Bombs - Produce Masked Potato - Produce GarlicCrown King Str+1, Aur+1 Produce Honey Onion Princess Def+1, Dry+2 Produce Peach Puppy Wolf Hp+2, Skl+2 Produce Bumpkin Clown Produce Lil Pods Enticed Nymph Produce Fishy Fruit Spring Und+2,Def Gno Produce Conchurnip Spirit (Young Girl) Feathers Moth Wing Spirit (Dancing Girl) Feathers Raven Feather Raven Feathers Flaming Quill God of War +7str Feathers Clear Feather - +atk Fangs&Claws Sharp Fangs - +atk Bottles Ether Spirit (Old Man) Bottles Holy Water Cleric +atk Bottles Aroma Oil Goddess of Wisdom Vials Mercury Witch Vials Stinky Breath Pixie Vials Ghosts Howl Sacrificed Nymph Vials Dragons Breath Man of Valour +atk/str on weapons Powders Ash Volcano Powders Grave Dirt Dying Earth -all stats Powders Suplher Sorcerer Powders Rust Pixie negative stats Powders Knockout Dust Pixie negative stats Powders Sleepy Powder Pixie negative stats Powders Poison Powder Pixie negative stats Pouches Hairball Spirit (Dancing Girl) Pouches Mirror Piece Mirrored World Urns Ear of Wheat Fertility Goddess shared xp w/ party Mana Crys. Sun Crystal Sun God Mana Crys. Moon God Mana Crys. Glow Crystal Mana Crys. Chaos Crystal Ancient Moon * = Armor Only + = Weapon Only Items with "-" in their mystic power means they are stat mod items. Credits - Doug0710@aol.com - Mirror Piece GerwalkSV7@worldnet.att.net - Aroma Oil, Flaming Quill mettythemetool@aol.com - Clear Feathers, Sharp Fangs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part VII : Seed Planting 1a - Seed Overview Seeds come in various colors that correspond with the color of the fruit listed in the produce encyclopedia. When you plant two different types of seed, you can expect some of the resulting fruit to be a combination color that follows the basic color prism. i.e. red(crooked)+blue(round)=purple(long). Spiny seeds will give random, rare fruits, and combined with another seed, they'll give rare fruits of that color type too. Usually, unless you've got the Mana Tree next to Home or Orchard, produce will grow pretty slowly. 2a - Seed List Random - Spiny Seed. Rare, find on high level plants. White - Flat Seed. Rare, find on high level plants. Red - Crooked Seed. Buy these for 10 lucre at the Bone Fortress. Orange - Small Seed. Find on Lullabuds in highway & other plant enemies. Yellow - Oblong Seed. Buy these for 10 lucre at the Bone Fortress. Green - Big Seed. Find on Lullabuds in highway & other plant enemies. Blue - Round Seed. Buy these for 10 lucre at the Bone Fortress. Purple - Long Seed. Find on Lullabuds in highway & other plant enemies. Black - Combine spiny and long seeds to get black produce. 3a - What Affects a Planted Seed? There are a lot of variables that go into a seed that you plant. Date Planted, if colors match up = faster growth Elemental levels, if colors match up = faster growth Combined seeds = varied types of fruit Rarity = slower growth -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part VIII: Golem Building 1a - Golem Building Overview : Building a golem is a simple, yet complex and mysterious part of the LOM system. The basic premise of a golem is that you merge together weapons/armor/instruments to make 'blocks' of different shapes (think Tetris pieces), that have different abilities assigned to them. These blocks are then placed into the golems logic grid, and the golem gains the ability. After the blocks, a golem can be outfitted with several pieces of armor just like character equipment. The better the armor rate, the higher chance the golem has at failing it's attack. Creating a deadly golem is perhaps the epitome achievement of the entire game. To create a good golem, you'll need to understand what pieces of equipment make what blocks, attempt to get the blocks as small as possible, and make them all fit in your 16x16 logic grid. You'll need to create high quality weapons and armor just to make blocks, and have armor on hand to equip the golem with. Personally, I've only slightly tinkered with golem creation. I would love everyone's submissions on the subject to help out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part X : Instrument Creation 1a - Instrument Creation Overview Instrument creation is the least flexible of the three item creation systems in LOM. Since you only have two variables-coins, and primary materials- making decent instruments require a lot of experimenting. Personally, I haven't found much advantage to musical instruments over weapons, besides their range and ability to hit more than one enemy. Music instruments are generally weak, and the most useful ones have spells attached that cause status abnormalities, especially flameburst and freeze, which continually incapacitate and drain the health of enemies. The highest power instrument I've gotten was around 100. 2a - Choosing a Material Different primary materials work better with different instruments, of course. It's just like making armor or weapons. Below are some suggestions for material types for instruments. I could really use some submissions in this area. The next version will cover Instrument Creation & Golems more in depth. :) VizelGold - Always a good pick. Drum - hide, wood Flute - metal, wood, aerolite Marimba - metal, wood Harp - metal, wood, aerolite -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part XI : Miscellaneous This section is for various things you can do in the game that I thought were worth mentioning. 1a - Saved Game Secrets During certain events, LOM reads from your memory card to find certain Squaresoft saved games. Here's what you can do: 1. With a FF8 save, your first pet after completing the Corral quest will be a Chocobo instead of a Rabite. 2. With a Saga Frontier 2 save, if you go to 'save' and highlight it, then head to the bone fortress and to the bone bridge where you fought Deathbringer, you can now fight Deathbringer II. After defeating him, you'll get a sword from Saga Frontier 2. 3. With a Chocobo Racing save, go to Polpota - Skippy there will give you a worthless 'The Fastest Wheel' wooden ring. 2a - Shadow-Zero Mini Game in Domina Thanks to Johnmog@mindspring.com for pointing this out to me. There is a shadow-zero mini-game available in Domina after completing the Jumi Quest (#33). Go to the Domina Tavern on Salamander day, and you can play the mini-game, where you attempt to catch rascally shadow-zeros in different poses in a short amount of time for prizes. It's a good idea to spend a little time playing, because some of the rewards are good items that you normally only find in treasure chests along the game. There's also some low-end aerolite metals. The highest score is 200, where you'll get a Spiny Seed. Big deal, huh? Below are some tips I've written as I was playing the game. 1. Once you smack a S-Z, you don't need to press a button to get rid of the score display. 2. Pay attention only to jump-kicks (16 points) and poses (32 points). 3. Pose times are short - don't run across the room to nab one. Also, don't bother trying to nab one if you're in the middle of whacking another, you'll probably miss. 4. There's always a catch delay for pressing the button, so you can't pound the buttons and smack everything in your path. 3a - Tic-Tac-Toe & Whack a Mole on World Map You can play a Whack a Mole style game called "Landbopper" on the world map, by pressing and holding R1 for a few seconds while on a portion of the map that has all 9 spaces occupied with areas. You can play a Tic-Tac-Toe game by. 4a - Your Name Here, Chumpy I thought this was cute. If you tell Duelle your name is Chumpy when he asks, other characters in the game will also ask if you're Chumpy, and you can even tell people that's your name in certain quests. I don't know if it changes the game in any way, but it's pretty funny. :) 5a - Gaeus' Words of Wisdom This section is going to have all of Gaeus' conversations with the NPCs when you go to talk to him, since I think he's just so cool and philosophical. 6a - Blackpearl at Bejeweled City Thanks to ferretmonger@aol.com for submitting this. You can get Blackpearl to join you in the Bejeweled City on Jinn day in the Clarius throne room. 7a - L.99 Tropicallo I just have to talk about L.99 Tropicallo. This creature is by far the toughest boss in the entire game. It's a pure endurance fest, forcing you to fight in a tiny cage with constant suicide explosions from the dropping left plant parts that cover 80% of the screen, and instant death if you are merely touched by the explosion. The right plant parts will confuse you with their gas attacks and until you bash them off of the plant, they'll swing around and attempt to knock you into the suicide plant as it blows up. The only way the boss loses health is by replenishing it's near endless supply of these two plant parts, and it's a long, grueling fight. If you manage to kill this thing, let me know so I can congratulate you! Hah-hah. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part XII : After The First Game There's much more to see and do in LOM after you've beat the game for the first time. After watching the ending credits/movie, you'll be able to make a new saved game that carries over all your stats/items/encyclopedias, the corral, workshops, and Trent. 1a - New Game Modes One of the biggest draws to playing the game over again is the Forbidden Tomb in your library that appears after beating the game once. You can now play the game in Nightmare Mode (enemy levels 2x) or No Future Mode (enemy levels 3x). Contrary to popular belief, No Future Mode is not all enemies at level 99. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part XIII : Character Development This section has some tips on raising up your character. 1a - Luck and Rare Items : Have you been sitting there trying to get that one rare metal or item from a monster for hours and still having no luck? Luck is one of the more elusive stats in the game, and it affects the quality of rare items that drop for you. There are three general strategies to employ when trying to get rare items, each with strengths and weaknesses. 1. Equip yourself! Put on three DestinyDice necklaces, from the MadMallards, that have +4 luck each, and make sure your weapon has a +1 luck bonus. Your luck will rise to 18 instead of 5. Also, the Draupnir ring increases chance of items dropping, but with the Poltergeist Box, it's not necessary. 2. Use the Poltergeist Box pet! The Pbox's synchronization is "increase chance of rare items", and if you're synched with it when killing a baddie, they're 100% guaranteed to drop some kind of item. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as effective as you'd like it to be, even with all the DestinyDice equipment. 3. Raise a Rabite! The Rabite is one of the few monsters who gains luck on a normal basis with the rest of it's stats. If you can carefully raise a rabite up to have 99 luck, and let it get the finishing blow on a baddie, it's a guarantee that if they drop an item, it's going to be something good! This requires a lot of patience, but it's the best method. 1b - Rare Items On Monsters List : This list will be expanded in the next version. 1. Chess Knights - Tower of Leires 4'th floor - Adamantite (Metal) 2. Wooding - Gato, White Woods - High Quality Wood Items 3. Poltergeist Boxes - Buccaneer lower left room of lower level - Chaos Crystal 4. Shadow-Zero - Gato - Tuttle-Aerolite 5. Darkstalkers - Underworld path to 3'rd floor - Ragnarock Sword 6. Springball - Ulkan Mines - Divine Flail 7. Malboro - Jungle, others - Spiny Seed 8. Tyrannos - Jungle - Fossil (Stone) 9. Pincher Crab - Madora Beach - Full-Metal (Metal) 10. Chimera Beast - Lucemia, Underworld - Gaeus' Tears (Stone) 11. Land&Sky Dragon - Mana Tree - Dragon Scales/Hide 2a - Gaining EXP Faster : Below is a list of good places to spend an hour or two bashing the baddies to up your levels and gain new abilities. If anyone else knows some exp hotspots, let me know. 1. Highway - before Chobin Caves - two Chobin Hoods 2. White Forest - near the southwest corner - two Goblins 3. Duma Desert - several places - two Mad Mallards 4. Fieg Snowfields - path to the tent - two Sahagins 5. S.S. Buccaneer - hatchway to lower levels - two Sahagins 6. Tower of Leires - two succubus fight 7. Norn Peaks - later on, you can re-fight the dragon boss repeatedly 8. Bejeweled City - Diamond room - the golem jiehui@pecific.net.sg has submitted a crafty tip to gain up your levels, which is useful if you're starting a new game and want a boost in levels early on. First off, you'll need two save games. Load up the main save, and bring in the guest character that you want to gain exp. Go and fight any boss and let the guest character get the exp. Then, head back home go through the door - the guest will be able to save their game w/ the gained experience. Now, you can software-reset the game (L1+L2+R1+R2+Start+Select), and re-load your game - the boss will be available to fight again, and you can bring in the guest character to fight it and get more experience. 2b - Getting Money Faster : If you are in need of some money, below are some great cash makers. 1. Highway - in Chobin Caves - various goblins, sell their weapons 2. White Forest - two Goblins - sell the weapons they drop 3. Mana Tree - air & land dragon - sell the dragon steaks 4. In the first Lumina quest, trying to sell the lamps, you can spend all your cash plus 3000 extra lucre, a great deal for the start of the game, even though you'll be broke afterwards. 5. From epimetreus@hotmail.com - "you can find a dragon egg in the snowfields, two screens east of the area where you fight Du'Mere, if it hatches into a land dragon, you can sell it for $5000 at level. 1". Air Dragons also sell for 5k and Kid Dragons are 500 lucre. 6. S.S. Buccaneer - lower levels, lower left door, sell the various mana crystals from the Poltergeist Boxes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part XIV : Submissions/Legal 1a - Questions & Submissions Question #1: With blacksmithing, I need to know what produce gives what abnormality defenses, and also the effects of various mystic cards. Question #2: Anything with "Next Version!" on it, I could definitely use everyone's help and advice on what to put there. :) Question #3: I would love help on the Golem/Music Creation sections. Question #4: As always, any good information will get put up. All answered questions and submissions will receive full credit with the persons email listed, if they wish. Please view my Xenogears Secrets FAQ to see how I handle submissions. Send all submissions to : mtemisan@aol.com 1b - Legal Stuff You must have my express permission to reproduce or host this FAQ on any web page, or publicly available resource. Send an email to me and wait for my reply, I usually don't have a problem with it. I reserve all rights to deny this hosting privilege. This guide is not to be distributed with any purchase, you know how that is. Don't do it! 2a - Previous Version Credits Version 1.0: First Version, No Credits Version 2.0: Wow, version 2.0 of the FAQ represents a big leap, to say the least. Almost every part was rewritten, modified, corrected, clarified, bulked up, or added to. I think you'll be impressed by the amount that was added! Thanks to all that submitted info to me! Remember, real gaming FAQs are the result of a community, not just one person with a big ego and spare time! I'm committed to the gamer, and high quality in my writing and information. Help out by submitting tips and etc. and making the FAQ grow! epimetreus@hotmail.com - First one to submit the dragon egg/5000 lucre money making trick. beanbagwj@worldspy.net - Some monster egg/pet submissions. GerwalkSV7@worldnet.att.net - Helped my understanding of the mystic power system. mettythemetool@aol.com - Submitted some items for the blacksmith list and also learning techniques from your friends. jiehui@pecific.net.sg - Submitted a tricky way to gain exp faster using a second character. johnmog@mindspring.com - Informed me of the Shadow-Zero mini-game. ferretmonger@aol.com - Told me about getting Blackpearl at the Bejeweled City. nick10512@aol.com - Ramuh Edge, whose all-element blacksmithing ideas I adapted with his permission. insanerest@aol.com - Submitted a portion from Ah King's LOM FAQ. Thanks to everyone else who emailed me about the pets and blacksmithing. :) Blacksmith credits are below the list itself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The greater the beauty, the more it is vied for, the more it is hurt. Such Tragedy." -- END OF FILE