When you arrive in Coronet, finding a boat over to Kuskus is your first order of business, unfortunately, it looks like Highland has taken up residence here as well. Take a look at the stores to add them to your eventual own castle store, and you can use the blacksmith here to sharpen weapons to lvl 5 as well. Other than that, nothing else is going on in Coronet at the moment.
On the first floor of the inn, in the restaurant area, talk to the guy above to get a copy of Recipe #5. Next, head down to the docks to get turned away from taking a boat out by a Highland soldier.
Return to the second floor of the inn and you will be reunited with some familiar faces: Eilie, Rina, and Bolgan. They are in the same predicament you are: trying to get across to Kuskus. After the scenes, head to the easternmost section of the docks. You will see yet another familiar face: Sheena from the original Suikoden. It looks like old friend Tai Ho is inside that hut too. You know what the means: a boat.
Of course, you know Tai Ho isn't going to help without a game of Chinchirorin first. You'll need to wager 2000 potch; if you don't have much, you probably want to go save before playing. Once you win a round (Which took me five tries, it's mostly just luck), Tai Ho will agree to take you to Kuskus. Make your way back to the inn and Eilie, Rina, and Bolgan will officially join your party. Before going back to Tai Ho, make sure you have everything you need from Coronet; it will be a long time before you can return here. Kuskus, itself, at the moment anyway, doesn't have much going on for it either. Just like Coronet, check out the shops to add their inventory and the blacksmith here (That you will be visiting a lot from now on...) can sharpen weapons to lvl 6.
In the large house on the western side of Kuskus, that spans two sections, search the bookshelf inside to find Recipe #9.
The item shop here will sometimes carry Recipe #11 in their rare finds.
Inside the inn, they actually have a talking, cooking, stove. I think that is just as popular as Karen's dancing here.
Out on the world map, head directly south of Kuskus to reach South Window; don't worry about the enemies here are the moment, we will cover them in a bit. Viktor will be waiting for you at the entrance. Watch the scenes and Viktor will direct you to the inn/tavern to meet up with the others that have made it here thus far.
With some luck, you will hopefully find the Old Book Vol. 3 in the item shop's rare finds. Visit the rune and armor shops as well. If the armor shop happens to have a Kite Shield in its rare finds, go ahead and buy it for an upcoming character that joins. At the rune shop, remove Rina's Fire Rune and attach it to Eilie. Eilie has a much better affinity for it than Rina does, and Rina will be unavailable for your party for a bit coming up. The rune shop also offers your first chance to buy Wind Runes. This is of note as if you attach it to a character's weapon, it provides a 5% chance to repel enemy magic, which will stack with other magic-repelling equipment. The armor shop also sells the excellent Belt of Strength accessory there.
On the eastern side of town, search the bonsai pictured above for one of the best weapon runes in the game: The Friendship Rune. When attached to a weapon, this rune increases your attack power based on the number of characters that have joined your party. This also includes characters that aren't Stars of Destiny. It's not much at the moment, but will be a force later on in the game
You'll find these guys scattered in various areas of the game that will offer you trading tips for potch, only to give you gibberish in exchange. This is due to the text for the tips never being translated; just ignore these NPCs when you run into them. To continue the story, head over to the inn/tavern.
You'll meet back up with Viktor and Flik at the inn and they will finally, officially, join your party. Don't get too excited yet, it will still be a while further into the game before they can be utilized in your party at will. They want to take you to meet the mayor of South Window, Granmeyer, who's mansion is in the northeastern part of town.
Granmeyer will reveal that there have been some mysterious disappearances in Viktor's old home town of North Window recently and will ask your help in investigating them; much to the chagrin of Viktor. To assist in the effort, Freed will join your party as well. And in true Japanese fashion, they play a video spoiling the return of an old foe. Anyway, make your way back to the inn and Flik will leave your party; replaced by Eilie. Your next destination is North Window, but let's take a look at the enemies out on the world map now. I would also recommend buying a Wind Rune from the rune shop and attaching it to Viktor's weapon in Kuskus; this will give the character a 5% chance to reflect magic. This is much better than it sounds and will also stack with other magic-reflecting equipment you will acquire. If you happened to have gotten a Kite Shield from the rare finds, give this to Freed as well as a Belt of Strength.
The enemies on the world map outside South Window contain a few rare items. First, the Mukumuku-looking Flyers will very rarely drop the Medicine Rune. Tuta has one of these permanently attached, and you will find one later on in a treasure chest, but Flyers are your source for more, if you would like. The Medicine Rune is decent enough, I guess. Assuming you have Medicine or Mega Medicine equipped, if a character drops to their knees in the "critical" status, the bearer will automatically use the item on that character. This rune has drawbacks, though. For one, you must equip a Medicine item instead of an accessory, and two, the character will waste their turn using the Medicine; it's not used in conjunction with the command you entered for the character. In my opinion, you're much better off with a Water Rune and Kindness Drops. Note: The Medicine Rune only works with Medicine and Mega Medicine and will not work with food items or scrolls.
Flyers also will drop Celadon Urns, although rarely. While these can be purchased later on, they have a greater use. You will need at least one Celadon Urn in your inventory to recruit a character. These will also help you recruit yet another character as well. I would recommend getting at least three of these to stash in your warehouse, when it becomes available again. I will let you know when they are about to become of use to you. Note: BonBon's back in the area of Viktor's Mercenary Fortress can drop these too. I am mentioning them here considering how much time you will spend on the world map of this area in the game.
The Target Lady enemy in this area can drop the Nymph Rune as well. This enemy, and one other late in the game, can drop this rune, but you cannot find it anywhere else. This thing is mostly just a novelty and is of no real use; like a lot of the runes in this game. When used during battle, depending on the users Luck stat, it will either damage an enemy, and/or heal a fellow party member. Just stash this thing in your warehouse later with the rest of your rare items.
With the monsters out of the way, you might want to drop by Radat Town, which is directly to the east of South Window. You can find the Sound Set #5 and Recipe #18 in the item shop rare finds here, as well as an appraiser. You'll be coming here in the story shortly, but best to get a start on checking for them now. There is also another rare find to get here which we will check for later. If need be, you can pass through Radat and over to the Mercenary Fortress area to farm Hazy or Killer Runes too. When you're ready, make your way to North Window, which is northwest of South Window, on the end of the peninsula (Looks like a good place for a castle, huh?).
Neclord is here, really? Well, if you played the original game, you know how this will end: he can't be harmed without the Star Dragon Sword. Viktor stashed it away in the Cave of the Wind; just south of North Window, so the story takes us there next. If you chose to battle Neclord, make sure you go back to an inn and rest.
At the entrance to the Cave, Viktor will slice-n-dice the boulders away to get inside. This will be a fairly long dungeon, so make use of the save point. While the dungeon is fairly straightforward, you will need to take different paths for a lot of the treasure chests.
A short ways inside, you can walk through the wall of the cave here to reach an area with a chest containing a Sun Badge. This was a rare find back in Muse, and although not a great accessory, it is rare, and one should be placed in your warehouse. If you're inventory is like mine, it's really piling up, but we're not far from getting our warehouse back.
Nearing the end of the cave, you'll have to do a bit of puzzle-solving by moving rocks in front of gusts of wind that are flowing through the cave. This is fairly self-explanatory, the only exception being the very last set. You can reach the bottom exit without maneuvering the rocks, but you'll need to position them just right to make it over to the top-left area. Here you will find three chests: one of which contains the Blue Gate Rune. While only being able to attach to a character's head rune slot, and being limited on whom you can attach it to, this rune is extremely rare and there are only 3 of them in the entire game. The old man here will send you back to the entrance of the cave as well, if you'd like.
Shortly afterwards, you'll enter an open area with a myriad of different paths to take; leading to a few chests. The one in the extreme south, on a ledge, contains a Stone of Defense. This is another rare item of which there are only 4 in the game. When used on a character, it will increase a character's defense stat permanently by 1-3 points. It's recommended to save before using the stat-stones, so you can reload if you don't get the maximum increase of 3.
Nearing the end, you'll encounter a shady man that has been waiting for Viktor to arrive. His family has been hunting Neclord for generations and wishes to join with Viktor in destroying him. Kahn will then temporarily join your party. Now that we have a party of six, and nearing the end of the dungeon, let's look at the monsters of the Cave of the Wind.
Believe it or not, the Griffin enemies drop the best hat in the game. While a fairly rare drop, the Wind Hat outmatches every other hat you will find in the game with its +24 defense, +7 to speed, and reduces damage from wind-elemental attacks. I would recommend getting at least one for Riou and Viktor. You can get these much later in the game in a shop's rare finds, but Griffins are your best route for outfitting your party.
Ugh, it took me forever this get this. Sun King's have this one, and the encounter rate for them is pretty abysmal. The rune itself, like the Nymph Rune, is mostly just a gimmick, but can have its use with the right setup. When attached, a character can only defend but their defense is doubled. Sounds useless, but the strong point is that your character can still counter. Although you don't have these runes now, if you went with a setup of Wall, Counter, and Firefly; and if the character is a shield user, equips a Mangosh shield, all attacks will be directed at the user with an extremely high chance to counter the enemy if you successfully dodge an attack. Other than that, another rare item to stash away, but this is the only place in the game you can obtain it.
At the end of the cave, the Star Dragon Sword is not happy with Viktor; so you'll have to fight to cool it off. This boss will generally spend its turn attacking a column twice with a physical attack. If you have an Earth Rune bearer, casting Clay Guardian on characters is recommended. Its also got a lightning attack that targets the entire party, but nothing Great Blessing can't counter. When the battle is over, Viktor will wield the Star Dragon Sword once more and we are set to return to Neclord's castle in North Window. The party will automatically exit out the back of the cave, which begs the question, if Viktor knew where he left it, why didn't they just go around to the back?
Neclord's castle isn't a very long dungeon, but has some tricks up its sleeve. Note that this is a one-time dungeon, and you must get all the treasure here now, as you will not have another chance to do so. The first thing to look for, in the first grand hall you encounter, is a chest containing a Stone of Mag-Def amongst the rubble. There are only two of these in the game; don't lose it.
When you reach the area with the statues, its obvious you need to push the misplaced one over the dark tile on the floor to open the door to continue. However, if you push the left-most statue off of its tile, another door will open allowing you to claim a chest containing a Darkness Rune. You can buy this rune later on in the game, but it's the only one you're going to have for a while.
In the area with the torches, simply light the torch in the line that isn't already lit to open the door to continue on. However, like the last room, there is another door. Copy the pattern of the top line of torches to the bottom line to open the other door. The chest inside contains a Blue Ribbon. One of these came equipped on Milie, and while a useless accessory, these are rare and are only five in the entire game.
At the summit of the castle, the party will confront Neclord. Viktor will see through his attempts to manipulate him, but unfortunately, Neclord will escape, but like most villains, will leave a friend behind. The Abomination is yet another fairly simple boss. You only need to look out for his magic attack that hits the entire party. Unite with Riou and Nanami and have Kahn use his Resurrection Rune, which will deal double damage to the boss. If you gave Eilie a Fire Rune, it will deal double damage as well. Use Battle Oath to heal for a chance to berserk Freed or Viktor. Afterwards, if you gave Kahn any accessory items, you should remove them, as when you exit the castle he will leave your party to search for Neclord.
