Arriving back at your Castle from Two River, you will notice that it has expanded, and that means even more Stars of Destiny are now available to recruit. Before that, take a quick trip to the war room to be congratulated on your victory in Two River. The next day, all your characters will be available to use; including Viktor and Flik. You'll want to add Chaco as well as Gengen to your party.
Now that Ridley has joined your group, you will want to get started on his Richmond investigations. While, much later in the game, it is optional whether Ridley dies and is replaced as a Star of Destiny, going this route is the only way to obtain all the character investigations in the game. After he passes, if you did Ridley's investigations, they will stay in the menu and you will be able to investigate the Star of Destiny that replaces him as well. It's actually a shame that Ridley wasn't a playable character. You would think the way he beat Fitcher with that lash, he'd be just as useful as Badeaux with it.
Our first recruit is actually found within the walls of the Castle. Go out to the terrace on the eastern side of the Castle, south of the door you use to exit to play the rope-climbing mini-game, and you will find a man named Hai Yo. He will offer to become your army chef; make absolutely sure you accept and he will join your group. Hai Yo's recruitment, while a very competent character in battle, opens a myriad of new options for your Castle. First, you can now bring Hai Yo all of the recipes that have been cluttering your warehouse; EXCEPT for Recipe #21, leave this in your warehouse. Stated in the last chapter, there are five recipes in the game that you have to give Hai Yo at the same time or it will trigger a serious bug that will prevent you from acquiring all the recipes. I will give you an update each time we acquire said recipes. Second, in addition to recipes, we need to bring Hai Yo ingredients that will expand the type of dishes he can create. These are all found in trading shops. You can find Salt and Mayonnaise in South Window, and then Sugar at the Kobold Village. There are two others, but we won't be able to get them from a while. Once you talk to Hai Yo with these in your inventory, you can just throw them away, if you like.
Third, we can build a custom menu by using the recipes and ingredients of the Castle and you can return to Hai Yo at certain increments of time and he will hand over the restaurant's profits based on the menu you created. To expand the amount of dishes we can offer, we need to recruit some additional characters that will provide for it. You can also buy these dishes as items, themselves, which will usually result in much better healing items than your basic Mega Medicine bundles. Lastly, we have the infamous Iron Chef-style cooking mini-game that will also occur at various increments of time when you return to the kitchen. Every opponent that Hai Yo defeats will gain you a rare recipe, but you need to make sure that you save before every battle, because if Hai Yo loses, you will miss said recipe you would have won. While an extremely fun mini-game, doing too many of these before a certain point can cause you to permanently miss a recipe. I would advise that you stay away from the restaurant as much as possible until later on in the game. Not only because the more characters you recruit, the more can appear as judges in the cook-off, but If Hai Yo defeats an opponent, Lester from the original Suikoden, before you meet a certain character in the game, you will be unable to obtain a recipe. I will cover this more when the time comes. My advice is to only visit the restaurant when your warehouse is full of recipes again.
On the docks of the Castle, you can talk with Yam Koo to engage in a fishing mini-game that will benefit Hai Yo's restaurant. To maximize your options there, you need to catch 3 Shell Fish, White Fish, Shrimp, and Salmon. Salmon are extremely rare, so you will need to be patient with those.
For our next new recruit, head back over to Radat Town and you will find an old friend from the original Suikoden, Stallion, running around near the inn. Talk to him and agree to engage him in a race. If you have run/let go from at least 50 battles, Stallion will join your party. Stallion, again, comes equipped with the True Holy Rune, but it is slightly different in this game. While no longer effecting your normal walking/running speed, with him in your party, you will dash out on the world map and will have a 100% chance to escape a battle. Stallion is also the ideal candidate for the Spark Rune. However, having only one free rune slot, this will severely handicap him during battles. Also, Stallion is only rivaled by Luc and Meg in affinity to wind magic, which, in my opinion, makes a Wind Rune a more viable option than the Spark Rune.
We need to sail back to Lakewest to continue with our recruits. Shilo, the a-hole at the inn from before, will join your party if you can win 5000 potch from him in Chinchirorin. Like with Tai Ho, this will require at least two wins, since you can only bet a maximum of 3000 at a time. If you a lose a game, simply exit the game and talk to Shilo again to reset the potch counter. When you've won, he will join your party and open a Chinchirorin hall at your Castle. With the maximum bet being only 3000, this is not nearly the potch maker that it was in the original Suikoden, so I wouldn't bother too much with it. Note that Shilo comes with your second Poison Rune attached to his weapon that you can move over to another character, if you'd like. You will also see two characters on the right-side of the inn. We will come back for them shortly as their quest is a bit lengthy.
Next, with Chaco in our party, we'll need to go back down into the Two Rivers Sewers again. A couple of screens into the dungeon, after descending a ladder, you will vaguely see a path that runs under a waterfall to the left. Walk under it and into the room beyond to find Sid. If Chaco is in your party, Sid will scare the crap out of him, and then much to his dismay, join your party. Sid comes with a useless, but rare rune attached to him: the Waking Rune. You can get this as a rare drop much later on, but I would suggest removing it from him and stashing it in the warehouse.
With Gengen in tow, visit the first house on the right in the kobold district. We will meet Gabocha, who wants to join the group, but Gengen will forbid it. Thankfully, when we leave, without notice, Gabocha will sneak off after us to join the party.
Exit from the kobold district and out to the world map near Greenhill. Note that we have new monster encounters here, but I won't be covering them until the next chapter. For now, visit the Muse-Greenhill Border to find Meg, another old friend, and Gadget. Watch the scenes as they attempt to pass through the checkpoint and afterwards they will both join your party. Our next destination is a new town, far to the east of the checkpoint, Forest Village. When you enter the village, if you have Clive in your party, and are under the 13 hour mark, you will see the next scene involving Clive and Elza. You will find "Elza" in a clearing to the north of the village and will get your next destination for the side quest: Matilda.
At the trading post, talk with the old man here to pick up the Old Book Vol. 6.
The armor shop, for whatever reason, doesn't open until the next chapter, but we can recruit Wakaba outside it. If Riou is at least level 30, she will join your party. Wakaba comes equipped with a rare Skill Ring, which is Tech+20, that you can plunder to another character. You won't be able to get these until much later in the game. If you are using a Warrior Rune build, a Skill Ring is highly recommended to increase their chance of evading physical attacks.
Tony, inside the Elder's house, will also join your army if you ask him to grow a garden at your Castle.
After Tony joins, talk to the Elder again to receive a Spinach Seedling from him. Now, about Tony's garden at the Castle, you will take him the various seedling items you have, and will acquire, and he will grow them in his garden; this will expand the options at Hai Yo's restaurant. A very important thing to note is, due to a bug, only give Tony ONE seedling at a time. I know it's a pain to have to run back to the warehouse every time, but if you don't, only one of the seedlings you give him will show up in the garden and the others will not.
Ugh, also involving Tony, is the ever-frustrating Whack-A-Mole mini-game you can play by talking with him. I loathe this. Thankfully, you only really ever need to win the beginner and normal modes. For normal, you will win the Mole Helmet, which is mediocre at best, but the only place you can acquire this helmet. However, for normal mode, you will acquire the Mole Shield, one of the best shields in the game. While its defense is lacking, it provides the same effect as the Water Amulet: a 5% chance to null magic attacks. You can't find this shield anywhere but this mini-game. As for hard, you will win the Mole Suit, and while a good piece of armor at the moment, it will be lackluster near the end of the game. Note, there is a limit of only 3 of the items you can get from each mode. I also want to thank Konami for putting the Mole Suit in a treasure chest later on so we don't have to win hard mode to get one of these. Another, even bigger, thanks to Konami for having no reason whatsoever to play ultimate mode. You get absolutely nothing for it; the only goal is to try to beat your best score. I hate these moles.
With that out of the way, we can head back over to the Lakewest inn, where we got Shilo, and talk to Hix and Tenaar; returning characters from the original Suikoden. Note, if you have Viktor and Flik in your party, you will get special dialogue with them. Hix is on his Warrior's Village journey of manhood and they are on their way to the Kobold Village. When they exit, follow them there and into the Chief's house. You will stay the night and the next morning it is revealed that Tengaar has "fallen" under the dreaded curse of the unicorn. The Chief, barely, explains we need to obtain three different items and take them into the Unicorn Forest to break the curse. Riou will, of course, get dragged into this.
The first item, the generic Blue Stone, can conventionally be found at the item shop in South Window. When you arrive there, a kobold is curiously seen leaving. Just a coincidence, though. Hix will buy the Stone from an equally confused clerk and you can return to the Kobold Village.
We find our next item, the Red Flower, is hidden away in the Cave of the Wind, and by hidden, I mean right at the entrance. Another kobold is seen exiting the cave, but in fairness, you can farm Wind Hats here, so you can give the benefit of the doubt. Take the Red Flower back to the Chief.
The Green Bell item is located down in the Two Rivers sewer; guarded by a boss, I would assume. Proceed through and you will eventually see a kobold blatantly drop the Green Bell on the ground, which Hix will go and recover. Why must they always foreshadow these things? I was trying to buy into this. Anyway, when you return to the Chief's house, Tengaar is gone and said to be waiting inside with the unicorn. The Chief will remove the barrier to the Forest and we are on to our next dungeon. Before you enter, there is something very important to note, DO NOT open ANY treasure chests in this area; NONE. Due to a bug, we have to acquire another item in the Forest first, before we can open the chests. Unfortunately, it will be a little bit later in the game before we can do this, but for now, ignore the chests or you will permanently miss a Castle item.
In the Unicorn Forest, the Eagle Man has two rare drops for us to obtain. The first being Recipe #12. This is another one of the five bugged recipes in the game and should be stored in your warehouse until you have all five. Do this as soon as possible as to not make the mistake of accidentally giving it to Hai Yo.
The other item is the Double-strike Rune. While you will find one in a chest much later on in the game, the Eagle Man is the only place you can acquire more. When you attach this rune to a character, they will deal 50% more damage with their physical attacks, but will also take 50% more damage from physical attacks. This sounds bad, but if used with characters that can equip both helmets and heavy armor; even better with a shield, this is an excellent choice and should be chosen over the Warrior Rune. The Mirage enemy in this area can also drop Fire Emblems, if you'd like to pick up more, but like stated earlier, this accessory will soon be available in shops.
When you arrive at the end of the Forest, you will find Tengaar, the Chief, and his errand runners waiting. Apparently, this was all a ruse. However, the unicorn will appear and challenge Hix for Tengaar. Hix will stand his ground and the unicorn will accept Hix as a true warrior. Watch the scenes afterwards and Hix and Tengaar will join your party and head off to the Castle. One minor note, Tengaar comes equipped with the third of five Blue Ribbon accessories in the game. For the next set of characters, we're going to need Stallion and only Stallion in your party. He is not required, but will make things a lot easier.
If you recruited Mukumuku way back in Kyaro, we can now get his fellow flying squirrel buddies to join too. If you don't have Mukumuku, you will need to apply the next steps but traveling the road between Greenhill and the Greenhill-Muse Border instead. Note, other than Mukumuku, the rest of the flying squirrels are not Stars of Destiny and rather just extra playable characters. They are, however, worth recruiting to raise the attack power of the Friendship Rune. We're going to be traveling the world map between places; that is where Stallion comes into play. Not only can you speed through the locations, but his True Holy Rune grants a 100% escape chance from battles. To find the first squirrel, Makumaku, exit from Two River and follow the road up and into Greenhill; then back again. Each time you pass through after exiting an area grants a chance for the squirrel to show up in your party. If you watch closely, Riou's running will seem to skip a beat when the squirrel has entered your party. Keep watching for that skip or checking your party status.
The next squirrel is Mikumiku. Follow the same formula as above, but go between Greenhill and the Forest Village.
Mekumeku is up next. His location is the road between Greenhill and the Path to Matilda.
Mokumoku is a little bit harder to procure . You will need to run around in the area of the world map shown in the first picture. The exact spot where I am standing is where Mokumoku joined my party. Make sure that after you have done a couple of laps in this area, you return to a town, and then return to try again. The most important thing to recruiting all of the squirrels is to keep leaving the world map each time you make a lap of the area. It took me around 20 minutes to catch all five.
You should now have all the flying squirrels in the game. Each one has an affinity to an elemental rune, but other than Makumaku's good magic stat and the Water Rune, their use of a rune is debatable as their spells backfiring and hurting your party is a common occurrence.
One final note about the squirrels, when all five are in your party, they can use a special unite attack. It will instantly kill any normal enemy, but here is the kicker, it will actually work on bosses, but at an extremely rare occurrence. If you've played Final Fantasy VIII, think of it as trying to land Selphie's "The End" limit break on her slots. That's all for the recruits, for now. Head back to the war room at your Castle to continue with the story.
