The next part of our journey takes us to Yorkland and the first part of the Arcane magic gift quest. From the skyport, due-west is the brewery part of town. Enter the first building on your left and talk to the man inside about the Grail Card. From there, work your way around the area, clockwise, entering all the buildings and sampling Yorkland's finest liquor. With all the samples in your system, return back to the port and exit northwest and into the Swamp, however, some preparations are needed to survive here.
You'll quickly notice that your character is moving erratically from all of the ingested liquor and the beady eyes peering at you are not friendly: at all. Even mid-way through the game, getting close to these eyes produces a battle with an extremely dangerous Kraken. Thankfully, with Zozma in our party, and the right abilities, this is fairly effortless. Put Zozma with SharpPain in your party, Rouge, or a character that has purchased it, with Realm-type's Implosion spell, any swordsman that has the DeadEnd ability, the Asura sword (If available), or the Time-based TimeEclipse. Less attractive, due to no battle spoils, but still usable, is Kylin with Vanish or having been purchased for another character.
Without Zozma, you're undoubtedly going to need water resistance to survive the Kraken's Maelstrom attack it always uses on the first turn. Equip BlueElf armor, PearlHeart accessories, or a GenbuShield for this; Mesarthim is immune with MellowRing and default forms of Sei and Kylin are, also. Monsters with MagicHeal and LifeRain are handy, too.
Even with the right setups, each battle is met with randomness when your party is hit with the Drunk affliction at the start of battle. Drunk ignores ALL status resistances and they are assigned
at random (Except for mecs who are immune to the Drunk effects). This is a nice spot to use Kylin's Vortex spell to cancel out all effects, but the best thing to do is just reload your game if your party is heavily impaired. When the circumstances are in your favor, the Kraken will be left helpless by Zozma casting SharpPain at the beginning of each turn to stun him. Your other characters can then focus instant-death spells/attacks, talked about above, to take him and his large amount of HP out quickly.
With the right path through the Swamp, you only realistically need to fight two Krakens, however. It is possible to make it through with zero fights, but highly improbable. From the start, work your way to the right, across the plank into the spot shown in the screenshot above. Fight the two Krakens to the upper-left of your character. Following through where those two eyes were, they should be the only encounters between you and the Grail shrine directly to the north unless things go wrong. Just try to stay in the center of the pathway, away from the edges of the eyes and it should be a straight-shot to the shrine.
Inside the shrine, stand between the pillars and the Grail Card will be bestowed upon you. The Drunk effects are gone, also, making battles normal again. You're likely going to want to spend some time fighting in the Swamp now, too.
Being able to handle Krakens easily, they become an excellent option for gaining statistics for your characters and have the highest ability spark rate of regularly-encounterable monsters in the entire game (Tied with a few other level 9 encounters). Each battle nets you a cool 244 Credits, also. Besides all this, they drop a very useful accessory: the SeaStone. It grants the bearer complete water resistance, +7 to Psychic/Vitality, and +23 to heat, cold, force, and ailment resistances. It barely provides and physical or electric resistance at +3, however. Given to a Mystic (Or Asellus equipped with MysticBoots/Glove), they can use SeaStone to cast Maelstrom and WaterCannon as a bonus.
To get the Gold Cart in Baccarat, we need to have 4 GoldIngots in our inventory. You can easily do this by exploiting the GoldIngot exchange in Koorong and Nelson (For that, see the Prologue), but it's more ethical to pick up freebies from the respawnable chests in Mu's Tomb we have talked about several times already. As a refresher: psychic readings in Devin are tied to the two chests appearance. Check with the skeleton "weather" psychic in the center of town to determine which readings are being presently given; these are shuffled by entering/exiting Devin's skyport. If rain, enter the giant-type, palm-reader to the north of town and he'll give the you the fortune of "hamster"; this will
respawn the small chest. For the large chest to respawn,
look for "hail" weather and visit the plant psychic on the
northeastern-end of town and have it draw the "blue violet" fortune.
GoldIngots are treasure for both chests and the contents are fixed based on the encounter fought when opening them. At later ranks, each time you encounter the RockScout monster from the small chest it will amount to a GoldIngot. For the large chest, the giant-type Ettin monster nets you either a GoldIngot or a Magihat. You can respawn these chests infinitely until you have the 4 GoldIngots needed for the Gold Card; no more, no less.
Note: RockScouts drop the LivingArmor item. You should have picked up one from the encounter back at the Trinity Base, but if not, this is the best place to find them.
Since we're at a high battle rank, I'm going to go ahead and cover the other great items that can be found by opening these two unique chests. First, you can find the artifact-type Mimic creatures in both chests. They drop the best katana in the game: SilverMoon, and is not as uncommon you might expect. It has an incredible +69 attack and if given to a mec, it bolsters their statistics by +200 HP and +25 Strength/Quickness. Outside the Asura and ultra-rare DragonSword, it has the highest attack power of any sword in Emelia's scenario.
From the small chests, artifact-type LivingMirrors have a one-of-a-kind monster ability: PsyReflecter. This unique ability provides a chance for the monster to reflect a single-target magic spell (Like SunRay) back at the caster, but since these are generally not as harmful as ones that target the entire party, PsyReflecter isn't as usefuul as it could be. Still, the LivingMirror is the only enemy in the game that has it for your monster's prime HP.
An infrequent encounter from the small chests pits you against three Snowfolks and is the hardest battle in either chest (And one of the hardest non-bosses in the game). I recommend not bothering with it, but if you win, you get a HarmoniumArmor from the chest, but one is available as a treasure later, so it's only worth it if you want multiple. To have a shot at winning, you need force defense and shields to stave off potentially multiple Windblasts. Electro/WarLordArmor, HarmoniumBangles, SeaStones, and WindShells are good for this. LifeRain on a monster is invaluable, as well. Zozma can, potentially, stun them with SharpPain to cancel their turns, but it is not certain like a lot of monsters. The most important thing is not activating the Snowfolk's IceBarrier counter by using only long-range attacks like guns, Gale/WheelSlash, and magic. Without adequate force protection, more than one Snowfolk casting Windblast will likely be the end of you, but outside of that and avoiding the IceBarrier, this is actually easier than getting their monster form!
The rarest encounter from the small chest is a trio not likely to be seen outside of Red's game: the PlatyKing and two Platyhooks. Compared to the three Snowfolks, they are a total joke. Besides their rarity, the only worthwhile note is the Platyhooks hold an extremely rare, but lackluster monster ability: BoomerangHook. Thankfully, this ability is already added to every monster's prime HP, so you don't need to bother with absorbing it unless you just want it for the rarity or the decent Platyhooks form.
Defeat of the PlatyKing rewards you with DanceShoes. They're not bad: +4 physical/ailment defenses and +14 for heat, cold, electric, and force. Equipped, you can use MysteryTap that attempts to cause various levels of "mess" to enemies with no damage.
Onto the large chest, the Ettin has two rare items for us to plunder. A rather crummy, but slightly rare FeatherCharm accessory is first. It gives you a +5 Charisma along with +11 to pierce, force, and ailment, but only a +1 to other defenses. Yawn.
The rarer SH-Anklet is much better! Arguably the best footwear in the game, defense is +10 all-around, but drops your electric resistance by 10, which needs to be compensated for by another piece of equipment like a KrisKnife/WindShell accessory, Magihat, or even better, the HarmoniumBangle. The Anklet gives a solid +150 HP and +20 Quickness/Vitality to mecs, also. You can grab the very useful Scream monster ability from the Ettin, too, while you're here, but it's a bit rare. Also, you can absorb the Ettin into a Mystic's weapon for a +20 Strength/Intelligence boost, which is decent, but when placed into the Sword, it grants the very powerful GriffithScratch ability. Ettins can be frequently found in a dungeon in the next chapter if you prefer a place that doesn't require resetting the chests.
The rare, big boss of the large chest is the MecGod. Unlike the major boss in T260's game who has some very devastating attacks, the MecGod here seems to have had some of its circuits fried because all this one does is normally attack you. It does still have a massive amount of HP, however, so be prepared for a long fight. Throw up GlassShields for some extra damage when he swipes at you, if you want.
MecGod is the only enemy mecs can download the TigerProgram to their memory from. You need an OctopusBoard to activate it, however, but we'll pick one of those up very soon.
The MecGod encounter allows you to plunder the rare HG-Cannon weapon; one of the best mec weapons in the game. With a power of 60, it shoots a mec's stats up by +250 HP and +30 Quickness/Will. The HG-Cannon can be combined with the Magnify ability for massive damage, as well. In addition, you can take the Cannon to the Junk Shop in Scrap and flip it for a whopping 6000 Credits! Although taking into account how rare the MecGod fight is to get from the chest, it's questionable how good a moneymaker this actually is.
Note: Check your inventory, and if you have more than 4 GoldIngots from your farming, take them to Koorong and pawn the excess off at the exchange.
Baccarat is the location for the Gold Card, and since we've already been there for a portion of Emelia's story, the entrance to the Gnome Cave is already open for us. Use the elevator to go down to the parking level and slide down the manhole back into the Gnome Cave. As before, the dungeon is completely void of treasures or anything worthy of note, but monsters plentiful. From the ladder, hug the left-side of the path and you'll pass under the
rocky platform to the other end, then you can continue left and exit to
the southwest. Immediately upon exiting, before the plant monster, exit
to your left which is cleverly hidden. Climb down the ladder, pivot
around the mystic monster, and enter the opening to the north to find the gnomes loitering about their plunder from the topside casino. Talk to the stationary gnome on the right-side of the table and he'll agree to trade the Gold Card for, you guessed it, an unspecified amount of gold. If you have 4 GoldIngots in your inventory, talk to him again and you'll obtain the Gold Card; anymore than 4 and he'll take every single one from your inventory! I tried to warn ya!
Note: Our next stop is Wakatu for the Saber Card. If Gen is in your party, to obtain a unique weapon, be sure that he has, at least, 70 max WP.
From Koorong, leave for Wakatu via the skyport. With Gen in tow, the attendants will allow for free passage to the ghastly visage of what was once a proud village that has long since been eradicated by Trinity. The skeleton will ferry you across the river and you can enter the village at the top of the stairs through the large gates amidst the wandering eyes of disembodied ninja. These ninja will come out of the walls and attack your party as you explore the ruins, resulting in battles with undead-type enemies. If you move quickly, avoiding staying near the walls , you can generally evade these battles, if you like.
Gen will lead you in the direction of the Saber Chamber, but you'll need to take a few detours for treasure, of course. After entering the village gates, exit left; to the north takes you to a deadend we will come back through later, so take the passage to the upper-right. Climbing the steps, further east is a broken road, so exit north. The house is destroyed and desolate, save for a slime monster and staircase you cannot yet reach, so use the lower-right exit outside that Gen points you towards. The next linear corridor leads you further east through two screens. Gen steers you south, but instead, head north and follow the path west, jumping across a broken set of stairs, to find yourself at a three-way fork in the road. Further south takes you inside the dilapidated house, but on the opposite end, allowing you to descend the stairs into the basement.
The house's basement holds the Blade Chamber, as Gen introduces it. If Gen has a maximum WP of 70, another event will occur where he is bestowed upon the CometBlade katana; the second-best in the game behind the SilverMoon. With an attack of 55, it also grants the use of a powerful, all-encompassing, heat-based ability called MillionDollers. For mecs, the CometBlade gives an exceptional +250 HP and +25 Strength/Quickness, which is actually +50 more HP than the SilverMoon, at the expense of losing attack power.
Note: Normally, there is only one CometBlade in the entire game, but you can actually use an exploit to get up to 8 in your inventory. If you give the CometBlade to Rouge, or Fuse if the Shield Card quest is still available, and dump them from your group (Rouge by traveling to the Magic Kingdom and Fuse by losing to the Suzaku boss during the Shield Card quest), you can come back to the Blade Chamber and obtain another CometBlade since the game checks your inventory for the weapon and doesn't find it because the character it is equipped to is not currently in your party. You can keep doing this until both Rouge/Fuse's weapon slots are filled with CometBlades. Even with MillionDollers, the SilverMoon is still the superior weapon at a +14 attack advantage, in my opinion.
Return back to the 4-way and this time head to your left and exit to the southwest; there's a treasure sitting here with the Iron Clogs footwear. This interesting piece provides a +8 defense across the board, except none at all for electric, and contains a bonus to +10 to Vitality, also. It's inferior to the SH-Anklet for mecs, with only a +100 HP and +20 to vitality for them. Its uniqueness comes from the innate IronclogShot ability it comes with, which is a moderately powerful attack and costs 0 WP to use.
Jump across the center of the destroyed road and follow the path to return to the long stretch just past the village gates. Proceed east again and retrace your steps back to the area past the ruined house where Gen attempted to lead you south; this time, follow him and exit to the lower-left. Here, navigate again to the lower-left, moving down another set of steps, to a screen with a treasure chest sitting on the edge of a crevice in the road.
Attempting to get near the chest causes a ninja to materialize and rush the party. This encounter is unique, however, because it is fixed against three Ghost enemies which are very hard to find at mid-late battle ranks and hold a special monster ability and drop.
The HP-draining GhostTouch ability is exclusive to the Ghost monster. Not particularly useful compared to others like it, but make sure to pick this up to add to the prime HP of your monsters since you will not find it anywhere else.
The DarkRobe armor is a common drop by the Ghosts, as well, if you chose not to visit Omble or to purchase it there. It has terrible defense except for pierce,
force, and status ailments, but those are only +26. It does have +5
to Psychic and protection against blind, though. You can repeat the battle with the three Ghosts by simply reentering the screen.
The Ghosts are guarding the Twin Dragon katana in the treasure chest. Fairly rare, with only being able to be dropped by rank 7 SickleBugs, besides this one, it has an attack of 41. Mecs benefit to a +90 HP and +18 to Strength/Quickness. Otherwise, not much else to note, but better than the best buyable katana, the uh, Katana.
Head back two screens, to the narrow passage you previously exited to the lower-left. There is an awning to the middle-left you can pass under to enter the pagoda holding the Saber Chamber at its apex. Inside, the stairs are to the northeast, past the shoji doors, but prepared to be ambushed by undead. On the second floor, for whatever reason, you can move out onto the rooftops, but there's absolutely no reason to do so, instead wrap around the room to the northeast, again, and use the hard-to-see stairs. Rush past the skeletons in the barren room and climb the last set of stairs to reach the Saber Chamber.
Gen will give you some rather vague instructions on how to obtain the Saber Card. You need to hit the circle button just before the sword clashing sound to align the three swords together, however, Gen's constant text boxes make this rather annoying. If a monster shadow is amongst the trio you draw, you'll have to battle with beast-type monsters. It takes some practice, but success nets you the Saber Card, but you'll still have to work your way back out of Wakatu. The final Card is at the Mosperiburg Mountain accessed from the IRPO office. As mentioned before, it has some challenging optional bosses, so make sure you rest at an inn and come prepared.
If you already came here to steal Fuse's HandBlaster, you'll be sent back to the Mountain after talking to the IRPO receptionist, otherwise, Fuse will give his speech about having to put in some work for the Shield Card and join you. The very first screen of the dungeon is vital: the single fairy (female mystic) floating around is the key to facing an optional boss and/or recruiting a monster-type character. Go ahead and defeat it now and I'll talk about the implications further on in the dungeon. Entering the second screen, there is a cave just up the path where two dragons are waiting to ambush you amongst their treasure. Before entering, equip the SandVessel or any EMES Tag accessories you have to prevent being turned to stone and your best shields (Excel/Genbu). A character should come with the Shield spell and others with either the Backpack w/healing items or the StarlightHeal spell or a monster/Mesarthim with LifeRain; GlassShield is also a solid choice to bring.
Before the battle starts, spread your characters out using the triangle button to create some space between them to try to avoid multiple characters from being caught in their area-of-effect attacks. The RedDragon is your run-of-the-mill enemy, but the Black one is a special boss-type with a lot more HP! Any Mystic, or human that purchased it, should cast GlassShield on the first round to null/counter the BlackDragon's physical attacks along with the Arcane-based Shield. You should focus your attacks on the RedDragon first to quickly eliminate it from picking off any potentially weakened characters. The worst from the BlackDragon is StoneGas that causes heavy damage and petrifies characters in its vicinity. Hopefully you equipped the SandVessel or EMES Tag to prevent the petrifaction. Secondly, DeathGrip can instantly kill a character, but a placed GlassShield will counter this and cause heavy damage to it in return. If you're really having an issue with DeathGrip, you could consider equipping the StardustRobe or BloodChalice accessory to prevent faint, but you will take considerably more damage from StoneGas. DeathGrip can can be Deflected as well (LightSword for any mages). LifeRain in an emergency and string together as many combos as you can to gain access to the behemoth's treasure store.
Note: If you're crazy about obtaining multiple of every item, BlackDragons are the only enemy outside of Blue's game that drop DragonShields and this cave is the only guaranteed battle with one; although the high HP of the BlackDragon makes this a bit unreasonable for farming, in my opinion. Otherwise, there is a DragonShield in a chest later on. While one of the best, it is not the best shield in the game, so don't feel like you need more than one.
The dragon cavern is full of goodies. First is the one-of-a-kind Lordstar sword. It's a bit underwhelming in terms of power compared to some others we have come across recently, at 51, but its true value lies in its Braveheart ability. This ability works very much like the VictoryRune, raising weapon power, never wearing off or decaying, and the increase is determined by the number of active party members making it far more effective than VictoryRune with no 0-LP characters. It cannot stack with VictoryRune, though. Lordstar makes for an excellent secondary weapon (Since it buffers every equipped weapon) for this ability alone. The Lordstar makes a phenomenal weapon for mecs, also, providing them a +200 HP and +20 to Strength, Quickness, and Will, but Braveheart allows them to buffer their already overpowered weapons without having access to VictoryRune.
Speaking of mecs, their OctopusBoard is here, as well. Non-HP stat wise, the best board a mec can equip, boasting a +25 to Strength, Quickness, and Will along with a +30 to Intelligence. If you picked up the TigerProgram from MecGod earlier in the chapter, equipping the OctopusBoard is a requirement to use the powerful, physical TigerRampage in battle. It is the only one to be found in Emelia's game, also.
Next, is the GoldenFleece armor. This rare piece is arguably the second, or third, best non-suit armor in the game along with the WarLordArmor you can purchase. It provides a +28 to all physical defenses, +38 to elements, and +43 to status effects along with protecting the bearer from sleep and paralysis. Mecs get a +50 HP and +10 to Psychic and Charm. Additional items in the cave are a KrisKnife accessory, SanctuaryStone, and 1000 Credits.
Back outside the cave, continue onward and into the cave along the path to the right. Inside, as you proceed through the narrow passage, a slime tries to ambush you, but if you run and hug the wall to the right-side, you can evade them which is important to remember since you'll likely need to pass through here multiple times. The exit to the upper-right contains what looks like a fire bird encased in ice, so instead leave to the upper-left and out to the ice-covered slopes once again.
This circular area, overrun with beasts, is where the fairy from the first screen comes into play. Here, it is possible to engage in two special battles; both of which are mandated by said fairy. It works a lot like the fortunes in Devin: when the fairy is defeated, it randomly determines if one, both, or none of the battles are spawned is this area; which are represented by a snowman sprite. To save from your battle rank climbing higher, it's recommended you save before fighting the fairy, then heading back to clearing to see if the snowmen have spawned, and reloading if not. Unfortunately, this will take some time.
Only one of these snowmen is desirable, however: the one that appears in the lower-portion of the screen. The one that shows up to your left is a battle with three Snowfolk; the same one you can engage with from the small treasure chest in Mu's Tomb, but unlike there, you won't get any reward here. The other Frosty is a difficult boss: Jotnar. If you aren't interested in recruiting a monster-type character or a powerful Mystic absorb only available here, there's nothing lost by skipping over the battle.
Fighting Jotnar is very similar to the three Snowfolk battle we talked about earlier in the chapter, but perhaps a bit more forgiving since there are three of them. Your setup will need to be almost identical: force defense. Jotnar will frequently assault the party with Windblast, which can easily bring your entire party to their knees. The GoldenFleece, Electro or WarLordArmor, HarmoniumBangles, SeaStones, and WindShells are recommended equipment. A GenbuShield or PearlHeart accessory (If not using a SeaStone) to protect against water are solid choices, too. Like always, LifeRain and Shield are invaluable to bring. If you just want to win the battle quick, and not interested in absorbing him with one of your Mystics, Jotnar is susceptible to certain instant-death attacks. So, you can attempt to take him out instantly with Zozma's Deathcurse or the time-based TimeEclipse. Others like Implosion, Vanish, DeadEnd, and the Asura will not work.
Jotnar is surrounded by an IceBarrier, so it's inadvisable to use anything other than long-range attacks or you'll be countered. A gunner with Twogun and BoundShot is a solid choice and any sword users can use abilities like NoMoment, TripleThrust, TurbidCurrent, or RosarioImpale which will not be countered. You can attempt to cast SharpPain with Zozma each turn, but it tends to miss more often than not, but is still an option. Besides the devastating Windblast, Jotnar will shoot out WaterCannon multiple times in one turn which can be nullified with the previously-mentioned equipment. ArcticBreath can present an area-of-effect problem, while the rest of his attacks are physical and can be blocked or Deflected. Make sure to cast Shield and use your newly-found Lordstar's Braveheart to give a power boost to one character (It does not increase the power of Mystic weapons used to absorb, unfortunately) while keeping LifeRain ready after Windblast is used.
The hardest part of this battle is surely absorbing Jotnar into one of your Mystic's weapons. Its HP is high, and very hard to determine an exact amount due to being tied to either your main character's growth or the battle rank. I counted off 55,000 HP before I started trying to absorb him, myself. If you can pull this off, however, it bolsters your stats by +30 Intelligence, Will, and Psychic! There is no other enemy in the game that provides such an increase, but the Suzaku monster gives a +20 across the board to all stats (Except Charisma), so one could argue it is a better absorb overall (And has better abilities). I would recommend absorbing into the Boots, which offers the TitasWave ability, if you decide upon Jotnar. IceSmash for the Gloves is decent, also. You need to decide now, though, because you can never fight Jotnar again once you grab the Shield Card and return back to IRPO. You can, however, repeat the Jotnar battle as many times as you want now by fighting the fairy and getting its snowman to reappear.
Upon Jotnar's defeat, the fire bird in the beforehand cavern has been released from their icy prison and will literally fly its way into your party. Welcome, Suzaku! If you want to keep Suzaku, but not Fuse, simply reach the summit
and lose to the Suzaku boss, then fill Fuse's roster spot with another
character before returning.
While not technically a unique form, and can be assumed by any monster, the innate SuzakuJr form that joins you has special statistics and equipment that will change once they switch forms. The next time it becomes a SuzakuJr again it will have the normal monster form's stats and equipment. The special stats are seen in the screenshot above, for those curious, and are a little bit higher than the basic Suzaku form.
Note: The Mosperiburg Mountain is a one-time dungeon: once you receive the Shield Card, you can never return here. Keep this in mind if you are wanting to farm Jotnar for your Mystics or the Dragons. When you're ready to complete the dungeon, head north from the snowman clearing and search the plot of flowers at the mountain's fiery summit.
A not-so-friendly Suzaku descends from the sky to prevent the group's objective. If you beat Jotnar, the Suzaku is a pushover. In fact, any-and-all instant-death attacks will work. That doesn't mean you should take it lightly, however, since it can still pack a wallop if you don't kill it quickly. It's got Heatwave, which is just as dangerous as Windblast, and a FireBarrier protecting it so long-range attacks are best. Set up Shield and combo away since it lacks the massive HP that Jotnar had. SharpPain can keep it stunned if the damage starts to add up and you need a break to heal. Victory over a Suzaku always grants you a FireLeather armor, which you can pawn off in Koorong for a nice 300 Credits! It provides a solid +48 defense against heat, but the rest of the FireLeather's defenses are just a paltry +16. Mec's get a +40 to HP and +8 to vitality.
Objective achieved, Fuse hands over the Shield Card and you now have the gift for Arcane magic! The following new Arcane spells can now be learned for those with the gift:
- Death: Attempts to instantly kill every enemy on screen, but caster loses a life point for each one it fails to kill. I would not attempt this against more than one!
- Magician: Almost identical to Mystic-type's MirrorShade spell. It creates an illusion amongst your group and if is targeted by an enemy's physical attack, unlike MirrorShade, Magician counters with instant-death on them.
- Fool: This has an obscure use that modifies the battlefield, but its effects are so niche and useless in 99% of battles, it's not worth talking about. Trust me. I can't even come up with one battle it would be more useful than another ability. However, if you equip the Fool spell and the SilverSpread sword, the SilverFang ability becomes available. It's exactly the same as DirtyFang, nulling enemy HP regeneration, just a...silver color.
- Tower: Depletes the character's entire stock of JP for one massively damaging attack. Probably best utilized with the OverDrive trick, but not a bad idea to equip this to a sword/gun/martial character that primarily uses WP and can cast Tower to get some use out of the JP they may not use.
Now that we have all of the magic gifts in our possession, let's take a break and talk about what battle rank 8 offers us. As mentioned before, the game will frequently switch between ranks 7-9 once you reach the maximum rank of 9, so there is never any danger of missing out on anything contained in those three ranks.
To start, we should look for beast-type monsters. You can find these in Wakatu, the Natural Cavern, and the depths of the Gnome Cave in Baccarat. The rank 8 Butch carries the StunNeedle item, as do several other monsters, but this is the easiest to farm late into the game. A fairly useless item you probably already have a few of, the StunNeedle causes some damage and attempts to stun. You can only find it via enemy drop.
Another item you likely have many of, the BoneBreast armor, is also easiest to get at rank 8. Bear with me, this is only for completionist sake. The undead Skullasaurus are guaranteed to drop one unless you obtain a rarer item. Its stats are barely better than starting armor: at +13 slash, blunt, cold, and electric, with a +1 pierce, +5 to force and status, and makes you weak against heat. For mecs, it's got a +25 to HP and +5 to Vitality. Skullasaurus will also sometimes drop EMES Tags, but they are somewhat easier to get from the PrimaBronza guaranteed battles in TimeLord's Region.
For Emelia's game, our next item isn't necessary unless you want more than one or failed to recruit Asellus: the ShadeRobe. The plant-type Shriekers hold it as a drop at rank 8. I covered it back in
Chapter 3 during Asellus' recruitment if you want to learn more about it. For other main characters, this location is invaluable for obtaining the ShadeRobe as its only other option is for buying it with your LP in Facinaturu!
Depending on your choice of dungeon in Luminous, you may, or may not, have the next item: the MoonlightRobe. If you braved the Luminous Labyrinth, you should already have one. For those that went to the shade-filled Omble, it is only available by monster drop. The female mystic-type (Fairy sprite) Lamias carry it. To learn more about the armor, head back to the Luminous Labyrinth section of
Chapter 5. The Lamia can also be used to learn four different dodge abilities: DeathGrip, Tail, Seduction, and Drain.
The next items are for those that want to save quite a bit of Credits. The rank 8 mec, Skylab, holds both the GrainCannon and fantastic HyperBlaster weapons for drop: and they are not as uncommon as you might expect their drop to it. Both items are for sale, at several thousand Credits, as outlined in the Koorong backstreet section of
Chapter 4, if you don't want to waste the time farming for them.
Now, for some actual new items. We'll be hunting male mystic-types now. They're prevalent in Wakatu and the Lord Manor basement in Owmi. The rank 8 WereRhino drops the fairly rare suit armor, GolemSuit. Most useful for mecs, it provides a massive +200 HP and +30 Strength boost; the highest Strength boost of any armor in the game and tied with the equally impressive, but ultra-rare, SprigganSuit in HP. Unfortunately, despite the large statistical boosts, it has only a +25 defense across all elements, which is extremely lacking compared to the buyable PoweredSuit that has +50 defense against most and +30 to others. Personally, I would continue to use the PoweredSuit with its defense and respectable +100 HP and +20 Strength and Quickness, and disregard it entirely for humans. You won't find GolemSuits anywhere outside enemy drop, though. WereRhinos will also frequently drop, arguably, best armgear in the game, the SH-Armlet, but you can farm it best from guaranteed fights in the TimeLord's Region.
The final item you will need to dig your heels in for as you'll likely be in for a long grind. The electrified, slime-type Gelatin is the target. The Koorong sewers and Mu's Tomb where the large/small treasure chests spawn are ideal locations to farm. You'll always get a BoltCrystal for their defeat, but you have a ridiculously low chance of getting the ThunderCharm accessory otherwise and it is the only place, and monster, that holds it. For being so incredibly difficult to get, it is only a situation accessory with a +100 electric defense. This number isn't as effective as you would expect it to be, however.
Note: A few other mentions about rank 8 that may interest players. The human-type Shamans can drop the Psychic-boosting SilverSpread swords which are awesome for Mystics and mages and you may have already picked up a few from Gremlins. These can be more easily farmed in TimeLord's Region, however, from the StraySheep guaranteed battle. Also, the CrimeLady, that tends to show up with bird-types at rank 7 and 8, can drop SplashSwords. In my opinion, if you didn't get a SplashSword at rank 6, you're much more likely to get one from a Gremlin that show up in a multitude of different types of battles even at late ranks, but the CrimeLady is an option, just to note.
Lastly, I have my recommendations for Mystic weapons and abilities at rank 8. Weapon type absorb, for the ability, is in parenthesis:
- Butch (Beast): +20 Quickness, Intelligence, Will (Boots)
- Shrieker (Plant): +25 Quickness, Will (All are great!)
- Mimic (Artifact): +25 Quickness, Will (Boots)
- Basilisk (Aquatic): +25 Strength, Will (Glove/Boots)
- Sphinx (Bird): +40 Intelligence (Sword)
- Gelatin (Slime): +25 Psychic, Vitality (Boots)
- Skullasaurus (Undead): +20 Strength, Quickness, Vitality (Sword/Boots)
Monster Abilities:
- Shrieker (Plant): Oscillation (Sword), Da-dum (Glove), Tremor (Boots)
- Basilisk (Aquatic): Crystallizer (Glove), TitasWave (Boots)
- Sphinx (Bird): MagicHeal (Sword)
- Mimic (Artifact): Assassinate (Boots)
To finish the chapter off, let's go ahead and talk about the final items that are available in the Scrap Junk Shop. If your main character's HP is over 800, then the final tier of items is available to us. It still costs you a staggering 3000 Credits, but if you are diligent with your saving and reloading, and some luck, you can actually save a lot more here than purchasing some of the best equipment in the game than in the stores!
Three notable pieces of armor you can pick up from the location seen above. First, the CyberSuit, can only be found here and nowhere else. Compared to the Powered and GolemSuits, it isn't worth the Credits, coming in at +36 physical and cold defense, and +21 for others, but it does give a +5 to all stats to humans that equip it. Mecs get a +90 HP and +18 Strength/Quickness. Unless using for a human, I would prefer the GolemSuit until you can replace it with a Powered one. The JumpSuit is also available here, but it's only for if you want more than one, since we'll find one as treasure in the next chapter.
Lastly for this box, you can pluck WarLordArmor also, which is the best possible result, in my opinion. Although buyable in Nelson for 2300 Credits, if you can snag more than one, or combine it with one of the other items mentioned below, you can save a lot of Credits this way. The WarLordArmor is the all-around best non-suit armor you can equip until rank 9.
The spot above is littered with guns that are buyable in Koorong, including the LethalGun, which is the best gun in the game when taking into account attack power, bullets, and reasonable acquisition (You'll see in the next chapter!). Two of these combined with Twogun and BoundShot is a nightmare for most any enemy. Its sale price is 4020, but if you can get two at once from here, that is a big savings in Credits. The buyable, but much cheaper, AGUNI-MBX, SniperRifle, and EagleGun are found here, too.
Shields and gloves are found in the cranny tucked away above. The ExcelShield is the prize and has a very generous acquisition rate! Unless using the GenbuShield to protect against water or cold, every character should have an ExcelShield equipped until either the Dragon or DulluhanShields are obtained. If you can get two, they are worth the 3000 Credits.
