Final Fantasy Legend Mutant FAQ July 25, 2000 WonderLlama (WonderLlama_@hotmail.com) Updates July 25, 2000 - This is the first version. Contents 1) What is this FAQ about? 2) Improving your mutant. 3) Equipping your mutant. 4) Mutant Abilities. 5) Copyright notice =======================What is this FAQ about?========================= This is not a walkthrough. If you want a walkthrough, I would recommend K. Megura's Mini-FAQ. This FAQ will address the mutant character. First, humans, mutants, and monsters are all fun and rewarding characters in this game. You probably should not limit yourself. The mutants main contribution is magic. The mutant is usually the strongest and most flexible magic user on the team. Mutants progress most like a traditional RPG character; they get better as a result of fighting battles. ======================================================================= ========================Improving your mutant========================== The mutant will improve at the end of nearly every battle. While you can influence how the mutant improves, it is mostly random. And while the mutant nearly always gets more powerful, it is also possible to lose very powerful abilities. For this reason, if you have any mutants in your party, you must save the game after every fight, unless you lose a good ability, in which case you should reset the game and reload. A + B + Start + Select resets the game quickly. Strength: The mutant's strength may go up one point as a result of battle. While it is somewhat random, it is far more likely if you used a strength-based weapon in battle, such as the hammer. Successfully hitting and swinging more times seem to help, but I'm not sure. Agility: The mutant's agility may go up one point as a result of battle. It is more likely if you use an agility-based weapon. Agility is an important stat for a mutant, if you want to use the psi-sword or psi-knife. Both are very powerful. You should build up agility by using agility-based weapons early in the game. Defense: Mutants can gain defense from battle, but it is very rare. I have never seen a mutant with more than 5 natural defense. I don't know what causes this stat to go up. I would guess that getting hit in combat helps, but I haven't observed enough cases to know. This is probably the most valuable stat, so be happy when you get it. Mana: Mutants gain mana from battle, especially if they used magic, or a psi sword. Other than defense, this is probably the most valuable stat. It will also go up the most. It can go over 99, and probably will, so don't stop using magic just because it looks like you've maxed it out. HP: Mutants gain HP from battle. As far as I can tell, this is completely random. I suspect that putting a mutant in the front row will help this stat, but my tests have been hit and miss. A mutant can easily get 300 HP early, and end the game with 600-700. There is probably no limit other than your patience. Abilities. Four of the mutant's slots are reserved for abilities. One may randomly change as a result of battle. I can't find any pattern to when they do. If you lose a good ability, I suggest you reset. The best thing you can do to improve your mutants is to get in a lot of fights. It doesn't seem to make much difference if the fights are easy or hard. I have had mutants with 600 HP on the first world, so you can improve them as much as you want anywhere. The most important thing is to get them good abilities. Try to get at least two attack abilities (so you don't run out), a heal ability on one mutant, and Armor or Kinesis. See the abilities section to help you choose. ======================================================================= ========================Equipping your mutant========================== Mutants only get three slots for equipment. This means you have to trade off between weapons and armor. However, they also have four natural abilities, so they don't always need as many weapons as humans. For most of the game, only three kinds of armor are available: body, helmet, and gauntlet. I recommend equipping the best of all three. That only leaves you one space. You could put a weapon, shield, item, or spell here. Later in the game, you will get the ParaSuit. This powerful armor only takes one slot, so you should give it to the mutants to free up space for more weapons. I never recommend giving a mutant a shield or item. Shields should only ever be used by humans. They have more HP, so they are more likely to be in front, and they have enough slots. I personally almost never use shields at all. Items are not as good as healing spells, so mutants should use spells instead. Spells are very powerful. However, often the mutant will get several spells for free from natural abilities. You should only equip a spell if it you are having trouble getting the ability naturally. The main problem with equipping a spell is that they don't get as many uses as weapons. Mutants should usually rely on a weapon when their natural abilities are in danger of running out. For most of the game, I recommend giving your mutant a weapon. Early on, give them an agility weapon. Rapiers and sabers are available early on. Have them attack with these weapons as much as possible to get agility up. Later on in the game, mutants will use psi-weapons which are powered by mana, but in order to hit with them, they will need high agility. Once a mutant gets to around 60 agility, it is safe to switch to a mana weapon. If you haven't found any psi- knives yet, stick with agility weapons until you do. The psi-knife, psi-sword, and vampic sword all do damage based on mana. In the hands of a human, they are useless, but a mutant can be amazing with one. The psi-knife is weak, but you find it earlier. It is probably still more powerful than anything else you can get, so use it. Later on, you have to choose between the Vampic and Psi swords. The Vampic does less damage, but it drains HP. The psi-sword is the strongest sword in the hands of a mutant. I would use the Psi-Sword most of the time. Usually, mutants will be in the back of the party, and won't get attacked very often. The psi-sword will help insure that you never take damage. Still, switch to the Vampic if you find your mutant is taking damage a lot. At the very end of the game, you will get the ParaSuit, and have three slots open. At this point, I recommend having the Flare spell, a psi-sword, and the Vampic sword if possible. That way, you can damage all enemies, one enemy a whole lot, or heal yourself depending on the situation. That means you have to bring the swords with you from the fourth world, so plan ahead. If you can't use all three, mutants are good candidates to carry the Nuke, as well as rockets. When a mutant isn't using mana, he'll be overshadowed by the humans. So he may as well be the one to use weapons that do constant damage. ======================================================================= ==========================Mutant Abilities============================= Ability Uses Effect and Comments ESP 50 Doesn't seem to do anything. Drives me crazy. If anyone knows what this is supposed to do, tell me. Flame 10 Attacks a group with the fire element. Ice 10 Attacks a group with the ice element. Thunder 10 Attacks a group with the electricity element. Gas 10 Attacks a group with the earth element. Leech 21 Does 10 damage to every enemy and other friendly character. Restores that life to the user. I've only ever seen this ability on recruited mutants. P-Blast 10 Attacks all enemies. It's non-elemental too. Great attack. Quake 10 Attacks all enemies for big damage. Earth elemental. This is extremely rare. Flare ? The most powerful spell. Hits all enemies. Heal 10 Heals one ally. Use this to heal everyone before you stay in an inn, and you get a free stay. Electro 10 Lowers one group's agility. Stench 10 Lowers one group's strength. Kinesis 10 Paralyzes one group of enemies. Gaze 10 Claims to confuse a group of enemies. Seems to make them get an extra attack instead. D-Gaze 10 Kills a group of enemies. Very rare. S-Gaze 10 Just like D-Gaze as far as I can see. Just as rare. P-Fang 25 Paralyzes one enemy. Use Kinesis instead. Power 3 Raises the mutant's strength by 99. Contrary to what the ability claims, multiple uses can make you do more damage, so I believe it adds 99 to strength, not sets strength to 99. Armor 3 Raises the mutant's defense by 99. This is a very useful ability to use against bosses. It only gets three uses tho'. Mirror 10 Makes the mutant harder to hit. Not usually very effective. Barrier 10 Increases the defense of all characters. The benefit is small, so this ability probably isn't as good as armor. Burning 25 If the mutant is attacked for the rest of the round, some damage is dealt to the enemy. P-Skin 25 Just like Burning, except it poisons the enemy. My personal favorite combination is to have heal, kinesis, and two attack abilities. Quake, P-Blast, and Nuke are great if you can get them. Armor is great against bosses. If anyone knows anything about mutant abilities that I don't, please let me know. ======================================================================= ==============================Copyright================================ As usual, feel free to do whatever with this FAQ as long as you don't change it, make money off it, or delete this notice. And it is, of course, Copyright 2000 Justin Lyon. I can be contacted with any questions at WonderLlama_@hotmail.com.