Shining Soul 2 for Game Boy Advance Character Skill FAQ v1.8 crux@bga.com 6/14/04 This FAQ is a compilation of what is currently known about how character skills actually perform in-game. Please send corrections or clarifications, especially on the following: 1. What determines whether the ninja's debris stuns? 2. Does the dragonute's break armor skill affect teammate attacks? 3. Information on warrior's counter. (manual information seems incorrect) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VERSION INFO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.8 Weapon info: tried to make formula a little clearer. Brawler's guts: adds to attack and defense, not just attack, and stacks. Small corrections. 1.7 Entire faq: changed "skill points" to "skill/charge levels" for clarity. Skill and class names: changed to USA version. Weapon info: weapon skill level damage formula added. Weapon info: slow weapons repel enemies farther than fast weapons. All weapon descriptions: rewritten, and "damage added per level" removed. "Advice" sections: trimmed most of them down. Cumulative bonuses: now display current totals instead of current additions. Warrior/Dragonute/Sorceress's shield: doesn't work against magical attacks. Brawler's claw and knife: number of hits. Priestess's heal: cures status at all skill levels. Priestess's shining aura: added attack technique. Small corrections. 1.6 Version info: exact changes now listed. Intelligence stat: Increasing intelligence increases SP regen. Formula. Multiple character critical: chance of activation changed after more tests. Warrior's and dragonute's shield: works exactly like armor up. Warrior's and dragonute's armor up: each armor piece gets bonus armor. Archer's bow: number of arrows fired. Archer's enchant: chance of converting enemies. Dragonute's breath: isn't activated by arrows or spells. Brawler's stun: chance of stun, and stun length changed after more tests. Brawler's counter: isn't activated by arrows or spells. Sorceress's freeze: chance of freezing enemies added. Sorceress's spark: chance of stunning enemies added. Sorceress's inferno: chance of enemies catching on fire and amount of damage. Dark wizard's venom: chance of poisoning an enemy. (damage formula unknown) Ninja's debris: skill description changed to reflect unknowns. Small corrections. 1.5 Sorceress's freeze: successive hits are skill level -1. Sorceress's freeze/blast/inferno skill: chances of additional effects. Dragonute's break armor: skill description changed to reflect unknowns. Dark wizard's morph skill: stats added. Dark wizard's dagger dance: is physical damage, affected by armor. Ninja's replace: it causes you to turn around when activated. Ninja's ansatsu: skill description added, how to use in solo. Small corrections. 1.4 Replaced skill descriptions that reference other skill descriptions. Vitality stat: vitality gives 3 HPs to all characters. Sorceress's blaze/freeze/spark/blast/inferno: levels increase range. Sorceress's magic shield skill: percentages for parrying and -damage. Brawler's counter skill: exact damage. Brawler's guts skill: when it works and damage added. Dragonute's breath skill: percentage chance and damage done. Dark wizard's venom/darkness/drain: levels increase range. Ninja's sword: charged version repels enemies. Ninja's knife skill: charged shot spread and normal version autoaims. Ninja's debris skill: levels increase range. Ninja's replace skill: percentages. Small corrections. 1.3 Each nonweapon skill has "passive" or SP cost specified. Warrior's and dragonute's armor up skill: formula. Archer's summon skill: elemental types for each animal. Dragonute's break armor: works on per hit basis. Dragonute's weaken: damage reductions. Dark wizard's morph and demon breath: monster types, misc. Ninja's shadow and debris skill description: targetting method. Priest's healing skill: exact healing amounts corrected. Credits section at the end added. Small corrections. 1.2 First version. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ STATS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Strength: Every point in this stat increases your attack power with a weapon by 1. This is not the same numerically as the damage you actually do to the enemies, but strength does directly increase your damage with weapons. High strength can cause a fighting character to kill enemies very quickly with charged attacks. Spellcasters only need to increase this if they find an item that requires higher strength. Dexterity: Just as the game reports, this increases both your hit rate and your evade rate. Evasion applies only to physical attacks. Magical attacks always hit. Charged attacks seem to have a significantly better hit rate than regular attacks, and you can reduce the damage you take by simply maintaining your distance from the enemies. Don't place points into this stat unless you are having problems hitting and avoiding the enemies. Spellcasting characters probably shouldn't place points here. Evasion is nice, but spellcasters don't benefit from a higher hit rate. Vitality will help spellcasters more than dexterity. Intelligence: For non-spellcasters, this stat does nothing but increase your SP. (mana pool) This is of especially low priority because you can find items that increase SP by significant amounts. If you're using a non-spellcasting character, for most of the game the sweet spot is around 15 intelligence. This gives you 30 SP, the exact amount that a goddess tear replenishes. (The warrior would want 21 intelligence because of the Efficacy skill.) Increasing your SP pool slightly increases your SP regeneration rate. The extra regeneration rate is about a .23% per point of SP. (It would take about 430 SP to double your SP regeneration rate.) For spellcasting characters this is your primary stat, providing both your SP and determining how much damage you do. For spellcasters, increase this stat unless something else is absolutely necessary. Vitality: Each point increases your hit points by 3. Aim for a sweet spot of about 50% more hit points than a specific healing item. When you dip into the danger zone, that healing item will bring you close to full health. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WEAPON INFO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Placing additional points in a weapon skill increases your attack value: Attack = Your final attack power. Weapon = The weapon's base power level. Skill = Your weapon skill level. When maxed, this value is 8 instead of 7. Attack = Weapon + (Weapon * Skill / 10) + Skill So, each skill level increases your attack power by a little more than 10%. In addition to passively increasing your damage with that weapon, increasing the weapon skill level allows you to charge your attacks to a higher level. All weapons use 2 SP to charge to level 1, and 1 additional SP per level of charge, up to a maximum of 8. These higher charge levels also increase your damage (in addition to the passive bonuses given by the weapon skill level) and sometimes increase the duration and hits of your charged attack. Higher weapon skill levels are eventually required to equip more powerful weapons. The amount that an enemy is repelled by a weapon is generally related to its speed. A slow weapon pushes enemies back farther than a fast weapon. The slower weapons are the warrior and dragonute's axe, the dragonute and priestess's flail, and the wizard, dark wizard, and priestess's rod. If you use a normal attack immediately after a charged attack ends, and that normal attack hits an enemy, it will repel them away from you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CLASSES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------- Warrior --------------------------- Starting stats: 15/15/5/15 The speed and range of the sword allows easy hit and run tactics, but it has the lowest damage output. Axe attacks are slow, but can repel enemies. Spears hit in a small area, but the charged version hits multiple times and is effective against single enemies or groups. For solo, I recommend using the spear and focusing in shield and armor up. Sword: A charged sword attack swings in a very wide radius in front of you accompanied by a slight forward movement, hitting each enemy in range once. Axe: Charged axe attacks cause the warrior to swing the axe once around him, hitting every nearby enemy once and knocking them back. Spear: A charged spear attack attacks multiple times rapidly, and you gain the ability to move slowly without changing your facing. Additional charge levels increase the number of attacks. The number of spear attacks is 2 + charge level. Getting hit will cause your combo to be interrupted. Shield: Passive. Optional but good. Shields go in your glove slot. Without this skill, shields only function as normal armor. Levels in this skill increase the defensive protection that shields offer, and adds a new parrying function which causes an attack to do no damage, and has a distinct graphic and sound. Each additional skill level here increases your chance to parry by approximately 5% and gives a numerical bonus to your defense. Parrying only works against physical attacks. Magic attacks always hit. The amount of armor added to your shield is the base armor of the shield divided by 10, then multiplied by the shield skill level. If the shield skill is maxed, the (base armor/10) is multiplied by 8 instead. Then, each level of the skill adds a small extra amount: 2/4/7/11/15/19/28 per skill level. This ability only works with a shield equipped. Armor Up: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill increases the numerical value of your armor. For each piece of armor, the base armor is divided by 10, and then multiplied by the armor up skill level. If the armor up skill is maxed, the (base armor/10) is multiplied by 8 instead. Then, each level of the skill adds a small extra amount: 2/4/7/11/15/19/28 armor per skill level. This extra bonus is applied seperately to each piece of armor, but it will not apply to a shield if you are using one instead of gloves. The shield skill bonus is added seperately, it is not affected by the armor up skill at all. Each level increases your armor by over 10%, so the skill can nearly double your armor when maxed. Efficacy: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Each skill level increases the numerical effectiveness of healing items by exactly 40%. Healing items are very cheap by the end of the game, so this skill isn't very important. Counter: This skill doesn't work like the brawler's. The way it works is still unknown. It does not appear to function the way the game's manual describes. Tactics: Passive. Each additional skill level causes your attack power to increase by: 2/4/6/9/12/15/22, equivalent to the same amount of strength. Nearby allies gain the same bonus in multiplayer. ------------------------- Sorceress ------------------------- Starting stats: 9/9/23/9 All of the sorceress's skills are pretty equivalent, both in terms of damage over time and their general effectiveness against groups of enemies. There's not really a wrong choice. For solo you should pick blaze, freeze, or blast as one of your skills for inexpensive attacks during boss fights. Blast starts off weak but becomes very effective at high levels. Rod: Charged rod attacks hit 3 times in a row. Additional charge levels slightly increase your damage. Blaze: 2 SP to start, +1 per level. Blaze is a single shot that pierces all the enemies it passes through. Additional charge levels increases the size of the projectile, its range, and its damage. The projectile does not autoaim. It works best against tight groups of enemies. Freeze: 3 SP to start, +1 per level. Freeze is a single shot like blaze. Additional charge levels increase the damage, the projectile size, and the number of hits. Freeze autoaims to some degree, and after hitting an enemy it will target a new enemy, angling instantly towards it. The number of enemies freeze can hit is determined by the charge level. Each successive hit does damage equivalent to one charge level less than the previous hit. The projectile will sometimes choose a new target in midflight if it doesn't currently have one. Each hit has a chance to freeze an enemy, immobilizing it. The first hit has about a 5% chance to freeze, and each additional hit has about an extra 2.5% chance to freeze an enemy. The freeze always lasts the same length, about 6 seconds. This skill works best against multiple enemies. In close spaces, blaze is better because each enemy takes full damage. In open areas and against dangerous enemies, freeze is better because it requires less aiming. Freeze can unexpectedly hit corners due to autoaiming. Spark: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Spark is a group of lightning bolts that drop from the sky on all the enemies that are standing in front of you when you release it. With each additional charge level, the damage increases and the range increases slightly. Like freeze, spark targets enemies in sequence. Each enemy takes the same amount of damage. Spark has a chance to stun enemies; about 10% at level 1 and an additional 5% chance per additional level. The stun always lasts about 5 seconds. Spark is inefficient against single enemies due to the high SP cost. Blast: 2 SP to start +1 per level. Blast is a slow-moving tornado that has limited homing abilities. It hits anything it touches multiple times. The tornado gets larger and does more damage at higher charge levels. As soon as the tornado overlaps one enemy it will choose another and start turning and moving towards it. Because it turns slowly, it tends to work best against loose groups of enemies, rather than tight clumps. This spell works equally well against single or multiple enemies, but can miss unexpectedly. It starts off weak but becomes very effective at high levels. Even though your damage is determined by intelligence, and the spell cannot miss if it actually touches the enemy, the damage type is considered physical, so it will be reduced by monster armor. It charges more slowly than blaze. Inferno: 10 SP to start, +5 per level. Inferno hits every enemy around you. A higher charge level increases the damage and increases the range slightly. The enemies do not get hit by the spell immediately, they are hit in sequence like freeze and spark. The enemies have a chance of catching on fire, which will do 50% additional damage. The chance of an enemy catching on fire is about 20%, with a 10% additional chance per charge level. The spell charges very slowly. It's very inefficient against single enemies due to the high SP cost, but extremely powerful against groups. Magic Shield: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Optional but extremely good. This skill adds 10 to your defense per charge level. This change only occurs when the magic shield is on. It does not modify resistances or the damage you take from magic. There is also a new parrying ability that functions just like the Warrior's, but doesn't require special equipment. Parrying occurs about 5% of the time per charge level. Parrying only works against physical attacks. Magical attacks always hit. The duration on the magic shield is about 1 minute at all charge levels. Be aware that some bosses only have magical attacks, so using this skill and having low vitality is not a viable option. The performance of this skill is not affected by your intelligence. Meditate: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Increasing your SP pool does not drastically increase SP regeneration rate, so points here aren't ever completely wasted. It's still a good idea to just have a large SP pool however, since the Ray of Hopes are pretty cheap and higher intelligence increases your damage. --------------------------- Archer --------------------------- Starting stats: 12/18/8/12 Bow is superior to spear in most situations, but the bow's charged shots severely hinder your mobility, and thus your safety. For solo, either weapon will work. I recommend placing one or more points in critical, healing, enchant, and anti-flying, and then focusing on range. Bow: Charged arrows release multiple arrows in quick succession. Additional charge levels increases the number of arrows fired. The number of arrows fired is 2 + charge level. Each arrow autoaims in a cone of about 60 degrees and will only hit one enemy. Charged arrows are most effective against single enemies and relatively weak against groups of enemies. Spear: Charged spear shots are piercing, like the blaze spell. Only one spear is thrown but it strikes all enemies along a line. Additional charge levels increases the width of the charged spear shot. Charged spear shots are most effective against groups of enemies and relatively weak against single enemies. Range: Passive. Max this skill if you use bow. In spite of the unimpressive gains from each additional skill level, once your range level starts to get high, the autoaiming nature of the arrows greatly benefits from your additional range. You can run into an area, causing a group of enemies to appear, back up, and when you release your charge, all of the arrows will connect. This is not possible without high range. Enchant: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Your attacks gain the ability to convert monsters temporarily, causing them to fight against the other monsters. The length of enchantment is always the same, about 10 seconds. Each additional skill level increases the probability a monster will be converted by your attacks by about 1%, for a total of about 7% when maxed. This seems very small, but with bow, you will be firing 3 or more arrows per volley, so the chance of converting at least one monster with level 3 bow/level 3 enchant is 14% per volley. (1-.97^5) Note that enchantment does not cause the other monsters to target your new friend. The converted monster cannot block the other monsters from approaching you. Enchantment does not make the converted monster invincible to friendly fire. It will still get hit and killed by your attacks. Anti-flying: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This ability causes your normal and charged attacks to do very heavy damage against flying enemies. This includes many spellcasters, elemental attackers, and miscellaneous enemies. Every dungeon has at least 1 flying enemy. It does not work as a percentage chance like critical hit, instead it always increases the damage of every hit against these enemy types. Each additional skill level in anti-flying increases your base damage against these enemies by 50% for a maximum of 4.5x normal damage at level 7. There is a damage cap of 999. Summon: 3 SP to start, +2 per level. Optional and weak. This spell creates an animal familiar that wanders around you and damages nearby enemies occasionally. The animal will not block attacks for you, it will only randomly attack enemies. Increasing your intelligence increases the damage the animals do. All animal attacks perform an area of effect attack, meaning they can hit every monster in a small area with each attack. Animal attacks have the damage modifiers and properties of their elemental types. Poison can poison, fire can do slight residual damage, ice can freeze, and lightning can stun. The animals get stuck on objects very easily but will eventually walk through walls to your location. 1. Squirrel. 6 hits. 2. Poison bee. Occasionally poisons. 6 hits. 3. Fire butterfly. Occasionally burns enemy. 6 hits. 4. Ice wolf. Occasionally freezes. 8 hits. 5. Pig. 8 hits. 6. Will o' the wisp. Holy damage. 10 hits. 7. Lightning dog. Occasionally stuns. 10 hits. Critical: Passive. Minimum 1 point. A higher skill level increase your chance of doing double damage. More levels don't increase the amount of extra damage. All characters have about a 2% chance of performing a critical hit with a weapon attack, and this skill adds about an additional 2% chance per level. Healing: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill slowly replenishes the HPs of you and your allies. Over the course of the game, this skill will slowly heal thousands of hit points and thus save you some money and time. At level 7, it heals about 1 hit point per second. --------------------------- Dragonute --------------------------- Starting stats: 16/13/5/16 The charged axe is more effective than the flail against groups of enemies. The extra attacks you get from the charged flail never become powerful, even with very high strength. However, they increase the probablity of triggering equipment related effects. For solo, I recommend placing one point in everything except the weapon you aren't using, and then focusing on shield and armor up. Axe: The charged axe attack advances rapidly, hitting every enemy in an area in front of the dragonute once. Flail: The charged flail hits every enemy adjacent to you several times with extremely weak attacks. After the weak hits, it performs a strong hit directly in front of you like the uncharged version. You cannot move while spinning the flail. Shield: Passive. Optional but good. Shields go in your glove slot. Without this skill, shields only function as normal armor. Levels in this skill increase the defensive protection that shields offer, and adds a new parrying function which has a distinct graphic and sound. Each additional skill level here increases your chance to parry by approximately 5% and gives a numerical bonus to your defense. Parrying only works against physical attacks. Magic attacks always hit. The amount of armor added to your shield is the base armor of the shield divided by 10, then multiplied by the shield skill level. If the shield skill is maxed, the (base armor/10) is multiplied by 8 instead. Then, each level of the skill adds a small extra amount: 2/4/7/11/15/19/28 per skill level. This ability only works with a shield equipped. Armor Up: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill increases the numerical value of your armor. For each piece of armor, the base armor is divided by 10, and then multiplied by the armor up skill level. If the armor up skill is maxed, the (base armor/10) is multiplied by 8 instead. Then, each level of the skill adds a small extra amount: 2/4/7/11/15/19/28 armor per skill level. This extra bonus is applied seperately to each piece of armor, but it will not apply to a shield if you are using one instead of gloves. The shield skill bonus is added seperately, it is not affected by the armor up skill at all. Each level increases your armor by over 10%, so the skill can nearly double your armor when maxed. Break Armor: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill reduces the enemy armor by a unknown amount at each skill level, causing you to do extra damage against an enemy that has armor. (The skill either works 100% of the time at all skill levels, and there is some randomness in the damage formula against armorless targets, or it works about 75% of the time at all skill levels. If the latter explanation is correct, then break armor cannot be inflicting a change in the enemies' armor stat that allies can take advantage of. If the former explanation is correct, it can be a change in the enemies' state, or it can be functioning on a per-hit basis.) You will not do extra damage if the enemy doesn't have any armor. You can't lower the enemy armor below zero, so having too many skill points here is a waste. This skill does not reduce the frequency of yellow low-damage hits. It does not reduce the frequency of missed attacks. Breath: Passive. Optional. A higher skill level increases the chance that the dragonute will hit an enemy that successfully attacks him with a counterattack. The breath attack is large and will hit every enemy in the vicinity. Each skill level adds about a 5% chance of a counterattack. The skill level also determines the damage of the counterattack, about 70 per level. You cannot counterattack ranged attacks like arrows or spell damage. Weaken: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill reduces the enemies' attack damage by 3 points per skill level. The weaken ability is applied before the damage reduction from armor, so this skill is less effective than armor and the armor up skill as the monsters get more powerful and your equipment gets better. However, this skill has the advantage of helping nearby allies. Magic Res: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Each skill level increases all 6 resistances by 8. The final level increases resistances by 16, to a maximum of 64 gained from this skill. --------------------------- Brawler --------------------------- Starting stats: 16/17/5/12 Both of these weapons are good, and function equally well in nearly every situation. Charged claw attacks do damage quickly, and thus are unlikely to be interrupted by a hit. Charged knife attacks allow precise control of distance between you and the enemy, and you can hit regardless of which direction you're facing. For solo, I recommend raising each skill to level 2 or 3, (except for the weapon you aren't using) and then focusing on either critical or stun. Claws: Charged claws function the same at each chrage level: they cause the brawler to advance, hitting 3 times very quickly. A hit attempt is made against every enemy in range by each swing. Knife: Charged knives hit in every direction around the brawler in a short range. You can move slowly while spinning. A hit attempt is made against every enemy in range around the brawler, about four times a second. Additional charge levels increases the number of hits. The number of hits is 2 + charge level. Evade: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Each additional level increases your evasion rate by an unknown amount. This is a low priority because dexterity can serve the same function. Stats are more useful than skill points, so you may want to increase evade to higher levels later on. More levels slightly increase the chance of evading each attack. Critical: Passive. Minimum 1 point. More levels increase your chance of doing double damage. More levels don't increase the amount of extra damage. All characters have about a 2% chance of performing a critical hit with a weapon attack, and this skill adds about an additional 2% chance per level. Counter: Passive. Optional. More levels increase the chance that the brawler will hit an enemy that successfully attacks him with a very powerful counterattack. The counter attack will only hit the enemy that attacked you. The counterattack always does exactly (4 times your strength) damage. This skill doesn't combine well with high dex or the evade skill. It does combine well with high vitality. There's about a 5% chance of a counterattack per skill level. You cannot counterattack ranged attacks like arrows or spell damage. Guts: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Dropping below half health will cause the brawler to gain a temporary aura that increases his damage and defense. The aura always lasts about 15 seconds at all skill levels. Once the aura wears off, it cannot reactivate until you recover your health and then get knocked below half again. Remaining at less than half health will not trigger the aura a second time. The aura increases both your attack and defense by 20 per skill level. Guts can activate multiple times simultaneously. If guts activates, you heal over half, and then drop below half again before the guts aura wears off, you will have two guts auras until the first one wears off. In this case, you receive double the benefit. Stun: Passive. Optional. Every hit has a chance to place the enemy into a stunned state where it can't move or attack. Each additional level increases the chance of stunning an enemy. There's about a 5% chance of a stun with the first level, and an additional 2% chance of a stun with each additional level. The stun length is about 3 seconds with the first level, and each additional level adds 1 more second of stun time. Healing: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This skill slowly replenishes the HPs of you and your allies. Over the course of the game, this skill will slowly heal thousands of hit points and thus save you some money and time. At level 7, it heals about 1 hit point per second. --------------------------- Dark Wizard --------------------------- Starting stats: 10/9/21/10 Drain and dagger dance are both good boss killers, the former because you get health back for nothing, and the latter because you dont have to do anything but dodge the boss's attacks. Both skills work slowly against monster groups, especially drain. Demon breath is really good in all situations because it does quick, cheap, powerful damage against individuals and groups. It's also the only spell that will open chests. Venom is better than demon breath against monster packs, because it will hit everything in front of you regardless of monster placement. For solo, use one single target spell (demon, drain, dagger) and one multi-target spell. (demon, venom, darkness) Rod: The charged version is different from the sorceress's, it only hits once. Enemies are knocked back by charged attacks. Demon Breath: 2 SP to start, +1 per level. Like blaze, it creates a projectile that does not autoaim. Instead of piercing the enemies, it creates a cloud/explosion at the point where it contacts an enemy, which will damage every nearby enemy. If the projectile doesn't touch an enemy or wall, it will never explode. Additional charge levels increase the size of the projectile, the distance it travels, and the damage it does. Demon breath is weak in narrow passages because only the monster in front will get hit. Additional levels can actually weaken the spell's effectiveness, because the size of the explosion does not increase, and the larger size of the projectile means it will never travel to the center of a group of enemies. It will always detonate on the first monster it passes near, which means it is less likely to hit multiple enemies. On the other hand, at higher levels it is less likely to miss completely. Venom: 4 SP to start, +2 per level. The attack properties of this spell are indistinguishable from the sorceress's spark spell. A poison cloud hits all the enemies that are standing in front of you when you release it. With each additional level of charge, the damage increases and the range increases slightly. Each enemy takes the same amount of damage. As you might imagine, this has a chance to poison the enemy, which does small damage over time. The rate of damage is slightly slower than once per second. The chance of poisoning an enemy is about 15% at level 1, with about an additional 10% chance per additional level. The damage and duration of the poison is not affected by your intelligence or the skill's level. Venom charges slightly more slowly than demon breath. Darkness: 10 SP to start, +5 per level. Green slime reaches up from the abyss to grab enemies. Darkness hits everything in a radius around you. Increasing the charge level increases the damage and slightly increases the range. The actual damage or death of the monster doesn't occur instantly. The spell charges very slowly. It's very inefficient against single enemies due to the high SP cost, but works very well against groups. Morph: 6 SP to start, +3 per level. You turn into a monster. When you morph, you get all of that monster's strength added to your own, and half of the monster's other stats. This means your morphed form can become very powerful by increasing your own strength. Regular monsters won't attack you while you are morphed. Attacking a monster while you are morphed will only anger that particular monster, and not the others. When you morph in the middle of a battle, the monsters will finish whatever they were doing, (like moving towards you, or attacking you) and then they'll stop attacking. This spell also allows you to bypass difficult monsters. You can't cast your other spells while morphed. The duration of the morph is always the same, about 1 minute. Additional charge levels change the monster you morph into. Each monster has its own stats, attack speed, and resistances. These are the stats you gain, and what your resistances are changed to: 1. Slime: 8/ 2/ 0/ 5---30/45/45/45/45/45 2. Sword skeleton: 12/ 7/ 0/11---40/60/50/20/70/60 3. Spider: 22/ 8/ 0/15---50/50/50/50/50/90 4. Hobbit: 30/11/ 0/19---50/50/50/70/30/50 5. Harpy: 45/15/16/30---50/50/50/50/50/50 6. Scytheman: 40/35/ 0/32---45/50/50/50/50/50 7. Armored centaur: 60/32/ 0/47---70/70/70/70/70/70 Dagger Dance: 3 SP to start, +2 per level. This skill creates a dagger that rotates around you and attacks one nearby enemy. It then returns to you where it can attack again. There is about a 0.5 - 1.5 second delay between attacks, depending on how far away the enemy is. The dagger will move to attack a monster at nearly full visible range. (half screen) The dagger attacks 3 times in a row at level 1. Each additional level causes the dagger to attack once more before disappearing, and increases its damage. The range of the dagger never increases. You can charge a new dagger while the old one is still present, but you can't create it until the old one has used up its attacks and disappeared. Daggers can become stuck in small areas. Using this spell at very close range substantially increases its damage rate, because the attacks occur more frequently. Even though your damage is determined by intelligence and the spell cannot miss if it actually touches the enemy, the damage type is considered physical so it will be reduced by monster armor. This spell charges slightly more slowly than demon breath. Drain: 3 SP to start, +2 per level. This spell creates a slightly homing projectile that can only hit one enemy. It attaches itself and does nothing for about 1 second. Then, the monster takes damage, and you gain health equal to 10% of the damage you did. The health you receive is not based upon the charge level of drain. The health received can be increased by boosting your damage with intelligence. Increasing the charge level increases your damage and slightly increases the range. Make sure you release the drain spell as soon as it charges up. It's not necessary to wait for the previous drain to hit. This spell combines well with group-hitting spells like venom or darkness. Switch to drain against single enemies and when your health is low. Meditate: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Increasing your SP pool does not drastically increase SP regeneration rate, so points here aren't ever completely wasted. It's still a good idea to just have a large SP pool however, since the Ray of Hopes are pretty cheap and higher intelligence increases your damage. ---------------------------- Priestess ---------------------------- Starting stats: 12/10/15/13 This character works surprisingly well in solo. Shining aura is a very effective attack. Some levels in meditate combined with the healing spell can remove your dependency on items. If you would rather build a strength-based priestess, bless will allow you to function nearly as well as a fighting character. You can reset the duration of 'buffs' by recasting them at the same level. A lower level buff of the same type won't take effect or reset the timer. You can use more than one buff at once. For solo I recommend placing a few points in meditate and then maxing only shining aura and bless. The other buffs are good but aren't as important in solo. Rod: Charged attacks are a single attack with a slight forward movement. Flail: Charged attacks are a full-body rolling attack that advances. The roll hits at the beginning and then hits again at the end. Heal: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Each charge level heals 30/50/90/150/230/ 330/500 hit points. Status ailments are cured at all charge levels. The spell charges very quickly. Protect: 6 SP to start, +3 per level. Each charge level increases defense by +20 per level of charge. The spell lasts about 1 minute at all charge levels. Resist: 6 SP to start, +3 per level. Each charge level increases resistances by +10 per level of charge. The spell lasts about 1 minute at all skill levels. Bless: 6 SP to start, +3 per level. Each charge level increases all 4 stats by an additional 8 points. The spell lasts about 1 minute at all skill levels. Keeping this skill up during boss fights is essential, because it increases your maximum health and SP substantially. Be sure to reset it before it wears off. If you let it wear off, any hit points or SP you have over the normal maximum will be lost. Shining Aura: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Anything you touch takes damage and is repelled away from you. You can't miss because it's a spell, not an attack. You can move at full speed while the shield is on. You don't become invulnerable to attacks, but the enemies won't be able to attack while the shield is hitting them. Even if they do hit you, that won't interrupt the shield's attack. It lasts about 4 seconds at all charge levels. A higher charge level increases your damage. Damage is also enhanced by intelligence. (This is the only Priestess spell affected by intelligence.) You can't begin charging a new shield until the current one wears off. The shield will push enemies away from you, so attempt to push them towards another enemy, so the next hit will attack both enemies simultaneously. Meditate: Passive. Minimum 1 point. Increasing your SP pool does not drastically increase SP regeneration rate, so points here aren't ever completely wasted. It's still a good idea to just have a large SP pool however, since the Ray of Hopes are pretty cheap and higher intelligence increases your damage. --------------------------- Ninja --------------------------- Starting stats: 13/18/7/12 Sword attacks are fast and hit in a large area, and are easier to use, but knives can attack at a distance. For solo, I recommend sword, critical, and replace. You could also focus in debris, but it's not efficient against single enemies. Sword: Charged sword attacks cause a glowing energy ball to appear at your location that hits enemies repetitively and pushes them back. You are able to move slowly while the energy balls attacks, but you may not change your facing. Additional charge levels slightly increase the duration of the energy ball. Knife: Charged knife attacks are 5 knives thrown rapidly in a fan shape. The knives fly in this order: middle, right, left, middle, right. There is no way to increase your range. Each knife only hits one enemy. The charged knives do not autoaim like the regular knives, and thus at long range they will only make 2 or 3 hit attempts against single enemies. Charged knife attacks will hit the full five times at point blank range, because the knives start off close together. Critical: Passive. Minimum 1 point. More levels increase your chance of doing double damage. More levels don't increase the amount of extra damage. All characters have about a 2% chance of performing a critical hit with a weapon attack, and this skill adds about an additional 2% chance per level. Debris: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. One object lands on every enemy around the ninja at all charge levels. More levels increases the damage and slightly increases the range. Damage is not affected by the critical skill. Like all spells, intelligence increases your damage, so focusing here will force your str, dex, and vit down. It's probably not a good idea to mix this skill with weapon skills. Debris has a chance to stun enemies, but the formula is unknown. The chance to stun doesn't seem to be affected by: stats, skill points, current/max HPs, current/max SPs, your name, your resistances, your equipment, your level, your attack/defense power, the area you're fighting in, your current experience, the monster's stats, or the type of object that falls. Shadow: 6 SP to start, +3 per level. Optional and pretty weak. It will automatically target everything in a radius around the ninja. Enemies lose the ability to move but not the ability to attack. Additional charge levels slightly increases the radius of targetting and the duration of the paralysis. This skill works well in combination with ranged teammates. It doesn't work well with charged knives because they will spread out and miss most of the time. Speed: 8 SP to start, +4 per level. Optional. It lasts about 1 minute at all charge levels. Your movement speed increases with each additional charge level. This spell does not affect attack rate. Replace: Passive. Minimum 1 point. This ability gives you a chance to gain blinking invincibility after being hit. You not only become immune to damage, but can also walk through enemies. You can still attack enemies while invincible. Additional skill levels increases your chance of gaining invincibility. At level 1, there is a 45% chance of becoming invincible when hit. Each additional skill level gives you an additional 5% chance, up to a maximum of 75%. The duration of the invincibility is always about 1 second. Enemies are still aware of your presence and will turn to face you as you move. When replace activates you automatically turn around, so try to release your charged attack before the enemies swing at you. Backstab: Passive. This skill increases your final damage by 1/3 of your base damage per skill level when you strike an enemy from behind. Maxed out, you do ~3.33 times your normal damage when striking from behind. There's a simple trick to take advantage of this skill in solo, simply charge up the sword attack, and then face away from the enemies before using it. As you back into them, they will technically be facing 'away' from you, even though they are actually behind you. This tricks the game into giving you the damage bonus. The sword's attack doesn't have as much range in the back, so this is a tricky method, but the damage bonus works against any enemy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CREDITS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bob K'Thattuple'el'thregen'g'or The 3rd 1. Raising weapon skill levels is needed to equip more powerful weapons. 2. Resistances correction: they lower damage by a number, not a percentile. Cyberelf's FAQ 1. Using close range to get charged Ninja knives to hit multiple times. Cryptoniyte 1. Lots of help figuring out the Armor up formula. 2. Version differences. Painful Sense 1. A trick to get Ansatsu to work in solo. 2. Nearly all spells increase in range with additional levels. 3. A much simpler and better explanation of the freeze skill. 4. Blast becomes very powerful at high levels. 5. Freeze can catch corners because of the autoaim. 6. Inferno causes enemies to catch fire, which adds damage. 7. Normal ninja knife attacks autoaim. 8. Lots of help with percentage chances. Alex Ngo 1. The ninja's replace causes you to turn around. Chen Guojun 1. Blast and dagger dance are physical damage, they are affected by armor. 2. Detailed information about stats gained from dark sorceress's morph skill. Shadow of a Dragon 1. Confirmed that healing and tactics affect allies in multiplayer. Mewcatus 1. Shield/magic shield skill doesn't work against magical attacks. Nekotron 1. Correct explanation of the brawler's guts skill.