THE ATELIER IRIS 2 WEAPON SYNTHESIS FAQ version 1.2 By David Myers. A compendium of game information obtained from players active on the message boards of gamefaqs.com, with especial thanks to the contributors to the "Godly Alchemy" thread. contacting the author: by email, dwm042@email.com If you email me, please use the subject: ATELIER IRIS 2 I'm on the GameFaqs Atelier Iris message boards as dwm042. ============================================================ i. Legal Stuff This Faq is copyrighted (C) 2006 by David Myers. All rights are reserved. This FAQ is not to be distributed unless you are explicitly listed on the distribution list below. Authors that I have quoted retain their own copyright to their words. I use their comments under fair use. Please treat their contributions as having a copyright of their own, and if you quote them, please say so. Portions of this document also appear in my Atelier Iris Weapons synthesis FAQ and those portions were copyrighted (C) 2005 by David Myers. Distribution List: 1) The author 2) Gamefaqs.com That's it! All other distribution points are unauthorized. ============================================================ Table of Contents 0. Updates 1. Introduction 1A. About This FAQ 1B. Is weapons synthesis different from Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana? 1C. So when can I start doing this weapons synthesis? 1D. What are these reviews on items? 1E. So what is an advantageous way to combine reviews? 1F. So what value are Mana Stones in this game? 1G. So is all the "action", so to speak, in the item loops? 1H. So what are some good ways to make money in this game? 2. Basics 2A. The Cure Jar Loop 2B. The Godly Alchemy Loop 2C. Amendments to the Godly Alchemy Loop 2D. The Godly Alchemy Loop and Accessories 2E. The Pendulum - Red Crystal Cycle 2F. The Eden Outfit - Silver Armor - Slaith Dress loop 3. Tables 3A. Reviews from wish items 3B. Mana Reviews 4. Things I need for this FAQ to Grow 5. Resources and Notes 6. About the Author ============================================================ 0. UPDATES ver 1.2 - 8/11/2006 - Reordered the table in 1D. Added more descriptive information wrt the Godly Alchemy Loop. Changed some capitalization, and fixed some spelling, and reordered some text to fit better within 80 cols. Added some more commentary to the Eden Outfit loop. ver 1.1 - 8/10/2006 - Found a more accurate version of the Rudy T quote on nba.com. Added the Pendulum cycle and when I was researching it, saw the value of the Crystalite and Crystaleavy additions. Added some info on the Eden Outfit loop, including some personal observations of the loop. ver 1.0 - 8/9/2006 - Initial version of the FAQ. ============================================================ 1. INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------ 1A. About this FAQ: The style of this FAQ is what I call a compendium. I'm not the author of many of the ideas in this document. Other people are. I am going to try and give as much credit to the people who actually did the hard work on a per-section basis. If you see someone's name or handle in parentheses, that means that a gamefaq player contributed directly to this document. So if you see something like: --------~ ( Foo) Then Foo wrote a message on a message board that I read and used as source material in this FAQ. Often I will quote authors directly, in which case this document is using their words under fair use and my use does not invalidate any copyright of their own. Quotes may be edited for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. From Rudy Tomjanovich: "I have one thing to say to those non-believers. ... Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion." ------------------------------------------------------------ 1B. Is weapons synthesis different from Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana? It is substantially different in the way you grow stronger weapons. In Eternal Mana you would fuse mana into Mana Crystals in order to gain desirable attributes. In this game you combine items to obtain desirable properties, which the game calls "reviews", and then fuse these items with your weapon of choice. The kind of item will change as the weapon upgrade path is followed. And unlike Eternal Mana, you aren't able to keep the old characteristics if you upgrade a weapon. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1C. So when can I start doing this weapons synthesis? You can start doing it as soon as Hagel the blacksmith teaches Felt how to smith, at the end of Chapter 5. At that point you are given an anvil and can create better weapons. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1D. What are these reviews on items? If you look at your items, they will have this tabular list of properties such as D RES (XL), MAGIC UP(S), etc. These can be combined by mixing certain items in your alchemy pot. Weaker reviews are discarded as items are combined and the stronger reviews retained. Reviews can combine too. If say, you make a Megaflame from a Charcoal with ATTACK +1 and a Flame with ATTACK +1, then the resulting Megaflame will have ATTACK +2. Lettered attributes combine as follows (following Cogito, as amended by experience and Pleinair's FAQ): (XS) + (XS) = (S) (S) + (XS) = (M) (S) + (S) = (L) (M) + (XS) = (L) (M) + (S) = (XL) (M) + (M) = (XL) (L) + any = (XL) ------------------------------------------------------------ 1E. So what is an advantageous way to combine reviews? What you look for are termed "item loops", where an item can be created and then used to create its own predecessor. As an example, if, say, Charcoal and Flame can be used to create a Megaflame, and then Flour and a Megaflame can be used to create a Teraflame, and then Charcoal can be combined with Teraflame to make a Megaflame, then Charcoal can be used to introduce reviews into this loop. There are two major item loops in this game, the Cure Jar/Yugdore Water loop, and the flame loop, described above. Minor loops include Pendulum/Red crystal and the Eden outfit/Silver armor/Slaith dress loop. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1F. So what value are Mana Stones in this game? In this game, Mana Stones are the sole source of cores, which are used to upgrade the stats of your characters. Mana Stones also provide reviews as well, when they are combined into items such as Crystalleavy and the Silver Armor. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1G. So is all the "action", so to speak, in the item loops? I would say the majority of it is. There are also the usual money making schemes, as some of these materials are expensive. Mana Stones cost a little less than 5000 cole in this game, and 5000 cole is hard to come by. ------------------------------------------------------------ 1H. So what are some good ways to make money in this game? ( Pleinair, DragonUser84, VeghEsther, Kissell13, etc. ) The two best known ways to make money are making Holy Evergreens and mining Gravity Stones to make Gravity Crystals. Holy Evergreens become available in Chapter 4 and Gravity Crystals become available in Chapter 14. Holy Evergreens can be made from Huffin Water and Heal Herb, which in turn can be synthesized purely from wood, water and aroma elements. In 4 trips to Marmel Forest, you can gather enough elements to create a batch of 99 Holy Evergreens, which then retail for 6930 cole a batch. Most people stay a little longer, making 99 Huffin Waters and 99 Heal Herbs and then gathering a full set of 99 wood, water, and aroma elements so that they can have two batches to sell in town. Once you have the cure jar item loop, you can alter the reviews of Heal Herb and Huffin Water so that it only takes 50 elements to make 99 Heal Herb and/or Huffin Water. In a full session in Marmel Forest, you can then gather enough materials for 3 batches of Holy Evergreens. Gravity Crystals sell for 500 cole each, and they can be mined when Diemia's holy grounds are opened with the Key of Hermes (early Chapter 12). There are three mining patches in Diemia's ground, with the stalagtites containing, in order: Left (Nearest) patch.....................................can extract =================================================================== Yellow S, just before entrance...........................red ore Two Bright Yellow lower left.............................silver legien Three red S..............................................red legien Middle Patch.............................................can extract =================================================================== Two green S..............................................moon stones Left Most Yellow S.......................................red ore Three Right Yellow S.....................................gravity stones (3,2,2) Far Right Patch..........................................can extract =================================================================== Yellow on Left...........................................gravity stones (3) Yellow on Right..........................................gravity stones (4) Rightmost Red (Upper right)..............................dem ore =================================================================== Obviously when mining Gravity stones, it isn't a bad idea to sell any excess moon stones and red ore, and perhaps some silver legiens and dem ores as well. In practice, not all the stalagtites are present all the time. They appear and disappear as you mine them. In practice, I've gotten anywhere from 4 to 14 gravity stones per pass. In practice, because Yudgore Water is used to make the Crystals, it is common to do a partial Holy Evergreen loop alongside gathering the elements to make Yugdore Water. It should be noted that Ore (a white stone, unrelated to red ore) is worth 200 when sold and there are good places to mine Ore by Chapter 17. ============================================================ 2. Basics 2A. The Cure Jar Loop ------------------------------------------------------------ ( Pleinair, among others ) This loop becomes available late in episode 6. You use Heal Herb to feed reviews into the Cure Jar. Important reviews to maximize will be ELEMENTAL COST DOWN, RANGE, and HEAL UP, because these will affect the cost of your healing items and the number of people they affect. With ELEMENTAL COST DOWN(XL), you cut the element cost of your healing items by half. With RANGE(L) (it only goes to L), you turn your smallest and simplest healing items into area effect healing items. One Heal Herb with RANGE(L) can heal YOUR ENTIRE PARTY. With HEAL UP(XL), you just about double the damage your medicines heal. Make a Heal Herb with the reviews you want. Then make a Wonder Grow with Aihie Fungo and a Heal Herb, so that the Heal Herb and the Wonder Grow now have only the reviews you want. Then make a Cure Jar: Heal Herb + Wonder Grow --> Cure Jar Then cycle through this loop until the reviews reach L or XL. Cure Jar + Wonder Grow --> Yugdore Water Yugdore Water + Heal Herb --> Cure Jar If you feed Ale into the loop, you can add a DAMAGE UP component. From this point, you can use these herbs to give these reviews to other healing items. As time goes on however, there are interesting permutations to this loop that give you access to more attack oriented reviews, as per GnatB. From GnatB: "For what it's worth, you can start making your first majorly upgraded (not quite godly, IMO) alchemy items shortly after you first get Fee. (Right before episode 8) I came up with: Magic up (XL) (moonstone/heal jar) Spd up (XL) (dem ore/heal jar) Def up (XL) (towhatever cotton/heal herb) Life up (XL) (goat's milk/cure jar) On both my eite liquor and holy evergreen. (also made damage up (XL), element reduce (XL) Range (L) on the item wish/ice bomb whatever, and heal up (xl), element reduce (XL) range (L) on all the healing items.) It really helps to start abusing alchemy early on, as it's just gotten a lot easier keep my party healthy." 2B. The Godly Alchemy Loop ------------------------------------------------------------ By the time you reach Mitsue's village in Chapter 17, you can do the amended version of this loop. However, the amendments only affect peripheral items in the loop. The entry point for this loop is Charcoal, which is fed item wish reviews through synthesizing Dark Fairy Clothes or Dark Fairy Hats. This loop only requires 1 Fairy item per trait, so that the cost of setting up one good set of reviews is 4 Fairy Clothes or Hats. The little mages that accompany Punis (Puni Heal!) and the little mages that accompany Pigs of various kinds drop Fairy Clothes as a rare item, and Witches, as a rare drop, will drop Fairy Hats. The start of the loop is: Fairy Clothes/Hat + Item Wish Drop --> Dark Fairy Clothes/Hat Dark Fairy/Clothes/Hat --> Charcoal The loop is started with: Charcoal + Silver Legien --> Flame Charcoal + Flame --> Megaflame the reviews are amplified by: Flour + Megaflame --> Teraflame Charcoal + Teraflame --> Megaflame Once one review is at maximum, you feed new reviews into the loop with: Charcoal + Teraflame --> Megaflame and amplify the reviews as above. Charcoal itself is a usable alchemy item, and if you use the amended loop technique to push a set of 4 reviews onto the Uni, you can push the whole set back onto Charcoal. From BatousaiJ: "First off, to introduce what this is about, the Alchemy Items generally teach you skills and give you little to no stat bonuses(they take the 2 spaces below Accessories). However, if you were to mix and match items in such ways, you can end up with a alchemy items that will give you bonuses like +30 to Atk, +30 Defense, Critical (L) which is the Highest Crit+ Chance, and +4 Attack. You'll end up with everyone each doing +14 hits at the least and much more if they have elemental damage somewhere in their gear/weapon. To begin, you'll need to have access to these Recipes. Flame, Mega Flame, Tera Flame, Dark Fairy Clothes/Hat, Charcoal, Item Wish, Ice Comet, Dark Lightning Cloud, Dark Water, Refuel, and Eite Liqueuor. First, Use Item Wish to get items like Go Go Suit, Globeball, Groovecube and etc. Then, make a Dark Fairy Clothes/Hat by combining a Fairy Clothes/hat with a skill base of your choice(Attack +1, Pwr Up(S), All Res(XS) and etc.) Then make a charcoal using the Dark Fairy item you just manipulated and it will carry only that effect. Make a Flame using the Charcoal and a Silver Legion and you will be left only with the effect you want. Now go into your item and proceed to make a Mega Flame by Combining a Charcoal with Flame. So lets say you placed Attack +1 in the charcoal, now it will be +2 on the Mega Flame. Now make a Tera Flame using Flour and Mega Flame. Now you will have a Tera Flame with Attack + 2. Go back and make a Mega Flame using the Charcoal and Tera Flame(Not Charcoal and Flame this time, it's important that you use Tera Flame) but you'll notice that it has become Attack + 3 instead of +2. Now make a Tera Flame with Flour and Mega flame and go back to making a Mega Flame with Charcoal and Tera Flame. Now it will be +4 Attack! Repeat this process until it's at it's max (XL for stuff that's isn't Crit and +4 for attack). Then remake a Dark Fairy Clothes/Hat with another attribute you would like on the ultimate item and make it into a Charcoal and repeat the entire process(but this time, start right from the Mega Flame making instead of Flame because you will want to add 3 more attributes) until you have all 4 slots filled out with maximized attributes. Now make a Ice Comet by using Moon Drop, Ale and Mega Flame. Considering you maxed out all your attributes, it will override most other ones except very few that are higher ranked. Then, you make a Dark Lightning Cloud using a Ligtning/Thunder or Fog Box and Ice Comet. Then you make a Dark Water making sure you use the Dark Lightning Cloud ingredient. Now from here you can do many things but to simplify things, make a Refuel using the Dark Water. Then lastly make a Eite Liqueur using the Refuel you just made. Now you have an Alchemy Item that any character can equip that will give all those four bonuses you chose. For my Choice I have Eite Liqueur(All Res UP(XL), Def Up(XL), PWR UP(XL) and Attack +4). I also manipulated the Refuel and combined it into a Elixir and gave all those qualities to everyone's ultimate weapon(except fee who you need to use the one right before the ultimate). I also have a Holy Evergreen that is (Def Up(XL), PWR (UP), Attack +4, and Critical (L)). One Eite Liqueur and One Holy Evergreen on every character and add to that you put those effects on their weapons as well. That leads to +90 Attack Damage, +90 Defense, +30 All Res, +12 Attack(hits), and Crit +% Large." 2C. Amendments to the Godly Alchemy Loop ------------------------------------------------------------ This is important as Moon Drop is only available very late in the game. This change can be done by the time the Godly Alchemy loop is available in Ch 17. From Jackson: "I don't know if this was posted but there is a way to avoid using Mana Stones to make the Ice Comet after getting all the skills you want in the Flame/Mega Flame. Rather than make the Ice Comet that requires a Moon Drop (thus a mana stone), make a Philosophic Ash with Pearl Berry and Flame/Mega Flame. Then make a Heal Herb with Philosophic Ash and Dragon Blood (for quality if you care, if not, use any material such as Pure Water). Well, with the Heal Herb, you can make the Elixirs/Altena Jar/Elite Liqueur/Holy Ever Greens for your equips easily. I used to have all 4 Ele damage XL (took me forever to get some on the items) but it pissed me that many enemies absorb them -_-" 2D. The Godly Alchemy Loop and Accessories ------------------------------------------------------------ From Yandy_Kusanagi: "First of all, I want to say thanks to BatousaiJ for providing us with this useful info. And now I'd like to add something. In hoping would be helpful... ^^ I don't know if anyone noticed this but you can make Silver Crowbar using the Elite Liqueur. So you can have another Stats Bonus Alchemy Items. The point is what the difference between this and Elite Liqueur / Holy Evergreen...? I have been experimenting a little and I found out that you can actually get 4 Items which can be equipped to a Character with all the Bonus Stats. Let's say you haven't got 2 Daza's Belt yet. So you can only Equip one of these. You haven't got lots of Cole yet to buy to make the Character Attack stats as high as possible. Here's how I did it... First, you must already have the Recipe for: Silver Crowbar Blau Helm Demon Ring Now, make a Silver Crowbar using the Eite Liqueur which carrying the Bonus Stats you want. Let's just take an example: Attack +4 Power Up (XL) Defense Up (XL) All Res Up (XL) But of course it's up to you what Bonus Stats you want for each of the Items you want to Equip later. After making the Silver Crowbar, now make a Blau Helm using the Silver Crowbar. It will carry over the Bonus Stats. now do the same to a Demon Ring. Voila... now you have 4 Items with Bonus Stats. But please note that the Bonus you carry for the Accessories is the same as you read in the Review List. In Example: Power Up (XL) will give you 25 Bonus Points to the Attack Stats. Now let's see what you got if you Equip all the Items with all same Bonus Stats (including the Weapons): Attack +20 = 20 Additional Attacks. Power Up (XL) x5 = 140 Attack Bonus. Defense Up (XL) x5 = 140 Defense Bonus. All Res Up (XL) x5 = 69 All Elements Resistance Bonus. But don't forget if you Equip 2 Demon Ring, the result will be different. If you Equip both the Demon Ring you'll got 240 Attack Bonus instead 140 Attack Bonus (assuming you equip both the Blau Helm). But beware of the Dark Resistance though. Cause the Demon Ring make your Character Dark Resistance Points become very poor. I don't know if BatousaiJ or anyone actually already knew about this. Well, just want to share with you guys. I hope it's useful somehow...^^" From shadowkidz: "You can make the Platiin accessory to have the properties that your alchemy items have. With it and along with my alchemy items and weps I have... 5 Pwr Up XL 5 Def Up XL 4 All Res Up XL Critical Up L Attack +20!!!!!! Just make the cure jar with your modded refuel and put it into your yugdore water. Afterwards, you can make the accessory with shadow stone, dragon blood, and yugdore water. This accessory makes up for your lost magic up XL and life up XL so it makes a pretty good accessory." 2E. The Pendulum - Red Crystal Cycle ------------------------------------------------------------ This is a item loop that becomes available when the Red Crystal synthesis becomes available towards the end of Chapter 9. It is one of the first accessory syntheses that give the player access to POWER UP and SPEED bonuses at reasonable values. An initial item loop might be Comet Stone + Moon Stone --> Pendulum Pearlberry + Pendulum --> White Crystal Now the White Crystal has the same review as the Pendulum. Pearlberry only affects the quality of the item. then, Comet Stone + White Crystal --> Pendulum Pearlberry + Pendulum --> White Crystal. You can substitute the Comet Stone with Dem Ore for speed, or Ore for Ice Resistance, or Shadow Stone for Dark Resistance. When you have a Pendulum you like, push the reviews onto the Red Crystal. I made these myself, they were the first items I had with POWER UP(XL) and they were useful in boss battles. This synthesis becomes markedly better towards the end of Chapter 16, when the Crystaleavy and Crystalight items become available. You get the following loop, which amplifies Mana stone reviews: White Crystal + any Mana --> Crystalite "Comet Stone" + Crystalite --> Pendulum Pearlberry + Pendulum --> White Crystal This probably isn't all that useful until you can buy Mana stones, but it brings a way to mix into an alchemy item such useful traits as MAGIC UP and MAGIC CRITICAL UP, or the very useful ELEMENTAL DAMAGE trait. 2F. The Eden Outfit - Silver Armor - Slaith Dress loop ------------------------------------------------------------ The entry point in this loop is Silver Armor, and it can amplify Mana reviews. If you loop through the Slaith dress (not necessary), it can amplify the reviews of the Desert Rose -- ALL RES UP (XS). As an entry point, you can use: Gogo Suit + Cotton Cloth + any Mana --> Silver Armor This will give you the Mana reviews and a DEF UP component. I'll note that Silk Cloth has no reviews, but Tatalia Cotton is easier to come by than String, and in general, you would think that DEF UP would be a natural component of armor. You then can loop through either the Eden Outfit or the Slaith Dress: Silver Armor --> Eden Outfit Eden Outfit + Cotton Cloth + any Mana --> Silver Armor or Silver Armor + Desert Rose --> Slaith Dress Slaith Dress + Cotton Cloth + any Mana --> Silver Armor You can use these loops to amplify for speed, but Speed (L) only gives you 5 speed, and you can get 3 speed for free by using the Blau Helm. A useful combination might be MAGIC UP, MAGIC CRIT UP, DEF UP and ALL RES UP, but unless Veise can wear this, I'm not sure what it really buys you. Pleinair thinks a lot of this loop, but I have come to the conclusion it might not be as useful as the other three loops mentioned in this FAQ. When I used this loop, I ended up making items with ELEMENTAL DAMAGE, MAGIC UP, DEF UP and ALL RES UP. Compared to the Godly loop, you've traded +25 Attack for a magic bonus of +25, and Attack +4 for Elemental Damage. ============================================================ 3. Tables 3A. Reviews from wish items ------------------------------------------------------------ Item.........................................Review Groovecube ALL RES UP(S) Pikohammer ATTACK +1 Globeball CRITICAL UP(XS) Violet Fungus PWR UP(S) Gogo Suit DEF UP(S) Rainbow Disk LIFE UP(S) Star Piece D RES UP(S) 3B. Mana Reviews ------------------------------------------------------------ Item........................................Review Dark Mana SPD UP (S) Black Mana MAGIC UP (S) Glowing Mana MAG CRIT UP (S) Red Mana F RES UP (S) Yellow Mana ALL RES UP (S) Green Mana LIFE UP (S) Blue Mana ELEMENTAL DAMAGE As a note ELEMENTAL DAMAGE gives multiple attacks, one for each element. In many cases a monster might absorb one attack, but take substantial damage from the others. ============================================================ 4. Things I need for this FAQ to Grow If you know of something I've missed, or should include, write me some email! Yes, if you do, and I use what you send me, your name WILL be used in the FAQ. See the email address at the top for information. ============================================================ 5. Resources and Notes There are two excellent general Atelier Iris 2 FAQS that are worth your time and attention. The first is the FAQ of Pleinair and also the FAQ of Cyril (i.e. fallenangelcyril). These are excellent general purpose resources for the game. Pleinair goes into a fair amount of depth on the Cure Jar/Yugdore Water loops, the Pendulum/Red Crystal loop, and points out the ability to use the Eden Outfit/Silver Armor loop to bring Mana reviews into dresswear. I'm using as an outline my older Atelier Iris FAQ. If the words look similar, then that is why. ============================================================ 6. About the Author I'm male, in my 40s. I have a bachelors in Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry from Rice University that I don't use much anymore. Still, the education was worth the trip, in a Bull Durham kind of way. I write these things largely to help me understand the game I play. I do believe if you can explain a topic to mostly anyone, then you have a shot at explaining it to yourself. Or so the logic goes. I have written two FAQs that have been well received, legend_of_mana_tempering.txt. eternal_mana_weapons_synthesis.txt The editor I use then and now is vim.