La Pucelle: Tactics Item/Item Fusion FAQ 0.2: By: Dustin Perrault (Wakuseino) Table of Contents: I: Introduction and Acknowledgements Ii: General Introduction Iii: Help Wanted Iiii: Contact Information Iiv: Intellectual Property Agreement (Hey, it had to be somewhere) Iv: Version Information Ivi: To be Completed/Coming Soon Ivii: More Legal Jargon II: An Introduction to Item Fusion III: Item Levels Proper Fusion Example 1 (Figure 1) Proper Fusion Example 2 (Figure 2) Proper Fusion Example 3 (Figure 3) Proper Fusion Example 4 (Figure 4) IV: Aspect Absorption IVi: The Basics of Aspect Absorption IVii: Mathematical process for Aspect Absorption IViii: Raise Stat Items V: Levelling Up Items Vi: Important Note on Stats: IVii: Mathematical process for Aspect Absorption VI: Monsters VIi: The Stat-Killing Phenomena VII: Mathematics, Sorted Individually VIIi: Aspect Absorption Order VIIii: Aspect Absorption Formulas VIII: Glossary of Terms I: Introduction and Acknowledgements Ii: General Introduction First, as this is our very first version, and I did this largely on my own, there aren't a whole lot of aknowledgments. Anyways, the item fusion aspect of the game is one of the more fun aspects of the game, probably because I find the concept of sending monsters to fight for the very demons you should be fighting. From what I can tell, there are several variables that affect the stat boosts, though it can be broken down into several basic pieces. However, I don't really know how long this FAQ will be... Well, if I'm going to acknowledge anyone, I might as well acknowledge another one of the FAQ writers, The Crimson Phantom, who accidentally inspired me to write this... in fact, I still don't know how he inspired me to, but he did, so eh. Anyways, I'm going here for the same sizes here, too. That is to say, 79 characters a line. Oh, right. Let's not forget d a r q, from the forum. He's my competitor for this spot... or maybe I'm imagining things. I can never tell. Anyways, this is my first FAQ, so I apologize for not having fancy ASCII or anything here. Right now, I'm writing this up in notepad with Word Wrap active... this is going to severely hurt when I turn it off, but that's not important at the moment. As a final note, as I go through version two in a Word document, I'm examining things line by line to make sure nothing's over 79 characters per line... it's going to take a while. Iii: Help Wanted Ok, what we really need to complete all this is verification of the order in which aspects are absorbed, strategies for levelling up items, strategies for capturing and levelling up all those weapons of mass destruction we call "demons". Of course, if anyone finds any enormous errors in this, it would be appreciated if you would tell me as well. Also, I could also use help figuring out what level the "max. four aspects/item" thing goes away. Iiii: Contact Information First off, if anyone wants to contact me about this FAQ, whether it's to help out, or ask questions, or whatever, email me at NYANYA!hikarofan@hotmail.com. Just...make sure to remove everything before the exclamation mark and the exclamation mark itself before sending the e-mail ok? It's Spam protection... maybe... though if some guy with the e-mail address NYANYA!hikarofan@hotmail.com gets spammed to death, I'm not taking responsibility. Heck, if someone really DOES have an address like that, I'D like to spam them, just to see why they chose such a silly account name. Iiv: Intellectual Property Agreement Reprinting this is pretty much ok with me. Heck, if you really want to, you could put it in a magazine or whatever and sell it, I really don't care... just give me a little thing of credit, or at least tell me where you're putting it. I'd prefer not to find out by accident that I'm somewhere I didn't know about, and I'm sure everyone who writes these things feels the same... I wrote this supporting the concept of this being in the public domain, and thus under the scrutiny of pretty much everyone... and again, I could care less whether or not you're making money off of it, I just like to know WHERE THE HECK MY STUFF IS. If I knew where my stuff was all the time, I think I'd be much happier... and I'd spend all my time reading instruction manuals, but that's another story altogether. Oh, right. I guess I should say "don't change it or re-format it without telling me either", so... don't change it or re-format it without telling me first either, ok? Let me re-phrase this to make it this much easier: Before you put this thing anywhere on the net, you have to tell me first, and wait for my confirmation. If this thing appears in more places than GameFAQs.com, I'll also supply a list of sites which are "authorized" to have this FAQ on it... Though again, that basically just means that they talked to me before putting it up. Iv: Version Information Version 0.1: Pretty much have the framework done, missing sections having to do with monsters. Chose 0.1 because there's no way I'm doing 100 versions of this before having reaching 1, and having it at 0.1 gives me ten chances to get this thing right before reaching 1. Version 0.2: That is correct! I've managed to use up one of my chances before it's been uploaded for the first time! I blame the whale that ate my head in the Dark World. Anyways, one of the parts of the monster section is completed, with an explanation taken from my notes. Mind you, it IS just based on one experiment, so if anyone else wants to experiment on it to see if I'm right too, feel free! Also, got rid of a few of the conclusions I jumped to ahead of time. They were proven wrong, if you haven't guessed. Ivi: To be Completed/Coming Soon Monsters: How to capture Monsters: Training Tactics Monsters: Netherworld Survivor Aspect Order: Yellow's Position Aspect Order: White's Position Aspect Order: Movement's Position Aspect Order: Special Aspects Item Levels: Maximum Aspect Absorption, by Level Ranges Ivii: More Legal Jargon Just to be on the safe side, I might as well place this in. Why? Because I don't want to make an enemy of anyone who is willing to publish/create games like La Pucelle. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. II: An Introduction to Item Fusion IIi: A quick introduction: Item Fusion is done at the ever useful Rosenqueen store, from the cloaked figure. Supposedly, the item fusion is a reward for giving them some monsters to help them take over Hell... err... the Netherworld... err... the Dark World. Of course, for our point of view, we might as well look at it more as selling a monster to fuse items together. Now, there are three requirements to start up item fusion: 1: A Monster (Of course) 2: 1 Item of at least Level 2 3: 1 Item of at least Level 1 To perform item fusion, you place the item of Level two or more in the upper-most slot. This will be your "base item". The item which will be created will be a Level 0 variation of the base item, with the fused stats added into the base stats. Any items afterwards will be absorbed in the order of position, going down. IIii: Why fuse items, anyways? Actually, this is a good question. I mean, why bother going through all the trouble of levelling up items, capturing and levelling up monsters, only to lose them all so that you can have an item that isn't really as powerful as the two combined? The answer of course is one of the following options: A: You're obsessive and want to make your own weapons of ultimate mass destruction, rather than just use what comes along B: You don't want to waste all that money on Rosenqueen buying expensive weapons and armor: Just on hundreds of cheap Change-Ups and occasionally buying up a cheap weapon or two when you run out C: You just really REALLY want to say "HA! I BEAT THE BOSS OF THE GAME USING NOTHING BUT ONE ITEM, WHICH I STARTED THE GAME WITH!" and be telling the truth. Let's face it, all of them are good reasons, in my opinion. But let's face it, haven't we all always dreamt of being able to do what C says? Maybe that's just me... of course, I've always had a habit of writing down numbers in games at times... you should see some of the data I have floating around somewhere on this PC for Digimon World 2. Anyways, off with my rambling, and on to the first section! III: Item Levels Item Levels would appear to be one of the most important variables to keep in mind. The item level determines how many "aspects" can be gathered, along with the maximum number of aspects absorbable from one item. I'm still trying to figure this out, but with low-level items you may come across a point in time wherein a maximum absorbable aspects rule may be imposed. It appears to go away after a bit of item levelling, so somehow Item Level plays a part in that. An Item level of 3 means up to three aspects can be absorbed, or it can absorb up to three aspects, based on its position. With this in mind, One would ideally have your Base item to be at least Level 12, and all other items equipped at least Level 4. Of course, to make things easier, I'll draw up a few examples. All of these will show the ideal minimum level for the combination, based on the number of aspects on the equipment. Personally, I would suggest having a minimum of Level 3 for your base item before performing item fusion, and the examples will keep this in mind. Also, I can't say that I've actually seen an item with only one aspect, and once again, the examples will reflect this. Proper Fusion Example 1 (Figure 1) Slot 1: Base Item: Level 3, 9 Aspects Slot 2: Item 2: Level 2, 2 Aspects Slot 3: Empty Slot 4: Empty Here we have a basic set up... I would call this the minimalist aspect. This one shows the minimum possible amount of absorbable aspects. You'll notice that the Base Item's level is actually above the other levels. This doesn't actually account for anything, but I noticed that the aspects don't seem to get fully absorbed when the Base Item is on Level 2. Thus, I would always go for Level 3 for the Base Item. Proper Fusion Example 2 (Figure 2) Slot 1: Base Item: Level 6, 7 Aspects Slot 2: Item 2: Level 2, 2 Aspects Slot 3: Item 3: Level 2, 2 Aspects Slot 4: Item 4: Level 2, 2 Aspects Of course, this is what would probably be considered to be your average Item Fusion. Unless you specifically choose items with elemental effects, it'll usually wind up around 2-3 aspects. Now, with three items with two aspects, you want the Base Item's level to add up to the amount of Aspects you're trying to absorb. By the same token, you'll want the Levels of the items which will be fused into the Base Item to match the amount of Aspects on the item. Proper Fusion Example 3 (Figure 3) Slot 1: Base Item: Level 8, 5 Aspects Slot 2: Item 2: Level 2, 2 Aspects Slot 3: Item 3: Level 4, 4 Aspects Slot 4: Item 4: Level 2, 2 Aspects Why did I include this example? This is more or less to show that really, the order you put them in shouldn't affect the abilities you get, so long as the Level of the Base item is at the very least the sum of the amount of aspects you're trying to gather. Proper Fusion Example 4 (Figure 4) Slot 1: Base Item: Level 12, 2 Aspects Slot 2: Item 2: Level 4, 4 Aspects Slot 3: Item 3: Level 4, 4 Aspects Slot 4: Item 4: Level 4, 4 Aspects Now, you'll notice that with all of these, the Base Item has a different number of Aspects. The Base Item's current Aspects have no effect on what it can absorb whatsoever. IV: Aspect Absorption: IVi: The Basics of Aspect Absorption With all this mentioning of Aspects, it has to be mentioned what they are and how they work, right? Well, what I call an aspect is a statistical trait about the weapon, like it gives you 28 Speed upon being worn, or it gives statistical experience boosts, or has an element color. Thus, pretty much everything except the Level and the experience a weapon has is an aspect. There is a simple pattern for the order in which aspects are absorbed, going as follows. Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 What I mean by this is that before all the details about the stats are calculated, it isolates each item which will be added to the fusion, starting from the one in the second slot and working its way down. I'm sure you'll notice a very similar chart below this: HP: SP: ATK INT DEF SPD HIT RES Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Light Blue HP+ SP+ ATK+ INT+ DEF+ SPD+ HIT+ RES+ This is the order in which aspects of an item are absorbed, as well as a bad drawing of the statistics of an item. Note however, that this diagram is incomplete. There will be another variation of this chart later on in the FAQ, for easy access in future updates. For now though, take note that I am not sure on the order of Yellow, White, and Movement. White and Yellow undoubtedly fit into the elemental section, but I don't know precisely where, so I'll leave that blank for the time being. Finally, special aspects of items come last. By special aspects, I'm referring to things like "Poison", "Exp Up" and "Purify", which show up one a few weapons. I haven't got a precise order figured out for them yet, partly because I haven't gotten them all yet, but once I do those will be updated into the list as well. IVii: Mathematical process for Aspect Absorption Ok, this section can be split into two separate areas: Physical aspects and others. As far as I can tell, all aspects except those that directly affect stats (ie: ATK, DEF) give the aspect completely to the new item. However, physical aspects work differently. With physical aspects, the amount added to the new item is half of the base stat of the fused item. In other words, if an Ice Staff and its SP: 2 aspect were absorbed, the new item would have 1 SP. Also, physical aspects with a where the base stat of the absorbed item is 1, does not give any boost at all, but it is still counted as an aspect regardless. IViii: Raise Stat Items I'm almost positive there's something special about these, but I'm still busily trying to figure out what it is. This section will be updated later! V: Levelling up Items Vi: Important Note on Stats: Make sure to keep in mind that stat growth on items from levelling does not affect the base stats. Vii: Basic Strategies for Levelling up items. There are a lot of strategies for creating a huge amount of experience for items, but most descend from Change-Ups. These things are really useful, as they allow you to create a perfect stream, which can go through the entire map in a perfect square, setting off all the others for a new chain... In addition, buying up enough Change-Ups to actually USE this strategy will net you a lot of chances to get the "wish" survey at Rosenqueen, which allows you to triple the experience gained for the next purification when you do... and when it's a miracle which activates all of the dark portals on the screen, which in turn create new miracles... you can quickly gain insane amounts of Item Experience, levelling up items quickly... assuming you don't mind working on placing all the Change-Ups correctly, and assuming you don't keep in mind the time wasted on actually positioning everything. VI: Monsters VIi: The Low-level Stat Killing Phenomena You might notice that occasionally when you're doing your item fusions, you're given the following message: "The character is weak, so items will be powered down." Now, checking out the forum, people have come to all sorts of conclusions about this, primarily assuming that it's based all around the level. However, I decided to some Math myself, using a fancy weapon I've been building up, which currently has high enough base stats to be brought down on a low level creature. For this experiment, I've used two creatures: 1 Level 2 Zombie 1 Level 1 Tiny Bat Their stats are as follows: Zombie: Lv. 2 HP: 29 SP: 5 ATK: 15 INT: 9 DEF: 5 SPD: 11 HIT: 12 RES: 2 Tiny Bat: Lv. 1 HP 13 SP: 6 ATK: 8 INT: 8 DEF: 4 SPD: 11 HIT: 11 RES: 2 The item is combined with a Level 2 Raise RES, boosting RES to 2 on the weapon. The stats for the weapon upon fusing based on the monster are as follows. Zombie: HP: 3 SP: 4 ATK: 9 INT: 9 DEF: 5 SPD: 1 HIT: 12 RES: 2 Tiny Bat HP: 3 SP: 4 ATK: 8 INT: 8 DEF: 4 SPD: 1 HIT: 11 RES: 2 Now, you'll notice that when the stats are brought down, they're brought down to a specific number: The exact stat the demon has. The highest number for an item created from fusing to have in one stat is in fact the same number the demon itself has without wearing armor. Another mystery solved! VII: Mathematics VIIi: Aspect Absorption Order (Incomplete) 01. HP 02. SP 03. ATK 04. INT 05. DEF 06. SPD 07, HIT 08. RES 09. Element Red * 10: Element Green * 11. Element Blue * 12. Element Purple * 13. Element Light Blue * 14: Stat Growth: HP 15: Stat Growth: SP 16: Stat Growth: ATK 17: Stat Growth: INT 18: Stat Growth: DEF 19: Stat Growth: SPD 20: Stat Growth: HIT 21: Stat Growth: RES * Note that you can only have up to four different elements on one item. Any different elements are ignored by the game once the first four are added to the item. VIIii: Aspect Absorption Calculations: BIA = Base Item Aspect AIA = Absorbed Item Aspect Physical Aspect: BIA at Lv. 0 = BIA at Lv. 0 + (1/2 AIA at Lv. 0) Other Aspects: BIA = BIA + AIA VIII: Glossary of Terms Absorbed Item Aspect: This refers to the number used to represent the quantity of the aspect in question on the Absorbed Item. Aspect: Any attribute on an item which can be fused into another item Base Item Aspect: This refers to the number used to represent the quantity of the aspect in question on the Base Item. Physical Aspect: Any attribute on an item which directly affects stats. Note that this does not include stat growth attributes, but does include the special effects that are sometimes found on items. Copyright 2004 Dustin Perrault