Star Ocean: Till The End of Time Assault Magic FAQ 0.9 By Roger Pope, March 9, 2005 Table of Contents: I.....Intro II....What is Assault Magic? III...Sophia vs. Adray IV....Skills ->Basic Attacks ->Passive Battle Skills ->Support Skills ->Tactical Skills ->Assault Magic ->Active Battle Skills - Non magic ->Non-Assault Magic V.....General Setup ->What Spells should the AI be able to Cast? ->Skill Setup - Status ->Skill Setup - Tactics VI....Short Range Setups ->Stun Bomb + Short Major Sophia ->Ifrit Sophia ->Southern Cross Adray ->Southern Cross Sophia VII...Long Range Setups ->Flare Sophia ->Stun Sophia ->Flare Adray ->Tactics - Setting and Formation ->Tactics - Practice ->Full Active Mode VIII..Conclusion XV....Acknowledgements X.....Appendix ->Battle Skill Damage Comparisons ->Item Creation Primer ->Creating Factors ->About Decoys XI....Terms of Use Intro: What is Assault Magic? Assault magic is a player created term, which refers to those magic spells which can be set as battle skills. Using those spells as assault magic is vastly superior to just casting magic from the Symbology menu for two reasons. First, and most importantly, you are able to chain assault magic spells together for Cancel Bonuses, thereby doing considerably more damage. The Other benefit is that assault magic generally casts much more quickly that plain magic. Sophia vs. Adray: They are both required in your party, and the both have near identical spell lists, so why would you choose one over the other? If all you want the character to do is cast healing spells and maybe the occasional stat boosting spell, as I hear many people claiming is all they do with Sophia and Adray, then you're probably better off with Adray. He has more health than Sophia and his spell windups are significantly shorter. If you want use short range Assault magic, then you're probably better off with Adray for the same reasons, but in Addition, adray learns the most powerful short range assault magic, Southern Cross, much earlier than Sophia does. If you want to use long range Assault magic, which does more damage, stunlocks better, but it a little less fun, then Sophia is unquestionably better than Adray, because many of the better spells are not available to Adray in assault form. Adray has only two long range assault spells, Firebolt and Ice Needles, neither of which is exactly a powerhouse. Skills: Basic Attacks: Passive Battle Skills: These are skills that need to set in the battle skills menu. They add an effect to the basic attack they correspond to with a set probability, and nothing special needs to be done to activate them. Because these skills take Battle Skill Slots, they are counter-productive to use while employing an Assault magic strategy, but can still be useful to Sophia/Adray in special circumstances. Critical Hit - Sophia Level 24 - Adray Level 24 Requires 2 CP to Set Adds the chance that any hit dealt will do critical damage. Probability increases with proficiency. Not a worthless skill but is very outclassed by Increase HP Damage and Increase MP Damage. Increase HP Damage - Sophia Level 27 - Adray Level 27 Requires 4 CP to Set Adds 50% HP damage to every attack that this skill is set to. This skill always activates, and increases in damage rather than probability like the description says. Stun - Sophia Level 29 - Adray Level 29 Requires 2 CP to Set Adds the chance that any hit dealt will stun enemy. Probability increases with proficiency. Not very useful for Sophia or Adray. Increase MP Damage - Sophia Level 32 - Adray Level 32 Requires 4 CP to Set Adds 50% MP damage to every attack that this skill is set to. This skill always activates, and increases in damage rather than probability like the description says. This will also add a set amount of MP damage to attacks that otherwise do no MP damage. Fear - 2 CP - Sophia Level 36 - Adray Level 36 Requires 2 CP to Set Adds the chance that any hit dealt will make the enemy attack less. I have never used this skill, with any character. Support Skills: These are skills that must be set in the battle skills menu, and are always active once set. First Aid - Sophia Level 3 - Adray Start Requires 1 CP to set Whenever you take damage of any magnitude greater than zero, there is a chance to be healed for value equal to 20% of total HP. Probability ranges from 5% at level 1 to 10% at level 10. Usefulness of this skill is somewhat lost on Sophia, who will usually be at very long range. Standby Healing - Sophia Level 14 - Adray Start Requires 1 CP to set When not at full health character recovers a set amount of HP at intervals while not moving. Not a useful skill at any proficiency. Critical Hit HP - 2 CP - Sophia Level 22 - Adray Level 23 Requires 2 CP to set Adds a probability that any physical attack doing HP damage will be a critical hit (physical defined as one that is not a magic spell). This skill has no effect on physical MP damage. This is not the same skill as the Critical Hit passive skill. This skill stacks with all other skills, whereas the other was limited to the slot it was set to. This skill is very useful in certain circumstances. No Guard - Sophia Level 46 - Adray Level 46 Requires 5 CP to set Character will not be disturbed if s/he takes physical less than or equal to 1/15 of current HP. Extremely useful skill that's usefulness is once again lost on Sophia Quick Symbol - Learned from Brittle Tome Requires 3 CP to set Brittle Tome is authored by Sophia, Maria, Mirage and Osman for a difficulty of 100. Quick symbol allows spells to be cast in one half the time that they would otherwise require. This skill stacks with accessories that reduce casting time, so if Sophia had Quick Symbol and something with 1/2 casting time, the total casting time would be 1/4 of the standard casting time. Increase MP - Learned from is learned from Fading Tome, authored by Osman, for a difficulty of 99. Tactical Skills: These are skills that are either set tactical skill menu outside of battle, or used in the tactical skill menu in battle. I realize there are more skills she can learn through item creation, but I feel most of them are unnecessary for Sophia/Adray. Scan Enemy - Sophia Level 13 - Adray Level 42 Allows character to see current/maximum HP and MP of enemy, what enemy is strong/weak to, and what enemy can drop. Does not show HP/MP values of bosses. Taunt - Sophia Level 21 - Adray Level 20 Character says something to draw enemies' attention towards himself and hopefully away from another character. Not useful for Sophia as pretty much the only reason for any character to ever use taunt is to get an enemy off Sophia! Should you be using both Sophia and Adray, then you might have occasion to use it to protect Sophia. Berserk - Sophia Level 42 - Adray Level 35 Fury use is halved. Physical damage is up 30% and defense is lowered 30%. This skill is a must for Sophia. Convert Damage - Learned From Tattered Tome Convert Damage is learned from the Tattered Tome, authored by nearly all authors (Fayt can do it for you) at a difficulty of 40. What convert damage does is allows damage dealt to either HP or MP be diverted, depending on the setting. For Sophia, because of her low HP, you'll want to set this to Preserve HP, which means that every 7HP damage she would have taken is changed to 1 MP damage. This will roughly double the total damage she can take. This will still be an improvement for Adray, but not as much so. Assault Magic: This is what this guide is all about! These are spells that can be set as battle skills, which should be chained together for Cancel Bonuses. Assault Magic is a variation of normal attack magic, and using them as battle skills is preferable to casting them from the Symbology menu. Keep in mind that a spell cast as a strong skill will simply do 1.3 times the weak damage, which is the same as the Symbology menu damage. Sophia's repritoire of assault magic is much more vast than Adray's, and includes every assault spell that Adray has, so I'll be referencing her the default. If I put {Adray Level} in braces, that means he learns the spell at the specified level, but is unable to use it as Assault Magic. The expected damage info is taken from Echang's FAQ, but has been reinterpreted so hopefully it'll be easier to understand. Basically the damage done by every spell is the sum of three factors: INT * Multiplier Proficiency * Multiplier Innate Spell Constant So, without further adieu, here are the skills: Fire Bolt - Sophia Level 5 - Adray Start Requires 2 CP to set Fire Elemental MP-Minor: 10 MP-Major: 5% Fury Use: 20/42 Damage: (0.5I + 2.5P + 20)*n Fires 1-4 bolts towards target, depending on proficiency. Has homing capabilities, but can still miss. Ice Needles - Sophia Level 10 - Adray Start Requires 2 CP to set Water Elemental MP-Minor: 10 MP-Major: 5% Fury Use: 20/42 Damage: (0.3I + 4.5P + 15)*n Fires 5-10 icicles towards enemy, depending on proficiency, each with a chance to freeze the enemy. Can be used at long range, but loses much effectiveness. Lightning Blast - Sophia Level 15 - Adray Start Requires 3 CP to set Wind Elemental MP-Minor: 10 MP-Major: 5% Fury Use: 20/42 Damage: (0.4I + 10P + 8)x8 Fast, decent damage, but limited to close range. Earth Glaive - Sophia Level 19 - Adray Start Requires 3 CP to Set Earth Elemental MP-Minor: 10 MP-Major: 5% Fury Use: 20/42 Damage: (0.5I + 8P + 30)*3 Fast, decent damage, but limited to close range. Efreet- Sophia Level 25 - {Adray Level 21} Requires 5 CP to set Fire Elemental MP-Minor: 35 MP-Major: 8% Fury Use: 30/60 Damage: (0.4I + 70P + 70)*4 Rather damaging spell when first aquired. Affects large area in front of caster, but limited to short range. I don't understand why Adray doesn't learn this in Assault form, as it seems more consistant with his other skills than it does Sophia's. Thunderflare - Sophia Level 30 - {Adray Level 27} Requires 4 CP to set Wind Elemental MP-Minor: 40 MP-Major: 8% Fury Use: 30/60 Damage: (0.4I + 12P + 5)*5 The best stunlocking spell in the game, and the core of the Stun Sophia strategy. The expected damage reflects the big hits, but there are several weak hits in between each big hit, although the damage is negligible. Deep Freeze - Level 35 - {Adray Level 30} Requires 6 CP to set Water Elemental MP-Minor: 80 MP-Major: 10% Fury Use: 30/60 Damage: (0.4I + 45P + 150)*4 The only Assault magic I ever recommend casting from the symbology menu. Has a good chance of freezing enemies, thus is good for shatter skills. Dark Sphere - Sophia Level 40 - {Adray Level 35} Requires 8 CP to set Non-Elemental MP-Minor: 200 MP-Major: 8% Fury Use: 40/70 No Damage This spell has a chance of instantly killing enemy, but I don't feel it's useful at all, since any enemy that could be killed by it would be faster killed by other spells. Stone Rain - Sophia Level 45 - {Adray Level 42} Requires 5 CP to set Earth Elemental MP-Minor: 80 MP-Major: 10% Fury Use: 40/72 Damage: (0.5I + 30P + 150)*6 A decently damaging skill that stunlocks pretty well. It can be a decent alternative spell in for the Stun Sophia Strategy. Unfortunately lots of enemies seem to be immune to earth. Explosion - Sophia Level 50 - {Adray Level 45} Requires 7 CP to set Fire Elemental MP-Minor: 300 MP-Major: 10% Fury Use: 40/72 Damage: (0.5I + 250P + 200)*5/2 + (0.5I + 250P + 200)*5 This is the most damaging skill in the game, with decent stunlocking potential and the core of the Flare Sophia strategy. Laser Beams - Sophia Level 54 - {Adray Level 54} Requires 7 CP to set Non-Elemental MP-Minor: 150 MP-Major: 12% Fury Use: 40/72 Damage: (0.5I + 100P + 200) * 6 Pretty good non-elemental damage with a rather long windup. Lightning Strike - Sophia Level 60 - {Adray Level 57} Requires 8 CP to set Wind Elemental MP-Minor: 300 MP-Major: 12% Fury Use: 50/86 Damage: (0.5I + 12P + 350)*8 Rather weak spell considering MP and CP use, but stunlocks rather well. Southern Cross - Sophia From Scroll - Adray Level 40 Requires 6 CP to set Non-Elemental MP-Minor: 120 MP-Major: 8% Fury Use: 30/60 Damage: (0.5I + 25P + 200)*6 + (MP Damage = 0.16*HP Damage) This is one of the best Assault spells that Adray can learn, and a decent reason to choose him over Sophia, who must learn this from Puzzling Scroll. (Puzzling scrolls is found on floor 108 of Sphere 211.) This is one of the few spells that does MP damage. Affects large area around caster. Limited to Short Range. Blood Scylla - Sophia From Scroll - {No Adray} Requires 7 CP to set Non-elemental MP-Minor: 300 MP-Major: 12% Fury Use: 40/72 Damage: (0.4I + 20P + 320)*3 + (MP Damage = 0.35*HP Damage) Must be learned from Abstruse Scroll, found on floor 1 of the Maze of Tribulations. Drains enemy HP/MP to heal Sophia. Affects very large area around caster. More effective at short range, but still very usable at long range. Gremlins - Sophia from Scroll - {No Adray} Requires 6 CP to set Earth Elemental MP-Minor: 50 MP-Major: 6% Fury Use: 30/60 Damage: (0.3I + 15P + 120)*n + (MP Damage = 0.2*HP Damage) Must be learned from Recondrite Scroll, found on floor 209 of Sphere 211. Summons 6-10 critters to attack enemy once, depending on proficiency. Potential usefulness is greatly reduced by the fact that it is learned so late, and that it is earth elemental. Meteor Swarm - Sophia From Scroll - {No Adray} Requires 10 CP to set - Limited to Strong Skill Slots Fire Elemental MP-Minor: -- MP-Major: 15% Fury Use: --/96 Damage: (0.5I + 350P + 300)*(3n) Sophia's "Ultimate" Skill. Must be learned from Profound Scroll, found on floor 210 of Sphere 211. Summons 12+ meteors to strike random locations on the battle field, number of meteors increases with proficiency. You can probably expect that any one enemy will be struck by 3-5 meteors per swarm, and that each meteor will hit 3 times. Does incredible damage by itself, but it consumes so much CP and Fury that it can only be chained with Firebolt, which is not impressive. Overall, Explosion -> Explosion chains are much more useful than Firebolt -> Meteor Swarm chains. This skill was fire elemental in the original version, then non-elemental in the Directors cut, then made fire- elemental again in the NA/PAL releases. Active Battle Skills - Non Magic: These refer to the physical skills that characters learn that have nothing to with magic. They are based off of physical attack power rather than INT, but are still chainable with Assault magic. *Exapanded Info Coming Soon* Pure Spells: These are spells that can only be cast from the Symbology menu. Even though these spells are the opposite of Assault Magic, I'm including them for thoroughness. You must have the requisite fury in order for the spell to besuccessfully cast. Unfortunately, the game will allow you to attempt to cast a spell when you don't have enough fury. When this happens, you will simply see a "Miss" and no MP will be drained, but you will have still lost the time it took you to cast. Healing - 20 MP - Sophia Level 3 - Adray Start Basic healing spell. Good healing at low proficiency and only gets better. Antidote - 10 MP - Sophia Level 4 - Adray Start Cures poison. Enough Said Silence - 10 MP- Sophia Level 5 - Adray Start Prevents enemy from casting spells. Kinda useful, but not very. Acid Rain - 15 MP - Sophia Level 12 - Adray Level 19 Lowers enemy defense. The only place I can think of where this would be really useful is in the Urssa Laval Caves, where the enemies have ridiculous defense compared to your attack power. Protection - 30 MP - Sophia Level 17 - Adray Level 23 Raises defense by 50% for about 60 sec. Duration goes up with proficiency. Very useful spell. Cure Condition - 15 MP - Sophia Level 20 - Adray Level 29 It's like an uber antidote. Restoration - 60 MP - Sophia Level 22 - Adray Level 32 Raises incapacitated ally. Restores little HP/MP in the process, but improves with proficiency. Power Up - 30 MP - Sophia Level 25 - Adray Level 25 Raises attack by 50% for about 60 sec. Duration goes up with proficiency. Useful in the main game, but has no effect once characters obtain maximum attack. Crush - 25 MP - Sophia Level 29 - {No Adray} Damages enemy. Only damaging spell that Sophia cannot set as assault magic, thus making it worthless. Faerie Light - 40 MP - Sophia Level 32 - Adray Level 37 Heals all allies. Amount healed is much less than with the heal spell, but good when everyone needs healing. Reflection - 20 MP - Sophia Level 37 - Adray Level 39 Cuts magic damage in half, lasts about 60 seconds. Decent spell, but there are usually better ways of preventing magic damage, such as wearing a Blazing Pendant. Gravitation - 30 MP - Sophia Level 47 - Adray Level 48 Slows enemy movement and occasionally disrupts enemy action in a large area. Not incredibly useful, but handy if the enemy is immune to the spell element you have set. Angel Feather - 30 MP - Sophia Level 57 - Adray Level 60 Raises all stats by 20%. Generally speaking, much inferior to Protection and Power Up, though could be useful on higher difficulties to improve HIT, thus less enemy parries. General Setup: What Spells should the AI be able to Cast? In order to get the most out of your mages while AI controlled, you need to prevent them from casting extraneous spells from the Symbology menu, thus forcing them to use their Battle Skill Spells (aka, the Assault Magic). The only spells you want enabled are: Healing Antidote Silence Protection Cure Condition Restoration Fairie Light Deep Freeze (depending) Gravitation (depending) Deep Freeze is nice for the shatter kills. It's your call as to whether or not you enable it. Gravitation is a nice spell when enemies are immune to the spells she has set. Once again, it's your call as to whether or not to want to use it. Skill Setup - Status: I'll come out and say it up front: THE AI TRAINING FAQ IS WRONG THE AI TRAINING FAQ IS WRONG THE AI TRAINING FAQ IS WRONG THE AI TRAINING FAQ IS WRONG THE AI TRAINING FAQ IS WRONG There is no reason whatsoever for any character to not have an attack rating of 10. There is arguably reason to let defense lag, but all characters, ESPECIALLY SOPHIA AND ADRAY, want a high attack rating to get the most out of Cancel Combos. Having a high attack rating does not make them run into the melee. They'll find a way to do that regardless of their attack rating. Bump their HP/MP/Defense up to 10 also. Skill Setup - Tactics: Berserk is on. Whether you like it or not, it's on. Her AAA doesn't really matter. Ideally she's staying out of the fray so it's irrelevant. You might also want to include Convert Damage, set to preserve HP. This makes it so she's a little more likely to survive in the event she is smacked around. Short Range Setups: You'll want Sophia/Adray to have the right weapon setup, which will generally be the first thing covered. I assume you know how item creation works. If you don't you can check my appendix (which has a crash course to IC), or check another FAQ. Please don't email me about IC general questions. I cover the specifics of Item Creation for in great detail later in the appendix, so don't worry if you don't know where a certain factor comes from. Stun Bomb + Short Major Sophia: This really isn't "Assault Magic" But it's handy info regardless. This "strategy" was originally developed for aquireing the "Defeat Luther at Level 1" Battle trophy. What you do it take a Laser Weapon, and load it up with 8 (ATT +500) factors from Orichalcum (see the appendix on how to make orichalcum), or you could go all out and use the Imposing Scroll won from the battle arena so they're (ATT +1000) factors. Once you have your weapon, go into battle with some 20-40 stun bombs. Your formation should be loose line and all characters should be set on manual. As soon as the battle starts use a stun bomb on the enemy. Run Sophia over to the enemy and position her in close/mid-range, and use her short major attack. Now switch to another character and use another stun bomb. If you timed this right, the item timer will have just worn off after the second hit from Sophia's staff has hit, thus you can keep the enemy perpetually stunned, meanwhile sophia is dishing out major damage. You can use this strategy on Luther and Gabriel, getting the time related trophies and the no damage trophies at the same time, but I wouldn't try it on any other post game bosses. Ifrit Sophia: *Exapanded Info Coming Soon* Southern Cross Adray: *Exapanded Info Coming Soon* Southern Cross Sophia: *Exapanded Info Coming Soon* Long Range Setups: There are basically two ways to go about making Sophia really effective in Long Range Applications. Adray doesn't get very effective long Range. You can go the Flare route, or the Stun Route. With Stun Sophia, you're using Thunderflare, Lightning Strike, and/or Stone Rain to keep the enemies stunlocked as much as possible and to prevent as many enemy attacks as possible. With Flare Sophia, you're chaining Explosion for major damage. Explosion does more damage against an enemy strong against Fire than the non- elemental Laser Beams does to that same enemy; explosion is also better at stunlocking, making it definitively better than Laser Beams. As with short range setups, in long range setups... You'll want Sophia/Adray to have the right weapon setup, which will generally be the first thing covered. I assume you know how item creation works. If you don't you can check my appendix (which has a crash course to IC), or check another FAQ. Please don't email me about IC general questions. I cover the specifics of Item Creation for in great detail later in the appendix, so don't worry if you don't know where a certain factor comes from. Flare Sophia: Adept Staff: ->INT +1000 ->INT +1000 ->INT +1000 ->INT +1000 ->INT +1000 ->6% MP recovery at intervals during battle ->-3 Fury use ->+50% damage for fire-based spells Accessory: Bangle of Intellect (Fully Refined) Accessory: Varies Skills: Short X: None Long X: Explosion Short O: None Long O: Explosion This setup will not maximize her intelligence initially, but it will eventually max out in her later levels... around level 220. Just a little historical note, previously I recommended using 4 (INT +1000) factors and a (+30% INT Increase) factor, but I did the math, and it turns out that 5 (INT +1000) will max your INT a few levels earlier. It should be noted that magic damage, especially Explosion, is heavily influenced by proficiency, thus missing a few points of INT isn't too great a sacrifice. Your first Accessory will be a Bangle of Intellect, which has (+30% INT increase) and (30% INT increase). I'm not entirely sure what difference the "+" makes in that factor, but from what I've observed, the combined effect is really close to 60%, so it's a moot point anyways. Your varied accessory will be a fully refined Ring of Mental Power (6% MP Regen), a Victory Trophy (6% MP Regen, 1/2 casting time, -2 Fury), or an appropriately refined Blazing Pendant (Earth and Wind HP absorb). The reasons to use a Ring of Mental Power or a Victory Trophy are obvious enough, as they let you keep casting Explosion without resorting to Mental Enhancers; the Victory Trophy just has more perks but is harder to get than a Ring of Mental Power, and there is only one in the game. The Blazing Pendant is necessary to get the No-Damage Trophy against post game bosses Lenneth and Freya. Both of these bosses cast Stone Rain and Lightning Strike and your chances of not being hit are really slim, so the blazing pendant nulls the damage while keeping you on the track for no damage. Additionally, you might consider making your varied accessory a Wind Ring, because occasionally you may want to go the Stun Route, and make use of the stunlocking power of Thunderflare, even if your setup is primarily for Explosion. When you do use Thunderflare, you're not going much damage, but an extra 50% damage can always help... I just don't feel that it's important enough to make it a permanent part of her weapon. Stun Sophia: Adept's Staff: ->+1000 INT ->+1000 INT ->+1000 INT ->+1000 INT ->(Variable) ->6% MP Recovery ->-3 Fury use ->+50% Wind (or Earth) Damage Accessory: Bangle of Intellect (refined) Accessory: Varies Skill Setups: Pure Stunning: Short X: None Long X: Thunderflare Short O: None Long O: Thunderflare Support 1: Quick Symbol Support 2: Increase MP Stunning with Damage: Short X: None Long X: Lightning Strike Short O: None Long O: Thunderflare Support 1: Quick Symbol Support 2: None Stunning with Stone Rain: Short X: None Long X: Stone Rain Short O: None Long O: Stone Rain Support 1: Quick Symbol Support 2: None You can really go several different ways with this and everyone has their own opinions, but this is the way I would set up a Stun Sophia, though I personally prefer a Flare Sophia. Your varied weapon factor is going to be either INT +1000 or 1/2 Casting Time. What it boils down to which do you prefer while you're wearing a Blazing Pendant during the Lenneth/Freya fights: 1/2 casting time or max int? I would choose the 1/2 casting time myself, as the hit to your int won't be too bad, and 1/2 casting time can come in really handy. When you're not fighting those two, your varied accessory should be a Victory Trophy to compliment INT +1000, or another Bangle of Intellect to compliment 1/2 casting Time, whichever you have on your weapon. If you're going the Lightning Strike route, you need Lightning strike on weak in order to pull off a 250% Cancel Combo. And just in case you're wondering, yes 1/2 casting time and quick symbol do indeed stack, for a net casting time of 1/4. Stone Rain is like a halfway point between explosion and thunderflare. It stuns better than explosion, but not as well as Thunderflare, or even lightning strike. It does have an advantage over thunderflare, however, that one Stone Rain bleeds into the next, like explosions do, and it does more damage than even LS -> TF. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of non-boss enemies (and probably a few bosses) are Earth Absorbing, thus I can't whole heartedly advise you go the Stone Rain route, unless you're just doing it for fun, and know the limitations. Flare Adray *Exapanded Info Coming Soon* Tactics - Setting and Formation Sophia's AI is best set on "Concentrate on Healing/Recovery". It's even more effective than Concentrate on attacking. I don't know why, but that just seems to be the way it is. You want the formation to be Loose Line (Sophia at the bottom of the screen), Guard, or Escape, depending on the situation. Loose Line most useful when leveling or getting money when you're fighting the same enemy repetitively and you know that she'll be farthest away from enemies in that position and the other characters will be very close in those positions. Guard and Escape are used under the notion that the other two characters will intercept enemies leaving her to cast at will. Escape is preferable when both character are short-range fighters. Guard is preferable when one or both characters are long-range fighters or have skills set such that they are intended as long-range fighters. Tactics - Practice Against general enemies, set the formation as you see fit and have at it. There is really nothing special to worry about. Against bosses on the other hand... You pretty much have to rely on making the action happen in one corner of the arena, and setting Sophia in the opposite corner. If you're controlling Sophia, your other characters must be able act as decoys. This means being able to stay alive for about one minute by themselves without your intervention. Having high defense layered with the Protection spell is a good way to go. Your Formation is going to be Escape. Start off the Battle with all your characters set to Manual, and Sophia should be wearing a pair of Bunny Shoes. Have one of the other characters use taunt, then hold out until the boss moves towards you. Once the boss is within attacking range, use a stun bomb, and have Sophia start running to the opposite corner. When she is able halfway across the battlefield, turn your other characters off manual. Get to the other end of the battlefield, and equip whatever it was you took off to wear Bunny Shoes. At this point you get to start bombarding with Explosions, Thunderflares, and Lightning Strikes like a madwoman. You can control other characters for short periods of time but don't do if for too more than a few seconds at a time (preferable right after she's started a combo), because she is kinda stupid and tends to run in with manual attacks when it's not needed. Full Active Mode: If you happen to unlock Full Active mode, you can do even more damage by starting with a weak attack, then starting the cancel chain at 175% rather than 100%. This means your final spell will be at 300%. To do this, you'll need a total of -4 fury reduction. I recommend you get it from the -3 built into your Staff and the -2 from Victory trophy. Also, you might as well ditch the Blazing Pendant and live with taking damage from Freya and Lenneth, as if you've unlocked FAM, you probably already got those trophies. Conclusion: Well, that's about it. I think I've covered all the basics. If nothing else, I hope I've convinced you that Sophia (and magic in general) is not as totally worthless as it first appears to the casual observer. I would like to include in my thanks the author of the original "Abusing Sophia Guide on 4D" so if you know who that was, let me know. Contact Information: I can be reached via email at sifian42@yahoo.com. Please use a subject line that explicitly refers to this guide. Acknowledgements: Tri-Ace for making the game Square-Enix for publishing the game GameFAQs, for being a great repository of knowledge and a gather point for like minded people. AIex, for the IC tables that helped me immensely. randomstuff, for the incredicle item creation calculator Ladysoalluring, Kaiyan Wang, Marty81 and Hotaru, for all the feedback they gave me while writing this guide. Appendix: Battle Skill Damage Comparisons: Here is how the damage of some of Sophia's Better spells stack up. This is totally based off of 9999 INT and max proficiency. The numbers given is the sum total of the expected damage done by a cancel combo chain, starting from 100% and chaining up to 250% (300% in the case of TF->TF). The first list is what can be expected against an average enemy. The second is the what can be expected against an enemy strong to the element in question, but you're using an accessory that increases spell damage of that type by 50%. Raw Damage Comparisons Thunderflare -> Thunderflare: 175811 -> 237680 Ltn.Strike -> Thunderflare: 245210 Stone Rain -> Stone Rain: 278742 Laser Beams -> Laser Beams: 317104 Explosion -> Explosion: 492287 Damage to Enemy Strong to Element + 50% damage Thunderflare -> Thunderflare: 131858 -> 178260 Ltn.Strike -> Thunderflere: 183907 Stone Rain -> Stone Rain: 209056 Laser Beams -> Laser Beams: 317104 Explosion -> Explosion: 369215 This would mean that it would take Sophia 162 chains to whittle down 4D Freya's HP. At roughly 2 chains per minute that would be 81 min. It took me about 30 min to kill 4d Freya, meaning that Sophia probably did on the order of 3/8 of the total damage, my maria did 5/8, and my third character was a dummy character who helped out more by being kept alive doing nothing than he did on auto. Item Creation Primer: This is not supposed to a full item creation FAQ, but rather a primer to help you with a few things I mentioned in the guide. Your best general resources on item creation are: Item Creation FAQ - by A I e x (general info) Item Refining FAQ - by Demonfayt (descriptions of items and how they refine) Item Creation Calculator - www.crashedweb.com/so3 Once you unlock the use of workshops, you can do item creation. Original creation creates new items based on price, and requires nothing but time and money to do. When doing original invention you will see a progress and quality meter. Progress is the current progress on one item. Quality refers to how well your characters are working. It will decrease with each iteration and the likelihood of creating another item successfully also goes down. Specify plan will refine certain factors and requires materials corresponding to the type of item creation you wish to do. Synthesis requires synthesis materials and is used to transfer properties from one item onto a weapon. You can see if a you have had any success based on the character's reactions. Happy = Success, Sad = Failure. To get items created through original creation, you must request submission. To get specify plans to work, you simply wait until you get a notice that item creation is complete (but don't let your money or quality run out or you'll get nothing). Creating Factors: It's not entirely obvious where the various factors needed on Sophia's weapon come from, so I'll explain the easiest way to get each. I'm assuming you understand the basics of item creation and synthesis, and that you also know where to get all the inventors. If you don't, please refer to item creation guide by A I e x. Just a note, the teams I suggest are not picked for their high creation skill, but rather to eliminate overlap. I advise you use them, because while it may be harder to make an item, you'll be saved much frustration by not making heaps of items you don't need. I would also like to add that pretty much all of this info is taken directly from the item creation guide, by A I e x, and from the item creation calculator, by randomstuff. -->Adept Staff While not exactly a factor, this is the best base weapon for Sophia, as it has all 8 factor-spaces free, and it gives an innate INT boost. It can be purchased from the Retail Rabbit in western Peterny, or Rumina and Ruddle in NW Aquios. The retail rabbit only stocks the Adept staff on disc 2, and requires that you speak to him less than 3 times in disc 1. The Rumina and Ruddle shop is available only after returning from Sphere 211, and is inside of what appears to be a private residence. -->+1000 INT This factor is derived from the Dark Crystal, which is created by alchemy exclusively by Ansala. The best team for this is: Ansala + Misty Lear + Sophia at 3340-3390 The factor on the Dark Crystal is +500 INT, which needs to be refined. You can choose to refine it directly via alchemy, or you can synth it onto the weapon in unrefined form and refine via smithery. I prefer the latter, as you can refine multiple factors at a time that way. One last note is that when synthesizing, you MUST synthesize for only one pass of the synthesis, because you don't want the second factor on the crystal, Chaos (attack Effect). +1000 INT does not duplicate, so you must do a separate synthesis for every +1000 INT that you want. -->+30% INT Increase This factor comes from a refined Bangle of Intellect. There is a very good chance that this has already been invented by the time you're ready to settle down and make Sophia's weapon, so check the invention list first. If it hasn't been invented, I recommend you use one of the following teams, in order of best ability to least. Aqua & Evia + Peppita + Roger at 331-365 Aqua & Evia + Cliff + Roger at 304-334 Aqua & Evia + Cliff + Adray at 386-426 Beware of item overlap on the edges. Yes, I know how badly Cliff and Adray suck a crafting, but these teams eliminate all items with values identical to the Bangle of Intellect. Just a forewarning, this still includes some overlap with the Ring of Might, which is very hard to make. If you fail more that 3-4 times consecutively, give up and try again. Like with the Dark Crystal, only let the synthesis bar fill as many times as you which to transfer factors onto the weapon, as you may or may not want both of them on your weapon. Also like with Dark Crystals, you can choose refine them directly, or refine the weapon afterwards. -->6% MP recovery at intervals during battle This factor comes from a refined Ring of Mental Power. The ideal teams are: Chilico + Peppita + Mirage at 199-219 Chilico + Mirage + Sophia at 168-184 There is still a lot of overlap in this one that you can't do anything about. These teams at least eliminate the loathable "Feline Guardian" and "Adorable Kitty Doll", both of which I have seen crafted FAR too many times. -->-3 Fury use Comes from refined Ring of Animosity. Your ideal team is: Chilico + Mirage + Fayt at 566-624 Thankfully, you can eliminate ALL overlap on this one. -->+50% damage for fire-based spells Comes from refined Flare Ring. Your team is: Sophia + Chilico + Aqua & Evia at 813-897 This overlaps will all 4 elemental rings, so you could get it on the first try or the 10th try depending on your luck. Depending on your play style, you may want to hang onto a Wind Ring in addition to the Flare Ring. -->1/2 Casting Time Comes from Star Pendant. Your team is: Chilico + Aqua & Evia + Sophia at 3700-4100 You can also get this factor from a refined Emerald Earring, but this is just easier. -->Blazing Pendant This accessory is not meant to be synthesized onto a weapon. It comes with Recover HP of 1/20 dmg from fire attacks. When you refine it, evolves in a succession of: Recover HP of 1/20 dmg from fire attacks Recover HP of 1/20 dmg from water attacks Recover HP of 1/20 dmg from earth attacks Recover HP of 1/20 dmg from wind attacks Recover MP of 1/10 dmg from fire attacks Recover MP of 1/10 dmg from water attacks Recover MP of 1/10 dmg from earth attacks Recover MP of 1/10 dmg from wind attacks Now... the next stage in each evolution can occur in two ways, it can either change the existing stage into the next, or it can add the next stage without changing it. Put in simpler words, you could refine it 7 times and depending on how your luck went, you could end up with all 8 factors, or you might end up with just "Recover MP of 1/10 dmg from wind attacks". Depending on your level of patience (with saving and resetting), you want at most HP recovery from all 4 elements, or at least HP recovery from Earth and Wind. As has been mentioned several times, Earth and Wind are essential for getting the no damage trophies vs. Lenneth and Freya. Just a note, it must be Recover HP in order to null the damage, because with recover MP, the damage is still dealt, you just gain MP while being hurt. To create the Blazing Pendant, you want the following party: Chilico + Peppita at 360-400 (this group has no overlap!) Chilico (solo) at 325-360 Every other crafter has massive overlap in this price range so these are basically your only options. Chilico solo with the cherubic bust still has a 50% chance of making it, so it's really not a bad deal. -->Skill Tomes All skill books have the same base cost of 1500, so it's always a crapshoot to see if you get the one you want. Quick Symbol is learned from the Brittle Tome, authored by Sophia, Maria, Mirage and Osman for a difficulty of 100. Increase MP is learned from Fading Tome, authored by Osman, for a difficulty of 99. Convert Damage is learned from the Tattered Tome, authored by nearly all authors (Fayt can do it for you) at a difficulty of 40. About Decoys: On Galaxy and Universe, the damage dealt by any enemy can be totally nulled by reaching a defense of 5000, though on Universe, it is necessary to cast the Protection spell on them. The easiest characters to do this with are Fayt and Mirage. Fayt should have a fully refined Valiant mail, and Mirage should have fully refined Dragon Leather, to be replaced by Valkyrie garb as soon as possible. Lenneth's attack is low enough it can be nulled without requiring the garb. Both characters should have their best smithable weapons (Veinslay and Mithril Gauntlet respectively) completely filled with +30% ATT/DEF factors. This factor comes from refining Boots of Prowess, craftable by Chilico. (check another FAQ for more details). Their accessories should be one fully refined Boots of Prowess and a Tri-Emblem. The tri-emblem will add 1000 ATT and 50 DEF to the base ATT and DEF, plus it has lots of nice factors, making it much better than using any "Ultimate weapons". If Mirage doesn't quite reach 5000 DEF like this (in one of my games her DEF was only 5012) a couple of Def Berries will for sure do the trick. Cliff can be substituted for either character, but he will need DEF Berries, and even when giving him all Def Berries in the game, it is possible in some games that he will never reach 5000 DEF. Also, in order to reach 5000 DEF, he must use 10x BoP, thus no tri- Emblem. On 4D you have a different situation, because damage can't be nulled. I'll just describe my personal setup. Sophia (Flare Version) Cliff: Mithril Gauntlets with 8x BoP Accessories: Tri-Emblem, Red Talismen. Maxxed out HP with Health Berries Skills: Fists of Fury on both short, First Aid and common support symbols Using Convert Damage -> Preserve MP Main idea of cliff is he's a tank, who will kill as much damage as possible with his defense, and regenerate a lot with first aid. Maria (aka the MP tank): Dragoon Laser -->+1000 ATT -->+30% ATT/DEF -->+30% ATT/DEF -->+30% ATT/DEF -->No HP Damage 30% of the time -->No MP Damage 30% of the time -->6% MP Regen -->6% MP Regen Accessory 1: Tri-Emblem Accessory 2: Star Talisman Armor: Valkyrie Garb Use all Magi+ berries on her Convert Damage -> Preserve HP AI: Act in well-balanced Manner, except vs Freya, where it was Attack will all Might. Skills: Short X: None Long X: Aiming Device Short O: None Long O: Energy Burst Support: Max Fury (learned from Moldy Tome) Support: Critical Hit MP With this setup, Maria's Mp will be around 32000, and will actually be able to survive Freya's attacks and usually regenerate the MP lost before taking another serious injury. Just a warning though, she'll still die if hit by Ether Strike. Critical Fight Details: Gabriel Celesta: This is before I made my decoy's weapons, so he was a handful. What I ended up doing was setting Sophia up with thunderflare, and controlling Cliff to chain Fists of Fury, the combination of these attacks was really good at keeping Gabriel in place, while minimal damage was dealt to my party. Maria's Skillset was the same as suggested above. Super Blair: Usually one of the hardest bosses. She didn't give me any problems using the above setup. I was controlling Flare Sophia. Lenneth: Keeping her in place is more important than doing her damage. I controlled Sophia chaining thunderflares, while occasionally casting protection on Cliff. Cliff took net damage over time, but healed himself as needed. I got all trophies at the same time. Ethereal Queen: Flare Sophia. She's awkward in the sense that you cannot keep her pinned on one end of the arena. Just run along when she does move so you keep maximum distance. I don't think she ever successfully pulled Celestial Star, but if she does just throw a stun bomb at her. Freya: This is where the tactics change. There was no way I could keep Cliff from dying instantaneously, so I ended up turning him into Maria's decoy. I set him on Manual, with AAA set to Standard, and equipped a Blazing Pendant. The beauty of this is he'll stop Freya in her tracks if she ever pulls a weak attack, and he's a great target for magic. Every spell cast on cliff is a spell that isn't cast on Maria or Sophia, so he's definitely worth keeping alive for that reason alone. Occasionally you may have to take Cliff off manual every now and then to get him back into the middle of action, because he can't AAA anything if the action goes too far away from him. Maria's Energy Burst will disrupt many Ether Strikes, but not all of them, thus if one ever gets out, be prepared to pop an analeptic as soon as possible. Using this strategy I killed Freya in about half an hour. It's not quite the 23 min benchmark I've heard, but it's a hell of a lot faster than the 1 hour allotted you. Urssa Cave Temple: Everything was laughably easy. I controlled Maria, and Fayt died after 3 energy bursts, and Luther didn't take much longer. Terms of Use: This document is intended for personal non-profit use and at present time is to be hosted and distributed exclusively by GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com). No part of this document may be reproduced in any other document without my explicit permission, excepting where a small portion is quoted on a message forum and a link to the original document. If you run a Star Ocean related website and wish to host this document, just ask for my permission and I will most likely grant it. My condition is that your website have a good amount of content before you may host this. This guide is not to be the focal point of someone else's website. If you wish to quote a small portion of this guide in another guide you are writing, ask for permission including the surround context of your document and I will determine whether or not you may include it your document. Copyright (c) 2005 Roger Pope