Walkthrough for Suikoden III for the PS2, North American Release Version 2.25 copyright dan crenshaw (dshaw999@bellsouth.net) 2002 Last update 1/28/2003 ************************* SPOILER WARNING ******************************** ************************* SPOILER WARNING ******************************** This walkthrough contains spoilers related to Suikoden III. The spoilers have been put in so that nothing that happens later in the story is mentioned in an earlier section of the walkthrough. However, later sections of the walkthrough may mention key previous events as reference points. If you'd rather not risk having something related to the story ruined for you, stop reading now. ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* Legal Junk: Whatever you do with this Walkthrough in terms of private use is no concern of mine. Please do not alter it, distribute it, post it, or do anything related to public use without permission. If you intend to print it out, make sure your printer/word processor's option for word wrap is off. This Walkthrough should only be posted at gamefaqs.com. If you see this document posted anywhere else in part or in its entirety, it is without the author's permission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact info: I WILL NOT reply to any e-mails that ask questions already answered in this document. This applies especially to recruiting questions. Comments, suggestions, corrections are welcome as long as they pertain to this document. It's very helpful if you put "Suikoden" in the e-mail's subject header so I'll know it's related to this document. Any information you provide to me will be properly credited via e-mail name (minus the domain name) unless you prefer another way to be credited or do not wish to be credited at all. I will credit such information as from "anonymous". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update info: The changes for this version: -Added Chris level 99 trick in detail per e-mail requests. Credit and many thanks to Blue Moon for permitting me to put the trick in this document This document contains all the content I planned for it (and then some). Any further updates, beyond some minor clarifications/corrections, are not planned unless a major secret is discovered. ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* ---------------------------------------- Part I: Introduction and Walkthrough ---------------------------------------- 1. Introduction (How do I find stuff in this document?) 2. Top 10 e-Mail Questions 2a. What do I get for loading Suikoden II data? 2b. Should I play Suikoden I and II first? 2c. How long does this game take to complete? 2d. All about recruiting 2e. What skills should my characters learn? 2f. Why do you recommend doing...? 2g. Agh! I can't get [Recruit/Item] and I'm going to smash my PS2! 2h. Why can't I go to chapter 4? 2i. Why aren't the lottery results switching like you said? 2j. Where can I get a Statue S? 3. General Questions 3a. Introduction 3b. The Trinity Sight System 3c. Why this order of play? 3d. Skills/Stats 3e. Support Characters 3f. Runes and Magic 3g. Battle Formations/The Pair System 3h. Strategy Battles 3i. Duels 3j. Character Types 3k. Treasure bosses 3l. Recipes, Old Books, Medal Sets, Antiques, Bath Items, and Scripts 3m. What's the Chris Level 99 trick? Should I do it? 3n. What is the stat stones trick? 3o. I need money and lots of it! 3p. I was just walking around minding my own business, then the screen turned yellow and this funny music played and this monster killed me! 3q. Looting corpses 3r. What's a Tank? 3s. What are the Armor Sets and what do they do? 3t. Where do I get the Blinking Mirror? 3u. No offense, but can you suggest another Walkthrough? 4. Walkthrough 4a. Introduction 4b. Hugo Chapter 1 4c. Chris Chapter 1 4d. Geddoe Chapter 1 4e. Break--Time to Decide about Thomas 4f. Chris Chapter 2 4g. Hugo Chapter 2 4h. Geddoe Chapter 2 4i. Geddoe Chapter 3 4j. Hugo Chapter 3 4k. Chris Chapter 3 4l. Thomas Chapter 1 (Optional) 4m. Thomas Chapter 2 (Optional) 4n. Interlude--The Big Question (Spoilers) 4o. Chapter 4 4p. Chapter 5 ---------------------------------------- Part II: Reference Guide (Spoilers) ---------------------------------------- 5. 108 Stars of Destiny Recruit List 6. My Really Important Items List 6a. Introduction 6b. Runes 6c. Armor 6d. Hammers 6e. Medal Sets 6f. Accessories 6g. Scripts 7. Duels 8. Ernie's Quiz 9. Boss/Battle Strategies ---------------------------------------- Part III: Secrets (HUGE SPOILERS) ---------------------------------------- 10. 108 Stars of Destiny Bonus 11. Miscellaneous Q&A's 12. So why did you choose this play and recruiting order? ---------------------------------------- Part IV: Thanks and Version History ---------------------------------------- 13. Acknowledgements 14. Version History ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* ---------------------------------------- Part I: Introduction and Walkthrough ---------------------------------------- 1. Introduction (How do I find stuff in this document?) This Walkthrough covers how to get through Suikoden III with detailed content on how to make the story advance, battle and recruiting strategies, and lots of other stuff. What it does NOT include are comprehensive lists for the items in the game such as recipes, old books, runes, etc. I cover how to get most of these items in the Walkthrough with a mini-list of important items, but for comprehensive lists, I refer you to Ryvius' FAQ here at gamefaqs and to the lists available at suikosource.com. This document is broken up into four parts. Part I has general questions along with the actual Walkthrough. *Please* check the questions in sections 2 and 3 before e-mailing me about something. Part II is the Reference Guide. I put this in mainly for people who have a specific question about how to recruit someone, how to beat a certain boss, or how to get an item without having to plow through the Walkthrough. There are spoilers here but only minor ones for sections 5-8. Beyond some very minor story points and the character names, nothing is revealed. Because section 9 details the main boss/strategy battles in the game, key story events ARE revealed in this section. To reduce spoilers, an expanded content list for Part II is not in the main Table of Contents but instead placed at the start of Part II. Part III covers the Secrets of the game. Needless to say, the biggest spoilers are in this section. If you really want to know the reasons why I chose the play and recruiting order of this Walkthrough, check section 12 in this part. Part IV has the Acknowledgements and Version History sections. If you want to zip to a part of this document quickly, open it up in WordPad or NotePad+ and make use of the Find tool. Activate both Match whole word and Match case by checking them. Type in the following keywords in the quote marks then hit Find Next until you get to each topic. You will have to hit Find Next a few times before you get to the actual topic content: "4. Walkthrough" --goes to the actual Walkthrough "5. 108 Stars" --goes to the Recruit List "6. My Really" --goes to the mini-list of Items "7. Duels" --goes to the Duels section "9. Boss/Battle" --goes to boss/strategy battles section "Part III:" --goes to Secrets section You can do this with any other keyword topic you want such as the name of a particular rune, character, item, boss, etc. If you'd like to go to a main character's specific chapter, type in the phrase: "[character name] [chapter] [chapter #]" To get to Geddoe's chapter 2, for example, you'd type "Geddoe chapter 2" then hit Find Next until you got to the actual content. Using the Find Tool is a lot better than scrolling with your mouse or using the Page Up/Down keys. ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* 2. Top 10 e-Mail Questions 2a. What do I get for loading Suikoden II data? The only things you get for loading Suikoden II data into Suikoden III are two extra scripts (with plays related to events in Suikoden I and II), boosted levels for three characters, and references to the names you gave to the heroes and armies of the previous games. The Suikoden II data you load must be a save game after defeating the final boss in that game. To load Suikoden II data, insert the PSOne memory card with the data into one of the slots in your PS2 with a PS2 memory card in the other slot. Access the PS2 browser and copy the Suikoden II data from the PSOne memory card to the PS2 memory card. At the start of Suikoden III you will be prompted to load Suikoden II data and can do so at that time. I have written this walkthrough to include the minor differences if you did or did not load Suikoden II data. Suikoden II data that meets the requirements for Suikoden III is available for download via the DexDrive at gamefaqs. Go to the PSOne/PSX section, then to Suikoden II, then Game Saves. The Game Save by CDexter will enable you to get the Scripts, which is the biggest reason to load Suikoden II data, really. Download this file to your hard drive, then copy it to a PSOne memory card via the DexDrive. AFAIK, the DexDrives for the PSOne and PS2 are NOT compatible. If you have to spend more than $5 on this endeavor (in terms of getting a PSOne Memory Card and PSOne DexDrive), it's not worth it, IMO. Thanks to CDexter for providing the Suikoden II game save. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2b. Should I play Suikoden I and II first? Suikoden III can be enjoyed as a standalone game-its story and characters have only very minor ties to the previous two games. I suggest you play Suikoden I and II moreso because they are great games (better than Suikoden III, IMHO) rather than as an issue of continuity. Blue Moon's web site, suikosource.com, has story summaries of the first two games if you're interested. In terms of acquiring the old games, your best bet is the bargain bin/used section of a local retailer. A couple of friends of mine have been able to get the old games by asking their local store to hold on to a copy if someone trades it in. Your other avenue is ebay or half.com, but I imagine because of their scarcity you'll have to pay more than the original price. nihon e-mailed me about a site called gametz.com where you may also be able to get a copy of Suikoden I and II. I don't know too much about this site nor have I ever tried it, but I am including it for those who'd like to look into it further. In no way am I endorsing gametz.com or suggesting you go there-I'm putting it in here mainly because 1/3 of the e-mails I get are related to how someone can get a hold of the older games outside of ebay or half.com. Use it at your own risk. Thanks to nihon for providing info. about gametz.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2c. How long does this game take to complete? If you blew through the game with the sole intent of beating it, probably 40 hours or so. If you take the time to do all the mini-games, level up, get all the recruits, etc., it will take at least 60 hours I believe. I wrote this Walkthrough as I was playing the game and it took me 52 hours. Keep in mind that this was my fourth play through so I knew ahead of time where everything was, how to get set up for battles, and so forth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2d. All about recruiting A major gameplay/story device for Suikoden III is the 108 Stars of Destiny. These are the main figures of the story who determine the ultimate course of history and the world's fate. Over the course of the game, you will have the chance to gather all 108 Stars with your main characters. The 108 Stars can be separated into two groups, Automatic Stars and Non-Automatic Stars. As you would guess, the Automatic Stars are the recruits who will join you for story reasons so you won't have to do anything special to get them. The Non- Automatic Stars will need to be recruited with some effort and it's possible you can miss out on getting them. To start recruiting any of the non-automatic stars, you need to visit Lake Castle first. Therefore, Geddoe can start recruiting in his chapter 1, Chris can start recruiting in her chapter 2, and Hugo can recruit starting in his chapter 3. Hugo can technically get 1 recruit in his chapter 2 but for all intents and purposes, chapter 3 is when he can really start to recruit. Thanks to SimUser for providing info. on when Hugo can start recruiting. If you want to get all the Stars of Destiny without having to check this guide further, recruit Kidd and make use of his Scout option. Kidd will gather detailed information for you on how to get all the possible Stars. It's how I was able to figure out how to recruit everyone on my own. An important thing to keep in mind is that you can only use characters with the person who recruited them until ch. 4. That is, if you recruit someone in Geddoe's chapter 1, only Geddoe can put that character into his party until ch. 4. Chris and Hugo will not have access to that recruit until then. If a recruit is someone who runs a shop, the other characters can still visit them at their shop but they cannot put them in their party. You can recruit all the way up until the very last boss battle in ch. 5. There is also no restriction on who can recruit who-I suggest a recruiting order in the actual Walkthrough but there's no one that can't be recruited by Chris, Hugo, or Geddoe. If you can't recruit someone because they're either not there or they're not giving you the option to recruit, just try again in a later chapter. Some non-automatic stars will not show up or join until you have gathered a certain number of recruits (similar to Bob in Suikoden II). The level of the non-automatic stars is either preset or it's dependent on the level of the person recruiting them. Mel, for example, will always be at level 32 when you recruit her. Sanae Y, on the other hand, will be 1 level lower than whoever recruited her. To avoid too many spoilers, I've put a complete list of which category the non-automatic stars fall under in section 5e. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2e. What skills should my characters learn? I'm reluctant to answer this since a lot of the fun from the game involves customizing your roster the way you see fit through the skills system. I will go ahead and make a few comments on it, though. A good "default" skill, meaning if you don't have any real preference for anything, in the early chapters is Accuracy. This is because the SKL stat of your characters is low at the start and they'll have a hard time hitting enemies with good Repel rates, especially the Golem bosses. Later on, this skill isn't real necessary for characters with SKL stats topping 125. For the later chapters, two good default skills are Armor Protect and Magic Resistance. This mainly applies for strategy and boss battles. The best advice I can give you is just to try everything. You'll have a great opportunity for this in chapters 4 and 5. A good method for experimenting is to gather skill points for your characters then saving before visiting the Tutor or bujutsu teacher. Add some skills you want to try out and if you like them, keep them. If not, just reload and try something else out. The game balances it out so you can never have uberwarriors like McDohl from the first two Suikodens. However, with the skills system there's no one in the game you can't make strong enough to deserve a spot in your regular party. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2f. Why do you recommend doing...? If I don't clearly state why I suggest you do something, it's for spoiler reasons. I say it a bunch of times in this Walkthrough but it's worth it-all my suggestions are just that. If you've found a better way or rather do it a different way than I recommend, by all means, do so. If you'd really like to know the reason behind a recommendation and don't mind being spoiled about it, feel free to e-mail me and please be as specific as possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2g. Agh! I can't get [Recruit/Item] and I'm going to smash my PS2! This game can certainly cause a lot of frustration in terms of a few recruits and rare items you try to pick up. I don't compare it on the level of some of the extras in the Final Fantasy series (dodging 200 lightning bolts, anyone?) but you may hit some rough patches to be sure. Keep in mind that in MOST cases you can come back to getting a recruit or an item in a later part of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2h. Why can't I go to chapter 4? In order to proceed to chapter 4, you must complete Geddoe, Chris, and Hugo's chapter 3's first. Thomas' chapters are completely optional and you do not have to play his story to complete the game. If you want to play Thomas' story, you must do so before advancing to chapter 4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2i. Why aren't the lottery results switching like you said? The way I suggest to play the lottery is: -Buy 10 tickets, 5 sequential and 5 random -Kill 20-30 minutes of real time by doing random battles, story events, etc. -Come back to the town with the lottery and SAVE your game -Check the lottery board -If the results aren't up yet, go back out and kill 5 minutes then come back, SAVE again, then check the results. Keep repeating this until the results are posted -If you did not get the results you wanted, soft reset by pressing the shoulder buttons plus Start & Select then check the results again. Keep soft resetting until you get the desired results The lottery results are totally random until: -You check the board -You talk to the lottery seller, who tells you "Current winning numbers are up" The numbers will also be set if: -You waited until the next chapter to check the results -You waited TWO more lottery periods to check your tickets (i.e. you bought tickets for lottery period #1 but don't check until lottery #3 is already up) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2j. Where can I get a Statue S? If you fight the treasure bosses in each character's chapter, eventually you will get items that are marked ?Statue and ?Figurine. These items need to be appraised to find out what they actually are. You can get items appraised by visiting Appraisal Shops located at Vinay del Zexay, Duck Village, Chisha, and Iksay. Once you recruit the Appraiser you can visit him at Lake Castle to get this done as well. I've been able to confirm two guaranteed Statue S from treasure bosses: -?Statue from first OR second battle with Mt. Path treasure boss, Hex Doll S -?Statue from first OR second battle with Sindar Ruins treasure boss, usually the second time, Dragon Statue S You can also get a Knight Statue S and a Goddess Statue S by fighting all the possible treasure bosses at least once during each main characters' chapters. In addition, you can get a Hex Doll S as a random prize for winning Kathy's races. The winning times for each of her races are: No obstacles: 49-50 secs, default prize is Deer Antler (49.677) Some obstacles: 49-51 secs, default prize is Mini-Cactus (49.853) Lots of obstacles: 49-52 secs, default prize is Mini-Cactus (49.677) These are just estimates based on my experience. The times in parentheses are my personal bests. Start with the no obstacles course and work your way up. The only strategy I can really give you is to stay to the inside of the track and don't take really wide turns. Lame advice, I know, but that's all there really is to it. Note that if you use Hugo to run these races and Fubar is in your party, Hugo will race with Fubar instead of a horse. The times and prizes I mention are only with the horse, not Fubar. To race Hugo without Fubar, just take Fubar out of your active party. If you keep getting the default prize more than twice in a row, then you've exhausted the prizes for that course so try the next one higher up. You will eventually get a Hex Doll S in one of the three races. ******************************************************************************* ******************************************************************************* 3. General Questions 3a. Introduction This section covers aspects of game play that include and go beyond what's in the instruction manual as well as some general questions you may have. If information on a topic is readily available in the instruction manual, I will not cover it. If you're renting this game or borrowing it and don't have the manual, you'll still be able to complete the game fine with this walkthrough. The information below is really just supplementary content. If you feel like you already have a good grasp of the game mechanics, just skip ahead to the walkthrough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3b. The Trinity Sight System Suikoden III employs a gameplay device called the Trinity Sight System. This simply means that the overall story is played through the perspective of several different characters. At the start of the game, you can elect to choose the perspective of Hugo, Chris, or Geddoe. After completing a chapter, you can continue with that character or switch to somebody else. That is, you could choose to do Hugo's chapter 1-3 or alternate chapter 1's or go back and forth. This Walkthrough is written as a first play through and goes the route of alternating characters from one chapter to the next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3c. Why this order of play? The order of play I have used for this walkthrough is meant for players who are playing the game for the first time. This order gives the player the chance to see as much of the story as possible while being given options for duels and dialogue choices. Thomas' chapters are entirely optional and something of an acquired taste. I have put his chapters at the end in case the reader tries out his scenario and doesn't care for it. Parts of his story WILL be revealed in the other main characters' stories so if you're the type that hates any spoilers at all, you should play his chapter 1 after completing Geddoe's chapter 1. I have written the walkthrough with this option in mind. I actually think people will want to play his chapters more after going through the suggested order because the events pique their curiosity. I highly recommend that if you've already played through the game to play each character's story in blocks (1-3 consecutively for each) the second time around. Doing it this way gives you a much better feel for each individual character and you may be surprised how your opinion of them can change by doing it this way. The Trinity Sight System also lends itself to built-in difficulty levels. In this way, Chris is the "Easy" mode, Hugo "Medium", and Geddoe "Hard". I've used this order for the walkthrough with players who are either new to the series or new to RPG's in general in mind. If you want to know my personal opinion of the super-duper, all story, most minimal spoilers order of play, it would be: Hugo 1 Chris 1 Geddoe 1 Thomas 1 Chris 2 Hugo 2 Geddoe 2 Hugo 3 Thomas 2 Geddoe 3 Chris 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 I gave it a lot of thought before deciding the Walkthrough's order and have chosen the one in section 4. If you're _really_ curious as to know why I chose the play/recruiting order for the Walkthrough, go to section 12. Be warned that it does contain some spoilers, including a really big one. The explanation is meant for people who are at least on chapter 5 already. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3d. Skills/Stats Skills and stats are essential to winning the game so I'm going to take some time to discuss them in detail. Skills are abilities that provide specific benefits for each character. No character has access to all the skills in the game and some characters can acquire only a few of them. Stats are the numeric measure of the 8 general abilities every character possesses. You can view a character's skills and their stats by choosing the status option from the main options menu. You can raise a character's stats through two ways-by using Stones that boost stats (usually by 1-3 points) or the more common way by winning battles to get experience and raising your level. Every time your characters go up a level they will get an increase to their stats. The amount of experience you gain per encounter is based on a comparison between your level and the level of the monster you are fighting, without taking the number of party members into account. An example: You have a party of 4, 3 of them are at level 27 and the other is at level 60. You face the monster Copper Sun, whose level is 54, and win. The 3 characters at level 27 get a few thousand experience points and gain 4 levels each to get to level 31. Your level 60 character, however, gets only a handful of experience points. Note that you can't see a monster's level (or any of their other stats for that matter). The way the AI computes how many experience points you get _is_ based on this type of formula, though. I have no idea if the Copper Sun's level is really 54, but based on how much experience you get for him, the above example is an accurate analogy. The amount of experience and how they're distributed is the same regardless of how many people you had in your party. Skills work a little differently. Each skill that a character can acquire has levels that tell you how good they are in that skill. These levels are noted by a simple grading scale that goes from "E" (practically no talent in that skill) to "S" (godlike with that skill). The only way to raise skill levels is by acquiring skill points then visiting a bujutsu teacher or Tutor to raise the levels. A character's ability to activate the skill as well as how powerful the skill is depends on their grade level. For example, let's say you have a character with the skill Lightning Magic. A character whose rank is a "B" will take about a turn and a half to cast the Soaring Bolt spell which will do about 900 points of damage. A character with similar stats but who has an "A+" in Lightning Magic casting the same spell will only take a half a turn to get the spell off and will do about 1400 points of damage. Another example is if a character has the ability Adrenaline Power. When a character's Hit Points reach 0, this skill will bring them back to life, albeit with only a few Hit Points. If a character has a "C" in this skill, it will activate maybe 5-10% of the time. A character who has an "A+" with similar stats will activate this skill closer to 30-50% of the time. The examples I used are based on experience. Because I don't know the exact formula for calculating the differences in letter grades, the numbers I used in the examples are meant only as a general guide. I _have_ noticed very dramatic differences between the higher level grades. That is, there's a big improvement between going from an "A" to an "A+" and going from an "A+" to an "S". Certain skills are also affected by the general stats, such as Swing being influenced by a character's SPD. There are two types of skills in the game: physical and magical. Physical skills are learned and improved by visiting a bujutsu teacher. Magical skills are likewise the domain of tutors. There are certain skills that every character can learn. Conversely, there are some skills that are available only to specific characters. In addition, each character has a natural terminal grade they can achieve in each skill. Lastly, each character has a speed measuring how quickly they can move up in skill level. Let's take an example to make sense of this: Hugo comes with the abilities Swing and Heavy Damage. The Swing ability can be learned by any of the characters in the game by going to a bujutsu teacher. On the other hand, the Heavy Damage skill cannot be learned by every one and is activated when a character reaches a certain experience level. Hugo comes with it automatically but he has not yet reached the level necessary to activate another skill, Continual Attack. Hugo's Swing ability naturally tops out at an "A". Because this is a pretty good match for him, he will need to invest around 750 skill points to reach that "A" level from his starting "E" level. When you visit a bujutsu teacher or tutor, you can select the "Test" option. This will give you a general idea of the terminal grade and speed of learning for a character's skill level. The comments and what they mean: -Perfect Match! = S -Fairly Good Match = A to A+ -Natural Ability Exists = B+ -Average = B -It Will Take Time = C I stress the words "general idea"-some characters who test at "Perfect Match!" will only go up to a B+ and others who test at "It Will Take Time" can go up to an A+. The vast majority of the time, however, the test results coincide with the guide above. As far as acquiring skill points, each monster you encounter has a set amount of skill points that they are worth. After winning a battle, these skill points are divided up among the surviving party members, regardless of your experience level. An example to illustrate: You have a party of 4 and you face the Twin-Head Snake boss, who is worth 800 skill points. You defeat it but 2 of your members got knocked out and are unconscious when you win. The 2 conscious party members each get 400 skill points. If you had been able to win with all 4 party members still conscious, each member would've gotten 200 skill points. The amount of skill points and how they are distributed is the same no matter if you were at level 30 when you won or if you were at level 60. The instruction manual has a detailed list of the skills and what they do. For the purpose of this walkthrough, I will suggest certain skills to learn as well as point out some other character-specific comments but that's the extent of it. Because the general stats aren't described in the instruction manual, I have listed them below and what they mean: -PWR (Power): Measures how much damage you give for a successful melee attack. -SKL (Skill): Measures a character's ability to get past an enemy's defenses to land a successful attack. Goes hand in hand with the Accuracy skill. -MGC (Magic): Primarily measures the number of spells per level and how high a level of spell a character can cast. For example, the character below on the left has a MGC stat of 84 and the character on the right has a stat of 152, both are equipped with a Lightning Rune and neither has any skill in Lightning Magic. You can see the difference in the number of spells per level each can cast and that the character with the higher MGC stat has access to the 4th level spell. Character A: Character B: Level 1 6 9 Level 2 3 6 Level 3 1 3 Level 4 0 1 The skills for specific magic, like Fire Magic and Water Magic skill, primarily measure how fast a spell is cast and how much damage it will do. -REP (Repel): Measures a character's natural evade ability to avoid enemy melee attacks. Goes with the Repel skill. -PDF (Physical Defense): Determines how much damage a character will receive when an enemy lands a successful melee attack. Monster characters like Fubar will have a natural PDF rating since they can't wear armor. Everyone else's PDF starts at 0 because this is determined by what armor and accessories they are wearing. The skills Armor Protect and Shield Protect will enhance PDF. Note that some characters can get much more mileage out of armor than others. -MDF (Magic Defense): Determines how much damage a character will receive when an enemy lands a successful magic attack. The skills Magic Resistance and Magic Repel can enhance MDF. -SPD (Speed): This influences how many physical actions a character can perform during their turn, specifically running and attacking. A character with good speed can run up to an enemy far away and still get off their normal number of attacks. Others who are slow will have a hard time just getting into position to attack or delivering their usual number of hits. The skills Holy Dash and Swing can augment speedy characters and aid slower ones. -LUK (Luck): Not too sure about this because it's a stat that I haven't paid much attention to. Piccolo mentions in the game that characters with low luck tend to be targeted first by the enemy but I haven't seen enough evidence to suggest this is definitely true. You do not acquire skill points through strategy battles, only through the regular field battles in boss fights and random encounters. With the exception of one unique strategy battle, this is also true for experience points. In terms of what's more important, skills or stats, my own experience clearly points to skills. Using the stat stones trick (described below in part 3n.), I boosted Chris' REP stat up to 503, with her Repel skill at a "B". In a a series of battles, the enemy was still able to hit her a few times. On the other hand, Hugo had a REP stat of 169 with a Repel skill at "A+" and he didn't get hit once in those same battles. This is just one example, I know, but I'm very confident that if you have a level 60 character with great stats and only mediocre skill levels, they're likely to be on par with or below a level 45 character with outstanding skill levels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3e. Support Characters These are characters who are in your party but do not show up on screen when you have a random encounter or run into a boss fight. The instruction manual provides detailed descriptions of the support skills and what they do so I'm not going to cover them here. Note that some characters that are active during the regular battles, such as Juan and Ace, also have support skills. While all support skills provide some benefit, others can also be accessed directly to be used just like their equivalents at a shop. For example, Jeane has the Rune Sage support skill. This benefits spell casting during battles. In addition to this, if you access this skill through the skills option, you can remove and affix runes on your characters just like you would at a Rune Shop. Similarly, Juan has the Bujutsu Teacher support skill. By accessing this skill, you can test, forget, and get lessons anywhere at any time as long as Juan is in your party. There is no way to boost the skill level of characters who are only support characters. There's only one instance I know of where you can boost the support skill of one of the regular characters, which is Sanae Y's Healing support skill through one of Jefferson's appointments. The effects of support skills are not cumulative. For example, Ace and Martha both have the Discount support skills. You can have both of them in your party at the same time but only the person with the higher grade in the support skill (in this case Martha) will have any effect. For those characters who have either the Tutor or Bujutsu Teacher support skill, the grades for these abilities only affect battle encounters. That is, regardless of the grade, if you access these skills to Learn, Forget, or Test skills it's all the same. For example, Ernie has a higher grade in Tutor than Nadir. If you have her in your party during random battles, she does a better job of aiding your magic attacks than Nadir. However, if you were to access the Tutor skill from the main Skills option, their abilities in Lesson, Forget, and Test are completely the same-you would not have to invest more skill points to learn a skill from Nadir than you would from Ernie or anything else related to skills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3f. Runes and Magic All magical ability in Suikoden III revolves around runes. Basically, magical power is stored in rune crystals. Rune sages can unseal the crystals and embed characters with the runes inside and the magical properties that come with them. A description of 12 of the major runes in the game is included in the instruction manual. I will note the relevant runes as they come up during the course of the walkthrough. As a general rule, I'm heavily biased against using Fire and Earth Magic. The first because it has a tendency to hit your own party members and the latter because it's virtually useless until very late in the game. The only way to replenish your spells is by resting at an Inn and when story elements dictate (usually when a chapter turns over). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3g. Battle Formation/The Pairs System When you access the formation screen from the main options menu, it shows 7 slots like this: ------ ------ (Pair 1, bottom left on battle screen) ------ ------ (Pair 2, middle on the battle screen) ------ ------ (Pair 3, top right on battle screen) ------ (Support Character) You can have up to six party members in your group plus one support person. The pairs system means that during a random encounter or boss battle, you will give only 3 commands for all six characters. You never give commands during a battle to support characters. Item use is restricted to each individual pair. That is, someone in Pair 1 can never use Medicine or a similar item on someone who is in Pair 2 or 3. This also dictates that it's a bad idea to pair 2 magic users together. Since you can only give one command to both of them per turn, you negate their ability to both cast spells during the same turn. By pairing certain characters together, you can access combos. These combos range from the 2-person variety all the way to combos that involve up to 5 characters. In addition, you can pair 3 characters with their mounts in order to form a mounted unit. To not spoil anything, I will mention these characters in turn during the course of the walkthrough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3h. Strategy Battles These battles represent confrontations between entire armies rather than the random/boss battles involving small groups. Strategy battles are initiated only by the story, meaning there are no "random" strategy battles in the game. Each strategy battle has a specific goal given to you, such as staying alive for [X] amount of turns or defeating a certain enemy unit. Depending on how well you did in accomplishing the given goal, you may receive loot afterwards. You do not receive skill points for fighting these battles. With the exception of the first strategy battle in Chris' chapter 1 (which involves the level 99 trick), you do not gain experience or levels either. The most important thing to note about these strategy battles is that certain characters can die permanently in them. The way you can tell if someone has died forever is if they meet ALL the following criteria: -They are not a unit leader -Their HP are reduced to 0 _and_ the unit leader's HP were reduced to 0 in the same field battle -They have a dialogue box after the battle and say something. This comes after the unit leader's dialogue box which always pops up if a unit is defeated If a character dies permanently in these strategy battles, you will not receive the 108 Stars of Destiny bonus at the end of the game and you can't use them in your party again. One of the options for the formation setup screen, which I discuss in detail later in this section, is Story VIPs. To see if someone is vulnerable to dying permanently in battle, select this option then Confirm. The characters that get switched into the Reserve boxes are the ones that can die forever in the strategy battles. Note that the Story VIPs can change from battle to battle. The actual gameplay for these battles is highly simplified. The battlefield is represented by a group of circles connected together by dotted lines. The starting position of your Army units and the enemy's is preset before each battle. Actions are turn-based, meaning you will do everything you want with your units then end your turn then the AI will do the same. You can only give 1 command to each unit per turn. When a unit is moved into a circle occupied by an opposing unit, a field battle will commence. The field battle screen is the same as those for random/boss battles, except you only have commands to Attack, Defend, and Retreat. The field battle ends if 1 of the 3 occurs: 1. A unit leader's HP is reduced to 0 or 2. A unit chooses the retreat option or 3. Three turns elapse and 1 or 2 did not occur From the main battlefield screen, you will have the option to Move (the Boot symbol), Defend (the Shield symbol), or use a Special Skill (the Lightning Bolt symbol). Moving is self-explanatory. Choosing Defend will reduce a unit's damage taken by 1/2 if they're attacked and get into a field battle. Special skills are various offensive and defensive abilities that affect entire units. Certain characters on your roster possess these skills. The most notable Special Skills are: -Lightning. Reduces each member of a target unit's HP by 1/3. Affects only one individual unit and has a range of two connected circles. -Fire. Reduces each member of a target unit's HP by 1/5. Affects ALL units in the target circle and has a range of one connected circle. -Water. Heals all of a unit's HP and has a range of one connected circle. -Heal. Heals 1/2 of each member's HP in the target unit. Can only be cast on a unit in the same circle. Some battlefield circles also have effects. To check what these effects may be, move the pointer over a circle. Some Plains circles, for examples, heal the HP of an occupying unit. You can view what comprises an enemy unit by placing the pointer over them and hitting X. If more than one enemy unit is stacked together on the same circle, you can switch to the one you want to target/view by hitting X then moving the D-Pad left or right. If you're able to flank an enemy unit, you can put your teams into a Cover position. When you do this, you bolster the damage down by the attacking unit who's being covered. The more units covering from different circles, the more damage. Each cover unit bolsters damage done by about 50%. Putting units into a Cover position does not influence the Retreat success of the enemy nor does it bolster your attacking units' defense. In the strategy battles in chapters 4 and 5, moving your units into Cover positions can mean the difference between Victories and Major Victories. During the actual field battle, you have three available commands: Attack, Defend, and Retreat. If you choose Attack, your unit will do just that. However, you have no control over their actions after that, meaning you can't choose who they attack, what type of attack they will use, or anything else. Choosing Defend will boost your characters' defenses as they normally would in a regular battle. Unless your characters are stunned or unbalanced, there is no reason to ever choose the Defend option. Retreat will cause your unit to leave the field. Most of the time when you do this, the enemy will get a free turn to attack you. Note that you cannot Retreat if there is no open circle to go to on the main strategy battle screen. Before most, but not all, strategy battles you will talk to either Salome or Caesar and they will ask you to organize your units. This screen is different from the main formation screen used for regular/boss battles. You will be given the options of Alter, Auto, Story VIPs, and AllReserve. Alter allows you to swap your characters around. Auto allows the AI to organize your units for you. NEVER pick this option. Story VIPs will put all characters who can die permanently in the upcoming strategy battle into reserve to keep them safe. AllReserve will empty all the units out except the unit commanders. A very important thing to remember about organizing your units is that after you tell Salome or Caesar that you're ready to battle, you cannot go back to change the formation again. As long as you tell them to wait or you're not ready to proceed, you can talk to them again to change the formation. In terms of individual unit formation, it looks like this: -------- (Slot 1) -------- (Slot 2) -------- (Slot 3) -------- (Slot 4) -------- (Support) Like in regular/boss battles, the Support character does not show up on the field battle screen but provides some benefit to the unit. Slot 1 will be at the front of the unit on the field battle screen and will be the first choice of an enemy attack. This changes if you have special runes or items that affect the enemy's choice of target such as Blue Ribbons, Skunk Runes, and Firefly Runes. Slot 4 is usually occupied by the unit leader. The unit leader's position can never be changed. Slots 1 & 2 and slots 3 & 4 are considered pairs to a certain extent. No unite attacks or mounted units will be in effect but how each character reacts will still be dictated by the pairs system. That is, if you place a Berserker type character who always attacks into Slot 3, they will drag up the person in Slot 4 with them, just like if they're paired in a regular or boss battle. This watered down version of the pairs system affects your formation choice in a few ways. First, the person in Slot 1 should have good defense and, if at all possible, high attack skills as well. This is because they're usually the first person to attack as well as be attacked. If the unit leader is in Slot 4, it's a bad idea to put a magic user or archer in Slot 3. This is because the enemy always starts far away from you in the field battle and only the fastest unit leaders will be able to drag up the magic user/archer with them. Slot 2 is the best for magic users and archers since it's close enough to the enemy to allow the person in Slot 1 to still attack. The best way to ensure your success in these strategy battles is to train up and properly equip the characters who will participate in them. It's really not more complicated than that until the game's last strategy battle. Strategies are provided for each of the battles in the Walkthrough itself and in section 9. The most useful items for strategy battles are Sacrificial Jizos, Firefly Runes, Skunk Runes, and Haziness Runes. Sacrificial Jizos need to be equipped in a character's personal inventory. They essentially add 1/3 of the wearer's HP to their total HP. For example, a character with 300 HP wearing a Sacrificial Jizo would really have 400 HP. When a character's HP are reduced to 0, the Jizo will activate and restore that 1/3 of HP back. However, if a character receives a damage amount that exceeds what the Jizo can provide, they will still get knocked out. To take the above example further, let's say the wearer is down to 100 HP. They get hit for 400 HP of damage--200 HP more than what the Jizo provides for. They would then get knocked out. However, if they got hit for exactly 200 HP, they would get 100 HP back and not get knocked out. This is not the exact formula for Jizos, but it is an accurate analogy. Jizos are active during strategy battles and you can equip up to three of them on one person. Firefly Runes make the wearer the first choice of an enemy attack. This is invaluable when placed on a Tank (characters who receive very little damage from melee attacks). Because most of the field battles involve melee attacks, the enemy will go after the Tank first and ignore everyone else, even if the rest of the Tank's unit is ripping them to shreds. You can recruit someone who has a removable Firefly Rune. In Thomas' chapters 1 and 2, the Purple Creepers