Elric is going to blow his top...

[DSTheHermit]

I remember wasting hours in the caves. You know, the dark ones with all the goodies and the Zodiac stone at the bottom. It's all a big optional quest. I almost always got a phoenix down or something instead of a Choas Blade and had to restart. Sigh. I refused to use guides, so I had to map the damn thing out myself.

Let me simply say here the your "item" squares on maps have a Common and Rare item; your percent chance of finding the Rare is inversely proportional to the item finder's Brave score (this is the one use of low Brave), but rolls over after 10%. I.E. Brave 1-9, 97 = 3% chance of rare item (and permanent Brave below 6 means character will leave after battle), and Brave 10-96 means % to find Rare item is 100 - (Brave 10-96) for 90 to 4% chance. Ideally, you want someone with 10 brave (I suggest Rafa since her base Brave begins at 31 and she's not good for anything else so you won't need to raise her Brave back up) to do your item hunting.

BTW, don't bother mapping exits unless you intend to map all five for each level - they move around a bit. Also, the squares with floor traps will always be the ones with items, so if you or an enemy steps on a trap, search there.

So far as permanently altering Brave/Faith levels, each four points of adjustment through skills/spells results in a permanent one point shift. The possibilities are as follows:

CheerUp (Ramza, Chapter 2 or later): Raises Brave 5 points, 100% success.
Scream (Ramza, Chapter 4): Raises Brave 10 points, and speed/pa/ma 1 point, 100% success, self only.
Praise (Mediator): Raises Brave 4 points, 35-65% success.
Preach (Mediator): Raises Faith 4 points, 35-65% success.
Threaten (Mediator) Lowers Brave 20 points, 70-100% success.
Solution (Mediator) Lowers Faith 20 points, 70-100% success.
Foxbird (Oracle) Lowers Brave 30 points, medium success rate.
Chicken (Beowulf): Lowers Brave 50 points. All your Brave are belong to us. High to perfect success rate.

Lowering PERMANENT Brave below 6 on any non-Ramza character will cause them to defect post-battle and live a peaceful life, forever afraid of battle. Any Brave below 16 will garner annoying warnings about this after each battle.

Raising PERMANENT Faith above 94 or 95 on any non-Ramza character will cause them to defect post-battle and live a life of religious devotion. Poor sods. Any Faith above 84 will cause annoying warnings after every battle.

With the exception of item finding, there is no reason not to have 97 permanent (maximum) Brave on all characters, especially as Brave governs the success rate of almost every Reaction ability.

Faith is in general one's susceptibility to magical effects - including friendly spells and healing. If you intend to use items/chemists as your main source of healing, and all your buff spells to be permanent effects from Chapter Four items, then going around with 3 Faith is ideal. In general, however, life is easier with magical healing and so I would set Ramza to 97 Faith (as he will not defect) and everyone else to 84. The only exception is if you should choose to drunkenly use Malak, whose Untruth abilities work best if his and his target's faith are low.


Chicken is probably the single most useful ability in the game for level building - have Beowulf single out an opponent and Chicken it into oblivion while the rest of the party wipes out the enemies, except for the chicken. Now, continue to have Beowulf Chicken the poor poultry while everyone else uses a no mana skill that heals or does no damage (suggestions: Squire - Accumulate, Knight - Mind Break [or speed/magic/power break the chicken - speed break especially], Monks - Chakra so long as someone is damaged, Chemist - Any item so long as it's needed, Thief - Gil Taking or Steal Heart the chicken, Samurai - Draw Out Bizen Boat, Murasame, or Masamune where needed, Bards/Dancers - Any singing, and non-damaging dance - Bards will have an easier time due to more targets for Perform's low success rates, Mediator - Praise, Preach, Solution, Threaten). There's a few other possible combos with specific equipment (some Elemental attacks have elemental properties which you can Absorb with the right gear, same with Ninja throwing balls) that allow you to "attack" your allies without harming them, or alternately, you can use weak attacks such as Throw Stone, mage attacks, or whatnot and have someone handle healing (Monks, Bards, or Calculators recommended for no MP cost, although a Priest will do if you have a way of healing MP [Chakra]).

Mmm, cheesecake, so sayeth The Hermit.

"Wide awake and keeping distance from my soul." Tool - Cold and Ugly