STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME ITEM CREATION FAQ (v1.5, 4-25-04) by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) ****************************************************************************** IMPORTANT! THIS FAQ IS BASED ON THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE RELEASE OF STAR OCEAN 3. THE NORTH AMERICAN RELEASE IS BASED ON THE DIRECTOR'S CUT VERSION OF STAR OCEAN 3. IF YOU ARE PLAYING THE NORTH AMERICAN RELEASE, REFER TO MY FAQS IN THE DIRECTOR'S CUT SECTION OF GAMEFAQS. ANY EMAILS ASKING WHY MY FAQS LEAVE OUT THINGS ADDED TO THE DIRECTOR'S CUT WILL BE SUMMARILY IGNORED. ****************************************************************************** Revision History v1.5 (4-25-04) Update pertaining to the US release of the game. v1.0 (7-19-03) First version. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Creators 3. Specialties --Cooking --Alchemy --Craft --Compounding --Blacksmith --Writing --Machinery 4. Refining and Ultimate Weapons 5. Frequently Asked Questions 6. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION This is an FAQ for the PS2 RPG, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Please note that the US release of Star Ocean 3, currently scheduled for late Summer '04, is actually the Director's Cut version of the game that was released in Japan in early 2004. Thus, if you are playing the US version, please look at my FAQ for the Director's Cut version instead. This FAQ deals with Item Creation, a fundamental part of the game, which should be familiar to those who have played previous Star Ocean games. This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Certain versions of Windows should have it built in; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer (free from Microsoft) and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. Item Creation is the way to create some of the most powerful items in the game. Thus, you'll want to dedicate yourself to the process starting early and building up over the course of the game. You can start Item Creation when you first arrive in Peterny (see the section on Peterny in the walkthrough for details). Once you get the Telegraph, you'll start receiving updates from Welch and the guild about the progress of Item Creation. There are eight types of Item Creation. Each different specialty is capable of creating different kinds of items. The eight specialties are: -ｿ- - Cooking; create food items 錬金 - Alchemy; creates jewels and other miscellaneous magic items 細工 - Craft; creates jewelry and accessories 調合 - Compounding; creates used items and medicines 鍛治 - Blacksmith; creates weapons and armor 執筆 - Writing; creates books 機械 - Machinery; creates guns and bombs 合成 - Synthesis; fuses an item to a weapon to transfer attributes To do Item Creation, you'll have to use a factory. Most cities have factories, but Alias and Sir Felious do not. Cirlsour has two. There are two ways to do Item Creation: doing it yourself, or assigning Creators to do it. Self Item Creation To do it yourself, go to any factory and approach a bench. On the Item Creation screen, you'll have three choices; Creation Performance (クリエイションの実行), Expand Factory Attributes (工-[の機能拡張), and Transfer of Creators (クリエイターの人?異動). Under Expand Factory Attributes, you'll be able to expand that factory's abilities in exchange for money. In order to do a specialty at a factory, that factory has to be equipped for the specialty in question. Each factory comes preequipped to do a few specialties; if that factory isn't equipped for that specialty, you'll have to spend some money and "buy" that specialty. You can see what specialties your factory is equipped for in the lower left of the screen. Highlighted ones are already equipped. Here you can also add Lines to your factory. Most factories start with either 0 or 1 line. You need at least 1 line to do Item Creation; however you can have as many as three. I don't find multiple lines terribly useful, as all it does is save time and in many cases it might waste money. To do Item Creation yourself, pick Creation Performance. This will take you to the Creation screen itself. Now choose up to three people to put onto a line. You'll want to pick people who have a high talent for whatever you want to make. Pressing triangle will bring up a chart of each character's abilities - the higher the better. Keep in mind, though, that certain items can only be created if a certain Creator is part of the line. Put them into a line, and in the next blank under "Type" pick the actual specialty you want to do. Then under "Plan" you can pick one of two choices. "Original Creation" (創作オリジナル) will have your characters attempt to create an item from scratch. "Recipe Designate" (レシピ指定) will have you choose an item that you will try to refine (i.e., improve its attributes). Once you choose a Type and a Plan, a cost will come up. The cost determines the item that you will come up with, so if you get an item that you like remember the cost that produced that item. If you want to change the cost, simply repick "Original Creation" and the cost will change. Now press the square button to start creation. This will bring up two bars, Quality, and Time. Quality starts out full and slowly goes down. As time goes by, the Time Bar will fill up. Once the time bar reaches max, your selected characters will display an emotion (either happy or frustrated), and the time bar will drop to zero. If your characters' faces were happy, that means you succeeded in creating an item. If your characters look frustrated, they failed to create anything. You can continue to let time go by to have your characters create multiple copies of an item, or you can stop the item creation by pressing X. This will show you what item you ended up creating. If you pick Recipe Designate, you will be prompted to choose an item in your inventory. This item will be the one that you attempt to improve. The Quality and Time bars still apply as above. However, an added requirement for Recipe Designate is that you need an associated Materials item for that Specialty. Thus, if you want to improve a piece of armor, you'll need "Blacksmith Materials", which will be consumed in the process; to improve a food item, you'll need "Cooking Materials". NPC Item Creation You can also have specialized NPCs, known as Creators, create items for you. Provided they are in the factory you are currently in (you can move them around by choosing "Transfer of Creators"), you can pick them in lieu of one of your characters in the method above. Creators, unlike your characters, only have talents in one specialty, but in many cases they have values much higher than your characters do. Creators usually also have associated Cost and Time modifiers (given as + or - a certain percent); this affects the Cost and Time it takes to create an item, obviously. They can also be assigned to create items automatically while you go out and explore. To do either, you must first recruit the Creator. This will usually require you giving them either money or some sort of contract item. Once recruited, you must send the Creator to one of the factories. (Remember to send them to a factory that is equipped for whatever specialty they are!) Once there, they will automatically start creating items for you, and you'll receive an alert by Telegraph whenever they do. On the Telegraph menu (via the main menu screen), you can choose from Newest Info (最新情報), Accept Ratings (特?申請), View Information (情報参照), Change Orders (-ｽ-ﾟ変更), and Alert (アラート). Under Newest Info, you can check on the latest inventions (アイテム), the latest items sold in the shops (ショップ), and newly announced Creators (クリエイター). Under Accept Ratings, you can patent any item that you've created and/or found. Select the item from the list then wait for the rating to come up. The higher the rating, the better public approval it has. View Information gives you a summary of all the info on Creation so far. Creator Information (クリエイター情報) gives you a list of the creators and if they're working for you (red) or not (blue). It also shows if they're currently working (実行中) or on standby (待機). Invention List (発-ｾ品リスト) gives a list of all items invented so far and who created them. Shop Information (ショップ情報) shows you what stores are selling what across the continent. The fourth option gives you a map of the continent and the location of the factories, and the last option gives a ranking of all the creators. Back on the main menu, Order Change (-ｽ-ﾟ変更) lets you change the orders for any of your creators. You can tell them to work (the default) or to standby... there's really no benefit for standby, so you can probably just never touch this option. Finally, Alert (アラート) lets you choose when to be notified - if somebody patents an item (License), if some item is now on sale (On Sale), if one of your creators invented something (Invent), and if a new Creator is announced (Entry). Synthesis Synthesis works a little differently from the other specialites. First, no Creator specialized in Synthesis, so only your characters will be able to do so. Synthesis also requires a "Synthesis Materials", and there is no option to choose Original or Recipe Plan. Once you choose Synthesis, you'll be prompted to pick a weapon that you want to improve. Then you'll be prompted to pick an item to fuse to that weapon, in general an item that possesses the properties that you want that weapon to have. (For instance, fusing an item that raises your ATK by 30% has a good chance of giving the weapon the "ATK +30%" attribute). 2. CREATORS Your player characters have skills in all specialties, and do not need to be recruited. Creators must be announced by Welch before they can be recruited. Most creators simply require Fol before they enter into a contract with you; however, some creators require specific items. (Player Characters) Fate (No Modifiers) Cooking 16 Blacksmith 29 Alchemy 14 Writing 34 Craft 20 Machinery 25 Compounding 30 Synthesis 12 Cliff (Time +5%) Cooking 9 Blacksmith 31 Alchemy 5 Writing 7 Craft 2 Machinery 36 Compounding 10 Synthesis 14 Nel (Time -5%) Cooking 30 Blacksmith 25 Alchemy 20 Writing 14 Craft 15 Machinery 5 Compounding 10 Synthesis 10 Roger (Time +5%) Cooking 2 Blacksmith 23 Alchemy 6 Writing 4 Craft 35 Machinery 20 Compounding 6 Synthesis 10 Maria (Cost -10%) Cooking 19 Blacksmith 4 Alchemy 22 Writing 22 Craft 10 Machinery 20 Compounding 25 Synthesis 15 Arbel (Cost +5%) Cooking 16 Blacksmith 30 Alchemy 15 Writing 4 Craft 12 Machinery 16 Compounding 16 Synthesis 15 Sophia (Cost -5%) Cooking 43 Blacksmith 6 Alchemy 36 Writing 15 Craft 33 Machinery 3 Compounding 15 Synthesis 25 Souffle (Time -10%, Cost +10%) Cooking 6 Blacksmith 5 Alchemy 12 Writing 6 Craft 40 Machinery 15 Compounding 11 Synthesis 20 (Initial Group) ダムダムーダ - Damda Muda (Cooking 6) (Costs +10%) He's in the western block of Sealand. He'll need the 酔迎 liquor dropped by the thief enemies in the Douglas Forest. ミレーニア - Milenia (Compounding 19) (Costs -20%) She's in the chapel in Alias. All she needs is 3800 Fol. マユ - Mayu (Cooking 20) (Costs -30%) She's in the kitchen on the third floor of the Cirlsour Ruins (she's the one who gave you the key). You'll need to give her the "Soothing Kitty" (-?ｵネコ), which can be created by Craft (use Fate, Nel, and Star Anise, cost 181-205) (Upon entering Sealand) エリザ - Eliza (Alchemy 4) (Time -30%) She's wandering around the eastern district in Sealand. All she needs is 10000 Fol. グラッツ - Gratz (Blacksmith 25) He's in the factory on the outside of the Becquerel Mines. He needs 13500 Fol. スターアニス - Star Anise (Craft 20) (Time -30%, Costs -20%) She's inside the "Inn" in Sir Felious. She needs the Limited Dolphin (限定ドルフィン), which is in a treasure chest in the Douglas Forest. (After returning to Alias after the Becquerel Mines) ゴッサム - Gossam (Compounding 9) (Costs +20%) He's in the northern part of Peterny. You'll need to give him the Fake Youth Medicine (若返りの-?ニセモノ)), which can be created by Compounding (Cost 5). マクウェル - Macwell (Alchemy 31) (Time +40%) He's in the eastern library of Sealand Castle. He needs the Prophecy Book 1 (-\言書1) in a treasure chest in the Shrine of Canan. リジェール - Rijeil (Cooking 47) (Time +40%) She's in the food store of Cirlsour. Give her the Golden Curry (ゴールデンカレー) which you can create through Cooking (Fate, Nel, Mayu, cost 41-47). (After returning from the Shrine of Canan) ミスティリーア - Misty Lia (Alchemy 50) She's wandering around the Bar Mountain factory. You can recruit her by giving her the Soul Gem (魂宝玉) which itself is in the Bar Ruins. ライアス - Raias (Blacksmith 36) (Costs +20%) He's in the bar in Airyglyph. He needs 28000 Fol. 発-ｾ王デジソン - Invention King Dejison (Machinery 6) (Time -20%, Costs +40%) He's wandering around the streets of Airyglyph. To get him, give him the Ultimate Destruction Unit (超絶破壊ユニット), which can be created by Machinery (Fate, Cliff, Maria, cost 166). (After reaching Airyglyph coming from Ancient Ruins of Mosel) 殺人シェフ - Killer Chef (Cooking 75) (Time -30%) He's wandering around Sir Felious. Give him the All-Purpose Knife (-恃\包丁), which can be bought in Gemity. コーネリアス - Cornelius (Writing 15) (Time -40%) He's in the weapon store in Airyglyph. Give him the Sunrise Dictionary (サンライズ辞書) found in the Moonbase. バルバトス - Barbatos (Craft 37) (Time -40%, Costs +50%) He's in the shade of one of the mountains in the Mosel Sandhills. Give him the Orc Jewelry (オークジュエリー) which is in the portion of the Cirlsour Caves with the Torokko (take a left turn then a right turn, then stop; you'll need the Vanish Ring). (After defeating Crosel) ミシェル - Michel (Writing 35) (Costs +10%) He's wandering around the main avenue of Sealand. Give him 85000 Fol. ガスト - Gast (Blacksmith 60) (Time -20%) He's in the south section of Peterny. Give him 60000 Fol. バニラ - Vanilla (Machinery 32) (Costs +30%) You'll have already met him (her?) in the Urza Lava Cave. Go back there and hand over 30000 Fol. (Entering the Eternal Sphere) アンサラー - Anthler (Alchemy 99) (Time -20%) He's in one of the rooms on the first floor of Sealand Castle. He'll need the Philosopher's Stone (賢者の石), created by Alchemy (Misty, Eliza, Sophia, cost 11-12). パフィ - Puffy (Compounding 57) (Time -40%) She's on Floor 5 of the Cave of Trials. Give her the Experimental All-Purpose Antidote (-恃\ 解毒剤試作タイプ) that's found on Floor 2 of the Cave of Trials. アクア&エヴィア - Aqua and Evia (Craft 49) (Costs +10%) They're in the Church in Peterny. All they need is 20000 Fol. (Returning to Sealand after FD Space) メリル - Meryl (Machinery 46) (Time +30%) She's in the east section of Peterny. She'll need the Doramera Tool Set (ドラメラ工具セット) which is in the Sphere Corporation. ノッペリン伯爵 - Count Nopperin (Writing 44) (Costs +40%) He's on the second floor of Airyglyph Castle. Recruit him with 150000 Fol. ボイド - Boyd (Blacksmith 95) (Time +50%) He's in the store in Alias. He'll need the Broken Magic Sword (折れた-ｌ?, which can be bought for 100 Bunny Race Points in Gemity. (Returning from the Shrine of Canan the Second Time) チリコ - Chiriko (Craft 60) (Time +60%, Costs -10%) In the item shop at Sir Felious. She needs 82000 Fol. 賢者オースマン - Sage Oseman (Writing 73) (Time +40%) He's in the church in Airyglyph. Give him the Skeptic in the Paranormal Book (専-?ﾂ奇懐疑書), which is created through Writing (Fate, Michel, Cornelius, cost 5670-6210). 占い師ルイド - Fortuneteller Ruid (Compounding 98) (Time +30%) He's in one of the homes in Sir Felious. Just give him 90000 Fol. (Extra) イザーク - Isaac (Machinery 65) (Costs -50%) Isaac is never announced. Instead you can recruit him at any time after fulfilling certain conditions. First, you need Meryl, Vanilla, and Dejison all under contract. Then, you need two items, the Blueprints (設計図) given to you by Lumina after the Ladel/Lumina sidequest (see sidequests section), and the AI Program (AIプログラム) given to you by one of Brea's coworkers in the Sphere Corporation. After having all this approach the broken down robot in the western part of Sir Felious, and you'll get Isaac. 3. SPECIALTIES In this section I will list the most important items that can be created with each specialty, along with guidelines on how to create that item. Most items can only be created by a limited number of characters. For instance, the item "Philosopher's Stone" can only be created by Eliza or Souffle. That means that in order to create it, Eliza and/or Souffle MUST be part of your line. You can add extra creators to improve your chances, but that's not required. Each entry will also have listed a "base cost". This will help you estimate a baseline for what to shoot for when you choose "Original Creation". In order to determine the number to shoot for on the Creation screen, take the Base Cost, multiply it by a range of 9.5% to 10.5%, then apply the Creator's cost modifiers. Thus, in order to create the "Golden Curry", which has a base cost of 630, using a party of Mayu (Cost -30%), Maria (Cost -10%), and Sophia (Cost -5%), you should shoot for a cost of: 630 x (9.5% ~ 10.5%) x (100%-30%-10%-5%) = 32.975 ~ 36.3825 in other words, shoot for a cost of approximately 33 to 36 Fol. Now for the specialties. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COOKING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Golden Curry ゴールデンカレー Base Cost: 630 Created By: Damda Muda, Mayu, Killer Chef, Fate, Sophia, Nel, Roger The Golden Curry heals 50 HP, but its real purpose is to give to the Creator Rijeil in order to recruit her. Jumbo Gyoza (Potsticker) ジャンボーギョーザ Base Cost: 2800 Created By: Damda Muda, Cliff, Roger This item heals 70% of one character's HP and MP. Lovely! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ALCHEMY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Philosopher's Stone 賢者の石 Base Cost: 120 Created By: Eliza, Souffle This item is necessary to recruit the best Alchemy creator, Anthler. Brownie Stone ブラウニーストーン Base Cost: 10500 Created By: Misty Lia, Anthler, Fate, Souffle This item can be synthesized to a weapon to increase its number of attack by one. Alternatively, it can first be refined, and then synthesized to a weapon for a whopping two extra attacks. Star Homunculus 星のホムンクルス Base Cost: 103003 Created By: Macwell, Misty Lia, Anthler, Fate, Souffle Synthesizing this item to a weapon will cause beams of light to attack the enemy when you are attacking or defending. You should first refine it to remove the "Chance of Breaking 50%" that comes along with it, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CRAFT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Soothing Kitty 癒しネコ Base Cost: 2410 Created By: Star Anise, Fate, Cliff, Nel, Roger This item is required to make a contract with the Cooking creator, Mayu. Blue Talisman ブルータリスマン Base Cost: 2600 Created By: Barbatos, Aqua & Evia, Maria, Sophia This item has a 10% chance of reducing HP damage to 0. If refined, this chance increases up to 30%. This effect can also be synthesized to a weapon. Red Talisman レッドタリスマン Base Cost: 2600 Created By: Barbatos, Aqua & Evia, Maria, Sophia Similar to the Blue Talisman, this has a 10% chance of reducing MP damage to 0. Refining raises the chances up to 30%. Again, this effect can be synthesized to a weapon. Magic Bangle マジックバングル Base Cost: 3000 Created By: Aqua & Evia, Chiriko, Maria, Sophia Important for Sophia, this raises INT by 10% as well as boosting other INT increases by 10%. Both of these effects can be enhanced to 30% through refinement. Battle Boots バトルブーツ Base Cost: 24800 Created By: Chiriko One of the best accessories in the game. This increases ATK and DEF by 5%, however, refinement can increase this to 30%. This effect can be synthesized to a weapon, and indeed the most powerful items in the game will have multiple ATK/DEF+30%'s synthesized to them. Shield Emblem シールドエンブレム Base Cost: 2900 Created By: Barbatos, Maria, Sophia This item has reduces all physical damage to 1/5th, but it has a 30% chance of breaking. Refinement changes this to 1/10th. If synthesized to a weapon, in early releases of the game, there was a bug that made it so that the chance of breaking never activated; thus synthesizing this accessory to a weapon meant a guaranteed 90% damage down. This has been fixed in newer versions. Reflect Emblem リフレクトエンブレム Base Cost: 2900 Created By: Chiriko This item takes all magical damage and instead changes it to healing; thus a spell that would hurt for 100 damage would instead heal for 100 damage. However, it has a 30% chance of breaking. Like the Shield Emblem, in the first version of the game there was a bug that prevented the breaking effect if synthesized to a weapon. This meant that the character would become immune to magic and indeed, healed by it. This has been fixed in newer versions of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMPOUNDING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Youth Medicine (Fake) 若返り薬(ニセモノ) Base Cost: 50 Created By: Puffy, Cliff, Roger, Arbel, Souffle This item is required to recruit the Compounding Creator, Gossam. Aphrodisiac Nanarin X 惚れ薬ナナリンX Base Cost: 260 Created By: Gossam, Fate, Souffle This cures a party member 20 HP, but has the unique effect of reducing everybody's feelings towards that character by 1 point. This can be used to manipulate the endings of the game in order to get new endings (simply by feeding whoever Fate is paired with a bunch of this medicine, and then finishing the game again). There are two other Aphrodisiacs with base costs 560 and 860 that do exactly the same thing. Cinderella Beads シンデレラビーズ Base Cost: 10010 Created By: Everybody Using this lets you get a 10% discount in stores. Refine it to get up to a 30% discount. Beauty Unit 美白ユニット Base Cost: 10010 Created By: Puffy Same effect as the Cinderella Beads. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BLACKSMITH ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Named Sword Vainslay 名剣ヴェインスレイ Base Cost: 4000 Created By: Gast, Boyd A good sword for Fate with an ATK of 900. Heroic Helm ヒロイックヘルム Base Cost: 4000 Created By: Gast, Boyd A good helm for Roger with an ATK of 1200. Mithril Guarder ミスリルガーダー Base Coast: 4500 Created By: Gast, Boyd A good weapon for Cliff with an ATK of 1000. Astral Armor アストラルアーマー Base Cost: 45300 Created By: Gast, Fate, Cliff, Roger A good armor for Fate, Cliff, and Roger; it has a base DEF of 140 with an additional factor of DEF +20 (which can be increased through refinement), as well as immunity to petrification and frozen status, and it has a 30% chance of nullifying any mage's physical attacks. Corpseless Iron Claw 無骸鉄爪 Base Cost: 62000 Created By: Gast, Boyd A good weapon for Arbel with an ATK of 900. Elemental Force エレメンタルフォース Base Cost: 67200 Created By: Gast, Maria, Nel, Arbel A good armor for Maria, Nel, and Arbel; it has a base DEF of 115 with an additional factor of DEF +5 (which can be increased through refinement), as well as halving all elemental damage. Ice Coffin アイスコフィン Base Cost: 68000 Created By: Gast, Boyd A good weapon for Nel with a base ATK of 880. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WRITING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skill Book "Double Up" スキルブック『ダブルアップ』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Sage Oseman, Maria, Sophia Teaches a character the battle skill "Double Up", which increases HP and MP damage by 30%. Skill Book "Quick Charge" スキルブック『クイックチャージ』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Sage Oseman, Maria, Sophia Teaches Sophia "Quick Charge", a support skill which reduces casting time by 50%. Skill Book "Guts Extend" スキルブック『Gutsエクステンド』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Sage Oseman, Maria, Sophia Teaches a character the support skill "Guts Extend", which has a chance of maxing out a character's Guts instantly. Skill Book "Drain" スキルブック『ドレイン』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Cornelius, Count Nopperin, Cliff, Roger, Arbel Teaches a character the battle skill "Drain", which increases the amount of Guts damage an attack does. Skill Book "Get Item" スキルブック『ゲットアイテム』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Michel, Count Nopperin, Sage Oseman, Fate, Maria, Sophia Teaches a character the battle skill "Get Item", which can cause an enemy to drop an item if hit. Skill Book "Stamina Up" スキルブック『スタミナアップ』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Michel, Count Nopperin, Fate, Nel Teaches a character the battle skill "Stamina Up", which reduces Guts consumption by 30%. Skill Book "MP Extend" スキルブック『MPエクステンド』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Sage Oseman Teaches Sophia the support skill "MP Extend", which increases her Max MP by 40%. Skill Book "Lucky Star" スキルブック『ラッキースター』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Sage Oseman Teaches a character the support skill "Lucky Star", which may cause a star to drop on to the battlefiend if hit. If the star is picked up, the Heat Up Gauge is filled by 30%. Skill Book "Training" スキルブック『修行』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Cornelius, Michel, Count Nopperin, Sage Oseman, Fate, Maria Teaches a character the tactical skill "Training", which increases EXP by 40% but Guts Consumption by 300% if activated. Skill Book "Balance Condition" スキルブック『バランスC』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Cornelius, Michel, Fate, Cliff, Nel, Roger, Arbel Teaches a character the tactical skill "Balance Condition", which can be activated as either "Protect HP" or "Protect MP". Protect HP takes HP damage, divides it by 7, and diverts it to MP instead; Protect MP takes MP damage, multiplies it by 13, and diverts it to HP instead. Skill Book "Cure Condition" スキルブック『キュアC』 Base Cost: 15000 Created By: Cornelius, Michel, Fate, Cliff, Nel, Roger, Arbel Teaches a character the tactical skill "Cure Condition", which increases resistance to status effects but reduces DEF by 20% if activated. Skeptic in the Paranormal 専門-ﾂ奇懐疑書 Base Cost: 54000 Created By: Cornelius, Count Nopperin This item is required to recruit the Writing Creator, Sage Oseman. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MACHINERY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ultimate Destruction Unit 超絶破壊ユニット Base Cost: 1800 Created By: Vanilla, Isaac, Fate, Cliff, Maria, Roger This item is required to recruit the Machinery Creator, Invention King Dejison. Particle Laser パーティクルイレイザー Base Cost: 74400 Created By: Meryl, Isaac, Maria This is a good weapon for Maria, with a base ATK of 700. Invincible Unit 無敵ユニット Base Cost: 610 Created By: Vanilla, Meryl When used, this will make one character totally invincible for 30 seconds; however they cannot attack during this time period. Piyopiyo Bomb ピヨピヨボム Base Cost: 350 Created By: Everybody except Sophia When used, this bomb automatically dizzies an opponent. Extremely useful for interrupting an opponent's attacks. 4. REFINING AND ULTIMATE WEAPONS Creating new items is only half of Item Creation. The other aspect of Item Creation is using the "Recipe Designate" option in order to refine and/or synthesize items. This allows you to, in some cases, improve or add factors attached to any item. In particular, Refining is used to remove the negative factors from the "Ultimate Weapons" found in the Sphere 211 Secret Dungeon (see my FAQ/ Walkthrough for details). Some factors can be refined away; others can only be mitigated. A combination of refining ultimate weapons and adding refined factors through synthesis will generally make the most powerful weapons possible. This section will list each character's ultimate weapon and its factors; at the end it will list some recommended factors for addition to each weapon. Fate - Demon Sword Levantine 魔剣レヴァンティン Dropped by Super Brea (Floor 200) Factors: Chance of Breaking 30% Enemy DEF x5 Enemy ATK +30% Experience -90% Movement Speed -30% Battle Skill HP/MP Consumption x3 MP -1 every second ATK +1000 Enemy DEF x5 and Enemy ATK +30% can give you problems. If refined, they will either disappear, or transform into Enemy DEF x5 (with Pluses) and Enemy ATK +30% Fol x5 respectively. If they transform, they can be further refined but this generally makes the enemies much stronger so this is not recommended. If you want to remove the factors altogether make sure they are removed on your first try. As with all Ultimate weapons, refining can cause the ATK +1000 to duplicate itself. Cliff - Valor Gauntlet ヴァローガントレット Dropped by Shadow Dragon (Floor 126) Factors: All Allies Speed -50% Max HP -30% Experience -50% Chance of Breaking 5% Defense 1/2 ATK +1000 All factors except All Allies Speed -50% can be removed. In order to remove this huge negative, you will instead have to synthesize the Valor Gauntlet to another weapon entirely; this will change All Allies Speed -50% to Movement Speed -30%, which can then be refined away. Nel - Death Bringer デスブリンガー Dropped by Revenge-Seeking Shelby (Floor 137) Factors: Enemies Attack More Poisons Guts Consumption x4 Chance of Breaking 20% Chance of Breaking 20% ATK +1000 All of Nel's negative factors can be easily refined away, making this one of the better Ultimate Weapons. Roger - Cross Helm クロスヘルム Dropped by Monjara Green (Floor 159) Factors: Max HP -30% MP -1 every second Enemy ATK +30% Chance of Breaking 30% Attack 1/2 ATK +1000 Like Fate, Enemy ATK +30% can either disappear or change to give more fol if refined. All other factors disappear easily. Maria - Dragoon Laser ドラグーンレイザー Dropped by Archdemon (Floor 170) Factors: Enemy DEF x5 Enemy DEF x5 Enemy ATK +30% Enemy ATK +30% Experience -50% ATK +1000 A really hard weapon to deal with. Again, like Fate and Roger, Enemy DEF x5 and Enemy ATK +30% can disappear, or can change to something worse but with side benefits. It will take a lot of reloading if you want to clear this weapon of its negative attributes. Arbel - Kirakuten Shell 喜楽天の邪爪 Dropped by Frenzied Biwig (Floor 147) Factors: Chance of Breaking 20% Chance of Breaking 20% Chance of Breaking 20% Chance of Breaking 20% Chance of Breaking 20% ATK +1000 A really easy weapon to get rid of all the factors. Just don't be tempted to use it beforehand. Souffle - Angelic Cape エンジェリックケープ Dropped by Reckless Belial (Floor 192) Factors: Emits Light when Attacking Emits Light when Defending Two Extra Attacks per Hit Unlike almost all of the others, this weapon has no negative factors. It also has the highest base attack in the game (at 3200). The biggest downside is that it has no ATK +1000, so you'll want to use the Arena prize ATK +1000 book in conjunction with this weapon. Sophia - Jinki Ether Frozen 神器エーテルフローズン Dropped by Freya (Urza Lava Cave) Factors: ATK +1000 Sophia's Ultimate weapon, the only factor it has is ATK +1000. Unlike other characters, INT is more important for Sophia, so you should focus on adding factors that increase INT. Recommended Factors for Weapons ATK DEF +30% This factor comes from a refined Battle Boots; putting 3 or even 4 of these on a weapon is usually a good idea. ATK +1000 This factor is automatically on most of the Ultimate weapons; however it can also be added by synthesizing the Secret Battle Technique Book 闘技秘伝書 which is the prize for the S Rank single battle in the Arena at Gemity. HP Damage Reduced to 0, 30% Chance This comes from a refined Blue Talisman. MP Damage Reduced to 0, 30% Chance This comes from a refined Red Talisman. INT +30% This comes from a refined Magic Bangle. Three Extra Attacks This comes from Lilith's Kin. Physical Damage Reduced to 1/10th, Chance of Breaking 30% This comes from a Shield Emblem. Recommended only for the first release because of the bug. Magical Damage Absorbed, Chance of Breaking 20% This comes from a Reflect Emblem. Recommended only for the first release because of the bug. Movement Speed +30% This comes from Bunny Shoes. Emits Light when Attacking This comes from a Star Homunculus. 5. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q. I'm running out of Materials for Item Creation. Help! A. Santa, on Floor 3 in the Cave of Trials (after taking the elevator), can sell all of the Materials except for Synthesis to you. Synthesis Materials can be gotten in numerous numerous chests throughout the Sphere Corporation and the Cave of Trials. Some of the enemies in the Spiral Tower also drop Synthesis Materials. Q. How come all of the characters' "ultimate weapons" suck? A. The characters' ultimate weapons, which you'll find in the Sphere Corporation (past Floor 101), are the strongest weapons in the game. However they have a plethora of negative effects, such as reduced EXP or DEF, high chances of breaking, and so on. This is where Item Creation comes in to save the day. Refining each weapon (under Blacksmith, or in Maria's case Machinery) can erase most of the negative effect, and each weapon also has ATK +1000 built in as a bonus, which refining can duplicate. (Thus you can get multiple ATK +1000s on each weapon just by continually refining it). Q. How many Factors (in Item Creation) can an item have? A. Eight. Q. What does the number in parentheses after a Factor mean? A. That is the number of possible outcomes of a factor if the item is refined. A factor with no number means that that factor will not be changed by refinement. A factor with (1) means that there is only one possible outcome for refining. A factor with (2) means that there are two possible outcomes, only one of which will actually happen. 6. CREDITS Thanks go to: tri-Ace and Enix for the best RPG I have ever played. This FAQ Copyright 2003 to Edward Chang. Redistribution in any form, including reprinting in electronic or print media, without express permission of the author is strictly forbidden.