1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - Dragon Guide by King_Ghidra Table of Contents ----------------- 1. Introduction 2. Types 3. Recruiting 4. Stats & Abilities 5. Usage & Tactics 1. Introduction --------------- Dragons are one of the staples of the fantasy genre, mighty and noble creatures that inspire fear and awe in equal measure. In Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together, us lucky players have the chance to play with our very own Dragons, and in not just one flavour, or even two or three, but a frankly ridiculous nine different types. Seeing as there are a great number of questions from players on the acquisition and usefulness of dragons, I thought I would create a FAQ to try and bring as much of this information together into one place as possible. Why should I be excited about Dragons in TO:LUCT? - High health - Hard to damage - Hit hard against all kinds of mobs - Have an excellent ranged attack - Have excellent tanking skills - Have very damaging AOE special moves that also inflict status effects - Have low RT, meaning they get to act frequently Why should I not get over-excited? - Can only equip accessories - Have no Inventory access - Can not self-heal or heal others - Have limited movement speed - Damage potential not as high as some other classes 2. Types -------- There are nine recruitable Dragon types, each based on a particular element. There are also several more non-recruitable dragons that you will face in battle. The recruitable types are: Cloud - Air element Flame - Fire Element Frost - Ice Element Flood - Water Element Earth - Earth Element Thunder - Electric Element Light - Divine element Dark - Shadow Element Hydra - No element Non-recruitable types Crystal Onyx Scylla It is also possible to recruit zombie versions of the recruitable types. We will examine all of the different types in more detail later. Before that, we need to catch them! 3. Recruiting ------------- As with all unit types in the game, Dragons require a specific skill to recruit. In this case that skill is Tame, which is available to the Beastmaster Class at Level #. Tame costs 40TP to use and again, as with other recruiting skills, is modified by your proximity and position relative to your target, the remaining HP of the Dragon, and any ranks you have in the Draconology skill. First find your Dragon There are many places in the game to encounter the various Dragon types, but some are certainly harder than others. The following types can all be found randomly and easily in Phorampa Wildwood as soon as it available: Cloud, Earth, Flame, Flood, Frost, Thunder. For rarer or specific types, try the following locations: Cloud - Lambiss Hill - Very reliable. I have fought battles here with seven enemies, six of which were Cloud Dragons! Flood - Bahanna Highlands Arc - Arcs are most easily obtained through story battles, specifically there is one on each path in Chapter II. There is also one at the Mount Weobry battle in chapter III. Dark - Darks can also be obtained though several story battles, but can also be found plentifully in Mount Weobry random battles Hydra - Lhazan Fortress is the best bet, but this is only available if doing the Shrine quest. 4. Stats & Abilities -------------------- 4a. Base Attributes All Dragons have Movement 4, and Jump 2/3 4b. Breath Attacks Each Dragon type has a different learnable breath attack that complements their primary element. Each attack also has a chance to inflict a different kind of status effect. Below I have summarised that list. Cloud Dragon - Vortex Breath - Causes Slashing Air Damage /Misstep Earth Dragon - Sand Breath - Causes Crushing Earth Damage /Stagger Flood Dragon - Acid Breath Causes Water Damage /Breach Flame Dragon - Flame Breath causes Crushing Fire /Weaken Frost Dragon - Frost Breath - causes Piercing Ice Damage /Falseflight Thunder Dragon - Thunder Breath - causes Piercing Electric Damage /Falsestrike Arc Dragon - Divine Breath causes Light Damage /Spoil Spell Dark Dragon - Corpse Breath - causes Dark Damage /Enfeeble Hydra - Poison Breath - causes Dark Damage /Poison All dragon types can learn Toxic Breath, which causes Dark Damage /Poison 4c. Dragon-specific Abilities All Dragons can learn the following: Dash - 75TP - raises movement by 3. This is one of the only ways for Dragons to increase their mobility, but personally I tend to use it very rarely, as with their decent ranged tools, it is not often you desperately need to be somewhere quickly. Dragon’s Eye - Causes all special attacks to hit with 100% accuracy. Dragons’ attacks generally have very decent accuracy anyway so I’ve never found myself needing to use this. Dragon’s Scale - Reduces all damage to the Dragon by 80% until its next turn. This is a great tanking skill, especially if you want a Dragon to sit tight and block a key area of the map while under fire. Personally I find a with their great defences and massive HP it is not often a Dragon has to worry about taking excessive damage so I’ve not used it too much. Elemental Resonance of their type - An AOE that raises elemental affinity on friendly units and causes elemental weakness in enemy units. You will probably have seen the AI using this skill wastefully and pointlessly when fighting Dragons. Sadly like many similar skills its use is rather limited even if you know how to use it. Tail Lash - An attack that hits one target in a two square range in any direction. Early game it is one of the most useful ways to spend TP for Dragons, as it far more versatile than the fixed position Breath Attacks and it does good damage. As you gain the more powerful Breath Attacks it becomes less useful. 4d. Other useful abilities Most Dragons will want a selection of the below: Rampart - This is critically important to anything that wants to tank. It turns you into a mobile wall, blocking opposition troops and preventing them from getting past you easily. Counterattack Strength Anatomy Truestrike The above are all no-brainers really. They mean your dragon hits back, hits harder, and hits more accurately. Knockback - This is more a matter of taste. Sometimes it can be useful, somtimes less so. Personally I tend not to take it on Dragons as a matter of course. Fortify Constitution Dodge Spell Ward The above are all damage mitigating skills. Personally I see constitution as the most significant, because with this addition on top of their massive base HP pools, Dragons can soak up hits regardless of damage-type-specific skills. That said, all of these skills are useful, but it will depend on the kind of enemies you will be facing. 4e. Notes on specific Dragons and Builds In this section we will look at a few dragon builds that provide notable differences or features versus their peers. As skill ranks will vary depending on your level, I will only list desirable skills by name. You can optimise depending on your level. Flame Dragons Flames are one of the standard elemental types, though they possess the unique ability to walk in Lava. As cool as this is, the usage of it is sadly limited in-game because there are very few maps featuring lava terrain. The Weaken status inflict of their breath attack is so-so. Flood Dragons Floods are considered one of the more desirable Dragon types because of their ability to traverse water. This is one of the more common terrain obstacles in game and thus Floods can be very useful. Other than that they are very much a standard Dragon type, though the ability of their breath attack to inflict Breached, lowering the target’s defences, is one of the more useful. Hydras The Hydra is arguably the most unique Dragon type. Hydras differ from other dragons in that they cannot switch from Hydra to other Dragon classes. Equally other Dragons cannot becomes Hydras. In terms of their use, Hydras also differ by being primarily attackers rather than tanks. Accordingly they gain access to Tactician, which has the potential to allow them to spam heavy damage moves. On the downside, you cannot be quite so carefree with their use as they cannot soak up damage with the flippancy of their peers. Zombie Dragons It is possible to recruit Zombie versions of many of the Dragon types. The process is exactly the same as in the recruitng section. Zombie dragons have two main features that limit their usefulness. Firstly, they cannot gain experience. Secondly, when stilled they can be exorcsied by enemy clerics. On the flip-side, they will return to health 3 turns after being stilled, which for a creature with as many HP as a Dragon makes for a terrifying prospect. For regular gameplay, zombies will never be practical as they fall behind your levelling units. But for specific tasks or end-game use, they are worth consideration. 5. Usage & Tactics ------------------ 5a. Complementary Skills and synergies for Dragons Empower Dragon The Beastmaster skill Empower Dragon is an area spell that will boost the damage of the next attack. Sadly I don’t have numbers on exactly how much it boost effectiveness but from my own experience it is A LOT. Beastmasters are of debatable value as a class because apart from their ability to recruit they are middling melee types with not much else going for them, but if you plan on using a few beasts or Dragons in your team, they can combine to pack a mighty punch. Elemental Weakness Most elemental magics will cause Element-averse to targets. You can take advantage of this with your breath attacks, so always try and remember to complement your magics and breath for high damage. As Dragons make natural tanks, they are good team-mates for spellcasters of all kinds anyway. A few dragons holding the line while the spellcasters sit safely behind them, with both launching elemental attacks against averse opponents is a very nasty proposition. 5b. Tactics For all their many plus points, the main thing to remember about Dragons is that they are first and foremost tanks. They are designed to take and block damage, and to restrict enemy actions and movement through Rampart and simply by getting in the way. While they do this, they will accumulate TP, which enables them to unleash their most damaging and annoying moves, so taking all the above into consideration, the best thing you can do with Dragons is get them in the enemy’s face and let them run wild. As tanks, Dragons excel at holding choke points on the map. By using narrow terrain and the Rampart skill to your advantage, one carefully positioned Dragon can hold off a veritable horde of melee attackers, whilst beating them down at the same time. On maps where the enemy force is split or distributed, Dragons can be excellent tools to control the flow and pace of the battle by preventing them from getting to your squishy characters and by keeping them from helping their teammates. The AI can easily be persuaded to ineffectually bash against your Dragons, giving them free TP and free counter-attacks. Use Boulder Throw. This ranged skill is fantastic. With an attack arc like a bow, it can be used across all kinds of terrain types and it deals very high damage to squishy targets like spellcasters. A dragon can fend off melee types with its natural defences and bombard the enemy’s casters in the backline with boulders very easily and effectively. Breath attacks can be extremely effective. Remember to position to your best advantage so that you hit as many targets as possible. As your enemies will often be close to you and restricted in their movement by Rampart, it can be simple to set up multiple enemies for a breath attack AOE. Acknowledgements and Thanks The following sources have contributed massively to my knowledge of Dragons and this game in general: Gamefaqs - TO:LUCT Message Board Zahlzeit’s general Walkthrough/FAQ were_tiger’s Class FAQ TO Masterwiki - Excellent Japanese site