Handy hints, gameplay tips, battle strategies and sneaky tricks!
Battle Tips & Strategies
Buff Magic Users
Your VICR/WIZ/SOCR may seem to be weak in defense. Well, I have them to be equipped with the Guardian Staff for the +5 DEF. It isn’t really necessary to upgrade your VICR/WIZ/SOCR attack with a strong staff. This is what I do: Have KAZIN, CHAZ, TYRIN, and TAYA be equipped with the Guardian Staff and have the Indra staves as tools to retrieve lost MP.
From: necro_s@yahoo.com
Defend Against Magic Users
When fighting Magic-users, do not let any characters stand next to each other except at diagonals (see Fig. 1). This means that the enemies can only use magic on one of your players at a time, unless they have a very high level of magic, because of the shape of the area that their spells generally affect (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Hot and Cold Magic
When faced with magic-using opponents, use the spell opposite to their own against them, ie: those who use Blaze should be attacked with a Freeze and those who use a Freeze should be attacked with a Blaze. I also often find that when the enemy can’t use magic, you can tell which spell to use on them from their colour. ‘Cold’ coloured enemies (blues, purples and greens) should be fought with Blaze, and ‘Hot’ coloured (red, orange, etc.) are best attacked using a Freeze spell. But this might just be a coincidence.
Fighting Formation
When fighting out in the open, I usually adopt the following formation, where the blue dots are Knights, the red are Fighters, the purple are Archers, the green are Mages and the yellow are Healers:
The first half of the picture shows the positions to get the characters into, the second shows how they can move when attacked, the attacker being ‘X’ on the diagram. In this formation all of players’ characteristics are being optimised. The Archers have the furthest range so they can cover the whole team. The Fighters who are strongest protect the more vulnerable magic-users. The Mages have a good range so they can also attack the same opponent as the fighters, killing them faster. The Healers are protected, but not blocked in, giving them access to everyone who may need assistance. The Knights can close in on the enemy (as in the diagram) or freely move about. Of course, this formation often has to be altered from battle to battle. Unfortunately this one doesn’t work too well when there are a lot of Magic Users amongst the enemy’s force.
Hold on to your spears
Another useful idea is to make sure that the Knights each have a spear and a lance. The lances may be more powerful, but on those occasions when distance is needed in an attack, it is good to be able to equip them with a spear and get in that extra attack that they couldn’t have done with a lance.
Free magic
Many of the weapons and rings can be used as well as equipped, often having the same effect as a magic spell. Useful if you need to save your MP for the main guardian. The Halberd and Heat Axe are especially good.
Who’s the boss?
Always check the stats of the monsters farthest away from you: the one with the best stats is usually the main guardian. If you aim to reach him and kill him first, the others will die too. This does, however, mean that you miss out on a lot of experience points and money.
Spread the experience
Don’t just try to ‘up’ one character’s stats, the others will fall way behind and so weaken your force. However, you should always try to help characters who are not so good. The best way to do this is to use your best characters to ‘down’ the enemy’s HP to their last few and then let the weaker characters finish them off. This keeps the experience spread out fairly even.
Land effect
Keep an eye on the land effect (a high land effect decreases movement range), and remember: it doesn’t affect fliers.
“The above is not exactly true, though I thought it was for several years. Although areas of high land effect often coincide with difficult terrain, that is not always the case. For example, a centaur’s movement range is not hampered on grass, which has a L.E. of 15%. However, their movement is severely restricted in the desert, which also has a L.E. of 15%. Furthermore, creatures like Slade, Kiwi, and Gerhalt (when promoted) are not hampered by different terrain, even though the L.E. may be anywhere from 0% to 30%.
What land effect actually does is to increase the characters defense. For example, if Bowie has a DEF of 10 and he is standing on a path (which has a L.E. of 0%), his defense is increased by 0%, and so it remains at 10. If he walks over to a grassy or sandy area (which both have L.E. of 15%), his defense increases by 15%, so his DEF is now 11.5. Likewise, if he is standing in weeds, shrubs, trees, or rocks, the L.E. is 30%, giving him a DEF of 13. Flyers (like Peter and PGKTs) cannot “hide” among the trees, etc. which is why their L.E. is always 0%, and therefore their DEF is never augmented (except for Boost, of course).
So, the best strategy for using L.E. to your advantage is to move weak or near death characters just inside the bushes, trees, etc., and never let anyone stand on the path. Also, since L.E. applies equally to your enemies, try to attack them when they are standing in grass, sand, or especially when they are standing on the path. “
From: Zor
Fly or hover?
There is a difference between ‘flying’ and ‘hovering’ characters. Flying characters ignore all terrain and always have a Land Effect (i.e. Defense Bonus) of 0%. In addition, they can pass over high mountains. Hovering characters, however, do get terrain bonus (Kiwi is an example of such a character, after promotion). They can move freely through every type of terrain and can hover over water, but they CANNOT pass high mountains and certain other obstacles.
From: Sashanan
Don’t rush in
It’s not a race so don’t be afraid to take your time to plan ahead, it could save your life.
Think ahead
Always stock up well on healing seeds whenever possible. There are times where you can’t get to a store for several battles without having to retrace your steps back a long way.
Don’t go charging in
At the start of a battle don’t move characters with a high movement range out too far. Besides the fact that they’re more likely to get attacked (and die) sooner, the other characters will not be able to catch up very fast and will probably miss half the battle, if not more!
Divide and conquer
If there is more than one route to take during a battle, divide up your force equally. A Mage on each side, an Archer each side, a Knight, etc. Even if there doesn’t seem to be as many monsters down one way, don’t forget that more could appear or one might be particularly difficult. They’ll all meet up at the end anyway.
Save and try again
If you’re not certain what to do on your next move, save game and restart. If your plan doesn’t work, simply reset and try again!
Single out and surround
If you’re fighting a Greater Devil, the best way to go about it is to kill off all the other monsters first. Then surround him/her on all four sides with characters that have a high defence and reasonable attack (a high agility can help too – cast a boost if you can). Keep all the others far away to avoid the spells, and when one of the four around the Devil needs healing, move a healer nearby to do so. If one dies, then it is very important to replace them right away, the last thing you need is a Devil running all over the battlefield!
Enjoy yourself!
Above all remember to have fun! Shout encouragement at your team if it helps, taunt the enemy! Really get into the game and there’ll be no stopping you. If you become the character you’ll understand the game better. Sounds crazy? It works for me! If you find yourself rage-quitting you’re taking it all too seriously. Games are supposed to be fun!
Wait for it…
Wait until a monster comes to attack you, then surround him and use magic on him, and not charge up on him the first chance you get with a character with large movement because you are more likely to get killed that way.
From: Divineno99@aol.com
General Gameplay Tips and Tricks
Search everything
Search anything that looks a bit different, especially bookshelves and vases. Sometimes you have to select search using the A button, not just pressing the C button.
Talk to everyone
It doesn’t hurt to be social: talk to everyone, you never know what you might pick up or who you might meet!
Curses!
Anything that has a nasty name (ie: Dark…, Black…, Evil…) is more than likely to curse you if you equip it. However, if you keep it you can use it in battle, usually causing some fairly powerful spell.
Use a notepad
Take notes if you like. It can be very frustrating if you forget something important that’s been said.
Heal for victory!
To gain levels quickly, have your healers cast Aura and Heal spells as often as possible, even if the affected character is on full health. That’s a guaranteed 10-30 exp and can give some very high level Master Monks! You can also replay battles as many times as you like to gain experience.
Max out your levels
DON’T promote your characters as soon as you can, when returning from Creed’s mansion (after being shrinked and all) go to the fairy woods special stage and train your characters (with the mist demon, so be careful) until they reach level 40 (the maximium level) them promote them, so they will MUCH stronger than they would if you had promoted them right away.
From: phoenix_angel@yahoo.com
Reset for better level-ups
Hello there…I have a trick for achieving the best possible fair level for any character you want…(This could be considered cheating by some, but there’s no special trick)…On the turn right before the desired character is to go up a level (such as 99 experience and a monster right next to you), quit from the battle and reset the game. Then, start up your game and fight, to go up a level. If, for example, Kiwi gets 1 attack, 1 defense, and 1 agility, or any other bad level-up, you could reset it and get another level where he might get a 1 HP, 2 attack, 1 defense, and 1 agility. I suggest using this trick exclusively on Bowie and Kiwi because sometimes it takes several tries to get a good level increase. If you don’t understand the instructions, just email me back and I will clarify.
From: FishWazin@aol.com
Level-up at the Fairy Woods
i found the easy way to use the fairy woods special stage to get fast level ups.
for healers w/ aura + boost spells, just place your party into the ideal formation for maximum coverage and cast them like crazy.
for fighters, you have to actually enter the woods, with two filers. monsters will only appear if the spot they will occupy doesn’t have something blocking it, or if they’re already there. so what i do is have a flier (Peter) block the spot where the mist demon appears, and then move the party around to just keep on killing the lesser demon.
when the monster begins to give less xp, just block their spot and move deeper into the woods. i found that first lesser demon, the two center mist demons, a harpy, a dark madam, and an orc lord all get regenerated.
i’ve managed to get everyone up to level 40 BEFORE promotion, and then up to level 22 before the mist demons start giving only about 20xp when killed. hope this helps others, cuz i wish i figured this out earlier.
From: Lee Dalope
Protect Ring trick
I have a practically foolproof way to gain experience quickly and easily. Two words: Protect Ring. You really only need one for my trick to work, but if you want to return to the battle on the way to Creeds, which is probably worth more in the long run, feel free. And now, the trick. I realized that by using the Protect Ring on a crowd of five people at the most, the effect is that of a Boost level 1, which grants the caster, usually of a clerical class, 25 exp maximum. Whenever say, Zynk uses it: same effect. The only drawback is that eventually the rings will crack, which is why I think its wise to reset the game before using the ring. With the config code, as you know, you can make the Dark Maiden drop the Protect Ring over and over again, until the cows come home, which they won’t because apparently people don’t eat beef in Shining Force 2. Boost level 2 is also an inexpensive way to raise Karna’s or Sheela’s levels at a rapid pace, without the downside of cracking rings. But like I said, theres a way to get around that, which is simply save the game before you use it. The most ideal place to do this without using the config mode code is the battle against Zeon. After defeating all the enemies, simply stay from his demonic halitosis, and charge up. I had Kazin shoot up fifty levels in that battle. The reason why I say this is the best battle to do that in is because if you save and reset, depending on whether or not the ring cracks, you don’t really need the config code, which can be death on cold thumbs. Attaining level ninety-nine characters is virtually an inescapable prospect using my method. I just hope I didn’t cover it in too much doubletalk for you to understand, no offense of course.
From: Iovix Frost
Extra rings trick
To get lots of rings, use the Control Opponent option in the configuration mode and play the battles where an enemy holds the ring over and over again by egressing before the battle is over. Each time you play the battle, make the enemy drop the ring. You can then buy it in the deals section of the shop!
Free item repairs
To repair cracked items for free, simply place them in the caravan and then take them out again – voila! Good as new!
