======================================================== LUNAR: THE SILVER STAR STORY (COMPLETE) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FROM A - Z by Skysenshi http://www.coolay.com ======================================================== ======================== INTRODUCTION ======================== This section will be divided into two main branches, (1) for GENERAL TIPS that would be quite helpful to players if used, and the (2) is for "SPECIALIZED TIPS". Included in these specialized tips are (arranged alphabetically): - Althena Springs, Locating and Surviving - Battle Tactics - Boss Survival - Escaping from Enemies - Fluffy Bug Catching - Levelling Up - Money, How To Earn - Ocarina, Use and Disappearance of - Red Dragon Cave Flame Path Survival Don't worry, I attempted to erase all spoilers here, so this leaves much to your imagination and playing skills. ======================== GENERAL TIPS ======================== 1. There's a kid in Burg that Ramus owes. Make sure you pay him 30 silver before leaving Burg. 2. When you're on the boat on the way to Meribia, buy at least 4 soaps. Why 4? Well, you need at least four. There are 2 free soaps that you can get in the game but some absent-minded people tend to miss the two free soaps, so just in case you might, you might as well buy 4 soaps. I'll tell you in-depth later why you need them. 3. When Ghaleon joins your party, before you enter Quark's room for your second visit, remove all of Luna's accessories, weapons, and armor. 4. Talk to all people in villages and see if there are some people who are obsessed with one of your party members, or they generally talk about your party members a lot. They are possible sources of bromides. If you want to know in detail what bromides are, you can check out my in-depth bromide FAQ. 5. After every event, make it a point to re-visit Ramus in Meribia. 6. After every event, make it a point to re-visit most of the towns you'd already visited AND talk to people, especially the most significant people you've encountered before. 7. Make sure that you've finished all bathing scenes before moving on to Pao Village. Details below. 8. Be nice and courteous and helpful to everyone, especially your party members. Never take them for granted. ======================== SPECIALIZED TIPS ======================== ALTHENA SPRINGS, LOCATING AND SURVIVING - Remember, you must be able to bathe in these places before you get to Pao Village. Otherwise, the water will either dry out or its "spiritual powers" will no longer take effect. Either way, you won't be allowed to bathe anymore. - You must have at least 2 soaps for each bathing place, so you can get all the anime scenes. That's a total of 4 soaps. If you're lazy to look for free soaps, you should buy all 4 soaps on the boat going to Meribia. - The male bathing place is located near Meryod. There's a circular building there. There are no problems with these places. You will need two soaps as there are two anime scenes that can be taken from this place. - The female bathing place, on the other hand, is much more difficult to access, because no matter how high your level is, the monsters there are KILLERS. The female bathing place is located just after crossing Meryod towards the Blue Dragon cave. It's a circular building surrounded by a forest. - Before seriously penetrating the forest, you can equip your characters with accessories that increase their agility. Also bring with you all the starlights that Nall can carry. You won't be able to use all of them, but just in case you get too carried away with your MP usage, better be safe than sorry. - The Red Dragon Magic is very useful, but Alex has got to be faster than these monsters. Speed is essential. - You can set the battle formation as suggested: Mia Enemies Nash Kyle Alex Jessica With this battle formation, you can protect Alex, since he's the one who has the Red Dragon Magic. You might need this especially if your characters don't have high levels, or if they're a bit slower than your enemies. NOTE: I just put Nash in front 'cause I don't like him much ^_^ BATTLE TACTICS - Set your tactics. Somehow, for some insane reason, people get absent-minded and accidentally press the AI button, which could lead to absolute disaster. At least, if the tactics are pre-set and you accidentally press the single-star tactic sheet, it wouldn't be set on AI. - PROPERLY USE DEFENSE when a particular character's range is short. PROPERLY? Of course! You press the defense button then move the arrow pads to re-locate your character to a place nearer to your target. That way, your turn is not wasted on a character that is near to the enemy BUT super vulnerable to open attack. - Battle formation is very important. The best formation, especially during boss battles, is to keep your characters as far apart as possible. That way, your characters can avoid getting ALL hit by an areal attack. - Conserve MP! The best way to do this is to not let all your characters use MP for every encounter. You can use Mia's MP until it drains, then Nash's, then Alex's. If you let two characters use MP in one encounter, your collective MPs will drain fast. Replenish your MP only when you think there's a boss coming up. Alex, Kyle, and Jessica are better suited to physical fighting. Although Alex and Kyle have powerful areal attacks, their physical strengths are more often much more useful. - When you enter the place for the final battle, distribute all your HEALING RINGS well. Don't give healing rings to Alex and Jessica because Alex's Althena Sword works exactly like healing rings. And Jessica will receive a healing staff, which also heals. (The first time I played this I had the healing ring on Jessica, and then I noticed in my cousin Nao's game--she doesn't have any healing rings--that Jessica's HP keep replenishing. It was then that I decided to repeat the final battle, removing the healing ring that Jessica was wearing ^^;;;) BOSS SURVIVAL - Make sure that your characters' levels are very close to each other. Bosses base their strength on Alex's level, so if one of your characters is weaker, that character might not be able to stand a chance. - Before facing the boss, make sure that your battle formation is suitable. Remember to keep your people as far apart as possible. - Wear appropriate accessories. You won't need Ghaleon's Tear when battling bosses, so make sure you replace that with a better accessory. - Before you begin attacking, let Alex and Kyle fortify themselves, and let Mia and/or Luna strengthen Alex and Kyle. You can go on attacking on the next turn. - The best attacks that Alex and Kyle can use on bosses are the ones that only cost 6 MP. - In the final stages, equip Alex with the Hell Ring. It halves MP usage, which you might need, especially if your level is quite low. Alex's White Dragon magic comes in handy 'cause it fully heals all your party members. ESCAPING FROM ENEMIES - If you want to escape successfully, escape individually. Don't worry if one of your characters can't escape and dies. As long as most of you are still alive, then your party is still alive. But I suggest you don't try to escape unless you need the enemy alive to accomplish a particular task. FLUFFY BUG CATCHING - This is the part where you try to catch a fluffy bug in Iluk. If you've played Final Fantasy 7 before, just imagine yourself trying to catch a Chocobo. You don't aim for the odd bug (the one with pink/purple color). If it runs away, don't worry because Kyle will catch it. As for looking for it, it's the enemy that looks like a cloud and the one you will capture stands in a barren part of the garden (no grass, just bare soil and a few crops). LEVELLING UP - The best permanent place to level up is in Pao Village inside the Black Dragon Cave. But don't try to level up unless your party is complete, so that there will not be any imbalance. - Other alternative places to level up, although they aren't permanent, are in the Grindery near the Althena Shrine and in the Final Battling Fortress. There are really tough enemies in the Final Battling Fortress, but you must defeat them either by regular magic attacks or by physical attacks because if you try to use the very powerful Black Dragon Magic, you won't gain much experience points. - Try not to level up during the early stages because your stats will only have minimal increase. If you must level up before the suggested places to level up, here are alternative suggestions: 1. Meryod Forest 2. Iluk Gardens - Actually, in this game, levelling up is not a problem because whatever level you are you can still finish this game. MONEY, HOW TO EARN - Every time you buy new equipment, sell the old ones. You need the inventory space. - The best places to earn money are also the best places to earn experience points (See LEVELLING UP). - Before you leave the Meribia sewers after defeating the boss there, remove all of Ramus' equipment and you can probably sell them. - Before you enter the White Dragon Cave with Ghaleon in your party, remove all of Luna's equipment. They're not much but you can sell them and make use of them. If you want to, you can buy Luna better equipment when she returns (he, he) ^_- - There are accessories that you won't really need when you're in the second disc. Sell them. The very important accessories must have something to do with magic (either defensive or offensive) and with speed/agility. The important accessories I brought with me when I was playing were defense against elemental attacks, resistance to magic, agility increase, Gale Ring, Hell Ring, Ghaleon's Tear (for regular enemies), Tri-Ring, and Fresh Ring. - Don't worry about money in the second disc--you won't need it. OCARINA, USE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF - The Ocarina is similar to the M-Disc in Xenogears, with which you can play the game's background music. - At the end of the final battle, this item will or will not disappear. What does this mean? Well, it was said that people shouldn't worry about it because it IS SUPPOSED TO DISAPPEAR. And it did disappear the first time I played the game. However, on my second game it stayed right where it was. This also happened with my cousin Nao and my sister Aya. But just in case yours disappears, just make sure you have a saved file where it still exists if you still want to listen to the game's bg music. RED DRAGON CAVE, FLAME PATH SURVIVAL - There are paths in the Red Dragon Cave that are covered with flames, which makes it hard for you to cross without getting damaged. There are no secret ways that I know to get over this, except to just go through it. - The path that leads to the bosses is not only covered with flames, but also have 2 hidden demons in it. For those of you who have very low levels, there is a technique that you could use: 1. Tease the first demon at the mouth of the flame path but don't get caught. You must lead him out of the flame path so you can replenish your stats before fighting him. 2. Do the same with the second demon. If you do get caught, let your party members escape individually so you don't get your party annihilated. Once you're out of the flame path, replenish your stats then fight him. 3. Once you get to the end of the path, save before touching anything, especially the treasure box on the left side. That box is a trap that will trigger a boss battle. You want to be prepared when you fight them, don't you? ======================== DISCLAIMER ======================== Under no circumstances can the content of this FAQ sheet be copied. If you want this on your page, please give this site proper credit. The Kraiders Otaku Fridge http://www.geocities.com/~kraiders Lunar: The Silver Star Story (Complete) is copyright 1992 by Game Arts, 1996-1998 by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, ESP/JAM. English translation is copyright 1999 by Working Designs. I am neither an authorized distributor of the CD or a contributor in the creation of the game.