According to the wiki, "There are more bosses in the 3DS version that need The Swallows Return to damage them (due to high AC)." How do I get swallows return? I see the swallows return KILLER. Is that the skill I need? Is it POSSIBLE to kill bosses without it?

Is high AC the same as high evade? The wiki says pursuit is quite useful to hit monsters w/ high evade? Does level have ANY impact on my chance to hit monsters? Or is it only based on my weapon and strength?

Thanks.

Rob

This version is based on PSP version.

What concerns chance to hit mechanics, they are quite obscure, I also want to know how do they work (not just assumptions), and how do stats work too (not just general information, but exact formulas).

I have, through testing, determined some things about stats.

Bonuses are as follows:
16: +1
17: +2
18: +3
20: +4
22: +5
(24: +6? Haven't tested with an Ogre yet.)

Effects that I have observed:
Strength: Bonus added to damage per hit (to hit as well?). Damage can be easily tested by giving a low level character a weapon that does fixed damage like a Death Arm or Aura Punch.
Intelligence: Bonus * 3 (I think) added to base mage spell power.
Piety: Bonus * 3 added to base healing spell power. (Is Elnam affected?)
Vitality: Bonus * level added to HP when rolled at level up.

This means that, for example, if you make a Dragonewt Cleric, her healing spells (especially weaker ones like Feria) will be weaker (but Hand of Kindness exists), but her attacks will be stronger and she will have more HP. If you want a mage with decent spells and high HP, try a Devilish. (Or better yet, Spirit Pact a Don Mags.)

By the way, it is possible to get an Ogre by hacking, and once you class change the character, the race will be fully functional except for the lack of portraits.

That's if to assume that those bonuses are all the same for each stat. Also I remember reading on Japanese wiki about Int and the way it scales above 18 is entirely non-linear.

I wish there was good way to test stat bonuses. I even made Dice of Fate for that very purpose, but it doesn't show what I hoped to see (doesn't show attack rolls at all),

Do you know, if there is a way to get above race maximums for stats? Some consumable or at least equipment?

I read that there are ankhs which increase stats.

Thanks.

Rob

Damage bonuses from Strength are easy to test; just get a weapon that deals fixed damage and use a character without High Mastery skills to test.

For Intelligence, use Balad or Balados (power 4); for Piety, use Feria (power 5). Make sure you don't have EX or High Mastery skills that would affect it. The effect is most noticeable with these weak spells. (When testing Feria, have another character with Mark of Ruin (and at least 10 HP) or negative turn recovery so that you always have someone to heal each round.)

Testing success rates is a lot harder. For accuracy, Avi might be a good choice provided you wait for it to wake up first. Just remember that accuracy can be affected by class and level. Also, for best results, use a weapon that gets a lot of attacks.

I have not found any way to raise stats above their racial maximum (aside from hex editing, of course). Using Ankhs or Protectorate will not raise stats above there maximums, and changing a character's race to Devilish (repeatable event in hidden room in final story dungeon B5F) will lower any stats that are above their new maximums.

Lightning Strike is a skill that the Hunter gets. It costs 1 SP and always strikes first.

Testing the Physical Attack Power Up skill (which is actually a High Mastery skill) should be simple. Just give the character a weapon that does fixed damage. If you want to avoid Strength bonuses, use a fairy (who can equip the Death Arm) but remember to uncurse it.

I actually did write Python code to dump the item and drop tables into plain text. One thing I discovered is that the files are actually shift-jis encoded, even in the English version. (That actually does explain why the untranslated text that the translators missed is readable Japanese rather than mojibake.)

By the way, I have been thinking about modding the JOB_EX.csv file to tweak the classes, making certain classes get EX skills for free. (In particular, I would give the Bard all 4 songs.)

In-game Vovalketer's description shows that he has "Swift Attack" EX-Skill. Perhaps because Vovalketer's AGI is already big enough (26), I didn't see any difference if he used that ability or not, as Vovalketer's always strikes first anyway. But this ability apparently forces him to act twice. When he doesn't use it, he only acts once (doing 1-2 attacks per round). Hmmm, so those "?????" in databases are actually Japanese words just in some exotic encoding?

I plan to make proper Item and Monster catalogue, with proper descriptions and stuff (like damage output for monsters), but there are hundreds and hundreds of those items and monsters, so it might take quite a time and willpower :) Interesting approach, though I think it would make Bards way too efficient. Mages and Clerics don't have cheap way to do damage and healing.

I think the ?????'s are characters that were lost at some point during development when converting files. Those names don't seem to be used by the game. (Case in point: "bless +" in the game files is "breath +" in the game.

In turms of bards being too efficient, it is worth noting that songs are not as good as comparable spells (ignoring things like anti-magic zones and Unclean Earth). Also, the game essentially goes through 3 phases in terms of resource management. In the first phase, resource management is actually important. In the second phase (after getting at least 2 casts of Diomente), you can keep using powerful spells and teleport out when you get low, and then teleport right where you left off after resting. In the third phase (Ibag Tower, where Diomente isn't usable outside of battle), every character in a spellcasting class should have 9's in every spell level. (If not, the character has no business being there and should level up elsewhere.) Therefore, I really don't think this is an issue.

Also, other games have bards who can produce healing and occasionally attack effects for free. Consider the Bard's Tale series (once you find a Bardsword), final fantasy 3 DS (but not the original Famicom version with its useless Bards), and even Wizardry 8 (where bards could use stamina, which could regenerate quickly (especially for female bards) for thier spells).

Furthermore, it's fun being able to produce interesting effects without using up any resources.