================================================= BRAVE SOUL FAQ BY DAVZZ ================================================= Copyright (c) 2004 Davzz. (Contact info at bottom of Faq) Do not sell this Faq or edit it by removing my name from it. Do not post it on any other website without my permission. Do not incorporate any part of this FAQ into your own guide without obtaining my express written permission. Brave Soul (c) and related materials translated by Peach Princess and owned by Crowd. ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. History 2. General 3. Characters 4. Items 5. Missions 6. Misc 7. Contact info ========== 1. HISTORY ========== 02-11-04 Version 0.2 (A quick update, I added help for two tutorial missions that appear way too often on the gamefaqs message board...) 01-11-04 Version 0.1 (Actually pretty much complete, just have the monsters and items lists to go...) ============== 2. GENERAL ============== This is NOT an FAQ to answer how to get endings with the various girls in the game. This FAQ is dedicated to the gameplay aspect. In other words, the crappy Diablo-ripoff. Since I'm very sure there'll be hundreds of people wanting to write FAQS that provide every single h-scene, I'm doing something different. Power-levelling has always been a hobby of mine. With this FAQ, you will pull off ridiculous stunts such as... - Uzi Star Blade attack. - Level 1000 for all characters. - 99 of every item. Anyway, if you want the general hints for this game... read a Diablo FAQ. ============ 3.CHARACTERS ============ ---- Rudy ____ First mission possible to recieve: At Start Favourite Missions: He's you. Missions Disliked: Um, ditto. Comments: The main character, he uses heavy armor and swords and pokes people with the pointy end til they die. He also has the ability to release smoke and fire projectiles. You will want to pump most of your seeds to him. Do not under any circumstances let Rudy die. Chances are, the dumb AI of your teammates will not be able to take care of any remaining enemies and you can't revive yourself with an elixer. Rudy can learn several spells by equipping items, however, most of them are pretty crappy. There is however one spell you can learn during a quest, Star Blade. This projectile spell rips through all enemies in it's path. Once you have enough mp, this is actually better than his normal attack. In the later difficulties, you will NOT want to melee the enemy, put your stat boosters into his Magic ability. Rudy's sword projectiles are affected by attack speed. Power Strike is not. ----- Shell ----- First mission possible to recieve: At start Favourite Missions: Uh... dragon related? Missions Disliked: Dark Lord related. She won't leave though. Comments: A cute little dragon who breathes fire and throws potions when you need them. There's nothing much to say about her. She doesn't equip much and there's no point wasting your seeds on her. However, along with Alicia she is vital to unlocking a secret character. Shell will never leave your party. Ever. Other than that she has no special abilities. ------ Alicia ------ First mission possible to recieve: Almost at start Favourite Missions: Odd jobs? Missions Disliked: Dungeons with Traps. Comments: A Healer (what a surprise) that looks suspiciously like the "Moon Goddess". I'll put it simply, this character is God(dess)ly. Beginners should definitely get her ending first. Not only does it provide clues for unlocking a hidden character, after her h-scenes, she learns the most useful spells out of all the characters in the game. Her last spell is Resurrection, which revives a character for only 30 mp, including the main character! Don't let her leave if you want to use her, the jobs where she appears in seems pretty random to me. At least our princess takes the "odd" jobs, which has a theme. She doesn't need much stat boosting to be useful either. Just enough Magic so she won't run out of mana too fast. Alicia can read certain stone tablets, which makes some dungeons ridiculously easy. Also in the required missions, tablets appear while there isn't any required missions with traps or fairies (for example). ----- Marin ----- First mission possible to recieve: Recover a lost item. Favourite Missions: Children and Nature. Missions Disliked: Anything that's too much for her brain. Comments: A catgirl who has summoning abilities and therefore is the sole reason to buy/Cervantes De Leon this game for some people. And yes, I know it's "Marine" but PP screwed up. Despite being a summoner, Marine is actually a FIGHTER character. In earlier difficulties, her summons are pretty useful both for tanking and to deal damage. However, in later difficulties, they become mere cannon fodder. Being a melee character also makes her subject to being ripped apart by strong melee monsters such as Ogres. The cursed cat hairband is oddly enough quite a good item. Plus she is the only one who can equip the Cat items dropped by the werecat monsters. Use her early, then never use her again. Sad to say, she's probably the worst character in the game. Not to mention her ending makes me so murderous because of it's crappiness. Marin can talk to fairies. Unfortunately most of them provide healing, the same effect can be achieved by standing around and holding the tab key. ------ Caroll ------ First mission possible to recieve: Recover the Magic Flute. Favourite Missions: Magic related. Missions Disliked: Undead related. Comments: A magic-user who's afraid of the undead. She casts magic spells that make bad guys fall down. As far as gameplay goes, there's almost nothing particularly special about Caroll. She's pretty average, learning a few spells from h-scenes as well as from a chest in one mission. Still, she's a ranged character, which makes her better than Marine. Caroll seems to have a odd mix of abilities, she opens locked doors in some missions, read certain tablets in others. It's pretty easy to tell which missions require her abilities. The game translators can't seem to decide on which of her name to keep. I've seen "Carroll", "Carol" and "Caroll" all used. ---- Ruby ---- First mission possible to recieve: Retrieve Magic Flute Favourite Missions: Anything where there's treasure to recover Missions Disliked: Anything from Nobles. Comments: A treasure hunter (i.e thief). It's fun to mock her name (Hee hee, RuDY and RuBY, how original) One of the more interesting characters in the game. Ruby is like a mixture of all the characters in the game. She fires projectiles for her attack (Karen), summons golem (Marin) and casts debuffs on her opponent (Alicia). She also disables traps at the start of every mission. Although Skillful is supposed to affect her dagger throwing strength, I don't really see any difference. It looks like it uses the strength stat for damage. If anyone know, please let me know. Although she's usually found in treasure recovering missions, sometimes she ISN'T found in trap filled dungeon missions. This may cause such dungeons to be a pain in the rear end to play so don't choose these missions if you don't have her. She learns one spell in a chest and one from her final h-scene. Both of them are summon golem spells so the chest one is pretty redundant. Ruby's events are the most combat-intensive in the game, make sure you're prepared before you attempt any of them. In addition, her 2nd last event before the h-scenes is the only one in the game which requires you to be a certain rank to even appear. In this case, S rank. If you offended Jim, don't bother trying for her ending. Overall, a fun and nifty character to have on your party. Ruby disarms all trap in dungeons. However, more than other party members, there's a chance she WON'T appear on trap dungeon missions. If you aren't guranteed to get her or have her in your party already, I suggest not taking trap dungeon missions. The next two characters are secret characters, read them at your own risk. For information on how to unlock them, please read the "Secrets" section of this FAQ. -------- SPOILERS -------- -------- SPOILERS -------- -------- SPOILERS -------- ----- Karen ----- Unlocked by: Completing the game the first time. First Mission possible to recieve: Collect bad-tasting food. Favourite Missions: Wierd ones. Missions Disliked: Anything from Nobles (getting lazy, Crowd?) Comments: An escaped princess who although being pretty imcompetent, has really amazing luck. An extremely luck-based character, even her luck stat is twice as much as her others. Her throw attacks are all random, the best of which are the mushrooms, which paralyzes and the bottle with the skull and crossbones on them, which usually does 9999 damage. She's also usually going to have high strength if you put seeds into her as it improves her damage. This means she'll have some good amount of hp at the end of the game. She gains no skills though, and after a while the novelty of her luckiness sort of wears off. Karen can find items from trash piles due to her extraordinary luck. She also has some other varied abilities due to her luck. ----- Clare ----- Unlocked by: Retrieving the Stone from the Ancient Capitol. First Mission possible to recieve: After Duel With Cobden Favourite Missions: Uh... dragon related? Missions Disliked: Dark Lord related. She won't leave though. Comments: Like her sister, Clare is pretty God(dess)ly too, except in an offensive rather than defensive way. She usually attacks with her lightning spells but will prefer to use her lightning spells. Lightning spells will penetrate through enemies, pretty good to clear out masses of enemies. She learns a new spell after her h-scenes and get some pieces of equipment (which are strangely enough pretty good, despite the descriptions). If there's anything bad about her, it's that by the time you can get her, the game is already about to end. Plus you need Alicia to unlock her, leaving only 1 character slot left open. Oddly enough you need a bunch of money to get Clare's events, about 6010 gold should do. Clare will never leave your party. Ever. Other than that no special abilities. -------- SPOILERS -------- -------- SPOILERS -------- -------- SPOILERS -------- ======== 4. ITEMS ======== This section involves strategies on using the items in the games to it's fullest extent. If you would like a list of all the items in their games and their stats, please check the appendix. ----------------- ULTIMATE WEAPONS? ----------------- It's pretty easy to recognize the ultimate weapons in this game. They have a special glow around them in the item screen and they can only be found once every X+1 level in Loser's Paradise, where X is a multiple of 10. However, are they really the best weapons for your character? They usually add very good all-round stats, including elemental resistances for some weapons and they deal holy damage, which no monster to my information resists and deals extra to plenty of them. But the most important attack stat is actually ATTACK SPEED. This is because it increases your damage by a percentage instead of a static amount of number. Which would be better, increasing your damage by 30 points when you have 100 or DOUBLING it? Unfortunately, there's not much weapons that do increase attack speed by a significant amount. Only 3 characters have weapons that does just that. They are Rudy, Karen and Clare. The weapons are, respectively, The Fastest and Shining Crystal. Most of Clare's weapons generally have high attack speeds. Note that attack speed also affects Rudy Wind Slash and Star Blade attack speed, making it a perfect weapon for magic-using Rudy rather than fighter Rudy. ------------- CAT EQUIPMENT ------------- Randomly dropped by the werecat class enemies, these equipment may only be equipped by Marin. They are the Cat's slippers, the Cat Punch and the Car Ear Band. No, the cursed cat-hairband does not count. By themselves, they give extremely crappy stats. However, if you wear ALL of them at once, the bonuses increase significantly. Marin fans should definitely take advantage of this. She really needs all the help she can get. ------------ SEEDS/FRUITS ------------ This is actually the only thing I spend money on in the game, equipment are usually dropped by enemies and by the end of the game, you will have a stockpile of equipment you won't be able to use. Sell them to buy seeds to boost yourself. Seeds are a long term investment. Unless you get them in multiples of 10, you are unlikely to see any real effects. However in the long run, it's probably better than that shiny new sword for Rudy that you dump 5 seconds later because a Knight class enemy dropped a better one. Note that the stat gains by seeds are actually RANDOM. I've gotten an increase of 3 from seeds once. The random number of fruits are more obvious. 2 for seeds 10 for fruits is really the average amount of points you can gain. Strangely, only the strength seed shows this random factor. The others only display a single number (instead of a range) in the display information. Fruits are usually dropped by Werecat class enemy, especially strength seeds. The Vampire enemies seem to drop the spellcasters stats seeds (e.g mind) more often but it might just be me. Now, the question, which seeds to buy? Strength is ALWAYS good even for the mages, because it provides the most hp increase of all stats. I don't really have to explain about the benefits of having more hp, do I? Mind and Will are great for their damage resistance. Getting stunned usually means being stunned forever for anyone with a decent speed of attack, since even if you try to run, you'll be popped back into your original position if you ever get stunned while moving. Mind is probably the most overall useful, since it gives hp and mp too, perfect for magic users. Agiliity, Luck and Hit all pretty much increase the same thing. Frankly I think they should turn these three all into just a single stat, since it's pretty redundant. Hit usually is the first to become useless for stat boosting, since Critical maxes at 90% and you usually can hit the enemy well enough without any boosting (the shades type enemy would be an exception but you can just cast magic to defeat those guys, which works better). Luck and Agi both increase dodge, more of which is never bad. Magic is the only thing which increases magic damage, important for casters. Some people can skip it, such as Ruby and Marin as they don't really use them that much. ----------------------------------------- "EXP/CASH" EQUIPMENT ----------------------------------------- This is what I call three items, the Sword of Desire, the Becoming Hero Cast and the Speed Limiter. The Sword of Desire turns any exp gained into money. You can earn this item by answering "Gold Sword" in the Recover the Lost Item quest or buying it in the Staff room (Recommended). In the early difficulties, it's pretty crappy. However, in the later difficulties, because the increase in exp gain is greater than the increase in money gain, as most monsters don't drop much cash in the first place, this is a very useful item. Eventually you'll run out of levels to gain faster than you run out of money to buy all the seeds to boost yourself to ridiculous strength, and this item will help alleviate this problem. Becoming Hero Cast is earned in the Friendship Dungeon (See the "Secret" sections on how to unlock this dungeon.) or can be bought in the Staff room. This item will increase your exp gained by DOUBLE (!!) but will crippled your speed to a horrible turtle pace. Don't worry, that's what the next item will fix... The speed limiter is dropped by werecat class enemies. It fixes your speed at 65 each. It should be pretty obvious what to do with this. Note that the Sword of Desire and the Becoming Hero Cast will work together. First it'll double the exp, which is then converted to gold. ========== 5.MISSIONS ========== This section is dedicated to mentioned any special stuff you might have missed on the various missions in the game. I won't assume you're braindead and give you step by step directions on how to get to the end of the dungeon, just mention any special items you could have missed. Update: Unfortunately from the e-mails I recieved and from the questions on the BS message board on GameFaqs, it looks like I do have to insult your intelligence. ================= TUTORIAL MISSIONS ================= -------------------------- Get rid of the Monster Cat -------------------------- Marin gave you a big clue... go to the marketplace, buy a catnip and come back. Easy. Note that the shop will be closed if you haven't talked to Marin yet. ------------------------ Recover Yasik's treasure ------------------------ This must be the most frustrating mission in the game because the instructions are so freaking vague. Here are the clues you should have figured out if you talked to everyone in the pubs. 1) Yasik's treasure was an Ocarina. 2) Yasik wants to be buried in his homeland, Soleil 3) Yasik wants to be able to see the sea (argh pun) Most people misinterpret clue 3 and think that the treasure is in the Estamine region. Clue 2 rules out the possibility. Note that he just wants to be able to see the sea from his deathplace, not be buried near to it. Soleil is REAL far from the sea, where else could someone see it from that distance? Answer: The mountains, duh. The shopkeeper sells Ocarinas but Jim wants the exact same one that Yasik has (although I'm not sure how he tells the difference). However don't throw away the Ocarina yet, you'll have to use it to unlock a door at the top of the mountain. So to summarize, talk to pub people, buy ocarina, head to top of Soleil mountains. ================= OPTIONAL MISSIONS ================= These are the normal quests you can ask Jim for, none of these are required but you want to do a lot of these for getting points with the girls and sometimes the item reward. In my experience, time doesn't seem to pass until you finish a mission unless you use "Stay a few days" at a inn, so take your time in completing the missions. ------------------------ Collect bad tasting food ------------------------ Having trouble finding the Orc Meat? That's because it's really Ogre meat, those silly translators. Hanging around the monster endurance battle will eventually earn you this item, along with most other food items. Overall this is a pretty short and sweet mission, which is generally my favourite, I hate dungeon crawls. ------------------- Get the Magic Flute ------------------- It's not a trap dungeon, Ruby will join and there's a Hell high heels (yes I know it's wierd) for her. Good starting mission if you're planning on using her. Sell the flute for your payment, there's no magic about it. There's a chest on the first floor with Hell's High Heels in them. Only Ruby can open the locked door. Don't worry if you missed it, it isn't unique and can appear several times during the game. --------------------- Recover the lost item --------------------- If you plan to use Marin, COMPLETE THIS QUEST. This is the first quest you can get her. Although they give you warnings about "being easy to get lost in the forest", it's really just a rectangular green patch of land, just keep searching around the south if you're lost and you will find the exit. The pond isn't that hard to find either, just head north from your starting position. If you have Marin in your party, she'll automatically give the correct answer and recieve a clear spiritual stone, her 2nd best stone in the game. Otherwise you get to answer, it's really the old "farmer drops axe in pond" story. However, if you answer "all of them", you get the Sword of Desire which I mentioned earlier. I don't recommend doing that though. There's a fairy in the far north-east that will tell you to go southeast to find the item if you have Marin , if you see her, you're WAY TOO FAR from the item. -------------------- Find a special stone -------------------- The order is 4,3,2,1. Having Alicia on your team will allow you to read the tablet, but just in case you didn't know that... ------------------- Get the Golden Bone ------------------- On the 2nd last floor (IIRC), there are a group of 3 fairies in the northwest. Talking to them in your party will earn you the Sacred Talisman, which boosts hp regeneration. You can also heal your hp with them... or you can just stand for a while and press the tab key. ------------------------ Find the Hidden Treasure ------------------------ Without Ruby, you probably want to skip this. Contains a Iron Golem scroll for her, but considering she learns Silver Golem from her final h-scene event, which is better in all ways, learning this spell is questionable and might actually be detrimental, because she'll use up MP casting this spell instead. ---------------------- Protect a merchant (1) ---------------------- Another short and simple mission. "Scare the client" seems to be generally the best response for most characters. ------------------------------ Investigate an unopenable door ------------------------------ Unless you really need a source of werecats, don't take this mission without Karen in your party. It gives only 600 gold for a long dungeon crawl. However if you DO have Karen in your party, you'll be able to watch an interesting cutscene for those who are fans of a certain other Crowd series... Boss: Giant Fish It sort of just floats around and uses spells every so often. If you stay away from his front and use ranged attacks from across the water, he'll usually go down fast. He drops lots of food and Goldfish feed when he dies, which I assume is a joke. -------------------- Saving Lost Children -------------------- I'm not sure about this, but I believe there's something for Ruby behind one of the portraits. ---------------------------- Recover the Dark Lord Statue ---------------------------- Quite possibly the longest lasting mission in this game, this job strangely has all the requirements to offend every single girl in your party INCLUDING Shell. It's almost amusing to see their reactions. This mission is used to clear out your party members in case you want a fresh start. If you're going for an ending with a girl, you probably don't want to do this since you'll be missing them for a while. Otherwise feel free if you want to change members halfway through the game. The money earned is gravy. -------------------------------------------- Check on the old man living in Ancient Ruins -------------------------------------------- Having Alicia will allow you to read a tablet that opens a portal. The portal will lead you to 2 treasure chests with a Goddess Shawl, a healing cloak AND another portal that leads you to the final level of the dungeon(!!). In the last level of the dungeon, they'll be an old man. If you revisit the dungeon after talking to him, he'll offer to trade you food for some equipment. Here are the list of items he will ask and the items you will get. Roc meat = Life Talisman Sea Serpent Egg = Wiseman Talisman Ripe Vegetables = Angel Talisman Beef = Angel Ring Vegetables = Gold Nugget The Angel Ring is definitely the best item of the bunch, but then again, it's only because most rings give pathetic amounts to your stats. There's really no reason not to do this quest if you have Alicia in your party. Without her it's a bit more frustrating, but still doable and worth it. In addition, there's a whole bunch of Knight class enemy here, if you want some equipment for Rudy. --------------- Recover Artwork --------------- Caroll will open a locked door with a chest containing Haste magic, not bad. BOSS: Robot Guardian Use ranged attacks, the further away you are from him, the easier it is to dodge his bullets. I believe the bullets are darkness element but I'm not sure. -------------------------- Find Material for Novelist -------------------------- Alicia...tablet...shortcut and blessed cape... blah blah. Boss: Crab Seems to have real trouble hitting anything behind him or some distance away as long as you're not in his face. Also he only has fire attacks, feel free to equip all your fire charms and laugh at him. When he dies, he'll drop 6 crab legs, which will give you pretty much the same stats as the monster itself. Great for a laugh but not much else. ---------------------------- Solve a Relationship Problem ---------------------------- I recommend not taking this quest because it's super annoying. First you have to visit a client, climb a mountain, climb down, visit a location at town and return to your client's house. Very time-consuming and the rewards aren't great. ------------------------- Protect a merchant (No.2) ------------------------- This is the later "Protect a merchant" mission where the client doesn't appear. If you don't want to look dumb, choose the choice "think about it" and "we're here to rob your treasure". -------------------- Search a Dragon Lair -------------------- Taking the egg gives you 5k, but at that point, you don't really need the cash. Just use the egg choice to impress the girls you want an ending with. I believe there's a trash pile for Karen if you return to the last level after you get the egg. You'll also receive 5 gold bars which nets you about 5k in gold. -------------------------------------- Find food for a First-class restaurant -------------------------------------- Seems familar? This is like the collect bad tasting food mission, except this time you get to choose what quality of food, there are 3 types and 3 qualities. I have no idea what happens if you give mixed qualities of food but all good quality makes a good impression with non-noble hating girls while all low quality food makes a good impression with the noble-haters (e.g Ruby) -------------- Recover an Orb -------------- Do this quest only if you have Caroll/want Caroll as your ending. If you didn't take her on this mission (silly you), the order of the stairs you should go in is NE,SE,SW,NW (Clockwise). Otherwise Caroll will read the tablets and tell you the directions. If you choose to keep the Orb (You should, especially with Caroll in the party, if you don't, why are you doing this?), you'll recieve a Satan Orb (yes, another odd item name). It's the 2nd best orb for her in the game. You'll also gain points with Caroll so no real reason not to do this. ================= REQUIRED MISSIONS ================= Jim will always force you to do these missions. Well, except for one. =========================================== I don't remember the name it's short anyway =========================================== This is short, you fight Cobden. Boss: Cobden Do you really need a strategy? Run circles around him and let your teammates kill him, it's easy even if you just melee him. ------------------ Hunters Tournament ------------------ A riddle contest! You need to search the item that is the answer to unlock each level. 3 strikes and you're out. Most of the answers should be obvious, however, the 4th (or 3rd, I forgot) is a bit tricky. The answer should be "Shadow", however the correct answer is to search the potted plant on the left. It is the only plant that does NOT have a shadow, which is what makes it so special. -------------------------- Hair Growth Mission Part 2 -------------------------- The tablet which shows you the door is readable by Alicia. I believe the correct button is the one on the far right. If you screw up, Cobden will win the contest. Jim will then get pissed off and demote you to rank D. While you can still complete the game, it does lock out several events from happening (including Ruby 2nd last event) ---------------- Duel with Cobden ---------------- Not much to it, head to the top of the mountain. When you get this mission, it means you're nearing end-game. You can actually immediately head to defeat the Dark Lord after this mission but I wouldn't recommend it. Boss: Cobden (x2) You fight him 2 times, he's still as dumb as ever. -------------------- Dice Dungeon, Part 1 -------------------- I suggest having a lot of time on your hand before attempting this mission. This can take 5 minutes or 5 hours, depending on your luck (real-life, not game stats). Basically, clicking on the dice will generate a random number between 1 to 6 (just like rolling a dice) and depending on the tablet, you will be sent to that floor. The lips enemy are annoying by themselves but can be deadly if there's other enemies mixed in. They fire hearts that will paralyze you once in a while but if you hit them, they'll release a whole bunch of them. Be careful when you deal with them. There are 2 floors with treasure in this dungeon. The chests contain Justice (rapier class) and Gungnir (spear class), both good weapons for their respective characters. Be sure not to miss them if you are using said characters. Once you reached the final level, read the tablet. Then pray that you reach home, mission completed! -------------------- Dice Dungeon, Part 2 -------------------- This is optional, but I'm including it here anyway, since it locks out the other missions when it's offered to you. If you let the man do the rolling of dice, you'll follow a set path through the dungeon instead of a random one. I highly suggest you take him up on his offer. Otherwise, this dungeon is pretty much the same as you remembered it. --------------- Master Hunter G --------------- This one seems to be pretty strict on the timing, you'll need the complete as many missions as you can, as fast as you can. Boss: Rudy's father He has the same attacks as you, so... I guess you got to have more stats than him. After you win, he'll drop the Oricon Sword and teach you the Star Blade skill. When you get enough mana, this will probably be your most used attack in the entire game (not that he has much) Overall this mission is pretty random, if you can't get it, just keep replaying the game until it appears. -------- End Game -------- Well, the only thing I have to mention about the dungeon is that once you watched the cutscene with Cobden and the guardian robot, you may never enter any other dungeon again. There is a portal connecting to the surface which you can use to visit towns though, also, there are 2 places to train up, Monster Endurance battle or the Collesium, if you unlocked it. But heck, you should already be prepared before attempting this mission in the first place. Boss: Dark Lord Caraile He teleports around casting random spells and summoning creatures to fight for him. Try to take out his creatures ASAP if they start building up too much. Otherwise they'll overrun you. AOE spells such as Fireblast, Power Strike, Star Blade or Multi-lightning are very useful for this battle. Stock up on potions, you should have 99 of each, this is really a battle of endurance. ==== MISC ==== ----------- POWERGAMING ----------- ----------------------- Powerlevelling/Boosting ----------------------- This is the part where I teach you how to reach lvl 1000, so prepare yourselves, maggots! This techniques are more effective on the higher difficulty levels, obviously. First, a few things are required. 1) Paper-weights. 2) A good way to kill time, I recommend a good book. These things are optional, but will help a lot. 1) The "EXP/CASH" equipment. 2) Growth Cave and/or Collesium unlocked. 3) Ranged attackers as your teammates. There are 3 methods, which one to use really depends, so I'll just list them all. Method 1: Monster Endurance Battle. Recommended if: Rudy is better than the rest of his party, you can beat the blue goblins without difficulty. This one is the slowest method, plus you have to rely on Rudy only, so no Alicia or Shell auto-heal if you screw up. Normal or Special elemental weapons recommended since there's Undead monsters. Put Rudy in front of the entrance where the monsters appear and put a paper-weight down on your tab and ctrl key. Position your mouse cursor to the far right end of the screen. Blue goblins are the best monsters, so if you can kill without taking too much damage, you should be fine. Sometimes the goblin mages will turtle in the hole, in that case, just click and Rudy should move to the far right, the mage will come out and Rudy should automatically move down to murder him. This method will also earn you a lot of food items. This could be useful in case you need to complete 2 particular quests (and 1 secret) which requires food. Courtesy of Phuc tram: I just want to add a suggestion to this. I do basically the same when I use this method. But, instead of leaving my mouse at the right side of the screen, I put it at the top of the screen, right above the hole where the monsters come out. I then right-click to have Rudy start blasting magic up the hole. While the right mouse button is down, I add a paperweight of some kind to keep it down. Between the Tab button (to speed things up), the Right mouse button (to damage and annoy the monsters) and the Ctrl button (to auto melee-attack when the monsters are nearby), I don't have to worry about my enemies or whether they hole up or not. Two time figures: 3 hrs --> Increased level from 58 to 66 8.5 hrs --> Increased level from 67 to 95 Method 2: Growth Cave. Recommended if: You have good ranged attackers and/or Alicia. The 2nd fastest method, you will have to unlock the Growth Cave in order to use this method, see the secrets section for more information. Go to the Growth Cave and well, just paper-weight your tab key this time. The slimes have a very high evasion rate so melee fighters won't do too well. They also have magic resistance according to their colour. Since fire spells seem to be the most common attack, Shell won't do too hot in the attack department here you might need to help your teammates defeat the red slimes with Wind Slash or Star Blade. Alicia is recommended so you don't suck up all your healing potions. Shell will take care of the rest if you have big enough stockpile of potions. This method will earn you gold bars and several spirit stones. However they are pretty crappy and you should have the clear spirit stone if you're using Marin so sell all of them away. Method 3: Collesium. Recommended if: You are already level 1000 and just want fruits or equipment. IMO the fastest method, you will have to unlock the Collesium in order to use this method, see the secrets section for more information. No more paper-weights this time, there's a chance the monsters might actually kill you. I assume you already know how the Collesium works, now the question, what set to choose? 1) Werecat Set These guys drop fruits on a frequent basis, cat equipment and the speed limiter. This is usually the one I choose, since using fruits is a lot easier on the hand than using 99 seeds. 2) Ogre Set The green Ogre gives the highest exp in the game, not counting bosses. However, if you don't kill him fast enough, he'll actually heal his wounds. This can make the fight impossible to win. Melee characters will get pounded by Ogres in general so you'll have to use ranged such as Caroll for this. 3) Knight set If you want equipment, this is your set, the Knights have some of the best misc armor in the game, such as gloves or boots. they're also not as tough as ogres while giving decent exp. ------- SECRETS ------- ----------------- New Game Settings ----------------- I have no idea what order you get them, so here's the general method. Basically, just beat the game once and then keep beating the game several more times in the new options unlocked. After the difficulty options, you will unlock the "experience" option and then the "item" options, here are the list of total options you can get. Difficulty: Weak, Super, Special, Wander (?), Nightmare, Crazy Experience: Novice, Expert Items: Wealthy. ----- Karen ----- To unlock this character, just finish the game once. The beginning missions should be a little different now... ----- Clare ----- This one's a bit harder. In case anyone hasn't figured it out by the clues in Alicia's route yet, Clare is Shell cursed into a dragon form. To return her to her Human form, after the Duel with Cobden, proceed immediately to the Ancient Capitol to retrieve the Blessed Stone. If you had seen the scene where Shell takes care of you (just keep trying after every mission) and have Alicia in your party, the curse will be broken. --------------- Beginner's Mark --------------- Die more than 3 times and you'll get this. It'll half your exp gain and provide a whole bunch of stats. Sadly, as you increase in levels, the stat gains drop until at level 50, where you earn nothing anymore (and trust me, level 50 isn't hard to get at all). -------------------- Beccy, fickle Hunter -------------------- Located in Mistrel pub, Beccy will unlock new locations depending on what rank you are. They are... C: Growth Cave. B: Friendship Ruins A: Collosium Backdoor. At S Rank, he'll tell you that Jim wears a wig. If you see Jim after, he will wear one, but this is really pointless so I'll be ignoring it. ---------------- Friendship Ruins ---------------- See "Beccy, fickle Hunter" on how to unlock this. Each level has portals which acts as a staircase. Every time you go down, you party will be split apart. Don't worry, just move south a bit and you can get them all back. This place is filled with goblin-class monsters. At the final level, you'll find a chest with Becoming Hero Cast in it, a nifty item. A useful feature of this dungeon is to see how each of your characters do well individually. If they're being pummeled and dies in 5 seconds, you might want to pump them with seeds. Exception, Alicia as she is a support character. ------------------ Collosium Backdoor ------------------ See "Beccy, fickle Hunter" on how to unlock this. This is located in Estamine. You may choose to fight a certain "class" of monster. For monster classes with a whole bunch of individual type, there are difficulty settings while the rest get their own groups. Here are the groups you can choose to fight. The slop sets don't seem to have a theme to them, I assume there's some sort of pun or joke in the japanese version that doesn't translate well over here. The best monsters to fight are the Werecats, for the fruit drops, speed limiter and cat equipment (for Marin), the Knight class, for their high armor drops and the Ogre class, for their high EXP value. ------------ Black Market ------------ Located in Estamine. Talk to the person in the pub which tells you about customs and this area should be unlocked. Now the part that confuses most people. The man standing at the staircase is NOT blocking the entrance to the Black Market, he's just standing there. The real Black Market is the shop keeper to the south. It looks like he only sells fruits and potions but click on one of you characters on the top and you see that he sells equipment too. Of course, I never buy equipment, but YMMV. ----------------- Slums in Minstrel ----------------- You give the beggars in the slums money, they give you information. Since you're reading this faq, you probably wouldn't need it, would you? For completeness sake here are all their advice. (Coming soon) ---------- Staff Room ---------- You will need to complete the game at least once to be able to unlock this. Head to the Border area and talk to the guard with a different sprite. You should be able to enter the Staff room. Things of interest is a person on the 2nd floor who can identify items with unclear properties (just like in the Slums secret, useless because you're reading this FAQ) and a pub area with many useful stuff such as a shop which has almost all the items avaiable in the game (!!) --------------- Losers Paradise --------------- You will need to complete the game at least once to be able to unlock this. Go to the Pub area in the Staff Room and talk to the shadow on the left. Answers "Yes" to her question and this dungeon will be unlocked! This dungeon is 101 levels deep (!!), so I guess the name fits because only losers with no life would attempt all 101 levels. Also, on most levels you have to kill all the monsters on that particular level to unlock a locked door to progress to the next level, this coupled with the fact that they reused the levels multiple times, makes it extra frustrating to complete without a certain trick. On every X+1 level, where X is a multiple of 10, there will be a chest with the "ultimate weapons". This is the list of them... 11: Holy Crystal. (Karen) 21: Super Star. (Ruby) 31: Dragon Plate (Rudy - Armor) 41: Holy Lance. (Marin) 51: Rockslide Talisman (Rudy - Accessory) 61: Shining Orb (Caroll) 71: Moonlight. (Clare) 81: Holy Rod. (Alicia) 91: Excalibur. (Rudy) 101: None. (It's the last boss) There's also a portal to the next level with a multiple of 10 and a portal to the surface. Every level which is a multiple of 5 will have a piece of paper on the floor which gives you a memo that tells you about the backstory about this game. I say this is the real reason you want to finish this dungeon, the ending you get from completing this dungeon is really crappy compared to the memos you find on the floor. Every level with a multiple of 10 will have a boss, you will have to defeat it to proceed to the next level. -------------------------------- Level 10 Boss: Giant Green Slime -------------------------------- This one is easy, just stay away from him and use ranged attacks. However, once he dies, he'll explode into a whole bunch of small green slimes. If you weren't listening and tried to melee him, you would probably be surrounded when this happens, otherwise just polish the rest of them off. Spells that can hit multiple targets, such as Star Blade would be quite useful at this point. -------------------- Level 20 Boss: Demon -------------------- You might have met this guy in one of Rudy's events. Basically he shoots projectiles at you and summons more of his friends. If you don't kill him quick, the summoning could get out of hand so make sure you have enough offensive power. ------------------- Level 30 Boss: Crab ------------------- This is the same boss as in the "Find Material for Novelist" quest. ------------------------- Level 40 Boss: Giant Fish ------------------------- Same boss as "Investigate an unopenable door" quest, seeing a pattern here? ------------------------------ Level 50 Boss: Purple Starfish ------------------------------ Lightning resistance. Period. -------------------- Level 60 Boss: Robot -------------------- Same boss as "Recover Artwork" quest... ------------------------ Level 70 Boss: Cat Robot ------------------------ Almost the same boss as the Recover Artwork quest... except with a cat piloting the robot instead. Same strategy though. ----------------------- Level 80 Boss: Guardian ----------------------- Attack power pretty crappy, but he has pretty much every single stat boost spell in the game. This makes for a long and tedious fight, not a hard one. Diablo II players, just remember Izual. --------------------- Level 90 Boss: Takuya --------------------- I can't believe they actually drew the sprites for this guy. Well, he runs up to you and slashes you with a knife. Treat him like you were treat a werecat class enemy. ---------------------------- Level 100 Boss: King Caraile ---------------------------- Most people are probably confused at who this guy is, but if you were paying attention, it's King Caraile before he died and got revived as a Dark Lord. Just like his earlier version, he casts random spells and summons various creatures to fight for him. AOE spells is almost a must because if you let his summons get out of control, they will probably mean your death. ----------------------------- Level 101 Boss: ??? (Carbine) ----------------------------- Oh me gosh, what is it with enemies using Rudy's moves?! This guy is extremely fast and does about 300 hp per sword attack, so most non-stat boosted character will be put into permentant stun-lock, ESPECIALLY if they are melee characters. Never attempt to melee him with Rudy, you'll end up dead shortly unless you're highly stat-boosted up. For another reason why melee characters are a liability in this battle, if you surround him, he'll unleash his version of the Power Strike. Getting hit by multiples of the smokey characters usually means instant-death. Otherwise, this is, as usual, a test of endurance. Either he dies... or you run out of potions and you die. For those for you who think mindless killing is tedious and boring you can activate portals that would otherwise require to be activated in the dungeon itselfby buying 99 matches (no more, no less) from the girl in the market in Souvenia. Then talk to the zombie in the staff room and he will activate the portals. However, you will miss out on the memos, because they are 5 levels apart each, while the portals are 10 levels apart. Also, do not attempt this entire dungeon is 1 sitting, it seems to be a horrible ram-sucker. The game is almost guranteed to crash if you load up 10 or more levels in this dungeon. Return periodically to the surface using the portals to heal and save your game. -------- APPENDIX -------- +++++++++++++++ To be completed +++++++++++++++ A list of all items and their stats in the game. ----------- CONSUMABLES ----------- You use them once and they're gone. Usually restores health, mana or increases your stats. 1) Heal potion (Restores full health) 2) Magic potion (Restores full mana) 3) Elixer (Restores both to full) 4) Power seed (Increases Strength by 1-3) 5) Spirit seed (Increases Mind by 1-3) 6) Will seed (Increases Will by 1-3) 7) Smart seed (Increases Agility by 1-3, yes the name sucks) 8) Pro seed (Increases Skillful by 1-3) 9) Magic seed (Increases Magic by 1-3) 10) Luck seed (Increases Luck by 1-3) 11) Power fruit (Increases Strength by average of 10) 12) Spirit fruit (Increases Mind by average of 10) 13) Will fruit (Increases Will by average of 10) 14) Smart fruit (Increases Agility by average of 10) 15) Pro fruit (Increases Skillful by average of 10) 16) Magic fruit (Increases Magic by average of 10) 17) Luck fruit (Increases Luck by average of 10) 18) Ogre meat (Recovers LP by 2%) 19) Beef (Recovers LP by 6%) 20) Roc Bird meat (Recovers LP by 20%) 21) Small fish (Recovers LP and MP by 1%) 22) Fish (Recovers LP and MP by 3%) 23) Sea Serpent's Egg (Recovers LP and MP by 10%) 24) Rotten Vegetables (Recovers MP by 2%) 25) Vegetables (Recovers MP by 6%) 26) Ripe Vegetables (Recovers MP by 20%) 27) Gold Bar (Sell for 1500 gold each) 28) Match (See Losers Paradise in "Secrets") ------- WEAPONS ------- ---- Rudy ---- ~~~~~~~~~~ Dull Sword ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit: Max: Critical: Now: Attack:1 Heal: 3 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Short Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:5 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:8 Heal: 10 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~ Long Sword ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:3 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:10 Heal: 14 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~ Loon Sword ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:8 Heal: 16 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buster Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:5 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:17 Heal: 22 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sword of Desire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical:10 Now: Attack:5 Heal: 8 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:12 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. Comments: Turns Exp gained into Gold, see "EXP/CASH EQUIPMENT" section for more details on how to abuse this. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Knight Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:8 Max: Critical:1 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 28 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~ Katana ~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:12 Max: Critical:8 Now: Attack:19 Heal: 24 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elven Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:15 Max: Critical:1 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 26 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:12 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~ Fire Sword ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:8 Max: Critical:1 Now: Attack:25 Heal: 32 Fire Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. Comments: Allows the skill firebolt to be used, which stinks and should be ignored. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elven Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:15 Max: Critical:1 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 26 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ White Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:30 Max: Critical:3 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 25 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:6 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~ Dark Sword ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit: Max: Critical:10 Now: Attack:35 Heal: 50 Dark Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Speed Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:5 Max: Critical:2 Now: Attack:5 Heal: 26 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:24 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Icing Blade ~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical:2 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 34 Ice Magic Point: Avoid:10 Max: Armor:5 Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: 50% Fire resistance. 25% Ice resistance. Comments: Allows Rudy to use Icebolt, which stinks and should be ignored. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sacred Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:22 Heal:20 40 50 Special Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor:2 Now: Force: Heal: Resist:10 Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Magical Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:5 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:25 Heal:20 38 50 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor: Now: Force:50 Heal:80 Resist:30 Damage Resist: Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lightning Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:20 Max: Critical:5 Now: Attack:20 Heal: 55 Shock Magic Point: Avoid:20 Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal:80 Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:6 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sword of Gaia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical:12 Now: Attack:50 Heal: 120 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor:10 Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist:20 Attack Speed:-24 Move Speed:-6 Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Titan Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:2 Max:200 Critical: Now: Attack:40 Heal:100 60 50 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor:10 Now: Force: Heal:80 Resist: Damage Resist:10 Attack Speed:-6 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Fastest ~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:-50 Max: Critical: Now: Attack:1 Heal: 10 Normal Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor:10 Now: Force: Heal: Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:54 Move Speed:59 Magic Resistances: None. Comments: Possibly the best offensive weapon in the game. Boosts you to superhuman speeds. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oricon Sword ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:20 Max: Critical:5 Now: Attack:45 Heal: 60 Special Magic Point: Avoid:10 Max: Armor: Now: Force:20 Heal:80 Resist:20 Damage Resist: Attack Speed:6 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. Comments: The best sword if it's your first time playing through the game. Earned by completing "Master Hunter G" quest. ~~~~~~~~ Muramasa ~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:10 Max: Critical:15 Now: Attack:100 Heal: 199 -400 Dark Magic Point: Avoid:10 Max: Armor: Now: Force:20 Heal: Resist:20 Damage Resist: Attack Speed:-12 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: None. Comments: If your hp regen isn't high enough, will actually drain your hp until you are dead. ~~~~~~~~~~ Lightsaber ~~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:60 Max: Critical:10 Now: Attack:70 Heal: 90 Shock Magic Point: Avoid:40 Max: Armor: Now: Force: Heal:-200 Resist: Damage Resist: Attack Speed:18 Move Speed: Magic Resistances: Lightning Immunity. Comments: If your mp regen isn't high enough, will actually drain your mp until you are out. ~~~~~~~~~ Excalibur ~~~~~~~~~ Life Point: Hit:20 Max: Critical:5 Now: Attack:60 Heal:50 110 100 Special Magic Point: Avoid: Max: Armor:10 Now: Force:10 Heal:50 Resist:25 Damage Resist:10 Attack Speed: Move Speed: Magic Resistances: Slight resistances to all elements. Comments: Rudy's ultimate weapon, always nifty to have. --- Q&A --- Q. Where can I get this game? A. Peach Princess at www.peachprincess.com. Q. Why should I get this game? A. Other than Knights of Xentar, this is pretty much the only english h-rpg in translation. Granted, it's not great, but hey, you take what you can get. Q. Help! My game keeps crashing! A. This game is horribly buggy, luckily there is a support page right at http://www.peachprincess.com/Merchant2/support.mv. Interestingly enough, Brave Soul is the only game PP translated so far that has patches released for it! Normally, annoying bugs or censored CGs/scenes were corrected with patches by fans of the genre, examples being Nocturnal Illusions or May Club. Q. I like the music, where can I get the soundtrack? A. You do? Gasp, I think it's repetitive and boring, but if you insist, most of them are midi files which can be found in your BS folder. The vocals can be found on the CD as audio tracks. Q. How often are these questions asked? A. More than "rarely", less than "always". =============== 4. CONTACT INFO =============== You can e-mail me at Davzz@magix.com.sg if you have any need to contact me. Make sure your e-mail subject is something like "[Brave Soul] FAQ" (including the brackets) or I'll probably delete it immediately because of the massive spam I recieve. Several free e-mail providers are blocked, but you can always try your luck. ------- FAQ END ------- ----------------------------------------------------- Faq copyright (c) Davzz 2004. Brave Soul (c) by Crowd -----------------------------------------------------