Play It Again, Sam

[MiladyDW777]

Just finished up 2, no thanks to GETAWAYFROMME GIGANTINE!!! Am starting 3. We are in the cave with Merryll. Not for nothing, Indy, but in the picture during fights, Merryll looks less repulsive/monster-y and much more human, and because of that he's waaaay more intimidating. That's a hell of an amazing update to begin the game. I am SO EXCITED!!! To the point that I'm irritated I have a party to attend in an hour. Wonder if they'll notice if I leave early...

PS Now that I"m looking at the picture again, he almost looks like a really muscle-y, fang-y, menacing version of Tom Cruise. That is, if Tom Cruise was CAPABLE of looking menacing...

[littlebro]

That is, if Tom Cruise was CAPABLE of looking menacing...

Tom Cruise and menacing do not belong in the same sentence. But yes, the updates are amazing aren't they!

[MiladyDW777]

Tom Cruise and menacing do not belong in the same sentence. But yes, the updates are amazing aren't they!

I think this is probably the only time those words will EVER find their way together.

I truly can't believe how much has been updated, and I've only just gotten our little group over the bridge. This is making the wait for MM5 SOOOO much easier!!!



ETA: Is there ANYTHING sweeter than Abu with the Maddening Axe, Virtuoso Belt, and Automatic Chain? No. No, there is not. I will be FOREVER grateful to the forum user who posted that (and my deep apologies for not remembering who you are!!!)

[Indinera]

Thank you very much for the feedback. Glad you are enjoying the updates.

[Gaan]

ETA: Is there ANYTHING sweeter than Abu with the Maddening Axe, Virtuoso Belt, and Automatic Chain? No. No, there is not.

Ofc there is, the strawberry lollipop.

I also had the Maddening Axe and Virtuozo Belt combination, but never thought to give Abu the Automatic chain as well, it seems like quite a useful upgrade. And while offensively I cant think of any other worthwhile combinations, for all those who abhor inns as much as me I have to suggest the Amazing hat of alchemy combined with the Virtuozo belt (replaced with a skill cost reducing item when it's time to heal) to quickly refill mp.

Later on you can either get by with shumen runes + witch hat (or wand of the sorcerer) on marine and on MM4 you can use the shumen runes on mom to get free voodoo heals and 1mp catharsis in order to fully heal a party member for 0-1 mp. You can also heal for free with Salome from the point you get an earring of the seven seas.

And although I'm at a point where I have a pretty complete save, if I wanted to have a perfect save I'd watch out for all the things on the first page, plus the following:
- Marine would be promoted to Heart of Myst and Abu to Black Legend (for Marine it may be ambiguous due to the other bonuses, but black legend is clearly the best promotion for Abu).
- 99 Mandragoras Dust from MM1 and preferably 99 Growth eggs from MM3.
- Whenever possible I'd have Abu in all my quests and I'd go for the Earth Heart reward (I caught on the reward thing from MM3 and I have 37 earth hearts by the end of MM4, could possibly go higher if somebody did this from the start of MM2 and completing as few quests as possible before getting Abu).
- No sold weapons or other items you can't get from shops.
- At least 4 of each weapon and accessory when you can get them (maybe 3 when Marine can't equip them).
- All characters trained to max strength, mind, res and speed whenever possible (don't know if it matters) and ofc all 13 characters to hand lvl 6 (especially for suzuki it helps if you have visible encounters on, they help for grinding as well).
- 99 diamond nuggets remaining (optional, but would probably take care of all money issues for MM5).

I have managed to do most of them (except for Abu being a Black legend and the 99 mandragora dusts), although I suspect it's a bit of an overkill, even for hard difficulty. Oh well, who ever hated an overkill?

[Alikamou]

Doggone it Gaan! Now I have to go back and play everything again

Quick question...when might be the ideal time to do 'promotions'? I always get them as soon as I can

[Cassiopeia]

ofc all 13 characters to hand lvl 6

Well, that means having to level a lot during the game cause when you're done you can't take all the charas back to level up anymore. That's one of the reasons I was complaining about this more than once.
But hey, I've been told that MM5 is there to level them all up.

[Gaan]

True, you can probably take care of the hand level in MM5, but I wanted to have everything as ready as possible for MM5. It's the same reason why although I took everyone to the guild to master whatever they could I didn't use my diamond nuggets but farmed for that gold.

I won't say that I ended up doing a ridiculous level of grinding, but I will say that even in my first attempt of Tyrano I beat him under 6 minutes although I was a bit conservative and had the Fairy lover equipment that makes you lose some time since it gives Jeanne a second turn (the Bear still cheated and told me it was a disaster ).

As for the promotions there isn't a clear answer as to when it's better to do them. It's better to do them as soon as you know what you want them to grow into and you can promote them to that. Problem is that if you are too hasty you will miss the chance to use some special promotion items (like the book of so many tales), and some combinations you can't even predict until the next installment(s) of MM come out (I'm looking at you Abu).

So promoting them right away isn't such a bad idea, since in order to be sure you'd have the best combinations you'd probably need to have all characters unpromoted till almost the end of MM5 (which is probably too much and not worth the trouble). I think a good middle ground is to just check the forum to get a general idea about the available promotions for each character before promoting them.

[Cassiopeia]

I wanted to have everything as ready as possible for MM5

That's what I'd prefer too, but I'd like to do the grinding at the end of the game because grinding IS boring and it distracts from the actual game.
Oh well, who cares what I want.

As for promotions ... I would always keep them until very late. Not only because of the special promotions I might miss, but also because the stats increase at a certain percentage, so I wanted my charas to be at higher levels and gain more stat points.
But now I think it's useless. It means I'm playing each game without the promotions and promote them when I don't need it anymore. In the next game I do keep the promotions, but I presume the stats of each promotion are preset then, just like the levels are, and it doesn't matter how high my stats have been when I did the promotions.
So I guess you're right. It's probably best to check out the special items for promotions and promote as soon as you have them.

[Gaan]

I highly doubt you gain anything by promoting them later, as the stat gains come from the different multipliers each promotion has for different stats. And it seems that those multipliers are the last thing to be applied, as even equipment seems to benefit from them.

For instance putting a Shumen scarf on a Jun - Tsu Kaa Benoit (no mind multiplier) gives him 34 mind, while the same piece of equipment gives 61 mind to a Heart of Myst Marine (1,8 mind multiplier).

[Cassiopeia]

Well ... multiplier or percentage, it ends up the same.
At higher levels their stats are higher too. Plus you can equip good stuff on them to get out as much as you can. So it does make a change within the game how high their stats are when you promote. But it won't pass over to the next game, that's what I mean.

[Alikamou]

So I've gone the easier route of getting a promo too soon (even playing story mode )
Do the articles required for the promotions disappear from your inventory when the promotion uses it? Mine disappeared So this play through is going to be so much slower because I want to find them all and link them to what they boost the chara to. Know how many there are up to MM4?

[Cassiopeia]

Yes, they disappear when you use them, but I haven't found any other use for them, so I guess that's okay.
Also, not always the special promotions are the best. Mostly, but not always.
I don't remember how many there are, sorry.

[Alikamou]

I'm trying really hard to make my list...but I get too involved in the game and nearly always forget to write them down It's making for extremely interesting play this time round

[loof123]

There is a promotion guide drakov made:

http://www.aldorlea.org/officialsite/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=184&t=7237

It should be quite useful for you Alika!