Star Ocean 3 Tips

by Mad_Cartoonist

Topics:

- List of Normals and their Properties

- MP Death and MP Management
- Character Recruitment
- Decrepit Tome
- SP Allocation
- AI behavior and Battle Skill Setup
- Walkthrough Tips
- Break the Game Tips
- Item Creation Tips
- Conclusion

List of Normals and their Properties

What many people arent aware of is that SO3s normal attacks are incredibly unique across the cast;
although admittedly, some are more or less useful compared to others.

As a rule of the thumb, if you are playing a melee character, always start your cancel combos with a
normal that has Fury Drain for safety.

Here are some details per character:

Fayt
- His Long X (the running stab) has a chance of reducing enemies' Fury (Fury Drain). Very useful for
starting a combo and even more important on higher difficulties when you don't see enemy's Fury bar.
For all characters with this Fury Drain property, make it a habit to start a combo with those attacks.
- His Long O is a running launching strike that can be followed up with an O anti-air kick. During Fayt's
running animation, he seems to have invincibility frames, making it possible for him to dodge many
attacks that are otherwise seemingly impossible to dodge.
- Fayt's popular combo is Long O > Short O > Short X.

Cliff
- His Short X is semi-infinite (the quick jab). You can do it as many time as your Fury gauge allows you.
However, it has very small hit box, and it'll miss many small enemies like Sootie.
- His Mid-Range X has Fury Drain effect, like Fayt. You need a while to get used to his mid-range, but
basically, as long as you are not in point-blank range, it'll most likely be mid-range.
- His Short O is among the highest dmg multiplier in the game (I think second only to Sophia's). He does
an uppercut (launch) and a hard jab forward as a follow up.

Nel
Nel is among the characters with many fancy normal attacks.
- Her long minor has Fury Drain property.
- She has a special minor where she pounds the ground for an AoE normal attack. This will trigger only if
she has three or more enemies surrounding her. You won't see it often unless you intentionally stage it
most of the time (I mean really, who in their right mind would try to get her ganged up?).
- Her Short/Long O is virtually the same, but the FAQ seems to suggest that Long O does more damage.
It also has a follow-up apparently, but I've never seen it.

Maria
Unlike most melee, she doesn't have Fury Drain in her Long Minor. However, she gains other gimmicks.
- Her Long X is usually single hit, but it changes to 4 anti-air shots against aerial enemies.
- Press X immediately after performing a Sidestep to perform Step Shots. Very useful for hit-and-run and
keeping distance without letting her DPS down.

Sophia
- Surprisingly the strongest Short O in the entire game if all three hits connect.
- She has no Fury Drain property in her Long attacks, but she gains MP dmg multiplier instead. I heard
many ppl saying that giving her Increase MP dmg will make her a viable MP killer.

Peppita
- As we all know, pressing X or O in short range while an enemy is attacking her will trigger her counter,
giving her i-frames. Get used to it, and she'll become unstoppable.
- The FAQ says her Long O has Fury Drain. Need to test this.

Albel
- His Short X is Semi-Infinite in nature. Too bad it's damn slow.
- He has a counter in his Short O, but I'm not sure if he gains i-frames. In any case, the attack is strangely
given X property, even though it's triggered by O. But that means you can chain it into his semi-infinite
Short X.
- His Long X has Fury Drain property
- His Long O stops when he hits a target or when he travels a certain distance. When used right, he
seems to be able to easily evade many attacks.
Is it just me, or does this guy have roller wheels on his shoes?

MP Death and MP Management

Yes, this is probably one of the most infamous feature of SO3, and what made many people hate it
because it goes against the convention. Im not going to make a counter argument on that debate, but
in this section, I will aim to help you mitigate this problem and give you tips on how to avoid it.

First thing to note is that MP management is NOT as scary as you might think it is. There are literally less
than 5 battles in main game where MP death is actually a prominent threat. Random encounters can be
avoided, so those are hardly a problem.

Still, there are several ways you can tackle against this issue if you are still worried about it. And even if
you are not, these are still very helpful tips for any kind of run.

1) Farm Regeneration Symbols

Regeneration Symbols (or Regen Symbols for short) give 3% MP regeneration at fixed interval, and it is
the best main game accessory (outside of 4D mode) until you can recruit inventor Chilico.

Regen Symbols can be farmed off Skeleton Knights in Airyglyph Aqueducts early on in the game. They
also give pretty decent EXP, and the symbols can be sold off for great price. So if you want, you can grind
there for a while.

Get 6 on your team, and you can pretty much forget about all other accessories in the game for a while.

2) OR, if you hate farming, buy them off Ruddle

If you are like me, and hate hoping that the RNG will give you the drop, you can wait for a bit until you
clear Ruddle & Rumina sidequest to buy it from Ruddle.

Check the section below for details on Ruddles sidequest

3) Inventory Management
SO3 has a number of item categories, and it could be a bit overwhelming for newcomers.

Aside from MP Regeneration from accessories, factors, and a handful of battle skills, items are the only
other method of replenishing your MP in battle, so new players often struggle to stay alive where MP
death is prominent, and it doesnt help that you can only have 20 of the most common MP restoration
items.

As such, here is a tip to keep in mind when it comes to inventory management:

1) Save combat items, ONLY for mid-battle

You have a limit of only 20 Blackberries, so those stock will be vital in your survival should you run into
any sudden stump mid-battle
2) While on field, use MP foods to heal MP and Healing spells to heal HP
Healing spell is very efficient, as it costs you only 20 MP (and its virtually a non-issue later on in the
game where your team has more than thousands of MP).

But for MP, you can heal up your team with foods that restore MP. Food items cannot be used in battle,
but you can use them freely in the field. Furthermore, you dont have to actively create them; Cooking
inventors are active enough that they will usually cook 4 or 5 types into the shop by the time you need
those hefty MP healing mid-field.

3) Buy other MP restoration items in stock

Compounding inventors can also occasionally invent some potions that restore MP for you (I forgot the
name, but Im pretty sure its Aqua Potion that is basically an exact replica of Blackberries). So if you buy
a stock on those, you will have extra padding on top of the 20 Blackberries.

As an advance tip, these things take a while to restock (and Im not even sure how restocking works),
so youll want to prioritize using the common Blackberries, and use MP potions only as emergencies.

4) Bear in mind that MP death also works in YOUR favor

MP death doesnt only kill you, but it also kill enemies. Some enemies, especially those in early game,
have very low MP, so some MP damaging skills actually kill them off FASTER than HP kills.

Blazing Sword and Shadow Wave are some of the best early game MP killers. Trust me, Blazing Sword
turned what could possibly be the hardest battle in 4D mode into a 10-seconds battle.

Character Recruitment

With 10 playable characters and only 8 slots available, one of the most popular questions is who to
recruit and how to recruit them.

I will NOT tell you, who you should recruit as it is a constant source of debate. As such, if you are not
sure who you want to pick, just pick the character you like on your first run. If you dont plan to play the
game many times, you will have your favorite character in your team. But if you plan on doing many
runs, then youll have your chance of trying out everyone eventually anyway.

Now, on to how recruitment works.

First of all, you can have only 8 permanent characters in your team; meaning you will always miss out 2
out of the 10 character roster in a single run.

There are 6 characters that whether you like them or hate them they will be in your end-game party
no matter what (so deal with it). They are:

Fayt
Cliff
Maria
Sophia
Mirage
Adray

*Special note on Mirage and Adray

They do not have any plot relevance lines as they are additional characters in the Directors Cut version,
but they WILL join your party after a certain point in the game.

Hence, the remaining 4 characters are Optional Characters that you have to actively make sure you did
the right condition to get them to join you permanently. They are:

Nel
Albel
Roger
Peppita

*important note on Roger

You HAVE to rescue him during the Duggus Forest event. Once you clear the Duggus Forest, he is GONE
FOREVER. Not to be mean to him or his fans, but if you chose to not find him AT ALL in Duggus Forest,
you actually get a small funny scene at the games ending.

The first opportunity to select your First Optional is immediately after Albel joins your party for plot
reason the first time. At this point, you can pick one of the following as your first optional:

1) Nel Shes a default choice; just proceed on with the story without doing any of the following
2) Albel Stay at the inn in Peterny; a PA event will take place and you have to tell him you dont hate
him
3) Roger Enter a house in Suferio opposite to the item shop house; a PA event will take place

The time window for first optional ends immediately once you enter Crocells Lair.

The Second Optional Character recruitment point is at the end of Moonbase.

Peppita will ask to join your party. If you agree to let her come with you, then she will become your
second and last optional character.

If you turn her down, THEN, you can go back and recruit one of the two Elicoorians you did not pick
during the first optional character flag. You can find them in the following locations:

1) Nel In her room in Aquaria Castle; get in there, and tell her you dont have time
2) Albel Urssa Lava Cave, Crocells room; get in there, defeat him (Fayt solo), and hell join you
3) Roger Suferio Inn; talk to him

Note
Telling Nel you just came in to chat will LOCK HER OUT FOREVER

Decrepit Tome

Decrepit Tomes teach Common Support Symbol support skill, which when equipped at the cost of 2
CP, allows your characters to cast Healing spells in battle (alongside Silence and Antidote, but does
anyone actually use those?)

Problem: There are only four of those in the game

Of course, the question is who to give it to. In this section, Ill be listing some of the pros and cons of
each character.

First of all, Nel, Sophia, and Adray learn Healing naturally, so obviously, using the tome on them is a
waste (Im not even sure whether its possible; never done it).

Fayt
Decent cast time overall, but his pre-cast animation takes bloody forever, so I personally dont really
recommend him. However, he does have the MP to spare earlier on, so if you have some healing
problems earlier on, he is an okay candidate.

Cliff
He has impressive cast time, but highly NOT recommended.
Cliff is a powerhouse with high versatility in battle so much that you dont really want to give him
another capability. Not to mention that he also has naturally low MP, so him being a healer earlier on is
a big NO NO.

Maria
A great candidate, and my personal recommendation.
Her cast time is rather quick, and since she primarily fights at long range, she is less likely to get
interrupted.

Peppita
Not a bad candidate but I hold no comments for her.
At the time I got her, I dont even use Healing spells any more, not to mention that, like Cliff, she is so
versatile that you dont really wanna add another capability to her. But still, if you feel the need, her cast
time is pretty decent.

Roger
Admittedly, I forgot the data on this guy. But if memory serves, he has the WORST cast time in the entire
game, so (if thats true) he is not a good candidate (On an interesting note, he has the fastest item
throwing animation as a tradeoff). That being said, Roger hits like a damn truck anyway, so you kinda
want him on DPS and not much else.

Albel
You probably might be urged to call bull on me, but Albel IS THE BEST HEALER in the entire game. Since
Healing spells do NOT scale with INT, Albels FASTEST NATURAL CAST TIME makes him best suited for
the job. Add to the fact that you will probably want to be controlling him if hes in your party, he makes
for a great candidate for healing because you can decide when and how to do it on your own.

Mirage
Eh No idea on her too But Id say since shes pretty much a copy of Cliff his comments probably
apply to her too.

Oh, and by the way, for anyone who thinks they are genre savvy, Sophia makes for a HORRIBLE healer.
So please, dont leave that job to her.

SP Allocation

SP allocation is yet another popular resource management problem that is plagued with an outdated
myth which states that there is an appropriate Attack and Defense level for each character.

Therefore, starting off by busting that myth, you will want your Status Skills (HP, MP, Attack, and
Defense) MAXED OUT REGARDLESS OF WHO IT IS. Without getting into too deep of a detail:

+ Attack Status Skill determines how well your AI characters perform Cancel Combos. The higher it is,
the more efficient their combo prowess will be.

+ Defense Status Skill determines the AI characters self-preservation and the ability to use side-steps.
The higher this stat, the more likely character will use sidestepping to avoid attacks and the more they
think about self-preservation (if their assigned tactic allows it).

Because of this, it only makes sense you want all of these to be as high as possible. But the question is
having only limited SP earlier on, which of the four stats should you invest in? Frankly speaking, in lower
difficulties, it really doesnt matter much as long as Defense gets maxed out last. But on higher
difficulties, you will want to prioritize Attack Status Skill as it makes your team perform offensively
better.

Therefore, the following is the SP allocation priority I personally recommend:

A) If you plan to control that character full time

MP > HP > ATK > DEF

B) AI controlled party members

ATK and DEF to lv3 > ATK > MP > HP > DEF

*level 3 is suggested because that is the level where ATK and DEF performance is generally agreed as the
most balanced

AI behavior and Battle Skill Setup

Blackfeathers AI FAQ is an amazing place to start getting your understanding on AIs behavior.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/536705-star-ocean-till-the-end-of-time/faqs/56185

Certainly, this games AI casts are not the smartest bunch, but if you understand the logic behind their
actions, you will come to understand that they are highly single-minded, rather than purely dumb.

If you dont want to read an entire FAQ, here are some basic tips that will help you manage AIs
behavior:

- AIs best talent is Cancel Combos and DPS, and not much else
Provided that the skills you set for them are skills they can cancel out of, they will aggressively perform
combos on enemies non-stop. This is the most reliable behavior you can expect from an AI. Once you
come to accept that fact, you will start to be able to predict an AIs behavior.

Check the FAQ for more detail on skill cancel behaviors of AI.

- Turn off ALL spells for AI

Field Menu > Symbology > press [] to remove the purple staff
- Use only [ATTACK WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT] on your fighters and [CONCENTRATE ON HEALING AND
RECOVER] for mages
[ACT IN A WELL BALANCED MANNER] is useful in a selected situation, but otherwise, stick to the above.

- [Charge] and [Aerial] the Pseudo Battle Skill

Both of these count as a normal, but for some reason, the AI will not use it in a cancel combo in battle.
To make sure they use it, youll have to swap your control over to them temporarily, then swap off. Only
THEN, would the AIs use Charge and Aerial in battle

Walkthrough Tips

This is not a comprehensive hand-holding guide, but there are problematic areas across the game, as
well as some notable difficulty bumps. This list is sort of a rule of the thumb kind of thing to keep in
mind as you play through the game

- Blueberries and Blackberries

Dont go crazy on buying these. You pick up a good deal of them as you go through various dungeons. I
would say buying 10 of each is a healthy stock.

- Sell useless items

Aquaberries, Worm-Eaten Tomes, Writing Materials, Cooking Materials, Jewel of Alertness, and Jewel of
Avarice are all absolutely useless. Feel free to sell them without any consequences.

- Know that some enemies arent meant to be fought

Star Ocean always has its fair share of enemies that make you go did the developers even tested these
guys!?
Therefore, if you are having trouble against some random mobs, know that its not your fault. Even long
time players will suggest against fighting those enemies because not only they are painfully annoying,
their rewards arent even worth it most of the time.

As a rule of the thumb, avoid the enemies of the following descriptions:

* Earlier on, soldiers on horse backs (but once you have stronger teams, they arent too bad)
* Huge Robotic Spiders
* Small floating machine thing with gatling guns
* Rolling crystal balls, or anything made out of crystal
* Little critters made up of soot (late post-game only)

- Hauler Beast in Kirlsa Caverns

This dungeon gimmick sucks. We all know that. Therefore, to get the hell out of there as fast as you can,
the correct route is [ LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT ALL THE WAY ], using Steady Hauler Beast.

Another useful tip by speed running video in this topic (sorry if youre reading this, not sure which user
name to credit to):

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/536705-star-ocean-till-the-end-of-time/73631779

You can pick the Hauler Beast that runs opposite to all the directions you pick, and use [ RIGHT, LEFT,
RIGHT ALL THE WAY ] instead. Reason being that thing runs faster than Steady Hauler Beast, and it helps
you get through this gimmick faster.

- Ruddle Side quest

This is a very good side quest because not only it opens up really good selection of item for sales, it also
gives you a key item to recruit the best Engineer Inventor in the game. Furthermore, this side quest IS
MISSABLE, so be sure to do it as soon as possible.

The side quest can be started once you clear the Duggus Forest. Return to Peterny Inn and youll find
Ruddle & Rumina. Basically, youll have to guide them to Kirlsa Taverns by giving them directions in each
town they visit:
- Peterny Inn Pick South
- Arias Pick Southwest (I believe Northwest is also viable)
- Airyglyph Pick You already passed Kirlsa

When you go back to Kirlsa Taverns, you can now buy Regen Symbols from Ruddle here until the
Executioners plagued Elicoor II

Two more points of interest for this sidequest:

1) Rumina will sell you the Blueprints which can be used to recruit Izak, the best Engineer inventor
(and he is great at mass producing group healing items). Because this side quest is missable, its highly
recommended you do this side quest ASAP

2) Regardless of whether or not you did this side quest, Ruddle and Rumina will be in the house to the
Northwest of Aquaria after the Executioners plagued Elicoor II. There, they will sell you really powerful
weapons, and they are the only place you have access to them, if you accidentally sent Retail Rabbit
home

- Make a separate file when the recruitment tree opportunity opens

Not a particularly important tip, but what Ive always loved to do is play the game ALL the way right until
before I enter Crocells Lair. After that, I make a separate save file here for two reasons:

1) If for some reason, you dont like the first optional character, you can restart the game here and pick
another character instead

2) Early Disc 2 (that reminds me, Im not sure how PS4 versions disc swap works) has a ridiculous
difficulty spike, and you cant find a good place to grind until a bit later. Therefore, keep a file here in
case you feel the need to grind a bit before stepping pass the point of no return

As long as you havent done either Albels or Rogers PA, you can still choose whoever you want for the
first optional character.

- The Ancient Book Side Quest & Other Great Key Items
First of all, the Ancient Book Side Quest DOES NOT permanently recruit Roger into your team.

With that out of the way, a great time to do the Ancient Book Side Quest is at the same time as First
Optional Character flag cut off. This is because youll have access to Ring of Disintegration, and makes
your backtracking trip to various dungeons worthwhile, since you can pick up MANY great key items
along the way. I usually also opt to map out all the dungeons on Elicoor II at this point for hefty fol, but
thats just me.

What I DO recommend mapping though, is Kaddan. You dont have to map the entire place if you hate
doing this, but just open up all the rooms. Enemies on Kaddan second visits are painfully annoying, and
it is only at this point in the game where the dungeon is completely uninhabited by enemies (hopefully
this hasnt changed in the PS4 version).

For the locations of Ancient Book Items, please refer to other various walkthroughs on GFAQs.

As for the great key items I mentioned, here are the notable ones:
1) Airyglyph Aquaeducts Synthesis Material in an area covered by ice
2) Kirlsa Caverns Synthesis Material in the cavern area, and Antique Jewel in the Hauler Area (should
be the second stop on the correct hauler part)
3) Kirlsa Training Facility Decrepit Tome
4) Kaddan Enchanted Pen (+20 Talent for Writing)

Im pretty sure there are more Synthesis Materials out there, but since I usually sweep through mapping
everything anyway, I kinda forgot exactly where else.

- Synthesis Material Management

Synthesis Materials will be handed to you frequently throughout the course of the game. What the
game doesnt tell you is that they are semi-limited, in terms of easy farming. There are tons of them in
chests, but once they are gone, your only remaining sources is from 1% drop rate farming (and I hate
farming drops).

The game threw these at you quite frequently in main game, and youll have surplus of 20 by the time
you hit the final dungeon (and they give out EVEN more in there).
As such, early disc 2 is the best time as any to spend some of them in a weapon with long useful life
the Double EXP Laser Weapon. Please refer to the item creation section below on the exact steps to
create it.

If you are using Sophia in your team, it is also a great idea to start synthesizing her final weapon right
away. You dont have to worry about her becoming broken (well, she sorta will become a bit
overpowered if you do it at that point of the game, but only for a while), but if you do, you can just opt
to not use the weapon. I just find it a great chance to start emptying some of my Synthesis Material
stock when the game is about to throw lots of them at me.

Break the Game Tips

Unlike the above which comprises of general tips, the following are considered Taboo Tips as it will
completely ruin the balance of the game. Using only one or two of these can be useful for getting
through some icky areas of the game. But a combination of many can remove any challenge the main
game has to offer. Even 4D mode will become quite a breeze if you do all of them.

As such, please refer to this section as sort of a Last Resort kind of thing, so unless you are pulling your
hair with the game, do not abuse the tips in this section:

- Mapping
Perhaps this is the least broken tip in this section, but it opens the door to several other exploits.
Money is the root of evil after all.

Completing the map of an area gives you one of the three types of the Scale Bunny, which you can sell
for hefty amount of fol.

1/144 (9,000 Fol)

1/60 (36,000 Fol)
1/1 (82,000 Fol)

Generally speaking, the larger and more complex the map, the better Scale Bunny you will receive, but
that is not always true (final dungeon, for instance, give 1/60 rather than 1/1).

By mapping and selling these figures, you can gain tons of money that you can use to buy many healing
items, or the powerful equipments that you arent supposed to be using quite just yet. And even if you
opt to not buy the powerful weapon, it just gives you plenty of resource and more survival options to
play with.

That being said, Im sure some of you have read the effect of the scale bunny and have some questions.
The bunny gives 5% speed boost to all party members just by having it in your inventory. However, the
factor does not stack. As such, the general consensus is to keep one 1/144 and sell the rest. Personally, I
suggest selling all of the figures you received and saving only the one from Parch to Plenty since it is the
last map with 1/144 Scale Bunny as a reward, and at that point, you should already have healthy sum of
money in your wallet that 9,000 fol isnt going to make much of a difference.

Also, in regards to tips for mapping, theres really not much to say aside from hug the walls. Its a
rather tedious process, I understand, but hey, its practically free cash if you need it. Also, you will notice
that there are two major kinds of maps: field and dungeon. For fields such as Traum Mts. and
Kirlsa/Aire Hills, you can see areas outside the tracks in your mini map, which makes it easy to see
where you could possibly missing the completion percentage. Dungeon maps have completely
darkened areas outside of walkable tracks, and generally speaking, you cant map most of them until
you get Ring of Disintegration, so dont mind them on your first visit.

- The 18,100 Fol Chest

For those who like the thrills, as soon as you get out of Kirlsa Caverns (the one with hauler beast), you
will be on the Bequerel Mts, and you will have access to the Barr Mts. At this point in the game,
EVERYTHING in the Barr Mts. will OHKO you. However, there is a chest containing 18,100 fol that is
readily accessible to you.

If youve picked up any Jewel of Refuge, now is the best time ever to use them.

From the entrance of the Barr Mts., you will want to keep heading up north, pass two Brass Dragons. At
the first intersection, take a right (have the compass point north). You will be taken into an area behind
waterfall. Watch out for the baby dragon (they WILL OHKO you too, so dont let its size tricks you) and
continue on, taking the north path once you passed the waterfall.
You will then reach a small area with one porcupine in it. Keep moving up the only path in this area, and
you will come across another map with a creek from a waterfall, and a feral dragon roaming around.
Ignore the dragon and get behind the waterfall.
From here, keep running up north for until the third screen and take the northwestern path. You will be
in a room with a Blade Berserker and two chests. One of them has the chest we came here for.
Grab it, then get the hell out of there.

- Holy Sword and Osprey Daggers

Now, you might wonder what you can do with all those money you get from mapping and that 18,100
Fol chest.

Now, here comes the break the game part.

Once you have the money, head back to Airyglyph Weapon Shop. There, you will notice a lot of really
powerful weapons that cost quite a fortune if you were to grind manually for it, but thats what the
scale bunnies and that chest was for!
Depending on which character you are playing, you will want to buy Holy Sword for Fayt or Osprey
Daggers for Nel. These two weapons will be the best weapons for the first half of the game for these
two characters. On 4D Mode, Holy Sword also gives you good enough HIT that will help you penetrate
most of the AGI parry the enemies have.

Please note that I mentioned ONLY those two weapons here because they are the only weapons worthy
of your purchase. Literally, EVERY OTHER weapons in the shop are inferior to what you can later pick up,
or in Damask Gauntlets case, you even pick it up for free later on. So steer clear from them.

- Hammer of Might
Well, not so much of a tip cuz if you have Cliff in your party, he is bound to get this skill anyway.

At level 10, Cliff learns a skill called Hammer of Might. It costs 3 CP, so it can be equipped on all skill
slots, and even still have some space left for support skills. HoM is a great (albeit fire elemental) skill that
offers amazing crowd control.

What makes it so broken is not apparent until you play 4D mode; it completely ignores all forms of AGI
parrying. As such, once you get Cliff to level 10, the game can completely change if you decide to spam
the hell out of this skill.

As such, use it with discretion.

- Damask Gauntlets
The Damask Gauntlets is an equipment that you can create via item creation. No, its a different one
from the one being sold in Airyglyph. This one has an s at the back, has 10 less ATK, but costs only a
tenth to create if you are lucky or decide to do save scumming.

As soon as item creation opens up, form a Smithery Team of Fayt, Cliff, and Nel, and roll a price of
approximately 4,400 fol. Reload if it takes you more than three bars of attempts.

If you successfully create it, Cliff will turn into a powerhouse that blows everything out of proportion
with the Hammer of Might spam, possibly all the way until the second half of the game (it also helps that
the next area you visit is the Duggus Forest, and the Grapevines are weak to fire).

- Pulse Needles
Maria hitting a little too soft for your taste when she first joins?

Worry not, as soon as she joins, you can create her second best disc 1 gun through engineering. Form a
team of Cliff, Fayt, and Maria and look for a price range of 1,000 to 1,200 fol.

Just mind you, Maria starts off with the most powerful DPS in the entire game; Scatter Beams. So giving
her Pulse Needles at this point, anything that isnt 4D mode enemies will be shred to pieces in less than
5 seconds, so yeah Huge discretion required.

- The Orichalcum
Thats right, you guys probably have heard of this insane little critter. Orichalcum gives an ATK+500
factor to any weapon it gets synthesized to, and it can be refined to create multiple duplicates of
ATK+500 factors on your weapon.
So yes, you can get up to +4000 ATK on your weapon as early as mid-game, and you will blow pretty
much everything into oblivion in a blink of an eye.

But what if I tell you that you can make something even more future-proof than that?

You see, x8 [ATK+500] is broken, but it is a static increase. You can actually do something even more
ridiculous and creative than that. Instead of x8 [ATK+500], you will want x6 [ATK+500] and x2 [ATK+30%]
(from a refined Bangle of Accuracy, just synthesize only the ATK+30% factor).
This brings your total ATK to 4800, JUST FROM THE FACTORS ALONE. Now, account for the base ATK
from the weapon AND your characters natural ATK, and you will easily hit above 5000 ATK mark.
You can put it onto any weapon of choice, but the general recommendation is you put it on Laser
Weapon, so that any character can use it (also, in case you are wondering, Laser Weapon has a base ATK
of 600, so that pretty much guarantees a 5000 ATK mark).
You can start making this as early as Misty Lear (who is responsible for Orichalcum) is available, then
fuse your weapon of choice into the Laser Weapon later if you so inclined on creating this little baby
ASAP.

So, what makes this more impressive that x8 [ATK+500] you ask?

The 5000 ATK mark is important because once inventor Chilico becomes available, you can create the
Berserkers Pendant, which will double that in battle, effectively giving you maxed out ATK as early as
the final dungeon is opened.

Forget defeating bosses in one minute. How about doing it in ten seconds?

As you can see, this is a very dangerously overpowered weapon that you can create AS EARLY AS MID-
GAME, and can be used ALL the way through over HALF of Maze of Tribulations. As such, long time
players will usually suggest creating this weapon only under the following circumstances:

1) You already defeated the final boss and is tackling MoT for the first time
2) You are playing on 4D Mode
3) You are cheesing for Battle Trophies

Im guilty of reason 3, but hey, cut the guy who lost his 245 BT file some slack >___>
Item Creation Tips

Yeah, item creation, the essence of pretty much every Star Ocean.

This section aims to explain how the system works and gives a couple of tricks to mitigate the annoying
factor behind it.

Basic idea of how it works

First thing to note is that there are 3 major forms of item creation:
1) Original Creation
2) Specify Plan
3) Synthesis (which is a subset of the Specify Plan, but its a bit more special)

Original Creation
Its simple. You form a team of up to three inventors. Set up the price of the item you want to create.
Then start rolling. Each time the Time Bar fills, you performed 1 attempt at creating the item. You can
tell whether you successfully created something by looking at the faces of the inventors.

The formula for success rate of an item is:

[Total Talent Level of the Team] [Item Rarity] = [Success Rate in %]

Items that increase success rate of xx like Enchanted Pen and Cherubic Bust adds 20 to the total talent
level. So, for example, you are trying to create Orichalcum (rarity of 98), using a team of:

Misty Lear (50)

Sophia (36)
Maria (22)
Alchemy Stone (20)

This gives you the success rate of:

(50+36+22+20) 98 = 30%

So each time the Time Bar fills, there is a 30% chance the team will create the Orichalcum for you. You
can keep on going as long as you want, or until your money runs out. Fol is the only thing you need in
Original Creation.

Now, here comes the rather annoying, and frankly speaking, dumb part of this system. You see, you
CANNOT pick up your own price. You have to repeatedly select Original Creation (or double click the
inventors face) until the price value that you want comes out.
There is really no smarter way of doing this, but my personal tip is to rapidly tap the X button twice then
pause. If you dont get the price you want, do another double tap. Rhythm of double taps will rapidly
change the price value and lower the chance of you skipping the price you wanted if you mash the X
button.

As for how would you know whether you are getting the item that you want, read on in the Resources
section.

Specify Plan
Specify Plan is usually referred to as refining among the long time players. By selecting specify plan,
you select an item in your inventory and use up one XX Material to attempt to improve the factor on
that item.

One thing to note in this process is that Talent Levels do NOT matter in this process.

Each factor has its own chance and rate of being improved. As such, you will want to focus more on
forming a team that has higher Cost and Time reduction bonuses (check those bonuses under Inventors
Info in Welchs Menu).

The Time Bar also functions differently from Original Creation. During Specify Plan, if the item you refine
is successfully refined, the process will end and the game will inform you that the inventor has finished
the process.
However, there will be rare occasions where inventors make happy faces during this process. This
means that one of the factors have been successfully refined, AND the inventors are going to continue
working. This way, you can usually further your refinement process before the price adjustments, and
not to mention you are also saving one unit of materials spent to specify plan.

This occurrence can both be a good thing and a bad thing.

For example of a good case, say you are refining Boots of Prowess, which gives +5% ATK/DEF. Normally,
it can be refined to +10% and then +30%. However, the price to upgrade to 30% is usually VERY high
compared to upgrading from 5% to 10%. As such, continued refinery will help you develop 10% further
into 30% at a lower cost.

In bad cases, however, say you are trying to refine a duplicate +500 ATK factor on your weapon, but you
needed only one of them. If continued refinery occurs, it means that the inventor has already duplicated
one +500 ATK, and now, they are attempting to make a second duplication. In this case, you will want to
immediately stop the process.

Once you understand this idea, you can begin to play around with it a bit, and youll quickly find out
when it is appropriate for you to continue the refinery or to drop it.

Synthesis
Synthesis is a process where you add a factor from an ore, accessory, or other items into a weapon.

You first pick the weapon you wish to have a factor added, then you select the item with the factor you
want to add. Each time you perform a Synthesis, you need one Synthesis Material as well as a hefty
amount of fol, depending on the factor being added.

During Synthesis, the Time Bar will gradually fill up, and when it does, the factor will be installed into
your weapon. If there are two or more factors, the factors will be added one by one from top down. This
means that, say, you are adding a Dark Crystal, which has +500 INT and Chaos Effect factors, to a staff
and you want only +500 INT, you will want to end the process as soon as you see the first happy face.
This way, only +500 INT is added, but not the Chaos Effect.

Synthesis Materials are semi-limited, meaning that while there are abundance of them across the
game, once you use up all of them, you will have to resort only to drop farming or Santa Boots/Grab Bag
spamming.

Resources
There are several resources for item creation list, but I personally recommend the following calculator as
a be-all-end-all resource:

http://pendell.atspace.cc/so3ic.html

It is very easy to use, as well as providing you the exact price value youll want to roll, as opposed to just
a price range.

Order your Inventors

While you are on your adventure, you can order the inventors to do their stuffs.

But once you get into the workshop to do your own stuff, you will want to go into Welchs menu, then
order ALL of your inventors to be on Standby.

Reason being that while you are performing your item creation, all inventors not on Standby will ALSO
be making items of their own, BUT theyll be draining from YOUR wallet. As such, if you do not tell them
to stay on Standby, you will notice that your money occasionally dropped without reason.

As far as I know, this wasnt explained anywhere in the game, and it was actually on my fourth or fifth
run of the game that I realized this.
Creation of Best Weapons and General Recommendation
This has been an on-going discussion for ages. Other vets and I havent had the chance to make a central
comprehensive guide just yet (thanks to real life and our tendencies to get distracted by newly released
games), but here are a few general ideas on what you want on your final weapons:

1) Prioritize Maxed ATK > Fury Reduction > add any other factors you like
Basically, youll want your ATK to hit maximum, using the least factor slots as possible. As such, you will
notice that many end game setups rely on Berserkers Pendant because it effectively doubles your ATK
in battle (it doesnt show the effect on screen, so you will have to do the multiplication by yourself).

Fury Reduction of -3 is recommended, but not absolute mandatory if you are using things like tanking or
other gimmicky setups (in which survivability is prioritized over maximum DPS efficiency)

2) Weapon Useful Life

Each weapon you create will have a certain useful life before you hit a certain point where they will
become obsolete or outclassed. And furthermore, as I mentioned above, Synthesis Materials are semi-
limited. As such, you will want to take into consideration how future proof you think the weapon you
are about to create will be, if you are going to attempt item creation in main game.

The major cut off for a weapons useful life is at Maze of Tribulations and Sphere 211, where you will
receive very powerful catalyst weapons for all of your characters. Fortunately, both of them are post-
game dungeons, so if you just wanna break through main game, this will not be a huge concern for you.

One interesting note is that, the ONLY person in the entire game who you can create her final weapon
before post-game rolls around is Sophia. Not because she is just that amazing, but because all of her
post-game weapons suck. As such, her best customizable weapon is the Adept Staff, which you can get
only after a while into Disc 2. At which point, you can start building her best weapon there, and finish it
by the time final dungeon is opened (and one of the best inventor becomes available).

3) Double EXP Laser Weapon

One weapon I highly recommend creating is the Double EXP Laser Weapon. Double EXP is a result of x5
[+20% EXP] factors from fully refined Ring of Erudition stacked together in a single weapon. Laser
Weapon is a great candidate because any character can equip it, so you dont have to worry about
having that one specific character with you when you want to grind for a bit.

Laser Weapons can first be obtained on Moonbase, but you can prepare the factors ahead of time once
you have the Ring of Disintegration.

To create the Ring of Erudition, you will need Inventor Barbados (check the FAQs on how to recruit him).
After that, form a team of Barbados, Aqua & Evia, and Roger. This team yields the highest success rate at
end disc 1, but if you for some reason did not temporarily recruit Roger, you can also use Stanice. She
has lower Talent, but her Time + Cost reduction bonus is amazing.

Conclusion

And that covers pretty much every tips I would like to share with the board.

Enjoy the game!!! Hope you find my refreshers useful.

Ill be hanging around the board, so if you have questions or recommendations, feel free to drop a
comment.
Ill see you around ;)