Narcotic of Lodoss War

Well, after about thirty hours of Lodoss War in about four days, you can count me addicted. Last game I ever played in such succession was PSO, and before that, Counterstrike. It must mean that Lodoss War has some fun involved...

If this game were online multiplayer (yeah right), like PSO, this would have been just as popular an online community, easily. Fact is, however, Lodoss War is built around single player, so while multiplayer comparisons are unfair, it's hardly avoidable considering RoLW so clearly resembles multiplayer monster fests such as Diablo, or even the aforementioned PSO (in statistical/improvement comparisons). It often feels like a PC game trapped in a console, but nothing feels limited and awkward in Lodoss War, and thats part of the reason I find it so playable, and impressive.

At the core, it's a standard hack and slash that keeps repetition from aging too quickly by offering countless methods of character improvement and gradually stronger foes. Sound familiar? It's a formulaic routine that alwats works well when programmed correctly, and adding the air of an RPG and the atmopshere of a well known and successful anime series is nothing but positive. If you've played Baldurs Gate, PSO, Diablo, or anything of that particular ilk, then you'll pick up RoLW very quickly. In no time, you find yourself glued to the control pad for several hours, especially once the story (what story there is) kicks off. The weapons system and upgrading menus are half the fun, as you can weild a large array of (some random) weapons, armor, jewelry, and tool with endless methods of affixing more strength and power to each. Using an clever 'Ancients' system, the game employs use of engraving runes into your swords and armor to pump up it's stats. Think of each new 'ancient inscription' as a monogrinder, but useful for adding strength to different stats, rather than just weapon power. Dexterity, Critical, Intelligence, etc, are all very important to your character's adventure; each several points in the respective category actually makes a visible difference.

Ugh, I'm babbling again! Sorry. I'm just hip on this game right now, and my intention wasn't to write a review. All I really wanted to pen was that the game is exremely addicting, fun, well designed and MASSIVE, with area after area of solid (although a little dirty) levels offering every trick in the book. One of the better hard action-rpgs to find it's home on a console in several years. If you DC people haven't grabbed this yet, start looking. It's cheap now, but it's disappearing....

Pet your Dreamcast,
~Quinn

Man, this is like the fourth Lodoss War thread this week. Still, it is a cool game that sucks you in. The dependency on you equipment as your prime means of character advancement and customization (as opposed to Diablo's emphasis on experience levels) make this more gratifying, since you get to improve you guy alot more often.

This game really is freaking huge, and some of those dungeouns (the goblin caverns under the dark forest) go on forever. It would be too crazy if the medallion dungeons were more than a few rooms...I wish it were so. Still, I always feel compelled to max out as many runes as I can, and I find myself just playing this for hours on end while doing something else...talking on the phone or listen ing to the radio. Awesome veg-out game. The only thing I hate is polishing off a few dungeons, putting a ton of mithril into your gear, then dying at the hands of those cheapass giants or golems that knock you down in a corner and don't let you get up until you die...then realising you haven't saved. Agh! Anyway, I'm gonna go play this now.

Work on that DURAbility! ^_^ Or find those boots or that cloak that don't let you get knocked over. Get your Oriental Sword's CRItical around 90% or more, find the 'Mana to Flesh' Ancient, and you'll be a new man. :)

I didn't do shit today but play Lodoss,
~Quinn

Forgetting to save it so painful, but the pain helps you to remember and after a while you never forget or else.

The game is massive but at the same time too short. The final tower has something like 9-10 levels alone, but once you muscle your way through it, it only leaves you wanting more.

I think a multiplayer version of this game could make my buy a console for it, and I'd consider it for a single player version.

Don't make me start playing it again. My game backlog is big enough as it is. ^_^;;

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Originally posted by Quinn Fox
Work on that DURAbility! ^_^ Or find those boots or that cloak that don't let you get knocked over. Get your Oriental Sword's CRItical around 90% or more, find the 'Mana to Flesh' Ancient, and you'll be a new man. :)

I didn't do shit today but play Lodoss,
~Quinn

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My durability's almost maxed-out, but there's still some enemies who do 1 point of damage to me and still send me sprawling. I guess I'll have to hang on until I get that cape. It seems to me that even if you get a crit with the oriental sword, it doesn't do as much damage as the two-handed sword. I'll go check again, though - the damage modifier may be high enough to balance it out if the crit % is high enough. As for Mana to flesh - doesn't that just give you more hp? It doesn't really matter how much you have if the Titan Zombies or whoever have you pinned to the ground. You'll eventually die no matter what, unless you have an invincibilty potion.

Anyway, back to the game...

Leveling up will actually help against the titans. I had the same problem against them myself, but after leveling up like mad they were cake. I probably did some engravings as well, but durability maxed, cape, boots, etc, doesn't mean much if you still get stunned by them, and you will, you just won't wall down.

Mana to flesh gives you a huge ammount of hit points. Believe me, it can turn a deathtrap into a slaughter (you slaughtering them I mean).

Crit multiplies damage, damage engraving only increases. Now which do you think is better? Max out both if you can, you'll need them for the end stuff at least. That's where the game really starts beating on you. :)

There's actually an engraving that will let you do more damage to the golems, but it's pretty useless. Mithril is better spent on other things.

Damn, I might have to start a new game of Loddoss soon.

The Titans and such may stun me for a short period of time, but my critical is so high (171%) with Fast Attack maxxed out, that as long as I'm not falling down, I still get two or three slices to chop the enemy to shreds. Mana to Flesh worked wonders for me. The more HP the better.

~Quinn

Damn, Reading all these impressions and coments, makes me want to start this game as soon as possible. I still have it waiting for me in my pile of shame, still in the original wrap, but I really need to get to it.

And I'm huge fan of Diablo 1&2, and I loved Dark Allience as well, so I know I will love this game.

Friggen A. Im just going to have to get this game. Only place Ive found is my work, for 40$, so I guess Im gonna hafta shell it out for the game. I had little faith that I would like this game, but so many impressions so far have left me wanting to play. Screw you all, you people just want me broke. =P

Bye bye, Mr. Pay check.~
Z-roe

Wow, I nabbed a a copy off of EBAY a few days ago. With all this praise, I'm getting real excited about playing it.


Must finsih Arc first, though

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!

*metal boots*

Very cool game... the only game that has given me that much fun building up since has been Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2... especially with a buddy.

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Originally posted by Bystander
Very cool game... the only game that has given me that much fun building up since has been Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2... especially with a buddy.

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damn, i really want baldur's gate: dark alliance, but i don't have any money for it right now.

record of lodoss war is my favorite dreamcast game, and if dark alliance is even half that good, i'm there.

Holy crap! I transformed my two-hander into an oriental sword, and I see why it's more powerful! The base damage may only be half, but all of a sudden my crit was 135% with a x8 multiplier (as opposed to the x1.2 I had with the two hander, which is why I thought criticals were useless). Even doing half the base damage my hit power was quadrupled. Cool! The only downside is you can't seem to do crits on golems or some bosses. I guess that's what the book of transformation's for - I'll just carry a two hander with me for those occasions.

I just found the Levitation rune (it took me a while to realise I had it since when you find the monument it says "revitation" and I thought it was some badly translated healing thing) and I have it going on my drablutor when I'm in the field - with a durability of 165 all of a sudden I'm freakin' invincible. I spanked the Demon Lord and Titan Zombie pretty badly, and I've already got more than half the medallions...time to start on the dragon equipment, I guess.

I also tried the mana to flesh rune, and yeah, it's defintely worth the tradeoff. Still can't help you if you're stunned in a corner, you'll just die slower, but magic seems pretty worthless overall unless you sink a ton of mithril into your helmet, so I'm not losing anything by using it. Anyway, thanks for the advice, guys.

hey striderkyo, if you're having trouble with the golems, inscribe "golem killer" onto your weapon. i'm not sure if you obtained that ruin yet, but it's definitely worth it to max that out. and yeah, the oriental sword was the sword i stuck with for the rest of the game. it has mad critical percentage.

Urrg...I haven't played this game in almost six months. Reading all these impressions is rekindling the urge to play again. Damn you people.:mad:

Well, I was having problems with the golems, but the levitation rune cured that. I did get the golem killer, but so many runes, so little mithril...

Btw, I just discovered an experience goldmine - the Sandworm cave. These things give you ridiculous amounts of experience - I went from level 29 to level 90 in about a half an hour. Just make sure you don't kill the boss sandworm, and every time you go back in the enemies will be restored. You may consider this cheating, but all it really did was underscore the worthlesness of levels in this game - all 60 levels netted me was about 3000 hp and a minimal increase in damage. And I was still only doing 1 point of damage to the boss worm (although he is vulnerable to fire). Go figure.

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
Well, I was having problems with the golems, but the levitation rune cured that. I did get the golem killer, but so many runes, so little mithril...

Btw, I just discovered an experience goldmine - the Sandworm cave. These things give you ridiculous amounts of experience - I went from level 29 to level 90 in about a half an hour. Just make sure you don't kill the boss sandworm, and every time you go back in the enemies will be restored. You may consider this cheating, but all it really did was underscore the worthlesness of levels in this game - all 60 levels netted me was about 3000 hp and a minimal increase in damage. And I was still only doing 1 point of damage to the boss worm (although he is vulnerable to fire). Go figure.

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yeah, i did the same thing with the worms. i maxed my level ups out that way. if you're interested in how to kill the king worm, here's what i did. i led it to the entrance of the cave and kept enough distance from him so that i could shoot firewall at him without him really able to hurt me. you could still get hit if he shoots the sand at you, but just move out of the way if he does this. keep shooting firewall at him (the numbers will juggle). this tactic takes a while, but it's pretty sure fire (no pun intended).

The king worm was the last boss I killed. Kept him around to level up. By the time I faced him down, I was so powerful I just hacked him to bits along with all of his worm buddies. No problem. :)

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Originally posted by Ammadeau
The king worm was the last boss I killed. Kept him around to level up. By the time I faced him down, I was so powerful I just hacked him to bits along with all of his worm buddies. No problem. :)

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that's cheating.:D

Just knocked off another 3 hours at this game, and I'm going back for more when I'm done on here...narcotic is the exact right word for this game.

One question though, how the hell do you get the shield of Marfa? You know, the part where you have to stand in the flame while you get assaulted from all sides? I've got the levitation ancient engraved, and my durability's almost three hundred, but I still get knocked out. I use the cage spell, but that doesn't seem to help much...does the cage get stronger if your magic/INT is higher? Or do I just need to pump up my DUR with full plate or whatever until I'm practically immobile?

I think I eventually just used invincibility potions - I'm not sure, however, and those would probably have been better saved for the dragons or somesuch. I remember spending a lot of time in that one room, though.

I feel ya man, I was addicted to lodoss for a long time. Such a simple, yet complex game. And I agree, it is unfair to compare Lodoss to Diablo, but it is the only game really comparable to it I guess.

I did the Marfa evil thing solely on persistance. I just stood there and when I got knocked a bit, just carefully nudged myself back. Took a lot of practice, but it's possible. Been a while, but I remember that the direction you face will effect how the monsters will attack you, and if they hit you from all sides, the attacks will actually keep you in place.

I think it's the single hardest moment in the game so once you're over that, everything else should be cake.

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Originally posted by Ammadeau
I did the Marfa evil thing solely on persistance. I just stood there and when I got knocked a bit, just carefully nudged myself back. Took a lot of practice, but it's possible. Been a while, but I remember that the direction you face will effect how the monsters will attack you, and if they hit you from all sides, the attacks will actually keep you in place.

I think it's the single hardest moment in the game so once you're over that, everything else should be cake.

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yeah, i did the same thing.

on a side note, for everyone who's played lodoss war, what did you guys name your character? i'm just curious.

I named my character "Gryz".

Just got back into the Lodoss groove after not playing it for a week, and it's still as addicting as ever. Without the medallion quests, I highly doubt I'd still be playing, but some of them are damned tough. Must...find...more...mithtril...!

I named my guy Philius...he's doing 10 000 damage with roughly the same hp, and there are still medallion bosses that can kick his arse - namely the Sandworm and Giant (as soon as he hits me I get stunned for like an hour and I'm stuck, even if I've dispatched all his cronies).

Thanks for the advice on the Marfa shield - is it actually worth all the effort? I've already got the dragon shield, and the oriental sword is my weapon of choice, making a shield kind of worthless.

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
Just knocked off another 3 hours at this game, and I'm going back for more when I'm done on here...narcotic is the exact right word for this game.

One question though, how the hell do you get the shield of Marfa? You know, the part where you have to stand in the flame while you get assaulted from all sides? I've got the levitation ancient engraved, and my durability's almost three hundred, but I still get knocked out. I use the cage spell, but that doesn't seem to help much...does the cage get stronger if your magic/INT is higher? Or do I just need to pump up my DUR with full plate or whatever until I'm practically immobile?

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I dunno, my DUR is 700+ and I still get knocked around a bit. I've tried that part 20-25 times with no luck. The best tactic I've come up with is using 'cage' magic once or twice, then 'tornado' (or whatever the most powerfull wind magic is called). After 10-15 seconds I still end up getting nudged just a bit. It's going to take some patience. In the meantime, I'll just tackle the medallions. Mithril Golem...!!!

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
I named my guy Philius...he's doing 10 000 damage with roughly the same hp, and there are still medallion bosses that can kick his arse - namely the Sandworm and Giant (as soon as he hits me I get stunned for like an hour and I'm stuck, even if I've dispatched all his cronies).

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Yeah, that beast (Giant)was a real dick the first half dozen tries. :)

Eventually, I worked him into a corner and he stopped using his charge attack, allowing me to pummel him without difficulty.

The strange thing about discussing strategies for this game is everyone has a unique character with personally customized weapons and stats. An incredibly simple game with deep results.

The Marfa shield is pretty worthless. I never used it. I also didn't bother getting all the other Marfa items before beating the final boss. To get the others you have to engage in a series of cheap fights which you can not save in the middle of. After two restarts, I said forget it and just kicked the last boss around like I was her pimp daddy or something. Too easy.

Character's name was Arslan, mainly because it's from another fantasy anime series.

Only 10,000? You need to work harder, boy. I think it maxes out around 50,000, but I never used the monster-specific engravings either.

Probably start a new game of this soon while I wait for Morrowind to hit. I think it'll be similarlly addictive, only worse.

Hey, I'm only about 26 hours in, I've still got plenty of time to pump up my guy. There's plenty of damage+ and hp+ runes I haven't touched yet because I've been putting all my mithril into dur (which gets ridiculously costly after a while) and crit damage (I've got a x16 modifier so far).

Part of me wants to get that sheild just to fill up all the display cases at the blacksmith's, heh.

As for the giant, even if I hit him, he still gets shots in at me - I guess I need to pump up my sword's impact (I think it's only C right now) before I can pin him anywhere. It's his regular hits that do me in with their insane stun time; his charge I can dodge since I'm wearing +8 speed boots. (Between those and the wilderness boots, there's really no need to worry about the *CLANG!!*)

The Marfa thing is tough. I wasn't able to do it without invincibility potions. If you defeat the green dragon, you get all items and weapons reguardless of whether you found them in the game or not.

I got a fair distance into this game before other concerns yanked my attention from it. I plan on resuming play as soon as I repair my poor poor DC's controller port block (goddamned static electricity :mad: ). I like this game a lot more than BG: DA. The engraving system is a lot more interesting than BG: DA's watered-down Third Edition rules, and the dark game world is more engaging than the standard bland Forgotten Realms fare (bleh), despite the fact that BG: DA is quite a bit prettier. Plus, dashing into a crowd of monsters, felling swaths of goblins with each slice of a huge sword is incredibly satisfying. :D

Edit: hahaha. Fixed.

I think you just set a new board record for most unintentional smilies in a single post.

Suggestions.....


1. For those of you willing and wanting to do some serious challenging and find some rare ancients, hang around in the Cold Caves. The enemies continue to regenerate, and they're not just little goblins; the medusas that freeze you in place keep coming and coming, huge golems, monstrous demons, mithril golems....it's not an easy task, but if you keep pressing, you'll eventually get strong enough to knock most of them out in one hit. And there are a select few items (treasures are random) that will make you smile.

2. Increase your busters. It may seem futile, but trust me. When you place about 30 or more on Wing Buster (enemies with wings) Weapon Buster (enemies with weapons), Armor Buster, Horn Buster, Scale Buster, etc. These increase your damage drastically. The only buster I never worked on was the Elf Buster, but I'm so powerful now, that three or four slices to a Mithril Golem will kill it. Again, the Cold Caves. If I'm naming Busters that some of you haven't seen, that's most likely where they are. Be sure to also increase you Golem Buster. I got it to about 50, and that's all I needed, as Golems were suddenly absolutely no match at all, even the largest ones. Also, find the Elemental Buster. Hell, find ALL Busters. They've made the biggest difference for me in the game.

3. Get all 30 medallions. I won't spoil it and tell you exactly what happens when you do, but IF you do, you eventually get all of the dungeons connected with transporters (niiiice) and you find some incredible weapons and ancients. Also, doing this will allow you to learn the last magic form, Black Magic.

4. Get all four pieces of Narse's Gothic Dragon Armor. Again, if haven't done this, I won't tell you what happens......but just do it. :) It may seem to take forever, but there are only four, and while tough, they're far from impossible. (Besides, one thing you end up getting is the Dragon Buster, an invaluable ancient.)

5. Work on your Prevent Ancients. They're enormously expensive to upgrade after certain points, but it's that way for a reason. I'm at the point now where I prevent about 50% of all damage inflicted, and that is awfully, awfully helpful.

By the time I was finally ready to tackle Kardis, I had all of the Dragon Armor, all 30 medallions, and a main character (named 'Quinn', surprise) who was nearly invincible. Durability over 1000, Damage at almost 1500, armor at 1200, parrying at 800 (parrying is as important as durability), and a series of swords and items that were simply vicious. I finished it off with a Haruking Sword, occasionally switching between that and the Dragon Killer, a Gothic Bull helmet and plate mail, Gothic Eagle shield (amazing parrying), and a good assortment of boots and jewelry. One invincibility potion (only found one all game and saved it, but never really needed it until I got all 30 medal----oops, nevermind) was never as good as my healing potions and roughly 15,700 hit points.

I bet you're thinking, "Too little Mithril......." If so.......

Lastly, if there's ANY reason to go to the Cold Caves, it's for the Mithril. The place (incredibly huge, by the way) is absolutely full of Mithril that keeps coming back every short while. Add to that the fact that you find perhaps the most important ancient in the game within.......

Revive to Mithril
All enemies drop Mithril according to their strength.

Yes, you read this right. Can you say, 'unlimited Mithril?' I could never complain about Mithril any longer....again, EVERY enemy, including bosses, will drop Mithril. Going from 1000 to 100,000 Mithril in about 30 minutes of enemy mauling is priceless.

I may have discovered all the same things that everyone else has, but just in case, I mention it all anyway. I'd be happy to answer any questions as I suddenly consider myself an expert at the game!

Karrrddiiiss! ^_^
~Quinn

P.S. Was ANYone able to keep Ashram alive? What a weak character, no matter what I did, he always ended up dying eventually.

I kept ashram alive, I used the haruke sword (sp) with all the speed rings equiped & killed every enemy with one swipe

btw SAVE the invincible potions for the side-quest after you beat the game that wizard gives you

that one room with two medusas & big golems AND about another dozen enemies is impposible without 'em

a few more tips
USE the oriential sword on the last boss!
Kardis HAS NO CRIT DEFENSE
You can kill it in 3 swipes!
as for the huge Titian dungeon boss, use the resurection spell on one of the silver orges you killed!
have it fight the boss!
it will NEVER get knocked down & you can go behind the boss as he is fighting the silver orge
note heal a lot because the silver orges health will go quick

as Quinn mentioned it, go through the cold caves a lot, just avoid the sections where the medusa's are
& re-teleport back for all the mithril to reset!

.... i never thought the game was that great... of course... i've only played it for about an hour or so... still working on Grandia 2... guess i'll pick up RolW after Grandia ends...

Cold caves? Cold Cave?!

Where are these cold caves? Are they on one of those islands in the hills? And if so, HOW THE HELL DO I GET OVER THERE? ARGHHHHH!!!!

Yowza, after reading all these posts I think I'm going to wipe my old game and start a new one. *-neo

cold caves are in the last tower of the game right before the last few boss fights!

it's the tower/castle all the way to the top left section of the game map
I think it's in the titian mountain section, I think you have to have the skull thingy the dragon gave you for it to open.... there's a glitch in the game, if you go to the tower & teleport back to your fort to get it it won't work
you have to have it with you as you arrive there

the Caves they are optional as you can skip them & go to the teleport to the next section if you want
there's 3 floors of the cold caves, you only need the 1st since the rest only led to the super insane ultra fucking hard black dragon!
(hardest boss in videogame history, he makes Omega Weapon in FF8 look like a pussy)

btw you get to those islands surrounded by water via teleports

go to the Demon lord dungeon(????) & go right behind it & activate the transport system

you can then visit every place in the entire game via transports instead of walking through all the land

YAY!!!! Thanks WTFer!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Quinn Fox
Suggestions.....


1. For those of you willing and wanting to do some serious challenging and find some rare ancients, hang around in the Cold Caves. The enemies continue to regenerate, and they're not just little goblins; the medusas that freeze you in place keep coming and coming, huge golems, monstrous demons, mithril golems....it's not an easy task, but if you keep pressing, you'll eventually get strong enough to knock most of them out in one hit. And there are a select few items (treasures are random) that will make you smile.

2. Increase your busters. It may seem futile, but trust me. When you place about 30 or more on Wing Buster (enemies with wings) Weapon Buster (enemies with weapons), Armor Buster, Horn Buster, Scale Buster, etc. These increase your damage drastically. The only buster I never worked on was the Elf Buster, but I'm so powerful now, that three or four slices to a Mithril Golem will kill it. Again, the Cold Caves. If I'm naming Busters that some of you haven't seen, that's most likely where they are. Be sure to also increase you Golem Buster. I got it to about 50, and that's all I needed, as Golems were suddenly absolutely no match at all, even the largest ones. Also, find the Elemental Buster. Hell, find ALL Busters. They've made the biggest difference for me in the game.

3. Get all 30 medallions. I won't spoil it and tell you exactly what happens when you do, but IF you do, you eventually get all of the dungeons connected with transporters (niiiice) and you find some incredible weapons and ancients. Also, doing this will allow you to learn the last magic form, Black Magic.

4. Get all four pieces of Narse's Gothic Dragon Armor. Again, if haven't done this, I won't tell you what happens......but just do it. :) It may seem to take forever, but there are only four, and while tough, they're far from impossible. (Besides, one thing you end up getting is the Dragon Buster, an invaluable ancient.)

5. Work on your Prevent Ancients. They're enormously expensive to upgrade after certain points, but it's that way for a reason. I'm at the point now where I prevent about 50% of all damage inflicted, and that is awfully, awfully helpful.

By the time I was finally ready to tackle Kardis, I had all of the Dragon Armor, all 30 medallions, and a main character (named 'Quinn', surprise) who was nearly invincible. Durability over 1000, Damage at almost 1500, armor at 1200, parrying at 800 (parrying is as important as durability), and a series of swords and items that were simply vicious. I finished it off with a Haruking Sword, occasionally switching between that and the Dragon Killer, a Gothic Bull helmet and plate mail, Gothic Eagle shield (amazing parrying), and a good assortment of boots and jewelry. One invincibility potion (only found one all game and saved it, but never really needed it until I got all 30 medal----oops, nevermind) was never as good as my healing potions and roughly 15,700 hit points.

I bet you're thinking, "Too little Mithril......." If so.......

Lastly, if there's ANY reason to go to the Cold Caves, it's for the Mithril. The place (incredibly huge, by the way) is absolutely full of Mithril that keeps coming back every short while. Add to that the fact that you find perhaps the most important ancient in the game within.......

Revive to Mithril
All enemies drop Mithril according to their strength.

Yes, you read this right. Can you say, 'unlimited Mithril?' I could never complain about Mithril any longer....again, EVERY enemy, including bosses, will drop Mithril. Going from 1000 to 100,000 Mithril in about 30 minutes of enemy mauling is priceless.

I may have discovered all the same things that everyone else has, but just in case, I mention it all anyway. I'd be happy to answer any questions as I suddenly consider myself an expert at the game!

Karrrddiiiss! ^_^
~Quinn

P.S. Was ANYone able to keep Ashram alive? What a weak character, no matter what I did, he always ended up dying eventually.

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I have not played this in a while (read: a month or so), so could someone give me a heads up on where the Cold Caves are again?

Revive to Mithril *drool*

Quote:

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Originally posted by Quinn Fox
Suggestions.....


1. For those of you willing and wanting to do some serious challenging and find some rare ancients, hang around in the Cold Caves. The enemies continue to regenerate, and they're not just little goblins; the medusas that freeze you in place keep coming and coming, huge golems, monstrous demons, mithril golems....it's not an easy task, but if you keep pressing, you'll eventually get strong enough to knock most of them out in one hit. And there are a select few items (treasures are random) that will make you smile.

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Is there a rune/item that prevents petrification? I can cruise through the cold caves for the most part, but if I run into two medusas at once I'm screwed, since they can turn you to stone faster than you can recover, and the only way I can get out of it is a refresh potion (which are tough to find) or burning an immortal potion.

Quote:

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5. Work on your Prevent Ancients. They're enormously expensive to upgrade after certain points, but it's that way for a reason. I'm at the point now where I prevent about 50% of all damage inflicted, and that is awfully, awfully helpful.

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Yeah, it took me a while to get around to engraving prevent, but they make you pretty much invulnerable to all kinds of attacks. But they are ridiculous in their mithril drain - I'm glad the Cold Caves are there, otherwise you'd never get all the prevent, durability and critical damage runes engraved.

I'm coming around to the Dragon Sword - the insane crits the Oriental sword gets are pretty pointless after a while, since most enemies can still be killed in one hit by a one-handed weapon, and the only enemies you'd actually need all that extra damage against are immune to criticals. And when you fight those guys you need all the defence you can get - too bad I've been neglecting my shield the whole game...

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P.S. Was ANYone able to keep Ashram alive? What a weak character, no matter what I did, he always ended up dying eventually.

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I had no problems keeping him alive - I just kept slapping the potion button every time I saw the word "danger" over his head. He leaves anyway, right after the Wagnard fight (uh, unless there's another part with him later on).

BTW - I'm kinda slow...I only just noticed there's a much longer (and better) cg intro after the title screen, if you just let it sit for a while. Bonus.

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Is there a rune/item that prevents petrification? I can cruise through the cold caves for the most part, but if I run into two medusas at once I'm screwed, since they can turn you to stone faster than you can recover, and the only way I can get out of it is a refresh potion (which are tough to find) or burning an immortal potion.

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I never found any ancients that totally prevented petrification, but there are some helpful items. tTe best one is the Immune Stone, or something like that.....it's a necklace that SERIOUSLY decreases the petrification time. There are also armor pieces (the Gothic Lilly set) that shorten the duration, as well as the Stone Ring. But once you have, say, a Gothic Lilly Helmet and or Shield, the petrification from two medusas doesn't mean instant death anymore.

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the Caves they are optional as you can skip them & go to the teleport to the next section if you want there's 3 floors of the cold caves, you only need the 1st since the rest only led to the super insane ultra fucking hard black dragon!

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Hey, WTFer, Black Dragon?! I beat all of those little bosses in the Cold Caves, but those pillars and walls blocking off certain parts of the map never went away. What IS the deal with this 'You must endure the 500 tortures, the 700 tortures' messages I keep seeing? Again, I wasted the Cold Caves, and covered every inch of each level of them, taking care of all the Mithril Golems and such, getting the success jingle, but I never found a black dragon. Help?? Man, it can't be much worse than the GREEN Dragon can it? :::gulp:::

As it is, this game has been catupulted (sic?) into my top ten DC favorites. Incredibly fun, and totally memorable. You can tell that some serious time went into it.

Keep the thread alive,
~Quinn

I've got the Immune Stone and a Stone Ring +1, which can see me through 2 medusas, but as soon as a third or fourth one shows up, it's lights out. I haven't found any of the Lily set, do you remember off hand where you get them? And where's this mithril rune you speak of? Is it on the 6th floor of the caves? I can't seem to find it...

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
I've got the Immune Stone and a Stone Ring +1, which can see me through 2 medusas, but as soon as a third or fourth one shows up, it's lights out. I haven't found any of the Lily set, do you remember off hand where you get them? And where's this mithril rune you speak of? Is it on the 6th floor of the caves? I can't seem to find it...

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I was only able to find Gothic Lilly armor when they were dropped by those medusa whores. I would always go after them first, and eventually they dropped one helmet and one shield. Treasure chests never yielded them.

As for 'Revive to Mithril', I can't remember exactly where I found it, but if it's not in any of the 30 dungeons or Dragon Armor dungeons, it's gotta be somewhere in the cold caves. If memory serves me right, it's in the top level of the cold caves, not far from where you tackle the giant Mithril Golem. I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive it's in the Cold Caves.

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Originally posted by StriderKyo
I've got the Immune Stone and a Stone Ring +1, which can see me through 2 medusas, but as soon as a third or fourth one shows up, it's lights out. I haven't found any of the Lily set, do you remember off hand where you get them? And where's this mithril rune you speak of? Is it on the 6th floor of the caves? I can't seem to find it...

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I was only able to find Gothic Lilly armor when they were dropped by those medusa whores. I would always go after them first, and eventually they dropped one helmet and one shield. Treasure chests never yielded them.

As for 'Revive to Mithril', I can't remember exactly where I found it, but if it's not in any of the 30 dungeons or Dragon Armor dungeons, it's gotta be somewhere in the cold caves. If memory serves me right, it's in the top level of the cold caves, not far from where you tackle the giant Mithril Golem. I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive it's in the Cold Caves.

~Quinn

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Originally posted by Quinn Fox


I was only able to find Gothic Lilly armor when they were dropped by those medusa whores. I would always go after them first, and eventually they dropped one helmet and one shield. Treasure chests never yielded them.

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Figures, five minutes after posting this I find the Lilly armor in a chest. Makes the Medusas survivable, but the lower Arm and Dur really sucks. Oh well. I also found the bull armor, which paired with the firmness rune gave me 1200 Dur and made the Marfa shield thing a cake walk...not that I have any use for it now...

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As for 'Revive to Mithril', I can't remember exactly where I found it, but if it's not in any of the 30 dungeons or Dragon Armor dungeons, it's gotta be somewhere in the cold caves. If memory serves me right, it's in the top level of the cold caves, not far from where you tackle the giant Mithril Golem. I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive it's in the Cold Caves.

~Quinn

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I've gone through the caves, but I haven't found it yet. I'll just keep killing things and hope it shows up.

*bump*

I'd hate to sound lame, but where are the Cold Caves again? I'm too lazy to hunt through GameFAQs or go running around in the game for it.

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Originally posted by Hero
*bump*

I'd hate to sound lame, but where are the Cold Caves again? I'm too lazy to hunt through GameFAQs or go running around in the game for it.

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The last dungeon in the game, called the Dark Castle or something, has ten levels going down. At the fifth level, there's a different entryway that leads upward again. Those upper levels are the Cold Caves.

Have fun,
~Quinn

Yeah, right before you fight Karla. Don't go down the stairs leading to her, turn behind you and prepare for a brand new realm of pain.

I've been in the cold caves for more than ten hours now, racking up mithril. I've maxed out almost every ancient that matters; just a few remaining that get ridiculous as they get higher. HP +10 is taking forever...I want to free my sword up for something other than mana to flesh. Sad thing is, I can't handle the dragons without doing this.

I found Mithril Reincarnation - I wasn't quite sure where you meant, since you fight three mithril golems on that floor...figures it's the one who's backed up by four medusas :mad:

45 hours, level 100, 30 Medallions, all Dragon Guardians defeated...still gotta beat those dragons and finish up a few ancients...

damn striderkyo, you tore through lodoss war. i remember going through it real quick, but not that quick. but yes, you put it best when you said narcotics.

my save file right now is about the same as where you're at now. i was also trying to max everything out, but it got a little boring, and i really wanted to fight the last boss, so i just went ahead and finished it.

I'm at the point where I'm sure I could vanquish Kardis without much trouble, but I'm not doing so until I at LEAST defeat Narse. A little more on the Prevent, the Dragon Buster, and some parrying, and I'll be all set.

~Quinn

quinn if you still wanna know, that 700 torture thingy is when before you fight one of the two other dragons other then the black dragon (forgot which) you have to go through EVERY single Dungeon boss from the game!
including the bigass sandworm & super huge titan..you go in a room with just one boss & after you finish each, a teleport appears sending you to the next...till the dragon boss

also after you beat the game & are at the fort, go to nobby's house (the troll who has a house in the cemetary at the start of the game, he'll talk about the black dragon) it's nothing more then that though...

I never fought the black dragon myself but the other weaker dragons kicked my ass so hard tht it wasn't funny
the dragons can kill you with one hit (unless you get insane amounts of mithril) AND have like 1,000,000 health points (or was 50,000,000)

ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING:
you only get like 40-70,000 mithril from defeating each dragon boss
from the faqs I read, they took out the reward where you get every item in the game for fighting the dragon boss
which was originally in the Japanese version

last thing; there is one FAQ on gamefaqs that has the location of every weapon/armor/dungeon etc in the game
if you need help finding something, that faq is really helpful...

ast

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Originally posted by WTFer420
quinn if you still wanna know, that 700 torture thingy is when before you fight one of the two other dragons other then the black dragon (forgot which) you have to go through EVERY single Dungeon boss from the game!
including the bigass sandworm & super huge titan..you go in a room with just one boss & after you finish each, a teleport appears sending you to the next...till the dragon boss

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No, he's talking about something different. You're talking about Narse; he thought you said there was a dragon in the Cold Caves. In the CC (and a few other places) there are tablets that say "he who enters here must survive 700 tortures if he wishes to see the light of day again." Every tablet has a different number, but they don't seem to refer to anything other than the new area being a bit tougher than the last. I don't know if something happens if you kill that number of enemies in that area...

And the Titan and Sandworm are kinda pathetic now...I can take 'em out in a few hits. But the Green Dragon still hands me my arse. Does anybody know off hand where the Resist Flame ancient is? I never found it. I figured there oughtta be one, so I checked a FAQ which said it was in the dark temple, but I can't find it there. Unfortunately that's a really annoying dungeon to look for stuff in - it's the one with the thorny vines that sink into the ground when you pull all those levers.

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also after you beat the game & are at the fort, go to nobby's house (the troll who has a house in the cemetary at the start of the game, he'll talk about the black dragon) it's nothing more then that though...

I never fought the black dragon myself but the other weaker dragons kicked my ass so hard tht it wasn't funny
the dragons can kill you with one hit (unless you get insane amounts of mithril) AND have like 1,000,000 health points (or was 50,000,000)

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What other dragons? I only know where to find the Green Dragon and Narse...

Well that sucks!

I just spent an hour dying a retrying and finally took down Marela's Green Dragon...and godammit if I didn't get a single reward, save about 40-50 thousand mithril. WTF? I should have at LEAST gotten some sort of new ancient.

Pah. That pisses me off. :mad:

Now off to deal with Narse...the 30 rooms are a breeze, but he himself is a nasty fucker. I'm thinking I can take him though, as I'm pretty sure he has around the same or less hit points than the green dragon. But I'd better get something new after that. I'm going to fuming all day about my lack of reward.....

(although it is rewarding to finally kill the bastard)

And why would Conspiracy take out such a reward that was in the Japanese version? If they thought one might become too powerful.....well, uhh, by the time you can even think about tacking the dragon itself, the majority of items save for a few undiscovered pieces would be rather useless. Hell, they could have toned it down, but nothing? Grrr....

~Quinn

Yeah, I just beat the Green Dragon too, and getting nothing for my effort was pretty wack. Narse is no fun, since you have to go through all those pointless medallion bosses first. Getting whacked by him in three seconds after all that work sucks. Back to toiling in the cold caves to amp up HP +10 and those Buster runes...

I work at a game store, and the copy we had was bought before I had the chance to get it. WEll, the guy returned it, and now I get it for cheaper than I was gonna buy it for. Yaahaa! I just gotta wait till friday before I can get the stuff... just till friday... I can wait... but thats what these credit cards are for... maybe I'll just steal some VCRs and pawn them....

Getting this game makes me feel as strong as a bear, that is as strong as *two* bears~
Z-roe

Strider, bad news. Narse is just as unrewarding as all he gives you is about 40,000 mithril. "Yeah, thanks, conspiracy!" WTF? It's good to have the deaths of both dragons under my belt, but still, nothing to show for it but an empty dungeon....

Question...

If any of you have gotten to Cardice and destroyed the four pillars (three with Gothic Demon armor, the other with a sword.) Thing is, I can't get the sword. The pillar is on a small floating 'island' that's out of my reach...do I need to use fireball ancient or something?

:::bump:::
~Quinn

Also....

The fastest way that I've found to build mithril is in the temple of Cardice. When you first enter, you end up on a platform that falls slowly downward, and the enemies keep coming as long as you kill them. You can get up to six or seven Mithril Golems, Medusas and those weird, huge electric insects apiece, with an additional swarm of flying demons who ressurect one another. In total, it takes barely five minutes for the festivities to end, and you're always getting an average gain of aroun 70,000 + mithirl. FIVE MINUTES. It sounds tougher than it is, too. With all the busters I have as well as my ridiculously powerful haruking sword (which I took down the dragons with) every enemy there takes only one slice, and the Golems only two. Better yet, right after the platform finally stops, you get a teleporter that takes you back to goblin village, and the multiporter also saves a transport spot right in front of level 10, so you can keep going back and back and back....but be careful! Make sure you get out of there and stay away from the Pillars of Fire (unless you're ready to nail Cardice) because if you do, the transport back to Goblin Village will vanish, and you'll be stuck there.

D'oh!

I found the cold caves, and went through the first floor. Come across a red lizardman, take him out, and get some weird warhammer. Check its stats and it has a critical rate of 999%!!!

Then two medusas come up and double team me - as soon as the first stone is about to wear off, the next one hits me. Bummer.

So I restart and come back, but the same guy gives me some lightning dagger with so-so stats. It does say though that it has the added benefit of bypassing any kind of armor. Does this mean the Mithril Golems will...?

I found that crazy critical hammer, too. :) Nice weapon, but sorta useless towards the end, although I understand the last boss has pitiful critical defense....999% critical, lol. Add to that the ancient that doubles your critical rate...ouch, that's just ridiculous! ^_^

~Quinn

Oh well...I still gotta beat Narse or I won't feel like a man.

I have no idea whether or not the lightning dagger is effective against golems, since it's pretty worthless against everything else. Golem Buster is the way to go against them. Once you get it maxed you'll be hacking through them like Goblins. I got that hammer too, but it didn't help that much, since it's only the percentage that's high, not the multiplier (as with the oriental sword), so you don't really end up doing that much damage.

I've been sticking with the Dragon Sword, since the Miley's Sheild ancient makes you a tank, and I really need all the extra fire defence I can get.

Done! Took out Narse - after maxing Dragon, Wing, Horn and Scale Busters he was a piece of cake (I was hitting demons for 10 million damage) - beat him in ten hits, with the Dragon Sword no less. After him, Kardice/Neela were no sweat - I didn't even remember to bring the book of transformation, so I did it without the benefit of those crazy oriental sword criticals. Dragon Sword once again.

Cool ending, and that music during the credits was incredible - I wish the rest of the game was orchestral like that. Finished the Wort subquest after that - all I can say is that I'm glad I still had a potion of immortality for those medusas, and that Magician Buster ancient really came in handy! Never did fill all those display cases or max every ancient, though.

Final stats:

54 hours. Level 100. All NPCs still alive. Both Dragons defeated. 90 ancients maxed. Helm +254, Shield +294, Sword +874, Armor +698.

It's been fun, but unless there's more to it that I don't know about, it's time for a new game. Good night now.

A mighty spell
A mighty spell
A mighty spell
A mighty spell...

both dragons??
there's another one!

which two did you fight??

there is narse
the dragon from the 30 medialion quest and the black dragon

I fought Narse and the Green Dragon from the medallion quests - how do you get the black dragon? I've been all over the cold caves and can't find any bosses other than a blue mithril golem.

Crap, I'm still trying to finish the medallion quests, but I can't even damage some of the tougher bosses. Anyybody know where can I find a better weapon? Thus far the oriental sword is proving useless.

Or do I just need to max out some more ancients?

I think you fight the black dragon if you grab all the dragon armor and return to that place where the black dragon was sleeping.

For clarity purposes, I'd like to point out to anyone who might be confused that there are only two dragons. The BLACK Dragon is Narse, the guardian (although what's up with 30 differnet rooms? They should have just generated one after the other and saved a lot of time...anyway.)

The GREEN dragon is that which you fight if you give Marela all 30 medallions.

Kyo, good stats. Amazing about those busters, no? With wing, scale, horn, demon, weapon, and dragon combined, some enemies (the demon minotaurs) and even the dragons were simply too weak to handle me. The busters and prevent don't fuck around one bit. However, I took out both dragons with the Haruking Sword. I just kept a good eye on his mouth to know when to run from the fire, and when he finished, I walked in for a "slice, cut, slice". Took about 10 minutes for Narse, but the Green Dragon took me longer. Only elemental I needed to work more on was the elemental buster.

Now I can finally go and beat the game. I don't have it on right now so I can't write down the final stats, but it's safe to say I'm one baaaad muhfuckah. :)

"Ohhh, Dear..."
~Quinn

Ok, so I finally got it. It gave me a warm tingly feeling. Dunno why, but it gave me the same feeling I got back int he day when I got a new RPG. Im really liking it so far, even though Im only a short bit into it. I cant wait. All Ive been doing this morning so far is thinking about going home to play.

Z-roe

I REALLY wish they would've made a strategy guide for this game, because the sheer number of items and locations really make it hard to grab everything. It just would've been nice to have an actual map to glance at.

I mean, they made a strategy guide for freakin' Centipede on the PSOne, but not for this! Whassup wit dat?