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Bowman FAQ
October 8, 1999
Updates
Oct. 8, 1999 - This is the first version.
Contents
1) Why you should use Bowman
2) Bowman's killer moves
3) Equipping Bowman
4) Solo-Bowman walkthrough
5) Copyright notice
======================Why you should use Bowman========================
From reading other FAQ's, I have gathered that most people don't
like Bowman very much. I can't understand this. I believe he is
easily the most powerful fighting character in the game. I don't
expect everyone to like him, but I urge you to give him a chance before
you just agree with everyone else. Reasons why I think Bowman is the
best:
1) I managed to play through the entire game using either just
Bowman, or just Bowman and Rena. (That is, once I got Bowman, and not
counting the fight with shin where you can't choose your character.
Also not a few parts of the bonus dungeon.)
2) Bowman can do more multiple hits more easily than any other
character. Poison pills and explosion pills are excellent. Explosion
pills hit very easily for 4 hits with standard attack damage, and you
can throw them over and over again faster than most normal attacks.
Poison pills are slightly harder to hit with, but do just as much
damage, affect enemies that are immune to fire, and are very cheap (5
mp). Hit once with either, and you can most likely hit again. This
technique does damage even faster than Claude with two slayer rings.
And it is easier to use and cheaper than tear gas.
3) Bowman can heal himself, and heal himself well. Secret medicine
starts out weak, but fully powered up heals 2008 hp. It only costs 8
mp, and can be used extremely fast, so it should be no trouble to
practice. This ability is crucial if you want to go through the game
with just one character, and it also helps a lot in arena battles.
4) When I beat the game with just Bowman and Rena, after the boss's
long death speech, Bowman said, "Well, that was a good workout."
I will admit there are some drawbacks to Bowman, but they are not
very big:
1) Bowman's normal attack is terrible. But you should almost never
use his normal attack anyway, so who cares.
2) You can't get Precis. In my opinion Precis is a somewhat weak
character, but not terrible. However, she has one of the best
personalities in the game, and that counts for a lot in my book.
=======================================================================
========================Bowman's killer moves==========================
I am not going to cover all of Bowman's moves, just which ones
are best, and where you should use them.
1) Secret Medicine
This is the most important move until you get to the bonus dungeon.
You should start leveling it ASAP. It starts out not doing much, but
it gets better in a hurry. It increases its hp restored every 5 uses
or so. At 999 proficiency it heals 2008 hp, costs 8 mp, and is very
fast. Even if you get hit while using it, Bowman still catches the
pill.
I recommend using it until you run out of mp, then going to an in
and doing it again. Do this until it heals 600 or so per use. Keep it
as one of your killer moves and use it throughout the game, and it
should reach 999 proficiency very quickly without you having to
practice it any more.
2) Poison Pills
This is Bowman's most powerful move. It won't be too useful when you
first get it, but stick with it. It eventually gets 4 hits for normal
attack strength, and no enemies are immune. It costs 5 mp and fires
very quickly. It even hits airborne enemies. Its major problem is
with fast enemies. Sometimes you will throw the pills, and the enemy
runs past before they explode. Here's how you fix that. Fire several
pills, you will keep backing up while the enemy runs towards you.
Then, immediately after throwing pills, do a normal attack. The enemy
will stop to attack you in the poison area, and will get hit out of its
attack. Then just throw lots more pills, and whatever the enemy is, it
should die pretty soon.
3) Death Siege
This move is very useful on Expel, but once you get to Nede, forget it.
Its main advantage is that you are nearly invincible while using it.
You even avoid most spells while you use it. It can do up to 4 hits.
However, fast enemies can avoid it very easily, and there is really no
way to hit them with it. Use it in the Hoffman ruins, and maybe in the
Sorcery Globe area. It works great on the lizards with the
paralysis/stone breath.
4) Whirlwind Fist
This move isn't very good. It takes too long to start, so it never
works in difficult fights. It's a shame, because it is very cool
looking. I recommend you level it up it the Hoffman ruins, just so you
can see how big it gets. Still, never use it in an area you have
trouble with.
5)
Burst Fist
At first I thought this move wasn't very good. It only gets one hit,
costs a lot of mp (28), and is very hard to hit with at first. Once I
powered it up, I still didn't like it. It gets much bigger, and gets
very easy to hit with. It also starts doing more than twice normal
damage. But it still only gets one hit. Then I learned what it is
for. Use it against air enemies. It is the easiest move to hit with
against air enemies that Bowman has. It will kill those Phoenix clones
in the survival fight in no time. Use it once you get to Nede, until
you get explosion pills. Continue to use either it or poison pills in
the arena fights.
6) Explosion Pills
This move is just like poison pills except it is easier to hit with, it
is fire-elemental, and it costs 20 mp. It is a very useful move once
you have enough mp to support it, but you have to be careful of fire
resistant enemies. The normal enemies that resist fire can be easily
killed by normal attacks, but be sure to equip something else for
bosses. Use it in the planes and Fineal if you can afford it,
otherwise use poison pills or sakura attack.
7) Sakura Attack
At first I loved this move as it gets 6 hits, 12 fully powered up. It
is useful against enemies that you can stun enough to hit with it over
and over. However, it has some problems. Some enemies are knocked too
high by the first two hits, and you go under them. They then hit you
in the back. Other enemies just get out of the way. And with multiple
enemies, you spend way too much time in the attack, and another enemy
will come up from behind. It is useful in the planes of power and
courage, and on some bosses, but be careful with it.
=======================================================================
===========================Equipping Bowman============================
You don't have much choice in equipment in the early stages of the
game. Really, the first choices you get come from using item creation.
1)
Weapons
The first weapon you need is the giant fist. It is a perfectly
good weapon in its own right, and can be made several ways near the
beginning. Or you can find them on the third continent of Expel.
Once you get a rainbow diamond, you can customize the giant fist
into the titan fist. You should use the titan fist for quite a while.
It has lower attack power than a couple other weapons you can get
pretty soon, but not by much. It also raises your mp by 30%, and
Bowman sorely needs all the mp he can get until later in the game.
Once you have enough mp to ditch the titan fist, buy the rune full
moon in Armlock. Customize it (with crystal I think) to get the moon
fist. This is Bowman's best weapon. I think he might have a slightly
more powerful fire elemental weapon, but trust me, you don't want
elemental weapons.
2)
Armor
The most important piece of armor for Bowman (and everyone else
who can use it) is the reflective armor. I believe you make it with
orichalcum with the magical rasp. It gives fairly good AC and many
magic resistances. The best part is it lets you regenerate mp over
time in battle. Even once I get the seraphic garb and the valiant
armor, I still use reflective armor for the mp regeneration.
automatically
I believe
how it works,
a small
=======================================================================
=============================Solo-Bowman===============================
As I mentioned earlier, I have played through nearly the whole
game with just Bowman and Rena. I'm still working on taking Rena out
of the equation completely, but there are some parts where I get
paralyzed way too much. At first I did this because I thought it would
be more difficult, but the truth is, most parts of the game are easier
with just 2 characters.
You get twice as much experience with 2 characters, and 4 times as
much with only one. This means you will be much higher level than if
you put more characters in. For much of the game, most enemies will be
completely unable to hurt you, as your con and skills will be so high.
Spells will be very ineffective, as most of them hit your whole party
for medium damage, but you will have fewer characters and too many hp
to care.
However, in order to put just 1 character in the battle party, you
can only have 5 characters. That means you won't get to see as much
plot, hear as many voices, etc. It's a tradeoff. Also, stoning and
paralysis are big problems. Max out body-control ASAP to avoid this.
Also AC and avoid help, as some enemies never seem to stone you if they
do 0 damage (unfortunately, some still do), and no enemy stones you if
you parry. I prefer to use just one character except in areas where I
get stoned/paralyzed a lot, and then I stick Rena in to dispel. I
suppose you could use paralysis checks (until the boss of the bonus
dungeon, I never got stoned anyway) but I really value my accessory
slots. Whenever you use Rena, set her to Recover Friends Only. You
probably could get by with another setting, but each spell she uses
slows the battle down. That is why I never use any spellcaster but
Rena.
What follows is not strictly a walkthrough. The plot is much the
same no matter which characters you use in the fights. If you want
plot or solutions to the puzzles, look somewhere else. It will give
you advice on how to get through the fights in specific parts of the
game, specifically using Bowman.
1) Get Bowman
To get Bowman, you must have completed the Lacour Arms Tournament. Go
to Linga. Go to Professor Keith's house and you will get kicked out.
Go to the pharmacy in the north part of town; Bowman is the shopkeeper.
He wants you to prove you are strong, so he sends you to a cave to get
rare herbs. Find the Clarisage (I have heard the Dillwhip works too,
but I never tested it) in the nearby cave, and come back. Watch some
story, then you can choose whether you want Bowman or not.
2) Catch Bowman up
Generally, whenever you get a new character, they are behind the rest
of your party. Since you are going to be using Bowman alone, you
actually need him more powerful than the rest. Later, the extra
experience he receives will keep him ahead, but for now, he doesn't
have any extra experience.
First, teach him everything you can with authoring. You don't
have to do this, but it does save some valuable skill points. I know
it can take a while, so only do how much you want.
Second, unlock every talent you can. You will want to do this
sooner or later, might as well be now. Play songs to learn pitch and
rhythm, do metalwork to learn dexterity and sense of design, cook for
sense of taste, do art for sense of beauty, author for writing talent,
and summon familiars for love of animals. You can very easily learn
the talents with only a skill of 1. Very few took me more than 10
tries.
Third, equip him. I recommend making the giant fist immediately,
I have made it with a customize of 4 with very few failures. The armor
and accessories you can buy and find are good enough at this point. If
you want to make even better ones, you can do that too. I used the
might chain and general's ring, but you can make much better stuff.
Fourth, level. I normally hate leveling, but it's unavoidable at
the beginning. Make sure you practice secret medicine up to at least
the point where it heals 600 hp. Practice poison pills as well as it
becomes very valuable. You should be using up nearly all your mp, as
practicing your killer moves is more important than leveling. You
might level a couple times on the overworld map, but Bowman is strong
enough to take the Linga sanctuary for a few fights pretty early,
especially if you use Rena for the first couple levels. Level for an
hour and a half or so, less if your equipment is better. This is about
the only time you'll need to level in the whole game.
My friends don't all agree on how good the super specialty
comprehension is. I got it up to 8 immediately, and raised it whenever
I could. Sometimes it costs you skill points, but usually you get
extras. Well worth it in my book. If you really wanted to, you could
reset every time you get a bad skill roll, but it would slow things
down.
that big anyway. You can fly to the secret shop and buy the magical
rasp if you want; then you can blacksmith some more good armors; be
sure to make the reflective armor. Make sure to make everything that
doesn't require the rasp first. Once you get the rasp you can't make
star greaves and gards.
Next go to Fun City, and the battle arena. You don't really want
the item you get for winning the A rank duel, but I would do it anyway
just for fun and a couple levels. Do some A rank bullying battles
though, as the 100 skill points you get for winning is a big help. You
probably want explosion pills and secret medicine. Two of the last
enemies are immune to fire, so just punch them to death after you take
the rest out. You should probably take a stab at the survival battle
as well. You probably won't win, but it is fun and you can level 10
times easily on one try. Burst fist is probably your best bet, as
fight 31 against a giant bird is one of the hardest. Poison pills also
works fine, and is the way to go if you can get past this fight with
them.
8) The fields
How difficult these are depends a little on how long you spent at
fun city. I didn't find them hard at all. One key though is start
with the field of love. That's right, love. I found it the easiest
one by far, and it gives excellent experience for the others.
Bowman should be able to solo the field of love. I use Sakura
attack, even though it's not the best, to level it up. If you have
trouble, switch to poison pills. This boss is a piece of cake.
Next you should probably do the field of courage. I found it even
easier than love, but then, I had a few more levels under my belt.
There's no trick here; it's very easy. Use poison pills on the boss
and he will die in no time.
The field of power should come next. This was actually the most
difficult of the fields for me, and the only one I bring in Rena on.
None of the fights individually are too tough, but some of the monsters
paralyze you, and you have to do a lot of fights. You will need Rena
soon anyway, so you may as well get her a few levels. There are also
fights where you must defend a switch or part of the map gets blocked
off. As long as you don't use sakura attack, you will be fine. You
could even just punch them. Even if you fail, don't worry. None of
the items here are as good as the ones you can make.
The field of intelligence is last. Partly because it's fun to do
them backwards, but mostly because after the field of power, Bowman can
do it alone. Use poison pills. The boss is as usual, the easiest
part. Use poison pills on each of the spheres that the boss uses to
change attacks. They should each take 3 hits or so. Then do the same
for the boss. He usually can't do anything, but even his strongest
attack should do very little if he gets it off. I remember watching
him take out someone's whole party with one shot, but when got hit with
Bowman he took 0 damage.
9) Mine Cave
The game keeps getting easier. You could easily solo this dungeon with
poison or explosion pills. Bring Rena along just because you will
probably want her for Fineal, and she can level fast here. The boss
could do a lot of damage if it attacked, but with poison pills, it dies
in about 5 seconds. Explosion pills would work just as well if you
have the mp for them.
10) Kill some Wise Men
Use Rena for the rest of the game, unless you feel the need to prove
something. The reason is that most of the bosses from here out are so
fast that if you attack with Bowman, they sometimes run from you
forever. It's kind of comical. You will see the enemy run from one
side of the screen to the other, with Bowman close behind. But, it's
usually an infinite loop, so you'll have to reset. Rena can get you
out, or you could use a skanda ointment or compress to speed Bowman up
at the beginning of the fight. I use burst fist against the first 3
wise men for a change of pace, but poison pills probably work fine too.
They might have trouble hitting the second wise man.
11) Fineal
The game gets somewhat challenging again here. You might experiment to
find which moves work best against the bosses, but I've found sakura
attack and explosion pills work very well. One of the wise men in the
second fight is immune to fire, so either don't use explosion pills, or
finish off the other guy and punch him to death. For the normal
enemies, explosion pills are your best bet.
The final boss can be somewhat tough with just Bowman and Rena.
His spells actually do enough damage to Bowman to be a problem, but
Rena can easily be immune through equipment. The mirage robe is a big
help. Unless you have the tri-emblem or angel armband, Bowman needs a
reverse doll. I use sakura attack, but poison/explosion pills probably
work just as well. You can pin him in place long enough to do big
damage, but you usually can't keep him from escaping to use magic
sooner or later. Make sure you have the star guard, as he has an
attack with about 15 hits. Just parry them all, and the stars you
generate will do pretty good damage. When you get hurt, which will be
often, rely on Rena more than secret medicine. Otherwise you won't get
many chances to attack. Now if you want to beat him without Rena, you
will probably need some items from the bonus dungeon.
12) The Bonus Dungeon (AKA Secret Dungeon)
The bonus dungeon has hard parts and easy parts. Often you will
lots of trouble with one floor, only to find the next floor a piece of
cake. Some of the floors were so dangerous that I put Ashton and
Chisato in. They were set on avoid enemies and I used them to
resurrect me when I died and to distract enemies when there are too
many. I suppose if you are a perfectionist, you could use skandas to
escape from the fights that are too difficult. In general, the
strategy here is to play defensive. Take out an enemy or two, then
heal up with secret medicine. Any time too many enemies come together,
and you risk getting surrounded, run off and wait for them to spread
out. I recommend taking out the spellcasters early, not because they
are dangerous, but because they cast very high level spells with 20-30
second animations, and I don't have the patience to watch those over
and over. Some fights bear special attention.
The succubus, boss of floor 1: She is one of the hardest bosses in
the whole dungeon. She has too many hit points, is very fast, and
stones you. The fight may take a while, but you shouldn't lose as long
as you protect Rena. She should have the rune buckler, so she won't
get stoned. Try to keep the boss busy. Any time you die or get
stoned, you can wait for raise dead, but if the boss is anywhere near
Rena, use an item instead, so you can get back in the action faster.
Use burst fist, poison pills, or sakura attack and she'll go down
eventually.
The hourglasses: At first these are bosses, but then you fight
them all the time in normal fights. They can stop time for about 1.5
seconds. This usually isn't too bad, but if several do it over and
over, they could stop time forever. Try to kill them as fast as
possible, even if you risk having to resurrect Bowman. You can manage
to survive, but any time they stop time for 9 seconds at a time, it's
going to be close. Explosion pills are the best bet.
The Weirdbeast: He isn't actually hard. You just have to make
sure you equip the weirdslayer. And then make sure you unequip it
afterwards. I would stick Chisato in to use the weirdslayer, and just
set her on stay away until you get to the weidbeast.