Wild Arms is a rather simplistic game, with not a lot of options when it comes to setting up your characters, but I'll cover some recommendations and ways you can get the most out of them.
Rudy
By the end-game, you'll want to outfit him with either the Hope or Courage Runes, depending on your chosen setup. The Hope Rune provides a solid boost to all statistics, including Vitality (For Protector) and Sorcery, while Courage has a great increase in his Response, but lower Vitality and no Sorcery at all. Also to consider: with the Hope Rune being the highest damaging summon attack, it would benefit more from being summoned by Jack, while Rudy holds the lesser, and sometimes ineffective, Courage Rune summon. I almost always use the Hope Rune, but you decide for yourself.
When it comes to accessories, I use Rudy's shields until I obtain the Force Unit, then never remove it from him. In my opinion, building Rudy's Force towards Fury Shot, or Protector if need be, is absolutely invaluable. Of course, the Sheriff Star also provides the effect of the Force Unit, but again, in my opinion, the statistical boosts from the Sheriff Star are wasted on Rudy whose offense is dependent on ARM upgrades, and not base stats. Once you acquire the Braver Vest, which has a huge Magic Resistance boost, Rudy will only truly be lacking in Response. The Power Boost accessory you find in the Abyss, seems like an excellent choice, as well, but does not extend to Rudy's ARMs; whether this was intended or not.
Cecilia
Turning to accessories, stick with her Sorcery-increasing books, or in certain situations, the Holy Parasol, until you find the Talisman inside the Epitaph of the Sea Wind dungeon. With the Talisman equipped, protecting Cecilia's Vitality becomes much less of a burden and allows you to explore other rune alternatives, if you'd prefer. In fact, the Talisman's HP restoration is so useful, it takes the overwhelming Sorcery increase of the Necronomicon for me to abandon it. Of course, there is also the Sheriff Star to consider, which, when it comes to pure overall statistic boosts, along with the innate Talisman effect, Cecilia can benefit more from it than Jack, however, the Sorcery increase from the Sheriff Star is vastly dwarfed by the Necronomicon. It's a difficult choice, but my personal preference is to stay with the latter and slide the Sheriff Star to Jack.
A final consideration: although not recommended personally, is if using the Sheriff Star, equipping the Filgaia Robe over the obviously superior Pret-a-porte. When having the Pret-a-porte in your inventory, Cecilia can combine it with her Mystic Force to cast the otherwise-inaccessible (Except through Randomizer) Regenerate spell that can take care of most all your recovery needs.
Lastly, there are just enough Crest Graphs to be found during the game to bind all of Cecilia's magic: a total of 64 in all. Several of these can be missed permanently, such as the ones in the Maze of Death, Dragon Shrine, Gate Generator, and Pandemonium, so be vigilant in obtaining them. If you prefer to have a Crest Graph for your item inventory, I recommend unbinding the Confusion spell, as it seems to have the less use out of all of her spells.
Jack
Due to being so average in most aspects, as well as there being a limited amount of stat-increasing accessories, I tend to leave Jack with his gauntlet accessories for the majority of the game unless using one of the elemental rings to draw out a certain element in his Phazer Zapp skill. Later on, the Wise Slate is a nice addition, followed by the Mind Gem, but once you make it to Malduke, you'll want to try to obtain an additional Force Unit from the Doomsday enemy before attempting to take on the optional bosses of the game. Of course, if you didn't buy 99 Small Flowers from the Adlehyde Ruins Festival, don't sleep on the usefulness in the Missanga to modify his Luck when the need arises.
Lastly, I recommend Jack be equipped with the Sheriff Star over the other two characters. The boost in Response will make Jack virtually faster
than any other enemy, allowing him to easily serve as an emergency healer without
the need for Accelerator. He can revive quickly with Fruits and restore
HP with Nectar/Ambrosia, clear status he is now immune to with Heal
Blade, and build to Double Attack faster to benefit the party in a
multitude of ways. There is also the added effect of his Luck never falling below "Bad", which is beneficial to his fast draws that are dependent on Luck like Trickster, Slash Rave, Divide Shot, Shadow Bind, and Void.
Speaking of fast draws, with a little grind, you can easily lower all of Jack's skills to the consumption of 1 MP. Throughout the main areas of Malduke, the final dungeon, Jack can steal Secret Signs from both the Tzar and Fesel Zein enemies. Although because of the low success rate, you'd be better off having Jack use Divide Shot to set them up for Cecilia to use Lucky Shot and force them to drop Secret Signs. However, I find that winning them from the Ancient Arena to be a much quicker way. Stopping after the third battle (Javawalk) will always reward you with three Secret Signs; you can also attempt to steal an additional one from the second battle (Badnews). To quickly blow through the battles, finish Medea with Saint in the first battle, then Divide Shot and Phaser on Badnews and Javawalk while Cecilia casts Remedy to bring those battles to an end.
Increasing Character Statistics
Besides runes and a few accessories, the stat Apples are your only source for modifying your character's statistics. Below I will just provide a brief overview of the best way to obtain them.
- Power Apple (Strength): Stolen from Sandstag in the desert north of the Memory Temple.
- Hardy Apple (Vitality): Stolen from Dumpty in the Residential Area of Malduke.
- Mystic Apple (Sorcery): Stolen from Humpty in the Residential Area of Malduke.
- Agile Apple (Response): Stolen from Fafneil inside of Ka Dingel.
Alternately, Hazenbergs inside of Ka Dingel and Armordrakes in the same location as the Sandstags have Hardy and Mystic Apples Jack can steal, however, in my experience, it is easier to plunder them from the monsters listed above. Because of the rarity of the steals, you may prefer to farm the Apples from the Ancient Arena. If you quit after the second battle (Badnews), you'll receive a full set each time. When distributing Apples, remember that other than for increasing their Magic Resistance and the damage from their Guardian Summons, Rudy and Jack have no other use for the Sorcery stat.
Dummied Items
There are several items contained within the code of Wild Arms that cannot be obtained but through a device such as a Gameshark. Often completionists struggle with the fact that they exist, yet were never implemented into the game, or if they were, are extremely well hidden. I think it's fair to say, after the game has been out nearly 25 years, that these items are simply "dummied" out and inaccessible.
- Sheriff Womp (?) (Event Item?)
- Diary (Event Item?)
- Holy Grail (Accessory)
- Side Blade (Jack Accessory)
- Chris/Kris Knife (Jack Accessory)
- Blade Crash (Jack Accessory)
- Reverse Edge (Jack Accessory)
Tips on Farming Items
Lastly, I want to provide players with some advice on the best ways to farm items from enemies. Unfortunately, in the case of Trickster, there is absolutely nothing you can do to increase your chance at theft other than having Jack's Luck at "Best". Once you've met Mariel at Rosetta Town, you can infinitely obtain Small Flowers to increase Luck by talking with her, leaving town, then returning. Alternately, you can use the Missanga, Amulet, and Sheriff Star accessories to adjust Luck levels. Another tip is to remove Jack's rune and equip him with his starting weapon, the Arctic Blade, to reduce the damage he inflicts with Trickster granting more opportunities to steal. One other thing you can do, that will apply to the below paragraph as well, is have Cecilia cast Dummy Doll on all three characters. As long as the character does not evade their attack, Dummy Doll will prevent a character from counterattacking the enemy, again granting more chances per battle to steal.
As for drops, an enemy that is defeated by Cecilia's Lucky Shot spell (Also Mystic'd from the Bone item) will guarantee the enemy drops their item. Unfortunately, Lucky Shot tends to do very low damage, but there are some tricks you can employ to make it more effective. First: when using Lucky Shot, make sure Cecilia has her best spell book accessory equipped (Necronomicon) and Sorcery-boosting rune (Chrono) this will significantly add to the damage of Lucky Shot. Second, a majority of monsters can be effected by Cecilia's Prison spell, although it may take several castings. If under the Prison condition, the next attack on the enemy will instantly destroy it; including Lucky Shot. In the case of Prison not being effective, you'll need to whittle down the monsters HP to be defeated by Lucky Shot. Cecilia can cast Banish, which greatly lowers a monster's statistics, making Lucky Shot's damage increase to help out with this, but the most reliable thing to do is abuse Jack's Divide Shot fast draw. Divide Shot will cut any non-boss monster's HP in half and can never defeat it, thus you can continually use it until it begins to do minuscule amounts of damage, then have Cecilia throw out a Lucky Shot to finish it off.