SaGa Frontier - Emelia: Chapter 4

We've spent a lot of time farming for items and monster abilities there, but it's now time we fully complete Mu's Tomb and claim the VictoryRune within. Trying to enter the eastern-side of the fork at the entrance of the Tomb greets the character with a warning in English, German, AND Spanish. Ignoring the theatrics, enter anyway and slip by the two bug monsters and search the stone door to your lower-left to proceed.

Just past the room with two bug-types, you'll find a smaller one with a slime monster and a treasure in the left-side corner holding a ShadowDagger weapon. If you didn't recruit Mesarthim, or have one dropped from a Shadow enemy, this is your first of this weapon. At only +9 attack, it is almost useless offensively, but has the added benefit of a +3 to a character's Psychic making it a decent choice for one of your mystic's unused weapon slots, for now. This weapon also holds the unique ShadowHold ability, which simply attempts to paralyze the target, and isn't of much use, in my opinion.

Exit south, then down a set of stone stairs, passing a mystic and beast, and into a room with multiple exits and monsters. Using the steps to your right, you can exit to the south, or further southeast. Before deciding, take the treasure positioned between the paths for a Katana. Buyable in Koorong with a +34 in attack, it will likely be your go-to katana-type weapon with stronger ones being very rare finds. Remember the stairs heading south, as these lead to the boss and VictoryRune, but the exit to the right of the Katana takes us to more treasures. Southeast, snatch up the Credits bag worth 200 and windup the stone steps nearby; taking the lower-left stairs into the next area that is to your west of the upper-portion of the room.

 

The following area has four nearby doors that lead to the same interconnected room. There's a bag of 500 Credits to pick up and a chest with a BloodChalice accessory. Besides the outrageous cost of 4000 Credits in Manhattan, the BloodChalice is a forgettable piece with a +5 to Psychic and protects characters from instant-death attacks (But not all), at the expense of lowering your heat, force, and status resistances by -15. The exit to the upper-right takes you back out to the area you came from (A one-way door), which is ideal for returning to the the area that leads toward the VictoryRune. You could, however, if wanting to fight some more or needing to heal at the Shrike inn, go back out to the narrow corridor and venture further west on a linear path that eventually places you outside of a crypt (Another one-way door) near the entrance.

To find the VictoryRune, retreat back to where you found the Katana and take the steps down. For whatever reason, there's a completely empty large structure in the center of the room, so turn southwest to a corridor that is flooded with monsters. Fight your way through and into the doorway at the end. The next room looks like it should hold some kind of treasure, but is void of such, so just exit to the north and into the boss room. Before reaching the center, make sure to save and bring a character with the JackalSword equipped and any mystics that have learned GlassShield to make this battle rather simple. If you want to be totally prepared, equip any FireCrystal accessories or the SeaStone for some extra heat-based protection, the Shield spell, and any gun-users that know the CrossShot ability, but these are not really necessary.

 

Approaching the VictoryRune throws the party into a battle with...a pile of bones? The thing is totally immune to all attacks in the first round, so use your supportive abilities; Shield, GlassShield, VitalityRune, PsychoArmor: whatever you would like. When the round ends, the Skulldrake roars (literally) to life. A bit later in the game and coming with the JackalSword, this thing is easy. Use DirtyFang to prevents its 1000 HP regeneration each turn and deploy your gunners to use CrossShot for heavy damage. The majority of the Skulldrake's attacks are physical, so any mystics that are targeted with GlassShield intact will launch a devastating counterattack on it. If you get unlucky, you may get sprayed with fire-based attacks instead, but it shouldn't be anything you can't recover from. Overall, not a challenging boss unless faced early in the game.

 

Call an ambulance! But not for me.

Although not necessary, try to snag another excellent EMES Tag accessory, that we talked about in the previous chapter, from the boss. The drop isn't incredibly rare, but be prepared to reload your save a few times to get it. Afterwards, the party secures the VictoryRune and only the HideRune remains to obtain the Rune magic gift. 

 

If you fought your way through every monster in the Ruins, you've likely pushed past rank 6 and on your way to 7 now, so let's take a break and farm a few items and monster abilities as the next dungeon will be another trek that will be filled with battles. The good news is 6 is the final rank you need concern yourself with specifically stopping your game progress to look for rare items. Once you reach the maximum rank of 9, rank 7 monsters will still be available, albeit rarer than 8 and 9 ones. For rank 6, let's start by looking for male mystics. My preference is Owmi's Lord's Manor basement or the Shingrow Ruins, taking the right pathway from the entrance.

 

We're searching for Gremlins whom have two rare items to drop and some abilities, as well. The most likely, and useful item, is the SilverSpread sword. Its +22 attack is decent, but it also grants the same number in bonus to a character's Psychic. In terms of statistical bonuses, the SilverSpread is, arguably, the best weapon in the entire game for a mystic to equip as the +22 to their Psychic will aid their magic abilities greatly. I would try to get one for each mystic in your party, but thankfully, there are more opportunities to find this later on, however, you're likely to get a few searching for the next item... 

 

Note: The SilverSpread has a special ability when combined with the Arcane-based Fool spell, however, I will cover this when we obtain the Arcane gift.

 

The Gremin's SplashSword is one of the rarest drops in the game to acquire; so be prepared for a potentially long grind. The thing is strong, however, at a +49 attack, and gives you the additional ElementDissolve ability that attempts to instantly destroy an enemy. It's very nice for a mec, as well, providing them a +100 in HP and +20 to Strength/Psychic. Be vigilant in trying to get one to drop!

The Gremlin has the Junk accessory that is a 100% chance to drop if it does not cough up one of its other items. You'll find one as treasure, and it is also a common item from the Junk Shop in Scrap, so this is only noted if you wanted to pick up multiple of it. It has a +2 defense against all types, with a +12 to status defense, so it's not totally "junk". While searching, bring your monsters and grab the Chop ability from the Gremlin; it can be a bit of a rare find later, also, its GremlinTouch ability can wreak havoc upon mec-type monsters and is easy to procure from the winged critter.

 

Note: Gremlins show up fairly frequently with other creatures at later ranks, but with the SplashSword being so rare, you don't want to have to depend on trying to find one later.

Look for a plant-type monster, next. There are several at the very bottom of the Lord's Manor and also a very easy to find one right at the entrance of the Ancient Ship in Shingrow. Pick a fight with a Treant and have your monsters absorb its Beat ability. Nothing fancy here: just a basic, physical attack, but it's surprisingly rare.

Head for Koorong and into its backstreet sewers (By the demented Dr.'s office) to find two human-types wandering around we want to hunt. The dangerous Gunbird is our target in this awful place. Be wary: if the Gunbird decides to use his ReactionShot ability, he can put a hurting on the entire party AND cancel their attack if he is targeted. We need to hunt him down for his KillerRifle, though, and it's surprisingly common to drop. It has a +25 attack, which isn't much better than lower-end, purchasable, guns like the TroopRifle, but Emelia can only obtain one through drop.

 

Gunbirds also hold two buyable-only weapons to drop, too: the AGUNI-MBX and the LethalGun; the latter being the best, or second best, depending on ammo count, gun in the entire game. I would try to get at least one of each to outfit your gunners and save some Credits, otherwise, they are buyable back in Koorong.

 

Now, let's take a quick look at some suggestions for your Mystic weapons at rank 6. Recommended weapon type absorb, for the ability, is in parenthesis.

• Manticore (Beast): +16 Strength, Will (Glove)
  
• Treant (Plant): +18 Intelligence, Psychic (Sword)
  
• Trisaur (Aquatic): +20 Strength, Vitality (Boots)
• Slugger (Bug): +18 Strength, Vitality (Sword/Boots)
• Wyvern (Bird): +17 Strength, Quickness (Boots!)
• Ankheg (Undead): +15 Strength, Quickness (Sword!)

Monster Abilities:

• Treant (Plant): MagicHeal (Sword)
• Trisaur (Aquatic): Tremor (Boots)
• Slugger (Bug): Bloodsucker (Sword), Quicksand (Boots)
• Wyvern (Bird): Assassinate (Boots)
• Ankheg (Undead): GriffithScratch (Sword)
  

To find the last RuneStone we need to return to Koorong and the alleyway outside Gradius' hideout. Exit out to the lower-left and you'll be on the northern-side of the city's drenched backstreets. Attempting to climb down the stairs has our hero confronted by two muggers who want us to pay 100 Credits to get by. Yeah, right. Refuse and you'll have to fight a BlueFighter (What happened to the other one?).

 

While incredibly easy, these BlueFighter ruffians have a chance to spawn rank 1 monsters with it that have long since disappeared from battles. None of are particular note (No, the D-Tractor won't show up, unfortunately) except for the beast-type Rocky. The Rocky is the only enemy in the entire game your monsters can absorb the Psychout ability from. It's a useless one, but if you want your monster's maximum HP to be the highest it can, you'll need to bring them to this battle. Thankfully, Psychout is not tough to absorb; the hard part is getting a Rocky to actually spawn with the BlueFighter.

Like the Mu's Tomb chests, these muggers can be infinitely respawned and fought by drawing fortunes in Devin, so you can get Psychout absorbed with all of your monsters by doing so. To bring them back, visit the skeleton psychic in the center of Devin, near the fountain, and draw the weather being either "beautiful", "raining", "snowing", or "cloudy"; any one of these will force the muggers back out onto the rainy backstreets. Remember: you can change your fortune by simply entering and exiting Devin's skyport.

 

Note: The BlueFighter can drop a semi-rare piece of armor, the RubberSuit, you should already have one of, but there's a better place to obtain them in another dungeon.

More updates to come...