Vagrant Story Weapon Guide
                 Version 1.0
               By: Jesse Byers 
            jesseb@staff.hpnc.com
                  05/22/00

This FAQ is for private use only.  If you do want to use the FAQ on a website or 
other form of print email me at jesseb@staff.hpnc.com and I will consider it.  
Do not use this FAQ in anyway without my permission.  If you use any info from 
this FAQ please give me credit.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
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1.  Revision History
2.  Introduction
3.  Weapons Guide
     3.1  Weapon Types
     3.2  Raising Weapon Affinities
     3.3  Workshops
     3.4  Combining Weapons
     3.5  Making New Weapons
     3.6  Repairing Weapons
4.  Game Tips
     4.1  General Tips
     4.2  Boss Strategies
       4.2.1  Minotaur
       4.2.2  Dullahan
       4.2.3  Phantom
       4.2.4  Golem
       4.2.5  Dragon
       4.2.6  Father Duane and his 2 Knights
       4.2.7  Wyvern

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1.  Revision History:
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Version 1.0 05/22/00  Started FAQ.  Included Weapons Guide, Boss Strategies and 
General Tips.

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2.  Introduction:
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This FAQ will be mainly focused on using and creating weapons and general 
strategies.  If you have a question read the FAQ first and if it is really not 
in here email me and I will try to help you out.  If you email me make the topic 
Vagrant Story Help, I might not read it very quickly if I don't see that topic 
and we all know it sucks to not get a quick response.  Well this is my first FAQ 
and I am here to help.  I hope you enjoy this game as much as me.

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3.  Weapons Guide:
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3.1  Weapon Type
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As you may or may not know there are nine different types of weapons that you 
can use in this game plus you can also fight unarmed.  Below I am going to list 
each type of weapon and list their strengths and weaknesses.

Dagger:  One handed piercing
   Strong VS - Undead
   Weak VS - Beast, Evil, Phantom
   Range - 1 or 2 (pathetic)

Sword:  One handed edged/piercing
   Strong VS - Beasts, Humans
   Weak VS - Dragons
   Range - 3 or 4 (average)

Great Sword:  Two handed edged
   Strong VS - Dragons
   Weak VS - Not sure
   Range - 6 or 7 (good)

Axe and Mace:  One handed edged/blunt
   Strong VS - Not Sure
   Weak VS - Undead
   Range - 3 or 4 (average)

Great Axe:  Two handed edged
   Strong VS - Not Sure
   Weak VS - Not Sure
   Range -  6 or 7 (good)

Staff:  One handed blunt
   Strong VS - Undead
   Weak VS - Human
   Range - 3 or 4 (average)

Heavy Mace:  Two handed blunt
   Strong VS - Human
   Weak VS - Not Sure
   Range - 6 or 7 (good)

Polearm:  Two handed piercing/blunt
   Strong VS - Dragon
   Weak VS - Not Sure
   Range -  7 or 8 (very good)

Crossbow:  Two handed piercing/blunt
   Strong VS - Beasts (especially usefull for flying beasts)
   Weak VS - Not Sure
   Range - 8 or 9 (excellent)

Unarmed:  One hand blunt
   Strong VS - Nothing
   Weak VS - All Classes
   Range - 1 (pathetic)
   
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3.2  Raising Weapon Affinities
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There are several classed that an ememy could belong to.  Those classes are 
Human, Beast, Undead, Phantom, Dragon and Evil.  You can use weapons against 
enemies of certain classes to raise that weapons affinity against that class.  
In other words if you use a weapon against the Human class enough times it 
becomes a strong weapon against humans.  Now I am sure you are thinking, why 
don't I just have one weapon that is good against everything, that would be so 
simple.  True, that would be simple but unfortuantly it is not possible.  I'll 
explain.  Classes are in this order:

Human
Beast
Undead
Phantom
Dragon
Evil

You can only use one weapon for two classes and that class has to be right next 
to the other in the list.  For example, you could use the same sword for Human 
and Beast or Undead and Phantom or Dragon and Evil.  All you need at one time is 
three weapons.  If you try to use a weapon for two classes that aren't right 
next to each other the classes will drop.  For example, say you have a sword you 
use for Humans with an affinity of 50 and then you fight a dragon with it.  When 
you get done with the fight the human affinity would have dropped a few points.  
The best way to pick a weapon would be to look at section 3.1, find what weapons 
are strong against what and then use them like I have described here.  If you 
follow this you will have three weapons that will be useful throughout the game.  
If you don't you will always have sorry weapons.











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3.3  Workshops
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Ok, so now you have found a workshop and you want to know what to do.  Workshops 
are of great importance in this game.  At workshops you can repair weapons, 
combine weapons, disassemble weapons, and assemble weapons.  Each workshop has 
certain elements that you can work with, such as: Leather, Iron, Bronze, Silver, 
Hagane and Damascus.  Combining different types will get you different types of 
elements.  This will be described further in section 3.4  Workshops also contain 
store chests so you can store or remove items that you need or don't want.  
Always save before doing anything in a workshop incase you don't get the results 
you wanted.

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3.4  Combining Weapons
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In order to make stronger weapons you need to combine elements.  To do this go 
into a workshop and bring up the menu with the triangle button.  Go to the 
screen that lets you choose Equip or Setup (the icon looks like this: !) and 
click setup.  Now you need to decide which blades you want to combine.  If you 
have a Bronze Weapon and Iron Weapon and combine them you often get Hagane.  
Hagane is very strong and very useful.  Try to get all of your weapons and armor 
Hagane as early as possible.  Ok so now you have decided which weapons you want 
to combine.  First step is to disassemble the weapons.  Select disassemble from 
the list and then choose the weapon you want to disassemble.  Do this for both 
weapons.  Now back at the setup menu choose combine.  It will let you select two 
blades to combine.  Go ahead and pick the blades from the weapons you 
disassembled.  You can see what type of blade you are going to make above the 
icons for the two blades you selected.  If the icon has an B on it, that means 
it will be bronze, a I is iron, H is Hagane, S is silver and D is Damascus.  You 
will also see the stats for the weapon.  Weapon affinities are passed on when 
you combine so make sure you understand that.  Refer to section 3.2 for help 
with weapon affinities.  Just play around with this, if you don't like what you 
get reload your saved game.  If the game gets really hard for you, find a 
workshop and make stronger weapons.  A quick tip - you can combine different 
type blades together such as polearms with a sword or something to make really 
unique and powerfull weapons.  
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3.5  Making New Weapons
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Now that you have made a new blade or two or three you need to reassemble your 
weapon into new monster killers.  First go to the menu and then select setup 
just as you did before.  Now go to Assemble Weapons.  First you will be prompted 
to select a blade, go ahead and select the one you made.  Next you need to 
select a grip, early in the game cross guard is a good grip for most swords 
since it has a gem slot, so choose it unless you have something better, or 
unless you are making another class of weapon.  Click on Gems and you can attach 
a gem to the weapon.  Gems raise certain weapon affinities.  For example, the 
Braveheart Gem makes you have a higher affinity against Humans and the Iocus 
does the same against Undead.  Pretty nice to have.  After you attach a gem 
click OK and you get to name your new weapon.  Make sure you pick a good name, 
the Final Fantasy games always have good sword names so if you are totally out 
of ideas for a name use one of those.  Try out your new weapon(s), you should be 
ready to go.

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3.6  Repairing Weapons
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At a workshop you can also repair your weapons.  This will replenish any DP's 
that the sword or shield has lost during battle.  This makes the weapons and 
armor stronger.  You should do this at every workshop you come to since it makes 
your attack and defense better.  I am not sure if that is all there is to this 
part, I am still trying to figure it out.

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4.  Game Tips
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4.1  General Tips
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- Pay attention to weapon affinities or you will be in trouble.
- When you enter a room you can hit the start button to freeze the enemies and 
look at the room    from a first person perspective.
- Don't try to run from enemies if you have low life.  If you run you are more 
than likely going   to get hit a couple of times.
- Use chain attacks as much as possible.  Using chain attacks help you get 
points towards     learning new chain abilities and defense abilites. 
- Watch your RISK, if it gets to high your chances of hitting the enemy decrease 
drastically.
- If you can put up your weapons and your RISK will drop faster.
- Ideally you want to remove all armor before using Healing or Status increasing 
items on     yourself since they will do a lot more with no armor on.
- If you enter a room with more than one class of enemy, take the time to change 
weapons to fight   each one.

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4.2  Boss Strategies
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***This section will not start out complete but in the next version it will 
be.***
Before we start here, let me say a couple of things.  You will hardly ever take 
a large amount of HP away from a boss, it is quite normal to take 5 or 6 HP per 
attack away each hit.  Boss fights will take a while so don't think you are 
doing anything wrong.

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4.2.1 Minotaur (beast)
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Since you just got started in the game you aren't going to have much of a 
choice.  Just run up to him, stay close and target his head.  Hit as fast as 
possible and use cure roots to cure yourself.  He shouldn't be tough, don't get 
use to it though boss fights in this game are rough.

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4.2.2 Dullahan (evil)
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This guy is a lot tougher than the Minotaur.  Go ahead and cast degenerate on 
Dullahan, try to target his abdomen and keep your life above 100HP.  This fight 
may take a few minutes but he still won't be all that difficult. 

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4.2.3 Phantom (phantom)
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This fight may give you a few problems at first since the fight is timed.  You 
have 30 seconds to knock this guy out.  Go ahead and chain as much as possible 
and use break arts if you have any.  He will disappear after you attack him so 
stay in one spot and wait for him to get in range. 

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4.2.4 Golem (evil)
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Ok, welcome to the first challenging boss fight.  Cast degenerate on the Golem 
and try to use the defense ability Reflect Damage as much as possible.  Just 
keep attacking, keep your HP up and sooner or later he will fall.

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4.2.5 Dragon (dragon)
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Equip a polearm and get under his neck and stay there.  Don't worry about 
casting any spells.  He may bite you or use Tail Attack everyonce in a while but 
it shouldn't cause too much damage.  Target his neck and head and don't try to 
chain because you will miss.  Keep your HP over 125 or so and you should be 
fine.  Don't get too far away from the dragon or he will use firebreath which 
will probably kill you.

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4.2.6 Father Duane and his 2 Knights (human)
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Stay at the bottom of the ramp and fight the two knights first.  Use a weapon 
with a high Human affinity with the Braveheart gem attached.  If you go up the 
ramp Duane joins in.  After you beat the knights go after him, he shouldn't be 
too hard.

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4.2.7 Wyvern (dragon)
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DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT, CAST ANY SPELLS AGAINST WYVERN.  If you do it will know 
you did and become very defensive and very strong.  Get up close to it and 
target it's tail.  This will be a very long fight but you should prevail... I 
hope.



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This FAQ will be updated shortly.  Send me any questions you 
might have and I will help out as much as possible.
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