ive been trying to build up the dark cloud and steve. i have steve at +12 and dark cloud at +9. i have used gems almost every upgrade, and its still not strong enough to build up. what are the stats needed to build up the dark cloud sword for toan and steve the slingshot for xiao?

DARK CLOUD HELP

INFINITE ULTIMATE WEAPONS:
Aside from Toan's 4 main ultimate weapons, you can make a max everything weapon easily. (everything as in max attack, def., etc..)

1) Aquire the wise owl sword
2) Buy 2 more
3) Buy about 10 of fire's, ice's, holy's, thunder's, etc.
4) Upgrade the first wise owl sword w/all of the elements. (some where around lvl. 60+)
5) Change it to a synth sphere
6) Add it to the next wise owl sword
7) Buy/aquire 10-20 Attack plus 1-3
8) Do the same for magic, endurance, etc.
9) Then upgrade it to max magic, endurance, etc.
10) Repeat step 5
11) Buy/aquire 10-40 mimic breakers, etc.
12) Upgrade To lvl 99

Then you have a new ultimate weapon.
You can do this with any weapon exept the defult weapon.

You can do this with any of the other characters weapons as well.

This cheat is time consuming, but pays off on the stronger levels.
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GEM / ATTACHMENT HELP:
Don't bother trying to spend hard earned gilda or fish points on all the attachments and the 11 gems you can get. Instead, I have narrowed it down to only 6 gems you'll need that will give you stats in everything.

Amethyst - Gives +10 to ice
Diamond - Gives +5 to all anti's
Pearl - Gives +10 to endurance and thunder
Ruby - Give +10 to speed and fire
Peridot - Gives +5 to attack / +10 to holy
Sapphire - Gives +10 to MP and wind

**** As you can see, you have your 4 main stats for your weapon (Attack, endurance, speed, MP), all of the anti's (i.e. anti-dragon, anti-sky, etc.), and all of your elements (thunder, fire, ice, holy, and wind).

As well, you can get all of these by either A) Playing through the dungeons, Random findings in towns, C) Spend 100 fish points per gem, or D) Buy them towards the end of the game for 3000 gilda apiece.
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EASY ABS WITHOUT REPAIR POWDER:
IN MATATAKI VILLAGE THE MOMENT YOU GET THE SERPENT SWORD DO NOT KILL THE SNAKE!!! INSTEAD GO TO THE BACK FLOOR OF A DUNGEON AND KILL ENEMIES.RIGHT BEFORE THEY DIE AND DISSAPEAR SWITCH TO A WEAKER SWORD AND THE ABS WILL GO TO THAT SWORD INSTEAD OF THE SERPENT SWORD.

THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO EVOLVE YOUR SWORDS INTO MORE POWERFUL SWORDS FOR EXAMPLE THIS WILL HELP YOU MAKE THE CHRONICLE SWORD FASTER.

IF THAT BACK FLOOR DOESN'T HAVE A SPRING MAKE SURE YOU BRING ALOT OF WATER!!!
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EASY ABS ON WEAK WEAPON:
to get abs for your weak weapon use your strongest weapon to kill the monster and then switch to the one you want to level up before the monster dissapears. you have a second or two while it lies on the ground and you just equip the weak weapon then watch it dissapear then switch back to the strong one.you can use this to get high stats from synth spheres when your main weapon is on a high level
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SAVE ABS:
if you a lot of abs for a certain weapon that you want to upgrade and you also have a power-up powder then you can use the powder and keep the abs. just go to the item menu and manually put the powder on the weapon of choice. the attachments will be absorbed and you will still have all of the abs.
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THE CHRONICLE II:
One of the most powerful swords in the game is the Chronicle II. To obtain it, you have to finish the Demon Shaft by defeating the Black Knight on floor 100.
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WEAPONS:
There are 4 "ultimate" weapons for the main hero, Toan. Three are built up and 1 is found. In order of greatness they go = Sword of Zeus<Seventh Heaven<Chronicle Sword<The Chronicle 2.

And the fastest way to get a chronicle sword(which is the best weapon you can build up) is to level up a Lamb Sword.
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All this and more can be found at this website where I found it at:

Link removed
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I really hope this helps you out because I have never played this game.

If you have any more problems post them and if I see them, I will respond.