Breath of Fire : Dragon Quarter - Tips and Tricks v1.0 ------------------------------------------------------ by Elkayhm - elkayhm@yahoo.com Copyright Elkayhm 2003 ================== Version History ================== SEP 06 2003 Version 1.0 =================== Table of Contents =================== 1) Foreword 2) Dragon Run A) Bosch Run B) Zeno Run C) AP and HP Run D) Longfoot Run E) Zenny Run F) PowerMeal/Protein/Juju/Reflex Run 3) Ultimate Equipments 4) The Ultimate Trick A) The Trick B) Behind the Scenes C) Optimum Save File 5) Getting 1/4 D-Ratio 6) Final Words 7) Frequently Asked Questions ========== Foreword ========== Breathe of Fire : Dragon Quarter is an entirely new game. Unlike its previous installments, approaching this game the same way as you would with other RPGs like Final Fantasy X would be a big mistake. If it really were to be compared with, the gameplay resembles more of a dungeon-crawling game like Diablo. The intention of this FAQ was never meant to be a fully comprehensive walkthrough. Instead, it is recommended that it is to be used as a complementary guide to what's already written by other wonderful FAQ writers out there. If you're looking for : 1) Complete Walkthrough a) Cyril's Full Walkthrough and Guide b) Billy Lee's FAQ/Walkthrough c) David Kovaz's Strategy Guide and Walkthrough 2) D-Ratio guide - Kouli's Breath of Fire V D-Ratio FAQ 4) Other FAQs - All can be downloaded for free, thanks to Gamefaqs. http://www.gamefaqs.com Look under Playstation 2, Breath of Fire:Dragon Quarter - FAQs. As a beginner, you should at least play the game for a while. If you're stuck in a situation like you couldn't find the way out, refer to the full walkthroughs by other authors. You will always find your answers there. If you want more comprehensive instructions, you may want to seek help from fellow gamers all around the world in the discussion board. Only when you have run out of help, constantly having to restart the game and need some serious tips to get more powerful, should you continue reading this. It's because in what follows, I will assume that you have some basic knowledge of the game. I will not waste time explaining the difference between D-Dive, D-Dash and D-Counter etc. Sorry if it sounded harsh, but saying this will save time of both yours and mine. If you're ready, let's move on. ============ Dragon Run ============ If you have prior knowledge of other FAQs, you would have probably come across tips on how to gain experience quickly by exploiting the SOL:Restore. This is what I would refer to as 'Dragon run' for easy reference. But little is mentioned on how it should be done and where the most rewarding place to do so. Instead of repeating the basics which is already covered by others, I'll get straight to the point. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please spend some time reading some other great FAQs available on the Internet which cover the subject more intensively. If you wish to come up with your own Dragon run tactics, you are most welcomed to do so. To get you started, here are some few guidelines. First of all, in all Dragon Run, there must be something that motivates you to do the run in the first place. The main obvious reason would be to gain more exp. But there would be other reasons as well like getting more zenny, more stat-boosting items, rare dropped/stolen items from monsters etc. Whichever it is, once you see something you like, next is to determine the nearest starting and finishing point. An ideal starting point can be anywhere with a telecorder, preferably with the ID girl around so that you can retrieve things like Gold Exp., Present and Tracker which can facilitate your run. The finishing point doesn't require you to have a telecorder around but the ID girl may be needed. You will need to store all the important items back into the locker. It will also make a great finishing point if the item girl is there as well so that you can sell off excessive stuffs. Luckily, despite having said all that, the three main factors in determining the ideal starting and finishing points - the telecorder, the ID girl and the item girl - often comes together. So most of the time, the starting and the finishing point often end up to be in the exact same place. The steps for Dragon run will almost always be the same. 1) load the game 2) get items from the locker 3) head out to the designated area 4) transform into Dragon 5) kill everything in sight 6) destroy all boxes 7) pick up all items 8) go to finish point 9) store items in the locker 10) sell off everything else 11) do NOT save 12) SOL:Restore You know the drill. But to save time, there are times where you may want to skip unnecessary battles. Try not to stretch a session for too long. 5 minutes a run is the most ideal. So in planning out a Dragon run best suited for you, you may want to remember this formula - to get maximum rewards in the shortest amount of time. To be able to do that, here's some tips: 1) Always separate your gameplay into two sessions - one is to do the run, the other is to do the actual walkthrough. Only in the actual walkthrough that you keep a watch on your D-Counter. Try to avoid transforming into a Dragon so that you'll have plenty left in the end. 2) Whereas when doing the run, D-dash as much as possible to save time. 3) Boxes can be categorised as common and rare. Common boxes often drop things like zenny, party experience, curative and healing items etc. Rare boxes however are more profitable - items can be as good like stat-boosting items and Gold XP - depends on the colour of the boxes. 4) To maximize party XP, finish up a battle in 1 round - in the extra turn is even better. For this purpose, always have a PETS item with you - to flock all the monsters together and then finish them off. 5) When you know you're reaching a save point, try not to break any of the boxes along the way. Remember this rule - save then break. The boxes will always be there, with different items, if you choose to SOL:Restore every time after the save. I have developed a range of different examples according to the principles outlined above, just for your convenience. Hope it helps. (The names sounded silly, I know :P. But it's just for easy reference to be used in the rest of the guide) Legend : S Point - starting point F Point - finishing point Min time - the amount of time taken, as can be seen in the game Max reward - all possible experience, items that you can get along the way; doesn't mean you will get it all the time, it MAY just happen if you're extremely lucky. Instructions - general pointers on how to get from S point to F point Comments - extra stuffs that you should know --------- Bosch Run --------- S Point : End Sector Borough F Point : End Sector Borough Min time : 5 minutes Max reward : Fang(Bosch); 6000z(Bosch); minor rewards from his goons if you can steal from them; 600 xp - 240 party xp (destroy all in 1 round) 6 white boxes - 4 common, 2 rare (discounting the ones where the rustphages are - they are commoners anyway) Instructions : At the end of the battle, you would end up in Lift : Lowsector 1 when you wake up. Getting to the finishing point can be tricky. Look at the radar - to reach to the finishing point, you must take the upper left path and cover quite some distance to get there. But that's what D-dash is for. When you encounter those rustphages and bats, don't waste your time and just D-Dash past them. Eventually you will end up being in the End Sector Borough again. Comments : It is most recommended for beginners. This should be the first time you get familiar with everything involved in doing a Dragon Run - Dragon transformation, AP cost and D-Counter rise for each action taken etc. - as at the end of it you will end up with 00.00% in D-Counter. So no fear about screwing up your D-Counter. The exp. you can get from here is pathetic, but the 6000 zenny reward is perhaps the main purpose of doing this run. No other boss in the game is as generous as Bosch, so you might want to do a few rounds to be able to afford more decent equipments for your characters. For first timer, you may also want to stick around to get one of the kind skill from Bosch - Fang. If you're lucky, you may also get two different stat- boosting items from the two rare white boxes in the area where you woke up. -------- Zeno Run -------- S Point : Frozen Road 4F F Point : Frozen Road 4F Min time : 5 minutes Max reward : minor rewards from enemies if you can steal from them, Violet Blade - dropped by Captain Zeno First Battle : 3981 xp - 5772 party xp; Second Battle : 1026 xp - 102 party xp; Third Battle : 3840 xp - 1728 party xp; Total : 8847 xp - 7602 party xp; With 20 G.Exp : 17694 xp - 15204 party xp; 6 white boxes - 5 common, 1 rare; 5 yellow boxes - 3 common, 2 save token Instructions : Upon reaching Frozen Road 4F, try not to break any box. But kill all the cows in the area right before the save point. This is also where you will find the rare white box. So everytime you do a Zeno run, first make a brief detour - get back to this room, smash the box and grab the item. Only then make your way to the battle ground - Storage. After the battle, grab the Violet Blade on the floor - should sell well for some zenny. Then go to the upper left room for the 5 yellow boxes. Retrace your way back to the Frozen Road 4F save point, store the items and then SOL:Restore. Don't forget to D-Dash. Comments : This is where you get some serious boost in experience. If it is your first time you may want to toy around - stealing the stuffs from the enemies - which would take longer that it should. But once you got all the skills and items that you want, it's time to get serious and try to finish every fight in one round - to maximise exp. earned. At this point it is highly recommended that you have a couple of Gold Exp. with you. ------------- AP and HP Run ------------- S Point : Corplab 5F F Point : Corplab 5F Min time : 4 minutes Max reward : 10 white boxes - 10 common 1 yellow box - save token Drillbug and GooSap. : 552 xp - 833 party xp 5 AP plus plus minor rewards from GooSap. Agrosser and Frogressor : 867 xp - 1335 party xp 8 HP plus plus minor reward from Frogressor skill:Greetings Instructions : Upon reaching Corplab 5F, try not to break any box. Save first, then only break them. The one yellow box is in the only other room on Corplab 5F. Before you head out, you may want to buy a Confushroom or two from the Item girl. Go to north, make your way to Frozen Road 1F. Turn right and you'll come across 5 Drillbug and 2 Goosapphire. Throw a Confushroom at them and see them flock together. Engage one of them and start the fight. If you kill all of them at once, you'll get the max exp. You can stop now, or you can choose to go on and fight the Aggrossers in the room to your right. There are actually 8 Aggrossers and 1 Frogressor so you can see the room is quite packed. It's hard to engage all of them into a fight - the best I did was to destroy 6 Agrossers and 1 Frogressor, which leads to the xp data as you can see from above. Retrace your way back to the Corplab 5F save point, store the items and then SOL:Restore. Don't forget to D-Dash. Comments : This is the best way I can think of in getting lots HP and AP plus. Possibly 2 HP plus and 1 AP plus per minute in average, that's pretty good. Since the main purpose here is to get the stat-boosting item - HP and AP plus, dragon transformation may not be necessary. But to increase your chance of getting more HP and AP plus, make sure you have Present in your inventory. ------------ Longfoot Run ------------ S Point : Corplab Entrance F Point : Corplab Entrance Min time : 3 minutes Max reward : 7 white boxes - 7 common 10 Buzz : 42 party xp each, total 420 party xp 10 Longfoot Instructions : Go past the door and you will come to a hallway. Look at the radar, turn left(usually, it's Ryu's right). Take a short detour to the room on Ryu's right. There are 3 common white boxes. After that, continue on and take the lift to Corplab 2F. Walk straight then turn right. Once past the door, take the first door to your right. You should be able to see a white box there. Past that, you will usually encounter your first Buzz. If Lin is strong enough, she can kill the Buzz without having to engage in a turn-based battle. Not only does it saves time, it will net you max party xp. In the next room, there will be two Rafflesias. I suggest that you D-Dash past them. Waste of time. Go to the next door and you will see the rest of the Buzz. Kill them all, go to the next room. Then turn right, you'll be in a room with another 4 common white boxes. Exit the room and you will end up in a familiar main corridor. D-Dash your way back to the Corplab entrance, store your items and SOL:Restore. Phew.. Comments : It's complicated, I know. But you'll be amazed at how many Longfoot that you can get from a single run. Only do this if Lin is strong enough. If not, it would take much longer than it should. Since the main purpose here is to get the stat-boosting item - Longfoot, dragon transformation may not be necessary. But to increase your chance of getting more Longfoot make sure you have Present in your inventory. --------- Zenny Run --------- S Point : Corplab Entrance F Point : Corplab Entrance Min time : 2 minutes Max reward : 10 white boxes - 9 common, 1 rare Kansphage: 102 xp - 13 party xp 10,000z Instructions : Basically the same if you have been doing Longfoot run, except that you don't stop until you reach Corplab 3F North. There you will meet with Kansphage. The trick is to kill it in ONE blow. If Lin is strong enough, have her use Shatter! in close range. That should do it. If not have Ryu turn into Dragon and kill it. But the Dragon transformation would drag the overall time. Beware. Comments : It's the best way to earn zenny early on, if you know your way in the Corplab. Although there are two Kansphage in the same room, getting to the other one requires you to defeat some Goos along the way. To me, it's not worth the effort. But break the boxes though, there should be at least one that contains a stat-boosting item. --------------------------------- PowerMeal/Protein/Juju/Reflex Run --------------------------------- S Point : Midsector Mall F Point : Midsector Mall Min time : 1 minute Max reward : 12 white boxes - 10 common, 2 rare 1 yellow box - save token Instructions : This is the same place that you will encounter the boss Tantra + Deegon + Geegagis (depends on how you play it). The boxes can be found in the area after the fight, before reaching the Midsector Mall. To do this run, don't break any of the the boxes yet. Save your game in Midsector Mall, then return here to collect the goodies. After that, return to Midsector Mall and store your items, SOL:Restore. Since there are no enemies around, you can do this REALLY fast. Don't forget to D-Dash. Comments : This is the best way that I can of to get other types of stat- boosting items - Power Meal, Reflex, Juju and Protein. 2 stat-boosting items in 1 minute - seems good enough, but the problem is the items you get are totally random, which makes it difficult if you're only looking for some specific ones. My advice would be - if you didn't see anything you like, simply quit the game by using 'QUIT' and start again. Don't bother going back to Midsector Mall. ===================== Ultimate Equipments ===================== Giving a Legend Blade + 9 to a level 1 Ryu can easily kill a fully grown Deathcow without taking damage. That basically describes how important it is to have the right equipments. Since equipments are one of the few things that carries over to a new game, it might be worth to go the extra mile to get some of the rarest equipments in the game as soon as possible. You can find the listing of all the equipments from other FAQs. At first I was thinking about making a list of the ultimate equipments for every character. But later I decided that the whole thing is really rather subjective. So instead, we'll just discuss some of the issues when deciding which equipment deserves a place in your inventory. For weapons - Although it is only natural to choose weapon with the highest damage as the main weapon, the bonus to accuracy shouldn't be neglected either. Remember, the damage value is only meaningful when you can actually land a hit. For shields - The benefits from equipping a shield often comes from the special effects it bestows, not from the defense value it provides. Warning : Rumors - read at your own risk One special mention that I would want to make is Soul Shell/Ring/Ribbon. Little is mentioned about these wonderful babies. First of all, the shield doesn't provide any defense value, it only has a special skill pre-threaded onto it. It's called Willguard. It vaguely states that its defensive value changes as HP does. What it truly wanted to say is, the lesser HP you have, the stronger the shield will be. Don't quote me for this because I haven't done some serious testing on these yet. But from what I can observe, the shield has a very direct relationship with the wielder's HP. It seems that if let's say Ryu has only 10% HP left, the damage received will be also reduced to 10%! That's 90% damage reduction. Now I think this is a very interesting fact. Since the game provided a way to make it possible to have low HP at all times, immediately the one skill that may be the motivation of it all - reversal - crossed my mind. Now, reversal is a skill that works according to the same principle - the less HP you have, the more damage you deal. Although I can't say with certainty right now, if reversal works regardless of the enemies' defense, maybe this is the solution for defeating those annoying Duke Lords in Kokon Horay! Think about it. For armors - The variety of armors often comes from the various status abnormalities that each can protect from. But some armors also provide a significant boost on movement which proves to be useful in some occasion that requires lots of movement. So interchanging both types of armor can usually lead to a winning strategy. ==================== The Ultimate Trick ==================== For those who still find the game difficult after knowing all of the afore-mentioned and yet helped little. But know that this is by no mean that I encourage any kind of cheating especially in a fantastic game like BOF:DQ. But believe me when I say that the reason I'm sharing this tip with you all is that I hope to enlighten as many people as possible into liking this game more by taking a portion of frustrations out of their gameplay. If you despise any form of cheating and get disturbed just by knowing other players are taking such cheap shortcut while playing the game, please do not read further. Although I do wish to claim that I'm the first to make this discovery :P, I also know that plagiarism is something that only a few FAQ writers can prevent. Asking to be given credits for it is simply too much to ask for. But please, if some of you find that this is a cool trick and want to include it in your guide, do it tactfully. Write it in your own words so that people won't notice it, or better, improvise it so that more people can benefit from it. Enough of that, let's get on with it. First of all, I have to admit that claiming this tip as the 'ultimate trick' is a bit of exaggeration. But hey, I got you interested this far, didn't I? So as not to disappoint, I'll try to explain it as best as I can. The Trick --------- 1) Have a save game in your memory card. The optimum save game should be fairly levelled up, with a few stat-boosting items of your choice in the locker(not in the inventory/backpack), and a good amount of Party Exp still unused. Also preferably, the girl who identifies stuffs is anywhere within reach. Most important of all, there must be at least one save token in your inventory. 2) Load the game as usual. 3) Before doing anything, save the game by selecting 'QUIT' in the game menu. The game will prompt you to make a soft-save. Do that. Automatically, you will be booted out to the main screen where you first started. Select 'LOAD GAME'. 4) You will now have two identical saves in your memory card, correct? Load the one on the top (the hard-save, NOT the one that you've just made). 5) Now, apply all the Party Exp without hesitation and use up all the stat-boosting items in your inventory. You can also sell all of your equipments that you may have with you if you wish to make some money as well. After doing all that, save your game by using the telecorder (this will use up a save token). At this point, you may think it is crazy to do so, but trust me, I know what I'm doing. 6) Return to the game menu. While pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. You will be given two choices - SOL:Restart and SOL:Restore. Select the one at the bottom (SOL:Restore), and you will be prompted to save the game again. Select 'YES'. 7) You will be back at main screen yet again. This time, select 'LOAD GAME' and load up the soft-save instead (the one at the bottom, that will disappear after being loaded). 8) Without doing anything, go to the game menu and while pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. Select 'SOL:Restore' just like before, and select 'YES' when prompted to overwrite the hard-save. 9) If everything is done correctly, load the game this time and you will notice that all of the Party Exp, stat-boosting items and all of your equipments are all nicely in place just like before, as if nothing happened. But run a check on your status, you will notice that you have indeed gained a few levels, gained boosts on some stats and ended up with more zenny that you can spend. So what does this mean? With all those things intact, you can repeat the process as many times as you want until you get really sick of it. So, ladies and gentlemen, you have just successfully done the cheapest of all the cheap tricks in the whole video game history ever, the omnipotent duplication trick!!! Oh, don't feel too bad about it if this is your first time. Almost everyone who played Final Fantasy Tactics has done it, abused it and not feeling a bit ashamed about it. If it comforts you, well this cheat is actually different from applying codes with CodeBreaker or the likes, in the sense that if the developer from Capcom(the people who made this game) were to run a check on your save game(yeah, as if that will ever happen), you will not be sued for tampering with the game. It's because it's completely legitimate, done within the game environment itself and probably only a few people who can actually prove that you didn't actually spend that amount of time to reach those godly stats. So don't worry that you will end up being in Capcom's ban-list that will prevent you from buying all of their future kick-*ss games :). And don't let the complexity of it intimidates you either. Once you get the hang of it, you can easily repeat the whole process in less than two minutes. Although I can't offer you ways to lower the D-counter, I hope that this trick will relieve some of the tension that you may have, especially for the fear for the rapid rise of the D-counter - by making you much stronger and thus reducing the number of occasion where you must transform into a Dragon in order to win. Behind the Scenes ----------------- For those of you who might be interested on how I come across this trick, or if you are simply fascinated by how Capcom could have overlooked this loophole and wish to learn more. The basics : 1) What exactly does a save file do? Simply put, if you play a game for a while and decide to save, some information or should we say the progress that you've made thus far will be saved onto a save file. The information stored actually varies from game to game. If you wish to know what kind of information is stored in a BOF:DQ save file, you can actually see some of it on the save file itself as if you want to load it. 2) What does SOL:Restore/Restart do? This is where the confusion revolves around. Well, let's look at this way. Let's start with SOL:Restore, since this is the one you will be using most of the time. When you SOL:Restore, the game is giving you the choice to make a save. That's right, it's basically a saving process but with a twist. You are only allowed to retain a selected few information of the progress you have made. This is actually a mean to penalize you for not thinking carefully enough. So unlike a normal save, you only get to retain the following information. a) Party Exp b) Equipments equipped c) Skills learned d) Amount of Zenny e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack) f) All other equipments stored in the locker Of course there are other information like game time, D-ratio etc. that are stored as well but they are not the primary concern here. What's important now is what NOT stored: a) The percentage on the D-Counter b) The exp/level and stats of your characters c) All the items in your backpack d) The game progress 3) If those information is not stored, what will I get once I load the save file? a) The percentage will be the same as the last time you make a hard save. That's right, it does NOT matter what D-Counter that you may have at the time you SOL:Restore, it takes the whatever value as can be seen on the save file and use that instead when saving. Thus, this makes the fundamental principle behind the Dragon run - where you can transform and abuse the dragon form regardless of the D-counter that you may have heard about. b) The exp/level and stats remain unchanged as in the last save. So any party experience and stat-boosting items that you used up on your characters will be lost forever. c) No matter what you may have in your inventory at the moment you SOL:Restore, you will lose ALL of it and replaced by the same set of items every time. i) Heal Kit X 5 ii) Tonic X 1 iii) Save Token X 1 d) The game progress is the same as the last time you hard save. But there is an exception to this rule - the advancement of the fairy colony. Not too sure about Kokon Horay though, but I'll get into that later. Get it so far? As you can see, SOL:Restore is actually trying to penalize you by taking away all of the items in your inventory/ backpack; but at the same time, giving you one more chance to make better use of your D-Counter. It's not too scary now, is it? But it's important that you understand it so far - try to remember what carries over and what's not, because here comes the more difficult parts. 4) So what about SOL:Restart? It's basically the same as SOL:Restore except that you start at the beginning of the game with a 00.00% on the D-Counter. Everything else remains the same. You also get to see some cutscenes if you progressed far enough, but that's not important. 5) What's the difference between a soft-save and a hard-save? Well, to start, one is in yellow and the other is in red. You can only make a hard-save where there's a Telecorder around, whereas you can make a soft-save anywhere in the game. The only real difference - the one that truly matters is that when you load a soft-save, it will be deleted. Meaning, you can never load from a soft-save twice. Once you load it, it's gone. Other than that, it's a perfectly healthy... err... save file. The application : Now that the basics is covered, let's go through the trick one step at a time. 1) Have a save game in your memory card. 2) Load the game as usual. 3) Before doing anything, save the game by selecting 'QUIT' in the game menu. The game will prompt you to make a soft-save. Do that. Automatically, you will be booted out to the main screen where you first started. Select 'LOAD GAME'. Explanation : This step is to make a backup copy of the save file that you're going to manipulate with. Since the game does not allow you to make a separate save file (at least not from the game menu), we will have to make use of soft-save instead. As explained earlier, a soft-save acts just like a normal save file, so it can be used as a back-up as long as you don't load it up unnecessarily. Example : Both hard-save and soft-save a) Party Exp - 300000 b) Equipments equipped Ryu : Legend Blade Nina : Divine Coat Lin : Grenade c) Skills learned Ryu : Side Slash d) Amount of Zenny - 1000 e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack) i) Power Meal X 1 ii) Juju X 1 f) All other weapons stored in the locker i) Strong Sword ii) Stun Check iii) Sniper Scope g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25% h) The level/stats of your characters Ryu : Level 1 Nina : Level 1 Lin : Level 1 i) All the items in your backpack Mega Panacea X 2 thrust (skill item) X 1 Reflex X 1 4) Load the one on the top (the hard-save, NOT the one that you've just made). Explanation : It's very important that you load from the hard-save. Remember, the soft-save will disappear if you load from it now. 5) Now, apply all the Party Exp without hesitation and use up all the stat-boosting items in your inventory. You can also sell all of your equipments that you may have with you if you wish to make some money as well. After doing all that, save your game by using the telecorder (this will use up a save token). Explanation : After applying all those party experience and any other stuff, you do a hard-save. What this mean - officially, everything that you have used up and what's left will be saved and carried over. Which usually means an empty locker, 0 party experience, naked party members etc. But make sure at this point when you save, there is a backup copy in the slot right below you. Example : Soft-save remains unchanged; Hard-save a) Party Exp - 0 b) Equipments equipped Ryu : Strong Sword (Legend Blade - sold : 5000z) Nina : Stun Check (Divine Coat - sold : 5000z) Lin : Sniper Scope (Grenade - sold : 5000z) c) Skills learned Ryu : Side Slash Thrust d) Amount of Zenny - 16000z e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack) i) Power Meal X 0 (consumed by Ryu) ii) Juju X 0 (consumed by Nina) f) All other weapons stored in the locker i) none g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.30% h) The level/stats of your characters Ryu : Level 31 (Str + 1) Nina : Level 31 (Mag + 1) Lin : Level 31 (Spd + 1) i) All the items in your backpack Mega Panacea X 2 thrust (skill item) X 0 (consumed by Ryu) Reflex X 0 (consumed by Lin) 6) Return to the game menu. While pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. You will be given two choices - SOL:Restart and SOL:Restore. Select the one at the bottom (SOL:Restore), and you will be prompted to save the game again. Select 'YES'. Explanation : Now this part can actually be done in two ways, one is to SOL:Restore and the other is to manually restart the game with the restart button on your PS/2. I choose the former because it's easier. Doesn't matter which way you take as long as you end up in the load game screen again. But, DO NOT use 'QUIT' - it will overwrite your most precious backup copy instead! If at this point you accidentally overwritten your soft-save, or you simply forgot to make one in the first place, sorry to say that there is nothing I can do to help. 7) You will be back on the main screen yet again. This time, select 'LOAD GAME' and load up the soft-save instead (the one at the bottom that will disappear after being loaded). Explanation : Once you load this soft-save, you will notice that this save-file remains untouched by all of your previous actions. Meaning - everything is just like before. You can still do anything and everything just like a normal game. Example : Hard-save is the same as before - with powered-up characters. Soft-save a) Party Exp - 300000 b) Equipments equipped Ryu : Legend Blade Nina : Divine Coat Lin : Grenade c) Skills learned Ryu : Side Slash d) Amount of Zenny - 1000 e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack) i) Power Meal X 1 ii) Juju X 1 f) All other weapons stored in the locker i) Strong Sword ii) Stun Check iii) Sniper Scope g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25% h) The level/stats of your characters Ryu : Level 1 Nina : Level 1 Lin : Level 1 i) All the items in your backpack Mega Panacea X 2 thrust (skill item) X 1 Reflex X 1 8) Without doing anything, go to the game menu and while pressing L2, select 'GIVE UP'. Select 'SOL:Restore' just like before, and select 'YES' when prompted to overwrite the hard-save. Explanation : Now here comes the most exciting part - I would consider this process as 'the merger of the best parts of two save-files'. As mentioned earlier, when you SOL:Restore, you only save certain information. Since you're now playing the game from soft-save, all of the best parts of the soft-save - the party exp, the equipments, the zenny, the items in the locker, will all be saved onto the hard-save. Great, isn't it? That's not all, since SOL:Restore will not save the D-Counter value and the level/stats of the soft-save, it uses its own instead. But remember all of those power-ups that you have applied and saved on your hard-save, well THAT's exactly what the game is going to use as the mean to 'penalize' you! :) Example : The new hard-save a) Party Exp - 300000 b) Equipments equipped Ryu : Legend Blade Nina : Divine Coat Lin : Grenade c) Skills learned Ryu : Side Slash Thrust d) Amount of Zenny - 16000z e) All items in the locker (not in your backpack) i) Power Meal X 1 ii) Juju X 1 f) All other weapons stored in the locker i) Strong Sword ii) Stun Check iii) Sniper Scope g) The percentage on the D-Counter - 59.25% h) The level/stats of your characters Ryu : Level 31 (Str + 1) Nina : Level 31 (Mag + 1) Lin : Level 31 (Spd + 1) i) All the items in your backpack i) Heal Kit X 5 ii) Tonic X 1 iii) Save Token X 1 As you can see, instead of penalizing you, the game essentially combined the best parts of two seemingly different saves - the untouched consumables of the soft-save and the powered-up characters by using the consumables of the hard-save - with nothing ended up being consumed at all in the new hard save. Optimum Save File ----------------- Let's face it. For any duplication trick, it's only good if you actually have great things to duplicate. In Final Fantasy Tactics, it's not until the moment you can get your hands on Orlandu's Excalibur does the duplication trick really shines. It's the same in BOF:DQ. The trick is only as good as the save file that you can create. So what constitutes a good save file for duplication purposes? 1) Lots of Party Exp Refer to Dragon Run section above on tips to get exp quickly. 300,000 is a good number - 100,000 for every character - which means roughly making 40 Zeno runs, 20 if you have 20 Gold Exp. Up to you. 2) Expensive Equipments This is another alternative way of making money. Selling off Ryu's Legend Blade and Lin's Grenade can be quite profitable for this purpose. 3) Abundance of Stat-Boosting Items Of course, knowing the trick, you would want to get your hands on as many stat-boosting items as you can. Imagine having these in your locker: HP Plus X 10 HP Plus X 10 AP Plus X 10 AP Plus X 10 Power Meal X 10 Power Meal X 10 Protein X 10 Protein X 10 Juju X 10 Juju X 10 Which means everytime you do the duplication trick, you would also apply those stat-boosts anyway you want - whether to distribute it evenly among the three characters or give it all to your favorites. However, I wouldn't mention this if things were only this easy. With so many precious things to store, so very little space is provided. Most of the time you will be forced to make some hard choices, to throw some of the things out to make room for others. But knowing the duplication trick, your choice will now be critical. Here's a few example. a) Gold Exp With 20 of them in you backpack, these babies double the amount of experience gained, effectively cutting your leveling efforts by half! But it requires you to store them in the locker everytime you need to do SOL:Restore/Restart. That means you may want to reserve two slots in the locker just to store them. b) Present You may want to have it all the time in you inventory/backpack while fighting enemies, since it raises your chance of getting rare items. So naturally, one slot in the locker will be allocated for it. c) Tracker While not as essential as the other two, you may want it in your inventory all the time if you're playing for the D-ratio. It shows all the enemies as white dots on your radar, thus reducing the number of ambush you get from the enemies. You only need one, so you may allocate one slot to store this. d) Rare items Occasionally you would come across super recovery or stat- enhancer items like Mega Panacea or 7th Sense; which is too precious to use in non-boss battle, too wasteful to just throw away or even sell it. You may end up tucking it away safely in the locker until the 'right' moment comes. So what space is left for stat-boosting items - the ones that truly matter if you use the trick? If you're having the same dilemma, here's a few guidelines that you may find useful. If you find the locker simply too packed with items, give priorities according to the sequence below: i) AP Plus Since every action requires AP, there's no such thing as too much AP. ii) Power Meal As you play the game a couple of times, you will be using Nina less often (not because her spells are becoming weak, simply because you will lose the patience waiting for her spells to execute). So you will end up playing Ryu and Lin more instead. And as you crave for more speed, more strength is needed. That's why you will find yourself asking for more Power Meal. iii)Juju Magic - a good stat to boost since it is essentially your defence against magic as well as Nina's main source of power. You can't go wrong with it. iv) Reflex Having high Speed means you get to hit enemies before they hit you. Coupled with high Strength and high AP, you can finish up a battle right on the first round, thus net you more Party Exp in the long run. Of course, this will also save you a lot of healing items - reducing the need to backtrack to the Item lady. v) Protein While it seems important enough, you can do without it if you can manage to kill all enemies before they hit you. Therefore, high Speed and Strength (or Magic, in Nina's case) can offset the need for high Defence. vi) HP Plus Same as Protein, if you can kill enemies fast, how much HP you have doesn't really matter, does it? vii)Longfoot Since it is the only stat that does not increase with level, you may find the need to boost movement for some characters. Great movement coupled with lots of AP, you'll be able to move to virtually anywhere. But since you don't actually need the ability to travel from one corner of the room to another, this remains optional. Acquiring 10 of those stat-boosting items is not easy either. But if you have successfully conquered Final Fantasy X, this is NOTHING! (At the time of writing, the author is still on his attempt on evading the dreaded 200 lightning bolts... urggh!!) It takes time but you can be sure it will pay off in the long run. ===================== Getting 1/4 D-Ratio ===================== Disclaimer : This section is written on the assumption that the information found in Kouli's D-Ratio FAQ (kenzhao99@yahoo.com) is accurate at the time of press. With the new-found knowledge and the ultimate trick up in your sleeves, it's only natural that the next thing to conquer is to get the perfect D-Ratio in BOF:DQ. I suppose I should do a guide on this one as well, but I decided to leave it for others to do it instead. It's like if you see more people aiming to get 1/4 D-Ratio and get frustrated by it, it shows that people have seen past the initial misconception of the game and beginning to like the game better. And that would be the sweetest feedback that I can possibly get from writing this non- profitable FAQ. Despite having said that, I do have some tips that I want to share with you. If you want, you can use it as reference. Here goes: 1) Don't do it in your first game. - I don't believe you can either. You will need a respectable D- Ratio to gain access to some area and some chests. Common sense, you shouldn't be able to achieve 100% map completion and 100% chests opened. So just take the opportunity to gather more party exp and stat-boosting items in your first game, and let it all go in the next game. 2) Have a Tracker with you all the time. - I believe that the main reason I couldn't get 1/4 D-Ratio in my second playthrough lies in the number of ambush I couldn't avoid. Don't underestimate this. 3) Don't do Kokon Horay until the final save point - You get to have the most number of pages in your backpack and get to buy the strongest recovery item money can buy(Trauma Kits). I do not recommend you to do Kokon-Horay in your EVERY playthrough. It takes me about 3 hours straight to complete - pretty exhausting. Only when you're sure that you have done every other requirements perfectly - under 8 hours, always have extra turn, opened all chests, uncover all maps etc. - that you should consider doing Kokon-Horay. Here's what I recommend you to do. Have at least two save token by the time you reach the last save point. Use up the first save token and save. Make a backup copy by using the soft-save. Play through the game as usual until the end. See the ending and save to see the new D-Ratio. If it's 1/16, then you're right. You have done everything correctly. Then load up the backup copy. Use the remaining save token and save. Only now that you should seriously play through Kokon- Horay. If you reached B50F and successfully defeat Dover, and finish the game after that, you should be able to get 1/4 D-Ratio. (Finishing Kokon-Horay is worth 10 points, remember?) 4) Neglect the number of saves. - By doing this, you get to apply the ultimate trick for unlimited number of times. This way, you are more confident that you can finish the game in under 8 hours. 5) Watch your game time. - if you have been wondering why I would include the minimum time for every section in Dragon Run, this is the reason. When trying to get 1/4 D-Ratio, every second counts. So, use the information wisely - time your run and don't do it excessively. Then you'll be fine. That's all I can think of. But this should be enough to get you started. So, good luck. ============= Final Words ============= Everyone has their own expectation on how this game could have been. Some welcomed the change, many preferred the old school. But remember, any hostile comments and complaints will eventually end up in Capcom's discussion room. Although criticism is good, but if they receive too much of it, the next thing you know, you might not be seeing another BOF game in the future. And that's bad. So if you love the game and the BOF series, please show your support. ============================ Frequently Asked Questions ============================ This is section is dedicated to provide support and help for gamers. If using the trick had caused some glitches in your game, I would love to hear from you and see what I can do to help. You can reach me through this email address - elkayhm@yahoo.com. Please state the subject as BOF:DQ so that I know what game you're referring to. Send in your problems as you want it to be printed, because I seldom do personal reply. I mean I used to, but it seems like the problems that people have are at most of the time the same. So the more effectve way to do it is to answer the question right here on the FAQ itself. I believe more people will benefit from this approach.