Chocobo's Dungeon 2 Training FAQ v1.1 by Lucas "Strangevision" Gardner Use of this faq and all its contents is permitted as long as you notify me at strangevision@hotmail.com and give me credit for my own work. Changing or altering this faq in any way is prohibited. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Table of Contents %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I. Introduction II. General Overview A. Dungeons B. Characters and Abilities C. Traps III. Weaponry A. Claws (Types) B. Saddles (Types) C. Stoves IV. Items and Accessories A. Potions B. Nuts C. Cards D. Collars E. Gold (buying and selling) F. Recycle Boxes G. What is an Essence? V. Feathers and Magic Books A. Magic B. Summons VI. Closing VII. Credits %%%%%%%%%%%%% Introduction %%%%%%%%%%%%% Hello and welcome to my Training FAQ for Chocobo's Dungeon 2. Their are many aspects of this game that sound either very confusing or not stated in any instruction manual or official guide, walkthrough, etc. CD2 is unlike any RPG you have played before so it needs a detailed explanation. Enjoy! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% General Overview %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% A. Dungeons This game is all about Dungeons. The only difference is that these are "mysterious dungeons". Chocobo must learn the differences between these types of dungeons. * Dungeon exits are either marked by stairs or elevators. Stand over one and you will have the option to proceed through the dungeon or save using a Memory Tag. * All dungeons are random. They also contain random items. If you explore the same levels of a dungeon many times, you will find rare items ( collars, etc.). Use Teleport Tags to restart the dungeon by going to town. * Once you go down stairs or up on an elevator you may not go back. The means of going back dissapear forcing you to push on. Unless you have a Teleport Tag ride to town, that is. B. Characters and Abilities ^^Chocobo^^ Chocobo is the main character in the game. He is the only character you control. He is extremely cute and merely chirps to get his way. Experience points, Saddles, and Claws will all go to him. He has the ability to attack, use feathers, essences, etc. $$Mog$$ Mog is only in this adventure for the money. He joins you on some quests and has the ability to steal. He calls himself a rare tresure hunter and after you see the items he steals, you will think so too. **Shiroma** Shiroma is a lonely and rejected girl who live with the Bomb family. She is extremely kind and has the ability to heal. This makes her the best partner around in a dungeon. (!)Cid(!) Have you noticed that every Square game has a guy named Cid in it? Cid is very powerful but his ability kinda stinks. He sets mines. So if an enemy tries to get you from behind and you set a bomb he will blow up. And only then if he isn't a flying enemy. And....you get the picture. C. Traps Besides encountering hundreds of enemies, you will encounter many traps. Some are good and some are bad. Here they are listed: Deadly Traps 1. Morph Traps - turned into monster. Depending on what monster this trap could be a blessing or a quick road to death 2. Spring Traps - send Chocobo in air 3. Damage Traps - minus 1/4 current HP 4. Land Mine - Area effect explosion 5. Sleep Trap - Induces Sleep 6. Poison Trap - Causes Poison 7. Mud Trap - Become Stuck. Wastes Energy 8. Rotating Trap - Scatters all items on the floor 9. Abnormal Trap - Causes random status inflictions 10. Forget Trap - Map Forgotten Helpful Traps 1. LevelUP Circle - Level +1 2. Magic Circle - Increases Magic Power (may also decrease it) %%%%%%%%%%% Weaponry %%%%%%%%%%% A. Claws Here I list all claws in order from common to rare. Some claws such as Weak have been left out. The ones with a ^^ by it are the reccomended ones. *Note* Some can only be found at the end of the game. 1. Wood 2. Iron 3. Mythril 4. Titan ^^ *Need Omega Essence 5. Flame 6. Frozen 7. Blitz 8. Hurricane 9. Lite ^^ 10.Holy ^^ 11.Digging 12. Frog 13. Poison 14. Sleep 15. Crystal ^^ 16. Chaos 17. Silent 18. Dwarf 19. Critical 20. Vibro ^^ 21. Order 22. Arc 23. Cross 24. Multi 25. Spin Kick ^^ 26. King's ^^ 27. Gil 28. Absolute 29. Genji's ^^ 30. Healing ^^ 31. Kiai 32. Vampire ^^ 33. Grudge 34. Brandname 35. Gambling Explanation: Titan Claws and Crystal Claws are simple yet powerful claws that are fairly easy to acquire. Lite Claws attack very fast for moderate damage. Holy Claws are the most useful of the elemental claws. Vibro Claws miss often but are extremely powerful. Spin Kick Claws hit in _every_ direction. King Claws are very deadly and have a high MAX. Healing claws are fairly weak but give you a healing bonus (great Shiroma substitute). And Vampire Claws present you with the easy way to capture essences. B. Saddles Listed exactly like claws. As you will notice during the game, most Saddles give you an elemental strong point. Equip accordingly. 1. Wood 2. Iron 3. Mythril 4. Titan ^^ *Need Omega Essence 5. Flame 6. Ice 7. Lightning 8. Wind 9. Holy 10. Earth 11. No-Slow 12. No-Sleep 13. No-Frog 14. No-Dwarf 15. No-Poison 16. No-Silence 17. Mirage ^^ 18. Calm 19. Counter ^^ 20. Lite 21. Crystal ^^ 22. Reflect 23. Absolute 24. King's ^^ 25. Ribbon ^^ 26. Grudge 27. Genji's ^^ 28. Brandname Explanation: Titan, Crystal, and Genji's Saddle are very strong on defense. Mirage Saddle increases your evade% . Counter Saddle returns a 1/4 of physical attack damage received back at the enemy. King's Claws are powerful all-around. If anyone remembers the ribbon from FF7 you will know that the Ribbon Saddle protects from all status effects. C. Stoves Stoves are a means of getting more powerful versions of your Claws or making a more Defensive Saddle like Mythril Claws+3 or Mirage Saddle+2 Look at this example (idea from your instruction manual): OK, let's say in your inventory you have Titan Claws+2 and Crystal Claws+1. You can make Titan or Crystal Claws+3. You will know Crystal Claws are less powerful than Titan Claws. I know by looking at the +2 on the Titan Claws and the +1 on the Crystal Claws add together to make +3. This is how you know what items you can get from any 2 sets of claws. But the question is, "How do I know if I will get Crytal Claws+3 or the Titan Claws+3?" Look below. Which ever Claw you put in first is what type of Claw you will end up with. For example, 1) Crystal Claws+1.....plus.....Titan Claws+2 = Crystal Claws+3 2) Titan Claws+2....plus....Crystal Claws+1 = Titan Claws+3 More examples: 1) Mythril Saddle+1....plus....Iron Saddle+1 = Mythril Saddle+2 2) Lite Claws+2....plus....Holy Claws = Lite Claws+2 (no change) 3) Mirage Saddle....plus....Vibro Claws+3 = Mirage Saddle+3 Stoves are very easy to use. It is amazing that something so simple can mean the difference between life and death in a dungeon. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Items and Accessories %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% A. Potions Potions or a.k.a. Tonics will save your life if Shiroma isn't around. Some potions are not helpful ,however, and can hurt you. Since most tonics are unidentified you may want to risk using it so that your inventory will not be full of useless items. Below are the listed potions along with their effects. 1. Potion - Restores 30 HP 2. Hi Potion - Restores 80 HP 3. X-Potion - Restores all HP 4. Elixir - Restores all HP as well as Energy 5. Poison - Poisons enemy 6. Antidote - Removes the status effect Poison 7. Dispel - Cures Curse 8. Spell - Curses equipment 9. Blind - View becomes limited 10. Eye Drops - Cures Blind 11. Remedy - Cures all status effects 12. Invis - Become invisible to enemy 13. Amnesia - All items become unidentified 14. Haste/Slow - speed/slow target 15. Silence - Magic inneffective 16. Nitro - Causes an explosion 17. Damage - HP (current) reduced by half 18. Morph - Become a monster B. Nuts Nuts have the important job of refilling your energy. Energy is needed to be effective in battle and for ability to get through dungeons quickly. Some even give you a free level up! But as with Tonics, Nuts can deliver bad effects,too. 1. Peanut - Adds 30 to energy 2. Tasty - Restores energy/HP 3. Feast - Same as Tasty, larger amounts 4. Lasan - Restores much energy 5. Tired - Energy Decrease 6. Rotton - Small HP damage 7. LevelUp - level+1 8. LevelDown - level-1 9. Energy - increases energy capacity 10. Lethargy - decreases energy capacity 11. Life - Raises MAX HP 12. Wisdom - +1 Magic Level 13. Slowpoke - Slow casted on target 14. Speed - Haste cast on target 15. Fire/Ice/Wind/Holy/Earth/Lightning/etc. - Adds Fire/Ice/.. power 16. Merge Seed - Blends two elements together (very useful!) 17. Fusion Seed - Blends two special effects (on weapon,saddle) 18. Superior/Set/Level - Used in stoves and recycle boxes. Yeilds powerful equipment. C. Cards Cards are more offensive than defensive and truthfully aren't that useful. Most cards are kicked at an enemy to give them a nasty status effect. This is useful but if you have the health, be brave and fight the enemy. The good cards are the few defensive ones. They are listed below. 1. Identify - Indentifies one unidentified (pink) object 2. Verify - Identifies all items 3. Map - Displays full map 4. Polish - Improves equipment (IronClaws+1 = IronClaws+2 etc.) 5. Repair - Improves DUR on Claws or a Saddle 6. Reflect - Cast Reflect (magic is returned back at opponent) 7. Morph - Item becomes Gil D. Collars Collars are as useful to Chocobo as a Saddle or a pair of Claws. Well, almost. You must find collars in a dungeon. They are not availible in stores. Though as with all items there are a few bad collars as well. On the bright side, if you find a collar you don't like sell it. You will at least get 2000 gil. Handy for buying storage space in town! 1. Waterwalk - Can walk on water 2. Magic - Magic power increased 3. Guard - Protection from thievery 4. Life - Level drain inneffective 5. No-Traps - Never get caught in traps 6. Penalty - Get caught in excessive traps 7. Memory - Won't forget map 8. Cursed - Curses all items 9. Stamina - Hard to become tired (low energy) 10. Burden - Easy to become tired 11. Unlucky - Slow HP recovery 12. Recover - Fast HP recovery 13. Endure - Freezes HP and Energy 14. Bargain - Shops sell more for less 15. Demon - Monster locations revealed on map 16. Crazy Claw/Saddle - DUR frozen 17. Brandname - Brandname 18. No Magic - Strong against magic attacks E. Gold ( Buying and Selling ) Gold or Gil is used for buying items and storage space. You may also buy important spells,summons, or saddles. Gold can only be obtained from certain enemies. Another way to get some gold is by selling items you find in a dungeon. A awful item ,the Cursed Collar, will still net you 2000+ gil.*Note* a great way to get money is to spend a lot of time in Cid's Tower. The Cactus enemies will drop anywhere from 50 gil to 500 gil. Chubby Chocobo - This fat bird is found in town west of the bottom most statue. He sells important items which slowly change by the end of the game. Here is a look at the basic items along with prices: 1. Potion - 50 gil 2. Dispel - 300 gil 3. Identify - 100 gil 4. Map - 300 gil 5. Peanut - 100 gil 6. Tasty - 400 gil 7. Teleport - 300 gil 8. Memory - 300 gil Doom - Doom runs shops in dungeons. He sells claws,saddles,spell books, summon orbs, etc. Pick up the various items you want and pay at the door. To sell an item drop one out of your inventory. Don't even think about stealing from Doom. He will get you. He will kill you. You will also meet Doom if you stay on any one floor of dungeon too long. You will get several warnings on the bottom of the screen like "Doom is coming" and "Doom is approaching". Always carry a Teleport Tag! F. Recycle Boxes Think stoves but this time using items. They appear as green boxes in dungeons which allow you to put two items in and get one different item out. The thing is you will have no clue what to get out of it. Be careful when using recycle boxes. I only use them to combine some essences or a few potions that I have no idea what they do. G. What is an essence? An essence is a tonic captured from an enemy that is useful for making strong weapons or saddles. To capture an essence you must deliver the final blow to an enemy with an Empty Bottle. If you kick it at them and they die you will receive an essence. Essences can be used by themselves but are better used in stoves in conjunction with Claws or Saddles. Each essence is different but you will know what they do by putting the feather cursor on them. On the bottom of the screen (as with most items) will be an explanation. Here are some examples: OK, lets say in your inventory you have a Floating Eye Essence. You also have a Wind+2 Saddle and a Iron +1 Saddle. The dugeon ahead has enemies who love casting wind spells. There are also enemies who want to put you to sleep with their spells. So you need a Saddle that is stong against Wind and Sleep. If a FloatingEye Essence is put on a Saddle it will prevent sleep. If put on a pair of Claws it will cause sleep to the enemy. This is what you will do at the next stove: * Wind+2Saddle....plus....Iron+1Saddle....plus....FloatingEyeEssence = WindSaddle+3 with Sleep prevention. Here are more examples: 1) NoSilenceSaddle+1....plus....WoodSaddle+3....plus....UndeadEssence = NoSilenceSaddle+4 with Confusion resistance. 2) FlameClaws+2....plus....IronClaws....plus....MermanEssence = FlameClaws+2 with added Ice element As you can see Essences can really make your battles much easier. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Feathers and Magic Books %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Before starting let me explain what a feather is. Think of feathers like infinite magic books that are hard to acquire. There are 2 types of feathers. First are offensive ones like summon feathers and magic feathers. Second are passive or defensive feathers like HPMAX UP, Magic UP, etc. Your first feathers will come from the wizards at town. Others will come from broken claws and sidequests. A. Magic MagicBooks - Magic from Magic Books comes in the form that you pick up in dungeon. Example: BlizzardBook1, CantripBook1, FireBook1, etc. These books can only be used once for every one you have. So if you have 10 BlizzardBooks you can cast Blizzard 10 times. It's that simple. Feathers - Using Magic from Feathers is a bit more complex. Let's say you have a QuakeAll Feather and you do not know how to use it. If you have a Quake book select it and put the cursor over an enemy. To make this book hit all enemies press R1 to make the field of damage increase so that you will hit all enemies. In other words, Quake All! B. Summons Orbs - Summon orbs can either be found in dungeons or bought from Doom. This allows you to cast a summon spell once. Summon spells hit all enemies. Here is a list of the Summon spells: 1. Ramuh - Lightning Elemental 2. Shiva - Ice Elemental 3. Titan - Earth Elemental 4. Ifrit - Fire Elemental 5. Sylph - Wind Elemental 6. Carbuncle - Reduces Damage 7. Unicorn - Restores Summon Magic 8. Odin - Non-Elemental Attack 9. Asura - Elemental attack plus Heal 10. Bahamut - Very powerful Non-Elemental Attack Feathers - Summon Feathers are like orbs except you can call upon them to be your partner in battle! This would replace Shiroma, Cid, etc. Plus as a final attack they will cast the same spell the orb does. %%%%%%%%%% Closing %%%%%%%%%% Thanks for reading! If you have any questions,remarks, or corrections don't hesitate to e-mail me at strangevision@hotmail.com . I will also help if you are having trouble with the game itself. %%%%%%%% Credits %%%%%%%% 1. Squaresoft for a great game. 2. All information in the Instruction Manual. 3. Gamespot.com 4. www.gamefaqs.com for its abundance of information 5. CD2 Official Guide (BradyGames) for weapon and armor lists.