========================================== GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS FRONT MISSION 3 Version-1.1 Authors-Necro =========================================== Author Note's ================ Hey,the game is getting harder,damn I have alot of hard time going through the mission!!I have just getting on the stage where our team of hero have gone back to Japan.I hope you like this guide.What the hell with battle simulator Fukushima ,they are damn HARD!!But I managed to win it in 15 rounds.For all the hard work I do,all I got was 900 price money....Taal Base could give more than that.Well,I've been slowing down on FM3 because I was managing my registration for a university.I'll be doing Creative Multimedia course for obtaining degree.Last year I've been doing this stupid wasting Information Technology course.I knew my heart was not with that.Well,that's all.Enjoy the game!! P.s-Malaysian gamers out there,mail me.Come and support our own Malaysian PSX site......www.Darkstation.com Yours truly, Necro ================================================================================ =============================== NEWLY UPDATED AT 6 MAY 2000. 1.1-Some spelling errors,added the FAQ column,Suggestion column,some part on counter attack,add some stupid lines to make it easier to read.Actually this is no major update.Some info on battle simulator(Section Number 5) ================================================================================ =============================== ***THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO FRONT MISSION 3*** ================================================================================ =============================== Number One- ================================================================================ =============================== *Customizing Wanzers* Parts Selection Ok,you have lots of parts from the body to the backpack.But how much can you combine to fulfilled your hunger for destruction?Always check the remaining weight number because the more weight you have the better weapon you can put on. From my experienced less weight parts such as body have less HP than a heavier one.Sometimes it's hard to fully customized your wanzer to it's maximum potential.To make it clear,if you want to put three weapon on your wanzer,you must have at least 200+ remaining weight.But the problem is the parts that is lighter tend to be easier to be broken because of its average HP. So you must choose between firepower or HP or maybe an all rounder.Make sure your wanzer have some remaining weight to make it easier for you to upgrade their weapon .Better weapon takes more weight. I have tried a lot of combination to get a wanzer with four weapon attached to it.Until now I haven't found any.Someone who have pleased mail me.I have been playing the game a lot and one things that I discovered is it's better to catch some wanzers,they give you better parts with less weight,high HP and most of them have been upgraded. What I hate is,to have the best equipped wanzer,you have to sometimes sacrifice the looks of the wanzer.I hate it when you have to use an ugly looking body with a weird leg.They looked really ugly.Who wants ugly wanzer right?Everybody wanting a cool looking wanzer who could burn down a town.One of the ugliest one is the Mingtian body and leg.It's so ugly!But you always can get the best firepower if you use it.So choose between look and HP.I would choose looks.It just give me the spirits. ================================================================================ =============================== Number Two ================================================================================ =============================== *Weapon Selection* Now you have your own customized wanzer but if it have high HP and no weapon loaded,it just felt not good.Choosing weapon is a matter of life and death.If you take 2 full melee character and two others an all rounder,meaning have melee in one hand and a distance weapon in the other,but you are fighting and all powerful team of wanzers with shotguns and machine guns those two melee figters are gonna be toast.This is how it done. Melee Attack Shot Range punch attack. They are good against Missile Equipped wanzer.Missile needs some range to shot so when they are near to an enemy,they will have to use the desperate attack The Hardblow.Some of them do carry shotguns but if you are lucky,your punches will land on the launcher equipped hand.If the level are high,most melee attack will destroy a part of a wanzer.When a Missiler loses their missile launcher and they didn't have a gun they are just like little ant under your footstomp.Beware with them until you have destroyed both arms,damaged parts with below 80 HP can be broken by a Hardblow attack. Melee attack also great against Grenade Launchers.Melee attack also have high accuracy so that means it is great for a fast mission that that have time limit. One hit to the body is enough to kill a wanzer but you won't get the EXP for the other parts. Range Attack Machine Gun,Shotgun There are good.The weapon choices is good but sometimes they are just not that good with no great accuracy.Battle skills such as Zoom(1,2,3),ROF UP(1,2,3) and the average Hit or Miss is a great addition to the power of the weapon. Because they are range weapon they are good against Melee Fighter. Some weapon such as Odin,Kodo,Chongdu damaged all parts of the enemy wanzer. Weapon such as Mingda and DGS 25 damaged random parts of the wanzer.Choose for yourself which one do you like. Missile,Grenades Missile are great for a one hit to random parts.It range cover a lot of area and that means you can hit enemies that you are away from.Remember that it only attack one parts of a wanzer and sometimes attack the pilot with the PilotDMG Skill.Enemies that are well hidden are sometimes hard to get even with 87% accuracy.If you miss,lots of AP will be depleted and this means you cannot counter back.Use it carefully.It takes one turn to reload the missile after full usage and in Front Mission 3 a turn is important.One mistake,it's lethal. Grenades is an average type weapon.It gives the enemies less damage than a machine gun but remember it's an area attack.Having a Grenade Launcher in your team sometimes gives advantages but for me it's not that useful.Enemies don't always grouped up together,they scrambled.Imagine having 4 enemies in one great place to put a grenade on but there was Ryogo besides one of them.You don't want to hurt your your friends rights?Enemies are different.They don't have our commitment for friendship.They will even bomb their friends when they want to and they do it often.Grenade also have low accuracy level. Well,always have at least 2 missilers in your team.A grenade equipped could be handy .Have everyone with at least a Melee Fist,range weapon and additional Projectile weapon(missile) if you can put one.Try to get all characters with three weapon with them.You will have an all rounder team with good attacking power,strong defensive and great projectile attack.This is a good lineup against any enemies team. Until you get at least Type 13 grenade launcher,grenade usage won't give you many advantages if you compare it to missile.But in Stage 35+ grenade will always come in handy when there are too many enemies.It damages all parts,giving it major damage.This will give a big advantage for you when fighting a large group of enemies. An Example ========== The stage where Jose is on foot and you have to choose 3 more members to fight 2 Wulong members and some DHZ soldiers.I don't count the mission stage but this is after the death of Ran Long father.Human soldiers can be wipeout with 2 shot of grenade and you can concentrate attacking the Wulong members.But,Rebecca have also a grenade launcher.Attacking with grenade will make her part HP weak and aother character can finished her off.Then 3 more Wulong members come in after killing at any one either Rudolph or Rebecca.I was stucked in this stage,but after two retry I finally got the hang of it.Figuring out how to kill them fast I put 2 wanzers with grenade and the other one with missile.They are easy compared to my first and second try where I had only one grenade launcher and two missilers. ================================================================================ =============================== Number Three ================================================================================ =============================== *Tactics On Battle* You must know your opponent weapon.Check their status and know their weaknesses. Attacking You must know from where to attack them.When you are in a higher place than them (on a crate etc.)you will have better accuracy.Attacking a melee wanzer without range weapon (just MK10/MK12 fist),you would want to attack them from some distances.This will make sure it won't counter attack. Battling in FM3 is more like Final Fantasy Tactics but there are some differences.In FFT,when you attack from behind the enemy the damaged would increased.But in FM3,it doesn't give any advantages.The enemies would still be facing you when you are attacking.If Square put this strategy in the game I think it would be harder and more tactics would be needed when attacking.Attacking from long range with grenade and missile would give your team more advantages. This is what I mean... When attacking- -Wanzer Type- -Strong Against- Melee Fighter Missile Wanzer Range attacking Wanzer Melee wanzer Projectile attacking wanzer Melee wanzer and range attacking wanzer Defense Actually there are no specific strategy when defense.It is all about luck.But I realized that a hiding wanzer (behind something such as crate or tower) is more likely to miss a missile attack.Battle skill such as Iniative would be alot of help when you counter attacking. Counter Attack Try to counter when you can.Counter attack would lead to a great win but it is just a matter of luck on who's turn first when counter attacking.I don't know how to make my wanzer counter attack first before being attack without using Iniative.Mail me if you know how. But it is actually like this from what I have found out.. _________________________________________________________ CA=Counter Attack Shotgun,mechine gun and rifle attack will attack first whenever being attack by melee weapon.Missile cannot be CA.Shotgun against shotgun,whose turn attacking will go out first,this also apply to mechine gun,rifle and melee weapon..Look out for balanced of AP left because CA will take a lot of AP . ================================================================================ ============================== Number Four ================================================================================ ============================== *Backpack Selection* Damn it why did Square made this game so hard to squeezed the full potential of a wanzer.Don't laugh when you see the topic.This is very important.I'm not sure how I can explained this but I'll try because choosing the right backpack is one important step in customizing weapon,trust me. Initially there are 2 types of backpack,one that have slot to put Item in and the other one is no item slot but you will gain more remaining weight and more power.So you will think what's the matter,right? Think again,you have setup your wanzer with all parts without weapon.You have 190+ remaining weight(RW).So you try to put in a fist,shotgun and a Yunsheng that you just bought.Now when you trying to put in the Yunsheng the RW is - 3,what will you do.So, you check the parts again and you realized "Hey I can gain more RW with this cool looking backpack.That's cool."Looking at the menu you realized you "cannot" put in ANY item to restore parts HP Damn,you was just jumping with joy until you realized it.But you will think,hey I could have more Power in my wanzer,this is great!But without recovery item, after 4 or 5 turns I'm sure at least only 2 wanzer can attack ,one is gone and the other one is just useless.Luckily the game is not that hard,only some battles are hard until stage 35+ where easy is no more...I mean it ^_^ Because of this try to balanced out the team such as two wanzers with recovery item and two more with better firepower.The disadvantages is you will have to waste some turns healing parts and these will sure give the edge to the opponents.One more things is the risk is high if the enemies attacks the Item Equipped wanzer. This part,I leave it up to you to decide.To play it safe or choosing a hard way. But I recommend to get a Wanzer with 3 weapon and a Item Enabled backpack,it's hard to get but not impossible. In the next update I will show you some example on best equipped wanzer. ================================================================================ =============================== Number Five ================================================================================ =============================== Training Your Wanzer and Pilot(and also collecting money) I can only post up this info..Wait for next update! -To earn more money,use the Taal Base Simulator.They give you 1050 or 1200 if you win. -Gaining quick weapon level,use the Fukushima Simulator(You can have it after about 40 mission,I think).The enemies are tough,really tough I mean.But they you a lot of EXP and gaining a level or two is quite fast compared to the not so hard battle (Taal Base,The Bridge).The trick is to quit after 2 or 3 rounds,if you can't win it.The EXP you earn is a lot and you will keep all the battle skills if you learn any.Make sure you can survive until you can quit.Just shoot them and you can level up your weapon in no time. -In battle simulator,kill all enemies.Don't leave them surrendered.This will lower your income.In simulator you cannot captured an enemies wanzer. ================================================================================ =============================== -Other- ================================================================================ =============================== -Always catch some wanzers for good stock and money.Selling wanzer is an important way of having a good amount of cash.Great parts can also be gotten and some of them are much better than your own parts. -Train hard using the simulator using battle mode.Don't use test mode because in battle modes,you will gain experienced and keep all the battle skills that you have learned.This is also a good way to earn cash if you desperate for money.Killing enemies in here is much better because if you win the battle because of the enemies surrendered,you will received less money than it should be. -Timing your kill is crucial if you want to level up your weapon and character.Try to kill them with all their parts destroyed (not damaged).This will greatly reward you with a lot of experience.Choose the weak weapon when killing,this will improved it's strength and skill. -Check mail always.It contains passwords to authorized websites and other stories related things. -Upgrade often and when you afford it.It will help you through the game better,have better accuracy,better defence and higher evade rate.Evade rate plays and important parts in this game. -Group atttack on one enemies is much better than one on one with them.Don't feel ashamed to use this tactics.Don't feel to heroic to go into the enemies territory alone and you will end up weaponless or worst dead.Having minus one enemies is better than having fully loaded enemies with medium HP. -Try to give the enemies the no weapon and legs condition.Then gang up on other wanzer that are not cripple. Save your turn and don't waste a turn to kill a wanzer with no weapon when there are one more that have no broken parts but with low HP.Kill them off first because they still can inflict major damage even their hand HP is only 1. ================================================================================ =============================== Suggestion. ================================================================================ =============================== Battle Tactics I got an e mail from Justin. He tell about a great tactics that have it pro's and cons. Thanks Justin.Send me more on it so we could discussed it. His tactic... The fatal Four Way Attack.(I sort of thinking about the match in Wrestlemania) It is like this.... P P E P P P=Player Wanzer E=Enemy Wanzer,Vehicle Attacking like this for me I think would give you some advantages but major problem. The Advantages ============== You can finished up one enemy easily and fast.The enemy will have less men and their fire power will be reduced.It will speed up the battle if you can make that formation in every turn then attack. The Disadvantages ================= You will be needing a lot of room and spaces to make that formation.Because of that you will be easily opened to enemies attack because they will have clear aim (high accuracy) of hitting you. Beware of grenades.Grouping up on one area will give a huge advantages to enemies if they have grenade launcher.Grenade hit hard and give some major damn great damage to you.From my experienced,I only used Fire-Defence Mode (The Red F) ONCE when I lost because of two damn grenade launching vehicles.If you want to try this tactics kill the grenade launcher first. Another problem is this will make your missile useless against the enemy you surrounded. ================================================================================ =============================== F.A.Q Section ================================================================================ =============================== Okay,this is a new column.Send in your letter to afterlife_org@hotmail.com.Send any question,suggestion or critics.I would like to learn from others who are experts in making a game guide. ================================================================================ =============================== Acknowledgements ================================================================================ =============================== God - for letting me breath again. Justin - for info on the 'fatal four way attack'(I give that name) Gamefaqs- they post my guide in my first try.Hey,thanks a lot! Copyright Info ============== FM3 is a copyright of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and Square EA. This guide is made by me,for those who want to post it on their website,mail me first.Keep it original ok? Print it if you want but don't sell it.I heard about many shoppers printing guides from Gamefaqs.com then selling it to make easy money.That's cheating man!! ==========================================Wait for next Update...==============================================