Front Mission 3 Gameplay Help and Tips 
for the Sony Playstation
by Zhou Tai An (kain@pacific.net.sg)

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Standard Disclaimer - This document is only to be used for non-profit 
purposes and all that jazz.

This is basically another quick guide - no in-depth strategies, just tips in
point format. Hopefully it'll still be pretty useful. ^_^

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1. When it comes to deciding your Defense Class attribute, it's Anti-Pierce 
all the way. Noticed that the majority of the enemies are equipped with 
Machine Guns and Rifles? You might want to switch to Anti-Flame for missions
in which the opposition packs a lot of Missiles and Grenades, but for the 
most part Anti-Pierce will get you very far.

2. Despite the heavier Weight, Legs which allow greater movement range tend 
to be more useful, especially in scenarios in which you need to save a target
or NPC\s. They also have more HP, which is a plus point.

3. Train your characters in only one weapon. While certain combinations (like
a dual Melee\Burst Weapon configuration) have added versatility and attack
power, staying with one weapon type gets you more experience and more 
importantly, allows you to equip a Shield on the unused arm - an addition
which is well-nigh essential in the later missions, where almost ALL the 
enemies pack long-range weapons. 

4. While we're on the subject of Shields, the more durable ones later in the
game will ensure an incredible defense if coupled with a few Repairs and 
Shield Restoration items. 

5. Now, about Items. Unless you're really strapped for Power, ALWAYS pick the
Item-Carrying kind. It's the one sure advantage you have over the enemy 
forces - they get more wanzers and heavier firepower, you get the brains and
the items. Trust me - this makes a BIG difference, mainly because Items let 
you restore health. And parts. And ammo. These are things they CAN'T do, so
exploit your advantage to it's fullest. 

6. All characters have a chosen speciality weapon class which they are damn
good at. The trouble is finding it. While it is USUALLY the weapon\s their
starting wanzer has, sometimes it isn't - for example, Ryogo and Miho have
Machine Gun and Shotgun as their respective specialities, but I suspect 
Emma's is Machine Guns and NOT Missiles. Experiment and check things out.

7. Shotguns are the best weapon, bar none, for getting additional Stars for
your characters. The reason should be obvious - they hit all the areas of the
enemy's wanzer! 

8. There are three basic types of each wanzer part - one that has high HP and
Weight, one that has low\medium HP but a high percantage of the part's 
charisteristic (i.e, Power for the Body, Accuracy for Arms and Movement for
Legs) and one that balances all three. Take this into account when 
constructing your wanzers - do you want to max out effectively and get a 
Backpack to offset the lower Power, or opt for lower Accuracy and more 
Movement? The choice is yours - this is just the info. ^_^

9. With Skills, there are two main approaches you can adopt. One, learn and 
then equip very powerful Skills (those which take up loads of space in your
COM) and then use a Computer which has a high activation rate. The second
strategy is the opposite - equip lots of "light" Skills like Zoom I and a 
high Combo activation Computer. However, in the case of the latter, keep in
mind that your combos (while long - 4 to 6 attacks minimum) will be very hard
to actually enact, so be careful.

Another strategy you can use is to equip a COM10 (which increases Skill
acquiring rates) and parts which will allow you to learn some useful skills.
Then, when you fight, not only will you get all the skills you have equipped,
but occasionally another new skill will be learnt for even more damage. Keep
in mind that once 6 of a single type of skill has been learnt, this won't be
effective anymore.

10. There are some completely useless Skills...well, not really useless per
se, but a whole lot of Skills have such stringent activation conditions, or
can be outmoded by others, that they're next to useless anyway. Examples 
include Auto (only used when paralyzed) Blackout (negates enemy skills - only
useful against really powerful opponents) and All or Nothing (do you really
need this?) Think and consider when deciding on what to equip.

11. To continue on a point I mentioned earlier in 9, you can simply equip
the light skills and a normal computer - that tends to work often enough. I
once had my Ryogo go through 4 Zoom 1's in a row, totally trashing my 
opponent.

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And that's about it. As I said, this is a quick guide. ^_^