Phantasy Star Cave Message Board

A lot of difficulty occured with my Gryz solo. When I defeated Zio, to be specific. I had Wren and Demi in the party, to make sure when the battle was over, and when you're on the overworld, that atleast 1 character would be alive. The androids would be alive, and Gryz would be alive. Uh... a black screen just occured. I tried a lot of party formations, but nothing would work. I deleted a lot of files and stuff to start a new solo run. A Gryz solo will have to wait until later. Sorry about that!

I can make a workaround for you in order to get past that Zio battle if you'd like.

Sure, go ahead

Alright. Are you on Facebook? It'd probably be easier to communicate back and forth that way. Send me a PM with your details if you want, and we can go from there.

Do you know how to use a hex editor? If so, it'd probably be better if I just told you what edits to make. That way, you could make further changes if you wanted to.

What I'd do for the workaround is give Zio 1 HP, double the amount of experience given (it can't be more than 65535, so doubling it would be the most I could do), and you'd go into the battle with the usual party for that point in the game (so Chaz, Rika, Rune, Demi, and Gryz), with just Gryz and one of Chaz/Rika/Rune alive. Use the Psycho Wand on the first turn, then deal the 1 damage.

Also, let me know if you want to make any changes to shops or equipment. For a Gryz solo in particular, I would suggest putting the Laconian Axe in a shop somewhere, maybe Reshel, because the only one in the game comes equipped on Gryz after you get Elsydeon, and you won't be able to access it that way. The Defeat Axe is superior most of the time, but not in Vahal Fort, because the robots all resist Factor 1, and Laconian weapons deal Factor 2 damage.

If you want to change Zio to having 1 HP and double XP:

2830FC (change 0B to 00)
2830FD (change 49 to 01)
283128 (change 65 to CB)
283129 (change 8F to 1E)

I remembered that Reshel doesn't have a weapon shop, just an armor shop, and I don't think you can change it so that it sells weapons (at least not without altering something else, and I'm not sure what that would require). I'm trying to figure out where treasure chest data is stored on the ROM, but that's going to take a lot of trial and error, I think. If I do figure it out, I'll let you know (maybe you could replace the Sol Dew on the first floor of the Anger Tower with the Laco Axe. Or maybe not. I'm not really sure).

Anyway, if you have any questions or anything, I'd be more than happy to help (though I'm definitely not the best person to ask with this sort of thing, I'll do what I can).

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. If you do decide to make changes to the ROM, depending on which emulator you use, you might need to fix the checksum. There's a program you can download that does it automatically. It's over at romhacking.net if you are interested.

Yeah, I know mostly how to use hex editors. I'll do these edits in a little while.

Hold on... a complete Gryz solo is seemingly impossible.

After a look at some of Lady Abaxa's videos on the Gryz, she states that Dark Force 2 will always lead to a black screen.

I guess something to do with ROM corruption?

Hmm, at what point would it lead to a black screen? I may be able to come up with a second workaround.

Hey, I came up with another workaround for you with DF2/DF3.

Beat them with just Gryz as you normally would. The game will freeze afterwards, but you still will have cleared it (you know as much, and that is the only thing that really matters). Then, substitute a slightly altered ROM (for your workaround) and fight them with the normal party (so Chaz/Rika/Rune/Wren/Kyra for DF2 and Chaz/Rika/Rune/Wren/Seth* for DF3). Your slightly altered ROM will have Dark Force limited to 1HP (and maybe different abilities if he still beats your level 1 party). Since Gryz will miss out on that EXP (maybe - not sure how that will work), Depcen will be edited to give out as much EXP as DF2 (well, half of it, but there will be two of them). Ditto for DF3. It's the cutscenes that screw you up.