P H A N T A S Y S T A R I V END OF THE GAME FAQ For the Sega Genesis Entertainment System Published by SEGA, Copyright 1994 This FAQ is written and derived by Colin McClelland in August of 2000. Table of Contents -Introduction -How to Read this FAQ -Terms to Know and Use -Special Tactics -Assigned Characters --Wren --Rune --Chaz --Rika -Choosing a Fifth Ally --Raja --Hahn --Demi --Kyra --Gryz -Defeating the Profound Darkness --With Raja --With Hahn --With Demi --With Kyra --With Gryz --General Strategy --Challenge INTRO--- One of the greatest console RPGs that was ever made, Phantasy Star IV continues to be a favorite of many die-hard gamers. The quest is long; the story unbelievable. It was truly a masterpiece of 16-bit gaming. I have seen many FAQs about this great game, but I still fail to see a great one that discusses the end of the game in great detail. At the point where the final path lies open, you are supposed to pick one of five characters to have as your fifth party member. In this FAQ I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each character, and how you can win with them at your side. HOW TO READ THIS FAQ--- This FAQ is a definite SPOILER! Although I can't stop you, I do encourage you to try to beat the game on your own. After you fail or complete it, you are openly welcome to read the rest of this FAQ. I am assuming that you have raised each character above level 42 (with the exception of Wren.. he tends to lag behind), and have earned all abilities and skills. But you have to be above level 40 to kill the Rykros bosses, unless you've "pumped up" a character or two (discussed later). I am also assuming that you have found all hidden Skills and Techniques, which are Wren's BurstRocket (Weapon Facility, Dezolis), Wren's HyperJammer (Kuran Satellite), Wren's Positron Bolt (Vahal Fort Motavia), Demi's PhononMezer (Plate Facility, Motavia), and Chaz's Megid (Anger Tower, Rykros). You will need these!!! TERMS TO KNOW AND USE--- Phantasy Star IV has a great turn-based fighting system. With that, comes the use of pre-made MACROs. Macros are huge time-savers, that when used correctly, can enable a party to get through tough spots many levels before you could normally. It is important to have defensive macros for many tough enemies, and nearly every boss. This can ensure you that your actions are done in exactly the order you want. It also makes the execution of Combination Attacks much easier. This way, it is much more difficult to get a combo broken up by your own party members. Below is a list of good combination attacks: (NOTE! %=Technique !=Skill) !Death + !Illusion = Lethal Image (Instant death to all) !Negatis + %Gra-Group = Black Hole (instant death to all) !Diem + %Savol = Holocaust (Instant death to all) !Tandle + !HyperJammer = CircuitBreaker (Instant death to mechs) !BurstRocket + %Foi Group = Shooting Star (Fire damage to all) %Zan Group/!Hewn + %Foi Group/!Flaeli = Firestorm (Fire damage to all) %Zan Group/!Hewn + %Wat Group = Blizzard (Ice damage to all) !Airslash + !PhononMezer = Silent Wave (High damage to all) !Astral + !Rayblade = Paradin Blow (Powerful attack with light magic) !Holyword + !Efess = Purify Light (Light magic attack to all) %Foi + %Wat + %Tsu = Triblaster (Attack to all) !Crosscut + !Efess = Grand Cross (Light magic attack to all) %Deban + !PositronBolt + !Legeon + %Medgid = Destruction (Very high damage to all) (NOTE! To execute Destruction and Shooting Star, the macro MUST be in the order I give here!). Now that you know that, let's move on to SPECIAL TACTICS--- Generally, there are a few things you're going to want to follow when touring the Edge, or other palces you want to build your levels. First of all, Wren is always your party leader. Reason being is that the lead person gets attacked more often than the others. Since Wren usually has a huge HP, that recovers as you walk, he gets the job. If he is critically injured, then he has huge amounts of Recovers available. Now, there are three good places in Algo to build your levels. First is the Anger Tower on Rykros. Wander through here to get good practice in dealing with magical enemies. Wren's !Barrier is a strong magic defense, that you may want to throw up if you get in a fight with 3 magic users at a time. Most fortunately, every enemy in the Anger Tower falls victim to an instant death attack. By this time in the game, Rika should have a fair amount of !Eliminate, and Rune with !Diem. Chaz MAY have one or two !Explode, but the Elsydeon has a good chance of giving the instant death when used. Set up a macro with those three in it. Next, move on to the Vahal Fort on Motavia. Go here to complete the Silver Soldier quest in the hunter's guild. This place is full of STRONG mechs. Skills to use here include !Spark, !Tandle, !HyperJammer , !Disrupt, and !Airslash. Try to go for the Browren groups (pink robots), and the LifeDeleters (Tall one eyed green and orange mechs). Lots of experience indeed! Plus, this is the best place to "Pump Up" a character in the late game. Finally, The Edge. Don't bother with top few levels. Go down until you reach the levels where the background is orange&red, or to the second to last level where it's red and blue. Very powerful enemies here. They are all suceptable to instant death, except one. This one is the Prophallus, an extremely rare beast that resembles Dark Force. he isn't too dangerous; he just fires a powerful attack that hits one character.. nothing that a %Nares can't fix. He has a huge HP, and takes a while to kill. Try going for those holy magic attacks like !Efess and !Astral, and powerful one on one physical attacks like !DoubleSlash and !Rayblade. This dude lands you some 13000 experience when he dies. Besides Prophallus, be ready to throw up the !Barrier when you meet the ImagioMages or those red witches. They cast annoying multi-hit spells like !Tandle, !Corrision, and %Gizan. There's a technique that makes the game interesting sometimes, too, called Pumping Up. You may notice when one or more party members die, the remaining ones get more experience than usual. This is because that extra experience is going to oyur living party members. There are certain places in the game where one or two characters can easily kill powerful groups, thus earning them huge sums of experience. In result, these characters level up far sooner than the others. The best places to do this are as follows. The following paragraph is borrowed from Jacob Scarlett (ScarlettX)'s FAQ, found at http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/file/phantasy_star_iv_a.txt Email him at cosc001e@mtsu.edu and tell him how good his FAQ is! After killing Zio, don't go to Zelan. Instead kill off Chaz and Rika, leaving Rune. Go back into Nurvus, then use your %Gra anf !Hewn on the mechs in there. Before long, Rune will have the high level spells, making all the Dark Forces a joke for the rest of the game! Thanks, ScarlettX! Another place is when you get the Elsydeon. When Chaz enters the cave to the Elsydeon (alone), set up 2 macros; one with the !Crosscut, and the other with !Airslash. Kill Spectres left and right using !Crosscut on the singles, then !Airslash on the doubles. Heal With %Gires or %Nares. When you run out of skills, return to Rune at enterance to be healed. Keep at it for a while, then Chaz is a super soldier. Finally, Go to Vahal Fort. I hope you remembered not to sell Wren's PulseVulcan found in the ClimateCenter on Dezolis. Kill off everyone except Wren and another character. Have the other character use their multi-hit attacks or spells, while Wren hits everyone with the PulseVulcan. Now the experience is REALLY flying! I would highly recommend that you do NOT use Raja in this, as he has no multi-hit attack!!! That's Pumping up. The characters that I find useful to Pump Up are Rune, Chaz, Wren, and Hahn. I advise against Rika, becuase she levels up so fast anyway you don't need to pump her up. Now on to the ASSIGNED CHARACTERS--- Wren Powerful. Strong. Use his barrier religiously. PositronBolt isn't great, but it helps. Have 3 or 4 repairkits in your inventory, just incase he dies (which shouldn't ever happen). Rune The best character. At the end, you hould have a great supply of !Efess. It works as good as anyhting, only second to Megid and Elsydeon. Give him dual-shields, because you'll never need to attack with all those TPs. Chaz Pretty good attack, average armor. Find the Power Shield in the Garuberk Tower, and keep it for the rest of the game. Use it as an item the first round of battle, so the !Crosscuts do more damage. Megid is powerful, but drains TP fast. Stick with the Elsydeon unless emergency. !Explode is the most reliable of instant death attacks. Rika Decent attack, lousy armor. The party healer is usually pullin %Gisars off to save everyone. In the first round, cast %Deban, or, if there's someone else to put up a defensive barrier, then cast %Saner to boost speed. VERY HELPFUL! You may wanna consider giving her the Guardshield if she's doing lots of healing. CHOOSING A FIFTH ALLY--- After getting the Elsydeon, you are able to choose a fifth ally to beat the game with. You can change your mind at any time, but it's good to concentrate on leveling up one guy in particular. Raja The game is a joke with him. Far too easy. Miracle heals everyone including Wren. !Ataraxia restores TP, so you can %Nasar and %Megid all you want. !Blessing is better than %Deban, and !Saint Elmos Fire is powerful against evil enemies. Take him if you're desperate to get the game over with. Demi Pretty easy going with her too. Never again use Sol-Dews or %Rever, for you now have medic power. She has a huge supply of !PhononMezer, but only if you found it before she left you in Nurvus! !PhononMezer is very powerful, and is combined with Chaz to make Silent Wave, which owns many many bad guys in Vahal Fort and The Edge. She is highly suceptable to magic damage though, so watch her HP. Hahn Beating the game is FUN when you have Hahn at your side! The Holocaust conbination makes leveling up much faster, and he has huge supplies of TPs. He can also throw together the Triblaster combo too! Astral is great on evil enemies, and he's fairly agile. !Vision raises critical hit rate, so use it a lot! He has high magic defense, but low physical defense, so protect him. Kyra It's a little harder to win with Kyra. Kill the Darkriders on The Edge to win her a second MoonSlasher. She's good to pump up at the Vahal Fort with dual slicers. Medice and Warla are very helpful, but you may find her using the star dews to help out Rika's healing. To level up fast, make a macro with the combo Black Hole. Gryz It's very difficult to win with Gryz. Kill the ChaosBringers on the Edge to win him the Defeat Axe. Warcry whenever possible, to boost attack strength. Sweeping helps build levels fast, but he isnt very good against the last boss. Have him star dew the party. DEFEATING THE PROFOUND DARKNESS--- With Raja Make two macros: Wren:!Barrier Rika:%Saner Raja:!Blessing Chaz:Power Shield Rune:Tandle Wren:!Barrier Rika:%Saner Raja:!Blessing Chaz:%Megid Rune:!Legeon First one is the first round of the PFD. After that macro goes through, have Rika use the Power Shield to boost the damage of her !Doubleslash. The second one is during the last form of the PFD. She sometimes neutralizes your shields, so the second macro throws them back up. Have Raja Saint Elmos Fire when he doesn't have to heal. Ataraxia when Chaz or Rika run out of TP. With Hahn Wren:!Barrier Rika:%Deban Hahn:!Vision Chaz:Power Shield Rune:!Tandle Wren:!Barrier Rika:%Deban Hahn:!Astral Chaz:!Rayblade Rune:!Legeon The second macro should set up the Paradin Blow combo, which is powerful against the PFD. Use it a lot, since you have a big supply of it. Nares anyone who gets hit hard, and use a star dew if endangered. With Demi Same basic macros... sometimes the !Phonomezer does more damage than Wren's !Positron Bolt. When time to heal, use !Medic Power, and have Rika %Sar, so to save her TPs. Pretty easy going for her. With Kyra Medice anyone who gets hit hard. Macros same as Raja's, only substitute Raja's !Blessing for Kyra's !Warla. Use !Tandle if she has spare time, and isnt using the dews. Remember to de-equip her slashers for shields before the final fight. With Gryz Oh boy. New macros. Wren:!Barrier Rika:%Deban Gryz:!War Cry Chaz:!Crosscut Rune:!Tandle Use that macro for the time whne PFD neutralizes your shields, only with Chaz and Rune using more powerful attacks. Gryz is strong, but he doesn't have any double attack skills like Rika or Chaz. Instead, he is your designated Dew-User. How honorable! Really, if PFD slips up, in a way that Gryz is totally free for an attack, there's a tiny bit of help, but nothing you can rely on. He doesn have high defense though, so you really don't have to worry about him. It just takes a little longer to win. GENERAL STRATEGY--- Basically, you want all your magic defenses up all the time. This is Magic defense, Physical Defense, and Speed boost. It is crtitical that these are always running, or else you will die very quickly. Added bonuses are Hahn's !Vision, which ups critical hits, and Gryz's !WarCry, which ups everoynes attack. Without Gryz, just use the Power Shield on whoever needs a boost (Chaz or Rika). The first phase the bad guy only has a one hit attack, which is a relief. %Gires or Trimate the victim, and attack with techniques that aren't vital, like !Tandle, !Crosscut, and !Flare. Second Phase has annoying multi hit attacks like LightShower, Distortion, and Anothergate. Star dew that, then counter with slightly more powerful moves like !Legeon, !Rayblade, !Doubleslash, and !Flare. You want this guy to die quickly, to save your strength. Final Phase go all out. Use !Efess or !Legeon, %Megid, !Doubleslash, and !PositronBolt. When you run out of %Megid and !PositronBolt, use !Crosscut and !Flare. Heal, heal, heal, the %Megid attack really screws up your party. The Evil Eye may seem like it's weak, but paralysis during a boss fight is very dangerous and annoying. If Rika is paralyzed, you are in deep trouble unless you can cure it. Bring along a couple items to combat this. Use your defenses macro whenever she neutralizes yoru shields. If she uses the one-hit attack, counter with a trimate, then punish her with everything you have! You're on your way to vistory!!! CHALLENGE--- Nobody said you HAVE to pick a fifth party member. You can go on and kill the PFD with only Chaz Wren Rika and Rune. It's hard, but possible. Can you do it? Don't forget to pack a full screen of Star Dews!!! This Concludes the End of Game FAQ. Questions? Comments? Email me at Pax1@visto.com !!!