Party:
1 Robot. I hope to get catclaw somewhere. Buff him with AGL bug using karate from Bl. Belt at central shrine. Increase AGL/Health until Arsenal can be killed.
1 Mutant M. Needs -warning, -surprise, teleport, explode, stongaze. -warning saves time obviously in random encounters. I need to time it again, but I'm pretty sure running from a battle is faster than save+soft reset where possible. -surprise is to help with killing Bl. Belt + party when getting karate, also to get a Strike First on Arsenal because that's awesome. teleport is for the dragon race. Explode to use on the Arsenal because that's the only useful thing that our puny mutant could possibly do, except perhaps take a large hit from the smasher reducing the damage to robot. stongaze is optional, but could help with getting karate and with easier use for gazing mini-boss monsters.
2 monster. One Baby-D to get medusa early to stongaze... everyone. Ideally the second monster would become an Evil Eye. And if possible, I would want the Medusa to become an Evil Eye at some point. These will be used on bosses, and to take down Bl. Belt (and others in the party) when getting karate for the robot. I do not understand how
this works.
--
If my timing was right, running from combat is faster than soft resets. This means run when possible, and once I reach the first encounter than can not be run from I have to soft reset to avoid all battles until the next forced battle. This means (for example), since you can not run from your first (turn of) battle with Mr.S you have to soft reset all battles until BabyWyrm. No unforced encounters except to get Medusa!
--
I was under the impression that 'random' encounters were cyclic based on how many moves through enemy territory had been made, so I started timing it. In world 1, I got this
51
26 26
2 2
15 15
39 39
4 4
1 1
38 38
66 66
10 10
55 55
as my cycle. This pattern continues forever. Then I loaded up different stages in different worlds with different 5th party members, and started getting different cycles. I was hoping to know in advance how many battles I would have to fight, which would have been easy. Now I know I would have to determine the cycle in every world (or region of that world?), with and without the corresponding 5th party member. I would also have to know how the cycle is treated when entering a new world, and also when going back to the original world. Does it start from scratch every time I enter a new world? Does it just keep on counting squares from where it left off in the previous world? &c. The advantage of knowing all this is being able to time an entire world without actually having to go through it.
Stepping into a safe area (town, center of the world) does not count as a move for the monster spawn cycle counter. Stepping out of a safe area does. The original square you are placed in after a soft reset does, if you are in a monster area.
--
Are magi taken away from you for the encounter with Arsenal if you have any? This is good information to know, as speed and power magi could boost my robot.
--
Route. Up to Race World it is fairly simple. No unforced battles except to get medusa. Turn all enemies to stone where possible. Get as many of the desired mutant abilities as possible. Teleport out of the race with fastest dragon.
1. My favored route. After getting dragon, go find a catclaw somewhere (Edo? If I have enough GP). Then go straight to central shrine (take the endgame teleport backwards). Robot should be equipped with items that give him the most life. Fight Bl. Belt parties and always get karate. Kill them with stongaze. Use AGL bug to get Robot lots of health and AGL. If I am unable to get Evil Eye in guardians world (is it even possible?) do that now, or when getting catclaw. Kill the arsenal.
2. Another good route. After getting dragon, go to the nasty dungeon. Collect powerful weapons and armor. Go fight the arsenal. If this is the route taken, perhaps two robots could be reasonably equipped. Gungnir is a good grab because it never misses, so Robot can be maxed out for STR to do good damage. If this route is the one used, we can get hyper and use it on Haniwa to get 7-sword, though it will require AGL to land some hits, and uses STR to determine damage. After nasty dungeon, go backwards through endgame teleport and kill Arsenal. It would be nice to be able to figure out how many frames this world will take without actually TASing it first.
3. Probably no good, but still worth thinking about. After getting dragon, go to Valhalla World. Go through the back entrance of Valhalla Palace and kill Odin. Make sure he drops Gungnir. Equip robot with Gungnir, equip high life and defense monster with masmune magi. Go kill the Arsenal. Maybe need to kill some Paladin/Bl. Belt groups to get items to buff Robots STR. The main drawback I see with this route, is how am I going to kill Odin? My guys are all still puny at this point. Odin has 3700 life and strong attacks - especially lightning - and also has OdinCrow and Sleipnir. I would probably need monsters with O-All or O-Damage. I have completed the game with 4 monsters before, so monsters can kill Odin.
Note that none of these include killing TianLung or Fenrir for meat. They are quite far out of the way. Perhaps The first route where I have to get lots of karate for Robot could do Fenrir. Twice. This would mean we have to walk back through central shrine without our dragon. That's a lot of time and I don't see it being viable.
You can not have a 5th party member when fighting Arsenal.
Haniwa can not be killed with StonGaze because he has O-All protection.
--
From what I can tell, lag is not an issue in this game.
IIRC, battle outcomes can be affected by which attacks are used. This also includes from which slot in your character inventory the item used is in. This also includes the order your people are placed in (reorder them with select on overworld). I do not remember if this includes your large shared inventory.
Here I show how the beginning of the game might look, up to killing BabyWyrm.
Here is a useful site with information on this game.
Here is a useful youtube channel.
