This section covers a swath of general knowledge about this game and how the guide is written. This is an important section for new players to read & ingest, or to refer back to for certain game mechanics.

This guide is primarily geared towards beginner to intermediate players. The guide is written to spell out both what the speedrun route is doing and why the route is doing what it does. Although people who have been playing the game a long time may learn some things from reading these notes, most advanced players will either know most of what is in this document, or have varying opinions on some strategies and utilize different methods for overall RTA approach, including different routes altogether. This is a complex game where intermediate to advanced players truly have a lot of customization on how they handle problems, based on risk acceptance and sometimes simply preference.

These notes are designed relatively light-weight for descriptions on where and how to get around the world. An assumption is made that the reader can review a VOD and follow along, because almost all runs will generally follow the same path, with some minor deviations. For example, there will not be detailed notes about how to walk on the world map or in dungeons - those are easily accessible and learned via VODs. This route will closely follow morisot's fastest time, the current fastest time for this game & category (any% glitchless), with the exception of the King Sword route being elaborated upon late in the route.

There will be some discussion in these notes about backup strategies and specifically race strategies, which are often slightly slower strategies to collect more gear & money and to fight some optional encounters for general safety. This game can be very difficult in a single-segment race scenario (to be clear, racing means when multiple players race the game at the same time to completion), so there are often minor tweaks the player chooses to employ. Further, the player must decide their safety level and reset threshold. This game can be very not friendly to new players - and frankly, sometimes trudging through runs that have full party deaths early on is not really beneficial to learning.

As mentioned in the foreward, this document & its route is for the standard any% glitchless category. The rules are:

Timing begins from Power On of the console

Timing ends when the final "To Be Continued To Dragon Quest I & II" screen finishes appearing and the BGM ends.

Turbo controller is allowed
Many players use a commonly available "ASCIIPad" Super Famicom controller, and set the B and X buttons to Turbo (and never toggle). Most menuing for confirming is done with Turbo X. Manually confirming is done with the A button. Turbo B is mostly used to advance text. The Y button is used for fully canceling menus, such as canceling all the way from a character's inventory to player control in 1 action, as opposed to using Turbo B.

It is very important to note that many players play this game slightly different. Everyone has their little preferences. It takes a lot of time to discover these preferences as the player. This guide may be telling the player to do a specific thing, but sometimes players like to deviate for the sake of handling battles, some menuing, some purchasing options. A general take-away is to almost never deviate on 'what' the the player is doing in this guide, but the player can deviate on 'how' the player do it. For example, in almost all cases, and a few rogue exceptions by routing choice, the player should never deviate from going to the Pyramid immediately after going to Romaly. The target should be to get the Magic Key as soon as possible. But, how the player gets there, with some menuing and purchasing choices is largely up to the player based on risk levels. The player can buy some safety gear, buy some extra herbs, revive dead characters, etc., but the goal at that time is to get to the Pyramid. This guide will attempt to make these destinations explicitly clear. In contrast, although there will be notes on menus and purchasing, realize that there is room for experimentation and deviation. Keep in mind that this is a very competitive game, and although there is room for deviation, many top level runners have similar menuing methods that do minimize inputs and minimize time in menus/shops.

Menuing is a very important part of going fast in this game, however, menuing optimization is not covered in this guide - the reasoning being that the player will most assuredly have to review VODs to see how fast players make menuing choices. There is little value in spelling this concept out in text form. Menuing speed is not important for a new player to learn the game, and will come in time with a combination of playing the game more often, and dedicating practice & research time towards other players. This guide will follow some of the faster runners' regular strategies for doing menu related tasks such as sorting items and distributing inventory items, but won't cover things such as button presses and navigation in detail.

Further, it is important for newer players to pay close attention to these notes and reference VODs for keeping inventory menus clean and organized. There are times when the player will want to be executing commands in battle as quickly as possible and should enforce good habits early on to keep their inventory consistent. For example, during the walk through the Necrogond, these notes call for the Sage to have no weapon and for her first non-equipped slot to be the Sleep Staff, so that she can menu very quickly in battle to Sleep Staff, and the player shouldn't think twice about it. This is especially true for the Sage in the Dark World, where she should have consistent ordering of all her items, because she uses multiple in battle (Sage's Staff, Sleep Staff, Mist Staff).

It is important to understand up front how the threat level system (the "encounter rate") works on the world map. When reviewing VODs, pay close attention to how players walk on the world map. In general, try to walk on fields as much as possible, and minimize time on forest, mountains, swamps, all of which have higher threat levels. Almost all sailing areas have much lower threat levels.

Another prevalent part of this speedrun is the use of the Thief ability called "Shinobi Feet", modernly translated as Tiptoe. It drastically reduces the number of random encounters the player enters by slowing down the threat depletion. It costs 0 MP. While watching VODs, one can notice that many players use Shinobi Feet at the same or very similar locations. Use of Shinobi Feet will not be highlighted specifically in this guide, as the player should learn these locations, but this guide will occasionally remind the player to use it. Generally the player should always have Shinobi Feet active after the Thief turns into a Sage (for over half the game), but there are a few exceptions. Shinobi Feet will be abbreviated as SF for this guide.

When using either Wings or Rura (Return) spell, this guide will use a convention for what position the warp location is in the menu. The convention is in (x,y) format, where x is the page of the menu, and y is the number of slots down on that page. For example, if Dharma is on the 2nd page, and the 4th entry down, the notes will say “Wing to Dharma (2,4)”. The player can save inputs by pressing up instead of down to menu vertically when y = 4 or 5, because those entries are closer to the bottom of the page. The notation for “L” means press left on the d-pad, and “B” means bottom, which implies pressing up - these allow for consistent menus.

Whenever party members are defeated, except when the route specifically calls for it, they should be revived. Generally the player shoul revive in towns when they're doing other things in the early game, but throughout the mid-game, warping to Kazave is the fastest place to access a cleric to revive. When Ramia is obtained, the player should warp to Dharma and fly north to get Yggdrasil Leaves to both use existing leaves and replenish.

Every enemy has 8 AI slots, meaning they can choose from 8 actions every turn. There are some exceptions where enemies do have these 8 slots, but use them in a certain pattern (e.g., Baramos's routine). There are some other exceptions as well, like cat flies using Mahoton on turn 1, or grey antbears in the Cave of Temptation focusing attacks on one ally. But for the most part, enemies and bosses draw from one of their eight slots and then do the action, then repeat.

Enemies do not have standard critical hits on any given physical attack. Instead, enemies that can critically hit have it as part of their AI slots. Typically there's an animation that tells, and for most enemies that animation being played is at that point a 1 in 8 chance to get critically hit. For example, Boss Troll has standard attacks without critical, but his large overhead swing animation has a 1 in 8 chance to critical.

The player can choose the Hero's gender. This guide will refer to Hero as a male. The rest of the party's genders must be followed for Male Warrior, Female Thief, Female Mage. The gender of the Merchant does not matter.

Encounter cancelling is an often referred-to term in this guide. First, it is important to describe the way this game handles encounters, and many other modern DQ games. The game draws a number when entering an area, leaving a battle, or through some other means, called the "threat level". As the player walks around areas with encounters, that threat level depletes towards zero. When the threat reaches zero, a battle happens, then the number is re-drawn. The number drawn is from a normally distributed bell curve (refer to the "Encounter Analysis" in the links in the next section, at the end for more details). This ensures a normalized system where the player will get into encounters at a regulated rate, compared to the older DQ titles on NES where the system was much more pure percentage chance of encounter per step. Different tiles, like mountains, forests and swamps, will decrease the threat level (the tiles' "depletion" value) more. SF decreases the depletion of any tile by 62.5%, which is very significant.

Encounter cancelling is the idea of forcing the game to redraw the threat level without getting into a fight. On the world map, it usually involves either entering a town, shrine or some area, then leaving immediately. Also on the world map is use of the Lamp of Darkness, which allows the player to reset the threat level if it is daytime. In dungeons, threat level is reset by transitioning floors. Dungeons with floor transitions close to each other often yield very low overall encounters, such as Ra Mirror Cave and Baramos Castle. Notably, getting into a battle will reset the threat level - so there are times where the point of going slightly out of the player's way to encounter cancel is completely lost when a battle has already happened. In practice this usually happens when the player is just a few steps from a place to encounter cancel and they get an encounter on the way there, so the player should just turn around and keep going.

Newer players can simply encounter cancel every time this guide asks. More veteran players learn how to assess whether or not an encounter cancel is worth the time, but in the vast majority of cases, it is.

Link: Niconamarta DQIII page. May need to navigate to "ドラゴンクエストシリーズ" on the left side, then "ドラゴンクエスト３"
Link: Speedrun.com DQIII page
Link: Dragon Quest III RTA FAQ. Provides in depth details about various hidden/unexplained game mechanics
Link: Dragon Quest III Encounter Analysis. Holds Details about likelihood of encounters relevant to RTA
Link: Dragon Quest RTA Compendium, DQIII tab. This is a community organized document for many DQ series RTA resources
Link: YouTube discussion of DQIII speedrun route (by me, 2016)
Link: Dragon Quest III Practice Hack, allows for efficient practice and follows the standards of this guide

At least one non-occupied file data slot must be available. All runs will start from power-on, meaning when the Reset button is hit on the console, timing will begin. From power on, select a new file, create a Hero (default male), and select message speed 8.
The Hero's gender does not matter for a speedrun. In game, the gender of a character only reflects some personalities and gender specific equipment. Message speed 8 is ideal for usage of a turbo controller.

The game begins with personality test. The player first enters in their name (which the player can put any character the player would like, fastest is "A", the first character, and to hit End as quickly as possible), then select 01 and 01 for month/day. Then, the game will have a few text boxes, then ask the player a series of questions. Based on what questions the player answers and how the player answers them, the player will get an internal score, and that score will dictate which of ~10 scenarios the player gets. The player controls the Hero during these, and based on player actions, the game will decide a personality for the player. Look for the top right "sentence" in the personality text when first given a Y/N dialogue for the test, and find the corresponding phrase in the chart below. Then select Yes or No accordingly:

Japanese characters	Translation	Y/N Order
勝利は	Victory only achieved	YNNNYYY
太陽は	Sun king nature	YNNNNYYY
人生は	Life boring	NNYNYYY
冒険は	Tired of adventures	NNNYNYYY
冒険に出	Would you rather	NYNNNNYY

After getting the scenario in the forest with the old man, simply walk to the left to leave, ignoring the boulder. Progress through the rest of the intro sequence until the players gain control in Aliahan.

By leaving the forest immediately with the scenario in the forest, the game will be awarding the Hero with the "Lazy" personality. Although this sounds bad, it is actually a decent personality for the speedrun, given how fast the player can complete the intro scenario. Personalities all have percentage modifiers from a "base" for that given character's class. The Lazy personality awards growth of 115% for Strength, 120% for Stamina (HP), at the expense of 60% Agility and 65% Wisdom. Although the low agility sounds bad, and it is generally not great, it at least gives consistency for many turns in battle, and is actually quite important in the late game when setting up Bikill (2x attack spell) to ensure the Hero gets his attack with the modifier applied, because the Hero goes last in battle often. There is an alternative intro route that is not covered in this guide that was more popular historically, which is the Valiant personality, which gets 140% Strength/70% Agility/100% Stamina/80% Wisdom/70% Luck. The intro sequence is fairly fast for this personality, and although the strength gains are incredibly good, the 100% Stamina causes fairly large problems for a speedrun compared to the Lazy personality's 120% growth.

The goal of this segment is to progress the story and collect the 2 seeds to sell later.

Talking to the King is required. The King gives the player a bunch of gear - 50G, Traveler's Clothes x1, Club x2, and Cypress Stick x1.

This is the segment where the player creates the characters for the journey. The goal is to create a Merchant first, required for the story (and is not an ally used in battle). Then, the player's allies will be created, in order of Mage, Thief, then Warrior. This order is important for menuing, because when recruiting the characters, the bottom-most option upon adding party members to the party will be, in order, Warrior, Thief, then Mage, which is the party order the player wants to have. During this process, the player will be given stat increasing seeds for each character during creation. It almost always is 5 seeds per character, but very rarely the player is awarded 6 seeds. Using these seeds during character creation both gives higher stats to the new character, but also determines their potential personality. The system is somewhat complex, but the general idea is that the game identifies what the character's "greatest comparative stat" is, then based on some criteria including which class it is, which gender, and the distribution of other stats, the game decides a group of personalities to draw from. This document has this information, on the "Personality - Creation" tab. For example, if a Thief's highest stat is Agility, but Agility is not greater than 11, but is greater than 7, it will choose from a pool of "Foolish", "Agile", "Solitary", "Fearless", all of which have their own stat growths. The notes below per character for the speedrun are relatively straightforward.

After each character is created, the player has to be looking in the Japanese text for the appropriate personality confirmation to appear - this is how the player decides if the character is going to actually join the party. This takes a bit of practice, but the final dialogue with the Y/N selection after rolling stat seeds will show this personality. Look for the following Japanese characters:


Stamina Seeds (スタミナのたね), the third option when using seeds, corresponds to the 3rd stat, Stamina (たいりょく). When rolling stats and seeds per below, primarily look to these words and their values.

Japanese characters	Translation
タフガイ	Tough
てつじん	Ironman
がんばりや	Eager
おおぐらい	Gourmet

The Merchant's gender does not matter for the Yellow Orb quest, which occurs over halfway through this route. The player is simply creating the character now while they are at Ruida's tavern. The game will ask if the player want to manually select seeds, or to distribute them automatically. Although distributing them automatically may seem smart when the player don't care about the seeds for this character, the automatic dialogue system is fairly slow, and it is much faster to choose to put the seeds into Strength.

Stamina is by far the most important stat for starting characters, for both Stamina growths early in the game, and for long term Stamina growth via their personality growths. The Tough personality yields 140% Stamina growth and 115% Strength growth, whereas Ironman yields 130% Stamina growth an 105% Strength growth. The player can decide whether or not to take Tough or Ironman, but Tough is easily the most ideal, and most players will try a few times at least for Tough on the Mage, the reason being that the Mage turns into a Warrior later, and high HP all around is extremely helpful on tank characters.

The same logic for Mage applies here, with the exception that the Thief has the opportunity to change her personality via a Courage x100 Book that the player can opt to collect while in castle town Isis, which yields the Fearless personality, which is 95% Str/120% Agl/115% Vit/100% Wis/100% Luck. So, the player can opt for slightly less Stamina on the Thief for great Agility gains, which is very nice to have. So the player can make the choice if they'd like to collect the book and take a less desireable personality (this could be the case, for example, if the player rolls extremely high Vitality seed rolls for the Thief, but gets a less desireable personality, and the player wants to keep the high Vitality stat for the early game) However, the benefits of a 140% HP growth Thief probably outweigh a 120% Agility Thief. It is difficult to say for sure.

Notice that the character creation for Warrior is very fast - players can hold down Turbo A to create a male warrior with the name "ああああ" ("AAAA") very fast. Although Ironman for other characters is a potential option, it is not for the Warrior. The Warrior will never class change, and needs as much HP as possible, which includes the Tough personality.

The order the characters were created in was for a purpose - the player should be selecting the bottom option in the Recruit menu every time. So the characters are made in reverse, then added in reverse, yielding the correct order for the party.

This is distributing the King's goods to the party. Keep in mind that any characters can receive this (or any) gear from a dead character. The Traveler's Clothes go to the Warrior for now, but if he were to die, another character could temporarily borrow them. This concept is mostly relevant for the upcoming Pyramid segment.

Over the course of all encounters from this point on throughout the end of Najimi Tower, the player has a few goals. The most important of which is to get to level 2 with the Warrior, Mage and Thief. This often occurs within 2-3 battles. The reason level 2 is so important is that the game will be rewarding the characters that have received massive stamina "injections" via seeds with a large HP correction at level 2. The game attempts to catch up a character that has a relatively low HP value relative to their Stamina, and this results in a huge amount of HP gain for the first level. For example, a Mage created from character creation has 10 HP and 5 Stamina at level 1. This is a relatively normal balance. However, by using 5 Stamina seeds, that Mage could then have 10 HP and 15 Stamina. The game recognizes that 15 Stamina is way more than the "normal" 5, so when level 2 comes, regular stat gains are rewarded for everything but HP and MP, then the game attempts to auto correct HP and MP to their normal levels. The Mage will gain what would be "normal" for a character with 15 Stamina, which often results in 20+ HP awarded at level 2. The Hero is not considered crucially important to get to level 2, because the Hero does not receive stamina seeds at level 2. Further, the Hero takes more experience points to level up compared to the rest of the cast between the levels 1 through about 18, so the Hero will generally be behind in levels for most of the early to mid game.

Right at the start of the game, there are many possibilities for encounters. New players can fight everything, and some advanced players can opt to flee from encounters if they feel particularly dangerous/slow. There are a few guidelines. The Hero, equipped with a Copper Sword, can generally one-shot most enemies or come very close (~8-12 damage). The Warrior deals about ~5-8 damage, and the Thief deals around ~2-4 damage. Finally, the Mage can use Blaze spell for ~8-13 damage, and the player should utilize all of Mage's MP during the beginning segments. So, typically a strategy will have Hero and Mage attack individual enemies, and the Warrior & Thief together can attack the same enemy. Compared to later fights in this game, these fights are trivial, and spending any amount of time in battle deciding actions during runs is definitely not advised. Practice a little in advanced, and generally try to clear them fast, but the player cannot really make a grave error during these fights. The player does not have herbs until the first Reeve visit, so be mindful.

This shop visit is to get enough Chimera Wings to navigate the first ~20 minutes of the game, and to comfortably heal the party during this time. Some players opt to put one set of 9x Herb in the Thief's inventory, but it is not imperative, since for the most part the whole party will either be attacking or running from battle entirely, and healing outside of battle. The player should do some quick math to figure out how many herbs can be bought. The magic number is 316 gold to be able to buy 9x 3 sets of herbs and 4x wings. If slightly less than that, then adjust one set of the herbs downwards. Finally, some players only buy 3x wing, which is the bare minimum - buying 4x implies one extra wing is bought, which either will definitely get used later or can potentially bail the player out of a bad situation in the early segments.

No notes.

Refer to World Map to Reeve. The goal of level 2 still is in effect.

If MP on the Mage is already very low, there is an Inn for which the player can stay on the first floor (bottom left room). This is generally a race option.

After the party gets to level 1/2/2/2 for Hero/Warrior/Thief/Mage, rearrange the party order to Warrior/Thief/Mage/Hero.

Healing the party is now a major task that occurs after battles. Especially after getting level 2 with the non-Hero characters, they must be healed immediately to max out their newly gained HP. The player has to feel out generally safe HP levels. This is true for the entirety of the game, but for now, HP should be around ~10+ to be safe, perhaps slightly more around ~15 on the party lead characters.

Optional: Collect the book from the old man's bookshelf for additional early game money.

The goal of reaching level 2 is still in place. Often, players will reach level 2 by the time they are in the long downwards hallway at the beginning of the tower, after entering from the world map. The player can opt to fight encounters in Najimi Tower for more experience, getting upwards of level 3. This is entirely situational, and often employed in race settings. This will reward slightly more stats (most importantly HP) which can help with the walk to the Pyramid. The fastest times in this game often do not bother, as running from battle is generally faster. The encounters in Najimi Tower are certainly fightable, with the exception of the Trick Moths, which cast Surround (drastically decrease party accuracy). Unless there are 1-2 Trick Moths which can be cleared quickly, these encounters should be ran from. Otherwise, Froggores are introduced and have slightly more HP, but are otherwise not particularly dangerous.

If a character died along the way, this is the time to revive.

The player can opt to do an encounter reset in the small shrine to the south of the cave. If the player just got out of a battle and is about ~7 mountain tiles away from the shrine, this is generally a good idea.

The encounters quickly become more dangerous. By now, hopefully the player has reached level 2 on the Warrior/Thief/Mage. If not, this is pretty much the last chance to do so, and is top priority. Otherwise, if trying to go fast, the player should run from these battles.

These encounters can definitely be fought for getting to level 3 (level 2 for the Hero), with some guidelines. Wasps will summon allies, and although they are good for EXP, they deal a lot of damage, and the player can be caught in a trap where Wasps summon allies faster than the player can keep up. Babbles can utilize a poison attack, for which the player has 1 Antidote - any more poisoned characters quickly becomes problematic, as Antidotes will not be purchased for a long time from now.

No items are picked up here. There is a Sacred Knife available near the end of floor B1, but it is generally not retrieved unless the player is completely out of money options for Romaly.

All encounters should be ran from. In extreme exceptions some players will opt to fight small formations for more EXP. Almiraj will put the party to sleep with Rariho, and Anteaters will all target the same ally. Magicians have relatively high defense and cast Blaze. The general fastest strategy is to run from all encounters and to heal outside of battle. HP levels should be near max at this point, because any group of Anteaters can individually target an ally and mow down their HP.

This is the most aggressive strategy. Staying at the inn is not optional - it resets the day/night cycle for the upcoming segments. If short on money, go to the item shop and sell either the Hero's Copper Sword or 1-2 herbs

Romaly is the point of the first major deviations with respect to safety strategies. The fastest players will use the Inn to heal, which simultaneously resets the day-night cycle, which is important for the upcoming segments. Safer strategies include retrieving the optional items to sell. The player can sell the Hero's Copper Sword at this point. The player can opt to restock on more Herbs, or buy some safety gear from the armor shop. Some of the more popular options are the Wooden Shield for the Warrior, or the Leather Armor for the Thief. It is important, regardless of any strategy chosen, to have about 30G on hand if possible, which can be used to revive any dead characters in Assalam.

The encounter reset concept here is to identify the furthest tile on the map where the fights change from moderate to extreme difficulty, and to opt to get a fight at the end of the moderate area, even if it requires walking back and forth a few tiles to get that fight. Getting into battle will reset the threat level, and thus gives the player the most potential to walk through the most dangerous area with minimal encounters. This encounter reset is not required, but can overall be beneficial if the player has not got into a fight in awhile. In practice, if the player has not gotten into a fight since Romaly (highly unlikely), or got into a fight very early when walking away from Romaly, it's advised to grind out a fight at the edge of the forest, run away, then proceed.

This red line represents the last row of tiles before the enemy formations change and become much more dangerous. So, grind out a fight west of the line on the blue squares, then immediately walk east.

Run from everything. There are no circumstances in which the player fights anything. Everything is dangerous, there is little value in analyzing the differences beyond the fact that some enemies (Wild Apes, Vampires) are more dangerous than others (Catpire, Gas Cloud). The player should never fight these, just run.

The party will likely respawn in Aliahan castle. Leave the castle, head to the right to the Church, revive characters (sell Hero's Copper Sword if completely out of gold), then Wing to Romaly and try again. Unfortunately any deaths at this point result in resetting the day-night cycle, which makes some routing near castle town Isis slower. If the party made it to Assalam (technically applicable to the next segment), warp there immediately and revive.

This again is the bare minimum, aggressive strategy.

The Fur Hood is a great defensive option for the Thief. If the player wants to play mildly safely but doesn't want to get all the items in Romaly, this is a good option. Often, one or more characters will be dead and need to be revived in Assalam.

This begins the most treacherous part of the early game. Characters will often die in this segment. When a character dies, the player has the choice of giving a better piece of equipment to a surviving character. For example, if the Warrior dies, the player can take the Warrior's Traveler's Clothes and put them on the Mage, who has just basic Clothes.

If many characters are dead (2+) before reaching the Pyramid, the player can opt to detour to Isis and revive the dead characters. If this is done, there is just barely enough time to make it back to Isis after the Pyramid before day breaks.

There is a not-often used safety strategy where the player reaches Isis instead of the Pyramid as a first destination, forces daytime, then saves the game with the Queen for a safety save before the Pyramid visit. It is slower, but is good for no-reset situations. Still, even the encounters on the way to Isis are scary.

Run from everything. There are no circumstances in which the player fights anything.

Wing to Assalam, revive dead characters and try again. Unfortunately any deaths at this point result in resetting the day-night cycle, which makes some routing near castle town Isis slower.

The puzzle room's buttons will reset if the player leaves the floor or has a full party death. If the player pushes all the buttons, however, the buttons stay pressed and the door remains unlocked. In race scenarios, at least reaching the 4 buttons is a minor accomplishment, and makes the revisit to the Pyramid easier to clear - the player only needs to go north through the door to get the Magic Key.

Do not take any of the chests in the 10 chest room.

Run from everything. There are no circumstances in which the player fights anything.

There is about a 50% chance of getting into an encounter.

It should be night time by the time the party arrives. If it is not, the player needs to advance the day/night cycle until it is, which involves leaving the town landing area, walking a few steps on the world map, then re-entering, slowly advancing the cycle.

Run from everything. There are no circumstances in which the player fights anything.

Some advanced players skip the gold chests here. The bottom left chest in the top right room has a small medal, which is not necessary (and causes unaligned inventory/bag problems).

This vault is one of two major payouts from doing the entire journey for the Magic Key. It gives the player access to a significant amount of money, which allows the party to gear up safely for the upcoming segments.

This segment can only be done at nighttime.

Some players will sell the Ruby Bracelet here to save a small amount of menuing time, but this is not advised for newer players - a party death with 7350G on hand will result in an unrecoverable situation.

This gear is enough to survive the majority of the early and mid-game defensively. It is the reason the Magic Key journey is crucial to success.

The herb count here is not a precise number, and more herbs can be purchased easily later. The player will absolutely need herbs for a long time, so they're hardly a waste to buy in bulk now.

The player can opt to buy 36x Wings if they can afford it, but likely they will be just short, especially if any dead characters need to be revived. The order of the item purchases may seem odd, but it allows the preservation of the bag order with consistency per run.

Reviving dead characters cost only 10G each now.

This strategy is used for when the Thief is not the Tough personality. It will change her personality to be “Fearless”, which as described earlier in this guide in the personality section, will change her growth rates per level. It is entirely preference.

Nothing bad happens if the player says yes here, just longer text.

Some players will equip the Meteorite Armband in the first battle using the in-battle menu to save some time.

No notes.

This segment uses an encounter reset tactfully in the trees before walking towards Portoga. The goal is to give the player the highest chance to make it to Portoga without getting into a fight where the encounters are most dangerous. By getting into a fight in the lower row of trees, the player is as close as possible to the border where dangerous fights begin, but not yet there.

This red line represents the last row of tiles before the enemy formations change and become much more dangerous. So, grind out a fight above the line on the blue squares, then immediately walk south.

Run from everything. This is the last segment the player will be forced to always run from. The druids are extremely dangerous, as their Bagi spell can do massive damage. Ravengers act twice. This walk is why selling the Ruby Bracelet early is a bad idea for beginner strategy, as a death here results in losing half the player's gold, and is unrecoverable.

This is the final payoff of the Magic Key loop, which is to properly give the party weapons. The Steel Whips are incredibly good and will be used for the next hour or so during the speedrun.

This is the first instance of sorting items to the bag. This will move each character's unequipped items to the bag, with some exceptions for key items and usable items in battle. It is very important to keep track of when these occur. In this case, the sorting is important because it clears the Thief and Mage's inventory, which they'll need for the herbs purchased here.

There is an optional Strength Seed in the 2nd floor of the northern house, on the bottom left wall

No notes.

Hero	Warrior	Thief	Mage
Steel Whip	Steel Broadsword	Steel Whip	Rune Staff
Iron Armor	Iron Armor	Traveler's Clothes	Silk Robe
Iron Shield	Iron Helmet	Hero's Armband	Fur Hood (optional)
Iron Helmet		Fur Hood (optional)
Meteorite Armband

The encounter cancel at the shrine should be used if ~8+ steps have passed since the last battle. Otherwise ignore and keep moving north.

With the Thief and Hero having Steel Whips and the Warrior having a Steel Broadsword, and defensive equipment all around, now enemies can start being cleared out and not immediately ran from. A general concept for the rest of the game is to try to priorize fighting monsters where there's efficiency in the ability to defeat them quickly. In this case, because the player has 2 whips, encounters with either 1 or 2 groups of multiple enemies are the best.

The player must decide which encounters to fight or to flee from. The general goalpost is hitting Lv4/5/6/5 with Hero/Warrior/Thief/Mage by the time the player reaches Kandar. These early encounters before Champagne Tower are definitely worth fighting, but some of the slower ones with more than 2 groups of enemies can be avoided. Some enemies such as the Army Crabs have higher defense, so a lower level party might opt to flee. The difference of 1 or 2 extra rounds in battle can add up to lost time quickly. Further, the enemies in Champagne Tower are not that much more difficult, so even if a Lv2 party made it all the way there, they could reasonably survive, though this is a largely unnecessary scenario unless going for absolute fastest times.

Importantly, the Hero has the Meteorite Armband equipped, and the Thief has the Hero's Armband equipped. The reason behind this is to allow the Hero to potentially outspeed enemies (even though the Hero is slow), and the Hero's Armband allows the Thief to get a sizeable increase in damage output. This is used for all random fights for the next few segments. This setup overall allows for random encounters to be cleared faster - sacrificing a bit of attack on the Hero for the Thief to power up normalizes their attack power with 2 whips, and the Thief is still naturally fast enough without the Armband to outspeed most enemies, and the Hero can utilize the increased speed. Notably, when in boss battles, these accessories will switch. There will be notes later about this concept in Kandar 1's fight notes.

This again is the aggressive strategy.

Whenever the player leaves a town immediately, they're doing two things. One, they're setting a warp point for later. Two, they are resetting the encounter threat. So it is not pointless and not optional.

The Fur Hood is a nice option here, and would get equipped on the Mage. It allows for a much safer Kandar 1 and 2 experience. Life Nuts are always important - as an aside, Life Nuts should always be saved for the very end of the game and never used before then.

No notes.

Refer to the notes above for World Map to Kazave. Generally these encounters should still be fought when there are 1-2 groups of enemies, otherwise fled from.

Be careful while climbing to make sure the party is well healed. Before Kandar, ensure Thief and Mage have herbs.

The goal is still Lv4/5/6/5. Players can choose to be short or further than that goal, but generally this is a safe and normal level amount. The encounters here are fairly straightforward - target groups with whip users like usual. On the upper floors, the Venom Worms and Demonstools can inflict poison & sleep, so try to target them as a priority.

At Lv4, Mage has a 50% chance upon every level up of learning Sukara (Upper).

At Lv5, Mage has a 50% chance upon every level up of learning Hyado (Icebolt).

Therefore, reaching Lv5 allows for 2 chances of learning Sukara and 1 chance of Hyado. This arguably is the most important part of the leveling goal. The player should be checking the party spells upon level up for this. None of these spells are required, but they absolutely help with the next boss fight.

Party order: Hero, Warrior, Thief, Mage.

For all boss fights like this, the format for actions will be in order of the party separated by slashes. Example: Attack / Attack / Defend / Attack means Hero, Warrior and Mage attack, and Thief defends.

This guide has referred to “swapping bracelets” prior to this point. The Hero should have the Hero's Armband on, and the Thief has the Meteorite Armband. For boss fights, this is the preferred setup. Even though the Thief is fast without the Armband, having it on basically guarantees the Thief to outspeed everyone in battle, which is critically important when trying to heal the party with Herbs. For the Hero, Hero's speed is basically unimportant for non-random encounters, and because in this battle the Hero is solely attacking the boss, the extra attack from the Hero's Armband greatly helps.

Both Kandar and Kandar's Henchmen have a special AI flag that causes them to not follow standard attack targeting. Standard attack targeting is 40% first character, 30% second, 20% third, and 10% fourth for chances of being hit relative to party order. However, Kandar's Henchmen have a flat 25% chance. This means Thief and Mage have comparatively higher chance to be hit than usual. The Mage getting hit twice is extremely dangerous, and if one of those hits is from Kandar, Mage could easily die.

First, the player needs to know what spells the Mage has. Sukara will yield a safer fight for increased party defense, and Hyado will yield a faster fight for increased offense. Most players will play out turn 1 with the same actions based on what spells the Mage has.

In this fight, the Henchmen will be taken out first, then Kandar will be dealt with. The Hero and Warrior will only do physical attacks, Thief and Mage will heal the party with Herbs, the Thief will attack when no one needs to be healed, and the Mage will pivot to using spells as much as possible or defending. The below are some sample turn 1 actions - every player can change based on their preferences and character stats.

Turn 1, if Mage has nothing:
Attack Henchman A / Attack Henchman A / Attack Henchman A / Def
The reasoning here is that the Mage can't really contribute, and is definitely at risk of dying on turn 1

Turn 1, if Mage has Sukara:
Attack Henchman A / Attack Henchman A / Attack Henchman A / Sukara Mage
Mage should cast Sukara on herself. Players can choose a different ally to use Sukara on, but it's largely preference and willingness to be risky

Turn 1, if Mage has Hyado:
Attack Henchman A / Attack Henchman B / Attack Henchman B / Hyado Henchman A
This setup has the Hero (again, with increased attack power from Hero's Armband) and the Mage's Hyado attack the same Henchman, almost guaranteed defeating one of them.

After turn 1, the player has to decide who to heal and what to do:

If the Mage dies on turn 1, the fight is still winnable, but it will not be easy. The Thief will be on pretty much constant healing duty, and the player must carefully use herbs due to their limited number. It is important to consider how much damage Kandar can do, and if spending an herb to restore ~20HP instead of a full ~30+HP to be safe is worth it.

If Thief dies on turn 1, the fight is borderline unwinnable without Sukara on the Mage. Mage will need to immediately Sukara the rest of the party. Even with Sukara, the fight is extremely slow this way.

If Hero or Warrior die on turn 1, which is unlikely, the fight is still winnable but quite slow.

The flow of the fight after is somewhat set by turn 1. If everyone's alive, then Thief (with doubled speed from Meteorite Armband) is the primary healer. Mage can continue casting spells, and Hero/Warrior attack. The player must be cognizant of how much HP the henchmen have, and to target them wisely with attacks, because the game will redirect attacks randomly. For example, if a henchman has 15 HP left, the player should be aware of this and only have 1 ally attack them, and not be lazy on menuing and have 2+ allies attack that henchman. The first ally attack will defeat them, and the next attacks will randomly target other enemies. A goal is to efficiently direct attacks towards the henchmen.

Kandar has a chance of critically attacking an ally, and a chance to defend. A critical hit often kills an ally. Otherwise, the player needs to keep up with single target attacks and healing. Increased defense via Sukara on the whole party is the best action economy, because of less turns the Thief and Mage have to spend healing. The Mage can utilize all MP in this fight and should cast Hyado when everyone has Sukara.

Swapping bracelets sets the party up for fighting random encounters.

If any character dies during Kandar 1, immediately revive here in Assalam. The next segment will be fighting random encounters for experience

Be sure to keep the party healed, as noted below. It is easy to not pay attention when characters are around 30-40HP, then the next encounter they get killed.

This next wave of encounters are mildly dangerous, but important to clear out for experience. It is very rare players run from encounters here. The party has the tools to defeat these enemies. The hunter flies are the most dangerous with their Gira spell, which is area all ~12-16 damage. They are top priority for whip users to take out, and they don't have much health. Heat clouds are more annoying than dangerous, and have a weaker area all breath attack for ~10 damage. The red zombie dogs have Manusa which will decrease accuracy, and they are susceptible to Nifuramu, so the Hero can opt not to attack and instead try to remove them from battle. They have a decent attack stat, so be careful. As the player gets closer to Baharata, the blue antbears have very high attack, so it's recommended to have the Mage on defense while the others hopefully clear them quickly. The player should keep the party's HP at around 40 or greater, so healing after battle is worthwhile. There isn't an experience goal here perse - it's more about clearing encounters quickly and reaping the benefits. Usually each character levels up once around here, somewhere around a party average of 8-9, depending all on previous choices and who survived Kandar 1. A final piece of advice for the player is to remember splitting up their whip users appropriately - the ability for the party to clear groups of enemies with multi hit attacks is very beneficial. As was true earlier, generally the Hero and Thief attack different groups, and the Warrior and Mage join either of them independently to stagger attacks and attempt to clear as many as possible. One small caveat is that if there are especially dangerous enemies, i.e. the hunter flies, the player can just have all allies attack them as a priority. It is worth spending time understanding how to clear these encounters, as healing, spell animations from enemies, and inefficient turns can very quickly add up time.

The player should be keeping track of which spells the Mage learns. The Mage can continue her 50/50 rolls of learning Sukara and Hyado if they haven't been learned yet, and can learn Gira (Lv7) and Sukuruto (Lv9). Players should try to catch what spells are learned, because they will dictate strategy for the upcoming boss formations.

Magic Shields are incredibly good midgame shields, and the Thief/Sage will keep one for the rest of the game.

The Thief and Mage will once again need the max amount of herbs in their inventory. The player can choose to buy 9x herb for the Thief and Mage from the store here, or can manually distribute herbs from the bag to them. It is player preference, and mostly depends on how many herbs were used during the Kandar 1 fight.

The Mist Staff allows a free cast of Mahoton every turn. The player can choose to give it to the Warrior for the upcoming Henchman x4 fight, or can give it to the Mage to equip. More discussion on this later, but typically this decision happens here.

Some players choose to take the inn at Assalam (before the journey down to Baharata, after Kandar 1), but most players take it here. Either way, the player needs to have sufficient MP on the Mage for the Kandar 2 stretch, which implies needing close to max MP.

No notes.

The player should fight encounters here. The Hunter flies and Tonguebears are still around, and deal the most damage. The Magestools cast single target Hyado, but aren't very threatening. Nevs, the green lumps, are generally a pain to fight. They cast Medipani to confuse the party, Manusa to surround the party. Players usually encounter 1-2 formations here. The notes from the walk to Baharata above apply here for handling encounters with whips.

Save all HP seeds for the end of the game. Save 8 MP during the fights for the end.

Many players pick up the seeds here. It is slightly time costly, but these seeds are nice, and the strength boost to the Hero can really be helpful for the Henchman x4 fight.

For party order, typically players will rearrange to Warrior, Thief, Hero, Mage. This is entirely player preference and depends somewhat on if characters survived Kandar 1 and their HP stats.

If any characters are defeated during the Henchman fight, the player pretty much is required to leave and revive. All characters are helpful for Kandar 2, and the experience is non trivial.

This is the first standard use the player makes of the Defense reset “bug”, which is more of a programming oversight that is allowed for this category. The Henchman here will cast Rukanan, which has a chance of reducing an ally's defense for all allies. The player can simply go into the equip menu in battle and re-equip any piece of equipment, which forces the game to recalculate equipment bonuses, and importantly resets any buffs and debuffs. During this fight, the player needs to keep track of which allies need to reset their debuffs to neutral.

This is a difficult battle, arguably moreso than Kandar 2. The Henchman have 3 main actions - single target physicals, cast Rukanan spell, and cast Behoimi when either them or one of their allies is at less than 50% HP. Behoimi is the major problem here, and the player simply has to deal with a longer fight if it happens. The fight quickly becomes dangerous when the Henchman decide to use Rukanan once or twice at the beginning of the turn, then their allies get large attacks in. If the other way around occurs, where they perform a few physicals and then use Rukanan later in the turn, the player can easily reset defense during the next turn to undo the effects before major damage is done.

Once again, the player must reset defense when their allies are hit by Rukanan. Every turn the player should be paying attention and keeping track of which ally was affected. Newer players can reset everyone's defense if they are unsure - there is no downside besides time loss.

Use of the Mist Staff is an optional strategy for this fight. The Henchman are susceptible to Mahoton, although not particularly likely. Not all players use the wand, but those who do typically use it on the first turn of this battle. Depending on which character the player gave the wand to:

Warrior - Because the Warrior can only single target physical attack, he is a decent candidate for using the wand
Mage - The Mage can opt to use the wand if she has not learned any spells.

Each character has a specific role in this fight:
Warrior - Primarily attack, rarely defend. Use the Mist Staff on turn 1 if desired.
Thief - Primarily heal the party with Meteorite Armband and herbs. Otherwise use whip attacks.
Hero - Primarily attack, rarely defend
Mage - Mage is the most complex ally to issue commands. She can emergency heal with herbs at any time alongside the Thief. Because she's in the back of the party, she has the lowest likelihood to get attacked, but if she does she can be in trouble quickly. Otherwise, what actions she takes primarily depens on her spells. Gira is the best option for ~15-20 damage to each Henchman. Hyado can be used slightly later in the fight to attempt to “snipe” a Henchman before they begin healing when under 50% HP. If the Mage is higher level, she may have Sukuruto, for increasing all allies' defense. Very, very importantly - Sukuruto is a great spell, but remember the Henchmen are simultaneously casting Rukanan. The defense reset bug will remove all buffs and debuffs, so the player should optimally keep track of relative defense levels and be careful not to debuff their own ally on accident. Finally, the Mage can use Mist Staff, usually on turn 1 but can be later as well. Mist Staff usage primarily occurs when the Mage has very few spells to work with, as a result of unlucky spell learning on level ups. Finally, the Mage needs to have 8 MP at the end of the next upcoming fight. She should use MP fairly liberally to clear this battle, but it is important to keep track of how much MP was used and how much to save for the next fight and post-fight

The first few turns typically dictate the fight. Turn 1 typically is Warrior, Hero, and Thief all attack physically, and Mage pivots with spells or Mist Staff. The player resets defense if necessary, then usually the Thief (and maybe Mage) use herbs. The Thief can sneak in attacks when HP levels are relatively safe.

Because Henchmen have a chance of healing under 50% HP, the player can choose to prioritize damage over healing/defending, which generally is the faster strategy anyhow. The idea is that the fight will go on longer if the Henchman is about to heal, so the player can choose not to heal their own party in hopes of defeating a Henchman who would have otherwise stalled the battle. This is perhaps the most difficult part of this fight - identifying risk levels and attempting to swiftly “snipe” Henchman who are about to heal.

No notes

Kandar 2's AI is similar to Kandar 1's. Kandar is joined by 2x Henchman, which are exactly the same enemies as the prior 4x Henchman battle.

The player should immediately target the 2x Henchmen. The general strategy is the same as the previous encounter, and the “sniping” factor is important here.

A typical turn 1 involves the Thief, Hero and Warrior all attacking, an the Mage should either cast Hyado (to single target 1 enemy and attempt to maximize ability to snipe a Henchman) or Sukuruto (to safely set up defense).

Mage is again a pivot character. Hopefully the Mage has Sukara by now, and ideally Sukuruto. After turn 1, the Mage should be prioritizing setting up defense on the party. Who she buffs first, when using Sukara, is up to the player, but a generally safe strategy is to buff herself first, and buff characters with low current HP on turns theyre attempting to heal.

Once again - the Mage needs to have 8 MP after this fight, so do not misuse extra spells.

Once the Henchmen are defeated, and the party is hopefully stable with some defense increases, the fight is rather simple, and plays similarly to the Kandar 1 fight. Kandar here has a chance to critical an ally, but otherwise just physically attacks. Attack, heal, and save 8 MP on the Mage.

Revive any dead characters in Baharata.

The ship will not be registered to the party unless it is specifically taken from the harbor here.

At this point, the game is very much open to the player to explore the world with the ship. The player's general goal is to prepare for the grind segment, to properly power up the characters to be able to defeat the next set of bosses, particularly Baramos. The player will visit Sioux for the Invisibility Herb, access Edinburgh for the Drought Vase and a lot of money, collect the Red Orb, set a few warp points, and then start the grind.

Most encounters should be fled from here on while sailing. The only exceptions would be single target groups of either mermen or man o' wars. The sea slimes will cast Sukuruto, so definitely avoid them. Blue crabs can rarely use critical attacks. From here until Garuna Tower, experience from these encounters is not valuable, and fights should only be cleared or fled from to be as fast as possible.

The Thunder Staff is a free cast of Begirama per turn. It is incredibly useful for the upcoming segment.

The Invisibility Herb will grant access to Edinbear. Do not get this purchase confused with the poison moth powder (310 gold).

There is an optional Agility Seed in the first house on the right upon entering, right pot.

No notes.

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters. There is a very small possibility of getting into an encounter while on land, which can be very dangerous. Flee immediately and hope for the best.

Be careful not to waste the Invisibility Herb. Simply use it and walk past the guard, but don't take extra steps or leave the area.

If the puzzle is failed, leave and try again.

Watch a video for the movement when landing near the Pirate's Hideout. The world map is split into a 16x16 tile grid, and the movement in players' runs is specifically walking through one of these 16x16 array of tiles where there are no encounters. In short, do exactly what runners do here when landing.

Holy Water works by comparing the lead party members level to enemies in the area. It guarantees the first few steps near Aliahan and the steps when entering Cave of Temptation to not get encounters, but more importantly the use of Holy Water here does not deplete the encounter step threshold.

This segment is one of the earliest examples of where the player must make a call if they want to reset an encounter if (and only if) they get an early fight in the sea before landing to cancel the encounter at the Cave of Temptation (or shrine). If a fight occurs before landing, the player can opt to skip the landing process entirely and keep going - the idea being that getting into the fight effectively reset the encounter anyways, so there's little value of landing and resetting the encounter once more.

Same as above sail to Sioux for ocean encounters, except that some more can be fought with the Thunder Staff. The Mage can significantly damage pretty much every enemy group, including sea slimes, but often the best thing for the player to do is run. The player should just realize its a viable option to clear out single groups with the Thunder Staff.

All formations on land south of the Pirate's Hideout are very dangerous. Do not fight and immediately run. Most enemies can be put to sleep somewhat reliably, but most players will run.

The Party Dress will be equipped by the Thief as a great piece of armor until she turns into a Sage (and no longer can equip). Heavy Metal Ring goes to the Mage - if the Mage has Tough personality, the player can opt not to do this, as the ring influences HP and speed growths by changing personality, but the player may prefer to keep Tough as the personality. All Strength Seeds go to Hero.

This part of the route unlocks these locations as warp points. There is some minor optimization here with the active Holy Water, as it does not run out until the player reaches the ocean, meaning the steps from Reeve, north on land to the ship, do not deplete the encounter threshold.

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters. These are the same ocean encounters as above, with the Thunder Staff.

It is common for the player to experience a battle outside of Dharma - this is because the sea's encounter depletion is much lower than the forest, but the player has sailed a decent amount since leaving Jipang, which ultimately means when the player lands they will be likely low enough on the threshold to get a fight. The formations around here are similarly not worth fighting in most cases, except for single group enemies. The player should flee most of the time.

Importantly, the Thief should not be equipping the Poison Needle, because she'll keep her Steel Whip equipped to clear encounters before fighting metal slimes. The Poison Needle will be there for later in the grind. However, the Mage does equip this Poison Needle, and never takes it off. In her item inventory, upon equipping the needle, the previously equipped Thunder Staff will now be in her first non-equipped item slot, so the player can reliably and quickly use her first item (the Thunder Staff) in battle.

The player has the choice to sell the Warrior's Iron equipment. Both will be replaced later. The reason this is viable is that the Warrior will not be alive long during the grind, and often the player actually wants to inflict damage to the Warrior to reliably kill him off (which will be explained later). Selling the equipment gives the player more money for Moth Powders. If the player wants to be safe, either don't sell this equipment, or just sell the shield. More aggressive players will sell both.

Moth Powders are used to confuse enemy groups, and are critical for the grind segment. The player must fill the party's inventory with these now- do not put them in the bag, otherwise the player will have to distribute them one at a time to each character.

Warrior	Thief	Hero	Mage
Steel Broadsword	Steel Whip	Steel Whip	Mist Staff
Iron Helmet	Party Dress	Iron Armor	Silk Robe
	Magic Shield	Magic Shield	Magic Shield
	Hero's Armband	Iron Helmet	Silver Barette
	Poison Needle	Meteorite Armband

Be mentally prepared for a Metaly fight on the way in. If Catulas steal the Hero's MP, it may be wise to take an Inn via either using a Wing or casting Rura to Romaly (an easily accessible inn), or walking to Dharma's inn (east tower, 2nd floor) and restarting the walk.

The player is almost guaranteed to get into an encounter along the way, and sometimes two encounters. The fights outside are typically not experience efficient, but usually are cleared out and not fled from. With two whip users, the Mage using the Thunder Staff, and the Warrior's single attack, the same strategies as before generally apply - optimize group attacks. Nevs resist magic damage, so the Thunder Staff is not very effective on them. Killer Apes do a lot of damage, but do not have much health. The Catulas can drain MP, which can be very dangerous for the Hero - if the Hero's MP gets drained, some players might want to visit an Inn and retry, because the Hero really needs his MP in order to cast Expel on Sky Dragons in the tower.

Metal slimes can appear on this trip north. Typically these encounters aren't great for farming metal slimes, but if the player sees a metal slime with another group of enemies and wants to try to defeat it, they can & should. The metal slime hunting strategy will be explained in the next segment, but in short, the Thief/Mage (faster party members) can throw a powder on either the metal slime or a Killer Ape (who can target the metal slime). If metal slimes appear with Nevs, the party priority should be to clear out the Nevs and then try to get lucky with metal slimes - leaving Nevs around (who can cast Manusa and blind the party) make for extremely slow and inefficient fights, and Nevs resist moth powders more than other enemies.

This segment is the first part of the grind in this game. It is a very complicated process, and has many tenants the player must learn to understand and follow, which will be described here.

The first and foremost goal is the power level the Thief to Lv20, so that she can use the Zen Book to class change into a Sage. This is “part 1”.

If the Hero dies early, the player will likely need to revive, unless late into the first grind with Lv16+. Some players kill off the Hero intentionally early, which speeds up EXP for the Thief and Mage. If the Warrior dies early, the player can choose to not revive him, depending on his HP. The goal is to have the Warrior with a sufficient amount of HP for Boss Troll, which usually hovers somewhere around 130HP+. If the Warrior dies with this much hp, it's likely okay to not leave and revive. But if it's significantly less than this, likely he needs the level up or two before being killed off. If the Thief or Mage die, the player must leave and revive immediately.

The player must keep the party well healed throughout this segment. The numerous herbs bought earlier in the run (from Isis, Portoga, Baharata and Sioux) are primarily used here. A safe level to keep everyone's HP over is ~65HP, which will protect from the 2 most dangerous area all attacks from 2 enemies. New players should regularly max out HP frequently.

The flow of this section will be described in multiple phases here. This level grind is complex as the party's strategy to clear enemies technically changes over time, but there are some general ideas that persist.

Phase 1: “level the Warrior a level or two to get to ~130 HP, then kill him off” - The very beginning of this grind will have the Warrior alive, but not for very long. Enemies should be cleared out normally, and any metal slimes should be attempted to be defeated with the Warrior alive. Ideally, the player gets 1 or 2 metal slimes while the Warrior is alive. As soon as a formation appears with a significant amount of metal slimes, the idea is that the Warrior should be helping out on turn 1 by throwing a powder, then should begin targeting himself with physical attacks to be killed off before that battle is over.

For example, a Lv13 Warrior with 130HP is ready to be killed off. The party enters the 1x Sky Dragon 7x Metal slime formation. On turn 1, all party members should throw powders on the metal slimes, except the Hero who casts Nifuramu on the Sky Dragon. Then on turn 2, the Warrior should attack himself, and the Hero attacks the Warrior, while the Thief & Mage attack the metal slimes with Poison Needles (or throw extra powders). Once the Warrior is dead, any EXP that would have been distributed to him will be distributed moreso to remaining allies. If the player's Warrior dies early and doesn't help contribute in a fight this way, it's not a problem, just less efficient. As a separate example, in the event the player has just entered the grind area, then gets a fight like this immediately where they have to decide if they want the EXP to go to the Warrior or not, the player has to see what the Warrior's current and max HP is, and asses what their player risk level is to gamble. Follow the ~130HP guideline to play safer if desired. But the Warrior will get at least some EXP later before Baramos, so it's not the end of all EXP for him.

Phase 2: “Rearrange the party, collect the Silver Barette, equip on the Thief in battle, and fight a few more metal slime battles” - Rearranging the party involves putting the Thief and Hero in the first and second party slots. Then, collect the Silver Barette - ideally the Thief has used at least 1 powder, so that the barette goes to her inventory instead of somewhere else (another character/bag). While in battle, equip the barette like any other in battle item to be equipped. “A few more metal slime battles” is vague, but the idea here is that all players should have used about ~8 total powders the end of this little grind, because the player will be able to open the Warrior's inventory, as described next.

Phase 3: “Redistribute Warrior's inventory, then continue to grinding levels until Lv20 Thief” - At this point, after using ~8 powders across the team, the player can open the Warrior's inventory and redistribute his remaining powders to the rest of the team. The player should also give the Warrior's Steel Broadsword to the Hero, and do not equip yet. If there are any inventory slots left on other characters and there are powders in the bag, now is a good time to distribute them. The overall idea is to put off this menu until it's efficient to distribute the powders all at once.

The remaining part of the time in part 1 of Garuna Tower is geared towards gaining levels. The player should still be utilizing powders, but saving roughly ~6-8 for part 2 of the grind. Unfortunately, even a guide like this cannot tell the player how to optimize throwing moth powders and how much to save for later - the reality is that it's a soft science and many players feel out where they throw powders and how they control battles. It's just important for a new player to not use all powders during this segment, or if they do, understand they'll need a backup plan for part 2 (which is feasible and described later).

As soon as the Thief reaches Lv20 (32202 EXP), fall down on the tightrope. Roughly ~6 character widths inwards from either side of the rope is enough distance to be able to fall down into the correct spot. Then, head left and down the stairs, and the first treasure chest will yield a Zen Book. Cast Riremito with the Mage and wing to Dharma (2,4).

The chief strategy of this segment is using moth powders to confuse enemies. There are a few rules about how these powders work:

Every enemy has a resistance level to being confused via powder. Metal slimes have a ~70% chance of being confused per powder. Garudas and Stingwings have a 100% chance. Sky Dragons have a 30% chance.

Confused enemies will not attack the party when there are any other enemies left.

When there are two or more enemy groups, if one member of a group is confused, they will never run away, and will only target the other remaining groups. This is very important - metal slimes that are confused will never flee.

When there is only one enemy group left, any confused enemies will still not run away, provided there are still other enemies left in their group. Confused enemies will continue to attack their group allies, and will not flee.

When there is only one enemy left, and they are confused, it is as if nothing has changed - they follow their regular AI at thath point. Metal slimes that are by themselves, confused or not, can run away.

Confused enemies that target their allies have a slightly different damage formula for damage to their allies. There's no need to discuss the specifics, but simply what happens is that their physical damage does anywhere from 0 to ~7 in the tower, which can often defeat metal slimes in one blow.

The player will be using moth powders at groups of enemies. Unfortunately, although the party AI is smart in some regards, they will throw powders on metals that are already confused, wasting them. This is particularly why the strategy of throwing one powder to a unique group is safer.

Whip attacks only have a chance of actually damaging the first metal slime in a group. The rest will auto miss. Because of this, described in the next bullet, a single target attack can be more beneficial than a group attack.

The player's party AI will redirect attacks to non-confused enemies. This is particularly important for characters with the option to single target or group attack. During part 1 of the grind, the Hero will have the Steel Whip and the Steel Broadsword. For example, if there are 3 metal slimes, A, B and C, and A is confused, all single target attacks will either go to B or C, and once one ally has done some damage to one, the rest of the party will target the same enemy. Let's say this is metal slime C who has been hit once by an ally party member, the Thief. If the player has the Steel Whip on the Hero, he will only be able to target A, due to the bullet point described above. But if he were to switch to the Steel Broadsword, his AI will recognize that C has been damage and is non-confused, so he will attack C. This is important, as generally the player does not want to target a confused enemy as long as possible, because the idea is that confused enemies are working in the player's favor. Finally, it is important to note that between the Thief and Mage having Poison Needles and the Hero taking the Warrior's Steel Broadsword, the three important characters alive during this grind all have single target attacking options.

The Poison Needle has a 1 in 16 chance of landing an instant kill on any enemy without instant death resistance - including metal slimes.

Steel Whips are the primary means of damaging groups of enemies. The Thief will be often switching between using her whip and her Poison Needle depending on the situation. Being one of the two Poison Needle users, she can prioritize defeating metal slimes when they're present. But otherwise, her ability to clear out groups of enemies alongside the Hero is invaluable.

The Steel Broadsword begins on the Warrior, then is transferred to the Hero. As described above, it allows the Hero to single target attack. It also has a particularly fast attacking animation.

The Mage has the Thunder Staff, which is her bread & butter attack for non-metal slime damage. If she ever needs to do damage, it's primarily using this as an item, and occasionally using Hyado.

Moth powders thrown by the player can hit the same enemy in a group. The party's AI chooses purely randomly, so unfortunately powders can be wasted this way. Commonly, runners spread powders among different groups on a given turn to avoid this, or accept the gamble of throwing powders as a group of small enemies - for example, throwing 3 powders on a group of 3 metal slimes, it is possible one or two of those powders hit the same target.

Thief will be the fastest character. Because she can even outspeed metal slimes, the player generally gets to choose where she throws a powder, and hopefully she goes before the enemy does, thus the enemy will take its first action while confused. Sometimes it makes sense to confuse a metal slime, sometimes it makes sense to confuse an ally (e.g., confusing a moth on turn 1 immediately so that moth will attack a metal slime as soon as it takes its first action). The player has to be micromanaging the Thief's weapon, switching between the Poison Needle and Steel Whip for the entirety of this grind.

Hero's primary goal is to clear out groups of enemies with his high attack powder. But he can throw powders any time. He typically is the second best user of powders, but it cannot be understated how slow some battles can be if the Hero is not clearing groups of enemies and instead throwing moth powders.

Mage is faster than the Hero significantly, but Mage's ability to reliably deal Poison Needle damage or use the Thunder Staff allows her to not micromanage inventory and efficiently do one or the other. In other words, she can primarily focus on dealing damage while her allies throw powders. Only in cases where there are a lot of metal slimes is it worth it for her to throw powders as well. Some players may prefer to have Mage throw powders more aggressively while Hero deals group damage, again a matter of preference.

The player needs to come up with a gameplan for how to throw powders. Again, this is an area of the game where many intermediate and expert players handle things very differently. However, here are a few methodologies and things to think about:
If the formation has 2 groups of enemies, and one group has metal slimes, it's almost never a bad idea to throw one powder for each group of enemy. The powder to the metal slime may fail, but the other group (usually Garudas or Stingwings) will always get confused.
If there are only 2 enemies total and one is a metal slime, some players only throw a powder on the metal slime, or none at all. These fights do not warrant two powders.
If a large formation of metal slimes appear (4+), it's generally best to have all characters throw powders. Further, if round 1 does not go well and multiple powders fail, and multiple metal slimes are still around, the player should stomach the loss quickly and reattempt powders if many of the metals haven't yet fled. It may feel bad, but positionally the player is in a similar position as to starting the fight and should reattempt. However if metals become confused, simply switch to single target attacks (Poison Needle and Steel Broadsword (Hero)) and reap the benefits.

Save somewhere between 6-8 powders during this whole process for part 2 of the grind.

The Stingwings can paralyze any ally. This is unfortunate when in the battle this occurs, as that party member won't get any turns until the battle is over. Outside of the battle, that character will be stunned for a very short amount of time - the player needs to walk around just a little amount of time before paralysis wears off. If all allies are paralyzed, it counts as a full party death. But otherwise, the player should not be overly concerned with an ally being paralyzed, unless it happens very early in a fight and the player is otherwise not very well healed.

Alluded to above, this game will redistribute experience based on number of allies alive. For example, a metal slime gives 4,140 experience. This will be divided by how many allies are alive. This is critically important and why characters get “killed off” purposefully. The Warrior will not be alive most of this grind, and some players kill off the Hero later so that even more experience goes to the Thief and Mage.

Each enemy deserves its own brief write-up. However, there are some other enemies on the way up to the grind floor, where the player is guaranteed one encounter on floor 1. These enemies are Killer Apes, Shadows, Rammores and Great Beaks. All of them are susceptible to whips and the Thunder Staff. The only major strategy here is to clear out the Great Beaks as soon as possible, because of them going twice in one turn.

Sky Dragon - certainly the most dangerous enemy in Garuna. They have 80 max HP, and can use medium fire breath for ~30-40 damage to all party members. They are immune to fire damage, but 100% susceptible to ice (Hyado / Hyadaruko). Importantly, the Hero's Nifuramu spell will 100% remove them from the battlefield. Typically when a Sky Dragon is faced alone, the player will attack with all allies except Mage and use Hyado. Otherwise, the player can justify using Nifuramu when there are other enemies around. A great example is the 1x Sky Dragon 7x Metal slime encounter - the player wants to remove the Sky Dragon immediately, so that confused metal slimes start attacking each other, rather than the Sky Dragon. A particularly dangerous fight is the 1x Sky Dragon 2x Garuda fight, where all enemies can use area all attacks and can put the party in serious danger. Do not ever use moth powders on a Sky Dragon.

Garuda - Garuda's have max 60 HP. They are 100% susceptible to being moth powdered, and are 100% susceptible to fire and ice spells. They are mildly dangerous, as they have Begirama. Unfortunately because they know this spell, when confused they have a chance of using it against their allies, and against metal slimes it is a complete waste. For this reason alone they are not the prime target for moth powders, but they certainly can be moth powdered as they are really only one of three recipients of powders. For example, there's no reason the player wouldn't moth powder a Garuda in a 2x Garuda 3x Metal slime fight, even if the Garuda has a chance of using Begirama against the metals. Garudas will physically hit metal slimes harder than Stingwings.

Stingwings - These enemies have 40 max HP. They are 70% susceptible to fire damage, which unfortunately means the Mage's Thunder Staff will not always hit them. They are 100% susceptible to ice damage and to moth powders. They only use physical attacks, but some of them have a chance of paralysis. Either way, because these are only physical attacks, moths are the prime target for moth powders, because they will only use physical attacks against metal slimes (unlike the Garudas using Begirama).

Great Beaks - These birds do not show up with any other enemies, only as groups by themselves. They can easily be cleared with whips and the Thunder Staff. They take two actions per turn.

Metal slimes - Metal slimes, or metals, have between 3 to 4 HP (50% chance for either). They have a ⅜ chance to run away, 2/8 chance to physical and ⅜ chance to use Mera. They are not susceptible to any spell damage, and only have a 70% chance to be moth powdered. This is unfortunate, as it is not entirely reliable to throw powders on metals, although many players will do so and hope for the best. Metals are confused not because they help significantly with damaging their own allies, but primarily to keep them from running away and to redirect party AI attacks. For example, if a formation is 2x Stingwing 2x Metal slime, a common strategy is to throw a powder on each group. If a metal slime is properly confused, all single target attacks from the party to the metal slime group will go to the other non-confused metal slime, which is beneficial because according to the rules above, the confused metal slime will not be running away as long as it's not the last enemy remaining.

The Thief will have the Zen Book in her inventory - the only way this possibly doesn't happen is if the Thief is either not in the front of the party, or she somehow has a full inventory. Otherwise, when class changing, the last option in the class choice menu will be Sage.

This is the first use of SF in the game. As described at the beginning of this guide, SF will often be used. Players should learn from VODs and experiment to learn specifically where to use it.

This town visit to stay at the inn to recover MP for the Mage for the upcoming grind segment and to collect a leather loincloth for the Mage Warrior (do not equip now).

Optional: Life Nuts can be found in the northern church, in the center tile on the ground's cross-like image.

Optional: The player has access to a significant ~5100G via the Ortega Helmet in this town. By walking north, east then south on the edge of town, the player can access a brief cutscene to obtain the Ortega Helmet. Also in this town is an item shop that sells poison moth powders, so if the player is desperate for moth powders, this is an option. Generally players do not do this, but for either races or beginner players, it can be a vital safety net. One might think that the Ortega Helmet is equipment worth keeping - although it is a decent helmet for the Hero, the Hero will be equipping the Misery Helmet later in the game, so the Ortega Helmet's usage is very limited

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters. There are some unique land encounters here, but they are incredibly rare in occurrence.

No notes.

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters. The land tile before entering the Final Key Shrine, although incredibly rare to get a fight, does have unique encounters. There's a ~10% chance of getting the 8x Metaly formation. Be prepared.

This segment is an opportunity for menuing refreshment. The accessory setup ends up such that the Sage gets the Heavy Metal Ring for personality adjustment for boosted HP growth during early levels, the Hero gets the Hero's Armband again for more attack power (which he keeps for the rest of the game), and the Mage gets the Meteorite Armband for speed. This is the only segment the Mage wears this accessory, but given her level she can outspeed much of the enemies in the second part of the grind.

"Sort the Sage's inventory" means to use the sort to bag command on the Sage only. Other character should keep their inventories as the Hero & Mage should have some powders on them. The Sage, however, just class changed, and has some extra equipment inventory that should be sorted. This frees up her inventory to receive powders and the Steel Broadsword.

The Steel Broadsword going to the Sage will help her isolate single targets, which is arguably more important in the upcoming segment than it was before.

Make sure SF is active, but do not recast for the rest of this & the next (Garuna Tower part 2) segment. SF will wear off just in time to start the grind.

Refer to World Map to Garuna Tower for encounter data.

Although not much changes for this walk, the party will have SF active, so the walk north will have less encounters.

Getting past Lv2 as a Sage is very important. Often once the player gets to Lv2 with the Sage, the player has full reign to kill off the Hero. The reason Lv2 is so important is simply because of the Nifuramu spell, which she will have access to. At level 1, the Sage is not only vulnerable with low stats, but also that a Sky Dragon poses a serious threat to the Sage/Mage team without Nifuramu. Often, hitting Lv2 either happens during this segment or the very beginning of the next segment.

This grind is somewhat simpler than the previous one, but also comes with its own set of challenges. The goal is to get to Lv21 with the Mage, learn Baikiruto, and leave immediately. Another purpose of this segment is to get the Sage to Lv14, where she learns Behoimi.

As noted above, getting Lv2 Sage (which will happen after any first fight) is very important. Players do not want to be in a situation with a Sky Dragon wishing they had Nifuramu.

Depending on how the previous segment was played, Hero may or may not be alive. If he's alive, the same idea for Warrior contributing to a battle then being killed off, is applicable for the Hero here.

During this grind, both Sage and Mage should have moth powders, usually ~4 each. Sage will be responsible for switching between the Steel Whip and the Steel Broadsword. The Mage will have the Meteorite Armband on, to likely outspeed everything. Mage is arguably the better powder thrower of the two, where Sage is better at clearing out enemies. However, Mage gets two very good spells during this segment. She will learn Merami (Blazemore) at Lv18, which is an excellent tool for clearing out single target garudas and madpeckers (do not use on poison moths). Merami is especially good for clearing battles quickly - be sure to incorporate in random encounter strategy late into the grind. Hyadaruko is a 50% learn spell starting at Lv20. If learned in time during this grind, it is immensely helpful for dealing consistent 100% of poison moths/madpecker health, and doing ~80-100% of garuda health. The player should use these spells as much as possible, as Mage's MP is rarely fully utilized during this segment and there's no reason to hold back.

The Baikiruto spell is a 50% chance to be learned at Lv21 for the Mage. If it is not learned, every level past Lv21 will have a 50% chance to learn. Many players going for PBs will reset over this. It is an unfortunate part of the speedrun, as it is a pure 50/50 that is very much not in the player's favor. This spell is necessary & required for this route - there is no avoiding this endeavor.

The amount of EXP required for Lv21 is 45676. Newer players can opt to watch this value and get close to it, then opt to leave Garuna Tower, warp to Dharma and save the game, then grind a few fights either outside of Dharma (~300 EXP per fight, and a small chance of metal slimes) or warp to Edinbear and Jipangu (slightly more risky, but a good option with Hyadaruko for ~600 EXP per fight).

Behoimi is learned by the Sage at Lv14, at a 100% rate. There is an aspect of this part of the grind where the Sage will either achieve Lv14 before or after the Mage achieves Lv21. This is all dependent on how much more EXP did the Mage receive than the bare minimum required for the Thief to level to 20.

Two scenarios illustrating the above point- consider during Garuna Tower part 1, the Thief has 31500 EXP, roughly ~700 EXP away:
- Scenario 1: The party battles and defeats two regular battles, giving the team ~1000 EXP. The Thief just barely meets the Lv20 requirement, and the party can leave. The Mage's EXP is effectively ‘baseline'. During Garuna Tower part 2, the Sage has a normal amount of EXP, because the Mage is baseline for her starting point. In this scenario, Sage reaches Lv14 before Mage reaches Lv21.
- Scenario 2: The party battles and defeats a few metal slimes, giving the team ~6000 EXP. The Thief greatly surpasses Lv20 requirement, and the party can leave. Now the Mage also has ~5300 EXP more than is ‘baseline'. Because of this, during Garuna Tower part 2, the Sage has comparatively “less” EXP, because the Mage has a 5300 EXP lead. In this scenario, Mage will reach Lv21 before Sage reaches Lv14.

The above problem of Mage reaching Lv21 before Sage reaches Lv14 is important to identify. The Sage desperately needs to learn Behoimi - it is a critical spell for keeping the party healed. Importantly the Sage will not have many opportunities to get EXP before the next boss fight, Boss Troll. So if the player is in this scenario, they should consider if they should continue grinding in Garuna Tower, or if they can fight battles during the Gaia's Navel segment coming soon.

Refer to Garuna Tower Part 1 for encounter data.

At level 21, Mage needs to have learned Baikiruto. If this is the case, she can freely change into a Warrior. The Mage Warrior's role will largely to be casting Baikiruto in every major fight for the rest of the game, and simultaneously tank damage. She'll also cast a few other spells routinely, such as Sukuruto.

At this point, the player will be expected to generally always have SF active. Part of reviewing VODs is taking note of when and where to use SF, to avoid the message that displays when SF runs out. If the player can use SF right before it wears out, they'll avoid this message. The places that players use SF is typically very consistent per run.

When switching the Meteorite Armband for the Heavy Metal Ring (“HMR”), both can equip. The Meteorite Armband is required to be equipped. However the HMR (for the Mage Warrior) is an optional equip - generally the rule of thumb is that a Tough personality Mage Warrior does not need to equip the HMR now. The reason is that HMR changes character personality, which is generally beneficial but not nearly as good as the Tough personality's HP growths. HMR will be used much later in the game to give an agility boost to the Mage Warrior if it is not equipped here.

It is normal and expected for the Warrior and Hero to be dead during this section. They will be revived soon.

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters.

For many upcoming segments, there is no necessity to fight random encounters. Encounters are only fought for the sake of clearing them quickly.

There is nothing important in Lancel besides the access to Gaia's Navel. As an aside, Lancel sells Invisibility Herbs, but the player already purchased one in Sioux, so there is no value.

Gaia's Navel is relatively straightforward. Follow a VOD's path, taking note of where SF occurs.

Very importantly, make sure the Sage has enough MP to cast Riremito after collecting the Blue Orb. It is a very slow and painful process to leave manually. Also, be mindful of memory cursor with the Sage when using Riremito from Gaia's Navel, then using Rura. Players will get into the habit of turboing SF with the Sage, and this section leaves the memory cursor on Rura.

Refer to the Garuna Tower part 2 section regarding discussion on the Lv13 vs Lv14 Sage problem. If the Sage is Lv13, the player should clear out as many battles on the Sage to get to Lv14 to learn Behoimi.

Encounters here are fairly straightforward. Most formations are fine to run from, and some warrant being cleared out, mostly 1 group formations. The 3x executioner formation is worth being cleared out via steel wheep, as these enemies can cause criticals. There is relatively little danger in this dungeon, even alone as one character.

The player must keep the Sage's HP high, and should not be afraid to spend a turn in battle to cast Behoimi to recover. But once again, leave enough MP to cast Riremito.

As mentioned in the previous section, be mindful of memory cursor with the Sage. Players will get into the habit of turboing SF with the Sage, and this section leaves the memory cursor on Rura.

Refer to World Map to Sioux for ocean encounters. There is little value in clearing them out for EXP, unless the Sage has not yet reached Lv21. The encounters on the land walking to Tedon are uncommon, and are generally dangerous and should be fled from.

The Lamp of Darkness is an incredible tool used for the rest of this run while walking on the world map. As described above, “encounter cancelling” is the idea of resetting the step threshold towards getting into a new battle. The Lamp does exactly that when it changes the time from day to night. As is the case with when to cast the SF spell, so too are Lamp uses tightly routed, and most players do the same thing when using the Lamp.

Note that the Lamp can only be used during the day.

It's importantly to realize that if the player was about to use the Lamp, but gets into an encounter somewhere around ~1-10 steps before using it, the “value” of using the Lamp to reset the encounter is largely lost, as getting into the battle already reset the threshold. This causes some oddities with routing the Lamp. Newer players can either ignore by not using the Lamp, or use it in the same place they were going to, but intermediate players should give thought as to how to adjust where their next possible Lamp usage should be to maximize distance covered without encounters.
There is a Magical Skirt available for purchase at the bottom left shop for 1500G. If the player decides to get some extra money via the Romaly vault, this can be a great magic damage mitigating option for the Mage Warrior. It will replace her Leather Loincloth until she gets the Swordedge Armor, and late in the game there are some fights (Baramos, Baramos Bomus) where keeping the Magical Skirt to swap can greatly reduce her damage.
There is a Life Nut available in the eastern graveyard area underground (past the swamp). Inspect the middle/left side of the top coffin from below.

Watching a VOD is particularly helpful for this walk. The places where the player uses SF and the Lamp are perfectly consistent. The place where the Lamp is used is the mathematically best place to use the Lamp to avoid an encounter.

While walking on the land tiles to the Shrine with a Traveler's Gate, there is a ~2% chance of fighting a lone Metabble. Be prepared!

Encounters when walking towards Samanosa are quite dangerous. Kongs hit hard, and Witches can cast Begirama for significant damage. Red rogueknights also hit hard. Generally the player should run from these fights. The green kongs are very susceptible to sleep, so the player can opt to spend one turn defending with the Warriors and casting Rariho with Hero/Sage, then flee afterwards.

There is a significant strategy that players can utilize at this point for funds. Many older players used to do this as a staple. Although it is not required, the additional funds help with buying Prayer Rings later, and can potentially help the player by allowing the Hero to keep his Steel Whip equipped for the Necrogond.

The strategy is upon arriving in Samanosa, immediately wing to Romaly (1,3). Walk to the left item shop and buy 7x herbs for the Mage Warrior (instead of distributing manually like above). Then walk north to the castle, take the first left, then down to the vault, and collect the Expel Shield and Assassin's Dagger. Wing to Samanosa (L, 3) and continue towards Ra Mirror Cave as the above does.

These two sell for roughly 5000 gold. It is entirely preference to use this strategy. Maru, the former world record holder for this game & category, used this in his 2:39 from long ago, but most modern runners including morisot do not.

The topmost chest in the 1st basement floor has a strength seed, as an optional collectible.

It is rather unlikely the player gets into an encounter while in Ra Mirror Cave. Skeletons are susceptible to Nifuramu. Witch Doctors can cast Mahotora, which robs MP from the party, and can be particularly problematic for the Sage and Mage for the upcoming boss fight. Generally run from encounters, except for skeletor formations and use Nifuramu instead.

During the shopping segment, the goal is to get to 20300G. Selling the two Magic Shields (Hero, Mage Warrior) is required, as they are immediately getting replaced by dragon shields. The party dress, silk robe and black hood are also never used again. From there, the player can sell whatever they need to get to 20300G. Other items include the Sage's former Steel Whip (either on her or in the bag), moth powders, and possibly the Sage's Steel Broadsword. The reason this is a soft science is that depending on how much excess gold the player has, they may be able to afford another Prayer Ring in the upcoming segment. Further, if the player wipes out fighting Boss Troll, being able to sell something after the fight as opposed to before the fight can more safely help navigate money problems for reviving dead characters, which is a significant ~600+ gold expense. In short, the player should try to aim towards getting to 20300G as close as possible.

In the castle's courtyard is an optional Life Nuts collectible, in the right flowerbed.

Before fighting Boss Troll, the Warrior should have the Mist Staff on and the Mage Warrior has herbs in her inventory. Make sure the party is healed and in the right order.

There is an Agility Seed in the graveyard, second row from the top, second grave (inspect to the north). There is also a Strength Seed in the house below the graveyard, in the left pot.

Hero	Warrior	Sage	Mage
Steel Whip	Zombie Killer	Steel Broadsword	Club
Iron Armor	Terra Armor	Traveler's Clothes	Leather Loincloth
Dragon Shield	Dragon Shield	Magic Shield	Dragon Shield
Iron Helmet	Iron Helmet	Silver Barette	Silver Barette
Hero's Armband	Mist Staff	Meteorite Armband	Herbs