Azure Dreams FAQ Version 0.1 by Andrew Lee (c) Copyright 1998, Andrew Lee, all rights reserved. *Author's Foreword* This FAQ is written to assist the player in getting a good start within Konami's Azure Dreams. Azure Dreams, being completely random each time you enter the dungeon, with the exception of levels 1 and 2, make it impossible to write any sort of walkthrough. Instead some general strategies will be discussed along with some various information pertaining to the game itself. There may be a few mini-spoilers within this FAQ, but they will be appropiately labeled in their corresponding sections. I have not yet beat the game, so some quests/info may be incorrect or unfinished. Please note that this is my first attempt at a FAQ, so don't expect any fancy ASCII art and please be kind with the comments. Any corrections/additions to this FAQ are appreciated. To submit idea/correction, please mail me at inverse_23@yahoo.com and I will try to include the info you send me in my next revision. *Disclaimer* Anyone viewing this guide may redistribute, use, print, etc. as long as you dont change any of the original content or claim that you wrote this whole FAQ. If you violate these rules, you shall face unimaginable consequences. *Revisions* 0.1 - Started the FAQ. Currently incomplete. *Contents* 1. Characters O The Hero O Nico Southey O Selfi Rode O Fur Gots O Patty Pan O Vivian Merca O Mia Myria O Cherrl Child O Kewne O Wreath O Guy O Weedy O Ghosh Rode 2. Places in the Town O The Blacksmith O General Store O The Carpenter O Koppe's Restaurant O Bar O The Monster Store O The Fortune House O Clinic O Temple 3. Places you can build 4. Beginning Strategies 5. Strategies for longer lasting adventures 6. Items 7. Familiars 8. Tips O Money making strategies 9. Miscellaneous info 10. Credits ~ 1. Characters ~ - 1.1 The Hero - The hero of the game, which you name yourself, is the son of the legendary monster tamer, Guy. Unfortunately, Guy has died rather early leaving the hero to fill his legacy. However most of the townsfolk believe him to be a brat only looking to cause trouble. It is his dream to enter the tower and find untold riches that he believes will help his family live a better life. And now that he has come of age, he may now enter, and he hopes that he will prove himself to the rest of the village. - 1.2 Nico Southey - Friends since childhood, it is Nico's job to wake the hero up every morning. Nico is known to be a tomboy and she admits it herself. Nico believes that Monsbaiya is very dull and boring and strives to make it a more cultural spot. By helping her achieve her dream, the hero may be able to win her heart. - 1.3 Selfi Rode - Selfi Rode, being the sister of the arrogant Ghosh Rode, is a wealthy, spoiled woman who wishes to be a sorceress. Seen frequently in the tower, she teases the hero and asks him irrelevant questions. - 1.4 Fur Gots - Fur Gots is the woman who runs the general store at Monsbaiya. Fur tends to mock the hero whenever he stops by the store contemplating if his 10 gold purchases are worthwhile. However, when you begin to make money and buy regularly, her attitude toward the hero changes. - 1.5 Patty Pan - Patty works at Koppe's restaurant as a waitress. With a great personality, she has the customers returning for more. - 1.6 Vivian Merca - Currently unknown - 1.7 Mia Myria - Seen in the library, Mia keeps to herself, reading books, and is very shy around others. However, you may get to know her if you visit the library more often. - 1.8 Cherrl Child - A girl with a disease that gives her very little strength, she dreams to walk outside and live a normal life. Can you help her find a cure for her condition? - 1.9 Kewne - This is the familiar that joins you at the beginning of the game. He will prove very valuable as he will be stronger than most familiars at first and will serve as your only familiar in the beginning. - 1.10 Wreath - The hero's mother, stores your possesions and saves your game. Ease her life by improving your house. - 1.11 Guy - The hero's father. Known to be a legendary monster tamer, he is thought to have reached the top of the tower and has never returned. Everyone thinks he is dead, but is that really the case? - 1.12 Weedy - The younger sister of the hero. Has a book which gives the details of every monster you encounter. - 1.13 Ghosh Rode - The hero's rival, tends to brag about his possesions and looks down upon you. You will meet him in the tower and around town quite often. ~ 2. Places in Town ~ - 2.1 The Blacksmith - The blacksmith is a shop where you can sell possesions or buy weapons/items. However, the only things he sells is a copper sword and a medicinal herb so this shop isnt that special. - 2.2 General Store - This is the place where you can buy home improvements and gifts for other people. This is a place where you can spend your money on luxuries. - 2.3 The Carpenter - A rather important place, you can talk to him to build structures. You can expand your monster hut, house and buy new buildings for the town. Be aware no improvement comes cheap. - 2.4 Koppe's Restaurant - Nothing special here. You can indulge in food if you like. However, repeat visits will get your hero to know Patty and thus may start a relationship. - 2.5 Bar - You can get some beginners advice from the patrons. You can also spend some money on drinks. - 2.6 Monster Store - You can sell your possesions here. Other than that not much to do here other than get information regarding familiars from the people inside. They may sell familiars in the future, but I don't know that for a fact yet. - 2.7 Fortune House - In this facility, you can get some advice on fighting and how to impress the various women in this game. - 2.8 Clinic - You can buy medicinal herbs here. They are cheaper than the ones that the blacksmith sells. You can also improve this place into a hospital for a price however. - 2.9 Temple - Talk to the priest here to get some beginners information. As you progress through the game, he will present ideas for new city structures you can build. Make him happy by paying for a new temple. ~ 3. Structures you can build ( Mini-Spoiler ) ~ - 3.1 Home improvements - Home improvement 1- 6000 gold, triggers more events, increases storage space, allows more luxury items to be bought. Home improvement 2- 60000 gold, a mansion. The first home improvement is a must, however the second one is up to you. - 3.2 Monster Hut Expansion - Expansion 1 - 4000 gold, increases capacity to 9 familiars Expansion 2 - 6000 gold, increases capacity to ? familiars. (I havent bought it yet) - 3.3 Temple - Temple upgrade - 4000 gold. Gain respect from the townspeople and get more structure ideas from the priest. - 3.4 Hospital - Clinic upgrade - 4000 gold. I think this building lets you meet Cherrl. - 3.5 Library - Library - 8000 gold. Gain respect from the townspeople. Build to meet Mia Myria. - 3.6 Theatre - Theatre - 8000 gold. Talk to Fon to build this. Fon starts a stand up comedy act that you can particapate in. Gain more respect once again with this building. - 3.7 Fountain - Fountain - ??? gold. Donate money to Nico and this will be built. Nico will appreciate you more if you help her build this. - 3.8 Racing Circuit - Racing Circuit - 30000 gold, talk to Silver in the furthur most NW corner of Monsbaiya. Can make a lot of money here. - 3.9 Bowling Alley - Bowling Alley - 40000 gold, not really bowling, but similar. Gain more respect once again. - 3.10 Casino - Casino - 100000 gold, can make money by either playing slots or roulette. Gain more respect. ~ 4. Beginning Strategies ~ - 4.1. Some things to keep in mind - When you first start the game, you must play cautiously because you can't count on finding a wind crystal to return you to town with the egg you get. If you do then consider yourself lucky. Make sure you make use of the skip turn feature and the face change, that way you can lure the enemy to a better tactical position, because at this point, dealing as much damage as possible is crucial. You may want to set your initial familiar to a AI setting of 4 or 5 because you dont want the enemy to target you directly. The enemy tends to attack the familiar first however there are a few exceptions (the trolls with bow guns) Should you find an egg, bring it back to your house rather than hatch it in the dungeon, should you hatch it in the dungeon, it will leave you permanantly once you leave. If it is hatched in the monster hut, it will accompany you until you sell it or sacrifice it. The orbs you find in the tower (flame orb, weak orb, restore orb) are worth a lot of money and are not necessary in the beginning. Its up to you however if you want to use it. Find a weapon you like and continually use red sand on it to make it powerful. Be wary of rust traps as they will reduce the weapon/armors power. Do not uncurse items in the beginning, because when something is cursed, it tends to rake in a LOT of money, for example, a cursed diamond shield brings in about 6700 gold. If you uncurse it, the price drops down sharply. If you plan on getting far up the tower, then it may be a good idea to uncurse it. Following the above idea, items with undesirable effects (malicious bell, scroll etc.) bring in quite a bit of money, so it may be a good idea to keep these items to sell in the beginning. The elemental equipment (Gulfwind Sword, Ice Shield) may seem effective with there above average damage and defense, however use with caution, because with a elemental shield, you will take more damage from the element it is weak against but will protect more against the element it is stronger then. So if you are fighting a terrifying U-boat and you are wearing a scorching shield, then you will take a helluva lot more damage then if you were to use a iron shield. The same applies to the elemental weapons so switch accordingly. Some familiars have abilities that can only be accessed through individual commands. Be sure to check the command menu to see if they have any extra abilities. In the beginning, the majority of the enemies are fire based, so it may be wise to change the genus of your familiars to water. The only enemy in the beginning that will prove a threat this way is the cyclone. Do not underestimate the power of rods. While having very little attack power, they have tremendous effects with mixture magic. You can 30+ damage by using a rod and dealing damage the enemy is weak against, and the faster you kill them, the more likely you are to survive. Skip turns to recover your hp and your familiars hp. You can also lure monsters to you this way and set yourself in a good position should the terrain warrant it. Most of the fruit is useless with the exception of a few and they fetch a low price, you may want to toss them for other items. If you choose to fight Ghosh in the tower, make sure you have a familiar cast beneficial spells to give you an edge in combat. The troll hammer you find is mainly to be sold because if you hatch a troll, it automatically comes with a hammer. Dont use any of the stat boosting items on yourself, use them on your familiars because the hero always returns to base stats every time he reenters the tower. ~ 5. Strategies for longer lasting adventures ~ Coming soon ~ 6. Items ~ - 6.1 Swords - Copper Sword - 2 attack, better than your bare hands is all I can say. Iron Sword - 3 attack, better than copper Steel Sword - 4 attack, better than iron Gulfwind Sword - 5 attack, wind elemental, use against wind and water creatures, rather useless against fire creatures. Blizzard Sword - 5 attack, water elemental, use against fire and water creatures, useless against wind creatures. Fire Sword - 5 attack, fire elemental, use against fire and wind creatures, useless against water creatures Vital Sword - 5 attack, keeps enemies from multiplying, useful for journeys in which you want to get to a high floor. Gold Sword - 1 attack, purely a weapon to sell as it fetches a high price - 6.2 Shields - Leather Shield - 1 defense, better than nothing Wood Shield - 2 defense, better than leather Copper shield - 4 defense, decent shield Iron Shield - 5 defense, good shiled Steel Shield - 6 defense, sturdy shield Diamond shield - 7 defense, great shield and valuable too Wind Shield - 5 defense, wind elemental, weak against fire creatures, good against water Scorching Shield - 5 defense, fire elemental, weak against water creatures, good against wind Ice Shield - 5 defense, water elemental, weak against wind creatures, good against fire Live Shield - 5 defense, it sometimes returns a fraction of the damage you receive to the enemy. Mirror Shield - 3 defense, reflects any magic cast upon you to the caster, may be effective in the future where enemies cast more brutal spells. - 6.3 Herbs - Medical herb - restores about 35 hp, good in emergencies Antidote herb - cures poison, poison eventually wears off but it is best cured early lest you must recover about 20+ hp Anti-Chaos herb - cures confusion, not that great if you are confused since you can skip turns until it wears off but should your familiar get confused, it may be useful because familiar can do a tremendous amount of damage unto you Wake-Up herb - a must when your familiars fall asleep during a battle, especially in the higher tower levels where the enemies deal more damage. Roaem Herb - Cures blindness, not that effective but should be used on familiars since they may stray from the hero or attack him. Hazak herb - Restores weakened attack. Not sure what it does. Cure-all herb - cures any condition - 6.4 Sand - Red Sand - permanantly increases the power of a weapon by 1. Hoard these up if you plan on sticking on a single weapon. Blue Sand - permanantly increases the defense of a shield by 1. Hoard these up if you have a powerful shield or a shield with special effects. White Sand - increases the number of charges of an orb. Useful for increasing the value of an orb. - 6.5 Seeds - Hazak Seed - Permanantly increases attacking strength by 1. Use on familiars. Shomuro Seed - Permanantly increases defensive strength by 1. Use on familiars. Mazarr Seed - Permanantly increases the users level by 1. Use on familiars. Mahell Seed - Temporarily give a character double attacks. Indispensable. Light Seed - Change familiar's element to fire. Sea Seed - Change familiar's element to water. Wind Seed - Change familiar's element to wind. - 6.6 Food - Pita fruit - restores 50 mp to a familiar. Always have some of these. Big Pita fruit - restores 100 mp to a familiar. Try to have these in long tower adventures Leva fruit - prevents a familiars race from changing in fusion. Not sure of any good uses for it yet Tumna fruit - turns the eater into a frog. Not sure of its use Laev fruit - forgot what it does ??? fruit - forgot its name, causes the familiar not to lose any mp for the tower level you are on. Limit fruit - temporarily raises the chance to cause critical damage Oleen fruit - sacrifices familiar and causes you to return to town. Cannot use on kewne. - 6.7 Glasses/Loupes - Star Glasses - reveals the entire map, items on that level and the elevator to the next floor. Truth Glasses - Identifies an item. Tells what kind of egg you received. Unidentified items are in green. Use to prevent equipping cursed items Trap Loupe - Shows the location of all the traps on the level. Use to disarm traps to gain the hero experience Treasure Loupe - Shows the location of all the items on the level. Use to get the items and head straight for the exit to save time. Exit Loupe - Use to find the exit. Not the greatest of items Monster Loupe - Use to find out the location of all the monsters on a level. - 6.8 Crystals - Wind Crystal - Returns you to town with all the treasure you find in the tower. Try to have one as much as possible Fire Crystal - Summons a salamander that deals a lot of damage then leaves Water Crystal - Restores the status, hp and mp of a familiar - 6.9 Wands - *All wands increase the power of mixture magic* Wooden wand - no special effect Money wand - sometimes changes the enemy into money Life wand - restore some hp with each hit Paralyze wand - sometimes stops the enemy. Useful IMHO. Scarlet wand - fire element Water wand - water element Gulf wand - wind element - 6.10 Bells - Holy bell - Chases a monster out of the room Malicious bell - raises the level of enemy monsters. Sell it. Familiar bell - returns a lost familiar to you. Good to have. - 6.11 Scrolls - Holy scroll - makes a shield that protects you from attacks Malicious scroll - causes the reader to become confused, sell Trap scroll - causes all the traps to be invisible, sell ~ 7. Familiars ~ Familiars are an important part of Azure Dreams and your success depends on their abilities. Since they do not decrease in level each time they reenter the tower, it is in your best interest to build up you familiars as much as possible. Here are some guidelines to familiars. Familiar eggs are a rare find and IMO you should never sell them. If you have no use of them, fuse them with another creature making that creature stronger. The way you can tell if an ability will rise in level is if it has a background or not. If it has a opaque orange background, it will rise in level. If there is no background, it will not rise in level. For example look at brid, it has a background. Having 2 familiars at once is a good combo, however it reduces the amount of experience you get. I think you find the collar to have two familiars at once around the 12th floor. Have one familiar cast support magic while the other attacks the enemy. I will get into fusion later. If you have any good combos, be sure to mail me and I will give you credit. List of familiars availible in the game and their traits in the next revision ~ 8. Tips and Tricks ~ - 8.1 Ways to make money - There are many ways to make money in Azure Dreams. The only thing you can do to make money in the beginning of the game is to travel into the tower and try to return alive with all your loot. For one thing, selling is VERY important as it yields great sums of money and enemies do not drop gold. During your early adventures, be sure to hoard up any useless sounding items (the kind that seem like they have a negative effect with the exception of fruit) as they are strangely worth a lot of money. Orbs are also worth a lot of money and have little use in the beginning of the game. Cursed items are also worth a fortune so make sure you dont uncurse them. Once you get enough money to buy a race track, 30000 to be exact, you can make a LOT of money here. The way to make money here is to look at all the odds and ignore any of the 1-x ones because any of the 1-x involve you in the bet. So just pay attention to 2-3, 2-4 and 3-4 odds. If they are about 20+ odds, bet on it. Once you are in the race, pay attention to the numbers you bet on (i.e if you bet on 2-3, pay attention to racer 2 and 3). The way this race works is that 2 cpu racers are fast and one is slow. If the two racers you bet on are the fast ones, prepare to rake in a lot of cash. As long as you dont finish 1st or 2nd (which isnt hard to do if you try to lose) and the ones you bet on are the fast racers, you win. I dont suggest betting on the 1-x ones because its hard to tell which cpu racer will end up 2nd place. IMO this makes more money then the casino. You can make up to 49000 gold if this is successful. ~ 9. Miscellaneous ~ - 9.1 Those faces in the save game screen - From what I know, those faces are the hearts of the girls you won. They may affect your ending, then again, they may not. - 9.2 Impressing various girls - Nico - Just help build the town up and donate money for the fountain she wants to build. Selfi - The way I did it was to tell Selfi that I was whatever she asked me. So if she were to ask if I had scales on my back, I would just say, thats right. Not sure though if thats the way. Fur - Keep shopping and if she asks special questions such as if you just visited to see her, then answer yes Patty - Keep eating at the restaurant, prawns seem to help as thats her specialty. Eventually you will meet her when the restaurant is empty and she will ask you if you want anything she make. From there are, complement her cooking etc etc. Cherrl - Visit her often and find a cure for her I think. Mia - Visit her often and answer positively to her questions. Once she begins to stalk you, go to the library and come out and tell her not to stalk you any more Vivian - Don't know yet, havent met her. Ghosh - Not sure yet. ~ 10. Credits ~ None so far but I would appreciate any help to this faq. E-mail me with corrections/additions and I will post your name/url/email here.