Front Mission 2 FAQ by Zhou Tai An (Kain), Ver 1.0 kain@pacific.net.sg Hello again. This is my second FAQ (the first being my GITS one) and I hope you enjoy it. ^_^ Note: This is primarily a FAQ on the battle and tactical aspects of Front Mission 2 (Hereafter referred to as FM) for a simple reason : I don't know enough Japanese to be able to give a good account of the plot. Any help is very welcome 2nd Note: Most of this information comes from Henry Jerng, author of a few more FAQs on this site. This FAQ should probably be called his, except for a few more pieces of information and the fact that I wrote it out nicely ^_^. (The tactics are mine too) On with the show! 1. I will first cover the important aspects of the game's tutorial. (Which, surprisingly, I can actually understand a bit of! ^_^) More to be added soon. AP System 1, 2, 3, and Bullets and AP System and Counter and Attack : The whole shebang AP stands for Action Points. Each unit begins with an AP of 7 (except air units) which can only be increased through level-upping (exact AP-Level relation unknown). Moving a square on the tactical map costs 1 AP. Attacking with Fight weapons costs 0 AP, Shoot 2 AP and Missile a whopping 6 AP. (Which obviously means in the beginning of the game, missile units are next to useless as you can only move 1 square and then fire.) Next, recovery of AP. You will regain up to 7 AP on a turn, with a few exceptions: 1. A friendly unit next to you will give you 1 AP (not exceeding your total) 2. A hostile unit next to you will lower your AP by 2. (not going below 0) 3. A hostile unit adjacent to you (on a diagonal) will lower you AP by 1. (again, not going below 0) Counterattacking (or defending with a shield) will lower your AP by 2, in addition to the weapon's base AP cost .(So if you counterattack with a JuriEX, you will be spending 2+2 = 4 AP, whereas with a HurtClub, you spend 2+0= 2 AP Shielding costs 0 + 2 = 2 AP) If you have 1 or 0 AP, you may not counterattack, but may still evade. If you lose your arms or legs, nothing happens to AP. However, if you lose your legs, you can only move one square. Not what's with all this AP stuff? AP determines the Hit\Evade Rate of the combatants in a fight. The more AP, the better. With an full AP, you can usually get 85% - 100% Hit/Evade rates. So, the following things should be obvious: 1. Don't move full tilt into the enemy, get surrounded, and, therefore, plastered. You'll have wasted valuable taxpayers' money, not to mention some of your precious time. 2. Attacking one enemy multiple times will lower his AP a lot, especially if he counters with gunfire. Same goes for your units. 3. Missiles leave one wide open, with an AP cost of 6. 4. Maneuvering well to keep you troops together will not only ensure a steady AP of your troops, but will help you hem in the enemy. 5. Move well. Moving costs AP too! 6. Sometimes you might not want to counter. BTW, I beat the first 3 stages while totally being in the dark about this. ^_^ Shield Rule: This is simple. If an enemy attacks and you elect to use shields, and she hits the shield, you take 0 damage for that arm. (I think Fight is an exception, but I have not tested this) Not electing to use the shield adds no extra benefits, though it seems that the general Defense value of that arm goes up as well). Use 2 shields, and both don't take damage. BTW, powerful weapons (or lousy shields) sometimes do more than 0 damage. Anti-Aircraft: Only gunfire (Machinegun and Shotgun) and missiles work on air units. Nothing else. (Whether you have to fire specific AA missiles is unknown) Armor Types and Weapon Types. There are 4 Armor Types, Anit-Flame, Anti-Pierce, Anti-Shock and Normal. There are 3 Weapon Types, Pierce, Shock and Flame. Simple? (The Setup screen is supposed to show the properties of the weapons, but I haven'the been able to find them) Pierce weapons are any weapon that fire bullets (machine guns, rifles, shot guns, etc.). Shock weapons are weapons that strike blows.(anything like rods). Fire weapons self-explanatory. Missiles and rockets are both fire and shock. Secondly, different weapons work on different units with different effects (as evinced by the weird symbols like (X) X, O at the top-right hand corner of the Seup screen. I still don'the know what those mean.) Skills: I am in the dark about these. I don'the know what they do, when they activate, how they improve...etc. I do know you get a new one every level of that area you advance in, and that you can send the skill to Stock if you don'the want to equip it. Honor: Honor is a measure of how much your troops and enemies respect you. The more Honor the better, I guess. Over 3 stars (I think 100 points = 1 star) gets you Honor skills. You get increases in Honor bydestroying mech parts or whole units. If your unit has honor skills that affect your units, then the surrounding friendlies will blink blue. If your enemy unit has honor skills that affect you, your units will blink red. 2. Other stuff Network: If you haven'the figured out this, here's how to use it. Select an Address and then use the options presented to you. Easy. Here is the list of all Addresses in the game, but without Checkcodes. Many thanks to Ignacio Delucas for these. [OCUF] [ALF] OCHRE ALBEITALCOVEDEACON OCTAGON OCTAVE INANE HUFFMAN SAKATA DARKGEES [BURG] BUDED ONSET [E.BIRD] STABBER STALIN STAGER STAID STALKY STAMEN STANDEE STAPLE STANBY STALE SAGGY SALINE SLUKI SANCTUM SANDROT SANGRIA SANE SAPIENT SATIRE SAFARI SEANCE SEAFOWL SECEDE SECTION SECULAR SADATE SEEDY SELVAGE SEMINAR SENAT SEPAL [COLOSSEUM] COALFACE COBWEB COCHIN [DNC] DOCTRAL ALTER ITIOARY [LEONORA] LEADEN NORALOE LEAFED [IGUCHI] IGLOO IGNOBLE IHCUGI [KIRISIMA] KIDSKINKINDLE [VINESJP] VIADUCT VICIOUS [JM=LY] JOCULAR JONQUIL MEAL [VELDA] VIAND [BIWU] BICARB [PAPEL] PAEAN PALAIS [DIABLE] DIAPERDIACTIC [FIREVALY] FAITHFAKIRFIRVAY [WT=VN] WAGER [SCHNECKE] SCATTERSCUFFSNSCISSOR [SENDER] SCHERZOSCHUSS [TAUREAU] TELERAN [BALESTRO] BAFFLE [NAXOS] NACRE [T.A.S] TABARD [MASEL] MAJYAR [ING] INCISE INCITE 3. Miscellaneous: The Training section in Saribash's house is just to train Ace for the fight in the city (and get cash) and has no purpose outside of that. In the city, the questions he asks are (in no order) at what distance he should engage enemies, when he should retreat, what enemies should he attack, and whether he should follow Amia or not. If I play the battle again, I should have the all down. 4. Credits Henry Jerng, who kindly supplied me with most of the data in this FAQ, and Ignacio Delucas for the Network addresses.