~B
By Matthew Emirzian
Email : mtemisan@aol.com
ICQ : 35989900
FAQ Updates : This FAQ is always available at www.gamefaqs.com
Welcome to the LOM mastery guide. This is my second FAQ, after
"Xenogears Secrets, Tidbits & Tips". It's been a while, but I'm ready to
share my knowledge with everyone again! Oh boy!
This guide is not about listing every single thing to be found in the game, or
every quest, every item, every thing, etc. It's about master strategies for
comprehending and mastering the game system itself. The guide is for those who
are already a step above walkthroughs and the usual FAQ material.
There aren't many spoilers here, or any large ones, so don't worry if you're
a beginner looking to buff up on some LOM strategies. But be warned, this guide
isn't going to baby walk you through anything. In fact, the biggest purpose of
this FAQ is to make you want to play the game over again, using the strategies
found here, to rediscover new things. Don't try to swallow this guide in one
sitting and then go play the game for the first time, or you might not have a
pleasant gaming experience.
Part XI has info on how you can contribute, and some questions I have about the
game that you might be able to answer! Go take a look if you want to help out.
Part XI also has info on hosting my FAQ on your web page or publicly available
resource.
Index:
Part I : World Map/Artifact Placement
1a - Starting Off
2a - The Mana/Artifact System Rules
2b - The Mana/Artifact System Rules Advanced
3a - List of Artifacts Inherent Mana Levels
4a - Towns and the World Map
4b - Towns and the World Map Advanced
5a - Dungeons and the World Map
5b - Dungeons and the World Map Advanced
6a - Spirits and the World Map
7a - Special Circumstances
8a - The Mana Tree
Part II : Combat
1a - Special Moves
1b - Special Moves Advanced
2a - Equipping Heavy Weapons
3a - Equipping Light Weapons
4a - Learning Abilities/Techniques
5a - Experience Hot-Spots
6a - Lucre Hot-Spots
7a - Jewel Beast
Part III : Quests
1a - Game Breakdown
1b - Game Breakdown Advanced
2a - Missable Quests
Part IV : Catching Monster Eggs & Playing Music
1a - Monster Egg Strategies
2a - Playing Music for Spirits
2b - Playing Music for Spirits Advanced
Part VI : Forging/Tempering
1a - Choosing a Primary Material
2a - Tempering Your Creation
2b - Tempering Your Creation Advanced
3a - Tempering Strategies for Weapons
3b - Tempering Strategies for Weapons Advanced
4a - Tempering Strategies for Armor
4b - Tempering Strategies for Armor Advanced
5a - Mystic Powers List
Part VII : Seed Planting
1a - Seed Overview
2a - Seed List
3a - What Affects a Planted Seed?
Part VIII: Golem Building (Next Version!)
Part X : Instrument Creation (Next Version!)
Part XI : Submissions/Legal
1a - Questions
1b - Legal Stuff
--
Part I : World Map/Artifact Placement
The World Map and Artifact Placement require a lot of planning before
attempting to create a seriously good map. The system governing the mana system
and other functions within the game aren't too hard to get a grasp of, though.
Your general strategy for creating your map is to have student shops at all four
levels, shade, dryad, and wisp levels at 3 in Domina, the Orchard and at least
one dungeon placed next to the Mana Tree. Everything else is up to you
strategy!
1a - Starting Off :
Begin your quest in a wide open space. The north-east continent is
perfect, if you find the right spot. Next, for home, build it near a corner
where it has eight free spaces around it. Be careful to examine the water
masses to determine where you'll place artifacts that require water.
2a - The Mana/Artifact System Rules :
The placement of an artifact always results in an increase of mana levels
to neighboring lands. When you place an artifact next to a land, the
neighboring lands acquire the mana levels of the newly placed land. The newly
placed land will also absorb any other neighboring lands mana levels, minus 1.
You can preview the results of your placement anytime by pressing the triangle
button while holding an artifact on the map.
2b - The Mana/Artifact System Rules Advanced :
This system brings up some important things to consider when building your
map. The crippling limitation of the system is that levels will not spread past
their immediate territory, and there is always a penalty of minus 1 when trying
to place a new land to absorb an existing lands levels. Because of this, the
best strategy is to put down the artifact you want to absorb levels in first,
then put down the desired artifact to distribute all the levels to it. If you
do it the other way around, you'll incur the minus 1 penalty. Once an area
becomes surrounded, it's impossible to change it's levels!
Obviously, once you start playing the game, you're going to be doing a
whole lot of improvisation! Don't expect yourself to map out the entire game,
only the important sections like around Domina and Home. Have fun and
experiment with lands.
3a - List of Artifacts Inherent Mana Levels :
Key : W = Wisp, Sh = Shade, D = Dryad, A = Aura, G = Gnome, Sa = Salamander
J = Jinn, U = Undine * = Placemark for Lvl.2
4a - Towns and the World Map :
In towns, the students who sell mined items will have more valuable items
the farther you place the artifact from home, and the later the artifact is
placed in the game.
4b - Towns and the World Map Advanced :
There are four levels that a student can have when selling you items.
Domina will always be lvl a, and you will miss lvls b and d if you're not
careful. Make absolutely sure to save Geo for a far away space on the map! A
good way to get lvl b is to place a town far off just as you're about to begin
the first of the three major quests.
a. Cheap Manastones, etc.
b. Steel, Silver, Obsidian, etc.
c. Gold, Ebony, Hemp, etc.
d. Platinum, Maple, etc. (Geo only)
5a - Dungeons and the World Map :
In dungeons, the monsters levels will become higher the farther you place
the artifact from home, and the later the artifact is placed in the game.
5b - Dungeons and the World Map Advanced :
Monsters all have four inherent strength and weakness points in areas with
certain mana levels. (you can look them up in the monster encyclopedia). Since
there are 3 levels per spirit and 4 variables, there's 6 levels a monster can
have in terms of advantage or disadvantage. You can calculate it by combining
the strength and weakness numbers, then subtracting the smaller number.
V.Weak Weak Neutral Strong V.Strong
-6 -3 0 3 6
Finally, the day of the week will affect a monsters strength or weakness.
6a - Spirits and the World Map :
Mana levels will determine what spirits you'll come across to play music
to when you enter a certain area - usually the spot where a boss or major event
previously was. A level of 0 or 1 means the spirit will not show up. 2 is
likely, and 3 is very positive. The day of the week is also a strong influence
on which spirit will appear over others.
7a - Special Circumstances :
There are a few special circumstances you'll want to take into
consideration in terms of mana levels affecting lands. The produce trees at
Home and Orchard both grow faster with higher mana levels, and there are three
Domina quests that require, separately, level 3 spirit levels for Dryad, Wisp,
and Shade. Getting all three without the help of the Mana Tree is impossible -
but then, you'll miss the Dryad quest if you go in Domina with the Shade and
Wisp quest both on.
8a - The Mana Tree :
The Mana Tree is your most valuable artifact, no matter how you look at
it. It's mana levels are completely maxed out for every spirit. Placing it
really depends on what you want to do with your game, and your two logical
choices are either Domina, or Home. Placed next to home, Trent will grow
produce much faster. Next to Domina, you'll be able to complete the Wisp and
Shade quests.
Part II : Combat
I've always viewed fighting in RPGs as a numbers game. Your numbers need
to be higher, so you can keep up with the numbers of the opponent. With LOM,
there is a deal of strategy and skill involved, in terms of abilities and
plunge attacks (i.e. combos). However, the old numbers game is still true.
Once you're in nightmare (enemies 2x) mode, you'll want to have weapons and
armor that are twice as strong in order to keep up.
1a - Special Moves :
You can pull off special moves with the strong attack button, by moving
the control pad while pressing the button. Doing a DF,F motion (quarter
circle), you can do a strong upwards attack at close range.
1b - Special Moves Advanced :
You can attack strong and cancel out of that into a special upwards
attack. It's possible to link your weak hits into a strong hit, and then cancel
out of the that into the special attack, with precise timing. The best part of
this combo is that the special attack has very little delay time before you can
move again.
2a - Equipping Heavy Weapons :
If you're going to be equipping a heavy weapon, make sure you have some
good keep-away or escape abilities equipped. There's nothing worse than being
cornered and pummeled by multiple enemies because you can't move fast enough.
Bash is a great move, and moon-jump is good to escape tight situations and
bosses charge attacks.
3a - Equipping Light Weapons :
If you're using a lighter weapon, you'll need to master the combo system
in order to maximize damage. Forging and tempering an extremely strong weapon
is also a good idea. With an axe or sword, take advantage of the shields
defense - it can be worn with full body armor, and is very good with the defend
ability.
4a - Learning Abilities/Techniques :
The way learning abilities and special techniques work is that when you
have an ability equipped, and gain experience, that ability gains experience
too, and when you reach enough xp., you'll learn the new ability or technique
associated with it. This works regardless of whether you use the ability or not
- as long as it's equipped, it'll gain xp. If technique requires more than 2
abilities, you can gain xp for one and then catch up the others.
5a - Experience Hot-Spots :
In terms of experience, there are always a few hot-spot enemies that'll
basically explode in xp. gems. Below is a list of good places to spend an hour
or two bashing the baddies to up your levels and gain new abilities. If anyone
else knows some xp. hotspots, let me know.
a. Highway - before chobin caves - two Chobin Hoods
b. White Forest - near the southwest corner - two Goblins
c. Doma Desert - several places - two Mad Mallards
d. Fieg Snowfields - path to the tent - two Sahagins
e. S.S. Buccaneer - lower levels - two Sahagins (might not be as high lvl.)
f. Tower of Leires - some fights, I forget
g. Norn Peaks - later on, you can re-fight the dragon boss repeatedly
h. Bejewelled City - Diamond room - the golem
6a - Lucre Hot-Spots :
If you are in need of some money, below are some great cash makers.
a. Highway - in chobin caves - various goblins, sell their weapons
a. White Forest - two Goblins - sell the weapons they drop
b. Mana Tree - air & land dragon - sell the dragon steaks
c. In the first Lumina quest, trying to sell the lamps, you can spend all
your cash plus 3000 extra lucre, a great deal for the start of the game, even
though you'll be broke afterwards.
7a - Jewel Beast :
If you're planning on completing the Jumi quest, you're going to get very
familiar with the Jewel Beast boss. Not only does it have four incarnations,
you'll also have to fight each one twice. The basic strategy is to stay
slightly below it, but still be able to hit it. When it charges to do a laser
attack, move to the top or bottom corners of the screen. In Nightmare mode,
you'll have to be prepared for a long battle, so use as many techniques as you
can, and try to keep it dizzy with plenty of combos. Having a golem or pet is a
must, also.
Part III : Quests (contains minor/general spoilers)
1a - Game Breakdown :
The game has three main quests which progress the storyline forward.
After completing any one of the three main quests, an event takes place in which
you get the artifact used to complete the game.
1b - Game Breakdown Advanced :
When you begin the game, you can complete either a or b. Getting to c
before a or b depends on the random chance that you got the Tome of Magic to
create Geo. Usually, you'll complete a b and c in order, although an advanced
player should know enough about the quests to do any of them in any order.
Most of the other quests are optional, although always fun to complete.
a. Dragons Quest - will have a dragon in the initiation picture
b. Fairies Quest - will have a fairy in the initiation picture
c. Jumis Quest - will have a decorated gemstone in the initiation picture
d. Niccolos Quest
e. Gilbert/Monique/Elles Quest
f. Kristie/Sotherbee/Skippie&Samsons Quest
g. Capella/Diddles Quest
h. Bud/Lisa/Lil' Cactus' Quest
i. Pirate/Dudbears Quest
j. Misc. Others
2a - Missable Quests -
Every other quest but these can be completed any time. These here require
special timing and circumstances, so make sure not to miss them.
Quest No. #3 During Niccolos quest, find Daena at the Highway and tell her
you're going to see the Gaeus. Go to see Gaeus, then complete the quest. Go
back to Domina, and she should be in the lower right room of Yuka's Inn.
Quest No. #18 First, complete the L'il Cactus quest, then complete Infernal
Doll. Finally, head back Home and talk to Lisa.
Quest No. #43 Domina L3. Shade is required, starts in the first part of town.
Quest No. #66 Domina L.3 Wisp is required, talk to Miss Yuka. You get a
ReviveRing.
Quest No. #67 Domina L.3 Dryad is required, bring your pet. (need more info)
Part IV : Catching Monster Eggs & Playing Music
Almost all non-towns have areas where you've cleared out a boss battle.
These are frequently repopulated by monster eggs and spirits who you can play
music for. It's a random chance that you enter the former-boss room and
have this encounter, so if it doesn't work, head right back in. Also, if the
spirit levels are too low (1 or less) for an area, spirits might not appear.
1a - Monster Egg Strategies :
Monster eggs all have different personalities, and act and move
differently from one another. That being said, there are two approaches to
catching one. The first method is food : drop food down and wait for it to
wander over and pick it up and eat it. You have to snatch him right after he's
finished with the hearts in the indicators, and is showing a little exclamation
mark. The second method, which I prefer, is to simply stay behind the egg and
not let it notice you. Eventually, it'll stand still with "..." coming across
the status indicator. Run up from behind and grab the little sucker!
2a - Playing Music for Spirits :
Playing music for spirits is pretty fun. You have your choice of four
instruments, and you can play up to 4 at a time, I think. The key to playing
music successfully is the type of song, and instrument symphonics. You can
usually judge what kind of spirit will like what kind of music - Shade will like
a sad or mysterious tune, while Aura will like a cheerful one.
After you have the spirit close enough, stop the music, and talk to the
spirit. It'll only hang around for less than a second, so make sure you're
damn close. If the spirit liked it, then you'll probably get a Gold coin.
If it was just interested, then it's much less likely you'll get a Gold.
2b - Playing Music for Spirits Advanced :
After you've pinpointed the type of song, you need to understand the
harmony/melody of playing the music. If you choose melody, the instrument will
be in the lead of the song, and if you choose harmony, it will be in the
background. For example, in choosing the harp, and a mysterious tune, if it's
harmony, it'll be strumming out the long, deep repetition chords, while if it's
melody, it will play a more prominent role in emphasis. Make sure you have a
good idea of what the songs will sound like before playing them.
The more instruments you have going, the harder it is to please a spirit.
If you have all four different instruments playing, you'll have to do alot of
experimenting in order to get them to like it. Generally, I use two flutes and
a harp.
Part V : Monster Breeding
Monster Breeding is a very long term investment, compared to the quick
assembly of a golem. You'll have to raise a good quality monster over a long
period of time, possibly over two whole games, to get it to a good level where
it'll kick some butt. The general concept of raising monsters is to feed it
fruit with good stats/personality traits, and stay away or negate food with bad
stats/personality traits. The fruit in the game is set up around a tug of war
between fruit with good stats but bad personality, and fruit with ok stats and
no bad personality.
1a - Personalities :
Your monster will gain personality traits as you feed it more food. It's
very easy to pick up a bad trait, so be careful. Sometimes bad traits can be a
hard stumbling block for your raising.
Bad Traits -
Lazy - Your monster does almost nothing in battle.
Arrogant - Your monster rushes head first into battle.
Lonely - Your monster won't eat much and will cling to you in battle.
Scheming - ?
Good Traits -
Calm - Your monster attacks strategically instead of blindly.
Aggressive - Your monster will concentrate on one opponent instead of wandering
around attacking stupidly.
Friendly - ?
2a - Raising Strategies :
Go through the produce encyclopedia and make out a list of the kinds of
food you want to feed your pet, along with their stats and color type. Use this
grocery list when you're planting seeds to make sure you've always got a steady
supply of food to feed your pet. My favorites for attack pets are peach puppies
(+strength/aggressive/friendly) and apricats (+calm/defense).
Also, nothing beats good old battle experience. Bring your monster out
into the world at around level. 25, and let it get in on a few battles. It's
combat abilities will improve greatly, if it doesn't have any bad traits.
2b - Raising Strategies Advanced :
Depending on how much effort you want to put into it, you might want to go
through the tricky process of feeding your monster food with bad traits, but
good stats, and other food that negates those bad traits. Balancing food out is
a tricky business! The biggest pointer is that feeding a monster food with a
bad trait and a food that negates that trait in the same food box won't work.
You need to do it the next time you feed the monster!
If things go wrong with your pet and it gets bad traits, mix in some bad
trait negation foods with it's normal meal (don't try to feed it all at once).
You can look up the negation foods in the encyclopedia.
I named my pet land dragon "Bahamutt". Heehee!
3a - Secret Pets : These non-hatchable pets are available in certain areas.
These creatures may require certain high mana levels to get them to show up,
although I'm not sure.
1. Chobin Hood - Jungle (near entrance)
2. Mad Mallard - Lake (at the first bend)
Part VI : Forging/Tempering
Forging and tempering weapons is hands down the only way to get the best
items in the game. Plus it's a cool way to make your own customized stuff.
It's also a complicated and flexible system that's very easy to screw up! It's
possible to make a 2 handed axe out of silk, then temper it with peachpuppies,
bad breath, and rotten meat. This means you'll need to get a basic
understanding of the nature of the item you're trying to make before you make
it. It also means your axe is a piece of crap.
1a - Choosing a Primary Material : Usually, platinum is a great choice for a
weapon, while iron or orichalcum is great for heavy armor. Aerolite metals are
good for accessories or light weapons, and they always have different inherent
elemental properties. All fabrics are good for light armor, and wood is good
for certain weapons (charka, and staff). Platinum is a very flexible metal,
though, and makes good accessories, weapons, and heavy armor. Extremely
expensive gems (pearl, lapis, etc.) are only good in accessory creation, and
give inherently large magic defense. Hide, scales, and bones are generally only
used for light/heavy armor, although some bone will make good accessories.
2a - Tempering Your Creation : Lets face it, the only item you're going to want
to temper is one you created in the workshop. Items you find on monsters or
just lying around aren't good enough to be worth spending time and resources
into modifying.
The tempering system is very, very open. If it's listed as an item, you
can temper your weapon/armor with it. Although some items are made for you to
temper on weapons, and some for armor, you can cross the two, and sometimes get
pretty bad results, if you screw around too much. Let me go through the various
types of items you can temper your equipment with.
Mana Stones - The equivalent to silver coins that spirits give you for playing
music for them. They come in fire, water, earth, and wind varieties, and
generally increase attack power for weapons, and element defense against their
opponent in armor. The basis of any modifications.
Elemental Coins - Great for increasing attack power and elemental defense. The
gold coins will give you excellent stat boosts, if they imbed special mystic
powers into the equipment. The basis of any modifications.
Seeds, Produce, and Meat - I don't see any benefit to these.
Fangs & Claws - Good with accessories.
Eyes - Good with weapons and accessories.
Feathers - Good with light armor (hats).
Bottles - Good for most armor.
Vials - Good for weapons and some accessories.
Urns - not sure, may have mystic properties
Pellets - not sure, may have mystic properties
Powders - depending on the powder, it's good for a variety of items. Rust,
grave dirt, and ash are items to avoid.
Pouches - Varied crap.
2b - Tempering Your Creation Advanced : After a while, your equipment will
simply not be receptive to any more tempering. I don't know what the limit is,
but after spending 10-20 minutes experimenting, you can tell an item has lost
it's ability to be tempered, no matter what you throw at it.
3a - Tempering Strategies for Weapons : Tempering strategies are almost wholly
up to you. However, there are some good pointers I have for weapons. Haven't
tooled around with armor that much yet.
First, you'll want to get your weapon as powerful as you can in terms of raw
attack strength. You can stick a maximum of four elements onto it, and aslong
as they don't conflict, you won't screw up. Examine the vs. chart carefully -
you'll want to pick out four elements that do not disagree with each other. For
example, Wisp, Aura, Undine, and Gnome is a good combination. Shade, Dryad,
Salamander, and Jinn is also good. If you temper equipment with conflicting
elements, it's very likely to get ruined.
Wisp vs. Shade
Aura vs. Dryad
Undine vs. Salamander
Undine vs. Jinn
Gnome vs. Jinn
3b - Tempering Strategies for Weapons Advanced : Once you're totally finished
with adding elements to your weapon, it's time to try to get some good special
mystic powers for stat boosts. Gold elemental coins have the tendency to give
these great powers, although other items might, too.
As a final touch, add a wicked eye and dragons breath, which will boost the
attack power greatly. Make sure you do this last, because it's very easy to
knock these two off and lower the attack power before it's finished.
4a - Tempering Strategies for Armor :
Next Version!
4b - Tempering Strategies for Armor Advanced :
Next Version!
5a - Mystic Powers List : Mystic powers are the cards that float into your
tempered equipment. They're very undocumented, and this list is far from
complete. Each armor or weapon can hold three mystic powers each.
All elements carry a +1 bonus to a stat.. (not sure which)
Wisp -
Shade -
Dryad -
Aura -
Gnome -
Salamander -
Jinn -
Undine -
God Of War - Strength +7
Goddess of Love - Mag. Defense +7
Sun God -
Pixie (various) -
Witch -
Wolf - minus some stats
Joker - -4 to all stats
Part VII : Seed Planting
1a - Seed Overview
Seeds come in various colors that correspond with the color of the fruit
listed in the produce encyclopedia. When you plant two different types of seed,
you can expect some of the resulting fruit to be a combination color that
follows the basic color prism. i.e. red(crooked)+blue(round)=purple(long).
Spiny seeds will give random fruits, and combined with another seed, they'll
give rare fruit types more often.
Usually, unless you've got the Mana Tree next to Home or Orchard, plants
will grow pretty slowly.
2a - Seed List
Random - Spiny Seed (rare.. find on high level Malboros)
White - Flat Seed (rare.. find on high level Malboros)
Red - Crooked Seed (can buy them from Bone Dragon area)
Orange - Small Seed(orcaplants in highway & other plant enemies)
Yellow - Oblong Seed (can buy them from Bone Dragon area)
Green - Big Seed (orcaplants in highway & other plant enemies)
Blue - Round Seed (can buy them from Bone Dragon area)
Purple - Long Seed(orcaplants in highway & other plant enemies)
Black - Never seen one..
3a - What Affects a Planted Seed?
There are a lot of variables that go into a seed that you plant.
Date Planted, if colors match up = faster growth
Elemental levels, if colors match up = faster growth
Combined seeds = varied types of fruit
Rarity = slower growth
Part VIII: Golem Building (Next Version!)
Next Version!
Part X : Instrument Creation (Next Version!)
Next Version!
Part XI : Submissions/Legal
1a - Questions & Submissions
Question #1: If anyone knows if there's any awards/bonuses for finishing all 67
quests, or getting, Lil' Cactus to write about all of them, please let me know.
Question #2: I have a feeling that there are better elemental coins than Silver
and Gold, but I don't have any confirmation. Anyone want to help me out on this
one?
Question #3: Anyone want to explain the pet personality traits better?
Question #4: Any more pets that can join you? (i.e. Chobin Hood, Mallard, etc.)
Question #5: More Blacksmithing info!!
Question #6: Any other good tips/etc. Submit! :)
All answered questions and submissions will receive full credit with the persons
email listed, if they wish. Please view my Xenogears Secrets FAQ to see how I
handle submissions. Send all submissions to : mtemisan@aol.com
1b - Legal Stuff
Legal:
You must have my express permission to reproduce or host this FAQ on any web
page, or publicly available resource. Send an email to me and wait for my
reply, I usually don't have a problem with it. I reserve all rights to deny
this hosting privilege.
This guide is not to be distributed with any purchase, you know how that is.
Don't do it!
