Star Ocean 3 Alchemy

[neo_bahamut1985]

Okay, I've searched numerous FAQs on the internet about making a Philosophers Stone to recruit the best Alchemest (talent 100) in the game, so I can make Orichalcum and make my party strong. The problem is, despite the fact that I have the right inventors and the right amount of fol to make the stone (11-13 fol), it never gets made! I wait and wait and it never shows up. What am I doing wrong?!

[megamanzer0]

nothing probably. you have to realize just how hard it is to create the item.

[neo_bahamut1985]

So, isn't it like a 1/20 chance, or what? Any way of getting lots of Fol to blow?

[Louis Cypher]

Isn't Fol the basic unit of currency in the game? And isn't there *lots* of the shit, to the point where strong items by the end of disc 1 cost around 50,000 of the things?

[Agozer]

Isn't Fol the basic unit of currency in the game? And isn't there *lots* of the shit, to the point where strong items by the end of disc 1 cost around 50,000 of the things?

Yes.

[grinvader]

You just suck at understanding how the system works.
Let's go back to step one just in case.

- First you need a workshop with the right workline, or add the workline to an already discovered workshop (alchemy line costs 2K).
- You want to produce a philosopher's stone. Only 2 characters can make it possible. You MUST put them first in the workline. These 2 are:
Souffle (Peppita for the retards) - alchemy 12
Eliza (recruited with 10K fol) - alchemy 4
You probably want to use Souffle, unless you still don't have her.
- The BASE price of a philosopher's stone is 12 fol. That's the base. Pay attention.
- The RATING of the stone is 100. That means you have to total above that to get the slightest chance of making the damn thing - with a value locked at 12 or 4, at that.
- Now that means you MUST have the Alchemist's Stone's bonus of 20 to alchemy inventing. Else you cannot do it.
- If you have it, you're still lacking a good 70+ points over 2 characters to make it.
So you MUST have Misty.
- The last character choice depends on how masochistic you are. Any character with at least 19 in alch could work, but you would need 27 or more if you use Eliza instead of Souffle.

Once you've made your team, check their price mods. Sum them up, and apply them to the base price. This is your target price, give or take another 10%.
So, let's take an example. You're a gigantic pain lover and make a Souffle/Misty/Nel line (20+12+50+20 = 102 woo).
Price mod sum: 10 + 0 + 0 = +10%
Apply the mod: 12 * 1.10 = 13, +/- 1. So you want a target price of 12-14.
Once you have it, launch the line, and monitor their faces to see the outcome of every attempt.
If you have time and money, just relaunch the line every time the quality drops under half, else you may want to save beforehand and reload in the eventuality of too much money lost (at 13 fol a pop... you'd really suck).

PROTIP: around 10 minutes of work with Souffle/Misty/Sophia

[neo_bahamut1985]

Seems I forgot to get that bloody Alchemists Stone; got that and I managed to get a couple of very nice weapons with orichalcum (in 10 min or so), as soon as I get more Fol, I'll make some with 2500+ atk or something. Any good places for Fol?

[Neo Kaiser]

Seems I forgot to get that bloody Alchemists Stone; got that and I managed to get a couple of very nice weapons with orichalcum (in 10 min or so), as soon as I get more Fol, I'll make some with 2500+ atk or something. Any good places for Fol?

Patent your creations and stay with the PS3 on for half a day.

[grinvader]

Or just keep playing the damn game. SO3 is one of the easiest games to rack in cash I ever played.
Battles yield more and more cash as you go, just don't skip too many of them... By the time you reach the firewall and the final 'no turning back' point (which is where you want to turn back and make crazy shit for the postgame), you'll drown in it - if you don't, you suck.

Don't pump your weapons too much. A couple atk +1000 on ONE weapon is enough to turn everything up to (and including some) postgame bosses into warm butter.

Although... you will need some monstrous stuff for some BTs. Dunno if you care about these, though.
(Noteworthy, the actually pretty fun 'Deal 99999 damage with the metal pipe'. Got BoPs ?)

[whicker]

grin, where is this JRPG stuff explained?
(in b4 Nintendo Power magazine)

You don't have to reveal your sources, I'm still amazed. But if you come up with even some of this stuff on your own, I'd be uber amazed.

[grinvader]

JRPGs are relatively easy to decipher. I find almost everything on my game runs. Only out-of-the-way hidden secrets or very obscure references escape me.
Maybe it's the experience of 20 years of gaming, but I doubt it. It's just simple ?

And on re-runs/post-games/newgame+s/you get the point, I read some FAQs for these.
For example I learnt from a FAQ that Eliza could do the stone - I merely used every combination from my roster to produce it after I got aware of the main alchemy system traits (and got it with the previously cited combo).
The BTs being hidden, you can't guess what they are... but as soon as you get the first couple, most of them become very easy to guess. The damage one, for example. You get '111 damage', '222 damage', you get the point and pull the various ones, then you try at quantity (99999), then you wonder if you could pull that with the weakest thing in the game.
For the horrible ones (grab lucky stars ? hit shit with battle sphere ? ONE MILLION BUTTON PRESSES - I thought 100k was the last one, since I got nothing for the longest time after getting the first 100k in my FIRST GAME), I read a FAQ.

Then I alter my own tricks and tidbits with the further info to make horribly effective stuff.

[Neo Kaiser]

Wow I didn't knew that Grinvader was so intellectual. This information is very helpful, should be on gamefaqs.com or something.

[neo_bahamut1985]

Gamefaqs didn't have this in-depth of an alchemy guide; that's why I asked here and boy are my characters strong.

[Neo Kaiser]

Now to try making a steel pipe deal 9999 damage...

[neo_bahamut1985]

I already sold it. But I often take of 12000 damage fine.

[Neo Kaiser]

I already sold it. But I often take of 12000 damage fine.

You lost a trophy! Unless you don't care about unlocking stuff.

[neo_bahamut1985]

Well I did get a hard-to-get trophy; killing Crosell in less than one minute.

[grinvader]

Now to try making a steel pipe deal 9999 damage...

99999. Easy with some BoPs, but should be left for the postgame, since they break everything and are quite expensive to make and refine.

Well I did get a hard-to-get trophy; killing Crosell in less than one minute.

... not hard. -_-
Especially with orichalcum-boosted weapons.

It lasted around 7 seconds against my Holy Sword-R1 (+2000 atk, +10% resist death with guts), also neating me the no-damage trophy in the same fight. You need to get better at cancelling.

[Neo Kaiser]

I only wanted to gain trophies until I unlock all the costumes. I'm not planning on getting every trophy expecially the on where you most complete the game at level 1. Fuck that shit!

[Agozer]

Well I did get a hard-to-get trophy; killing Crosell in less than one minute.

... not hard. -_-
Especially with orichalcum-boosted weapons.

Isn't using Orichalcum weapons cheating? Sure, tri-Ace gave you the option to play around with that material, but after you boost weapons with that stuff, the game becomes piss easy. :/

EDIT: tri-Ace. Really.

[grinvader]

I found it a fair bit useful in 4D. Else the boss battles would be way too long and tiring.
Also: it's tri-Ace.

I only wanted to gain trophies until I unlock all the costumes. I'm not planning on getting every trophy

You know that's still a fuckload of them, right ? 240, to be precise. Choose the 60 you'll skip wisely.

expecially the on where you most complete the game at level 1. Fuck that shit!

That's an easy one.
- skip battles until you get Cliff. Then switch to him and never use Fate. Not a big loss, when you use Cliff properly - damn powerhouse
[Note: it's actually a bit tricky not to level, you have to force the bandits to flee the boss battle by getting them to critical health and leaving them like that for a bit, then you have to die against Norton to prevent getting a level from the fight. After that leave Fate dead and use Cliff alone.]
- grab Souffle and Sophia along the way, and never use them, ever. Piss easy.
- make a whoppy of stun bombs ! The shit's gonna save your butt.
- either develop Souffle's ultimate weapon to the max, or use Orichalcums with another of her weapons that has 'increase attack decision by 2'. Relatively easy, but postgame only for obvious reasons.
- Souffle/Fate/Sophia vs Lucifer.
- stun him, strike it for MASSIVE DAMAGE, run away, have another character stun him, rince, lather, repeat. Even the 4D fight isn't that hard, you'll have a couple stun bombs left at the end if you don't suck.
Actually defeated him at level 1 in Universe, to grab 2 trophies in one go. ^^;

[Agozer]

Also: it's tri-Ace.

Yes. I checked the proper way to type said name immediately afterwards, I just didn't remember to fix it. Woe is me.