Easy overpowered stuff, and another question about NG+

[Sammun Mak]

I've played this game through like 3 times and I'm not missing out on the rerelease. There are a *ton* of resources about how you can make the ultimate weapons or golems or whatever, but those always require a lot of prep and work. I wonder if instead there's really good things that easy to get, even in a first game? Specifically, a weapon.

Also, for NG+, I see you get the tome that lets you turn up the difficulty. Does that have any affect on drops or anything other than how hard the monsters are to kill?

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

first playthrough, it dosent matter what gear you use. my first playthrough ever i just stuck with the menos 2h sword from the start of the game and never ran into any problems. the tome changes the level of enemies, which results in much higher drops of money/exp, but i dont believe it affects the item drops. its basically to keep the game somewhat interesting for a second playthrough, instead of just 1 shotting everything in the game.

[kapilapis]

It does affect drops because drops are tied to enemy levels and the tomes affect levels.

[{1}sK-Alkaiser]

Originally posted by Sammun Mak:

I've played this game through like 3 times and I'm not missing out on the rerelease. There are a *ton* of resources about how you can make the ultimate weapons or golems or whatever, but those always require a lot of prep and work. I wonder if instead there's really good things that easy to get, even in a first game? Specifically, a weapon.

Also, for NG+, I see you get the tome that lets you turn up the difficulty. Does that have any affect on drops or anything other than how hard the monsters are to kill?

I recommend gamefaqs or this fan site:
https://legendofmana.info/

Honestly the game is easy on a first play-through, OP stuff comes mostly from complex crafting system. I do recommend Poltergeist box pet which gives you extra luck finding items, this alone was something i wish i knew about from start.

Weapon wise:
Spear+ Bow have full screen specials skills ( blue dragon + main gun), pick whatever you enjoy tho.

[Shiya64]

I'd definitely recommend getting a polterbox ASAP. Even a low level base-luck polter can make a HUGE difference in what items you can get reliably.

Easy example: the difference between getting early spiny's without needing a level 32 area. (hurray for level 2 lulabuds!)

Though, as far as powerful gear goes, I've found this is actually a pretty tame recipe and most of it can be bought using the 26k method:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legendofmanakitchen/comments/hwkxgl/tempering_10/

Definitely one of the less time-consuming weapons in recent memory. just needs some artifact placement for the material shops.

[Shiya64]

As for your question about forbidden tome, the way item drops work in this game is dependant on enemy level. Forbidden tome does make things harder, but it can be used to boost enemy levels for areas you placed early. So, that can effectively mean "early" flat seed/rare material farming if you're strong enough to handle it.

All enemies have 8 drop slots and which slot you can potentially roll is dependant on their level. The really good stuff is usually in slot 6, 7, and 8.

Just by having a polter box, you can get slots 1-6 just like that.

for slot 7 with polter: you need level 16 enemies (level 48 without)
for slot 8 with polter: you need level 32 enemies (level 64 without)

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by Shiya64:

As for your question about forbidden tome, the way item drops work in this game is dependant on enemy level. Forbidden tome does make things harder, but it can be used to boost enemy levels for areas you placed early. So, that can effectively mean "early" flat seed/rare material farming if you're strong enough to handle it.

All enemies have 8 drop slots and which slot you can potentially roll is dependant on their level. The really good stuff is usually in slot 6, 7, and 8.

Just by having a polter box, you can get slots 1-6 just like that.

for slot 7 with polter: level 16 enemies (level 48 without)
for slot 8 with polter: level 32 enemies (level 64 without)

never realized that item drops were level based. im assuming thats mostly just crafting mats? ive never gotten any good weapon/armor drops at higher levels, just the same "rare" gear thats just slightly better than store bought.

[team.malice]

If I remember correct from the PS1 version, then monster level does affect which rare drops you get. For example, the pincher (crab enemy) will drop Full Metal only at/above a certain level (try no future mode and everything is lv 99). So even with polter box sync effect, you won't get certain rare mats unless monster level is high enough. There is a guide somewhere on gamesfaq which details monster drops and the required levels. These high monster levels are only possible in new game+.

I don't know if there is an easy/low effort weapon receipe. Money is easy with tempered hats/wind caps but elemental coins are always a pita. But I read on some old forum post, that the poision damage from the Rattler Boa (pet) sync effect is not a fixed value but a percentage of enemies max hp. I want to try this in the remaster but haven't got time yet (maybe at 70% of normal run). If thats true, than this would be really effective in new game+ and wouldn't take too much effort (just raising a pet to lv99).

[Shiya64]

There's actually an "easier" way to get coins. I was worried they would patch it for the remaster, but they didn't. :D

In Gato Grotto, if 2 spirits spawn you can actually run to the top one and grab it without needing to play music.

Could do this with Ulkan Mines and Mekiv cavern too in the old version, but I haven't tested those ones yet in the remaster. But Gato still works.

[Yekkusu]

On my normal game I did a Gold Spear that had like 62 damage, with three elementals on it and for some enemies it caused such a small damage, but for most of them it was two life bars per hit. Which means most missions were easy;
On NG+ I'm not crazy of putting no future mode because you sure need a 999 weapon for that mode, that's how absurd it is. But on Nightmare, the same weapons help a lot on the start, some bosses get to level 99 and they tend to be very hard without good equipment.

[Castile]

Originally posted by Chad "The King" Thundercock:

never realized that item drops were level based. im assuming thats mostly just crafting mats? ive never gotten any good weapon/armor drops at higher levels, just the same "rare" gear thats just slightly better than store bought.

This old gamefaqs thing breaks down all the item drops and how the system works https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/256525-legend-of-mana/faqs/30684

There are some weapons and materials that occupy the highest level drop slots but for a lot of enemies the higher level slots are materials (One equip example is Excalibur from Moldy Goo). I think it's actually pretty hard to get the enemies high enough level to maximize their loot pool in a fresh run unless you specifically engineer your map placements to spike enemy levels, the NG+ tomes basically let you bypass that.

[Shiya64]

Originally posted by Chad "The King" Thundercock:

never realized that item drops were level based. im assuming thats mostly just crafting mats? ive never gotten any good weapon/armor drops at higher levels, just the same "rare" gear thats just slightly better than store bought.

Yeah, it's mostly just crafting mats, and like Castile said, a few of the slot 8's are occupied by weapons. And other equipment. (though I'm never happy to see equipment drops. I usually just sell them.)

[AH-1 Cobra]

Honestly, 500 attack is plenty even for no future mode on NG+ level 99.

If you got weapons in the 1200+ range, you can oneshot bosses with something like main gun, etc.

Weapons in the 1000+ range require a lot more crafting steps. You're gonna be sitting there for 30-45 minutes crafting while looking at a sheet hoping you don't screw up the sequence, lol. I doubt too many people really want to do that. A 30 step, 500-600ish attack weapon would be less tedious, IMO. You should be able to do that with direwood or adamantite no problem.

I beat the original game on no future mode using a 600ish attack 1h axe, and still destroyed stuff no problem. Didn't get bogged down in any fights.