Suikoden 1: Water Rune Pieces

[no_idea_for_a_name]

I've played several times Suikoden 2 in the past, but this is the first time I'm playing Suikoden 1.
Reading the description, it seems that in Suikoden 1, Water Rune Pieces, when put in weapons, don't just add a regen effect (like Water Runes do in 2, when put in weapons), but they also change the damage type.
So the question is: is it worth it? By that I mean: how often do you encounter enemies that are resistant/immune to water damage?

[Ray Rook]

The damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1. Water Rune Pieces heal a character 5 HP per round and per piece. You can farm them and get up to 255, but there is a fight in the game that requires you to lose. So you could potentially softlock yourself or worse... just have to replace the pieces with another piece, thus wasting your farming time.

It took me 2 hours to farm 13 pieces.

if you add more than 255, it will start back at 1.

[no_idea_for_a_name]

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

The damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1. Water Rune Pieces heal a character 5 HP per round and per piece. You can farm them and get up to 255, but there is a fight in the game that requires you to lose. So you could potentially softlock yourself or worse... just have to replace the pieces with another piece, thus wasting your farming time.

It took me 2 hours to farm 13 pieces.

if you add more than 255, it will start back at 1.

By "the damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1" you mean that nobody resists any type of damage?

[Vex]

Originally posted by no_idea_for_a_name:

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

The damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1. Water Rune Pieces heal a character 5 HP per round and per piece. You can farm them and get up to 255, but there is a fight in the game that requires you to lose. So you could potentially softlock yourself or worse... just have to replace the pieces with another piece, thus wasting your farming time.

It took me 2 hours to farm 13 pieces.

if you add more than 255, it will start back at 1.

By "the damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1" you mean that nobody resists any type of damage?

More like it won't produce an insurmountable difference.

For example, I slapped Earth Rune Pieces of Viktor's sword, and when it came time to fight a certain clam-shell boss, his damage soared, but against earth resistant bosses, he was still dealing decent damage.

Granted I also took Eikie's Double-Beat (now Double-Jab) Rune and gave it to Viktor, so that also helped.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by no_idea_for_a_name:

I've played several times Suikoden 2 in the past, but this is the first time I'm playing Suikoden 1.
Reading the description, it seems that in Suikoden 1, Water Rune Pieces, when put in weapons, don't just add a regen effect (like Water Runes do in 2, when put in weapons), but they also change the damage type.
So the question is: is it worth it? By that I mean: how often do you encounter enemies that are resistant/immune to water damage?

I finished the game on normal and now I'm playing on hard, normal mode is a joke and you don't have to worry about rune pieces whatsoever.

The thing is, sadly only water and earth are farmable here, with a game with 108 characters (not everyone is usable, but you get my point) having LIMITED rune pieces that cannot be disassembled (they are destroyed) looks like a design flaw.

[Ray Rook]

Originally posted by Zeo:

Originally posted by no_idea_for_a_name:

I've played several times Suikoden 2 in the past, but this is the first time I'm playing Suikoden 1.
Reading the description, it seems that in Suikoden 1, Water Rune Pieces, when put in weapons, don't just add a regen effect (like Water Runes do in 2, when put in weapons), but they also change the damage type.
So the question is: is it worth it? By that I mean: how often do you encounter enemies that are resistant/immune to water damage?

I finished the game on normal and now I'm playing on hard, normal mode is a joke and you don't have to worry about rune pieces whatsoever.

The thing is, sadly only water and earth are farmable here, with a game with 108 characters (not everyone is usable, but you get my point) having LIMITED rune pieces that cannot be disassembled (they are destroyed) looks like a design flaw.

It would be a design flaw if the pieces had big impact. They don't.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

Originally posted by Zeo:

I finished the game on normal and now I'm playing on hard, normal mode is a joke and you don't have to worry about rune pieces whatsoever.

The thing is, sadly only water and earth are farmable here, with a game with 108 characters (not everyone is usable, but you get my point) having LIMITED rune pieces that cannot be disassembled (they are destroyed) looks like a design flaw.

It would be a design flaw if the pieces had big impact. They don't.

But my point are that you won't will have enough pieces for everybody, save for the ones that you can farm.

[Ray Rook]

Yea. for sure you're right. If anything the flaw is that they have pieces at all. IIRC in later entries you could just use orbs.

[no_idea_for_a_name]

Originally posted by Vex:

Originally posted by no_idea_for_a_name:

By "the damage types don't have a big effect in Suikoden 1" you mean that nobody resists any type of damage?

More like it won't produce an insurmountable difference.

For example, I slapped Earth Rune Pieces of Viktor's sword, and when it came time to fight a certain clam-shell boss, his damage soared, but against earth resistant bosses, he was still dealing decent damage.

Granted I also took Eikie's Double-Beat (now Double-Jab) Rune and gave it to Viktor, so that also helped.

Mmh, I think I won't use elemental rune pieces at all then.
The fact that they force an elemental damage change to get the "secondary" benefits of the pieces is just bad. I'd rather have consistent damage, than just hope I don't get a boss that is resistant to the element of my weapon.
I definitely prefer how it works in Suikoden 2.

[Shiro]

I cant think of a single enemy that has elemental resistance to physical attacks in Suikoden I.

Or if they do, the difference in damage is not really noticeable, (you will not encounter a monster that you do 0 damage or heal because you are using the wrong element)

Magic Runes on the other hand might be a different story, I cant confirm, but its possible enemies are resistant or weak to magic runes of the opposite element.

[no_idea_for_a_name]

Originally posted by Shiro:

I cant think of a single enemy that has elemental resistance to physical attacks in Suikoden I.

Or if they do, the difference in damage is not really noticeable, (you will not encounter a monster that you do 0 damage or heal because you are using the wrong element)

Magic Runes on the other hand might be a different story, I cant confirm, but its possible enemies are resistant or weak to magic runes of the opposite element.

From what I could find on Suikosource, which is where I usually check for game mechanics regarding Suikoden games, the only element checks that are present in Suikoden 1 are: Water, Fire, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Holy, Darkness. This is for the elements.
Then there's certainly physical and maybe non-elemental (that is, pure magic) damage (it's present in other Suikoden games, but I'm not sure about Suikoden 1, since I couldn't find any explicit reference to it for this game).
I don't see any reference to a differentiation between magical elemental and physical elemental.