Quick Exam Guide

A quick and easy guide that explains the victory conditions and the types and levels of magic required to achieve them so you can plan ahead and train them up in time.

Intro

A quick and easy guide that explains the victory conditions and the types and levels of magic required to achieve them so you can plan ahead and train them up in time. Some information here has been taken from http://spikycaterpillar.com/magical_diary/guide.html which offers an excellent walkthrough but sadly lacks the required magic levels for the spells you need, leaving you to level a spell color more or less at random until the desired spell shows up.

No more, for I have taken the time to track down those elusive spells and their requirements and bundled the information here for all six exams plus the final.

Without further ado here is everyhing you need to know in order to ace your exams!

Sept 27 - Dungeon Exam 1

WARNING: Not having any magic skills or a combined magic score of less than 10 will get you expelled, ending the game but netting an achievement.

Full Merits (10): Have Blue > 30
Half Merits (5): Have Red > 25 OR Have Black > 25
No Merits (0): Have Red <25 OR Have Black < 25

All other stat combinations end up with you getting demerits and/or detention.

Oct 25 - Dungeon Exam 2

Full Merits (5):

Have Red > 7 for PUSH OBJECT and push the bridge over the gap
Have Green > 15 for BOOST STRENGTH and jump over the gap
Have Black > 30 for STONESHAPE and form a path over the gap
Have White > 15 for AWARENESS AND Blue > 30 for TELEPORT SELF and do just that

Dec 2 - Dungeon Exam 3

Full Merits (5):

Have White > 15 for AWARENESS cast it and just save/reload until you discover the exit (or have Red > 5 and cast Breeze and then Awareness at the right spot if you're so inclined)

Have Green > 7 and TRACK SCENT to the exit; make sure to cast the spell before your move or take any other action or it won't work.

Jan 10 - Dungeon Exam 4

Full Merits (10):

Condition: Don't take/deal damage to the Hodag in the center.

Have Blue >20 for DARKNESS and slip by the Hodag (this is luck based; just reload if he manages to hit you)
Have Blue > 25 and TELEPORT OTHER the Hodag
Have Green > 30 and BLIND the Hodag then slip by
Have Green > 25 and White > 35 to put SLEEP on the Hodag and slip by
Have White > 40 and FEAR the Hodag (you might run into him again though)


Untested but possible:

Have White > 15 for AWARENESS AND Blue > 30 for TELEPORT SELF and do just that
Have White > 50 and CALL the Hodag if it's somewhere it shouldn't be
Have Blue > 80 for CLOAK and slip by the Hodag
Have Black > 100 and DIG through the walls

If you lack the magic skills listed above but still want full merits use this technique discovered and kindly shared by [SotA] Jollepoker:

1. Stand with your back to the wall at the starting location, facing the Hodag path.
2. Press forward quickly until you run into the opposite wall
3. Exit the dungeon
Doing this will skip the Hodag encounter. The Hodag is still there though. When you exit you'll get full merit since you didn't use violence :)

Half Merits (5):

Have Red > 20 and SLASH the Hodag until it dies
Have Red >25 and BLAST the Hodag until it dies
Have Red > 30 and CRUSH the Hodag until it dies
Have Red > 40 and hurl FLAMES at the Hodag until it dies
Have even more Red and KILL IT until it DIES
Have Green > 15 AND Black > 15 and POISON the Hodag to make the fight easier for you

Feb 7 - Dungeon exam 5

Full Merits (10):

Conditions: Dispel the illusion and don't kill yourself with the chest trap

Have White > 5 and cast SPIRITH SIGHT at the Manus
Have Blue > 10 and cast TRUESIGHT at the Manus

Have Black > 10 and cast TRIGGER at the chest to depart from this cruel world (you'll need at least 34 HP to survive the blast; good if you went with high strenght for some reason)
Have Green > 15 to BOOST STRENGHT above 34 HP and HEAL up to that amount
Have Black > 35 AND Blue > 35 to TRANSFER CHARM from the chest to the walls; you can now safely open the chest and retrieve the key
Have Black > 60 to DISPEL OBJECT and remove the trap from the chest

Have Red > 7 and PUSH the Stone Sphrere into the chest (Thanks Kyrrelin!)
Have Blue > 40 AND Black > 50 to tirgger the trap with TELEVOKE (Thanks TheJadedMieu!)
Have Blue > 100 to SHIELD yourself from the trap (Thanks ~[BoSF]~ Viikinkikiivi!)



Untested but possible:

Have Black > 70 AND White > 30 to put ANTI-MAGIC FIELD on the chest - (Doesn't seem to work, thanks Zucku!)



Half Merits (5):

Don't dispel the illusion and escape the dungeon following the instructions above. Alternatively a high strength score allows you to open the chest but will set you reward to zero merits due to your lack of magical problem solving skills. (Thanks superforsooth!)

Mar 14 - Dungeon exam 6

Full Merits (10):

Condition: Outsmart your opponent

Have White > 10 to cast COMMUNICATION on your opponent AND Smart > 36 to remove him from the race and gain your full reward.

Have Black > 20 to cast OPEN on the exit door
Have Red > 25 to BLAST the exit door

Half Merits (5):

Have Green > 25 to SLOW your opponent and make your life easier
Have Green > 25 and BLACK > 30 to POISON your opponent which is strangely satisfying and allows you to run past him
Have Green > 30 to BLIND your opponnent and run past him
Have Green > 50 to ENTANGLE your opponent in one of the random plant tiles
Have White > 25 to use DISTRACTION on your opponent and get past him
Have White > 40 to FEAR your opponent (he will run in the opposite direction; make sure that is not towards the exit)
Have Blue > 25 to TELEPORT OTHER and teleport your opponent far away from the exit
Have Green > 25 AND White > 35 to put your opponent to SLEEP, safely outrunning him
Have Red > 50 AND White > 50 to MINDSTORM your opponent and run past him

Have Black > 20 to cast OPEN on the exit door
Have Red > 25 to BLAST the exit door

Apr 29 - Final exam

There are many ways to successfully complete the final exam, depending which route you are on and what combination of spells and the amount of mana you have chosen to build. The following is a guide for the Ellen route with a high smart/white score; I'm doing Viriginia's route right now and will update this section once I'm done.

Have Smart > 45 or you might run into mana problems, forcing you to potentially skip a step
Have White > 20 AND Blue > 20 for FARSPEAK (little chance that you don't have that by now but you know, for completeness; Values corrected, thanks Sir Percival!)
Have Black > 15 for DETECT CHARM and use that spell to avoid the traps at reasonable mana cost
Have White > 50 for CALL and use it to get safely past the monsters

Thank you

Congratulations! You have passed your final exam.Thank you for reading this guide. If you find any errors or additional working spells/spell combinations please contact me and I'll update the relevant sections.

See you in Horse Hall!

[Wicked]

Dungeon 6: awarness + teleport other the opponent into a doorless room. Problem solved permanently and you can proceed to open the door at your leisure.

[Pringles]

For exam 3 you don't need Awareness, you can just cast Breeze on the tile with the fake wall

[djmd01]

Dungeon 3 can also be solved with the Black magic (Inspection)

[Mockingbird]

Exam 6 doesn't require Open or Blast - you can wait for your opponent to open the door then outsmart him. It's safest to have a spell, but not required.

[Mysti_Fogg]

Dungeon 5 can be solved by casting telepyre on the square with the chest.

[Mysti_Fogg]

Dungeon 3 can also be solved using Breeze/Track Scent and True Sight (Blue Magic)

[Zombie.CCCP]

For exam 2, you could just use „Teleport other” on the bridge, targeting spot with the abyss. Also, you could succeed exam 3 using only „Breeze”, in a right spot.

[DodoTofu]

For Dungeon Exam 6 I was able to use Awareness, discovered the exit was a single block away, and then teleported myself there. Never met the opponent. Never had to open the door.

[luggage]

Oct 25 - Dungeon Exam 2
Walk to the end of the bridge, Cast Teleport Other on the Bridge End, select the square that you started on, and select 'land to the north'. Bridge is now across the gap.

[Materia User]

On the final exam, with a smart of 90 and no white magic spells, I still completed final exam. I just agreed with Ellen and she basically did all the work for me.