A Guidebook to TFS RPG

Overview

Want to know who you can get on your team? Are you stuck and can’t find your next town/dungeon? Want the details about what New Game Plus mode offers? Having trouble finding those batteries for your Lightsaber? Find such answers here!

Introduction

This is a walkthrough, so some spoilers are bound to happen. I try to avoid direct mention of the plot action where I can so you can experience the comedy without too much interference from me, but still please don’t hate me for “spoilers.” If you are reading this it means you need some help finding out where to go next and you are not worried if I reveal something you haven’t seen yet. So you have been warned, I am not using spoiler blackout bars, and you should continue reading at your own risk I guess.

This game is reasonably straight-forward. No real surprises in the gameplay and the world is quite small so if you truly explore each region you should be able to find your way without much help. If you have ever played an adventure RPG before you should be familiar with the way things work here.
So my advice is, try to do things yourself first. Explore, enjoy the game, have fun unraveling the mystery. But hey since this game is very bad in the sense that nobody really gives you any details about where to go or what you are supposed to do in order to advance the story, I thought some of you might benefit from a little help. Seriously, they just drop you in and say “You’re stuck in a video game now, oh no! Find me a computer terminal somewhere in the world and I can probably help you all get back home to the real world. Now, off you go – good luck!” and then nobody tells you anything until AFTER you’ve already found/done what they’re talking about. So hey if you truly get stuck, visit my little guide and you should find the help you need to continue on your way. I expect most of you will only need to check one or two spots in my guide (the game really is not all that difficult to figure out) but I will cover the whole game anyway.

I will start out with some useful info for newb players, then a walkthrough starting from your very first New Game. That part will be separated by region, with a different chapter for each major area of the game. Including a screen-shot of the world map for that region so you can tell which region you are in even if you forget the names of the towns. Down at the end I will have a section that covers NG+: what exactly it means, what your options are, and some tips for making NG+ faster and easier than the original game. Since there are two NG+ modes and one is an alternate story, I will include a walkthrough of the second NG+ mode, too.

Known glitches

1. In the final throne room when you talk to the big boss, he gets up and I’m pretty sure he is supposed to walk up to your heroes and stand in front of them so they can appear to have a real conversation… but instead he keeps walking OVER the entire hero team and then keeps going off the screen so your team is left standing around talking to a creepy disembodied voice. Hilarious glitch.

2. In the final dungeon, you can choose to walk completely around the mini-bosses on each floor, this is an intentional decision by the game’s creator to make them optional battles. However, if you choose to walk around them you cannot get their entries in TheColor12’s monster compendium. Oh well.

3. Also related to those optional mini-bosses in the final dungeon… the desert floor that should have Dumpae’s fear boss – HE DOES NOT SHOW UP. I’m sorry but you are S.O.L. for that boss. Some people say “exit and reenter the dungeon several times” or “reload your last save and try again” but I’ve done it six times and nothing works. In the game’s code his location is set to outer space instead of on the floor where he “should” be, and if you change it then talking to him will freeze your game.

4. “Mr. Tweetums” – It took me FOREVER to get this guy to appear. Then all of a sudden, I fought three of them in a row. This gigantic parrot appears on the island with Jahal Cove after you get the airship. So does Billy Punchy Face the rat-man. Another rare enemy is the dragon on the island with the TFS High School or the one with Japan Town, also after you get the airship.

5. NG+ – Stream Four Star mode: some of your supporting characters (Dumplin, Johnny, Tsurugi, and Martin) will NOT retain their levels or stats from your previous playthrough, they revert to their default which is somewhere around level 6-12.

6. Tthis may have been an intentional design decision, but worth mentioning anyway. The mini-bosses in the final dungeon CANNOT BE FOUGHT in a NG+ run because they DO NOT APPEAR at all; the whole tower is empty up to the throne room.

7. In NG+ Stream Four Star mode, sometimes the monster compendium pages for the mini-bosses at the final tower will disappear from the list. If you want them back, the developer somehow fixed it but you have to re-visit the cave where you started the game to re-add them to your list. The “Fake Tsurugi” final boss is always shown as a ?????? entry though.

Monster Compendium

In the back room of the shop, you will meet Pr0bait who will give you cash if you find him as a random encounter battle. You will also find the Milk Maid there, if you are on a New Game Plus already. And then there is TheColor12, who keeps a record of the enemies you defeat. Once you have killed an enemy, check with him to see its basic stats so you know how weak or strong it is compared to you or to other enemies on the list.

Here is a list of locations with the enemies you will find there, listed in the order you will get there if you play the game the way it was intended.

• ANY shop back room (NG+ only) – Milk Maid (boss)
• East Cave – bat (mob)
• Region One – bat (mob), slime (mob)
• Puddin’s Tower – Puddin Clone (mob), Puddin? (boss)
• Region Two – Undead (mob), Creepy Crawler (mob)
• East Cave (story event battle) – Taka (boss), Zito (boss), Masako (boss)
• Mountain Path – Dead Earth (mob), Bandit (mob), Undead (mob), Creepy Crawler (mob)
• Abandoned Mansion – Bandit (mob), Haunting Specter (mob), Dead Earth (mob), Creepy Crawler (mob), Undead (mob), Dumplin? (boss)
• Forest – P-trice (mob), Bee! (mob), Lamia (mob), Rat (mob)
• Region Three – Lamia (mob), Rat (mob)
• Poison Swamp – Lamia (mob), Rat (mob)
• Vault – Power Armor (mob), Fat Mutant (mob), Ravager? (boss)
• Japan Town – Willie (boss), Mine-a-taur (mob), Dragon (mob, rare)
• TFS High – Mine-a-taur (mob), Dragon (mob, rare)
• Jahal Cove – Mine-a-Taur (mob), Billy Punchy Face (mob, rare), Mr Tweetums (mob, rare), Slime (mob)
• Final Dungeon (all bosses) – Synth, Puddin’s Partner, Tantor, (missing – Dumplestiltskin), Dumplin’s Wife, Johnny K.H., Johnny D.S., Johnny Naruto, Internet Troll, Fear Mice
• Final Dungeon Throne Room – ?????? (final boss) – does not appear in the compendium because as soon as you kill him the game is over.

Pay attention in the final dungeon. It is SUPER COMMON for one of the bosses to NOT SHOW UP in the final dungeon – particularly Dumplestiltskin (Dumpae’s fear boss) NEVER showed up for me in six games, I had to go into the game files just to find the name of this one. Every floor except the first one should have a boss, if it doesn’t show up you can TRY to exit the dungeon, save your game (in a different slot), and exit the game and then restart and reload and try again until the boss does show up… but nothing ever fixed it for me. DO NOT skip those fights; the bosses DO NOT APPEAR on New Game Plus at all, except for the final ending boss. For the record, I NEVER saw the boss on Dumpae’s floor which looks like a desert/mountain path.

Characters

There are two types of characters in this game. First are “main characters” who get stronger simply by upgrading equipment – but also get slight boosts from leveling up. You have three of these guys. Everyone else is a supporting character, some of them you can change ONE piece of their equipment but most of them have their inventory locked so they get stronger only by leveling up. This game has a bunch of colorful characters, each with their own set of skills to use in battle. To unlock them you must purchase them from the main shop in any town. Certain characters are required to be unlocked – but not necessarily in your active party – to complete various side-quests. I will note who is needed, when they unlock, and how much their unlock will cost, under the guide chapter for each area. For the early part of the game, on your first play, I would suggest using your main three characters plus Ravager, since he has decent attack and high HP so he survives the first 2/3 of the game pretty well.

• Grant – one of your main characters, gets stronger primarily by equipping better stuff. Uses a Soundboard weapon to perform magic attacks (stick with the Spark Board until you get the Omni Board). For armor, uses primarily leather. His spark attack is great because it hits all opponents. The Darkness spell from the omni board is similar but does a bit more damage. As a mage, he is a little bit “squishy” until you can buy the Mage Robes though. He is also a good choice to equip the accessory “Lani’s Wallet” which costs 500 gold but will DOUBLE the money that you earn from battles.
• Nick – another main character. Warrior type. Uses swords and axes, and metal armor. When you find the Light Saber and both batteries, give it to him. Also be sure to buy the Excalibur Armor from the casino and give it to him. High attack, decent HP, but very low MP. His only skill that matters is Double Attack.
• Kirran – your third and final main character. He can DUAL-WIELD with bows, daggers, or one of each. Stick with the bows, never even pay for a dagger, daggers are garbage in this game. He has three decent skills: Minor Glitch is great for bosses (poisons them) and Double Attack is always a winner, but if you have at least one bow equipped and don’t want to spend MP on Double Attack you can try True Shot instead. He uses leather or plate armor, not the heaviest stuff. Make sure he gets the Genji Armor from the casino when you can afford it.

1. Dumpae – your first (or second) supporting character. This guy has a bunch of elemental sword skills, which are barely worth using. And the broken Triple Attack will eventually become available. His bread and butter move will be Double Attack though. No equipment change possible. He likes to drink, and eventually gets a skill for it which on paper looks good but it blinds you which renders the benefits useless. Once you hit NG+ which lets you find and use the “Milk” item to boost a character’s attributes, this guy should replace Ravager for you.
2. Ravager – your other first (or second) supporting character. No equipment change possible. He has an interesting backstory – some kind of cannibal. Decent HP and attack power make him a solid choice for your first run at the game. His VATS attack LEGS adds a small amount of damage for 25 TP; the CHEST adds a bit more damage; and the HEAD adds a bit more. CHEST and HEAD are too weak compared to the TP cost so only use LEGS, or CANNIBALIZE if you need him to heal a bit.
3. Puddin – your third (or fourth) supporting character. No equipment change possible. Not too shabby; bring her along if you need a healer. She also has somewhat decent attack power, but a bit less than most of the others (except Grant). She eventually learns two skills other than Heal but both are unworthy.
4. LaKiGr – your other third (or fourth) supporting character. No equipment change possible. Uses pokemon for special attacks but they are all WEAK. Just unlock him and leave him on the bench forever, he is garbage in battle.
5. Dumplin – You can change his Accessory! YAAY! Use him if you get tired of Ravager. He has two skills; Advanced Geometry is worse than useless since it does less damage than a normal attack but burns TP and MP both. Continuous Ki Blast is not awful though, give it a try sometime; it does four attacks against random targets. Later he learns a 100TP skill which I cannot name here, it does 5 or 6 attacks against a single opponent. You should avoid using it because the TP cost is too high AND it costs 5MP too; Continuous Ki Blast does 4 hits and costs SO MUCH LESS. After a few levelups you should replace Ravager with him or Johnny. Unfortunately, NG+ is a little broken and he shows up at a low level every time you unlock him.
6. Johnny – This crazy Star Wars fan uses a lightsaber but it has no batteries and you cannot put batteries in it. He gets Double Attack which is always great, plus a Box Drop skill which I never had much luck with, a lightning skill that isn’t very impressive, and a Lightsaber Logic skill which has a pretty high chance to insta-kill ANY enemy – even the bosses. You can change his armor, so give him a Leather Suit. After a few levelups you should replace Ravager with him or Dumplin. Unfortunately, NG+ is a little broken and he shows up at a low level every time you unlock him.
7. Tsurugi – He has no special skills at all, but is actually a pretty decent fighter in terms of raw stats and regular attack power thanks to his chainsaw. He has a hat that you can change, but he already has the best hat in the game (which nobody else can wear) so why would you want to change his hat?? You can also change his shield (but he cannot equip any) and armor (but he already comes with leather suit). Unfortunately, NG+ is a little broken and he shows up at a low level every time you unlock him.
8. Martin – Martin is the BEST fighter of the supporting characters. He has crazy high stats, decent HP, and the Double Attack skill (have I said yet that Double Attack is the best?) so put him in your party as soon as you find him. You are “allowed” to change his shield but he can’t actually equip any shields so it is really pointless to try. Near the end of the game you can learn his Preteen Fury skill which is a good alternative for Double Attack if you are low on TP.
   Unfortunately, NG+ is a little broken and he shows up at a low level every time you unlock him.

Battle Basics

Battles are random, you hit one every few steps. Each area has two or three enemy types for you to fight, and they may show up in three or four pre-set groups. Once battle starts, it is turn-based and the turn order depends who has the highest Agility stat. In each round, all characters on screen will be able to take ONE turn, then the round ends and any lingering status effects are adjusted before the next round starts. Sometimes you will surprise the enemy, which means your team gets to go first and the enemy gets NO turns on the first round. Sometimes the enemy will surprise you so they get the first round all to themselves, it stinks when this happens but luckily it is a rare situation.

Actions that count as turns: attack, guard, use item, use magic, use ki, use skill, and similar commands. Actions that don’t waste a turn (if I remember right): Formation. If you try to escape, you will either immediately run away or you will fail and then your entire round is wasted so the enemy team gets a set of free turns. You can reach the menu for escape and change formation by pressing the cancel button (B on the Xbox controller) from your FIRST character’s action menu. Once a character picks an action, some of them require you to also select a target and some do not. If you made a mistake, you can press the Cancel button (B on Xbox controller) to go back to the previous character’s action menu and choose a different action. Unless you confirm your fourth character’s action… then all your choices are set for this round with no do-overs.

A few enemies drop items for you, the chance to get one is VERY VERY LOW though (except certain ones who are scripted to drop an item every time), but the main rewards from fighting a battle are the TFS points (money) and the Experience Points that will lead you to leveling up which increases your stats so you survive longer and do more damage, and sometimes learn new skills. Because of the way the XP system works, you might need to do a small amount of “grinding” for XP in each area but this game is not like Final Fantasy XIII where you are expected to grind for endless hours. Just an hour or two in each new area is fine, and you might spend that much time there on your first play through anyway without even trying to grind.

If your HP drops to zero, you die. If all characters die, it is GAME OVER. I had this happen to me twice: once in the first tower where you fight Puddin clones – I hit a group of five and failed to run away; and once in the abandoned mansion when one of the spectre enemies survived a round long enough to cast magic on my party and 1-hit-killed everyone. Kill those mo-fos immediately! They have very low HP compared to the other enemies in that area, but they compensate by having crazy strong magic powers. Dead characters gain no XP. So don’t die. Adreneline (yeah the game spelled it wrong) can revive the dead, but you only find 2 in the whole game so try not to need them. Instead, use the Formation command to exchange any dead characters with your reserve fighters. When you sleep at the inn, any dead characters are revived in the process so death is not quite permanent but it is still not good.

Combat Skills and Status Effects

Whenever you enter a battle, you start with what seems to be a random “TP” value every time, and it is usually less than 20 for each character. Your TP can increase by making a SUCCESSFUL attack (you get nothing if you miss), guarding (even if the enemy does not attack you that round), or taking damage (but this gives fewer TP than attacking or guarding). TP is one resource that is consumed when you use battle skills, and each character can only have a maximum of 100 TP stored; you lose it at the end of the battle so don’t be too shy about using them! The other resource is MP, which is finite – you will not recover MP unless you sleep at the inn or use a Magic Water item. Some characters have VERY LITTLE MP so use it wisely. Some skills cost just MP, some cost only TP, and some require a bit of both.

… Avoid using these.

A few characters have skills that cost 100 TP, and these are fun to activate once or twice, just to see what they do, but for practical purposes you will NEVER use them because it takes too long to save up 100 TP and your 20 – 25 TP skill does more damage anyway.

Some skills will cause elemental damage to enemies. They look flashy the first time you see it done, but this game does not implement a “magic weakness” system at all so your fire blade skill is essentially the same as your thunder blade skill, they add roughly 25% damage to your basic attack. In most situations it is not worth burning 20 TP on those.

The “Triple Attack” skill is completely broken; its damage does not scale with your level or your equipment so you ALWAYS do three attacks that each deal less then 20 damage (typically only 10 – 15) all on the same enemy, and for 50 TP + 5MP cost this is not worth using at all for any reason. You basically waste all of your TP and a bunch of MP to do LESS damage than a regular free attack.

There are also a couple of skills that will buff your stats. Never use these! One requires you to sacrifice some HP (which can get you killed) and the other one effectively “blinds” you so you miss 70% of your attacks while it is in effect thus defeating the point of raising your attack damage in the first place.

The best skill for your first play-through will be the “SPARK” spell (from the Spark Board weapon) which does decent damage to the entire enemy group, its only down side being that it costs some MP to use so you are limited about how many times you can cast the spell before you need to rest or drink a magic water.

Second best is (or THE best against a single enemy) the “Double Attack” skill that certain warrior-type characters will have. Unlike “Triple Attack,” the “Double Attack” skill will scale damage based on your stats and your equipped weapon, and it is capable of landing critical hits on occasion – sometimes BOTH attacks will go critical!

There is also a skill called “Minor Glitch” for 2MP which is quite useful if you use it EARLY in boss fights that you expect to last more than two rounds; the poison damage is quite nice – like a free attack each turn.

Johnny Starwars has a skill called Lightsaber Logic which is a really good instant-death attack against a single foe. It has a ridiculously high chance to kill ANY enemy – even bosses. It still misses once in a while, but if you are up against something with crazy high HP (boss enemies or the milk maid) it might be worth using this one. Cross your fingers and pray it works.

Martin will eventually learn a skill called Preteen Fury that does five attacks to a single target. At a cost of just 2 MP, this one is worth using if you don’t have enough TP to use Double Attack because it does comparable damage – but I have never seen this attack score a critical hit.

Otherwise, Puddin comes with a Heal spell that can be useful if you get hurt; and near the end of the game you can get the Heal Board for Grant which also has the Heal spell on it. But for Grant, the Spark Board and the Omni Board are better at keeping him useful in combat by giving him spells that attack the entire enemy group (Spark and Darkness, respectively).

On extremely rare occasions, you might get hit with a status attack:

• berserk (flaming icon) makes you lose control and the character only attacks;
• poison (green bubbles) drains HP at the end of each round;
• blind (black eyepatch) makes you miss most of your attacks;
• sleep (zzzz) does exactly what you expect it to do – you fall asleep and cannot act;
• and dead (skull) which means you are dead.
• Silence which I guess prevents you from using spells or skills but I never saw it used by anyone in the game.
• Confusion which I guess makes you act randomly but I never saw it used by anyone in the game
• Fascination which I guess makes you attack your own team instead of the enemy but I never saw it used by anyone in the game

These effects are rare, which is a good thing! You can buy antidote (cure poison) and eye drop (cure blind) in the shop eventually but curative items for all other effects are ultra rare. There is of course the magic spell Cure-All which will cure silence (which I have NEVER seen in the game) and blind. Or you can go sleep at the inn to cure everything.

Cash Money

Each town uses a different kind of currency for their local shops and inn, but there is never an option to convert Gil to Zenny or whatever. You NEVER get any of that currency though; only “TFS Points” for use in the special store that you find in each town with the shopping cart sign out front. This money can also be traded for casino coins in the casino that you will find in only one town about halfway through the game. On your first play, you will not have access to the Milk Maid so you will not get a ton of cash (she is the only enemy in the game who gives decent rewards when you defeat her). Likely you will only be able to afford maybe 2 items from the casino at first. I would say go for the Omni Board and Mage Suit first (both for Grant), then buy two of the Power Bow and one Genji Armor for Kirran (in that order). Finally, get the Excalibur Armor for Nick. Again, the casino items are quite expensive so they might have to wait until NG+ but that is ok.
In the casino there are two ways to get Casino Coins (which you can trade in for prize items). The easiest way is to pay regular money in trade. 1 casino coin will cost 5 TFS Points, so that 2000 Coin price tag on that shiny prize you want is actually going to cost you 10,000 money. The second way to get coins is to SPEND coins at the slot machines. On very rare occasions you might win about 2 coins, but considering that it costs 3 coins to play if you want to activate all three lines, it is not a good trade. These machines are rigged to make you lose money, so I prefer to just buy coins from the shopkeeper in the corner of the casino.
Best place to earn money quickly on your first play is the poison forest. If there is an item you feel like you MUST HAVE IT, go there and kill a bunch of stuff to earn some decent coin from fairly easy fights. On your NG+ runs, find the Milk Maid in the room behind the shopkeeper and be sure to have Lani’s Wallet equipped when you talk to her! She’s tough, but she gives you a lot of XP and money, plus one Milk for each time you defeat her.

BUY LANI’S WALLET AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, having it equipped by someone in your active battle party (as an accessory item) will DOUBLE the TFS Points you earn from winning battles. You only need one; additional wallets do not stack effects.

Items and Their Functions

• Potion – restore 50 HP
• High Potion – restore 200 HP
• Magic Water – restore 200 MP
• Antidote – cure POISON
• Eye Drop – cure BLIND

• Adreneline – raise the dead back to life
• Coffee – Cure SLEEP
• Salt – Cure BERSERK
• Dispel Herb – Cure anything but DEATH
• Milk – increase HP, MP, and basic stats of whoever drinks it, PERMANENTLY.

• Potion – restore 50 HP
• High Potion – restore 200 HP
• Magic Water – restore 200 MP
• Adreneline – raise the DEAD back to life for just 100G.
• Antidote – cure POISON
• Eye Drop – cure BLIND
• Coffee – Cure SLEEP
• Salt – Cure BERSERK
• Dispel Herb – Cure POISON, SILENCE, BLIND, and BERSERK
• Four Leaf Clover – Cure POISON, SILENCE, BLIND, and BERSERK… and it’s cheaper than Dispel Herb.
• Big Boy Gamer Food – fully restore your HP and MP, and cure blind, poison, silence, and berserk – all for the low low cost of 10,000G (or 100 casino coins later).

The Adrenaline is dropped by the boss impostor Puddin (or Slime King on Meme Team mode) in Puddin’s Tower, and by the impostor Dumplin (or demon on Meme Team mode) in the abandoned mansion.
The Coffee and Salt are both in chests – right next to each other – in the forest after you cross the sea by talking to the sailor.
There is only one Dispel Herb in the game, in a chest on the second floor of the Abandoned Mansion.
The Milk is part of your reward for defeating the Milk Maid, who you can only find by beating the game and then starting a NG+ “Stream Four Star” mode. You can get another Milk each time you beat the Milk Maid, she will always be in that room, and each time you speak to her she will try to kill you and start a battle.

…
Anything else is either equipment (which should be self-explanatory) or a quest item which will get used as you progress through the related quest. Alas, there is no “quest journal” to let you check what you are expected to do next in this game… which is why the next section of this guide exists! Welcome to…

Walkthrough – Start Your First Play-Through

Yay, a new game to play! As I said earlier, this game is not very large or difficult so do not be afraid to explore on your own. Come back here if you get stuck, or if you are curious about what comes next. I will, however, try to keep plot/story spoilers to a minimum. Especially since I still have no idea who Team Four Star actually is so I don’t know any of the characters but apparently they are all based on “real people” from the internet or something.

Bear in mind that you can always go back to areas you’ve already been, so if you feel like you missed something it is OK you can always go back again to find it later. This becomes easier once you get the AIRSHIP.

I will break this walkthrough down by world-map regions, which I define as the places on the world map where you will encounter different enemies from the previous area. That way you know if I start a new chapter, you can expect new and stronger foes to appear.

So, you start out in a little prison cell sort of place. You have three party members (all of your “main characters”) only. You are very weak. You have crappy equipment. And a “friend” shows up who will explain the basic situation to you. The path through this dungeon is obvious, just follow it out to the world map. From now on, this dungeon will be referred to simply as “the eastern cave.”

Region One

Welcome to the first region of the game. There is a tower to the south from the cave where you started the game, but do not go there yet. There is a bridge to the west that is currently closed. So just go to the town near the bridge, this is Toki Town. Feel free to explore the town. There are some silly NPCs to chat with, an inn that you cannot use, and a weapon shop that will not buy/sell anything from/to you because you don’t have the right kind of money. One of the townspeople is HILARIOUS and gives you one of the best “easter-eggs” in the game… you will know it when you find him. So your objective here is simply the shop with the shopping cart on the sign.

Inside the shop, there are a few things to do. Click on every on-screen container/furniture for some humourous descriptions. Some of them you should click on more than once. Do this in every shop in every town! Sometimes there are things hidden in there. Then talk to the shopkeeper. Choose “INN” to rest up in exchange for a few TFS Points. (Those are “money” you get from killing enemies and can only be spent in these shops which are in every town.) This town has the cheapest inn option; after this it costs 50 TFS Points to rest at any other inns. You can also “Shop” to buy and sell items and equipment. Yay. All of the equippable stuff is unique to this town’s shop. You want to invest the 500 in one Lani’s Wallet as soon as possible and equip it on someone in your active team as an accessory! It doubles your TFS Point rewards from killing enemies. You only need ONE of them, the effects do not stack if you equip extras.

Then in the back room there are two strange people. One will show you a “bestiary” of all the enemies you have defeated so far, with detailed stats on each. The other says “if you find me I will reward you” and on rare occasions you will find him as an “enemy” in a random battle someplace and he will just give you a bunch of money and then run away. He’s a cool guy. When you get to NG+ and choose Stream Four Star, the Milk Maid will also be in this room.

Back in the main shop room, you should see two items on the shelves that are either books or tablets or something. Checking those and paying some money are how you unlock new “supporting characters.” Get both of the current ones as soon as you can afford them – they are Dumpae and Ravager. Both are decent fighters but Richard “Ravager” has more HP and will survive longer, you will probably keep him on your team for almost 2/3 of the game. You should also be aware by now that Tsurugi, the shopkeeper, is basically the narrator for the game. Anytime you need to advance the plot, talk to him.

Dumpae – “The Grandchild” – 100 TFS Points – level 1
Ravager – “The Captain” – 100 TFS Points – level 1

Now that’s over, go to the tower southeast of the town. BE CAREFUL – those Puddin Clones can hurt you if you get a group of five! Make use of Grant’s magic attacks – particularly the “Spark Board” attack which hits all enemies for medium damage. Never use the “Fire Board” because it only hits one enemy for roughly the same damage. There are several treasure chests in here, you will want to open them all so explore! We’re talking a few TFS Points, a Magic Water, and a Glasses accessory. Also, you will want to be leveling up as you go so keep exploring! If you run out of MP with Grant, or if your HP starts getting low, RUN AWAY back to town and use the inn to recover. It will take several trips here and back before you are strong enough to continue. Your goal is the room in the northeast corner – boss fight! You should get an Adreneline item as a reward. Then go back to town.

At the shop, there should be another book/tablet thing on the shelf to unlock PUDDIN, plus one for LaKiGr. Do that now. Then go around town and talk to everyone again, a few people have new dialogue now that you have Puddin. Lirran will give you a SIDE QUEST to go back to the tower and kill 20 Puddin Clones – but only after you pay to unlock Puddin. Might as well take care of that now. I recommend fighting clones until you reach level 5 or 6 before you proceed to region 2.
When you are ready, the bridge is open now so you can cross it and go north.

Puddin – “The Kitty” – 100 TFS Points – level 2
LaKiGr – “The Silence” – 100 TFS Points – level 2

Lirran – kill 20 clones in the tower, return to the man and gain Puddin’s new magic attack.

NOTE: You do not “need” to unlock all the available characters right now, they will be available in Tsurugi’s shop in every town. So if you don’t have enough money yet, that is not a big problem. Just make sure that you get Puddin and do her side quest because otherwise you will have to walk all the way back here later just to kill a few clones for Lirran. It is important, however, to buy (and equip) the Lani’s Wallet accessory from THIS town’s shop before you leave since it is only sold here. Same for the Hot Soundboard, if you want to try out the Fire spell for Grant. If you find Pr0bait in a battle he gives you just enough money to pay for the wallet. He shows up randomly, and you might find him several times. I lucked out and found him six times in the tower before I even fought Puddin, but usually he will show up about once every 50 battles or so it seems.

Region Two

The next place is not really a town, just a merchant’s place. Upstairs is a chest you should open if you want a free Main Gauche knife, and if you talk to the lady something funny happens. 🙂 Downstairs, talk to Tsurugi first. Talk to the merchant to learn his boat was stolen. Go back to the southeast cave where you started the game to get it back and meet some interesting people. BOSS FIGHT! You will win some armor, a high potion, and a HEALING SOUNDBOARD for your victory. The healing soundboard gives you another option to use Grant as a healer (instead of using Puddin) rather than keeping him on Spark spell slinging. I recommend keeping him with the Spark Board until you can afford the Omni Board (much later), you can always put on the healing board temporarily between fights if someone’s hp is low. Then back to the merchant to gain use of the rowboat which will take you to across the river. You will want to be at least level 6 before you get on the rowboat.

Row, row, row your boat… gently down the stream… to the northeast is a mountain path but do not go there yet. To the northwest is another town (go there first) and west of town is a little pub full of sailors and a dock where you take the sailing ship across the sea to the next region… but the ship is not there yet. So just go into the town.

Welcome to Yharnam. It is similar to the first town, but a spoof on a different RPG from the past. For a bit of comedy, read the books on the shelves at the inn. For some flavor, check out the items in the weapon shop. Unfortunately neither of those places accepts TFS Points as money. Then you can roam around the town, there are some different sorts of rumors you hear from talking to the people. The man named Phoenix is actually based on a player who won a contest – the first to find the lightsaber, which is the ultimate weapon for Nick (once you find both batteries for it). He just lets you know that THERE IS A LIGHTSABER WEAPON IN THIS GAME and you should look for it. And of course you still have Tsurugi’s store where you can buy new gear, unlock your new characters, check your bestiary, and rest if you are injured or low on MP. But sleeping here is a little more expensive than the previous town. Such is life. After speaking to the shopkeeper, you can head back to your rowboat and go east to the mountain pass.

… But first, if you remember from Toki Town there was a joke when you clicked a bucket in Tsurugi’s shop that said “You found a Lightsaber! Just kidding!” Check that same bucket in THIS shop. Then check it again. Then read the description of the item you find in that bucket from your ITEM menu. Then go talk to Phoenix again, just outside the store. … DO NOT SELL THAT WEAPON YOU JUST FOUND. It gets better with batteries later. … And NOW you can head east to the mountain path across the lake.

Someone in town spoke of a strange man in the mountains… if you want to meet him take the northwest passage from the first area and then it loops around to the east… to a lonely little cabin. Be sure to investigate all his weapons on the walls and stuff before you decide if you really want to be here. Basically, it is a FREE INN. So you can run around the mountain pass fighting enemies and leveling up without worrying about running all the way back to town if you get hurt. Yay. Creepy place, but yay. And you will definitely want to levelup a little before you leave the mountains.

When you feel ready (maybe level 8), from the first screen in the mountain pass go east. Eventually this will lead you out of the mountains, to an abandoned mansion. There you meet someone who asks you to go find something for him which is buried deep in the mansion. Ok, sure. The west path is blocked, so take the east path. It is linear and obvious which way you need to go… but be sure to open all the treasure chests and search all the containers here. Most of them are empty but one chest (in the southeast corner of the second floor) contains a Dispel Herb. Eventually you will find the DARK ORB item and then you open the locked door that leads back to the entrance room. It does not matter if you give the orb to the guy or tell him no, except for a couple of lines of dialogue the result is the same… BOSS FIGHT. If you win, you get an Adreneline. That’s it, the only two Adreneline items in the game, until NG+ for Meme Team mode. Use them wisely.

Go back to town and heal up, maybe buy some new weapons and armor because the next area is pretty dangerous for low-level teams. You can unlock Dumplin now, too. Maybe grind a couple more levels before you leave. When you are ready, go west and talk to the sailor on the dock – the sailing ship is in port now and will take you across the sea.

Dumplin – “The Lover” – 500 TFS Points – level 4

Intermission

Now that you are at a decent level and it takes some time to reach the next one, I thought I would be nice and give you a chart showing how much XP you need to get from one level to the next. You can beat this game without going past level 12, but you might get as high as 16 first, so I’ll stop after 16. I’m also leaving levels 1-5 out because they’re pretty quick to reach – just play the game until you reach the mountain pass and then hang out there killing stuff for a while until you hit level 6. 🙂

Region Three

You disembark the ship and find yourself in the wilderness. The forest ahead is actually a dungeon zone, a small maze you will have to navigate to proceed. There is a town just on the other side though. Then east of town is another maze area which is a poison swamp. The swamp has TWO exits; one in the northeast leads to another town and the west exit leads to a mysterious vault where you will trigger some important events.

The forest is not very difficult. FIrst, go north to reach a chest full of money. Then go back and take the west exit. Follow the path until you will come to a room with two exits on the west side. The northwest path leads to two treasures: salt and coffee (the only ones you will find in the game until Meme Team NG+ mode). Then the southwest path leads you deeper into the woods. At the next intersection along that southwest path, you can go north or south. South is just a dead-end so go north to exit the forest. Head into Periwinkle Town from there, have a moment of silliness, then rest up at the shop.

You can visit the casino here and trade TFS Points for Casino Coins in order to buy the best equipment in the game from the rewards stand on the left side. Just talk to the shopkeeper in the right side to trade coins for points. It’s all pretty expensive stuff though, for now you definitely want 100 coins to unlock Johnny Starwars in the shop next door, and if you think you can afford it start with 1500 more coins for the Mage Robe for Grant to keep him alive a little longer than usual. Outside the casino you should see LaKiGr’s mom who will give you a side-quest to find her purse (it takes a long time to find) and if you bring it back she gives LaKiGr another Pokemon that is just as useless as all his other ones. Then you can go to the northeast corner of town, the pokemon doctor is interesting to stop in if you just want a Pokemon town to feel complete by visiting it, but there is nothing to do in there. The poke-shop though – that is where you need to go. You will find a talking cat and a guy named HBI in there. HBI is trying to get his stuff back from his ex, but needs to give her something impressive to do so. SIDE QUEST… nope, actually… it is part of the MAIN STORY QUEST. Once you find him the shiny thing (which will be our next mission) he will give you the keys to the final tower dungeon AND teach Dumplin an “ultimate” technique which is a multi-hit combo against a single opponent. It does about 5 or 6 hits total. Mosey on back into the shop to buy Johnny Starwars, and while you’re there be sure to check the bucket in the corner like you did in the previous town … if you want the best weapon for Nick this game has to offer. You should find half of a battery there, just one more half battery to go!

Johnny Starwars – “The One and Only” – 100 Casino Coins (500 TFS Points) – level 6

LaKiGr’s Mom – find her purse in Japan Town (Airship required), bring it back to earn LaKiGr’s final pokemon.
HBI – find something shiny for him to give his ex girlfriend, from the cabin in the poison swamp you will get a big gem from the other hero team. Return it to earn Dumplin’s ultimate skill plus the keys to open the final boss tower dungeon thing.

YOU MUST UNLOCK DUMPLIN BEFORE YOU CAN PROCEED. When you’re done with accepting quests and shopping, leave town and head east to the poison swamp. DO NOT STEP IN THE PURPLE STUFF – it will do damage to your entire team (even the ones not in your active party). Walk around it. First, go north. The path will lead you to a cabin where you knock on the door and see a goofy scene which is why you need Dumplin now. Inside the cabin, check the chest for a BATTERY which you can use in your lightsaber. Then talk to the guys by the table to receive a huge crystal. WHEN YOU EXIT THE CABIN YOUR PARTY GETS REARRANGED SO FIX IT BEFORE YOU TAKE ANOTHER STEP. Since you should now have both batteries and a lightsaber, you should also equip that lightsaber for Nick, it is his ultimate weapon.
Bring that shiny jewel back to town and give it to HBI in the poke-shop.

Now go back to the swamp and take the west exit from that first room. Eventually you will reach a big room with an exit across a bridge to the west and another exit to the east. Go east first, and when you exit you should see a tower in the distance. That is the tower where you first fought Puddin; the world is round after all. You might also notice that there are NO ENEMIES along this desert path. Continue on to Diamond City.

There, you will meet one of Ravager’s old friends who has a side quest for you… WITH DIALOGUE CHOICES. You get the SAME rewards no matter what options you say, but if you want to see them all just save your game as soon as you walk into town and re-load to try the other options. You have to go to the vault and find her necklace, but she says “don’t kill anyone in there.” Honestly, it does not matter what you kill or what you say to her except for a little bit of attempted humor.

Silver Shroud – find her SHINY locket in the Vault, bring it back to earn Richard Ravager’s Cannibalize skill.

Back in the swamp, take that western exit over the bridge and continue on into the Vault. If the random enemy battles here are giving you much trouble, you should try grinding for XP levels and cash (to trade for casino coins) in the FOREST (not the swamp) until you are around level 12. Everything east of the starting point is dead ends, so try to move basically west. It is a bit of a maze but not at all difficult – you can figure it out without any help from me, I’m sure. There are “doors” that open and lead into certain rooms. When you find one on the northwest corner of the map Ravager says “Let me open it” there is a shiny thing on the floor – this is the locket for Silver Shroud. Bring it back and she teaches Ravager to use his Cannibalize skill, which is basically like a vampire bite – does a little damage and steals health from an enemy to restore a little of Ravager’s HP.

If you go south along the western hallway from the room where you found the locket, it is time for another BOSS FIGHT! WARNING: if you continue, you lose access to the shop and inn functions for a little while! If you are not at full health after that boss fight, go back to town and rest and save your game BEFORE you touch the computer at the end of the hallway, then come back here to continue. Then beyond the demon you find a COMPUTER! The next time you talk to the shopkeeper, he will tell you to meet him back here in the vault, and then he vanishes from ALL the shops and the casino (because he is in the vault). Come back here and he will give you an AIRSHIP!! You can now access a few more side-quest areas as well as the final dungeon.
Once you board the airhsip for the first time, you can fly ANYWHERE in the world as long as there is flat grass or dirt to land on. First stop: visit any town and unlock your new character! The old shopkeeper has been replaced with a new ninja shopkeeper. But all his options remain the same.

Tsurugi – “The Fan” – 5000 TFS Points – level 6
Martin – “The Original” – 5000 TFS Points – level 12

Region Four – Airship Side Quests

Once you have rested at the inn, go north from the Vault and you should find an island full of trees that has one little corner available for landing. In the northwest corner is “Japan Village” which has NO shop or inn but some other interesting things including a festival! But for your purposes, you can find Mom’s Purse in the northeast corner of town and Dumpae finds a rival in the southwest corner of town – fight Willie (alone as Dumpae) and win to learn Dumpae’s VERY FLAWED “drink” ability. Use at your own risk; it buffs his stats but also blinds him so all his attacks will probably miss. Also, this forest is a decent place to grind for cash and levels since the only enemy you will find is a single mine-a-taur or a single dragon, either of which should be easy to kill but gives decent rewards.

Now you fly west from the Japan Town to reach an island with mountains and a building – TFS High School. There are some useless characters running around this place… the room on the far left is cool though. You meet La-Ni the teacher who gives Johnny a puzzle test and if you complete it he earns his ultimate ability. You have to move rocks around to open up a path to get to the end. The red button restarts the whole thing.

The main thing here is, BE CAREFUL and try to only push the rocks one space at a time. If you push one too far and it gets stuck, you’ll have to restart the entire test. For the first set of grey rocks, move the left and right ones UP first, then move the middle one to either side to make a path. In the room with the green rocks, push the ice block forward TWO spaces, then walk around it and push it up the path in the center of the room until it sits right in front of the green button. Walk around the longer path yourself so you can then push the ice block onto the green button. The room with red rocks is similar to the green rocks. Talk to La-Ni to get Johnny’s “Lightning Hands” skill, which is not at all useful in battle. Done here.
Outside the high school, be sure to run around on the island until you find and kill a dragon! That is, if you want to fill up your entire bestiary book. If you don’t care about that, then carry on…

If you have hired Martin, visit the cave where the game started, speak with Malik there, and he asks you to find Mr Tweetums. Go back to Periwinkle Town (with the casino). Rest and shop – perhaps you can afford some of the gear from the casino now! Then fly due west from town and you should find an island with a river through the middle and a town by the river. it’s Jahal Cove! Stop in and see what it has to offer, if you still feel like playing tourist for a few minutes before the final dungeon. If you talk to the people you will find out that a couple of kids are missing. Sounds like a side-quest so let’s go for it! Oh, wait, nope… not actually a quest at all. Just flavor text. Epic prank by the developer there. For a possible (unconfirmed) clue about what happened to the kids, look at the garden in the nort part of town… something is rotten in there, I think. And I don’t mean the vegetables. Run around on this island long enough and get lucky enough and you may find Mr Tweetums the giant parrot. KILL HIM and report back to Malik in the cave. Also be sure to fight Billy Punchy Face the rat near Jahal Cove if you care about your monster compendium list.

Cave – Malik – find and defeat Mr Tweetums near Jahal Cove and Malik gives you Martin’s “ultimate skill”.

One final spot for last-minute tourism: When you have hired Tsurugi, go back to the town of Yharnam, which you first reached with the canoe. By the clock tower you will meet Ken! But alas, he has no side quest for you – he just wants to wait until the bell rings. What a loser.

Ok so there is one other island to visit if you fly due east from the abandoned mansion, but it is EMPTY, just grass. It’s a peaceful little place but barely worth mentioning. That is it for playing tourist. So… onward then, to the final dungeon! You can do it at level 12, but 14 is better.

Region Five – Final Tower Dungeon

Return to the TFS High School in your airship, and fly EAST until you see a little patch of green grass in the north part of your screen. This is the final island! It is nicely situated east from TFS High, or west from Region Two (Ybarnam and the canoe merchant’s place). That single castle on the island is the final dungeon zone, and it is the only place left for you to go that has new stuff to do. So if you feel prepared to finish the game, this is where you want to be. There are no enemies outside the castle, so park your airship anywhere. To get in you will NEED to have completed the quest to bring the big gem to HBI in Periwinkle Town’s poke-shop. The Mysterious Key was part of your reward, and it opens the castle gate. There are also no enemies on the first floor of the castle, and no random battles on the upper floors.

The first floor is all purple… there is some furniture around, and some paintings on the walls, but there is NOTHING HERE for you. No enemies, no treasure… nothing. The whole east side is a maze of dead-ends, too. Your objective is the staircase near the middle of the map, on the west side. The next room is just an entry way, from the stairs through another door… nothing here either. After that it gets interesting.

Each floor from here on whill have a different design theme. Each floor will also have a BOSS ENEMY at the end, which represents the fears of one of your supporting characters. Beat it for them to conquer their fears and get stronger, the equivalent of a few level-ups for them. You will face each character’s fear in this order: Ravager, Puddin, LaKiGr, (missing – Dumpae), Dumplin, Johnny, Martin, Tsurugi. I should probably mention that Tsurugi’s fear mice are immune to magic (at least the Darkness spell), but very weak against regular attacks and double attack skill. Yeah, I never (in six games) got Dumpae’s fear boss to show up. Maybe Dumpae really is just that fearless? Then you face the fears of your three main characters, which is not really a battle…

…and then THIS ROOM IS THE POINT OF NO RETURN. Up to this point, you can back out of the tower at any time to go rest and save your game and whatever else you want to do. But in this room, when you talk to the man in the throne, you get some dialogue and then the final boss fight. So be ready when you see this…

Oh, and pro tip: Johnny’s “Light Saber Logic” skill WORKS ON BOSSES, TOO! Instant death to everything! Sometimes. Has a chance to fail and do nothing though. Still, two play-throughs in a row I 1-hit-killed the final boss with this attack on my FIRST TURN. LOL.

After the fight, be sure to SAVE YOUR GAME! Then you should notice a new option from that file… instead of “LOAD” it will say “NEW GAME +” so now you can boot up that file to start a new game plus… with two options available from there which I will discuss separately.

New Game + Stream Four Star

Choosing this option when loading a NG+ file will allow you to replay the adventure. For the most part the game will be the same as it was. New addition is the Milk Maid who you can talk to and fight in the back room of the shop. Beat her to gain a TON of XP and TFS Points plus a Milk item, which you can use to permanently boost all stats for one character. Each time you speak to her, a battle starts so you can effectively earn infinite numbers of milk from her to make all your characters super strong. But don’t take her lightly just because she’s a girl… she’s been drinking her milk not just delivering it so she is SUPER STRONG. Strongest enemy in the game!! Oh, and your main characters can all dual-wield weapons now. No more shields though.

YOU WILL KEEP:

• items
• equipment
• TFS points
• casino coins
• basic stats (including Milk enhancements if this is your second NG+), skills, and XP levels for these guys: Nick, Kirran, Grant, LaKiGr, Dumpae, Richard (Ravager), Puddin.

YOU WILL LOSE:

• story progress (start from the beginning again)
• stats (including Milk gains), earned skills, and XP levels for Dumplin, “Hey It’s Yo Boy” Johnny Starwars, Tsurugi, Martin. (They revert to whatever low level the default setting is when you unlock them again.)

Starting at level 15 (or whatever you were at when you beat the game last time) makes you super OP already, plus you can drink enough milk to make yourself GODLIKE, plus dual-wielding means extra attack power… so you should just steamroll over everything in this mode. Otherwise it is just like the original run. And remember to find the lightsaber and batteries again so you can dual-wield with two lightsabers! So if you need help with this mode, scroll back UP to the appropriate section. Good luck. 🙂

New Game + Meme Stream

By starting a Meme Stream NG+, you can replay the adventure. But this time things are a bit different. You play as the alternate heroes instead of the original TFS team. All three of them will start out at level 1, so the game will be a bit difficult again.

ZITO: your hero (aka warrior). He comes equipped with a Lani’s Wallet already so you don’t have to buy one! He also starts out with the Double Attack skill, which is very nice.

MASAKO: your healer. He uses a cane weapon and his first and only skill is the Heal spell so you might not die as long as he has some MP left.

TAKA: your monk. He uses bare fists, light armor, and has terrible skills… but his HP will eventually be pretty good.

You will NOT recruit any additional supporting characters in this mode, just these three guys.

(Eventually you will gain the ability to change job classes. I put that info in a separate chapter after “region two” because that is the point in the game where you are able to gain enough XP to really explore the job class system.)

YOU WILL KEEP:
Magic Water items

YOU WILL LOSE:
all items and equipment except Magic Water
XP levelups
earned skills
TFS Points and Casino Coins
Access to Tsurugi’s shop
recruited supporting characters, and the ability to recruit them

Well, it looks like I’ll need to build a new walkthrough for this mode because the plotline is a bit different… but in the interest of conserving space I will not be uploading the photos again. Check the original playthrough chapters if you need visual aids. 🙂

Bear in mind that the story plot will be a little different. Also remember that these guys are starting out just a little bit AFTER the “real” heroes so everywhere you go, the TFS team has already been there first. Adds an extra dimension to the game that way. Anyway, the TFS team was “real” people that got sucked into the game via a virus program, but originally their characters were meant to be the “playable character” heroes of the story. Meanwhile this is the B-team, who were programmed to be something like comedy relief… but in their minds they are the “real” heroes of the game. So instead of chasing down a wierd virus and trying to get home to the real world, these guys are trying to defeat the bad guys and save the world, or whatever the plot was originally supposed to be before the virus corrupted the program.

Since you have already been through the game once, I highly recommend that you try to play through this mode on your own first without using this walkthrough. (Well, maybe check on the section about job classes and the “intermission” section when you finish the first region and gain the canoe. Some of the stuff coming soon after that can be a little confusing.) Then come back if you get stuck, or at the end of each region to check if you missed something. Stop reading now and go play the game! The walkthrough is here if you need it, but I hope you decide not to use it so you can enjoy the little bonus story unspoiled by “sneak peeks” from reading ahead. Ok, bye! 🙂

Meme Stream Region 1

You start the game at the point where in the TFS playthrough the TFS guys beat up the Meme Stream guys and took the canoe from them, in the Eastern Cave.

Instead of using Tsurugi’s shop you can actually get GOLD for beating enemies and use that in the towns to shop at the stores and sleep at the inns, like a more traditional RPG. Yay. So, once you leave the East Cave head into Toki Town. Mostly the same as before, but some of the people say different things since you’re new in town. Particularly interesting is the room in the northwest with the weird machine… talk to the scientists in there.

Now run around the map for a while until you reach level 3. And head for Puddin’s Tower. Again, RUN AWAY when you meet a group of five Puddin Clones because you are too weak to survive that fight, but you can probably handle just one lonely clone. Again, grab the three treasures in here and then head for the northeast corner where a boss fight awaits… this time against Slime King. (Looks like since you vanquished the “evil virus” already the game has returned to normal so the bosses aren’t bugged out anymore.) Just like when you beat Puddin? here you should get an Adreneline item as a reward.

You should have a bit of cash now, so go back to town and find the shopkeeper. Spend 5 gold to rest, then do some shopping. When you feel ready, cross the bridge into region 2. Good luck…

At some point during all of this, you will unlock “the power of the thief and the wizard” and if you open your menu you will see a new line option there for “CLASS.” These guys, unlike the Four Star heroes, can change their job class and earn levelups for each different job. I will get into that in a separate section between regions 2 and 3, this just does not feel like the right place to discuss it. But those scientists in the room with the weird machine have a little advice about classes. So, onward to the canoe guy’s house across the bridge (again)!

Meme Stream Region 2

Well, the canoe guy kicks you out (because you stole from him before) so just steal the canoe from behind his house. And… row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream… to the town of Yharnam. you can talk to the townspeople but they all say the same thing as your previous game. Except for Phoenix… instead of talking about the Lightsaber (a weapon only useful to Nick) he hails your team as the “legendary heroes.” The inn costs 20 gold, so go back to Toki Town where it’s only 5G if you need a nap and if you can survive that far. Then there is a weapon shop in town for you to peruse. HEY, YOU CAN BUY ADRENELINE HERE! Also look at the Big Boy Gamer Food, which completely heals your HP and MP plus recovers from status effects when eaten. Too bad it is crazy expensive… maybe next time, right? And look: new, slightly more powerful equipment for you to buy! Plus the usual lineup of potions, magic water, and antidotes.

When you are ready, head on out and cross the river again to the mountain path. You can always grind a few levels around here as well as enough cash to come back to do some more shopping before you continue on with the story. Just like last time, the cottage up the north path is home to Drak the creepy old man who just lets you sleep there for free. So this is a good place to earn some gold without too much fear of game over. I highly recommend getting your job class levels up to 5 here for all characters, specifically for these classes: Jobless, Hero, Monk, Healer, Wizard, Thief, Samurai, and Bender. It should take about 2 hours of running around outside the old man’s cabin to get those classes leveled up. Doing this does a couple of things for you. It gives you level 5 in everything so if you decide to change class later you might not die immediately; it lets you experiment a bit with each class and decide what type of role you want each party member to play; it opens up the option to switch to some of the more complex classes (ninja, paladin, etc.); it gets you a couple of extra skills (most notably “Spark” for the wizard); plus you should be pretty wealthy (enough to buy more potions and some better equipment) when it’s over.

When you’ve had your fill of the mountain, go east to the abandoned mansion. Just remember those dang Specter enemies will cast game-ending magic against you so target them first! Maybe put a Wizard with Spark magic in your party so you can use that to wipe them all out at once. Luckily those Specters have pretty low HP so they die fast. As soon as you walk in the door.. BOSS FIGHT. Winning will net you another Adreneline and a quest item, plus access to the Bard class. If you take the northeast path to the second floor, you can find a Dispel Herb in a chest in the southeast corner upstairs. That is the only interesting thing left here… so go back to town, do some shopping, rest up, and then go west and talk to the sailor on the dock to cross the sea.

MAKE SURE you are well stocked on potions and magic waters – maybe 40 of each or more – before you get on that ship! There is NO INN for you to rest in at Periwinkle Town (the pokemon theme town beyond the forest) in this game mode, you have to wait until Diamond City beyond the poison swamp!!!

Meme Stream Job Classes

The Meme Streme NG+ utilizes a job class system. That means that any of your heroes can take on any role in battle by changing their job from the CLASS menu. The different classes use different equipment, have different stats, and use different skills. Each time you change your class, your character reverts to whatever level they are IN THE NEW JOB. So if you have a level 18 healer and switch to Hero for the first time, that character will drop to level 1 according to their Hero job level, and their stats will drop accordingly. Then if you immediately change back to Healer, you return to level 18 and your stats go back up. So you have to levelup each job class independently to get the most out of it… but you don’t need all your team members to be masters at EVERY job. Pick a few (maybe 2 or 3) that you want to swich between for each character and focus mainly on those jobs. For example, you might want to make Taka a monk/thief type while Masako might become your healer/wizard/bard type. Or mix and match: make Masako sometimes healer and sometimes hero, or make them all Jobless for an extra-hard challenge!

(Zito’s starting class)
You use swords, shields, and cloth/leather armor. You specialize primarily in dealing physical damage, though you will also have decent HP and DEF.
Skills (and the level you must reach to gain them)
Double Attack (1) – still awesome; attack two randomly selected enemies. Might be critical hits, too.

(Taka’s starting class)
You use empty fists, but you can wear cloth/leather armor. High HP but otherwise a pretty weak choice.
Skills (and the level you must reach to gain them)
Counter (1) – do not act that turn, but if the enemy hits you for damage you strike back. Mostly useless since it does NOTHING if the enemy misses, does zero damage, or attacks someone else.
Magic Counter (4) – same as counter but for magic attacks instead of physical attacks. Also useless.

(Masako’s starting class)
Use a cane, a shield, and leather or plate armor. Focus is on restorative and curative magic. Low HP, low ATK, low DEF, low AGI and LUK, but decent MATK and MDEF stats. Definitely built for supporting and healing the team, not for doing damage and certainly not for taking hits.
Skills (and the level you must reach to gain them)
Heal (1) – restore some HP to an ally or yourself. It starts out healing around 250HP and grows along with your MATK stat.

Use knives only; no armor/clothes and no accessories. Very low stats. You’re NAKED and unemployed. You have no skills.

(gain Monk level 2)
Use knives and any type of armor. High AGI and decent LUK and ATK, but low on everything else. You have no skills.

(gain Healer level 2)
Use a cane and a shield, with any type of armor. Pretty badass with attack magic, but low HP and DEF. Give him a demon staff if you’re playing a wizard in the early part of the game (it has good MATK but negates your MDEF).
Skills (and the level you must reach to gain them)
Fire (1) – your basic fireball spell against a single enemy. Costs 3MP.
Spark (5) – basic lightning strike against all enemies. Costs 5MP.
Darkness (10) – dark mist attacks all enemies, does a bit more damage than Spark. Costs 10MP.

(gain Healer 5 and Monk 5)
Go unarmed and wear only cloth/leather armor. Adds elemental attacks to your basic martial arts repertoire… those skills cost MP to use, but the Bender has zero MP!! you can read the silly descriptions but you can’t actually bend anything. Seems to be a little bit broken.
Skills (and the level you must reach to gain them)
Fire Bending (1) 2MP
Ice Bending (1) 2 MP
Electric Bending (1) 2 MP
Darkness Bending (1) 2 MP

(gain Thief 5 and Hero 5)
You can DUAL-WIELD with swords and/or knives. Cloth or leather armor only though. Has A TON of HP, and pretty nice MP too. This guy is like pure attack power. You have no skills though.

(gain Hero 5 and Monk 5)
Use a sword, no shield, and cloth or leather armor. Defensive-minded attacker.
Counter (1) – do not act that turn, but if the enemy hits you for damage you strike back. Mostly useless since it does NOTHING if the enemy misses, does zero damage, or attacks someone else.
Magic Counter (1) – same as counter but for magic attacks instead of physical attacks. Also useless.

(gain Hero 3 and Healer 5)
Use a sword, shield, and cloth/leather armor. Mixes attack with healing abilities. Has ri-DIC-you-luss HP and MP reserves.
Heal (1) – restore some HP to an ally or yourself. It starts out healing around 250HP and grows along with your MATK stat.
Double Attack (1) – still awesome; attack two randomly selected enemies. Might be critical hits, too.

(not sure if you just beat the demon in Abandoned Mansion or if it is weird combination of other jobs)
Uses a cane, shield, and most types of armor. Uses support spells to aid allies and weaken enemies; not intended for use as a direct attacker or taking hits. Stick him in the back.
Buff up (1) – boost attack of one teammate for a few rounds
Bardic Defense (4) – boost defense of one teammate for a few rounds
Lucky Feeling (8) – boost luck of one teammate for a few rounds

Thief, Monk, Bender, Samurai, and Jobless has so few MP it will feel like none.
Of those, only the Bender has skills that require MP to use.

Meme Stream First Intermission

After this, the enemies are going to get a lot stronger. You will have a much harder time of it if you are still a low level, or if you change to another class that is low level. If you have not yet done so, head back to the mountain path and fight there until you have each class for every character up to level 6 or more. Enemies there are not too difficult, and Drak’s cabin is free to rest without leaving the area so you won’t have to use up all your potions and magic waters. However, they just don’t give enough XP here to go much more than level 6 without getting extremely bored of the grind.

Once you have all the classes up to level 6 or 7, you should decide now what type of warrior you want each character to be: will they be a strong attacker, a battle mage, a healer, a “buff spell” specialist, or what? You decide. Then when you get to the forest, spend some time getting each character’s primary set of classes up to level 10 at least. Each character should have 2 or 3 primary classes that you don’t mind switching between them as needed.

• WIZARD = GLASS CANNON. Spark spell hits the entire enemy team. But he is fragile so protect him.
• If you want a support mage (i.e. healer or bard), chose ONE party member to fill that role and never have two of them in a party together because they really have no way of doing any significant damage to the enemy and they have low defenses so they die easily if a battle goes on for too long.
• At all times, you want at least two team members who can deal a good amount of damage and survive a few hard hits. Good choices for this are the Ninja, Paladin, Hero, etc.
• There are basically two tiers of job classes. The first tier is useful early in the game, and you need to get them to at least level five in order to unlock the tier two classes… but they have pretty low stats compared to the tier two jobs. So you will likely prefer the tier two jobs once you “unlock their secrets.” Tier two = Ninja, Paladin.
• Jobless is akin to hard mode. You cannot wear armor, you can only use knives, you cannot use accessories, you have no skills, and your stats never grow – you only gain 5HP per levelup. Good luck with this one.
• My preferred party: Ninja, Paladin, Wizard. But you go with what feels right to you. 🙂

Now that you are at a decent level and it takes some time to reach the next one, I thought I would be nice and give you a chart showing how much XP you need to get from one level to the next. You can beat this game without going past level 12, but you might get as high as 16 first, so I’ll stop after 16. I’m also leaving levels 1-5 out because they’re pretty quick to reach – just play the game until you reach the mountain pass and then hang out there killing stuff for a while until you hit level 6. 🙂

Meme Stream Region 3

When you arrive off the boat, feel free to stop by the bar to see what the drunken sea captain has to say… haha. Then head into the forest. In case you forgot what this place is like… The forest is not very difficult. FIrst, go north to reach a chest full of money. Then go back and take the west exit. Follow the path until you will come to a room with two exits on the west side. The northwest path leads to two treasures: salt and coffee (which soon you can buy). Then the southwest path leads you deeper into the woods. At the next intersection along that southwest path, you can go north or south. South is just a dead-end so go north to exit the forest. Head into Periwinkle Town from there, view the scene, rest up at the i… oh wait there is NO INN HERE, then head to the Casino.

In the casino, you can trade gold for coins. Get yourself some coins because in the prize machine you can trade 100 coins (equivalent to 500G) for a Big Boy Gamer Food, a FULL healing and restorative item… akin to having a “1Up mushroom” or a “Panacea” in your pocket. And this price is much cheaper than the 10,000G the shopkeeper asks for. Probably to compensate for the fact that you just crossed the forest and there is NO INN in this stupid town. So stock up on these now, while you are here. Then go visit the poke-shop and see about upgrading your weapons and armor. you can also buy Hi-Potion, all the status-cure items, and Dispel Herb here.

Go through the Poison Swamp, same as last time except this time when you go north to the cabin you watch the goofy scene from the other team’s perspective. First, go north and do the thing in the cabin. Then take the west path through the swamp from the entrance. Eventually you will reach a big zone with an exit across a bridge to the west and another exit to the east. Go east first, and when you exit you should see a tower in the distance. That is the tower where you first fought Puddin; the world is round after all. You might also notice that there are NO ENEMIES along this desert path. Continue on to Diamond City.

In the city, the giant robot runs a potion shop where you can buy some nice healing items including the Four Leaf Clover. The guy running around the east side of town yelling about his swattas is actually selling equipment so you will want to see what he has to offer, too. He sells all of the “super” armor that was in the casino prize machine during your first playthrough, but the good stuff is pretty expensive. There is also an inn… but it costs 125G to rest here. That’s all there is in this town, really. The main thing is the Swatta shop, and you might have to go grind for some cash in the Poison Swamp or the Forest for a little while and then come back to buy all that nice shiny armor. Then make sure your team’s primary classes are all leveled up enough that you feel comfortable fighting the Power Armor and Fat Mutant enemies. After that, go out the western exit from the Poison Swamp and head for the Vault, just like you did last time. Save your game before you enter, just in case things do not go well for you because you may still be at too low a level.

The vault is pretty much the same as it was last time. Head to the northwest corner first, then go south to fight the pixie boss, who is good at dodging regular attacks and strong against lightning.
I went in with a level nine team of bender/monk/wizard and it was a pretty tough fight, my wizard kept getting one-shot-killed. Make sure you all have over 100 HP. And then go see who the prisoner is, and things from the previous mode will make a bit more sense now. There is NOTHING else in here interesting for your team. So go outside and find…

Meme Stream Second Intermission

And so it is down to this… the final island and the final dungeon on the final NG+ mode. I do hope you are prepared.

have at least 20 of each of these items (40 is even better)
Potion
Hi-Potion
Big Boy Gamer Food
Magic Water
Adreneline
Four Leaf Clover or Dispel Herb
Antidote
Coffee
Salt
Eye Drops
Have 3 of each of the best armor and accessory items
Champion Belt (any class)
Zoom Goggles (any class)
Obsidian Plate
Leather Suit
Dragon Armor
Excalibur Armor
Mage Robes
Genji Armour
Buckler
Large Shield
Hat
Steel Helmet
Have at least 6 of each of the best weapons from each type
Heart Staff
Demon Staff
Victoria
Ceremonial Dagger
Double Axe
Bloodd Sword
Have your crew well equipped and at least level 20 (level 25 is better)

You don’t even need half of that stuff. Prep like you are going ot fight the Milk Maid with this crew, the final boss is about the same level of difficulty as that fight. You can do it at level 12 with a bunch of ninjas and paladins, but I recommend about level 15 instead just to be safe.

If you still want to levelup, the fastest way I found is to hang around in the forest south of Periwinkle town in a party with two attackers and one wizard with a heart staff equipped. You will either face a group of three bees (just use regular attacks to kill them for 90 XP) or a group of p-trice with one or two bees (150 or 140 XP respectively). For the p-trice group, on round one have your wizard cast Spark while the attackers each target a different p-trice (ugly chicken). On round two, use regular attacks to clean up any survivors. Two rounds, over 100 XP per fight. Mr Tweetums is another good source of XP (use fire magic to conserve MP) but the p-trice group shows up more reliably and you never get a stupid low-XP bunch of slimes instead like you can on Jahal Cove island.

Meme Stream Region Four – Airship Tourists

… your very own brand new top of the line all-included AIRSHIP!! And now, like last time, we go play tourist on some isolated islands.

The forest island with Japan Village and the mountainous island with TFS High are basically useless except for fighting the Mine-O-Taur and the Dragon which both are single-enemy encounters that give decent XP and gold rewards. Also, in Japan Town you can open the chest that once contained LaKiGr’s mom’s purse (in the northeast corner) to find Leftovers, which is the accessory equipment that restores a little HP every round. Only certain classes (Wizard, Bard, Healer, Thief) can equip it though. I prefer to use Lani’s Wallet, Champion Belt, or Zoom Goggles instead and then just stock up on potions and hi-potions in case I need healing.

The “crescent island” with a river is also useless except to fight Mr Tweetums and Billy Punchy Face, also single-enemy battles with decent rewards. In the town of Jahal Cove the only thing you can really do is sleep at the inn for a cost of 200 gold. You can still talk to everyone in town if you feel like it of course, but there is nothing important to do here. And then of course the big empty grassy island is still big, empty, and grassy – nothing to do there either.

There is one interesting glitch (which really has no effect on the game) where if you fight Mr Tweetums you can later visit Malik in the Eastern Cave and turn in the “side quest” to have Martin learn Preteen Fury… but you don’t have Martin on your team. LOL.

Stock up on your healing items and buy all the best weapons and armor for your crew. Then get your favorite classes up to level 12 (15 is better though) and prepare to face the final dungeon challenge.

Meam Stream Region Five – Final Dungeon

When you are ready, get on your airship and head for the final castle dungeon.
I recommend having all three characters as a level 15+ Jobless here. … No, I don’t, just kidding. If you want a harder challge though, I dare you to use three Jobless class heroes on your next playthrough. 🙂

I really recommend having two Ninjas and one Paladin. Or two Paladins and one Ninja. That would be the “easy mode” victory for you. But hey, fell free to use whatever class you want. Save your game before you enter and try it again with a few different groups and see which ones are harder to play with. 😀

Anyway, head into the castle now.
There are NO ENEMIES, and NOTHING TO DO here at all except follow in the footsteps of the “real” heroes from your previous game. Until you reach this point of no return ultimate end-game boss fight here…

Do battle, end the game. Yay! Wasn’t that fun?

Advanced Notes and Final Thoughts

Well, this was a fun little game. Three ways to play, two little stories to follow. Class changes, weapon upgrades, two types of money/shopping, a few decent combat skills.

For those who are wondering about some of the deeper mechanics fo the game, here are some things I noticed while playing with the JSON files.

Dumpae DOES have a fear mini-boss, but his X/Y location coordinates put him in outer space. I set them to a more reasonable location and then found him but the game froze when I tried to talk/fight with him. Bummer.

Classes get NO MORE SKILLS and NO MORE NEW CLASSES beyond level 10, and most of them stop getting new stuff even before that. So it isn’t worth leveling up all the weak classes too much past when you unlock the last skill for that class (see my “Classes” chapter for details). Ninja/Paladin/Wizard is the way to go if you want an easy run. Or try Jobless for a hard challenge.

The Bender class… the developer made it as a JOKE. Bender at every level is set to zero MP, and you can’t get milk in Meme Stream mode unless you cheat and edit the game files. So since his bending skills cost 2 MP each, you can never actually do any bending. I messed with the data files and gave my bender some MP just to see what the skills do… they waste a turn to put that element onto your attacks. It lasts a few rounds and does roughly 10% more damage than your non-elemental normal attacks. It would have been a neat skill if this game had utilized a magic element weakness system more effectively, but as it is the bender is a garbage class even if you cheat to activate his bending skills.

There is an unused “Witch Doctor” class in the game files. Not sure what that is all about, my assumption is it was going to be a sort of opposite from the Bard, where you could weaken enemies with some skills to reduce their ATK/DEF etc. or put status effects on them. But it never got finished so it didn’t make it into the game.

I think I figured out why the Triple Attack skill is so broken… but it’s just not worth the effort of reprogramming the JSON files to fix it. Just stick with Double Attack. 🙂

Ok that’s all I’ve got for you. Bye now!