From Gourry! Worship him and all that.
Wild Arms characters need Force Points, or FP, in order to do anything out of the ordinary. Unlike Wild Arms 1 characters, who start out with no FP, WA2 characters start out with the same numbers as their level. For me, endgame levels could be anywhere from 40-50. I finished at level 43, so the characters get 43 FP at the start of the battle. Everything save regular physical attacks requires a certain amount of FP. This includes Ashley and Brad's ARMs, Lilka's Crest Sorcery, Tim's Guardian Lore, Kanon's Bionic Arm attacks, and Marivel's Red Power. These do not take any FP in order to use. Force Abilities are actions that use up FP. There are 4 levels of Force Abilities. The first takes 25 FP, and each subsequent Force Ability costs 25 more FP (level 1 Force Abilities take 25 FP, level 2- 50 FP, level 3- 75 FP, level 4- 100 FP). FP accumulation works like this:
16 FP for every physical inflicted.
The FP gotten while attacked depends on how strong the attack is. Attacks that do 0 damage will give 4 FP, and stronger attacks will give more FP. I think this is based on percentage, so Brad will get less FP from an attack than Tim, even if the damage is the same. I can't give more concise information on this right now.
12 FP for every attack dodged
While defending, FP accumulation is doubled. This means that you get 24 FP from dodging, and an attack that does 0 will give 8 FP.
When a character reaches 100 FP, all status effects that the character currently has are cancelled.
As for equips and Runes, the situation is similar to Wild Arms 1. I'd allow the ultimate equips (Marivel falls behind in this respect), and the Runes are the same as WA1. The Runes are very obviously given to a certain character, blah blah blah. I got the stats of each character's equips from the shrine at RPGclassics. I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, since you can't unequip armor.
Oh yeah, Personal Skills are awfully illegal in my book, especially the ones that protect against statuses. While the up P and M Attack wouldn't have a profound effect on the damage output ordinals, I just feel that PS skills are best left untouched in the RPGP. It makes the WA2 characters good for the Twink League, I guess. If you allow them to use PS points... eh. If you bother me enough, I'll come up with setups and stuff for them.
Lv43 Ashley
HP: 4450
STR: 270 (324)
VIT: 449 (538)
SOR: 216 (237)
RES: 243 (267)
ATP: 538 (592)
DFP: 465 (509)
MGR: 208 (218)
PRY: 24% (26)
Equipment
---
Shooting Star- +268 ATP
Nine Lives- +180 DFP, +100 MGR
Texas Number- +49 DFP
Zephyr- +20% STR, +20% VIT, +10% SOR, +10% RES
Runes in WA2 have special commands. Zephyr's special command is Force Charge, which adds 25 FP to Ashley's current point total. Needless to say, this is immensely useful in a duel if he can spare his turns using it. If he starts with 43 FP, one Force Charge will bring him up to 68 FP. If an enemy decides to attack that turn, Ashley should get the FP needed for FullClip (he needs 7 FP. Attacks that do 0 give 4, so the attack wouldn't need to be that powerful). If Ashley can risk another Force Charge, he can Access the next turn.
Damage Tests
---
Physical Attack- 1210
ARMs
For all of these, I just pumped up attack power. Ashley should have plenty of bullets between all of his ARMs and adding hit rates is pretty minor in comparison to adding attack power. If an ARM has a particularly good or bad hit rate, I'll mention it. While not all of these are very useful in the RPGP, the multitarget aspect of some may provide to be beneficial for RPGmon team fights or free for alls.
ShotWeapon- 1800.
Requires 6 FP.
MultiBlast- 1950.
Requires 10 FP. Hits a group.
BoltAction- 2100.
Requires 16 FP.
DeadOrAlive- 2300. 40% chance of ID.
Requires 20 FP.
ShockSlide- 2050.
Requires 24 FP. Hits a group.
FantomFang- 2350.
Requires 30 FP.
Blast 'Em- 2150.
Requires 40 FP. 77% hit rate. Hits all.
RisingNova- 2800.
Requires 50 FP. 75% hit rate.
Force Abilities
Level 1
Accelerator- Causes Ashley to go first for that turn. This cannot be used with other Force Abilities, but he can still use ARMs.
Level 2
Combine- Allows Ashley to release the power of his Guardian. This may be useless in the RPGP, since Pooka is needed. If you allow Ashley use of Pooka, the only one he gets real use out of is Grudiev, which does ~1800 earth damage. He'd only really want to use this if he's itching to exploit an earth weakness.
Level 3
Full Clip- Shoots every bullet from one ARM. In general, the more Bullets that come in Ashley's ARM, the more damage it does. Full Clip never misses.
ShotWeapon- 7100
MultiBlast- 5900
BoltAction- 6200
DeadOrAlive- 7050. Full Clip can trigger the Instant Death effect. 60% Instant Death
ShockSlide- 5300
Blast 'Em- 4100
If you allow Ashley to "twink" one of his ARMs for Full Clip, you'd just fully upgrade his Bullets. I haven't tested this, but a fully upgraded ShotWeapon should do around 11000. ShotWeapon is almost always his best choice for damage, but the DOA is just a bit weaker, and it triggers the ID effect pretty often.
Level 4
Access- Ashley transforms into KnightBlazer. KnightBlazer gets a boost in defense and magic defense. Also, his speed is doubled (I think). In turn, his PRY rate is doubled, giving him around a 50% dodge rate. KnightBlazer starts out with 0 FP, and he has to build his way up to his stronger attacks.
KnightBlazer
---
Physical Attack- 2050
Mad Lucied- 6300.
Requires 4 FP.
Gun Blaze- 8500. Gun Blaze is Fire element?
Requires 25 FP.
Banisher- 8520. I don't think this has any use, since Gun Blaze is stronger. Anyway, it causes Ashley to revert back with the FP he had last.
Requires 50 FP.
Last Burst- 12780 (set damage). After using Last Burst, Ashley will have 1 hit point, so this is best used as a finisher (it's most likely a 1HKO to almost any PC).
Requires 99 FP.
Evaluation: Heavy. Alright, KnightBlazer was overrated. Still, Ashley's probably the best duelling PC in the cast. FullClip is not too far away from his starting FP score. In Heavy, he should easily get the FP needed to pull it off. KB will rarely see use. Access doesn't heal Ashley, which means that he'll have a rough time surviving assaults (maybe in Middle, but not Heavy). Accelerator --> DeadorAlive doesn't seem like a terrible strategy. I allow him to tweak his ARMs for FullClip, and a fully upgraded ShotWeapon does 11000, which is nuts.
Lv43 Brad
HP: 5280
STR: 324 (388)
VIT: 539 (592)
SOR: 216
RES: 219 (284)
ATP: 646 (710)
DFP: 557 (584)
MGR: 208
PRY: 21% (27)
Equipment
---
Omega Crush- +322 ATP
Braver Vest- +216 DFP, +100 MGR
Dead Heat- +71 DFP
Justine- +20% STR, +10% VIT, +30% RES
Damage Tests
---
I only tested the ARMs worth mentioning. Then again, there are some that may be worth mentioning for RPGmon, so... eh.
Physical Attack- ~1470
Bazooka- 1950
Requires 6 FP. 83% hit rate.
Rail Gun- 3300.
Requires 99 FP. 50% hit rate.
Mini Scud- 2300
Requires 25 FP. 70% hit rate.
EZ Missile- 2250. Hits all enemies.
Requires 55 FP. 79% hit rate.
Force Abilities
Level 1
Lock On- Gives an ARM a 100% hit rate and multiplies ARM damage by roughly 1.5.
Bazooka- 2900
Rail Gun- 4800
Mini Scud- 3500
EZ Missile- 3400
Level 2
Combine- Allows Brad to release the power of his Guardian. This is pretty much useless in the RPGP, since Pooka is needed and Brad's Medium cannot be combined in a normal fashion.
Level 3
Arm x 2- Allows Brad to use an ARM twice in a round.
Level 4
Boost- Triples attack power of ARMs. Never misses.
Bazooka- 5800
Rail Gun- 9800
Mini Scud- 7100
EZ Missile- 7000
Ranking: Heavy. Great HP, good speed (it's from the Courage Rune, which I allow), and good first turn damage. Boost --> Railgun kills stuff, and he can probably accumulate the FP needed to get it.
Lv43 Lilka
HP: 3340
STR: 189
VIT: 314
SOR: 259
RES: 267
ATP: 377
DFP: 326
MGR: 329
PRY: 26%
Black Queen- +188 ATP
Bridal Gown- +126 DFP, +200 MGR
Tiara- +41 DFP
Attacks and Spells
---
Physical Attack- 750
Physical After HypeWeapon- 1200
Flame, Freeze, Aqua, Break, Spark, Vortex (Fire, Ice, Water, Earth, Lightning, Wind)- 800
Requires 12 FP
Hi-Flame, Hi-Freeze, Hi-Aqua, Hi-Break, Hi-Spark, Hi-Vortex (Fire, Ice, Water, Earth, Lightning, Wind)- 1600
Requires 50 FP
*Quick- Adds 1/2 of Lilka's RES to her current RES stat and adds 10% of this to her PRY stat (+134 RES and 13% PRY). Stackable.
Requires 15 FP
*Protect- Adds 1/8 of Lilka's SOR to her MGR rating. In this case, it would add 33 points to her MGR (259/8, rounded up). Stackable.
Requires 8 FP
*Shield- Adds 1/8 of Lilka's VIT to her DEF rating. In this case, it adds 40 points to her DEF (314/8, rounded up). Stackable.
Restore- Cures status effects
Requires 9 FP
Slowdown and Armor Down- Reduces RES and DFP, respectively.
Requires 70 FP
Hi-Heal- Heals Lilka's SOR*15 (3885). Full healing, in her case.
Saber- 1400 non elemental damage
Requires 40 FP
HypeWeapon- Doubles Lilka's STR
Requires 70 FP
Force Abilities
---
Frankly, few of Lilka's Forces are worth mentioning in a duel.
Level 1
Mystic- Allows Lilka to use an item on every member of the party. Useless unless you allow her items.
Level 2
Combine- Allows Lilka to utilize the power of a Guardian through Pooka. Useless since Lilka doesn't get any Mediums or Pooka.
Level 3
Extend- Causes one of Lilka's spells to hit all allies or opponents, depending on the spell. Supposedly, it increases the effectiveness of her spells, but I haven't noticed any effect.
Level 4
DualCast- Self explanatory. It allows Lilka to cast any two spells from her spell list. Certain combinations will result into a level 3 spell (for elements, it would be the level 1 spell + the level 2 spell. 2 Sabers can also be combined for a new spell), but the damage done isn't any higher than the two spells separately.
Evaluation: Middle. Quick is a good spell. Her other buffers are fairly worthless, but Quick really supplements her abilities. She has poor damage, but Quick and Hi-Heal should keep her afloat for matches that she doesn't get 1HKOed in. If she can get Quick off, she can probably avoid heal-locks, too.
Lv43 Tim
HP: 2920
STR: 189 (198)
VIT: 314 (376)
SOR: 389 (505)
RES: 219 (229)
ATP: 377 (386)
DFP: 326 (357)
MGR: 332 (390)
PRY: 21% (22)
Dist Dims- +188 ATP
Labyrinthos- +118 DFP, +121 MGR
Nisaba Wing- +34 DFP
Raftina- +10% STR, +20% VIT, +30% RES, +5% RES
Raftina's special ability is Invincibility. It makes all attacks miss for one turn. No FP is accumulated through misses, so this is not a way for Tim to accumulate FP.
Damage Tests and Guardian Lores
---
Rock Bolt, Water Gun, Red Beaut, Sonic Claw, Ice Beam, Lightnin', Arrow Shot, Black Gate, (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Light, Dark)- 1050
Requires 12 FP
Gravitron, Submerge, Napalm Hit, Tempest, Plasma Tap, Nova Rain, Black Star (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Light, Dark)- 1600
Requires 50 FP
Valkyrie- 1050 non elemental damage.
Requires 50 FP.
Cosmic Ray- Does 1600 non elemental damage.
Requires 75 FP.
First Aid- Heals 1010 (Tim's SOR*2). Initiative.
Requires 24 FP.
Thanatos X- Prevents Instant Death attacks
Requires 12 FP.
Speed Down- Drops RES and PRY rates.
Requires 70 FP.
Full Heal- Full Healing
Requirs 50 FP.
Bold Lance- 3250 non elemental damage.
Requires 80 FP.
Force Abilities
Level 1
FP Shift- Shifts 25 of Tim's FP to other party members. Useless in a duel.
Level 2
Combine- Allows Tim to release the power of his Guardian. Tim gets Odoryuk, which heals Tim fully. This is useless, as Tim has a full healing spell as is. If Tim has enough FP for Combine, he can use Full Heal without having to sacrifice 50 FP.
Level 3
Divide- The description says that it halves the target's power. It halves the target's HP, but I don't know if it affects stats or not. It can also turn some opponents into different creatures, but I don't know how this would work in the RPGP.
Level 4
Hi-Combo- Allows Tim to use Pooka to turn into a higher level creatures, depending on the Guardian Tim has. Tim gets Raftina, which seems to cause instant death as well as full healing.
Evaluation: Light. He has sucky damage, and he doesn't have the speed to back himself up like Lilka does. Bold Lance is good damage, but it's pretty high, FP-wise (well, maybe a round of attacking and a serious hit, in which case, he'll want to Full-Heal).
Lv43 Kanon
HP: 4030
STR: 218
VIT: 404
SOR: 173
RES: 316
ATP: 408
DFP: 419
MGR: 176
PRY: 31%
Equipment
---
Violator- +190 ATP
Choiste Bua- +130 DFP, +90 MGR
Shamir- +29 DFP
Attacks and Gats
---
Physical Attack- ~840
Left Edge- ~680
Requires 20 FP.
Pike Kick- ~900
Requires 40 FP.
Drive Cut- ~1110
Requires 45 FP.
Wire Fist- ~1360
Requires 50 FP.
Arc Kick- ~1600
Requires 70 FP.
Vortex Cut- 1800.
Requires 75 FP.
Phalanx- ~2100.
Requires 90 FP.
Eagle Claw- ~2700.
Requires 99 FP.
Force Abilities
---
Kanon's Force Abilities are called Gats. She just does more damage to the on each Bionic Arm ability. Gats are still subject to FP limitations. If Kanon wants to use a Gat ability in her first round, she is limited to her level 1 Gats. Of these, she can use Left Edge and Pike Kick, but not Drive Cut (She starts out with 43, and Drive Cut requires 45 for use). The cost of Gat Lv. 1 (25 FP) is the same, whether she uses Left Edge, Pike Kick, or Drive Cut.
Level 1
Gat Lv. 1- Increases power of level 1 Gat attacks.
Left Edge- 1850
Pike Kick- 2050
Drive Cut- 2300
Level 2
Gat Lv. 2- Increases power of level 2 Gat attacks.
Wire Fist- 2750
Arck Kick- 2950
Level 3
Gat Lv. 3- Increases power of level 3 Gat attacks.
Vortex Cut- 3450
Phalanx- 4100
Level 4
Gat Lv4- Increases power of level 4 Gat attacks.
Eagle Claw- 5750
Evaluation: Middle. Her damage isn't great, but she's fast, so it adds up. That's basically it.
Lv43 Marivel
HP: 3560
STR: 216
VIT: 359
SOR: 259
RES: 243
ATP: 337
DFP: 340
MGR: 182
PRY: 24%
Hob & Nob- +121 ATK
Bloody Cape and Mad Goggles- +160 DFP, +52 MGR
Hob and Nob are very weak in comparison to the other ultimate weapons. There are a few Mecha boosts around that give around 20 points of ATP each. There are at least two of these, and I don't see why they shouldn't be used (she can only use 4 boosts, period. I cannot find the other two, though). This would boost her ATP to around 377. Marivel's defense lags behind because her defensive equips are very weak.
Attacks and Red Power
---
Physical Attack- 700
Rock Gazer, Geyser, Firebolt, Air Slash, Inspire, Frigid, Shadowbolt, Aport (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Dark, Non Elemental)- 850.
Requires 12 FP.
Tera Break, Maelstrom, Cremation, Twister, Thunderbolt, Absolute 0, Armageddon, Megaton (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Dark, Non Elemental) - 1300.
Requires 55 FP.
Sleep- Gives opponent the Sleep status. 75% chance.
Requires 8 FP.
Power Seal- Gives opponent the Silence status. Has a very high chance of success (out of 40 tests, I've yet to see it fail). WA2 Silence blocks off most special abilities off.
Requires 8 FP.
Status Lok- Blocks off status effects.
Requires 30 FP.
Anti-Magic- Causes magic to miss for 1 round.
Requires 25 FP.
Guillotine- Instant Death. 55-60% chance.
Requires 4 FP.
Booster- Increases all of Marivel's stats, but forces her to go into Auto-Combat. +25% RES, ATP, DFP, MGR.
Requires 70 FP.
Wildcard- Uses one of Marivel's skills, whether she has the FP for it or not.
Requires 4 FP.
Def Down- Decreases a group's Defense and Magic resistance.
Requires 85 FP.
Canceller- Cancels an enemy's turn. If successful, it does SOR*4 (1036) damage. 75% chance.
Force Abilities
---
Level 1
Qubeley- 1650
Level 2
Asgard- 2200
Level 3
Lucifer- 3200
Level 4
Asgard 2- 4000
Evaluation: Middle. Bad damage, but some nice tricks like Canceller, Guillotine, and Power Seal.
Temporary PCs
Anastasia
HP: 4450
STR: 270
VIT: 404
SOR: 281
RES: 243
ATP: 400
DFP: 318
MGR: 170?
PRY: 24%
Equipment
---
Argetlahm- +130 ATP
Ankh Cross and Silver Tiara- +116 DFP, +29 MGR
Attacks and stuff
---
Physical Attack- 850 damage
Refresh- Heals 3*SOR and statuses. In this case, it heals 843 and all statuses (from what I can tell).
Requires 35 FP.
*Air Guard acts like a Quick spell. That is, it adds 1/2 of her RES score to her base RES score. Also, it takes half of her RES score, then turns it into a percentage. In this case, it adds 122 RES and 12% PRY. Air Guard seems to be stackable, which means that she can effectively get 100% PRY, in theory.
Requires 50 FP.
*Providence acts like a Protect and Shield spell. It raises DEF and MDef by 1/8 of Ana's VIT and SOR stats, respectively. In this case, it adds 51 DFP and 35 MGR. Providence seems to be stackable.
Requires 50 FP.
Salvation- Acts as a Life3 spell, except that it fully heals. Anastasia's FP is set to 0, but she seems to receive the FP she would have gotten from the killing blow. All stat boosts are cancelled if she dies. 80 FP.
Force Abilities
Level 1
Impulse- 0-4500 damage. Impulse seems dependant on FP. The formula I've found to be accurate is 18500 * (Party's FP/300). Since there's only Anastasia fighting in the RPGP, the most that the party's FP can be is 75 (the value is taken after she uses Impulse. So, at full FP, Anastasia can do around 4500 damage. At 0 FP, she does 0. This is Anastasia's main means of offense.
Level 2
BladeHeal- Full healing + status removal.
It may be best to scale Anastasia's equipment up to endgame levels rather than take her already given equipment literally. Like most temporary PCs, her equipment falls behind quickly in comparison with the rest of the cast. I was forced to do tests on higher defense enemies, so these figures are a bit lower than they should be.
If you want to judge Anastasia based on her performance in game... 4500 damage is unsurpassed for a very long time (I think it is when Ashley gets KB2). For those who directly scale, it does pretty middling damage for something that requires 100 FP to be strong. Another interpretation is to allow Impulse to hurt evil enemies very badly... Personally, I'm in favor of scaling her Argetlahm and equips up to endgame power. It may be scaled up to be stronger usual endgame level equips, since Argetlahm and her defensive equips are very strong for their point in the game.
Lucied
HP: 4450
STR: 270
VIT: 449
SOR: 281
RES: 292
ATP: 270
DFP: 224
MGR: 140
RES: 29%
Lucied has no equipment.
Damage Tests
---
Regular Attack- 550
Wolf Fang- 850
Requires 50 FP.
Last Fang- 1650
Require 70 FP.
Force Abilities
---
Level 1
BlackDash- 2000
Level 2
Rage Moon- 3000
Stat Comparisons and Averages
---
HP: Brad (5280) > Ashley (4450) > Kanon (4030) > Marivel (3560) > Lilka (3340) > Tim (2920)
Average: 3930
STR: Brad (324) > Ashley (270) > Kanon (218) > Marivel (216) > Lilka = Tim (189)
Average: ~234
RES: Kanon (316) > Lilka (267) > Ashley = Marivel (243) > Brad = Tim (219)
Average: ~251
RES, after Guardians: Kanon (316) > Brad (284) > Ashley = Lilka (267) > Marivel (243) > Tim (229)
Average: ~268
DFP: Brad (584) > Ashley (509) > Kanon (419) > Tim (357) Marivel (340) > Lilka (326)
Average: ~423
MGR: Tim (390) > Lilka (329) > Ashley (218) > Brad (208) > Marivel (182) > Kanon (176)
Average: ~251
Tim kinda throws this off.
