Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon: Shooting Stars in 2024!

[warrior's pride]

hey guys. taking a shining break for a while. i will get back into again im sure. 99 stars is a big target koladdict not just to see if the stars end there but also that is when the ghoul becomes savekillable. grinding max to outspeed the zombies in that battle is the most annoying part of the game at this stage (and will be till he pops). after that getting mawlock to 99 speed will be the only grinding needed and he is pretty easy to level. anyway[img][img][/img][/img] back into things after easter i promise.

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[Lucifer]

but also that is when the ghoul becomes savekillable. grinding max to outspeed the zombies in that battle is the most annoying part of the game at this stage (and will be till he pops).

As you should already know by now, the Ghoul is not a boss. If the Ghoul pops before the Zombies pops, then you'll still need to kill the Zombies the old fashioned way.

[warrior's pride]

Really, I never knew that. Are you sure, in rotdd? I have always killed the zombies and skeletons first and it just made sense that the ghoul is the boss. The ghoul has had max attack for a while and the lvl 10 zombies are nearly maxed out on attack so it just makes sense to have them attack darksol copied mawlock before moving on to the ghoul that is on it's own.

Well that is just terrible news. It will make trying to break the stars so much harder. Well that just sucks the big hairy meatball.

[Lucifer]

Are you sure, in rotdd?

I am 100% sure that it is not a boss in LoGI, but... Just tested it, the Ghoul is not a boss in RotDD either.

[warrior's pride]

dam I just did the math and zombies won't be savekillable until 166 stars. That is an extra 67 playthroughs were I will need to grind Max to 99+ def or close to it after colossus card all before any of the rings. Somewhere around high 40's promoted. I thought I would only have to do that maybe a handful times at most because if max outspeeds the zombie he can move out of danger and the battle can easily be won. zombie speed is 63 at star 90 needing a Max level of around the high 30's (rnga for speed ofcourse).

Why isn't the ghoul a boss? So frustrating 70 playthroughs grinding max so much. The crazy thing is that it will get to a point where literally everything after that battle will be savekillable. Well I guess I better start the next playthrough.

[Lucifer]

Why isn't the ghoul a boss?

The question that has baffled fans since day one.

[Balbazak]

Wow, you guys have been busy.

I haven't touched my file in over a year. I kinda lost my will to play, I dunno. But holy crap, well done Warrior's Pride and Sulfuroxp. You guys are awesome!

I did some light digging through the thread, I would have guessed that the Chimaera would 'pop' alone once they reached the HP limit. Because only one of them in the entire game has a "boss" type role, and that's the one guarding the Runefaust gate at the end of chapter 7.

But it is SO cool to hear about the continuing exploits, you guys made my day.

Edit: Aaaand in looking through all of the progress WP made (that several months worth of edits makes me sad, sorry I disappeared guys), I'm going to get back into the game. I'm dusting off my Micro when I get off of work.
It's go time!

[Ghostly Jenn]

You've got a lot of catching up to do.

[warrior's pride]

Balbazaak back from the dead!!!

A star thread without balbazaak is like a (insert metaphor)

I'd all but given up my star quest but I might just give it another crack

[Balbazak]

I is back.

And yea, I know the feeling. I'm still waaaaay back here at *25 still, working on powering up Max in the Cavern of Dorkness.

[warrior's pride]

You should be able to get through the next few stars without much grinding. Just make sure max outspeeds the zombies before moving on this is absooutely vital. RNGA mawlock for speed, lowe and khris with voodoo staves and Luke as a great early tank (huge defence gains after promotion) these are my strategy recomendations. good luck.

[Eric]

Hey everyone!

I am going through this challenge and have just gotten 2 stars. I have been watching Balbazak over the years and its nice to know he has some competition. I only used Max, Narsha and Mawlock on Star 2 and got 3 evil rings. That was definitely appropriate, but this time Im thinking of throwing in Hans and Mae to level up Mawlock and Narsha faster. (5 people for 48 exp).

I was doing a lot of testing and information finding to assist me on future playthroughs. I have a contribution and also a question:

-I didn't see this in the earlier posts, but a shield ring was won when I killed a Dulluhan and High Priest in the Mishaela fight. One of those 2 enemies should drop the shield ring. 4 defense is not as good as farming the Ghoul for gold rings (5 def), but the spell on it might help you level up.

-It seems like people stopped using Hans, Diane and Lyle with the Elven arrow. Do we think that it does not work as often as the doom blade?

Happy Star hunting. I will update my progress as I go. Currently getting evil rings in Battle 4.

[sulfuroxp]

How do you get Evil Ring so early?

[Lucifer]

-I didn't see this in the earlier posts, but a shield ring was won when I killed a Dulluhan and High Priest in the Mishaela fight. One of those 2 enemies should drop the shield ring.

Both of the Dullahans that guard Mishaela can drop the Shield Ring. It requires a lot of patience because this particular item has a very low drop rate.

How do you get Evil Ring so early?

In the battle of Alterone, there is a single Dark Mage. When you kill this Dark Mage, there is a chance that it will drop it's Evil Ring. Just Egress and repeat to get as many as you want.

[Eric]

I got star 3 yesterday. I ended up only using Mawlock, Narsha and Max. Using Dark Dragon at the beginning knocked out most of the game right off the bat. I know that will change later . Right now for me, anything more than 3 evil rings is a waste.

Lucifer is correct about the early evil rings. Also, thank you for clarifying that about the dulluhans in Mishaela battle. To farm the evil rings I use some direct attack cards. The cheapest ones are Elliot and Rune Knight for 3 or 5 mp respectively. The dark mage will die in one hit to see if he will drop, then retreat.

[warrior's pride]

Nice work. Ohko the mage with rune card is a clever innovation. Good luck in your future shining force endeavors

[Eric]

Thanks Warrior's Pride. I just got Star 6 and save killed Dark Dragon. I have been running, Max, Mawlock and Narsha. But the difficulty is getting pretty stiff now, so I will be adding Hanzou to the mix. Can't wait to save kill Ramladu...

Although bad news about the Ghoul not being a boss (he also only drops the steel ring, garbage), you should find solace in knowing that Skeleton's and Zombie's base Agility is 7. This means that on Playthrough 99 Max should only need around 75-80 agility to outspeed the opponents. There is probably at least one or 2 quick chickens and the speed ring to help that out.

Also, another fun tip is that there are 12 deals in the game. 2 per chapter until chapter 5 where it is one per chapter. All deals will drop in every game with enough persistence. Often it is first try and failing that it is repeated attempts to check deals, exit conversation and repeat. I have been keeping track of various data on each playthrough, next time Im going to compare lvl20 Max, Narsha and Hanzou, to early promotion versions to see just how much different they will be at 20 promoted. I haven't save abused for level ups yet.

[warrior's pride]

I can tell you without any doubt at all that late promotion does not improve a characters final stats. Beyond learning certain spells a bit earlier in game (very unimportant) there is no benefit. Always promote at lol 10 you won't be disappointed I promise you

[Eric]

I believe you very well may be right. But, I am putting together information from this 7th run. Im making a spreadsheet for the love of the Force. Hopefully, the data will answer some other questions you may have had, like which of the 3 centaurs is the fastest to support Max in the zombie fight. And maybe it will shed some light for how valuable if at all it is to wait till 20.

[warrior's pride]

Fair enough. A spreadsheet of stat values would be cool. People have asked for that kind of information but I don't think anyone has put the effort in to making one. I abandoned my zombie chapel/centaur support experiment it just didn't work. I put few hours in on my save file today. I don't know if I will start back at it again but I might.