If you are jumping into Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, you’ll find that there are quite a few elements that are pretty unique to the Suikoden series. From unique status effects to battle formations to massive army battles, there are a number of elements that you won’t see anywhere else.
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This guide will take you through everything from the best way to get Potch, the best troops you can acquire early, and the most efficient way to level up your troops, plus so much more. This guide is here to provide you with everything you’ll need to know to start both of these classic titles on the best foot possible.
How To Make Money Efficiently
In a game with so many recruitable characters, equipment costs are through the roof. You’ll need to maximum amount of Potch many times over in order to equip them all. Thankfully, both games provide you with an excellent source of earning large wads of cash, though, admittedly, Suikoden 1’s method takes far less effort.
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Play Chinchirorin In Suikoden 1
Fairly early in the game, you’ll be able to recruit Gaspar in the basement of the Kaku pub. Once you have earned 5,000 Potch gambling in Chinchirorin, he’ll join your cause. He’ll then set up shop on the first floor of your castle, where you’ll be able to play Chinchororin with him whenever you want.
Make sure you’ve recruited Marie from the Seika Inn. All you will need to do is to talk to her once you have defeated the Zombie Dragon.
Marie will set up an Inn on the first floor of your castle. That means that you will be able to save, and then play a few risky rounds of dice with Gaspar. Gaspar will allow you to bet your winnings, which means that you can hit the maximum amount of Potch pretty quickly through the power of compounding. You only need to win a maximum of eight times to get the maximum amount of 999,999 Potch.
The luck stat is a factor when gambling. You should load your party up with characters who have a high luck stat.
Things are further in your favor, as Gaspar will always go first, and if he misses the bowl, you’ll automatically win. Similarly, if he gets three ones, you’ll win triple. It honestly feels like you have the advantage. Better yet, if you lose it all, well, you saved just before playing him, so you can always go back to the main menu, reload your save, and try again.
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Trade Goods In Suikoden 2
Unfortunately, while Chinchirorin is present in Suikoden 2, you won’t be able to gain access to it until you have reached the Two Rivers part of the story, which is quite a few hours into the game. It also doesn’t provide you with nearly as much Potch.
You can still make okay money playing Chinchirorin b
However, in its stead, you can engage in trading. You’ll be able to purchase certain items that serve no purpose outside of being sold. The trick is that these items can be sold for more money than they are sold for at different locations. There is a massive list of items you can buy and sell, but for all intents and purposes, this is all you will need to know in the early game…
- Buy Crystal Balls and Mayonnaise from South Window. Then, when you reach the Kobold village, sell them there. You will have a nice stack of these items by the time you reach the Kobold Village.
- In the Kobold village, buy Ancient Texts, then, sell them at the Forest Village once you arrive there.
Understanding Rune Pieces
If there is one thing that Suikoden does a very poor job of explaining, it is rune pieces. You’ll encounter two distinct types of rune pieces across your journey…
- Elemental Rune Pieces: These elemental rune pieces can be attached to weapons. They’ll change that weapon’s damage type to the element of the rune piece, and they’ll give the weapon a slight damage boost. You can stack up to nine of these on one weapon.
- Stat Rune Pieces: Using these rune pieces will permanently increase one stat point by one.
Elemental Rune Pieces can be upgraded by adding more pieces. However, Elemental Rune Pieces can never be removed. If you try adding another Rune Piece of a different element to a weapon, it will replace the previous one. So, if you try to swap out a fire rune piece that is level 9 with a water rune piece, you will lose all those fire rune pieces and your weapon will be dramatically weaker.
Suikoden 2 doesn’t have Elemental Rune Pieces, adding a Weapon Rune Slot instead. This serves the same purpose, but you can’t upgrade them, and you can remove them.
Stat Rune Pieces still exist in Suikoden 2, but they have had their names changed to ‘Stones’. So, the ‘PWR Rune Piece’ in Suikoden is called a ‘Stone of Power’ in Suikoden 2. It is worth noting that Stones can provide up to 3 points in Suikoden 2.
How To Grind More Efficiently
One of the best parts about the Suikoden games is how efficient it is to level up characters. Which is useful as there are so many playable characters in the game, a few of them are bound to go unused on occasion. Obviously, the best method is to take them into battle with the best armor available in the area with the highest level of monster, but there is more to it than that. You will also be rewarded for taking smaller parties, as all characters share EXP.
If you are looking to level one character up quickly, your best bet is to take them into battle with the hero alone. If they have a spare rune slot, put the Hazy Rune on them and that will greatly increase their chances of evading an attack. However, if they are particularly weak, you may want to bring Kai along in Suikoden 1 so that you can wipe out all the enemies before they even have a chance to attack.
In Suikoden 2, there are two characters who can perform a group killing unite attack with Riou. Jowy is obviously one of them, but a little later in the game you’ll acquire a very special character if you upload your complete Suikoden 1 save (as in, you recruited all 108 stars of destiny).
Getting The Most Out Of Frequently Unbalanced Characters
The Suikoden games have a number of pretty novel status elements, but the one you’ll encounter the most is the unbalanced status. This status will last one round, and removes a character’s ability to attack or use runes. However, while they can’t attack, they are still able to defend and to use items. Some characters are going to be frequently unbalanced.
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Pahn’s Boar Rune will unbalance him, the Clone Orb, which you’ll obtain very early, is a great fit for Viktor, and it will leave him unbalanced as well. Typically, these attacks do more damage than two normal attacks would. So, you’ll want to use them.
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Similarly, Suikoden 2 is lined with excellent unite attacks that will leave one or more characters unbalanced. Nanami’s Unite attack with the Riou will often leave her unbalanced (though not always). Other early characters, such as Shiro and Gengen also have a unite attack that will leave both of them unbalanced.
If you know a character is going to spend half of a battle on their butt, make sure to load them up with medicine. That way they can heal injured party members every other turn.
The Key To Winning Army Battles
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War battles are like duels in that they have that same rock, paper, scissors balance at their core. However, unlike duels, where your foe will telegraph their next attack with what they say, no such tells are provided in wars. Thankfully, there are ways to reduce the randomness.
Which not vital, use the mercenaries at the beginning of every battle. You’ll have a chance of increasing the side of your army while decreasing the side of your opponent’s by about ten percent.
First of all, thieves and ninja will be able to scout for you. While thieves are unreliable, often failing to secure information, they are, however, better than nothing. Ninja, on the other hand, will nearly always succeed. The thieves Kirin and Giovani will join during Lepant’s recruitment, while Kasumi will join just before the battle against Teo. The remaining ninja are Kage and Fuma. Kage is in the Secret Factory, which is where you will recruit Mose, while Fuma is located in the Dragon Knight’s Castle, hiding behind a statue.
After getting a successful scouting report, respond with the opposite tactic (Bow beats magic, magic beats charge, and charge beats bow). You are hoping that enemy will use the bow attack, as then you can use your strategists to buff your charge attacks. If you run out of thieves and ninja, use the bow command, as that is the only option that doesn’t get completely nullified by its counter.
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Suikoden 2’s Army battles still have a hefty emphasis on RNG, but they lose the rock, paper, scissors style of balancing. In its place, you have a tactical RPG where the result of clashes are a roll of the dice. If your units stats are higher than your opponents, than the outcome will, of course, be more likely to be favorable, but there will always be an element of luck associated with them.
If you are struggling with these battles, the largest problem is almost likely that you are spreading your forces thin. Your best bet is to have one or two units that are stacked with your strongest characters, and then have the rest act as support. Additionally, powerful attack skills will allow you to deal damage from afar, providing you with the ability to undermine an opponent.
Don’t rely on the pre-built units. They are awful. Talk to Apple and reorganize your units!
As an example, the fire spears skill (a skill held by both Viktor and Tai Ho) will hit three enemy units in a straight line. You can utilize this skill to attack multiple times, and hit multiple enemies, before they are even in range to attack back. Organize your units so that they have the best stats possible, while also having access to these skills. Have additional units that are capable of healing to help support those units. Riou has the best healing ability in the game, which will heal multiple units. Save this for after you have had multiple units engage in battles, and are damaged as a result.
Utilize Unconventional Battle Formations
The basic system is that S troops should go in the front row, L troops are in the back, and M troops are good in either row. However, there is room to play around with those positions. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, when strengthening under-leveled troops, you’ll want to place them in the back row. However, even beyond that, Mage’s are there to cast spells, and they tend to be pretty awful in terms of physical stats. So, even though Luc is technically an S-row fighter, it is a terrible idea to put him up front.
Mages like Luc may feel like a wasted space when they are hunkering in the back row, but they can shred bosses. Load them up with medicine and they can act as your healer until they are needed.
Additionally, if you are primarily using a character for unite attacks, or their physical attack rune (like the Boar Rune or Clone Rune), there is no reason not to place them in the back row, as runes and unite attacks ignore attack ranges. All of this is true of both Suikoden 1 and Suikoden 2. Additionally, just because a fighter is M range doesn’t mean they can’t tank with some of the best S range fighters. As an example, Gremio and McDohl are both fairly tanky and work well in the front.
Early Recruits That Make Life Easier
The opening sections of every Suikoden game is fairly locked down. The recruits available to you are often quite limited, as most of your party members will be part of the main quest. However, by luck or design, there are always one or two particularly strong characters you can acquire early who’ll tip the scales in your favor.
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Suikoden 1: Kai
You’ll be able to recruit a character named Kai quite early in the game (once you beat the Zombie Dragon), all you need to do is to head over to the Garan Fortress, which is west of Kouan, and talk to him. He comes with some phenomenal upsides. First of all, at level eight, his weapon will be at an uncharacteristically high level. You won’t be able to sharpen your weapons to level eight until you have reached the Dwarf Village, which won’t be for hours. But more importantly than that, he has one of the best unite attacks in the game.
Shockingly, Kai is the only character in the game to have a unite attack with McDohl.
So, what makes his Master And Pupil unite attack so good? Well, it pairs with McDohl, the one character you will always have in your party, so that’s a good start. But even better, it attacks every enemy on the battlefield, and does considerable damage, while having no negative effect on either McDohl or Kai. It isn’t great when you are fighting single bosses, but against groups of enemies, it makes life much, much easier.
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Suioden 2: Mukumuku
Mukumuku is a secret early recruit. In fact, he is the first character you can recruit in the game. When you arrive in Kyaro, head to Genkaku’s Dojo. Before you even talk to Nanami, go interact with the giant tree behind the dojo three times. Mukumuku will then join you.
If you miss Mukumuku the first time around, you’ll be able to recruit him around Greenhill later in the game. Just wander around with a free slot.
Why is Mukumuku so great? Well, he doesn’t have a weapon to sharpen, so his attack power is linked to his level and stats, and in the early game, when you don’t have access to a talented blacksmith, his attack power really soars in the early parts of the game.
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