City of Malano

Size: 4x4 (Large) Overall Terrain: River delta & mountains 24 Hour Period: Normal Stage Music: Thunder Overall Difficulty: 5 Stage Boss: Baron Apros

City & Roshian Temple Information Cities (14) Hidden Cities (2) Roshian Temples (5) Buried Treasure (10) Trieste Sanbelnar RT #1: Directly W of 1) SE of R.T. #1; in the Rebel Base Directly E of Bolon Ya; Uhjine open area in the Malano in the clearing of trees RT #2: SE of Labenna; mountains Boss Castle right above the mountain at the break in the river 2) SE of Uhjine; in the Ajij Sharmony in the mountains open area in the Slightly SW of Uhjine Along the W edge of the RT #3: NW of Felala mountains Bel Chelry / Bel Chel map, at the end of the RT #4: N of Bolon Ya 3) NW of Padova; in the NE of Malano; along the road RT #5: Directly W of Bel open area past the main road   Chelry mountains by the water Bolon Ya     4) E of Sharmony; on the Slightly SE of Felala     other side of the Felala (Shop)     mountain before the SW of Padova     river Labenna     5) S of Sharmony; below E of Trieste     the string of mountains Lobeeg     6) S of Mon Bizoh; just NE of Labenna; along the     before the water main road     7) SE of Bel Chelry; on Mantova     the bigger of the two Directly N of Malano     islands Mon Bizoh     8) SW of Mons Nirra; in Slightly SE of Bel Chelry     the water inlet Monfalkone     9) On the large island NW corner of the map     along the bottom of the Mons Nirra     map on the E side E of Mon Bizoh     10) On the large island Padova     along the bottom of the SW of Lobeeg     map on the W side Uhjine         Directly W of Trieste

Stage Shop Wares

Felala “HEAL” (Cure Stone) 700 Goth “ALL HEAL” (Cure Ankh) 2,000 Goth “BELL” (Dinner Bell) 2,000 Goth “BOOTS” (7 League Boots) 3,000 Goth “CHARM” (Persuasion Spell) 50,000 Goth

“BOOTS” (7 League Boots) are back! You are probably running low on them, so this comes just in time.  The “CHARM” (Persuasion Spell) is also available on this stage, so by now you should have absolutely no excuse to not have at least one!

Neutral Encounters

LV: 15 Fire Giant LV: 14 Hawk Man LV: 15 Wyvern Mountains Ocean Ocean

The Wyvern is a nice find, especially if you didn’t manage to get Gilbert and his Wyvern to join your rebellion. Otherwise, the rest of these creatures are nothing special.  You should have all that you care to at this point.

Enemy Units

Different Types of Units: 9 Total Enemy Unit Deployed: 25 Enemy Level Threshold: 14 - 16 Unit# 12-1

It’s time for your real units to come out to play, because the vacation & easy units are over! There are lots of debut characters here, which heralds the beginning of the second half of the game and tougher things to come.  There is really an interesting unit continuity on this stage: almost all of them have at  least one Evil One in them!  There are quite a number of hard units to combat against on this stage. Unit# 12-9 is a real bitch...

Beat The Stage!

Prologue:  Baron Apros rules the roost here, sitting in the fortified metropolis of Malano.  He was once an ally of Zenobia, but turned to the Empire and masterminded the massacre at Pogrom Forest.  Stopping this hated individual would be a real feather in your cap.  Apros had been engaged to Rauny through an arranged marriage made by the Empire, but we all know how that turned out!  She ran away to the Valley of Kastro to escape him and find the rebels.  (At least she should have!)

To put it bluntly, this stage is big.  Real big. There are towns & temples all over the ass, and to make matters worse, there are walls all along the way to the boss castle of Malano!  With them still standing, it will take much longer to reach the base.  Looks like you will need some more “TERMITES” (Termites)...  Also, the map is gigantic, and the units are all pretty tough.  Well, harder than you have faced in a while at least! On a brighter note, there is a tremendous ally on this stage.  Tristran, the rightful heir to the Zenobian throne, who was thought to have been killed in the previous war, is alive, and waiting to meet you. But only if thou art worthy!

Oh.  And in case you are wondering why you are doing this stage instead of some of the older stages on the map is so that you can get to Shangrila right afterwards. Then, you can do that stage to get Debonair, who you’d really like to have face off against the boss of Kalbian Peninsula. Then you can continue on with Balmorian Ruins.  See?  There is a method to the madness...

Deployment Time!
Well.  There’s lots of ground to make up on this map.  You will need the maximum amount of units that you can deploy to get to everything quickly. The non-flying enemy units will follow the main road from Malano to your main base.  Send your fighting units to the area nearby the town of Padova while you have some of your liberators get the towns off to the upper west.  You have to watch out for the enemy flying units, though, because they will go right over the walls and get to places you won’t expect.  In order to get Tristran, one of the requirements is to have your Opinion Leader actually visit the town of Bel Chelry, which is the town he is located at.  Sadly, this town is deep in enemy country, so it will take a while to get there...

Step 1:  Your first clash with enemy units will come once you are past the town of Padova, so the towns of Lobeeg & Labenna do not really need to be guarded. Press past the first set of walls, and you will be able to see more of where the enemy is sending his units.  A fun thing to do is to have one of your flying units sneak over the wall and spy for oncoming units. This stage, more than any other, killing off most or all of the units is a great idea.  On a humorous note, while liberating the fringe towns up north, you will hear how the people of this region feel about the upcoming wedding. Oh, if only they knew!

Step 2:  If the walls are pissing you off, (and they probably are) you can find some “TERMITES” (Termites) at the hidden town of Sharmony, which is located along the western edge of the map. Canopus would be a good candidate to liberate this town.  The other hidden town of Sanbelnar has something else of interest, but only if you have a low Reputation.  Once liberated, you may meet a familiar face. It's Toad, way back from Pogrom Forest!  And he’s got something for you, for a price...  It’s called the “TOME” (Song of Sodoh), but it will not be worth anything until you can get to Fort Allamoot.  As for the present, now that you have this item, you have to stay away from all of the Roshian Temples on this map until you have beaten the stage.  Reason being is that if you visit any of them, the monks will confiscate the “TOME” (Song of Sodoh).  They don’t care for the thing apparently. To avoid this, liberate all of the temples before even liberating Sanbelnar if you have the low Reputation.

Step 3:  You’ll have an interesting encounter at the town of Mon Bizoh.  A monk whose daughter was killed by Apros in the Pogrom Forest asks you to enact revenge for her.  Agree, and you get a “HP POT.” (Vitality Potion).  Here is the crazy part. If you say no, the entire unit that liberated the city will be completely killed!! They will completely disappear from the map, and you will find the unit in your army screen all dead as though they had been knocked off of a Sky Island!  You’ll have to revive them if you want to deploy them again this stage! And, to top it all off, you will also lose some Reputation!  You cannot get this item with your Opinion Leader; no interaction will take place at all. It has to be a different unit.  I guess the programmers didn’t want your main hero to get insty-killed like this and force you to have to reload your game!

Step 4:  Here we go!  By now, you should have knocked down the walls, have almost all of the towns liberated, and most of the enemy units should be defeated. The time is right for your Opinion Leader to be on the move!  One way is to have him/her liberate the town of Bel Chelry.  Or, have a speedy unit zip down there, and use some “BOOTS” (7 League Boots) to jump him over there. Just so that you know, if you use a different unit, you will be greeted by Tristran’s valet, and he will say that Tristran wishes to meet your hero instead. If you get this message, it doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your chance to get him. Just move your Opinion Leader on in.  Now, you need a few things in order to have Tristran join your party in addition to the Opinion Leader visit to Bel Chelry.  You need a high Reputation and the “KEY” (Key of Destiny).  This is the item that you got from the Slums of Zenobia.  As a last reminder, the unit that you get when Tristran joins is five characters strong, so you have to make sure that you have room in your reserves for all of them!  Otherwise, you will be dissed and not know why!!  You find out that he wants to trash the wedding party and confront Baron Apros.  You have heard the rumors. They say that Apros was supposed to marry Rauny , but as you found out, she fled to the Valley of Kastro, and was not too thrilled with the idea of marrying someone like Apros.  Tristran is a General, which is a super type of Paladin.  Get ready to kick it with some royal booty!  You may not have time chance right now, but take a look at the types of classes that Tristran can recruit.  Amazing, isn’t it?! More on that later...

Ally!

Step 5:  This is another first. Because Apros is such a prick, there’s actually more than just one special character that has special dialogue against him! If you have Rauny with you, it would only make sense for her to confront the man that she was supposed to marry.  And if you’ve got Tristran, he wants to enact his revenge for his family.  For shitz & giggles, you could make a unit with both of them in it!  The dialogue with Tristran will take priority if such a unit is made.  As usual, the starter unit that Tristran is in when he joins you is pretty crappy, so mix it up to your liking.  Once all of the units are dead, and the towns & temples are liberated, get ready to...

Fight It Out!!

Boss Time!

Baron Apros Dandy / Vanity HP 221 LV 18 STR 123 CHA 51 AGI 159 ALI 39 INT 159 LUK 49   LV: 16 Demon LV: 18 Dandy Vanity     LV: 16 Demon     4 Direct & ? Targeted or ? Hit-All

Baron Apros is pretty pissed off about the Rauny ditching him as his bride, so he’ll go all out at you!  Apros is a Dandy / Vanity class, whatever that means. This is not a class that you can ever get with one of your characters.  The reason why the above attack breakdown is so strange is because his class is anything but routine.  A Dandy does various Black attacks from the Back Row.  He could do anything from a simple Nightmare targeted attack, all the way up to the lethal Meteor attack! And, the number of attacks that he does is random as well. He could do just a Nightmare, or a Nightmare & a Meteor, etc. So, it is very hard to figure out what the fight will be like and how to prepare.  But the obvious way to prepare should be by using a “World” Tarot Card. Once that’s done, you should actually have no trouble.  Any unit that you use for this fight should be able to shred right through the token Demons and get at Apros pretty fast.  If not, you could always start off the fight with a “Fool” Tarot Card. Tristran is has three nice, strong frontal attacks, and Rauny has her two Hit-All Thunder Flares.  Or better if you were able to make her a Princess!! As long as they have some other decent classes with them, it should go quickly.  Just use some damage cards, or a “Star” or “Emperor” if you are missing him a lot, to deal with him quickly. He does have a lot of Hit Points, so be careful...

Available Items

There’s a bevy of items to behold on this stage. Not only is there a Zodiac Stone, but an item that you can trade in for a class changing item!

SNES Name: HP POT. Selling Price: 10,000 Goth PSX / Full Name: Vitality Potion Buying Price: - - Description: “A medicine for the weak.  Raises a character’s max HP.”

SNES Name: LEXICON Selling Price: 87,500 Goth PSX / Full Name: Book of the Dead Buying Price: - - Description: “Describes the way to achieve eternal life.  A book from the ancient kingdom.”

SNES Name: PROMOTE Selling Price: 6,800 Goth PSX / Full Name: Promotion Buying Price: - - Description: “Whoever obtains it, becomes stronger in all areas.  Raises a character one level.”

SNES Name: RUBY Selling Price: 5 Goth PSX / Full Name: Ruby Buying Price: - - Description: “The seventh stone of the Zodiac.  Signifies honor.”

SNES Name: TERMITES Selling Price: 50 Goth PSX / Full Name: Termites Buying Price: - - Description: “A bag of termites.  Calls earthquake.”

SNES Name: TOME Selling Price: 158,000 Goth PSX / Full Name: Song of Sodoh Buying Price: - - Description:

Aftermath

Just because Apros kicked it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t come back!  There are a lot of little & big things to do here. You can grab a Zodiac Stone, among other trinkets.

1) Visit the former boss castle of Malano, and the people here have found a “LEXICON” (Book of the Dead), along with Apros’s remaining possessions.  They’ll give it to you, and now you have another copy of the book that the wizard Badista, covets.  Who cares if you might have already given him one; he wants them all!! So, when you’re done with the rest of the things on this list, take a trip to Sharom Border, and make the swap for an “UNDEAD” (Undead Ring).  Hopefully by now, you’ve managed to accumulate both a “STAFF” (Undead Staff) and an “UNDEAD” (Undead Ring), meaning you can make a Lich!  The best candidates for this highly evolved state are Warren or Saradin, who you will find in Balmorian Ruins, which is two stages after this one.  Saradin makes a slightly more powerful Lich than Warren, but only because his Intelligence is a bit higher.  The choice is yours really, but ultimately you will want both to be Liches!

2) Visit the town of Mon Bizoh, and you will once again get asked if you will help eliminate the Empire, just like they asked you while you were on the stage.  If you say yes, you’ll get a “PROMOTE” (Promotion).  If you say no, you’ll lose Reputation.  Quite a bit of a loss too; maybe about the 1/6th of a full Reputation Meter.  Oh, and this time around you can use your Opinion Leader, and you don’t have to worry about a unit getting killed like before!

3) Visit the hidden town of Sanbelnar, and if you have the “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru), the messenger of the Gods will present you with the “RUBY” (Ruby), which is the seventh stone of the Zodiac.

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

4) There is one final thing that you may want to do, but it’s optional, and only if you managed to get Tristran to join your army.  One of the harder classes to get in this game are Mages.  Why?  Well, because overzealous players will use Wizards almost exclusively during the first few stages, killing all sorts of enemy units.  However, by the time the Wizards reach Level 10, they do not have the necessary Alignment, or sometime Charisma as well, to make the class change.  But you’re in luck! Take a look at the classes that Tristran can recruit.  Among the other rare classes, he can recruit Mages right off the bat! So, if you have any inclination to use any, and eventually want some Sorcerers & Liches, but don’t have any Wizards able to promote to Mages, pick up a few! Of course, grab any other classes that catch your fancy as well.