Pogrom Forest

Size: 3x2 (Small) Overall Terrain: Dense forest & foothills 24 Hour Speed: Normal Stage Music: Go-Go March Overall Difficulty: 4 Stage Boss: Kapella

City & Roshian Temple Information Cities (5) Hidden Cities (2) Roshian Temples (3) Buried Treasure (2) Matt’ Gro / Matt’ Gro Alagoyas / Minas RT #1: Slightly SW of 1) NW of Lolaima Rebel Base W of Matt’ Gro; along the Matt’ Gro 2) NE of Melanion Goyas / Goyas river/coast in the top RT #2: NE of Melanion     Boss Castle middle of the map RT #3: S of Alagoyas     Acre / Melanion Para / Selshippe       NE of Goyas NW corner of the map       Lolaima / Lolaima         (Shop)         SE of Matt’ Gro         Melanion / Rhodina         Slightly SE of Acre         Rhodina / Alagoyas         Slightly SW of Lolaima         Vyer / Vyer         S of Para

Please Note: Once again, the SNES & PSX versions don’t wish to coexist!  The names of the towns are all different. Don’t worry, not every single stage in the game is this bad. In fact, this stage and the last one are the worst!  Diaspola is bad also, along with a few other stages with minor differences, but we’ll come to that fork in the road when we get there! Patience, my young apprentice...

Stage Shop Wares

Lolaima / Lolaima “CURE” (Cure Potion) 400 Goth “HEAL” (Cure Stone) 700 Goth “BELL” (Dinner Bell) 2,000 Goth “JOKER” (Joker Tarot) 2,000 Goth “SUMMONS” (Mass Summons) 3,000 Goth

The stuff was available last stage, but this time you probably have a bit more Goth to throw around. Start bolstering your supplies of these staple items.

Neutral Encounters

LV: 9 Imp LV: 9 Ghost LV: 9 Skeleton Mountains; by Melanion Forest; almost anywhere Forest; almost anywhere

Here's your chance!  Now's the time for some super characters! The Undead family of classes is quite powerful; only White attacks can kill them. Every other kind of attack will have absolutely no effect on them!  You will find lots of both kinds roaming around within the big forest areas on this stage.  Make sure to recruit some!  The Imp is not bad, either! A great class for your fighting units.

Enemy Units

Different Types of Units: 8 Total Enemy Unit Deployed: 26 Enemy Level Threshold: 5 - 7 Unit# 4-1

There is a noticeable jump in the number of units you will face compared to last stage.  More than you have ever been used to before. Not only that, but almost half of them have at least one Undead character in them, making them impossible to beat for some of your units.  This is where your Clerics will be able to shine, and gain some ridiculous Charisma & Alignment while doing it!  As for units that do not have these babes in them, use either ”Judgment” or ”Sun” Tarot Cards, or equip White weapons on your Front Row characters, if you have any. You might also want to take the time for your Opinion Leader to knock off some Undead to also gain Charisma & Alignment.  If you kept him low level by not allowing him/her to fight in the previous two stages, the gains will be significant!

Beat The Stage!

Prologue:  When the Empire came and took over this region, many fled to the forest to escape its wrath. The Empire's forces, ordered by the devilish Baron Apros, torched the entire forest, slaughtering the refugees in the ensuing inferno. Now, Kapella, one of Rashidi's pupils, has used his necromantic skills to turn the lost souls that were killed into an Undead legion.

After such a mentally draining stage as the last one with it’s exacting sequence of moves that must be done correctly, it’s refreshing to know that this will be a simple expand and conquer stage. There’s nothing to worry about here except the actual units you will be facing.  The Undead will provide a new twist for you, so be ready for it. For a change, your Opinion Leader can actually fight on this stage if you want him/her to. Especially if you have the “Goodly” type.  The reason why is because with the Banish attack, you can drop the opposing Undead characters to reap some monster gains in Charisma & Alignment.  If you don’t have this Opinion Leader type, just hold out until you find the “MYSTIC” (Mystic Mace), and then equip it on him/her, and you will be able to kill Undead with no trouble!

Deployment Time!
Lots of units, especially the ones with Undead in them, will be coming right through the forest at you.  So, deploy every unit that you have with a Cleric in it through the forest. The Amazon & Valkyrie classes will be fight more effectively when in the forests as well, because of their Forest terrain type. Any unit that does not have a Cleric in it should travel down south to liberate the towns in the lower SE corner area of the map.  Gilbert’s and Canopus’s units are so fast that you can have them run all over the map in no time.  Canopus should move along the top of the map, liberating all the cities that are on the upper edge of the coast. His unit probably has no way of fighting Undead units to begin with, so this is the best use for him.  Neither does Gilbert, but he can be a terror running around the battle area, picking off weakened units that no longer have Undead in them. Just keep an eye on his Charisma & Alignment levels, though!  You don’t want him too evil! Same should be said with Warren, because you want him to able to promote to a Mage sometime soon.

Step 1:  Time to start advancing through the woods. Make sure that your units move southwest in a wall formation, so that no enemy units can slip through. Especially the High Sky ones, because your units probably will move slower than normal through the forest.  You will already fight enemies before hitting R.T. #3 in the middle of the map, but once you liberate that temple, you will have a healing & reviving station.  Once you liberate the hidden town of Alagoyas, you are given a “MYSTIC” (Mystic Mace), which will be very useful, especially on this stage. It is a White weapon, which means that when it is equipped on a character, their Direct Physical attack will change its elemental attack type to match whatever the weapon has (which in this case is White).  So, this character will now be able to kill Undead!  Stick this immediately on your Opinion Leader if he can’t innately kill Undead, so that he/she can finally get into the fray. Don’t over use him/her, though, because levels will be gained very fast for him/her, and you will want to be able to sneak out of the battlefield when the time is right!

Step 2:  You should also have the towns of Lolaima & Rhodina liberated by now, but if you advance too quickly along the south, more enemy units will appear down here instead of where all of your units with Clerics are, and you might be in trouble... Once your front has moved past R.T. #3, you can have one of your units liberate the R.T. #2, which is along the tiny lake in the middle portion of the map.

Step 3:  Right before you get to this point, the enemy will no longer send units strictly through the forest in a NW route towards your main base. Right before you take Melanion, units will be coming through this mountain pass, depending on how aggressively you advance in the north.  Also, as you move Canopus from the hidden city of Para to Vyer, units will start moving up this way as well. You should have progressed far enough to see all of the enemy units sitting on the main base and coming out too.  Once you take the towns of Acre and Melanion, you should be in pretty good shape.

Step 4:  As you liberate the town of Vyer, if you have a low-middle to low Reputation, you will get an item called the “CENSER” (Evil Censer).  If your Reputation is too high, you’re SOL.  Now, return to the town of Para.  Here, you will meet a merchant named Toad.  The first of many, many encounters you will have with him during your travels!  You can trade him the “CENSER” (Evil Censer) for a “DEMON” (Sentoul Demon), which is way cool if you want any high level Sorcerers.  And you most certainly do!  Unfortunately, you will have to wait until Diaspola in order to get to cash the “DEMON” (Sentoul Demon) in for the item that will actually let you make the class promotion...  If you maintain a rather low Reputation throughout the game, you will see Toad quite a bit on various stages.  He tends to stay away from people of, well,  higher moral fiber than him!

Step 5:  If you prefer to defeat all of the units of this stage before moving on to face Kapella, this is the time to do so. Simply have your units line the river that is just north of Goyas, with units stationed on the towns of Acre, Melanion, & Vyer.  Almost all of the enemy units that are left will attempt to take any of these three towns back over.  But for the ones that don't and just run around randomly, make sure that you have the way out blocked. If you would rather not sit and kill all of the enemy units off, when there is a break in the action, send the unit or units that you intend to use towards Goyas from the west side of the city, and get ready to...

Fight It Out!!

Boss Time!

LV: 7 Imp Kapella Mage HP 116 LV 8 STR 63 CHA 57 AGI 81 ALI 32 INT 103 LUK 48 LV: 8 Mage     LV: 7 Imp       LV: 7 Imp 6 Direct & 1 Hit-All

Finally a boss that is actually protected by his minions!  And this one is hard hitting! Since Kapella is a Mage, his attack will hit your entire unit, and will do quite a bit of damage. If you have one, a ”World” Tarot Card can be a life saver.  If you have any left of these left after fighting all the Undead on this stage, those ”Judgment” or even ”Sun” Tarot Cards will rip this unit a new one! Even after using a "World," however, this battle could still be troublesome, because Imps can actually fight in the Front Row too. A sneaky tactic that you could use is to send a unit that contains the Undead units that you’ve collected on this stage at him, and ignore the whole Front Row altogether! Still, Kapella has pretty weak defenses to pretty much every kind of attack, except for "Black," so it doesn't really matter what magic uses you have in your unit.

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

Another way to deal with the trio of Imps, or any Front Row or boss escort actually, is to use a “Fool” Tarot Card.  The cards forces every character except the boss to flee, in this case leaving just a wimpy Mage to try and fend off your unit!  This card, along with the “World” card, are almost necessities against boss fights from here on out.  It just makes the battles go so much quicker! Try and make sure that you have at least one of these two cards for every boss from here on out.

Available Items

If you are going for the best ending, you will probably not be able to pick up every single item on this stage for Reputation’s sake alone. Just because you do not get every single item that is available on every single stage doesn't mean that you are doing “bad.”  There are many chances to get a “DEMON” (Sentoul Demon) later on in the game, even for the “Goodly” hero!  So fear not...

SNES Name: CENSER Selling Price: 29,300 Goth PSX / Full Name: Evil Censer Buying Price: - - Description:

SNES Name: DEMON Selling Price: 230 Goth PSX / Full Name: Sentoul Demon Buying Price: - - Description: “A statue of the demon Sentoul.”

SNES Name: MYSTIC Selling Price: 7,100 Goth PSX / Full Name: Mystic Mace Buying Price: - - Description: “A mace containing mystic powers.” Effects: Strength + 2, Intelligence + 7

SNES Name: ORB Selling Price: 4,950 Goth PSX / Full Name: Olden Orb Buying Price: - - Description: “One of the jewels of Fellana. A myth is engraved on the surface of the orb.”

SNES Name: SILVER Selling Price: 21,300 Goth PSX / Full Name: Mercury Buying Price: - - Description: “An emblem of warriors who died for battle.”

Aftermath

Besides digging up the remaining buried treasures that you missed (which should be a common practice from here on out), there’s only two things to do here. They just happen to be some of the most important in the whole game! Both of the tasks allow you to find the almighty “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru), but not until you are more than halfway done with the game.

1) Return to the town of Para, and two different things could happen. If you met the merchant Toad while beating the stage; in other words, have a low Reputation, you will find that he had fled to the City of Malano.  However, if you have a high Reputation, you will be met by the great monk Boltorano.  He will sense that you are the great hero of lore, and give you the “SILVER” (Mercury), which is instrumental in getting the “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru).  You don’t have to do this right away after beat the stage, so if your Reputation is too low to receive this key item, come back when it is high enough. No rush really...

2) This return trip is so far removed from the first one, that it will seem like a different lifetime!  You can’t come back here until after you beaten the Dalmuhd Desert, and have obtained the “DOUN GEM” (Gem of Doun) from Gizolfi. Come back to the town of Para yet again, and Boltorano will swap your “DOUN GEM” (Gem of Doun) item for the “ORB” (Olden Orb).  Just another important item on your way to acquiring the “TABLET” (Tablet of Yaru), so this is big time!

M.O.B.Q. Tip!

This is a little trick for those baffled with Charisma & Alignment manipulation. This stage is a gold mine for raising these stats for any character that you wish.  The key are the many neutral Undead that blanket the big forest swampy areas. Killing them will net you a king’s ransom in both Charisma & Alignment.  This is because not only are their levels higher than your troops, but their Charisma & Alignment are practically 0, thereby ensuring some type of gain for any character under Level 9.