Secret Of Mana
In-Depth: Magic Leveling Up FAQs
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Author:   XiMagus
Email:    ximagus@hotmail.com
Web:      www.bza.cjb.net
Version:  1.00
Updated:  October 24, 2001

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~ Index
========
1. Introduction
2. Copyright
3. About This Document
4. Basic FAQs
5. Sprite
6. Girl
7. Credits

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1. Introduction
================
Secret Of Mana has always been a great game. It was probably the first 
or one of the first RPGs I played. I know it was the first game by 
SquareSoft that I had played. I know as a little kid I played this game 
hours on end with others.

I wrote this FAQs in one day. I was sitting here while sick, playing 
Secret Of Mana, and I realized that there has to be faster ways to 
level up magic. I knew some little tricks, but I really started to do 
some research about it, and I found a couple of other tricks that seem 
to work well. Every second seems to count when attempting to level up 
magic, because you have to cast so many times. Shaving off a couple of 
seconds off of every cast can save you a half an hour in the long run.

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2. Copyright
=============
*** THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD ONLY BE POSTED ON GAMEFAQS.COM AND NOT 
ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE INTERNET. It was made for submission to 
GameFAQs.com.

This document is  2001 XiMagus. You can use this document by following 
the guidelines below:

This document may only be used for personal use and not for a profit. 
You can however save and/or print this document but only if you keep it 
as a plain text file (.txt).

If you would like to use this document for anything else other then 
personal use, please contact me.

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3. About This Document
=======================
This document was first created October 24, 2001. I wrote it on 
Microsoft Word 9 (a.k.a. Word 2000).

Each line has a line break of 72 characters. This means that every line 
of text has 72 characters on it. I did this to maximize viewing in 
Microsoft Notepad or other plain text views and to make it printable.

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4. Basic FAQs
==============
There are some basic FAQs that you should know about leveling up magic 
for the Sprite or for the Girl.

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Elementals
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There are a total of eight elementals that come along to help you. Each 
of them has a different power they give and each of them has three 
spells. Think of when you are casting a spell that you are actually 
casting that elemental.

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Mana Seeds
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How many Mana Seeds you have, otherwise known as your Mana Power, is 
the maximum level you can get your elementals up to. (e.g. If you have 
only released one Mana Seed, then you can only get all of your 
elementals up to level 1.)

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Magic Level
------------
When you look on Magic Skill page, you will see all of the elementals 
for that person, with a number next to them that looks something like 
this

1:15

Most likely it will be a different number though. The first number or 
the number that is left of the colon is the current level that 
elemental is at. The number to the right is the percent is it to the 
next level. So I look at the number above as being at level 1 and 15% 
to level 2.

The percent to the next level increases every time that elemental is 
summoned. When you are at lower levels the percent will increase faster 
then when you get to later levels.

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Rhythm
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Most of leveling up spells is rhythm; rather then how fast you can hit 
the buttons. If you go into the ring too fast, you will not be able to 
cast the spell until they have completed summoning the elemental.

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Where To Level Up
------------------
Most likely the best place to level up is the Wind Palace. There you 
can get your MP refilled for free, and when standing inside of the Wind 
Palace, your weapons are out so the Girl will be gaining the full 
amount of percent each time she summons an elemental.

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5. Sprite
==========
The Sprite has attack magic given to him from the Elementals. One of 
the first steps to leveling up magic is to know what all of the spells 
do. It is also important to know what is probably the best spell to use 
from each elemental. I have marked the one that I normally use to level 
up with, with a *.

Undine (water) --------------------------------------------------------
 *Freeze            2mp      Causes a freezing ice storm.
  Acid Storm        3mp      Acid rain lowers enemy's defense.
  Energy Absorb     2mp      Takes away enemy's HP.
Gnome (earth) ---------------------------------------------------------
  Earth Slide       3mp      Covers enemies in rock slide.
  Gem Missile       2mp      Rains jagged diamonds on Enemies.
 *Speed Down        1mp      Lowers Evade X and slows attack.
Sylphid (wind) --------------------------------------------------------
  Air Blast         2mp      Wind-burn damages the enemies.
  Thunderbolt       4mp      Strikes the enemies with lightning.
 *Silence           2mp      Confuses the enemies.
Salamando (fire) ------------------------------------------------------
  Fireball          2mp      Sends fireballs at enemies.
  Exploder          4mp      An explosion rocks the enemies.
 *Lava Wave         3mp      Magma engulfs the enemies.
Shade (dark) ----------------------------------------------------------
  Evil Gate         8mp      Wave of darkness hits the enemies.
 *Dark Force        2mp      Enemy's energy explodes.
  Dispel Magic      4mp      Sets enemy's gauge to 0/halts magic
Luna (moon) -----------------------------------------------------------
  Change Form       5mp      Transforms enemy to weaker level.
 *Magic Absorb      1mp      Takes enemy's MP.
  Lunar Magic       8mp      Makes enemy/you do curious things.
Dryad (life) ----------------------------------------------------------
 *Sleep Flower      2mp      Lulls enemies to sleep.
  Burst             5mp      Hidden energy strikes enemies.

As you can tell, it is usually the spell that uses the least amount of 
MP that I normally use to power up with. This is sometimes because it 
is the spell with the least MP and that allows you to cast it more 
times before you need to refill your MP somehow.

There are exceptions of course. If you look at Salamando, I normally 
use Lava Wave, which uses one more MP then Fireball. This is because of 
the repetition factor, which is something I will explain.

Repetition Factor: The ability to cast over and over again on the same
                   enemy before destroying it.

There are a couple of things that will help you achieve this. First of 
all, if you are trying to level up the Sprite's magic, be someone other 
then the Sprite. I prefer to be the boy. That way I can usually control 
both the Sprite and the Girl easily.

Now find an enemy and choose an elemental that you want to level up. Go 
into the Sprite's magic ring by hitting the "X" button and select a 
spell with good repetition factor. Cast the spell on the enemy. You 
will see the elemental appear as the Sprite summons it. Right when the 
elemental disappears from the screen, hit the "X" button again, go into 
the Sprite's magic ring and select the same spell and the same enemy, 
and cast it again. You will see the elemental appear and at the moment 
it disappears hit the "X" button again and repeat the process.

You should see what I am talking about. Your spells will be hitting the 
enemy, but you will not be giving time for the damage to show up on the 
enemy. This will make it so you are not killing the enemy and saving 
you time in having the search for more enemies to cast on. Once you run 
out of magic, or if you slow down in your casting, it will add up all 
of your hits and do that damage to the enemy.

This is the fastest way I have known to level up the magic on the 
Sprite.

Another tip to give out is that of Luna's Magic Absorb. This is an 
important spell to level up and when you get low on magic, you can use 
this so you do not have to travel all the way back to an inn to refill 
your MP.

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6. Girl
========
The Girl receives recovery and indirect magic from the elementals. 
Generally the Girl is easier to level up her magic since you do not 
have to travel around too much to do so. There are some important 
things to know about leveling up the Girl's magic however. I will start 
with her a list of her spells, though.

Undine (water) --------------------------------------------------------
  Ice Saber         2mp      Weapons gain the power of water!
  Remedy            1mp      Recovers status.
  Cure Water        2mp      Recovers HP.
Gnome (earth) ---------------------------------------------------------
  Stone Saber       4mp      Weapons gain the power to petrify.
  Speed Up          3mp      Raises evade X and speeds attack.
  Defender          2mp      Raises defense/decreases damage.
Sylphid (wind) --------------------------------------------------------
  Thunder Saber     3mp      Weapons gain the power of wind!
  Balloon           2mp      Lowers wisdom/confuses enemies.
  Analyzer          1mp      Detects traps/enemy's weak point.
Salamando (fire) ------------------------------------------------------
  Flame Saber       2mp      Weapons gain the power of fire!
  Fire Bouquet      3mp      Scalds enemy/lowers battle power.
  Blaze Wall        4mp      A wall of fire engulfs the enemies.
Lumina (light) --------------------------------------------------------
  Light Saber       5mp      Weapons gain the power of light!
  Lucent Beam       8mp      Evil foe hit with pure light.
  Lucid Barrier     4mp      Protection from weapon attacks.
Luna (moon) -----------------------------------------------------------
  Moon Saber        3mp      Weapons gain the power to take HP!
  Lunar Boost       2mp      Raises battle power.
  Moon Energy       2mp      Raises critical hit X.
Dryad (life) ----------------------------------------------------------
  Revivifier       10mp      Sends the reaper running.
  Wall              6mp      Makes a barrier to ward off magic.

Generally when leveling up the Girl's magic, you want to use the spell 
with the least amount of MP used for casting it. Some spells do need to 
target enemies however, so use the same strategy as I gave for the 
Sprite for those spells.

Also it is important that you are in an area where you weapons are out 
when you are leveling up the Girl's magic. If you weapons are not out, 
your percent to the next level will only go up half as fast as it would 
when your weapons are out.

You also want to use somewhat of the same idea as I told you with the 
Sprite. You want to be able to cast as fast as possible. I suggest 
changing to the Boy. Then going into the Girl's ring with the "X" 
button and selecting the elemental you are going to level up. Then cast 
it, but only cast it on the Sprite. Once the elemental disappears, hit 
the "X" button and cast the spell again only on the Sprite. This will 
make it so you can cast a lot faster then if you cast it on the whole 
party.

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7. Credits
===========
I wrote this FAQs without help from anyone or any other information on 
the Internet or any other resource. I hope you have found it helpful in 
some way.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my FAQs!

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~ Fin


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                                           This Document  2001 XiMagus
