FINAL FANTASY IX US BEATRIX FAQ (v 1.1, 12-22-00) by Edward Chang (EdwChang@aol.com) Revision History: v1.1 Minor cleanups here and there. I also added my email address, which I forgot to do the first time ^^;;. v1.0 First version. Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Why Beatrix Rocks 3. Why Beatrix Doesn't Rock That Much 4. Other Tidbits 5. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION Quite simply, this is an FAQ telling you how to get Beatrix into your party (semi-)permanently. As those of you who have played through the game at least once will know, Beatrix is the General of Alexandria and all around kick-ass swordswoman. Of course, you will need a Gameshark or similar cheat device that mucks around with hex values first. I also recommend that you play through the game at least once "normally" so that 1. you will know most of the things I'm talking about and 2. using Beatrix is almost cheating, since she's so good. The short of it is this: To get Beatrix into your party... 1. Play to a point when you can switch characters. IIRC, the earliest point when this is possible is at Madain Sari, after Amarant joins you. 2. Save the game. 3. Input the following code: E01F4761 00FF 301F4761 0008 4. Start the game. When the title screen comes on, turn off the Gameshark. 5. Press continue and load the game normally. 6. Turn on the Gameshark. 7. Go to the change party screen and turn off the Gameshark again. 8. Put Beatrix into your party. 9. Save. 10. Leave the Gameshark off and restart the game normally. If you follow these steps exactly you should not crash or anything. 2. WHY BEATRIX ROCKS Here are a few reasons Beatrix is awesome. She is like the Orlandu of FF9, almost. ***Beatrix has two very useful Action Abilities, namely "Seiken" (holy sword in Japanese) which consists of Steiner's "Big Four" Swd Arts, and White Magic. Also, she has already learned all of these so you will not have to spend time running around getting AP for her. Seiken: ------- Thunder Slash: Lightning-elemental, however it seems to miss a lot. 24 MP. Stock Break: Non-elemental damage to all enemies. 26 MP. Climhazzard: Non-elemental damage to all enemies: 32 MP, more powerful than Stock Break. Shock: Physical damage to one enemy. 46 MP. Extremely powerful. White Magic: ------------ Cura: The second-level heal spell, about 2000 HP or 1000 HP when done over the whole party. 10 MP. Life: Raises an ally with partial HP. 8 MP. Full-life: Raises an ally with full HP. 24 MP. Esuna: Cures most status anomalies. 20 MP. Silence: Causes mute status. 8 MP. Reflect: Causes reflect status. 6 MP. Blind: Causes darkness status. 6 MP. Holy: Holy-elemental damage to one enemy. 36 MP. Her most useful techs are Climhazzard, Full-life, Cura, and Holy, IMHO. ***Beatrix is classified as a "Heavy Armor" person, meaning she equips basically the same equipment as Steiner (and as far as armor goes, Freya), with very few exceptions. Beatrix can equip the "Rubber Suit", "Angel's Earrings", "Pearl Rouge", etc. while Steiner can't, because she is female. ***Beatrix is like a Steiner who can heal. She also is speedier and more magic-capable than Steiner, and also has more MP (meaning more consecutive Climhazzards before you run out of MP, woo.) ***Beatrix is just plain cool. I'm talking about the hair flip. You know what I'm talking about, right? ;). 3. WHY BEATRIX DOESN'T ROCK THAT MUCH Here's a few problems when using Beatrix, as well as solutions if any. Problem: From time to time Beatrix will disappear from your party. Solution: This happens when there is a change to your party's reserve configuration, i.e., somebody is taken out or put back in. To solve this problem just repeat the process above. You'll get Beatrix back in your party with all of her stats/equipment the same as before she disappeared. Problem: Beatrix's face doesn't appear in the Load Game screen. Solution: There is none. Just ignore it, it's harmless. Problem: Beatrix is permanently equipped with the Save the Queen sword. Solution: More Gameshark to the rescue. Use the following code: 3008B745 00?? ... where ?? can be replaced by one of the following: 10: Broad Sword 11: Iron Sword 12: Mythril Sword 13: Blood Sword 14: Ice Brand 15: Coral Sword 16: Diamond Sword 17: Flame Sabre 18: Rune Blade 19: Defender 1A: Save the Queen 1B: Ultima Sword 1C: Excalibur 1D: Ragnarok 1E: Excalibur II If you equip the Excalibur II, her attack power will be a whopping 108. Even Stock Break will do well over 8000 points of damage on even the toughest enemies. Problem: Beatrix cannot use any support abilities. Solution: There is none, as far as I know. Since the game assigns sets of abilities rather than individual abilities, I don't know any way to use a Gameshark to get her to use support abilities without changing her action abilities. This is obviously the biggest drawback to using Beatrix. Problem: Beatrix cannot Trance. Solution: None. As if you need her to trance anyway; she can wipe out the enemies without it. Problem: Fighting either the Silver Dragon or Necron with Beatrix makes the game crash. Solution: Don't put her in your active party. That's that. Problem: Beatrix doesn't earn as many Magic Stones as the others. Solution: Ignore it. She can't use Magic Stones anyway, I wonder why they bothered to give her any at all. Problem: Cutscenes apppear buggy. Solution: None. What this means is that during certain scenes, where everybody in your party shows up on the screen, Beatrix will not. She may not appear at all, or she may appear as Eiko or Amarant (or maybe others). Ignore this, I have not seen these cause any problems. 4. OTHER TIDBITS ***Beatrix will start at whatever level you were after the Alexandria scene where she and Steiner fought all the Mistodons. Usually this is Level 21. ***Beatrix is not as physically strong as Steiner, so don't be surprised if Steiner does more damage with the same sword. 5. CREDITS --to Elranzer, whose Beatrix FAQ for the JP version of FF9 inspired me to write this. --to the Gameshark Code Creators Club (www.cmgsccc.com) for the Gameshark codes. This FAQ is copyright 2000 to Edward Chang. May not be redistributed without permission.