Draft:Magic Castle DS:Create useful and efficient equipment

In this guide, you will find tips to help you create the strongest equipment possible.

Improving your equipment

There are in total, five ways to upgrade your equipment, though only 2 of them are easier to do than the rest:

• Smithy, Shop and Bank: you only need to pay 1,000 Gitan to the blacksmith and he'll upgrade Weapons or Shields for you, increasing their upgrade value by 1, or sometimes by 3.

• Melding Jar: put the Items you want to upgrade in this Jars first, then insert the items you are going to combine with the first one. This can only be done with Weapons, Shields and Staves. By melding weapons or shields, their upgrade values and Melding and Seals are combined (each item has a limit for special abilities). To combine staves, they must be the same type, and their charges will be combined.

• Air Bless Scroll and Earth Bless Scroll: though they aren't very easy to find in Dungeons, reading these Scrolls is also a good way to upgrade your equipment.

• Strengthening Pitcher Plant: these level 4 monsters can upgrade any equipment you throw at them by 5 points (you have to kill them to get your sword or shield back). However, they are difficult to find (in fact, they only appear in some bonus dungeons at deep floors), so this may not be a good way to improve your items. However, should you have the items to spare, they can be exploited using a Sanctuary Scroll and Doppelganger. For more on this topic, see: Infinite Item Strengthening.

• Mixer Family: these monsters are like a living Melding Jar, except their space depends on their level. Level one Mixers can combine 2 items, while level four ones can combine 5 items. To do this, you must throw the base item at them (much like the Melding Jar, insert the base item first), then throw the items you want to meld on the base item. Beware: if the Mixer's belly is full and you throw more items at it, you'll just damage the monster and the item will be destroyed.

To beat the main story, a maxed out Katana and Iron Shield with some common special abilities are more than enough. However, to get through the bonus Dungeons you'll need more powerful weapons and shields.

Seals

Melding and Seals are special abilities for weapons, shields and Armbands. Each of these items has a limit for special abilities, which can be added through the use of a Melding Jar.

Here is a list of some useful seals:

• Weapons:
  • Air Slayer (adds damage to Floating-type Monsters)
  • Crescent Arm (adds damage to Exploding-type Monsters)
  • Cyclops Killer (adds damage to One-Eyed-type Monsters)
  • Drain Buster (adds damage to Drain-type Monsters)
  • Dragonkiller (adds damage to Dragon-type Monsters)
  • Sickle Slayer (adds damage to Ghost-type Monsters)
  • Spark Sword (if you miss twice, the next attack won't miss and will be a critical)
  • Aura Spear (can attack from two squares away)

The Aura Spear and Spark Sword seals can help you reduce the risk of missing an attack. For the best early weapon possible, a Katana+30 with the Aura Spear, Spark Sword, and extra damage seals on is a good option.

• Shields:
  • Ration Shield (reduces food consumption by half)
  • Prism Shield (converts most special abilities from monsters into 10 damage)
  • Echo Shield (reflects magic attacks, including Gaze hypnosis)
  • Dragonward (halves fire damage)
  • Blast Shield (halves damage from explosions)

The Prism Shield is probably the best seal, as it transforms most if not all special abilities from monsters into 10 damage, including Cell Armor from knocking your equipment, Curse Girl from Cursing your items, or even Green Slime from rusting your equipment and removing their seals. For the best early shield possible, an Iron Shield+35 with the Ration Shield, Dragonward and Blast Shield seals on it is also a good idea.

• Armbands:
  • Armband of Sight (lets you see all Monsters, Characters and Items on the map).
  • Search Armband (lets you see invisible monsters and Traps).
  • Recovery Armband (you will recover 5 HP per turn, but your fullness will decrease faster).
  • Diet Armband (you won't lose fullness, nullifies the Recovery Armband's bad effect).

You should use them when the situation calls for it. For example, use an Armband of Sight when you want to find items easily and avoid monsters as well, and an Anti-hunger Armband when walking through a long corridor. Because almost all armbands have a chance to break when you take damage, it is best to remove them when there are monsters nearby. The only exceptions are the rare Sturdy Armband and Golden Armband, which will never break no matter how much you are hit. However, to keep this unbreakable property, they must be used as the base item in a Melding Jar or a Mixer monster. Despite this, there are some armbands that can kill their unbreakable property if they are combined.

There are more seals, of course, but most of these can make your adventure a lot easier; as your equipment has more good seals, beating dungeons will be considerably easier.

Seal limits

Each weapon, shield, and armband has a limit for seals. The limit for each of these items is shown on their respective page.