Forum - (Magic Castle DS) Discussion: Regarding Sofu

gabikun on Apr 27 2009, 12:56 PM EDT | Post edited: Apr 27 2009, 1:20 PM EDT

Sofu can learn 10 special abilities. After that, if you throw another monster meat, it will forget the 1st learnt ability. If you want to make Sofu forget an ability, simply throw the same meat again.
There are abilities that are not useful. When I finished the Tonfan (Bufu) dungeon, I let Sofu with only 4 abilities:
- Hell dragon (breaths fire from 10 squares away to monsters to 60 fixed damage, and uses it a lot which is cool)
- Level 2 Fluffy Bunny (heals 20 HP)
- Level 4 Death Master (Attacks 2 times in a turn) -- used in front of an enemy.
- Level 4 Rice Master (if a monster is killed by this attack, it drops a Great Riceball).
Some other meats are useful too. Gazes abilities makes the monster get the "opposite" status for 5 turns, The sleeping wizards abilities put monsters to sleep... In general, is more useful to have few abilities, because it may happen to choose the wrong ability in a pinch.

Pekeji, Oryu and Sofu can level up, with the experience of monsters. Sofu starts out very strong, but to level up it needs a LOT of experience. This is the table:
Level 1 -- HP 60.
Level 2 -- 2.000 exp. HP 65 - Gains more attack power.
Level 3 -- 5.000 exp. HP 70 - Gains more attack power.
Level 4 -- 10.000 exp. HP 70 - Gains more attack power.
Level 5 -- 20.000 exp. HP 70 - Gains more attack power.
Level 6 -- 30.000 exp. HP 80 - Gains more attack power.
Level 7 -- 40.000 exp. HP 80 - Gains more attack power.
Level 8 -- 80.000 exp. HP 80 - Gains more attack power.
Level 9 -- 100.000 exp. HP 90 - Gains more attack power.
Level 10 -- 150.000 exp. HP 100 - Gains more attack power.

DonJonker on Apr 27 2009, 2:37 PM EDT

Excellent info. A few final questions:

Say Sofu has 4 abilities, will he use those abilities only 40% of the time a that a Sofu with 10 abilities does? It may be hard to tell...

Also, I'm assuming that party members only gain exp when *they* kill monsters?

I'm nursing a migraine at the moment, but once it's over I'll get all this info tabulated asap. So sweet.

gabikun on Apr 27 2009, 10:36 PM EDT | Post edited: Apr 27 2009, 10:39 PM EDT

I don't think there are percentages, because even if he has 10 abilities, he may not use any at all (10 abilities doesn't mean 100% use)... Here are my tips:

1) Sofu uses an ability if he can. Per example: If he has some ranged attacks (Hell Dragon, Level 4 Piggo...), he can use it at distance (he spams it like 1 every 3 or 4 turns). If he doesn't have any ranged attacks, he can't use them... Another example: If you are not hurt, he won't use the heal ability.

2) When he's in front of a monster and has various abilities to choose from, he may use any of them... It's better to have only 1 ability in this case, because you will know what he's going to do (I'm thinking in removing the Rice Master ability and keep him with only 3 abilities)

Answering your other question: party members obtain experience from monsters that you either kill or they kill. It's like you are a team, and both of you obtains the same experience.

Hobserk on Apr 28 2009, 7:51 AM EDT

Does Sofu make use of passive abilities as well? Gather sounds intresting. Can he learn to fly?

Posted by Hobserk on Apr 28 2009, 7:51 AM EDT.

» Does Sofu make use of passive abilities as well? Gather sounds intresting. Can he learn to fly?«

DonJonker on Apr 28 2009, 8:40 AM EDT

I don't think he can do passive. I tried giving him Pacorepkin and Air Wraith, but he hasn't gone through walls or over water so far that I've noticed.

gabikun on Apr 28 2009, 10:50 AM EDT

You are right. Pacorepkin and Air Devil meats are useles with Sofu (Nfu). He can't learn passive skills...(If he could learn the Gather passive ability, he would be near invulnerable) :P.
There are lots of meats that are "useless" when thrown to Sofu. I think it could be a good idea to insert that meats into the wiki....

Posted by gabikun on Apr 28 2009, 10:50 AM EDT.

» There are lots of meats that are "useless" when thrown to Sofu. I think it could be a good idea to insert that meats into the wiki....«

DonJonker on Apr 28 2009, 12:09 PM EDT | Post edited: Apr 28 2009, 2:14 PM EDT

I was thinking something similar. Or better yet, an "alphabetized" (or its Japanese equivalent) list of monsters/meats. Low priority, though.

@Hobserk - Import the game already! It's too damn fun and you know you want to. It's worth buying twice if the English version ever appears (not likely), not that localization's necessary with Gabikun & DonJonker's handy dandy wiki guide. :D

Lastly, I finally beat the Tonfan (Bufu) dungeon, and my affection for Sofu has grown to the proportions of a real-life pet. I'm not joking.

gabikun on Apr 29 2009, 1:31 AM EDT | Post edited: Apr 29 2009, 1:32 AM EDT

I agree that Sofu is the best party member. This is my Party Members Ranking:

1) Sofu, at level 10, is very powerful (more powerful than Pekeji but not as strong as the Borg Mamel); has 100 HP and the learnt abilities... Very useful!

2) Borg Mamel has the strongest melee damage (at level 99), but with only 75 HP (from the beginning, leveling it up doesn't improve Borg Mamel's HP). It's a pain to level it up to 99 (because obtaining a Kabra Reborn is a pain by itself)

3) Oryu is the 3rd best party member. 100 HP at level 10, she's not powerful but has the "blind" attack. And he's more cute than in Shiren 1.

4) Pekeji at level 7 is not as strong as the 1st 2, but has 140 HP. Gets the 4th position. You don't need to feed him anymore, which is a plus...

5) Robot gets the 5th position. It's a pain to level him up: you can level it up to the maximum only in the Blacksmith dungeon (Strong monsters, don't do it) and the Ruins (the place which I'm using to level it up, but that dungeon has no map). He's not as strong as the other party members.

6) Mamo (aka Chesty) is completely useless. Sure, at first you think: wow, an extra inventory -- 10 more items! But, there are lots of downsides: he can't attack, everytime he receives an attack drops one random item from his inventory, and all items will be removed when you exit the dungeon (=you need to take them first). He has 90 HP.

Posted by gabikun on Apr 29 2009, 1:31 AM EDT.

» 3) Oryu is the 3rd best party member. 100 HP at level 10, she's not powerful but has the "blind" attack. And he's more cute than in Shiren 1.«

DonJonker on Apr 29 2009, 5:53 AM EDT

Oryu indeed has been sexified for Shiren2. I guess that explains the true source of her "blinding" power..

gabikun on Apr 29 2009, 8:08 AM EDT

Ow, I said "he's more cute" lol. Well... what are your opinions about party members?