Dragon Quest VIII Walkthrough

     I love speed challenges. I had always tried to get through RPG's
somewhat quickly after playing through them once or twice, but until the FF9
12-hour challenge I had no concept of a full blown, balls-to-the-wall,
insane dash for the finish line. There's no reward for it in this game, but
it's fun.
In DQ8 the speed challenge is different than in Final Fantasies. It's
impossible to do a super-low level challenge. You don't have 9,999 limit
glove and 7,777 lucky 7 attacks. You don't have elixirs and phoenix downs to
1-shot the undead. You don't have tents, immobilize, and nihopalona-remedies
to cripple enemies 40 levels higher than you. Elemental weaknesses only add
25% more damage than normal, instead of 100%. You're going to have to level.
I doubt you plan on using this guide start-to-finish. You probably just
checked in out of curiosity to see the general strategy and find out the end
time. But if you haven't done a speed challenge in this game before I'd
suggest you try it. DQ8 has a lot of replay value, and this is a really fun
way to take advantage of that. I don't really expect anyone to read and
follow every word of this, but you might want to check in and compare
strategies once in a while. See what I'm doing that you're not, or vice
versa.
Acknowledgements: Alex's guide was a good reference for item lists and
locations. I didn't use RedScarlet's guide much, but I did pick up one
EXTREMELY valuable piece of information that I would have never figured out
myself: you can switch equipment to anything else that character has in
their inventory and it doesn't cost you a turn. The alchemy faq and items
list were invaluable. The Mechanics guide was useful also. Most of all, I'd
like to thank me for putting this wonderful guide together, and for being so
hot.
For questions or glowing reviews, email me at intellectualdementia@yahoo.com
For criticism or flaming, email me at talktothehand@yahoo.com
Skip to any section by searching for its number in parentheses (1)
1. Ready, Set, Go
2. Having Fun Yet?
3. Underleveled, Then Not
4. Minimalist or Insane?
5. The Galactic Edge of Probability
6. Glad You Made It
7. You Let Her Pick up the Staff?
8. Strange Meets Weird
9. Are We There Yet?
10. Are We There Yet?
11. Goal Times
First Things First:
*The guide is geared toward getting a star next displayed next to the
shortest possible time in your adventure log. There are different ways to do
speed challenges, but here I am only dealing with one. Using metal slimes
to do this completely changes the way you play the game, but for getting the
best possible time metal slimes are necessary. Next time I might play
through for speed without killing any of them. That would be fun too, but
it's not in the same league time-wise. Both strategies are fine, they're
just different ways to keep this game fun as long as possible.
*This guide is written for people who've played through the game a few
times. I'm assuming you know your way around, so I'm not giving directions
for any of the simpler areas, and I only mention storyline stuff to make fun
of it. The playstyle is spartan, so the guide is too.
*I did NOT include the dragovian trials. Mainly because I haven't done
them. I saved them for a later replay so I've still got something new to look
forward to. Will this guide ever include them? If anyone actually cares enough
to ask, them I'll probably cover them. In other words, no.
*I don't list par times as the guide goes along. I'd rather let you
think that you're just super and are way ahead of me (and you are just
super). The times that I arrived at different points in the game are listed at
the end. Personally, I wouldn't do any comparisons until the end. It could be
de-motivating if you're behind and make you lose interest. Anyway, I probably
just shaved off a bunch of time to make me look better than you. I'm the kind
of guy who would do that, then tell you about it.
*This challenge would have been a lot easier if the game had included
a pause button. If you've played any other game released since 1984 then
you're familar with the feature. For whatever reason, it's not there and
there's no way to stop the clock. Start and select don't do it, and taking
the disc out just makes it crash. Time even passes while your disc is
skipping. Welcome to hell.
*King Trode will be quite impressed with the speed of your progress,
when he's not insulting your cowardice. Check what he has to say every once
in a while.
*Anytime there's dialogue you need to be slamming triangle nonstop. The
only time you should slow it down is when you know there's a question coming
that you have to answer yes to.
*You can't use seeds like you normally would. Saving each time you get
a good result takes 30+ seconds, and that adds up after a couple dozen
seeds. It might seems like a good deal, but when you're dedicating your time
to leveling you'll be gaining a level about every 3-4 recorded minutes.
Consider how much this adds to your total stats (all 4 characters getting
large boosts to stats, life and mp)and seed-squeezing doesn't look so good.
You can still maximize seeds though, but you can't save after each one.
Every time you return after saving and have some other reason to open the menu
screen, start out by using a couple seeds. When you get 2 good ones in a row
continue on with the game until the next time you would naturally be saving.
*Early in the game you fight every battle. A bit later, you run from
everything in sight. Fighting regular monsters, even when you can take them
out in one round, is very inefficient compared to leveling on liquid metal
slimes. You might think that because you're in the battle and you can win it
in one round you might as well finish it quickly and get a little exp. The
only time you should do this is when you are having trouble running from
enemies in the area AND you can kill them very quickly. Otherwise, being in
the battle screen is a sunk cost and you should do everything you can to
minimize it.
*If I don't mention an item you probably shouldn't get it. I skipped
the majority of "freebie" (time-eating) items lying around towns and
dungeons. This includes a lot of seeds, some equipment, and all mini-medals.
I turned out alright. You will too.
*Don't save too often, and only save when your necessary course takes
you close to a priest. If you have to enter a building to save it takes
almost a full minute. Try to minimize it, and only save when there's
something ahead than can have enough negative variation to justify the time
spent saving. When you do save, take a well-earned break. Go to the
bathroom. Kill something and eat it. Read ahead and plot your course.
*You will have to do practice runs that you don't save sometimes.
Reading ahead in the guide helps, but sometimes it's complicated, or you
messed something up, or had bad luck running from random encounters. There
are times you will just have to make a preliminary run to get a firm,
efficient course set.
*Padfoot stacks with holy water. Holy water works by doing a level
check against potential attackers and screening out anything lower level. It
CAN help when you're in areas where you're about the right level, because
some attackers will be lower than the average level in the area, but it's
not great. Padfoot works by raising the counter that counts down toward
random encounters. So even though it's not perfect protection against weaker
monsters, it helps no matter how high the enemies are, and it helps a lot.
However, there seems to be a lag when you apply it, because you often get
attacked shortly after casting it. I think the counter is only given the boost
when it is initially set after you exit a fight. Or it might just be
multiplying a depleted counter so the effect isn't as big until the counter is
set to full. Anywho, holy water and padfoot both have their place, and
sometimes it's best to combine them.
*If a boss has defense that is odd-numbered, you can sap/helm split twice,
then sap again several rounds later to drop defense by 1. This will fully
refresh the duration. If defense is even, sapping again won't do anything.
(1)   *****--------Ready, Set, Go--------*****   (1)
It begins. Ignore the two barrels and kill the slimes. An argument and
opening credits will follow. When you regain control of your character,
immediately talk to Yangus and sprint off towards the tavern.
The town is full of goodies, but you can't have them. There's a few
exceptions though, far more than there will be later on. Right now, small
amounts of defense and herbs will make a big difference, so some of them are
worth getting. The middle barrel on the west side of the tavern has a
MEDICINAL HERB you should grab. Run in and talk to Kalderasha. Following
this, rocks are thrown, favors are asked, noses are picked. Head towards
Kalderasha's, and grab the LEATHER SHIELD in the well. It's a good
investment time-wise. Equip it to Yangus. Since you've got the menu open,
take the opportunity to put Yangus in front. Grab the MEDICINAL HERB and 7
GOLD COINS in the pots in Kalderasha's back room (you need both, trust me),
ignoring the cabinets. We're not getting the seed of defense behind the
church because we're too good for that.
When you wake up in the inn, head upstairs and grab stuff (HOLY WATER,
CHIMAERA WING, PLAIN CLOTHES, MEDICINAL HERB). I wouldnt open the cabinets
closest to the chest or the bag farther from the door, they just have a
cypress stick and antidotal herb. Now go sell your plain clothes and buy a
leather shield for Hero. You can only afford this if you got everything
mentioned above.
This is one of the few parts in the game where it isn't wasteful to
move around the world map, since you don't have whistle yet and you need to
level up. We're taking advantage of this mobility by going for the SEED OF
LIFE outside town, and giving it to Hero as soon as you have to open the menu
to heal someone. If you get caught by the unique monster you deserve your fate.
Next head for the BOXER SHORTS north of there. You want to keep running around
till level 5 without returning to Farebury, so it won't hurt to grab the 83
GOLD COINS by the red tree. However, don't do the cheese errand. Hero's skill
points go toward spears. Yangus puts his first 19 into axes, then starts on
fists. As soon as Hero hits level 5, warp to Farebury and take a power nap. Buy
some herbs and give them to Yangus. Don't buy any equipment. You can beat
Geyzer as you are (I believe in you). Fight the slime knight on the way in.
*DUNGEON*   Waterfall Cave   *DUNGEON*
Don't get the map. The CHIMAERA WING and LEATHER HAT are worth picking
up, and since the third chest is right there, grab the MEDICINAL HERB too.
Hero wears the hat, as soon as you have to open the menu to heal again. Believe
it or not, we're getting the COPPER SWORD even though it's about a minute round
trip. You need to be doing the extra fight it will cost you, and it makes the
Geyzer fight go faster. It will also sell for 135g in a bit, allowing you to
afford something very important.
Fight Geyzer as long as you're at level 6. As you probably know, Hero
is immune to curses. He has to be the psycho this fight since Yangus would
be constantly losing his tension to curse. Yangus should heal every time
someone is less than full. If he doesn't, a short string of bad luck can make
this fight go surprisingly bad for an opening boss. Evac out.
Chimaera to Farebury. Sell your sword and monster coin and buy a
boomerang. Go talk with Kalderasha before he and his daughter mysteriously
dissapear back into a Dostoevsky novel, then head out the main gate for
Alexandria. You've outgrown the monsters here, so use your holy water. Ignore
the path and cut across the most direct route. Get the SLIME EARRINGS.
(2)   *****--------Having Fun Yet?--------*****   (2)
Try to kill Bangerz and Mash, and go save for the first time. If you
can scrape up 550 gold go buy a stone axe, but you probably won't quite have
it, even after selling all your non-essentials. Read ahead and memorize the
game plan, then restart.
Cross the bridge and grab the grey pot on the left for a HOLY WATER.
Head to Jessica's house, and go straight to the room with the mousehole.
Grab the WAYFARER'S CLOTHES in the far cabinet right in front of the door.
The brown barrel on the right of the maid (her left) has a SEED OF MAGIC.
Pick up the leftmost barrel that covers the mousehole for 18 GOLD COINS.
Munchie does his thing, then you do yours, then Bangerz and Mash do theirs,
then you do yours again, this time with Bangerz.
You probably have to sleep at the inn to keep the shop open, because
the sun is most likely going to drop as you cross the bridge in town. It
sucks, but if you need the gold and clothes in Jessica's house to afford the
axe then there's nothing you can do about it that wouldn't waste even more
time, except selling the slime earrings as you come into town. Once you buy
the axe give it a name. Then take a minute to get to know each other, because
it's going to be in Yangus's inventory until the end of the game.
*DUNGEON*   Tower of Alexandria   *DUNGEON*
On to the tower. Skip the map, and dont forget to unlock the door. Get
the SCALE SHIELD, skip the seeds, and wash your hands of this place after
the cut scene. Evac + chimaera.
If you have 350g, buy the armor for Hero. You can get it in Prospect
too. Head to the Albert's, where Jessica gets so angry at her mom that she
decides to start dressing like a common whore.
I skipped buffalo bill. Definitely fight the family doctor (psyche up),
and grab the chest by him. Also get the chest right outside Prospect. As
long as you're fighting all random encounters, you should be 9 before you go
into town. You can beat Khalamari at this level, but it depends on the luck
of the draw with your turn order when he uses flame breath the second time, and
in the round following it. You're going to have to level anyway, but if you
wait till Peregrin you'll be leveling Jessica too (experience is not divided
among members, so you'll get 50% more aggregate experience with her). You can
also start working on the reinforced boomerang and level on the more economic
guys there. Make your choice and buy the scale armor and shield for Hero, then
put him in front. Don't buy the kilt. Get the SEED OF WISDOM next to the inn.
It's in the rightmost BROWN barrel thats closest to the front. Get the grey
pots there too, there's something worth picking up in them too (forgot what)
since it's right there. When you sleep in the inn, grab the HOLY WATER in the
cabinet. You're done.  (1:45 arrival)
Khalamari looks straight out of disney, till the fight starts and he
lays you out flat with flame breath. He always seems to start with that, so
have Hero defend, or heal himself pre-emptively and hope he goes second. I
think it might be pre-set for him to use flame breath again in the 6th or
7th round. He's obviously limited on how much he can use it, so it might be
pre-determined when he uses it again. If you're having trouble beating him
check into that. If you can predict it, you can beat it. Anywho, Yangus
should go to town with helm splitter while Hero plays healer. If you're
having trouble you can try to get lucky with hatchet man. Yangus will also
have to use herbs sometimes. I wouldn't bother psyching up because you can
easily end up in a position where Yangus is forced to defend or risk dying.
This should go without saying, but anytime someone has iffy hp's they should
defend while someone else heals them. And if their life is so low that even
defense won't save them, then all party members who have a chance at going
first should heal them, even though some of it will be superfluous.
Once you beat him, get back on the ship immediately. In the room with
all the barrels, only go for the large collection of them on the right. They
make a triangle shape. Start at the outside of each edge till you get to the
SEED on each side, and leave the ones still in the center. Ignore everything
else but the chest with the BRONZE KNIFE.
(3)   *****--------Underleveled, Then Not--------*****   (3)
There's a homeless priest who hangs out on the docks waiting for young,
adventurous boys. Perfect. Go talk to him, then we raid. You probably want
to restart, familiarize which items the barrels are in, and maximize a
couple seeds. Grab the grey pot behind the armor shop for a LEATHER KILT,
then the CHIMAERA WING in front of the shop. The brown barrel farthest back
at the guy with the locked chests has a SEED OF DEFENSE, and a pot behind
the weapons guy has an OAKEN CLUB you can sell. Sell the kilt, club, and
your boxer shorts, and buy chain mail, then a scale shield for Jessia. If
you can afford it, get a pointy hat and a couple chimaera wings to make
feathered caps out of your leather hats. In the only building in town, get
the IRON NAIL and SEED OF MAGIC, then head out.
Start the reinforced boomerang and keep your tail between your legs all
the way to simpleton. Go straight to Angelo, then warp to maella and keep
the story moving. Save as you leave Maella, restart, and maximize a couple
seeds (yangus is going to need MP soon, so use those up on him if you havent
already). The boomerang will finish as you exit the abbey. While you're
equipping it to hero, take his leather hat off and re-equip the bandana. Now
make a feathered cap. If you haven't already, put Yangus back in front.
Fight all the reasonable battles on the way to the abbey (skip Joe), and
give Jessica the templar's ring.
DUNGEON?   The Ruined Abbey   DUNGEON?
Get the IRON NAIL. Go back and take the stairs from the main room
instead of the long way down the ladder. You're done.
The Boss is the tricky part here. Get Jessica to level 10 before the
fight, and put her points into whips. Normally I wouldn't fight much on the
way to a boss because it drains MP. But this boss isn't an extended fight,
although he's a very dangerous one since you're underleveled and in ghetto
gear. Everyone psyches first round. If he doesn't summon help, psyche the
next two rounds and Hero will take out the backup in one throw while yangus
helm splits the boss. He's 2/3 dead now. If he summons help the first round,
all attack the zombie(Jessica with crack) and you'll take him out. Leave the
skeleton, because he'll just resummon them if you kill it. Jessica should
heal, Hero will need to help also. Keep life very high because he can use
sizzle twice in a row, and it will flatten you if you aren't full. Anyone
with less than 26 hp's needs to defend or they have a good chance of dying
(it WILL happen if you give him a few chances). But sometimes you take an
even bigger loss by sacrificing a turn to use for defense. Play it by ear.
I lost Jessica the first time and had to restart. You don't want her to miss
out on the 780 exp.
Skip the two barrels outside Francisco's building. Get to work on the
thief's key as soon as you can. Run from the fights on the way back to the
abbey. Save as soon as the storyline BS is over. Now that your party's
complete, we can level some more.
Restart after the save and maximize a couple seeds. Now warp to
Simpleton. I sold my boomerang and rosary to scrape up enough for the 1700g
spear, but you can buy the cheaper one in Prospect. The boomerang isn't
really a big loss at this point because you're not gonna need it for
leveling or bosses anymore, and the rosary sucks. Anywho, head for Riverside
and run from everything. Save at Riverside but don't sleep there or you'll
have to watch Angelo's 10 minute cut scene. Time to powerlevel.
(2:56 arrival
How much time you want to save here is up to you. The basic idea is to
go straight down to the metal slime valley and kill one as fast as possible,
then warp back and save. This is the first time you're going to HAVE to be
wasteful.  Sure you COULD save only when the very first fight was a slime
and you managed to kill it, but we're hoping to finish this game before
we're old men and robots have taken over the earth. And really you couldn't
even call that perfection. Why not two slimes in the first fight, or three?
And even then you're theoretically wasting time by going back and saving
instead of hoping for another three slime victory in the next fight, and then
another.
A realistic number to aim for is one slime every 4 minutes, including
the time it takes to get back and save it. It's not too hard. I got a
2-slime victory a couple times, and one time i killed one in the very first
fight. If you go 4 or 5 fights without killing one, or have bad luck
running, it's time to reboot. Restarting and getting back there doesn't take
very long. Maximize your seeds one at a time here. Angelo's points are going
into swords by the way.
The exp here is good, but you should still stop as early as possible. I
quit at 17. If I'd known how easy it would be to get to the next leveling
spot I would have stopped at 15.
(4)   *****--------Minimalist or Insane?--------*****   (4)
We're getting fewer and fewer items, because levels take over for
equipment at this point, and things like chimaera wings and herbs have been
replaced by spells. However there are still some good investments around.
Before you leave for Ascantha, take Hero's scale shield off, equip him with
the leather shield that should still be floating in his inventory, and make
a snakeskin whip. Holy water and padfoot, and head out. Skip the cows, we're
not making white shields. When you get into town buy a bunch of holy water,
but keep at least 40g. We'll be picking up a whopping nothing around town.
Now go rest until evening and get the story moving.
Don't try to zoom to Riverside until you've exited town and seen the
cut scene. You don't need to talk to Emma's grandmother. Go straight to the
cave. Holy water and padfoot will this make an uneventful trip.
DUNGEON?!!?   Wisher's Peak   DUNGEON!?!?
The WIZARD STAFF isn't a bad grab, since it sells decently and you can use
it for a magma staff that'll save time in the evil jessica fight if you dont
have enough money for rockbombs. Take the right path that slopes gradually up
the mountain. If you're like me you haven't even bothered to get Angelo a
shield yet, so pick up the TEMPLAR'S SHIELD to boost his defense by 14 (spell
reduction to boot). It's out of the way, but you're gonna be getting a lot of
mileage out of it. We're done.
Get through the pretty little storyline here and head out of Ascantha.
I wouldn't save yet. Holy water and padfoot again, although you'll still
have to fight a few battles on the way to Pickham. If you think we're
stopping at Morrie's then I've taught you nothing.
Pickham is a good time to save. You can get the seed of strength or the
magic water, but they'll each cost you 17 seconds, and you'll get along fine
without them. I skipped them because I'm hauss and have mountainous biceps. But
if you think you'd make a cute girl scout then go ahead and grab them. Head to
Brain's place. I wouldn't even bother with the 26 gold coins in the barrel, or
the seed of wisdom at Brain's (wisdom sucks with our set-up since it doesn't
affect healing and Jessica attacks mainly with twin dragon lash). Run back to
the bar, then to Mitts, then to Dave's, then zoom outside, then to Red's, then
to the dungeon.
*DUNGEON*   Swordsman's Labryinth   *DUNGEON*
Beat the dungeon.
For the boss, use acceleratle for first-strike healing, and keep hp's
above 85 so his desparate attack can't kill you. Jessica only had 83 life
when I was there, but she's in the back row so she'll probably be okay. He only
seemed to get desparate for men, if you know what I mean (I mean he's gay).
Psyche up with everyone but Angelo and he goes down fast.
Evac and run to Red's, then warp to Pickham and talk to Brain. Zoom to
Prospect. Use holy water and keep up your padfoot. Save at Hilltop. Be a man
and skip the slime crown. Your orichalcum will be going toward a sage's
stone anyway. You may want to do a few runs to Trodain if you get attacked
too much or have bad luck running. Don't go to the church along the way,
don't get the 600 gold in the shoreline chest.
DUNGEON...   Castle Trodain   DUNGEON...
Take the main stairs up. Skip the map as always. Go left when you enter
and get the key. Yes, you heard me. We're actually picking something up. Now
get the templar's sword and equip it.  I skipped the gold bracer on the
wall, even though one character is short an accessory and won't be getting
one before the dhoulmagus fight. It's very unlikely to make any difference.
Cut back and take the door on the other side of the balcony, then take the
stairs slightly northeast of there. Face the opposite face direction the
stairs come up in, and take the narrow path along the bannister to the
hallway with the statues. From here you should be know the fastest way even
without a map. Once you've gotten near the library area you can either try
to get a slime or deal with library storyline bs, unlock the door, and go
save. If you can get a slime within about two minutes and forty seconds
you've saved time. If not, you lost the gamble. I didn't gamble. You could
always restart and make the whole run again from Hilltop until you get a
slime along the way, but I'd save your patience. You're going to need it,
because it's powerleveling time again.
(5)   ****--------The Galactic Edge of Probability--------****   (5)
Get comfortable. You're not leaving here until Angelo is within 4700 xp
of level 30. Every four minutes (that the game knows about) you'll be up
another level. Some of your characters will be getting two in the early
fights. Same speech as before: you COULD only save each time you rolled and
killed a slime in the first fight, but remember that robots are eventually
going to take over the earth and the PS2 will probably be your new master.
Be realistic, but be aware of one thing: these battlegroups seem to be
pre-set, and here's the good news: a metal slime will show up in the first
fight way out of proportion to their normal appearance rate. This might
sound like convenient superstition, but you'll see what I mean. I did
testing with higher level guys using sets of 25 battles. When slimes didn't
show up early, they often wouldn't show up for the whole 25 battles. When I
started leveling these guys, a metal slime would show up in the very first
fight about 20-25% of the time. When they didn't, they would often pop up by
the third or fourth fight. Probably half of the slimes i killed up to 24ish
were in the first battle. Just remember that showing up and sticking around
are very different things for these guys.
Lightning thrust and hatchet man are your only real chances. Every once
in a great while you might take one out with twin dragon and metal slash,
but I wouldn't bother. I didn't use either attack. They take longer than
just defending, and if the slime plans on sticking around long enough to go
down to those it's pretty unlikely that Hero or Yangus won't get it first.
At first, aim to get one every 4 recorded minutes. It may record as 3
minutes if you get one in the first fight and the minute your timer started
on was pretty fresh. The PRACTICAL theoretical limit here is about one every
3:40 - 3:45. The fight itself usually takes about a minute, including
whistling, killing the thing, levelup messages, skill point distribution and
fade in/out. The round trip to evac, zoom to hilltop, save, and get back
through the library is about 2:40, assuming you eat the usual fight on the way
through the courtyard and get away on the first try (it always happens just
after you pass the thorn arch). You can use holy water to avoid this fight once
you're high enough, but even if you save with it on the effect still goes away
when you restart. It takes practically as long to use holy water as it does to
run, and it uses a resource you'll need to replace later with money and
purchase time.
You'll have a pretty easy time at first because of how