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@@*%@*                                                 :-=+*
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
Fusion FAQ / Devil Chart List
v1.01 by Dev [devhatesyou(at)gmail(dot)com]
___
¯¯¯
Game Developer: ATLUS
Game Publisher: ATLUS
Platform(s)   : PlayStation 2
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Table of Contents                                                   [RK2_TOC]
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This guide uses a section code search system so you can easily find what part
you're looking for without scrolling through a massive document. If one wanted
to jump to the table of contents, they would search for [RK2_TOC] using their
web browser or word processing program, for example. All of the individual
section codes are listed below.
[RK2_TOC] - Table of Contents
-
[RK2_FAQ] - Frequently Asked Questions
-
[RK2_SYS] - Game System Information
• Stats
• Status Ailments
• Luck Locusts
• MAG System
• Alignment System
• Demon Skills
• Active and Passive
• Investigation Skills
• Conversation Skills
• Demon Negotiation
• Special Demon Conversations
• Red Crystals
• Finders Keepers Item List
• Money-Getter Area List
• Loyalty Points
• Summoner Ranks
• Transformation Skill
-
[RK2_FUS] - Demon Fusion Information
• What is Demon Fusion?
• Normal Fusion
• Element Fusion
• Mitama/Spirit Fusion
• Fusion Fevers
• Repeating Digit Fusion Fever
• Evil Fusion Fever
• Fiend Fusion Fever
• Skill Inheritance and Inheritance Restrictions
• Inheritance Skill Restrictions
• Restricted Fusions
-
[RK2_DCH] - Devil Chart / Compendium Information
• Pyro Order    [RK2_PYRO]
• Frost Order   [RK2_FROST]
• Volt Order    [RK2_VOLT]
• Wind Order    [RK2_WIND]
• Fury Order    [RK2_FURY]
• Pagan Order   [RK2_PAGAN]
• Skill Order   [RK2_SKILL]
• Element Order [RK2_ELEM]
• Spirit Order  [RK2_SPRT]
• Fiend Order   [RK2_FIEND]
• Evil Order    [RK2_EVIL]
-
[RK2_SKL] - Skills List
• Active Skills
• Passive Skills
• Raidou's Passive Skills
-
[RK2_VERS] - Version History and Updates
-
[RK2_CRED] - Credits
-
[RK2_CPRT] - Copyright / Legal Info
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Frequently Asked Questions                                          [RK2_FAQ]
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___
Q: I heard you can import your savefile from the first Raidou Kuzunoha
Devil Summoner game. What do you get from this?
A: Depending on your save file's status, you will get up to 3 different items
that are useful for nothing other than selling for Yen.
• One item for just importing your data.
• Second item for having 60% or more of the total demons registered in the
Devil Chart/Compendium. The game doesn't have a progress indicator, but
there are available lists out there which show all demons, and it's not
really hard to get this amount in a normal playthrough.
• Third item if the save file in question is also a clear file or a second
cycle and later game in progress.
In addition, several low level demons will automatically join you for free
one time only, without negotiation. They are:
Ukobach, Jack Frost, Obariyon, Poltergeist, Agathion, Moh Shuvuu, Mokoi
and Ippon-datara. If you somehow happen to have these demons in your
tubes already (via fusion...) and they initiate a conversation with
you, they will give you items like Beads, Balms of Life, or a Bead of
Life since they cannot join you. There is no actual special conversation
when they rejoin you this way, either. Just a generic line which is the
same for all of the demons which says something about them not making
any motion to attack and being one of the demons that worked with you
on the Soulless Army case, then they join automatically.
As well, there will be a bit of extra dialogue in some scenes where the
first Raidou Kuzunoha game is referenced. Nothing major, really.
It's certainly nothing you don't want to miss like the Digital Devil Saga
1 to 2 data transfer bonuses were. These bonuses do not carry over into a
second cycle in this game.
___
Q: My Luck stat has been reduced to 1! What gives?
A: It's story related. You won't have it reversed until over halfway through
Chapter 2. Don't worry about it. If by chance you are after the event
where your luck is returned to normal and find yourself with luck below
your base stat again, the Herald of Yatagarasu at the Shinoda Nameless
Shrine can purify you. Capture and carry Luck Locusts to prevent
negative luck from becoming a problem.
___
Q: How do I get to those items and places on odd areas of the world map?
A: You need other modes of transportation. Water travel becomes available
as early as Chapter 3 while air travel is available late in Chapter 5.
___
Q: How many different demons can you recruit and/or fuse in this game?
A: 158 exactly. More than double the amount that the first Raidou Kuzunoha
game had available.
___
Q: "Business Cards"? What the hell do they do?
A: Aside from a pointless "collect them all!" completionist deal, they
serve one purpose. Recruitable demons through negotiation will be easier
to recruit again if you have their card. Cards do come up in discussion
with other demons, but it seems pretty random as to how they'll respond.
You can tell if you have a certain demon's card in your Devil Chart at
Victor's Gouma-den by looking for a card icon next to the demon's entry.
As for getting them: as far as I know, any demon that you can encounter
and negotiate with then ask to join you will ONLY give you their card when
you get them that way. Fuse-only demons will give you their cards when you
fuse them for the first time.
___
Q: Are there any missables/losables?
A: Short answer: Yes.
If you do not tell Nagi to apologize during Chapter 3, you will miss a
case file.
I believe the case files that Kenzou Satake (the gang boss) gives you
can be missed if you don't keep talking to him throughout the game.
As when he leaves his bathhouse during the story, he supposedly won't give
them to you if you talk to him in his new location. Just make sure to talk
to him as early as you can in each chapter and this won't be a problem.
Any case file that requires a specific alignment can also be missed if
you cement your alignment in the final dungeon before completing them,
assuming you require a different alignment than your current one in order
to accept and complete it.
___
Q: Any way to get more Incense?
A: Yes, but some of them are still really hard to get.
St Incense • 1% base drop rate chance off of Fury Mahakala. Hardest
Incense to get by far. Mahakala isn't even a common encounter.
Ma Incense • 1/64 chance when donating to the Ishigami Inari shrine,
after completing the Ukemochi Case File. If you try to get
a few Ukemochi Livers to make ultimate New Game+ weapons,
you will easily get a bunch of these. Second easiest to get.
Vi Incense • Moderate chance of finding with Finders Keepers in the
West Training Hall. Easiest Incense to get.
Lu Incense • 1% base drop rate chance off of Luck Locusts. The drop chance
is horribly low, but you can call up Luck Locusts every time
using the Tatsumi transformation.
They can also be found with depressingly low chance in red crystals
if you use a "Lady" or "Seductive" personality demon such as Lilim,
Alraune, Parvati, Nekomata, and other who talk like them. Note that this
is personality, not the conversation skill. The two are different.
You'll end up with Jin Dan or Balm of Life almost every time.
Maxing stats ain't easy!
___
Q: What's the best sword?
A: Subjective. What you should look for in a sword is in its passive skill.
If you're playing King Mode, the Shichishitou is THE sword for most
of the game because of its relatively good price point, material cost
and the Guard Bonus passive.
Weapons with Heal MAG and Heal MAG+ are the best for general use,
since they allow you to use powerful skills without worrying much
about MAG consumption. Mjolnir is the best of the bunch.
Weapons with Null Mortal are great if you've having troubles with
Mamudoon or Eternal Rest.
If you love combination attacks, get a weapon with Loyalty Boost or
an elemental boost for a specific elemental combination attack.
You'll notice I haven't mentioned the high attack power ones...
and that's because even with the most optimal conditions, Raidou just
can't do the kind of damage a well-fused demon can. With Tarukajaon and
War Cry fully buffing him, and the Akatsuki sword at full HP, he still
doesn't do more damage than a breath or severe caster with proper
passives and no buffs. Nor does he do more than a Mad Rush using demon
with proper passives and no buffs.
___
Q: "Tae Stickers"? What use are they?
A: None really. If you collect all 22 you get some weird scene involving
Tae in the final dungeon, which can be missed if you don't have all
22 stickers by that time. There's no item reward or anything useful for
doing this, but they're all tied to case files so why not collect them?
___
Q: What use are Foxtails?
A: Just like in the first Raidou Kuzunoha game, if you collect and use
nine of them, Gouto will...
___
Q: How do I get Fiend or Evil type demons?
A: It's all in this FAQ. Check the Fusion Information section.
___
Q: The Fiends won't leave me alone! What do I do?
A: Fiends are some of the strongest bosses in the game. They show up
during the New Moon at Chapter 3 or later in any area with random
encounters, and in King Mode difficulty all of the riders can show up
starting in Chapter 1.
There's a couple things you can do: First, use Repulse Water when the
New Moon hits, and secondly, have a demon with the "Unreachable Soul"
passive skill equipped, which a few demons learn, and set a demon that
has it set as a passive skill as your  active field investigation demon
around the time of the New Moon. It -lowers- the chance, it does not
eliminate it.
When you kill a Rider they will never randomly show up again, but the
last fiend, Kageboushi, has a chance to reappear at every New Moon no
matter how many times you kill him. On Normal mode however, he will only
appear in the final chapter of the game.
___
Q: Other people complain about Fiends but I can't FIND them!
A: If for some reason you are not normally encountering them during the
New Moon at Chapter 3 and later -- White Rider in Chapter 3, Red Rider
in Chapter 4, Black Rider in Chapter 5, Pale Rider in Chapter 6, and
Kageboushi in Chapter 7... then the only thing that I can recommend is
the "Desperate Power" passive skill. Check the Devil Chart/Compendium
section for a demon who learns it and get it from them. If you set a demon
who knows this as your active field investigation demon around the time of
the New Moon, chances are you will meet a Fiend.
Supposedly having negative luck helps as well, however in both normal mode
and King Mode I have never had a problem encountering Fiends as soon as
they become available even though on normal mode I spent 20+ level-ups
on my Luck stat early and carried as many Luck Locusts as I could, making
my luck close to 40 as early as the time the first fiend could appear.
___
Q: Red Crystal contents... what are they and how do I get what I want?
A: Check the Game System Information part of the FAQ.
___
Q: What is the difference between normal mode and King Mode?
A: In King Mode, you deal less damage, take FAR more damage, enemies seem to
"track" better before firing off spells, nearly everything costs 2 times
as much money and Fiends can show up starting in the first chapter.
The Riders first, then Kageboushi and Kageboushi only when you kill all
of the Riders. You can't play King Mode without first finishing the game,
however.
___
Q: What does alignment do?
A: Determines what ending you get, what demons you fight and/or unlock at
certain parts of the game, and determines whether you are eligible for a
small number of specific case files. Starting in Chapter 4, there is a
trick that can be used to manipulate your alignment so that you can do
what you want. It involves using the Transformation ability of a Skill
Order demon and the Shizu transformation you can get in the Red-Light
District of Fukagawa-Cho.
___
Q: How can I tell what my alignment is?
A: By looking at Raidou's world map icon.
Moving back and forth without spinning means Neutral.
Clockwise spin means Law.
Counter-clockwise spin means Chaos.
___
Q: I seem to be missing several "Transformations" (Skill Demon investigation
skill.) Where are they?
A: There's a small section about this in the Game System Information part of
this guide. Look at that. Note that the 7th transformation is only
available during a new game+/second cycle.
___
Q: What carries over into a new game+/second cycle?
A: • Devil Chart/Demonic Compendium Contents, including Business Cards,
and your fusion count.
• Total Case File completion percentage, important to unlock the final case
file. You don't need to complete every single case file in one play
to unlock it.
• Summoner Loyalty Rank, and number of tubes acquired including the ones
gained from case files.
• Konnou-Ya customer rank.
• Unlocked demon fusions.
Unfortunately, swords do not carry over which is a shame given how
difficult it is to get materials for most of the high-end ones.
On the upside, there is a new line of swords you can only make on a
second cycle or later game.
___
Q: How many playthroughs to unlock everything?
A: A minimum of two. If you are concerned with doing this in the least
amount of time, make sure you finish the game with a Chaos alignment
first in order to unlock Case Files 8-10, 9-10 and 10-9 in your second
cycle.
Additionally there are demons that you need to be a specific alignment
at a specific time in the game in order to unlock, they are:
Volt Cybele: Law alignment at the end of the Great Summoner's Hall
in Chapter 3.
Fury Atavaka: Neutral or Chaos alignment at the end of the Great
Summoner's Hall in Chapter 3.
(you can only unlock one of these per playthrough -- Atavaka recommended
first since he's needed for a case file)
Skill Mikaboshi: Neutral or Chaos when you meet him in Chapter 5.
And then the final two.
Volt Astaroth: Neutral or Chaos after the alignment part in the
final dungeon.
Wind Camael: Neutral or Law after the alignment part in the
final dungeon.
(If you are Law or Chaos you can only unlock one of these per play --
it is recommended you go Chaos first. If you are Neutral you will fight
both and neither will immediately join you but you can fuse both of them.
It is still recommended you finish the game as Chaos first so that you
will unlock the Blonde Young Man case files on second cycle.)
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Game System Information                                             [RK2_SYS]
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This section is for general information and game mechanics.
_____
Stats
¯¯¯¯¯
There are four statistics.
St - Strength. Ma - Magic. Vi - Vitality. Lu - Luck.
• St increases damage done by physical attacks. That's it. Kinda important
for Raidou since it's his main form of damage. Not every hard enemy or
boss has an elemental weakness you can exploit so this becomes important.
• Ma increases resistance to magical attacks, and damage done with magical
attacks. Raidou's Ma helps determines damage done with combination skills
as well as bonus stats on his demons--the purple bars in the status screen.
It also helps determine how much Magnetite (MAG) is leeched from a frail
stunned or status afflicted enemy. If your Ma stat is low you may find it
impossible to regularly use powerful demon skills due to a low recovery
rate. Don't neglect this stat.
• Vi provides an additional increase in hit points per stat point, and
reduces physical damage sustained. Not a very important stat if you play
on normal difficulty but on King Mode you can be killed in a single hit
if this is too low. If you aren't very good at action games and find
yourself getting hit a lot, you might want to pump this stat up even on
normal mode.
• Lu determines a lot of different minor things including attack misses and
criticals, random drops, how much damage you might be ambushed for,
influences demon negotiations, and increases enemy item drop rates.
The item drop rate increase alone makes Luck, in my eyes, one of the best
stats in any of the SMT games.
Stats are increased at a rate of 1 point per level up. There are items called
Incense which can permanently increase them by 1 but they are rare and best
used on Raidou. The max number a stat can reach is 40. As for the "best" way
to distribute stats? I tend to keep mine mostly balanced with a slightly
higher emphasis on everything except Vi at low levels, and at higher levels.
I go for max St and Lu.
Raidou begins with 6 St, 6 Ma, 5 Vi, and 3 Lu and at Level 1.
If you're thinking of maxing out, you get 98 points from level ups and can
get about 20 "free" stat Incense as treasures and Case File rewards.
That means you'd need to get less than 25 Incense from other, random sources
to max him out. You could also use bonuses from Luck Locusts and Weapons
to further reduce the number of Incense you'd need to max out.
Yellow bars on Raidou's status screen indicate bonus stats from his equipped
weapon, while the purple bar that only affects Lu is determined by how many
Luck Locusts Raidou is carrying.
For demons, stats also increase at a rate of 1 point per level up, however
these are considered "Bonus" stats (yellow bars) on the status screen and
are randomly distributed automatically.
Orange bars are base stats. Yellow are bonus stats. Purple are bonus stats
added by Raidou's MA stat. A demon's max statistic can only be 2 times its
base starting stat, so if a demon has a base statistic below 20 they cannot
reach 40 without Incense since Mitama fusion increases the bonus stats (yellow
bars) as does the repeating digit fever fusion bonus stats.
_______________
Status Ailments
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Here are the status ailments in this game and what they do.
Most of them wear off at the end of battle, or during battle after a set
amount of time. When an enemy is affected by most status ailments, they will
give MAG to you when you strike them with physical attacks.
Poison  • Target takes damage every couple seconds and their physical attack
¯¯¯¯¯¯    power drops significantly. Does not wear off at the end of battle.
Dizzy   • Target is rendered immobile and cannot act.
¯¯¯¯¯
Panic   • Also known as Confusion. When it affects a demon, that demon will
¯¯¯¯¯     attack random targets including their allies. When it affects
Raidou, however, your directional controls become backwards and
you cannot access the battle menu.
Rage    • Anything under the effect of this will do more damage but also
¯¯¯¯      take significantly more damage from attacks. Enemy demons who are
under the effect of this cannot be negotiated with.
Sleep   • Target becomes immobile and cannot act. They will regenerate a
¯¯¯¯¯     small amount of HP every few seconds. Sleeping targets are
eligible to be instant killed by the "Eternal Rest" skill.
Charm   • When it affects a demon, that demon will attack only allies.
¯¯¯¯¯     When it affects Raidou, it acts similar to the Dizzy status but
with a longer duration.
Mute    • A demon under this effect cannot use skills. When Raidou has this
¯¯¯¯      status ailment, you cannot access the battle menu. Does not wear
off after battle but may randomly wear off during battle.
Petrify • Otherwise known as Stone. Anything affected by this becomes
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯   immobile and unable to act, and in addition may be killed
instantly when attacked while under this ailment.
Protest • (Demon only) Otherwise known as "Boycott" as per its ingame icon.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯   Demons seem to randomly get this status ailment if the following
conditions are met: A) Their loyalty is not Max and b) You haven't
been healing them when their HP gets low. What happens is they
stop fighting and won't listen to your commands. This will never
happen to a demon with Max loyalty except for at a couple bosses
who have specific attacks which cause this. This status effect
will almost never happen on the default difficulty mode but has a
fair chance of occuring on King Mode. In any case, it's nothing
you'll have to worry about given how easy it is to max loyalty
for most demons out there, and how cheap the recovery item is.
Lost    • (Demon only) This happens sometimes when a demon is used and
¯¯¯¯      swapped out while destroying a generator crystal, or when you
summon in a demon while the Bad Luck roulette effect that says
"Your demons may become lost..." is active. Demons who are under
this effect cannot be used at all. You can get them back by
fighting random battles in which they'll eventually show up and
automatically rejoin you.
____________
Luck Locusts
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Starting halfway through Chapter 2, you will be given 3 Insect Cages with
which you can capture Luck Locusts. To capture a Luck Locust, you simply use
a Birdlime on them during battle. You can capture as many Luck Locusts as you
have empty insect cages.
More cages can be obtained throughout the story, and a few of them are
optional treasures. The max number of cages in the game is 14.
What do they do? Well, they provide a stat bonus to Raidou's Lu stat.
There are several "states" Raidou's luck can be at. Red up arrows mean good
luck, while black down arrows mean bad luck.
Best Luck  - +10 Luck - 7 or more Luck Locusts.
Great Luck - +7 Luck  - 5 or 6 Luck Locusts.
Good Luck  - +3 Luck  - 3 or 4 Luck Locusts.
Neutral    - No stat change, 0 to 2 Luck Locusts.
Bad Luck   - -3 Luck  - Get ambushed with 0 Luck Locusts.
Worse Luck - -7 Luck  - Get ambushed with 0 Luck Locusts and while
at "Bad Luck."
Worst Luck - -10 Luck - Get ambushed with 0 Luck Locusts and while
at "Worse Luck."
The bad luck status can be purified by talking to the Herald of Yatagarasu
at the Nameless Shrine or by paying Nakisawame for healing.
While in a good luck state, the Good Luck roulette is more likely to appear at
the beginning of a random battle and you will get ambushed for less damage.
While in a bad luck state, the Bad Luck roulette is more likely to appear at
the beginning of a random battle and you will get ambushed for more damage.
Luck Locusts can also be used as an item in battle to cause a Good Luck
roulette spin, and this will cancel out any Bad Luck roulette spin and
replace it with the good one. This uses up the locust, however.
__________
MAG System
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
You may have noticed, but this game doesn't have the ubiquitous "MP" stat for
spell and/or skill usage. Raidou, and only Raidou, has a point pool called
MAG (or Magnetite). All demon skills use points from this pool. It gets
larger each time Raidou levels up.
How to replenish it? Enemies have several types of resistances. If an enemy
is "Frail" to something, you need to hit them with that type of attack.
This will put them into something called "Frail Stun". In frail stun, most
enemies will be immobilized and have a telltale aura about them based on the
type of attack you just hit them with. Continue attacking them and you'll see
little green balls of energy fly up into your MAG meter, giving you some MAG
back.
The amount recovered is based on your MA statistic and possible passive
skills on you (via weapon or special late-game valuable items), and your
demons who can also learn the "Drain" passive skill. Later in the game you
can make weapons with a "Heal MAG" and "Heal MAG+" property which restore
a set percentage of your max MAG after each battle, as well.
Note that in this game, there are two categories of weakness: Frail and Weak.
If you hit the "Weak" resistance, they will take more damage but will not be
stunned and you cannot leech MAG from them. Only by hitting what they are
frail to can you do this. Aside from frail stun, enemies who are charmed,
confused, or poisoned will also give MAG when you hit them though will not
be stunned.
Hitting an enemy's frailty doesn't always stun them, either. Some enemies
cannot be stunned while they perform certain actions, so try to time your
attacks for when they are the most idle.
Managing MAG is the key to winning battles quickly and efficiently in this
game, and if you don't do it battles will generally take longer and be much
more dangerous.
________________
Alignment System
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Throughout the Walkthrough and Case File parts of the FAQ you'll run into
marked Alignment question values. Here's a short visualization and explanation
on how that works.
"Neutral" is an 11 point scale that sort of works like this. You start at the
"0" in the center when you begin the game.
__________________________________________________________________________
...9  8  7  6 | 5   4   3   2   1   0   1   2   3   4   5 | 6  7  8  9...
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Law |                  Neutral                  | Chaos
Each time you pick a Chaos answer for example, it takes you a certain amount
of points towards Chaos and away from Law.
Let's say you just started the game and picked an answer that gives +5 to
Law. So you'd be at the left 5 in Neutral. Then you picked an answer that
gives +1 to Chaos. You'd then be at the left 4 In Neutral. From there,
if you picked another +5 Law question response, you'd be Law alignment at
the 9. But if you picked a +10 Chaos question afterwards, you'd be at the
right 1 in Neutral.
I'm not sure if there's an upper limit to how far you can go in Law or
Chaos before it "caps out", but if there is it's probably something like 25
or 30 points.
Your alignment determines the dialogue of certain events, how a couple
minor events play out; for example in the early part of Chapter 4, a Neutral
player will see a differing scene. It determines whether you can acquire
a very small number of Case Files, and some of the bosses and fusions you
unlock at certain points. It also determines your ending at the end of the
game. The fine points about those are of course well documented elsewhere
where appropriate.
You can tell where your alignment currently falls by looking at Raidou's
icon on the Capital/Shinoda/Tsukigata map areas.
If his little blue icon is sort of just slightly swaying back and forth,
your alignment is Neutral.
If the icon is spinning clockwise, your alignment is Law.
If the icon is spinning counter-clockwise, your alignment is Chaos.
The only way to really know where you stand in exact point values is to either
keep track of every alignment question you answer, or when alignment
manipulation via the Shizu transformation becomes possible in Chapter 4 and
later, to note the exact time when you change alignment while using it and
then work with that. In order to do as much as is possible in a single play,
you will of course need to manipulate alignment a few times.
____________
Demon Skills
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Active and Passive
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Each demon you recruit or fuse has at least 1 active skill, and at least one
passive skill slot. Most demons learn 1-2 more active skills via leveling,
and the rest of the empty slots can be filled via skill inheritance in fusion.
See the below Fusion Information section for more on how to build demons
with more passive slots and how inheritance works.
If a demon has more than 4 active skills, you can set the 4 it uses in battle
via Abilities -> Settings in the menu. The ones with a yellow symbol next to
the skill name are the ones set for use in battle. In battle, you can set a
skill to be auto-repeated by pressing the /\ button in the command menu.
¯¯
Passive skills are learned when a demon's Loyalty reaches max. These will be
passed on in fusion like Active skills, only they can never be lost since
that demon's lineage retains a memory of all passive skills that lineage of
demons has ever had and can reassign as many skills as they have passive
skill slots during the next fusion.
Investigation Skills
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Each demon has investigation skills to be used in the field. These are needed
to progress in the game, and are mostly dependant on the demon's order.
Pyro • Ignite. Destroys ice barriers and is used for some odd things here
¯¯¯¯   or there such as heating you up so you don't take cold damage or slip
on an icy floor in specific rooms. Needed to progress through some
parts of the game.
Frost • Cool Down. Destroys fire barriers and is used for some odd things here
¯¯¯¯¯   or there such as cooling you down in a room that is LITERALLY on fire.
Needed to progress through some areas of the game.
Volt • Light Up. Lights up dark areas so that you don't fall over and lose
¯¯¯¯   a percentage of your money. You don't want that!
Inspect. Reveals hidden items. Needed to find things for some case
files, and can find some items hidden in places regardless of that.
Wind • Kamikaze. Needed to traverse the "Wind pathways" present in many
¯¯¯¯   dungeons and parts of the dark realm, and therefore required to
progress in many parts of the game.
Scout. Sends your demon out to see what kinds of enemies are in the
area. They'll report back to you. Demon might become "lost" while
doing this, in which case you'll run into them in a random battle in
the future and they'll rejoin you. Sometimes they may find a minor
item while they scout.
Fury • Use Force. Smashes rock barriers, and therefore required to progress
¯¯¯¯   in certain parts of the game.
Pagan • Read Mind. Obviously reads the mind of those who can be read--shown
¯¯¯¯¯   via a context sensitive ? or prompt when you're next to them with
a Pagan order demon summoned in the field. Easily the most used
investigation skill. Always have a Pagan order demon in your tubes.
You will require a Pagan demon to progress in the game many times.
Skill • Transform. Shapeshifts Raidou into the form of someone else. You need
¯¯¯¯¯   to collect their hair by sending out a solo demon and "talking" to
them in most cases to acquire their form. This isn't used much and
only 2 of the 7 transformations are used to progress through the
story. However all of them have their uses.
Demonstrate. The demon performs some random task every now and then
as you walk around with them out as your investigation demon. This
can be healing you or another demon, failing to heal and hurting you
or another demon or poisoning them. They can also transform one type
of item into another, however this has equal odds of a good item
turned into garbage as it does garbage into good item. Apart from
selling this is the only use for items like "Twig," "Old Underwear,"
and "Dainty Snack." Rarely, the demon may increase the stats of
Raidou or another demon via this skill, though it's very rare.
Worth using? If you don't mind the demon turning your Soma into an
Old Underwear while you hope for a stat gain or something else
worthwhile.
Fiend and Evil types have no investigation skills. There are also two other
of these skills which specific demons of no one order learn. They are:
Provoke • Same effect as an Attract Water item. Increases random encounter
rate until the New Moon.
Intimidate • Same effect as a Repulse Water item. Decreases random encounter
rate until the New Moon.
Conversation Skills
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Each and every demon has a type of conversation skill used in demon
negotiations. The name of the skill can often tell you who it would
work best on, though there is one skill that few demons have which
works in pretty much all situations - Charisma.
Here's a list of all conversation skills and what personality types that
they are effective on.
• Sweet Talk
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• Effective against : Little Kid, Young Girl, Seductive, Lady, Old Woman
Jack
• No effect against : Gentleman, Undead, Foreigner
• Negative effect   : Punk, Knight, Old Man, Beast, Show-Off, Fiend
• Sexy Voice
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• Effective against : Little Kid, Punk, Gentleman, Knight, Old Man, Beast
Show-Off, Jack
• No effect against : Undead, Foreigner
• Negative effect   : Young Girl, Seductive, Lady, Old Woman, Fiend
• Patter
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• Effective against : Little Kid, Punk, Young Girl, Seductive, Old Woman
Undead, Jack
• No effect against : Gentleman, Old Man, Beast, Foreigner
• Negative effect   : Knight, Lady, Fiend
• Random effect     : Show-Off
• Fast Talk
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• Effective against : Little Kid, Old Woman, Undead, Beast, Jack, Foreigner
• No effect against : Young Girl, Seductive
• Negative effect   : Punk, Gentleman, Knight, Old Man, Lady, Show-Off
Fiend
• Charisma (note: Allows negotiation during Full Moon)
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
• Effective against : Little Kid, Punk, Gentleman, Knight, Old Man
Young Girl, Seductive, Lady, Old Woman, Undead
Beast, Show-Off, Jack, Fiend
• No effect against : Foreigner
• Brainwash
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• Effective against : Punk, Knight, Old Man, Undead, Beast, Foreigner, Fiend
• No effect against : Gentleman, Young Girl, Seductive, Lady, Old Woman
• Negative effect   : Little Kid, Show-Off, Jack
• Scolding
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• Effective against : Gentleman, Seductive, Lady, Old Woman, Undead
Beast, Foreigner, Fiend
• No effect against : Punk, Knight, Old Man, Young Girl
• Negative effect   : Little Kid, Show-Off, Jack
• Extortion
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• Effective against : Punk, Seductive, Old Woman, Undead, Foreigner
• No effect against : Gentleman
• Negative effect   : Little Kid, Knight, Old Man, Young Girl, Lady, Beast
Show-Off, Jack, Fiend
• Debate
¯¯¯¯¯¯
• Effective against : Gentleman, Knight, Old Man, Lady, Show-Off, Foreigner
• No effect against : Little Kid, Punk, Young Girl, Seductive, Old Woman
Undead, Beast, Jack
• Negative effect   : Fiend
• Panic Urge
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• Skill has completely random results!
_________________
Demon Negotiation
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You aren't much of a Devil Summoner with no demons to command, are you?
In order to get even the most basic of demons in your party, you need to
negotiate with them during battle. This can be done by selecting "Negotiate"
and then selecting a specific enemy during battle. Note that during a
Full Moon, you cannot talk to demons in battle. In most random battles, you
can talk to and negotiate with almost any enemy you meet.
They'll ask you questions, and though what you say as reponse seems to be
random, certain demons will consistently like similar answers.
After a question has been answered, various things will happen.
• A demon may hate your answer and ATTACK you, reducing your HP by a certain
percentage.
• A demon may become angry. Use of one of your demon's conversation skills
can fix this. Failing to do so may make them attack you or leave.
• A demon may hate your answer and leave the battle or fall asleep, or may
even attack you for a percentage of Raidou's max HP.
• A demon may dislike your answer and be a bit put off (this is followed by
a sound). You can use your demon's conversation skills to swing things
back after this happens.
• A demon will be indifferent to your answer, and you can use your demon's
conversation skills to improve things.
• A demon will like your answer, and you can use your demon's conversation
skills to further improve things.
If you have two demons with the same conversation skill summoned, you can
use them both at the same time for added effect.
Not using a conversation skill after things go bad will often result in the
demon falling asleep or leaving the battle, maybe even attacking you for a
percentage of Raidou's max HP. There are times when you may not have a demon
summoned with an appropriate conversation skill for the demon you're talking
to in which case it is best to not use a skill.
If a demon ends the negotiations with you but remains in the battle, you
cannot talk to that demon again for the rest of the battle. (The game will
say "the demon is giving Raidou the cold shoulder")
If things go reasonably well, you'll get to the negotiation phase.
The better the initial questions went, the more likely the demon is to
give you what you want in this next phase. You will get three options.
• Be my demon.
• Give me something.
• I should be going.
The third option is mostly worthless since they'll ask you for things to
leave you alone. Only choose it if you're strapped for MAG and healing items
and are going to die if you don't get to safety soon, but even then you may
not have enough resources to negotiate with them for your escape.
In any case, when you pick one of these options the demon will ask you for
things. It may be money, it may be MAG, it may be to drain your life, it may
be items or gems. You'll have to give something up to get something.
Usually, MAG and health as well as common items like Life Stones are the best
things to agree to, but the highest level recruitable demons will usually ask
for Bead instead of Life Stone. No big deal as Bead drops pretty often from
the high level demons. Note that the items you get from negotiation seem to
be completely random, so you can get even the rarest gems from the lowliest
of demons.
Depending on how well the initial conversation went, before you went into the
negotiation, you can refuse them what they ask. If you do, they'll either ask
for something else or get angry which you may be able to fix with a demon
conversation skill. Again, depending on how well the initial conversation went
you may be able to just give them one thing and they'll give you an item or
join you (or let you leave if for some reason you wanted to negotiate with
them for that). When a demon joins, they may give you their Business Card,
which makes it easier to recruit that same demon again later. Why would you
want to do that? For fusion materials obviously.
For some demon personalities such as punks and lady demons, you are actually
better off refusing an item. They seem to take your stuff and leave very
often if you bow to all of their demands.
If a demon takes your stuff and leaves, there is a chance that in a future
random battle when you meet them, they will join you. Even if you asked them
for an item when they left. Demons you ask to join can also decide to not
join you and instead give you an item. Again, it's random.
Along the same lines, if your tubes are full, a demon you attempt to recruit
in any way will tell you to have a tube free for them next time you meet.
You can then talk to the same type demon once you free up a tube and they'll
join you automatically.
Demon conversation while asking for items is the best way to get gems needed
for case files and special fusions. You also acquire some case files by
talking to demons in battle and telling them "Narumi Detective Agency" when
it appears as a choice. The items that demons will give you when you ask them
for items will usually be be metals for sword alchemy, gems, and rarely high
end healing items.
If you talk with a demon you already have in your tube, you'll get a short
scene where that demon notes you have their "friend" with you and they will
either heal you and leave, give you an item then leave, or just leave.
In any case, the battle ends. This can be used to get items without any of
the negotiation business but there's a good chance they'll just leave instead
which means you wasted some of your time trying to get free stuff.
Then there are one-off demons that speak complete gibberish. They will
usually leave the battle but sometimes may join you with no negotiation.
There's no demon that always do this, it just seems to happen occasionally
with some demons, especially those with a Foreigner personality.
Lastly, sometimes during a battle a demon will seem to beg you to not kill
them. While in previous games like Nocturne they would almost always offer to
join you or give you an item/money, in this game you get a choose to say
you'll spare them or that you're going to kill them. What will happen in this
game is that they'll either join you or attack you for a percentage of your HP
as if you were ambushed at the beginning of the battle. Their response to
sparing them or saying you'll kill them is somewhat random and can be either
cutting some of your HP off or joining you for either choice.
However, it seems more likely they will join you if you spare them while they
are hunched over at low HP. Conversely they seem more likely to join you if
you choose to continue fighting while they are still healthy.
Bosses cannot be negotiated with aside from one exception: The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse (the Riders). They can only be negotiated with to escape
them, and then they will ask for different things than the usual demon. They
will ask to KILL your demons--not permanently-- and for high end gems and
healing items, as well as large amounts of MAG. If you're losing to one and
haven't saved for a while, you may consider this option.
You cannot talk to demons at Full moon phase, unless you have a demon with
the Charisma conversation skill summoned.
Conversations have a random element to them and thus it is impossible to
write a working guide to getting specific demons to join. Some demons are
just a real pain to recruit before you own their business card.
The best you can do is use conversation skills that target their personality
favorably and hope they like your answers. Once you get their business card,
it will be easier to negotiate with them for items or to get them to join you
again for fusion materials or whatnot.
___________________________
Special Demon Conversations
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These are just odd things that will happen once per playthrough between the
two demons in question. You don't get anything out of them, they're purely
for entertainment purposes only. To trigger them simply talk to the demon