I'm going thru the game a second time on Expert level. My question is what zones drop the most desirable items? Since the game only randomizes the loot the first time you enter a zone, I plan to backup save before hitting the shallows (Nessie) and Bayjin (Jane-Jett). My first game I didn't get either the light sword, light shield, or phaser, and Nessie's chest had some crappy polearm. Excluding Ascension Peak, what other zones should I be on the lookout for?

The temple in south east wilderness where you'll get a Fang and a shuriken that you can use over and over again.

The chest in nessy area contain Excalibur.

The group of Bucaneer Ghost in the shallow contain Lightsword.

Bayjin Area also got a chest that contain a sword.

The Rat ( I forgot his name but he is lv20 ) got a good item for your ninja.

remember, save first befor entering a new zone and reload if you don't get what you want.

Also, the Rapax Queen's chest has about 30% Muramasa Blade, reload the game at the entrance to Upper Castle. This is one of the easiest reloads, if you're a Templar, and one of the best things you can do for a Samurai.
The Cane that the Don drops is the reason to have a Faerie Ninja.
Plus, if you're stealthy enough, you can sneak into the Mountain Wilderness and get everyone a Cloak of Many Colors from Bela with the money you made mixing potions, and on into the Waterfall for the Staff o'Doom and Ench Wak. Drag the Golem from the bridge and circle around, running away to leave it in the N. Wild. You can run away from the Waterfall Golem once you pick everything up. I've done this coming straight from the Monastery through the N. Wilderness with 4 L7 chars, all fairly speedy and 100 Stealth, only had one fight i didn't run away from, the Sprites up by Bela, they killed themselves after i drank an Eye4Eye potion.

[ 06-12-2002, 12:10 AM: Message edited by: otter ]

I just whacked the Ratkin guy and he didn't have the Cane. This after I've stuck with a fairie ninja wielding puny sticks in anticipation of getting the Cane, and a dumb Thieves dagger drops. I'm just going to use an editor and add it to my party, but it really annoys me how completely random they made the drops. If you make a party and because of random luck you get a great weapon you can't use or you get a crap drop, I guess it's just tough luck. I remember in Wiz 7 the drops were fixed, which were guarded by some hellacious mobs like some 1000-eyed bugger, a huge serpent, etc. It was a great incentive to have as many different melee classes as possible to use all the cool weapons down the road. Some retard making Wiz 8 must have thought it more "challenging" to do the random deal. Well let me tell you this bastard: it just pisses people off after fighting a big mob with an underpowered party (my guys are 12th level on my 2nd trip thru right now) and to have a completely crappy item drop instead. If you want powerful items hard to get, then crank up the mob difficulty, don't leave it to some random number generator. The same goes for the pickpocketing patch, which I figured out works likes the Civ 3 reloading deal where the programmers used fixed random numbers to prevent people from reloading their games if they lost a battle. Enough people complained about the Civ 3 feature that they went back and made it optional. I sucked up the pickpocketing patch and went the potion-making route on this 2nd trip thru, but this random treasure deal is infuriating. I hate using editors because it feels like cheating, but I already invested too many hours to restart.

Would this work : Set portal outside that area before entering. Save the game BEFORE opening chests. See if you got the items that are *supposed* to be in there - if not : Load the game. Set portal by 2.nd magic user, use 1.st m/u to teleport out of the area and 2.nd m/u to get back to the chest. Will that unopened chest contain different items ?
Hm, now that I wrote this down, it looks a bit of a hassle [img]smile.gif[/img] But I *know* I wouldnt want to pound on Nessy and XY ghosts + XZ psi sharks all over again 'till I got the right items.

Neuro

Basically you would have to fight each battle possibly several times for Nessy and the Buc ghosts since both mobs are in the same zone. You would have to save before entering the zone, kill one of the mobs (Bucs first since they are complete wimps), and if you got the sword, then kill Nessie to check out her chest. If Nessie didn't have a hoss weapon, then you would be forced to reload, rekill the ghosts AND Nessie until you got the drops you wanted. I don't know what the drop rates of each chest is, but assuming 50% for each that's a 1/4 chance. I really don't understand why they would stick a great weapon like the light sword with such wimpy mobs as the Buc ghosts. Like I stated earlier, Sir-Tech really made a dumb decision not coupling hoss weapons with equally hoss mobs. They could easily spread out the unique Ascension Peak mobs around Dominus, pumped up the deadliness of each one (I hardly broke a sweat taking them down playing on normal), and given some unique class weapons as the prize for beating the crap out of them. Good plot is great and all, but epic battles are also part of a great RPG and this edition of Wizardry is a bit lacking when compared to Wiz 6 and 7. The uber mobs from those prior games on normal where agonizingly tough at times, which made it all the more enjoyable when you finally took them down. Now you just kill some pansy ghosts to become a Jedi. That is if the Force of the random number generator is with you.

*Light**Sword* is a monster drop. That means it can always drop off at least one of them. Reloading the whole zone is pointless, you only need to reload just before the fight with the BG's for the *LS*.
You can sneak past Nessie to see what's in the chest before fighting her, just quit if X-Cal isn't there. This works from either end of the Shallows, so i usually do it Nessie first, from Underwater Caves.
This also allows a shorter run to the chest in Bayjin, where another *Light**Shield* can drop.

[ 06-13-2002, 02:56 AM: Message edited by: otter ]

Also remember...chest drops are determined the first time that you enter an area, so for things like the Nessie chest and the rapax queen chest, you need to make sure that you save before you enter the area and if it doesn't pop the things you want, reload before you entered the area for the first time. Doesn't matter if you leave the area and come back...everything is determined the first time you enter the area.

BUT...for item drops on monsters, it is a random each time you kill the monsters. So if Don Barlone doesn't have the Cane the first time you kill him...just save before you kill him and do it again...he can drop the cane the second time. Same with the buccaneer ghosts and the light sword (which means that theoretically, you could pop 7 light swords if you are that bored.....)

So save before you enter the shallows so that you can reload the Nessie chest if it doesn't have Excalibur. Save before you enter Bayjin for the chest in the hut. Save before you go into upper Rapax castle for your Muramasa. But for Don, Bucc ghosts, and other monster drops....just save before you whack them-no need to go through the whole area.

The Sea Caves and the Rapax Castle are two other good zones for high level equipment, though the chests are pretty much a one time shot, with no easy access point to go for reloads.

For monster drops, you have a few choices:

1)Rapax - The various types of Rapax can drop some nice mid to upper end items, such as Cat'o Nine Tails, Chamail, Winged Boots, Philosopher's Shield, and the various enchanted Chain and Platemail, as well as books of magic.

2)Rattkin - The archers can drop all arrow types up to Peacemakers. All types of Rattkin can drop Ankh of Dexterity, Lithe Buckler, Ring of the Road, Tinker's Carryall Bracers, Blarneystone Amulet, and Ring of Beasts.

3)Higardi - Drop most pieces of the Bard equipment. Ariel's Slippers, Prospero's Cloak, Puck's Cap, and Mercucio's Blade.

4)Umpani - Any regular Umpani can drop the Sword of Hearts. Named Umpani can drop the Musket, Blunder Buss, Bracers of Defense, and Sword of 4 Winds.

5)Sprites - Low level sprites can drop the Sprite's Dagger, and the upper level ones can drop the Fey Ring, Rod of Sprites, and Faerie's Cap.

6)Geo/Hydro/Pyro/Aero-mancers can drop a ring that increases resistance and magical ability for their respective magic skill, such as an Aeromancer's Ring: +1, Air Magic +10, 5% Resistance vs. Air Magic

7)The "Flying Snake" line of monsters can drop the Serpent's Tooth.

8)Some Ascension Peak mobs can drop, particularly the Ironwood Elders found along the Life(Trynnie) path. They come in pairs and are mean casters, but they usually drop a bag of 6-10 mid-to-upper end items.