Shining Force II Tips

These are my tips for playing Shining Force II. Also included are other fellow Shining fans' tips.

Your Party
A diverse party is a good idea. The max number of people you can take into battle is twelve. First of all, I make sure my leader is one of the most powerful fighters (it makes it harder for the bad guys to knock him off). Make sure you have a diverse fighting party - at least one flyer, long and short distance, a healer, a spellcaster, people with really high defense, etc.

Promotions

The special promotional items are the 1) Vigor Ball, 2) Pegasus Wing, 3) Warrior Pride, 4) Secret Book, and 5) Silver Tank. (use on my items page) There are two Vigor Balls - one in the Elven village and the other near Sheela. (for the locations of items, click here)
I recommend promoting all priests to a Master Monk. Vicars are more spell casters than fighters. Master Monks are fighters and spell casters. Promote Sarah when you get the first ball. When you go to Creed's, I recommend picking Eric and go back to get Karna after you open the Gates of Moun. Karna is very easy to power up!! (Boost will earn 49 or 50 if you cast the spell on your Force) Use the second ball on her. Make sure you pick up the Iron Knuckles for her and Sheela before you leave for Grans! IMHO, Karna has the best spells (Heal, Boost, Blast, and Aura). Sheela has boost too, but she's not as strong a fighter. An easy way to raise monks in levels is fight the battles that are triggered by walking across a certain landscape (outside Hassan). Line up your party and use Sheela or Karna to boost your players. They raise in levels quickly! (BTW, Aura does not fetch as much EXP. as Boost, but it's still 25 EXP)
Personally, I like promoting Eric to a Pegasus Knight. IMHO he makes the best one. Chester gets a lot of HP and Rick gets a lot of defense, but Eric always seem to tops them both in my game!! The wing is under the carpet in Pacalon.
Yes, Pegasus Knights are just like Paladins, but the most important difference is they can fly and you need fliers!!! Peter is another good one, but Luke and Skreech aren't so good in my game, so use a Pegasus Knight!! (for the locations of items, click here)
I personally like Jaha better as a Baron, but I haven't tried Randolf as a Baron before. So I guess I can't really give much advice on that.
Tyrin will learn his Sorcerer spells faster, but I prefer Kazin as a Sorcerer. Taya gets the spells in concentration and the guys learn them one at a time.
All my Brass Gunnars seem to suck in my game, but go ahead if you want. Snipers get their attacks raised more often than Gunnars.

Iovix's Tips
This is how you can attain suped-up levels on SHF2. It's simple. First, DON'T promote any of your characters until level forty. (To keep level consistency, I recommend not putting anyone else on your team after Janet joins, due to the fact they're already promoted.) I know it'll be hard to resist, but bear with me. And, save your game in Galam when you get back to Grans Island. Since forty is the max level you can promote your guys at, wait until you finish the Geshp battle and the battle after that before you promote your guys and get the mithril weapons and what not. Now for the weird part. Go back to Parmecia (after getting all your guys, Lemon, Claude, all that jazz) and then jump in your caravan and kick everyone off your team! (Trust me.) Before you do, remember who you had on your team. You might wanna write it down. Then, with just your leader, pace back and forth inside Devil's Tail. If you meander just right, you'll be whisked into battle! You'll notice low level monsters like harpies and arrow launchers in the midst. BUT...since you didn't promote your guys until level forty, and they should now be in their new level one classes, the game has been fooled into giving you max experience points for each of these things you kill! And if you have the config code in, (which I recommend) you can make whoever has the Protect Ring in that battle drop it every time!! Finish the battle with your first character, and kill EVERYONE and the leader last. The leader is always the monster closest to Creed's mansion. Repeat the process several times. By the time the monsters start to give you only 1 exp point, you should be at or between levels 15 and 17, but you will have the strength and stats of a character TWENTY LEVELS HIGHER!!!! Then, egress back to Galam, where you should have saved your game before, and save it again. Then go to the Odd Eye battle, and kill everyone there except Odd Eye. By then, you should be at or between levels 25 and 27. But, you will be TWENTY LEVELS STRONGER than you actually are! Repeat this process with everyone on your team until all twelve of your force guys are pumped up. Use the last guy you pump up to kill Odd Eye. Then, go back to Galam, go to the shop, and get each of your guys a Protect Ring from Deals. Don't worry, you can afford them. After that, go through the next few battles, and at the Zeon battle, after killing all his monsters, COMMENCE with the Protect Ring Trick!! You'll be unstoppable!

Didja know that you can skip the battle before the one where you hafta unlock the gates of Moun with Frayja? No lie! Just beat Zalbard and save your game in Tristan, but NOWHERE else. Then, go back to Pacalon, pick up Frayja, fight the battle in the town, and when you get out, use Egress. The spell will bring you back to Tristan where you can just cut across to Moun, but if you go down south you'll get into the battle you tried to skip. Worst things about this trick are:

1. You'll pass up Jaro, and

2. You'll miss out on hundreds of experience points. But hey, it's your call.

Another trick I discovered involves the Protect Ring. You need a minimum of one for it to work, but I suggest using the config mode codes to make whoever has the Protect Ring drop it again and again. Anyway, here's the trick. Get five guys in a criss cross. (I recommend controlling the N-M-E's here) Make sure one of those five has the Protect Ring. When it's his/her turn, save your game and get back into the battle. Then use the ring on all five members. You will earn upwards of 23-27 exp points easily. I say to save and whatnot to avoid crackage of the ring. This way, if the ring cracks, you can just reset it. If you use the trick you should repeat the process, taking into account, of course, letting the effects of the ring wear off before you use it again. The best battle to do this in, believe it or not, is the Zeon battle. Yep. Just wait until all his minions have been dusted, stay out of range, put your guys in groups of five, or however many, I recommend five, it depends on how much you still have alive and whether or not you're using the config code, and just ring away!! I have another trick that accompanies this one.

Anonymous' Tips
"It's an easy way for Sarah and Frayja to earn extra experience points. However, it is rather expensive also, as it involves Detox level 4, which costs 16 magic points. For this trick, you need all eight cursed weapons. They are: Dark Sword, Evil Knuckles, Evil Lance, Evil Axe, Demon Rod, Evil Ring, Black Ring, and Evil Shot. Next, bring into your party eight people one for each weapon (for instance, I used the leader for the Dark Sword, May for the Evil Shot, Eric for the Evil Lance, Karna for the Evil Knuckles, Randolph for the Evil Axe, Tyrin for the Evil Ring, Taya for the Black Ring, and Chaz for the Demon Rod.) Go across Yeel and enter the field between Yeel and Hawel's house. Walk around for a while, and enemies will appear. This battle is an ideal battle to do this trick in because none of the enemies will be powerful enough to even do significant damage on you. Equip each of the eight characters with their cursed weapons (trust me this will work.) Then get them in a good formation for Detox 4, and afterwards, have Sarah or Frayja or whoever you're using cast Detox level 4. Detox level 4 will uncurse each person, giving the spellcaster 40 experience points. Afterwards, re-equip all the eight characters with their cursed weapons and repeat the process. This may be an expensive way to earn experience points, but it is the fastest way for you impatient types. The only other good way Sarah has of earning experience would be to cast Heal, but that will only earn her between 10 and 20 experience points, but it will earn over 20 if she heals a person who is almost dead. Frayja has Aura, but that only earns 25 experience points. Therefore, for those of you looking for a fast way for these two to earn experience, use these cursed weapons."

Adam's Tips
"Take out the strongest monsters before taking out the leader. This way, you get more money."

Jason Neufeld's Tips
"To gain better stats for your team save your game during a battle just before the chosen member. Then go back into battle and gain a level, if you don't like the new points awarded reset the game and retry until you are satisfied."

Red Ninja's Tips
"If you're in a situation where you will not have a battle for a long time, but you want your force to be in shape for the next battle and you're not in one of those places where you can battle infinite times, try this. In the battle before the one a long way away, keep Egressing before you deal the coup-de-grace to the last monster/leader, Egress, and fight the battle again. This also works if you need money. With the exp. version, this must be a battle with guys you're new to.

Blue Pegasus, I'm sorry, I must disagree with your opinion on Kiwi. As a monster, HE IS GREAT! When he belches flames, it's always 30-40 damage, unless the opponent is resistant to fire (e.g. Wyvern, Cerberus). He is a flier, which is always great. His defense is fantastic. One thing I recommend giving him power water and cheerful bread. Yes, cheerful bread does work on him when he is a monster. Power water is optional. He is good backup, just keep him away from spell-casters."