Dragon Quest IX guide

It's Dragon Quest IX. There's questing and you can fight dragons. This shouldn't be too unfamiliar. For quite a few people, this is actually their first Dragon Quest. For the OGs, we've been around the block a few times, and this is a neat trip through nostalgialand while adding enough fresh content. Then you have people inbetween, who have some DQ experience under their belt, but not alot. I hope this guide can help everybody. There are a few off-site pages I will link to just because somebody already did a certain job better than me (such as the Alchemy recipe/ingredient search engine, truly a helpful tool at any point in the game), but for the most part, most tips and advice in this is going to come from personal experience, advice and experiences from others, and of course, the DQ9 manual and Guidebook. Trust me, even with online FAQs, specialty pages such as this one, and whatnot, it's always handy to have the guide (plus it has lotsa purty pictures, just like the good old days). This is a real oddball for both /v/'s wikia "protip" pages and Dragon Quest. Mostly because of how social the game technically is, both online and in real life. As such, this may feel like an FAQ more than our typical tip pages. Please leave this page be for the sake of players looking for tips and use the discussion page for game relevant notes such as news of sponsored events, map downloads, and possible real life "hot-spots" that have good tagging potential such as game conventions.. That said, it's time to get down to business!

Stat Info and How to Take Advantage of Each
 -Strength- 
 * This is mainly to clear up what does what, especially since a few new stats were altered from old ones or added.

Boosts the physical damage you dish out. Pretty much your base offensive capabilities, which can make even weaker weapons hit harder(in addition to the weapon skill tree bonuses). Definitely pump this up for multiple-hit skills you may use (even if a weak ally hits multiple items, it won't mean much if they don't have the muscle to deal significant damage).

 -Resilience- 

Pretty much a fancy word for physical defense. Keeping it high is good if you change vocations to a less armor-inclined one. Example: Going from warrior to mage. Even if your armor sucks, you can make up for it some with this stat.

-Agility-

Raises the odds of a character taking action first. Due to the way turns work, the order of actions is not definite as there is a slight range of probability depending on agility, what your character will be doing (attacking, healing, etc.). Boosting your agility DOES help put the range in your favor that you will likely go first though. A great stat for healers who need to heal the party early, and nice for speedy attackers to consider.

-Deftness-

Alot of people aren't sure about this, but you can rest easy, because here it is, straight from the fucking instruction manual itself: "Governs a character's ability to make preemptive strikes, perform critical attacks, and flee from battle." Now here's what they don't tell you: It also helps boost your steal rate, but only so much and so slightly (something's better than nothing...) and "spells going haywire"/"spells getting a significant boost" or "Critical Magic Hits". Yes, in DQ9, even magic can do critical hits! This works for damaging, healing (as in healing extra than usual), status ailments, stat debuffs, and anything else applicable. For ailments and debuffs, it's a far better chance of inflicting them and sometimes they may work better than normal. Example: "Sap", a spell which may lower one enemy's defense one level may end up lowering that enemy's defense TWO levels when critical-spelling.

-Charm-

How "attractive" your character is. Similar to Jessica's "Sex Appeal" in DQ8, this helps stun monsters into wasting their turns, regardless of the character or enemy's genders. This is a VERY helpful stat, as it even works on bosses, so definitely try to raise it up when you get Vocational skill trees that give you the opportunity to. There is an item known as a "Pretty Betsy" that raises a character's natural charm a slight bit; but, outside of the one you get in a quest, they can be variably hard to find. You might just want to use them on your hero/main character, just in case, especially since you can't take your self-made allies with you in multiplayer.

-Magical Might and Magical Mending-

Boost the capacity for your spells' damage (might) and healing (mending) respectively. Even weaker spells can be quite handy if you raise these high enough. Which is great since some of the strongest spells are quite expensive.

- MP Absorb  -

Only seems to come about with wands. Smack an enemy with a normal attack and you can drain some MP from it. How much you steal depends on this rating, which takes an amount from how much damage you do. Skills DO NOT count. However, you can still boost your damage by using spells or skills that raise your strength and attack, thus boosting the amount of MP you also drain. Do note that if an enemy has no MP, you won't drain anything.

-Block Chance and Evasion Chance-

Block chance affects how often you will nullify all assaults with your shield. Don't get too excited, as the rates are pretty low, even with great shields and Block chance boosting skills. Never hurts to have it though, and shields do still give extra Defense (and elemental resistances for a few). Evasion chance is just that. Your (also low) rate of potentially dodging all assaults. This is boosted by gear, clothing, a few skill trees, and so forth. Depending on the types of skills and characters you may be using, you may choose to equip a shield or raise evasion or NOT to, as some skills require you to get hit and take damage to be effective, which is you may avoid with other skills.

-Attack and Defense-

Strength + Weapon, accessories, etc. = Attack; Resilience + gear, clothes, etc.= Defense; as noted before, the base stats of Strength and Resilience are most important as Attack and Defense WILL fluctuate depending on your weapon equipped, skill tree bonuses, current vocation, and so forth. Don't think you can use your weakest gear non-stop though! The better your equipment, the better your chance of survival.

-Style-

Charm + Fly Threads (gear, clothes, etc.) = Style. Style can also help force enemies and bosses skip turns by "stunning" them with your fashion sense. Generally, the cooler and/or sexier your outfit is, the better. Some of the clothes you can get from Special Guests (Alena, Angelo, etc. from older DQ games) tend to have naturally good style bonuses, so be sure to pick those up when you can.

-"Where's the "spell resistance" stat?"-

There isn't one. Though, Spell damage IS reduced by wearing certain clothes and gear, along with using certain spells and skills during battle. Enemies and Bosses may have resistances to a few elements, but typically tend to be weak against some as well. Some are easy to figure out, such as Fire and Ice working well against each other, but others aren't immediately obvious, such as Slimes being resistance to light/"holy" damage.

Vocation (and General Vocation Skills) Breakdown

 * Note 1: First things first, Talk to Patty after helping Erinn get her new inn in Stornway, the Quester's Rest, to gain the Egg On skill for your Hero/MC, which raises the tension of an ALLY (as in, NOT YOU) by one level each time used. This also unlocks the ability to use some premade characters, or to make allies of your own in any of the six basic vocations (Warrior, Martial Artist, Priest, Mage, Thief, and Minstrel) of your choosing.


 * Note 2: When changing vocations, spells do not transfer (some mumbo-jumbo about being attached to the vocation itself). However, ALL of your skills and natural stat bonuses do. In addition, Omnivocational [weapon]-master allows you to use a type of weapon mastered with any vocation. Example: Rangers can't normally equip swords or shields, but if you had Omnivocational Shieldmaster and Omnivocational Swordmaster, the ranger could equip both and use their skills with no problem. Of course, this requires you to have 100 points in both shields and swords, but hard work doesn't go unrewarded in this game (typically).


 * Note 3: Vocations get additional quests to unlock vocation-specific garments and special items that hold skills which can be used by any vocation, so long as you have the special item in an ally's inventory. These quests are available as a vocation reaches Level 15 and Level 40 respectively, though you may not be able to complete some of them as soon as you get them. You must have an ally currently using the vocation required to get approved for the quest though. After that, you can change back to a different vocation, if unrestricted, to complete the quest. This makes many quests much easier, believe you me.

+Basic Vocations (each are available from the start)+

-Minstrel -

Well, it's the default vocation for your Hero/MC. Despite being an "entertainer" of sorts, it's well-rounded, using healing and offense spells, and fighting rather well, but never reaches the capability of other respective "specialty" roles other vocations do. You'll probably want to vocation-change from it, no doubt. However, be sure to make an effort to level it to Level 40 whenever you can, prefereably before the end of the game, as the item you get from its third quest lets the holder use the skill "Gritty Ditty", which boosts the attack of all allies one level when used. Very handy for random battles and makes boss battles less troublesome as well. Good to master before becoming a sage.


 * Special Note: As the Hero/MC is stuck as this until Alltrades is completed, consider what role you want to end up as before you vocation-change. Remember, you don't HAVE to spend skill points (they'll still be there next level up, anyways), so if you don't want to put points in any skill tree of the Minstrel vocation, save them for the vocation you want to. The max skill points you can save is 999, so don't worry about losing points until you level up past that.

=Vocation Progression=

Skills: @4 Hot Lick (weak fire hit), @16 Pratfall (may distract 1 enemy group), @32 Sobering Slap (cures 1 ally of sleep + confusion), @55 Tap Dance (raises evasion chance), @82 Have a Ball (many weak hits to random foes)

Bonuses: @10 Spry in a Crisis (natural bonus: raises evasion chance when at low HP), @22 Charm + 30, @ 42 Magical Might + 30, @68 Magical Mending + 30, @100 Deftness + 50

-Warrior -

The classic hero model. Above average offense, defense, HP make for a formidable and durable physical fighter. However, their MP is really low, which means they won't be able to use their skills often, and their agility is quite lacking, which means they'll likely end up going last (which does have advantages sometimes). Its roles are split between striking single enemies (unless you have some MP bonuses and like to use spears) and helping to take damage for another ally. Master their shields to help them be even better at the latter role, and master Courage to become even stronger to do both better. Their level 40 quest item lets the holder occasionally counterattack! =Vocation Progression=

Skills: @8 Whipping Boy (take hits for 1 ally), @28 Whistle (provoke foes to target user), @48 Body Slam (hurt a foe + self), @70 Morale Masher (hit 1 foe + lower its tension), @100 Attack Attacker (hit 1 foe + lower its attack)

Bonuses: @16 Strength + 10, @40 Resilience + 20, @56 Strength + 30, @80 Resilience + 40, @90 Maximum HP + 60

-Martial Artist -

Typically known as the "glass cannon" type, Martial Artists have changed slightly. They've gotten a bit better at taking hits, and are still super fast, but do not quite have the boost of critical hits they typically had. Their emphasis is now on tension, while also slightly self-supporting themselves with their learned skills. Don't underestimate them though, tension is VERY effective and powerful, boosting the capabilities of physical offense and spells, healing and offensive alike, and especially good when you Egg On a tension user to get them tensed up faster. Their level 40 quest item lets them carry over tension they don't use from one battle to the next. An easy way to decimate bosses! =Vocation Progression=

Skills: @4 War Cry (try to stun 1 enemy group), @16 Psyche Up (raise tension each time used), @32 Mens Sana (purge self of ailments), @55 Mind Over Matter (reduce breath damage taken), @88 Meditation (self-heal ~80 HP)

Bonuses: @10 Agility + 10, @22 Strength + 10, @42 Maximum HP + 30, @68 Agility + 30, @100 Agility + 60

-Mage -

Ye olde wizard. Probably one of the best allies you can have early on, and even later. The Mage's spells include various buffs and debuffs, along with fire, ice, and explosion magic families. Not only are random battles a breeze with them, but boss battles can be made easier as well. As expected, this power comes at a price, the mage sucks physically. Just sucks. Even with a shield. If you have a mage and warrior, you can use the mage to power up the warrior, and use the warrior to protect the mage when needed. A great combo for beginners. The mage's level 40 quest item lets the holder use Weakening Wave, which weakens all enemies slightly. Not bad if the odds look grim. =Vocation Progression=

Skills: @8 Wizard Ward (lowers magic damage user takes), @26 Spooky Aura (weakens 1 foe's resistance to magic), @46 Focus Pocus (user heals MP each turn), @68 Channel Anger (boosts user's Magical Might alot)

Bonuses: @16 Magical Might + 20, @ 38 Maximum MP + 10, @54 Critical Spell Rate Up (raises chances for spells to crit/go haywire), @78 Magical Might + 60, @88 Maximum MP + 20, @100 Magical Might + 100

-Priest -

Unlike ye olde wizard, priests of Dragon Quest are like Combat Medics, but heal better than they fight. Unlike previously, the priest is a bit better physically than it used to be. Not too surprising given its use of staves and spears, which are quite versatile weapons. However, it lost its wind spells to the Minstrel & Luminary, and some of its stat boosting spells. The priest still does damn good healing though, and its Level 40 quest item lets the holder use Wave of Relief, which cures nearly all ailments (except death and inactivity). The buffs it still has are also handy. You should definitely consider a priest eventually, if only to boost an ally's Magical Mending for other vocations. =Vocation Progression=
 * Special Note: Benediction for the priests in your party and in churches only remove cursed gear from the wearer, not the curse on the gear itself. To do that, you need to use alchemy recipes, which changes it to a new gear piece.

Skills: @8 Divination and @28 Benediction (same as a church), @40 Rotstopper (lowers undead foes' damage to party). @70 Alma Mater (saves party from instant death), @ 90 Care Prayer (boosts user's Magical Mending alot)

Bonuses: @16 Magical Mending + 20, @40 Maximum MP + 10, @56 Magical Mending + 60, @80 Maximum MP + 20, @100 Magical Mending + 100

-Thief -

It's a thief. It steals things. Practical things (and not so practical things). The thief's best aspects are: its decent MP for a physical vocation, letting it use skills rather often, its skill tree (which provides boosts to deftness and agility, along with some treasure acquiring skills), and seemingly inherent extra boost to successfully steal as a thief (it's what it does best, after all). Sure, a thief gets a few support spells, is a decent fighter, and gets a quest item at Level 40 that gives the holder a probability to find a "secretly stolen" item after each battle. BUT... after you get the Honour Among Thieves medal after getting one to Level 99 and revocating it, you will likely NEVER use one again.


 * Special Note: No, I mean it. Damn near nobody uses a thief after that. Get all 4 allies to master Half-Inch and that should be more than enough to support the ally with the best stealing rate amongst you, regardless of vocation.

=Vocation Progression=

Skills: @10 Half-Inch (may loot from a foe), @22 Pitfall (dig to trap pals & monsters), @42 Nose for Treasure (counts loot left in the area), @68 Eye for Trouble (lets you know a foe's info), @100 Treasure Eye Land (locates loot)

Bonuses: @4 Deftness + 20, @16 Agility + 20, @32 Maximum HP + 20, @55 Deftness + 40, @82 Agility + 40

+Unlocked Vocations (each are available from the start)+

(will add later)


 * Note 4: To unlock the remaining six vocations, you must talk with certain NPCs with blue bubbles at Alltrades and certain other places nearby (Gleeba's Mirage Mahal palace and the entrance to Zere Rocks respectively, you won't get Sage until near the end of the game and Luminary until post-game). They ask you to do certain tasks in quests they give you. Just complete them, give them notice of your successful completion, and the vocation will be unlocked for any and all allies to change to and from.

Weapon (and General Weapon Skills) Breakdown
There's not technically a "best weapon" type to choose from in this game. However, that is not to say that some weapons aren't better than others at doing certain things, and better for certain vocations. Some are even more beneficial for a vocation that may not even use them without an ally first mastering the weapon in question, For example: You may not think to give a Paladin a fan, but the fan's Reverse Cycle ability, combined with a Paladin's Forbearance is an extremely good combination versus breath attacks, and you can even stack a shield's Magic Mirror onto this, meaning the only thing that may harm the Paladin are strong or critical hits (if the paladin does not have the shield mastery scroll) and status effects (if the Paladin is not immune to them thanks to certain equipment). This is a somewhat risky 2 turn set up at times, but assuming your party can last those two turns, they might spend the next 4 or 5 damage free, all while deflecting damage back to the enemy or boss spewing breath or casting spells. Combos like this can be found and utilized quite easy with a bit of formulaic reasoning. This is just an overview of general stuff about each weapon type, and how they may be used well. That isn't to say you should just use one thing. Experiment and see what works best for you, and enjoy blasting foes with your favorite skills.


 * Note 1: Like Vocations, weapons also have their own extra quests. Most of these can be started after defeating the boss at Swinedimples. You may not be able to finish some of them until later on though. The quest you get at having 30 skill points in a weapon nets you a fairly good weapon of that type. Having a weapon mastered (100 skill points) unlocks the second quest, which gives you a secret scroll, which lets the holder use an special skill when equipped with that weapon type. Some of these may not quite act like you might expect (The boomerang's special skill, Gigathrow only hits one foe instead of all of them), but you should find all of them are quite helpful.


 * Note 2: "[Stat]+ # with [weapon]" skills transfer between vocations, but of course, only apply when that weapon type is equipped.

-Sword- 

Swords have been the go-to weapon for many; but, at least in DQ9, it's easy to see why. Swords can deal extra damage to two of the tougher enemy types: Dragons (i.e. Lizard-ish enemies) and Metal Slime types. They also have GigaSlash, which decimates groups. Their secret scroll skill, GigaGash, is a DOUBLE GigaSlash. Their ultimate skill is Falcon Slash, which slashes a foe twice. Combine this with the Falcon Blade and you get 4 hits! Add the Level 40 Gladiator quest item, and you may score 6! Top it off with tension and attack boosting and you can cause some colossal single-enemy damage. Do consider giving a sword to your physical striker sooner or later.

+Weapon Progression+

Skills: @3 Dragon Slash (~150% damage to dragons), @13 Metal Slash (~2 damage to metal slime types & often hits), @35 Miracle Slash (always slash once to drain HP from damage dealt), @58 Falcon Slash (double slash attack), @88 Gigaslash (strong group slasher)

Bonuses: @7 Attack+10 with Swords, @22 Critical Hit Rate Up with Swords, @42 Attack+20 with Swords, @76 Attack+30 with Swords, @100 Omnivocational Swordmaster

-Axe- 

Yeah, they're motherfucking axes, and they're probably one of the best SUPPORT weapons. Yeah, I know that sounds lame, but hear me out. Axes have uses other than just hitting a single enemy. See that group of foes? Chop 'em down with Axes of Evil. Boss has a defense buff? Helm Splitter that sucker back to normal. Annoying ass enemy who won't die easily? Try to paralyze it with Parallax. Metal King Slime? Hatchet Man it and you may rake in major EXP. The only mediocre skill axes have is Poplar Toppler, which does extra damage... to plants, all of which are pretty damn weak to begin with. Otherwise, a good choice for a support character and a versatile one to boot.

+Weapon Progression+

Skills: @3 Poplar Toppler (~150% damage to plants), @13 Parallax (~125% damage + chance of paralyzing foe), @35 Helm Splitter (strikes and may lower defense), @58 Hatchet Man (50% hit chance, but criticals when it hits), @88 Axes of Evil (strike an enemy group)

Bonuses: @7 Attack+10 with Axes, @22 Critical Hit Rate up with axes, @42 Attack+20 with Axes, @76 Attack+30 with Axes, @100 Omnivocational Axemaster

-Spear- 

Role

+Weapon Skills+

-Fan- 

Role

+Weapon Skills+

(Will add more later)

Alchemy and Ingredient Breakdown
-When is it first available?-

Krak Pot, your sentient little alchemy pot buddy, becomes available after fully completing the Wight Knight ordeal (beating the Morag, talking with the king and princess of Stornway after doing so, etc. You'll know when you're done.). Go back to the Stornway Inn/Quester's Rest and talk with Erinn. She should bring it out after doing so (If not, then you probably need to wrap up something you missed with the king and princess.). Sadly, you cannot take it with you, but the good news is that it does INSTANT alchemy for a combo up to nine times at once. To clarify: If you have 18 Medicinal Herbs and you wanted 9 Strong Medicines, all you have to do is "Use a Recipe" and tell Krak Pot that you want 9 of it. Alternatively, you CAN use "Try Your Luck" to set the values yourself, but you must have the proper numeral pairs for the product, and can only add 9 of them that way, as opposed to recipes where you can make them regardless of the total number of ingredients, just no more than 9 of the final product.

-Where to find what ingredient on the overworld -

(a copy of that alchemy map picture will go here)

-"Why is this ingredient respawn taking so long?"/"Why am I getting so little of this ingredient?"

There's a reason for that. Respawn times and ingredient quantities vary per a number of various factors, each of which seem diiferent per each save (or cart). You may find much more of a certain ingredient much more often than somebody else might. In addition, from one day to the next (likely REAL day, but not necessarily to count out the in-game days), you may find an abundance of an ingredient that you found so little of before. There's no real rhyme or reason to these rates, the ingredients just pop up or they don't. However, they are all consistent in each and every game as to where they spawn and are located.

'''-Why can't I find [ingredient] on the Overworld? -'''

Some ingredients: must be bought, must made by Alchemy, can only be found in blue chests, are rare monster drops, and lastly, some ingredients must be alchemized already before they can be used. Here is an example of the last one: In order to make the Apollo's crown, you must first have the Sun Crown ingredient, which comes from alchemizing a "Skull Helm" and 3 "Saint's Ashes". I'm not sure about each myself, but as soon as I know them, I will post them under this section. I do know that Sorcerer's stones fall under this though. If you're lucky, you may be able to steal an ingredient from enemies and certain post-game bosses. Good luck with that though.

General Advice
 -Tips from Others- 

More on this later.

Links of Interest
-Websites and stuff-