I decided on my sceond run I would do more playing around with the Elementor and fill my bug box, but I seem to have hit a snag, I can only carry 4 Purple bugs, a quick google search has turned up squat.

On sort of related matter(as in I was using an Elementor Host), I had Demacratis wait at the Cliff of Casting, had him equipped with a Psychian that I made to attack all but when I used it the game would just crash to desktop, I don't know what caused it as using it with Paco on the bridge did not cause the game to crash.

It might be because you're trying to pick up a bug you already have? Each bug has not only a colour, but a "pattern" of sorts (also a "level", which determines the pattern types).

For most bugs that you find, they're level 1. The "pattern" should be a single line coming from the center and heading in a direction - looking somewhat like a compass, e.g. northeast, southwest, etc.

To be able to pick up more bugs:

- either move some bugs onto a device (e.g. Elementor Host). If it still doesn't work, swap the bugs you have with the ones on the host and try again.
- or, upgrade some/all of the bugs to a higher level.

OK, looks like it might have been something like that, as I loaded the game up today and got 4 Purple Bugs no problem, I never even noticed you couldn't have 2 with the same pattern, but even so the game still had 4 level 2 patterns not to mention all the others and it chose one I already had? 3 times?

Maybe if it had happened with other Bugs I might have noticed something but this was the first time, and to happen 3 times in a row, you'd think the game would account for that with something like

Player:pickupbug
Bug:level2pattern1
Player:hasroom=yes
Player:hasbug=yes
Bug:level2pattern2
Player:hasroom=yes
Player:hasbug=no
Giveplayerbug

I agree, and also I don't recall it being explained anywhere (that I remember) that you could only have one of each, or why that was a restriction in the first place. I do remember being in a similar situation to you at some point though - and I think I came across the "solution" by chance as I was moving bugs around.

BTW how many different level 1 patterns are there anyway? I think there are more than 4, but if there are only 4 then it might make some sense.

Also I don't think I ever had the issue with level 2 bugs (possibly due to more patterns available?).

Level 1 has no pattern, but for Level 2 there must be 6, 1 for each Element

Middle to Top Left
Middle to Top Right
Middle to Right
Middle to Bottom Right
Middle to Bottom Left
Middle to Left

I've never seen one that connects anything othe than the middle and one of the other elements.

Have you ever used the Two-Barrel Host? I have it set up to supposedly use Freeze and Poison, but only Poison seems to be taking effect and Boots Affinaty is Great just as if I'd got a Poison Msytech Equipped.

Also is there any reason to use the 'spell' ^ or 'spell' ^ ^ the small damage increase doesn't feel worth it compared to the double cost increase

I know what you mean about power - in most cases the "base" version is already easily powerful enough, especially since in almost all fights I would forget to even use Mystech at all since the normal + special attacks are normally more than enough to win.

I vaguely recall a "dual" type host, which is probably what you're describing - i.e. can do two damage types at once. I don't remember if I ever got both effects to work properly or not though.

I assume you're not using one that can handle multiple types but only one at a time - IIRC there are some like that (I think most you find maybe?). I can't remember how to switch between them - though I vaguelly remember being able to choose which one to use in combat. Though it's also possible I'm remembering it wrong and it's only possible to change outside of combat (in which case multi-hosts are only useful insofar as switching damage types is easier than having to move bugs around one at a time).

I also remember the "Great" etc. ratings not working properly with multi-hosts, though I can't recall if it limited the output depending on what you select as output type or if it limited it regardless.

No you 'vaguelly remember' correctly with a Two-Host(or Bivice as they're called in the menu, there's also a Three-Host or Trivice) allows you to choose which of the two elements you equiped in battle, I was using that before I picked up the Two-Barrel, and I'm thinking I'll just go back to that.

Yeah a lot(if not all) of old RPGs really didn't handle magic well sometimes(and to be honest I still don't think they have it figured out) it'd be useful upto a point then you could forget about once your normal attacks did more damage, here it's just REALLY useful or not at all outside of Bane for healing(if you even remember, my first time through I completly forgot and was like "Where's all the status curing items?"

The game doesn't seem to want to explain a lot of things, I'd love to know how all the stats relate to one another, and one that bugs me everytime (the stat thing I can ignore especially when I found out the Double Up Bracer is better than the Beef Bracers) is Throughput, I'm assuming it has something to do with Mystech but there's like no info anywhere.

Yeah TBH I have very rarely - or possibly never - used Mystech to heal or cure status effects.

For healing I tend to use Grumpos' healing powers if I bring him, though even then in 99% of fights the fight tends to be over before I've even had to heal anyone - and in the rare cases I do need to heal someone and Grumpos isn't with me, You can always use a Healgrease. Healgrease is EVERYWHERE - I had so many of those things left over by the end of the game and I never had to buy a single one.


Throughput is how much power you can pump through at once. It is limited by:
- the character's affinity with the type of Mystech
- the Mystech quality/rating
- the throughput of the shieldcell you have equipped
- the amount of power in your shieldcell not being used as a shield

Each type of Mystech requires a certain amount of power in order to function at its "base" level - naturally the higher-level ones cost more power, so a shieldcell needs at least this level of throughput in order to be able to use it.

IIRC there are 4 potential levels for each Mystech type: base, 2x, 4x, 8x - which indicate the power required and also damage potential.

To be able to use the upper tier of a piece of top-quality (Excellent) Mystech (8x) requires a shieldcell with throughput 8x that required to cast it at all (and of course it needs that 8x power stored and available, i.e. not allocated to shields), and it can only be cast by a character with Excellent affinity to that Mystech type (Great I think limits it to 4x, Good 2x, etc. - these could be off but I think they're accurate).

I believe one of the characters explains this part at some point - it's either Grumpos or Rho (or both?). Though IIRC at the time it's explained to you, you have only a few very basic, crappy Mystechs (and also crappy shieldcells with crappy throughput), so it's easy to forget all this when you finally get the more powerful stuff.

As for how stats relate to each other - I think it's pretty simple (ish). From memory it's something like:

- Might == Beefiness
- Average of might and agility == Beat
- Agility == Speed
- Average of Agility and Wisdom == Beat Block

Mystech stuff I think is similar but in reverse or something - e.g. Mystech attack might be average of agility and Wisdom while Mystech block is average of agility and might? Something like that.

Mystech has no "beefiness" equivalent - it's entirely dependent on the Mystech you use and the power you put through it.

OK, I think I understand.

Yeah Rho does sort of explain that it has 2x, 4x and 8x but as with practically everything in the game is poorly explained if at all beyond the fact that each level costs twice as much as the previous, which doesn't really explain throughput, not to mention basically nothing else has numrical values.

So basically whatever the output of your Elementor the Throughput needs to be atleast that right? admitedly I've never looked but I don't think you can find out the 'output' of Mystech you find normally, I do remember last time I had Mystech equipped but only the base level spell(or base and the next one up) was available even though I had full energy but couldn't figure out why.

Yep, throughput needs to be the base output of the Mystech at a minimum. AFAIK throughput for Mystech you find can only be seen during combat when you try to use it (unless I'm forgetting something).

If you only had the base (or base and the next), and you have the energy, it COULD be due to lacking throughput - but it's also quite likely that it's a lower-quality Mystech, or the Mystech affinity of the character who has it equipped isn't high enough (you only get access to all levels if it's "Excellent" - so Boots using Freeze Mystech (or PAL using the yellow one, Grumpos using the white, etc.) should have all 4 if throughput + quality are high enough).

Also I think Grumpos can use the black Mystech (the one that mind controls) at Excellent as well.