Star Ocean: The Second Story

Extra difficulty levels:
Complete over 45% of the voice collection. A phrase will appear on the button in the right corner of the screen. Press this button to restart the game. New difficulty levels, including "Universal" will be selectable. Monsters will have double the HP and attack power under the "Universal" level.

Unlocked voice collection:
To hear locked entries in the voice collection screen, highlight an unlocked slot that is next to a locked slot. Press X then quickly press the D-pad over to the locked slot. If timed correctly, you will hear the voice from the locked slot.

Music test:
Collect 75% of the voice effects in the game to unlock the "Music" option in the voice collection screen.

Hint: Instant pick-pocketing:
Build up FOL and skill points, learn the Pick Pocketing technique, and buy the Bandits glove at Herlie. Use the Private Action at the port of Clik before it is destroyed. After the fortune teller speaks of coming destruction, pickpocket her to get the Mischief item. Then, every step you take will result in items such as FOL, potions equipment, etc. Note: This trick also depends on Dexterity (random chosen talent for your character), unless you build your dexterity level high.


Hint: Easy level gain:
Note: A controller with an auto-fire feature is required for this trick. After getting the LEA metal and return it to Armlock, you will get a N.F.I.D. Go to Fun City and follow the story until reaching the part where you are asked to do some "immense training". Enable the auto-fire on X and allow the game to continue running unattended. Left long enough, about 35 levels can be gained.


On Energy Nede, learn the "Counterfeit" skill, then create two Forged Medals. Use one on Crawd, and duplicate the other for an easy level 99 on all characters, including the ones you usually do not fight with.


The following trick allows two level ups for one Forged Medal. First, make sure you have a Dream Ring. It is an accessory that temple rarely raises you up on level. Equip it on the character to be leveled up. Use one Forged Medal on the character her and get in a battle. You will automatically get a level up. Take the ring off that character and get in another battle to receive another level up.


The following trick requires the "Reverse Side". You will need Pickpocketing, Copying(Reproduction), and the Super Specialty skills, and a lot of vellum paper. If this is done many times you will get bounced check. Go near a store so you do not lose your money (caused by bounced checks). Now at some point you will at least get one Forged Medal, which will boost your experience, so you need 1 experience to advance to the next level. Before you use it, go into "Reproduction" and copy the forged medal many times (Magical Film/Camera is required). Then, use this as many times as you have it. It is suggested you use it only once per character.


To make easy levels at the beginning, when you reach the town to cross, buy all the best equipment for Claude and Rena. After that, leave the town . Once you are in the field map, go behind the castle and continue up. Go to the area that resembles a type of mountain. Before entering the mountain, save the game. The enemies in the mountain maybe tough, but if you can defeat one in battle, exit and save on the world map. Keep repeating this and your level will go up fast. There is also an enemy that drops a good sword for Claude at this location. If you need to heal, the castle is not very far away.


Rhat the highest level achievable in this game is 255, or 256 with the little level up bracelet. If you want to gain levels quickly, it can be done around the sixth floor of the Cave Of Trials. The floor is known as the "Bandit's Nest". In this level, you will fight the little thieves and strange gray ones that give you a lot of experience. The true experience lies within the next floor. Make sure you have Claude's Ripper Blast attack at a proficiency of 500 or higher before you brave this floor with a "funny slayer" weapon. If you encounter a pack of blue level 99 Funnies, use Ripper Blast to kill them quickly; they can destroy your party in a matter of seconds. Make sure you also use an Extension Card item, which you can make through the Art skill, and reproduce it using the Magical Camera or Ririca Camera. Use the Extension Card during the battle with the level 99 blue funny thieves. When you have defeated them all, the experience you recieve should be at least 200,000 for each one killed. If you slay a group of six funnies, you should be getting over one million experience points.


In Claude's scenario, just after Rena is kidnapped go back to the forest where you started the game. Fight the enemies there until a new enemy falls out of the trees during a random battle. Be careful; they are very tough this early, but you can still use the Phase Gun. If you manage to defeat them, you will receive about 1,800 experience points. This enemy shows up very randomly. Stay at it and you can progress many levels very early in the game.


Find a shop that sells both Vellum Paper (150 Fol) and Magical Film (900 Fol). You will need level 10 Copying, Courage, and Poker Face. This will give you the two needed skills at level 10, Reproduction and Reverse Side. Note that Reverse Side is a combination of Reproduction and Pickpocketing. Buy 20 Vellum Paper and 20 Magical Film. Use Vellum Paper with Super Specialty Reverse Side. Sell all not useful things immediately. Use Liens and Fill-Ups before you go to sell. Make sure you have blank spaces for these. Sell everything immediately. The Bounced Checks you get when you fail decrease your money. When you get a Forged Medal from Reverse Side, then use the Reproduction Skill to copy it repeatedly. Continue buying film and paper then make and sell things until you have twenty Forged Medals. Go out of town and use the medals on your party, one to a person before battle, gaining levels for every single battle you fight. When down to one Forged Medal, do not use it. Go inside a shop and repeat. Note: This takes awhile, but you can have level 99 on all players, even the ones that you do not use. Also, with this technique your money will actually be rising and not decrease. By the time you reach level 99 you should have more than enough money to last a long time. The cost to buy the paper and film to keep the trick running is 21,000, but the average sell generated from Stocks, Bills, and Forged Papers and Contracts is between 32,000 to 160,000. Note: You can keep the Contracts that you can use in inns and the Second Ledgers that you can use in shops.


Hint: Easy money with Ashton:
Play until reaching the second disc. Note: Orchestra is very helpful. Save up enough money to buy 20 Scythers (or as much needed), and in Alchemy, make as much Damascus as you need for the Scythers. Then, use Orchestra (optional.), and make sure Ashton has Customize at a high level (7 or more). Customize a Scyther with a Damascus. If you are lucky, you will get Ashton's best weapon. They sell for 1.5 million FOL, or 1,920,000 with a high Identify All.


Play until reaching the second disc and have the super specialty skill Publishing. Write a book, go to Central City, and enter the building where you met the mayor. Go to the floor with the publishing room. Talk to the man on the orange carpet, and he ask if you have a book to publish. The "Buy, Sell, Settle" screen will automatically appear. Choose "Sell", sell your book(s), and then select "Settle". Go and complete the Fields, level up, or just take up time doing things. Then return after about three or more hours. Talk to the same man, and if you do not have a book to sell, just choose "Settle". He will answer "When you have a book worthy of publishing, please come back", or something similar. Then, he will tell you the book you sold to him was a hit and sold. You will then get money (from 100,000 or higher). You will probably forget you had sold him a book and come back later and get 100,000's of FOL.


Hint: Easy money:
The following trick can be used if you are level 20 or higher. Once you pass the city of Salva (the place where you get Ashton) and are heading to Cross Castle, you should go to the mountains to the left of Cross. Once you are in the mountains, stay on the right trail. The desert on the other side of the mountains has monsters that you can obtain equipment and items that are worth between one and two thousand coins.


Make sure you have Machinery and Reproduction at level 10 for any character. Then, buy 20 Material Kit and use machinery until you have Rhirica. Buy 20 Magic Film and find a 1-up Pudding. Reproduce it until you have 20 1-up Puddings. You may have to buy more Magic Film. Then, sell 19 of the 1-up Puddings for about 37,000 each. Repeat as needed.


To get easy money at any time in the game, level up the Playfulness Skill. Each time you level up this skill you will get a money bonus. This is by far the easiest way to make 40,000 Fol to buy the Bandit's Glove before Clik is destroyed.


To get easy money on Energy Nede, have Jeanne's Shield (from one of the four fields), level 10 Reproduction with a Ririca (by using machinery), and High Identify All (Preferably 10). The best place for this is Fun City's Shop, because it has most of any tool you need. After getting the Shield, go there and use Reproduction on it as many times as possible. After doing this, Increase Price with Identify All and sell. It will sell for 320,000 Fol. You can use this money to buy more Magical Film for more Reproduction.


Use the following trick to get easy money with publishing on Disc 2. Go to the editor at the Nede publishing company in Central City on Disc 2. Sell him books you made with the Super Specialty Skill Publishing for 1625 Fol. You can go back to him every so often and collect royalties on your books that he has published. Note: You may have to sell him the characters more rare book to actually get them published and collect the royalties -- the editor will mention something about bringing him books "worthy enough".


Get a level 10 in the super-specialty skill "Publishing". This works better on Energy Nede, as this is when you will need money the most. You will also need 20 Fountain Pens, which cost very little, especially if you have Identify All. Have each character publish one Book. Go up to the third floor of City Hall, the book publisher. Have the man buy your books for 1550 Fol. Wait, allowing the game to idle for a day. After at least 9 hours, talk to the publisher again. He will give you the royalties for your book which is often more than 1,000,000 Fol. If you sold eight books (for eight characters; selling the same book twice in one transaction does not work) and waited twenty four hours, you can get well over 3,000,000 Fol. Also, each character publishes one of two books. The most commonly produced one will increase friendship ratings up to 8. If you are trying to get the elusive Claude/Leon ending, having Claude read Leon's "Advanced Heraldry" and Leon read Claude's "Planet of the Winds" is a great way to start. The rarest book that each character produces raises romantic ratings up to 8, However, Private Actions are the only way to ensure couples endings, but published books do help.


This trick should only be used by very experienced players that have reached the Cave Of Trials. When you get to the bottom (level 12, Nest of Angels) of the Cave Of Trials, and have defeated Gabriele Celesta, you get the Silver Trumpet. Use the Silver Trumpet (if your music skill is good enough) to summon the Isilia Queen. Note: The Isilia Queen is the most difficult enemy in the game. After defeating the Isilia Queen, she should give you an Angel Armband each time. Once you have enough Angel Armbands as needed, you can sell them each for billions of Fol. Make sure you equip some of your party members with them, as the Angel Armband is the most powerful accessory in the game.


This trick is very easy and can easily done near the start of the game. After you get out of Salva, go to Herlie and buy the skills to get Perseverance and Playfulness (they are in the same group). Max Perseverance (which takes 80 SP) to save skill points. Then, put 10 levels into Playfulness. Those 10 points in Playfulness will instantly get you 100,000 Fol! If you need levels for the SP, go to Mars and level up there. Within about thirty minutes, you can reach level 17 easily..
You can make money, not much but significantly at the very start of the game, by cooking. When you buy dairy and egg ingredients, it cost 10 Fol x 20 (200 Fol). When you cook them, you will get things such as egg sandwiches, yogurt, fried eggs, bacon and eggs, and some useless and worthless food. If you have a good cook with a sense of taste, like Rena, the food can be sold for about 80 to 120 Fol each. You can keep cooking and make a profit. It is not much, but it can make the difference in the very beginning when you are not strong enough to train in the forest behind Mars or the Mountains in the West of Cross.


Hint: Armor:
By the time you get to your father's airship, you should have the Pickpocket ability. Pickpocket everyone on the ship. Eventually you should have gotten three or four Armors. Those Armors are the strongest ones for the characters on your team.


Hint: Aurablade:
Buy a Force Sword and Customize it with a meteorite and you should get the Aurablade. If this does not happen, make sure Claude's Customize is at level 10. The Aurablade is stronger than the Marvel Sword and the Force Sword.


Hint: Bloody Armor:
Equip the Bloody Armor on any fighter, including Noel, and the wearer will receive no damage. However, the Bloody Armor has an automatic life drain. It can be countered with any recovery spell. The only attack that can harm you is Spoiler.


Hint: Bunny Slippers:
In Fun City, pickpocket the Bunny Ticket dispenser at the Bunny Race Stadium. You can pickpocket Bunny Slippers from him, which will make your speed in battle extremely fast. If you are concerned about this affecting the other characters' opinions of you, do a Private Action and Pickpocket while they are not looking.
Information in this section was contributed by Asira.

Hint: Eternal Sphere and Sharp Edge:
When you get the Sharp Edge from Blacksmith Gamgee in Lacour, never sell it. Although it is worth 5,600 Fol and not very powerful, the Sharp Edge is required to get Claude's most powerful sword, the Eternal Sphere. Customize Sharp Edge and Damascus to Minus Sword. Customize Minus Sword and Damascus to Eternal Sphere.

Hint: Eternal Sphere:
You must have the Sharp Edge obtained from Gamgee for this trick. Customize the Sharp Edge with Mithril to get the Minus Sword. Then, combine the Minus Sword with Mithril to get the Eternal Sphere. It can get more than one hit in on the regular attack without equipping a Slayer's Ring.


There is only one way to get the Eternal Sphere, and it is normally obtained very late in the game. However, it is possible to do it in Disc 1. The trick is the Radar skill or the Mischief or Trickster equipment. This will help to get the Mithril item so you can create the Eternal Sphere weapon for Claude. It is done by customizing the Sharp Edge with a Mithril to get the Minus Sword. Then, customize it with another Mithril for the Eternal Sphere. Also, the Eternal Sphere is more effective if you have the Slayer's Ring and Berserk Ring. This will help get more damage and hits against an enemy.


Hint: Force Sword:
This is a very powerful sword that can be found at the beginning of the game. To get this sword, you must be able to Pick Pocket. You can get that skill early in the game after you go to Cross and meet Celine. Complete the Cross Cave. After that, go right from the castle and stay on that direction until you get to the port town of Herlie. Buy Sensibility (or whatever skill has Playfulness) at the Skill Shop. This will give you more money for the battles. After that, go to the mountains (if you are facing Cross, go left on that path). Save the game just outside the mountain, then go in. These monsters will be very difficult, and you should be on level 9 or 10 before attempting this. Have everybody attack with their strongest skills. When you win, go back to Cross, stay at the inn and repeat. You will gain levels very quickly. Max out the Perseverance skill first. This lowers the required Skill point significantly. Level up the Poker Face skill once, then you will have Pick Pocket. However, to use it you must save up 40,000 Fol (Playfulness will help), and go back to Herlie and buy the Bandit's Gloves. After getting the Pick Pocket skill, go to Mars (just before Herlie) and Pick Pocket the old man by the Inn. You will get a treasure chest. Go out and save. Each time you open the chest you will get three items. After you save, open the chest, go to Claude's Equipment and see if the Force Sword is there. If it is not present, go to "Data", reload the game, and try again. The sword can bring your attack from 300 to 1100. Note: This requires some time to complete.


Hint: Claude's Sawed Sword:
Get Claude's Customize skill up to level10 by getting Metal Casting, and Funtuality to level10. Customize a Walloon Sword with one piece of Ruby then one piece of Orichalcum. The status of this sword will be Attack 990, Hit 80, Guts 60, Critical, 20; No Elements.


Hint: Claude's Silvance Sword:
Get Claude's Customize skill up to level10 by getting Metal Casting, and Funtuality to level10. Customize a Walloon Sword with one piece of Mythril then one piece of Orichalcum. The status of this sword will be Attack 1210, Hit 99, and Critical 30; Elements: the "Happy Face" and the "Dark Eye" (attacking elements).

Hint: Lady Fingers:
Customize a Knuckle with a gold piece and you should get the very rare Lady Fingers.


Hint: Levantine Sword:
Although many believe that the Eternal Sphere is Claude's best weapon this is inaccurate. The Levantine Sword is Claude's best weapon. It has higher attack, and if you equip the Atlus Ring, you will deal 9999 for every hit including the special moves (for example, Mirror Slice). Also, if you equip the Angel Armband, the sword will spray stars which makes the Levantine sword even more powerful.


Hint: Magician's Hand:
Once you get Precis, level up her Machinery Skill to level 10 for a better percentage of getting this item. Buy Tool Box (the item you buy in Linga in Academy Co-Op and its description states that it has tools). Machinery it until you get Magician's Hand, which is a better pick pocketing item than Bandit's Gloves.
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Hint: Marvel Sword:
In the beginning of the Disc 1, go through the mountain east of Cross Castle and go to the sand area. It is very difficult here at the start of the game. Earn as much money as possible and get minerals that are dropped then sell them. Go to Herlie and purchase the Bandits Glove. Go to Clik. Pickpocket the old man by the inn until you obtain a treasure chest. Go outside and save the game. Open the chest. If you do not get the Marvel Sword, reload the game and repeat. The Marvel Sword is extremely powerful and is especially useful when used by Claude.


Hint: Getting Ashton:
Once you get to Herlie, talk to the people directly in front of the entrance. They will tell you that there is a two-headed dragon in the Salva Drift. Go to Salva and enter the secret passage where you went to get Rena in the beginning. The guard will say that there is a person downstairs slaying the dragon. Go there and keep looking until you find a sign reads "Dragons Nest". Keep going into the doors you find and you will see Ashton. Follow him when he leaves. He will leads you to the dragon and he fights it. When he sees you, he talks and the screen will flash white.


Hint: Eluria Tower card key:
When in the Eluria Tower, you have to get a password to get a card key by looking at the statues. The code is A,P,O,C,A.


Hint: Cards, dolls, and portraits:
Make sure to teach Claude the Art technique (Sketching and Esthetic Sense). He is very good at making special cards and dolls, and sometimes portraits that fetch more money. You can also create the Battle Art (for example "The Scream"), which in battle will aid in defeating the enemy.


Hint: Fun City:
This is the place to get the best weapons for most characters. Win Rank A in Battle Arena and to get a lot of powerful weapons.


Hint: Leader's strongest attack:
When you obtain the skill for the leader that makes jagged rocks shoot from the ground, do not remove this skill. Use the skill, and as it levels up the rocks will increase in length and directions making it much better than Mirror Slice. Note: For greatest effect, use the leader's best sword.


Hint: Favorite foods:

Claude: Steak
Rena Shortcake (Reproduce it - it is very rare)
Celine: Baby Rabbitt Rissoto
Ashton: Hamburgers
Dias: Chicken Skewers
Bowman: Misco Soup
Leon: Carrrot Juice
Ernest: Hassaku Tea
Opera: Apple Cider
Noel: Big Tuna
Precis: Chocolate
Chisato: Lady Fingers (Extremely rare, found by using a treasure box).

Hint: Mayor Mansion: Killing all enemies:
Before you have to rescue Rena from the Mayor Mansion, you can use the Phase Gun to kill all enemies with one hit. Note: This is only in Claude's scenario.


Hint: Recommended character selection:
One of the best party choices would to one that is not all out brute force, but is quick and strong with good magic and specialties. Some examples follow. Note: You cannot get Ashton and Opera in the same party..

Claude's scenario
Claude, Ashton, Precis, Rena
Claude, Ernest, Chisato, Noel
Claude, Opera, Leon, Rena

Rena's scenario
Claude, Dias, Opera, Rena
Claude, Ernest, Opera, Rena
Dias, Ashton, Chisato, Bowman

Hint: Read things twice:
If playing as Rena, during the tournament on Claude's or Dias' fight, the game will say things twice; once before they enter the dome and after you enter the dome.


Glitch: Freeze game:
During battles at the Eluria Tower, if you try to escape the game may freeze.

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