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TEMPERING FOR DUMMIES The Basic Handbook for Tempering in Legend of Mana

Compiled by Marcus Majarra (marcusmajarra@hotmail.com)
Tests by ANelson (majordragon@hotmail.com)
Version 1.00

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.  Introduction
2.  Updates
3.  Obtaining Your Equipment
4.  Tempering and Altering
    4.1   The Basics
    4.2   Mystic Cards and Slots
    4.3   Permanent And Temporary Effects
    4.4   Material Resistance
    4.5   PROCEDURE: Increasing Essence Levels
    4.6   PROCEDURE: Plunge Attacks And Status Immunities
    4.7   PROCEDURE: Rinsing
    4.8   PROCEDURE: Augmenting Attributes
    4.9   PROCEDURE: Varnishing
    4.10  Post-Varnishing Tempering
5.  Essence Level Specifics
    5.1   Essence Types
    5.2   Silver or Gold?
    5.3   Elemental Spirit Cards
    5.4   Nymph of Dawn Card
    5.5   Wizard Cards
    5.6   Ancient Moon Card
    5.7   Mirrored World Card
    5.8   Essence Consumption
    5.9   Notes
6.  Material Properties
7.  Information Lists
    7.1   Material Resistances
    7.2   Energy Requirement List
    7.3   Item Effect List
    7.4   Card Effect And Requirements List
    7.5   Material Properties List
8.  Examples
    8.1   AltenaAlloy Sword - Increasing Essence Levels
    8.2   DragonScales Flail - Selecting Plunge Attacks
    8.3   LorimarIron Armor - Augmenting Attributes
    8.4   MapleWood Hammer - Varnishing
    8.5   DiorWood Bow - Complete Process
9.  Locations of a Few Useful Items
10. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
11. Credits



1. INTRODUCTION

Ok, you're probably wondering why I'm compiling this guide when there are
already a couple of workable ones with more detailed recipes. You won't find
very detailed weapon or armor creation recipes in this FAQ document. At the
best, a couple of examples to get you started will help you understand the
basics, so that you can later devise your own recipes, much like I did.

This FAQ document contains all the information you need to understand how
tempering works, and how to optimize on your tempering techniques. This will
provide you with the knowledge you'll need to understand how those long and
complicated recipes work, and to see how one part of the tempering process
leads to the next. It's my experience that through a thorough understanding of
how the process works, one can come up with tempering schemes that outweigh
those currently found on the web. A friend and I have worked on obtaining 75
essence levels on DiorWood, whereas most guides can barely get to 60 essence
levels.

I hope that you will find this information enlightening. Please enjoy, and if
you have trouble understanding all of this on the first reading, don't hesitate
to read again. Tempering is a complex process.



2. UPDATES

Version 1.00 (February 26, 2001)
> Created the guide.



3. OBTAINING YOUR EQUIPMENT

First things come first. In order to be able to perform any kind of weapon or
armor modification, you'll need to acquire those particular pieces of
equipment. You can usually purchase these in shops, but the options are very
limited, especially with armory. Second, you'll need to have Watts the
Blacksmith build an equipment smithy in your workshops area. If you don't have
the smithy yet, you'll need to obtain the Bottled Spirit AF, to place the Ulkan
Mines, where you must first complete the events "Mine Your Own Business" and
"Watts Drops The Hammer" before going back to your Home, and reporting to your
workshops where Watts will trigger the "Path Of The Blacksmith" event. Once
these three events are cleared, you'll be free to forge your own equipment.
This offers more liberty than simply buying finished items in shops, since you
can gather the materials yourself.

In any case, the first step in any tempering process is acquiring the item you
wish to temper or alter. You can either buy one, or forge one for yourself,
depending on your preferences. If you need to see how strong a said armor or
weapon will be after forging, refer to section 9. It might also be profitable
for you to hunt for rare weapons or armor dropped by enemies for better
tempering results. For example, you might want to find the rare Captain's Helm,
which is made out of Adamantite, so that you can start out with a good and
workable item. However, you should be careful when tempering found items. The
DragonRing (a DragonScales ring dropped by Sky Dragons) suffers a great power
loss when first altered.



4. TEMPERING AND ALTERING

Onto the piece de resistance! Here's where the spicy information is. Basically,
the process of tempering weapons or altering armor implies the incorporation of
secondary materials onto your weapon or armor. Even instruments are altered to
be rendered magical, as you select an elemental coin to be placed on it.


4.1 The Basics

The first thing you have to know is that only secondary materials can be used
in weapon tempering or armor alteration. Primary materials like metals, woods,
and aerolites are used in the immediate craft of the item in question. Each
secondary materials has direct effects on the weapon or armor in question, and
most (if not all) of them may produce a mystic card when implemented onto the
piece of equipment being transformed. Both of these aspects are relevant in the
determination of what modifications you are implementing in your equipment.

An unlimited amount of secondary materials can be tempered onto any weapon or
armor, but not all will have cumulative or desirable effects. It's crucial to
know what you can correctly temper, and how to do it.

4.2 Mystic Cards and Slots

Purchase a weapon or piece of armor, and go into its Stat screen. On the second
screen, you can observe three dotted lines in the lower-left corner. These are
the Mystic Card slots. Every weapon and every piece of armor has those three
lines, although some of the items you find may already bear properties there,
like the ForbiddenRing bears the Fertility Goddess and the ReviveRing bears the
Phoenix.

Whenever you temper a secondary material onto a weapon or armor, that equipment
gains the material's special powers, if it's compatible with them. If you take
a look at the equipment status screen, you'll notice that the three Mystic Card
slots are unaffected, even though some of the other aspects of the item in
question might have changed.

When you temper a second material onto the equipment you're tempering, a Mystic
Card might be pushed onto the object. This card will be the one representing
the magical effect of the first item you tempered in. For example, if you
tempered a Wisp Silver Coin first, and then follow with a Sulpher, a Wisp Card
will appear as you temper the Sulpher. This is due to the fact that there is a
hidden card slot on the equipment. This is present in all weapon and armor.
Thus, you should look at your piece of equipment as if it had the following
Mystic Card slots:

(----------)    [Invisible Slot]
 ----------     [ Visible Slot ]
 ----------     [ Visible Slot ]
 ----------     [ Visible Slot ]

If a Mystic Card is pushed from the invisible slot, and onto the visible ones,
the Card's properties are added to the weapon or armor. While the Card remains
in the invisible slot, it's considered dormant.

Now, there are two things you have to take into consideration with respect to
Mystic Cards. Items may have some basic properties, and these are always
present when the item is still on the equipment you're modifying, and Cards
have properties that are present as long as the Cards are in the visible slots.
Some items may produce different cards, under certain conditions, like the
various Eyes. Under normal circumstances, Eyes result in Pixie Cards, which are
rather demeaning for the equipment you're tempering. However, when the Ragnarok
Card is present on the equipment, the Eyes don't produce Pixies anymore, but
Evil God Cards in their stead. If you were to place the Ragnarok Card while
there are already some Pixies present, the Pixies would be discarded
immediately, and replaced with their respective Evil God Card. Always keep in
mind that there are two sides to every secondary material you're tempering.

As you keep adding more secondary materials to your equipment, more cards are
pushed down to accommodate the new cards that are being tempered in. When a
card reaches the bottom slot, and another is pushed down afterwards, the bottom
card will be expelled from the weapon or armor, and with it go the item's
natural effects (like a Creepy Eye's power-boost for weaponry), as well as the
Mystic Card's magical effects, AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT PERMANENT. Duration of
specific effects are covered in the next section.

Note that some times, the card animations are not viewed. This is because the
item's card slot disposition will not change with the particular sequence
you're going through. Do not be eluded by these effects. Except for specific
card properties, the lack of animation does not result in a lack of card, if a
card can be produced. This is why tempering five Glow Crystals in a row does
not create four animations of the Nymph of Dawn card, but rather three.
Whenever you don't see an animation and don't feel sure of how the item is
going, don't hesitate to leave the workshop and check.


4.3 Permanent And Temporary Effects

As you temper various materials onto your equipment, you'll come to learn that
some effects are temporary, and last only as long as the items or cards that
powered them remain on the item, while others are permanent, and persist
indefinitely.

Here is the list of permanent effects:
> Essence levels:          When an essence level is augmented, it remains at
                           that level until a conflictive tempering takes
                           place. Some levels might fall if you temper another
                           essence without the right materials to accommodate
                           it.

> Plunge Attacks and:      Weapons with new plunge attacks keep them, even if
  Status Immunities        the card that produced them is discarded from the
                           weapon. The only way to remove a plunge attack is to
                           replace it with another. The same mentality applies
                           with status immunities on armor.

> Attribute Augmentations: Many cards give bonuses or penalties to some
                           associated attributes. The Aura card increases luck.
                           These remain unless diminished by another card's
                           limitations.

Also, any other properties derived from those permanent effects stay in, as
long as those effects remain.

Effects that are not associated with permanent effects disappear as soon as the
item or card they're associated with leave the weapon or item being tempered.
For example, on a metal hauberk, adding multiple Spiny Seeds causes the
Yggsdrasil card to augment attributes to a maximum of +10. As long as the
Yggsdrasil card remains on the armor, the augmentations will remain at the
level you tempered them in, but if it leaves, they will adjust to the default
maximum, which is +1 in this case. If another card with a higher limit is
placed, you'll have to find a way to raise them back again. For items that
don't necessarily show a card, but do have effects, like the Sharp Claw under
certain essence level conditions, for example, their effects remain so long as
another item isn't tempered in the weapon or armor, since their lack of mystic
card causes them to be discarded from the item as they are pushed out of the
invisible slot.


4.4 Material Resistance

Essences can be tempered on an item at a difficulty based on the material used
to forge the weapon or armor in question. Primary materials may have different
resistances to essences. For example, woods tend to be highly resistant to
Salamander tempering, but don't resist Dryad too much. For every type of
essence of every material, there are 7 different levels of resistance. However,
most tempering schemes consider only three global levels of resistance:

> Low Resistance (5, 6, or 7)
> High Resistance (8, 9, or 10)
> To Be Avoided At All Costs (32)

The higher the resistance of the material, the more difficult it is to temper
that particular essence onto the final product. DiorWood has a resistance of 5
to Dryad, which means that it can be tempered in at a very low cost. However,
that same material has a resistance of 10 to Salamander, which means that it'll
be much more difficult to raise the Salamander essence than it is to raise the
Dryad essence. The least resistant material overall is DragonScales (total of
55 resistance points over 8 essences). The most resistant material overall is
MaiaLead (total of 256 resistance points over 8 essences), but it's rare and
not particularly strong. It's not worth working on MaiaLead. The second most
resistant material is AltenaAlloy (80 points over 8 essences), and it can be
tempered to about 75% of the strength of less resistant materials. It's sturdy,
but not incredibly strong. However, Adamantite is also considered a highly
resistant material (64 points over 8 essences), but it tempers just like
AltenaAlloy does. This is why we categorized high and low resistances.


4.5 PROCEDURE: Raising Essence Levels

The most fundamental of all tempering and alteration aspects is the raising of
essence levels. On weaponry, it radically increases a weapon's strength. For
example, I forged an AltenaAlloy sword from a power rating of 50 to a power
rating of 232 through essence levels. On armor, it determines how well the
armor protects you from that particular element. You can expect an individual
with three pieces of armor with a Salamander rating of 10 to take very little
damage from fire-based spells.

It is a complex process, and research is always being done to optimize its
results with regards to the cost of materials, the number of essence levels
gained, and the amount of time invested in the craft of such an item.

The process itself involves the addition of elemental coins, the same ones that
are used in the craft of an instrument, to a weapon or armor. This is the most
basic aspect, and adding a few coins of an element can boost some essences a
little. To this, we also combine the power of Glow Crystals, which act like the
increase of heat inside a chemical reaction, and thus increasing the power of
the coins. Not only that, but we also combiner Mercury and Sulpher, which act
as catalysts with their respective essences, and reduce the amount of energy
required to be increased. Chaos Crystals are also often used, since they allow
conflicting essences to be present without canceling each other out, much like
a Basic substance and an Acidic substance would nullify each other out.

To make a long story short, tempering essences is a lot like a chemical
reaction. You have to know what component does what, and why adding one at that
time creates a particular effect.

Getting to level 1 always costs 8 energy. The formula which determines the
energy cost to reach a higher level is:

Energy Cost = Material Resistance x (2 x Current Level)

Thus, raising Salamander on AltenaAlloy (resistance 10) to level 1 would
require the addition of any amount of Salamander energy (cost = 8), level 2
would require 20 points, and level 3 would require 40 more points.


4.6 PROCEDURE: Plunge Attacks And Status Immunities

It's recommended that, immediately after completing the tempering of the
essences in your weapon or armor, you temper in your weapon's new plunge
attacks or the armor's status immunities. The reason for this is simple. The
process doesn't require for you to cleanse the item you're working on, and the
effects are permanent until manually removed. Although this procedure can be
performed at the same time you temper essences, it's not recommended to do so,
unless you specifically want to add effects derived from Evil God cards without
going through the Ragnarok card first.

You see, the cards that give weapons their special plunge attacks and status
immunities for armor have essence level requirements. For Evil God cards, they
have complicated requirements when the Ragnarok card is not present. In most
cases, this involves having one particular essence at level 6 or above, and
having another essence at level 0. This is the only instance when it's
necessary to perform this procedure during the essence tempering.


4.7 PROCEDURE: Rinsing

The rinsing process is probably the most simple one. It consists of using items
to remove any leftovers from previous procedures without affecting the item as
it is. Sometimes, residue effects from essence tempering or plunge attack
placement can have a negative effect on attribute augmentation tempering, or
even the varnishing. In order to prevent this backfire, the rinsing process
eliminates any mystic cards left from those previous processes with neutral
cards. In this procedure, it's recommended to use Lilipods, and preferably in
groups of three. Lilipods produce the Enticed Nymph card, which reacts with
almost nothing, but still pushes down other cards. Three Lilipods produce three
Enticed Nymphs, and although the third one isn't apparent when you temper the
last Lilipod, it will become so when you begin the following procedure. If you
want to make sure everything works out well, you might want to use a fourth
one, but it's unnecessary more often than not.


4.8 PROCEDURE: Augmenting Attributes

This procedure can be performed at any time during the tempering process, but
it's best to do it after thoroughly rinsing the weapon or armor in question,
and preferably right before the varnishing. This procedure is very delicate,
and is affected by many factors, namely the augmentation limit, and the
augmentation provided by certain cards under specific conditions. For example,
the God of Destruction card allows the HP attribute to go up to +15, and its
limitations allow it to remain at that level, until the card is removed. This
would mean that were the God of Destruction card to leave the item you're
tempering, the +15 augmentation would fall to its default limitation, if it's
lower. The priority of limitation ranged from the earliest card placed on the
item to the most recent. It's always that oldest card that will predominate
over the newer ones in this perspective. For example, the limitations would be
at +10 with the following card display:

(--------)   [Invisible Slot]
  Cleric     [ Visible Slot ]
  Cleric     [ Visible Slot ]
Yggsdrasil   [ Visible Slot ]

On the other hand, a different card disposition could result in limitations of
only +3:

(--------)   [Invisible Slot]
 Sorcerer    [ Visible Slot ]
Yggsdrasil   [ Visible Slot ]
  Cleric     [ Visible Slot ]

In the first example, Yggdrasil's limitations predominate, since it was the
oldest card placed on the item, regardless of the number of Clerics present. In
the second example, Cleric predominates, even though Yggdrasil is much looser.
This is why it's preferable to rinse the item you're tempering before
proceeding to the Attribute Augmentation procedure. Residue cards from previous
processes may impose their own limitations. You should also keep in mind that
any forged item has a basic limitation of +1 on all attributes. This has always
inferior priority to any card placed on it.

The next key element in the aspect of attribute augmentation in an item is to
know which items raise which attributes. In general, these items do not create
cards, or push down cards with specific limitations. For example, Spiny Seeds
augment all attributes, and add the Yggsdrasil card as well, as long as it's
not already present. This means that a repetitive addition of Spiny Seeds in
the process will only create one Yggsdrasil card, but the augmentations will
keep accumulating until they reach the current limitation.


4.9 PROCEDURE: Varnishing

The varnishing is the final process in the tempering or alteration of a weapon
or armor. It involves the addition of three mystic cards and one item to
further boost the item you're working on. This can be done to optimize weapon
or armor overall power, and can be applied at different levels, depending on
how much you wish to benefit from attribute augmentation.

It's important that the final item you add confer its effects without having to
use a mystic card, for the item that rests in the invisible slot can still
affect the weapon or armor. Items that would produce Evil God cards without
Ragnarok, due to their inability to produce a card under most conditions, serve
this purpose well.

More often than not, one type of card varnishing fits your item well, and you
should aim to use the same card three times to optimize your item's power.
However, this is sometimes disadvantageous in other aspects, namely in
attribute augmentation, since the oldest card available sets the limits.
Sometimes, it might be more profitable to install varnishing cards so far as to
keep the Yggsdrasil in the last slot, so that you can still benefit from its
high limits.

In other words, Varnishing depends on which of the temporary aspects of
tempering you want to keep. Know that Varnishing increases an item's power
tenfold. An AltenaAlloy sword was increased to power 232 from 50, by tempering
in essences (final levels: Wi7, Sh7, Dr9, Au9, Sa10, Gn7, Ji10, Un7). With
merely 3 Clown cards and 1 Sharp Claw, its power increased to 414.

You should also keep in mind that different varnishing techniques have
different requirements to be applied. Additionally, some varnishing techniques
might be useful on some kind of equipment, while others might be more
beneficial on a particular primary material of equipment. Both type and
material are factors in determining which varnishing technique should be used
for optimization.


4.10 Post-Varnishing Tempering

If you happen to discover a new tempering technique and you wish to apply it on
a previously forged item, know that it's within your boundaries to do so. In
order to temper safely after the varnishing, you simply rinse your weapon or
armor, as shown in the procedures above. Afterwards, you're free to perform any
new tempering on that weapon with normal results. However, you lose all
attribute augmentations, save for a maximum of +1 in each attribute, as well as
the power boost gained from the varnishing itself. You will have to do these
steps once again.

Post-varnishing tempering is most often used when you would like to add new
plunge attacks or status immunities to your equipment, or when you wish to
further temper in your essences. The latter is not recommended, since most
tempering recipes are specifically designed to follow a particular order of
tempering. With essence levels already locked in, tempering old or new essences
might create conflict, and render the process more difficult and limited.

Once you are done with this, you can proceed to rinse your item as needed, and
retrace your steps back to the varnishing.



5. ESSENCE LEVEL SPECIFICS

The tempering of essence levels is discussed in its own section due to its
great complexity. A lot of factors are in play here, and you should be aware of
these to develop a working recipe. Know that many of the variables in this
process are still unknown to us, and we're trying to make some sense out of
this as we can.


5.1 Essence Types

All essences have similarities, but not all essences temper alike. For example,
all essences are predominant over other particular essences, and all essences
are dominated by other particular essences. In some cases, one essence might be
dominant over another, and be dominated by it at the same time. However, the
determination of dominance is usually applied when an essence is tempered after
another. Here is the list of the eight essences and their respective
properties:

Wisp: Essence of light, and charm. It dominates over Shade. It is dominated by
      Shade. Like the essence that conflicts it, it's considered to be
      semi-neutral when in conflict. It's possible in most cases to temper Wisp
      after tempering Shade without creating chaos, even though the inverted
      order might not produce the same result. With regard to direct tempering,
      Wisp is considered a tough essence, and is more complicated to temper.

Shade: Essence of darkness, and spirit. It dominates over Wisp. It is dominated
       by Wisp. Like the essence that conflicts it, it's considered to be
       semi-neutral when in conflict. It's possible in most cases to temper
       Wisp after tempering Shade without creating chaos, even though the
       inverted order might not produce the same result. With regard to direct
       tempering, Shade is considered a tough essence, and is more complicated
       to temper.

Dryad: Essence of nature, and constitution. It dominates over Aura. It is
       dominated by Aura. Like the essence that conflicts it, it's considered
       to be quasi-neutral when in conflict. It's possible in many cases to
       temper them in any order without creating chaos. With regard to direct
       tempering, Dryad is considered a common essence, and tempers normally.
       Its nature is affected by the balance of Wisp and Shade.

Aura: Essence of materialism, and luck. It dominates over Dryad. It is
      dominated by Dryad. Life the essence that conflicts it, it's considered
      to be quasi-neutral when in conflict. It's possible in many cases to
      temper them in any order without creating chaos. With regard to direct
      tempering, Aura is considered a common essence, and tempers normally. Its
      nature is affected by the balance of Wisp and Shade.

Salamander: Essence of fire, and strength. It dominates over Gnome. It is
            dominated by Undine. With regard to direct tempering, Salamander is
            considered a common essence, and tempers normally. Its nature is
            affected by the presence of Gnome and Undine.

Gnome: Essence of earth, and endurance. It dominates over Jinn. It is dominated
       by Salamander. With regard to direct tempering, Gnome is considered a
       common essence, and tempers normally. Its nature is affected by the
       presence of Jinn and Salamander.

Jinn: Essence of wind, and agility. It dominates over Undine. It is dominated
      by Gnome. With regard to direct tempering, Jinn is considered a common
      essence, and tempers normally. Its nature is affected by the presence of
      Undine and Gnome.

Undine: Essence of water, and intelligence. It dominates over Salamander. It is
        dominated by Jinn. With regard to direct tempering, Undine is
        considered a common essence, and tempers normally. Its nature is
        affected by the presence of Salamander and Jinn.

In some cases, essences are considered sensitive with regard to direct
tempering, and they sometimes raise themselves as other essences are tempered
in the item. This is relevant of the material used to craft the item you're
tempering. For woods, Dryad is considered sensitive, whereas Undine is
sensitive in Coral materials.

When two or more essences that aren't in a dominant-dominated relationship with
each other are tempered all at once, they're considered fully-neutral, and
don't affect each other's growth (unless specified in their descriptions). For
example, tempering Dryad, Salamander, and Jinn at the same time would not
create conflict, because the essences aren't linked.


5.2 Silver or Gold?

What's the difference between the two sorts of coin? Well, for starters, the
Silver Coins provide 48 energy, whereas the Gold provide 64. It's not an
immense difference, but since you're limited to 4 card slots at the very most,
the Golds might be necessary at some time. The other difference lies in the
fact that individually, Gold Coins can divide their energy to simultaneously
boost two essence levels of the same element at once. This is why adding a Gold
Coin to a freshly crafted weapon raises that particular essence to level 2.
Silver Coins can't split their energy in this fashion. The Gold Coin split is
only applied when possible. In other words, if you still have some energy left
after going up a level, the remaining energy can be used to try to go up
another level. After that, any residual energy left is wasted. For Silver
Coins, this happens after going up a single level.


5.3 Elemental Spirit Cards

When tempering in coins and some other items, cards representing the various
elemental spirits might become present in the weapon or armor at hand. Although
they do contribute to your item, their effects are relatively minor. When a
card first becomes present on the item, and that particular essence doesn't
fall to zero, that element's essence marker is inscribed on the item. Also,
these cards seem to taint materials subsequently tempered with their own
essence. For example, if you were to temper a Wisp Silver, followed by a Glow
Crystal, the crystal's energy would be assigned to the Wisp essence, and so on.
This applies to neutral materials. In the case of aligned materials, this is
different. When tempering multiple silver coins of the same element, the
subsequent silver coins gain the ability to raise multiple essence levels, much
like gold coins do. This is why tempering two Wisp Silvers results in a Wisp
essence of 3. Gold coins seem to be unaffected by this process. My personal
tests on tempering in multiple coins of different alignments have been
inconclusive so far, although they seem to come up with interesting results
(see the example 8.5, in a section below).


5.4 Nymph of Dawn Card

These are produced by tempering Glow Crystals onto your item. Probably one of
the strongest sources of energy for the essence tempering process, the Nymph of
Dawn in itself doesn't do much. What it does is that when it's removed from an
item, this card adds 192 energy to the material you're tempering to drive the
Nymph out. This makes for a total of 240 energy for silver coins, 256 for gold
coins, and 286 for aligned Glow Crystals! However, Nymphs of Dawn are highly
conflictive with materials not already aligned with one of the eight elements.
Every non-aligned item that produces a non-Element, non-Nymph card beyond the
first eliminates one Nymph of Dawn automatically, regardless of which slot it
occupies. For example, tempering two Mercury (that produce the Witch card)
after one Glow Crystal would eliminate the Nymph of Dawn that settled with the
Glow Crystal:

    Step #1           Step #2           Step #3
(Nymph of Dawn)   (    Witch    )   (    Witch    )
     Shade         Nymph of Dawn         Witch
     Shade             Shade        ---------------
     Shade             Shade             Shade

However, you should note that if a Nymph of Dawn is due to leave an item
normally when you temper in the conflicting material, this effect does not
occur an additional time:

    Step #1           Step #2
(    Witch    )   (    Witch    )
 Nymph of Dawn         Witch
 Nymph of Dawn     Nymph of Dawn
 Nymph of Dawn     Nymph of Dawn

Keep in mind that in order to best use the Nymphs of Dawn, you have to
coordinate their leaving your item when you temper a material you want to
boost. The Glow Crystals act like an increase of heat in a chemical reaction.
It speeds up the process. Ironically enough, in the japanese version, these are
called Blaze Crystals.


5.5 Wizard Cards

There are two wizard cards: the Sorcerer and the Witch. They are produced by
Sulpher and Mercury respecitvely. As mentioned earlier, these act like
catalysts do in a chemical reaction. They lower the activation energy, or in
this case, they reduce the amount of energy required to gain a level in a
particular essence. Their effects are cumulative, so more cards means even less
energy is required to gain a level.

These can be used to reduce the energy costs of essence consumption as well,
seeing as you'll need to concentrate the entire consumption on a single coin.
This will be explained in detail in a section below, as will be displayed the
energy costs for each level depending on the number of wizard cards present.

Additionally, keep in mind that Sulpher reduces the energy costs for the Wisp,
Dryad, Salamander, and Gnome essences only. To reduce the energy costs of
Shade, Aura, Jinn, and Undine, use Mercury instead. Having both the Sorcerer
and Witch cards on an item at the same time does not cancel their effects. In
fact, any essence can benefit from such a combination, but in order to optimize
results, it's best not to mix them.


5.6 Ancient Moon Card

The Ancient Moon card, produced by the Chaos Crystal, is used to temper
conflicting essences without disrupting other essences. Its effects are
accounted for from the moment the card appears on the item until the moment the
card leaves the item, inclusively. This means that if you temper a conflicting
item that pushes the Ancient Moon in, it won't suffer from essence disruption.
Similarly, the consequence is the same when you temper an item that causes the
Ancient Moon to leave the item. You still benefit from its powers then.

At first thought, you would think that the Ancient Moon could allow you to
temper conflicting essences just as well as non-conflicting essences. In a way,
this is true, but you have to remind yourself that the Ancient Moon occuppies a
mystic card slot, and more often than not, this slot is essential to rise to
one of the higher levels (8 through 12).

Finally, it's a good thing to know that, as with all of the World cards
(Ragnarok, Mirrored World, Yggsdrasil, Dying Earth, Heaven's Scale), the
Ancient Moon can't be present more than once on a particular item. In a similar
perspective, no two World cards can be present on a single item at the same
time.


5.7 Mirrored World card

This card is still a mystery to a large part of the tempering crowds. We know
it can be used to temper conflicting essences more effectively, but we still
don't know how this process is achieved. According to what little info we've
translated from the Seiken Densetsu 4 Ultimania guide, we know that the process
is called inversion, but we're still looking into that.

For those of you willing to test this out on your own, the Mirrored World card
is produced by the Mirror Pieces, and on a Normal mode game, you can get up to
4. Please send us your results, if you have any.


5.8 Essence Consumption

One of the more curious aspects of essence tempering is what we call
consumption. This is a special process that allows some essences to go above
level 9. It involves the essence you want to raise consuming some of the
essence it dominates to gain more power itself. This causes the dominated
essence to fall rapidly, and since this process can be repeated to further
raise in levels, it can be a very expensive one, in the long run.

What you have to do is simple. You need to raise the dominated essence to two
levels below the dominating essence, keep the essence that dominates over the
one you wish to raise at level 0, and later provide enough energy for the
dominating essence without resorting to Chaos Crystals so that its superior
nature and added energy allow it to exploit the conflict, and devour the
dominated essence. However, this has to be done with one coin of the dominating
essence's type, and not more. Any other items used after that coin will be
ineffective when devouring, and will most likely keep weakening the dominated
essence. The only item that prevents the further weakening of the devoured
essence is a Chaos Crystal. Since the successfulness of the consumption lies on
a single coin, you'll have to use some Wizard cards, and even have to
coordinate a few Glow Crystals so that a Nymph of Dawn can boost the coin
further. This is a necessity for the highest levels.


5.9 Notes

Here are a few things you might want to know before trying new tempering
techniques. This information will remain final until new discoveries can be
made:

> Low resistances (5-7) can always be raised to level 9, without resorting to
  essence consumption.
> For higher resistances (8-10), Wisp and Shade can't rise above level 7
  without resorting essence consumption. Any other non-conflicting essence can
  raise to level 9 without resorting to essence consumption. Highly resistant
  and conflicting essences can't raise above level 7 without essence
  consumption, and it's most unlikely that a conflicting essence will be able
  to consume altogether.
> Low resistances can be raised to level 12, through essence consumption.
  However, this requires for the dominated essence to be of low resistance as
  well, since you'll need to raise it to level 9, while in conflict, in order
  to perform the consumption.
> High resistances can be raised to level 11, through essence consumption.
  However, this requires for the dominated essence to be of low resistance,
  since you'll need to raise it to level 9, while in conflict, in order to
  perform the consumption.
> If a process of consumption involves two highly resistant essences, the
  devouring essence will never be increased above level 10, since the devoured
  essence can't be raised above level 7, since it's in conflict. Thus, it's
  best to have the more resistant essences consume the least resistant ones to
  optimize the results.
> The balance of Wisp and Shade is extremely important. Having differing levels
  in Wisp and Shade might cause problems when tempering Aura and Dryad. Even if
  one of these two essences might be less resistant than the other on the same
  material, it's best to raise them both to the same level.
> The process of having a Wisp/Shade or Dryad/Aura consumption is complex, and
  chaotic. Most of the time, the rate of success of this operation lies with
  the type of material used to forge the item you're tempering.



6. MATERIAL PROPERTIES

What determines whether a particular material will make strong weapons and
armor depends on its various properties. Some materials are better for certain
weaponry, while others might be better for armor.

Every material has eight properties. Four that apply to weaponry, and four that
apply to armor. The four armor aspects can be spotted out easily, as they are
the four different types of protection: Strike, Slash, Pierce, and Magic
defenses. Until we can obtain a better translation of the Seiken Densetsu 4
Ultimania guide, the four weapon attributes will remain unknown. However, we
will provide you with the formulas to allow you to calculate the base power of
your weapon or armor. These attributes will also allow you to better determine
which varnishing to use, but there have been some cases in which this data does
not concur with final results, namely with DiorWood.

For weapons:
  (Material Attribute A x Weapon Attribute A)
+ (Material Attribute B x Weapon Attribute B)
+ (Material Attribute C x Weapon Attribute C)
+ (Material Attribute D x Weapon Attribute D)
-----------------------------------------------
              Weapon Raw Power

Weapon Raw Power  192 = Real Weapon Power

Let's try this example with an IshePlatinum Spear

IshePlatinum Attributes
A: 50
B: 50
C: 50
D: 50

Spear Attributes
A: 52
B: 20
C: 24
D: 48

Final Attributes
A: 2600
B: 1000
C: 1200
D: 2400

Weapon Raw Power: 7200
Real Weapon Power: 37 (rounded down)


For armor:
(Material Strike x Armor Type Strike)  96 = Real Armor Strike Defense
(Material Slash x Armor Type Slash)  96 = Real Armor Slash Defense
(Material Pierce x Armor Type Pierce)  96 = Real Armor Pierce Defense
(Material Magic Def x Armor Type Magic Def)  96 = Real Armor Magic Defense

Let's try this example with a DragonScales Armor

DragonScales Attributes
Strike Def: 96
Slash Def: 80
Pierce Def: 40
Magic Def: 160

Armor Attributes
Strike Def: 26
Slash Def: 26
Pierce Def: 26
Magic Def: 4

Final Attributes
Strike Def: 26
Slash Def: 21
Pierce Def: 10
Magic Def: 6

Total Armor Power: 63



7. INFORMATION LISTS

In this section, you will find various lists, with information relevant to the
various aspects of tempering. These include the energy costs for essence levels
when there is a presence of wizard cards, and the effects of mystic cards,
among others.


7.1 Material Resistance

Here is the chart of the various resistances materials have towards the various
elements.

-----------------------------------------------------
Material Type   Material     |WI SH DR AU SA GN JI UN
-----------------------------------------------------
METAL           MenosBronze  |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
METAL           ForsenaIron  |9  9  9  9  9  9  9  9
METAL           GranzSteel   |9  9  9  9  9  9  9  9
METAL           LorantSilver |9  9  9  9  9  9  9  9
METAL           WendelSilver |9  7  8  8  8  8  8  8
METAL           VizelGold    |7  9  9  9  9  9  9  9
METAL           IshePlatinum |7  7  8  8  8  8  8  8
METAL           LorimarIron  |7  9  9  9  9  9  9  9
METAL           AltenaAlloy  |10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
METAL           MaiaLead     |32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32
METAL           Orihalcon    |8  8  7  10 7  9  6  8
-----------------------------------------------------
WOOD            OakWood      |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            HollyWood    |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            BaobabWood   |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            EbonyWood    |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            MapleWood    |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            DiorWood     |7  8  5  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            AshWood      |7  8  6  9  10 7  7  7
WOOD            FossilWood   |7  6  6  9  10 6  7  7
-----------------------------------------------------
STONE           Marble       |7  8  9  7  7  6  10 7
STONE           Obsidian     |8  6  9  7  7  6  10 8
STONE           PedanStone   |7  8  9  7  7  7  10 7
STONE           Gaeus'Tears  |8  8  9  7  10 6  10 6
-----------------------------------------------------
HIDE            AnimalHide   |8  8  7  9  9  7  7  7
HIDE            GatorSkin    |8  8  7  9  7  8  8  6
HIDE            CentaurHide  |8  8  9  7  8  7  8  8
HIDE            DragonSkin   |8  8  7  9  5  10 5  10
-----------------------------------------------------
SCALES          FishScales   |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  6
SCALES          LizardScales |7  9  8  8  7  8  8  9
SCALES          SnakeScales  |9  7  8  8  8  7  8  7
SCALES          DragonScales |7  7  7  7  6  7  7  7
-----------------------------------------------------
BONE            AnimalBone   |9  6  8  8  8  8  8  8
BONE            Ivory        |7  6  7  7  8  6  7  7
BONE            CursedBone   |9  5  9  7  9  7  9  7
BONE            Fossil       |9  6  8  8  10 6  10 6
-----------------------------------------------------
FABRIC          ToppleCotton |6  8  6  10 10 7  7  6
FABRIC          Sultan'sSilk |6  8  6  10 10 7  7  6
FABRIC          JuddHemp     |10 6  6  10 10 7  7  6
FABRIC          AltenaFelt   |7  7  7  9  10 7  7  6
-----------------------------------------------------
AEROLITE        JacobiniRock |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        HalleyRock   |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        AnkhRock     |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        VinekRock    |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        TuttleRock   |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        NemesisRock  |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        BiellaRock   |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
AEROLITE        SwiftleRock  |7  8  10 7  7  8  9  8
-----------------------------------------------------
                Adamantite   |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
                FullMetal    |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
                Coral        |9  6  7  7  9  7  9  5
                TortoiseShell|8  8  9  7  9  8  9  7
                Shell        |8  7  9  8  9  7  9  6
                Emerald      |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
                Pearl        |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
                LapisLazuli  |8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8
-----------------------------------------------------


7.2 Energy Requirement List

The following chart lists the energy required to rise to a certain essence
level while there is a presence of favorable wizard cards (Witch/Sorcerer). Up
to three can be present at any time on an item, and having more tends to reduce
the energy costs. Remember that the cost for reaching level 1 is always 8, and
increasing beyond that without Wizard cards goes along the following formula:

Energy = Resistance x (Current Level x 2)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Material   |Wizard |      Cost For Essence Level Targetted  
Resistance |Cards  |1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
----------------------------------------------------------------
5, 6, or 7 |1      |8    8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768
5, 6, or 7 |2      |8    8    8    8    16   32   64   128  256
5, 6, or 7 |3      |8    8    8    8    16   32   64   128  256
----------------------------------------------------------------
8          |1      |8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768  1536
8          |2      |8    8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768
8          |3      |8    8    8    8    16   32   64   128  256
----------------------------------------------------------------
9          |1      |8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768  1536
9          |2      |8    8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768
9          |3      |8    8    8    16   16   32   64   128  256
----------------------------------------------------------------
10         |1      |8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768  1536
10         |2      |8    8    16   24   48   96   192  384  768
10         |3      |8    8    8    8    32   32   64   128  256
----------------------------------------------------------------
32         |1      |24   48   96   192  384  768  1536 3072 6144
32         |2      |24   48   96   192  288  576  1152 2304 4608
32         |3      |16   24   48   96   192  384  768  1536 3072
----------------------------------------------------------------


7.3 Item Effect List

The following chart displays what effects a particular item has, when tempered
in a particular item. Remember that these are present as long as the item
remains tempered in the item. This chart also displays the basic energy
allocation and elemental association of the items.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Type  |Item Name      Energy|Element  |Equipment Effect               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COINS      |Wisp Gold          64|Light    |                               
COINS      |Shade Gold         64|Darkness |                               
COINS      |Dryad Gold         64|Wood     |                               
COINS      |Aura Gold          64|Gold     |                               
COINS      |Sala Gold          64|Fire     |                               
COINS      |Gnome Gold         64|Earth    |                               
COINS      |Jinn Gold          64|Wind     |                               
COINS      |Undine Gold        64|Water    |                               
COINS      |Wisp Silver        48|Light    |                               
COINS      |Shade Silver       48|Darkness |                               
COINS      |Dryad Silver       48|Wood     |                               
COINS      |Aura Silver        48|Gold     |                               
COINS      |Sala Silver        48|Fire     |                               
COINS      |Gnome Silver       48|Earth    |                               
COINS      |Jinn Silver        48|Wind     |                               
COINS      |Undine Silver      48|Water    |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.STONES   |Fire Stone         24|Fire     |                               
M.STONES   |Earth Stone        24|Earth    |                               
M.STONES   |Wind Stone         24|Wind     |                               
M.STONES   |Water Stone        24|Water    |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.CRYSTALS |Sun Crystal        48|Light    |                               
M.CRYSTALS |Moon Crystal       48|Darkness |                               
M.CRYSTALS |Glow Crystal       96|         |                               
M.CRYSTALS |Chaos Crystal      24|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEEDS      |Round Seed         16|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Oblong Seed        16|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Crooked Seed       16|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Big Seed           24|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Small Seed         24|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Long Seed          24|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Flat Seed          48|Wood     |                               
SEEDS      |Spiny Seed         48|Wood     |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRODUCE    |Bellgrapes         64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Diceberry          16|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Mangoelephant      64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Loquat-Shoes       16|         |Shoes: Strike/Slash/Pierce +   
PRODUCE    |Pear o'Heels       32|         |Shoes: Strike/Slash/Pierce +   
PRODUCE    |Squalphin          16|Water    |                               
PRODUCE    |Citrisquid         8 |         |Weapons: A -, B +              
           |                     |         |Armor: Strike +, Slash -       
PRODUCE    |Springanana        16|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Peach Puppy        24|         |Weapons: A +, B -              
PRODUCE    |Apricat            8 |         |Weapons: C -, D +              
PRODUCE    |Applesocks         64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Whalamato          32|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Pine o'Clock       24|         |Armor: Sleep Immunity          
PRODUCE    |Fishy Fruit        32|Water    |                               
PRODUCE    |Boarmelon          32|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Rhinoloupe         32|         |Weapons: A +                   
           |                     |         |Armor: Poison Immunity         
PRODUCE    |Orcaplant          24|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Garlicrown         8 |Gold     |Nullifies Pixie Cards          
PRODUCE    |Honey Onion        32|Wood     |                               
PRODUCE    |Sweet Moai         32|         |Helm: Strike/Slash/Pierce +    
           |                     |         |Hat: Strike/Slash/Pierce ++    
PRODUCE    |Spiny Carrot       8 |Water    |Weapons: A +, B -              
PRODUCE    |Conchurnip         16|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Cornflower         24|Light    |                               
PRODUCE    |Cabadillo          8 |         |Hauberk: Strike/Slash/Pierce + 
           |                     |         |         Magic Def --          
PRODUCE    |Needlettuce        24|         |Weapons: A +, B -              
PRODUCE    |Cherry Bombs       16|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Masked Potato      24|         |Weapons: A -, B +              
PRODUCE    |Lilipods           8 |         |                               
PRODUCE    |Rocket Papaya      64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Orange'opus        64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Bumpkin            24|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Heart Mint         8 |         |                               
PRODUCE    |Spade Basil        16|         |Weapons: A +                   
PRODUCE    |Dialaurel          64|         |                               
PRODUCE    |Gold Clover        64|         |Weapons: B +                   
PRODUCE    |Mush-In-A-Box      32|Darkness |                               
PRODUCE    |Toadstoolshed      64|Darkness |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEATS      |(All Kinds)        16|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FANG/CLAW  |Sharp Claw         24|         |Weapons: A ++, B --            
FANG/CLAW  |Poison Fang        8 |         |Weapons: C --, D ++            
FANG/CLAW  |Giant's Horn       32|         |Weapons: A --, B ++            
FANG/CLAW  |Scissors           16|         |Weapons: C ++, D --            
FANG/CLAW  |Healing Claw       24|         |Shield: Poison Immunity        
FANG/CLAW  |Zombie Claw        32|         |Pendant: Paralysis Immunity    
FANG/CLAW  |Vampire Fang       24|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EYES       |Little Eye         32|         |Armor: Slash +                 
EYES       |Sleepy Eye         32|         |Armor: Pierce +                
EYES       |Silly Eye          32|         |Weapons: B +                   
EYES       |Dangerous Eye      32|         |Armor: Strike +                
EYES       |Angry Eye          32|         |Weapons: C +                   
EYES       |Blank Eye          32|         |Weapons: D +                   
EYES       |Wicked Eye         32|         |Armor: Magic Def +             
EYES       |Creepy Eye         48|         |Weapons: A +                   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATHERS   |Angel Feather      32|Light    |                               
FEATHERS   |Raven Feather      24|Darkness |                               
FEATHERS   |Clear Feather      24|         |Weapons: B -, D +              
FEATHERS   |Moth Wing          32|         |Armor: Strike/Slash/Pierce -   
           |                     |         |       Magic Def +             
FEATHERS   |Flaming Quill      64|         |                               
FEATHERS   |White Feather      32|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOTTLES    |Aroma Oil          24|         |Hide Armor: Strike/Slash/Pierce ++
BOTTLES    |Dragon Blood       64|         |                               
BOTTLES    |Acid               48|         |                               
BOTTLES    |Holy Water         16|         |Nullifies Pixie Cards          
BOTTLES    |Ether              8 |         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VIALS      |Mercury            24|         |                               
VIALS      |Stinky Breath      16|         |Armor: Poison/Paralysis Immunity
VIALS      |Ghost's Howl       32|         |                               
VIALS      |Dragon's Breath    24|         |Weapons: C +, D +              
VIALS      |Virgin's Sigh      16|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URNS       |Electricity        32|         |                               
URNS       |Moss               32|         |Helm: Sonic Immunity           
URNS       |Ear Of Wheat       24|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PELLETS    |Baked Roach        24|         |Robe: Poison Immunity          
PELLETS    |Blackened Bat      48|         |Pendant: Sonic Immunity        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POWDERS    |Sulpher            24|         |                               
POWDERS    |Poison Powder      8 |         |                               
POWDERS    |Sleepy Powder      8 |         |                               
POWDERS    |Knockout Dust      8 |         |                               
POWDERS    |Rust               8 |         |                               
POWDERS    |Grave Dirt         32|         |                               
POWDERS    |Ash                16|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POUCH      |Hairball           8 |         |                               
POUCH      |Needle             8 |         |                               
POUCH      |Mirror Piece       24|         |                               
POUCH      |Wad Of Wool        16|         |                               
POUCH      |Messy Scroll       16|         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           |Greenball Bun      8 |         |                               
           |Tako Bug           8 |         |                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


7.3 Card Effect and Requirements List

Much like the chart above, the following one describes the effects of mystic
cards, when present, as well as their requirements to be installed. This also
describes the possible attribute bonuses of each card, as well as their
limitations. Due to the amount of content explored, this list will be divided
in two parts. Remember that if an item doesn't have any attribute limitations,
it is limited to the equipment's basic limits, which are of 0 to +1 on all
attributes. If a modifier has a fixed bonus or penalty, it gives the marked
attribute modifier, it's not cumulative. Thus adding multiple Evil Gods does
not add 15 to the appropriate attribute, but it brings the attribute to +15.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Card          |Card              |Attribute|Attribute         
Family        |Name              |Modifiers|Limitations       
----------------------------------------------------------------
WORLD CARDS   |Yggsdrasil        |All Up   |All -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |Staff: All -3 to +9
WORLD CARDS   |Ancient Moon      |         |                  
WORLD CARDS   |Mirrored World    |         |                  
WORLD CARDS   |Heaven's Scale    |         |                  
WORLD CARDS   |Dying Earth       |All Down |All -5 to +10     
WORLD CARDS   |Ragnarok          |         |                  
              |                  |         |                  
              |                  |         |                  
              |                  |         |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
STAGE CARDS   |Bed of Thorn      |         |All -1 to +3      
              |                  |         |                  
STAGE CARDS   |Volcano           |         |                  
STAGE CARDS   |Metropolis        |         |                  
              |                  |         |                  
STAGE CARDS   |Tower             |         |All -3 to +5      
              |                  |         |                  
STAGE CARDS   |Spring            |         |All -3 to +5      
----------------------------------------------------------------
12 HEAVEN GODS|Ruler of the Sky  |Pwr +9   |Pwr -3 to +9      
              |                  |Mgc +9   |Mgc -3 to +9      
12 HEAVEN GODS|Mother of Gods    |Mgc +5   |Mgc -3 to +5      
              |                  |Spr +5   |Spr -3 to +5      
              |                  |Chm +5   |Chm -3 to +5      
12 HEAVEN GODS|Sun God           |Chm +10  |Chm -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |                  
12 HEAVEN GODS|Moon Goddess      |Spr +10  |Spr -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |                  
12 HEAVEN GODS|Thunder God       |Pwr +5   |Pwr -3 to +5      
              |                  |Skl +5   |Skl -3 to +5      
              |                  |Def +5   |Def -3 to +5      
12 HEAVEN GODS|Goddess of Love   |Spr +7   |Spr -3 to +9      
              |                  |Chm +7   |Chm -3 to +9      
12 HEAVEN GODS|Fertility Goddess |HP +10   |HP -5 to +10      
              |                  |         |                  
12 HEAVEN GODS|Ocean God         |Pwr +7   |Pwr -3 to +9      
              |                  |Skl +7   |Skl -3 to +9      
12 HEAVEN GODS|Wind God          |Skl +10  |Skl -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |                  
12 HEAVEN GODS|Wisdom Goddess    |Mgc +10  |Mgc -5 to +10     
12 HEAVEN GODS|Blacksmith God    |Def +10  |Def -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |                  
12 HEAVEN GODS|God of War        |Pwr +10  |Pwr -5 to +10     
              |                  |         |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
7 EVIL GODS   |Fallen Angel      |Chm +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |Witch of Moon     |Mgc +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |Lord of Flies     |Skl +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |Wings of Darkness |Spr +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |God of Destruction|Pwr +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |Beast-Headed God  |HP +15   |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
7 EVIL GODS   |Leviathan         |Def +15  |All -10 to +20    
              |                  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
NOBLES        |Sage              |Def Up   |All -3 to +5      
              |                  |Mgc Up   |                  
              |                  |         |                  
NOBLES        |Man of Valor      |Pwr Up   |All -3 to +5      
              |                  |HP Up    |                  
              |                  |         |                  
NOBLES        |Wanderer          |Skl Up   |All -3 to +5      
              |                  |Spr Up   |                  
              |                  |         |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
MAIDEN CARDS  |Sacrificed Nymph  |         |                  
MAIDEN CARDS  |Enticed Nymph     |         |                  
MAIDEN CARDS  |Nymph of the Sky  |         |                  
              |                  |         |                  
MAIDEN CARDS  |Nymph of Orchards |         |                  
MAIDEN CARDS  |Nymph of Dawn     |         |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
SPIRIT CARDS  |Spirit (Ocean)    |Chm Up   |                  
SPIRIT CARDS  |Spirit (Forest)   |Spr Up   |                  
              |                  |Chm Up   |                  
SPIRIT CARDS  |Spirit (Mountain) |Def Up   |                  
              |                  |HP Up    |                  
SPIRIT CARDS  |Spirit (Shoes)    |Skl Up   |                  
SPIRIT CARDS  |Spirit (Housework)|Lck Up   |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Chm Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Red Hat)         |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Mgc Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Blue Hat)        |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Skl Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Yellow Hat)      |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Spr Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Black Hat)       |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Pwr Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Light Blue Hat)  |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |HP Up    |All -1 to +3      
              |(No Hat)          |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
PIXIE CARDS   |Pixie             |Def up   |All -1 to +3      
              |(Purple Hat)      |Others   |                  
              |                  |Down     |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
BEAST GODS    |Phoenix           |Pwr +3   |Pwr -3 to +5      
              |                  |Skl +3   |Skl -3 to +5      
BEAST GODS    |Unicorn           |Def +3   |Def -3 to +5      
              |                  |Mgc +3   |Mgc -3 to +5      
----------------------------------------------------------------
ELEMENTS      |Wisp              |Chm Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Shade             |Spr Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Dryad             |HP Up    |                  
ELEMENTS      |Aura              |Lck Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Salamander        |Pwr Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Gnome             |Def Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Jinn              |Skl Up   |                  
ELEMENTS      |Undine            |Mgc Up   |                  
----------------------------------------------------------------
MISC CARDS    |Raven             |Mgc +3   |Mgc -3 to +5      
              |                  |Chm +3   |Chm -3 to +5      
MISC CARDS    |Wolf              |Skl +3   |Skl -3 to +5      
              |                  |HP +3    |HP -3 to +5       
MISC CARDS    |Sorcerer          |Mgc Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |                  |Tower:   |Tower: All -3 to +5
              |                  |Chm Up   |                  
              |                  |Spr Up   |                  
MISC CARDS    |Witch             |Mgc Up   |All -1 to +3      
              |                  |Tower:   |Tower: All -3 to +5
              |                  |Chm Up   |                  
              |                  |Spr Up   |                  
MISC CARDS    |King              |Pwr Up   |                  
MISC CARDS    |Princess          |Def Up   |                  
MISC CARDS    |Clown             |         |All -3 to +9      
              |                  |         |Metropolis:       
              |                  |         |All -5 to +12     
MISC CARDS    |Cleric            |         |All -1 to +3      
----------------------------------------------------------------


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Card              |Item         |Essence     |Effects                      
Name              |Requirements |Requirements|                             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yggsdrasil        |Spiny Seed   |Dryad>4     |Faster HP recovery (?)       
                  |             |            |When its limits dominate, it 
                  |             |            |allows Spiny Seeds to keep   
                  |             |            |accumulating attribute modifiers
Ancient Moon      |Chaos Crystal|            |Allows conflicting essences to be
                  |             |            |raised normally              
Mirrored World    |Mirror Piece |Total>2     |Allows conflicting essences to be
                  |             |            |raised by inversion (?)      
Heaven's Scale    |Springanana  |            |Allows HP recovery while moving
                  |             |            |Empowers Phoenix             
Dying Earth       |Grave Dirt   |            |                             
Ragnarok          |Pine o'Clock |Salamander>0|Changes Pixie Cards to Evil Gods
                  |             |Gnome>0     |2HSword: Adds "Ragnarok" Plunge
                  |             |Jinn>0      |         Attack              
                  |             |Undine>0    |                             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bed of Thorn      |Needle       |Dryad>0     |Armor: All ++                
                  |Needlettuce  |Salamander=0|Prevents HP recovery         
Volcano           |Ash          |            |Weapons: C ++, D--           
                  |             |            |Hammer: Adds "Magma Hammer"  
                  |             |            |        Plunge Attack        
                  |             |            |Armor: Freeze Immunity       
                  |             |            |Empowers Phoenix             
Metropolis        |Dialaurel    |Shade>0     |Armor: Magic Def +           
                  |             |Salamander=0|Robe: Magic Def ++, Confusion
                  |             |            |      Immunity               
Tower             |Rocket Papaya|Wisp>0      |                             
                  |Healing Claw |Jinn=0      |                             
Spring            |Fishy Fruit  |            |Robe: Blaze Immunity         
                  |             |            |Pendant: Sleep Immunity      
                  |             |            |Empowers Unicorn             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ruler of the Sky  |Spade Basil  |Wisp>2      |Spear: Adds "Gungnir" Plunge 
                  |             |Total>5     |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Staff: Adds "Electrosceptre" 
                  |             |            |       Plunge Attack         
Mother of Gods    |Heart Mint   |Shade>1     |Flail: Adds "Green Princess",
                  |             |Gnome>1     |       "Game of Death", and "Red
                  |             |Undine>1    |       Dream" Plunge Attacks 
Sun God           |Sun Crystal  |Wisp>2      |Sword: Adds "Sunlight" Plunge
                  |             |Total>4     |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Bow: Adds "Solar Flare" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack                  
Moon Goddess      |Moon Crystal |Shade>2     |Sword: Adds "Moonlight" Plunge
                  |             |Total>4     |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Bow: Adds "Lunar Shot" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack                  
Thunder God       |Electricity  |Wisp>2      |Hammer: Adds "Mjolnir" Plunge
                  |             |Salamander>2|        Attack               
                  |             |Jinn>2      |                             
Goddess of Love   |Virgin's Sigh|Shade>2     |Pendant: Increases Lucre Gain
                  |             |Dryad>2     |                             
Fertility Goddess |Ear of Wheat |Dryad>2     |Armor: Petrification Immunity
                  |             |Total>4     |Ring: Share Exp Crystals     
Ocean God         |Squalphin    |Undine>2    |Spear: Adds "Trident" Plunge 
                  |Orcaplant    |Total>4     |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Armor: Blaze Immunity        
Wind God          |Diceberry    |Jinn>2      |Staff: Adds "Caduceus" Plunge
                  |             |Total>4     |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Shoes: Paralysis Immunity    
Wisdom Goddess    |Aroma Oil    |Total>5     |Shield: Stare Immunity       
Blacksmith God    |Ether        |Aura>2      |Hammer: Adds "Sledgehammer"  
                  |             |Gnome>2     |        Plunge Attack        
God of War        |Dragon Blood |Salamander>2|Axe: Adds "Dragonslayer" Plunge
                  |             |Total>4     |     Attack                  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fallen Angel      |Angel Feather|Wisp>4      |2HSword: Adds "Chaotic Avenger"
                  |             |Shade=0     |         Plunge Attack       
Witch of Moon     |Vampire Fang |Jinn=0      |Sword: Adds "Vampsword" Plunge
                  |             |Undine>4    |       Attack                
Lord of Flies     |Clear Feather|Gnome=0     |Knife: Adds "Sinister Blade" 
                  |             |Jinn>4      |       Plunge Attack         
Wings of Darkness |Blackened Bat|Wisp=0      |Staff: Adds "Golden Touch" Plunge
                  |             |Shade>4     |       Attack                
God of Destruction|Sharp Claw   |Salamander>4|Sword: Adds "Flame Tongue" Plunge
                  |             |Undine=0    |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Armor: Freeze Immunity       
Beast-Headed God  |Poison Claw  |Dryad>4     |Knife: Adds "Poison Blade" Plunge
                  |             |Aura=0      |       Attack                
Leviathan         |Orange'opus  |Salamander=0|2HAxe: Adds "Treefeller" Plunge
                  |Giant's Horn |Gnome>4     |       Attack                
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sage              |Messy Scroll |Jinn>0      |Bow: Adds "Phoenix Falling"  
                  |             |Undine>0    |     Plunge Attack           
                  |             |Total>2     |                             
Man of Valor      |Dragon Breath|Wisp>0      |Spear: Adds "Spear of Light" 
                  |             |Salamander>0|       Plunge Attack         
                  |             |Total>2     |                             
Wanderer          |Wad of Wool  |Shade>0     |Axe: Adds "Woodchopper" Plunge
                  |             |Dryad>0     |     Attack                  
                  |             |Total>2     |                             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sacrificed Nymph  |Ghost's Howl |            |Pendant: Petrification Immunity
                  |             |            |Affects cards from the 7 EVIL
                  |             |            |GODS family                  
Enticed Nymph     |Lilipods     |            |Cleanses items               
Nymph of the Sky  |White Feather|Wisp>0      |Mantle: Allows HP restoration in
                  |             |Total>2     |        battle               
Nymph of Orchards |Applesocks   |Total>4     |Ring: Unconscious time cut   
Nymph of Dawn     |Glow Crystal |            |Adds 192 energy to the item being
                  |             |            |tempered when it leaves the  
                  |             |            |weapon/armor                 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit (Ocean)    |Conchurnip   |            |                             
Spirit (Forest)   |Moth Wing    |            |Bow: Adds "Elven Archer" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack                  
Spirit (Mountain) |Ether        |Aura<3      |Hammer: Adds "Quake Hammer"  
                  |             |Gnome<3     |        Plunge Attack        
Spirit (Shoes)    |Loquat-Shoes |            |Boots: Paralysis Immunity    
                  |Pear o'Heels |            |Shoes: Extra Exp Crystal     
Spirit (Housework)|Hairball     |            |Ring: Extra Lucre            
                  |             |            |Mantle: Sleep Immunity       
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pixie             |Little Eye   |            |Transforms into Fallen Angel if
(Red Hat)         |             |            |Ragnarok is present          
Pixie             |Sleepy Eye   |            |Transforms into Witch of Moon if
(Blue Hat)        |Rust         |            |Ragnarok is present          
Pixie             |Blank Eye    |            |Transforms into Lord of Flies if
(Yellow Hat)      |Sleepy Powder|            |Ragnarok is present          
Pixie             |Wicked Eye   |            |Transforms into Wings of Darkness
(Black Hat)       |Stinky Breath|            |if Ragnarok is present       
Pixie             |Angry Eye    |            |Transforms into God of        
(Light Blue Hat)  |Poison Powder|            |Destruction if Ragnarok is   
                  |             |            |present                      
Pixie             |Dangerous Eye|            |Transforms into Beast-Headed God
(No Hat)          |             |            |if Ragnarok is present       
Pixie             |Silly Eye    |            |Transforms into Leviathan if 
(Purple Hat)      |Knockout Dust|            |Ragnarok is present          
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phoenix           |Flaming Quill|Salamander>2|Ring: Automatically revives if
                  |             |Jinn>2      |      Volcano and Heaven's Scale
                  |             |            |      are present            
Unicorn           |Whalamato    |Gnome>2     |Ring or Pendant:         
                  |             |Undine>2    |    Halves revival time; divides
                  |             |            |    it by three if Spring is 
                  |             |            |    present                  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wisp              |Wisp Gold    |            |                             
                  |Wisp Silver  |            |                             
Shade             |Shade Gold   |            |                             
                  |Shade Silver |            |                             
Dryad             |Dryad Gold   |            |                             
                  |Dryad Silver |            |                             
Aura              |Aura Gold    |            |                             
                  |Aura Silver  |            |                             
Salamander        |Sala Gold    |            |                             
                  |Sala Silver  |            |                             
Gnome             |Gnome Gold   |            |                             
                  |Gnome Silver |            |                             
Jinn              |Jinn Gold    |            |                             
                  |Jinn Silver  |            |                             
Undine            |Undine Gold  |            |                             
                  |Undine Silver|            |                             
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raven             |Raven Feather|            |Bow: Adds "Magical Shot" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack if Witch and Wolf are
                  |             |            |     present                 
Wolf              |Peach Puppy  |            |Bow: Adds "Magical Shot" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack if Witch and Raven
                  |             |            |     are present             
Sorcerer          |Sulpher      |            |Reduces the energy cost to raise
                  |             |            |Wisp, Dryad, Salamander, and 
                  |             |            |Gnome essences               
Witch             |Mercury      |            |Bow: Adds "Magical Shot" Plunge
                  |             |            |     Attack if Raven and Wolf are
                  |             |            |     present                 
                  |             |            |Reduces the energy cost to raise
                  |             |            |Shade, Aura, Jinn, and Undine
                  |             |            |essences                     
King              |Garlicrown   |            |Glove: Adds "Hand of Midas"  
                  |             |            |       Plunge Attack if Aura>0
Princess          |Honey Onion  |            |                             
Clown             |Bumpkin      |            |Knife: Adds "Quick Blade" Plunge
                  |             |            |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Weapons: A ++, B --          
                  |             |            |Armor: Strike --, Pierce ++  
Cleric            |Holy Water   |            |Staff: Adds "Demonicide" Plunge
                  |             |            |       Attack                
                  |             |            |Weapons: A --, B ++          
                  |             |            |Armor: Strike ++, Slash ++   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


7.5 Material Properties List

As mentioned in an earlier section, not all materials are as strong on one
aspect of the weapon or armor you're working on as others. Use the following
values when determining the basic power of your weapon, and in most cases, this
will also help you determine which varnishing technique you will use.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Material        Material     |Weapon Properties     |Armor Properties  
Type                         |A     B     C     D   |Strk  Slsh  Prce  MgcD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
METAL           MenosBronze  |10    10    10    10  |10    10    10    10
METAL           ForsenaIron  |15    15    15    15  |15    15    15    15
METAL           GranzSteel   |20    20    20    20  |20    20    20    20
METAL           LorantSilver |25    25    25    25  |25    25    25    25
METAL           WendelSilver |30    30    30    30  |30    30    30    30
METAL           VizelGold    |40    40    40    40  |40    40    40    40
METAL           IshePlatinum |50    50    50    50  |50    50    50    50
METAL           LorimarIron  |60    60    60    60  |60    60    60    60
METAL           AltenaAlloy  |75    75    75    75  |75    75    75    75
METAL           MaiaLead     |4     85    22    4   |22    45    45    90
METAL           Orihalcon    |38    32    33    37  |30    30    30    40
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WOOD            OakWood      |6     14    6     16  |5     7     9     12
WOOD            HollyWood    |12    28    8     32  |10    14    18    24
WOOD            BaobabWood   |12    42    12    48  |15    21    27    36
WOOD            EbonyWood    |24    56    16    64  |20    28    36    48
WOOD            MapleWood    |30    70    20    80  |25    35    45    60
WOOD            DiorWood     |45    105   30    120 |37    52    67    90
WOOD            AshWood      |27    63    18    72  |22    31    40    54
WOOD            FossilWood   |42    98    28    112 |35    49    63    84
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
STONE           Marble       |2     21    16    7   |9     12    15    6
STONE           Obsidian     |4     43    33    14  |18    24    30    12
STONE           PedanStone   |9     86    67    28  |36    48    60    24
STONE           Gaeus'Tears  |14    129   100   43  |54    72    90    36
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
HIDE            AnimalHide   |1     1     1     20  |8     12    10    15
HIDE            GatorSkin    |1     1     1     40  |16    24    20    30
HIDE            CentaurHide  |1     1     1     80  |32    48    40    60
HIDE            DragonSkin   |1     1     1     120 |48    72    60    90
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCALES          FishScales   |8     7     7     9   |9     8     4     16
SCALES          LizardScales |17    14    14    19  |19    16    8     32
SCALES          SnakeScales  |26    21    21    28  |28    24    12    48
SCALES          DragonScales |88    72    72    96  |96    80    40    160
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BONE            AnimalBone   |18    12    15    15  |11    18    7     11
BONE            Ivory        |36    24    30    30  |22    37    15    22
BONE            CursedBone   |54    36    45    45  |33    56    22    33
BONE            Fossil       |78    52    65    65  |48    81    32    48
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FABRIC          ToppleCotton |1     1     1     9   |9     9     9     18
FABRIC          Sultan'sSilk |1     1     1     19  |19    19    19    38
FABRIC          JuddHemp     |1     1     1     29  |29    29    29    58
FABRIC          AltenaFelt   |1     1     1     39  |39    39    39    78
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AEROLITE        JacobiniRock |15    30    32    20  |18    24    32    12
AEROLITE        HalleyRock   |18    37    40    25  |22    30    40    15
AEROLITE        AnkhRock     |22    45    48    30  |27    36    48    18
AEROLITE        VinekRock    |26    52    56    35  |31    42    56    21
AEROLITE        TuttleRock   |30    60    64    40  |36    48    64    24
AEROLITE        NemesisRock  |37    75    80    50  |45    60    80    30
AEROLITE        BiellaRock   |45    90    96    70  |54    72    96    36
AEROLITE        SwiftleRock  |52    105   112   90  |63    84    112   42
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                Adamantite   |67    135   144   90  |45    135   90    67
                FullMetal    |63    106   102   68  |42    153   42    42
                Coral        |39    26    23    42  |16    59    16    16
                TortoiseShell|31    20    18    33  |13    46    13    13
                Shell        |21    14    12    23  |9     32    9     9
                Emerald      |2     2     2     2   |1     1     1     50
                Pearl        |2     2     2     2   |1     1     1     50
                LapisLazuli  |2     2     2     2   |1     1     1     50
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------
Weapon Type  |A     B     C     D   
------------------------------------
Knife        |44    16    12    48  
Sword        |32    32    32    32  
Axe          |28    36    48    16  
2H Sword     |40    40    40    40  
2H Axe       |40    40    64    16  
Hammer       |8     72    64    16  
Spear        |52    20    24    48  
Staff        |4     44    16    32  
Glove        |0     32    24    56  
Flail        |0     40    28    44  
Bow          |40    4     20    40  
------------------------------------

------------------------------------
Armor Type   |Strk  Slsh  Prce  MgcD
------------------------------------
Shield       |8     8     8     4   
Helm         |8     7     6     2   
Hat          |4     2     2     4   
Hauberk      |12    16    16    2   
Robe         |6     6     6     8   
Gauntlet     |7     6     8     2   
Ring         |1     1     1     16  
Boots        |6     8     7     2   
Shoes        |2     4     2     4   
Armor        |26    26    26    4   
Mantle       |4     4     4     12  
Pendant      |0     0     0     24  
------------------------------------



8. EXAMPLES

In this section, you will find a few tempering schemes, depicting procedures
discussed here. We'll try to be as detailed as possible.


8.1 AltenaAlloy Sword - Increasing Essence Levels

Here, we'll cover a small excerpt from what would be a complete essence
tempering scheme for an AltenaAlloy Sword. You will examine the tempering of
two essences, one of which conflicts with the other, and you will also see the
effects of Wizard cards, as well as Chaos and Glow Crystals. In this process,
we will demonstrate how to raise Salamander to level 9, and Gnome to level 7.
In the end, we will also proceed with an essence consumption, bringing
Salamander to level 10, and then work on raising Gnome back to level 7.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Added   |SA GN|Sword Power|Observations                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forging Sword|0  0 |50         |In this particular process, it's easy to   
Sala Silver  |1  0 |52         |observe how each step may or may not match the
Glow Crystal |2  0 |55         |energy requirements to achieve a level boost.
Sulpher      |2  0 |55         |There are only a few steps in which wizard 
Sulpher      |3  0 |58         |cards are not taken into account, and you can
Sulpher      |4  0 |61         |easily observe how a Salamander card can taint
Sala Silver  |5  0 |63         |the following items tempered, so that their own
Glow Crystal |6  0 |66         |energy is attributed to Salamander. The first
Glow Crystal |6  0 |66         |Glow Crystal keeps raising Salamander, even if
Glow Crystal |6  0 |66         |it's normally unaligned.                   
Sulpher      |6  0 |66         |                                           
Sulpher      |6  0 |66         |Take into account that whenever a material is
Sala Silver  |6  0 |66         |tempered in a weapon or armor, the cards that
Glow Crystal |7  0 |69         |enter or leave the active slots of the item are
Glow Crystal |7  0 |69         |taken into account, even if they won't be  
Glow Crystal |7  0 |69         |present after the item is tempered, or if they
Glow Crystal |7  0 |69         |just became active. This could mean that it
Sulpher      |7  0 |69         |should be possible to have 4 wizard cards at
Sulpher      |7  0 |69         |the same time, but it seems to have no effect.
Sulpher      |7  0 |69         |                                           
Sala Silver  |8  0 |72         |To better understand this simple procedure, try
Glow Crystal |8  0 |72         |to determine which factors are taken into  
Glow Crystal |8  0 |72         |consideration when each item is tempered. The
Glow Crystal |8  0 |72         |optimization of materials can be done in an
Glow Crystal |8  0 |72         |easier fashion by figuring out economic and
Sulpher      |8  0 |72         |effective ways of reaching a particular level,
Sulpher      |8  0 |72         |and more often than not, these techniques are
Sulpher      |8  0 |72         |also made so that when you've just reached a
Sala Gold    |9  0 |75         |new level, you're already working on the next.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chaos Crystal|9  0 |75         |When we first attempted this process, we began
Gnome Silver |9  1 |77         |to wonder how tainting would affect an essence
Glow Crystal |9  2 |80         |in conflict. After thorough tests, it seems a
Sulpher      |9  2 |80         |conflicting essence can only taint while there
Sulpher      |9  3 |83         |is a presence of the Ancient Moon. Note that
Chaos Crystal|9  3 |83         |the Ancient Moon needs only be present when
Gnome Silver |9  4 |86         |tempering an aligned item. Otherwise, a Chaos
Glow Crystal |9  5 |88         |Crystal would be required every 5 items.   
Sulpher      |9  5 |88         |                                           
Sulpher      |9  6 |91         |Otherwise, there are a lot of similarities in
Glow Crystal |9  6 |91         |the tempering of chaotic and non-chaotic  
Glow Crystal |9  6 |91         |essences. It's just that you have to fit some
Glow Crystal |9  6 |91         |Chaos Crystals in between items every now and
Glow Crystal |9  6 |91         |then.                                      
Chaos Crystal|9  6 |91         |                                           
Sulpher      |9  6 |91         |Gnome was only tempered to level 7 because this
Sulpher      |9  6 |91         |is where Salamander can consume it.        
Gnome Silver |9  7 |94         |                                           
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sulpher      |9  7 |94         |Since the consumption must be done with only 1
Sulpher      |9  7 |94         |aligned item, it's crucial to reduce the energy
Sulpher      |9  7 |94         |cost. It seems the consumption here requires 48
Sala Silver  |10 6 |94         |energy at the most, with 3 wizard cards.   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chaos Crystal|10 5 |91         |As you can see, as soon as you keep tempering
Gnome Silver |10 5 |91         |beyond the consumption, the consumed essence
Sulpher      |10 5 |91         |keeps losing power. This will persist until the
Sulpher      |10 5 |91         |Ancient Moon becomes active on the weapon or
Glow Crystal |10 6 |94         |armor. This is why the initial Chaos Crystal
Glow Crystal |10 6 |94         |results in a Gnome power loss. The apparition
Glow Crystal |10 6 |94         |of the Ancient Moon on the following step stops
Glow Crystal |10 6 |94         |that.                                      
Chaos Crystal|10 6 |94         |
Sulpher      |10 6 |94         |Since Gnome was already at level 5, it's much
Sulpher      |10 6 |94         |easier to coordinate the level 6 and level 7
Gnome Silver |10 7 |97         |procedures.                                
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


8.2 DragonScales Flail - Selecting Plunge Attacks

In this step, we will demonstrate how one places Plunge Attacks on a weapon. An
identical process is used when one wishes to put some Status Immunities on
armor, except that you'll be using different components. The reason we chose
the Flail for this example is because there is only one Mystic Card that
provides it with Plunge Attacks, and it happens to provide three of them. We
will observe the process of getting a piece of DragonScales, and tempering it
to a Flail with the "Green Princess", "Game of Death" and "Red Dream" Plunge
Attacks.

---------------------------------------------------
Item Added     |SH GN UN|Flail Power|Plunge Attacks
---------------------------------------------------
Forging Flail  |0  0  0 |51         |             
1 Shade Silver |1  0  0 |54         |             
1 Undine Silver|2  0  1 |61         |             
2 Gnome Silver |3  3  1 |69         |             
1 Undine Silver|3  3  3 |83         |              
1 Heart Mint   |3  3  3 |83         |Green Princess
               |        |           |Game of Death
               |        |           |Red Dream    
3 Lilipods     |3  3  3 |83         |             
---------------------------------------------------

The reasons why we chose to finish with 3 Lilipods are simple. First off, you
have to get the Mother of Gods card to become active on your Flail. When you
first tempered your Heart Mint, the card was dormant. Additionally, the
Lilipods will create Enticed Nymphs, which will help you clean up your weapon,
in case you might not want the cards from the Elements family to taint any of
the subsequently tempered items. This is why it's recommended to perform the
addition of Plunge Attacks and Status Immunities around the same time you're
working on raising essence levels.


8.3 LorimarIron Armor - Augmenting Attributes

In order to demonstrate the augmentation of attributes, we're going to use one
of the most simple, and most popular procedures: Yggsdrasil. Yggsdrasil has the
potential to rise all of a weapon or armor's attribute bonuses to +10 at the
same time, which is why the Spiny Seeds that make Yggsdrasil are so valuable.
It's also crucial that we raise Dryad to level 5, otherwise Yggsdrasil won't
appear. This also requires the cleansing of the armor to prevent the Dryad
cards from tainting the Spiny Seeds, or having the Sulpher impose its
limitations.

----------------------------------------
Item Added   |DR|Attribute Augmentations
----------------------------------------
Forging Armor|0 |None                  
Dryad Silver |1 |None                  
Glow Crystal |2 |+1 HP                 
Sulpher      |2 |+1 HP                 
Sulpher      |3 |+1 HP, +1 Mgc         
Sulpher      |4 |+1 HP, +3 Mgc         
Dryad Silver |5 |+3 HP, +3 Mgc         
Lilipods     |5 |+3 HP, +3 Mgc         
Lilipods     |5 |+3 HP, +3 Mgc         
Lilipods     |5 |+1 HP, +1 Mgc         
Spiny Seed   |5 |+1 HP, +1 Mgc         
Spiny Seed   |5 |+2 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+3 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+4 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+5 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+7 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+9 to All             
Spiny Seed   |5 |+10 All               
----------------------------------------

As you can see, there is an exponential growth in attribute bonuses, which is
why it doesn't require too many Spiny Seeds. This growth is pretty much the
same with all the different methods, but you need to be careful about what your
attribute limitations will be, and how each item contributes towards attaining
the desired attribute bonuses. For example, it's possible to reach a +15 bonus
in Defense, and a +20 bonus in Luck using Leviathan cards, and considerable
amounts of Aura coins or Hairballs, but odds are that every other attribute
modifier on the item will be at -10 by the time the process is complete.


8.4 MapleWood Hammer - Varnishing

Although varnishing seems simple and quick, it's not all that easy to perform
successfully. More often than not, the essence level tempering will affect the
basic attributes of a weapon or armor in a way that one varnishing technique
might be more productive before the essences are tempering while another could
provide better results once the essence tempering is complete.

It's not only recommended, but it's mandatory that the varnishing be the last
process used in the tempering of a weapon or armor. This is due to the basics
of varnishing. It consists of placing on the weapon or armor as many cards that
can boost its basic attributes (see the charts in seciton 7), without removing
the desired attribute limitations from the previous step, and finishing off
with what we call a "capper", which is an item that increases a piece of
equipment's basic attributes without the need of a card. For example, when the
essence level requirements aren't met for the production of its associated
card, Sharp Claws make for good Spear cappers.

Now, the tricky part is finding out to what extent you can boost your equipment
without losing the attribute limitations you so carefully worked on in the
previous step. Many people who raise a weapon's attribute bonuses through
Yggsdrasil will want to keep the Yggsdrasil card on the weapon to save the
bonuses, and this limits the varnishing to only two cards and one capper.
Others will prefer to sacrifice the attribute bonuses in favor of greater
power. For example, varnishing a DragonScales armor with 3 Beds of Thorn and a
Sleepy Eye will result in the most powerful type of armor available, with
ratings of 98 in Strike and Slash defense, 99 in Pierce defense, and 6 in Magic
defense. However, its attribute bonuses will be limited to +3, since these are
the ones associated with the Bed of Thorn card.

In the following example, we will demonstrate a rather simple varnishing of a
MapleWood Hammer. To optimize the results, we will use Holy Water to produce
the Cleric cards, and we'll cap it with a Giant's Horn. You will see that the
varnishing can provide astronimically high results:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Added    |Hammer Power|Cards Present|Notes                              
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forging Hammer|40          |None         |There is one little comment about   
Holy Water    |43          |None         |this specific process. Normally, we 
Holy Water    |52          |Cleric x1    |would have to use 4 Holy Water to add
Holy Water    |61          |Cleric x2    |the 3 Clerics, since the Giant's Horn
Giant's Horn  |105         |Cleric x3    |doesn't normally produce a card under
              |            |             |these essence level conditions. Still
              |            |             |since we're using a wood item, any  
              |            |             |item that doesn't create a card of  
              |            |             |its own automatically produces a    
              |            |             |Dryad card, can it's enough to push 
              |            |             |in the third Cleric.                
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


8.5 DiorWood Bow - Complete Process

This will be the only complete recipe in this guide, and it will include every
aspect of tempering we've discussed so far. We won't go into specific detail
for every single step, but we will describe our observations during each step.
For this example, we will use a DiorWood Bow, and more specifically a Sacred
Bow, which is a very rare item dropped by Chobin Hoods. The reason why we
selected this Bow rather than to forge one altogether is because the Sacred Bow
starts off with a unique Plunge Attack that can't be manually placed on the
weapon.

Step 1: Essence Level Tempering:
--------------------------------------------------
Item Added          |WI SH DR AU SA GN JI UN|Power
--------------------------------------------------
Acquiring Sacred Bow|0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 |33  
--------------------------------------------------
2 Glow Crystal      |0  0  2  0  0  0  0  0 |40  
2 Shade Silver      |0  3  3  0  0  0  0  0 |54  
3 Glow Crystal      |0  6  5  0  0  0  0  0 |70  
2 Mercury           |0  6  6  0  0  0  0  0 |74  
2 Shade Silver      |0  7  6  0  0  0  0  0 |77  
--------------------------------------------------
3 Sulpher           |0  7  6  0  0  0  0  0 |77  
2 Wisp Silver       |3  7  6  0  0  0  0  0 |87  
3 Sulpher           |4  7  6  0  0  0  0  0 |91  
1 Wisp Silver       |4  7  6  0  0  0  0  0 |91  
3 Glow Crystal      |6  7  7  0  0  0  0  0 |101 
2 Sulpher           |6  7  7  0  0  0  0  0 |101 
2 Wisp Silver       |7  7  8  0  0  0  0  0 |108 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Aura Silver       |7  7  8  1  0  0  0  0 |111 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  2  0  0  0  0 |114 
3 Mercury           |7  7  8  4  0  0  0  0 |121 
1 Aura Silver       |7  7  8  5  0  0  0  0 |124 
3 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  6  0  0  0  0 |128 
2 Mercury           |7  7  8  6  0  0  0  0 |128 
1 Aura Silver       |7  7  8  6  0  0  0  0 |128 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  7  0  0  0  0 |131 
3 Mercury           |7  7  8  7  0  0  0  0 |131 
1 Aura Silver       |7  7  8  8  0  0  0  0 |135 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  8  0  0  0  0 |135 
3 Mercury           |7  7  8  8  0  0  0  0 |135 
1 Aura Gold         |7  7  8  9  0  0  0  0 |138 
--------------------------------------------------
2 Sala Silver       |7  7  8  9  3  0  0  0 |145 
1 Sulpher           |7  7  8  9  3  0  0  0 |145 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  9  5  0  0  0 |155 
--------------------------------------------------
2 Glow Crystal      |7  7  8  9  5  0  0  0 |155 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  8  9  5  0  0  0 |155 
1 Dryad Silver      |7  7  8  9  5  0  0  0 |155 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  9  9  5  0  0  0 |158 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Sala Silver       |7  7  9  9  5  0  0  0 |158 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  9  9  5  0  0  0 |158 
3 Glow Crystal      |7  7  9  9  6  0  0  0 |162 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  9  9  6  0  0  0 |162 
1 Sala Silver       |7  7  9  9  6  0  0  0 |162 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  9  9  7  0  0  0 |165 
3 Sulpher           |7  7  9  9  7  0  0  0 |165 
1 Sala Silver       |7  7  9  9  8  0  0  0 |168 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  9  9  8  0  0  0 |168 
3 Sulpher           |7  7  9  9  8  0  0  0 |168 
1 Sala Gold         |7  7  9  9  9  0  0  0 |172 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  10 9  9  0  0  1 |178 
--------------------------------------------------
2 Jinn Silver       |7  7  10 9  9  0  3  0 |185 
3 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  9  0  5  0 |192 
1 Jinn Silver       |7  7  10 9  9  0  6  0 |195 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  9  0  7  0 |199 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  9  0  7  0 |199 
1 Jinn Silver       |7  7  10 9  9  0  8  0 |202 
1 Jinn Gold         |7  7  10 9  9  0  9  0 |205 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  9  0  9  0 |205 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  9  0  9  0 |205 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  9  2  9  0 |212 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  9  4  9  0 |219 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  9  5  9  0 |222 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  9  5  9  0 |222 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  9  6  9  0 |226 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  9  6  9  0 |226 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  9  7  9  0 |229 
--------------------------------------------------
3 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  9  7  9  0 |229 
3 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  9  7  9  0 |229 
1 Sala Silver       |7  7  10 9  10 6  9  0 |229 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  10 5  9  0 |226 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  10 5  9  0 |226 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  10 5  9  0 |226 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  10 6  9  0 |229 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  10 6  9  0 |229 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  10 6  9  0 |229 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  10 6  9  0 |229 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  10 7  9  0 |232 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  10 7  9  0 |232 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  10 7  9  0 |232 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  10 9  10 8  9  0 |236 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  10 8  9  0 |236 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  10 8  9  0 |236 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  10 8  9  0 |236 
1 Gnome Gold        |7  7  10 9  10 9  9  0 |239 
--------------------------------------------------
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  10 9  9  0 |239 
3 Sulpher           |7  7  10 9  10 9  9  0 |239 
1 Sala Gold         |7  7  11 9  11 8  9  0 |243 
--------------------------------------------------
3 Sala Silver       |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  0 |216 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  0 |216 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  0 |216 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  2 |222 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  4 |229 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  5 |232 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  5 |232 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  6 |236 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  6 |236 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  7 |239 
--------------------------------------------------
3 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  7 |239 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  9  7 |239 
1 Jinn Silver       |7  7  11 9  11 0  10 6 |239 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 5 |236 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 5 |236 
1 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 5 |236 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 6 |239 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 6 |239 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 6 |239 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 6 |239 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 7 |243 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 7 |243 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 7 |243 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 8 |246 
--------------------------------------------------
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 8 |246 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  11 0  10 8 |246 
1 Jinn Silver       |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 7 |246 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 6 |243 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 6 |243 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 6 |243 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 7 |246 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 7 |246 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 7 |246 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 8 |249 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 8 |249 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 8 |249 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 8 |249 
1 Undine Gold       |7  7  11 9  11 0  11 9 |253 
--------------------------------------------------
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  10 9  11 0  11 9 |253 
2 Mercury           |7  7  10 9  11 0  11 9 |253 
1 Jinn Gold         |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 8 |253 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 7 |249 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 7 |249 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 7 |249 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 7 |249 
1 Undine Silver     |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 8 |253 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 8 |253 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 8 |253 
2 Mercury           |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 8 |253 
1 Undine Gold       |7  7  11 9  11 0  12 9 |256 
--------------------------------------------------
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  11 9  11 1  12 9 |259 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 1  12 9 |259 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  11 9  11 3  12 9 |266 
3 Sulpher           |7  7  11 9  11 5  12 9 |273 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 5  12 9 |273 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  11 9  11 6  12 9 |276 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  11 9  11 6  12 9 |276 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 7  12 9 |280 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 7  12 9 |280 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  11 9  11 7  12 9 |280 
1 Gnome Silver      |7  7  11 9  11 8  12 9 |283 
4 Glow Crystal      |7  7  11 9  11 8  12 9 |283 
1 Chaos Crystal     |7  7  11 9  11 8  12 9 |283 
2 Sulpher           |7  7  11 9  11 8  12 9 |283 
1 Gnome Gold        |7  7  11 9  11 9  12 9 |286 
--------------------------------------------------
The tempering of essences on an item with a sensitive essence (all Woods are 
Dryad-sensitive) is a rather chaotic one. This is why Dryad seems to grow all 
the way to level 11 with the usage of only 1 Dryad Silver coin, which is a 
rather impressive result, considering the mass of items required to craft this 
advanced version of the Sacred Bow. Just the essence tempering costs you well 
over 300,000 Lucre.

The interesting things to observe in this particular example are the usage of a 
conflicting coin prior to the usage of a Chaos Crystal when that essence is 
first tempered. For example, a Gnome Silver was added before going onto the 
first Chaos Crystal after having tempered Salamander to level 9. This taints 
the Gnome Silver that will come in after the Chaos Crystal without disturbing 
the balance of powers, and provides a useful amount of energy that optimizes 
the cost on Chaos Crystals by an interesting margin. However, you should be 
careful and not add any wizards that may be favorable to that coin prior to the 
conflicting coin, for they may render the coin powerful enough to reduce its 
dominating essence without having enough power to boost radically itself. This 
happened to us when we first started tempering Undine, and we decided it was 
best to simply avoid using Mercury prior to it.

The other interesting thing to observe during this process is how we tried to 
optimize on the Glow Crystal cost by trying to end the sequences that bring you 
to levels 6, 7 and 8 on Glow Crystals, since getting to the next level requires 
a sequence of Glow Crystals who's only purpose is to be discarded. Basically, 
we gave those particular Glow Crystals a double-purpose, and possibly saved up 
around 40,000 Lucre or more in the process.

The last factor that seemed interesting to us was how Dryad got to level 11. We 
were surprised to see it rise to level 10 when Salamander consumed Gnome the 
first time, and we were hoping the same effect would be apparent when 
Salamander, at level 10, consumed a level 8 Gnome to rise to level 11. It was 
unfortunate that Dryad didn't raise in this process, even though Salamander 
reached its targetted level normally. Anthony then came up with the theory of 
having the consumption take place while Gnome was at level 9 rather than level 
8, and it turns out his theory was correct, and we got both Dryad and 
Salamander to reach level 11, at the expense of only 1 Gnome level.

Step 2: Adding Plunge Attacks
-------------------------------
Item Added|Power|Plunge Attacks
-------------------------------
None      |286  |Medusa's Arrow
          |     |Shot         
          |     |Jump         
Moth Wing |286  |Medusa's Arrow
          |     |Shot         
          |     |Jump         
Lilipods  |286  |Medusa's Arrow
          |     |Elven Archer 
          |     |Jump         
-------------------------------
This process is very simple. The Sacred Bow already starts out with the 
Medusa's Arrow in the slot normally attributed to Double Shot, and since we 
found that Plunge Attack to be useful, we decided to keep it, even though we 
might have chosen to replace it with something like the Magical Shot. Instead, 
we thought it might be better to add another Plunge Attack, taking the Shot's 
place. In this case, it was my personal preference that got us the Elven 
Archer, provided by the Spirit (of Forest) as seen in the mystic card tables. 
In order to get the Spirit to appear on the weapon, we needed to push in the 
Moth Wing, and since we were going to proceed onto the attribute augmentation 
process, a Lilipods should do.

Step 3: Augmenting Attributes
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Item Added  |Power|Attribute Modifications                       
-----------------------------------------------------------------
None        |286  |+1 Pwr, Skl, HP, Lck; +2 Chm; +3 Def, Mgc, Spr
3 Lilipods  |286  |+1 All                                       
7 Spiny Seed|286  |+9 All                                       
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is another simple process. In order to gain the benefits of Yggsdrasil, 
it's crucial to eliminate any other card with attribute limitations. This is 
why we added 3 Lilipods to be safe. Afterwards, it was just a matter of adding 
Spiny Seeds "al dente", until we reached the attribute augmentations. Although 
we could've gone all the way up to +10 on all attributes, we decided to stop at 
+9 because we were anticipating the varnishing process which, in this case, 
involved Clown cards, which have limitations of up to +9. Thus we saved on one 
Spiny Seed, and considering the rarity of this item, it's not such a bad 
tradeoff. You should also notice how 1 Spiny Seed doesn't always raise all 
attributes by 1. The growth is somewhat exponential, and if it were possible to 
bypass the limitations of Yggsdrasil, it might only require 13 or 14 Spiny 
Seeds to go all the way up to +20.

Step 4: Varnishing
----------------
Item Added|Power
----------------
None      |286 
Bumpkin   |286 
Bumpkin   |349 
Bumpkin   |445 
Sharp Claw|815 
----------------
The final process is probably the most impressive one, as seen on this table. 
Only 4 items, and our bow went from a useful 286 power to an incredible 815! We 
chose to use Bumpkin here because they raise the A attribute of the weapon 
while reducing the B attribute, and this optimized the bow's basic attributes. 
The Sharp Claw also produced the same effect as the Clown cards produced by the 
Bumpkin, and this is why it created a 400-power boost on its own. Had you added 
a fourth Bumpkin to observe the growth, you would be somewhere near the 600-
power range.

Note that in some cases, you might have to mix varnishing items to keep the 
better attribute augmentations, so don't hesistate to experiment on its own.

The final result of this time- and Lucre-expensive weapon is as follows:

Sacred Bow (DiorWoodBow)
Power: 815
Plunge Attacks: Medusa's Arrow, Elven Archer, Jump
Essence Levels: Wisp 7, Shade 7, Dryad 11, Aura 9, Salamander 11, Gnome 9, Jinn  
12, Undine 9.
Essence Markers: All
Mystic Card Slots: Clown x3
Attribute Augmentations: All +9



9. LOCATIONS OF A FEW USEFUL ITEMS
Here's a small list of where you can find items that might be particularly 
interteresting for tempering.

> Elemental Coins: Various boss locations
> Glow and Chaos Crystals: Lumina's jewelry shop, Alex's shop (before 
                           "Fluorite" event"), Bejeweled City (after "Teardrop 
                           Crystal" event)
> Spiny Seeds: From Trent and the Orchard Tree, after harvesting produce, 
               Lullabuds, Malboros, Shrieknips, Shadow-Zero Mini-Game
> Various Produce: Grown, except for Heart Mint, Spade Basil, Dialaurel, and 
                   Gold Clovers which can be bought at the Bone Fortress
> Sharp Claws: Molebears, Howlers, Kid Dragons, Tyrranos
> Giant's Horns: Gray Oxen, Skull Beasts, Chess Knights
> Scissors: Pincher Crabs
> Various Eyes: Eye Spies, Beholders
> Holy Water: Level 3 Material Shop
> Mercury and Sulpher: Level 2 Material Shop
> AltenaAlloy: Received from metal-reward events, if the land is placed far 
               enough from home, and if it was placed late enough in the game
> Lorimar Iron: Level 4 Material Shop
> MapleWood: Level 4 Material Shop, Woodings
> DiorWood: Woodings
> PedanStone: Level 4 Material Shop, Teedies, Chimera Beasts
> Gaeus'Tears: Chimera Beasts
> DragonSkin: Land Dragons, Sky Dragons, Kid Dragons
> DragonScales: Land Dragons, Sky Dragons
> AltenaFelt: Level 4 Material Shop
> Stronger Aerolites: Dropped finished items
> Adamantite: Chess Knights
> FullMetal: Pincher Crabs



10. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

We have accumulated here a bunch of questions that were asked by people 
experimenting some difficulties with regard to tempering. It's recommended that 
you read these, in case you find a problem you were faced with as well.

Q: What are the best primary materials used to craft strong and temperable 
items?
A: For weapons, the most recommended are Adamantite, DiorWood, DragonScales, 
and Gaeus'Tears. For armor, DragonScales and Adamantite are best.

Q: I'm playing on Normal Mode, and I can't find those items. What can I do?
A: Well, keep in mind that if you use weaker materials, you'll wind up with 
weaker equipment. FullMetal seems to be the weaker alternative to Adamantite, 
but it's equally rare. MapleWood tempers well, and you could replace any 
attempts with DiorWood with MapleWood. Theoretically speaking, they should 
temper the same, due to the strong resemblance in their elemental resistance. 
There's not much you can do for a substitute for DragonScales, I'm afraid. 
Other Scale materials are much weaker. If you can't find Gaeus'Tears, you can 
default to Pedan Stone, which is a tad weaker, but very similar in tempering 
aspects. After that, the best you can go to is the stronger metals (LorimarIron 
and AltenaAlloy), but keep in mind that metals are very resistant to most 
essences. If you want to try out fabrics and hides, go for AltenaFelt and 
DragonSkin, which shouldn't be too difficult to find. Also, you can look for 
enemies which carry items made of rare materials. It's not all that uncommon to 
wind up with a DragonsRing or a DragonsMail when fighting Land or Sky Dragons 
(these are a DragonScales Ring and Hauberk, respecitvely), and Mad Mallards 
drop Captain's Helms, which are made of Adamantite.

Q: What's all this I hear about Bed of Thorn and armor?
A: Bed of Thorn is the best armor varnishing available. A DragonScales armor 
varnished with 3 Bed of Thorn and a Sleepy Eye winds up at a fabulous 98, 98, 
99, 6; a whopping 301 points of defense on one item only. Check the item and 
mystic card lists for details.

Q: How come my varnishing technique doesn't work on X Material when it worked 
for Y Material, and I used the same weapon?
A: This is probably due to the fact that you tempered essences on your weapon. 
It's still a mystery to us how the essences raise weapon power exactly, and 
they may affect the weapon's basic stats in a manner that the varnishing 
technique needs to be changed. Don't hesitate to experiment with different 
varnishing methods, but keep in mind that three identical cards will always 
wind up stronger.

Q: Why doesn't the essence raising technique work the same for Wisp and Shade?
A: My guess is that Wisp and Shade, being the most natural of all essences, are 
simply more difficult to raise. The best guess I can come up with is that these 
essences would be considered to be as difficult to temper as a conflicting 
essence would, and this explains why you can't raise a highly resistant 
Wisp/Shade beyond level 7, even though you can do it without using Chaos 
Crystals. Until more progress is done, a highly resistant Wisp/Shade tops at 
level 7, and a low-resistance Wisp/Shade tops at 9.

Q: How do you know how many cards are affected by a particular card? Couldn't 
it be possible to have 4 wizard cards accounted for when tempering an item by 
tempering your item as a wizard card leaves and another goes in?
A: No. When a wizard card leaves, its effects are not accounted for. This 
includes the turn in which the card is leaving. This is much different from 
other items, as Ancient Moons still prevent chaos when they're leaving, and 
elemental spirit cards still taint an item being tempered as they leave.

Q: Why is tempering so expensive?
A: That's easy. It's because of all the Glow Crystals and Chaos Crystals you 
need for essence level tempering. The Glow Crystals sell at 2,000 Lucre a 
piece, and the Chaos Crystals sell at 5,000 Lucre each. We have a theory that 
any Glow Crystal who's purpose is to simply have its Nymph of Dawn scratched 
out can be replaced by any other item that can produce a Maiden card, but we 
haven't tested this out yet. If this works, lots of Glow Crystals will be 
replaced with the very common Lilipods.

Q: In the meantime, is there anything I can do to reduce the cost of tempering?
A: Yes, you can. If you take a close look at the energy cost table when wizard 
cards are present, you'll notice that Silver and Gold coins have the power to 
raise any essence level 7 without using a Glow Crystal (except on MaiaLead, but 
you shouldn't even consider tempering that). In fact, it might only be more 
economic to use Glow Crystals when tempering the chaotic essences, and you 
shouldn't need more than 2 per essence. All in all, if you want your item to 
have 7 on all essences, you could have to use as little as 4 Glow Crystals. 
Chaos Crystals won't be avoided, though, but you shouldn't need more than 6 or 
8. However, that's already 48,000 Lucre on just those Crystals, and you have to 
consider the heap of Sulpher and Mercury you'll have to purchase as well. With 
rare materials, raising all essences to level 7 could result in weapon powers 
of over 400 or 500, which isn't all that bad, considering the relatively low 
cost.

Q: Argh! I can't even get those more common materials you mentioned!
A: Um, that's not a question... Anyway try bringing a PolterBox pet with you. 
You'll have better odds of getting the items you need. Note that the higher the 
enemy level, the higher the odds of getting rare items. It's also recommended 
that you bring yourself some equipment that raises your own Luck, since that's 
a factor as well. If the attribute augmentation process is optimized, a piece 
of equipment may have as much as +20 in its Luck attribute, so make yourself 4 
items like that (1 weapon, 3 armor components), and you could start out with an 
effective 85 Luck.

Q: I still can't figure out how these essences work. Can you help me?
A: Try going over all the information again. Afterwards, take a look at the 
experiments on AltenaAlloy and DiorWood presented in this guide, and try to 
observe how much of which energy is unleashed at which particular time. 
Eventually, you'll see that the numbers make sense (except maybe for Wisp and 
Shade), and you'll be able to devise tempering schemes.

Q: What's this I hear about Bed of Thorn working on an armor with 1 level of 
Salamander? Are you giving us crap or something?
A: No, I'm not. According to my sources, when a card requires an essence to be 
at level 0 to appear, it might simply mean that your weapon or armor musn't 
have the essence marker of that particular essence. Anthony tested this himself 
on a Bed of Thorn armor. He had 1 point in Salamander, but didn't have its 
marker or the Salamander resistance. I'm not sure if this can also be applied 
to other cards with similar requirements.

Q: How come you didn't include the best tempering schemes for everything?
A: For starters, it would take too long, and this document would be huge 
(moreso than it already is). Also, you have to be able to make your own 
designs, otherwise you'll never understand how tempering works. Finally, 
Anthony and I might make a FAQ DOC with advanced recipes, and nothing more. 
Keep in mind that this is more of a manual rather than a corrector's guide.

Q: How long does it take to understand tempering?
A: That depends on how you proceed to it. Anthony went to it through trial and 
error, and his first trials were made to optimize the currently available 
DiorWood tempering schemes. He never mentioned how long it took him, but since 
he was the only tempering guru I knew when I was starting up, I'm guessing a 
good while. As for me, well that's another matter. I never paid much heed to 
the existing recipes and went directly onto hardcore theory. It took me a week 
(and a few questions answered by Anthony) to develop a 78-essence DragonScales 
tempering scheme, which turned out to be slightly flawed and was limited to 72 
essence levels, until AsianGrinch came by, and tried out something new to get 
the essences to drain correctly. So far, I've been tempering for almost a month 
now. In any case, go at your own pace. It's my experience that learning the 
mechanics of this makes the understanding easier, but you're still in it for a 
few bugs along the way, as Anthony told me so many times. ^_^



11. CREDITS

Pesmerga (ANelson - majordragon@hotmail.com)
         He's my guru of tempering, and I wouldn't be here without his precious 
         counseling. Lots of the work discussed here is acredited to him.

AsianGrinch (tonguyen@mines.edu)
            Another master blacksmith. He discovered how to get stubborn 
            essences to consume in the higher levels when the techniques I was 
            using wouldn't work.

Borris, the Mindless Russian (fdesroches@juno.com)
                             Well, come to think of it, Borris didn't 
                             contribute a lot in the tempering business, but 
                             I'll be damned if there's a LoM question he can't 
                             answer. This dude knows. Along with Pesmerga, 
                             they're working on incredible artifact placement 
                             guides as well.

Albatross (xo_pitseleh@hotmail.com)
          Another person whom's mention is required. He's the one who brought 
          me the translated charts from the Ultimania guide, and without his 
          documents, I wouldn't have understanded so much about the complexity 
          of tempering. If you're happy to have some info charts here, you 
          should thank him as well.

GameFAQs' LoM Message Board
              The people here have supported the work here, and waited 
              patiently for me to gather this all up. Thank you for coping with 
              me and my ego. ^_~

Robert Silvers (neo_rob_silvers@hotmail.com)
               He's my first guinea pig. ^_^ Just kidding. He's the first 
               tester of this document, and any comments on his part will go on 
               the next update, if I can provide any remedy to it.


This Document is Copyright 2001 Marcus Majarra
No modifications authorized without written permission from the author