Geddoe Chapter 2 beginning choices & reduced party free-roam

[KFCrispy]

I posted this long ago in the recruiting research thread and figured it's useful to keep as a separate topic

Geddoe Chapter 2 beginning choices:
-you can leave town before visiting the "fruit man" - so Geddoe can go out alone, but you can also take Ace and/or Aila. It's possible to beat the Mountain Path treasure boss to gain a good number of levels.
-you can visit the "fruit man" alone
-you can visit the "fruit man" with just Aila (grab her from the tavern)
-you can visit the "fruit man" with just Ace (grab him from the tavern) - this has a funny conversation and is completely different from the dialogue when Aila is around.
-you can visit the "fruit man" with both Ace and Aila

Before visiting the fruit man, you can leave Caleria and free roam the Grasslands with whoever you picked up--Geddoe alone, with Ace, with Aila, or with both. However, I recommend visiting the Fruit Man first...
After visiting the Fruit Man, you can still avoid Joker and Queen (and Ace if you didn't take him from the tavern) and leave Caleria to free roam the Grasslands with your current party. Now, Northern Cavern is available!
-If you did not take Aila or Ace to see the fruit man, neither will be available to take afterwards.

As soon as you run into Queen and Joker (and Ace if you didn't take him from the tavern), your party reorganizes to the full 6-person group and you can visit Le Buque.

Free roam opportunities without Aila/Queen from Le Buque:
-When you are at Le Buque, Aila will run off by herself to spy on "that woman." At this point you can leave her behind and roam the Grasslands once again.
-If you choose "I guess" instead of "Let's see what she has to say", Aila and Queen will sit down to listen to Iku's story, and you can ditch the ladies to roam the map again.

Warning about visiting Budehuc Castle
It's very important to note that with an incomplete Geddoe-team, you can't trigger the "first visit" event at Budehuc which means you can't initiate recruiting. so this is a slight problem only if you didn't visit Budehuc in Chapter 1.

[eldrasidar]

You can also leave with ace and/or aila before visiting the fruit man. Fighting the rock golem with any combination of these three is incredibly useful as you can easily get all of them into the mid 40's just by battling it two or three times.

Kind of weird that you can't unlock budehuc without the rest of the team.

and of course, once you reach le buque there's a whole slew of different options one can take...

[KFCrispy]

well Geddoe's team isn't around to go through the script of Geddoe's first encounter with Thomas and Cecile so it makes sense.

[LucMcDohl]

The Rock Golem can be soloed pretty easily assuming Geddoe has his fourth spell and the Blood Armor equipped; this will give him a huge level jump (I got him to 46).

[KFCrispy]

you don't need that much "power". if you give him really high defense and medicine (with spare meds in the bag), geddoe can take several hits before he needs to heal, and it's just a matter of properly using turns to heal and restock from the bag if you run out.

[LucMcDohl]

That's not how I did it either now that I think of it... Soaring Bolt scrolls are a rare find at Caleria's item shop and a Sacrificial Jizo and a Mega Medicine are all you need with the extra defense from the Blood Armor.

[eldrasidar]

To solo with Geddoe, you will need to spend time in chapters 1/2 getting him up high enough to use his 4th spell, typically around Level 33-36, and should max out his lightning magic skill. Blood Armor and 3 Sacrificial Jizo is definitely the only equipment you need. The Soaring Bolt scroll is wasting your time, as you cast it as if you had e rank in lightning, rather than Geddoe's normal rank(losing the speed and extra damage). You could do it without the blood armor, if you happen to find a better defensive armor, which I'm not sure exists at that point in the game, but Jizo's are better for him in a boss fight than medicine, since they won't cost you a fight action.

[KFCrispy]

there are many ways to eat an oreo :p
i did grinding for Lightning Magic, but did not wait around to fight the Rock Golem in ch1 just to beat it up with Blood Armor in ch2! There are plenty of armors that do a good enough job, plus accessories, helmet, and Armor Protect if necessary.

[HolyPaladin]

I gave some advice concerning the beginning of Geddoe's Ch. 2 some years back; might be helpful now.

Try using Mike when you're hunting for treasure bosses. With his "C" rating in both 'Runemastery' and 'Trade-In', Mike will be able to help you kill the bosses fairly quickly and also give you the best buy back rate for the useless treasure found in the treasure boxes. Also, his buy back rate is the best, but only because he has the highest rating for 'Trade-In' which is a "C."

Actually, I would wholly recommend using Mike in all of Geddoe's Chapters instead of Jeane. First, Mike makes it easier for Geddoe's team to fight all the treasure bosses without having to constantly go to either Caleria or Budehuc to store rare treasure or to any of the other cities to sell useless treasure. In addition to that, it makes the treasure boss in the Flame Champion's Hideaway easier because you won't have to travel all the way back to Duck Village to sell the useless stuff in the treasure box due to Geddoe having no access to Chisa Village in his Ch. 3. The second reason for using Mike over Jeane is that if you do use Jeane in Geddoe's party, then you may not have access to her at Budehuc for either Chris or Hugo.

Basically, even if you have travel back to Budehuc for him, keep Mike in Geddoe's Party whenever possible during Ch. 1-3.

[gildedtalon]

Actually, I would wholly recommend using Mike in all of Geddoe's Chapters instead of Jeane. First, Mike makes it easier for Geddoe's team to fight all the treasure bosses without having to constantly go to either Caleria or Budehuc to store rare treasure or to any of the other cities to sell useless treasure.

You need to restore your MP

The second reason for using Mike over Jeane is that if you do use Jeane in Geddoe's party, then you may not have access to her at Budehuc for either Chris or Hugo.

Only the recruiter can access the character, the rune shop will always exist once you've recruited Jeane

[eldrasidar]

it can be worth recruiting mike with geddoe though, since he is the only guy who can until the very end of chapter 3.

[HolyPaladin]

Actually, I would wholly recommend using Mike in all of Geddoe's Chapters instead of Jeane. First, Mike makes it easier for Geddoe's team to fight all the treasure bosses without having to constantly go to either Caleria or Budehuc to store rare treasure or to any of the other cities to sell useless treasure.

You need to restore your MP

Indeed, but I'm confused about what that has to do with using Mike. 'Runemastery/Rune Sage' reduces casting time and allows for Rune equipping on the road which both are useful Geddoe's Team (really, Mike seems tailor made for Geddoe's Ch. 1-3), but you can only restore MP at an inn. If you mean using Mike will increase the frequency of using an inn, then that's true; all that would require is to be better with MP management.

The second reason for using Mike over Jeane is that if you do use Jeane in Geddoe's party, then you may not have access to her at Budehuc for either Chris or Hugo.

Only the recruiter can access the character, the rune shop will always exist once you've recruited Jeane

This one was more like me having faint memories of when I used Jeane/Ernie with Geddoe the first time playing S3, only to find out in Hugo or Chris Ch. 1-3 that they were gone from Budehuc. Because of that, I had to restart the game from scratch.

it can be worth recruiting mike with geddoe though, since he is the only guy who can until the very end of chapter 3.

Indeed, along with getting Edge, as well.

Man, this makes me wish S3 had Suikoden 5's entourage system, so we can at least realistically use Edge before Ch. 4.

[gildedtalon]

Actually, I would wholly recommend using Mike in all of Geddoe's Chapters instead of Jeane. First, Mike makes it easier for Geddoe's team to fight all the treasure bosses without having to constantly go to either Caleria or Budehuc to store rare treasure or to any of the other cities to sell useless treasure.

You need to restore your MP

Indeed, but I'm confused about what that has to do with using Mike. 'Runemastery/Rune Sage' reduces casting time and allows for Rune equipping on the road which both are useful Geddoe's Team (really, Mike seems tailor made for Geddoe's Ch. 1-3), but you can only restore MP at an inn. If you mean using Mike will increase the frequency of using an inn, then that's true; all that would require is to be better with MP management.

Nothing to do with increasing the frequency of using an inn, you said that Mike makes it so you won't have to constantly go into town. What I'm pointing out is you will still have to go back to town anyway coz you need to restore your MP
So with/without Mike is the same, you pretty much still have to go into town to restore your MP after fighting a boss

[HolyPaladin]

Nothing to do with increasing the frequency of using an inn, you said that Mike makes it so you won't have to constantly go into town. What I'm pointing out is you will still have to go back to town anyway coz you need to restore your MP
So with/without Mike is the same, you pretty much have to go into town to restore your MP after fighting a boss

Gotcha now.

When I first posted that advice all those years ago, the advice was more or less talking in a general sense, not just as a strategy for the beginning of Ch. 2, because as you level up, you get stronger and have more options like just using physicals and command runes instead of magic. What you cannot do, however, is gain more item space (at least as far as, I remember, the characters' Ch. 1-3s are concerned); that's why Geddoe should use Mike, so you don't lose out on money.

After all, Geddoe's chapters are effectively Suikoden III's hard mode: Geddoe will need all the money he can get, especially to help out Hugo, Chris, Thomas's chapters if you do as I do and have Geddoe recruit all the major store characters, get the Hammer upgrades, and all those antiques.

[gildedtalon]

I once got stuck against Franz in front of Le Buque. I levelled the wrong skills, that battle is pretty tough just like when you have to fight in Vinay del Zexay with Hugo
I tried not using/levelling Fire Magic with Joker, bad mistake. The game is so tough, never gonna do it again
I even have to give up on Thomas chapter 2, forced to level Shield and Armor Protect for Cecile