recruiting research..

[Belcoot4]

I'm just about at the very end but I'm definitly going to try that with leaving Ace behind. Everytime gap in the story I try to go out and see whats different whos available thats one that I never gave much thought, probaly because at that point Geddoe's party is weak and that trek up the mountain path is rough but I'm going to try it out when I start over again. The only downside of this is that you can't do any recruiting until the very very end of Geddoe's chapter 1 because thats when you would be activating Lake Castle. I found out about that whole fight borus/don't fight borus deal just recently, most of the time I don't even bother with him at the Karaya Village but its worth the experiance. It sure makes recruiting easier when you don't fight him because you can just cut through Brass castle instead of having to go all the way around.

[KFCrispy]

Well i tested out visiting Budehuc in Geddoe Chapter 1 without Ace in the party. No scene occurs, and you are unable to start recruiting. All functions but the Lottery are available to use (Cecile and Martha are nowhere to be found), and the inn costs 50 potch/person instead of the usual flat 10 potch. Sebastian gives you the option to change your party, but of course since nobody's been recruited, there's nothing you can change. Thomas is doing his normal "thinking about something" in his office that's connected to his bedroom.


i checked trying to get into Brass Castle after skipping the Borus battle (I did defeat fake Chris, however), but Geddoe still refuses to enter.... were you thinking of a later chapter when Geddoe has access again? i think at some point he just forgets about the issue and can just walk in.

[KFCrispy]

The beginning of Geddoe chapter 2 is pretty interesting, and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to recruit Nadir as long as certain women count as women and not children. (working on this) You need 3 men, 2 women, and 1 child. Shabon will work as the child, Nei counts as a woman, but I'm not sure about Belle or Aila counting as women or children. For men you can get Twaikin, Kenji (only if you enabled him to appear early in Chapter 1), and you can also take Ace with you.

Geddoe Chapter 2 beginning choices:
-you can leave town without anybody else, before visiting the "fruit man"
-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

After visiting the fruit man, you can avoid Joker and Queen (and Ace if you didn't take him from the tavern) and head out with your current party (Geddoe alone, with Ace, with Aila, or with both Ace and Aila). Northern Cavern unlocks just because you visited the fruit man, and you can exit town.
-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 main group and you can visit Le Buque.

[Belcoot4]

Well I just started over and until my codebreaker gets here tommorow I'm going to just continue with Chris doing her level 99 trick I doubt I'll get that high by tommorow but I'm just killing time until then. I haven't played Hugo or Geddoe's Chapter one yet and this is as far as I am with Chris. Is there anything in praticular I should look for in her chapter since I'm not very far in yet? The test with Geddoe and Brass castle I'll do differently this time, I was about 75% sure that if you decide not to fight Borus that Brass should still be open for him. Did you beat the fake Chris? That might have something to do with it. Then again I maybe wrong because I do believe that Geddoe cannot recruit Kidd and I think he should be available by chapter 2. I'll definitly try taking Geddoe to the North Cavern by him self, I know if I can handle the beginning of Chris's 99 trick with success I should be able to handle taking on that boss with Geddoe. At that point is the boss that 3 headed Chimera or at the joker looking thing? Oh yeah and defeating Chris and Borus, I see you mentioned somethin of a water rune, when first starting Geddoe chapter 1 and every skill point Queen gets send it to Wind Magic. Then when you get to the great hollow and Shiba joins your party (right before you fight illusion Chris) just walk around that area of the Great Hollow and you should get attacked by Soul Slugs, these white flying things, and the monster that gives you the absolute most experiance by this point and not to mention 2000 potch each time the Shadow. Fighting those Shadows this early can be detriment to your part so make sure Ace and Geddoe have their Swing game up, this monster is extremley quick. Which brings me to my next point, you should try to level almost up to 28-30 (i forget) and Queens right hand rune slot should open up and with her Wind Magic being a B you should do heavy damage with the shredding. So again if theres anything else in praticular I need to look for let me know and the rest is just a couple pointers I picked up on the way.

[KFCrispy]

I did beat fake Chris this time, so perhaps you need to lose to fake Chris and avoid Borus... it doesn't seem like it would make a difference though, because you can still visit Brass Castle after fighting fake Chris (win or lose).
i've beaten Chris without a Water Rune on Joker (i rarely want to give him a water rune), but without the rune you're just
depending on Chris not casting Breath of Ice on the first turn.


beating the Stone Golem with just Geddoe is pretty feasible providing you beat it earlier in his Chapter 1 and collected the good armors. Stone Golem hits me for only ~75 dmg.. mega medicines can fully recover my hp which is 336. i just did it and i Geddoe gained 10 levels, 34 to 44


also, there is no point of visiting Northern Cavern, Salome will only show up after visiting the Le Buque -> ??? -> Zexay (scene at the inn) -> Northern Cavern, it's just the Griffon boss.


update on trying to recruit Nadir in the beginning of Geddoe Chapter 2: I don't think Geddoe can get enough women for his requirement. Nei definitely counts as a woman, but Belle and Aila seem to count as children. There's nobody else Geddoe can recruit until Chapter 3, i think, and at that point he most likely won't have a free party.


it seems you have to have finished Hugo Chapter 1 in order to recruit Melville & gang. with just playing Geddoe chapters 1 and 2 and recruiting Billy, Melville and Elliot just stand outside of the "town hall" area, and Melville just says "what do you want?". i even took Billy as support.

[KFCrispy]

I have played only Geddoe's Chapters 1 and 2, and I'm not at the beginning of 3. well i found that man in the Brass Castle inn that mentions Kenji, and I SWEAR I've had games where i NEVER spoke to him. He's hidden behind all of the beds! But more importantly is that Kenji still hasn't shown up in Yaza Plains. my guess is that he will appear either
a) after finishing the portion of Geddoe's chapter 3 to help defend Budehuc
b) he won't appear at all and you need to finish another character's chapter in order to make him appear.
c) he only appears after you've recruited a certain number of SODs
d) combination of the above

It's possible he will only appear if Arthur is available, and if that is the case, you need to finish Hugo's chapter 1.... i think more playthroughs is going to be necessary to isolate the Kenji factor!

[Belcoot4]

Thats definitly the guy you need to go see, a zexen infantry soldier who is behind the bunk beds left hand side back of the inn. Thats really strange he never appeared before but as long as you talk to him and your not in between any story sequences he should appear on the right hand side of Yaza Plains right before the exit to Lake Castle. The only other explanation that I can think of is that maybe e)have another character such as Hugo or Chris talk to him first and then have Geddoe talk to him. I promise, everytime I've played S3 (close to 8 or 9 playthroughs) he has appeared right after talking to the guy in the inn. I kind of wish I went the same route you did when deciding which chapters to play. Lets say I started with Geddoe chapter 1 like you did, is Thomas Chapter 1 available to play before you play Hugo1 and Chris1? I was thinking we could break the recruiting into chapters in an order where from the most characters available all the way to least characters available in a chapter. For example, start with Geddoe chapter 1 because that unlocks recruiting in general, then Thomas 1, this is where I'm not sure because I haven't really broken it down yet but then maybe either Geddoe2 or Thomas2. From reading the guide and the list of SOD's the first two chapters of both Geddoe and Thomas provide the most amount characters to recruited in one chapter. I'm not counting auto join characters either because I do believe a healthy portion of the characters all auto join during chapter 4.

I tried the little one man mission with Geddoe theres nothing special to gain by sending him out but defeating that Rock Golem and that Chimera in the Northern Cavern definitly boosted his level way up. I think I got Geddoe up to 40 and I started chapter 2 at 32 so a whole 8 levels is worth the trip but I found nothing special for recruiting purposes. They should have opened Duck Village also with the northern cavern. If they would have did that then we could recruit Sanae Y and Hortez alot sooner.

[KFCrispy]

well in my Geddoe Chapter 3 playthrough so far, i talked to the man in the Brass Castle inn and now I've finished defending Budehuc Castle.. he still isn't showing up. I'm thinking there has got to be a different requirement. I have a save at the Trinity Site before starting Geddoe 3 so I can try playing other characters' chapters (Thomas, Hugo, Chris) before starting Geddoe 3. I doubt Thomas has to be played because I know that in my Chris level 99 save (posted in the save data section), I've only played Chris 1-3 and probably got Kenji in Chapter 3. I know that he didn't appear immediately in that game either (Chapter 2, when Chris can start recruiting).

I can test one more idea in my current Geddoe Chapter 3 game, which is the minimum recruits idea. I can still pick up Edge, Sanae, Twaikin, Kidd, Kathy, Mike, Koroku, and Mamie.. I will try to check back for Kenji after each recruit.
So far I have recruited: Billy, Jeane, Scott, Peggi, Shabo, Nei, Toppo, Belle, Gadget, Dominic
.. i think i've listed everyone i can recruit. Since I didn't do Hugo 1, I can't get Elliot/Melville/Alanis or Arthur, and i believe Arthur is the only way Geddoe would be able to recruit Goro.

[Belcoot4]

You should be able to recruit Billy with anyone, as long as you have an S type statue. Geddoe should have picked up one of those statues against either a treasure boss in the mountain path or in the northern cavern. Go to Lake Castle and do the whole recruiting thing with Billy and then just walk back to Vinay Del Zexay and pick up Melville and Elliot, but I do see how Arthur would be a problem. I think Arthur can only be recruited by Thomas or Hugo. This Kenji thing is really bothering me he should have showed up for you, if you saved back at the Trinity site try one of the other characters and talk to the same guy again. Thats my theory I'm guessing he needs to be talked to by a character or two before becoming recruitable.

[KFCrispy]

sorry i wrote i could not write "Billy/Melville/Alanis" but it should have been "ELLIOT/Melville/Alanis". I have Billy, but I cannot recruit Elliot or Melville in Zexay - this has to be due to not having played Hugo Chapter 1 (which "frees" them up from any story events), and the same idea goes for Arthur.
After completing Hugo 1, you can recruit Arthur with any character, that is certain.

[KFCrispy]

I FIGURED OUT THE KENJI FACTOR: RECRUIT KATHY!!
-I am still not certain whether or not you need to speak to the soldier at the back of the Brass Castle inn, because I spoke to him earlier in my game... but I am fairly certain some players have never spoken to that character ever and still recruited Kenji (because most ppl have gotten all 108 Stars). I may restart Geddoe Chapter 3 to confirm this one.
-I was testing for a minimum recruitment rule, and found that regardless of who else I recruited, it took Kathy's recruitment to make him appear
-I was also testing if I had possibly unlocked Kenji by using Let Go/Run (ie. Stallion's recruitment in S2, and also the fact that you run or exercise with Kenji as part of his recruitment) so I tested not running away at all when recruiting just Kathy.

Why is recruiting Kathy the requirement? I think it's related to their location/function at HQ. Kenji doesn't really have a function, but they are in the same area in Budehuc. Perhaps Kenji was actually originally conceived to open another mini-game after Kathy opened the track... something random like that.

[Belcoot4]

There we go! haha! thats great. I actually started thinking after I just read your post. Everytime I start Thomas Chapter1 I run down past Yaza Plains head to Brass Castle (this of course that I already did the other 3 chapter 1's) talk to the guy in the Inn about Kenji, go over and talk to Arthur get him recruited, then leave Brass (with recruiting Arthur it leaves you right at Grassland exit) had for Amur Plains North recruit Kathy, then on to Duck Village and recruit Kidd and then on my way back to Lake Castle Kenji is usually just sitting there for the take. Depending weather the rose brooch is available at Iksay Village makes me vary if I'm going to recruit the characters west of Brass castle first vs. characters east of Brass first. So I probaly unknowingly always activated Kenji because Kathy was always in my path of recruiting before him and I also always talk to that guy in the Inn. That guy has to mean something, I mean hes in the back of the room and says something like gee i seen a guy on Yaza plains killing monsters with summersaults.

[KFCrispy]

oh btw i've confirmed Geddoe is unable to recruit Nadir in his Chapters 1-3. the only opportunity he has to organize his own party AND visit Nadir is at the beginning of Chapter 2 (at the end of Chapter 1, Ace leaves and Geddoe can add a member to his party, but he cannot see Nadir because entering the inn will trigger the scene that ends the chapter), up until Geddoe visits the fruit detective and meets up with Joker and Queen (and Ace if you did not get him from the tavern earlier).

While Geddoe can pick up Ace and Aila optionally at the beginning of Chapter 2 before seeing the fruit detective, I am pretty sure he can't pick up Queen, who would be key for getting Nadir at this point. Nadir requires 3 men, 2 women, and 1 child. The men are easy to recruit, and Aila, Shabon, and Belle count as children. Besides Queen, there is only 1 other women available to recruit at this point: Nei. Unless you can actually find Queen at the beginning of Chapter 2 before seeing the fruit detective (I have not seen this available), Geddoe will only be able to add Nei.

Later in Chapter 3, Geddoe can recruit Sanae Y, but there are no further opportunities to add optional members to the active party.

[Belcoot4]

I'm about 99% sure you're right. Queen becomes activated as well as Joker once you meet with the guy at the fruit stand which then ends the chapter when you go to the inn. In regards to recruiting Nadir, does Aila really qualify as a child? I never used her as one of the members to recruit him I always thought she was a teenager like Hugo or Thomas which they both qualify neither as a child or as a man just somewhere in between.

[Blutiger Engel]

I'm pretty sure Hugo and Thomas work as a child (according to the gamefaqs guide I used, and it worked for me the one time I recruited him with Hugo) so I would classify Aila as a child based on that, and I believe I used her as the child more than once when I recruited him with Geddoe's team (but it was long ago so I could be mistaken).