Say it ain't so. My run isn't even up yet and it will probably be beaten. Oh well. Good luck to you. I am curious just how scripted the battles are for every level. I know that there are obvious patterns but deeper into the level a person goes the deeper the pattern runs. I think every maze has an encounter rate for specific sections and certain enemies to appear in those areas. I don't know how well the battles can be manipulated in the longer levels. It should be interesting to see. It would make escaping battles which is the key to any speed run, much easier. Good luck man, I hope you can do it. I must admit this game was getting to me after a while of playing it and it only took me a couple weeks to pull off my run, so I'm glad it finally ended.
SDA Forum
Don't MAKE me come down these stairs
The battles are totally scripted (pseudo-random).
There is a frame counter that runs throughout the game. It stops when you are in a shop, on a menu screen, or on a message screen that displays an item that you have picked up; it runs at all other times. There are two enemy patterns that run parallel to each other; one exists on odd frames and the other exists on even frames. For example, if you start out on the even enemy pattern and wait for one frame, you will end up getting the odd enemy pattern. This is almost humanly impossible and obviously not a reliable way to manipulate the combat.
The other way to switch between enemy patterns is by changing your actions in a battle. Actions have a set frame value (I haven't discovered exactly what the values are), but for example if you Attack a monster and kill it to end a battle, you might stay on the even enemy pattern, but if you Defend once first it might swap the pattern for you. This is a key to getting the best fights.
The other key is ensuring that you don't waste any frames. This is easy throughout most of the game. As long as you hold the button during all conversations and hold directions in the maze without stopping, you won't skip frames and therefore the combats will be the same every time you play.
It gets tough at two places: treasure chests and decisions. As you know, when you come to a chest you have to pull up a menu to pick it up. Frames will inevitably be lost between the character's stop and the button press. Additionally, when you are in conversation with a character (for example, Darwin midway through Chapter 2) you may be asked to select Y/N options. The frame timer runs during the selection as well... you have to let up on the A button in order to make the selection, and frames will be lost there.
If I didn't have to pick up chests, this would be a breeze. Unfortunately, in order to win you have to have a certain amount of cash, so treasure is a necessity, and therefore chapters with large amounts of treasure give the largest margin of error.
So as you said, the deeper into the level a person goes the deeper the pattern runs... this is an illusion created by the frame counter. Everyone has to stop and pick up a chest sometimes, and when they do, that's where the "randomization" happens.
There is a frame counter that runs throughout the game. It stops when you are in a shop, on a menu screen, or on a message screen that displays an item that you have picked up; it runs at all other times. There are two enemy patterns that run parallel to each other; one exists on odd frames and the other exists on even frames. For example, if you start out on the even enemy pattern and wait for one frame, you will end up getting the odd enemy pattern. This is almost humanly impossible and obviously not a reliable way to manipulate the combat.
The other way to switch between enemy patterns is by changing your actions in a battle. Actions have a set frame value (I haven't discovered exactly what the values are), but for example if you Attack a monster and kill it to end a battle, you might stay on the even enemy pattern, but if you Defend once first it might swap the pattern for you. This is a key to getting the best fights.
The other key is ensuring that you don't waste any frames. This is easy throughout most of the game. As long as you hold the button during all conversations and hold directions in the maze without stopping, you won't skip frames and therefore the combats will be the same every time you play.
It gets tough at two places: treasure chests and decisions. As you know, when you come to a chest you have to pull up a menu to pick it up. Frames will inevitably be lost between the character's stop and the button press. Additionally, when you are in conversation with a character (for example, Darwin midway through Chapter 2) you may be asked to select Y/N options. The frame timer runs during the selection as well... you have to let up on the A button in order to make the selection, and frames will be lost there.
If I didn't have to pick up chests, this would be a breeze. Unfortunately, in order to win you have to have a certain amount of cash, so treasure is a necessity, and therefore chapters with large amounts of treasure give the largest margin of error.
So as you said, the deeper into the level a person goes the deeper the pattern runs... this is an illusion created by the frame counter. Everyone has to stop and pick up a chest sometimes, and when they do, that's where the "randomization" happens.
So I know this thread has been dead for some time but I was thinking bout picking up this game as a speedrun seeing as how its pretty short and is a favorite of mine as a kid. I was wondering if there was any japanese differences besides the obvious one Ive already found. The only thing I have found different is text boxes for level ups. In the english version you actually lose frames for level ups due to the fact that each stat has its own dedicated two lines that you have to mash through. However, the japanese level up text box appears as one single box like this 
Japanese version would be faster so Im thinking about running Japanese version if there arent any major differences for the worse.
Japanese version would be faster so Im thinking about running Japanese version if there arent any major differences for the worse.
Its not a hard game to learn the route for since there are no random item drops and everything should always be in the same place so it would be just memorizing item locations in the menu. It should always be the same. Im gonna learn some other games first and then do the J Card Master run eventually
So on a whim, I completed a sloppy RTA of this game last week in 4:58:12. There's almost certainly a lot of optimization that could be managed, but it's a start.
My rough notes for the run are as follows. I fought pretty much all randoms, the run command in this game is pretty bad and it was usually faster to just kill everything with cards. In Chapter 5 I occasionally had Teefa cast Flee to escape dangerous fights, though.
Chapter 1 - I buy short sword, whip and soft leather, plus all the wind cards I can afford. Rooks gets the sword, Teefa gets the whip and armor. In Balnia Temple, I picked up the 300 GP, 500 GP, and Sleeping Bag chests on the first floor, and just the 500 GP chest on the second floor, and go through the whole dungeon in one trip. Putting Sylph away before going in the last door is important to save money in chapter 2. The 300 GP chest on 1F is pretty far out of the way and might not be worth it.
Chapter 2 - I bought Broad Sword for Rooks and 9 water cards. Salah equips the short sword and soft leather and I sell the whip. Ideally I can afford a Broad Sword for Darwin also, if not I'd probably have to settle for a Long Sword or pop a Return Ring when he joins to buy it. IIRC in the run I completed I ended up doing the latter. I'm not certain which is faster; the return costs a couple minutes, but having Darwin doing ~10 less damage a swing might cost about that much too. Note that GameFAQs' Draven Pass map is missing a treasure, which IIRC was a sleeping bag (I picked it up). The MP Honey is also picked up in Draven Pass, but the other chests are ignored there. In Forest of Doubt 1, all four honeys are picked up, but nothing else. In Crimson Valley, again, all the honeys are picked up, but nothing else. Finally, I pick up the Tent in Forest of Doubt 2; it gets used just before going into Reinoll's house.
Chapter 3 - I sell all the honey and all the gear I have. I pick up a Scimitar, a Battle Hammer, two Plate Mails and two Iron Shields (if there's not enough money, Seam Mails can be used instead of Plate Mails, but there should be). I then buy cards until I have 18 of each elemental card, and also pick up a bunch of Medicine, at least one Tent, and finally, an Ice Blade. Phew! All treasures on B1 are skipped (even the honey, it's too far out of the way); however, I do pick up all the honeys on B2 and B3, since they aren't very far off the path. Ice Blade is equipped before walking into the Hydra fight and gives Rooks a big damage boost there, but it's otherwise terrible for the dungeon, so we switch back to scimitar for the last bit and then switch back to Ice Blade again for Sauza.
Chapter 4 - Scimitar, Ice Blade, and honeys are sold. Equipment purchase prioirty for this chapter is Dragon Blade, Elder's Staff, White Robe, Magic Shield, second Dragon Blade, Mithril Gauntlet, Mithril Plate. You won't have enough money for all of it at first, but you have to return to town once to pick Salah up. If you can't afford the second Dragon Blade, um, I feel sorry for you. In my completed run, I forgot to buy the second Dragon Blade and DO NOT FORGET THIS IT MAKES THE END OF THE CHAPTER ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE and probably cost me a good ten minutes. If you get stuck in that situation though, give the Dragon Blade you do have to Darwin and make Rooks use cards for offense. I pick up one of the tents on Stavery 1F, the Demon Axe and Wish Wand on 3F, the Demon Mail and Demon Shield on 5F, and the Golden Sword and Rococo Armor on 10F. Everything else, honey on 10F included, is skipped - you don't want to stay on 10F any longer than you absolutely have to as every single battle there has a chance to kill your run. If you have extra money somehow in C4, it's worth buying a second Mithril Gauntlet to save money later.
Chapter 5 - Sell all the Demon gear, the Wish Wand, the White Robe and the Magic Shield, plus the Golden Sword and Rococo Armor BUT note that you can't hold more than 65535 GP at a time, so make purchases in between the sales so as not to waste money. Buy one Magic Sword for Rooks, one Magic Gauntlet if you didn't buy the second Mithril Gauntlet in C4, a Mithril Mail for Rooks (the more expensive armor isn't worth it), and a Dragon Shield for Rooks. The party should be equipped as follows:
Rooks - Magic Sword, Mithril Mail, Dragon Shield
Darwin - Dragon Blade, Mithril Plate, Mithril Gauntlet
Teefa - Elder's Staff, no armor, Mithril Gauntlet or Magic Gauntlet
With remaining money, I'd carry at least 3 Tents and 10 Gold Flasks. Spend all remaining money on MP Honeys and feed them all to Rooks, then fill the inventory with Medicine.
As for the dungeon! In the first section, pick up Desiree, Spirit Staff, and Robe of Valor before the first boss. In the tunnels, I picked up Grand Shield and Earth Plate. After getting Earth Plate, I'd do a check - if Rooks has less than 168 max MP, I'd strongly consider returning to town, selling all unused equipment and buying more MP Honey for him to get his MP as high as possible for the final boss. (In the 4:58 RTA I did.) Finally, in the Stavery Tower revisit, I picked up the Restore Honey, Grand Armor, MP Honey, and the 7F Tent (both of these honeys are used immediately on Rooks).
Now, Rimsala. Rooks should put up Attack Impair then Defense Impair, then just attack or heal as appropriate. Cycle through the spirits to put up their respective buffs (Accuracy Increase All from Marid, Wall All from Dao, Stomp All from Efrite, Dodge All from Sylph in that order), leave Sylph out. First form has 1500 HP and does nothing threatening.
Second form: Repeat the setup as with the first form, but this form is actually dangerous. Rimsala 2 has 3375 HP and will do one of two actions. She'll either attack physically, which does about 40 damage on Rooks with all buffs/debuffs applied, or cast Attribute 11, which does about 150 damage on Rooks. She often doubleacts and rarely tripleacts. In short, stay above about 375 HP at all times. (This isn't easy.) Good luck?
My rough notes for the run are as follows. I fought pretty much all randoms, the run command in this game is pretty bad and it was usually faster to just kill everything with cards. In Chapter 5 I occasionally had Teefa cast Flee to escape dangerous fights, though.
Chapter 1 - I buy short sword, whip and soft leather, plus all the wind cards I can afford. Rooks gets the sword, Teefa gets the whip and armor. In Balnia Temple, I picked up the 300 GP, 500 GP, and Sleeping Bag chests on the first floor, and just the 500 GP chest on the second floor, and go through the whole dungeon in one trip. Putting Sylph away before going in the last door is important to save money in chapter 2. The 300 GP chest on 1F is pretty far out of the way and might not be worth it.
Chapter 2 - I bought Broad Sword for Rooks and 9 water cards. Salah equips the short sword and soft leather and I sell the whip. Ideally I can afford a Broad Sword for Darwin also, if not I'd probably have to settle for a Long Sword or pop a Return Ring when he joins to buy it. IIRC in the run I completed I ended up doing the latter. I'm not certain which is faster; the return costs a couple minutes, but having Darwin doing ~10 less damage a swing might cost about that much too. Note that GameFAQs' Draven Pass map is missing a treasure, which IIRC was a sleeping bag (I picked it up). The MP Honey is also picked up in Draven Pass, but the other chests are ignored there. In Forest of Doubt 1, all four honeys are picked up, but nothing else. In Crimson Valley, again, all the honeys are picked up, but nothing else. Finally, I pick up the Tent in Forest of Doubt 2; it gets used just before going into Reinoll's house.
Chapter 3 - I sell all the honey and all the gear I have. I pick up a Scimitar, a Battle Hammer, two Plate Mails and two Iron Shields (if there's not enough money, Seam Mails can be used instead of Plate Mails, but there should be). I then buy cards until I have 18 of each elemental card, and also pick up a bunch of Medicine, at least one Tent, and finally, an Ice Blade. Phew! All treasures on B1 are skipped (even the honey, it's too far out of the way); however, I do pick up all the honeys on B2 and B3, since they aren't very far off the path. Ice Blade is equipped before walking into the Hydra fight and gives Rooks a big damage boost there, but it's otherwise terrible for the dungeon, so we switch back to scimitar for the last bit and then switch back to Ice Blade again for Sauza.
Chapter 4 - Scimitar, Ice Blade, and honeys are sold. Equipment purchase prioirty for this chapter is Dragon Blade, Elder's Staff, White Robe, Magic Shield, second Dragon Blade, Mithril Gauntlet, Mithril Plate. You won't have enough money for all of it at first, but you have to return to town once to pick Salah up. If you can't afford the second Dragon Blade, um, I feel sorry for you. In my completed run, I forgot to buy the second Dragon Blade and DO NOT FORGET THIS IT MAKES THE END OF THE CHAPTER ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE and probably cost me a good ten minutes. If you get stuck in that situation though, give the Dragon Blade you do have to Darwin and make Rooks use cards for offense. I pick up one of the tents on Stavery 1F, the Demon Axe and Wish Wand on 3F, the Demon Mail and Demon Shield on 5F, and the Golden Sword and Rococo Armor on 10F. Everything else, honey on 10F included, is skipped - you don't want to stay on 10F any longer than you absolutely have to as every single battle there has a chance to kill your run. If you have extra money somehow in C4, it's worth buying a second Mithril Gauntlet to save money later.
Chapter 5 - Sell all the Demon gear, the Wish Wand, the White Robe and the Magic Shield, plus the Golden Sword and Rococo Armor BUT note that you can't hold more than 65535 GP at a time, so make purchases in between the sales so as not to waste money. Buy one Magic Sword for Rooks, one Magic Gauntlet if you didn't buy the second Mithril Gauntlet in C4, a Mithril Mail for Rooks (the more expensive armor isn't worth it), and a Dragon Shield for Rooks. The party should be equipped as follows:
Rooks - Magic Sword, Mithril Mail, Dragon Shield
Darwin - Dragon Blade, Mithril Plate, Mithril Gauntlet
Teefa - Elder's Staff, no armor, Mithril Gauntlet or Magic Gauntlet
With remaining money, I'd carry at least 3 Tents and 10 Gold Flasks. Spend all remaining money on MP Honeys and feed them all to Rooks, then fill the inventory with Medicine.
As for the dungeon! In the first section, pick up Desiree, Spirit Staff, and Robe of Valor before the first boss. In the tunnels, I picked up Grand Shield and Earth Plate. After getting Earth Plate, I'd do a check - if Rooks has less than 168 max MP, I'd strongly consider returning to town, selling all unused equipment and buying more MP Honey for him to get his MP as high as possible for the final boss. (In the 4:58 RTA I did.) Finally, in the Stavery Tower revisit, I picked up the Restore Honey, Grand Armor, MP Honey, and the 7F Tent (both of these honeys are used immediately on Rooks).
Now, Rimsala. Rooks should put up Attack Impair then Defense Impair, then just attack or heal as appropriate. Cycle through the spirits to put up their respective buffs (Accuracy Increase All from Marid, Wall All from Dao, Stomp All from Efrite, Dodge All from Sylph in that order), leave Sylph out. First form has 1500 HP and does nothing threatening.
Second form: Repeat the setup as with the first form, but this form is actually dangerous. Rimsala 2 has 3375 HP and will do one of two actions. She'll either attack physically, which does about 40 damage on Rooks with all buffs/debuffs applied, or cast Attribute 11, which does about 150 damage on Rooks. She often doubleacts and rarely tripleacts. In short, stay above about 375 HP at all times. (This isn't easy.) Good luck?
I actually highlighed the 4:58:12 run on my hitbox channel, though I'll warn you it's a really sloppy run (I had a couple pauses for RL matters and I accidentally stopped the timer near the end of the run so I had to time the last bit by hand): http://www.hitbox.tv/video/515258/description
(I think that link should work)
Given how long the run is and how stressful everything from Stavery 8F on is, I won't get to put in attempts too quickly, but I'll try. ^_^
I've thought on probable refinements, especially to treasure pickups and purchasing decisions, and this is what I think I want to try in my next attempt:
- The Soft Leather in chapter 1 is of dubious worth at best.
- The 300 GP chest in chapter 1 is notably far out of the way and not really necessary. I think I'll skip it next time.
- I really need to test how much having Darwin use a Long Sword instead of a Broad Sword hurts in chapter 2. If he can still OHKO most things with it, then it's really not worth returning for him to get one. I can also consider having Rooks go weaponless while Darwin is around and kill things with cards here if need be, since cards are fairly cheap.
- I'll probably keep the MP honeys rather than selling them for more short-term cash next run, because...
- I'm thinking Breast Plates are a better buy in chapter 3 than Plate Mails. While they have 18 less defense than the Plate Mails, defense is a pretty weak stat (though not completely unnoticeable) in Arcana, and they cost less than half as much AND save me from having to buy another, much more expensive, armor in chapter 4 because Darwin can wear them. All told, because of this, using Breast Plate instead of Plate Mail saves 12,500 gold over the course of the run - almost four MP Honeys.
- Ideally, I want to buy my tents for the endgame in chapter 3 if possible, because they cost half as much then.
So my new shopping plans look something like this:
Chapter 1 - Short Sword, Whip, 9 Wind Cards
Chapter 2 - Broad Sword and 9 Water Cards for sure, other money should either go to Long Sword, Broad Sword, or more cards depending on availability
Chapter 3 - Scimitar, Ice Blade, Breast Plate x2, Iron Shield x2, cards, consumables (at least 10 or so Medicines, maybe some Gold Flasks, as many tents as I'm willing to buy given money requirements in chapter 4)
Chapter 4 - Dragon Blade x2, Elder's Staff, Silver Robe, Iron Shield, Mithril Gauntlet x2, cards (before taking leftover money from previous chapters and enemy gold drops into account, this costs 6000 gold more than I get from chapter 3 honey sales). Silver Robe is purchased over White Robe because it can be handed down to Teefa in chapter 5, and likewise, the extra Mithril Gauntlet is so I don't have to buy the more expensive Magic Gauntlet in chapter 5.
Chapter 5 - Magic Sword, cards, and all the MP Honeys I can afford
Some other mechanical bits I picked up from zombero, who has done a handful of ROM hacking with the game:
- All the human party members, as well as Ariel and all his apprentices, have innate 25% resistance to all elements. This is lost (for the duration of the battle) if you use a Change Attribute spell.
- Spirit Sword apparently has some strange elemental properties that he doesn't completely understand as of yet, but it may not be worth equipping until just before Rimsala as a result; this needs further testing
- Rimsala 1 herself has a unique card border which largely serves to make her weak against the Spirit Sword
(I think that link should work)
Given how long the run is and how stressful everything from Stavery 8F on is, I won't get to put in attempts too quickly, but I'll try. ^_^
I've thought on probable refinements, especially to treasure pickups and purchasing decisions, and this is what I think I want to try in my next attempt:
- The Soft Leather in chapter 1 is of dubious worth at best.
- The 300 GP chest in chapter 1 is notably far out of the way and not really necessary. I think I'll skip it next time.
- I really need to test how much having Darwin use a Long Sword instead of a Broad Sword hurts in chapter 2. If he can still OHKO most things with it, then it's really not worth returning for him to get one. I can also consider having Rooks go weaponless while Darwin is around and kill things with cards here if need be, since cards are fairly cheap.
- I'll probably keep the MP honeys rather than selling them for more short-term cash next run, because...
- I'm thinking Breast Plates are a better buy in chapter 3 than Plate Mails. While they have 18 less defense than the Plate Mails, defense is a pretty weak stat (though not completely unnoticeable) in Arcana, and they cost less than half as much AND save me from having to buy another, much more expensive, armor in chapter 4 because Darwin can wear them. All told, because of this, using Breast Plate instead of Plate Mail saves 12,500 gold over the course of the run - almost four MP Honeys.
- Ideally, I want to buy my tents for the endgame in chapter 3 if possible, because they cost half as much then.
So my new shopping plans look something like this:
Chapter 1 - Short Sword, Whip, 9 Wind Cards
Chapter 2 - Broad Sword and 9 Water Cards for sure, other money should either go to Long Sword, Broad Sword, or more cards depending on availability
Chapter 3 - Scimitar, Ice Blade, Breast Plate x2, Iron Shield x2, cards, consumables (at least 10 or so Medicines, maybe some Gold Flasks, as many tents as I'm willing to buy given money requirements in chapter 4)
Chapter 4 - Dragon Blade x2, Elder's Staff, Silver Robe, Iron Shield, Mithril Gauntlet x2, cards (before taking leftover money from previous chapters and enemy gold drops into account, this costs 6000 gold more than I get from chapter 3 honey sales). Silver Robe is purchased over White Robe because it can be handed down to Teefa in chapter 5, and likewise, the extra Mithril Gauntlet is so I don't have to buy the more expensive Magic Gauntlet in chapter 5.
Chapter 5 - Magic Sword, cards, and all the MP Honeys I can afford
Some other mechanical bits I picked up from zombero, who has done a handful of ROM hacking with the game:
- All the human party members, as well as Ariel and all his apprentices, have innate 25% resistance to all elements. This is lost (for the duration of the battle) if you use a Change Attribute spell.
- Spirit Sword apparently has some strange elemental properties that he doesn't completely understand as of yet, but it may not be worth equipping until just before Rimsala as a result; this needs further testing
- Rimsala 1 herself has a unique card border which largely serves to make her weak against the Spirit Sword
I pulled a 3:06 single segment run of Arcana at AGDE 2015 last month. I based several strategies off of Scottimu5's multi-segment run. Armor is mostly only useful for safety strats and Rimsala. I did a lot of grinding and even a safety Inn warp in Chapter 5 just to make absolutely certain I finished the run on camera. I'm pretty confident that I could knock a half hour off this time without the safety strats, but that increases my chances of dying randomly by a large number, which is fine in practice or WR attempts but not so in event streams.
Minor hangups: Chapter 2 is iffy without that 500g chest from Chapter 1. I feel like the time it costs to get the chest is a lot less than the time you lose getting boned by Chapter 2 if things go south.
Major hangups: Chapter 4, starting at Solo Rooks. Sleep-lock is a big fear of mine, and the only reason I seem to get out of it is by keeping max HP and wearing armor and also getting lucky. Chapter 5, if you get back attacked by Medusa, you have, in my experience, about a 90-95% chance of dying at this low of a level. There's just nothing you can do about it, that I know of, without lucking out and getting initiative before they get their second turns. Feedback is welcome.
Here is Part 1:
Part 2:
Reiska: regarding some of your strats, I think you're bringing way too much armor. Never leave Rooks without a weapon, and Intelligence Honey is all but required to beat Rimsala at the low level you need to be in order to get a sub-3:00:00 run. The base 25% resist and Spirit Sword info is great, is there a link anywhere with more information?
Minor hangups: Chapter 2 is iffy without that 500g chest from Chapter 1. I feel like the time it costs to get the chest is a lot less than the time you lose getting boned by Chapter 2 if things go south.
Major hangups: Chapter 4, starting at Solo Rooks. Sleep-lock is a big fear of mine, and the only reason I seem to get out of it is by keeping max HP and wearing armor and also getting lucky. Chapter 5, if you get back attacked by Medusa, you have, in my experience, about a 90-95% chance of dying at this low of a level. There's just nothing you can do about it, that I know of, without lucking out and getting initiative before they get their second turns. Feedback is welcome.
Here is Part 1:
Part 2:
Reiska: regarding some of your strats, I think you're bringing way too much armor. Never leave Rooks without a weapon, and Intelligence Honey is all but required to beat Rimsala at the low level you need to be in order to get a sub-3:00:00 run. The base 25% resist and Spirit Sword info is great, is there a link anywhere with more information?
OldGumphrey: Yeah, I do pick up the 500G chests in chapter 1 right now (both of them, neither is especially far out of the way). Chapter 4 solo-Rooks is easily the hardest part of the run, yeah. I had considered skimping on armor even more, for sure. As for intelligence honey, the first attempt at this I did I used all of it and noticed no difference in the damage I took from Auranes' Water 3 (which is what ended that attempt), so I sold it on the next run. How many Intelligence Honeys did you use to get Attribute 11 damage down to 125?
Re: the miscellaneous info, there isn't that I'm aware; I got it all in IMs from the ROM hacker in question. Teefa's Spirit Staff apparently has the same properties as the Spirit Sword, too.
Re: the miscellaneous info, there isn't that I'm aware; I got it all in IMs from the ROM hacker in question. Teefa's Spirit Staff apparently has the same properties as the Spirit Sword, too.
I think Int Honey only provides defense against Attribute magic. It seems to have no effect on the Element X spells. I had to use a LOT of them, at least 20; all that were picked up, plus an additional 12+ that were purchased. All of your spare money goes to Int Honey, period. Every piece of equipment you skip in Chapter 4 gets you more Honey. If you want to beat Rimsala at low level...you gotta be smart. 
I would recommend checking out my full run and also watching Scottimu5's run if you're serious about cutting your time down. Fog Cards are necessary, and healing via Herbs/Medicine is much more efficient than using Flasks. Good luck.
I would recommend checking out my full run and also watching Scottimu5's run if you're serious about cutting your time down. Fog Cards are necessary, and healing via Herbs/Medicine is much more efficient than using Flasks. Good luck.
BTW note the Cloud Dragon grinding. You can skip as many fights as you like and make up levels there using Change Attribute to Fire. Cloud Dragons give so much experience. I think beating Rimsala at level 17 or lower is pretty much out of the question, though. Right now I wouldn't dare attempt lower than 20 on a single segment run.