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Capture Soul Mechanics


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Based on the messages you get when you use Capture Soul, there seem to be three constraints on what you can capture.

 

1) Some enemies can never be captured.

2) There are enemy level cutoffs beyond which you need a stronger level spell (level 2 or 3) to capture.

3) Finally, you need to be within a certain number of levels of the enemy, for it to work at all.

 

If a capture fails, each one of these constraints will produce a DIFFERENT error message.

 

I assume that #1 applies mainly (or possibly only) to enemies with "boss" status or other enhancements -- thus, most specially named enemies.

 

Level 2 cuts off somewhere after level 22 and no later than level 25. I'm not sure if there is a cutoff for level 3 at all.

 

I also can't tell how close your level has to be, and whether Intelligence or the like can affect this -- I assume not. Assuming it just takes the raw difference, I know from failures that 8 is too far away.

 

Finally, if there is a random check involved, I haven't seen it cause a failure -- there MAY be no random factor.

 

Anyone have any further insight into this topic? (Or just favourite captures so far? I'm going through the enemy list currently...)

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Capture Soul level 2 works on enemies up to level 24, but not level 25 and higher. I assume that Capture Soul level 3 works at least up to level 30, which will cover almost every generic enemy. There is also one regular enemy at 34 (Haakai) and one at 40 (Dragon) -- but I don't think there are any non-unique, capturable dragons.

 

You can capture enemies up to 6 levels higher than you. You'll probably be close to 14 by the time you learn Capture Soul, so I'm not listing too many enemies below level 20.

 

Most enemy stats are directly determined by level; the main exceptions are what attacks they use and what immunities they have. There are also a few enemies with extra HP, bonus AP's each round, or special abilities like fire and ice trails. Even high level enemies generally are not going to do much damage compared to your party if you've focused your equipment and skill choices. So, in these suggestions, I'm focusing more on support abilities and on immunity. Summoned monsters love to run out to melee, so you can get ridiculous mileage out of a damage type immunity as a meatshield -- one thing that PC's definitely cannot do.

 

Capture Soul suggestions along with notable abilities and bonuses follow. I have not tested very many of these, but I expect that all or most of them should work as listed below:

 

Capture Soul Level 3, PC Level 31 (possibly works with 30):

Haakai (L34, +100 HP, Fire + Poison Immune; Call Infernal, Speed Burst, Dragonfire, etc.)

 

Capture Soul Level 3, PC Level 24:

Divine Shade (L30, +3 bonus AP, Ice + Poison + Mental + Stun Immune; Speed Burst, Radiate Lightning, Stunning Blow, etc.)

... [note: Divine Host actually summons the shade that's a step down from this guy, so it's strictly worse... eesh]

Lich (L30, Ice + Poison + Mental + Stun Immune; Arcane Summon, Speed Burst, Arcane Blow, Fireblast, Kill, etc.)

Demon Golem (L30, +3 bonus AP, Poison + Stun Immune; Fire/Ice/Poison AoE's)

Eyebeast (L30, +300 HP, Magic + Mental + Stun Immune; Speed Burst, Kill, Daze, Mass Healing, AoE's)

Cryodrake (L28, +250 HP, +3 bonus AP, Ice Immune; Cone of Ice, etc.)

 

Also good:

Wizard (L30, Kill, Fireblast, Arcane Summon, etc.)

Slith Cultist (L28, Retribution, Fireblast, etc.)

Ogre Taskmaster (L28, +3 bonus AP; melee abilities)

Cryos Demon (L28, Ice + Poison Immune; Cone of Ice, etc.)

Efreet (L28, +100 HP, Fire Immune; Call Infernal, Cone of Lava, etc.)

Gazer (L26, +150 HP, Magic + Mental + Stun Immune; Kill, Arcane Blow, Speed Burst, Mass Healing, etc.)

 

Capture Soul Level 2, PC Level 18:

Drake (L24, +3 bonus AP, Fire Immune; Fireblast, Summon Aid, etc.)

Fiery Demon (L24, Fire + Poison Immune; Fireblast, etc.)

Slith Enchanter (L24, Kill, Summon Aid, etc.)

Specter (L24, +3 bonus AP, Poison + Ice + Mental Immune; Icy Claws, Ghostly Blades)

Quickghast (L24, +8 bonus AP, Poison + Ice + Mental Immune; Ghoul Claw, etc.)

Shocktroop Sentinel (L24, +6 bonus AP, Poison + Acid + Ice Immune; melee abilities)

Cave Giant Diviner (L23, Mass Healing, Summon Aid, Lightning Rain, etc.)

 

Capture Soul Level 2, PC Level 16:

Fiery Sentinel (L22, Poison + Acid + Ice Immune; Cone of Fire)

Crystal Sentinel (L22, Poison + Acid + Ice Immune; Cone of Lightning)

Mutant Lizard (L22, Battle Frenzy, Biting Frenzy)

 

Capture Soul Level 2, PC Level 14:

Ogre Mage (L20, +3 bonus AP, Magic + Mental Immune; Cone of AoE's, Haste, Slow)

Vampire (L20, Poison + Ice + Mental Immune; Domination, Poison AoE's)

Ice Pudding (L20, Ice Trails, Poison + Acid + Ice + Mental Immune; Cone of Ice)

Hraithe (L20, Poison + Acid + Ice + Mental Immune; Summon Aid, Lightning Spray, etc.)

 

Also good:

Rakshasa (L20, spells, no immunities though!)

Brain Rat (L18, Domination)

Draining Slime (L18, slowing attack)

Aranea Seer (L16, Fireblast, Summon Aid, etc.)

Ruby Skeleton (L16, Poison + Ice + Mental Immune; Fireblast)

Cave Widow (L16, +3 AP; Cone of Webs)

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Capture Soul level 2 works on enemies up to level 24, but not level 25 and higher. I assume that Capture Soul level 3 works at least up to level 30, which will cover almost every generic enemy. There is also one regular enemy at 34 (Haakai) and one at 40 (Dragon) -- but I don't think there are any non-unique, capturable dragons.

 

I can confirm that there's at least one generic haakai in the game, by the way: one of the lich's books in the Dark Tunnel summons one. I don't have Capture Soul at level 3 yet, so I can't confirm whether it can be captured.

 

edit: oh, hey, level 3 Capture Soul is conveniently located in the book right next to it. Unfortunately, my level 26 mage isn't capable of capturing a haakai successfully, but the failure message is the "level too much higher than yours" one so it's presumably possible at higher levels.

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Nice! Yeah, you'll need level 27 or 28 for that. The Haakai will probably be the best general use Simulacrum, with situation uses for Eyebeasts and Cryodrakes and the others.

 

Summoning a Haakai is something that the enemy has done from Exile 1 on, but that the player has never been allowed to do before. So that's pretty sweet indeed!!

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Tried again at level 28. Still no luck, same failure message. Hmm. Maybe there's a hard limit at level 30 after all.

 

(By the way, if you want to find generic Haakai for testing, another more convenient location is to try to rob the Almaria treasury. Dispel Barrier level 3 is required.)

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Well, I just managed to successfully capture the haakai in Kothtar with a level 31 mage, so it's clearly possible to capture one. Either the level difference mechanics change in behaviour at higher levels, or the haakai in Almaria are modified to increase their level by scripts (no longer fully user-accessible, sadly, so I can't check this).

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YESSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssss

 

I'm guessing if they were customized at all they wouldn't be capturable, but this could be an exception. The mechanics could just be different, though. Perhaps you need to be within 4 instead of within 6 for monsters that require the L3 spell?

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I just capture-souled (can I used that as a verb?) one of the haakai in Almaria with a level 31 mage (and of course the level 3 version of Capture Soul), so I can confirm that it is totally possibly and presumably no different than the one Lilith caught.

 

Edit: other creatures I've thought it was cool to capture-soul were an Empire Dervish, an Empire Archer (the ones with the awesome shoot-a-hundred-arrows ability), and the Demon Golem summoned in Almaria along with the haakai.

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Okay, this leaves off the most awesome thing about being able to summon simulacra of haakai: they cast some kind of spell that gives themselves and their allies (i.e. your party) Battle Frenzy (you know, the plus 5 AP boost every single round of combat) for as much as 22 turns (the length of the boost seems variable, but I've seen at least that much)!

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Okay, this leaves off the most awesome thing about being able to summon simulacra of haakai: they cast some kind of spell that gives themselves and their allies (i.e. your party) Battle Frenzy (you know, the plus 5 AP boost every single round of combat) for as much as 22 turns (the length of the boost seems variable, but I've seen at least that much)!

 

I've seen as high as 26. A lot of the high-level spellcasting monsters like liches and eyebeasts can do the same. The only problem is that they'll cast it when they please and no sooner.

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Rookie question - is there a limit to the number of souls you can have in your prism? Also, is it possible to remove already captured souls from the list? I started capturing everything I could find, thinking I'd collect every Pokem- I mean monster in the game, but now that I'm at 5 random monsters including the default goblin, I started thinking I should be more selective if there's some kind of limit (making sure I can still have room for things like Haakai and Eyebeasts later on).

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The way in which the new captures are "written" in to the summoning selection text is not regular. For instance, my current list looks like:

 

1. Wizard (2nd most recent captured)

2. Hraithe (first thing ever captured)

3. Haakai (most recent captured)

4. Drake

5. Shambler

6. Gazer (4th most recent captured; replaced Cryodrake!) :-(

7. Fiery Demon

8. Lich (3rd most recent captured

 

In other words, my last 4 captures were written to slots 6, 8, 1, and then 3. Expected order would have been 8, 1, 2, 3. I'm not distraught because I still have Wizard, Lich, and Haakai, which honestly are probably the best in most situations, but thought I would report this behavior here anyway.

 

Edit: I just captured another Cryodrake and it replaced the Drake in slot (4) as expected.

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Confirmed that the way new captures are added to the list is buggy. I captured 8 cave widows first (to "fill" my list with junk monsters to start with - not sure why; I just did). Then I captured in this order: Fiery Demon (which replaced #8 on the list), Cryos Demon (which became #4), and Mung Demon (which became #2). The order they appeared in the list is weird, but not in itself a problem - but it WILL be a problem if the other very rare enemies I plan to capture in the remaining 5 slots (Haakai, Lich, Eyebeast, Demon Golem, and Efreet), instead of replacing the old cave widows, replace some of these 3 more recent monsters (or each other) that I plan to keep. I'll report back on what I find - still haven't had an opportunity/sufficient level to capture some of those last 5 beasties.

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That's probably not buggy; that's the way it always worked in the past. It *is* irritating, particularly because you have to actually CAST Simulacrum to see your new list. This makes it much more compelling to only ever capture 7 creatures. I think I'll pay even more attention to creature availability on this playthrough and try to come up with a clear list.

 

Apparently my 8th, 9th, and 10th captures just happened to fill slots 1, 2, and 3 in that order. Crazy!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's an annoying little thing I discovered. If one of your party gets charmed and fights your simulacrum, the simulacrum turns hostile against your entire party. Even after the charm is gone, the creature remains hostile. I don't know if this occurs with all summoned creatures or just simulacrums.

 

The way I found was particularly annoying, since it was a drake. After it turned hostile, then it summoned a pet, which was also hostile, and I had to fight both of those in addition to all the monsters I was already up against. I'm curious if the drake had summoned the pet before it turned hostile whether the pet would have stayed on my side or not.

 

Furthermore, your mage cannot summon a new pet while the hostile simulacrum is out since it still counts as yours. And I don't think killing them grants any xp.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's what you can do to avoid deleting the wrong creatures. Save before a battle with a creature you want to capture. Go fight it and capture it. Then in the same battle immediately cast create simulacrum to see what your new creature list is. If it deleted something you want to keep, load the last save point and try again. You might have to reload several times. When it eventually deletes something you're okay with losing, finish the battle and then save.

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  • 2 months later...
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  • 1 month later...

Thanks for this thread, it’s very useful !

 

On 29/01/2015 at 9:46 AM, Lilith said:

Can anyone confirm that Divine Shades actually appear anywhere in the game? I've played through the whole thing now and don't recall ever seeing one.

 

Good question. I’m not at the endgame yet, but so far I haven’t seen Divine Shades either. I’ll report back when I complete my game. On the other hand, it’s very easy to modify the Divine Host spell so that it summons Divine Shades. That’s what I did because a Vengeful Shade for 50 MP feels so underwhelming ! Of course, doing so means that enemies using the spell, like Dark Cultists, will also summon Divine Shades.

 

For the fun, I also tried modifying one of my saves to put an Ur-Basilisk into a slot, and as far as I can tell, it works fine. Even though you can’t normally capture one, the game doesn’t crash and once summoned, the basilisk will attack foes and use its abilities as you would expect

Edited by Zkal
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  • 5 months later...

Has anything changed to the "top picks" list for A3?

 

[To answer Mechalibur's question from years ago, on a Mac at least, right click on the application file and choose "Show Package Contents." For A3, the file is Contents>Resources>a3itemschars.txt.]

 

I see that the Haakai is listed with cr_base_level = 30. Conversely, the Hraithe has cr_base_level = 26. Do enemy levels change between games, or is there something else that affects their actual level in game? Considering any rebalanced or new enemies, what are peoples' favorites in A3?

Edited by Nobear
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