MAGICIAN

Liberation Effect: Intelligence +1

Power: Causes a wall of fire to appear on foes.

Strategic Use: This is just another attack card. It's quite effective on enemies weak against fire. Otherwise, just take the usual advice.

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PRIESTESS

Liberation Effect: Alignment +1

Power: Heals all your characters by 50 HP.

Strategic Use: The less useful of the two Healing cards, this one only restores 50 HP instead of all you HP. However, it is still good for recuperating from enemies who use attacks like Fire Wall and Acid.

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EMPRESS

Liberation Effect: Charisma +1

Power: Recovers all characters to maximum Hit Points.

Strategic Use: This is the better of the two cards that recover hit points. Use it to save any unit from obliteration by powers like Dollmage's Acid or attacks like Sorcerer's and Lich's Firewall. This is best used with a unit who has more than two characters near death. It shouldn't be used to heal less than that; use the items Cure or Heal instead.

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EEMPEROR

Liberation Effect: Charisma +2

Power: Gives all your characters one extra attack.

Strategic Use: Emperor is an extremely useful card. It is best used in units with characters with very powerful attacks that can only be used once like the Dollmage's Acid and the Samurai's Inuanki. If you already have plenty of attacks, don't use Emperor unless the battle is almost over and you are battling a strong enemy unit that's positively staggering, and you don't want to get away.

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HIEROPHANT

Liberation Effect: Alignment +1 or +2

Power: Puts enemies to sleep. Stage Boss is immune.

Strategic Use: This card can save a weak unit from obliteration. It's a good ace to have up your sleeve. If you are battling a boss who is in the front row, use this to put his (or her) guardians asleep. Especially effective against Deneb. However, it loses its effectiveness when the unit you're fighting with has characters with multiple attacks against the entire unit (i.e. Sorcerers, Liches, Princesses, etc.)

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LOVERS

Liberation Effect: Reputation +2

Power: Summons Cupid, who shoots an arrow and causes enemies to attack each other.

Strategic use: This is a pretty good card. It's best used on units with many small creatures, because then there will be more attacks for you. Oddly, enemies often attack themselves, but rarely hit themselves.

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CHARIOT

Liberation Effect: Strength +2

Power: Summons Loki to attack enemies. Hits all enemies with a physical attack.

Strategic Use: This card is one of the most powerful attacking cards, second only to Devil and Judgment. It is the only card with a grown man wearing an adult daiper. This card is best used to soften up a very powerful unit before attacking them, or to finish off a strong unit that you have already weakened. It should not be used to attack a weak unit, wipe these out with normal attacks. Don't waste this card on a unit you know you can defeat easily. Also, it is a terrific card to draw when a World card has been drawn already.

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STRENGTH

Liberation Effect: Strength +1

Power: Increases your unit's Defense.

Strategic Use: This card is not that good, because it doesn't improve your defense that much. Also, Star improves your defense more by not letting enemies hit you and also improves your attack. I suggest that you not take this card, when given the option.

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HERMIT

Liberation Effect: Intelligence +1 or +2

Power: Summons Merlin to cast a lightning spell on all enemy troops.

Strategic use: This is an unremarkable attacking card. Like other attacking cards, it is best saved for the Boss' unit or for a very strong enemy unit.

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FORTUNE

Liberation Effect: Reputation +3 to -3 (depends on Alignment and Luck)

Power: Causes all enemies to flee, but the stage boss' unit is immune to the effects of this card.

Strategic Use: This card isn't as good as it sounds. It prevents you from damaging an enemy unit... It just puts the fight off. There are very few uses for this card, including using it while traveling for speed and using it to save a damaged unit near a town from certain destruction.

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JUSTICE

Liberation Effect: Maximum HP+1

Power: Causes a blizzard.

Strategic Use: Justice is an unremarkable attack card. Since it's an ice attack, it's useful against enemies like Red Dragons who are weak against Ice. Otherwise, it's just another attack card without outstanding qualities.

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HANGED MAN

Liberation Effect: Strength -1

Power: Lowers the defense of the enemy unit.

Strategic Use: This is an okay card, best used when a strong unit is battling a strong unit, or to destroy a weak unit at full strength you know would survive otherwise.

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DEATH

Liberation Effect: Reputation -2

Power: Summons Death himself to wipe out weak enemies. He kills enemies with less than half their life left.

Strategic Use: Death is a VERY powerful card if used properly, and also very rare to draw. Unlike most cards, I encourage you to use this to wipe weak but annoying units, because the troops will usually have less HP than the leader. This isn't a good card to use against strong units, because stronger units tend to have weak (HP-wise) leaders and strong troops. The only problem is that all the experience goes to the Lord.

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TEMPERANCE

Liberation Effect: Reputation+2

Power: Removes all status-changing ailments.

Strategic Use: This is a very useful card against enemies like witches who have status-changing attacks that work on everyone. It is also fairly common to draw. These factors combined make it an extremely useful card, even against weaker units.

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DEVIL

Liberation Effect: Reputation -1 or -2

Power: Summons the demon Asmodeus, who uses a strong black magic attack on all foes. Personally, I think it has the best graphic effect of all cards.

Strategic Use: I like Devil, because it does the most raw damage of any card and affects all creatures equally, including those of low alignment. This card is very rare to draw, so when you get one, don't waste it on weak enemy units. It should only be used on extremely powerful units or the boss of the area. Later on in the game, however, Devil's use becomes less powerful as many bosses have high resistances to black magic.

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TOWER

Liberation Effect: Alignment -1 or -2

Power: Causes an earthquake to harm enemies.

Strategic Use: This card gets it's low rating from three factors. First, it is only a moderately powerful attack card. Second, it is very rare to draw. Third, it lowers your alignment. If not for the second and third factors, it would be a fair card, but because of them it is a bad one. This card is completely ineffective with all flying creatures.

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STAR

Liberation Effect: Agility +1

Power: Increases your unit's agility.

Strategic Use: This card is more useful than it may sound. It both helps you hit those extra-agile baddies like Muses, and makes it so enemy attacks usually miss you. It is good against most enemy units.

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MOON

Liberation Effect: Time changes to Midnight

Power: Enemy rows switch. This lasts even after the end of the battle.

Strategic Use: Use this card with caution, for it may well cause your demise. It can be very useful, especially with units that have clerics in them, but you must be VERY careful or you may cause the enemies attacks to become stronger. Use it against Kapella (who has strong bodyguards), it doesn't work against any other boss. Also, enemies will have the same number of attacks they had in the row they were in before, but will now use the attack they use in their current row. (i.e. A Paladin in the back row is hit with a Moon card. He still has 1 Attack, but it is now Slice instead of Healing.) Enemy units go back to normal attacks according to their row after the battle (i.e. The Paladin in the previous example will have 3 Slice attacks the next time you fight him.)

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SUN

Liberation Effect: Time changes to Noon

Power: Damages ALL low-aligned characters, including yours.

Strategic Use: Use this ONLY with a unit that has very high-aligned characters. I have seen characters with 60 alignment take 25 points of damage from this. It is a rather dangerous card and you should only use it if you're sure it's safe. It's best quality is that it also nails undead. Most of the bosses are immune to this, however.

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JUDGEMENT

Liberation Effect: Maximum HP +2

Power: Powerful white magic attack which hits the enemies with a pulsating blast of White Energy.

Strategic Use: This is my favorite attack card, even more so than Devil. That is because of two things: First, it effects creatures of low alignment MORE, and most of the bosses are of low alignment. Second, it is effective even against those pesky Undead, who can only be hurt by White Magic weapons or the cleric's Healing.

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WORLD

Liberation Effect: Cards drawn for the rest of the stage affect all units

Power: Characters become immune to magic.

Strategic Use: World is a card best hoarded, because it is a near necessity against certain bosses. Save it for when you meet bosses that are Doll Masters, Sorcerers, Lichs, etc., because they all have incredibly powerful magic. Again, this is not a card to be used in battle except with bosses. When you get it, keep it. It's best quality is the effect that it has when drawn. Draw this--then draw a Chariot!

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FOOL

Liberation Effect: Luck +1

Power: Causes all enemies except leader to flee.

Strategic Use: This may be the best card in the game. Through it's use, you can defeat units that may have been impossible otherwise. It is best used on bosses or extremely powerful units ONLY... I cannot stress this enough. This is an absolute waste to use on non-boss units, unless the unit is extremely powerful. BTW, it doesn't work against Diablo.

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