Tips & Strategy

A Balanced Army

A well-balanced army

New characters are always joining the force. The game likes to give you variety. Like wizards? You'll recruit several. Like centaurs? You'll recruit a lot. But yet, it's important to keep balance. Having too many of one type of character could offer advantages in certain types of battles, but cripple you in other battles.

I recommend always having at least one wizard, one healer, one archer, one flying character, and the rest as fighters. Keep the weak members of your party towards the back and the stronger members towards the front. However, don't keep weak members too far behind, or else the stronger ones will hog up all the experience.

Remember to always build up your leader, Bowie. You can't let him become too weak. If he does you lose the battle!

Building Up Levels

A character gaining a level

When a character gains 100 experience points, they gain a level. You'll see random parts of their stats grow stronger (HP, MP, strength, defense, etc.). Stats grow pretty slowly. Sometimes you get lucky and see a spike. When you reach the end of the game, sometimes characters gain nothing after a level gain.

A critical part of playing Shining Force 2 is doing plenty of what I call training battles. The point of a training battle is not to complete the battle, but to almost complete it, cast Egress, then start over. Do this enough times to make your army grow to a strength you're happy with. But not too much, or else you risk making the game too easy!

Bowie casting Egress in a 'training battle'

When a new character joins you, they always start at a lower level. Training battles are important to level them up. You'll want to use stronger characters to weaken enemies, then have the new/weaker character go in for the kill to gain the most experience points.

Magic-users with multiple-target spells are awesome when it comes to level-gaining. Casting magic on multiple targets at once multiplies the experience they gain! Healers with Aura or Boost are even better because the experience they gain from those spells is fixed. This is opposed to attack magic where experience is lowered if the character has a higher level.

Speaking of lowered experience, the game does this in every battle when your character gains a certain high level. They don't want to make it too easy and always give your characters lots of experience. That 49 points of experience (the highest amount you gain from enemy kills) only lasts a few level gains. When gained experience starts lowering, that just means you need to progress further into the game and battle stronger enemies to continuing receiving 49 points of experience for kills.

Annoying Terrain

A character who has a small movement span on desert spaces

The game's interface makes a big deal about the terrain your characters stand on. Certain terrain will give characters more defense, at the cost of slightly lowering their movement span. Truthfully, it doesn't make a huge difference in boosting your defense. You don't need to weigh terrain types too much into your battle strategy.

Shining Force 1 is far more testing and unforgiving when it comes to terrain than Shining Force 2. Shining Force 2 is more or less a breeze when it comes to terrain. However, every so often you do get a tricky battle over a desert or a heavily forested area. Certain characters fare well better on this rough terrain than others.

When you're in a battle with rough terrain, the characters who can move well across this terrain will easily advance while your low-mobility characters get stuck behind. Try to be patient and keep everyone close together. If you get impatient and advance a flying character, they could easily get overwhelmed and defeated.

Best Use of Items

Healing Items

A character with two healing items and an open slot

I recommend for each character to have at least one or two healing items in their 4-slot inventory. It's a good idea to keep one slot empty because you never know when a defeated enemy will drop an item. I mean, you can know if you check the enemy's inventory, but realistically, you're not going to be doing that all the time.

Special Rings/Weapons

Equip the strength boosting ring and the defense boosting ring to the characters who need them most. I recommend equipping these rings with your flying characters. These rings are also beneficial when you're leveling up a low-level character who just joined.

Some items such as the Heat Axe allow fighters to cast attack magic. Be careful though, because they may break and disappear if you use them too much.

Enemy Armies

The first enemies you should kill off are mages. They won't hesitate to swoop in and cripple you with a multiple-target attack spell. Secondly, you should kill off any beasts who can breathe fire. These attacks cut through defense and always inflict a fixed amount of damage.

Some enemy armies have a leader just like you do. And if that leader is defeated then so does the rest of their army. It's obvious who the leader is since it's the only one of its kind compared to the rest of the enemy soldiers. However, I don't recommend killing off the leader unless you really have to because you could use the experience from all his enemy soldiers.

Notes About Character Classes

Mages/Wizards/Sorcerers

Mages, Wizards, and Sorcerers are awesome for fighting strong enemies. Their attack magic can cut through their defenses. You just need to deal with their low defense. It's not too bad; they'll probably get defeated after you land a couple of good blows on enemy clusters.

Centaurs

A weapon shop offering a spear and a lance

Centaurs are well-balanced characters in terms of strength and defense. They can equip lances and spears. Lances attack at close range and spears can be thrown up to two spaces. Weapon shops throughout the game sometimes sell lances as the strongest go-to weapon while other times spears are available as the strongest go-to weapon. If lances are the strongest weapon for a time, you may way to keep a spear in a centaur's inventory for instances when an enemy can only be attacked within a two-space radius.

Even better, centaurs can be promoted to Pegasus Knights (giving them the ability to fly). And at some point in the game, a Pegasus Knight character joins you. Pegasus Knights carry all the benefits of a centaur plus the benefits that come with flight.

Archers/Brass Gunners & Flying Characters

These classes are great for long-range attacks. Most characters of these classes suffer from having average strength and low defense. This makes them great candidates for boosting rings and stat-boosting items. Use these characters carefully.

Recommended Characters

Recommended Fighters

• Gerhalt
• Sarah*
• Kiwi
• Slade
• Lemon

• The fighters that I recommend to have in your army are Gerhalt, Sarah (as a Master Monk), and Kiwi.
• Kiwi is okay at first, but after promotion he becomes valuable! He can move around as if he can fly. In battle, he occasionally belches out flames that cut through defense.
• Slade, like Kiwi, is okay at first. But after promotion he becomes valuable. Slade can cast attack magic and equip swords.
• Jaha, whom I didn't list here, is good for the first half of the game. He becomes more useful when promoted to a Baron. However, he's someone you should swap as better characters join you.

Recommended Long-range Fighters

• Peter
• Luke
• Rhode
• Chester*

• The long-range fighters I recommend are Peter, Luke, Rhode, and Chester or Rick (as a Pegasus Knight). Peter is the strongest character in the game. Luke is not super strong, but he's useful as a birdman. Rhode is the strongest archer-type character.
• Mae, whom I didn't list here, is good for the first half of the game. You're kind of stuck with her because the game doesn't give you another archer for quite some time. Her strength is ok and her defense is always low. She's someone you should swap as better characters join you.

Recommended Mages/Wizards/Sorcerers

• Taya
• Kazin*

• The attack magic users I recommend are Taya and Kazin (as a Sorcerer). Their Sorcerer summon magic is strong! It causes more damage than regular magic. You may or may not want to use both Taya and Kazin at the same time. It's up to you. If you must pick one, Taya is stronger than Kazin.
• I want to mention Tyrin and Chaz. They're both strong wizards. However, you should select Karna at Creed's Mansion; selecting Tyrin isn't recommended. And Chaz joins the Force too late in the game. Using him isn't worth it.

Recommended Healers

• Karna
• Sarah
• Sheela

• The healers I recommend at Karna, Sarah, and Sheela. Karna and Sarah are must-haves. With Karna's Aura and Boost spells, she gains experience quickly and becomes your strongest character!
• Sheela is optional. If you feel you need another healer+fighter, you should use her.