This is NOT a MOD (unfortunately).

It is a Design Document for a Mod to re-balance and refine some of Napishtim’s many balancing issue. Unfortunately, I don’t have the technical know-how to consider modding Napishtim. Creating the Design Document is the best I can do.

Introduction

Savepoint Warping, one of the best additions to Napishtim, breaks Napishtim’s already dicey balance by removing backtracking. Unfortunately, almost everything in Napishtim is designed around the limitations imposed by backtracking, limitations easily circumvented by Savepoint Warping.

Wing of Alma	Original Function	Updated Function
	Escape the Current Dungeon. Cannot be used outside of Dungeons.	Savepoint Warping. Cannot be used on the Romun Fleet. Cannot be used after the final Point of No Return.

With Savepoint Warping, all Savepoints can be thought of as being adjacent to town (warp to town, warp back).

Without Savepoint Warping, the process of getting back to town looks something like this:

1. Escape the Dungeon.

2. Travel the Overworld to Town.

3. Travel the Overworld back to the Dungeon.

4. Travel back to the Savepoint.

Total Rooms Traveled (From Savepoint to Town, then back to Savepoint):

Dungeon Midpoint

You’ve reached the Midpoint of a dungeon. Do you:

a) Go back to buy / upgrade items?

b) Push onward to the Dungeon Boss?

Going back to town and returning to the Midpoint save was originally a lengthy backtracking grind. However, the additional resources obtained from this backtracking is the difference between having or not having the correct level, equipment and items necessary for the next area. Incidentally, the Thief’s Glove and Emel Hammer were primarily for improving Resource Yields during these grinds.

Dungeon End

You’ve reached the End of a dungeon. Do you:

a) Go back? It’s a long way to return….

b) Fight the Boss?

How many healing items were used to get here? A realistic possibility is that all but a single Healing Item remains in Inventory. This is why nearly all Bosses are balanced around having only 1 Healing Item, not 3.

Ruined City of Kishgal

You’ve reached the Wyvern Corridor. You have not yet gone back for the Emelas Armor and remaining Level 10 Sword Upgrades (didn’t have the necessary resource by the Midpoint Save). Do you:

1. Go back for the Emelas Armor and Sword Upgrades?

2. Option 1, but Salty?

It’s a backtracking marathon to get all the upgrades and then return to the Wyvern Corridor. This and the Point of No Return encourages exploration of previous explored areas to obtain items that have not yet been obtained. The Pikkard also encourages a more systematic search (since the Pikkards could be anywhere). This means that due to backtracking, there was a fairly reasonable chance of stumbling upon the Optional Bosses guarding the Emelas Accessories.

Points of No Return

At different points, the player is warned (using soft language) that they are about to proceed past a “Points of No Return”. Take away Savepoint Warping and the “Point of No Return” is very obvious. Add Savepoint Warping and the “Point of No Return” is kind of arbitrary.

MOD Overview

The Goal: Properly integrate Savepoint Warping into Napishtim’s design.

This will require:

1. Rebalance and update Bosses around 3 Healing Items.

2. Rebalance Healing Items to make Task 1 more reasonable.

3. Rework Optional Bosses so that they make sense.

4. Solid (Hard) Barriers as opposed to (Soft) Level Barriers and Distance Barriers.

5. Rebalance anything designed for Majunun so that it won’t be OP for everything else.

6. Relocate certain Accessories to facilitate the Tasks above.

7. Build out Backtracking from Dungeons, ideally with minimal changes.

8. Other tweaks and changes as required.

Catastrophe Mode

It’s not possible to Balance Bosses around 3 Healing Items and simultaneously Balance Bosses around No Healing Items without something to replace the HP deficit. And it’s not just Bosses that would have this issue. Moreover, there are several mechanics that are dependent on having Healing Items in Inventory, mechanics that would be broken without them.

With that said, a Catastrophe Difficulty (basically Inferno Difficulty) would make significantly more sense.

Gameplay Changes

[Lunge Attack]:

Each strike does less damage than a Basic Attack. However, total damage of all strikes in a single Lunge Attack is greater damage than a Basic Attack. If all attacks connect, Lunge Attack is equivalent to 2 Basic Attack.

[Elemental Abilities]:

Adol takes 1/2 Damage while using Elemental Abilities, but is still as vulnerable to rapid attack damage as before.

[Critical Damage]:

= [Normal Damage] x 1.2

[Poison]:

Scales with Base HP. Lose 2% of Base HP (rounded down) per second. For example, at 60 Base HP, lose 1 HP per second. At 365 Base HP, lose 7 HP per second.

[Magic Gauges]:

On entering a Major Boss fight, all Magic Gauges are reset (similar to how the Boost Gauge gets reset in Felghana).

Difficulty Changes

1. Remove ‘Zero Damage Limiter’ (attacks deal at least 1 HP of damage to enemies).

2. Add Glowing Enemies (Red, Blue, Yellow) on all difficulties.

3. Adol can take Critical Damage in Normal Mode.

4. Adol cannot take Critical Damage in Easy and Very Easy.

Difficulty Settings

Since areas are blocked by solid walls (rather than due to levels), this means that Easy and Very Easy are viable as difficulty settings.

Catastrophe difficulty is basically Inferno difficulty in this case.

Easy, Very Easy, and Catastrophe difficulties are “Nice to Have”.

Savepoints

1. Make sure all Major bosses have a Savepoint.

2. Savepoint Warping is not allowed on the Romun Fleet.

3. Savepoint Warping is not allowed form The Ark of Napishtim.

Savepoint Warping from the Ark of Napishtim is a Nice to Have. Additionally, the design changes proposed here make it far more likely that players will reach the Ark with all of the equipment they need.

Points of No Return

Add a Strong Warning Message before each Point of No Return (Romun Fleet, Wyvern Corridor). Something like the following:

Will probably require slightly different wording for each Point of No Return.

Healing Items

By reducing the potency of Healing Items and giving Adol the Emelas Crown early, the Healing Items become far less overpowered.

By significantly reducing the capabilities of Capla Water and making it available for purchase, Capla Water can be built directly into the balance of the game, providing 1 more tier of end-game Healing Item.

Shops

1. Capla Water is purchasable from Kevin and Croix.

2. Magic Talisman is no longer sold. It is found in a chest.

Equipment Changes

Under Napishtim’s normal balance, accessories provide a huge stat boost when equipping them, and a huge stat deficiency when removing them. The only way to prevent this flip-flop from being too severe is by reducing the stats of the accessories.

Gaining a single Level provides approximately the following:

[QUESTION]: How is a game supposed to have a fine-tuned balance when accessories can cause the balance to swing drastically in several different directions?

[ANSWER]: Reduce the degree to which the balance can be changed.

[UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE]: Underutilized accessories become more viable — non-Emelas accessories aren’t so overpowered that they can’t be swapped out for something with a situational advantage.

Sword Tempering Changes

This has been adjusted based on the following methodology:

1. All 3 Swords at the Same Level before a Boss Fight.

2. Not enough Emel to Overlevel a Single Sword.

New Sword Ability Table

It’s better to have the Sword Element and Magic abilities available from the get-go. In particular, it’s better to get early practice with the timing of the Wind Element rather than practicing the down-thrust.

NOTE:

Ideally, Fast Magic Regen only works in Majunun’s Boss Room.

Treasure Chest Changes

Boss: Time Attack Conditions

All of the changes noted in sections above are to ensure that at no point is the player too overpowered or too underpowered for any encounter.

[Healing Items]:

Only provide about 1 extra HP Bar worth of HP, but Savepoint Warping allows obtaining new Healing Items before any encounter.

[Sword Tempering]:

Rebalanced so that it is no longer possible to overlevel swords without a fair bit of grinding.

[Accessories]:

Stats of well-hidden accessories have been reduced. This means that even if they are missed, they won’t make any encounters (normal or boss) insurmountable.

Expected Conditions

Assuming all bosses get a Savepoint and Optional Bosses are mandatory, the Boss Distribution could be changed up as follows:

Boss: New Abilities (1)

All bosses with a Time Attack entry (except Majunun) will be treated as Major Boss Fights. Treatment of Mini-Bosses will also be covered here. Majunun doesn’t fall into either category of boss, and will be treated uniquely.

Major Boss:

1. Cannot Escape the Boss Room.

2. All Magic Gauges are Reset.

3. Boss Music is Played.

4. Spawned enemies do not drop items.

5. Spawned enemies do not drop emel.

6. Spawned enemies do not provide gold.

7. Spawned enemies do not provide experience.

Mini-Boss:

1. Can Leave the Boss Room.

2. Magic Gauges are Maintained.

3. Normal Area Music is Played.

[01]: Demi-Galba

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Changes:

1. When Demi-Galba swipes at Adol, 3 Gilcha (small bugs) spawn in (at-level).

2. A maximum of 12 Gilcha can spawn in.

[02]: Geis

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Changes:

1. Magic Gauge resets for the Boss Fight.

2. Tougher since Wind Element and Magic are already available.

3. Boss Music plays when the Fight Starts.

4. Mythos Path music plays when the Fight Ends.

[03]: Piana-Pius

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Boss Room:

1. New Boss Room

2. Located just after the Grana-Vallis Mountain Entrance Savepoint.

Changes:

1. Piana-Pius can be damaged while in the air, requiring the player to attack while dodging the Stingers and Bees.

2. Piana-Pius will remain on the ground longer with low HP. This is to give more opportunity to directly attack Piana-Pius with Wind Magic and Down Thrusts.

[04]: Zonplas

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Changes:

1. New Attack: Throws exploding rocks at Adol. Similar to throwing Seeds. Attack can be used at any time. Attack happens about as frequently as throwing Seeds.

2. When spraying Spores, white slithering beams track towards Adol. Movement pattern is similar to Galba-Roa’s Gut Worm attack. Effectively, standing still as far from Zonplas is no longer enough to dodge the Sport Attack. Alternatively, the white beams behave similar to Majunun’s Red beam attack.

[Mini-Boss]: Mini-Gaposdhala

Treated as a Mini Boss.

Unchanged from the original fight.

Difficulty Differences:

1. There are 3 Mini-Gaposdhala on Hard, Nightmare, Catastrophe.

2. There are 2 Mini-Gaposdhala on Normal.

3. There is 1 Mini-Gaposdhala on Easy, Very Easy.

[05]: Birandi Geis (NEW BOSS)

Track 20: Armored Bane

Boss Room:

New Boss Room just after Ruins of Lost Time: Entrance savepoint.

Phase 1:

Looks like a Shadow Geis.

Attacks:

1. Jump Slash (Geis Attack). Unlike Geis, this attack sends out a horizontal air pressure wave — same attack as Cedollon enemies (Canaan Plains).

2. Horizontal Slash (Geis Attack).

3. After Guarding, Birandi Geis will fire purple bolts around itself and teleport (like a normal Birandi).

4. Drops Shadow Eggs after teleporting (only at 1/2 HP or lower).

5. Shadow Eggs spawn at-level Birandi Mimics (Adol Mimics), up to a maximum of 6.

Phase 2:

Looks like a slightly larger Birandi.

Attacks:

1. Fires purple bolts around itself and teleports.

2. Drops Shadow Eggs after teleporting.

3. Fires Red Energy Beams (like Majunun’s).

4. Guard, after taking continuous damage, will guard and take zero damage, followed by an attack.

[06]: Ud-Meiyu

Track 20: Armored Bane

Changes:

1. While in the air, Gadoc enemies (the hopping enemies in Ruins of Lost Time) will drop into the arena from Ud-Meiyu.

2. Over time, Gadoc will spawn in to the limit.

3. New Attack: Fire a Stinger Missile at Adol (similar to Piana-Pius Stinger attack).

4. Zenus will spawn in glowing Blue and Red (alternating).

Difficulty Differences:

1. At the beginning, 6 Zenus (Laser Turrents) will spawn on Hard, Nightmare, Catastrophe.

2. At the beginning, 4 Zenus (Laser Turrents) will spawn on Normal.

3. At the beginning, no Zenus (Laser Turrets) will spawn on Easy, Very Easy.

[07]: Gaspodhala

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Boss Room:

Original Boss Room, but beside a room with a Savepoint.

Changes:

1. Spawned enemies are at-level (possibly slightly lower due to being limited to using the Herb).

[08]: Noodollon

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Boss Room:

1. New Boss Room.

2. Located just after Limewater Cave: Midpoint Savepoint.

3. Similar to the original boss room.

Changes:

1. Dollon spawned by Noodollon are invisible and take 1 HP damage when Rainbow Fragment is not equipped. However, Noodollon is visible and can be damaged.

2. Possibly some Mini-Noodollon minions (they attack the same as Noodollon, but do not spawn Dollon).

[09]: Piana-Pullus

Track 20: Armored Bane

Boss Room:

1. Original Boss Room, but beside a room with a Savepoint.

2. The path leading to Piana-Pullus is only accessible through the Limewater Caves.

Changes:

1. Piana-Pullus will fire a second stinger after the first stinger, requiring 2 stingers to be dodged in succession.

[10]: Deadollon

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Boss Room:

1. Original Boss Room, but with a Savepoint above it.

2. Boss Room is reached by falling into it.

Changes:

1. Dollon spawned by Deadollon are invisible and take 1 HP damage when Rainbow Fragment is not equipped. However, Deadollon is visible and can be damaged.

2. Deadollon’s attacks inflict a Status Ailments, depending on the colour of the attack.

3. Deadollon’s upwards attack fires 3 volleys in quick succession.

4. Possibly some invincible Mini-Noodollon minions (they attack the same as Noodollon, but do not spawn Dollon).

Status Ailments:

1. [Green] = Poison

2. [Blue] = Heavy

3. [Red] = Confuse

4. [Yellow] = Curse

5. [Black] = All

6. [White] = None, but Higher Damage

[11]: Orjugan

Track 20: Armored Bane

Changes:

1. Orjugan will start attacking immediately (doesn’t require HP to be down).

[12]: Lan*luna

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Unchanged from the original fight, just tougher.

Boss: New Abilities (2)

[13]: Gaposasura

Track 20: Armored Bane

Boss Room:

1. New Boss Room.

2. Located between the Quateran Woods: Glade Savepoint and Windseeker Heights.

3. Bigger than the original Boss Room to accommodate changes to Gaposasura.

Changes:

1. Has 3 at-level Mini-Gaposdhala minions.

2. Seeds will respawn Mini-Gaposdhala minions (up to 3 max).

3. Seeds will spawn at-level Plant Enemies, though never so many that the Mini-Gaposdhala can’t be respawned.

[14]: Kishcarin

Track 07: Mighty Obstacle

Kishcarin 1: Major Boss.

Kishcarin 2: Mini-Boss.

Kishcarin 1 is just after the Midpoint Save.

Kishcarin 2 is guarding the room with [80,000 Emel], [Accessory Slot], and [Emelas Shield].

Boss Room:

The Boss Room for Kishcarin 1 is modified to account for arriving from the Midpoint Save.

The Boss Room for Kishcarin 2 is modified so that it is not possible to be knocked out of the room.

Changes:

1. After taking 2 Down Thrusts, Kishcarin will guard and be invincible briefly.

2. Shortly after guarding, Kishcarin will start punching at Adol.

Difficulty Differences:

1. Kishcarin spawns 3 White Glowing Giron on Hard, Nightmare, Catastrophe.

2. Kishcarn spawns 2 White Glowing Giron on Normal.

3. Kishcarin spawns 1 White Glowing Giron on Easy, Very Easy.

[15]: Galba Roa

Track 20: Armored Bane

Phase 1:

1. Galba Roa is more aggressive than the original fight.

2. Spin attack inflicts Confusion.

3. When Galba-Roa lands, the impact causes AOE damage in proximity all around Galba-Roa (not just the shockwave along the ground). This forces the player to stay back from Galba-Roa when it lands.

4. There is a way to dodge the Fire Plume Attack (not by using the Dash Jump). There is a slight delay between firing the Fire Plume Attack and the impact, just enough to dodge by jumping and running.

Phase 2:

Galba Roa will be able to do the following additional attacks:

1. Spray Fire.

2. Spit out a Gut Worm.

[16]: Ernst

Track 21: Ernst

Unchanged from the original fight, just tougher to properly account for 3 nerfed Capla Water and the Daylight Stone.

[17]: Napishtim

Track 23: Black Ark Unveiled (Phase 1)

Track 24: The Depth Napishtim (Phase 2)

Phase 1:

1. The Zeparos (flame turrets) are at Level 50 and will do significant damage.

Phase 2:

1. The Black Pillar and Octagonal Bipyramid enemies have proper HP and Defense. Now, they will take several hits to die.

2. Attacks by the Black Pillar and Octagonal Bipyramid are more damaging.

3. Napishtim’s Electric Wave attack does significantly more damage per second.

4. The colour of Napishtim’s Laser Cannon is different each time it fires (changes randomly):

– White: Napishtim’s eye can be damaged by any Sword.

– Blue: Napishtim’s eye can only be damaged by Livart.

– Red: Napishtim’s eye can only be damaged by Brillante.

– Yellow: Napishtim’s eye can only be damaged by Ericcil.

Difficulty Differences:

1. The Zeparos spawn on Normal, Hard, Nightmare, Catastrophe.

2. The Zeparos do not spawn on Easy, Very Easy.

[18]: Majunun

Track 20: Armored Bane

Boss Room:

1. Can Leave the Boss Room.

2. All Magic Gauges are Reset on entering the Boss Room.

3. Boss Music plays on entering the Boss Room.

4. Ruins of Lost Time music plays on leaving the Boss Room or beating Majunun.

5. Majunun is invincible until the Treasure Chest is opened.

Changes:

1. All of Majunun’s Nightmare-level attacks are present on all difficulties (Super Boss may as well be a Super Boss on all difficulties).

2. After being attacked with Magic, Majunun will start glowing Blue, Red, or Yellow.

3. Majunun will change colour each time Majunun is attacked by Magic (this can be to the same colour as the current colour).

4. There is a 3 second delay before Majunun changes colour so that Majunun will be fully damaged by the current Magic attack.

5. Majunun’s attacks inflict Status Ailments.

6. Majunun scales with Player Level.

Status Ailments:

1. [White Energy Bullet Ring]: No Status Ailment

2. [Red Energy Beams]: Confusion

3. [Airquake]: Curse

4. [Flame Trail]: Poison

5. [Pulse Laser]: Heavy

Level Scaling:

[Majunun Lvl] = [Adol Level]

[Majunun HP] = [Fixed HP]

[Majunun STR] = [Adol Base DEF] + [Fixed STR Offset]

[Majunun DEF] = [Adol Base STR] + [Fixed DEF Offset]

It might look something like:

[Majunun Lvl] = [Adol Level]

[Majunun HP] = 9132 (Nightmare)

[Majunun STR] = [Adol Base DEF] + 280

[Majunun DEF] = [Adol Base STR] + 80

Assuming identical equipment per level, Majunun will always damage Adol by the same amount per level (e.g. 181 HP at Level 2, 181 HP at Level 52). Conversely, Adol will always damage Majunun for the same amount per level for identical equipment. This is because Leveling Up doesn’t change the gap between Adol’s Strength and Majunun’s Defense and Vice-Versa.

There are only 2 ways the player can close this gap.

1. Better Equipment

2. More HP

Adol’s Actual Stats look something like this:

[Actual HP] = [Max HP] + [Equipment HP]

[Actual STR] = [Base STR] + [Equipment STR]

[Actual DEF] = [Base DEF] + [Equipment DEF]

Equipment doesn’t change Adol’s Base Stats, but does improve Adol’s Actual Stats. As such, Equipment benefits Adol, but doesn’t benefit Majunun. However, the Seed of Power and Seed of Defense adds to Adol’s Base Stats, and therefore provides no benefit to defeating Majunun.

Leveling Up increases the amount of HP Adol has. The Seed of Vitality adds to the HP that Adol has. Get enough HP, and Adol will be able to take more attacks.

In-Game Manual Updates

The current In-Game Help pages are very lacking. Too many things condensed together, not enough detail on the unintuitive elements. Additionally, the pages are very cluttered and difficult to read. This makes it easy to overlook things.

The In-Game Help needs to be a minimum of 4 distinct pages:

1. Basic Controls

2. Elemental Abilities (includes Magic)

3. Equipment

4. Status Effects

Ideally, there should be a fully fleshed-out in-game manual with pages that unlock as progress is made. However, expanding the current in-game help pages into the 4 pages noted above will add the most value with the least effort.

Help 1 – Basic Controls

The extra room will allow Lunge Attack and Dash Jump to be better explained:

1. [Lunge Attack]: Tap the Movement button, and then press the Attack button.

2. [Dash Jump]: Perform the Lunge Attack, and then press the Jump button. Jump can be pressed at any point during the Lunge Attack. For maximum distance, press the Jump button just after initiating the Lunge Attack.

Help 2 – Elemental Abilities

The extra room will allow the unintuitive Wind Element to be better explained. Additional details of other abilities can be included:

1. [Wind Element]: After the regular 3-hit combo, press the Attack button 5 more times at half the speed of a regular attack. If the timing is correct, the 3-hit combo will be extended with 5 additional Wind Element attacks.

2. [Flame Element]: Hold the Attack button to charge the Flame Element. While charging, Adol will be unable to move. Use the Movement buttons to aim the attack. When fully charged, the Flame Element will fire along the ground.

3. [Thunder Element]: Continuously attack to charge the Thunder Element. After attacking enough times, Adol will charge through enemies with the Thunder Element attack.

4. [Magic]: Damaging enemies and receiving damage will charge the Magic Gauge. When the Magic Gauge is full, press the Magic button to unleash a powerful Magic attack unique to each sword. Adol is invulnerable to damage while firing Magic.

Help 3 – Equipment

The extra room will make reading the descriptions significantly easier.

Help 4 – Status Ailments

The extra room allows descriptions of how to deal with Status Ailments:

1. [Removing Status Ailments]: Certain items will remove Status Aliments.

2. [Preventing Status Ailments]: Certain Equipment will prevent Status Ailments.

3. [Equipment Ailments]: Certain Equipment will inflict Status Ailment. If a Status Ailment cannot be removed with Items, check the descriptions of current Equipment.

Quateran Woods

Starting Area

The room just before the Fountain of Prayer Savepoint now contains ‘Albholg’, the rare enemies that the Birds sometimes drop. This is to slightly increase the difficulty of this area as well as get more use out of these underutilized enemies.

Livart

[Nice to Have]: When Chief Ord gives Adol Livart, he explains some of the mechanics of the Sword since the Wind Element is fairly non-intuitive:

1. Attack as you would an ordinary sword, then swing again at half-speed to call forth the Wind Element.

2. Swing 5 additional times at half-speed to perform a powerful finisher. Unlike powerful strikes, finishers deal smaller but rapid damage, for much greater damage overall.

3. When excess wind element has built up within the sword, release that energy to unleash a devastating maelstrom attack. This attacks also acts as a shield from all forms of attack.

The Barrier

The barrier blocking off the way to Windseeker Heights is more extreme, and cannot be pa*sed normally. When Largo is asked about the barrier before Ud-Meiyu is defeated, he will no longer say that it can be jumped over (because it cannot be jumped over).

After Ud-Meiyu is defeated, the barrier is moved since Olah has gone to Windseeker Heights. When Largo is asked about Olah, he will mention where she went and will also mention that the barrier should be open at the moment because of this. He will still recommend that Adol wait for Olah to return.

Windseeker Heights

The Path leading to Windseeker Heights is changed up in several small ways:

1. New savepoint before the Gaposdhala Boss Room.

2. New Boss Room for Gaposasura between the savepoint and Windseeker Heighst.

3. Gaposasura will not appear until Lan*luna is defeated.

Mythos Path

After Obtaining Livart

Remove the unfair design of having Level 21 Ghargil (Big Bugs) at the end of the Mythos Path, and replace them with Level 9 Ghargil that will provide rewards appropriate for the level.

It would also be worthwhile to use this as a way to introduce Birandi Geis:

1. In the last room of the Mythos Path, Birandi Geis will be standing there, but then suddenly teleport away.

2. The way south will be blocked by shadow.

3. The Ghargil (Big Bugs) will drop down as normal.

4. The Ghargil will be at-level (or maybe 1 level higher), and will drop appropriate items, emel, gold, experience for this level (Honey, 5 Emel, 10 or so Gold, 20 or so Experience).

5. After defeating the at-level Ghargil, the way south will be unblocked (shadow will disappear, and light will appear in the room).

After Grana-Vallis Complete

After completing the Grana-Vallis Mountain, the Mythos Path changes in a few ways:

Port Remorge Coast:

1. The South Exit of the Blue Door Room is blocked due to a cave-in. It is not possible to go south from within the Blue Door Room.

2. From the Fountain of Prayer: Entrance savepoint, it is not possible to get to the Blue Door Room as the doorway is blocked due to a cave-in.

3. This forces the player to go through the Mythos Path via the Port Remorge: Coast savepoint (as per Napishtim’s original design), which in turn forces the player to encounter the side-quest for the Thief’s Glove.

Ghargil:

1. After Grana-Vallis Mountain, the Mythos Path is now filled with Level 20 Ghargil as well as Level 20 Gilcha (Small Bugs).

2. The Ghargil and Gilcha provide appropriate drops, experience, gold, emel for the level.

3. The Ghargil and Gilcha provide just enough experience to get to the level required for Birandi Geis.

4. The Ghargil and Gilcha are here as practice for the Flame Element (basically Flame Element tutorial). There is nothing in Ruins of Lost Time against which the Flame Element is particularly effective (except for Ud-Meiyu).

Birandi Geis:

Possibly have another scene where Birand Geis is present in the Red Door room:

1. Birandi Geis is there, then teleports away.

2. But Level 20 Birandi Mimics appear behind Adol (Adol turns around to face them).

3. Then more Level 20 Birandi Mimics appear from the other side. Adol is surrounded.

4. Adol can’t activate the Red Door until all Birandi Mimics are defeated.

Canaan Plains

Piana-Pius is in a new Boss Room just after the Grana-Vallis Mountain: Entrance savepoint.

Piana Pullus and the original Boss Room is accessible only through the Limewater Caves.

The path leading to the Piana Pullus Boss Room now leads to an area filled with bees and a chest containing Honey.

Grana-Vallis Mountain

Piana-Pius is now blocking the Entrance to Grana-Vallis Mountain. A new Boss Room is required to support this.

The Wing of Alma

After saving Ur, Ur will ask Adol to help him get back to Port Remorge.

The cutscene where Ur gets Adol to meet Raba then plays (with some small changes).

After Adol is done talking with Raba, Ur will give Adol the [Wing of Alma], something he found on the mountain.

There are other ways to make the Wing of Alma mandatory, but this way makes it so that the cutscene in Port Remorge cannot be skipped (which can break the game). Two birds, one stone.

Ruins of Lost Time

With the changes made to overpowered accessories, every accessory in the Ruins of Lost Time could be skipped without being of great impact to the balance of future sections. However, missing the Accessory Slot will make it impossible to wear the [Emelas Crown], [Silver Armlet], and the [Rainbow Fragment] at the same time, which will cause the latter part of the Limewater Cave to be a problem.

In order for there to be a Savepoint before Majunun, it either has to be inaccessible until Ericcil is obtained (since it changes the dynamic of the dungeon), or a Midpoint Save is added to the dungeon. As a general rule, there should be at least 6 rooms (with enemies) between savepoints. In order to support a Midpoint Save, add switches and doors to existing rooms in the Ruins of Lost Time to meet this condition. Add extra rooms as needed. Modify existing rooms as needed.

Entrance:

New Boss Room for the New Boss, Birandi Geis. Include a cutscene where Adol’s shadow stretches and then Birandi Geis appears from it (like all proper self-respecting shadow monsters).

Part 1:

Switches and doors added before the new Midpoint Save room. A few additional rooms also added to support this. Dash-Jump to the Accessory Slot chest has been made impossible since this would provide a path to bypa*s the Midpoint Save room.

Majunun:

Path to Majunun is only accessible after reaching the Midpoint Save. There is a maze of Rainbow Platforms leading to the switch opening the door leading to Majunun. There is a new room just before Majunun. This new room has direct access to the Midpoint Save, but only after entering the new room and opening the pathway from within.

Possibly add some Item Chests to the Rainbow Platform Maze and the Fall Room below it (currently not covered in the Treasure Chests section). Possible Items:

1. Honey

2. Herb

3. Oroi Fruit

4. Limurian Shroom

Part 2:

There is a new switch that can only be accessed via the path leading to the Accessory Slot. This is the most critical change to the Ruins of Lost Time as it makes the Accessory Slot chest next to unmissible.

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Final Room before Depths Save

It would be good if all (or some specific) enemies had to be defeated in the Final Room before the Depths Save in order to open the way to the Depths Save. Otherwise, this room is mostly just a rush to the Savepoint.

Capla Water

The Capla Water chest is now guarded by Viddun, the glowing eyes that guard the Black Tabula chest. Since the room is quite large, the only way to get the Capla Water is to use Lightning Magic on the Viddun while Strength is high enough to guarantee that they will be quickly killed. If the Viddun get away, it will likely be impossible to kill them.

The earliest this should be possible is after Noodollon is defeated. Fortunately, there is a new Savepoint conveniently nearby the Capla Water, making it much easier to attempt the acquisition.

Limewater Cave

Barrier Room

A new room is added just after the Entrance Save. This room has no enemies, and blocks progress into the Limewater Cave.

After Gaspodhala is defeated, there will be talismans around the cave (placed by Geis to reveal the entrance), and the entrance to the Limewater Cave will be opened.

After Ruins of Lost Time (but before Gaspodhala is defeated), an optional cutscene where Geis is examining the back of the cave. Geis could then provide clues to progress by talking to himself. Adol overhears. When Geis realizes Adol is there, he gets annoyed.

Design Changes

Limewater Cave is designed around backtracking. This is why it’s relatively easy to reach the Midpoint Save and then use that as a platform to explore the remaining areas of the first section of the cave. With Savepoint Warping, it should not be so easy to reach Savepoints.

Part 1:

Change 3 pathways into directional paths by using elevation. Doing this will mean players will be required to traverse most of the first part of the Limewater Cave in order to reach the Midpoint Save.

The direct path to the Midpoint Save should be blocked by Deep Water. An additional high-platform path allows for going South (away from the Savepoint). However, it is not possible to go North by jumping on the platform as the platform is too high. A similar design would be used for the other 2 directional paths. Maybe the pathways are broken down to the water level, and only one side has a gentle slope up.

A new chest is added to the same room as the Galba Armor chest, though on the main path. This is to make this effectively blocked-off side-path worthwhile to explore.

Remove the Nirva (Hard Shelled Enemies) from along the path towards the Galba Shield and Galba Armor. It’s very possible to be killed by these before there is even a chance to realize they cannot be killed. It’s also not a very fair design to lose a good deal of progress to an enemy that is both unkillable and cannot be defended against.

For similar reasons, a Breakable Rock formation blocks the path to the Yellow Tabula. The formation can only be destroyed when the Bell of Silence is equipped.

Part 2:

Rearrange and modify the second area so that there are effectively only two paths:

Path 1 – Consists only of the right path, and leads to Piana-Pullus.

Path 2 – Consists of the left path. The left path leads to the center path. The center path leads to the Depths Savepoint, and then Deadollon.

Part way into the Left Path, there is a Rock Formation that needs to be destroyed using the Bell of Silence.

Remove the Nirva guarding the Accessory Slot. Might as well make the Accessory Slot part of the Piana-Pullus expected conditions rather than leaving it as something that can used to gain an advantage over Piana-Pullus.

Piana-Pullus:

Beating Piana-Pullus is required in order to obtain the Bell of Silence. The Bell of Silence is required in order to destroy Rock Formations that are blocking Progress.

Deadollon:

Deadollon blocks pa*sage to a Rock Formation that needs to be destroyed in order to proceed to the lake.

Before the Rock Formation is destroyed, the room leading to the lake is dark like the rest of the Limewater Cave. After the Rock Formation is destroyed, the room leading to the lake is brightly lit. This is to indicate that the Rainbow Fragment is no longer needed.

Orjugan:

Several new rooms separate the Depths Save and Orjugan. While this is strictly not necessary, it serves the following purposes:

1. Create a proper gap between Deadollon and Orjugan.

2. Allows for more underwater combat (this was severely lacking).

3. Allows an interesting way to obtain the Emel required for Level 9 Swords.

Some of the new rooms may be populated with non-boss Mini-Noodollon, enemies that will respawn when re-entering an area. The Mini-Boss version of Deadollon seemed like a good final barrier before getting to Orjugan.

Ruined City of Kishgal

In order to have Kishcarin as a Major Boss Fight (balanced around 3 Blue Potion), the fight needs to be moved to after the Midpoint Save. The second fight against Kishcarin can be moved to guard the 80,000 Emel, the Accessory Slot, and the Emelas Shield.

Since the Kishcarin rooms are no longer present, they can be replaced with some new rooms with normal enemies.

The biggest issue with Ruined City of Kishgal is the Midpoint Save. Because 80,000 Emel is so close to the Midpoint Save, Savepoint Warping makes it trivial to get upgrades earlier than intended. To mitigate this, several new rooms should be added between the Midpoint Save and the original rooms after the midpoint.

Optional Changes

New Event: Rehdan Village – Kevin First Encounter

Add a cutscene that forces the player to encounter Kevin — this way, the player knows to stop here to shop. It might happen something like this:

1. As Adol is pa*sing by, Kevin calls out to him.

2. Adol proceeds to Kevin.

3. Kevin talks to Adol.

Some additional things Kevin might talk about during this scene:

1. [Buying and Selling]: Not everything can be used to full effect early on. Sell the things you don’t need so you can buy the things you do.

2. [Equipment]: Equipment can provide a variety of benefits. However, some equipment may have detrimental affects when worn. If you find yourself with some kind of unexplained status that won’t go away, check your recent equipment.

New Event: Fountain of Prayer – Early Gilcha

When Olah is encountered at the fountain of Prayer, there is an extra event:

1. As Olah goes to leave, she sees some Gilcha (small bugs) near the Savepoint monument.

2. Olah says that the best way to deal with them is by attacking from above.

3. When looking back, the bugs seem to be gone, so Olah leaves to find Isha.

4. After Olah leaves, some low-level Gilcha appear on the Boss platform for the player to deal with.

5. Player has to deal with the Gilcha on the Boss platform before being able to proceed.

This basically condenses the “down thrust” tutorial of the Mythos Path into a small event, leaving Mythos Path available as practice for Wind Element (or down thrust if the player wants).

New Event: Zemeth Sanctum – Geis

After the Mirror of Zeme is repaired and the seal is released, a new cutscene showing Geis at Windseeker Heights looking out at the island:

1. Geis sees the glowing from the island.

2. Geis says “Fool.”

3. Geis uses his “Wing of Alma”.

4. The ground starts shaking.

5. Optionally show some distressed NPCs in the towns.

6. Trigger the cutscene where the Vortex of Canaan dissipates.

NOTES: Treasure Chests

Capla Water

The nerfed Capla Water is balance-breaking until the End-Game bosses. To prevent any balance-breaking scenarios, obtaining Capla Water must be restricted. The adjusted Seed of Vitality is a good choice for replacement of Capla Water in chests since it has a very minimal impact on overall balance.

Seeds

Bosses and enemies are balanced around specific STR and DEF stats. This is why changes in these stats can result in drastic differences in balance. As such, making sure the Seed of Power and Seed of Defense are both limited and part of expected conditions is important.

Daylight Stone

The Daylight Stone is a balance breaking when no Boss is balanced for it. If a boss is balanced around it, then it must be possible to obtain it from a non-Sidequest source. If the Daylight Stone can still be obtained from Emilio, then it could potentially be obtained twice, resulting in one being used to break the balance of a different boss. This can only be prevented by having 1 source for the Daylight Stone.

Since Emilio is giving a “charm”, the only other item that matches this description is the Winged God Emblem. August also has to give something in place of the Winged God Emblem. The only other accessory that kind of makes sense for August is the Starlight Medal.

I hope you enjoy the MOD Design – Napishtim Redux – Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim guide. This is all for now! If you have something to add to this guide or forget to add some information, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually!