General Speedrun Guide

Update (6/29/2018): Added more resources, and elaborated on how Chaos uses its actions.

English Resources:
Ramtieger's Game System FAQ: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/561939-unlimited-saga/faqs/39002
The Strelitza Inn, a WIP shrine, containing a variety of useful information and tools: http://thaao.net/unsaga/
 
Japanese Resources:
Unlimited:SaGa Wiki: http://wikiwiki.jp/unsaga/?%BC%E7%BF%CD%B8%F8%A4%CE%C1%AA%A4%D3%CA%FD
A capture site with a variety of data and system information: http://tyoikenkyu.web.fc2.com/usaga/top.html
Nico Nico Unlimited Saga Race Community: http://com.nicovideo.jp/community/co2334890 (Under "【アンサガRTA基礎知識？】")
Radio's equivalent of this guide: http://bukkowaretaradio.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-14.html (The axfc.net link)

Other Leaderboards:
Nico Nico's: http://niconamarta.sakura.ne.jp/index.php (Under サガシリーズ -> アンリミテッドサガ)
Peercast's: http://listeners.reep.info/index.php?cmd=read&page=Peercast%20Record%2F%A5%A2%A5%F3%A5%EA%A5%DF%A5%C6%A5%C3%A5%C9%A1%A6%A5%B5%A5%AC
Note: Peercast runners start time at selection of character.
 
 Panels & Building Characters
High Ability Growth Panels
95  -   Gauntlet
90  -   Iron Body
80  -   Seal Weapon (Gun), Axe Arts, Kick, Punch
75  -   Toughness
70  -   Arcane Tongue, Locksmith, Magic Blender, Master Fighter, Master Technician, Seal Weapon (Dagger/Sword/Staff/Bow), Spear Arts, Sword Arts, Throw
65  -   Defuse, Natural, Seal Melee, Seal Weapon (Axe/Spear), Swimming
60  -   Bow Arts, Dagger Arts, Gun Arts, Iron Will, Obstacle Crossing, Quick Fix, Shield Arts, Weapon Meister
 
High Elemental Growth Panels
80  -   Fortuneteller
70  -   Road Guide, Cave Guide, Judy's Familiars, Master Magician, Phobias, Recovery
65  -   Eavesdrop, Familiars, Magic Tablets, Fashion, Inconspicuous
60  -   Staff Arts, Architect, Sharpeye, Diplomacy
   
Increasing Strength
Place high ability growth panels in top left or top right slots.
Make a line with Martial Arts panels going either from the top left to bottom right slots or the top right to bottom left slots.
When forming the line, always place Punch and Kick in the middle and top left/right slots.
You'll also want to be raising Skill as high possible for these characters. So place a high ability growth panel in the center right slot.
Making a line through the middle is not as effective for high strength characters. Though for Musol Yanii where he's already set up like that, it's fine.
Mythe in his scenario is the only character you want actively build a line through the middle for due his lack of strength growth.
 
Increasing Skill
Place high ability growth panels in the middle right slot and the top right slot.
Make line, triangles, or joints with Key panels.
When making lines of keys for skill builds, you should make them from top left to bottom right, always placing Locksmith or Defuse in the middle.
In cases like Tiffon or Kurt who have a negative panel in the center, you'll want to go with either a triangle, or 1 to 2 joint bonuses.
A joint or line of Daggers panels is occasionally possible. And Sword Arts panel bonuses also boost Skill by a small amount.
 
A character's HP growth is effected by how many actions are taken by that character during an adventure. HP growth does slow as a characters gets more max HP.
 
Other Important Panels
Aura - Use to reduces chance of enemies attacking you and makes avoiding traps easier. Reduction is Panel Level x 10 + 20%. Lasts 20 turns.
Inconspicuous - Increases effectiveness of Aura. Level 1 Inconspicuous has no effect. Level 2 and 3 reduce chance to attack by 10%. Level 4 and 5 reduce chance to attack by 20%.
Eavesdrop - Building a history of usage of this increases the chance of getting Aura.
Diplomacy - Good for dealing with highly aggressive enemies that don't immediately attack you.
Obstacle Crossing - Needed for quick completion of an adventure in Laura's and Kurt's Story.
Monger - Use to reduce the price of items for sale. Mainly used in Armic's Story. Rebecca and Marie start with this.
Artiste - Use to see more, higher quality items at shops. Sapphire and Pharr start with this.
 
 Building History
The panels generated at the end of each adventure are influenced by what actions your characters have used up to that point.
Knowing what to use on each character to increase the chance you get the panels you want is fairly important.
 
Number of Actions Used and Their Influence on Panel Generation
0       None
1 to 4  Very Small
5 to 25 Small
25+     Medium
 
For Axe users, you want to build a history of martial arts usage once they're in your party.
As mentioned above, using Eavesdrop increases the chance of getting Aura. These are the two most important histories to build.
For a complete list of what influences what when it comes history you can find it here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/561939-unlimited-saga/faqs/39002 (8.j)
 
 Placing Panels Quickly
For determining which panels to place do the following:
1. If you don't have Aura on any character, check Key panels to see if they are Aura. Place it.
2. If you're forming a line/triangle of panels on that character, look for pieces to complete or improve the line/triangle.
3. Check for high ability growth panels and place those if they improve that character's stats.
4. Check for useful, low ability growth panels like Diplomacy. Place them out of the way from the Strength or Skill slots.
 
 Encounters & Dealing With Them
Each monster type has a certain number of turns before they move again.
Knowing this is very useful when it comes to usage of Diplomacy, the barrier skip in Mythe's Story and avoiding encounters in the Undead section of the Nakle Lines.
 
Beasts: Moves every 2 turns. Chance of Attacking: 5%
Wildings: Moves every 3 turns. Chance of Attacking: 70%
Birds: Moves every 2 turns. Chance of Attacking: 30%
Insects: Moves every 3 turns. Chance of Attacking: 90%
Vegeplasts: Moves every 6 turns. Chance of Attacking: 10%
Aquans: Moves every 2 turns. Chance of Attacking: 120%
Demons: Moves every 3 turns. Chance of Attacking: 150%
Undead: Moves every 4 turns. Chance of Attacking: 170%
Slimes: Moves every 5 turns. Chance of Attacking: 0%

Defeating Monsters Quickly
General formation for encounters is as follows: A Dagger user at the front using Quick Thrust once or twice. The amount of Quick Thrusts depends on the number of enemies present.
If there's one monster, just use one Quick Thrust. The exception is if it's an enemy with more than 1 LP and there isn't a Gun or Bow user around to take care of it. You'll want at least 2 Quick Thrusts for any enemy with more than 1 LP in that circumstance.
If there's one monster that has more than 1 LP or is durable (i.e. Skeletons), queue Quick Thrust and queue up Shoot or Multi Shots.
If there's two monsters, queue up Quick Thrust and another Quick Thrust or Random Arrowshot. If one of the enemies has more than 1 LP, queue up Shoot or Multi Shots targeting that monster instead of one Quick Thrust.
If there's three or more enemies, use one Quick Thrust targeting the enemy in the front. Use Random Arrowshot to clear the monsters and pick off anything remaining with Quick Thrust.
Fill out the remaining actions with Martial Arts with an Axe user to build their history.
If your Axe user has gotten his martial arts panel bonus already, feel free to fill up your remaining actions with characters who can benefit from having more HP.
If there's a Rank 3 enemy with more than 2 LP and you have Reverse Delta available, take care of it with that.
 
Turn Order, Preferred Distance and Weight
Turn order is greatly determined by the distance between the character acting and the enemy, and the type of weapons a character is using each turn.
Each weapon has a different preferred distance. The greater the difference in distance from a target and the weapon's preferred distance, the slower that action will be.
For example, Daggers have a preferred distance of 50.  This is the usual distance between the 1st character and 1st enemy in the battle, therefore a dagger user in front will generally be able to take an action without getting interrupted.
However, if a character in the 5th slot were to use a dagger against an enemy that's furthest back, they'll act very slowly, so enemies will take a greater number of actions after their action.
Magic in most cases is very slow due to its preferred distance of 500, the only exception being targeting characters not participating in battle that turn.
In the case for when you want an enemy to use as many actions as possible before your next available action, generally the best method is to have someone cast magic on themselves and then HOLD that action.
 
Preferred Distance for Attack Types
Throw - 10
Punch - 20
Kick - 40
Dagger, Axe - 50
Sword, Staff - 100
Spear - 150
Gun - 200
Bow - 300
Magic - 500

Bows are used against Chaos due to a greater than usual distance between an enemy and your party.
A trick you can do, in the case of using a single Reverse Delta user vs. Chaos's final form is to queue up a single Slam or Mutli Blade alongside Time Lapse.
Due to the better preferred distance on Swords and Staves for that section of the fight, you can usually get at least one or two Reverse Deltas off before Chaos acts.

A character's weight also plays a role in determining how fast a character will act. This is why the dagger user for each story has most of their equipment removed for most of the run.

 Buffs and Debuffs
Buffs and debuffs are mainly used during the fight with Chaos though there are a few instances of them being used for other major boss battles. The most important information to know is the duration of each effect.
Weapon Blessing and Armor Blessing last until the end of battle.
Power Surge and Build Up last for three turns.
Drag Down and Bone Crusher last until the end of battle. For enemies with multiple forms, you'll have to reapply any debuffs as necessary after each form change.
  
 Blacksmithing
Creation of New Material Through Combining Items:
Mullock (1) + a Bestial Item or another Mullock (1) = 100% chance of creating Mullock (2)
Iron(stone)/Steel (1) + Wood = 15% chance of creating Steel (2). You can identify Steel(2) by looking at the attack on the item. If it's one less than usual it's Steel (2).
Steel (2) + Mullock (2) = 100% chance of creating Damascus
Silver + Bestial Material = 15% chance of creating Faerie Silver. This is useful for Armic's story.
Meteorite + Bone/Scale/Tortoise Shell = 15% chance of creating Meteoric Iron. This is occasionally useful for Armic's story.
(Bestial items are made of Carnelian/Lazuli/Opal/Ravenite/Topaz)
   
Notable Item Materials & Weights
Weight of 0 - Feather
Weight of 1 - Cedar, Copse
Weight of 2 - Cotton, Fang
Weight of 3 - Bone, Carnelian, Dragonheart, Fur, Lazuli, Opal, Ravenite, Scale, Silver, Snake Skin, Topaz
Weight of 4 - Mullock, Tortoise Shell
Weight of 5 - Iron, Serpentine, Steel
Weight of 6 - Copper, Damascus, Ironstone, Marcasite, Obsidian
Weight of 7 - None
Weight of 8 - Lead
 
For each weapon type, here are the weights of items and the important abilities that correspond to them:
 
Daggers
Weight 2 to 7: <Parry> in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Bestial Item + Item with Weight of 0 to 6.
 
Swords
Weight 1 to 5: <Deflect> in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Bestial Item + Item with Weight of 0 to 5.
 
Axes
Weight 1 to 4: Time Lapse in the 3rd slot. General recipe used: Dragonheart + Item with Weight of 0 to 3.
Weight 7 to 8: Time Lapse in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Damascus + Item with Weight of 4 to 5.
 
Staffs
Weight 1 to 5: <Block> in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Item with Weight of 3 + Item with Weight of 0 to 5
Weight 2 to 3: <Block> in the 2nd slot, Bone Crusher in the 4th slot. General recipe used: Bestial Item + Item with Weight of 0 to 1.
Weight 6: Bone Crusher in the 3rd slot. Not really used since a Staff with Weight of 2 to 3 is better.
 
Spears
Weight 1 to 2: Aim in the 4th slot. Not really used due to 4 ability items that could be used to make a damage dealing weapon is rare.
Weight 5 to 7: Aim in the 3rd slot. General recipe used: Damascus + Item with Weight of 0 to 4
Weight 8: Aim in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Damascus + Item with Weight of 5 to 6
 
Bows
Weight 1 to 3: Random Arrowshot in the 3rd slot, Multi Shots in the 4th slot. Not really used since the commonly used bows are made of heavy weight material.
Weight 6 to 7: Random Arrowshot in the 2nd slot, Multi Shots in the 3rd slot. General recipe used: Copper + Item with Weight of 3 to 6
Weight 8: Multi Shots in the 2nd slot. General recipe used: Lead + Item with Weight of 4 to 5.
 
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/561939-unlimited-saga/faqs/37660 has a chart that shows what the resulting weights of combined items will be.)

 Chaos
Stats
1st Form: 22 LP, 3 Actions
2nd Form: 16 LP, 4 Actions
3rd Form: 11 LP, 5 Actions
Final Form: 20 LP, 7 Actions
 
Chaos's Max HP is 20,000. When you defeat a form, if Chaos's HP is below 10,000, its HP will be restored to 10,000 HP. Otherwise, nothing happens. When you defeat the 3rd form, the final form fully heals to 20,000 HP.
Some of Chaos's attacks can use up multiple actions. The best example of this is Overkill which consumes at least 3 actions.
However, Chaos doesn't need multiple actions available to use attacks that use up multiple actions. So it's possible for the final form of Chaos to use Overkill three times in a single turn despite the fact that it would take up 2 more actions than it has.

This document has a breakdown of what abilities each form of Chaos can use and how many actions they can take up:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12gPn7QuFerW2no805WcgaYcYJ4vA7GAcox9rP6wnDFw/ 

Chaos's 2nd form has 2 variants.
The Blue Mask will remain if you defeat the 1st form of Chaos on an odd numbered turn. The Red Mask will remain if you defeat the 1st form of Chaos on an even numbered turn.
In the Japanese version, the Blue Mask 2nd Form has 10 more LP than the Red Mask. In the English version, the only difference between the two is movesets when Chaos's wing is open.
 
The general formation for fighting Chaos is 2 Bow users that act as tanks, and a Reverse Delta user. The greater distance between Chaos and the Reverse Delta user will result in less attacks being directed at them most of the time.
As Chaos gets more dangerous as you progress through the fight, a general rule of thumb is to have characters with low LP tank the first 3 forms, switching out for more durable characters as they get low on LP. This will save the characters who can take the most hits for the final form.
In the case of multiple Reverse Delta users, you generally want to use the less durable Reverse Delta user for the first 3 forms, leaving your 2nd or 3rd Reverse Delta user fresh for the final form.
Characters like Rebecca and Josef are more durable than they appear due to their high starting HP. They can usually take one or two hits, depending on the attack and their current HP, from Chaos while taking minimal LP damage.
Another option for the final form of Chaos is to have a single tank, and a single Reverse Delta user. This strategy is best used early on to do more HP damage faster, but will chew through the two characters' LP at a greater rate.
Therefore this should only be used when both characters are at a high amount of LP.
 
Chaos's Wing
This is a mechanic in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd forms of Chaos. Whether its wing is opened or closed determines its defensive stats and what attacks it has access to.
When the wing is closed, it only has access to Cursed Blade, Sword Dance and Breath of Chaos, and its defense is higher.
When the wing is open, it only has access to magic, and whatever ability it has taken from the story's villain and has drastically reduced defense. What magic it has access to is on a story by story basis.
The 3rd form has no magic, so it instead has access to Raven Blade, Neutron Slap and the villain's ability when the wing is open.
On the 1st turn, the wing will be closed and will not open that turn. On every 3rd turn, the first attack against Chaos will close the wing and it will remain closed for the rest of the turn.
On any other turn, on each attack there's a high chance to open the wing if it's currently closed and a small chance to close the wing if it's currently open.
 
Villain Abilities
Each character's Chaos has an unique ability based on or directly taken from that story's villain.
 
Clyde Blackstorm: Voidwalker - Single Target, medium damage with a chance to Confuse.
Dagul Bos: Dog goD - Single Target, high damage, slightly stronger than Raven Blade.
Basil Galeos: Shadow Breath - Single target, chance to inflict Poison, Darkness, Blackout and lowers Endurance.
Kalandorn Alovi: Dark Minions - All Targets, high damage, chance to inflict Darkness.
Arcanian Mech: Plasma Shower - All Targets, deflectable, low damage, chance to Paralyze.
Yun Crimsonrain: Lost Spell - All Targets, no damage, chance to inflict a myraid of status effects.
Phantom: Triple Zero - Single Target, high damage, chance to inflict Petrify.
Jeanne Maure: Hundred Flowers - Single Target, medium damage, high LP damage.
 
Dog goD, Lost Spell, and Hundred Flowers are only in used in the 1st to 3rd forms of Chaos.
Due to the potential devastating effects of each of these abilities, you'll want to change the formation used on the turns Chaos will have access to them.
It's a good idea to drop down to two characters for Dark Minions, Plasma Shower and Lost Spell to minimize damage.
You'll also want your Reverse Delta users have some amount of Spirit and Endurance to minimize the chances of being afflicted by the status effects, especially if you don't have equipment with Null <Status Effect>.
For the single target abilities, you'll want to maintain a 3 person formation to spread out damage and minimize the chance of your Reverse Delta user being hit by them.
 
Strength Down, Defense, and Taking Below 499 Damage from Raven Blade
For determining LP damage, there's some modifiers that are applied based on the amount of HP damage dealt. These are:
Deal 499 or more damage.
Deal 999 or more damage.
Deal more HP damage than the target has remaining.
Deal more HP damage than the target's Max HP.
 
Generally, when using Raven Blade, Chaos will meet the 3rd and 4th of these modifiers. The 1st can happen, but it's easily preventable.
By using Bone Crusher and having sufficient defense on a character you can usually take under 499 damage from Raven Blade.
The numbers are as follows:
At least 21 Defense is required if a Strength Down effect is not applied.
At least 9 Defense is required if a Strength Down effect is applied.
Armor Blessing counts as +10 Defense, so if you have that applied the minimum defense you need is 11 without a Strength Down effect.
 
The other troublesome attack that Chaos will always have is Neutron Slap, which can tear up your party really badly if not mitigated.
At 13 defense you take less than 499 damage from Neutron Slap without a strength down effect. If you've applied strength down, don't worry about it.

JP Routes

https://mokaplus.net/yarikomi/unsagarta/

These are routes for the Japanese version of the game made by moka. They aren't the fastest, but they should be fast enough for a good time.

Judy's Story Route

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SRvicSO04ZH3K11IAHau12Z3zTJu1sroaInQzy9cuBc/

The Ultimate Speedrun Guide

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dlf8e7CGcwj2AEX22ZMcJJeNznB7GqKzjM-MKEx1410/edit?tab=t.0](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dlf8e7CGcwj2AEX22ZMcJJeNznB7GqKzjM-MKEx1410/edit?tab=t.0)

Ventus's Story Route

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rSWDT6QGjnFNT64GslCJ_XN-EspKXlMCWhu4Mj8W8lA/

Name	Author
General Speedrun Guide	catklaw 7 years ago
JP Routes	SkyeSage17 4 years ago
Judy's Story Route	catklaw 7 years ago
The Ultimate Speedrun Guide	cha0sWR 6 months ago
Ventus's Story Route	catklaw 7 years ago