Seiken Densetsu 3 - Sin of Mana, v2.060
Praetarius



===Patching===

The patch is for an unheadered ROM of Seiken Densetsu 3 (J), use SNESutil or similar to remove an existing header.
It will not work on Trials of Mana.
NEVER patch over an older version of this hack, get a clean ROM!
An english translation is included, do NOT patch over a translated ROM!
 
Apply the main patch "Seiken Densetsu 3 (J)_sinofmana_v2060.ips" first; you may need LunarIPS for this.
Afterwards you can apply any of the difficulty changers from the "difficulty_changer" folder if you wish, default is set to hard.


The "misc_patches" folder includes some bonus patches.

"3_player"
Turns on option to use a third human player. Already included in the main patch.

"bonusfight__BlackRabite_Bigieu_DKS"
replaces the random enemies in a dead end room to the right of the very final savepoint with a Black Rabite, Bigieu and Darkshine Knight.

"ghostship_savepoint"
allows use of the ghost ship savepoint that leads to savegame corruption if used with only 2 characters. USE AT OWN RISK!

"hardcore_death_penalty"
Death that is not removed via Angel Grail now also permanently reduces one random stat. Enables death penalty on all difficulties.

"mob_scaling"
All enemies spawn with the player's level instead of their preset levels.

"no_pop_messages"
Disables the laggy messages for stat modifiers and status ailments.

"skippable_spell_animation"
Hold the X button an any controller while the spell name is displayed on top to skip the spell animation.
Must be done before the animation starts.

"super_happy_funtimes"
The name says it all.
Adds small sized bosses to the pool of randomly appearing mobs.



===Emulator===

Will not work with ZSNES, SNES9x 2005 or earlier, or similar inaccurate emulators.



===Controls===

A: attack, confirm, interact
B: run (even in battle), cancel
X: open ring menu, skip spell animations (only if "skippable_spell_animation" patch is applied)
Y: use techs (in battle), invert ally/enemy targetting for selected spell (hold while selecting the spell before starting target selection)
Y+B: open menu (out of battle)
L/R: hold to control different character
START: open inventory (out of battle), toggle control on/off (player 2&3)
SELECT: switch to different character




===Character Stats===

At level ups you can select one stat to increase.
You can't select a stat for which you already have reached the current cap; stat caps are increased by upgrading class.
It is not possible to max all stats, at Lv99 you're still missing around 30 points.

The stats have the following effects:

Strength:
*base attack power with weapons and techs - except for special weapons that use a different stat
*increases attack bonus of regular strong attack
*max HP increases by 2 per point starting at 8 Strength

Agility:
*accuracy
*evasion
*bonus damage of Lv1 techs
*small attack bonus for regular strong attack
*reduced cooldown for weapon attacks starting at 18 agility
*damage of Jutsus (dark Hawk's spells)
*speed of trap wheel from trapped treasure chests
*casttime for spells

Vitality:
*physical defense
*defense against Jutsus and Trap spells (Hawk's spells)
*max HP increases by 1.5 per point

Intelligence:
*damage of primary elemental spells (earth, wind, fire, ice)
*minor damage bonus for Lv2/3 techs
*increases max MP
*increases rate of MP regeneration

Spirit:
*magic defense against spells powered by Intelligence
*magic defense against spells powered by spirit
*damage of summon, light and dark spells
*power of heal spells

Luck
*chance and damage bonus of critical hits
*chance to resist critical hits
*chance to inflict status ailments with special weapons
*minor influence on evasion
*damage of Traps (light Hawk's spells except Poison Bubble)
*chance to get rare items from treasure chests
*minor spell bonus damage




===Class Change===

Class can be upgraded at Level 18 and 38.
Level-ups are disabled until class is changed.
To upgrade class simply visit a mana stone.
The class change at Level 38 requires certain items that can either be found from ???-seeds or bought in item shop of Deen, the second town in the desert.
Upon class change all stats are increased to their previous cap and then the cap is increased.




===Capstone===

At the Level 60 level up you gain a capstone as a third and final (mini) class change.
The capstone you get depends on your highest stat, in case of draw the top-most one.
The effect of each capstone depends on the character, not on the actual class.




===Spells===

Learning spells requires both sufficient attributes (listed in the classes.txt) and the relevant spirits for the elements. (skills.xls)
A character can know only 10 different spells.
While below 10 known spells existing spells may be replaced with better versions (e.g. Nightblade Shuriken -> multi-target Shuriken, or Rogue Arrow -> Axe Bomber)
but when 10 spells total have been aquired even those upgrades are no longer possible.

While preparing a spell the character is immobile for a few seconds; stronger spells take longer to prepare, raising certain attributes can shorten the time.

Damage and healing spells that are used as single target get a 25% bonus to their efficiency.

As with Lv2 and Lv3 techs, certain enemies may enact counter-attacks when hit by spells.

Damage spells based on INT or PIE are affected by mind up/down on both caster and target.
Damage spells based on AGL or LUCK are affected by mind up/down on the caster and def up/down on the target.




===Physical Combat===

The regular attack is freely available, does little damage but generates tech points with each attack.
Tech points are also generated on a miss but in that case all bonuses to TP generation are ignored.
In case the regular attack hits multiple times or multiple enemies it still builds tech points only on the first hit per attack.

Randomly critical hits may occur which simply deal more damage; rate and damage bonus depend on the luck attribute.
Some enemies have high resistances to critical hits.
A stronger version of the regular attack is available in power attack performed by holding the attack button down and no direction button;
attack power is increased based on strength, miss chance and crit chance is reduced and delay before next attack is increased.

If at least 4 tech points are available Lv1 techs may be used, which deals increased damage and during which you gain slight invulnerability with which you may block certain attacks.
If a Lv1 tech hits an enemy shortly after they start their attack or cast a spell, you've performed a counter attack which deals increased damage (depending on weapon) and ignores physical resistance/immunity.

After the first class change, with 7 tech points Lv2 techs may be used; they have a great increase in damage over regular attacks, and action is paused during the animation.
Depending on class, these techs may hit all enemies on the screen. For those the damage is however slightly lower than their single target counterparts.

After the second class change, with 9 tech points Lv3 techs may be used; they are even stronger versions of Lv2 techs.

Additionally specific enemies have high physical resistance; against these enemies physical damage is greatly reduced.
This can be overcome to an extend with the use of the spell Anti-Magic and counter attacks.




===Damage Colors===

Green: healing
Red: regular attack damage
Purple: tech damage, spell damage
Yellow: critical attack damage, counter tech damage




===Aggro/Hate===

Enemies usually choose their targets either based on distance or at random.
Equipping the Gold Shield will make that character appear "closer" for this purpose.

When enemies/bosses get attacked their hate value increases (even on a miss).
Special moves build about twice the hate of regular hits and screen freezing attacks and debuffs even more.
Performing a counterattack depletes some of the hate value.
Once the hate reaches a critical threshold the enemy will receive a heal relative to total HP lost (capped at 300) and deal 33% more damage for a short duration.

The threshold varies by enemy, regular enemies have between 50 and 100.
Bosses have between 80 and 200 or disabled.

Increases:
regular attack: +3
double attack (Hawk&Kevin): +2 each
Lv1 tech: +7
double Lv1 tech (Hawk&Kevin): +5 each
spells, Lv2/3 techs: +40


===Items===

You can hold up to 12 different items in the ring menu with 20 each.
Storage can hold up to 99 of each item.

Using an item in battle requires 4 tech points.

The effect of items is either static or scales with level, the exact character stats have no influence.




===Set Bonuses===

Equipping certain combinations of body armors, helms and accessoires can grant special set bonuses.
All 4 non-weapon slots must be filled with a compatible item.
Using the same accessoire in both slots is allowed.




===Difficulty Effects===

Player and enemy damage as well as poison strength (relative to max health) is affected by the current difficulty.
Other mechanics may be deactivated for choosing a lesser difficulty.

Hard/Default:
Player Strength: 100%
Enemy Strength: 100%
Poison deals 10% damage to players and 5% damage to enemies
chance for treasure chest on victory: 1/1
chance for trap on chest: 50%
Rare Treasure Bonus: 10%
Life steal: 50%
Feature complete.

Tough:
Player Strength: 115%
Enemy Strength: 70%
Poison deals 8% damage to players and 6% damage to enemies
chance for treasure chest on victory: 1/2
chance for trap on chest: 35%
Rare Treasure Bonus: 7%
Life steal: 33%

Normal:
Player Strength: 130%
Enemy Strength: 50%
Poison deals 7% damage to players and 7% damage to enemies
chance for treasure chest on victory: 1/2
chance for trap on chest: 25%
Rare Treasure Bonus: 5%
Life steal: 25%
Death penalty disabled for failed chest traps.

Easy:
Player Strength: 150%
Enemy Strength: 35%
Poison deals 5% damage to players and 10% damage to enemies
chance for treasure chest on victory: 1/3
chance for trap on chest: 20%
Rare Treasure Bonus: 3%
Life steal: 20%
Death penalty disabled.
Enemies have halved chance to inflict status effects with regular attacks.
This difficulty should be close to the difficulty of the unmodified game.

Wuss:
Player Strength: 180%
Enemy Strength: 15%
Poison deals 1% damage to players and 12% damage to enemies
chance for treasure chest on victory: 1/3
chance for trap on chest: 15%
Rare Treasure Bonus: 0%
Life steal: 15%
Death penalty disabled.
Enemies have halved chance to inflict status effects with regular attacks.




===Status Ailments===

Poison
*rapid loss of HP, damage based on maxHP

Silence
*can't use spells or Lv2/3 techs
*Lv1 techs deal damage as if AGL was 0
*damage of Lv2/3 techs cut in half

Sleep
*can't act
*lasts only for a short duration or until hit by a physical attack

Snowman
*can't act
*lasts only for a short duration

Petrify
*count as dead
*enemies instantly die but only give half exp

Moogle
*transformed into harmless form
*physical attacks always miss

Chibbiko
*physical attacks deal 1 damage


Chance to inflict status ailments via spells is always 100% and can only be avoided by wearing protective gear.

Weapons use the luck stat+10 for everyone but Kevin and Hawk, they use luck+2.
Monster that can inflict status ailments with their normal attack start at a 15% chance and grow towards 100%.
The buff from Tinkle Rain reduces this to 15%.



===Day/Night/Time===

Days and day/night time have non-cinematic effects.
On Mana Day (fairy symbol) Inns are free and non-elemental spells deal increased damage.
The other days increase their respective elements; though there are no days for light or dark elements.
Physical spells are stronger on both moon and leaf elemental days.
Kevin can transform during the night into his werewolf form and gain an attack bonus.
Enemy formations change according to day/night time and a choice few shops are only available during either day or night.



===Chests===

At each victory the last defeated regular enemy can drop a treasure chest - 100% chance on hard. Bosses never drop chests.
For each enemy type there's three common items and 6 rare items, though some of them are only obtainable once enemies reach higher levels.
Starting at level 28, several enemy types can drop ??? seeds as rare items for class changing.
High luck on the one opening the chest increases the chance for a rare item, being higher levelled than the enemy adds a penalty to the chance.
The level penalty caps at 6 levels higher than the enemy and then drops your chance for rare items to 1/8 the regular value.
Opening a chest has a chance of triggering a trap wheel, failing this mini game cuts the chance for the rare item in half and adds an additional penalty depending on the trap icon you hit.
If you fail the trap wheel, the next chest has a greatly reduced chance to contain a trap (1/4 the previous chance).



===Death Penalty===

Each death that was not ended via Angel Grail increases a hidden death score (normal difficulty and higher).
Failing a trap chest from Lv36 on also increases it slightly (tough difficulty and higher).
Once death score is accumulated, max HP and defenses will be reduced.
Max HP decreases by ~10% per death, the lowest possible is 50% of the normal value.
Defenses drop by up to -90 over 7 deaths.
A death in the intro fights does count. For that purpose Kevin's "invincible" enemy has been reduced from 65k HP to 300.
Death score can be removed by using a Demon Statue or resting at an Inn.
These statues are ONLY awarded by beating certain bosses and appear unannounced in your storage; you do not get another status if you already have 5 in your storage.

Certain items grow stronger with your death score while a special type of weapons only grants its bonus if you've never gained any death score.



===Experience Gain===

As for RPGs typical experience points are gained by beating enemies.
The gained exp. is calculated by the difference between the enemy and the highest levelled hero as well as the enemy type.
For each level below the enemy you gain exp. as if the enemy was two levels higher (capped at effective level 127).
For each level above the enemy you gain exp. as if the enemy was one level lower.
As an example, beating a Lv50 rabite with level 50 grants the same exp. as beating a Lv40 rabite with level 35.
Bosses are typically worth 20-30 times the exp. of a regular enemy of the same level.
Party members that are lower level than the main character get a couple extra exp. to lessen the gap.



===AI helpers===

AI controlled party members get a hidden bonus to their evasion, to make up for their suicidal behaviour.

When allies are set to the top-right AI option they will not run towards any enemy at the start of battle.
They'll wait until approached or they have finished casting any spell.

Any other AI setting just alters the priority of which enemy to attack first.



===Secret Shop location===

some hints to make it not too obvious:
*consider the surrounding items in the list for a general idea "when" the shop should be
*you are forced to visit the general area
*rocks



===Extra Shop location===

*a weapon trader now visits Wendel after defeating 2 godbeasts and leaves after the 7th GB kill
*Pedan's armor trader now visits Byzel after defeating 3 godbeasts and leaves after the 7th GB kill
*Byzel's black market adds some items to their inventory after defeating 4 godbeasts




===3 player===

On emulator make sure that the "multitap" option and controller 3 is enabled. Details will vary by emulator used.
See section "Known Issues" below for problems with this during the ghost ship section.



===Vanilla Savegames===

It is NOT recommended to use savegames from the vanilla version with this hack.
Various machanics that should patch various bugs would run with uninitialized values, e.g. giving you Lv1 stats instead of what you should have.
Also the general level progression is twice as fast here so you'd have to grind a lot of levels to be able to contiue from the same spot;
in the same time you could just as well play this hack as intended to your old spot.
Also you'd probably be missing a lot of useful gear since you upgrade from a version with linear gear progression to one with gear diversity.



===Damage/Heal Popups===

Red numbers are regular damage that is dealt to your team.
Purple numbers are regular damage that is dealt to enemies.
Yellow numbers stand for damage from critical hits and Lv1 techs.
Green numbers represent HP or MP heal.



===Misc. Info===

*the drawback "get damaged by healing" of certain armors is not active out of combat
*MP regenerates over time and is completely refilled during a map transition
*while casting, passive regeneration effects are halted (natural MP regeneration, Sage's Gigas Flail, Mad Beast's Fang, etc.)
*health is completely refilled after any victory if any party member knows the Heal Light spell
*if the Chibikko Hammer does not work on you, e.g. for the quest line, make sure you are not immune to the chibikko state or suffer from a different ailment
*spells are instantly cast if no enemy is present; those out of view still count
*spells leave some residue that might affect damage reflected via thorns affect
*some weapons have the property "no tech bar increase", this only means that they have a base gain of 0, aura wave or certain rings can still push it back into the positives
*not all bosses are immune to every status ailment, though for some bosses these may cause changes in their behaviour
*layout of regular enemies is kinda random; e.g. where a Molebear is naturally placed a Poron or Myconoid may appear instead (refer to sheet enemy_shuffle for potential replacements)



===Known Issues===

*loading a save made while a party member is missing during the ghost ship event instantly resets the game making the save unusable!! as a workaround the savepoint is normally disabled
*having player 3 active during this event can lead to strange control behaviour or complete control loss when a character dies
*the AI may go numb under unknown circumstances, often caused by AT mode/AI switch abuse/too much lag; in extreme cases the enemy AI may be lost entirely for the rest of the battle
*if a petrify effect hits someone they take 50% damage, this can exceed the 999 damage cap which leads to strange damage numbers like "12MP" due to the way damage display is handled
*the map before the corobokkle forest grants the def up effect upon entering the map and leaving battle; this is required for the corobokkle town event to run at all
*the order of getting the result of the trap wheel and obtaining the item is random, therefore the penalty to rare items may not apply
*2nd and 3rd character start with wrong HP, attack, defense until level up or re-equip, specifically Lv1 values
*Angela and Charlie as 1st Character start with 1 m.def too much; just a rounding error because the game uses a different formula at character creation
*if you pass Genova's room on the way out, it is skipped - necessary, otherwise an event blocks your exit until you beat Bill&Ben
*(max) HP display in the menu is not updated until you switch to a different screen; was never relevant in the base game as max HP was a constant value
*between damage calculation and display is a short delay which can cause issues:
**Lv1 techs rarely do normal damage
**tech bar to not increase
**the Lv1 techs invulnerability frames may last longer than intended or not apply at all
**reflected spell damage can be altered by having a regular weapon attack hit in the frame after damage calcutation before the reflected damage is applied
**this may very rarely also be able to trash the UI for a moment (had it only happen once so far)



===Credits / Special Thanks===

testing, ideas, suggestions:
*Colar
*Guilty
*Kei
*mr_smartiepant
*philsov
*Radiant_Gene
*Sefie1999AD
*sid
*Sikker
*Tio123
*Valenhil
*Velsper

documents and MapJester tool:
*giangurgolo

english translation:
*Neill Corlett
*Lina`chan
*Nuku-nuku
*SoM2Freak

various hints for cut content, 3-player options, crits, etc.:
*Cutting Room Floor (https://tcrf.net/Seiken_Densetsu_3)

*more to be filled in later...