The Guide to Beating Giygas: The Sure-Fire Method a.k.a. Stats in their True Colors - By Cecil Version 1.0 -Table of Contents- 1. The Purpose of this Guide 2. WTF? What do the stats in EB truly do?! 3. The Battle Against Giygas - The Sure Fire Method 4. Why can't Giygas be killed without Praying? *1. The Purpose of this guide:* This guide is meant to gather up all of my recent experiences in the game EarthBound, which include what I think is a fail-safe way to beat Giygas, the exact way various stats work, and also an explanation of exactly WHY Giygas cannot be killed without the Prayer command[for those who use Super Stat codes on characters in an attempt to beat him by normal means]. Be warned, I have very personalized opinions, and I will be giving many of them here(mostly when talking about the characters though). I don't expect them to change your views on the stuff I speak of, but I DO expect you to respect those opinions and not make failing attempts to flame me just because I don't think Ness is ultra-l33t[and I'm honest on that point too, I will warn you]. *2. WTF? What do the stats in EB truly do?* I know, "WTF we know how the stats work!", etc, etc... Well, it's come to my attention that many people DON'T know how certain stats[Vitality, I.Q, Luck, etc] really work. This guide is here to thoroughly explain how these certain stats work. I'm NOT gonna talk about Offense, Defense, Speed or Guts so don't get too annoyed. Vitality: Vitality in the Players Guide says "Vitality affects how fast your HP rises". When I first saw the guide[I was 11 -_-;], I was puzzled and thought they meant Vitality allows the rolling HP meter to go up faster, but I soon realized the truth about the number: Your HP is actualy the following formula: Vitality x15. Yes, if you have 20 Vitality, you'll have at least 300 HP. Now, the Vitality also works a little odd. If you use a Vital Capsule, you won't immedately get HP, but instead you have to level up to do so[so being at level 99 will screw over any chances of extra HP bonuses, since you can't level up anymore(this is also why being at Level 99 royally screws Ness over with the Magicant Boost)]. Also, the HP doesn't exactly always go up by exactly 15, but actually to a MULTIPLE of 15 upon a level up[if any vitality points were gained prior to that level up], so you could have 305 HP [(20 Vitality x 15) + 5 extra HP from random HP ups at level ups(these only occur when you don't gain any Vitality Points in a level up)], and you get a Vitality point at level up, instead of going to 320 HP [(21 Vitality x 15) + 5 extra HP from random HP ups at level ups], you'll just go to 315 HP[21 Vitality x 15], because of the way the game system works. I.Q.: The exact same crap applies to I.Q. as Vitality, except for two differences: 1. I.Q. affects PP and not HP 2. Each I.Q. point is worth 5 PP and not 15 PP Also, there's the fact Jeff needs to have various I.Q. level to fix various broken objects, and that the above with I.Q. for PP has no effect on Jeff at all since he cannot use PK anyways[so he ALWAYS has 0 PP]. Luck: This stat has the ability to allow a character to avoid an attack if their speed fails to evade the attack[like a backup speed stat, and instead saying "[character] dodged quickly!", it'll say something like "Just Missed" or "Narrowly missed hitting the target"]. However this stat allows you to avoid more than just physical blows. The luck stat affects the hit rate of the following attacks: 1. HP Suckers and Hungry HP Suckers 2. Shield Killers 3. Brainshock[Paula's Loud Rumber Prayer ignores Luck, though] 4. PK [Favorite Thing] of any level 5. Bottle Rockets of all three kinds[even the ultra-cheap Multi-Bottle Rockets can miss because of the luck stat] 6. and likely many other kinds of attacks *3. The Battle Against Giygas, The Sure-Fire Method* First thing you need to realize in this strategy, is that you must understand exactly why I suggest the things I'm going to suggest. First off, you'll need the following things for sure: 1. The Franklin Badge 2. At least ONE Sea Pendant or a Star Pendant[no, an Earth Pendant is NOT as good as the other two pendants, so that will not work, and I'll explain why in the strategy below] 3. Paula to have at least 100-150 HP going into the second stage of Giygas[this shouldn't be a worry anyways, unless you've reached Giygas at a VERY low level] The Following Items help to have, but are not necessarily required: 1. Multi-Bottle Rockets[for Pokey only] 2. Teddy Bears/Super Plush Bears[mostly for Pokey] 3. Maybe one or two food items Now that you got all your stuff, make sure your at a level you feel is safe to face Giygas[level shouldn't matter a great deal in this strategy, so I'll let you decide a suitable level]. Now make sure before you trigger the events into the Giygas fights the following is done Equip Paula with both the Franklin Badge and the Sea/Star Pendant. It doesn't matter if you only have one Sea/Star Pendant, she needs to have it more than anyone else, and the same applies to the Franklin Badge[hey, it's actually HER badge to begin with. The game never said anything about her letting Ness keep it at the end anyways, so he only has it in the Department Store and Magicant after Paula joins anyways in my games]. This is the most vital part of the whole strategy. If you don't understand, I'll explain below once the time comes. Enter the battle with Giygas and Pokey. Obviously, don't hit Giygas at all, or he'll use his ultra-shield to repel anything back into any random character[note that you CAN damage Giygas in this state if you sucessfully poison him with a Snake or Viper[the bite damage is repelled to you, but the poison effect isn't], but it doesn't allow you to beat him anyways, it's just a glitch the game overlooked about Giygas' shield]. If you have an MBR or two, quickly use them on Pokey, and hope any attacks of his will be absorbed by any Teddy Bear like items you have. When Pokey goes down, using this strategy should be 100% fail safe[in fact using this strategy, Pokey ends up being the only problem you truly have in the whole 4 stages of Giygas.] Pokey will boast like usual about how if you saw the true Giygas you'd wet your pants in fear, etc, etc... and you enter battle with Giygas alone in his second form. I'd like to say now before I continue in my strategy, that this is the ONLY time you can beat any state of Giygas through normal fighting[bashing, PK attacks, etc]. You need to deal exactly 2000 HP[yes, this was confirmed by the EB rom-hacking tool PK Hack] of damage to him here before Pokey will come back and taunt you about calling help. Anyways, you're now wondering why I demanded Paula'd be equipped with the Franklin Badge and Sea/Star Pendant[and why Earth Pendants are useful enough for this strategy], and not Ness for example. Here's why: 1. When Giygas attacks, his attacks have one of three different effects: a) An all hiting PK Freeze Beta attack[can solidfy people, but doesn't always] b) A Crashing Boom Bang attack/PK Thunder Beta attack c) A PK Flash Gamma-Omega like attack By giving Paula the Franklin Badge, that prevents Giygas from being able to hurt her with his Thunder-like attack. By giving her the Sea/Star Pendant, that prevents 95% of damage from his all-hitting Freeze attack[Paula will only take 10-11 HP damage at max and possibly lose a turn from being frozen], and it completely blocks out his flash attack. It's for this reason it should be impossible to lose, since even if the others die, Paula is a friggin' tank in this fight, as she can resist almost 99% of anything Giygas throws at her, and even if every attack he hits her with is a Freeze attack, she should be at her 9th prayer long before she's in danger of running out of all her HP even once. Now, you're probably wondering "Why doesn't the Earth Pendant suit well here? It does the exact same thing a Sea Pendant does!" WRONG. It does block the same things as a Sea Pendant does, but only half as well. Wearing an Earth Pendant only halvens damage from Fire and Ice attacks[you take 180 damage from Freeze Beta(which normally does 360 damage) with one as opposed to about 8-11 damage with a Sea Pendant], and only prevents the effects of Flash 50% of the time. I found this out because I had Ness equipped with an Earth Pendant before Ness' Nightmare, and when he used his Glorious Light[Flash Gamma-Omega effect] on me the first time, it had no effect at all, but the second time he did it, he numbed me, and then used it one more time and killed me off instantly. Before this, I thought the Earth Pendant was exactly like the Sea Pendant also, but that fight taught me an important lesson about the Earth Pendant :\ This is why I don't perfer the Earth Pendant over the Sea Pendant in EB. Now that you know this strategy, knock off 2000+ HP on Giygas to have Pokey come in and taunt you. After this, have Paula pray 9 times like normal. The strategy should allow you to have minimal effort in the remainder of the fight, and you'll beat Giygas in like one of the easiest ways known[maybe a better stategy will be made, but I feel mine's very helpful also]. *5. Why Can't Giygas be Killed Without Praying?* Giygas offically has 9999 HP on all forms except for his second stage where he has 2000 HP[where you have to hit him until Pokey taunts you about calling for help]. This is confirmed by PK Hack. Now, why can't you kill him without praying?: My guess is that there are hidden events that after every onslaught of damage you do during his first stage[because it is possible to hurt him by poisoning him with a snake/viper], third stage and final stage, that all the damage you do to Giygas with normal hits is recovered without you knowing it[This can be done in RM2K also, like a hidden battle event that occurs every turn and restores any lost health on a major enemy, because I have done this before in RM2K]. This means, the only possible way to kill Giygas normally is to inflict 9999+ totally damage between your party in ONE turn of combat[and no less], because otherwise he'll secretly recover ALL damage, and the only possible way perhaps to do that is if all four characters could use an MBR on him in the same turn[which they can't without editing the MBR in PK Hack] and each MBR hits for at least 2500 damage. In the same respect, the prayer command is likely linked with special battle events that are set to occur during the third and fourth stages of the Giygas battle. For each time Paula prays, it will add 1 to a "prayer uses"-like variable. For each number higher it goes, it goes through various events, such as The Runaway Five, the familys of the chosen, Frank and even the player's praying. The "damage" that is inflicted by the prayers also isn't "real" damage, but is just a random number between two numbers in a damage variable to put on the screen when the prayer command occurs to make it look like Giygas is taking massive amounts of damage. When the final prayer event occurs[the 20,000-30,000+ damage prayer by the player], the game will go into an event where Giygas "dies" and ends the battle.