Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 20:22:05 -0600

EarthBound Zero (AKA Mother in Japan)
Walkthrough Version 1.11
By Ed the Moogle, the EarthBound Master.
Feel free to distribute this, as long as it's not altered in any way.
The latest version of this FAQ is available at
www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/5621 
Please try to ignore the P and BR tags, this was converted from HTML on
my page.
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History of the Game
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This game was first released in Japan, under the name Mother. Nintendo
was planning on releasing a translated version in North America, but for
some reason the project was scrapped. I e-mailed Nintendo of America
about the cancelling of the game, and they replied: 

"EarthBound for SNES is the original Mother game, with enhanced graphics
and sound." 

After playing through the game, I discovered it wasn't. It had many
similarities, but it was indeed different. I thought that Nintendo
doesn't even remember the game. But when I mailed a second time, they
answered this. 

"Many games are not released in the U.S. simply because projections are
that the costs involved in advertising, customs, distribution, packaging,
etc. will not be recovered.  This game falls into that category." 

That helps a lot more than the previous answer. =) 
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Other information 
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The EarthBound Zero ROM is available on several emulation sites. However,
emulation is by no means legal unless you own the actual game or delete
it after 24 hours (although this game may be an exception, because
prototypes aren't usually copyrighted). If you own a copy of this game
(japanese or the actual prototype cart that was dumped into the ROM)
please contact me at edthemoogle@geocities.com . I would love to hear
from you. 

The ROM is available at Neo Demiforce. Their web page is at
http://www.frognet.net/~demi/index.htm 

To play it you will need an emulator. The best one to use is NESticle.
It's available on many emulation sites. Soon I will supply both of these
on my page at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/5621 

On to the game! 

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General Hints
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-Keep your Hit Points high. Danger lurks everywhere. 

-Before entering a dangerous place, bring some Bread with you and use it
before you enter. That way, once you've accomplished the objective in the
dungeon or are low on life/supplies, you can use the crumbs and reappear
where you first used the bread. This trick has saved my butt quite a few
times. 

-Try to save your Psychic Points for when they're absolutely nessesary,
like healing when you're out of healing items and major fights. 

-At the main character's house, his sister can store items for you if you
don't need them any more or want to save them for later without taking up
limited inventory space. 

-When a new character joins your team, try to get them up some levels
before you go wandering in dangerous territory (the Girl especially, her
psychic powers rock, and she has lots of 'em!) 

-Use Check in battle to see an enemy's attributes, as well as strengths
and weaknesses. 

-If you lose a battle, you'll start with half your money and all your
characters dead except for your main character, who will have full HP and
no PP. Get to a hospital ASAP after you lose a battle. 

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Controls 
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Control Pad- It's QUITE self-explanatory.
Hold B while pressing the Control Pad to run.
A- Open command window, confirm a selection.
B- Close command window, cancel a selection.
Start- Look at map. The map is not available in some places.
It shows the location of all the towns, and the dots represent important
places. You'll visit all of them during the game.
Select- Opens Condition Window.
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Commands in the Command Window
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Talk- Talk to people, animals, friendly critters.
Check- Examine an object.
Goods- Use an item in your inventory or view what items you currently
have.
Once you select an item, you have these choices. 

Use- Use the item.
Eat- If the item is edible, eat it.
Give- Give the item to another person on your team.
Drop- Get rid of the item. Important items cannot be dropped.
Look- See what the item is and what it does.

State- Opens the State window. This window shows your current Statistics,
PSI powers, and other things.
PSI- Opens the PSI window. This shows you what PSI powers you currently
possess and lets you use healing and teleport powers outside of
battle.
Setup- Opens the setup window. This lets you change your preferences to
the way you want to play the game.

When you are in battle, you have these choices.

Fight- Attack a single enemy with your current equipped weapon.
PSI- Use a Psychic Power in battle.
Goods- Use one of the items you possess in battle.
Check- View your enemy's statistics and reveal their strengths and
weaknesses. The bad thing is that it leaves you open to attack.
Auto- The computer controls your characters for you, but the computer
really sucks. Don't use this against really tough enemies.
Guard- Defend from Enemy attacks. This reduces any damage taken by about
50%.
Run- Your characters will try to run from battle. It may not always work
and you cannot run from bosses or important battles.
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Walkthrough
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Part One: The first three notes
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When you start the game, try to leave the room and you'll be attacked by
a Lamp. Defeat the lamp and go into the next room. Fight the other lamp.
Then go into the next room and fight the Doll.

After defeating the Doll, check it to learn the first note. 

Talk to your sisters to get free Orange Juices. Then go downstairs and
talk to your Mom, then call your Dad on the phone. He'll tell you about
your adventure and PSI Power and blah blah blah. He'll also mention a
basement key. Go outside the house and talk to the dog. Do what he says
to get the Basement Key.

Go back inside the house and unlock the basement door. Get the Plastic
Bat, Sword, and GGF's Diary. Read the diary for a password you'll need
later. Equip the Plastic Bat. Fight a few Rats in the basement to get
experience. Then go outside and fight critters to get experience,
preferably get up to Level 3 or 4. After that, Save your game and go
south to Podunk. 

Talk to people and buy food at the burger store, then go to the Dept.
Store's top floor. When the guy offers to sell you a Canary Chick, say
Yes. When he offers the price of $85, say No and you'll get it for free.
After you get the Canary Chick, head northwest to the Canary Village. 

Behind the discolored statue is a hole in the wall. Go through the hole
in the wall and give the canary chick to Laura, the talking canary.
She'll sing you the second note. Now go back to Podunk and talk to the
Mayor. He'll ask you to save the girl that has been captured by Zombies.


Head south to the graveyard, but beware of people which are really
zombies. Go to the Healer's house (bring some money) to recover from
damage and save your game. After that, head across the bridge and walk
around to fight Mr. Bats and ocassionally Pseudo-Zombies or Gang Zombies
if you are feeling lucky. Once you get to Level 5 or 6, you will be ready
to enter the graveyard.

Look around the graveyard for a hole in the ground. Step on the hole to
reveal a hidden stairway. Open the caskets down here. Pippi is inside one
of them. Fight your way back to town (or do the Bread trick) and talk to
the mayor (if Pippi is KOed by the enemies, visit the hospital first).
The Mayor will give you $100 (a good reward for suffering through all
those Mr. Bats).
Talk to Abbott, the Mayor's assistant, to get the key to the Zoo.

Head back to your house to rest and talk to Pippi on the way (by the
house across the bridge from yours). She'll give you the Franklin Badge,
which you'll need when you get to the Zoo. For now, head home and rest,
then head back to Podunk and arm yourself with a Wooden Bat (if you don't
have enough money, fight Mr. Bats and Zombies in the graveyard).

Head along the northeast path at the edge of town to reach the Zoo. Once
you get to the Zoo gate, the Singing Monkey will steal your key. Check
the gate to enter (the gate is a piece of crap) and beware of the strong
enemies here (those Gators are nasty). 

Get to the Superintendent's building, and pick up the gift boxes in
there. If you see a strange orb, don't check it until you've gotten the
gifts. Once you've healed up, check the orb to fight Starman Jr, your
first boss.

Starman Jr. is a pushover. He tries to use PSI Beam Gamma to kill you in
one hit, but the Franklin Badge deflects it and destroys him instead.
Congrats, you've stopped the chaos in the zoo. But don't celebrate just
yet. Go to the Singing Monkey's cage. He'll sing you the third note.
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Part Two: Magicant and Queen Mary 
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Head back to your house to heal up and save your game, then head
northeast of the zoo to the bridge. Talk to the guys and they'll let you
pass. Follow the path to a small cave. Check the rock in there. After the
voice speaks into your mind, use Telepathy. You'll read GGF's diary (if
you don't have it with you, go back to your house and get it) and appear
in Magicant.

Once inside, talk to people. One guy will give you a Big Bag full of
Magic Herbs if you let him borrow your Cash Card for a while. (Be sure to
pick it up before you leave Magicant). One person will keep stuff for
you, and one will allow you to save your game. There's three or four
people that will let you heal up, and some guys that sell really good
defensive items (Gold Rings, Magic Coins and Fire Pendants are the best
in the game.)

If you need money, go out of the town and head Northwest to a fountain
that heals you. Use Telepathy and talk to the old guy to withdrawal money
from your bank account. If you pick up the Ocarina, have the goods keeper
keep it for you. You can't throw it away and it's useless (as far as I
know).

To enter the castle, talk to the middle guy standing in front of the gate
and use Telepathy. Once you go into the castle, explore it and talk to
people. There's LOTS of treasure in here! In one room, there are six
boxes, but you will only be able to get one. 

Fill up your inventory and look in each of them, then choose the one you
want. I sugguest the Boomerang, it's the best weapon you'll get for quite
a while. Visit the goods keeper as nessesary. Talk to Queen Mary and
she'll tell you about the 8-note song (which you've learned three parts
of already).

Behind the castle is a small hut with five bird guys in it. They will
join you if you talk to them (but you can only have one at a time) and
they will assist you in combat. This can be useful, except that they
cannot leave Magicant.

Note: If you meet a Groucho, keep defending until he walks away. You'll
get a lot of experience. If you defeat him, you'll only get a few.

Note: If you meet a Raeb Yddet (Teddy Bear spelled backwards) standing on
the left side of the screen, watch out, because he can call on Sky
Yddets. These critters only attack once, but they hit for about 200
damage! Be careful!

Once you've stocked up on Armor and other stuff, you'll probably want to
leave Magicant. To do that, head east from the exit of the town and cross
the bridge. Stand one space to the left of the hole that you see and walk
straight down.

You'll be in a dungeon with two holes. To reach the bottom, go right,
left, left, right. You'll be at the bottom of the dungeon. Get the
treasures down here and watch out for enemies. If you run into the
dragon, don't worry. He won't fight you. Not yet, anyway...

When you reach a hole in the floor, go down it. You'll fight a Fish who
guards the hole. Use PSI Defense Up, because he hits twice every round
for roughly 30 damage total. If you use Defense Up, he can only do about
2 total. Defeat the fish and get the gift box. It's the Onyx Hook. This
item allows you to return to Magicant any time you want. It can come in
handy if you are nearly dead and out of supplies.

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Part Three: Allies with the Weakling
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When you reach the Forgotten Man, tell him you'll ignore him and he will
vanish. Go out of the hole and you'll be outside of Magicant. Exit the
cave and you'll be near Merrysville. Go north and down the ramp, then go
north to reach Twinkle Elementary School. Talk to people to learn about
the Weakling, then try to go up to the roof. You'll discover it's
locked.

Go back downstairs and talk to the Janitor (the room on the far right).
Answer yes to all his questions, except the question about his wife being
terrible. He'll unlock the roof and you can go up. Talk to the trash can
and you'll meet the weakling, your first friend. But, he won't join you
just yet.

First, you'll need to go south of the school to the Little Sweets Factory
and look for a trash can full of Bottle Rockets. Grab one and bring it to
the weakling and he'll join you. He'll go to the science lab to try and
build more bottle rockets, but he ends up blowing up the lab. Oh well.
Then he sugguests that you go to the Duncan Factory later. He hears
they've been making a huge rocket.

Now you'll need to get him supplies. Go to the Dept. Store and buy him a
boomerang (and one for yourself if you don't have one), then use the Onyx
hook to return to Magicant and buy him a Gold Ring, Fire Pendant and
Magic Coin. You should also buy all of this for yourself if you don't
have it already. (Never had to buy any more armor besides those).

Once you've gotten him some Armor and Weapons, go around and fight some
enemies, and get him up to about the same level as your character. He's
not so weak now! Ha ha ha ha ha! You can also talk to the Swimming Cat to
get some Magic Candy that will up his abilities a little.

Note: Once a Sky Yddet defeated my main character and only the weakling
was left, and I went around and fought a bunch of enemies with just him
and got him up a couple extra levels. You could do this if you wanted,
but it's very risky.

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Part Four: Clearing the Road 
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After you're done in Magicant, return to Merrysville. Go Northeast and
follow a pathway leading up. You'll pick up a pass along the way. Go
north even more and there will be a dog guarding a factory gate. Defeat
the dog and enter the factory (and use some Bread if you have it).

Once inside, be careful. The enemies in here are strong! I reccomend
getting to about Level 22 before entering. Try to make your way to the
top left corner of the building (it takes a long time). There will be a
big rocket up there. Check the rocket to launch it and it will explode on
the rocks blocking the train tracks.

Now leave the building in any way possible (Onyx Hook, Bread Crumbs, or
walk-the toughest choice). Bring some money and go to the Union Station.
Go to Reindeer on the train. Talk to a person in the Union station there
and you will get the Girl's hat. You'll need this later so hang on to it.


Be careful who you talk to in this town, because most of the people will
give you a cold if you talk to them. Go to the Department Store on the
top floor and buy two or three Plasma Beams for the weakling. They are
his most powerful weapon, but they break after a few uses. Use them if
you get in a jam (you don't have to equip them, just use them as items).
Before you leave, be sure to buy three Strawberry Tofus. You'll need them
later. 

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Part Five: The Girl joins you
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Return to the Union Station and go to Snowman. Drop by the healer's house
and heal (the enemies are strong) and use the phone while you're there.
Your dad will want to know your name (yes, you, the person reading this
document). 

Go to the Chateau and show the hat to the Girl, and she will join you. Go
outside and fight enemies to get her up some levels. If you are injured,
return to the Chateau to heal (it's free). Once she gets up some levels,
use the Onyx Hook once again. 

Buy her a Gold Ring, Fire Pendant, and Magic Coin. Also remember to talk
to the Ground-Swimming cat to get the Magic Ribbon, which ups her
abilities a little. Now make your way out again and return to the Union
Station. Catch a bus to Spookane. 

There are monsters all over the town. Go south and follow the path to
reach a small village where the citizens of Spookane are. Talk to the
people in the village and they'll tell you about a haunting song that
comes from the Rosemary's house. One will give you the key to the
Rosemary's house. 

Enter the house and talk to the mouse (wow, maybe I should start my own
rap group) and look the piano (I just wandered around until I stumbled
upon it). But be careful, the enemies in here are dangerous. Check it to
learn another bit of the song that you need to know. Now return to
Magicant yet again.

Heal up and save your game, because your next major battle will be very
tough. Go back into the well and meet the Dragon again. Check him out and
he will attack you. Use boosting Psychic Power (DefenseUp and OffenseUp)
and your best attacks and keep healing in any way possible. When you beat
him, talk to him to gain another part of the song. (If you absolutely
can't beat him, wait until the fourth member comes in, which I'll explain
in a bit).

Leave Magicant, and make sure you have at least 10 empty inventory slots.
Go back to the Union Station and travel to the Spookane Station again. Go
east, then north to reach the Yucca Desert. 

Look around for a cactus with a face and use Telepathy to learn yet
another bit of the song, then head Southeast to the War Survivor's tent.
Keep riding his plane on any route (try them all so you know your way
around the desert) until you have at least 10 ticket stubs, then use them
on the War Survivor.

You can ride his tank now! Cruise around the desert for a while and
listen to the kickass music (but you can't leave the desert with it,
which sucks). When you're done screwing around, head east of the War
Survivor's tent and you'll find some ruins. If you try to enter in the
tank, you'll be attacked by R7037,a big android guy who is very
dangerous. You'll be able to defeat him in the tank, but your tank will
fall apart after you beat him. Oh well, no major loss. Enter the
ruins.

Talk to the Monkeys. One will give you a Speed Capsule. Also get the
presents, because they contain PSI Stones, which are very useful. There's
a wierd pink thing on the bottom floor. If you use Telepathy on it,
you'll be in Magicant once again. Heal up and save, then leave Magicant
again. When you exit the cave, you'll be in a place that's nearby
Youngtown instead of Merrysville.

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Part Six: The Bla-Bla Gang
*****************************************************************************

Go to Youngtown and you'll discover that every adult in the town is
missing. Locate the Garrickson's house. Use Telepathy on the Baby, who is
actually some psychic supergenius who teaches you Teleport, which returns
you to any town you've already been to. After you're done here, head east
into a swampy area. Tough enemies hang out here, so be careful.

If you make your way to the middle of the swamp, you'll find a house with
a trash can in front of it. Talk to the trash can. It will be the
weakling's father, who will check to make sure you entered your name.
Inside the house will be Pippi, your old friend. She will heal your party
if you talk to her.

Now is a good time to get up levels because you can go back to her and
heal whenever you need to. Once your at about level 35, navigate your way
southwest. When you can't go any farther southwest, go east. Go through
the rest of the swamp and go north through the forest to reach Ellay.

The streets of Ellay are dangerous because of the Bla-Bla Gang. If you
talk to one of them, they will fight you. Head to the Department Store
and buy a ticket to the Live Show. (There's a guy outside the show
selling a ticket for $1200, so don't listen to him). Don't buy anything
else unless you need it. Go back to the Live Show and use your ticket to
get in.

When your inside, go ahead and talk to people. When the girl at the table
offers to buy you a drink, don't do it because you'll be arrested by the
cops (but they let you out) and get your main character's weapon taken
(you'll have to buy it back from the other cop). Tell the guy you want to
dance. When you're done, the leader of the Bla-Bla Gang will fight your
main character, but he'll call it quits after a few rounds.

He will then take the weakling's place in your team. (At least the
Bla-Bla gang won't trouble you as long as he is with you). Give him the
Sword that you got way back at the beginning of the game. If you haven't
already, return to Magicant and defeat the Dragon. Don't bother giving
him the Gold Ring and all that because he is already strong. Head
Northwest to the lighthouse. Check the telescope on the far left and a
rocket will land (for no apparent reason). Get on the rocket and blast
off.

You will end up on a distant island. Give the Strawberry Tofu to each of
the people to get some information and a couple items that will help in
combat. Head back to Ellay and heal up and save, then head east, south,
cross the river, and continue east. There's a house where you can heal
up. 

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Part Seven: The Robots 
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Go north of the house to find a cavern. Don't exit the cavern until you
find Hank's Bat (for your main character), the Iron Skillet (for the
girl), and the Katana (for the gang leader). Exit the other end of the
cave and head northeast, climbing up the ropes as you go. Stop at the
healer's house to heal up, then save your game and go into the next room.
After the next bit, R7038 (a palette swap of R7037) will attack your
team.

Try as you might, he is unbeatable. But when your entire party falls, the
weakling will drive up in the newly-repaired tank and blow him to bits.
Talk to the gang leader when you recover. He will be too injured to
fight, so the weakling will re-join your team. 

Return through the cave where you found all the weapons and go back to
the healer's house, which is amazingly unharmed, to heal up and save. Go
north to the broken boat and the weakling will fix it up. Drive it into
the whirlpool. When you're inside the undersea base, look for the big
robot called EVE. It will join your team. Unfortunately, your new boat
will also sink (for no apparent reason).

Back on land, be sure to spend some time going up levels, because EVE
will attack first every round for TONS of damage. Get to about Level 45
before heading northeast. You will be attacked by many powerful enemies,
mostly robots. Go into a cave at the top of a mountain to find the Sea
Pendant, a good protective item (equip it on the Weakling or the Girl).
Exit the cave and go west.

When you go west, you will meet another huge robot called R7038xx (a
palette swap of R7038 and R7037). EVE will destroy the robot, but
unfortunately, the robot will also take out EVE. Check the defeated EVE
to learn another bit of the song. Keep going north to find a grave. Check
the grave to learn the last bit of the song.

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Part Eight: The Power of Song 
*****************************************************************************
At this point, use the Onyx Hook to return to Magicant. Be sure to heal
and save, because you're nearly done. Go into the castle and sing the
song to Queen Mary. She'll tell you about Giegue, an alien that she
raised with her husband, George, and about how he hated songs. Then
Magicant will dissapear and you'll be back at the tombstone. Go north
into the cave.

If you go into the side room, you'll find a bunch of people who were
abducted by Giegue, most of which are citizens of Youngtown. Go north and
you'll be just in time to find Giegue's ship, as well as Giegue.

Giegue will talk about how the main character is descended from George
and Mary, who he had been raised by. Because they did not know of his
weakness to song and accidentally exploited it, he killed Mary and George
began to study more about Giegue and his weakness to song (which is
explained in the introduction). Then he'll say that he wants to destroy
all humans because of this. 

When he is talking, cast Defense Up B and PSI Shield B to soften the
damage he does to you. When he is done talking, use the SING command and
keep healing when nessesary. When you've used SING eight times, Giegue
will be defeated and his ship will blast off. 

***********************************The~End***********************************

Wait! The psychic baby in Youngtown who teaches Teleport... Could that be
Ness? Just a thought...