Dragon Warrior IV 4 Taloon Chapter 3

Dragon Warrior 4 Chapter III

Chapter 3

Taloon’s chapter starts and ends much differently than the others. Fighting hardly is the most difficult part of his chapter, yet there are some instances where he is tested. More importantly he is entrenched into the Dragon Warrior entrepreneurial world. Unfortunately he begins employed with the local guy who sells below-average weapons in Lakanaba.

Neta wakes Taloon’s lazy self up, and gives you a Lunch (she gives this to you each time you rest after speaking to her; it’s effects are similar to a Medical Herb). Explore the town. Taloon is basically VIP around here and all the merchants will give you important business advise. Currently though you’re broke, but there are some nice choices for armor at Lakanaba. You can push Uncle Tom to the House of Healing for ten gold coins. This isn’t really going to net you too much money. Also you can work at the weapon shop, as Neta suggested. Chances are you’re going to get between 80-140 gold coins per day, and remember that it is completely based on how much you sell.

If you have an emulator then you may deem this worth speeding through. When I play on a console, well, it’s just too tedious and I get impatient fast. But do it for a while so you can grab a nice piece of armor, like a Chain Mail or Leather Shield/Hat. I wouldn’t advise spending anything on a weapon as you’ll get a fine one soon enough. Oh, and if you do it long enough you may notice that customers may sell a Boomerang, Chain Sickle, or even a Sword of Malice! You’re really fortunate if the latter is sold, and never let anyone buy it. It’ll stay there. Maybe level up once if you want, but at any rate head up to the cave in the north.

Upon entry just follow the path through the staircases. When you come to the first grey wall, hit the switch, it’ll save you some time. The next grey wall, however, ignore the switch and walk to the other side of it to find a Chain Sickle.

That’s the decent weapon I was talking about. Taloon is a force now, and no monster here should trouble him now, especially if you bought some armor. Now go back and hit the grey switch, as you have to do this to get past the water spots further to the south. As you fall, you are left with two choices. Going right and subsequently up the staircase leads back towards the beginning, specifically it puts you a little north of the Chain Sickle chest. Instead, take the left passage and take this all the way to the left. Note that the staircase down leads to nothing, other than some guy who is walking in circles looking for the Iron Safe also. Well, as you walk left and south, the boulder will roll after you. Quickly take the first right, which leads the boulder that way. Head south and left now, and the boulder will roll into the left hole and close it. Now you can advance to the Iron Safe (note that the other hole leads to the unimportant guy). You’ll see two blocks, so take one of them north with you. Take the Iron Safe from the treasure, but a wall will act as a brockade. This is where you place the block that you hopefully brought up with you. Careful, if you leave the boulder too far south or in a corner that you can’t get it out of, you’ll have to reset. When you’re ready, head back and rest at Lakanaba.

After spending your earnings, get some armor if you wish. You’ll probably notice Taloon tends to find items in battle. This is useful in terms of getting gold fast (ie turning around and selling nearly everything you find). Taloon is pretty powerful with the Chain Sickle, so head south of Lakanaba and you’ll find a strange forest town. Not much to do here, although you can buy a “Medical Herb” and “Broad Sword” at the item shop. However they are the Gum Pod and Cypress Stick, so don’t be fooled. Da Gardi the architect is here, and is stuck because of some girl who yelps. What’s more is that when you talk to the counselor-looking guy, he asks you to rest and you can for free. You aren’t restored though and you wake up in the middle of no where. Move on south and you’ll notice a new castle and a blocked bridge. Enter Bonmalmo and buy a Wing of Wyvern. This town is low on armor due to the monsters, so feel free to sell some of your acquired armor to the old man in the castle.

Everyone here will tell you something important, and do talk to the prince Reed. He’ll request to see you at night. You’ll hear also of a Lakanaba man in jail. Head there and avoid the guards as best you can (you can always do it again if you get caught). He’ll ask for a Wing of Wyvern to get out, so hand him one, then go visit him in Lakanaba. Tom’s son will entrust his dog to you, saying that he is good with foxes. With everything you’ve heard at Bonmalmo and Lakanaba, it’s time to bring the dog to Foxville. Tov will run off to the counselor-looking guy and the guy will freak out and the scene will shift to the one that comes up when you rested at Foxville. The fox is there this time and begs for help, so you must let him free. Not before he gives you a Full Plate Armor though. De Gardi comes out and says how he has to go fix the bridges now. You still have Reed’s letter for the Endor princess, so head south to Endor now that the bridges are fixed! Tov can be returned beforehand, but is not necessary (you can keep him to the end of the chapter).

Ah, Endor, and you were just here. Things have changed a bit though. The casino is closed, although Ragnar of Burland is running about in the area. For Taloon, assuming you have the gold after the Full Plate Armor, you should pick up an Iron Apron, Abacus of Virtue, Wooden Hat and Iron Shield. That is his best equipment (save for a rare Sword of Malice) for the chapter. Show Mia the princess Reed’s letter and the King of Endor will overhear the situation and give you a Royal Scroll for the King of Bonmalmo. The King of Bonmalmo then commends you for this idea you’ve given him, and he celebrates the marriage knowing that he won’t have to invade Endor but rather will just marry into the castle. Back at Endor, the king will thank you and will give you permission to own a shop. Now you can purchase the shop from the old man south of the House of Healing, but you’ll need 35,000 gold coins to do so. Ouch, well you’ll also learn of a wealthy family looking for a Silver Statuette. This high-priced item is in a northeast cave, one accessible now that the bridges are in working order. You can hire Strom the guard or Laurent the Troubadour to help you if you wish. However they are pricey and being that the idea is to accumulate money right now, I would ignore them. Laurent can use Heal and Firebal and Sleep, which helps, and has a Venomous Dagger. Strom is more of a physical type and comes at a much more reasonable price. Also of note is that Strom will not join you if you have Tov following you still, although Laurent doesn’t seem to mind.

Head east of Endor and talk to the old man in the cave. Another pricey project is in order here, as this guy is looking for upwards of 60,000 gold coins for excavation purposes. You can’t do anything about this yet so head north, with or without help. This cave houses several treasures so you may wish to head back to Endor to sell some of it off so you don’t end up discarding items. As you enter you’ll see a staircase but it won’t get you anywhere, so head further east into a ship, which you’ll take all the way to a pit. Head north and grab the Wing of Wyvern, and then make a beeline to the southeast corner. Enter the staircase and head to the west, and then north. Step on the weird-looking space and a switch will be there. This switch changes the water level on both floors.

More or less it reduces the water on this level, allowing you to get the blocked-off treasures, and the lower level is drenched so you can ride your boat around and get treasures (Silver Statuette) down there. Immediately after hitting the switch, you’ll see you can go west to grab a Morning Star or go up the stairs to return to Endor. Stick it out and continue east to grab 760 gold coins and a Medical Herb. The passage east of the gold coins is an Iron Spear, and south of here is a staircase that leads to the bottom floor. Before this you may wish to return to Endor, depending on whether you want to sell the items you’ve come across so far. Anyway, on the bottom floor head north to see a guy who took the two treasure chests next to him. That sucks, but further west you can go south or north, and south gives you a Broad Sword while north nets you the Silver Statuette! Wonderful, and finally west of this passage is a Half Plate Armor. Now head back to Endor and give the Statuette to the old guy in the east part of town. He’ll offer you 25,000, leaving the other 10,000 for you to come up with. Chances are, with the rate Taloon finds weapons/armor (and GOOD weapons/armor) combined with the increased rates at Bonmalmo for armor, this shouldn’t be too difficult for you. Once you reach 35,000, the old guy will gladly give you the shop.

Once Taloon buys the shop, his family comes to live and work with him. Neta works the register, and basically Taloon is expected to go out and get certain weapons and armor, and then she goes around and sells it for 150 percent of what you paid for it. Moreover I don’t believe it matters which item you sell, so generally I just go to the weapon shop 10 paces east and drop my entire budget on Abacus of Virtues and then rest for 3 days to make sure Neta sells them all. Or you can go to the king and give him what he asks for, but why bother running around being an errand boy when you can just buy one item and make the dough just as fast? Your choice though, just get it up to 65,000 so Taloon can help with that excavation project so you can go east. Really I enjoy this part of the game, it reminds me of when I used to…oh excuse me, I’ll focus now. Since money is so easy to make this way, I’d advise at the end of it all that you buy Taloon 7 Broad Swords (to go along with the Iron Safe) so that you can sell them all when you get Taloon in Chapter 5. Just my suggestion, you’ll need all the cash you can get when you have to supply weapons and armor for 8 people. And remember, the cash never carries over, but the items do. When you’re ready, the old man will take your money and will send for you at Endor (through a letter that Neta gets) when the cave is done. Rest a few nights or check out the newly opened Casino, just go across the tunnel once you get the letter. This is the end of the chapter, no big battle or anything. Things are starting to get interesting in Dragon Warrior land and there is only one more chapter before the final one.

ENEMIES OF CHAPTER THREE

Taloon fights an enemy base that is very similar to that of Ragnar. Initially, Slimes, Prank Gophers, Giant Worms and Stag Beetles will be your opponents. Things don’t change much in the first cave, other than Babbles showing up. South, near Bonmalmo, you’ll come across the occasional Demon Stump or Healer, but they aren’t too tricky. Near Endor you’ll get a decent crop, with Lilypas, Ducksbills, Lethal Gophers, Carnivore Plants, and Blazeghosts. Lastly, the cave presents Sandmasters, Giant Bantams, Poison Lizards, Vampire Bats, Flythropes, Metal Slimes and the only unique enemy to this chapter, the Elefrover!

Around Lakanaba, the Slime, Prank Gopher, and Stag Beetle shouldn’t be an issue to you. Once you get the Chain Sickle in the cave north of Lakanaba, no monster will be an issue to you until you get to Endor. The Demon Stump can be annoying and takes off a decent amount, but they appear rarely around Bonmalmo. As soon as you are in the Endor area, upgrade Taloon’s weapons and armor and the surrounding enemies shouldn’t take off more than 5 on you. The Elefrover is the only new enemy and never takes off anything, assuming your armor is what it should be. Really though even without Strom or Laurent, Taloon should be able to handle the foes in his chapter rather easily.

From left to right (also in relative order of appearance): Slime, Stag Beetle, Prank Gopher, Giant Worm, Babble, Demon Stump, Healer, Blazeghost, Carnivore Plant, Ducksbill, Lethal Gopher, Lilypa, Giant Bantam, Vampire Bat, Sandmaster, Flythrope, Poison Lizard, Metal Slime, Elefrover