Peco FAQ v 1.1.7 Last Updated: 1/7/15 By Allan Curtis Welcome one and all to my first FAQ in a long time. This rather short FAQ will describe how best to use everyone's favourite mutated freak Peco to dominate Breath of Fire 3 and how to make him as strong as possible. Peco is bar none the best character in the game if used correctly. Besides the sheer fun of taking a character and turning him into a one man apocalypse it’s even better when that character is a cute mutant who can’t even talk. Why use Peco? Well this is the obvious question. Peco after all starts off at level 1 with awful stats. His equipment selection is very limited and he’s slow and stupid. Why bother using him when other characters are around? The answer is that Peco has immense stat growth. His statistics shoot up as he gains levels. He also has the highest reprisal rate in the game. 50% of the time Peco will counter attack an enemy who hits him and this adds up to at least 2 or 3 extra attacks each battle most of the time. Peco also naturally gains the highest defence and HP in the game. At lv 25 with the right master he will have nearly 300hp and so much defence he will take nearly no damage from enemies. This makes him a superb tank. Peco can soak up damage like a sponge and dish it out as well with his high reprisal rate. Peco also regenerates health at the end of each turn. This is in the neighbourhood of about 3% of his total HP and is often enough to heal at least a chunk of the damage done to him since he take so little damage to begin with. Of course this only gets better the higher his HP grows. Lastly, Peco gains two HP based breath attacks as he gains levels. These are very damaging due to his massive HP total and work well for inflicting elemental damage. For those interested Peco’s hidden stats are: 50% Reprisal: By far the highest in the game. The closest is Garr with 16% 35% Surprise attack rate: Second worst in the game after Momo. 3% Critical rate: About average. 0% dodge: Peco is the worst dodger in the game, but who needs to dodge when you can just shrug off damage? 90% Accuracy: Rather low, but nowhere near as bad as Momo. Masters ________ Apprenticing Peco to the right master is essential to using him correctly. There are a few ways to build Peco. Fahl+ 4HP Def+3 Pow+1 Int-3 Agl-3 Fahl is the first choice for most players and the one I always use. Fahl adds a huge amount of defence and HP and that +1 to power helps Peco along as well. With lv1 Peco apprenticed to Fahl he will have around 300hp and impenetrable defence by the time he’s level 25 and he only gets more tank like from there. Later, Fahl Peco becomes a behemoth with loads of HP, very high attack power and enough defence and HP regeneration to be nearly invincible to pretty much any enemy in the game. Of course he will be extremely slow and utterly useless at magic, but that doesn’t matter. Bunyan +2HP +2Pwr +1Def -2AP -3Int Bunyan turns Peco into a bit more of an attacker than Fahl. He sacrifices a chunk of defence for a bit more attack and makes characters even stupider with magic. He also doesn’t lower their speed like Fahl does. For a physical attacker with HP based attacks like Peco Bunyan isn’t as good a choice as Fahl since Peco will end up squishier with far less HP and thus breath damage. Only if you desperately want more attack damage should you use Bunyan. His Super Combo is a good skill to have so apprentice someone else to him for a while. Giotto +4HP +3ap -1Pwr -1Def -2Int -1Agl Giotto is a wildcard master for Peco. He shouldn’t be anyone’s first choice since he basically neuters a character’s strength and defence for staying power, which is never really useful. However Giotto is the perfect master if you want to make Peco’s breath attacks deadly. He adds so much HP that Peco will have 600-700 hp late in the game and this makes his breath attacks deadly, usually inflicting 200+ damage for 4 AP. The bonus AP also ensures Peco has enough AP to breathe death all day. Still, Giotto is more a joke master than anything. Others Other masters are really second rate for Peco. Deis and other magic masters come too late in the game and they fail to take advantage of Peco’s natural abilities. There is no reason you can’t keep Peco at lv1 and grow him into a buff mage with quite a bit of HP and defence, but this just isn’t as effective as a more physical Peco and wastes his high reprisal rate. Merryleep is an exception to this rule. If you want to you can apprentice Merryleep for 10 or 15 levels and you'll end up with a much faster Peco who hasnt lost too much defence or atatck. Put him on Fahl after this to toughen his stats back up. Peco’s Skills ____________ These skills are the ones Peco gains as he levels up. Peco doesn’t have many skills compared to other characters, but the ones he does have are mostly useful and take advantage of his high HP. Lv10: Dream Breath Dream Breath inflicts sleep to all enemies. It seems to work quite often, or at least more than Hypnotize does. It works well for halting enemies while you try to steal from them or for simply stopping enemies from attacking. Lv17: Venom Breath Venom Breath isn’t all that useful except during boss fights. It inflicts no damage, just the poison status to all enemies. Peco’s high HP is wasted since it does no damage. Still it can be good to tag high HP foes with poison to bring them down faster. Lv20: Rejuvenate Why Peco learns this is anyone’s guess. It’s nice to have a bit of healing skill mixed in with all that offense, but Peco’s pathetic intelligence means it won’t heal much HP and his slow speed means he will move after the wounded character has likely been hit again. Lv21: Purify Purify is more useful than Rejuvenate since it is not an intelligence based spell. Having another character that can cure poison is never a bad thing. Lv30: Fire Breath The first of Peco’s elemental breaths, Fire Breath dishes out 1/3 of Peco’s current HP as damage. This is often a lot (100+) and works great on monsters weak to fire. Lv31: Ice Breath The same as Fire Breath, except it is ice elemental instead. Recommended Skills ___________________ This is a list of skills that take advantage of Peco's unique abilities and should be taught to him ASAP. Charge (0AP, learn from Bunyan as a master, or the Volt in Momo’s Tower.) Charge does damage based on the user’s defence. Since a well-built Peco should have astronomical defence this skill can be effective. Super Combo (12AP, learn from Bunyan.) Super Combo is a physical attack that is used by pressing the button displayed on screen. The more buttons you get right the stronger the attack is. Super Combo does a whole lot of damage if you’re good at timing button presses. Since it relies only on power and is a strong attack it’s a good match for Peco. Last Resort (2AP, learn from Orc in Momo’s Tower/Rocket Crash Site) Last Resort sets defence to 0 and raises attack power by the user’s defence. With Peco’s usually massive defence this leads to an incredibly strong attack for the rest of the battle. Having 0 defence might sound bad, but Peco’s high HP lets him simply absorb damage even with the non-existent defence. Shadowwalk (8AP, Learn from Merryleep) Shadowwalk warps the user to the enemy where they dish out a devastating attack that is always a critical hit and never misses. This is a must have for Peco; it turns him into pure death, particularly if you use Last Resort beforehand. This will mess up bosses real good. Berserk (Giotto) Berserk boosts attack power by a lot and kills the user in three turns. This will make Peco a wrecking ball for 3 turns, dishing out a ton of damage. It can be useful for random battles if you’re sure you can win the battle in three turns or less. Timed Blow (Thrashers in the Steel Grave) Timed Blow does the character's current hp-1 in damage and sets them to 1hp. If Peco is at max HP it can be very powerful. Mighty Chop (Hachio) This attack ignores defence, but also seems to have less attack power than normal, similar to Spirit Blast. Against super high defence foes this can be useful since Peco does so much damage anyway. Monopolize (D’Lonzo) Monopolize casues the charter to take all EXP for the current battle reguardless of who else is alive. It is very useful early on to boost Peco’s level faster without having to kill other party members. The Strikes (Various) Teaching Peco elemental strikes is helpful due to his high damage. He can inflict even more damage if he can attack with the right element, Giving him Wind and Ice Strike is very useful. Demonbane is another useful one. Restore (Learn from Drak) Restore is a healing spelll that is not based on intelligence. It alway heals a character fully. This makes it perfect for Peco if you want a back up healer. Formations _____________ Peco is best used as the point character in an Attack formation. This gives the point man a 50% bonus to attack power and even better a double reprisal rate, ensuring that anyone who attacks Peco will be counter attacked. It also causes the character on point to be attacked more than other characters, putting his high defence to work and protecting other members. This makes Peco even more ludicrously powerful. Equipment __________ Equipment isn’t too important to Peco since he is limited in what he can equip, being an onion and all. There is some good stuff on offer for him though. Weapon: Make sure you buy him the Spiked Claws from Gemmel. You can grab the Flame Talons in Mt. Zublo and much later the Tiger Claws in Parch. The next upgrade is in the Factory in the Lost Shore. Blast though a wall with Momo to find the Rockbreaker Claws. After youreach the Desert of Death and the Oasis, head west from the Oasis for seven nights and you’ll find the Death Claws. These are only Peco's second strongest weaspon, but they do casue instant death rather often, which is very useful. Peco’s strongest weapon is the Dragonfang, which is dropped by Fire/Ice Drakes in Station Myria. Shield: He can use just about any shield. Like all other characters his best one is the Aries Gloves which are dropped by the Berserker. Helm: Buy the Glass Domino in Wyndia as it’s the only headware he can use for a long time. His best one is the Tiger’s Cap, which is sold in the Faerie Village's "Ability" Weapon Store. Armour: He can only use breastplates and oddly the Crepe Cape. Buy a Breastplate at Wyndia and then develop your Farie Village when Ryu is an adult. Create a weapon shop with the ability option and you'll soon see a Crepe Cape for sale, which is better than the Breastplate. However a little while later an Amber BP will be added to the same shop. Skip over the cape and just buy him a AmberBP. It is his best armour. Accessories: A few are good. Life Sandals/Light Bangle/Balance Ring/Bat Ring: Life Sandals resist all status effects somewhat, while the Balance Ring and Bat Ring prevent Confusion and Blind respectively. You really don’t want someone as powerful as Peco becoming confused or otherwise disabled. The Life Sandals can be bought in Wyndia. Balance/Dream Rings can be obtained from the Faerie Village's "abliity" merchant. The Bat Ring can be stolen from the various weed enemies in the Dump. Replace Life Sandals with the Light Bangle when you get it. It is a stronger version of Life Sandals and significantly resists all status effects. Ivory Charm: Provides near immunity to stats changes. Resists all elements. Restores HP while walking. This is a fantastic item, but actually getting one is a huge pain. It can only be obtained by sending a Faerie on a distant explorer job. Midas Stone: Provides 50% additional Zenny after battle but is weight=10, slowing down its carrier by a huge amount. Since most of the time Peco has close to 0 AGL anyway having him carry it won’t affect anything much. Titan Belt: A +10 bonus to Pwr. If you just want more damage this is the best bet. Buy in Wydia. Garr carries one when he joins. Artemis Cap: If Peco’s somewhat low accuracy bothers you use this. Found in the Dump and Factory and from Manilo. Barrier Ring: Peco’s low Int means he takes a lot of damage from magic attacks. This will lessen the damage somewhat. With his huge HP though this is rarely needed. Bought from Faerie Vilage. Wisdom Ring: 30 more Int for resisting magic. This is usually just a drop in the bucket late game though. It can be bought from Junk Town or Caer Xan. Levelling up ___________ The best place to level up Peco and indeed everyone to about lv25 is Mt. Zublo. Keep Peco at level 1 until Fahl is available and then take him here with Nina. Learn Monopolize and Steal from D’lonzo on another character. Learn Burn from the Mage Goos in Cedar Woods. Give Peco Monopolize and Burn. Give Nina steal. Walk around killing stuff until you encounter a Vulcan. Use a fire spell on it and it will begin to move! Now kill it with ice spells and it will yield 300xp. Enough to level up anyone in a few battles. Have Peco use Monopolize and he will gain 900xp instead, leveling him up extrmely fast. Steal from the Vulcans to gain Proteins, which are items that raise a character’s defence by 1 permanently. Use these on Peco or Nina if you like. It is a really good idea to hang around Zublo for as long as you like stealing Proteins and using them on Peco or other party members. The added defence makes a big difference. Vulcans also sometimes drop Magma Armour, which is better than any other armour available at this point in the game. Using fire attacks on Lavamen, also in Mt. Zublo boosts their strength and increases the XP you gain from killing them. It is tough to take advantage of this until late in the game however, as they become extremely powerful quickly. A few tips to survive against them is to make sure you equip your party with Magma Armour and Fire Rings if possible. Bring Peco and Nina. Have Nina use Blunt and Weaken to soften it up and have everyone else use fire attacks on the Lavaman as often as possible. Have Benediction or Revive ready to revive anyone if it uses its physical attack (if possible). Another option is to have Nina use Resist (Learn from Stallion) to make her invincible and attack during EX turns to ensure she isn’t killed. EX turns are also useful to blast it with more fire spells to boost gained XP without giving it too many chances to attack. After a few fire attacks the Lavaman will start hitting for insane amounts of damage (600+) at which point you should kill it with Iceblast or another powerful attack. This should earn a few hundred XP. Broadswords can be stolen from the LizardMn to be sold for cash and Lavamen yield the ever useful Vitamin if stolen from. Zublo is a treasure trove of money, useful items and experience. Once you reach lv25 with Peco he should be much stronger than anyone else, nearly invincible and have masses of HP. Now you’re set to continue with the game, using Peco to dominate everything while laughing at Garr. Have fun! Suggested Characters Peco’s tank like role works very well with Nina or Momo in an attack formation. Since Peco will be attacked the most and can shrug off any attacks this can take the heat off weaker characters like Nina, who can sling her magic in peace. This also works well with Momo, who can focus on buffing the party. Both these characters can use their AP for healing as well with Restore or Benidiction. Peco also works well with Rei in a chain formation to negate his abysmal speed. He isn’t very useful if coupled with Garr though. They are both slow, powerful characters with no healing skills. This puts all the healing pressure on Ryu, who should be using his AP for dragon transformations or buffing anyway. Combat/Boss tips Peco excels against any physical attacking boss. Bosses like the Mt. Zublo boss or the Mammo will have a hard time even hurting him and his self-healing allows less AP to be spent on healing as he needs to be healed less. Magic using bosses are far more dangerious to Peco becasue of his super low Int. He has little resistence to them. In battles like the Dragon Lord and such give Peco a Barrier Ring or Wisdom Ring to mitigate some of the danmaage. Peco's breath attacks can also cause major damage to enemies that are weak to an element. Bring Peco along for a undead heavy dungeon and watch him clean house with Fire Breath. Contact ________ Any additions or comments can be directed to me at Proudnerd255@gmail.com. I love feedback, so please contact me. Please tell me about typos as well. Rules for contacting me are simple. Read the entire FAQ before contacting me to ensure the answer isn’t in the FAQ. Don’t spend me spam. Porn is ok. This FAQ is only available on GameFaqs.com. If you see it anywhere else it has been hosted illegally and will likely also be out of date. Please contact me about this. Version Info ___________ 8/10/2014: First release! 9/10/2014: Fixed typos and some wording. 10/10/2014: Added Dragonfang as Peco's strongest weapon. I was sure it was the Death Claws! Also fixed a typo saying that Peco had three damaging breath attacks instead of two. 5/11/2014: Added a bunch of stuff about accessories and extra tidbits about Peco's stats. Extra Lavaman info and suggested characters to use with Peco. 10/11/2014: Fixed typos. 2/3/2015: Typo fixes. Added info about obtaining the Crepe Cape and AmberBP from the Farie Village. Changed some poor wording. 1/7/2015: Added the Rockbreaker Claws and fixed a few typos. Legal Info _________ Like any good FAQ on this site this FAQ is copyright of its author Allan Curtis. Any unauthorized copying, theft or plagiarism will be met with the maximum possible extent of the law. Credits _______ Capcom for making one of my favourite RPGs and for thinking outside the box with character design. My girlfriend for being both sweet and as much of a gamer as I am. Gamer girls! <3 Matthew McGillivray for pointing out two typos. Thanks to Shaggy2J of GameFAQs for pointing out that the Dragonfang is Peco's strongest weapon and for a breath attack typo. Big Thanks to StarryKnights of Gamefaqs for a whole host of suggestions and a few corrections.