Suikoden IV

[BG-57]

So, I was inspired to start playing through the Suikoden series again, from the beginning. I played through the first game, I'm taking a break by going back into the fourth game to my endgame save to get some extra stuff.

I've been trawling, using the net. Since I heard you could get replacement outfit for Snowe (his rags are very poor fashion) I've been trying for one of them. I've discovered a few things in the process:

1) With fights disabled it only takes about 8 minutes of continuous sailing to fill up the net completely. Waiting longer does not improve the haul, so I'm guessing that once the net fills, it doesn't replace anything in the occupied slots.

2) Getting rare items seem to be random, but not unique. I've gotten two fancy sofas in the same playthrough.

The one thing I haven't found is an outfit for Snowe. Should I engage in random battles to improve the odds? The fisherman suggests you may get sunken treasure near battle sites.

EDIT: Okay I've figured it out. First of all, you don't actually have to be moving to rack up time as long as you're in sailing mode. Second, the odds of landing rare outfits seems to skyrocket without Snowe in the active party.

To top it all off, I had to figure out how to equip the alternate outfits. Turns you have to look for Snowe on the deck of the ship and speak with him. The moral seems to be: leave Snowe out of the active party during this whole rigamarole.

[Vermachtnis]

I just started playing this and I got an outfit for Snowe in front of the Pirates Nest. I have no idea if location has anything do with it or not.

Also, I have a question. How do you turn of random encounters? This game has one of the highest encounter rates, I've *Ahem* encountered. I've just recruited Elenor is where I'm at in the story.

[BG-57]

Yes, it's dependant on location. His armor should be obtainable in the Razril area (which I haven't gotten yet) and his pirate outfit from Iluya. Basically you can dress him in any outfit that he appears in the course of the game.

Equipping a Champion orb will turn off encounters with weaker random encounters. It's possible to max out levels without too much difficulty with Reinhold (if you use Ted and a Mother Earth Rune). With a level 99 party, you effectly eliminate random encounters.

You can get one as early as Iluya Island (there's a treasure map in a chest there). Using that map Rene can locate a Champion Orb on one of four possible islands.

[Vermachtnis]

Ah, it's called "Snowe's Noble Garb." I can't remember when I actually lowered the net, I think I had it lowerd when I was chasing him back to Razril. I just know I didn't raise until after I recruited Lilon, or whatever her name was that was hanging out in front of the Pirate's Nest.

And thanks about the Treasure Hunt tip. I though they were all on Donut Island. No wonder I couldn't find any after the first one.

[BG-57]

Anytime. :)

The other three islands are Limestone Shelf Island (WSW of Pirate Nest), Mordo Island (NW of Obel) and Mountain Mass Island (N of Razril).

EDIT:

I finally got Snowe's Armor. It seems to have the lowest drop rate of any rare items you can trawl for. Took me about 25 tries (8-10 minutes for each try). The good news is you can leave the boat anchored in sailing mode and it still catches stuff. So I did other things while it was running.

In addition I've got almost every piece of furniture for Percola's decorating room through trawling. There are a few you have to get through the mouse catching game (a broken little mini-game if there ever was one) or Tops.