Part 6: Battle Primer: Enemy MP

Battle Primer: Enemy MP

Following Scarmiglione's seemingly limitless MP pool before we have a bit of a quandary. Several upcoming bosses are all potent at magical offensives, but not necessarily so hot on physicals. Baigan utilises Reflect and the arms are magic oriented. The Dark Elf relies on mid-level elemental spells, status ailments and Tornado. The Magus Sisters do nothing but cast magic.

So, was Scarmiglione's MP merely a lot higher than advertised or is the game hiding something very important from us? Let's find out.



The easiest way to do so in a way that has tangible benefits needs one of two things. This rod or grind to level 32. The Rod of Lilith is easier to get, so we'll go with that. It's a 1/64 drop from Liliths on Mt. Ordeals, though, so "easier" is very debatable.



Next up, we'll go fight Scarmiglione 1 again and whittle him down to a single Skullnant. Helps keep things so we know he's at max MP.



Now, this is why the Rod of Lilith is important here. It casts Osmose when used as an item, which makes it absurdly useful in general (and it's perfect for Scarmiglione 1 since he's not undead yet!). In total, I drain 436 MP which is exactly double what I thought his MP was. At that point, I start draining 0 so 436 must be what he starts with.

So, with all that drained, we kill the last Skullnant and wait for Scarmiglione's turn to come up. Can he still cast Thunder?



Yes. Enemy spells do not, in fact, cost any MP. That would be because they're considered special abilities and not "spells" in the same sense as when you use them. So, basically, enemy MP is just a resource for you to steal from with Osmose, but there's a cap on what they start with so you can't use them as an infinite battery.

There's also no maximum MP for any enemy; you can give a Goblin 65,535 MP if you really wanted to. It'd do nothing, and be a waste of time and Ethers but you could do it.