Faster or Slower Spell Grinding

Original game : Secret of Mana

Platform : SNES

Author : Kethinov

Release date : 23 August 2023

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 1.1

Modifications : P

Downloads : 706

ROM Information

Secret of Mana (U) [!].SMC
Header: NO
CRC32: 229BA7E4
MD5: 759A3837E5C16AF31464EF6192731EEB
SHA1: 4E214F3C987F842C2C68E77B99FC9760F6BB753D

Hack description

This hack offers twelve different options for adjusting the pace of spell grinding:

- ~149%, or about 1.5x as much grinding (~270 casts per elemental). (Has serious side effects, see below!)
- ~77%, or about 3/4 as much grinding (~141 casts per elemental).
- ~64%, or about 2/3 as much grinding (~117 casts per elemental).
- ~55%, or a bit more than half as much grinding (~100 casts per elemental).
- ~48%, or a bit less than half as much grinding (~87 casts per elemental).
- ~32%, or about 1/3 as much grinding (~58 casts per elemental).
- ~29%, or a bit less than 1/3 as much grinding (~53 casts per elemental).
- ~25%, or about 1/4 as much grinding (~46 casts per elemental).
- ~22%, or a bit less than 1/4 as much grinding (~40 casts per elemental).
- ~19%, or a bit less than 1/5 as much grinding (~35 casts per elemental).
- ~17%, or a bit more than 1/6 as much grinding (~32 casts per elemental).
- ~8%, or a bit less than 1/10 as much grinding (~16 casts per elemental).

Important things to note:

- The original game is roughly 181 casts per elemental.
- All figures listed here are for combat zones. When in a non-combat zone, grinding takes twice as many casts.
- The 149% hack has a couple side effects: 1. You cannot gain spell levels past level 7 in non-combat zones and 2. You cannot ever attain the 8:99 special spells under any circumstances.
- Apply this to an unheadered ROM.

Contributions

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description
Kethinov	Hacking

Reviews

Any which way you like!	zoolgremlin	2019-11-05	Version 1.0
Tested as part of the ongoing Secret of Mana Turbo Project, by Queue (with various resources provided by zhaDe as part of Secret of Mana: New Game Improvement). Latest version used. Just very briefly, the benefits of this hack are mostly the same as those of Faster Weapon Grinding, with just one difference. If you choose to go with Slower Spell Grinding, this will make it harder to obtain maximum power in the game, not to mention closing off the true Level 8 spells. It's complicated to explain, but from experience I can tell you this: If a spell labelled Level 8 in the Message Box does NOT use the animations that pause all action (as determined randomly for characters, and which the Monsters/Bosses can never get), the spell effects will STILL be only Level 7 in strength. That's just part of how the damage/effect algorithm works in Vanilla, and considerable work would need to be done to alter this. Unless you decide to brute-force it by removing the Level 8 Spell RNG Check. Which makes the animations themselves completely unused and worthless. I have personally used the Slower variety just to disable these animations in the quickest way possible. My reason is that having them displayed reminds me too much, of what I don't like about Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3). Also, Level 7 spells are already more than powerful enough, even if Monsters/bosses are granted more HP. But for those who are determined to make the grind less irritating, definitely go with Faster. It works exactly the same way as Faster Weapon Grinding. Thus, the same benefits apply here as well.

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