Legend of Mana Advanced Golemology

What Is A Golem And Why Should I Care?

A golem is an alternative companion you can bring with you instead of a pet or demi-human. Golems do not level up, cannot be fed produce, and offer a large variety of options when it comes to combat, arguably moreso than pets. Much like with your character, the power of your golem will depend on the amount of time and money you want to put into its equipment, the process of which is much more complicated than dumping three items into a feed box and then forgetting about it.

Getting Your Golem Lab

Once you place the Broken Doll artifact on the map, you get the Junkyard. The first time you enter this land, the quest “The Infernal Doll” will start. Once you finish that quest and go back, a Flowerling will be at the entrance who can teleport you straight to Professor Bomb's Lab. Strangely, although it's easy enough to walk to (follow the path by the jack-in-box at the entrance and at the fork go through the northern-most path of the three, not marked by any toys), it's completely blocked off unless you use the Flowerling to teleport you there.

Talk to Prof. Bomb and agree to help find the golem. Leave the Junkyard and head to Lake Kilma. As soon as you enter you will encounter the rogue golem. Talk to it, follow it, fight it, and once you’ve defeated it the quest ends.

From there, go home (talk to Li’l Cactus) and head over to your workshops. As you get to the door, Prof. Bomb will pop out and announce that he’s built a golem lab inside. Before you can start using it, you must complete the quest “Golem Go Make ‘Em”, which involves studying from the Basic Golemology encyclopedia and taking a test on your knowledge of golems:

Q: What are the necessary components?

A: A completed body and logic blocks.

Q: What makes up a golem’s body?

A: At least one weapon or piece of armor.

Q: What makes up a logic block?

A: Two pieces of equipment.

Q: What determines the side of the logic grid?

A: The number of armor pieces used for the golem’s body.

Q: What determine’s a logic block’s type?

A: The combination of its components.

Q: What determines a logic block’s shape?

A: The combination of its components.

Q: What determines the golem’s attack mode?

A: The type of weapon used for the golem’s body.

Q: What determines golem attack and defense levels?

A: The characteristics of the weapons and armor used.

Q: How is the malfunction rate determined?

A: The number of armor pieces used as components.

Q: How does a golem decide which action to take?

A: By referring to its action gauge and calculating the distance to the enemy.

If you get any of the answers wrong, you can try again with no penalty and, if you so choose, study up on golems again. Once you answer them all correctly, the quest ends and Prof. Bomb gives you several things. You get the encyclopedia, the logic block jar, and three “lifeballs”. The lifeballs are crystals needed to make golems; it basically means that, just like your corral can hold a maximum of five pets at a time, you can have a maximum of three golems at a time. The color of a lifeball does not affect the color of a golem.

He also gives you several materials to work with: 1 Menos Bronze, 1 Valsena Iron, and 1 Granz Steel. Congratulations, you’re now ready to start building your own golem! But go talk to Li’l Cactus first.

Equipment You Need To Make Your Golem

As you saw in your test, you won’t find little golem eggs out in the world, you have to build them with extra equipment you have. A golem needs at least one weapon OR one piece of armor to make. Obviously, the more equipment you put into it, the more powerful it becomes. Like the player, a golem can have a maximum of one weapon and three pieces of armor.

But where do you get the stuff? You can certainly buy extras at a shop or throw in some item drops you get from monsters, but if you want a truly powerful golem you have to build it from the ground up. You remember how much time and money you spent tempering your weapon and the three pieces of armor you’re wearing? You get to do that all over again, but for your golem.

Yeah, it gets expensive. My preferred method of gaining lucre is going to Luon Highway and farming Wind Caps from Spiny Cones and Clear Feathers from Stinger Bugs. These are quick and easy fights and with a Polter Box you should get a steady supply of items. Temper four Clear Feathers into one Wind Cap and you can sell it for over 26k.

Golem Types And Colors

The type of golem you get is determined by the type of weapon you put into it. This in turn will determine the type of logic blocks available to it. While all golems have access to red and blue colored blocks, green ones are specific to certain weapons.

No weapon: Normal type, no green blocks available

Knife: Spear type

Sword: Guillotine type

Axe: Guillotine type

2H Sword: Chainsaw type

2H Axe: Chainsaw type

Hammer: Hammer type

Spear: Spear type

Staff: Spear type

Gloves: Knuckles type

Flail: Hammer type

Bow: Shotgun type

Logic blocks are placed in a grid, and the size of that grid is determined by the number of armor pieces used to build the golem. This will also determine the golem’s malfunction rate; that is, the chance that it tries and fails to use a logic block and just sits still for a few seconds.

No armor: 4x4 grid, malfunction rate 35%

1 armor: 4x4 grid, malfunction rate 35%

2 armor: 5x5 grid, malfunction rate 25%

3 armor: 6x6 grid, malfunction rate 15%

Additionally, if you want to spice up your golem, you can give it its own special paint job using some produce you have lying around.

Garlicrown: Crown Silver

Conhurnip: Conch Gray

Sweet Maoi: Maoi Gray

Pear O’Heels: Pear Silver

Mangolephant: Mango Green

Apricat: Apricot

Diceberry: Strawberry

Peach Puppy: Peach Red

Applesocks: Apple Red

Whalamato: Tomato Red

Spiny Carrot: Sun Orange

Loquat-Shoes: Golden Orange

Bumpkin: Golden Orange

Honey Onion: (remove Golem’s colors)

Orange’opus: Sun Orange

Citrisquid: Sweet Yellow

Springanana: Sweet Yellow

Cornflower: Sour Yellow

Fishy Fruit: Sour Yellow

Rocket Papaya: Bitter Green

Cabbadillo: Cabbage Green

Squalphin: Dolphin Green

Needlettuce: Lettuce Green

Boarmelon: Melon Green

Dialaurel: Bitter Green

Heart Mint: Mint Green

Spade Basil: Basil Blue

Pine O’Clock: Pine o’Green

Gold Clover: Grass Gold

Rhinoloupe: Rhino Blue

Lilipods: Lily Purple

Cherry Bombs: Berry Purple

Orcaplant: Orca Blue

Masked Potato: Masked Blue

Bellgrapes: Grape Gray

Mush-in-a-box: ‘Shroom Silver

Toadstoolshed: Shack Brown

Logic Grid

If the armor makes up the body of a golem then the logic blocks make up the brain. Logic blocks run as if computer commands for the golem to follow, and it won’t operate without any blocks in its grid. They come in three colors: blue are for action abilities, similar to the player abilities; red are for auxiliary moves, typically ones that deal a moderate amount of damage but are not tied to any particular weapon; and green are for weapon-specific moves. Yes, a golem can do combos like a player can, with green blocks functioning like quick attacks and red blocks functioning like power attacks.

Logic blocks are made in the logic block jar using a pair of equipment from your available weapons, armor, or instruments. They fit together in a tetris-like grid, with two axes that govern a golem’s attack gauge and monitor its distance to the enemy. The vertical axis is its attack gauge; blocks closer to the top will be used first and (hopefully) chain into the ones that they are connected to below them. The horizontal axis is for distance: left for short range, middle for midrange, and right for long range. Be careful when placing your blocks, putting a block with a short range attack on the far right of the grid will render it completely useless.

The shape of a logic block is determined ONLY BY THE MATERIALS of the two items used to construct it. While there are 11 different shapes, these can be rotated to fit whatever format you

come up with.

Numbers and their corresponding materials:

0. Menos Bronze, Ash Wood, Jacobini Rock, Lizard Scales, Tortoise Shell

1. Valsena Iron, Fossil Wood*, Halley Rock, Snake Scales, Shell

2. Granz Steel, Ankh Rock, Marble, Dragon Scales

3. Lorant Silver, Obsidian, Vinek Rock, Animal Bone

4. Orihalcon, Pedan Stone, Tuttle Rock, Ivory

5. Beiser Gold, Oak Wood, Gaius’ Tears, Nemesis Rock*, Fossil

6. Ishe Platinum, Holly Wood, Biella Rock*, Animal Hide, Emerald

7. Lorimar Iron, Baobab Wood, Swifte Rock*, Gator Skin, Topple Cotton, Pearl

8. Altena Alloy, Ebony Wood, Sultan’s Silk, Adamantite, Lapis Lazuli

9. Maia Lead*, Maple Wood, Dragon Skin, Judd Hemp, Fullmetal

10. Dior Wood, Fish Scales, Altena Felt, Coral

*these items are only available in the Japanese version of the game

I know these numbers seem like they’re being thrown out at random (and they kind of are), but this is based on information from Ultimania, an official Legend of Mana guide published only in Japan. Only fan translations are available, and I’m pulling notes back from my PS1 days but from what testing I’ve done so far everything in general, not just with golems, seems to be the same.

What Ultimania shows us is that everything in this game is guided by some kind of formula. In this case, it’s simple: take the two numbers for the two pieces, add them together, and you get the corresponding shape:

0 or 11:

1 or 12:

2 or 13:

3 or 14:

4 or 15:

5 or 16:

6 or 17:

7 or 18:

8 or 19:

9 or 20:

10 or 10:

(the colors don't mean anything, I just pulled pictures of some random Tetris blocks)

Every logic block also has a strength rating, between +1 and +9. This is determined by yet another formula using the attack, defense, or power (weapon, armor, or instrument) of the items you put into it.

[(strength of the first item) + (strength of the second item)] ÷ 17

Therefore, if you put in a bow with 34 attack and a flute with 8 power, the logic block’s strength would be +3. You’ll also get Wave Beam, a nifty little red block.

What Are Some Actual Logic Blocks You Can Create?

That is an excellent question, and one that I am still researching. Luckily, the material doesn’t matter for the actual move, just the two items (weapon/armor/instrument) you use to create it. There are 11 weapons, 12 pieces of armor, and 4 instruments in the game. Do a little math, and that’s 378 different combinations you can make for one logic block. I’ll note that there are not 378 different moves, many repeat, but that is still a lot of combinations for one person to research.

This will be updated in a couple of days when I have a complete list to post.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2542539322

Advanced Golemology