Dragon Quest IX

[Aeolus]

Hmm, I wouldn't recommend Grottos to anyone, honestly.

After spending 300 hours with this game and manually grinding every legitly available Legacy boss up to 99, I look back and I'd say that Grottos were probably the least fun experience for me in this game.  On the other hand, I love Legacy bosses.

However, if you don't find the game challenging, you'll definitely find Grottos and Legacy bosses to be a change of pace, because Legacy bosses are so ridiculously difficult at high levels (50+) that at times they're completely luck based.  You also have to play more by the game's rules than your own for the bosses.  A lot of people won't like that.

If you do Grottos, here's my advice: The "ultimate" gear from the Grotto bosses isn't so "ultimate." MKS armor is better in most every case than the Legendary Armor.  I still use Fur Hoods when fighting bosses like Zoma and Dhoulmagus because you need the Ice defense.  The best legs for a female are the Magical skirt in most circumstances. The one exception to this is the shield, which is "overall" the best shield.

The mistake here is that you've grinded legacy bosses up to 99 since after awhile the only thing increasing legacy boss levels does is increase the drop rate of their items by a single percent up to like 10% (and the values start at like 5% or something).

[Tridius]

Even if that's true Cyril. You do need that ultimate gear in order to get a 100% completion for the Alchenomicon.

The only items i've gotten so far from the ulimate armor set is the Brain Drainer, and the Apprentice's Gloves.

Basically upgrading to their true ultimate rarity five star tier armor (and weapons too) is going to require Agate of Evolutions, and Reset Stones if you fail to sucessfully get it to it's final tier. As well as the orbs from each of the legacy bosses.
Heck one of the items to make an Agate of Evolution the Chronocrystal cost about 50,000 GP.

Though i would'nt start working on making those ultimate weapons & armor till i make most, or all the equipment that needs items for example like.
Oricalcum
Sainted Soma
Lucky Pendant
Monarchic Mark
Sorcerer's Stones
Gold Bar

[Cyril]

The mistake here is that you've grinded legacy bosses up to 99 since after awhile the only thing increasing legacy boss levels does is increase the drop rate of their items by a single percent up to like 10% (and the values start at like 5% or something).

I did it for two reasons.
1. Completions sake.
2. Challenge.  A level 99 Estark (second hardest boss after Noctournus, who I don't have yet) is much, much harder at 99 than he is at, say, 80.  It's more for personal satisfaction than actual usefulness. And he's a lot harder at 80 than he is at 69.  

This doesn't really count for the easier bosses though.  Nimzo is probably the easiest or second easiest at 99.

Even if that's true Cyril. You do need that ultimate gear in order to get a 100% completion for the Alchenomicon.

The only items i've gotten so far from the ulimate armor set is the Brain Drainer, and the Apprentice's Gloves.

Basically upgrading to their true ultimate rarity five star tier armor (and weapons too) is going to require Agate of Evolutions, and Reset Stones if you fail to sucessfully get it to it's final tier. As well as the orbs from each of the legacy bosses.

Heck one of the items to make an Agate of Evolution the Chronocrystal cost about 50,000 GP.

Plus have you been doing any revocations of the main character. Cause that's the only way to get much better grotto maps from Grotto Bosses.

I'm well aware of that.  I put the game down because I've, literally, done everything possible. For example, I spent so much time in Grottos that I have 12 Stardust Swords, 10 MKS body Armors (though only 2 boots. . .), and 5 Spring Breeze Hats. No Hoimi. It is impossible to get 100%  completion legitly right now because not all of the cameo characters are there and certain armors can only be obtained through DQVC quests. In a month or two I'll pick it back up again and finish everything off.

And 50,000 Gold is nothing.  I'm sitting on 5,000,000. It's the other items that are more annoying to get to make the Agates.  Fortunately, you can steal most of them.

I've spent ungodly amounts of time with this game and I wouldn't have it any other way. I also 100% completioned DQVII and that took much longer. Silly PlatKings and their annoying hearts.

[Tridius]

That's true though but the only classes i've revocated back to Lv 1 is Warrior and Martial Artist. Going to work on Thief though for the special accessory that helps make stealing easier.

Right now the only item that i have made that requires an orb is the Sage Stone.
I'm sure Magical Mending would affect it since it's an Healing Item.

Plus i am going to start to hate making those Agates since some quests need them.
Plus i really would rather not make too many gold bars of my own since the ingredients to make them are staggering namely the Sainted Soma, and Birdsong Nectar's

[Cyril]

Right now the only item that i have made that requires an orb is the Sage Stone.
I'm sure Magical Mending would affect it since it's an Healing Item.

Plus i am going to start to hate making those Agates since some quests need them.
Plus i really would rather not make too many gold bars of my own since the ingredients to make them are staggering namely the Sainted Soma, and Birdsong Nectar's

Don't worry, once you have a good treasure map you won't need to make Gold Bars.  In fact, you'll be wishing the game wouldn't give them to you!  They take up high ranking treasure spots that could be used for something useful.

And no, Mending doesn't help the Sage's Stone.  The Sage's stone is worthless in this game, unfortunately.

[Aeolus]

Right now I'm getting most of my Gold Bars from Gem Jamborees.

The Sage's Stone is only useful if you're grinding through classes and you don't have anything resembling a decent healer at the moment. (Although I don't suppose the DQVIII tension trick still applies in this game. Does it?)

Unfortunately I don't have any map up to level 80 yet. Fortunately I did get a MKS map fairly early on. As such, I'm almost done grinding the useless classes up to level 50.

If you're revocating classes the Thief, Martial Artist, Gladiator, and Armamentalist are the most important classes to do first since their revocation bonuses improve your success rate at stealing, grants the highest agility boost of any accessory (moreso than even the meteorite armband), improves your critical hit rate, and improves your Coup de Grace activation rate respectfully. The Minstrel's Revocation bonus is basically FFVI's Merit Award (but only applies to items belonging to the opposite gender and also not all of them). The rest just grant the highest accessory boost to the stat most related to the class getting revocated.

The only 'top' items I currently have are the two footwares. The Hero Boots are meh since the HP regen rate is far too low to be of any real use, but the Sensible Sandals are pretty damn awesome given that the MP regen they provide helps free up an accessory slot for something more useful than a Goddess Ring.

Also I wouldn't ignore the D QVC since it can provide some awesome deals on items that are hard or impossible to get through other means. Last week they did a sale on DQIII themed gear, most of which can only be gotten through rare drops in chest, DLC quest rewards, the alchemy pot, or rare steals from post game enemies. This week is offering afro wigs and a top hat which can't be gotten through any other means in the game. And though they do have repeats its better to check when you can.

[Tridius]

Yup i've haven't been ignoring the DQVC since this week DQVC got me some Sainted Soma from there which i was finally able to make me an Agate of Evolution.  Though i wonder what next weeks will be?

Oh and my highest level Treasure Map is Lv. 78 Sapphire Maze of Regret (It's a Ruin Type grotto  completed)
Followed by a Lv. 75 Gold Tundra of Death, and Lv. 69 Silver Crypt of Woe which i received from quest 58  

But i did get a crappy map called Platinum Path of Joy Lv. 36 the other day.
But i do have three others that i need to start on and they're all crypt type grottoes/
One at Lv. 61, one at Lv 70, and the other Lv 77. Before i've started revocating.

[Cyril]

Sometimes your highest level maps won't always be your best, treasure-wise.  I have a level 88 map that has much better treasure than any of my level 99 maps.

Funny because there's a thread about this here, but if you're trying to get yourself a good treasure map, I'd recommend notetaking.  Write down which chests give you what rank of treasure (the sticky on GameFAQs is excellent on telling you how to determine chest rank) as well as the floor and general location (IE "near exit, B8" or "top right, B12").

[Tridius]

Yeah i do that. for the treasure chests, and bosses so i can always go back there and hope for the rare item drop from the grotto bosses.

Including which maps that are good for leveling, and certain treasure ranked chests. So i can easily tell with the guide there at GameFAQ's which monsters spawn there.

I also prefer to use dragon's den site. for the chest ranks since they're easy to keep track of as well as the treasure map searcher there.

Chest Ranks
http://www.woodus.com/den/games/dq9ds/chest_ranks.php

Treasure Map Searcher
http://www.woodus.com/den/games/dq9ds/tms/

[daschrier]

Finished this game last week in about 70 hours and started the post game. Unfortunately, it seems the post game mostly involves "dungeon" diving into the Grottos to grind for rare drops. Doesn't seem too appealing to me.

Overall the game was a blast, even if it couldn't match the awesomeness of DQ8

[Yoda]

I'm stuck somewhere in DQ IV. I was playing regularly (finished the point where harry gets kicked out of the castle) and then put it down for a few months. Now I have no idea where to go. Went to every available town and talked to every NPC i could find.

Time to look at a guide :(

[Yoda]

Also, every post I say DQ IV I really mean V


:)

[daschrier]

Playing through some post game quests. Have received many quests to create items through alchemy without a recipe.

I felt that in DQ8 it was relatively easy to deduce the forumals for recipes. In this game I have no clue, the items and amounts used in the recipes just seems random.

[Mickeymac92]

Does anyone know how Dragon Quest IX compares to Dragon Warrior III? The latter was the only DQ game I really liked so far.

[TurnBasedDude]

It pretty much is a DQ3 successor, and the only other game that plays most similar to it. Whether it's better or worse varies.