Ys Book I & II (TG-CD) Speedrun Stuff

	This is the skeleton of a potential speedrun route for Ys Book I & II for the Turbo-Grafx CD. I'll 	be updating this as I continue going through the game and figuring out what works/what 	doesn't/what could potentially be improved.

Some notes:

This will treat the speedrun as the disc treats the games--In other words, as one massive run spanning the two games, with the run not ending until you go through the door after beating Darm at the end of Ys II (1).

I'm terrible at hunting for "major" stuff (ACE, OoB glitches, etc.). As such, this will, by and large, be the "intended" route through the game on a macro level, though I'll be checking to see what in the sequence/what items can be skipped/put off/etc. Because of this, I suppose this can also be used as a walkthrough for more casual play (At least when it's done), though I'll be presuming a level of basic familiarity with the game, even though I don't know the names of any of the bosses besides Dark Fact, Dalles, and Darm.

Obviously, this isn't meant to be a be-all-end-all route, and right now, the notes are kind of skeletal, for me as much as anyone else. More precisely, I'm hoping someone will, once this is done, use it as a foundation, build upon it, and come up with something truly high quality. There's still a fair amount of untested brainstorming in here, especially in the footnotes. I intend to do an attempt or two as part of the 12-Hour Challenge (Presuming I have a day that weekend off), but I doubt I'll have time to do much more than that. Also, as I hinted at in my "retirement" Pastebin, I enjoy the concept of routing and researching runs on a conceptual level much more than I enjoy the actual process of grinding out a high-quality run (Though I do like the end result) in general.

Not included in the directions, but important nonetheless: If you aren't going for a truly deathless, single-segment run, save often. It doesn't take long, and you'll be glad you did when you suffer some random death.

Last Updated: 1/30/2016
Complete! A rough version, but complete nonetheless!

1. Change speed to Fast
2. Grind to Level 3, maybe buy Short Sword to make it easier. If so, also buy Chain Armor at same time (2)
3. Get Golden Vase
4. Go to Pim, Sell Vase, Buy Sapphire Ring
5. Go to Bar, Get gold for Sapphire Ring, 50 Experience
6. Go to shops, buy Long Sword, Chain Armor, Small Shield
7. Equip everything, go to Sara's Shop, (Say Yes, Yes) get Crystal, 100 Experience
8. Go to Zeptic Village
9. Go to Jeva's House, get Shrine Key.
10. Go to Shrine Entrance
11. Beat Magician, get 150 Experience (Should be level 5 before fight)
12. Enter Shrine Depth 1
13. Collect Prison Key (Left side)
14. Free Feena, get Treasure Box Key (Back up, right side), 100 Experience
15. Get Necklace (South of Feena) (3)
16. Get Mask of Eyes (West of Necklace)
17. Get Silver Bell (Down and around)
18. Enter Shrine Depth 2
19. Get Ivory Key (West of SD2 Entrance)
20. Take southeast teleporter
21. Get Silver Shield
22. Take southwest teleporter
23. Get Heal Potion
24. Grind to Level 10 (4)
25. Use Mask of Eyes to reveal passage
26. Go through the passage, remove Mask of Eyes
27. Take right teleporter, get Marble Key
28. Take left teleporter (Use Heal Potion if not at full HP), beat worm, acquire Volume Hadal, 250 Experience
29. On the way out of the Shrine (Use Mask of Eyes to reveal passage again), get Armor Ring at entrance
30. Return the Silver Bell to Zeptic Village, get Power Ring, 80 Experience
31. Go back to Minea Town, purchase a Wing, Heal Potion, and Katana (5)
32. Enter Mine Depth 1
33. Follow the south wall to find the Silver Armor and entrance to Mine Depth 2
34. Enter Mine Depth 2
35. Follow the north wall, then break to the left to get the Heal Ring.
36. Return to the wall you were following to get the Roda Tree Seed after crossing a bridge.
37. The north wall will eventually “become” the south wall. Continue following it to grab the Silver Harmonica
38. Return to the entrance to Mine Depth 2
39. Go south to find the entrance to Mine Depth 3. Take it.
40. Follow the north wall for a time. You will see a path branching north guarded by a goon. Take it. Get the Darm Key.
41. Exit the passage and continue going west, following the south wall.
42. Grind to 2000 Experience Points (6)
43. Use your Wing to go to Minea Town. (7)
44. Go to Pim's, buy another Wing
45. Go to Sara's House (8)
46. Go to the Armor Shop and buy a Large Shield and Reflex Armor (9)
47. Go to Lair and give her the Silver Harmonica. Acquire 500 Experience Points and the Volume Toba in return.
48. Go to the Roda Tree (You may need to equip the Seed in your Inventory) and acquire the Silver Sword.
49. Return to Mine Depth 3. In Mine Depth 1, go left, then slightly to the left, then right to quickly get to Mine Depth 2. In Mine Depth 3, you can now skip the passage to the Darm Key and concentrate on going south toward the boss door.
50. Enter the boss door and defeat the bat boss, getting revenge for everyone who has played other versions and suffered at this boss's difficulty in those. Acquire 500 Experience Points and the Volume Dabbie.
51. Wing to Zeptic Village
52. Talk to Jeva, but refuse her offer (10)
53. Go to the Thieves' Hideout in the northeast portion of the mountains.
54. Enter Darm Tower 1F.
55. Go down, then all the way to the right to Darm Tower 2F.
56. Collect the Mirror and Evil Ring (Both on the right side)
57. Return to Darm Tower 1F and take the middle path to Darm Tower 3F
58. Follow the passage to Darm Tower 4F (Ignore the hidden passage for now) (Maybe grind here)
59. Go down, right, and up to Darm Tower 5F (Ignore the door)
60. Go down, left, and up to Darm Tower 6F (Again, ignore the door)
61. Get teleported to Darm Tower B1. Equip the strongest equipment you have, now that you lost your Silver Equipment. Talk to Luta Gemma. Walk around to get rescued by Dogi, who is in Witness Protection and going by “Colin” in this version of the game. Acquire the Eagle Idol.
62. Return to Darm Tower 3F. This time, take the Mask of Eyes passage.
63. Talk to Rasta in the bottom left, exchanging the Eagle Idol for the Blue Necklace. Equip it in your inventory after exiting the Mask of Eyes passage.
64. Return to Darm Tower 6F, this time not getting teleported because you equipped the Blue Necklace.
65. Proceed to Darm Tower 7F.
66. Go down, left, down, and through the door. Get the Silver Sword back. Equip it. Then go up and take the middle door to Darm Tower 8F.
67. Go down, right, down, all the way left, and up to Scyther
68. Defeat Scyther (Should be at level 21) for 750 Experience Points. Acquire the Hammer and Volume Messa after beating him.
69. Go back near the start of the floor. Take the right path to Darm Tower 9F.
70. Go left, down, right, and up through the passageway. Equip the mirror to use when the enemies near the treasure chest come to life after you grab it (It's the Silver Shield). (May bbe a good grinding spot if you have a high risk tolerance).
71. Take the lower path to Darm Tower 10F.
72. Take the first passageway to Darm Tower 11F
73. Outside, break the third pillar to the left of the door. Return to Darm Tower 10F
74. Go all the way down and take the left path, which leads to another part of Darm Tower 11F
75. Go all the way to the right, to Darm Tower 12F.
76. Go to the left to go to Darm Tower 13F
77. Take the left path to Darm Tower 14F
78. Defeat Graveler (You should be at Level 24) for 1000 Experience. Acquire the Brooch and the Volume Gemma from the door behind him.
79. Return to Darm Tower 13F. Take the mirror to the south.
80. Go down past the first mirror you can access, to a second mirror.
81. Go down again, to the mirror you see there.
82. Take the mirror you see and can get to.
83. Get the Silver Armor from the chest.
84. Take the mirror back to the start of Darm Tower 13F
85. Take the south mirror again, but this time take the mirror you passed up the first time.
86. Then take the right mirror.
87. And now enter the mirror you just exited. This will take you to Darm Tower 15F.
88. Take the lower path to the Battle Shield.
89. Take the upper path to Darm Tower 16F.
90. Go left, down, left, and down, then follow the passage to Lair. Equip the Evil Ring and the Blue Necklace to unlock the door. Receive the Glasses from her.
91. Return to the first passageway to Darm Tower 11F. To get back to the start of the 13th floor, take the mirror by the stairs, then the mirror to the north (Not the one you come of), then the left mirror, then the mirror to the south. When you make it to Darm Tower 11F this time, go past the pillar you broke, to the door.
92. Talk to Luta Gemma. He'll give you the Blue Amulet. (11)
93. Return to Darm Tower 16F. This time, take the door leading up that we skipped to Darm Tower 17F.
94. Equip the Armor Ring and take the right path (Damage is almost impossible to avoid in this narrow corridor). Re-equip the ring of your choice after skipping the passageway and continuing left to Darm Tower 18F.
95. Go down and to the right to Darm Tower 19F. Equip the Blue Necklace and take the Battle Armor from the chest.
96. Return to Darm Tower 18F. This time, take the left path to Darm Tower 20F.
97. When the passage breaks, enter it. Defeat the enemies inside for the Flame Sword.
98. While in the passage, grind until you reach 8500 Experience. Then proceed to Darm Tower 21F (12)
99. Take the mirror.
100. Go down and to the right. Take that mirror.
101. Then take the left mirror.
102. And go through the door to the boss. Beat it for 1500 Experience and the way to the 	final battle of Ys I. This should put you over 10000 experience and get you to Level 35, 	which is the minimum reasonable level for beating Dark Fact.
103. Take the left stairway to Darm Tower 25F.
104. Equip the Silver equipment and go beat up Dark Fact.
105. After beating him, read the Volume Fact. This will end Ys I.
106. Go to Bernice's House (Southeast corner of Rance Village). Get the Letter and 300 Gold.
107. Go north and buy a Short Sword, Wood Shield, and Herb.
108. Exit town and head to the Ruins.
109. Go up through the first door and to the right to get the Roda Tree Nut.
110. Go back down and through the second door and talk to Astal, the man guarding the door. (13)
111. Go all the way to the right, then up. Kill the two enemies guarding the chest, and take the Wand of Holy World.
112. Touch the Wand of Holy World to the statue to the north. This will give you MP.
113. Return to Rance Village and talk to the village Senior.
114. If you have the money, buy Chain Armor and a Wing. Whether you do or not will depend mostly on whether you did any grinding here as opposed to the end of Ys I.
115. Talk to Astal again and enter the Divine Area behind him.
116. Ignore the small locked door. Instead, go left and up to the first large door. Enter it.
117. Return the Volume Hadal to the statue by talking to it.
118. Grind to Level 37 (12800 experience total). This is to make the Magic of Fire marginally useful when we get it.
119. Continue past the door to the right, and enter Mine 1.
120. At the first “fork”, take the left, ornate stairway.
121. Take the path to the end and enter the large door.
122. Return the Volume Toba to the statue.
123. Return to the fork. This time, take the rightmost door.
124. At the second fork, take the right door.
125. Now take the center door.
126. Acquire the Pick Axe from the cchest.
127. Return to the “second fork”. This time, take the left door.
128. At the third fork, take the right door.
129. Continue down the path to a dead end. Use the Pick Axe on the wall.
130. Go through the passage you created and talk to Dr. Flair for 300 Experience.
131. Return to the “third fork”. This time, take the left door.
132. Take the ornate staircase.
133. Go up to get the Cleria Ring. Equip it (14).
134. Back near the staircase, go left, through the large door.
135. Return the Volume Dabbie to the statue.
136. Return to Mine 1. Take the door on the bottom right.
137. At the fourth fork, take the right door.
138. At the fifth fork, take the bottom left door.
139. Continue to the end of the path, where you'll get the Magic of Fire.
140. Go back to the fourth fork, and this time, take the left door.
141. At the sixth fork, take the center door.
142. At the seventh fork, take the left door.
143. After entering the ornate staircase, go right, then up through the large door.
144. Return the Volume Gemma to the statue.
145. Now take the left path and go through that large door.
146. Return to Volume Messa to the statue.
147. Return to the seventh fork in the mine. This time, take the right path, down to Mine 2.
148. Take the door leading up to a boss fight. Defeat the boss (You should be at at least Level 38) for 1750 Experience.
149. Continue down into the Mine. Take the left path.
150. The first two paths leading up have nothing. However, between them on the SOUTH wall is a hidden passage containing Iron Ore in a chest. Take the third path up.
151. The second “branch” up contains a Kerseta Flower. Take it, use it if you need to (It's a complete HP/MP refill), then take another one.
152. Go all the way down to the southern path on the right. Take it, and go through the passage on the right.
153. Take the northern door and follow the path north to the Magic of Light.
154. Go all the way back out of the door you entered this room in (Use the Magic of Light to find it if you don't remember where the passageway it). Go to the right and down through another door.
155. Go right, and up, and follow the path to the Evil Bell.
156. Wing back to Rance Village.
157. Go talk to Dr. Flair at the top-right corner of the village. Acquire Lilia's Medicine.
158. Talk to Bernice and acquire the Magic of Return and 300 Experience Points.
159. Go to the Weapon Shop and sell the Iron Ore for 3000 Gold. If you have the gold after this, purchase a Katana.
160. Go to Jira's house in the southwest of town. Agree to check out his basement.
161. Ring the Evil Bell and go through the resulting passageway.
162. In the Divine Area, go right, then up, through the large door.
163. Return the Volume Fact to the statue. Obtain the Scroll of Guidance.
164. Return to the “Main” Divine Area via the Ruins. Now go through the now-open door we ignored earlier to go to Ice Park East.
165. Go up four staircases.
166. Go up the fifth staircase (To your left), then go left and down five staircases.
167. Go left and down two more staircases to get the Misty Ice Drops.
168. Return to the start of step 166. This time, go right and up. Follow the path into the cave.
169. Use the Misty Ice Drops to bridge the gap in the top left.
170. Exit the door and follow the path downward.
171. Take the second staircase up you come across, and enter the door to Ice Park West.
172. Go down three staircases.
173. Go all the way left and down the ice slope to get the Idol of Hawk. (15)
174. Go down the second ice slope and continue until you reach a door. Enter it.
175. Use the Magic of Fire to burn down the ice.
176. Exit the door and take the Magic of Transform.
177. Follow the path until it forks (You can go either further up, or down to the right).
178. Go up, through the door, to get the Stone Shoes.
179. Go back to the first section of Ice Park East.
180. Return to where the Misty Ice Drops were. From there, continue left and go up the ice slope using the Stone Shoes. Climb the staircase to get the Illusion Mirror.
181. Return to the second section of Ice Park West. This time, go to the leftmost ice flow, and use the Illusion Mirror to reveal the true door. Enter it and fight the boss (You should be at least Level 41) for 2500 experience points.
182. Follow the path to Burnland Mid.
183. Go through the first passage, ignoring the messages (If you'd like to try grinding, you can ring the Evil Bell and kill the mobs that appear.).
184. Grab the Roda Tree Leaf from the next room (It's near the right side of the bank to the south). Take the first door on the right.
185. Follow the path to Burn Village.
186. Refill your supplies using the Roda Tree Nut.
187. Equip the Magic of Transform and go to the man guarding the bridge on the right side. Talk to him.
188. Unequip the Magic of Transform and talk to him again. Acquire the Whisper Earrings.
189. Return to the Roda Tree Leaf room, and this time, take the passage on the left.
190. Follow the path. In the second room with the yellow slime type creatures, equip the Roda Tree Leaf.
191. Go through the poison gas room.
192. After making it through the room, unequip the Roda Tree Leaf and take the door to the left.
193. Take out the enemy guarding the chest by running along the bottom of the screen. Acquire the Blue Orb.
194. Return to the previous screen and take the door on the top right.
195. On the long passageway leading to a dead end, equip the Whisper Earrings and walk into the wall.
196. Equip the Blue Orb and walk into the wall again. Acquire 1000 experience points, and advance the story.
197. Go back to Burn Village via the Magic of Return. Again, refill your supplies.
198. Talk to the bridge guard again to open the way and acquire 500 experience points.
199. In the first room after Burn Village, go right (Along the ceiling), then down and follow the path to the door.
200. Near the door, grind to Level 48 (16). Enter the door and kill the boss for 3000 experience points.
201. Continue to Ramia Village.
202. Talk to Dekka, the man guarding the door in the northwest of the village.
203. Talk to Hadat, the man in the house near the southwest of the village. Acquire the Voca Shell by agreeing to help his son.
204. Talk to Dekka again to unlock the door. Open it.
205. Equip the Magic of Transform and enter Solomon Shrine Mid.
206. Go right, up, right, up, left, up, right to the next screen. Continue following the path all the way to Solomon East.
207. Go down the stairs, right, up the stairs, right, down, and follow the path to the door. Go through it.
208.  On the other side of the door, go down the stairs and to the left. Equip the Magic of Transform, talk to the guard, and get the Pass.
209. Return to near the start of Solomon East. This time, instead of going right and up the stairs, go up, right, then up after equipping the Magic of Transform to open the gate.
210. Go up, left, up, right (Or up/right/up/left), and down the stairs. Kill the guards and enter the room.
211. Equip both the Whisper Earrings AND the Magic of Transform and walk up to the door. Acquire the secret password, N-8086.
212. If you have the money, return to Ramia Village and acquire the Hyper Cutter.
213. From Solomon Mid, go up the stairs, left, up, left, right, up, and left to Solomon Mid-West.
214. Equip the Magic of Transform and talk to the guard to open the gate.
215. Go down the first staircase you see past the gate, and enter the door.
216. Ignore Dalles's threat and try to enter the canal behind him.
217. After being changed into a goon, exit and go left, up the stairs, up the second stairs, and to Solomon West.
218. Go left, up, down the stairs, right, and up the stairs. Follow the path to a door.
219. Enter the door, using the Magic of Light, and take the Sacred Cup.
220. Return to Ramia Village and talk to Evan, the man in the house near the Shrine entrance.
221.  Use the Sacred Cup and become human.
222. Go back to where you were turned into a Goon.
223. Enter the Canal West. Note the door on the right side of the screen.
224. Take the path down after the second bridge.
225. Go right across the bridge, then down again.
226. Go down a third time, ignoring the door leading up
227. Go down yet again, ignoring a second upward-leading door. Follow the path to another fork.
228. Take the fork to the left and enter the door. Talk to Lilia at the end of the path. Get her, and the rest of the villagers, stoned. Acquire the Master Key.
229. Exit the Canal and proceed to Solomon West.
230. Go down, left, up, left, and up through the door. Go straight up to acquire the Magic of Timestop (17)
231. Go down, in a general sense, to another locked door to get the Iron Shield (TODO: Fill in more specific directions). (18)
232. Go all the way back to Solomon East. Go as far northeast as you can to a door leading to Canal East.
233. Take the rightmost door leading down.
234. Go all the way to the right (Crossing a bridge), then down again. Go down, right across a bridge, and up to the Silver Pendant.
235. Return to Ramia Village and re-enter the Shrine.
236. Go left, up, right, and through the door. Go through the center door and fight the boss for 3500 experience. You should be Level 51 at minimum, probably a level or two higher if you don't get the Iron Shield.
237. Continue through the door and touch the left statue twice to be teleported to the main portion of Solomon Shrine.
238. Go down to where the path forks.
239. Go left, up, left, up, and up. Follow the path to another door. Enter it.
240. Continue following the path, ignoring the message about the goon guards.
241. Go left and through the door to Canal Mid.
242. Go up, then all the way left, then down, then down the bridge.
243. Then go up, until you see another bridge going right.
244. Take the bridge and go down. Follow the path until you come across a door leading north.
245. Follow the path that door leads to to get to Keith. Talk to him to receive the Key of the Water Canal.
246. Exit the canal and take the stairs leading down into the courtyard.
247. Enter the left door for the Battle Shield. Equip it.
248. Warp back to the Runaway Hideout.
249. Go back to the door that you noted in Step 223. Open it using the Key of the Water Canal.
250. Push the panel to lower the water and acquire 1500 experience points.
251. Go near the entrance of Canal West, and go down, to the stairs. Take them.
252. Go up, right, then follow the path to some stairs. Take them for the Battle-Armor.
253. Continue past the stairs and go up. Then go right, to another set of stairs. Follow the path to Canal Mid.
254. Continue going down and left until the path forks multiple ways.
255. Go down and take the stairs to acquire the Idol of Falcon, a stronger version of the Idol of Hawk. (19)
256. Then take the door leading down. Continue following the path to the Goddess' Castle.
257. Exit the tunnel and go left and up the staircase. Magic of Timestop, if you grabbed it, may be helpful here.
258. Go to the left to set the Goddess' Castle warp point. You do not necessarily need to talk to the Goddesses at this point, but doing so does refill your health and magic.
259. Grind. A lot. Up to 78800 experience points (20). Use the Magic of Timestop, it will be helpful.
260. Go to the right to find the boss, Yetai. Kill him for 4000 experience points, and enter the Belfry.
261. Ascend to the summit, ignoring the door on the way. Talk to Dalles and get Maria killed. Nice job!
262. Descend down to the door you ignored. Enter it. Acquire the Dreaming Stone Idol.
263. Warp back to the Goddess' Castle. Talk to the Goddesses, regardless of whether you did so before. (21)
264. Warp back to Ramia Village. Talk to Tarf. He'll find out he has a hole in his pocket.
265. Talk to Dekka. He'll tell you a demon picked it up. (22)
266. Return to the meeting room where you learned the password. This time, you can enter and acquire the Blue Orb.
267. Return to the Goddess' Castle. Talk to the Goddesses again. You'll learn how to use the Idol.
268. Re-ascend the Belfry, equip the Dreaming Stone Idol from your Inventory, and use the Idol to un-stone the people and acquire 2200 Experience points.
269. Return to the Runaway Hideout and talk to the man standing still. Acquire the Golden Pendant.
270. Exit the Canal, and re-enter it at the door at the way to the northeast of the Shrine.
271. Go left, down, left, down, down, down (Don't take the stairs), and take the left path. Talk to the man to acquire the Cleria Sword.
272. Equip the Sword and return to Ramia Village. Talk to Hadat to acquire the Cleria Armor. Equip that too.
273. If you're not at least level 59 (You should be, if you did your grinding like I said to), grind until you get there. If you are, it's time for the final sequence of the game. Enter the Shrine, take the center door, but touch the right statue this time.
274. Follow the path to Dalles's room. Kill Dalles for 5000 experience points.
275. Warp through the jewel.
276. Get the Magic of Shield from the chest, and continue on the path.
277. Take the first two doors in the creepy area.
278. Go to the dead end, in the third creepy area, and start to backtrack. When you get far enough, a door will open behind you. Take it.
279. Follow the path to find Lilia. Acquire the Goddess's Ring. Equip it.
280. Use the ring on the barrier you passed. Continue down that path.
281. Go up, through the door.
282. Attempt to talk to the Goddess on the left (Your left, not theirs). Acquire the Silver Harmonica.
283. Talk to Luta Gemma and acquire the Cleria Shield. Equip it.
284. Use the Silver Harmonica and free the Goddesses.
285. Reequip the Goddess's Ring and talk to each of the Goddesses.
286. Go through the door between the Goddesses.
287. Nudge up to the big door, but DO NOT go through it yet.
288. Equip the Magic of Shield (Every Magic Point counts, which is why we nudged up to the door. At Level 62, the maximum, this battle isn't too bad. At Level 60, you want as much magic as you can for the Magic of Shield), AND set the Game Speed back to Slow (This makes the meteors in the final battle feasibly dodgable).
289. Go through the big door and kill Darm.
290. Go through the door and end the game.

(1) If you're familiar with other versions/compilations of Ys I & II, this version, unlike most (All?) others, treats them as one game. After reading the Volume Fact, you don't even GET the normal "World is saved, but Adol will go onto new adventures!" text that's the ending of Ys I--you instead get kicked right into the intro to Ys II, and you keep whatever experience you had at the end of Ys I (Ys II is also rebalanced to take this into account). It therefore seems logical that the run shouldn't end until the "game" (Well, both games as it happens) does.

(2) Picking out where, and how much to grind will be one of the biggest challenges in routing this. In general, I think it'll be better to grind earlier than later. This is because boss/"task" experience (Such as from rescuing Feena or returning the Sapphire Ring) is fixed, but enemies eventually start reducing the amount of experience they give as an anti-excessive-grinding measure. I could be wrong, but I think you want more experience from enemies rather than less, so you do the grinding first, then let the "bonus" experience take you the rest of the way where you can.

This leaves the choice of whether or not to get the Short Sword for the initial grind. I think it's worth it--the "starting" enemies take two hits with it, rather than four. With the sequence of buying and selling after grinding up and getting the Golden Vase, you'll easily earn enough gold for the Long Sword when all is said and done. As for the Chain Armor, you need a complete set of equipment before Sara will give you the Crystal, meaning you eventually have to buy it (And the Wood Shield) anyway. Since you have the gold for it on the first trip (The game starts you off with 1000), we may as well get it then, which will also make the grind (Particularly from 2 to 3, where the enemies we use, the "dogs" and brown humanoid enemies in the Field, are still dangerous) a bit easier.

(3) Likewise, we may be able to skip this, although it makes a nice landmark between saving Feena and the Mask of Eyes.

(4) The fight we're grinding for is, in theory, doable at Level 9 in the sense that you can hurt the boss at that level, but good luck actually pulling it off with only the Long Sword if you aren't a TAS. Another potential option here is possibly working a Wing into the initial purchasing (As opposed to a Long Sword, I guess), winging out at level 9, and buying a Katana if the money for it is there. Every attack point in this game is huge, and the Katana is an 8 point boost over the Long Sword, and 12 points better than the Short Sword (In contrast, the biggest increase in attack you get at a single level up in the early game is 4 points, going from level 9 to level 10). Note that I doubt this would ultimately be faster, if only because you eventually need that level and a bunch more anyway, and note also I've done zero research/timing to figure out which is actually better, but the idea is out there.

(5) The Wing we'll use later. The Heal Potion and Katana are for safety/to make grinding easier, though the Heal Potion can probably be skipped.

(6) The idea behind 2000 experience points, as opposed to just grinding to 1900 and level 15, is so returning the Silver Harmonica will get us 3 levels instead of 2. This will also get us more gold for equipment that will be helpful, if not essential, later on.

(7) I would love to do the whole Mine in a single trip. Unfortunately, I just don't think it's in the cards without a TON of grinding. The Silver Sword is also all but essential to beating the next boss--the difference in power between the Katana (The third sword) and the Silver Sword (The fourth) is literally the same as the difference between having NOTHING and the Katana. Also, visiting Lair is the quickest way to get a couple levels, especially past level 15 when Mine Depth 3 enemies start reducing their experience output. So we Wing out here, get everything we need, and come back.

(8) This is a story trigger--Lair will give you 500 experience, but NOT the Volume Toba, if you don't "know" in-game that she has it.

(9) This is for when we get the Silver Equipment taken away in Darm Tower. Since we already have the Katana, this step can probably be skipped. On the other hand, we have the gold for it.

(10) This is also a story trigger. If you don't have Jeva tell you that Goban can get you into Darm Tower, he'll just say roughly "Hey cool Mask of Eyes bro" when you go to see him.

(11) If you're wondering why we wait to do this sequence until now, it's trigger related. Without both the Volume Gemma AND rescuing Lair, Luta Gemma will just tell you to save Lair, and not give you the Amulet.

(12) Something to research here is how long the enemies here continue to give full experience. It may be worth just leveling to 35 (Or close, to 9900 experience) here, so that the twinhead boss gets us to Level 36. This isn't so much for Dark Fact (Who is easy enough at 35) as it is for the start of Ys II, where killing the two enemies guarding the Wand of Holy World takes almost literally five minutes at level 35. More accurately, it takes 25 hits per enemy, versus 15 per enemy at level 36.

(13) This is the trigger to get the Senior to return to the village.

(14) This will probably be skippable in the end.

(15) Not a strictly necessary item, but helpful for grinding. Particularly true once we hit level 47 and acquire MURDERFIRE.

(16) It may actually be worth grinding even higher than this. This is due to the fact that enemies here actually give MORE experience (60 versus 50) than enemies at the beginning of Solomon Shrine.

(17) This will probably also end up being skipped, but I found it helpful during late-game grinding near the Goddess' Castle

(18) This, too, will probably be skipped. The defense boost is nice for the moment, though.

(19) Guess what? This might be skippable too!

(20) Much like the grinding at the end of Ys I, we're thinking long-term here. This gets all the grinding we need to do for the rest of the game out of the way, and these monsters give peak EXP. Note that at Level 56, some of these monsters become vulnerable to Magic of Fire.

(21) This is a story trigger. Tarf won't realize he lost the Blue Orb without you finding out about it.

(22) More story triggers—you can't get the Orb without doing this sequence of conversations. You also can't use the Orb at the top of the Belfry without talking to the Goddesses for the second time in the next step.