Introduction

Hi and welcome to my Special Moves FAQ for Grandia III. This guide will cover up all special moves used by the characters in the game as well as how to setup these characters to achieve the best combos. I will also help you achieve some advanced aerial combos that you can use to maximize the combo chain and deal even more damage to your enemies!

With accurate timing and perfect execution of the combos, you'll easily defeat your enemies in no time. Take note that there is no setup for Miranda and Alonso as they leave the party at certain events of the game. Besides, they're pretty easy to use.

Grandia III is owned by Square Enix. All trademarks are subjected to Square Enix.

Copyright (c) Square Enix.

Version History

• Version 1.0 - Dec 1, 2019
• Submitted the FAQ.

Copyright Information

Learning Secret Methods

Secret Methods can be learned for each Special Move up to 5 levels. Each level upgrades a specific attribute to the Special Move. From Power, Range, and Speed. Learning a new Secret Method is done in 2 ways:

• A random use of a Special Move and repeatedly using it.
• Using a Special Move to its fullest potential (depending on situation).

The second method may seem odd but rest assured that it's possible. I once learned the Ultimate Method for Ulf's Dynamite Rush from its initial state in one of my boss battles. I guess it was the right time and place to use it. Other proof of the second method was of the usage of Special Moves with a great area of effect on an enemy party of 1, compared to an enemy party of 5 and higher. Lastly, I had an odd experience using Yuki's Flash 19 times before learning a Secret Method. Either way, it was truly randomized or I simply did not use it in the right time and place.

What is sure about learning Secret Methods is that you'll need to use Special Moves repeatedly to learn them.

Secret Method Levels

• Initial - No Secret Methods learned.
• Level 1 - (P) Power upgrade.
• Level 2 - (S) Speed upgrade.
• Level 3 - (P) Power upgrade.
• Level 4 - (R) Rate upgrade.
• Ultimate Method - (P) Power upgrade.

Upgrade descriptions

• (P) Power upgrade - increases effectiveness of a Special Move.
• (R) Rate upgrade - reduces delay time after executing a Special Move.
• (S) Speed upgrade - reduces execution time of a Special Move.

Special Moves

What are Special Moves? Special Moves are powerful attacks that when executed, the screen tint slightly turns dark, and play out an undisrupted, animation scene.

Acquiring a new Special Move can only be done by raising a character's Special Level. One skill can be learned per Special Level. However, there is no guarantee that with each Special Level UP, a new Special Move will be learned. Also, after raising Special Level, a character must execute an IP Combo command to initiate the final step of learning a new Special Move. If a character does learn a new Special Move, then it will be executed automatically, without using any SP Gauge and added into the character's Special Moves listing.

As a final note, Special Moves are learned at certain Special Levels for each character. Raising a character's Special Level also increases the SP Gauge by 10 SP.

Yuki

MOVES

Aerial Slash

Whirlwind

Flash

Blade Storm

Invincible Aura

Dragon Slash

Miranda

MOVES

Dagger Dash

Force Slash

Alfina

MOVES

Comet Spike

Stun Force

Ripple Shot

Holy Circle

Energy Drive

Armageddon

Alonso

MOVES

Thrust Crash

Lancer Smash

Ulf

MOVES

Rockbreaker

Force Wave

Flame Spike

Bigwheel

Shadow Warrior

Inferno Spike

Red Lotus

Dynamite Rush

Dahna

MOVES

Homing Shot

Mana Capture

Dancing Cards

Mana Spring

Hect

MOVES

Crimson Shock

Freeze

Armageddon

Special Skill Setups

Now, the most common thing to do with setting up magic for characters is to have every one of them have the most powerful spells you could get and equally distributing healing spells, right? Well, I was wrong. Another alternative is assigning a specific element for a character to master. This saves time, money, and effort, and will allow you to focus on the skills (what you should be focusing on to begin with).

However, the only problem with this method is that you'll need that saved time, money, and effort, to put that into playing at the casino for a Master Book (just 1). Which means that you'll be playing until you earn 999,999 medals. But, there's good news! You can find an Expert Book near the end of the game, use that in place of the Master Book. However, if you don't acquire the Master Book, you can't extract Force Attack to power up either Dahna or Ulf.

Assuming you have leveled your characters to their maximum Skill Level (15) and all are level 60 or higher, you'll have no problem eliminating bosses, even Xorn. As a little note, all the setups listed contain Perception and Counter. I find that Perception is far more useful then Super Reflexes, and saves 1 skill slot. Dodging physical attacks for 0 damage and having a chance to damage, cancel, or setup an Aerial Combo, is highly effective compared to taking damage (reduced 50% or not). It's also superior over Endurance.

Just as a reminder, there is only 1 Master Book obtainable in the game and that's by winning it in the Casino. Later on in the Maximizing Aerial Combos section, you'll notice it's an "either-or" situation when choosing who to give the extracted Force Attack skill to (Dahna or Ulf). I've laid out the groundwork to help you decide who to put the skill with. Either way, doing the damage is fun, so there's no right or wrong choice here.

Yuki - Physical/Offensive/Wind Mastery

Now, in order to fully maximize this, you will need Yuki's Flash and another member set up an enemy for an Aerial Combo. First off, all you need is a Slayer Book for Yuki. When in battle, use Flash immediately. Not only does it double Combo Attacks, it's for normal and Aerial Combos too as well and a fully-supported Berserker will double the amount, again. For a normal ground combo, Yuki will be doing 12 hits, while for Aerial Combos, he'll be executing 16 hits in all critical damage! You can also combo Flash with Invincible Aura for an unstoppable, no holds barred rampage!

Some bosses are hard to knock up in the air, and you will rely on Alfina. Activate Alfina's Holy Circle and let her combo an enemy. Either that, or have her cast Crackle on some of the lesser-than-heavy bosses. Before, during, or immediately after, execute a Combo command for Yuki on the same target. Holy Circle knocks down any enemy it touches. Attack while the enemy is falling to the floor and it'll be juggled. For Yuki's part, attack even further and it'll turn into an Aerial Combo. It's possible to have Yuki rack up between 1-11 hits on the ground before executing another 16 hit combo when an enemy is projected into the air for an Aerial Combo. Maximum potential combo of 27, just from Yuki alone in 1 turn.

Unshakable Will is self-explanatory, Yuki will be undisrupted from executing any action. Perception, Counter, and Jolt work hand-in-hand: dodge and hit. It's another way to further damage an enemy without it being your turn and when Yuki counters, sometimes it will setup the enemy into an Aerial Combo for other party members.

Mighty Blow and Warrior's Way work as enhancers for Yuki. His physical damage and defense will be increased and every counter and Special Move cancel you do will leave an enemy in the dust. Fighter's Spirit is there just to aid your Spirit Sword in recovering SP for more Dragon Slash, Flash or Invincible Aura.

If your still wondering what Yuki's purposes are in battle, there's only one: Attack.

What's left to say about Yuki is that use all seeds on Yuki! Not to mention, use them only when he's low on SP. If you're facing bosses with a massive amount of HP, then start off using Dragon Slash (if you can) until your SP Gauge runs low. Only then should you use the strategy provided above. Lastly, if you picked up the Bond of Trust, please use this for Yuki whenever possible. It never goes away when used, so take advantage of it.

Alfina/Hect - Spiritual/Support/Water Mastery

As mentioned above with Yuki's strategy, Alfina's main purposes fall under 3 areas.

• Casting either Diamond Dust, Crackle Fang, or Absolute Zero to cancel and damage enemies.
• Heal.
• Setting-up and chaining Aerial Combos. Use either Crackle to cancel/damage/juggle an enemy or Holy Barrier to chain/damage/combo an enemy.

You'll be using Alfina to heal the party most of the time but only if you either didn't level your characters past level 60 or avoided every single optional encounter in the game. With Hect, however, you'll find yourself canceling attacks.

To cover the basics of Alfina's and Hect's layout, Magica Exsorcista, Meditation, and Guru's Way will always be in either setup. Magica Exsorcista cancels enemy attacks, Meditation will be synergetic. Every time Alfina guards against an offensive magic spell, she regains MP from guarding and absorbing MP from the damage inflicted. Guru's Way is simply to increase magic damage and resistance.

As for the offensive skill set, cast Holy Circle and combo everything that moves to setup Aerial Combos. Easier said than done.

Ulf - Physical/Offensive/Fire Mastery

Ulf's main purposes are as follows:

• Heavy offense. Includes using Dynamite Rush and when stocked on SP or Heaven's Gate or Galactic Bang if low on SP.
• Offensive support. Includes canceling enemy attacks, stalling an enemy with Shadow Warrior, or attacking multiple targets with Red Lotus or Bigwheel (if canceling attacks are needed).

Ulf's purpose in battle is the same as Yuki's. The only difference is that he can either play as an offensive support or an entire entity of offense by himself. The secret lies within Ulf's Shadow Warrior, where Yuki's Flash falls behind. Since Ulf's Shadow Warrior doubles combo attack hits and criticals as well. In this regard, Ulf has the highest attack power of all the characters in the game. With the Slayer Book maxing out Body Type skills, Force Attack will increase the amount of times criticals are hit, from 1 to 4. Activate Shadow Warrior and now you have 8 criticals for the price of 1 turn. Not to mention Ulf can keep up with Yuki when it comes to combo damage. Shadow Warrior and Berserker will max out Ulf's normal combo for up to 12 hits in 1 turn!

Ulf's Aerial Finish contains 2 hits (though it cannot be chained). The first hit roughly multiplies Ulf's attack 5 times, and the second hit roughly multiplies it by 10 times. Activate Shadow Warrior and you'll be dishing out 2 hits for the first hit and the second hit will be the amount of 1 hit multiplied by 10, doubled!

For those who didn't acquire the Master Book (999,999 Medals), you can use Ulf as you would Yuki. The advantage for Ulf, though, lies with Rashik's Hammer (if you managed to picked it up). With SP Cost reduced by 25%, and Fighter's Spirit packing in SP regeneration, bosses will have a tough time dealing with numerous casts of Dynamite Rush (especially if you have Alfina using an Energy Drive with the Ultimate Secret Method learned).

It's quite possible to execute an 8-hit critical and Aerial Combo in 1 turn. Although this is highly difficult to achieve.

Dahna - Physical/Support/Earth Mastery

Dahna's purposes are as follows:

• Offensive support. Setup Aerial Combos with Critical command and Dancing Cards. Use Gravity to raise potential of other party members' Special Moves and attack spells.
• Support. Resurrect fallen members and use healing items or spells while Crystal Wall is active.

Assuming that you got a Master Book and burned it down to extract a Force Attack, you're in for a treat. If you didn't get a Force Attack, you're missing out on most of the fun in clobbering a boss with a 1-chain Aerial Combo.

As you can see, Dahna is a support character. However, like Alfina, this doesn't mean she can't dish it out either. She has a good arsenal of skills with her: Berserker, Perception, Counter, and Warrior's Way.

Warrior's Way will optimize her potential to deal damage by physical attacks. The resistance comes as a plus to aid Dahna's already low innate defenses.

Force Attack comes into play with the use of a Critical command. Dancing Cards will not strike unless Dahna is either attacked, or she attacks with a critical, but not with a combo. If you've learned the Ultimate Secret Method for Dancing Cards (9 Dancing Cards), stacked with the Power Cards (+180 ATK), have Force Attack, and the Expert Book to max out Body Type skills, casted with Crystal Wall... you'll be reckless!

Do remember that Dancing Cards only consumes 25 SP. Have Earth Mastery lower Crystal Wall's MP cost to 50, max out Dahna's Special Level, and use Alfina's Energy Surge on the party when SP is low and you'll have an excellent supply of SP to use for the entire party.

However, if you don't have Force Attack, then you'll have to play Dahna as you would with Alfina and Hect. Only this time, you use less offensive spells and more Gravity to optimize area effective Special Moves and spells (such as Ulf's Red Lotus or the Absolute Zero). You'll also be using Resurrection every once and a while when you feel like reserving Revival Potions/Elixirs or just don't have any.

Maximizing Aerial Combos

This section will hep you maximize and execute advanced Aerial Combos to achieve high damage using every character. All of the examples are done with the following assumptions:

• Characters are equipped with the specified books, skills, and footwear that allows warp movement.
• You have learned all of the characters' Special Moves.
• You have learned the Ultimate Secret Methods for all Special Moves for all characters.

Keep in mind that pulling off these combos will not only take precise timing, but also luck. They can be done at the beginning of a battle, as long as the random arrangement of your characters' IP Symbols fall in order and are distanced accurately apart. Please take note that hits from Dahna's Dancing Cards will not count towards the Combo Counter (don't worry if you cannot reach pass a 60-hit Aerial Combo). I have also listed the total amount of hits landed for every types of combos.

All combos listed below needs the following items:

• Golden Feather
• Platinum Feather

Advanced Aerial Combo 1

Characters and Skills:

• Yuki - Berserker
• Alfina - Berserker
• Ulf - Berserker
• Dahna - Berserker, Force Attack

IP Arrangement:

• Yuki at (COM).
• Ulf is between Yuki and Alfina.
• Dahna is slightly before Alfina.
• Alfina is moderate distance after Yuki.
• ENEMY A is positioned anywhere.

Combo Steps:

1. Have Yuki combo ENEMY A.
2. Have Ulf combo ENEMY A.
3. Have Alfina combo ENEMY A.
4. Have Dahna critical ENEMY A.

Scenario:

• Yuki at 4-hit combo, Ulf begins combo.
• Yuki at 6-hit combo, Ulf at 4-hit combo, Alfina begins combo, Dahna begins critical.
• Yuki at 8-hit combo, Ulf at 8-hit combo, Alfina at 2-hit combo, Dahna launches critical.
• 9 Dancing Cards hit, followed by Dahna's critical, Yuki at 10-hit combo, Ulf at 10-hit combo, Alfina at 4-hit combo, Dahna's critical hits.
• ENEMY A is knocked into the air, Yuki performs Swallow Slash 16-hit combo, followed by Alfina's Mana Stinger 8-hit combo, followed by Ulf's "You're Finished!" 3-hit combo.

Normal Combo: 33

Critical Combo: 4

Aerial Combo: 27

---

TOTAL COMBO: 64

Advanced Aerial Combo 2

Characters and Skills:

• Yuki - Berserker
• Alfina - Berserker
• Ulf - Berserker
• Dahna - Berserker, Force Attack, Perception, Counter

IP Arrangement:

• Yuki, at (ACT) or (COM).
• Alfina, at (ACT).
• Dahna is at a moderate distance from (COM).
• Ulf is slightly behind Dahna.
• ENEMY B is positioned anywhere.
• ENEMY A is at a slight distance from (COM).

Combo Steps:

1. Have Yuki and Alfina combo ENEMY B.
2. Have ENEMY A attack Dahna.
3. Hope Dahna dodges and counterattacks.
4. Hope ENEMY B is killed by this time.

Scenario:

• Yuki and Alfina combo ENEMY B.
• ENEMY A prepares to attack Dahna.
• ENEMY A attacks Dahna.
• Dahna dodges and counterattacks with Dancing Cards. At the same time, ENEMY B is killed and Yuki and Alfina have not executed their entire combo.
• ENEMY A is knocked into the air, Yuki performs Swallow Slash 16-hit combo, followed by Alfina's Mana Stinger 8-hit combo.
• While ENEMY A is still in the air, Dahna reaches (COM). Choose the Combo command and Dahna performs Gatling Shot.
• While ENEMY A is still in the air, Ulf reaches (COM). Choose the Combo command and Ulf performs "You're Finished!".

Normal Combo: 9

Critical Combo: 4

Aerial Combo: 35

---

TOTAL COMBO: 48

Advanced Aerial Combo 3

Characters and Skills:

• Yuki - Berserker
• Alfina - Berserker
• Ulf - Berserker, Force Attack, Perception, Counter
• Dahna - Berserker

IP Arrangement:

• Yuki, at (ACT) or (COM).
• Alfina, at (ACT).
• Dahna, at (ACT).
• Ulf is at a moderate distance from (COM).
• ENEMY B is positioned anywhere.
• ENEMY A is at a slight distance from (COM).

Combo Steps:

1. Have Yuki, Alfina, and Dahna combo ENEMY B.
2. Have ENEMY A attack Ulf.
3. Hope Ulf dodges and counterattacks.
4. Hope ENEMY B is killed by this time.

Scenario:

• Yuki, Alfina, and Dahna combo ENEMY B.
• ENEMY A attacks Ulf.
• Ulf dodges and counterattacks. At the same time, ENEMY B is killed and Yuki, Alfina, and Dahna, have not executed their entire combo.
• ENEMY A is knocked into the air, Yuki performs Swallow Slash 16-hit combo, followed by Alfina's Mana Stinger 8-hit combo, followed by Dahna's Gatling Shot.
• While ENEMY A is still in the air, Ulf reaches (COM). Choose the Combo command and Ulf performs "You're Finished!".

Normal Combo: 0

Critical Combo: 8

Aerial Combo: 35

---

TOTAL COMBO: 43

Contact Information

If you have any questions, suggestions or some corrections, feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail is

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Credits

I would like to thank the following:

• To GameFAQs and SuperCheats for hosting the FAQ.
• To Square Enix for making the game.
• To you, as the reader.