Last updated: September 11 2022

Elona General Guide and FAQ

Mods guide: https://rentry.org/azzi6
Old Outdated Pastebin Backup

What version/variant should I play? Go down to the FAQ's second question for a detailed answer.

Information

Table of Contents: Click a link to hop to section

  1. Information
  2. Downloads
  3. FAQ
  4. Wikis and Misc. Information
  5. Guides
  6. Character Creation
  7. Attributes
  8. Skills
  9. Companions and Pets
  10. Basic Info
  11. DOs and DONTs for Beginners
  12. Specific Training
  13. Advanced Topics
  14. Miscellaneous Tips
  15. Outdated Content

Since Plus is no longer the only English variant I have decided to separate the different content by tags in the format of {>Tag} to open followed by {Tag<} to close.

Key:
{ALL} for everything
{PLUS} for Elona+ variant related content
{VAN} for Vanilla related content
{OMAKE} for Omake variants
{EXTRA} for technically related things, but no shared code with vanilla Elona

Suggestions for this pastebin or reports of dead links should be done while replying to the OP (on /jp/).

Downloads

{>PLUS}

  • Elona+ Custom-GX (Stable: 2.13.1.1, 07/14/2022) [Installed on top of Elona+, if the first 3 digits are not the same as your version of Elona+ they are NOT compatible!]

NOTE: You MUST run Elona+ (and Custom-GX) through Windows 7 Compatibility Mode and as an Administrator, otherwise errors might occur.

NOTE: Make periodic backups of your saves. This includes backups of your saves before transferring versions. Errors may happen and you might lose hundreds of hours of play if you keep no backups.

{PLUS<}

{>VAN}

{VAN<}

{>OMAKE}

  • Elona Omake Overhaul & OOEN (English Translation, 04/16/2022):
    Installation/Setup:
    1. Download and Extract Vanilla Elona 1.22 found here
    2. Download the latest Omake Overhaul version from the omake overhaul twitter
    • Extract omake_overhaul into Elona folder.
    • Copy wuqing.ooitem at \user\item\omake_overhaul to somewhere safe to use later.
    • Delete these three folders; \user\god, \user\item, \user\npc.
    • omake_overhaul.exe should be in the same folder as elona.exe.
    1. Download omake_overhaul_English (not EN Hack) from here
    • Grab omake_overhaul_English's four folders; \data, \user\god, \user\item, \user\npc.
    • Place files from the first folder into \data of your elona folder
    • Place other folders into \user
    • Three files from \data; board.txt, book.txt, talk.txt should be overwritten.
    • Delete tulip.item at \user\item\omake_overhaul, and replace it with wuqing.ooitem which you kept earlier.
    1. Run omake_overhaul.exe to generate files and play.
    2. (Optional Step):
      *You can see a garbled file like yà‚̃CƒiƒŠ ¹’nz.eum (or 【財のイナリ 聖地】.eum) in \user\god\omake_overhaul. This is a showroom of Inari's sacred place. If it bothers you, rename it to Sacred place of Inari of Fortune.eum or something

  • Elona oomSESTepNC (09/11/2022)

    Easy Install Memorial Edition:

    1. Download Elona_oomSESTepNC_EasyInstall.7z from here
    2. Extract contents of the .7zip file
    3. Run oomSESTep_NC.exe to play

    Installation/Setup

    1. Follow the steps for omake overhaul above (including step 4)
    2. Download oomse_southtyris_20201220.zip from the SEST google drive
    3. Extract into Elona folder.
    • oomSE_southtyris.exe should be in the same folder as other .exe files.
    • At that time, overwrite Danalin of Water.god with oomSEST's one.
    1. Download jewel_of_love.item from this discord download
    • Place it into \user\item\omake_overhaul.
    1. Extract ooen's exe "omake_overhaul.exe" from it's zip (and overwrite the jp one) and run it once.
    2. Run oomSE_southtyris.exe to verify that is all working
    3. Download the latest OOMSESTepNC file (the discord link in the most recent reply to the pinned tweet of the official twitter account )
    4. Extract into the Elona folder, overwriting everything it asks you to.
    5. Run oomSESTep_NC.exe to play the game finally and enjoy

{OMAKE<}

{>EXTRA}

{EXTRA<}

FAQ

{>ALL}

Q: What is this game about?

A: Elona is a Japanese role playing game with many roguelike elements. Death isn't permanent (optional), and the game can be played in many different ways, depending on what you decide to focus on. It is mostly a sandbox. Plenty of humor is also present, both intended and unintended.

Q: What version/variant should I play? <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< The most commonly asked question.

A: All the variants can be found at https://elona.fandom.com/wiki/Elona_variants
But as far as English variants go you will likely want to play oomSESTepNC, an omake derivative, or Elona Plus/Custom-GX.

TL;DR
If you want a slow grind with more sandbox mechanics (ala Rune Factory) go oomSESTepNC
If you want story style progression, faster grind, and more combat focus then go with Plus Custom-GX

oomSESTepNC has:

  • Slower character growth in comparison to E+, though somewhat faster compared to Vanilla
  • One act, same as vanilla Elona
  • Normal enemies that go up to level 50 (scaling enemies go higher almost indefinitely)
  • More random quests and random encounters with various NPCs
  • Monsters of different types fight against each other
  • Improved random dungeons with gimmicks, like a dungeon type where NPCs of different religions will kill each other
  • NPC adventurers are far more significant. They appear occasionally in dungeons and have much stronger equipment than in vanilla or E+. Eventually a rival adventurer will arrive who becomes more powerful every time she is defeated
  • Learning skills is slow and expensive and you're better off not learning skills that won't be useful to your build
  • You can found your own town and recruit NPCs to live in it
  • Grindy and powerful equipment crafting system
  • A ton of new, powerful feats for different character builds. Many underpowered feats have also been buffed
  • Extremely powerful spellmaking system available to members of the mage guild
  • Food can be blessed by the gods, and this is the best source of potential growth, as well as a good way to raise speed. It allows low level pets to remain viable throughout the game
  • Balance favors weapons and magic. Ranged weapons are better than in vanilla and E+. Martial Arts is effectively bottom tier, but acceptable to clear content.
  • There are void balls, monster balls with no level cap which can be used to capture pets while retaining their levels and stats.
  • A second harder Void style dungeon called the Abyss

E+ C-GX has:

  • Much faster character growth than Vanilla or oomSEST (mainly to rebalance growth for all the added 'end game' content)
  • Normal enemies that go up to level 200 (scaling enemies go higher almost indefinitely)
  • A three act story. Each act has its own towns, quests, bosses, etc.
  • Learning skills is fast and easy and the game rewards you for learning everything
  • Balance favors two hand and magic, other options being subpar comparatively but still able to complete all content.
  • Killing strong enemies awards a resource called AP which can, among other things, permanently increase your speed and health. AP makes early game pets viable for a whole playthrough and makes the riding skill far less important
  • Lots of unique items and they're generally easy to obtain come midgame, so you don't need to be very reliant on random drops
  • Monsters in towns despawn over time so you can't mess things up as bad as you can in vanilla, for better or worse
  • Changing item materials and enchanting equipment are easy and relatively cheap. It's easy to get basic equipment together at the start
  • Late game you can add new enchantments to items, making it easier to get a full set of resistances and anything else you need
  • A controversial thirst system with urination mechanics. Can mostly be circumvented by carrying a magaqua in your inventory as this will prevent you from ever becoming thirsty. The whole mechanic can be toggled off in E+C-GX
  • Nerfs to abilities and playstyles that the developer feels are "too powerful", most of which can be optionally reverted in E+C-GX

Plus is easier to get into. If you have no roguelike experience then you should probably go with that.

Q: Can I play this game without a numpad?

A: You can remap keys in config.txt, or alternatively use an on-screen keyboard for numpad-exclusive keys.

Q: Do Elona variants work with WINE (either OS X or GNU/Linux)?

A: Absolutely. Simply run Elona through Wine like any Windows program, and you're all set. Keep in mind that the Windows border layout looks ugly initially, but can be customized through WINE's options. If one wishes to see Japanese text in Elona, one must change the system locale to Japanese for the entire computer.

Q: How do I fix Japanese text appearing as garbage (when playing in English)?

A: Open config.txt and change "font2." to a font that supports Japanese, such as MS Gothic ("ＭＳ ゴシック") or Meiryo UI.

Q: Is there a goal to this game?

A: The main quest takes you through several unique dungeons, and beating the last boss gives you a score and the game's credits. After that you're free to continue playing as normal, like other sandbox games. You can also completely ignore the main quest if you want to. Elona+ continues the main quest by letting the player journey to South Tyris, and then Lost Irva, each having their own end bosses.

Q: What is Elona Extender?

A: A quality of life tool/mod with a bunch of features. It works with varying degrees depending on the variant of vanilla elona you are using.

Q: What's the difference between Elona, Elona+, and Elona+ Custom-GX?

A1: Noa, the original creator (and lone developer) stopped the project in 2010. After he released the source code, modders continued where he left off, and the most popular modification for the English playerbase is Elona+. There are other mods for the base game Elona (mostly in Japanese), but Elona+ is the most actively developed one, by a Japanese developer called Ano. Elona+ adds two additional continents with their own continuations to the vanilla Elona story: South Tyris, which players can explore after beating the main quest of Elona, and Lost Irva, which continues where South Tyris ends.
A2: As more updates became available, members of the English community sought to add or change things that they believed were better. This lead to a wave fan patches/mods, which Custom-GX is the last in active development. It adds customizable pet ai, translations for most content, and numerous optional tweaks among other things.

NOTE: A very nice thing about this mod is that you can take your saves and use them with the base game, losing nothing other than the features that came with GX. Even if you wish to have the "vanilla" Elona+ experience, GX is recommended since all changes are off by default, and the translations add much to the game.

Q: Is Elona+ a good beginner's roguelike?

A: The game considers the player already knows the basics of roguelikes (like the need to identify items and how to move), but the absence of permanent death (again, optional) means you have a wide room for mistakes and there are not many complex commands. Read the in-game help and the tips below and you should have no trouble.

Q: How does the online in this game work?

A: You can send messages to other players with the Tab key or the chat client, see their last words when they die and see the wishes they make. You can visit players' houses via moongates and vote on the best player alias in a poll (in lieu of the alias voting system, Elona+ Custom implemented a werewolf voting system (offline) that executes the NPC with the most votes).
NOTE: Elona's official chat server no longer works with Plus, though Custom GX has it's own.

Q: Do I have to start over after updating the game?

A: You do not. Just copy your save folder to the new version and it should update. Before doing that however, make sure to have saved inside a town. There might be issues while updating if your last save was at home, the wilderness, or a dungeon. Furthermore, always make a backup of your save folder before switching versions.

Q: How do I change the game's resolution, and what's the maximum?

A: In Elona+ Custom-GX there are built in graphics options to change resolution. For base elona+ pen config.txt and find the lines "windowW" and "windowH.". There is no limit to the width, and you can increase the height up to 868. In order to avoid minor graphical glitches, including the top and right edge tiles being partially hidden, as well as staying as close to a 16:9 ratio as possible, 1440(or other multiple of 48)x808 is the ideal resolution. If you want to play in fullscreen, you'll have to create a custom resolution for your graphics card, as detailed in https://i.imgur.com/AT1U25m.png.

Q: How do I contact Ano regarding bugs/suggestions?

A:
Bug report: http://wikiwiki.jp/elonaplus/?Elona%2B%A5%D0%A5%B0%CA%F3%B9%F0%BE%EC
Suggestions: http://wikiwiki.jp/elonaplus/?Elona%2B%A4%D8%A4%CE%CD%D7%CB%BE%B0%C6
Machine translating your text is acceptable. Consider Google translating the page and reading the guidelines at the top, as well as previous bug reports/suggestions before making one, in case it was already made. The suggestions page is for concrete ideas and requests, not vague proposals. If you get an error because access from your country is denied, see https://i.imgur.com/EtBTCRo.png.

Q: What on earth are the Omake variants? What are these names!?

A: The Omake variants, in simplest terms, are a chain of mods put on top of each other. All of which generally attempt to be vanilla Elona "but more". And with each mod deep they simply add to the name of their predecessors.

  • Omake Overhaul (OO)
  • Omake Overhaul modify, ex: variations of OO
  • Omake Overhaul Modify Sukutu Edition (oomSE): Adds more end game content, such as in the void, damage types, etc
  • Omake Overhaul Modify Sukutu Edition South Tyris (oomSEST): Adds content to the bare bones South Tyris of vanilla.
  • Omake Overhaul Modify Sukutu Edition South Tyris ep Natsuko Custom (oomSESTepNC): Even more end game and LONG LONG grind content.

Ironically, the most actively developed Omake variants are the original OO and oomSESTepNC.

For any unanswered questions, refer to the wiki before asking in the threads.

{ALL<}

Wikis

{>ALL}

{ALL<}

{>PLUS}

{PLUS<}

{>VAN}

{VAN<}

Guides

The older, the more likely they are outdated in some manner due to updates.

{>ALL}

{ALL<}

{>PLUS}

{PLUS<}

{>OMAKE}

{OMAKE<}

{>EXTRA}

{EXTRA<}

Character_Creation

{>PLUS}

During the character creation process, you'll pick an alias, profile, race, class, notable skill, feats and then roll for attributes. Your alias is for fluff, as is your profile, and is what other characters in-game will refer to you by. Each race and class have special innate abilities and modify your starting attribute range. In Elona+, you have the option of renaming your race and class, but this is purely for aesthetic value. Class can be changed later on, but race cannot. The creation page itself will tell you what the advantages to each race are, but the class's secret abilities might be hard to read due to the layout. At a glance, these are:

  • Warrior: 5% chance to do an additional melee attack.
  • Thief: 100% critical against enemies that do not detect you.
  • Wizard: reduce MP consumption by 10%.
  • Farmer: additional 1/7 chance to decapitate with weapons with the effect.
  • Predator: 10% increased critical chance and 10 Speed.
  • Archer: 10% increased chance to hit.
  • Warmage: 5% increase to spell cast chance.
  • Tourist: lose 2x as much gold to thieves (this is a handicap).
  • Pianist: 25% chance to nullify sound damage.
  • Gunner: 5% chance to do an additional ranged attack.
  • Priest: heal 25% more with healing magic.
  • Claymore: 5% chance to trigger an absolute piercing attack.

Some easy starts are Yerles Gunner, Juere Thief, or Elea Wizard. Each class will give you some experience in ranged, melee, and magic combat. Farmers and Performers are also very good choices for experienced players; the former has early access to gardening and cooking, which will enable you to obtain powerful stat-boosting food earlier, and the latter has access to a great money-making ability and can easily obtain a significant number of allies with high charisma.

The skill you choose as notable will receive a considerable starting bonus, allowing you to even learn a new one. Pickpocket or Greater Evasion are recommended for races/classes that don't already start with them. Otherwise, choose any that suit your intended playstyle.

You should choose feats you can't easily get in other ways during character creation. The special actions offered here are unique and can't be gotten anywhere else (apart from level-ups), while improved stamina is probably the best simple stat increase. Increased speed, life and luck are also useful.
Exorcism can help an inexperienced player greatly by preventing items from being cursed while you sleep or from enemy attacks. Natural Leader is extremely useful for minion masters; it both buffs all pets and trains Charisma. If you are a fighter and/or have high Constitution, Fire Breath is good. The Magic Eye feat grants the Eye of Mana special action, allowing you to drain an enemy's MP to cause Magic Reaction damage if they go below negative MP. Dimensional Move is a great emergency tool. Avoid feats that grant simple skill levels or flat bonuses to stats.
NOTE: Ano, the developer of Elona+, has been gradually replacing these useless feats with more unique ones.

There is no need to fret over rolling until you start with high attributes. While those are good if it's your first time playing, eventually the difference becomes insignificant.

The last part of character creation allows you to decide your age, weight and height, but those are also just for fluff. Rerolling at this part might appear to affect stats (mainly damage and hit rate), but in fact that's just the game changing your initial equipment. You'll want to get rid of it as fast as possible, so there is no need to reroll here for those either.

Lastly, the game asks you to name your character. You can change your name at any time later in the game.

You might not get much done with your first characters. Don't be afraid to experiment to find out what works and what doesn't. If you decide you want to start over or feel stuck, you can make a gene with a companion at soulmate status before making a new character. That way your child will inherit everything you had in your inventory that wasn't precious, which will make for an easier restart.

{PLUS<}

Attributes

{>ALL}

Attributes operate on a potential system. The higher your potential, the quicker you will gain attribute points. They are divided into body, spirit, and misc stats.

Body Attributes

  • Strength - Determines HP, the amount of things you can carry (.5s per 1 STR), and adds .1x melee damage for every 5.
  • Constitution - Determines HP, the amount of things you can carry (1s per 4 CON) and adds 1 stamina for every 5.
  • Dexterity - Determines your chance to hit, evade chance, and reduces physical damage taken.
  • Charisma - Determines prices, how much people like you, and the number of pets you can have. (2 minimum + 1 pet per 5 CHR past 10, up to a max of 15 pets).
  • Speed - One of the most important attributes in Elona. Determines how many actions you can perform within a given timeframe (like attacking twice or more times before your enemies). It does grow on a potential system like the other stats, however this potential is hidden. Also one of the hardest attributes to permanently raise.

Spirit Attributes

  • Perception- Determines your evasion chance, ranged damage bonus, and chance of critting.
  • Learning - Determines MP, skillpoints you gain per level, and gives a chance to get extra exp from any activity (2x at 0 LER, 5x at 900).
  • Will - Determines HP, MP and stamina. Also determines the effectiveness of buffs and heals.
  • Magic - Determines MP. Also determines effectiveness of debuffs and offensive spells.

Misc Attributes

  • Life - A modifier that determines your HP. It can be increased with Hero Cheese or Rubynus equipment. Base life is determined by starting race.
  • Mana - A modifier that determines your MP. It can be increased with Magic Fruit or Dawn Cloth equipment. Base mana is determined by starting race.
  • Luck - A modifier that determines drop rates, quality, and rarity. It also causes you to have more "good" and less "bad" random events the higher it is. It has a slight effect on hit chance, fishing, greater evasion, and eye of mind, and can cause rarer enemies to spawn more often. It can be increased with Happy Apples, and Mica equipment, as well as the luck feats. The player always starts with a base luck of 50.
  • Fame - Fame is gained by completing quests or clearing dungeons. The higher your fame, the stronger the enemies you face will be, but also improves quest rewards and availability. It can be raised or lowered by completing and failing quests, respectively.

  • Karma - Karma is an overview of how "good" or "evil" you are. At -31 karma, guards will attack you and your monthly bills will be higher, while the inverse happens with high karma. The highest karma is naturally 20, but you can increase this cap to 40, or drop it to 0 based on certain quests. These are irreversible and cancel each other out. They can only be done once each per character. Karma can be improved by turning in quests, burying corpses in random events, and turning in unopened wallets and suitcases you find to guards. It can be lowered by killing friendly townsfolk, stealing, drugging food, and other deviant actions. Be careful as turning in too many wallets and suitcases in a short amount of time causes guards to be suspicious of your actions, resulting in to a drop to your karma.

    http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Attributes
    http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Potential

{ALL<}

Skills

{>PLUS}

Platinum Coins are currency gained mainly from finishing quests and clearing dungeons. They can be used to train skill potentials, and also to teach you new skills. You may learn special actions by leveling skills.

Combat

  • Tactics - Increases the damage multiplier for melee and thrown weapons. One of the most important skills for a melee fighter.
  • Two Hand - Gives a damage and accuracy bonus when fighting with a single weapon and no shield. The heavier the weapon, the bigger the bonus.
  • Shield - Grants a percentile bonus to PV when holding a shield. The more total PV you have, the bigger the bonus.
  • Evasion - Chance to dodge regular attacks.
  • Dual Wield - Lowers penalties for attacking with two or more weapons at the same time.
  • Greater Evasion - A second evasion chance that can even let you evade criticals.
  • Marksman - Increases the damage multiplier for all ranged weapons. One of the most important skills for a ranged fighter.
  • Eye of Mind - Increases your critical chance. Criticals always hit and ignore armor.
  • Casting - Increases the success chance of casting spells. One of the most important skills for a spell caster.
  • Armor Proficiencies (Light/Medium/Heavy) - Increases the effectiveness of each armor type. Each level lowers certain penalties and adds an invisible point of PV. More details here: http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Armors
  • Weapon Proficiencies - Increase your damage multiplier and accuracy for each weapon type. Trains and depends on a certain attribute. More details here: http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Weapon

Utility

  • Mining - Dig walls. Provides reliable mobility in dungeons once leveled. Gives ores and other items.
  • Disarm Trap - Lets you disarm traps in dungeons. Used either automatically or manually.
  • Lockpicking - Opens locked doors and chests. Trying to bash open locked doors instead can cause stat damage. Requires lockpicks. Get it early.
  • Pickpocket - Allows you to steal items from NPCs/towns. Item weight is limited to half your Strength.
  • Fishing - A good way to get food or money. Also used to gain favor with Ehekatl. Complements Cooking.
  • Gene Engineer - Combine pets to give the host increased stats, new skills, and body parts. Very important for minion masters.
  • Gardening - Helps you raise and plant seeds which can give you useful items like herbs, vegetables, fruits, rods and gemstones. Highly recommended in general.
  • Cooking - Cooked food gives more stat gains, lasts significantly longer before rotting, and always weighs 0.5s. Get it early.
  • Riding - Ride a pet to move at its speed, if you have enough skill. Accuracy and casting chance are lowered, but penalties decrease with higher skill.
  • Magic Device - Helps you use rods, scrolls and potions more effectively. The level of enemies you can dominate with rods of domination depends on this.
  • Investing - Investing in shops increases the quantity and quality of items sold. Highly recommended in mid-game.
  • Performer - Great way to make lots of money once levelled enough.

Crafting

  • Carpentry - Allows you to craft cargo, rods and equipment materium for the pot for fusion.
  • Tailoring - Allows you to craft furniture, miscellaneous items and equipment materium.
  • Jeweler - Allows you to craft scrolls and equipment materium.
  • Alchemy - Allows you to craft potions. High levels allow you to craft potions of potential.

Passive

  • Weight Lifting - Raises weight limit. Trains while you're burdened. Get it early.
  • Healing - Passively increases HP regeneration. Very useful.
  • Stealth - Lets you move around in dungeons without drawing enemy attention (including those you can already see). Also helps you pickpocket.
  • Detection - Helps you find hidden passageways and traps, as well as gathering at material spots.
  • Sense Quality - Helps identify equipment and item quality gradually from just carrying them. Get it early.
  • Literacy - Helps you read harder spellbooks without triggering negative effects.
  • Anatomy - Monsters are more likely to drop corpses and body parts. Complements Cooking.
  • Memorization - Gives you more spell stock from reading spellbooks.
  • Magic Capacity - Improves the exchange rate of HP -> MP when you cast without any MP left.
  • Faith - Determines your maximum favor with your god. Favor gives you bonuses to stats and skills as well as access to rewards, depending on the god.
  • Meditation - Passively increases MP regeneration. Very useful for casters.
  • Control Magic - Protects both you and your allies from AoE spells cast by each other.
  • Negotiation - Lowers NPC prices and raises sell price for your items. Get it early.
  • Travelling - Earns you experience for random skills as you travel on the map. Trains speed. Get it early.

  • Swimming - Increases your speed when wet. Trains speed. You can carry a magaqua to be permanently wet, however the skill does not train while holding it.

    http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Skills
    http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Potential
    http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Special_action_%28Elona%2B%29

Companions_and_Pets

You can obtain companions through monster balls, scrolls of ally, spells or rods of domination, by wishing for "ally", buying them from certain NPCs, defeating certain named monsters, and an astral light pen, among other ways.

Raising Companions
Feeding them herbed food, potions of potential and visiting trainers are all important to raising a pet. The best ways to give them money are through ores and evochat, which lets them train while in town. Gene engineering can be used to give your pet any limbs it might be missing, as well as teaching them new skills and raising their stats. Pets gain a very large bonus from the effects of food, so herbed herbs (especially blessed herbed curaria) are very useful in gaining multiple statups in one feeding.

Pet Evolution
Once a pet reaches "fellow" status, and if it has an evolution, you can use the respective heart item on them to grant them permanent bonuses. If the pet gains a bit flag (such as float) through the evolution, any subsequent evolutions will maintain the bit flag.

Pet Romance
Once your pet is at Soul Mate relationship status (???) you can propose to them for marriage. This will get you a number of items, some platinum, and a potion of cure corruption. They can also cook for you in the mornings, and sleep [read: have sex] with you on occasion; these things don't require you do be married.
You can marry anything, be it a rock golem or an otherworldly abomination. Marriage also lets you create a gene, which allows you to restart the game while keeping your items and other bonuses.

Basic_Info

Read the in-game help by pressing '?'.

Etherwind
Etherwind may only blow on the first 10 days of months multiple of 3 (3, 6, 9, 12). Never attempt to travel within these days (unless you know what you're doing). It can even start blowing as soon as months change, so be prepared for sudden Etherwind. Shelters pass the time quickly and feed you. At home time passes normally and you need your own food; for this reason, installing a permanent shelter in your home is a very good idea. If you find yourself in town during the Etherwind, make a beeline to the Innkeeper and ask to enter the shelter. You will have access to one (random) skill book and a training machine. If you're far from a town, head inside a dungeon and hope your food supply lasts. Even a few turns outside in Etherwind can corrupt you, so seek shelter immediately once it starts. Items that protect you against Etherwind aren't 100% effective. You should eventually find a shelter even while wearing one, although you'll be fine as long as you don't stay outside during it on purpose. Other sources of ether corruption are wisp corpses, ether hedgehogs and background ether. There are some places in the game that have constant Etherwind, so make sure you stock up on protective gear and cure corruption potions.

If you find yourself corrupted, all players start with 10 casino chips. Wait for a lucky day and go to Palmia, Port Kapul or Derphy. Here you can play blackjack in the casino. At 4+ wins in a row (on one chip), you will get a cure corruption potion. It's advised you identify it first, on the off chance it's cursed. Blessed potions heal more corruptions than regular ones.

Certain ether diseases can be beneficial depending on the circumstances. If you're a mutant or don't have certain body parts, diseases that remove that body part in exchange for a bonus have no downsides. Heavy carapace gives no disadvantages if you ride a pet. Rain clouds are mostly positive (for farming/Swimming). Desire for violence is helpful if you're a ranged fighter. The mana battery disease can be very useful for mages or anyone who don't use rods, but be careful if you find a rod of wishing.

Gods
North of Palmia you can find the Truce Grounds. Here you can chose to worship one of eight gods. Each god gives you a bonus ability or passive, as well as rewards for offerings. You get an additional boost to that god's favored skills that is based on your faith and favor. You can check favor by using the nine god sign. You can invite gods into your home by wishing for their name and [i]nteracting with them, although your Home Rank must be 1 (Heaven of Tyris).

Your Home
Your home will be the central hub of the game. You can customize the layout by interacting with the home board, and here is where you will get your taxes every month in the form of tax bills, as well as your salary, which are both sent to your salary chest. Taxes are redeemed at the tax box found at the middle of the Embassy, found north of the city of Palmia. You can hire useful characters such as merchants, barkeeps, wizards, healers or a maid. There are several sizes of house, with the basic one you start out in being "cave". The best home in Elona+ is the Palace deed. You can also get storage houses, farms and ranches you can set out on the world map near your home, which allow you to store items, grow herbs and other plants, and breed monsters for food, money, or gene engineering fodder.

Farms
Allow you to plant vegetables, fruits, and the all-important herbs, among other things. You may plant seeds outside the tilled land, but expect most of them to wither unless your Gardening skill is very high, and planting/harvesting while it's raining gives a bonus (Lulwy's statue can help with this). Also contains compost tiles where you can leave undesired food in exchange for fertilizer. Food grown on your farm may have plus modifiers, giving better bonuses after eating (including Speed training) or higher sell price. Harvest Time quests, the Cute Fairy pet, worshipping Kumiromi or Kumiromi statues are the easiest ways to find more seeds.

Ranches
A type of building where you can assign one of your pets as a breeder. The breeding power determines how often the pet will produce offspring. In addition to that, the breeder will randomly make an assortment of eggs, milk and shit that you may use or sell. They will make these items regardless of whether or not they are anatomically able to do so (i.e Golem eggs, Android milk, Gold Bell shit). Animal bones do not indicate that a breeder has died. A few recommended breeding stock are: putit (CHR/putitoro), lame horse (CON), imp (MAG), hermit crab (WIL), beetle (STR), rabbit (fluffy tail), fairy (miromi/magic resist). Bred monsters may also be used for gene engineering or sold to the slave trader. If you don't plan on using the ranched monster in your party, reset its level in the Oblivion Palace and it'll breed faster.

Guilds
There are three guilds in the game, and all require a small quest to enter.

  • The Thieves' Guild requires you to pickpocket items, in exchange for numerous services, such as a fence for stolen items, easy access to lockpicks and disguise kits, and one exclusive trainer. The quest to join the guild requires waiting out 5 months without paying tax bills at the Palmian Embassy. Note: This will make you a criminal, as you will have -60 Karma. Guards will attack you in every city except Derphy, the city dedicated to the whim of the Thieves' Guild, until you recover the lost karma.
  • The Fighters' Guild requires you to slay a certain number, usually 3 or 4, of a specific monster, in exchange for numerous services, such as greatly decreased identification and equipment reinforcement fees in all towns and access to an exclusive trainer. The quest to join the guild requires killing 3 of a specific (random) monster.
  • The Mages' Guild requires you to translate ancient books by [r]eading them, and turning them into the guild box besides the watchman in Lumiest, in exchange for reserving spellbooks and an exclusive trainer. The quest to join the guild requires translating ancient books by [r]eading them, and turning them into the guild box besides the watchman in Lumiest, for a total of 30 guild points, which are determined by the difficulty of the ancient book.
  • http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Guild

Dungeons
Dungeons are randomly generated features on the world map. There are several fixed ones that show up across all games (the story dungeons, the puppy cave, pyramid, fort of chaos, etc). The danger level will show you a rough idea of what level of enemies you will be facing, but the boss will always be higher than this.

Jobs and Quests
Jobs will be your basic source of income and platinum for a very long time. You can access them from the job board in towns, and they give rewards based on difficulty. The easiest ones to start out with are "Before it's too late!", "Ecologist", "A Small Token", "Book Delivery" and "I want it!".

Quests are special requests by named NPCs that in most cases are not repeatable. Most towns have at least one and may require you to take on a very difficult fight or boss. Three of these are available in Vernis: Thieves Hideout, Puppy Rescue and Putit Infestation. It's advised to not take them on until you are comfortable with the game.

Cargo
Cargo is a lucrative, but dangerous, way to gain money once you're on your feet. Be prepared to fight off rogue bosses at every step on a cargo route. Once you can reliably kill the rogue bosses, or have pets that can, consider taking trade routes to pass the time by. Note that you won't be able to travel if cargo weight exceeds cart limit. Also, cargo merchants have little money when the game starts, and you'll need to buy and sell from them to level them up.

An example route would look something like this:

  • Noyel Port Kapul Vernis -> Noyel - Buy christmas trees and snowmen in Noyel, sell them in Kapul. Buy tuna and manboo in Kapul, sell the tuna in Vernis and buy noble toys. Sell the noble toys and manboo in Noyel.
  • This is a very long route, and will pass a good chunk of in-game time. Make sure you pay attention to your taxes as to not neglect them during this - you can dump cargo in your home or in storage houses. If you do it late enough in the year, you should be around Noyel by the time the Jure festival starts. Seven League boots are your best friend.
  • http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Cargo

Wishes
Every so often you can get a wish from drinking out of wells or finding a rod. They are rare, so it's important not to waste them. Wishes derived from wells also become rarer the more of them you get.

Good wishes include (copy and paste in the wish prompt if unsure):

  • seven league boots - They give you a sizable bonus to speed as well as making your overworld travel much faster.

Note: This should be a new player's first wish. You can earn a lot of money doing escort/delivery quests and cargo runs.

  • secret experience - The secret experience of Kumiromi gives you an extra feat for every 10 levels you have (including the first ten levels).
  • vindale - A vindale cloak is a very strong cloak that also protects you from etherwind.
  • aurora ring - A ring that'll stop you getting stranded by bad weather.
  • body pillow - Jure's body pillow is a bed that grants a high chance for good dreams, but no guaranteed potential gains and no spell potential. Get this if you don't have problems keeping potential high, but only if you aren't a caster. Can be gotten for free in Noyel's festival but you'll have to convert faith.
  • happy bed - The best bed in the game. Gives a lot of positive effects every night when you sleep in it, including increased potential gains. Quite common now, so you might want to wish for a body pillow instead.
  • alpha shift core/beta shift core/delta/gamma/omega - Using a shift core when your gauge is full lets you change into a temporary form that alters your appearance and gives considerable buffs.
  • descent - Blessed potions of descent will grant you a full level up.
  • attribute - A scroll of attribute can teach you new skills or be used in artifact fusion.
  • growth - Scrolls of growth increase the potentials of several skills, specially if blessed.
  • flying - Flying scrolls can be used to decrease (or increase) item weight.
  • light pen - The Astral Light Pen can be used on any character to make them join you, including named ones and bosses, as long as certain prerequisites are met.
  • speed ring - Can give a sizable increase of speed and other bonuses.
  • swordfish - Placing a painting of Ehekatl and swordfish in your home stops undesirable guests such as beggars and punks from visiting. Can be bought on Act III.
  • sculpture - Itzpalt's sculpture will uncurse cursed food if you cook it while in the same map. Can be bought on Act III.
  • yacatect's bank - Can hold up to 1 billion gp, will not get heavier with use, unlike kitty banks, and gives interest. Can be bought on Act III.
  • sure map - Treasure maps can give incredibly nice artifacts, platinum and small medals.
  • evolution - Potions of evolution will give you 1-3 positive mutations, which can range from stat bonuses to resistance to certain elements.
  • corruption - Only if you're desperate for cure corruptions and have no casino chips left.
  • potential - Only if you have hopeless potentials and no other ways of acquiring these potions.
  • mani / lulwy / itzpalt / kumiromi / opatos / ehekatl / jure / yacatect - Summons the desired god on the current map. Will give you their last gift if you worship them and have enough favor, and can be invited to your home if it is Home Rank 1 (Heaven of Tyris) and [i]nteracted with. To remove them, [i]nteract with them again and choose the Remand option. Beware their inner god forms.
  • http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Wishing

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{>ALL}

DOs_and_DONTS_for_Beginners

DOs

  • Do identify your equipment before wearing it. Early on, when you don't have the health to survive it, a ### or above bloodsucking equipment can prematurely end your character, leaving them unable to crawl out of their home. Teleporting or monster-summoning equipment can also be very annoying.
  • Do pick a God early. The advantages are extremely apparent. Opatos and Jure are both very good Gods (and easy to please) for beginners.
  • Do identify everything in bulk with the wizard, as there's a discount even if it's just a couple of items in total.
  • Do pick up either the teleporting feat/spell, a rod of teleport, or a few scrolls of teleport. This can get you out of some very hairy situations, especially Rogue Boss encounters.
  • Do carry a rod of change creature or potions of mutation always. You can use them on dangerous/annoying non-boss hostiles to change them into something more manageable.
  • Do keep at least one scroll of Return and Escape on you at all times. They should not be cursed, and you can't use them if your cargo is overburdened.
  • Do carry at few scrolls of Holy Veil. This will help with certain enemies that cast Death Word, which will kill you in 20 turns.
  • Do use your hard-earned platinum to learn new skills first instead of training old ones. The earlier you learn all of your skills, the better off you'll be later.
  • Do drink blessed potions of restore body/spirit. They give you a year long (or until death) buff to the stats they restore.
  • Do try to finish the puppy cave as soon as you feel comfortable with it. The reward you get from it allows you to keep four stacks of food inside of it that won't rot.
  • Do keep your karma high, this means you pay less taxes at the beginning of a month.
  • Do consider picking up the secret treasure of the wicked (see wiki page) if you have problems with karma.
  • Do drink out of Noyel's holy well every few months. This well has a high chance of giving potential gains and wishes.
  • Do try to get the small medals in each town as soon as possible. An early precious item like the Diablo or the Shield Tonfa can really help you out.
  • Do buy a house deed as soon as you can, then hire magic vendors for potions of potential and other items.

DONT'S

  • Don't equip or use items you haven't identified yet. You might get a bad penalty or waste something useful.
  • Don't read spellbooks or ancient books in your home. You can potentially summon a very powerful creature you're not equipped to deal with.
  • Don't take delivery or escort quests until you know every city's names and where they are.
  • Don't kill little sisters! Although the mana and health gains from the corpses might seem good, Big Daddies become increasingly rarer the more sisters you kill. It's better to collect them and turn them in, in the long run.
  • Don't try to refill the Noyel Holy Well. This will permanently corrupt it turn it into a normal well.
  • Don't use your small medals on things you can get easily like diaries and bottles of water. Hermes blood is very expensive in the early game, and Speed Uppers are much easier to find than small medals.
  • Don't convert the altars at the Truce Grounds for quick favor. You'll have trouble converting to another god later if you want to.

{ALL<}

Specific_Training

{>PLUS}

It's important to keep your potential up while training. As these are methods to increase the level of skills and attributes, it is equally important maintain potentials with potions of potential and other means. Remember: Herbed-in curarias are your friends.

Body Attributes

  • Strength - Melee combat. The longer the enemy takes to die, the better. Hands, beetle corpses and tofu.
  • Constitution - Mining, as well as weak bloodsucking equipment. Horse corpses and yogurt.
  • Dexterity - Combat and special actions such as Drain Blood. Eating fish and natto.
  • Charisma - Performing, Investing or Negotiation. Prostitution also helps. Putit corpses and raw engagement jewelry.
  • Speed - Potions of speed upper, traveling, and swimming will all help raise this stat. You can spend AP in South Tyris to get a sizable boost. Eat raw shoes, quickling corpses or any food with +x modifiers.

Spirit Attributes

  • Perception - Fishing and Firearms. Eat fish.
  • Learning - Gardening or Gene Engineering cheap slaves. Eat vegetables.
  • Will - Preaching and Magic Capacity. Vegetables and ghosts.
  • Magic - Casting spells, drinking potions and using wands. Fruit, imp corpses and fried tofu.

Combat

  • Tactics, Marksman, Weapon Skills - Attack enemies. The longer the enemy takes to die, the better. Rusted or weak weapons are good for this.
  • Shield, Evasion, Greater Evasion, Armor Skills - Let groups of weak or multi-hitting (Asura, etc.) enemies attack you. The more you can handle at the same time, the faster. Try to train Shield before Evasion and Greater Evasion, as dodging doesn't train Shield.
  • Eye of Mind - Get critical hits. Wearing equipment with crit chance bonuses helps. Becomes easier to train the higher it is.
  • Casting - Spam any spell to train quickly. Naturally trained together with Magic Capacity and Control Magic.

Utility

  • Mining - Dig lots and lots of walls. Dig out every town. Dig out every floor in every dungeon.
  • Lockpicking - Gamble chests and opening doors in dungeons.
  • Disarm Trap - Disarming traps in dungeons, both automatically or manually.
  • Pickpocket - Pickpocketing items in isolated areas in towns. Stealing trees from the wilderness or after completing Hunting quests once you have high STR.
  • Fishing - Fishing in your own Small Castle or better house. Keeping a shelter and houseboard on a pet will allow you to plop down and fish anywhere. Gathering from pools in dungeons will also train it.
  • Literacy - Reading books and scrolls. Reading Party with pets.
  • Gardening - Levels very quickly from doing Harvest Time quests or from having your own farm.
  • Cooking - Having a vegetable and fruit farm, or a bunch of fruit trees will let you train this with minimum effort.
  • Gene Engineer - Buy cheap slaves in Derphy and fuse them over and over into an abomination for quick training.
  • Riding - Trains passively just from riding something (or being ridden).
  • Magic Device - Any rod that you can use repeatedly, like Web or Make Door. Drinking any potion, preferably something harmless.
  • Investing - Invest in chunks of 50. Leaving one merchant spot open and hiring and firing in your home keeps a steady stream of low-level merchants to invest in. Food vendors are the cheapest.
  • Performer - Practice around low-level NPCs in any town, while being aware of guards or other strong characters. Levels up quickly once you can take Party Time quests.

Passive

  • Weight Lifting - Stay at Burdened status all the time. Reading books is the only speedy way to train it.
  • Healing - Equipping very weak bloodsucking equipment will train this passively. Trains naturally in conjunction with Magic Capacity.
  • Stealth - Trains every turn you spend around another NPC. No real way to train actively.
  • Detection - Gathering from sampling spots in dungeons.
  • Sense Quality - Wandering around with an inventory full of unidentified items.
  • Anatomy - Killing things. Undead created through necromancy both help train and depend on this.
  • Memorization - Reading any spellbook. The more difficult, the better. Reading Party with pets.
  • Magic Capacity - Overcasting spells. The more negative your MP goes, the quicker this trains. Be very careful not to kill yourself. Healing spells are a good choice for overcasting.
  • Faith - Preaching (especially in Party Time quests), or making offerings to your god.
  • Meditation - Casting spells and then regenerating MP. Trains naturally in conjunction with Magic Capacity.
  • Control Magic - Casting AoE spells in range of your allies. Equip them with the appropriate resistances and let loose the ball spells.
  • Negotiation - The more expensive the item you buy/sell, the more it trains. Boost the potential high before buying and selling to reduce the amount of gold you need to spend.
  • Traveling - Travel from town to town or farther. Running cargo routes can get you money while doing so.
  • Swimming - Stay wet for as long as you can, possibly by throwing potions at yourself. Make sure you don't carry a magaqua.

Advanced_Topics

Armor types
In addition to hindering spellcasting differently, reaching high levels in an armor proficiency grants you powerful special actions, as well as a different critical hit multiplier. Consider your specializations and choose one accordingly:

  • Light Armor - Emergency Evasion: completely nullifies critical hits taken. No spell cast chance penalty. Armor of light weight gives a fixed critical damage bonus, useful for Dual Wield.
  • Medium Armor - Magic Equip: increases power of spells by 20%, which also allows casting more powerful buffs that will last longer. The -8% cast penalty can be mitigated by being a Warmage.
  • Heavy Armor - Super Armor: considerably lowers damage taken. -20% cast penalty, which is not very important if you only use magic for buffs or healing. Very heavy armor increases your critical damage multiplier, maxing at 365s + half of the sum of the rest of the equipment's weight.

Suggested armor based on character specialization:

  • Mage - Light or Medium.
  • Dual Wield - not Heavy, Light is preferred to get higher crit damage, while Medium for stronger buffs.
  • Martial Arts - any, or Medium for stronger buffs.
  • Ranged/Two Hand - Heavy.

Multiple attacks and Dual Wielding
When wearing equipment that grants additional attack chances, these are the limits based on combat style:

  • All styles of melee with weapons have a maximum of 3 extra attacks limit per weapon. Dual Wield gets a bonus extra attack chance from skill level, but the limit on number of attacks is still the same.
  • Martial Arts can get up to 7 extra attacks. Wielding shields or claws/tonfas lowers this number. Additionally, having extra hands gives no hit penalties, however, all your hands must be empty, effectively turning those hands into wasted bodyslots.
  • Ranged may only get a maximum additional 1 extra attack without special ammo, but 30+ attacks with it (burst or rapid fire ammo).
  • There is a soft cap on 2+ extra attacks for multi-handed characters regardless of weapon type. Hit penalty becomes progressively severe after 6 hands, but the first extra attack does not get one.
  • Shields (when worn by themselves) change attack style to "shield", shich uses the Martial Arts skill for damage calculation as well as trains it.

Misc_Tips

  • Press Tab to send messages over the chat.
  • To enable debug races during character generation, open config.txt and set "extraRace." to "1".
  • Set "Auto Turn Speed" in the Detailed Setting to Highest to speed up resting, performing, etc.
  • Set "Show Record" to Show Max in the Game Setting to reveal more stats in your journal.
  • You can access 10 extra spell/action hotkeys by holding Control.
  • Selecting an item in your inventory from the e'x'amine menu and pressing asterisk will stop you from accidentaly dropping/selling/giving it.
  • You can hide the HUD partially (for screenshots, etc.) by pressing F9.
  • Press 'p' in the character screen to change your appearance after character creation.
  • If there are several rooms connected by narrow hallways, [s]earch a dead-end to usually reveal a hidden pathway (Detection skill).
  • Eating equipment made of raw may train attributes/skills (if they give a bonus) or temporarily increase their potential (if they maintain it).
  • Hoard items you want to bless into a single stack so that only one holy water is used.
  • You can drop all items in a single stack in your shop and they'll still sell like normal.
  • Keeping a whistle at hand is useful for waking up shopkeepers and the like, or your allies after certain attacks.
  • Never completely deplete a spell's stock, that way its potential can keep increasing after sleep.
  • Static dungeons, including those in towns such as Vernis' mine and Lumiest's sewers, can be used safely as item stashes.
  • Collecting equipment sets that grant skill bonuses can help with activities such as crafting, gene engineering, fishing or sacrificing to the gods.
  • Pets refuse to eat cursed food even if unidentified. This can be used to determine food status.
  • Lucky days (provenient from dreams) are the ideal time for crafting equipment, opening chests (including treasure maps) and harvesting artifact trees. The luck buff from christmas cakes is an acceptable alternative.
  • Buffing your STR with items or spells can let you pickpocket heavier items than normal.
  • If a delivery quest involves a spellbook, ID it and read all charges except one before delivering it.
  • You can use any item on the ground in towns, including food, without consequences.
  • Putting on equipment that protects you against mutation (like a fairy hat) before going to sleep can stop you from mutating from dreams.
  • Fill Charge can be used on the Panzerfaust X and M202 special.
  • You can hand over lost wallets/suitcases to guards once per month before they grow suspicious, and it accumulates if you don't. For example, you may safely deliver 12 wallets at once after one in-game year has passed (as long as you didn't inbetween).
  • Press asterisk to swap lines around when setting up Custom AI for pets.
  • You can dip useless potions (and vomit) in wells to refill them a little. When they become completely dry, burn them with fire and come back later; they will respawn filled up.
  • If you have a treasure machine, go to the highest level dungeon you can find before getting treasure balls from it, as the quality of items scale with the floor the balls are generated on.
  • You can get an early free musical instrument from the Lumiest Graveyard.
  • Renaming the shopkeeper you just hired at home can not only fix not being able to hire others of the same type but also lets you hire multiples of the same one.
  • Briefly entering every dungeon in your path can reveal Big Daddies in the first floor.
  • Dimension Fishing can help greatly with Panic and Challenge quests.
  • If you don't have equipment that reveals invisible enemies, carrying around a rod of bubble ball can be useful. It can also be used to clear fires, acid puddles, webs and smoke.
  • Bulding a line of storage houses linking towns/other places is an extravagant way of avoiding rogue bosses and random encounters.
  • Don't forget that you can 'p'ray to your god in an emergency.
  • Putting rotten food inside the 4-dimensional pocket unrots it.
  • Casting Sense Object before opening doors in dungeons is advisable if being cautious.
  • Reading books after completing Hunting quests while near the edge of the map serves as a countermeasure in case powerful monsters are summoned, even if you die.
  • Making suiciding enemies Wet stops them from exploding.
  • Buying Wizards of Elea from the slave master then stripping them of their rings and amulets makes for easy offerings for Yacatect. The same can be done with Yerles Machine Infantry and Mani.
  • Bringing crafting tools to cities that pay well for a certain type of cargo then crafting them on the spot en masse can be very profitable.
  • Investing in Lend the taker's shop is the best way to acquire high level monster balls.
  • You can use Body Blow to make allies with food-related gimmicks (cute fairy, goose) vomit and empty their stomach faster, but be careful as they can develop anorexia.
  • Wearing equipment that enhances spells and debuffing the target with Nightmare increases the chances of Dominate succeeding.
  • Wearing equipment that stops you from teleporting when in dungeons can be useful with avoiding being drawn by e.g. death manekis.
  • Stealing all the vegetables from Yowyn, Melugas or Ludus can quickly get you favor with Kumiromi.
  • Drinking blessed booze until you get the minor luck buff before opening lots of gamble chests increases the odds of winning something.
  • Save hermes blood for after you reach the maximum speed attainable with AP, otherwise they'll be almost wasted. Likewise, if you can wait for it, it's better to only evolve pets that get a speed bonus on evolving after they reach the maximum speed attainable with AP.
  • Equipment that enhances spell power also increases effectiveness of rods.
  • Blessed scrolls of greater enchant are much cheaper than the blacksmith, even with the fighters' guild discount. Save them for enchanting equipment from +7 to +9.

{PLUS<}

Outdated

Old Variants/Links:

  • Elona foobar (Transpilation of vanilla 1.22 to C++ and Lua. Will support multiple languages and include Lua modding support to add features from other variants)
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Pub: 22 Apr 2022 04:00 UTC
Edit: 12 Sep 2022 03:48 UTC
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