Lufia: The Ruins of Lore Anti-Core Mini FAQ

This FAQ is copyright 2003 by Paul Sche.  No part of this document may 
be altered.  Distribution of this document is free of charge and may 
not be included as part of a transaction.  Posting of this document, 
either in part or in its entirety in sites other than 
requires the consent from the author, whom can be contacted by email at

Version 1.00
November 10, 2003- Although this is the first version, all sections are 
completed.  However, feel free to email me if there is a mistake 
somewhere.  Credit will be acknowledged to where it's due.

Version 1.1
February 2, 2004- Added the Retry? Section in response to the lack of 
retry option in the game.  Mastersord has contributed information 
including the locations of enemies with relevant skills as well as 
recommended skills and improvements to the Anti-Core DM.

Version 1.2
May 30, 2005- Removed the skill Green Air from the list of skills that 
causes confusion status, as thriceborn phoenix have pointed out the 
skill causes sleep and poison instead.  

The purpose of this mini FAQ is to describe the capture and development 
of the monster Anti-Core, which has the highest speed in the entire 
roster of monsters that can be captured.  The skills of the compendium 
can be found in Jimbobqwerty15's Monster Guide.  However keep in mind 
that the skills listed there aren't everything that monster would 

I. The monster Anti-Core

II. Preparations

III. Development

IV. Retry?

I. The monster Anti-Core

Core type monsters have been around since the very first Lufia.  The 
characteristics of this family of monsters are the extremely high 
agility and defense power coupled with extremely low HP.  Even though a 
core has little HP, their tendency to run away actually makes it 
difficult to defeat them in battle.  As such, the rewards for killing a 
core monster are usually a large amount of gold and/or experience.

The core monsters in Lufia: The Ruins of Lore, however, have largely 
been stripped of their agility.  Most types of core monsters are the 
slowest of any monster.  Even though they still retain high DFP, there 
are many skills that ignore defense and can eliminate their paltry HP 
in a single round.

The sole exception here is the Anti-Core within the core type monsters 
encountered.  They retain the high agility signified by the core 
monsters in previous Lufia games.  As a result, the Anti-Cores often 
pre-empts the player characters and escape immediately.  Defeating an 
Anti-Core is difficult already let alone capturing one.

II. Preparations

In order to capture an Anti-Core the first preparations are to find a 
place to capture it and creating a tool for the capture.

1. A place to capture

Anti-Cores appear throughout many dungeons in the later parts of the 
game.  However in most cases the Anti-Core attacks in tandem with other 
monsters.  It's not a good idea to attempt a capture in these battles 
because if the Anti-Core flees you'll end up catching an undesirable 
monster, then you'd have to go all the way back to Gruberik to set it 

Thus a place with an enemy party consists entirely of Anti-Cores is the 
ideal place to fight.  Not only do you get a higher chance to capture 
one but you also won't run the risk of using up discs or running out of 
room in Gruberik.  The recommended dungeon is Inside the Behemoth in 
Eristol: Past.  When you first drop into the Behemoth you start in the 
innermost room, which contains two sections.  If you drop into the hole 
or go down the vein from the second section you will enter the second 
innermost room where the first section contains a large pool of acid.  
The exit to the second section is in the northwest and that is the 
section with the desirable enemy party (Anti-Core x 2).

However, unless you are well prepared it's not a good idea to attempt a 
capture the first time you come across this room.  This is because the 
next save point isn't available until you finish the dungeon.  Having 
no access to save can erase hours of hard work, so memorize this 
section so you can return when you have access to a save point.  It is 
possible to capture the Anti-Core before you return from the past, 
provided that you have empty slots for monster in your party.  However, 
ideally it's best to wait until you return to the present and have 
access to Gruberik.  Either way it is extremely important to have an 
empty slot for you to be able to capture the monster.

2. A Disc Monster Tool for the capture:

To create a tool to capture the Anti-Core, it must be understood that 
it is of little use trying to beat out the agility of the monster, 
since it does have the highest agility of any monster outside the 
Ancient Cave.  Therefore you'll have to use the game system to your 

Among the status ailments that you can inflict on the enemy, confuse, 
sleep, and stun will prevent the enemy from using the usual actions 
their AI normally uses.  However, since characters (enemy or ally) can 
recover from sleep and stun in a few turns, these status ailments will 
be of little help since the Anti-Core can take multiple actions before 
your characters can actually act.  Therefore even if the status ailment 
is successfully inflicted on the Anti-Core, it may wear off before you 
can attempt to capture it.  However, the rules for wearing off 
confusion are different from sleep and stun.  If the confusion status 
is inflicted it will be harder for the enemy to wear it off.  Therefore 
you will need a disc monster (DM) with the ability to confuse the 
entire enemy group.

There are a number of abilities that inflict confusion, either alone or 
in conjunction with another status such as aforementioned sleep and 
stun.  This includes:

[Location of monsters contributed by Mastersord]

Confuse (3Ap), learn by Desert Rose, Giant Bloom, Fire Dragon (Ancient 
Cave level 15-35 for all three).

Dark Breath (2Ap), learn by Dark Dragon (Land of the Dead), Incubus 
(Inside the Behemoth).

Since you'll most likely be fighting the group of Anti-Cores over and 
over, and there aren't any AP recharging facilities conveniently 
nearby, it's best if the skill cost as few AP as possible on a DM with 
as many AP as possible, so the recommended skill to use is Dark Breath.  
The earliest place to capture a DM with this skill is the Dark Dragon 
in the Land of the Dead.  However, if you're already past that point, 
the Incubus monsters, also found Inside the Behemoth, can learn this 

As for the DM with high AP, the Shell Snake appears in the Border 
Forest comes with an amazing 300AP.  That means if you teach it Dark 
Breath, the Shell Snake can use it 150 times consecutively without 
having to recover.  Make sure to change its skills so that the Dark 
Breath is the only skill selected among the three slots.  This will 
guarantee that the DM will use it every time.

3.  Capturing the Anti-Core

This is the tricky part.  As mentioned before the group of all Anti-
Cores is located in the second section of the second innermost room, 
near the inner exit.  However in order to reach it from the outside you 
must traverse all the way from Rangoon.  The area of interest has a 
bridge activated by hitting a pillar 4 times when you enter from the 
outer side.  Go through this section first, and when you reach the 
section flooded with acid turn around and enter the room of interest 
again.  The best party setup for the capture is to have Eldin, Torma, 
Rami all at level 25 or above (other human characters cannot use discs 
to capture!) plus the Shell Snake.  Walk one step up and swing 3 times.  
When you pursue the enemy it will face away from you and you will be 
able to surprise the enemy.

Even when surprised the Anti-Core will still get to act first!  Most 
likely it will run away from battle.  If all enemies flee simply exit 
the section and return to try again using the steps above to get a 
surprise attack on the enemy.

However, if the Anti-Core does not run, it will use Spark or Leech on 
your party.  You can then choose the actions for your party members.  
Let all three of the human characters choose to use the Void Disc.

Your DM will take the next action and cast Dark Breath.  If the DM 
successfully inflicts confuse on the Anti-Core, the target will cast 
healing spells on your party rather than run.  The Void Discs will be 
able to capture it provided that there's an empty slot in Gruberik or 
in your party (if it's in your party, only characters without having 
one DM assigned can capture it).  If you already have three DM in your 
party you will have to trek back to Gruberik to assign it to a party 

III. Development

The Anti-Core you capture will have the following starting parameters:

Lv.   25
HP     8
AP    92

E: Light

ATK  150
DEF  600
AGL  450
INT   35
MGR   40

Even though its HP is low, you will gain HP fast as it levels up.  When 
given the chance feed it a Sacred Fruit to evolve it into a Gold Core 
and increase stat gains on level up.

The most prominent feature of this DM is that it usually pre-empt the 
enemy party and attack first.  It can attack up to eight times per 
round, making its damage potential extremely high.  Also as it levels 
the maximum AP also exhibits a favorable growth rate (about 10 HP and 
10 AP per level if evolved).  The best skill for attacking the enemy 
party is the Octo Strike, which can be learned from Devilfish in 
Eristol (easier to access from the Time Portal).

Unfortunately the DM does not start with a high ATK, so it will take a 
lot of Power Sources to beef up the Anti-Core.  The second floor of the 
Lugwa Tower features Neo Goblins which drop the stat raising item.  It 
can take awhile before you accumulate enough to raise the ATK to a high 
level (about 400 or so will let you kill pretty much any non-boss 
enemies in one hit using Octo Strike).

However, if you don't have the patience, you can instead teach your 
Anti-Core the Giant Stomp skill.  This skill can be learned from Teio 
(in Gratze before Nazare Village becomes inaccessible again) or Sky 
Horse (in the Land of the Dead- for some reason the monster compendium 
doesn't list this skill.)  This skill inflicts 64 points of damage to 
all enemies regardless of their DEF or MGR (more if it critical hits) 
at the cost of 4 AP, which is of no object if you teach it Absorb 
(absorbs 15 AP or the amount the target currently has, whichever is 
smaller) which can be learned from Demon Eye, Inside the Behemoth.  
Alternatively you can just abuse the infinite nectar glitch.  To get 
the glitch to work you must have the recipe and the ingredients to make 
Nectar.  When you ask the smith to make it the smith will give you a 
nectar-without taking the ingredients.  So you can just keep asking 
until you have 99 in your inventory.  However this DM isn't totally 
invincible.  Enemies that can use Giant Stomp can still damage or kill 
your Anti-Core if you allowed it to surprise you.  Such enemies are few 
and far between and you can use this DM to conquer the Ancient Cave or 
the final boss quite easily.


[Contributed by Mastersord]

I recommend you teach it Vampire (Vampire Rose skill) and Octo-strike 
(Octopus skill) as well as Pickpocket (Faux chest skill).

1) Vampire: Learned by vampire Rose. Steals AP for your DM at the cost 
of 1 AP.

Vampire Rose can be caught in the border forest right before entering 
gratze.  It can also be found in the ancient cave on floors B19, B20, 
B25, and B26.  Use forest disks to catch it.  Train it until you have 
the skill.  Do not evolve it.

2) Octo strike:  Learned by Octopus.  Nice multi-hit skill which 
attacks all enemies and costs 0 AP.

Octopus can be found in Eristole in the past as well as the ancient 
cave on floors B32, B33, and B34.  Train it until you have the propper 
skill.  Do not evolve it.

Now you'll notice that although the anti-core is quite capable of 
holding it's own throughout the game and in the ancient cave, it's 
attack power is quite mediocre (my core was 200 compared to Eldin's 950 
with Gaia's sword equipped).  This becomes a problem because there are 
several monsters down there that it can only get 1 or 2 damage on.  It 
cannot face other cores.

Another minor problem is it's low HP.  Not too bad because it's high 
defense means no monster can do more than 2 damage on it (not even big 

Both of these can be fixed by leveling, bright ores, and sources.

3) Pickpocket: Learned from neo bat, goblin, imp, faux chest, and 

Neo bats can be found at mount Ruhie (first trip), and in the ancient 
cave on floors B05, B06, and B07.  Raise until you have the skill but 
don't evolve it.

Imps can be found in the tower of Dohain and in the ancient cave on 
floors B14 and B15.

Now once you have pickpocket, teach it to the anti-core. To make it a 
stealer, remove all skills but pickpocket.  It will get 2-3 swipes per 
round no matter what.  Teach pickpocket to eldin and to the rest of 
your human party, and you get 5-6 swipes per round!

As a stealer, it becomes quite easy to get sources.  Lugwa tower has 
neo goblins in the first room.  Neo goblins hold power sources.  You'll 
need pickpocket for this though. You could get 99 power sources in 2 
hours if you're patient and careful.

If you want more speed, go to Mera Volcano and steal speed sources from 
Puchis (the duck-like yellow birds on the map). They come as 1 or 2 and 
like to run away, so be patient.

Please note that an enemy only carries one of its item, so you can only 
steal the item once per enemy, per battle. For example, you can only 
get one power source from each neo goblins you face.

IV. Retry?

Lufia: The Ruins of Lore is the only Lufia game to not support a retry 
option (i.e. new game plus) which usually gives more EXP, gold, etc. 
from battles.  However, since it is possible to transfer DMs between 
games using a link cable, you can artificially create a similar effect 
by transferring your developed Anti-Core to a friend's copy, start a 
new game and have the Anti-Core be transferred back once you reach 
Gruberik.  With this powerful DM it might be possible to attempt a "no 
job" challenge where no one becomes an apprentice of a master.

Thanks to Mastersord for contributing information on monster locations 
and customizing the Anti-Core DM in an authorization to use his FAQ.  
In his FAQ he also credits jimbobquerty for enemy locations, bhr for 
ancient cave enemy locations, and Phoenix 1911 for monster skill data.

Thanks to thriceborn phoenix for pointing out that the Green Air 
inflicts sleep and poison rather than sleep and confusion. The in game 
description of the skill is incorrect.

Lufia: The Ruins of Lore is licenced by Taito Corp., and published by 
Atlus USA.  All work done on this FAQ is by the author, except for 
sources referenced in the FAQ to reduce redundancy.