From left to right: Solo: the Earth Shaman, Seny: the Holy Shaman, Shin: the Devil Shaman, Seso: the Water Shaman, Sana: the Fire Shaman, and Spoo: the Wind Shaman
Shamans are a unique gameplay element that appears in Breath of Fire II. The shamans are six women with powerful magical abilities, each corresponding to a different element. By using an ancient process, Gigli Ziz is able to fuse either one or two shamans with a member of the party, thereby enhancing the party member's abilities. Any combination of shamans can be used with any party members, with the sole exceptions of Ryu and Bleu, who are excluded from participating in fusions. The exact enhancements granted by the fusion vary greatly depending on the shamans and party members used.
Ryu first meets the Fire Shaman, Sana, and she accidentally unlocks his ability to transform into a baby dragon. The remaining five are hidden throughout the game's world. While locating the shamans is not necessary to complete the game, they resulting fusions can greatly increase the player's chances of success in battle system. However, party members typically lose the use of their field ability when fused, meaning that some members must remain unfused in order to progress during specific points in the game.
Locations:[]
- Sana, the Fire Shaman, is the first of the shamans that you find in the game. She is also the first of only two shamans who are mandatory to recruit, the other being Spoo. She's found along with her grandmother upon returning to Capitan after receiving the blessing from Ray. Sana's initial attempt to fuse with Ryu briefly causes him to transform into his Fire Dragon form, destroying the surrounding woods as well as Sana's house, causing them to move in at Township and allow the player to progress the game. This event also unlocks Ryu's Puppy spells.
- Seso, the Water Shaman, is initially trapped as a stone statue in Witch Tower. After defeating Nimufu, going back to the tower will allow the player to recruit her.
- Spoo, the Wind Shaman, and is found in the Sky Tower where she has been responsible for the strange weather phenomena occurring there. Upon reaching her at the end and talking to her, she will go back to TownShip. Because this is necessary to progress, Spoo is the only Shaman besides Sana who must be acquired to complete the game.
- Seny, the Holy Shaman, can be found in Bando after the party has gained access to the Grand Church in Evrai. She can be found by returning to Bando and going into the first cell. Alternatively, she can be found by extending the corridor past the fifth door five times on the first visit to Bando. Seny is the only Shaman to provide no bonus on her own, though her providing access to some of the most powerful advanced forms more than makes up for this.
- Solo, the Earth Shaman, is significantly different in appearance from the other Shamans and the only Shaman who can be permanently missed. When prompted by the storyline, the player must give 20 donations at the shrine in Namanda. Return to Rand's hometown after Daisy is killed and Solo will be standing in the fields.
- Shin, the Devil Shaman, is the last Shaman who can be unlocked and one of the easiest to acquire. Entering the left entrance of Infinity will put the player directly in front of her. Many of the most powerful advanced shaman fusions require Shin.
Transformations Effects[]
Each Shaman, except for Seny, will boost one of the fused party member's stats by 25% of what it was when the fusion was conducted:
- Sana boosts Attack by 25% of the party member's base Strength.
- Seso boosts Wisdom by 25%, but cannot break the normal 255 cap on Wisdom. It is thus possible for Seso alone to do nothing if the character has already maximized their Wisdom.
- Spoo boosts Vigor by 25% of the party member's base Agility.
- Solo boosts Defense by 25% of the party member's base Stamina.
- Shin boosts AP by 25%.
- Fusing with Seny alone does nothing.
Not all party members are capable of fusing with all Shamans. In addition to this, certain pairings will produce a recolored form of the character which modifies the bonus, usually for the better:
- Sten fused with Sana alone, or with Sana and Seny, will gain a 37.5% boost to his Attack.
- Sten fused with Sana and Solo will gain a 37.5% boost to his Attack and a 20% boost to his Defense.
- Rand fused with Solo alone will gain a 40% boost to his Defense.
- Nina fused with Spoo alone will gain a 52.5% boost to her Vigor.
- Nina fused with Sana and Spoo will gain a 12.5% boost to her Attack and a 52.5% boost to her Vigor.
- Nina fused with Seso and Spoo will gain a 22.5% boost to her Wisdom and a 52.5% boost to her Vigor.
- Spar fused with Shin alone will gain a 50% boost to his AP.
- Spar fused with Spoo and Shin will gain a 50% boost to his AP and a 27.5% boost to his Vigor.
The third stage of Shaman fusion, and the primary reason to use the system, is combinations that produce a complete overhaul in the character's design. Each of these forms boosts all of the character's parameters, not just the ones of the Shamans used, and potentially changes both their combat ability and out-of-combat ability. If a character can attain a transformation through multiple possible combinations of Shamans, the stat boosts are somewhat different for each version.
- Katt fused with Shin, either alone or with Sana, Seso or Spoo as a second partner, transforms into a black-skinned cat woman who fights using kicks. Her combat ability is changed to "Keep", which causes her to charge energy for one turn and then attack with 200%, 237%, 274%, or 300% normal Attack on the next turn, breaking the Attack cap. Katt cannot swing her staff to break objects or hunt in this form, but gains the highest Attack and Vigor of any party member by an overwhelming margin. Katt fused with Shin and Sana is the only character capable of hitting the maximum cap on Attack, by raising her Strength to 255 before the fusion and equipping her with the MeowST / Kitty Staff.
- Nina fused with Spoo and Seny transforms into a blue-haired angel with much larger wings and a more elaborate appearance. In this form Nina hovers slightly off the ground at all times. Her Will ability is replaced with Bnsh, allowing her to force enemies to flee from battle, though her enormous supply of AP in this form more than makes up for the loss of Will. This form actually gains slightly less Wisdom than by fusing with Seso, at 22.5%, but as Wisdom can be boosted to 255 without Shamans this is not a hindrance. Nina's abilities do not change, and she can still call the Great Bird in this form until Infinity is opened.
- Bow fused with Seny and Shin transforms into a large robot with a cannon for a right arm. His Shot ability is replaced with Spry, allowing him to attack all enemies at once for normal physical damage, though he cannot land critical hits with this ability. Bow can still hunt in this form, with his shots in the hunting minigame traveling farther and faster than in his normal form. While powerful, this form means giving up most of the other powerful forms unless the player uses him with Rand and Sten.
- Sten fused with Sana and Spoo transforms into a hovering, legless efreeti creature who attacks by throwing fireballs. His RIP ability is replaced with Sweh, which if used during a random encounter restarts it as another random encounter from the area list. This form is thus useful for acquiring certain enemy drops. However, Sten cannot extend his arms in this form, so any shortcuts or gates that require this ability cannot be used.
- Rand fused with Solo and either Seso, Seny or Sana as a second partner transforms into a small horned armadillo creature. His Wake ability is not replaced, but he loses the ability to roll in this form.
- Jean fused with Seny, either alone or with Seso or Spoo as a second partner, transforms into a much taller and more regal frogman resembling a knight. His Jab ability is replaced with Chop, which charges for one turn and, on the next turn, Jean will cut the screen in half, which will instantly kill all enemies that are not immune to death. While the damage counter will display 999, enemies with over 999 HP will still die when hit by Chop, so long as they are not immune.
- Spar is unusual in that he has three separate fusion forms, all of which retain his treewalking ability:
- Spar fused with Seso, either alone or with Spoo, Seny or Shin as a second partner, transforms into a cute pink-haired girl with a mushroom-shaped hat which she throws to attack. Her Ntre ability is replaced with Spor, a copy of the SwtBrth spell except it costs no AP to use and has a chance of backfiring to target the party instead.
- Spar fused with Solo, either alone or with Seso, transforms into a small bulb with a pair of feet and nothing else. His Ntre ability is replaced with Bud, which spends one turn charging before Spar spends the next four rounds making physical attacks at double normal Attack against random enemy targets. Like Keep, this can break the Attack cap.
- Spar fused with Sana and Shin transforms into a mixture of tree and dragon. His Ntre ability is not replaced.
Undoing transformation[]
In case you no longer need a transformation or require a character's base form to progress, you can use the DivideBL item to undo the transformation. You can also undo transformations in the uniting chamber in Township. Transformation is automatically undone if the character enters critical HP, is knocked unconscious, or zombified.
