The Arsenal - Ness and His Friends (EarthBound)

Welcome to The Arsenal, where we highlight the best weapons and items a character can carry. In this entry, we’re taking a trip to Eagleland as we analyze the best weapons and items used in the SNES role-playing game EarthBound by the game’s main characters, Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Kai. (I refuse to call him Poo, so since “Kai” is one of the other default naming choices for the character, I will use that instead for the duration of this article.) Since most of the items in the game don’t have pictures attached to them, some generic pictures from Google Images will stand in for most of them.

So, what does Ness carry in that backpack of his? Let’s find out.

Here is The Arsenal of Ness and His Friends from EarthBound.

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Best Weapon for Ness – Gutsy Bat

Obviously a big fan of baseball, Ness utilizes baseball bats as his weapon of choice and the best of these is the Gutsy Bat. While the Legendary Bat is technically stronger, with 10 extra bonus attack points than the Gutsy Bat, this bat also drastically increases the Guts stat for Ness, increasing the chance for critical hits. The Casey Bat is also way stronger than the Gutsy Bat, but it also misses most of its attacks. Having the strongest weapon in the world won’t do any good if you can’t hit anything with it. Sometimes, reliability beats out raw power.

Best Weapon for Paula – Holy Fry Pan

By far the strongest weapon for Paula, this piece of clobbering cookware also increases Paula's chance for critical hits by increasing her Guts stat by a few points. Aside from that, frying pans just seem to be a common choice for a good improvised weapon, as zombie games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising can attest to.

Just don't try actually cooking with them afterwards.

Best Weapon for Jeff – Gaia Beam

As the group scientist, Jeff has more of a preference for guns and high-tech weapons and this (presumed) laser gun is the strongest among them. After some work with a broken antenna and probably some other materials, Jeff can create the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. While it doesn't give him any additional stat boosts, it never misses. Whether that is because this is such a good weapon or because Jeff is such a good shot isn't that clear, but what is clear is that arming Jeff with the Gaia Beam will add some power to your party.

Best Weapon for Kai – Sword of Kings

Kai doesn't always use weapons. Having trained his body and mind in his distant homeland of Dalaam, he feels more comfortable using his own fists or his PSI powers during a battle. When he does wield a weapon however, the Sword of Kings is his weapon of choice. Though it's mostly because it's his only weapon, it does give him a little extra power during a fight.

(This next item is represented by the PK Yomega, an actual EarthBound yo-yo on sale on Fangamer. #NotSponsored)

Best Weapon for Any of Them – Combat Yo-Yo

While the previous entries talked about weapons that were exclusive to their specific characters, this entry talks about weapons that any of them can use. All four playable characters in EarthBound can equip a small variety of yo-yos or slingshots, but the best of them is the Combat Yo-Yo, having the highest stats of any of the other non-exclusive weapons. However, Kai's attack power decreases whenever he equips this or any other yo-yo, so, best to just focus on the other three with this one.

Best Attack Item – Bag of Dragonite

Known as Dragon Powder in the Japanese version, this item can transform the user into a dragon to unleash a powerful attack. This attack is so powerful in fact that it can even inflict damage on one of your allies if they're standing too close and the only enemy this doesn't work on is the game's end boss, Giygas. Dragons are well-known to be powerful creatures, so being able to become one and plow through enemies makes this a definite ace-in-the-hole for these adventurers.

Best Worn Defense Item – Franklin Badge

Found before Ness's battle with the Happy Happyist Cult to save Paula, the Franklin Badge is able to reflect lightning based attacks back towards their sender, which is good not just for Ness's fight against the cult's leader, but against any other character that uses lightning attacks. Over the years, it has become such a well-known part of the Mother universe, it was even made into an item in the Super Smash Bros. fighting games, now able to reflect any energy-based attacks, lightning or otherwise. That is one powerful shield.

Best Carried Defense Item – Super Plush Bear

Speaking of shields, this pumped-up teddy bear works better as one than you would otherwise think. In EarthBound, this plush toy is able to absorb damage from enemy attacks in place of the characters. It works a bit like the Substitute move in Pokemon, where a generic Poke Doll stands in for the actual Pokemon and just takes all the damage for a short time until it breaks.

Best Key Item – Sound Stone

Given to Ness close to the beginning of the game, the Sound Stone is one of the most important items in the game. Over the course of the game, the Sound Stone will collect melodies from the My Sanctuary locations that Ness and company will find throughout their adventure. After collecting all of them, he will be transported to the land of Magicant and come back with his inner potential unlocked. This item's purpose is basically to be a huge power-up for Ness in preparation for his fight with Giygas.

Best Jeff-Exclusive Item – Multi Bottle Rocket

Jeff is the only member of the main group with no psychic powers, but he makes up for it by being a mechanical genius able to use things that the other group members have no idea how to work. He has several items in the game that can only be used by him and the most offensively powerful of these is the Multi Bottle Rocket. Displayed in Super Smash Bros., where Jeff appears as an assist character, after Jeff activates this item, multiple fireworks rockets shoot up into the sky before flying down into an enemy and exploding, like small heat-seeking missiles.

Best Status Effect Item – Cup of Lifenoodles

An item that can revive dead or fainted characters is perhaps one of the best status effect items you can find in a video game. For EarthBound, that comes in the form of the Cup of Lifenoodles. Not only does this instant noodle dish bring back unconscious characters, it also cures any other status effects that characters could have. From poison to paralysis and even unconsciousness, this meal can cure it all.

(Believe it or not, this is an image from the EarthBound game guide. Yes, I have a copy.)

Best Enemy-Specific Item – Jar of Fly Honey

For this entry, we have an item that is used to help defeat a specific enemy. Found in Threed, the Jar of Fly Honey is used to help defeat the boss Master Belch. It happens to be his favorite food and if the heroes carry a jar into battle and toss it to him, he'll be too distracted eating it to fight back, so they are just free to beat the blob down and the fight will be an easy win.

Best Food for Ness, Paula, and Jeff – Kraken Soup

As expensive as this stuff is, it better be good.

This food item can be found at the restaurant at the beach-side resort town of Summers. It is the most expensive item on the restaurant's menu, but it's worth the price as eating it will fully restore all the HP for whoever of these three eats it, making it a very nice item to have as they're going on with their adventure. Hope they have some good thermoses to pack it in.

(Pictured: My best guess as to what this item looks like.)

Best Food for Kai – Brain Food Lunch

Another quirk between Kai and the rest of the EarthBound kids is that as he is not used to Western culture, any food he eats only recovers a standard amount of his health when eaten regardless of how much health anyone else recovers. The same does not apply when it comes to Eastern food such as this filling meal. Known as the Satori Lunchbox in the Japanese version, if Ness, Paula, or Jeff eat this meal they do recover a large amount of health, but for Kai, he recovers twice that. Make sure to pack plenty of these along with that Kraken Soup when facing a big boss.

Best Condiment – Jar of Delisauce

In EarthBound, condiments can be added to certain food items to increase their nutritional value, and with that, how much HP or PP they can recover. They include items like ketchup, salt, cream, sugar, and this special Eastern sauce. Found in a restaurant in Dalaam, this sauce can be added to any food and boost its effectiveness, where as the other condiments can only be added to certain foods. Versatility is the key here and it probably says something about how good this sauce is.

Best Medicine – Secret Herb

Remember how the Cup of Lifenoodles is able to cure any status effect, even waking up unconscious party members? This item is exactly like that except it's medicine instead of food. Not to dip into the realm of theories, but the Cup of Lifenoodles might even have some of these secret herbs mixed in with it. There is another medicine item called the Horn of Life that can do the same thing, but the Secret Herb is a little easier to get a hold of, so this item wins the slot.

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What did you think of this article?  What EarthBound items did you think deserved a highlight? What characters do you think have an arsenal worth showing off? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming!