The War Drum is a fantastic item in Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake, since it allows you to boost the attack of your entire party in battle. Even better is that it’s reusable, so you only need a single one. The problem is that there’s a high chance you will never see one, due to the way you have to obtain it. That’s because three of the enemies that can yield one require you to steal from it, an ability you don’t learn until you recruit the fourth party member (even then, they don’t learn it normally). The fourth enemy that has it, which can drop it normally, is only available in the postgame. This page will explore all of the enemies that can cough up the War Drum, as well as the best option to do so.

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The War Drum is an item that increases the party’s attack when used.

Oasis - Bag O’Laughs¶

The first enemy that has the War Drum is the Bag O’Laughs that can be found around Oasis. While this is pretty early in your adventure, you won’t have the means to actually try to farm one until a little later, since you don’t have the fourth party member yet. In fact, even if you do get the fourth party member, you’ll have to wait until you get the Magic Key, as the Steal Sickle Scroll is locked behind a door that requires it. So, if you wanted to farm the Bag O’Laughs, you have to wait a long time from first arriving in the Oasis area. The biggest problem with these is they are kind of weak and they will most likely be dying in a single hit, not to mention you have other enemies to contend with in the region.

Tower of the Moon - Rockbomb¶

Available after getting all of the Sigils, the Rockbomb in the Tower of the Moon is probably your best option for getting the War Drum prior to the postgame enemy. These enemies are relatively harmless, especially once you know the correct method in which to farm them. Once you have found a Rockbomb in the dungeon, get rid of every other enemy until it’s the only one left. When it’s alone, you can start working on a method, with the first thing you should do being to use Peronel’s Drain Magic to reduce its MP (it only has 12).

This will basically make the Rockbomb completely useless, with the only thing it can do being to observe throughout the entire battle. With that out of the way, the Hero/Gawain will be doing nothing at all, so they will just be defending throughout the entire thing. The other three characters will be performing actions. For the most part, Caradoc won’t be doing much, other than casting Fullheal on himself, but only after Bounce has been applied to him. Reflecting Fullheal from Caradoc onto the Rockbomb ensures that it remains alive until you can get the item.

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(1 of 4) Get into a battle and kill all other enemies except for a single Rockbomb.

You shouldn’t need to use Fullheal every single turn, unless you see Matilda get a critical hit, so you can do it like every other turn just to be safe. Of course, Peronel will be doing nothing but Bounce, so while it’s active, she can just defend. Lastly, Matilda will be doing nothing but Steal Sickle over and over. If you have a Glombolero, put it on Matilda to help with the MP-cost, although Steal Sickle is only 7 MP to begin with. Remember that the Star Sigil will allow you to recover some MP whenever you defend. Keep this pattern up until you finally secure the War Drum.

Uberkilling Machines¶

These powerful enemies aren’t normal ones you find, the first set at least, but event battles in the Northern Seabed Storeroom. This is only accessible after you are able to dive deeper into the ocean, so it’s not that much further than the Tower of the Moon. The biggest problem with this method is that the Uberkilling Machines are quite strong, but they have more HP and will be able to last longer with your attacks. Also, if you kill them, then the game autosaves and you won’t be able to respawn them. You can find more of these in the one postgame dungeon, but at that point, there are better methods.

Cave of Confusion - Hardy Hand¶

The second best method doesn’t really come into play until you unlock the Cave of Confusion, a postgame dungeon. In here, you can find Hardy Hands, enemies that can outright just drop the War Drum from defeating them in combat. Since there are ways to improve your drop rate (Pirate King’s Pendant; there are two), then you can simply just continually fight until you get one to drop. Also, since this is a postgame dungeon, there might not be too many chances left for you to use it, when compared to getting it from one of the other above methods.