Mother

Mother (also called EarthBound Zero) is the predecessor to EarthBound (Mother 2), the first game in the Mother series to be released in English. An English prototype exists but was never released. Mother has since been released on the Game Boy Advance as part of the Mother 1+2 compilation; this also has not been localized.

Table of Contents
This guide is written with the English language prototype in mind, although most of the time it will fit the Japanese version as well.

Naming confusion

 * See Mother/Naming differences for a complete list.

These are the names most commonly given as the names of the four main characters and the final boss, respectively:
 * Ninten
 * Ana
 * Loid
 * Teddy
 * Giegue

Instead we prefer the following names:
 * Ninten
 * Anna
 * Lloyd
 * Teddy
 * Giygas

The form "Ana" for a child born to English-speaking parents is rare, and the form "Loid" is even less common in English. We made these changes because the names would almost certainly have been localized this way. The Giegue/Giygas change is to make it clear that the alien menace in Mother and its sequel are the same. In Japanese, his name is Giigu, which might be rendered "Geeg". The EarthBound Zero prototype cartridge transliterates this as "Giegue" (still pronounced "Geeg"). When the sequel, EarthBound, was being prepared for its North American audience, he was tentatively named "The Geek", then when the game was released, the name was finalized as the more alien-sounding "Giygas" (pronounced GUY-gas).

Giygas is the only direct connection between the plots of Mother and EarthBound, so we feel it's important to cement this link. If you're playing the EarthBound Zero prototype, everywhere we write "Giygas", think "Giegue".

Ninten
That's you! Ninten is strong all around, his only weakness being that he never learns any PK attacks, and his Lifeup is weak (he has only Lifeup α throughout most of the game, and only gets Lifeup β near the end).

Preferred weapon: Hank's Bat

Anna
Anna is weak, and will never do serious physical harm to your enemies using a weapon. However, she can use the PK attacks, such as PK Fire and PK beam, and she learns Super Healing, which allows her to revive fallen comrades.

Preferred weapon: Iron Skillet (but boomerang is almost as good)

Lloyd
Lloyd is the "weakling", although he is much stronger than Anna. However, he has no PSI powers. Instead, he can use items such as bombs and plasma guns. Unfortunately, these rarely prove useful (the weapons are always either one-shot or broken easily). However, you should be glad he's around because he is needed to get through various parts of the game -- and he saves your life. He's also a decent attacker, nearly rivaling Ninten towards the end of the game.

Preferred weapon: Air Gun

Teddy
The Big Bad Boss of the Bla Bla Gang. He replaces Lloyd for the penultimate segment of the game. Although the B.B. Gang is generally incompetent, Teddy himself is downright dangerous with a bladed weapon, and will easily surpass Ninten in attack strength. He cannot use PSI.

Preferred weapon: Katana

Armor
Every character should be equipped with a Magic Coin, Gold Ring, and Water Pendant (H2O Pendant). The Water Pendant defends against fire attacks. Fire attacks are the most common elemental attacks you'll face, because certain enemies (Big Woodoh, Dust Ball, Energy Robot, Super Energy) will explode after you defeat them, dealing fire damage to each character. While you can always run away from them instead, the damage isn't that bad if everybody has a Water Pendant.