Castlevania Portrait of Ruin (Nintendo DS) Nest of Evil guide Author: _FifhWarrior_ _______________________________________ Contents: _______________________________________ - Introduction [int] - How to unlock NoE [unl] - Suggested Equipment [eqp] - Layout of NoE [lay] - General tips [tip] - Stage One [st1] - Stage Two [st2] - Stage Three [st3] - Stage Four [st4] - Stage Five [st5] - Stage Six [st6] - Stage Seven [st7] - Conclusion [con] - Contacting me [cme] - Credits [cre] - Legal stuff [lgl] _______________________________________ Introduction [int] _______________________________________ Hello, this is Fifth. Pardon the lack of snazzy ASCII and such in this guide! If you wish to, you can find me around Random Insanity, the board I frequent. I wrote this FAQ because a lot of people were having trouble with the Nest of Evil, and I think I'll be able to help them out with my 49 hours of playing this game @_@. This FAQ does contain loads of spoilers. You can search for the code in the Contents to get to specific part quickly. That's all, I think <_<; Let's go on to the main FAQ. _______________________________________ How to unlock the Nest of Evil [unl] _______________________________________ Talk to Wind and accept his quest called "Nest of Evil" and uncover at least 888% of the map. Then talk to him again, and we will say the gates to the Nest should be open now. Go to the entrance of the castle, the place where you had to stand together with your partner to make the bridge drop in the beginning of the game. At the bottom of this room, you will find a pit. Hop in ^_^ _______________________________________ Suggested Equipment [eqp] _______________________________________ Jonathan: Weapon: Holy Claymore OR True Vampire Killer OR Stellar Sword Subweapon: Cross OR Shuriken Body: Lorica OR Platinum Plate OR Scout Armour Head: Attica Helmet Legs: Samurai Leggngs (lawl, character limits) Accesory 1: Shaman Ring if you want to level up fast OR Master Ring if you want to master subweapons quick OR Miser Ring OR Assassin Cape Accesory 2: Shaman Ring if you want to level up fast OR Master Ring if you want to master subweapons quick OR Miser Ring OR Assassin Cape Dual Crush: Depends Charlotte: Weapon: Tome of Arms 3 OR Tome of Arms X (hardly matters) Magic: Depends Body: Robe Decollete Head: Arachne Hennin Legs: Artemis Shoes Accesory 1: Paludamentum Accesory 2: Venus Brooch Dual Crush: Depends Note: It doesn't really matter what armour you use. ______________________________________ The layout of the nest [lay] ______________________________________ There are seven "stages". Each comprise of two floors, and have one boss from Dawn of Sorrow each. Before the first stage, there is a Warp room and Save room. The remaining levels (except the last one) have a Warp room which you can use to warp here in order to Save your progress and recover health and Mana. Once you enter a stage, you can't exit untill you beat it and emerge on the other side of it. ______________________________________ General tips [tip] ______________________________________ The room doors open after one minute. Exploit this factif you can't beat the room. Equip 2 Blessed Ankh (dropped from Amalaric Sniper) beforew you heal. That make each heal item recover more HP. Carry 9 High Potions, 9 High tonics, a few Anti-venoms, and several food items. Master the Cross. Unlock the Vampire Killer's true power. Buy the holy Claymore from Vincent. ______________________________________ Stage One [st1] ______________________________________ Room 1: 1 Quetzacol, 2 Dead Warrior Easy. The quetza will lunge toward you. Either use the Holy Clyamore (HC) or similar overhead swing weapon to bring it down, or just jump and hit it. Move forward and pick off the Dead Warriors one by one. Room2: 2 Demon, 1 Bone Ark Can get messy. Quickly move forward, and smack the Bone Ark dead with the Cross and a Holy or Whip type weapon. HC and VK work cool. This Bone Ark can deal tremendous damage with it's bolt, so flee if it manages to launch one. Meanwhile, the Demon would have appeared. Turn around and kill it with The Cross and HC/VK. It's imple now, just one more Demon ahead. They drop Super Tonics, btw =P Room 3:6 Lightkeepers, 2 Mothman Can get messy. Run ahead, thrown Shuriken or Cross, and just keep smacking it with your weapon, VK is good against Lightkeepers. Jump to dodge their fire waves. The Mothman should be easy with only 80 HP. If it poisons you, use Cure Poison Magic or Anti-Venom. The trouble here is that it can get tought to see what's happening with the Mothman and the lightkeeper's crazy after death animations. =/ Room 4: 4 Minotaur Ugh. You need brute force. The VK critical works great here, with them being weak to Fire AND whip. Also, throw a few Crosses while you are at it. Slide underneath them when they jump and chop with their axes, FLEE or Griffon wing like crazy when they breathe their petrifying breath, and laugh when they shower you with pebbles. Room 5: 1 Final Guard, 4 Jack O'Bones Easy. Run forward and kill the two Jack O'Bones fast with the Cross or VK, and then run back and launch "1000 Blades" at the Final Guard just after he finishes an attack or his defensive pose. It should only be a matter of hitting him a couple more times after that. There are two more Jack O'Bones to pick off easily one by one. Room 6: 1 Balore omgwtfbossRUN! Not really though, he isn't too hard >_> Balore is weak to Swords, so Stellar Sword is good. Shurikens are awesome here. Run up close to Balore and start smacking him. Dodge his arm, which doesn't do too much damage anyways, it should be pretty easy. Now, when you see the dude start gathering violet light around his eye, DUCK! He will launch a devastating beam, which will knock you to the left side of the room. Continue and this boss will fall easily. Tchah, I expected more from such a tough looking guy. End stage 1. Heal and save if need be. ______________________________________ Stage Two [st2] ______________________________________ Room 1: 7 Dragonfly, 2 Buster Armour ANNOYING AS HELL. e_e Stellar Sword's critical or Chain lightning works great at killing those pesky Dragonflies and putting a dent into the Buster Armour. When the Buster Armour launches it's missile, HIT THE MISSILE AND FLEE. It deal monstropus damage if it hits. You can actually knock it back at the BAs, btw ;) Get the BAs from a disance using the VK. Room 2: 2 Heavy Armour, 1 Ruler's sword Easy. Quickly go near the Heavy Armour, duck and swing the HC. That should also protect you against the Ruler's Sword. The RS is a tricky enemy. You cant go too close to it. Crosses work great gainst them, and if they're really getting you mad, use "Holy Lightning". Overkill, but a life-saver in nasty if health is low. Another Heavy Armour, take it out. Room 3: 2 Dogether, 2 Skeleton Blaze, 1 Cave Troll Can be hard unles you're careful. Kill the Dogether first, then stand back and Use the Summon Gunman magic to take the Skelton Blazes and the Cave Troll easily. If you are pursued by a Skeleton Blaze, I'd recommend being Jonathan , killing it, and using "R" to use Summon Gunman instead of becoming Charlotte. Room 4: 9 Armoured Fleamen, 9 Fleamen, 1 Guillotiner Nasty. Immediately duck hown and keep swinging the HC or similar overhead swing weapon like crazy. You will demolish a few AF, who will then become Fleamen. Keep swinging, and they will die when they jump at you. Then go ahead, take out the Guillotiner, and duck immediately and repeat the process. Room 5: 1 Iron Golem Hardeeharhar. Pathetically easy. They watered down the Iron Golem a lot from Dawn. Nothing is effective on this guy,just keep smackin him and running back to avoid his slllooowww asss hellll attacks. Room 6: 1 Gergoth Easy. Also toned down severly from DoS, where he was a PAIN to kill. Seriously, he kicked Soma's rear ends so much. o_o;; And don't even talk of Julius Mode... Anyways, launch a "1000 Blades" on this dude ASAP, and then throw a few crosses , do a few Summon Gunmen, swing a few HC..what? It died already? Lulz. His attacks are quite nasty, though. He will jump at you for MASSIVE DAMAGE. This can be avoided by moving back and ducking, or by the riskier and cooler option of sliding underneath him when he jumps. This allows you to be on his other side and give him a nice "1000 Blades" while he turns slower than a dial- up connection streams youtube videos. He will start sucking in whilte blobs of energy, this means he is going to do a crazy beam attack. Run really close to him, duck, and keep smacking him. He will also suck in air and then fall down heavilty on you. Just go close and duck. WEIRD GLITCH: Sometimes when you enter the room and istead of moving even a bit just do a "1000 Blades", it goes right through Gergoth. It's like he isn't there. weird. Moving makes him come alive, though. This was in the US version. I'd love it if someone with an European version told me if this happens with them too or not. Heal, save. ______________________________________ Stage Three [st3] ______________________________________ Room 1: 2 Skeleton Farmer, 3 Lesser Demon Tricky. Come in, go ahead as much as you can without walking into the Une, throw 2 crosses. That shpuld do 2 LDs in. Then Grifon Wing, get onthe other side of the room. Kill the LD with Crosses, and then keep smacking the skeleton Farmer while he is still facing the other side. The trick is to quickly get on the other side of the Farmers with Griffon wing. Room 2: 1 Alastor Childplay. Jump, throw cross, repeat. Keep inmind to hit the SWORD. The shadow is harmless. Also, keep pelting it with crosses, don't give it a chance to attack. Room 3: 3 Demon Head, 2 Yorick. Tricky. Take it easy here in this room. Both the Yorick and the Demon Head are weak to Holy. First take out the Demon Head one by one, then just wait till the skull of the Yorick comes flying to you. Jump over it, calmly wait for the Yorick, and Cross and HC/VK it. Repeat for the second Yorick. Then stomp on the skulls for fun. >=) Simple! Room 4:5 Gold Skeleton Hard. These gold skeltons are tricky blighters. The trick to getting them is to use an overhead swing weapon (HC FTW). HC is also Holy, which is good against these skeleton. Always go near, HOP and hit them. This way, the bones they throw are destroyed by the weapon's swing, and they take damage. You'll be visiting this room a lot, believe me. For the Gold rings these critters drop. Room 5: 5 Double Axe Armour HARD. Ayyah, these monsters are insane. Run to them, quickly critial VK, and then hug the ceiling with Griffon wing. Repeat as soon as their tirade of attacks halt. Chain lightning works great here, but while you're casting it, you will get hit by the DAAs. And once you take ONE hit, they'll not let you go easily. And especially when you're Charlotte and thus unable to do Griffon Wing It takes a lot of practise for these guys, as they have loads of defense too. You'll surely get hit at least once in this room. If anyone has a good strategy for this room, please send it to me. I'll have your babies. Room 6: 1 Zephyr Challenging. Also, The Zephyr Song by Red Hot Chili Peppers. FTW! >_>;;; Anyways, it's very tempting to do a 1000 blades on this guy, but he will ALWAYS interrupt your attack rudely and swipe at you =( At higher levels, that doesn't matter a lot, but at lower levels, the damage is significant. The way to bring this boss down is simple. He is weak to both whip and fire. VK's critical, or less preferably the Flame Whip will make mince meat of this guy in NO TIME. HARHARHARHARyes. =/ Crosses are also great, like always. If for some reason you want to, non fully charged Summon Gunman is good too. Now the beasts attacks.He will sometimes make the background go blue. When this happens, just keep on trying to do the Griffon Wing. You will dodge the ensuing slash easily. He will also just slash at you. Same, Griffon wing. He also throw 3 knives at you, which can be knocked away or Griffon Wing'D. Now his crazy bit is when he jumps up, rebounds against the ceiling, and jumps down, throwing a dagger at you. This attack does bullplop damage, but can hit quite often. I'd say the easiest way is too keep still till you see the dagger coming, then do a slide. His death animation is pretty cool =) Heal save. ______________________________________ Stage Four [st4] ______________________________________ Room 1: 1 Amducias Tricky. It's very easy to die here. This beast will lunge at you, and will charge up his electric attack, which is GO PIKACHU GOGO ASHCHU AIM FOR THE HORN kind of strong. And that's STRONG.It will kill you easily if you let it hit you The trick is once again Griffon win. Gotta love the skill, eh? =) Just Griffon wing when you see him chargin' his lasers and about to go SHOOP DA WOOP. Only attack him when you're facing his back. Shuriken/Cross him, and keep on VK criticalling him. He'll die soon. And he has AWESOME drops =) I got my Thor' s bellow while fighting him to get info for this FAQ, btw. That's a lot of refernces for a room o_o Room 2: 2 Alastor, 2 Gold Skeleton Fairly easy. You know how to deal with these enemies, HC rocks here. Take out Alastor first using the Cross. Room 3: 3 Bone Ark Tricky. Rush close to them, spam the Cross and VK's critical (weak both to whip and fire =D), and Griffon Wing the MOMENT you see them about to fire their laser. Land on their other side, rinse, repeat. Room 4: 10 Vice Beetle Easy. Equip the VK before entering the room. As soon as you enter, start whipping like crazy. CRAZY. Don't let them poison you. Stand up only when both waves of VBs (5 each wave) are finished. If you got poisoned, Cure Posion Magic or Anti-venom. Room 5: 2 Ruler's Sword Tricky. VK > HC here for longer range. You don't wanna let these guys come close, or have enough time to pull off their uber attacks. Crosses are also good. Don't rush ahead too much, otherwise the second RS will also enter the action. If things get desperate, "Holy Lightning" will rescue. Room 6: 1 Aguni Difficult. Interesting tidbit: Aguni is the Sanskrit word for Fire. This boss is weak to Ice, but I don't recommend using Charlotte's Ice spells or Rahab's Frost weapon. The former because Aguni will devastate her before she can charge it completely, the latter because of bad range. I prefer HC over VK here for higher damage and more INT for doing Crosses, which is how you're gonna win over this boss. First of all, it's attacks. It will spit fire on the ground, which will spread out in a slow moving wave easily jumpable over. It will swoop across the screen , you're pretty much owned if you were jumping while he is doing that ^_^ He will also run after you and stomp at you with his hand, and this hits surprisingly often and hard. USE SPEED BOOST! Activate it with "L". This way you can run away fast enough after hurling Crosses at him, and be able to dodge his swoop and stomp attacks. Seriously, using that spell makes this fight MUCH easier. How to deal damage to this beast: don't trya nd hit him while he is stomping at you. You'll only get hit. Do it when he is spitting fire. Hammer at him with the HC, and throw Crosses at him. Keep doing it. This is a tough boss and you will die at his hands a few times, but practise and observing his atack pattern will help. HUGE TIP: Equip two Blesses Ankh when you're recovering health, it makes each item recover more HP. This will come in handy, as Aguni deals tons of damage. Save heal time. ______________________________________ Stage Five [st5] ______________________________________ Room 1: 2 The Creature This is madness...this is STAGE 5 ROOM ONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! *kicks* Ahem, yes. This is the toughest room there is in the Nest of Evil, IMO, not including the boss rooms. The Creature(s) will either open up their elbows and fire at you with a machine gun in a sweeping wave motion, or launch a poweful missile at you, or jump at you, or grab you if you're close enough and zap you, OR *gaspgasp* throw bolts of lightning at you. Impressive repertoire, eh? How to deal with these Frankenstein rip-offs, then? The most popular method and the one I recommend is mentioned first: QUICKLY tap "L" to get Charlotte to do a Dark Rift magic. This sucks up the machine gun bullets and the Missiles, thus freeing you from the two most often used attacks of the creature! While Charlotte is doing the Dark Rift, go forward and start Spamming Crosses (preferred over Shuriken here) and the VK's criotical. Deals delicious damage. Now, they will launch the bolts at you, which deal goodish damage and very hard to dodge. The only thing that you can do against this attack is to get really close to the Creature about to pull it off. Charlotte will have enough defenses to stand quite one of these without stopping her Dark Rift. Simply move fast to dodge the Creature's stomps and grabs. REMEMBER, THE DOORS OPEN AFTER ONE MINUTE OF BATTLING! Just take minimal damage till then, and USE THE GRIFFON WING to get to the other side and flee. Note: It's tempting to want to use "1000 Blades" here, but seriously, not worth it. You will get interrupted by some attack for sure, and anyways, we're aiming to survive a minute and then flee, not necessarily do we have to kill Creatures Alternate startey contributed by rollingrockhsp from the Gfaqs PoR board: For the room with 2 "The Creatures"... It seems like everyone's allergic to using Charlotte, but she's far better for this battle. Equip her with Tempest and 1,000 Blades. Immediately upon entering the room, use 1,000 Blades. Get close, but not close enough for one of the Creatures to grab you and slap down a fully charged Tempest. All of his machine gun fire and missiles will be completely redirected by the wind! Whack away a few times while the Tempest is running, but don't get too close. Toss in a 1,000 blades from time to time, rinse and repeat. I tried this strategy out, and it indeed does work well. I'd say do a few "1000 Blades" as possible, Charlotte is always hit while doing them. It's a bit hard to pull of a cully charged Tempest magic, but it deal good damage. I'd say this method is good when you've gone through Nest of Evil a few times already and are looking for new, cooler ways to deal these crittersdamage ;) Thanks a lot, rollingrockhsp! Room 2: 9 Cave Troll Difficult. Remember these critters from AoS and DoS? Haha, it was so funny when I encountered them and was all "Aha, cakewalk!" and then was suddenly brutally tongue-impaled and shiny magic'D to death. =/ Everyone hates Cave Trolls. For this room, DO NOT RUSH AHEAD! Take them on ONE BY ONE. These people are weak to both Fire and whip, so VK's critical is _very_ cool. However, I have a better alternative. Just stay far away, be Charlotte, and kil them with fully charged Summon Gunman magic! In case the Cave Troll survives it , just switch to Jonathan and whip it before it can come closer. Easy ;) Don't ever get close to these bastards. Or rather, do it once just for the comedy >_> They pull off this obscenely overpowered magic that is guaranted deah =( Room 3: 1 Iron Golem, 2 Double Axe Armour. Difficult. As soon as you come in, do a few Chain Lightning magic. Remember, Griffon Wing is your pal for avoiding DAAs attacks.Just keep avoiding the DAAs, kill them with Chain Lightning, and then the slowpoke Iron Golem is cakewalk. Also, note, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get on the other side of Iron Golem by Griffon Wing without getting hit. I tried a lot, it doesn't happen even when he is bending over. Room 4: 9 Yorick Tricky. Chain Lightning and Griffon wing are your pals. Be Jonathan, and keep Griffon winging. Come down when possible and Use Chain Lightning by tapping "L" You'll get through pretty soon. Room 5: 9 Ripper, 1 Nyx. Tricky. Don't let yourself get surrounded. As soon as you enter the room, start Griffon Winging like crazy, get to the right of the Nyx, drop and IMMEDIATELY pull off a Holy Lightning. Ta-da, everything dead! Maybe one or two Rippers survived, Chain Ligntning will take excellent care of them. Room 6: 1 Abbadon Very Difficult. Remember thios guy from DoS? Well, he has been toned down a bit but he is still the most threatening thing in the Nest of Evil. Take a deeeeeep breath. Equip the Cross, the Holy Claymore, and the Grand Cruz. His attacks: he will jump at you. How exciting >_> Just move and dodge the over weight insect. Now, he will wave his thingie in the shape of the formation of the swarm of Locusts that are just about to fill the screen. This is terribly dangerous: get caught once, and you're pretty much dead. The Locusts will keep on swarming through you, dealing multiple hits. Deadly. He has these shapes: 1) Straight horizontal: Duck, TIME IT WELL, and swing the HC. If you do it in just the right time, the swing will cancel out all the Locuts in this wave. 2) Upside down "L": Run up to Abbadon, and initiate the Grand Cruz. if you do not have the Grand Cruz, flee to the side of the room from where the Locusts will and stick to the wall. Gran Cruz is vastly preferred for the juicy damage it doles out. 3) "U" shape. Run to the center of the room, and keep Griffon Winging. Easy! =D 4) "C" shape. Run toward him, jump to avoid the bottom wave, and drop down just in time to avoid the upper wave. Or just do a Grand Cruz =) How to harm him: He is weak to Sword and Holy. HC rocks here! Throw two Crosses at him and hack away viciously with the HC. Stop attacking and go defensive when you see him initiating a Locust swarm, though. That's all strategy that I can suggest to you. It takes loads of practise for this guy. =/ ______________________________________ Stage Six [st6] ______________________________________ Room 1: 1 Vapula, 1 Amducias Difficult. As soon as you enter, Griffon Wing to the other side of the Vapula, land, and smack him with Crosses and HC/VK. As soon as he dies, Hover over the Amducias untill he starts his lightning attack, then fall on his other side and smack him with Crosses and VK/HC. Just remember to start Griffon winging again when his attack stops. No risks here, as his attack is devastating if it hits. Room 2: 2 Amalaric Sniper, 1 Heavy Armour Easy. Neither the HC or the VK is really good here. Equip some good Axe, jump and kill the Amalaric Snipe before dealing with the HA, who'll be busy swinging his thingie. As soon as AS dies, get close to the HA, and start swinging your weapon. There's another AS furher into the room. Room 3: 9 Old Axe Armour Easy. Be Charlotte, and keep on doing non-fully charged Chain Lightnings. It will kill 2 OAAs, keep doing it, don't give them a chance to attack. Room 4: 1 Wyvern, 2 Cave Troll Tricky. As soon as you enter, do a "L" tap Summon Gunman and hurl a cross. That will take care of the Cave Troll. Then do your best to dodge Wyvern's attacks, and kill it with Crosses and the VK. There's another Cave Troll further ahead, Do a "L" tap Summon Gunman and hurl a cross for him too. It's important to not let this guy get close to you. Room 5: 2 Malphas Cakewalk. "L" tap Summon Gunman and hurl a cross, swing the HC/VK. Take them on one by one. Room 6: 1 Fake Trevor, 1 Fake Sypha, 1 Fake Grant Cakewalk. Hug the left wall, wait for Grant to get out of the way, launch a 1000 Blades. Griffon wing to the right wall. More 1000 Blades. Ignore Sypha and Grant. 3 or 4 1000 Blades will kill Fake Trevor. Then go underneath Sypha and just keep swinging the HC, regardless of what magic she is doing (unless it is the petrifying wind). Get out of the way if Grant is directly above you. After Sypha dies, kill the pathetic rant bu the HC. Eww. Such lameness. What the hell did they do to the trio? Ugh. ______________________________________ Stage Seven [st7] ______________________________________ Room 1: 1 Doppelganger lol wot a nub kind of cakewalk. Talk about anti-climaxes >_> Before you enter the room, de-equip EVERY SINGLE PIECE of equipment. The poor Doppelganger will copy you. As soon as you enter the room, equip evrything. Then win. Use 1000 Blades and Griffon wing. Ahahaha, how pathetically easy >_> If you don't want to fo the equipment trick, just do the Griffon Wing and 1000 Blades combo. Easy win. ______________________________________ Conclusion [con] ______________________________________ Well, there you are. Nest of Evil is quite easy after you practise a lot. Keep going, equip 2 Shaman Ring if you're leveling up or 2 Master rings if you're out to master a sub-weapon. Have fun! =) ______________________________________ Contacting me [cme] ______________________________________ My email ID is fifthwarrior@gmail.com Include Nest of Evil in the subject. Send me any sort of criticism, positive or negative. Even crazy flames are fun to read on long winter evenings. Send me better strategies and stuff, or correct any mistakes I have made except for typos. Don't send me spam. Expect a reply in 2-3 days. ______________________________________ Credits [cre] ______________________________________ Summer holidays for making me bored enought o actually write a FAQ >.>; Me, for writing it <.<; CjayC, for making Gfaqs and accepting my FAQ (-10 cool points for not visiting Random Insanity, thoguh XD) Konami, for making kickass games. You, for reading it. I'm touched! ;_; Rick Rack Roo, for the Legal section I copied from him n_n rollingrockhsp, for the alternate strategy for the 2 Creatures. Darth Nemesis, for telling me that EVERY room opens after a minute! >_> Boxhound, Magmaman70, colt85 and TeppinWhite for being cool and tryin to help me. Appreciated a lot, guys. =) ______________________________________ Legal stuff [lgl] ______________________________________ This document is Copyright 2006 by _FifthWarrior_. This FAQ may only be used by GameFAQs.com and by no other site.This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. If any help with this is needed, please contact fifthwarrior@gmail.com All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.