The Guardian Legend Walkthrough/Full FAQ Copyright (c) Jeremy Jusek Version 1.000 This FAQ was last updated by DarkFury3827 October 4th, 2006. To contact me pertaining to something about this FAQ, send an e- mail at jam003@marietta.edu. Please mark down your email with a title that makes sense, because if I get something that says "Hey, I've got something that can help you out!"... well, I'd probably just disregard it as spam. Any emails are appreciated, because if there mistakes I'd like to have them corrected. And if you liked the guide, I'd like to know that as well. Enjoy! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Concerning only the first version of the FAQ-- Some of the bosses are listed as a random bunch of letters since at the time of writing them I didn't have the names of the bosses. I have them now, but won't have time to update the FAQ for some time. So, if you see "isdaofnhsafk" as a boss, don't get worried. A. Introduction -Controls -Reading and Using Menus B. Messages of a Lost Friend C. Character Progression -Items -Data Tables D. Special Weapons E. Bosses/Enemies -Bosses -Mini-bosses -The Bad Guys F. Walkthrough 1. Using the Walkthrough 2. Entering NAJU/NAJU Overworld 3. Area 1 (Ocean) 4. Area 2 (Ocean) 5. Area 3 (Jungle) 6. Area 4 (Jungle) 7. Area 5 (Stellar) 8. Area 6 (Stellar) 9. Area 7 (Organic) 10. Area 8 (Organic) 11. Area 9 (Wasteland) 12. Area 10 (Wasteland) 13. Corridor 21 14. Final Boss G. Lost Frontier -Background -Discoveries H. Secrets I. Passwords J. Legal Information K. Update Information L. Special Thanks The most important thing first... I designed this FAQ so anybody could use it. If you're reading through the controls and feel that I am insulting your intelligence for how slowly I explain it, I'm sorry, but I wanted to cover everything thoroughly. Besides, I doubt any person who has played this game for more than an hour would need any information out of the Introduction! ***Use Ctrl + F keys to open a search bar*** ----------------------------------------------------------------- A: Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to The Guardian Legend! This is a game that is more in depth than most NES games of its time, and I still find it enjoyable to play. First things first... this guide is designed to be more than just a walkthrough. I have included information on all the secrets, passwords, information and advice on enemies as well as how your character can advance throughout the game. If this guide could use any additional info that you find lacking, please let me know and I can have it added in... but my hope is to have just about everything covered as needed. If for whatever reason you have not yet played the game, there are two modes of play: a spaceship mode and an overhead mode. During the spaceship mode you travel down places called "corridors" fighting monsters and robots that are thrown at you, where the environment is very linear. The overhead mode takes place in an environment that looks very much like the original Legend of Zelda for the NES. You can walk around, shoot enemies, and choose in what direction you travel in. --Controls-- The controls are quite simple... the D-pad is for moving your character around, regardless of what mode you are in. The B button fires your standard gun, while the A button fires any special weapons that you might have selected. The start button pauses and the select button opens the menu screen. Pretty simple? That's good. --Reading and Using Menus-- Next is the menu at the bottom of the screen, which tells you a number of different things. The menu is broken down to look a little like this: SC 0 CHIP 50 SHOT 0 <3 8 [================] AREA 0 X11 Y12 Now, let's break it down. Your score is first, listed as SC (More on the importance of your score in the Character Progression part of the FAQ). Then your chips are next, which you RPG fans can think of as total MP/mana/"magic power". All the way on the right is SHOT, which only displays a number if you have a special weapon selected. This number displays the number of times you can use that special weapon before your power or chips are depleted. Once again, the Character Progression section will explain this all in better detail. Below these stats you have your health bar... and that "<3" is my attempt to create a heart. You can use either the bar or the number value to the right of the heart to determine how much health you have left. You start out with a maximum of eight for your health, but you can raise this max throughout the course of the game. Underneath the all-important health bar is the Area, as well as the X and Y co-ordinates of the screen you are standing in. The Area will tell you what respective corridor's "turf" you're walking on. (ie. Walking in the area containing Corridor 3's dungeon will display Area 3) If you press "Select" you will open your menu screen. For those Zelda fans out there, switching in and out of this screen will bring forth some deja vu. At the top of the screen is your menu. Underneath that is a map, which will look dismally small and pathetic at the beginning of the game. More portions of the map appear as you unlock keys... which are coincidentally displayed to the right of the map. Also on the right is the maximum amount of chips that your character can currently reach, along with his defense and attack power. (When I refer to attack or defensive power anywhere in this guide, I will say the number of guns or shields displayed on this screen. For instance, 'attack power of 3' means that you have 3 guns) At the bottom you will find any extra 'special' weapons that you have unlocked. There are twelve extra weapons altogether, and you can upgrade each weapon a total of two times. (Except for one, it doesn't need upgraded, woot) If you have NO USE selected instead of a special weapon, then you're A button just won't shoot anything. Above the weapons and to the right of the map are two lines that read WEAPON POWER and USE CHIP. The weapon power displays the respective power of each weapon, and the use chip shows how many chips it takes to active/fire each weapon. ----------------------------------------------------------------- B: Messages of a Lost Friend ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Long ago, and alien race sent a huge world hurtling toward the earth, loaded with a cargo of mysterious life forms. You must battle your way deep within the alien world to destroy its vicious inhabitants. You are the guardian of the earth and your saga will become the guardian legend." This is the story you see when you initially start the game and leave the screen running for a couple of moments. The planet that you are on is hurtling towards Earth with aliens that would destroy it if the planet ever got there (As if a planet larger than Earth's moon running into Earth wouldn't destroy us by itself)... so naturally your goal is to infiltrate the planet, and finding a way to stop its advance on Earth. When you first start the game, you are (dsvoghsdnglkh) and you are flying across the surface of this alien planet called NAJU looking for a way in. The very first battle is not tough, but look to the walkthrough for details if you are having trouble. Once you beat the first boss and land on the planet, you find this cryptic message by someone who once lived on NAJU: "If someone is reading this... I must have failed. This star 'NAJU' was our home, but we were invaded by evil life-forms. Everyone except me was killed. I am going to try to activate the self-destruct device. If I fail, I would like you to do this task so this cannot happen to any other race. The self-destruct mechanism is protected by a safety device which is located in the underground corridors. Remove each seal and go deep inside NAJU. If you destroy all the safety devices, the self-destruct sequence will be activated. I don't have much time. I hope this message will not be read by anyone... ...it will mean that I have failed." Throughout the rest of the game you can find rooms where this person has left messages purposely for you to find to help you out and make your life a bit easier as you navigate the depths of NAJU. Here I will like all the possible messages you can get from this anonymous friend, along with all of the tips he gives you of how to enter the main ten corridors. Corridor Tip #1 - "To remove the seal at corridor No.1, fire at the gate." Corridor Tip #2 - "To remove the seal for Corridor No.2, touch everywhere." Corridor Tip #3 - "There is no cow level above and beyond what is important. Do you really think you can survive everything if you continue on this path that you have chosen for yourself? Somehow I don't think that such a thing would be true for you to accept. If you are rereading this speech, and cannot remember why, then I think it is important that you do." Corridor Tip #4 - Corridor Tip #5 - Corridor Tip #6 - "I set seal 6 very well; you will need a special weapon to break it." Corridor Tip #7 - Corridor Tip #8 - "To remove seal 8, set your weapon to 'NO USE' and fire." Corridor Tip #9 - Corridor Tip #10 - Room X10, Y13 - "I put some weapons in these boxes. Take them out of the boxes to use them. Some weapons have been stolen by some of the life-forms; if you need these weapons you will have to destroy the life-forms. All the weapons need Power Chips. You must search for them." Room X9, Y13 - "I had all the corridors sealed. If you need to know how to remove the seal, ask the person who sealed it. To remove the seal at corridor No.1, fire at the gate. All the rooms leading to the corridors are locked, so use the "warp panel" to get into the room. To use the "warp panel", blast through the cover. You will also need a key for the panel." ----------------------------------------------------------------- C: Character Progression ----------------------------------------------------------------- This game is surprisingly complex when it comes to how your character can grow stronger. Every stat that you have within the game can be increased. How much extra playing you do besides the main corridors will directly affect how much of a monster you can become by the end of the game. (And how easy each corridor is, of course) First off, you should get familiar with the items you can pick up: --Items-- Blue Chip - Refills your health by 3/4 of a bar and gives you 20 chips Red Chip - Refills your health by 2 bars and gives you a grand total of 200 chips Heart - Refills your health by 5 bars Energy Tank - Complete refills your health Gun - Raises your maximum attack by one (LOOK FOR THESE!!) Shield - Raises your maximum attack by one (LOOK FOR THESE!!) Firing Speed Boost - Raises your firing speed - Note - this power-up looks like a special weapon, but is just a bunch of arrows that look like this: ">>>>" Blue Lander - Raises your maximum health by one Red Lander - Raises your chip max (ALSO IMPORTANT!) - Note - the amount that your chip maximum is raised increases the more you raise it... below I have listed the amount that your maximum number of chips raises each time As you can see, your stats can be raised by finding certain items. Many mini bosses in the overhead world will yield a shield or gun, and you can find the Landers by just wandering around NAJU. However, you can also raise your maximum health another way... by leveling up. When you reach a certain high score, the bonus music will sound and not only will your maximum life increase by one bar, but your character will also have his top speed increased by a little bit, which makes you faster in the overhead view and the spaceship mode. Finally, there is another interesting thing to note about the maximum number of chips you have. After certain upgrades, your basic gun has a wider spread to the bullets it fires. For instance... after your first maximum chip upgrade, your gun goes from shooting one bullet to three bullets at a time, with all three bullets being very close together. If you use any of your special weapons and your chip total falls below 100, you once again have the single shot gun. After several upgrades, your gun fires six then eight bullets per firing of your weapon, and the bullets themselves are very spread out. Whether or not your gun is more powerful I am not sure, but I would appreciate it if someone was able to prove whether or not the actual power of your gun increased. (Besides the obvious fact that it is firing more bullets that is) So, as a general rule, try to keep your total number of chips from falling too low. --Data Tables-- Now, the long awaited data tables. If you find any information that is incorrect, (I found all of the data myself, it might be botched or not 100% accurate) let me know please! --High Scores to Hit for Levels Up-- (Each increase raises your top speed and your maximum health) Lvl 1... You begin at first level Lvl 2... 30,000 pts. Lvl 3... 100,000 pts. Lvl 4... 500,000 pts. Lvl 5... 1,000,000 pts. Lvl 6... 2,000,000 pts. I've never gotten to three million points, but it is my belief that your "level" increases every million thereafter. (2,532,690 is the highest high score I've gotten so far) --Maximum Chip Increases-- (Find the Red Landers to get a maximum chip increase) Base - 50 chips Increase #1 - 100 chips Increase #2 - 200 chips Increase #3 - 400 chips Increase #4 - 800 chips Increase #5 - 1200 chips Increase #6 - 2400 chips Increase #7 - 4000 chips I have not gotten an eighth upgrade, but I believe this is as high of an upgrade as you can get. If anyone ever has a higher maximum, please let me know. Maximum possible health = 32 bars Maximum number of shields = 7 Maximum number of guns = 4 -Note- To hit 32 bars of health, it is impossible to do so in the game without cheating. Chances are by the end of the game your maximum health will be between 17-21. ----------------------------------------------------------------- D: Special Weapons ----------------------------------------------------------------- Each special weapon can either be found lying around NAJU, gotten as a reward for beating bosses or mini-bosses, or they can be bought from the various Landers that will sell them to you for chips. Since I'm unaware of any real names that the special weapons have, I just made up my own. I put asterisks next to the weapons that I find useful in any way, shape or form. The weapons are listed as they appear on the screen after you have all 12 from left to right, top to bottom. There are three "levels" to every special weapon that you unlock... finding/buying/winning the same weapon will simply upgrade the same version of the weapon that you already have. An upgraded weapon in all cases consumes more chips upon use, so I have listed in parentheses the chip cost to activate that weapon. (I'd like to thank SiliconHero for this practical format... please don't be angry that I used the same basic one! :P) (*) Bubble Shot - Fires a bubble in the direction that you hold on the D-pad... which means this weapon can be fired in any direction. Works decently well on bosses or enemies where you need to fire sideways. Level 1 (1 chip) Shoots a small bubble Level 2 (3 chips) Shoots a medium bubble Level 3 (10 chips) Shoots a large, fast bubble Reverse Wave Gun - Emits waves of energy around your character. Level 1 (1 chip) Fire a slow wave Level 2 (5 chips) Fires a faster wave Level 3 (40 chips) Fires the fastest, strongest wave in directions around your character (* * *) Wave Gun - This gun is absolutely incredible when it is fully upgraded. Not only does it go past most enemies even after hitting them, it is immensely powerful and very fast, all the while using up very few chips to fire. Perfect for end of the game combat. Level 1 (3 chips) Fires a small beam of energy (almost useless) Level 2 (7 chips) Fires a bigger, faster wave Level 3 (20 chips) Fires several circular waves that go through enemies after contact is made Bullet Shield - Creates a ball of energy that orbits your character. Quite useless actually, since the only time you'd ever use it is if you are in trouble, and it doesn't protect you enough to even bother pulling out into battle. Not only that, the speed it drains your chips makes it even less effective. Level 1 (3 chips) Energy ball is small Level 2 (6 chips) Energy ball is bigger Level 3 (30 chips) Energy ball is large, moving at a high speed Grenade - Launches a bomb that destroys enemies. Level 1 (2 chips) Small explosion Level 2 (5 chips) Moderate explosion Level 3 (20 chips) Large explosion (* *) Fireball - The fireball is worth using against bosses that doesn't move around too quickly that would get hit several times in a row by this move. This also works well when you need to clear a path directly in front of you, whether on the overhead map or in your spaceship mode. Level 1 (4 chips) Fireball is small Level 2 (12 chips) Fireball is larger Level 3 (30 chips) Fireball is large and fast Heat Seeking Missiles - The idea of having a heat-seeking gun is certainly appealing... but the problem is, the missiles can't take out everything around you fast enough, and they disappear too quickly, forcing you to re-fire every second or so. Level 1 (1 chip) Two quickly-absorbed missiles are fired Level 2 (8 chips) Two longer lasting missiles are fired Level 3 (120 chips) Fires two missiles that seek out the enemy for a good amount of time, which also move at a faster speed than the first two levels Circular Missile - This gun is probably the most useless in the game. It fires a missile that moves in a circular path upwards taking out anything in its path. However, you cannot fire this weapon again until it reaches the top of the screen, you have no control over it, and unless you follow it, it grants little to no protection. Really, the only time I could see it being useful is if you are expecting an enemy assault from one particular direction, in which case I'd find either the Wave Gun or the Fireball to be more practical regardless. My suggestion, leave it alone. Level 1 (3 chips) Spiral is small and slow, but it moves up quickly Level 2 (10 chips) Larger spiral at a medium speed Level 3 (30 chips) The bullet itself, the spiral and the rotation are both large and very quick. (*) Laser Beam - This weapon is the only weapon that can be used in flying mode, yet is powerful enough to hold its own weight. If you use it when you're getting beat down by two or three enemies, it is more powerful than the Wave Gun and more accurate and quicker than the Fireball, so I suggest to use it in those said tight spots. Chances are, you probably won't need to bust it out until the organic or wasteland levels. Level 1 (4 chips) Fires a single laser Level 2 (6 chips) Fires two lasers Level 3 (30 chips) Two very massive lasers are blasted, not only creating a shield for you but clearing everything in your path Laser Sword (Skywalker Upgrade) - Makes a sword about lightsaber length in front of you to take out any enemies that are in front of you. Okay, but there are better weapons. If you want to risk getting that close and personal, you might be better off to take your chances chucking grenades. Level 1 (4 chips) Sword's strength is weak Level 2 (8 chips) Sword is a little stronger Level 3 (30 chips) Sword of moderate to high power (* *) Reverse Laser Sword - This is much like the Laser Sword, however the "dual swords" are held to the left and right of your ship and they kill any enemies that are coming in from the sides. This is so ridiculously useful against bosses when you mean to stall for life or even to hit the bosses that you can't get underneath of, it's pretty sweet. Level 1 (5 chips) Swords' strength is weak Level 2 (10 chips) Swords are a little stronger Level 3 (35 chips) Swords of moderate to high power (* * *) Enemy Eraser - These "EE" weapons can be found in sets of 20 all over NAJU. They cannot be upgraded, and do not cost chips to use. EE's when used create a bright, white flash on the screen and wipe out any of the weaker enemies and they deal damage to the stronger enemies on screen. They are absolutely perfect for stalling for health while fighting bosses or for cutting down on the opposition when some of the corridor battles become crazy. Do not waste them! Obviously, with this many optional weapons to choose from, and seeing as how your supply is essentially (for all intensive purposes) limited, I'll list what I feel are the only guns you need to survive the game. I put emphasis on these guns specifically because, well, they work very well indeed. With this combination of guns to put your focus on, I'm pretty confident you won't need to open the menu for any others. EE (Used very conservatively) Wave Gun Reverse Laser Swords Fireball Maybe the Bubble Shot and Laser Beam. Beyond that, it's pretty simple no? ----------------------------------------------------------------- E: Bosses/Enemies ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Bosses-- Trap Doors The end boss of the entrance to NAJU. This boss is easy as long as you don't do anything rash or stupid during the fight. Keep towards the bottom of the screen and just fire away, moving left and right to avoid the bullets they fire at you. Every once in awhile the bullets or traps themselves will drop an item for you, but I doubt you'll need more than one or two. Blue Fleepa --Mini-bosses-- Rug Master I termed the name "rug master" because this monster starts off looking like one of the shuffling rugs, and then appears as what looks like a dog, and then disappears into the ground, leaving a rug behind for you to deal with. When the rug master appears in its dog form, fire until it begins to disappear below ground. Keep firing until the rugs appear, and blast them into oblivion. At first this mini-boss isn't terribly difficult, but the rug masters become far harder to deal with the further you get into the game. Later rug masters send out multiple rugs, which all take several shots to kill individually, and as a group, can deal massive damage to your character very quickly. Colors determine how tough they will be, as long as how many rugs they'll send after you once they disappear into the ground: Red - very unbelievably easy, 1 rug per disappearance Green Spider --The Bad Guys-- Asteroids - The very first thing you'll encounter in the Guardian Legend, asteroids are found in multiple places throughout the game. More than anything they are usually just a mild annoyance; another object on the screen that you have to dodge or blast on top of piles of enemies. Asteroids sometimes form rings and pile towards you. Just get to one side of the screen and dodge them. Rugs - probably the first enemy you'll find in your overhead view, these monsters look like carpets gliding across the screen. None are tough, and they only do damage to you if they run into you. Like most monsters in the game, there are several different colors of rugs, some stronger than others. Red is the weakest, and I believe tan or green is the strongest. (Check FAQ Updates to see when completion will occur) ----------------------------------------------------------------- F: Walkthrough ----------------------------------------------------------------- ***Use Ctrl + F to find specific Areas in this guide*** --1. Using the Walkthrough-- Okay, it is pretty simple. I have broken up the walkthrough so each Area has its own section. I will tell screen by screen how to get to both corridors within each Area, and then provide the co-ordinates to all of the extra tidbits and upgrades that can be found in every Area. I will also provide a rating of one asterisk through ten on how difficult each Area is compared to your level at that point in the game. For instance, I don't find either of the organic Areas nearly as tough to explore as the stellar Areas, yet they more difficult enemies. Finally, I'll provide a couple of trouble spots and things to look out for. At the end of each Area's section I'll have mini guides for each corridor. They'll have information such as the bosses, enemies, (star ratings still, woo!!) and some areas to watch out for while flying through them. The reason I'm not providing step-by-step instruction for a game like this is because it would be absolutely worthless. Many of the corridors have you traveling at speeds so high you can't pick up any health dropped by enemies, so I highly doubt you'd really look to see every single enemy that will be flying at you. This will take some player resourcefulness, because the corridors can be a bit rough. Not only that, but enemy-by-enemy guides for every Area and corridor would take absolutely forever, and I've only got so much time. --2. Entering NAJU/NAJU Overworld-- -Entering NAJU- Rating - * Boss - Trap Doors This is how the game begins, hurtling towards NAJU in your spaceship form. At first a couple of asteroids will rain down, and then eventually diamonds, shields and spinning crabs will also join in the fun. Take your time and enjoy yourself, because this battle is incredibly easy as long as you have basic motor skills intact. Fire away and avoid getting hit for the win. Trouble Spots - The only things that might catch you off-guard if you've never played this game before are the large rings of asteroids that will appear in front of you and then zoom towards your character. Just fly to one side that doesn't have other enemies hovering around you and lure the asteroids there, and then dodge at once. Or, equally effective is just waiting underneath and shooting at them as they fly at you, but you might get hit doing that. The boss itself is not tough, especially compared to the rest of the bosses in this game. Just keep your guard up, don't fly too close and take your time. Other than that, this beginning fight should be a piece of cake. -NAJU Overworld- After the beginning fight you'll find an interesting message by some previous occupant of NAJU. He tells you that you need to activate the self destruct sequence of NAJU and to do so, you need to unlock and destroy the first ten corridors on the planet. Who could ask for more fun, right? I'm going to go over some of the basic upgrades you want to get, so if you don't feel like you need upgrades or are looking for a challenge, skip to the next section. However, these can and will make your life a whole lot easier. First, walk out the right door. In the first box you see you will find a Firing Speed Boost. Below you lies a door to get a password for your saved game. Above you is a door that leads you to four rooms where Landers are selling items. I recommend buying the 50 chip item and getting the Wave Gun early. Moving to the right and down a screen is a place where you can refill health and chips. Now go right again, and there will be a large "E" in blocks spelled on the screen. Move up three screens to enter your first mini-boss battle. You'll fight a "Rug Master", who in turn gives you a Blue Lander as a prize. You should be also nearing your first level up, because you only need a score of 30,000 to get to it. Move six screens to the left to find the Bubble Shot in a screen with a bunch of butterflies whizzing in their hourglass pattern. Take it and move down two screens to find a Red Lander. Like your blaster a bit more now? Just wait to see what it looks like later... Move down another two screens to get to another mini-boss. This time it's a green spider, and the reward is the Bullet Shield. Move down a screen and then right to get the Laser Sword. Now go to the left again, and walk up four screens and to the left one screen. Head through the door, and you'll be standing at the entrance of the first corridor. Based off of the hint that your friend gave you, (if you found the message) shoot the main door to get inside. -Co-ordinates- X11, Y12 - Start of the Game X12, Y12 - Firing Speed Boost X14, Y9 - Mini-boss, Rug Master, Blue Lander X8, Y9 - Bubble Shot X8, Y11 - Red Lander X8, Y13 - Mini-boss, Green Spider, Bullet Shield X9, Y14 - Laser Sword --3. Area 1 (Ocean)-- Overall Rating - * Located off of the western side of the main map --Upgrades-- From the Corridor 1 room, walk up two screens through jellies, rugs and slimes. Move left three more screens, and still you find nothing worthwhile for your character. Move down twice more to find not only a junction, but the Reverse Wave Gun. Move down and then right to face a mini-boss, a green crab. Just stand very close to it when it appears and fire away. The closer you stand, the less chance any bubbles have of hitting you. Killing the crab gets you the Fireball! Woot! Moving down, you find a screen with butterflies and the Reverse Laser Sword. You're really rounding out your arsenal now... Head left four screens and up two. Those massive hollowed out arrows just point you in a circle, and there's nothing in that circular section of four screens. You should now be standing in a room with blue miniatures and some rugs. Head the only way you can... right. Follow the arrow and go up; there's nothing to the right. Keep following the linear path, collecting the energy tank on the way, all the way to Corridor 11. Don't enter Corridor 11 just yet, we'll come back to it. Instead, go through the portal at the top of the screen, and follow the path a couple of screens to come to a mini-boss at the very tip-top of Area 1. This time you'll be fighting a blue spider, which will move far faster than the green. Just move in a box pattern, and turn quickly to take pot shots. If you get barely scratched from this boss, he will take 6-7 bars of health down from you, so don't play around. After you kill him, you'll get a Red Lander and your chip max will be raised to 150. NOW head back to Corridor 11. -Co-ordinates- X6, Y10 - Corridor 1 X3, Y10 - Wave Gun X4, Y11 - Mini-boss, Green Crab, Fireball X4, Y12 - Reverse Laser Sword X0, Y9 - Energy Tank X1, Y8 - Corridor 11 X0, Y6 - Mini-boss, Blue Spider, Red Lander -Getting to Corridor 1- (X6, Y10) You find Corridor 1 before you ever get into Area 1. Corridor 1 Rating - * Boss - Blue Fleepa The majority of this level is quite easy. The beginning will hurtle green fish, seahorses and a few bubble/projectile towers at you. Most of the time, even if you get hit from these monsters, they drop health so frequently that the most you should ever be down is two or three bars, tops. I often get energy tanks in this level as well, so any worries about losing health should be nullified. I advise NOT to use any special abilities, so that your firepower is at its maximum for the boss. If you've been following this guide, you should have a 100 chip max, and if you use any of them, your firepower will decrease quite noticeably. Throughout the entire level there are green fish coming at you, as if sending seventy instead of ten would make any difference, but since some of the later corridors can be such a pain, I wouldn't complain about difficulty now. Trouble Spots - There are a couple of areas where some trenches open, spitting plankton at you, but if you sit at the bottom of the screen below the eye and just repeatedly fire away at it, the eye will be destroyed after a few moments. A couple of the parts where the seahorses come out may be rough for some people, just because of the mass quantities of seahorses zooming around, not to mention the other enemies on the screen. Once again, just sit at the bottom of the screen and hold the fire button down, aiming for enemies and getting health. This is probably the best sound tactic for the first few corridors. Finally a couple of those monstrous prehistoric butterflies come at you, with fish in the background as a minor annoyance. I'm not quite sure what these huge monstrosities are, but they will fly down to the bottom of the screen, turn upside down and move to the top of the screen, and then fly right towards your ship. Just sit underneath them and fire, and by the time they reach you, they'll be destroyed. After some camping and killing, you'll find the boss, the Blue Fleepa. Killing him awards you with your first key, which is shaped like a crescent moon, and the Circular Missile Gun. With Corridor 2 unlocked, there is no need to explore any of Area 1 or to enter Corridor 11, so if you are attempting to beat the game with as little upgrades as possible, skip the next section and go onto Area 2. -Getting to Corridor 11- (X1, Y8) To head straight to Corridor 11 from the Corridor 1 room, move in the following order of screens: up, up, left, left, left, down, down, left, left, up, left, up, right. Corridor 11 Rating - ** Boss - isdaofnhsafk The one thing to say about this corridor is that it is short. However, you'll notice some other differences that it has from Corridor 1 as well. The fish are red. Your flying speed through the level is faster, giving you less time to take out some of the prehistoric butterflies and towers. This corridor also introduces starfish, who have a far more erratic movement, and when they come out in groups, their chances of hitting you increase dramatically. All in all though, this level is not too tough. The boss is (isdaofnhsafk), so for the love of everything in heaven don't hit those damned pillars he drops beneath them... it doesn't take too much to lose nearly all of your health because of them. Even though you have to be careful, you're lucky, because what I consider the coolest end boss music in the game is played here. (It's not played that often either) Beating (askfjhsaf) provides you with the grenade... yay! Now, head onto Area 2. Trouble Spots - There are only a couple of parts that might be troublesome in this level. Really, most of the time the level seems bored and "forgets" to send enemies at you, and then when it does, it just starts with a trickle of red fish. However, the parts it does go crazy you don't want to lose too much health, because this end boss can be a pain in the neck. Near the beginning when you begin to see some towers, you know there's a mass of enemies coming up. You'll have on your hands fish, starfish, and a whole slew of towers. Near the end as well there is a mass of enemies, and you'll know they are arriving because the string of prehistoric butterflies has stopped. --4. Area 2 (Ocean)-- Overall Rating - * Area 2's entrance can be found below where Area 1 was, or in the southwestern part of NAJU. --Upgrades-- Follow the path for several screens upon entering Area 2. You'll find just the basic enemies... rugs and jellies. You'll also see a new enemy, flowers, which fly towards you at an alarming rate and take down a ton of health very quickly. However, killing the flowers not only gets you some good points, but flowers almost always drop some health. When you get to Corridor 12, it's probably a good idea just to take care of this dungeon now. The Corridor 2's boss is a royal pain, and you'll want every upgrade in order to take him down. Plus, this corridor isn't too terrible. If you do enter it, scroll down or search the Corridor 12 section. After picking up the Laser Beam from Corridor 12, head down screens until you see a big arrow pointing left. Disregard it and go right instead, where you will be squared off against a mini- boss. This is the blue crab, and beating him will get you a permanent raise to your attack power! A little advice, stay on the right side of the crab is you can, because his bubbles will not hit you if you manage to get on his right side. Either way you shouldn't have a problem, but it'll save health. Heading down just gives you the hint of how to open the Corridor 2 door that was sealed shut. Move left a couple of screens from the mini-boss area, and you'll find a Firing Speed Boost. If you move to the left one screen, you'll find one of those bubble-throwing vases and a couple of miniatures. Head down and you'll be in a shop. Make sure you have all 150 chips maxed out, because this is a chip store. A Lander will offer you a heart, a Bubble Shot upgrade, or a Firing Speed Boost. BUY THE FIRING SPEED BOOST! It is the only item that is permanent that is also useful. Trust me, you can max out your Bubble Shot without buying it here, and a heart you can get anywhere. Leave the store and walk underneath the red wall. Move up several screens, one screen up from where the wall ends. You'll be standing in an area that has butterflies. I'd kill them and try to get a red chip, because a mini-boss is one screen to the right. Whenever you're ready, move over to the right and prepare to fight. This boss is another Blue Spider, but his Red Lander upgrade will give you a chip max of 200, which will also spread out your gunfire once again. Head to the right two screens, and you'll find a Blue Lander just asking to be picked up. Head down a screen and to the left, and you'll see the entrance to Corridor 2, a.k.a. the Ocean's Royal Pain in the Butt. Touch all of the red squares surrounding the door to open the sealed gate, and enter the watery dungeon. After beating the second corridor, head to Area 3, which is not only a change of scenery, but also in the extreme southwestern part of the main map. -Co-ordinates- X4, Y15 - Corridor 12 X4, Y18 - Mini-boss, Blue Crab, Attack Upgrade X2, Y17 - Firing Speed Boost X1, Y18 - Lander's Chip Store X1, Y14 - Mini-Boss, Blue Spider, Red Lander X3, Y14 - Blue Lander X2, Y16 - Corridor 2 -Getting to Corridor 2- (X2, Y16) From the Corridor 12 room, move down two screens, left four screens, stay on the upper side of the red brick wall, move up two screens and then right two screens, and you will see the Corridor 2 entrance. Corridor 2 Rating - **** Boss - (asdfsdjkfhdsljkfh) This level doesn't move as fast as Corridor 12 did, but it's a lot more of a pain. If you aren't sporting the Attack upgrade or the 200 chip max, have fun. This level is a royal pain without either of those. I have completed it without the attack upgrade and a chip max as low as 100, but I really wouldn't feel like doing it twice. Dark red fish permeate these waters, moving at about 100 mph. Other than that, no new enemies, and no trench monsters giving you trouble. After the boss fight is over, you get another key, which looks like a hook, as well as the Laser Sword. (Boss information under either "Trouble Spots" or the boss section of the FAQ) Trouble Spots - There are only a couple of spots that could really be considered "trouble spots". After the beginning rush of four towers at a time, a few towers will dot the landscape, and suddenly you'll have a rush of red fish. After that seahorses and starfish literally blanket the screen, and it goes nuts for a little while. Pick up health and then just cruise to the end boss. The end boss is just one big trouble spot himself, and I consider this boss to be one of the toughest you'll fight for being the beginning of the game. He moves left to right, faster and faster clapping claws at you as a projectile. There's no real way to dodge the claws, because it takes quite a few hits to take them out. If you have a 200 chip max, good, this won't be too terribly bad. Just follow him where he moves, and fire away, but don't use any secondary weapons with it, because you don't want to lose the power of your main gun. If you have a chip max of less than 200, I have found a technique that works fairly well. Start off throwing grenades, because they'll do a powerful amount of damage to him in the beginning. A fireball would work well if he'd sit still, but then they'd offer no protection against his claws. After he begins moving really fast, switch to either the Laser Beam or the Wave Gun. If you're really low on health you could give the Bubble Shot a try to try and take out his projectiles wherever they're coming from, but that can be difficult if you make too many mistakes. -Getting to Corridor 12- (X4, Y15) To find Corridor 12, just head from the Lander's Save Game Room and follow the linear path until you find the entrance into the corridor room. It is impossible to get lost. Corridor 12 Rating - ** Boss - Red Fleepa This corridor moves at a fairly brisk pace, which means taking down towers is going to be a fair pain. They will be the least of your worries, partly because you hardly see them in here and partly because the other monsters have gotten worse. The fish are blue this time around, and are a bit stronger, hit a bit harder, and swim a bit faster. The trenches have far more health, and move very, very quickly through the ground. Holes are everywhere, so those first few holes you see in the beginning are NOT the openings of a trench. Try to get health whenever you see it appear so you can stay fresh for the boss, which is a Red Fleepa. This boss fires far more plankton from its mouth, and can be a royal pain. Throw either the Laser Sword or the Wave Gun on and take him down. If you use the Laser Sword, use it to take out the plankton. The Wave Gun is probably for a more aggressive strategy, which you'd want to use to focus on dealing damage to the boss. Take any health you can get, and when you beat him, you get the Laser Beam. Trouble Spots - The only trouble spot you should really run into is near the end, when yes, once again those prehistoric butterflies come flying towards you. On top of the butterflies you'll be having blue fish aplenty and trenches popping open, with the tower here and there to decorate the landscape. --5. Area 3 (Jungle)-- ----------------------------------------------------------------- G: Lost Frontier ----------------------------------------------------------------- --Background-- The Lost Frontier is based off of an old programming scheme that game designers used to confine themselves to. It works like this: The map of NAJU is a massive square. Even with every territory unlocked, however, there are still black spaces on the map itself. Because of how the game is designed, every single square on the map is an area, whether or not is has actual "game" that was created by the game designers or not. Wherever you see blue squares that you can walk on, that is "game area", while the black squares can be looked at as "unfinished game area". It is possible to walk on and interact with the environment in the "unfinished game area", if only you could get there. But you can! When writing in passwords, it was discovered that the co- ordinates of where your character was set when the game was started was designated by the characters in the password itself. So, if you knew which characters in the password determined the co-ordinates, you could warp yourself to any map square on NAJU, explored or not. Once you mastered the manipulation of the password, you could have yourself warped to the "unfinished game area", which has been since dubbed the "Lost Frontier". Why would you want to go to such a place? Well, be some defect or default of the game, actual game play can take place in the Frontier itself. There are monsters, doors and even entrances into corridors lying all over the place, and none of it was designed by the programmers. Why does it exist? I'm not quite sure why, and if someone knows, please let me know. However, it can be interesting to move around the Frontier to see what you can find. Inside the corridors you can find mini bosses, and you can also get upgrades and all sorts of things. Not only that, but because the Frontier is just a series of rooms after rooms of "excess stuff", every time you re-enter the room there is something different inside. And not just the monsters and environment change, but the layout of the room itself. The Frontier also comes with an expected number of bugs and glitches, so it is highly recommended to use an emulator before embarking on a quest there, so save state can be used before entering new rooms or before choosing a path at a junction. --Discoveries-- I have not begun much exploration of the Lost Frontier, so this section will be miserably short. There is another FAQ that covers the Frontier in greater detail, so if you would like to, check that out instead. Really, this section will only document why I myself see, and anything anyone else decides to ask me to put in. If you want more collected info on the Frontier, I suggest zoogelio's FAQ. ----------------------------------------------------------------- H: Secrets ----------------------------------------------------------------- This section, upon completion, will hold all of the additional tricks/secrets/glitches to add some enjoyment into the game. Walking Through Walls - When you are strolling the beautiful landscape of NAJU in overhead view, occasionally you'll come across a long wall that will stretch across screen after screen in certain areas. Sometimes these walls will prove to be very annoying. If you walk northeast into them (Diagonally in any direction should work sometimes), your character will sometimes walk partly between some blocks. Now turn into the crack of the wall you're now standing in, and walk across to the other side! (Finished in next version of the FAQ) ----------------------------------------------------------------- I: Passwords ----------------------------------------------------------------- Understanding how the password system works can be a long and painful process, but instead of explaining that here (Look for Lee Eric Kirwan's FAQ), I will briefly cover some little tidbits about the passwords and then list a few for you to enjoy. --A Little about passwords-- It is possible with Lee Eric's FAQ to master learning how to use passwords very effectively. And when I say using them effectively, I mean not only looking at a password and knowing what it will do, but also being able to construct your own passwords from scratch, and manipulate any aspect of the game that you see fit. With password construction the following things are possible: - Landing yourself in any room in the game, whether or not you give yourself the key you need to leave that area - Starting the game with less health than 8, making it more difficult - Starting the game with any upgrades, whatever score, or whatever keys you would like to have - Being able to explore the Lost Frontier As a heads up, learning passwords calls for a basic understanding of binary as well as a few other things... I find having used the RPG Maker and messed with Visual Basic/basic C++ (learning switches, loops, etc.) made understanding the process a bit easier because of the comparisons I could make. However, the FAQ does a pretty good job of explaining the art of learning and reading passwords, so give it a go if you would like. --Try some on for size-- Here's a bit of a 'spoiler' I guess you could call it... when you beat the game you get a password that is three letters long: "TGL" If you type that into the password list, you play through all of the corridors of the game starting from the very beginning when you enter NAJU. After every corridor, preset bonuses are given to your character to make each battle more feasible. TGL - Play only the corridors of the game (Finished in a later version of the FAQ) ----------------------------------------------------------------- J: Legal Information ----------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ was written by me, and therefore gives nobody the right to take credit for the time I spent on it. If for any reason someone feels the need to copy a piece of this FAQ or post it on their website, I MUST have given my permission for them to do so. If I find that they have copied my work without my consent, they will be subject to punishment for plagiarism. Really, I don't mind sharing my work, but give me credit will ya? The only websites that I have given permission to display this FAQ is GameFAQS itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------- K: Update Information ----------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.000 - This initial version had the first two Areas of the walkthrough completed, which brings the player up through to the crystal underground part of the game. The Secrets, Frontier and Bosses/Monsters sections are all unfinished. Version 1.979 - The second version of the FAQ brought the Walkthrough all the way up to and including Corridor 20. It also corrected any found grammar and spelling errors. Version 2.575 - The Walkthrough was completed, along with the Bosses/Monsters section. Version 3.27 - The Secrets section was completed, and the Password section was updated with several more passwords. Version 3.75 - The Final Frontier section was begun. ----------------------------------------------------------------- L: Special Thanks ----------------------------------------------------------------- Special thanks go out to, first of all, GameFAQS, which is the sole inspiration for me to ever sit down and write an FAQ for any game out there. Secondly I would like to thank any help I have gotten through the boards concerning the FAQ itself or any help given to me by the following people: - SiliconHero (For a couple of the co-ordinates I didn't know about previously, as well as the layout for the Special Abilities section)