======================================================================== Arc the Lad: End of Darkness V. 1.11 - 2017 Guide by: KKW07ISG06 - AKA: "Fretz" ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Table of Contents: Before You Begin: 0) The Introduction 0a) Controls / Combat Basics 0b) The characters / Stats / "Leveling" 0c) Game Series Story Background ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Story: 1) Opening Sequences 1a) Starting the game 1b) First tasks / Task Introduction 1c) Hunter's Exam Introduction 2) Rookie Hunter Exam 2a) Rookie Board Tasks 2b) Synthesis Introduction 2c) Rookie Counter Tasks 3) Apprentice Hunter Exam 3a) Apprentice Counter Tasks 3b) Character Abilities/Lottery House Introductions 3c) Apprentice Board Tasks 4) Expert Hunter Exam 4a) Expert Hunter Board Tasks 4b) Expert Hunter Counter Tasks 5) Veteran Hunter Exam 5a) Veteran Hunter Counter Tasks 5b) Veteran Hunter Board Tasks 6) Master Hunter Exam 6a) Master Board Tasks 6b) Master Counter Tasks 7) Hero Hunter Exam 7a) Hero Counter Tasks 7b) Final Battle 7c) Final Boss ----------------------------------------------------------------- Post Story Content: 8) Ending scene(s) 8a) General Hunter Exam 8b) Orcoth Arena 8c) General Hunter Counter Tasks 9) Legend Hunter Exam 9a) Legend Hunter Counter Tasks 10) Arc Hunter Exam ----------------------------------------------------------------- Appendices: AA) Shops AA) Milmarna AB) Yewbell AC) Rueloon AD) Dilzweld AE) Sulfas AF) Orcoth BA) Counter Tasks BA) D Class Tasks BB) C Class Tasks BC) B Class Tasks BD) A Class Tasks BE) S Class Tasks CA) Synthesis CA) Magic CB) Gimmicks CC) Attack CD) Special Skills CE) Special Parts CF) Defense DA) Lottery House Mini-Games DA) Card Roulette DB) Combat Simulators EA) Monster Checklist EA) Checklist FA) Version Info / Legal Stuff ======================================================================== Why the late guide: ======================================================================== I noticed when I went through this game again, that every guide that I came across was kinda vague, incomplete, specific sections, or just lazily constructed. So the goal for me was to create an original guide that contained the guide itself including diagrams, as well as battle tactics for every individual task and boss, a full list of synthesis, a shop list, a task list, and everything else needed for a completionist, so they only need one source, instead of hunting around for what they needed from a multitude of sources. Yes it's an older game and series, but with the recent remastering of Twilight of the Spirits released on PS4, I'm doing this on the assumption that there are others like myself that had their love for the series rekindled and will also go through again. Yay retro gaming! ======================================================================== 0) Introduction: ======================================================================== This is the first of the Arc the Lad series to handle and play like this one does. Instead of turn based tactics, it's an action button masher essentially, and may or may not be a little frustrating at times, because it's not really what ATL fans would have expected coming... I know I didn't. It also doesn't have equipment per se, it has a card system that simply boosts stats, and offer abilities. It is refreshing to still see the familiar faces from Twilight of the Spirits, and ATL 1, 2, and 3, so they'll come back to show face, and shed light every now and again too. All in all, I'd say it's just the combat that really got thrown off with this, like Twilight of the Spirits did from ATL3, so at least it still feels like an ATL game, full of fanatical scientists, and whimsical characters. As with ATL3, this game is VERY dependent on "tasks" from the hunter's guild to progress the story, so any mission with * next to it, is part of the story, or important somehow. These are not going to be in order of story, but rather, in the order I personally did them, which was filling each meter for ranks, and then swapping task types to fill the other, and continuing that rotation before taking the hunters exam, but rest assured, every task is going to be included. This installation to the series is also the first in which you don't control a group, and rather send individuals on separate tasks, where every now and then a guest may appear, but plan on flying solo for the majority. Just to clarify, guide sections are separated by a number prior to the headline, while all sections, including sub sections are separated by a = line, and the beginning of a task is spaced farther out (tabbed). I'm not going to say that this guide is spoiler free, but I'm writing it as I'm going along with the story myself, so it'll at least have as few spoilers as I can put in here, while still writing an accurate guide. Things will seem out of order, or mixed and matched as the guide goes on, as every guide for this game does I've noticed, but that's all due to the process of progressing the story, as stated above, with the task system. If you're looking for any specific piece of information, complete lists are at the bottom, post story related information. ======================================================================== 0a) Controls: ======================================================================== ___________________________________________________________________________ | BUTTON | USES | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | Start | No Function | | Select | No Function | | L. Analog | Alternate movement | | R. Analog | No Function | | D. Pad | Move characters around on field, in battle | | Circle | Default magic attack. Exorcism ability with Edda | | Square | Dodge in direction character is moving/Backstep | | Triangle | Runs while moving/Charges CP when stationary | | X Button | "Confirm" button / Talk to NPCs / Attack enemies with weapon | | L1 Button | Dodge left in combat | | L2 Button | Locks onto closest target in sight during combat | | R1 Button | Dodge right in combat | | R2 Button | Pulls up assigned card skills in combat | |___________________________________________________________________________| More about the controls: If you start charging your CP in combat, or start running, your hitbox increases in size, making you easier to hit. Also, if you're running and run into something, or are hit, you WILL fall and be prone for a couple seconds, leaving you vulnerable to attacks at increased damage. Dodging does NOT cancel your attack queue, so time them assuming you have to wait for command queue to refresh. Analog is NOT a necessity, so use whichever movement control is more comfortable with whatever controller type you have. L2 can be tapped once you have a target locked, at which point it will cycle through enemies in range, or alternatively, if there's only one enemy, it will cancel the target lock. If there is more than 1 enemy in range of a target lock, unfortunately you have to retreat out of combat range to break the lock, simply pressing L2 does not unlock in that particular situation. Almost every time that you have an enemy's attention, the doors to the exits of the battlefield will lock, and you won't be able to move on, or leave, so the easiest way to tell if you have an enemy's attention or not, is to look at the minimap. Enemies that are a red circle on the map, are simply present and not alerted, while the red squares are the enemies that have been alerted to you. Since you have to hold down R2 to access your card skills, try to organize them in an order that's easy to remember no matter what portion of the game you're on, ie; /_\ and O as healing or defense skills, and [] and X as offensive skills, or something like that.... or just wing it and remember. The Camera: The camera in this game was my worst enemy, and may be for you as well. When you're free roaming through the battlefields, the camera adjusts to the way you're heading, which throws off directions that whoever is giving you, and almost negates your point of reference that you started with. Locking on to a target will lock the screen to the target, but will also zoom in, shortening your view window and leaving you vulnerable to ambushes. At several points in this guide, I went back to reference what I'd written, and if you backtrack through the area, it's wrong; if you stop to fight something and get the camera turned around, it's wrong; if you run off to take out a crate or other obstacle, causing the camera to turn, it's wrong.. it gets annoying. If you get lost in a dungeon, the directions will be different, because you're no longer north/south, but east/west from the previous screen sometimes, but often enough to be worth noting. Because of all of this, I'm going to warn ahead of time, that one or two screens in this guide's directions may be wrong, so it might be worth it to read ahead and stay on top of things just in case. What all this amounts to, is that you need to pay attention to where you come in at in almost every map. And lastly, throughout the game the camera will actually lock to certain bosses, whether or not you locked onto it or not, so you have to do entire boss fights with a fixed camera, all the while they will summon mobs to help it take you out, so whenever the camera fixes like that, either read ahead, or figure out real quick where things are spawning at, so you don't get ambushed. ======================================================================== 0b) The Characters: ======================================================================== Surprisingly, there are appearances from some of the characters of every game, though some only in card form, so listed here are short descriptions of the main character of course, and also a little blurb on each character that's available for use, in the order of acquiring them: Edda: A young exorcist wannabe from the rebuilt Cragh Island. Aspiring to become an exorcist like his parents before him, he shares a passion for justice similar to previous ATL main characters. Edda was raised among the natives of Cragh Island after his parents fled to the seas and crashed their boat during a storm,and has made a lasting impression among the locals before setting off on his adventure with his little pal, Hemo. Edda also is this team's hunter, and uses the hunter's guild to progress the story line, as well as earn extras through various tasks given by the guild. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 90 | | Magic | 90 | | Technics | 90 | | Defense | 30 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Hemo: This little slothian's main function in the game is to pop out of Edda's pocket randomly, and terrorize him with cheap comedy, bad ideas, and a warped sense of hunter justice, similar to Lutz from ATL3, only even more useless. Hemo has been friends with Edda for years, and is native to Cragh Island from the peaceful human/deimos village, though doesn't resemble the traditional slothian, and is often called strange by his peers. Fits easily into small holes scattered throughout the world. Lilia: Note: In order to get her before Elc (technically), one must load and convert a save game of ATL: TOTS in which the game was completed on PS2. Lilia is the sole survivor (or so she thinks) of an attack on her hometown, which was a village dedicated to protecting the Light Stone. After crash landing her airship, Big Owl, on Ragnoth, Kharg and friends find her and attempt to protect her all throughout ATL: TOTS, mostly to no avail, from the ruthless Dilzweld army. Lilia litters the game with happy thoughts, half romances, and pretty music through her unique instrument - the Ortena, and helps keep Darc and Kharg on track to saving the world. *Fun fact - Lilia is the only playable character in this game, who was never before playable in the other games.* ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Light | | Strength | 70 | | Magic | 120 | | Technics | 80 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Choco: Note: Choco doesn't necessarily have an "order of retrieval," as you're able to acquire her card as soon as you can discover every monster, hence why she's up here and not at the bottom, like Lilia being "out of place." This little girl first appears in ATL1, actually as a boss. Choco (originally Choko) acts as the first hidden character of the game series, usable only outside of story battles at first, and comes into battle with a nice range of unique and very powerful abilities. Not much is known about her, but later in the series the team learns that she's from a hidden village, and has been orphaned for... HUNDREDS of years. Fear the high heels of death. *Fun fact: Choco is the only playable character that looks like something they're not. Choco is the daughter of a Beast Lord, of all things, and is in fact, a deimos that looks like a human.* ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 150 | | Technics | 20 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 120 | |____________|___________| Elc: This fire toting shaman child is the last of his line, and the main character of ATL2 (kinda). His hometown was destroyed by the Romalian army between ATL1 and 2, and he was captured and raised in a "Chimera" research facility. Having escaped, he made a close friend and became a hunter at an early age, and helped Arc and friends save the world from the Dark One... twice. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Fire | | Strength | 90 | | Magic | 120 | | Technics | 100 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 120 | |____________|___________| Maru: Maru was forced to flee his home with his parents after a coup was conceived to prevent his ascent to the throne. After his parents were gone, he lived in the wilds surrounding Yewbell for years among the wild deimos, disguising himself as a green ape-like creature to hide his true identity, as he snuck into houses to steal supplies, until Commander Kharg discovered him, and they became Heroes of ATL: TOTS. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Dark | | Strength | 60 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 120 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Kukuru: The last priestess of the village guarding the original Ark, Kukuru decides she wants to defy tradition, and break the seal to see if the world really would end, or if it was all superstition - after all, it's just a box and a flame, right? Well, we thank that brilliance for unleashing the Dark One's power, and beginning the fight against evil all over again in ATL 1. Kukuru employs a combination of weak martial arts, and somewhat powerful magics to aid Arc in resealing the Ark, and protecting the Seal which is placed in a temple at Arc's hometown of Toville. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Light | | Strength | 90 | | Magic | 120 | | Technics | 40 | | Defense | 20 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Camellia: The whimsical plant lady is back! Once a simple villager, then an advisor to the elder, then the elder, then a priestess, then a test subject, and then a HERO!... not necessarily in that order, but this "pretty flower" is probably about 300 years old or so, so she's seen a lot. During Darc's portion of TOTS, this wise woman pulls pranks, steals from the team, offers advice, and gives directions for the deimos team, all the while hellbent on getting revenge on a certain scientist for transforming her into a withered old hag. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Earth | | Strength | 40 | | Magic | 130 | | Technics | 60 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 90 | |____________|___________| Delma: A hotheaded Orcon girl, who hates humans with all of her being... until later in TOTS, where she has a slight change of heart, at least enough to become a hero with the rest of the gang. Raised in Orcoth, and forced to live in her brother's shadow, Delma joins the team only to take revenge for the death of the chief, and stays on to make sure noone can kill Darc, except for her, and accidentally becomes another Hero. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Fire | | Strength | 90 | | Magic | 110 | | Technics | 30 | | Defense | 30 | | Speed | 120 | |____________|___________| Theo: The last of the great Cardists, who capture monsters inside of special cards provided by the Monster's Society, and unleash the card's power on the battlefield for devastating effects. After his mother's disappearance, Theo vows that he will become the next greatest Cardist in her stead, find out what happened to her, and close the case. After finding out she was killed by the Academy, Theo pushes Alec forward to saving the world, with an even greater resolve. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 110 | | Technics | 60 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Leeza: Leeza (originally Lieza) first appears in ATL2, and hints are dropped that she may be Elc's romantic interest, even though it's later dropped and left out to dry and up to speculation. Hailing from a clan of beast tamers, this little lass has the ability to tame almost any monster on the field, and send them forth in combat as allies. After the defeat of the Dark One, Leeza retreats to a small ranch in an isolated area to run a rescue for tameable monsters, and offers Alec help on his new mission in ATL3. Note: It shows Leeza as having two different hair colors in the game, so I feel obligated to point out that she was originally a blonde. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Earth | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 120 | | Technics | 80 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 90 | |____________|___________| Tatjana: Tatjana first appears in TOTS, first as an enemy scientist of the Dilzweld Empire, and later after being abandoned for her efforts, plays double agent for the Heroes. This scientist is responsible for a large portion of the trials to create a synthetic spirit stone, Camellia losing her beauty, the invention of several Dilzweld gadgets, and other such terrible obstacles for the Heroes to overcome. Tatjana was orphaned in Dilzweld during the empire's infancy, and was adopted by the head hancho to be put through extensive schooling to be a top researcher and field agent. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 60 | | Magic | 40 | | Technics | 130 | | Defense | 20 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Lutz: This smart mouthed, dagger hurlin, showboatin rogue has been Alec's best friend since childhood, and just couldn't bear to sit around Sasha Village when Alec decided he wanted to become a hunter. With a lack of dedication to the trade, he joins Alec in hunting down guild jobs, and pushing the very limits of what being a hunter is all about. Finally redeeming himself at the heart of a volcano, Lutz finally realizes the importance of what they're doing, and starts to take things a bit more seriously... though still has that mouth that gets him in trouble. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 60 | | Technics | 140 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 120 | |____________|___________| Iga: The image of everything an Amaidar monk aspires to be, Iga boasts the highest rank with a humble demeanor. Iga is first met when a plot to ruin the monks is conceived, and half of their order is erradicated, which sets Iga onto the path that later makes him Arc's companion in resealing the original ark of legend. He later makes another appearance as a fully enlightened Archmonk of Amaidar, and offers counsel to Alec in his efforts of reconstructing the ark, and sealing the Dark One once again. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Earth | | Strength | 140 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 80 | | Defense | 50 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Darc: One of the twin sons of Windalf and Nafia from ATL: TOTS. Darc struggled from birth, having both a deimos and a human parent, he was never accepted anywhere, and put through every challenge a half-breed could have faced. Once adopted by a wicked witch of the west, he was made a slave, until he fought for his freedom, taking the throne by killing the chief of the Orcon village. When he'd recruited the strongest deimos in the region for his personal retinue, Darc set out to become the strongest of all deimos, by absorbing all of the spirit stones' power, and defeating the Dark One. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Wind | | Strength | 100 | | Magic | 110 | | Technics | 80 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Bebedora: The psycho doll from Hell is back too! This little girl doll thing was created to be the original ultimate deimos by the Dark One himself, and is found resting in the Coleopt Water Shrine by Darc and friends. Using powerful mind control techniques, Bebedora is more than useful to the team as both a great magic user, and infiltrator, since she resembles a creepy little girl. A confused deimos puppet at first, Bebedora finds herself after traveling the world with Darc, and eventually overcomes her masters hold, and severs her own puppet strings, in order to help save the world. Fear the stuffed demon rabbit weapon. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Dark | | Strength | 60 | | Magic | 130 | | Technics | 40 | | Defense | 50 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Shu: Everyone's favorite gunslingin ninja! Shu was Elc's best friend from back when Elc escaped the Chimera labs, and set out on his own to later become a hunter. Shu is already a hunter by the time he's introduced, so after disappearing for a while, he returns with an airship, the Hein, to help Elc and friends on their own journey to save the world from the Dark One. Later, after disappearing again, Shu is discovered playing double agent in effort to take down another plot conceived by the Academy who is another band of scientists trying to revive the Dark One once again. Ninjas just can't stay in one spot... ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Wind | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 100 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Ganz: This creepy lone woodsman is a former mercenary and airship engineer that found a "better life" when he lost a comrade during his last mission. Since the beginning, Ganz is one of the rare characters in TOTS that has no grudge to any of the deimos, except Orcon of course, and is very reluctant to even help the gang at first. After hearing news of another fallen former comrade, Ganz has a change of heart and wants to travel the world again, and eventually becomes another of the Heroes. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 130 | | Magic | 10 | | Technics | 120 | | Defense | 60 | | Speed | 90 | |____________|___________| Tosh: This samurai makes his first appearance as a criminal about to face the gallows for slaughtering a village in the first game of the ATL series. After finding out the truth, Arc just can't have that, and busts him out of prison, bring him along to stop the Romalian Empire, and clear his good name. Farther down the line, Tosh is responsible for fronting the resistance that's based in the heart of Romalia, and once the Dark One is resealed, he disappears for a time. Tosh's last appearance is as a leader of Testa village, head of the local guard, and a minor advisor to Alec in his adventure. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Fire | | Strength | 130 | | Magic | 60 | | Technics | 100 | | Defense | 20 | | Speed | 90 | |____________|___________| Paulette: Kharg's childhood friend, and daughter of the original Yewbell Defense Corps Commander, Paulette shows strong feelings for Kharg, even though she never pursues something more from him. After her father is killed by a certain Lupine, Paulette develops an irrational animosity for the deimos entirely, as most humans did, and tempts Kharg at different times to be merciless when dealing with them. Eventually, with renewed resolve from the prospect of losing her best friend and comrade, she comes to her senses and helps band the team together again, all for the greater good of the planet. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 80 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 100 | | Defense | 50 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Cheryl: The hotheaded gunslinger from Society Village makes another appearance here. She originally didn't want to join up with anyone, believing that she didn't need help from anyone to expose the Academy and put a stop to their experiments, but after Elc saves her in the Danger Dome, she has a change of heart. Using her connections at the Weapon Society, and vast knowledge of firearms, Cheryl is a welcome addition to the Heroes of ATL3, with a nice variety of firearms to adjust to any situation. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 70 | | Magic | 60 | | Technics | 120 | | Defense | 20 | | Speed | 100 | |____________|___________| Alec: The spearhead of the 3rd ATL game, Alec was orphaned from the Great Disaster, like many others, and grew up with his friend Lutz in Sasha Village. After a band of thieves raid his town, Alec is forced to hire a hunter nearby, which changes the lives of the dynamic duo, and sets their destiny in motion. Alec originally sets out to become a hunter just to help the people in need, but after meeting a few of the Heroes from the Great Disaster incident, and learning of what's going on in the Academy, Alec becomes determined to not just help the people, but save the world in resealing the Dark One.... again. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 100 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 100 | | Defense | 50 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Kharg: The other twin of Windalf and Nafia, though Kharg grew up a human boy, showing no signs of the deimos blood in him until later on in his adventure. When the commander of the Yewbell Defense Corps is slain, Kharg is the first choice when the public elects a replacement, which sends him on his journey to collect the 5 spirit stones, and reseal the Dark One, yet again, which only interferes with his brother's agenda... ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Wind | | Strength | 100 | | Magic | 80 | | Technics | 120 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Diekbeck: One of Dr. Vilmer's projects since the robot was unearthed, Diekbeck doesn't use weapons you give him, he instead uses the weapons built into him! This friendly robot is fabled to be the leader of a unit of similar robots, and helped the original gang that sealed the Dark One over 3,000 years ago, and now he's back to help this crew do it all over again. With a combination of power packs, this robot has a very wide variety of skills to choose from, suitable for any and all situations. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 100 | | Magic | 10 | | Technics | 150 | | Defense | 60 | | Speed | 90 | |____________|___________| Volk: A Lupine warrior wielding a guillotine blade as a weapon. This ferocious wolf-man bears a strong hatred of all humans after having watched his wife and child slaughtered by the commander of the Yewbell Defense Corps, and makes sure that every one he meets knows it. Volk respects strength over all else, so after being bested by Darc in honorable combat, Volk changes his tone and joins Darc as the right hand of his retinue, and loyal supporter to the ascension of the ultimate deimos, even if it means joining with humans to reseal the Dark One. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | Water | | Strength | 130 | | Magic | 100 | | Technics | 50 | | Defense | 40 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Arc: The one that started the game series is finally back! After catching wind that his father disappeared, Arc sets out to find the truth, only to be thrown into a mission to reseal the Dark One. Recruiting a band of criminals, misfits, and even the spirits themselves, the team is only able to save the world, but at a devastating price. Having trained in combat since birth, Arc brings a healthy mix of melee power, strong magics, and defensive abilities to the party, and is definitely one of the most versatile and useful characters. ________________________ | Starting Stats | |------------|-----------| | Element | None | | Strength | 110 | | Magic | 120 | | Technics | 110 | | Defense | 60 | | Speed | 110 | |____________|___________| Special Characters: Although you get a good handful of special characters to choose from, you can only use them for counter tasks, so you still have to use Edda for any of the board tasks. You can also equip them with their own parts and ability cards from the same menu as Edda, just switch over to them with the shoulder buttons to select them. To use any of these characters, you have to first Materialize them into your group panel from a card shop, at which point you can level them up, equip them with cards of their own, and use them on (!!*counter tasks*!!). When your character panel is full, you'll have to swap out characters that you might want to use from the same screen in the shop list, but don't worry, if you change you mind later, and want to swap to the previous character you can, but it'll cost you an extra 100 for each rank they've been given. *Fun Fact: After making the list for character stats, it appears they're actually arranged in game by their console generation... neat!* "Leveling" Special characters in ATL: EOD are leveled up by spending the Spirit Points (SP) earned while Edda is in control and exorcises enemies. The more SP earned, the more you level up your characters, so exorcism is very important. Levels come in the form of "Ranks," and allows the character to equip higher ranked cards for better stat bonuses. The main character, Edda, levels up in a similar way, gaining ranks in order to equip better cards for better stats, however, he will be the one collecting the SP, so he cannot use them. In order to increase his ranks, you have to complete board tasks, as well as counter tasks both provided by any town's hunter's guild, and then mosey over to the former Rueloon arena for your hunter's exam, and succeed. ======================================================================== 0c) Story Background: ======================================================================== In the past, humans have caused so much suffering to their world, that the spirits that once lived among them, have all but abandoned them for the cruelty they show to nature. Before the first game takes place, there's another group of heroes that seal away a spirit of pure evil, that grows with every negative emotion between mankind. This evil spirit manifests as "the Dark One," and has been sealed away inside of an ark made of the purest material, and blessed by the remaining spirits themselves. After the series begins, there are 3 different figureheads, all from a distinguished background, that all seek the power that the ark allegedly grants to those that open it, and through the course of the game, the ark is destroyed, reconstructed, resealed, and pretty much everything in between, all in the hopes that the ark will remain sealed, and the evil contained therein. ATL: EOD takes place about 5 years after TOTS ends, but you'll be encountering characters from the entire series, either being extracted from various hero cards, or actually seeing them out in the field somewhere, somehow. Following the defeat of the Dark One once again, Darc and Kharg of ATL: TOTS set aside their differences, accept their kinship, and unite the world in a time of peace that has never before been seen - Deimos and humans, side by side. The characters have all gone about their own business in their respective townships, and society continues to thrive, thanks to our heroes from the previous game. And without further adeu, our new story begins... ======================================================================== 1a) *Opening Sequence: ======================================================================== Start the game on a beach where the main character, Edda, is waiting for his buddy Hemo to arrive and help finish the boat they're trying to build. Watch the opening to find that some hunters from the guild are snooping around on the island, then head to the village to learn more from the horses' mouths. When you finally get control of Edda, head to the southwest to talk to the old man on the end of the docks, and watch/read what he has to say on the current situation. Finally, when he's done, head over to the east and work your way up the east side, talking to the local yokels and learning about what's goin on around town (the hunters are the important ones). Basically you're just killin time here until a little hemo-ji....errr, "slothian" comes down the hill to let ya know that the elder is lookin for you. Head on up the western hill to talk to the elder and continue with the story line, and he eventually sends you automatically to the Cave of Truth (figured out where you are yet, previous ATL series fans?) ======================================================================== *Cave of Truth: ======================================================================== Combat starts automatically in the cave, but nothing to worry about here. The critters hopping around can't really deal much for damage (maybe 5 per hit?), and Edda's movement is a bit quicker than theirs, so worst case scenario, just circle around 'em with [] for a quick dash, and lay into them with an X combo (basic attack). Once the initial wave of hopping fungi are pushin up daisies, head to the highlighted area on the map for a short cutscene with a familiar face, and a mini boss fight with the aforementioned malademon. Again, nothing terribly difficult if you spent a minute to get comfortable with the controls in the shroom fight, so basically just wait for the guy to "shwing an' a miss," run around behind him, and give him the business before ducking out to rinse and repeat. As it says, once his health is depleted enough, he'll stagger a bit and try to recompose himself to carry on until you beat enough sense into him and he stays down. Now, on my playthrough at least, simply smacking him around with X like the game says didn't actually work, he got back up probably 4 times before i went to an alternative method, and had to use O with the spinning stick trick, where he finally stayed down on the first hit after being staggered, so that may be the trick on this fight, but I can't confirm that on my own. ======================================================================== *Milmarna: ======================================================================== Wake up in some yokel's bed not remembering anything that happened back at the cave or prior (we've all had one of those nights... :P ), and not knowing what happened to your pocket sized bud. The girl that was tending to you has little in the way of information to give, but take what you can wherever you can when it comes to new games I say. Once you've prodded the poor lass for all her info, head over to the card shop (it has the weapon and item emblems from the previous games on the sides of it), and prod the guy on the right for some juicy item info. Once you've played detective there for a minute, mosey on over to the palace and go talk to the lady that saved your behind back at the cave, Lady Foh. She's in the back west room if ya can't find it, go right from the entrance, all the way back where there's two folks blockin' a door, and hang a left. After her little spiele, head back out, and go talk to the hunter's guild (yea, they're back again) and talk to the dood at the desk for some info on the hunter's guild and what they do, and who he pissed off earlier that morning. Read the big board next to the counter to learn the latest goin on in the world if you want, but for right now, it's just extra back story, so next, go talk to the guy over at the board on the other side of the room for info on job types and what they do, and finally head to the northwestern exit of the town, to find a guy blockin' the road there. Once he turns you around, for your safety of course, head back to the palace entrance, but this time, go right of the palace, and down to the docks, to find your elusive little pal Hemo. Hemo will spill the beans on what was goin on and fill in the blanks that Edda can't recall, and encourage him to head over to the hunter's guild to become a hunter (whoooaaaa, didn't see that one comin....), where the clerk, once again, is out to ruin one's day. Head BACK over to the palace, and as you try to enter the room that was previously blocked, Hemo will mention a crawl space.... Upon entering, exhaust the Mofly of all his dialogue options to get the super rare "Elc" character card! Moving on, exit the crawlspace and enter the room adjacent to find the friendly prince, and guild master. Tell him how badly you REALLY wanna be a hunter (when prompted, choose "the sooner the better"), and apparently he will let you join as a trainee only, of course, and allows you to get your first job! As we've learned from this series, the secret to joining a prestige guild with strict rules, is to just beg until they're sick of your face =D ... phew, these opening sequences are tragically long. Once the peckerhead at the counter finally gives you your first mission, head back over to the town exit we once were turn away from, and head out to the world map to start your career as a professional hunter. YAY! ======================================================================== 1b) *Clear the Hay Bundles! ======================================================================== From the world map, head over to the Romastle Farm (the only other option at the moment) to initiate the first task. Again, combat is automatic, but the squirrels here are little more than the walking fungus back at the cave. The goal here is to smack the hay stacks around until destroyed, however, just to spice the task up a bit and wet the hunter's beak a little, they threw in the squirrel combat for gits and shiggles. Just head over to each pile of hay, clear the immediate area of squirrels, bust the hay, rinse and repeat. There's a malademon squirrel near the center of the combat zone, so make sure to excorcise the demon, and "make this house clear" before heading back to turn in the job well done. Back at the hunter's guild, they'll congratulate you on your first success, and have another ready immediately after. Gather your chump change, and check out the board to accept "Retraining at Lamda Temple." The monk in question, "Jungk," whose parents apparently hated him, will mosey in after accepting the task, and give a bit more detail on the subject, and eventually Maru will join in the conversation at the town exit to chip in his two cents as well. And with that, we head over to the temple to show these monks what's up. ======================================================================== *Retraining at Lamda Temple: ======================================================================== Enter the temple proper for a cutscene (is that monk fighting a baby? o.O ), and head northeast and talk to the reluctant high priest. Watch the cutscene to see that the priest has a change of heart, and agrees to let Jungk come back and train again if they can best two of the higher ranked monks in combat, so it's off to the training area to show them what for. The fight is another standard match, though this time, you have a guest with you! Your guest will behave as you would imagine most would; doesn't dodge much, makes bad combat decisions like attacking from the front, etc., so it's up to you to pick up the slack. Same strategy as before, just circle around as best you can with dodging and running, and knock him down with O if one of them gets a bit too focused on Jungk. After a couple good combos, they'll be down for the count, and the priest will welcome Jungk back to training. Head back to the guild for another job well done, and ... more lies! Span decides to once again ruin your day, by talling Edda that his task was a setup, and even worse, that you failed! What a dick... Anyway, watch the cutscene there and Maru will talk Span into letting you go take the exam anyway, what a guy. Well, at least you still get paid for a benny hill sponsored first task. You may notice that there's another task up on the board, however, you may also notice that your rank is too low to accept it... thanks for the tease ATL game! Before heading off for your exam, it's possible here to go "materialize" that Elc card, should one be so inclined, just remember that if done now, you'll be spending all that hard earned chump change. Now with the recommendation from Span, it's off to the former deimos city of Rueloon! ======================================================================== 1c) *Rueloon: ======================================================================== Watch the opening cutscenes with the Drakyr and hothead familiar girlie, and eventually head north to the former arena entrance. The guy at the desk will tell you that the area past him is the exam area, and that you can't enter because your papers haven't come in yet from Milmarna... of course. He points you to Ganz' office, which is just left of there, where another scene will commence, so go ahead and watch that one too. Before heading off to take your exams, if you head down south from the exam center, and hang a left at the bottom of the stairs, you'll find a small alley. At the end of the alley, there's a kid hangin out talking about his cool new hidin spot, and tells you that there's a small hole next to him with a Mofly inside of it... hint hint. This Mofly has a beastiary instead of a card for you though, so not anything terribly exciting at this point, but still worth a look. Afterwards, backtrack out and all the way back to the exam center for your final exam, which is a series of battles (duh). ======================================================================== 2) *Rueloon Rookie Exam: ======================================================================== Suskle Squirrel x10: Yup, not a typo. You're on a time limit here, posted at the top right of the screen for reference if ya lose track, so keep that in mind while fighting these losers. Easiest way to mop these guys up, is to bunch em all together as best you can, and leave enough room for yourself to lead the attack. They die in one combo, so they're really not much trouble, but it's good to get em down as quick as possible, cause remember, you're on a time limit! Ganz: This guy's just as slow and dumb as he looks, so proceed with caution if ya wanna waste time and run the clock out (not recommended). For those who played Twilight of the Spirits, his range hasn't changed much, except for the final attack in his combo which is a sweeping motion, so for everyone, try to remember that giant pole you're toting, and that it's longer than his axe. He'll throw bombs at you if you try to put too much range between, so try to find that little sweet spot in between, where he'll just try and chase you, to no avail, and whittle him down to nothing eventually. He also tries to block when he's down to lower HP (40% or so), so when he puts his arms up and hunches over, just run behind him where he can't defend himself and lay waste on that bulbous rear. Shouldn't take more than a minute if you've gotten use to the controls and don't dilly dally with him too much, so finish him quickly, and get your rank+ and your 10 mystery cards. Once Ganz is taken care of, the two will leave the exam center and Ganz will give you a few pointers on how to fight, ironically, but now you're free to roam the world! With that new found Rookie status, why not go take care of that other task that was previously locked? It doesn't actually give any equips or cash, but why not give the newly acquired ranking a test run? East Halshinne -> Milmarna -> hunter's guild to accept "Find My Husband Demill," and the client is waiting at the town exit. D'oh! She forgot to say "just kidding," cause she's actually on that little platform in between the guild and the gate exit, as the gate guard will tell you if you jump the gun. Have a nice little chat with the lonely housewife. ======================================================================== 2a) *Find My Husband Demill: ======================================================================== After Clemmie has to be reminded that her husband is missing, she fills you in on the finer details of their life and where he might be, head back out to the world map and mosey on over to the Seabed Oil Field to start the task. Upon entering, watch the cutscene full of more pearls from Hemo himself, and initiate combat!... Just kidding, it's an empty battlefield, just head on in! It's a pretty linear corridor, so just head in a few screens, mowing through the useless enemies and busting up barrels at your leisure, but remember that the newly added red barrels explode after a few seconds, so use them to your advantage!... Or at least just avoid the excess damage that need not be taken. Anyway, you'll also notice that these are the first enemies to block you, other than Ganz, so yes, mooks may block as well, but that's just another opening to refine your combat strategy of spanking behinds. The enemies in this place respawn, so you can sit around farming cards, refilling HP as needed, and refining attack technique at your leisure. Slimes can spit rocks at you or headbutt, the shrooms can jump up and stink cloud you as well as headbutt you, and the gunner pods can shoot you, and that's about all they do in here, but worth noting, the malademons aren't stopped mid combo like the rest of the mooks are, but that should be obvious at this point, so try out some hit and run tactics, or just smaller combos, whichever works better for you. You should also start noticing more and more malademons, so they're not really as rare as the original warning made them seem, but to exorcise them, remember to use the spinning stick trick, and you'll do just fine. If you're having some trouble at this point with the gunner pods, or the malademons, remember dodging doesn't have to be just backwards, so don't neglect your shoulder buttons for straffing. After running through this gauntlet of mooky mooks, you'll come to a big square room where, on the right side, is the barely coherrent Demill. Insert cutscene. After the scene, this dood who could barely breathe decides to join up!... and is about as useful as a poopy flavored lolypop, so you get to escort this yahoo out of the labyrinth, which is now different than when you entered. Basically the same thing though, linear map, mooky mooks to kill, but the twist is to just make sure Mr. lollypop doesn't get smacked around too much. On the way back, there was a room with two myconid malademons right next to each other, with a crate behind them; Clear the area of the gunner pods in that room, bait out the myconids one at a time, and break the crate to get your second character card - Maru! Keep romping through the linear paths, and a few screens later you'll hit the exit finally. ======================================================================== 2b) Yewbell: ======================================================================== We're just stopping in this town for a second, so you can skip this little bit if you're just looking to blast through the game as quick as possible, and head for your favorite hunter's guild instead. Now that you've officially wet your beak in what you're gonna be doin for some time, and got the excitement of being a hunter out of your system, let's take a trip over to Kharg's hometown - Yewbell! From the world map, select Ragnoth, and it'll be the only option there. Here in Yewbell, we're gonna go check out synthesizing finally, yay equipment! The shop is gonna be the second door on the north as you enter, if you hit the stairs you've gone to far. Go inside and talk to the guy on the bottom floor for a brief overview on how synthesis works, and give it a shot if you're into it. Buy some some cards if ya got the cash, cause we haven't gotten any real synth material to speak of yet. Anyway, from the entrance, head down the first set of stairs and wrap around back west to find your first Mofly hole on the northern edge of the wall. Send Hemo on in there to learn a bit about Card combinations, and exit out when you're through. When ready, head to the northernmost part of town up where the hunter's guild is, and keep heading west through the big gate. In the castle ruins, head west up to the top tier to find another Mofly hole on the northwestern wall, and send Hemo in there to learn some more about character cards. Finish up in this area, talk to the yokels, check out Lady Nafia's grave, talk to the couple if you want... or not, but make your way back to the pub this time, and head to the second floor, to find... yes, a 3rd Mofly hole! This one tells you a little about special moves for the characters. You can also check out the hunter's guild for another update on the weekly world news if you want, but that's it for this area for now, no cool items yet, but just grab the next counter task for some silver stars and cash. If the description wasn't enough on the synthesis part of the game, it's really quite simple. You pick the materials that you want to try to combine, assign them to slots 1 and 2 in the synthesis window, select the appropriate synthesis cardist, and hit GO. You can mix parts from both abilities and equipment, double up on the same cards, and you can use any cardist for any synthesis, but there is a preset list of things to make. A list of most of the synthesis options is found in the appendix section of this guide, so I won't be covering it as we go, just check down there at the bottom whenever you get some new materials, or outgrow a card's usefulness. Keep in mind though, some of the more rare materials have to be won in the lottery, and can't be dropped or synthesized. ======================================================================== 2c) Eliminate the Stone Blobs: ======================================================================== Now, how bout a few jobs that actually have a payout? Grab this task from the counter, and head off to the world map to select the area the task is located in. On the world map, you'll notice that your active task is located next to the continent it takes place on, in the form of the task card itself. This one happens to be Epistia, so go ahead and head there, and select the Greylia Plains to get the ball rollin. You may notice before entering the area, that there are now 2 options to send on the task, but only 1 may go, and for some reason, Elc starts as a mook in this game, instead of his former lvl 100+ badass self from the previous game, so I'd go with who you're use to for now if you're still not quite there with how the combat is. Should you choose Elc anyway, make use of his unrelenting flame combo, increased stats, and dodge strike and you should be just peachy, even with his lowered HP. As you enter the battle area, 3 stone jellies will "come atcha bra," so go ahead and use your favorite tactic to make short work of them. Bust up some barrels if that's what ya fancy, and when that screens all taken care of, move it up to the next, where a nice set of 5 jellies will bombard you with headbutts and rock spitting in any way they can get ya. I found that backing up a bit, straffing around, backing up some more, and then giving them then 10 squirrels at once treatment from the exam battle was the best method of giving em the business, but honestly they're not scary, so you do you. As the last one dies, you'll get a tidbit about magnetic fields and how technology doesn't like them, and you'll be all set to move on. ======================================================================== Guide the Sheep to Safety!: ======================================================================== By now you should have noticed in the task menu, there's a small box with "SABCD" next to it. The tasks are separated by difficulty and payout, and the default so far has pulled up D section, so let's get those take care of before jumpin into more difficult tasks, and work up from there. Anyway, back to the world map, it's back to the ranch from the first task Upon entering, you'll be standing next to two ram-looking sheep, and a ...roll(?) of hay. The goal here is to play hockey with the hay, while the sheep follow it, careful though, there's a pile of wolves that are ready for a snack. Easiest way I found to get this done, was to leave the sheep unattended, run north a piece, and bring on the pain to any wolves in the area, then backtrack to the poor sheepies, and shoulder the hay up to the opening where the farmer is. Use [] instead of X for this, because if you smack it too many times, the hay will be destroyed, and the sheep will make a bee line for the closest pile, using [] doesn't harm it, so you can mess up as much as you need to and the sheep will still love you. Congratulations are in order from the farmer, and all that, so just make a break for the guild again, and leave these farmers to their devices for now... poor sheep. ======================================================================== Destroy the Snake-Eating Rhokes!: ======================================================================== You're gonna enter this battlefield on the southeastern edge of the screen, and remember, your job here is only to kill the rhokes, the snakes and flys don't get you completion for the task. Make your way to the western board first, dodging any large rock cairns, cause they'll spit some nasty purple crap in yo face which hurts. In the western area, you'll immediately be bombarded by a swarm of flies, so either be ready to take on a group, or haul balls outta that nonsense, and the first of your 3 rhokes will be at the northwestern part of that area. Once you've taken care of that, head back to the first area of the battlefield, and this time, head northeast to the final section, where the last two rhokes flap around, waiting for their beating in the north edge. Great jorb out 'dere Strong Sad, now head back to town and turn that task in for some cash! ======================================================================== Exterminate the Ranch Flies!: ======================================================================== *Sigh*.... those yokels up at the ranch need some help again, so head back to the Romastle ranch, and see what they want this time. It's just 4 groups of 4 flies, no big deal for a highly trained baton twirler like yourself at this point. Just run to each group and employ the patented "group be good special" that's gotten us out of so many group fights at this point, and they should bow to your strength in seconds. Just remember that the pink ones may explode and deal some AOE damage, the red ones may spit fire at you in a straight line, and the green ones might.... disappoint the rest. Easy enough task, it's just another filler fight really, finish up and head back to turn it in. ======================================================================== Arrest the Criminal Godolla!: ======================================================================== This one takes place on Adenade, so head there to accept the task, and enter when ready. Fairly straightforward, just make your way to the northwestern exit, watch for fly groups and rock cairns, and at the second screen head for the northwest again. He likes to hang out next to one of the cairns there, so try to approach them from an agle the cairn can't fart on you, and proceed to lay the smackdown on the little green deviant. Done. ======================================================================== Recover Parts From the Kuskles!: ======================================================================== Since this one takes place in Sulfas, it's a good idea to grab some new equips from the shop here if ya got the greenbacks for an upgrade or two. This town has better offensive gear than Yewbell, while Yewbell has better defensive gears... just something to think about, and they both synthesize for you. Anyway, whenever you're done shopping around, head over to the Greylia Plains, and zone in to start the task. More squirrels to smack around, awesome! The grey ones are the ones carrying the parts you need, and you need all 5 of them, so you have to go through both sections of the battlefield to find all of them. Round em up, and smack em down, and then you'll have your parts! ======================================================================== Capture a Kuskle: ======================================================================== Head on back to the same area we just left, and enter for a brief tutorial on how trapping missions work. In short, you need to trap your target instead of killing it, so the system by default swaps for a different set of abilities for you to use. kill any of the other targets to get your mark available for trapping, and then hold down the R2 button for some paralyzing skills. Now the game will tell you that you need it to be unconscious, and earlier on with the cave battle, we learned that that means depleting the health bar. This is bad, don't do it. You need to lower its health using the paralyzing abilities, and make some stars appear over its head, like in Looney Tunes, and THEN throw the net over the mark, capturing it. There's gonna be tons of mooks around these guys, including all types of flys, poison jellies, and squirrels, so make sure you leave the mark alive in order to complete this, because failing means you lose any equipped cards! ======================================================================== Liberate the Mine From Thieves!: ======================================================================== Okay, now that ya got your feet wet, we'll kick it up a notch. At the counter task menu, swing over to C listings with the L1 button in the task list, and grab this task from there. It's on Ragnoth, so you'll be headed that way for this one, and enter whenever you're ready. This one isn't so bad if you've been paying attention thus far, but you're thrown into the meat of it right off the bat unfortunately, so be prepared for that. 3 monks and a hound bum rush you as soon as you load into the battlefield, so circle around behind em, and employ that group tactic. Once the initial rush is down, head northwest across the bridge where another hound, and two bullies with machine guns are waiting to ruin your day. The trick was to wait for them to already be shooting, and then run around behind them and land a combo, dash out, and repeat. If you're having trouble with that, since reloading is a pain, just hug the eastern wall of the bridge and bait them out one by one... kinda cheap, but if you're not lookin to play nice, it's definitely a good idea. ======================================================================== *Sulfas: ======================================================================== At this point, if you're following along, you should be full up on your silver stars that you need for this rank, or close to it at least, so head over to Sulfas for a board task! Go and pick up the only one for your rank, "Find the Missing Person!" The client is found in the local pub, which can be found on the southwestern portion in the building next to the stairs. If this building has a sign, it's facing north and you can't see it, but it's definitely there, just look for the light from the doorway. Enter the building and head northeast to the staircase leading down, and all the way west to find the reporter facing a map thing on the wall, and when you try to talk to him, tell him "No thanks" to get him to tell you about the job he wants done. Watch the cutscene with another familiar face, and then exit the southern door and up the stairs to exit the town again. Make for Mt. Sion, and enter when ready. Upon entering, there's going to be multiple exit points, so the general rule of thumb here is, if there's a northern passage, take it, and WHEN there's an eastern passage, take it, so in the first screen, go right at the shanty, and head north. At the second shanty, of course, go north, to another shanty, and go east.... seeing the pattern? Eventually, following this pattern, you'll come to a shack that's outside of the combat zone, and find Dunsanny meditating in his makeshift pagoda thing. This place used to be called Smelia?... Anyway, once baldy is your guest, make a short detour going south back to the combat zone and south again, but go northwest once back at the shack to find some rhokes playin dead. There's no cheeseball way to get these guys out, but either way, they're not scary, so you shouldn't have problems. Exorcise the malademon, and bust up the crate to find the Kukuru card! Okay, NOW you can head back out the way you came, and clean things up with this task. If it seems confusing, you just do the opposite, and take the southern paths instead. Watch the cutscene back at Sulfas, and finally learn Edda's parents' names! Finally it's all starting to make sense!... Just kidding, that's all the info on that topic for now, so Edda's still left in the dark after getting his hopes up (thanks Spence -.- ). Anyway, head over to the pub's basement and talk to boris and Dunsanny to get the ball rollin again with another cutscene. Once that's taken care of, I personally went and materialized the Kukuru card for another character, and invested in a Cure ability just to be on the safe side of things, since they're gonna get hairy soon... up to you though. Just west of the hunter's guild, between a pipe and a box, you'll notice another little hole in the wall, you know what that means! This time, the little Mofly will be a synthesis genius, and holds a list for you, even starts you out with 3 recipes for your venture, in return for you not telling folks where he's hiding out at. At this point, I was able to run off to make a nice new chainmail vest (+40 DEF, -6 SPD, not bad for now), but you do you. This game is open to many strategies, so it's up to you to buy any cards that might suit yours, but for me it's defense cards at this point... up to you though. ======================================================================== 3) *Rueloon Apprentice Exam: ======================================================================== At this point, you can choose to go further the plot, or go level up your hunter rank at the Rueloon exam center. Being that I like having things done prior to furthering the plot, that's where we're headed first for another hunter's exam. This time we'll be gonig for the Apprentice rank, so things will be a little tougher. Still on a time constraint, and still a 2 parter, but this time there's gonna be explosions, cowboys, and another boss fight. Sounds fun right? Well get on in there and find out! 3 minutes on the clock! Round 1 will be a pattern of exploding crates that resemble a rectangle in shape, with the 3 cowboys spread out behind them, at least they're in a decent range away from each other that you only have to fight 1 at a time, if that's your fancy, however, they try to bunch together as best they can, so be careful when you approach them, or try a grouping strategy. [] [] [] [] [] O [] []O[] O [] [] [] [] [] X [] X [] X This map is going to be your base template for all of the exam matches by the way, cause they're all similar to this. [] Are the crates, and X are the cowboys here, and O are the mine that will explode even if you get near them, so either use that to your advantage, or just avoid them, cause they hurt a bit. They almost guaranteed get the first hit if you get too close and alert them, but if you're good with your timing, you can backdash out of it before they get ya. When done right, this whole round doesn't even take a full minute, and the mines can be completely avoided. On to round 2! Round 2 employs the long lost Lutz from ATL3. This guy's not to be taken lightly at this point in the game if you're under equipped, however, there are a few things to mention that will make this a cheeseball fight. Lutz will use a variety of attacks to whittle you down, but he can also hit the crates and break them for you, so it may be worth kiting him around the field to drop daggers down on them to get a few free goodies, or using the crates as a shield while getting ready to strike. Anyway, at a distance, he will try to paralyze you with what looks like an electrified "shakeweight," or he will simply use his signature blade rain ability, but both are no good for Edda. If you lock him into a combo, and fail to knock him down for some reason - OR - if you're sluggish on the attack when in range, Lutz will backdash like any hero can, but Lutz throws a dagger at you when he does, NOT COOL -.- . And finally, if you hear him yell "Ultimate Attack!" and hunch down, get the hell out of there ASAP, because this is his "Fatal Dagger" ability from ATL3, which is almost a 1 shot, but in this, just hurts like hell. So, without further adeu, the basic idea for this fight, is to stay behind him, in that little "sweet spot" where he'll chase at you to try for a melee combo, and be just shy of range, while your giant (Deku?) stick has that little extra reach that's needed.... see, size counts. As with Ganz, he will be impervious to damage while getting back up, and a couple seconds after, so use that time to reposition yourself for a subsequent offensive, and use the shoulder dodges to keep from taking unnecessary damage, while he's immune. Not so bad, nice job! For completing this, you'll once again be rewarded with your rank up of course, and another 10 mystery cards, as well as new tasks to be completing with your new rank. With your new rank, if you're having trouble with groups of enemies, I recommend that you head off and buy the Tornado ability card as soon as possible. Tornado allows you to attack whole groups in an area, at the cost of CP, so use it wisely and effectively. ======================================================================== 3a) Wipe out the Giant Slime!: ======================================================================== Now that we have some room for more EXP/Dignity, how's about some more money? You'll notice that you can hold 2 tasks now instead of just the 1, so that'll cut down on the running back and forth, finally, so grab "Wipe out the Giant Slime," and "Wipe out the Mushroom Monsters" as well, so we can take care of that one next. So starting with the slime, head to East Halshinne and enter the forest to get this guy taken care of. Enter here, and make your way through the east exit first, and then south to find this colossus of a slime. This guy's more annoying that anything; he will immediately revive any small slimes that are in the area, he takes up 1/4 of the screen so obviously you can't knock him down or interrupt, and he tends to trample you constantly. Try to lure him over to one side away from the little guys, so there's minimal interference when you're acting as a human punching bag for the slime, but dodge left and right waiting for your opening between his attacks to jump in and get a couple good hits in here and there. You can play it safe, using smaller combos to avoid taking damage, or you can settle with the fact that this guy's 4 times your size, let him beat you around, and just mash on the attack button, up to you. If you happen to have a couple items to throw at him, you can use those to ease your pain, but if you're following this guide so far, you're probably just gonna have to bite the bullet on this one, and take some pain, which is okay, cause you heal between missions. What a bastard... back to Adenade for the next task once he's fertilizing the forest. ======================================================================== Wipe out the Mushroom Monsters: ======================================================================== Arrive in the forest to discover a new type of shroom here now. The goal is to just wipe them out, as the name implies, so tromp through the area in whatever order your little heart desires, and kill em all. Just remember that the ones planted in the ground when approached, will jump up into the air and be invulnerable to damage in the process, so don't let them get a cheap shot on you when they do that, just wait for them to be back down to land a combo on em, and you'll be golden. Also, you don't get a counter on this one, but if I had to guess, there should be about 20 of them total in here, between poison mushrooms, and myconids, and all were spread out nicely, so you don't really need to take groups of them if you don't want to. Easy as pie, now go hand them in, and grab a couple more. ======================================================================== Capture an Alraune!: ======================================================================== Make your way to Ragnoth, and enter the combat area when ready. This one can be annoying if you don't have a handle on the captures still. Easiest thing to do, is chase one eastward so that he goes across the bridge, make short work of the 2 shrooms on the bridge, and trap it into the small alcove over the bridge. Once your got him cornered, just bombard him with paralyze equipment until you see the stars over his head, and throw the trap to catch him. Done. Next, make for Epistia. ======================================================================== Johnny's Bomb Hunt: ======================================================================== This task is all about making sure the dog is safe as he hunts for the bomb stashed away, so just make sure he's in good health, and you'll be fine. Johnny moves clockwise around the junk heap, stopping to sniff the ground or the junk every now and then, and the enemies are well scattered, so this really isn't much of a challenge for a skilled hunter such as yourself. The new enemy ninjas aren't much more than just a better dressed monk from earlier, so don't worry here, just stay one step ahead of the dog, and make short work of all of the cowboys before they can trap you down with their guns. Go turn those two in when you're done, and grab a couple more. ======================================================================== Junk Equipment Hunt: ======================================================================== The goal here is to collect the junk inside the junk heaps (the piles of scrap). After entering, there's a pile right next to the fence to the northeast, and then if you go in a counterclockwise pattern around the map, you'll find the 3 more near some fly swarms and mushroom men. From the 4th pile, backtrack to the 3 way split, and go up the northwestern path, and wrap around the small building there for the last pile for the collection. Once collected, the task automatically ends, as usual, and it's off to Mt. Quina Fort for the next task. ======================================================================== Wipe out the Elementals: ======================================================================== On entering this abandoned fortress of death (from TOTS), you'll immediately be face with a couple of guard dogs, who like to bark, and run, and bark, and run, etc., so make short work of them before heading up any of the 3 stairs. Up the East stairs, you'll find a dead end with a couple of containers for the breaking, but up the west set of stairs, you'll find the quicker route to where you need to go. On the second tier, head west, and up the winding stairs following to the northern exit to continue to the cave area where the elementals are. Okie dokie artichokies.... these guys are annoying... like REALLY annoying... any of the ones that do NOT have that red arrow over their head to indicat that they're the mark, will continuously respawn at the spot you found them in, which means 4/5 of the enemies here are a useless stall monster put forth to ruin your day. The mark for the task is at the northern end of the area, sandwiched between two of the bigger respawning enemies. Bum rushing the mark is a big no no, cause you'll drag the two from the lower area with you, and have all 5 on you, or best case scenario, 4 of them instead. Up close, these guys just punch you, which is enough to interrupt your combo, and at a range, they'll shoot a fireball that explodes doing AOE damage on you, which knocks you down, which leaves only the cautious approach. Drag the first guy over to the bottom of the ramp that leads to the mark, making sure not to catch the attention of his buddy on the bottom tier, and smack him around til he respawns back at the entrance. Now you only have to deal with the 3, which is one less fireball that you have to deal with, so from there, wait for them to fire their initial volley to the bottom of the ramp, dash forward, and plow into the middle one so as to catch all 3 in the combo, and continue until these bombers are reduced to ash. At this point, you'll have actually 1 extra mission done than you needed, so it's time to rotate back to the story missions, so we can gather some dignity points and advance in hunter ranks. ======================================================================== 3b) *Dilzweld Empire: ======================================================================== Instead of heading to the hunter's guild right off, head over to Dilzweld in West Halshinne to visit with Dunsanny's daughter and see how they're doing. When you first enter Dilzweld, take the two sets of stairs right infront of you downward, to find another one of those beloved holes in the wall for Hemo to make use of. Inside, this Mofly will tell you a little bit about personal skills and how to use them, as well as giving you your first one - Lancer Spirit! Thanks little Mofly! Anyway, if you go back out of the little hole, up the second set of stairs, and in the doorway on the tier between staircases, you'll see another little hole - wow, two in one area?! Go on inside, they don't mind, and this one will tell you a little bit about Tatjana from ATL: TOTS. Sorry to disappoint, but that's all this little guy has to offer this time, no goodies in that hole this time. Now that the spelunking has been taken care of, make your way back to the ntrance, and this time follow the upper path to reach the Dilzweld hunter's guild and hand in those other tasks for some cash. While you're here you can check out the weekly world news for another update, save your game, talk to the guy next to the board to learn about online play (which is no longer available for use), or check the board tasks that you can't take on just yet, but either way, when you're ready, leave and keep headin west into the town square, and keep it movin west until you hit the shop on the western border. Go inside and talk to Dunsanny again, and watch the scene that follows. With that out of the way, you're free to head back to the first doorway from where we entered on the eastern side to check out the lottery office and it's mini games, if you're feeling lucky enough. Always save before pulling cards or playing any games upstairs, in case of any mishaps, but there's really some great stuff you can get out of this place, like character cards. Drawing cards from this shop costs 10 mystery cards each time, and is completely random what you get, so again, I can't stress the saving prior to any attempt at it, but it's possible to get Camellia, Delma, Iga, Shu, Tosh, Alec, Diekbeck, and Lilia, in that order. I've seen it posted that these happen on their respective attempts, but that myth has been busted (that'd be insane to get 9 character cards in sequence.... someone didn't think about that claim -.- ), it's random, so save and reload as needed to get them. The upper floor has 3 little box things, which are simulators for hunters to train in. Basically, if you complete the challenge in the time limit, you get some mystery cards; 1 for green, 3 for blue, and 5 for red. Sit here and play around with that if that's what you're into, but for now, I'm going to move on and come back to that later. When you're good and satisfied with the lottery house, head back out to the world map, and make port in Ragnoth -> Yewbell. ======================================================================== 3c) * Take Over Guard Duty: ======================================================================== Accept this task from the Sulfas board, and head straight to the Parenz ruins to kickstart this 2 parter. Basically, you're gonna enter and the guard will approach you and act a bit suspicious before running off and leaving you to your devices. Once he leaves, there's going to be 5 ninjas that pop out of the woodworks to patrol the area. These guys aren't really tough, but they tend to do their "illusion dodge" technique between your 3rd and 4th cane strikes, so you can either strafe around him to make him turn, or just use smaller combos if you're saving on magic for the moment. Circle around clockwise to finish them off with no problems, pulling them away from their friends so as not to get ambushed, and this is over in a snap. Watch the scene here to find there's a bomb! Rush to Mt. Quina Fort to find the Truth Sword gang having a little pow-wow, and then it's time to kick some booty. These guys have a swastika shaped curved sword that they like to employ a jumping attack with, so try to get 1-on-1 with as many as possible, as they'll use diverse tactics to interrupt lock you, but on their own, they're really nothing to speak of. Once you can successfully pull their boss away from the group, go ahead and do so to finish him off as well. The boss is bigger, hurts more, and gets hurt less, as with any mini boss, but his tactics are questionable at best. If you can get behind him, he's super slow, attacks slowly, but has a special ability that the others don't, so watch out for that, and time your combos so that he doesn't get to use it, and you'll be fine. Return to Sulfas when you're done for another cutscene with our favorite pudgy General chewing out the guy you just helped, and you get to see why he was acting so fishy... well at least his date went well. ======================================================================== * Find Our Teacher: ======================================================================== Next, it's back to Dilzweld for another board mission from the hunter's guild. This is the first so far that they're not very direct with, but it's not too difficult to figure out. After accepting the task, head westward and enter the pub. You'll see a group of kids harping someone in the bar (who lets minors into their bar?), so talk to them to get some info on the upcoming task, and find that their teacher went to the pyramid bar, or so they say. There's only one pyramid in the area, so make for there first, and enter when you're ready. Watch the scene after entering the pyramid, and head through the entrance to watch another scene with a voice stuck behind the sealed door. Head up the stairs behind the door and eastward to the opposite twin pyramid, where a Mofly hole is waiting to be found at a dead end. After sending Hemo in to investigate, a door will be opened next to where you were standing, so head on in and prepare for the battlefield inside. The mummies here are a joke, slow and highly advertised in attacks, but the spiders, while weak, have a nice jump attack that can easily catch you off guard. Head east from the entrance, and make a U turn north, then westward, and make an L shaped pattern northwestern until you come to a room where you enter from the east, and has a north and west exit - TAKE THE WEST EXIT HERE. You'll come to a room with a crevace and some seemingly floating boxes. Follow this pattern in ascending order, and stand where the boxes were after breaking them: (roughly): O ________________ [7] [4] [3] [6][5] [1] [2] You start at "X", you want to get to "O" ________________ X The boxes are kinda bunched up, so this is a rough placement of the boxes, but should be enough to figure it out with a little trial and error, but the text guide would be something like: move to left box, hit it and stand where it was, right two steps, stand where the box was, two steps up, stand where the box was, hit the box next to you and stand where it was, one step left and replace the box, replace the box next to that, and up north to the other side. It'll be a little confusing at first, but once you do it, it makes more sense, just do the first 3 easy ones, and the rest kinda fall into place. Anyway, proceed to get your Theo card, and backtrack out of there to the northern exit from the previous intersection, where a giant spider awaits. This giant spider respawns any smaller spiders that you kill, so just focus on him. He takes up a ton of the screen, similar to the previously fought giant slime, and knocks you down with just about every hit, so getting the drop on him from the rear is nearly impossible. The special attacks employed include small webs that rain down on your head, a black orb of pain that he shoots from his rear, and a jumping attack similar to the small spiders, but you want to avoid being hit by any of them. Just like any boss, he doesn't get staggered easily, so keep your attacks to a 3 hit minimum to leave room to strafe to dodge his attacks, or use some of that new lancer spirit that you just got. If you get low on HP, all of the boxes have a healing item in them, so you can always retreat to get some HP, but at the risk of getting swarmed by the smaller spiders. Whatever tactic you employ, just take him down as fast as possible to avoid getting that dreaded "mission failed" banner, and exit north to finish this section of the task. In the next section of the pyramid, you need to unlock that door that you saw at the entrance, so from where we just exited, head eastward and out of the pyramid to the exterior area to flip the first switch, and then head back to the catacomb exit, and head westward to find the second switch. Flipping both switches will open the door, and you'll automatically be brought down to the entrance area where you'll see a familiar face again. After the cutscene, and against advisory, the team will decide to investigate the nearby town of Barbadoth. On entering, the ghost town seems barren, as if a battle just ended... Head inside the only building available, for another cutscene with, yet another familiar face. After watching the cutscene with Tatjana in Barbados, head back to Dilzweld to finish up with this task. From the entrance, head down to where we met the first Mofly, and head south of the hole to find the group of kids surrounding the scientist. Exhaust the dialogue there, and at the end of it, you'll be rewarded with the Tatjana card! ======================================================================== 4) *Rueloon Expert Hunter's Exam: ======================================================================== Once you've found Tatjana and returned her safely, you should be full on dignity as well, so time to head over to Rueloon again for another exam. Note: You may notice at this point that counter tasks have gone down significantly in this section, and will again in the next few. The full list of counter tasks, and board tasks, in their order of availability will be posted later in the guide, so refer farther down if you want to do one that I don't cover in my game, or just want to see what the options are. Any time you run low on cash, or just want to stockpile cards, feel free to grab a few of the counter tasks to make a few quick bucks. Anyway, head back to Rueloon, and then up to the exam area to take your next hunter's exam. Round 1: This is a new one for the exam center, you're gonna have to trap two big goliath beetle guys, using the same trapping tactics as we used for the previous tasks. There's two ways to do this since they have quite a bit of HP to deal with; You can either bombard them with stun equipment from the R2 menu, or beat them down a bit, and then use the equipment to finish them off. Remember 2 things with these guys; They're aggressive, and won't go down without a fight, as opposed to the previous trap marks who run from you, and second, that you only have 2 CP bars to begin the fight with, so if you use more than one of them on the first beetle, you're hindering yourself in the fight with the second one. Also, they'll try to turtle themselves inside their shell once their HP starts to drop down, so to coax them back out, just head off out of combat range, and then come back to finish the job. To begin the fight, head to the southwestern corner of the map and first deal with the beetle there, in whichever fashion previously stated that makes you comfortable. When the first one is down, the second is waiting for you off in the western side, and this time, with no restraints since the first one is gone. Round 2: This is a pretty standard match that you should be familiar with at this point, it's just 3 guard dogs, and some crates. Just use your favorite group tactic for removing the hounds, and then it's off to the final round, which by this point, we already know is going to be a mini boss. Round 3: This time you're squaring off against ATL3's Cheryl. Cheryl sports her signature gun, and uses very basic tactics to harrass you on the battlefield. She'll behave similarly to how Lutz did, so the same tactics that worked for that fight, will also work here, but the difference is, she has no knives to rain down on you, but she does have some napalm bombs that she'll try to throw at you. Since you're not really safe at any range with this little chica, your shoulder buttons will be your best friends if you're looking to take her down with the quickness, however, if you're more of a cheeseburger fighter, you can bait her to run towards one of the crate piles, as these crates are impervious to all damage, and use them as a shield while you smack her around from the safety of cover. She'll still throw some bombs at you every now and then when you're behind the crates, but at least you only have to dodge one thing there instead of two, and the bombs are very nicely telegraphed for your dodging pleasure. Once Charyl submits, it's time for another rank+! Congratulations, Expert. ======================================================================== 4a) * Dilzweld - "Help My Father": ======================================================================== At this point, if you've been having some trouble in the game, you can head over to Yewbell whenever you have about 1k to spend and invest in Cure II if you'd like... or just better equips, either way. It's also possible to synthesize the ever popular "Exorcists Shaft" parts card if you've gathered the necessary cards during your tasks. Mysterious Ore x3, Lusah Cane from the Dilzweld lottery, and Light Metal x2 is what you need for that, and see the recipe in its section for details on how to make it. The Cure II card is synthesized with a Cure card, and a Magical stone, by Sorcie, both of which are found at the Yewbell shop on Ragnoth. If you're still having trouble after gathering both of those, try to synthesize the "Lizard Guard" defense part, which is (purchased) Battle armor + a Magical Stone, and then take that Rune Armor and combine it with a lizard hide card. If you don't have the parts necessary, keep an eye out for them so you can make it - it's well worth the effort. Since we just did some story, let's go ahead and further the plot some more to keep things interesting. Head back to where we just came from again, and this time grab the "Help My Father" board task. You can find the girl for this task down on the bottom tier, near where the first Hemo hole is, all by her lonesome by the circular garden thing. After talking to her and getting the scoop on the situation, it's time to head over to the castle to play Sherlock for her. The guard at the first door will block your entry, but things aren't over just yet! Just to the right of him (your right, his left) is another little hole for your pal to squeeze through. This hole leads to a hallway this time, that branches off to the right first, then left, then right at the end of the hall. The first two branches hold little Mofly gurus that share some useful little tidbits with you about the structure and what's going on inside lately, as well as some background on the pre-war castle. Once you've depleted the Moflys' usefulness, head to the end of the hall and out the other side to watch another scene involving Sonya's father and what's going on around town. Report back to Sonya in Dilzweld once the scenes are done, and give her the intelligence that you just gathered for her, and she'll tell you about where he's going next - the jump spot. Watch the scene that takes place on entering the area, but prepare for combat as it ends, as there's no in-between with this battlefield. Immediately after the scene, combat initiates and you're rushed by up to 4 guards, some with pistols, some with knives, and some bare fisted, so shoulder through as many as possible to the northwest using [] until you get some breathing room, but remember that this isn't the optimal fighting area, so be quick and get out quick as well. The preferred area is going to be the southern portion of the map, where if done right, you'll only be faced with two enemies, instead of the full ambush. Once those enemies are taken care of, simply employ your favorite tactic to finish off the rest of the group to the north. Back at the castle, the rejected Karate master will come atcha, so mop that up real quick like, and head on into the castle proper for a maze of BS fights that you haven't seen yet. First order of business, head over and pick up Leeza's card by going east -> east -> south -> south. This will bring you to a room with 3 cowboys with machine guns, and a knife guard, kinda like this: ________________ | | | | | __ | | | | | | |__|G | | | | C | | []C | |[][]C | |________________| I'm not sure if it's common or not, but on my first attempt on that card, the card actually disappeared on me and I had to reload to get it again, so to avoid that, clear the guard first to cut down on the crowd, bum rush the crates and cowboys, grab the card, and [] your way outta that nasty business. Once the crowd is back under control, you can finish them off, or just leave them be and head back out. The combat strategy, since they have machine guns, would be anything that cuts a group down with ease, as usual, but again, when I did that I had to reload the game, so it's up to you. Moving on from the card room, heading north is the rule of thumb to get to the end of the castle, but when you get to a room that has 4 exits, and two sets of two crates (1 on the west, and 1 on the east) with 4 guards patrolling the area, that's the danger room, because the next room is the last room, which is a death trap. Before entering the last room, make sure you're doing pretty decent at least with HP, and have sufficient CP for your favorite skills. When you're all set, head through the northern exit of the danger room. _______________________ | | | [][] | | | | | | [] O B O [] | | [] X X [] | | | | | | O[][]O | | | | | |_______________________| This is the last room's set up. The O are the guards, the X are the tanks, and the B is the leader of the guards. The two guards in front have knives, the two guards in the back have pistols, and the leader has a rifle, and all of the guards can throw those shakeweight stun bombs at you, which leave you prone/dazed for the tanks to lay into you, which is not OK. Clear out the two guards up in front first, and keep to the crates for some cover from the barrage that comes from the north if you go too far. If you watch the mini map, you'll notice that the tanks have a freakishly big agro range, and can actually agro you from outside of the screen, so you really have to pay attention to those two. With the front two guards down, grab the attention of whichever tank you chose to take down first, and run to that sides crate shelter. The guards will start throwing bombs at you from the other side of the cover, so time your dodge to clear you of all 3 attacks that will undoubtably be coming in. From the shelter, now that you have their attention, you can do one of two things to safely take these tanks down; You can try to drag the guards over individually, or you can bait the tanks into coming close enough to smack around from your shelter. The guards are tricky to separate, as they like their grouping tactic, they prefer to throw bombs at a range, so head south along the wall, using the candle stands as alternate cover to drop agro, while dragging the tank as close as possible, run back to the crates once you have the tank positioned, and pop out of safety once the tank attacks to get a 3 hit combo in, and repeat until it's dead. Alternatively, run along the wall up and down until the guards are close enough to the crate to hit them with a 3 hit combo with your pole, but don't knock them down with the 4th hit because that will throw them backward and out of range, repeat until all guards are down, and the tanks have such slow fire rate, you can just run up to them and clear them as a group with 3 hit combos as well. Once the room is cleared, watch the scene in the next room for some warm and fuzzy feelings, and then it's off to Yewbell once again for the next bored task. ======================================================================== * Urgent Manhunt: ======================================================================== As you enter the town, you'll have to watch another scene, so do that, and when it's done, the townsfolk pretty much make the path for you, but in case you're struggling with it, just take the stairs down to the lower tier, and head eastward to the house over the bridge for another scene. Hit up the shop if ya want to update some equips or synthesize, or whatever, and when you're ready, go over to the hunter's guild for the board task "Urgent Manhunt." Luckily, the client who posted it is standing right next to you, so you don't have far at all to go! After speaking to the guild master to get the status of the task, you'll get a cutscene with another familiar face (awww, with short hair now?! >< ). Oh great, another scientist dabbling with energy research, here we go again... anyway, follow Paulette back to the pub for another scene where she suggests splitting up. Luck is still with you, all you really need to do for this portion is just go upstairs into the room and ask the lady there about the Dr. Easy enough, so head back to Paulette and tell her what's up, and she'll point you in the right direction for the next part of the task. Flip the card, and head northeast on the world map! When you enter Dragonia, you'll have another scene, of course, before Paulette joins as a guest for a bit. The flies at the entrance are probably you're biggest concern in this area, cause they're the only things that swarm at you. Use Paulette's range, and whatever group combo you've taken a liking to, and you'll make short work of these guys. Head up the stairs behind the dragon, and follow up the next two sets to enter the cave at the top tier of the ruins for the next section and another scene. Find out what's going on with the Doc, and flip the next card to find out the next destination is the Dragon Cave, so let's head there. After entering the Cave, the first room is linear, so follow into the second, where you'll have 4 exits, and a nice handful of enemies. Clear the massive room, or don't, but first things first, let's go get another character! Exit northeast to another linear room with a new type of dragon in it, but fear not, he's nothing new, just a different damage type. Head north into another linear room, and make a point to clear this one out. Pull the first southern dragon back to the entrance for a 2 on 1 battle, and try to do the same for the other regular dragon. When it's just the malademon dragon left, take care of him in the best way that suits you - personally, i dashed around him with the shoulder buttons in a circle, and just let Paulette deal with him... cause I'm a cheeseburger assassin when the mood strikes. Anyway, once he's dealt with, he'll drop the Darc card! If you enter the next northern room, you'll not be able to go back, so make sure you've explored as much as you care to, filled your HP, and CP, and whatever else you want to do to prepare, but keep in mind, this boss is little more than a giant sized mook. When you're ready, enter the linear path after the Darc card area, and then enter then next room for a cutscene. When the dragon spawns, he'll take a cheap shot on you 90% of the time with his breath attack, so mash on [] to dodge it as the screen fades out, or take advantage of knowing what he's about to do, and take the hit while dashing to his backside. Cheeseburger assassins can just circle around him constantly and just let Paulette take this giant bastard down on her own, but a more honorable fighter needs to remember his 3 attacks: He has a bite attack, a breath attack, and a tail swipe, but all are forward attacks, so even for the tail swipe, he has to be facing you, and then he'll turn to his side to execute the attack... pathetic for a boss. Tornado deals damage 3 times in one spot, so that's not a bad choice to use, meteor fall does a nice bit of elemental weakness damage to him if you stopped to buy that back in Sulfas, and basic 3 hit combos are free, so take your pick of ways to beat him into submission, and watch the scene when you're done. Once you're done in the cave and back on the world map, head to Yewbell, watch the dialogue, head to the hunter's guild back room, watch the dialogue, head back out, and grab a couple of your choice of tasks... phew. On to the silver stars for this rank: ======================================================================== 4b) Get Back the Scroll!: ======================================================================== Back on Eipistia is where this one takes place, so finish up whatever you wanted to do in between missions, and load in when you're ready. This one's an arrest task, so you only have one target. This theft has been perpetrated by some ninjas, of course, so remember that they have that illusion dodge trick, which means you'll want to attack from anywhere but the front to land a full combo on them. When you clear the first 3, you'll find the target all by his lonesome in the back, however, when you approach him to lay down some law, he summons 3 more of his buddies from the shadows, so be prepared for an ambush at arm's length. They all behave in the same way that you're use to by now, but the red guy will throw knives at you from a distance if you let him, so employ your favorite group tactics, while keeping him in that sweet spot where you can hit him, but he can't reach you... or just spam AOE damage, for those cheese win. Case closed, watch the scene. ======================================================================== Protect the Truck Installation!: ======================================================================== Since we're here already, let's tackle this one next, so enter the nearby ruins to begin. This one is a defense task, so when you enter, you'll want to stay close to the target to better defend it, although not too close, cause the shades will throw energy balls which can hurt it. I strongly admonish that you do NOT use target lock in this area (i rarely use it anyway), because it will impair you're ability to see any new targets approaching the defense point. Other than that, you should be able to take these guys 2 at a time if you time things right, so just approach from behind or the side, like normal, and take them down for the 2 minutes that you have to keep the miners safe for. No problem for an Expert Hunter. ======================================================================== Destroy the Giant Ooze!: ======================================================================== Not the same one as before, this one's on the scrappe plateau back on Ragnoth, so head there and enter when ready. This guy's cheap, so in turn, use a cheap tactic =) . When you enter there's two smaller oozes on either side, 3 explosive barrels on the opposite ends, and the giant ooze in the middle with 5 buddies surrounding him. Remember the last ooze? Just about every hit knocks you down and stuns you, so you want as few of his pals around you when you engage, and try to do so at a distance. Meteor fall, and lancer spirit are good tools for whittling this guy down in that fashion, so try to pull him to the northeastern corner where you'll get the least amount of adds, kick his little buddy to the curb, and spam lancer spirit, or whatever your weapon of choice is. About 75 HP, and 5 hits later, he should be down with little trouble in this manner. ======================================================================== Defeat the Green Dragon!: ======================================================================== You only need 1 more start if you followed with me, so grab this one cause it's just next door in DBV, and head there. I was actually kinda disappointed with this one actually, cause when you enter, you enter with a whole squad of other hunters. It doesn't list them as guests, or even mark them for you with the triangle icon, but they're there, and they will help you quite a bit if you keep them alive. The dragons will mostly just try to trample everyone by knocking them down repeatedly, but use the hunters to draw attention, circle around the dragons, and lay waste, rinse and repeat as needed, but you can lock up to 3 dragons at once with this method, so it's a really quick fight if you want it to be. ======================================================================== 5) *Rueloon Veteran Hunter's Exam: ======================================================================== Back to Rueloon after you turn that in for another of those exams that you've grown to love. Round 1: You'll actually have an escort task for your first round, which hasn't been seen at all in the exams yet, but don't worry, it's not hard. There's 3 dragons, and the crates can be destroyed, so either play around a little and let the dragons destroy as many crates as possible to get the goodies, or just jump ahead of the hunter and take the dragons down. You have to wait for the hunter to make it to the opposite end either way, so I actually let the dragons destroy a ton of crates before givin em the smackdown, but the choice is yours. The dragons aren't staggered easily, so you'll want to do a combo from behind, or use the 3 hit and dodge method if you're being conservative on the CP like me. Round 2: This one isn't very tough either (seeing a pattern yet?), it's just 4 enemies that need to be killed amongst a litter of boxes that can be smashed for more goodies. Each of the women are spaced far enough to be taken 1 on 1, but it's ok if you get a group of them too, that leaves more time for box smashin! Anyway, there's 1 whip lady, 1 sword lady, 1 rifle, and 1 spear. Of all of them, the spear holder is the toughest, as she can't be interrupted, so employ your favorite tactic for all of them, just remember to take the spear lady from behind... heh. Round 3: This round pits you up against ... Archmonk Iga?! Relax, just breathe, it's not too harsh. Iga likes to use a sort of Chi Blast thing which REALLY hurts, like Lutz's fatal dagger. He can attack very quickly, so make sure that you're employing those shoulder buttons to make sure you take as little damage as possible. Every now and then, if you're far away enough, he'll also throw some shuriken lookin things at you, so this is mostly going to be a close range battle. Find the sweet spot, and engage again once he's able to take damage after recovering from your combo hit, and rinse and repeat for the win. Nevermind the heals he uses when low on HP, he's just stalling cause he doesn't wanna lose to someone who's not from Mt. Amaidar =P . Congratulations, Veteran! Go see what the Quorup down by the hunter's guild has for sale now that you've gotten another rank, and grab the next 4 counter tasks before heading out to Ragnoth again. ======================================================================== 5a) Track Down the Stolen Book!: ======================================================================== You actually don't even have to kill anything here if you don't want to, but where's the fun in that? This place has tons of wyverns, those weird bug things that you've grown to hate, and maneaters, so there's plenty to kill on each screen. You'll wanna kill those wyverns long enough to get a lizard skin off of one too if you've the patience for it, but if not, just head East, North, East, South, East from the entrance to find the book sitting behind some plant guys, ready for the collecting. ======================================================================== Rescue the Twin Girls!: ======================================================================== It's off to West Halshinne once you have the book in hand, and we'll start first with the Rescue task back in that jump spot we've been ambushed in once before. Note that if you got the lizard skin anywhere so far, but since I just mentioned it last task, you can create a number of useful items now, so scroll down and have a look if you want to, but as previously stated, I going with minimal equips and skills for the guide, so you don't have to do that just yet if you'd rather wait for better stuff. Once entered, it's pretty linear, so just head on up and grab some attention. I suggest the first 3 guards, cause the two behind the first are knife guards anyway, but your call. take care of the bottom tier's guards, and bust up the second set of crates to rescue the girl behind them (she looks like a CP container until the boxes are broken), and continue up the stairs that follow. At the top of the first flight is a swordsman waiting to ruin your face, so take him out with a side or back combo to keep him down, and proceed up the second flight where a rifleman leader is waiting. He's easy to stagger, but his rifle has great range, and hurts, so don't neglect those shoulder buttons. When he's down, bust the crates up and rescue the second little girl. ======================================================================== Capture the Crazed Army Dog!: ======================================================================== This one can't be any more straight forward. Enter and kill the little gunner pods flying around and when you have an opening, toss a quick paralyzer bomb with R2+[], and for me at least, he was ready to be trapped on the first shot. Can't be easier. ======================================================================== Arrest the Truth Sword Band!: ======================================================================== Enter the castle when you're ready, to find a squad waiting for you in the front room. Unfortunately, none of these are the member that you're looking for, so once they're done with, you'll have to scour the castle proper for the goons that you are looking for. The general rule of thumb is "Counter-clockwise," which is the pattern I'll be leading you through. Most of the rooms when cleared won't respawn, but you shouldn't have to backtrack much anyway, so don't worry about em for the most part. The monks in here can full heal themselves, so attack from the rear to keep them at bay longer enough to drop them, and the cannon traps have pretty decent tracking on them for a change, so don't attack or dodge until they swivel around for the kill shot, then dodge and land a combo on them. Proceed north once the room is clear, then east, east again, then south, and south again, to find the first of the band hiding out in the darc card room. You'll find that the band are the same ones from the mountain fortess, so they're easily taken out with the same tactics as before. From there, head back north twice, and then northwest twice, which will land you in the danger room from before, with two more of the band waiting with two monk friends. From the danger room, head north to find two more of the band, along with their boss from before, and this time, he likes to employ a fire breathing attack, and throws his ball around a bit more too, so watch out for both of those, and just take them one at a time. From the death room, you can head north to an empty room with some bubbles to pop, but the goal is to go back to the danger room, and head west, then northwest, to a small room that has another of the band with a monk in it. After arresting that one, head back south, then south again, and finally southwest to find the last of the band hiding out with two of his monk friends. Arrest the remaining band member to get a little more info on what was going on with Rodion from before, and then go turn them in to Rueloon actually, where we'll grab the next board task. ======================================================================== 5b) *Exorcist Wanted!: ======================================================================== You'll find the client in the Assembly Hall on the second floor, as it says, which is just to the west of the exam center. Enter and talk to the Coleopt lady (the ant lookin thing) to get the 411 on the task at hand. Watch the cutscene and the make for the water shrine in the Coleopt village, for another cutscene. As the cutscene ends, you'll be thrown into the battlefield, so make sure you're ready for a fight before entering. The undead Coleopt will attack with their claws at a close range, but at a distance they still have their patented bubble ability. The bubble throw is a nasty thing, though at least it doesn't significantly drain stats anymore, but it still greatly reduces speed, so try to avoid those as there's no Coleopt Froth in this one to cure it as they come at you. Those black swirls are teleport points, which the whole area inside and out is filled with, so for now, take the first teleporter on the left as you enter. When you come out of the teleporter, kill the zombie that tries to ambush you, head south when you can, and kill the zombie right infront of you to take the first, northern, teleporter to a giant room where the zombies will continuously respawn on you. When the zombie malademon comes up, kill him for the Bebedora card! In order to get out of this room, you have to kill the only monster in it of its type, so don't fear the reaper, just kill it. There's no staggering this guy, so the ever popular 2-strike and dash tactic will take care of him nicely... or just blow him up with skills, but either way, once he's down, the zombies stop respawning as well, so don't kill him until the malademon zombie comes up with the card. Once you can leave, head south, and use the northern portal to bring you back to the first room we entered from the outside portal. Now, feel free to farm whatever items from these guys, as they drop a few new and useful ones, but from here, take the northern portal at the base of the stairs to reach Bebedora's original resting place, and make for the northeastern portal, pop the bubble there if you like, and then take the northern portal to reach the boss room for a cutscene. In the boss room, you'll start opposite of the boss, so you'll have to cut your way through the gnats who now also throw Coleopt bubbles, and the Coleopt Warriors to reach the queen. It's nothing new or special, there's just more all at once, that respawn as well, so make your way to her, and lay waste with spells if you like - Meteor fall is a good one as she's water element, and Dark Sphere (...what?!) does a good bit as well if you fancied that purchase earlier before entering the shrine. Anyway, for the more honorable fighter, head up and get behind her ASAP, and continue to lay waste to both her and the oncoming horde, but make sure your attacks land on the boss as priority, of course. If you let some of the warriors slip by you, they'll run to her for a full heal, and if you kill them, they'll almost immediately respawn at the opposite end, where you entered the arena at. At close range, she employs a powerful water based ice attack that deals quite a bit of damage, so make sure to bait her into using that, and then jump in for a combo before retreating before she can cast another, and at a medium distance, she uses a mass Coleopt spray that throws about 6 bubbles out in an semi-circle arch, so remember to dodge these little buggers. Once you've engaged her, it's better to stay at the top of the altar to avoid any of the mooks returning to the fight, just watch out for the claw attack she'll use if you're infront of her at this point, and remember tha if you start retreating, she's likely to follow you, making you deal with the swarm, as well as the queen this time. And the most important thing to remember, is that this is an exorcism task, you have to finish her with the spinning stick trick to finish her off, or she'll just regenerate and whoop ya some more, so without proper preparation, this fight can be extremely annoying. If she catches you tring to exorcise her, she'll use a skill that drains your hp and gives it to her, so wait for her to do something stupied, like a close range spray volley or something, and then hit her with it, but make sure her HP is low enough for it to work, or you're in for another treat. Watch the scene that follows and report back to Rueloon to complete the task. ======================================================================== *A Favor to Ask: ======================================================================== Not far to go for this one for a change, just grab this next task from the board in Rueloon as well, and then head behind the market in the ally for the client cutscene with Denik. Once he gives you some info on what to do, head over to the Nithblem Barrens to check out the scene. After arriving at the little camp base, simply go talk to Leggon, the leader, who suspiciously resembles the Canidae in the previous game that couldn't progress in the arena due to lack of strength, and is hangin around the tent thing at the northwestern part of the map for the next clue to the task. Once the little mini scene is done, it's off to the Tsatuga Plateau for more investigation. Hemo wants to take off when he sees no trace of anything, but we know Edda just can't have that, so when you gain control again, make for the first building in the northeast, and go eastward from the giant drill looking thing to enter the second building for a cutscene. This place is loaded up with those bald losers from the Truth Sword band, so use your normal tactics to clean house. First, if you want another card, head through the linear path you start in, then to the southeastern path that flows farther southeast, and you'll end up in a big room with 9 explosion barrels and two gunner pods. Drag the pods off individually, and spank them around til they pop, then head over and hit the barrels stil they start hoppin, and when the carnage is through, you'll have a shiney new Ganz card. Enjoy! Now, continue that path and when you hit the platform with the 3 PA-200s patrolling between 2 sets of 3 barrels, take the northern path to get to the boss room. This boss seems intimidating at first, being a giant tank and all, but he's actually pretty easy, even without much preparation I'd imagine. His favorite attack is a volly of missiles that attack where you're standing at the point that they're launched off, so they're quite easy to dodge, just don't be trying a combo when you see missiles flying at your face - stop attacking and dodge out. Don't lock onto him, cause at about 75% HP, he powers up 4 little moving pillars that when approached will shock you, and at a distance will fire rifle rounds at you in 3 round bursts. The second favored attack happens at a close range, and he spins in a circle very slowly, launching cannon rounds from his front end, that actually hurt a bit, but they're so slow, you can actually dodge between them if you have crackerjack timing, so again, not a big problem. And lastly, when he's at about 30% or so, he'll start using a rush attack, that actually will hit an unsuspecting Edda, so his front becomes the worst spot to be in. Cheese assassins can use about 4 volleys of meteors on his head for a quick finish, but for the honorable fights, just hug his feet, and unleash hell on his feet, while staying just a step to his left to avoid cannon fire, and moving to the rear later in the fight to avoid the dash attack. Gravy. Watch the cutscene after, then talk to Ganz, and then talk to the little deimos child to finish up in this lab area, and then out the south exit to leave the area. Head back to the barrens to drop the kid off and watch a heart warming scene of rabid wolves hating humans, and then celebrating - YAY! Anyway, once you're done there, go back to Rueloon to visit with Ganz, and see what he's managed to extract from the POW. Ganz is back at his post on the second floor again, in case you need directions to finding him, but after the conversation with him, you should be full up on both stars again, and wouldn't ya know it, you're already where ya need to be! Go to the shop and prepare for the next exam however you feel is best for your character and style, and when you're done, head back to the exam center. ======================================================================== 6) *Rueloon Master Hunter Exam: ======================================================================== Round 1: This first round is going to be up agains 4 other hunters, wielding a shotgun, a spear, a whip, and two swords. By rounding them all up and executing group tactics, you can finish this off rather quickly with minimal effort, but you'll miss out on any goodies that the crates might be holding, so the choice is yours. Round 2: This round will be agains 3 swordsmen, as an arrest task, and the mines are back on this one, so just beat them into submission in the normal fassion as you would in any other case, while avoiding stepping on any mines. They're easy to split up cause they love to run away from you until you're in their faces, and there's a generous amount of time to do it in, so this should be no problem as well. Just remember that they don't stagger when hit, so apply tactics assuming you won't interrupt them. Round 3: This one's going to be a trapping task, so don't go for the kill. The targets are two dragons this time, and they've taken most of the crates out, and replace them with flame traps now, so don't let the traps kill the dragons, and smash some crates for some goodies - there's time to spare on this. It only took me one time using R2+[] before they were ready to be snared, so this should be pretty easy still. Round 4: And the boss fight puts you against.... Tosh! R'uh R'oh... Tosh is gonna deal some serious damage with each swing if you let him, so mind those shoulder dodges. Tosh mostly will just use his katana, which is pretty easy to dodge, but the kick that his combo ends, he will use very rarely as just a means to interrupt your combo. He can also shoulder charge at you to close distance/interrupt, throw napalm that lingers for a couple seconds at a distnce, and at medium range he'll use a paralyze skill that's familiar to ATL fans (minus the sword damage in this one). His katana actually has decent range on it, so don't count on the crates as any kind of feasable cover either. Basically, hit him from where his katana won't hit you, or spam abilities if you've got the CP to do so, and he actually goes down pretty quick. Rarely, he will also use a berserk mode kinda skill, which increases his damage, and decreases damage taken, and allows him to throw big red balls of death and destruction at you if you're at a distance, so if he starts flashing red, keep that in mind and either kite him til it wears off, or just continue beating on him if you've gotten the hang of things. Once he's down, you'll have another rank up, and 10 more cards, as always. I'd like to remind players at this point about the lottery game mentioned during the first visit to Dilzweld, so if you're stockpiling cards, or have forgotten about this, now's a nice time to go get a few more characters if you want. ======================================================================== 6a) *To Anyone Who'll Believe Me!: ======================================================================== Make for Yewbell, check out the shop if you want, and head for the hunter's guild for a cutscene with Maru, and grab this task when that's overwith. Head west from the hunter's guild into the castle ruins, where the client is waiting for you at the northeastern corner, but if you're feeling friendly, stop by and tell Pao "I wonder..." to give her the courage to go make some friends nearby. Morth will advise that you check out Scrappe Plateau, which happens to be a scrapyard... go figure, so head out the main town entrance to check it out. Watch the little mini scene when you enter, then head westward and up the catwalk to the southern corner to find a monument dedicated to Kharg. When that's done, make your way back down and inspect the hook hanging by the catwalk, then the scrap pile next to it, head south and check out the barrels where Hemo will mention that everything seems normal, and that this is a waste of time. Go east and check out the console, then the battery conduit next to it, the blown in airship door, and finally back to Morth to report that everything's normal, and that they should proceed to the next area they've been spotted. Note that some of these you can skip over, but those are the ones that give a little background info at least, so they might be worth the 10 second pit stop for a dedicated player. Enter Chaos Forest from the world map for another scene and some more background, and a familiar malademon fight. Bring on the pain, and remember to spin stick him for the exorcism when he's "unconscious." Another scene ensues, and then it's time to send Hemo into that hole thats found on the northern wall. Follow through to the next Mofly guru, and ask him about the strange noises, mffe... Head back down the hole, and inspect the crevice that's at the bend, before going back out to tell Edda all about it. After Morth tells you there's another hole like that in Plumb Canyon (he fit in there?), head there from the world map for the next part. Watch the scene that plays when you enter, but be on your toes, cause a 3 dragon malademon fight is imminent. As soon as the screen fades back in, you're about to be hit, so mash on dodge to one of the sides (left on the controller I'd recommend), and get out of ground zero. Once you've composed yourself and taken stock of the situation, engage with your normal malademon tactic, either as a group, or pull them apart as they wander around the center of the field. Once you've exorcised the demons, you're in for another scene, before heading west over the bridge and leading Hemo to find the hole =D ! Once inside, it's a linear path to and from the next hole inside, so go inspect it, and head back out to report back to Edda. Watch the scene again here, and learn that Romariah (Romalia? -.- ) once had hidden tunnels on this very ground, which is where the noises are coming from. Once you have control again on the world map, the next destination is back to Chaos Forest, where combat initiates on entry, so be ready. Another linear path once the area is clear, so head northeast, where you'll be ambushed by 3 new jellies, and 1 of course is a malademon. These new jellies like to puff up and explode on you, but otherwise, they're your standard mookie mooks, just harder to kill. The rest of the area is filled with familiar mobs, including more of those beetle things, wyverns, and maneaters, so nothing new to report, and no surprises. Rule of thumb here is to head eastward, so from the first split path, do that, then north, east, east, south, east, south, and east to come to the manhole that leads to the sewers. Watch the scene here to be brought back out to the world map, where you can return to town to resupply if need be, but either way, head for the Scrappe Plateau when you're ready for the next section. As previously stated by Morth, this area has a good number of malademons crawling around, so it can be tempting to use a lot of CP to get through, but you're gonna want to save a good bit of that for the last boss in this area, cause he's not a nice character. Anyway, this sewer system is super linear, even more so than the first romp through back in ATL2, so no directions necessary really, just note that a couple of the exits lead to a dead end that forces you to backtrack to the opposite side - not a big deal really. Eventually if you watch your map, you'll see a cluster of 4 enemies surrounding a metal crate. Bait them out one by one however you need to do it, even retreat if you must, but clear them all out, bust up the crate, and grab the Paulette card hidden inside. Once that business is done with, come across to the other side of the bridge, clear the way, and head through the next linear area. Head for the northwestern and only exit, or romp around grabbing goodies, either way, proceed to the next linear area, and do the same. This last section is out of combat, which means you can re- equip as well if need be, but prepare for a boss fight in the next area. There's nothing down the big hall, so head into the big hole in the wall and watch the scene. Lalyuk is vulnerable to lightning, so if you purchased Lightning Storm II, this is a good chance to be extra cheesey if you like, or have a hard time with it. As I've previously stated, I'm using the minimums for the guide's sake, so, attacks used include a whirlpool which drags Edda, other dark dweller mooks, crates, and any garbage from the pipes all to the boss in the center of the arena, and the garbage will damage you if caught in the line it moves in. At a close range, the boss will punch at you with both arms in a frontal arch, and from a distance, he will rain down energy orbs that explode for AOE damage. Once down to about half health, he'll start using an energy rain attack that covers the entire arena, which is highly advertised, so when you see him do that, run to one of the corners; the southeastern seems to be the popular choice, because you don't have to deal with the garbage, but all of the corners will protect you from the energy. So, when you're feeling like Chester Cheeto, Lightning Storm him twice, get to safety, do it again, and smack him around until you can safely exorcise him. Done. For a more honorable fight, bait out the punches, or energy bomb, and dash toward him for a combo once you've taken care of the adds, which will respawn shortly. You can use the Lancer if you want for extra damage, but don't use it after he starts using the rain, because he'll start to heal from it, similar to how the Coleopt queen did. When he starts to use the rain, he'll pretty much just spam the hell out of it, so it actually gets pretty easy; while he's recovering from the spell, run in and use a combo, then dash out to safety again, and rinse and repeat until he's unconscious and ready to be exorcised. Watch the following scene to close up shop here. Back in Yewbell, head to the guild to report to the guild master on the matter. When prompted, head to the party room in the back to fill in the Heroes on what's really goin on here. Note: There's a nice close-up shot of Kharg's sword on the wall behind Ganz during the scene, and a portrait of Lady Nafia (Khard and Darc's mother) to the left of the desk, for anyone new to the series that might be interested, or for nostalgia for returning players. Once the talking is finally over, head back out and talk to Paulette, and then Morth by the exit to finish up the task. ======================================================================== *Master Hunter Needed!: ======================================================================== Head back to Milmarna once you finish up in Yewbell, and make for the hunter's guild to watch another disappointing scene real quick before grabbing this task off the board. Stop by the shop if you're into it, before taking off for the Peisus library. Being that this is Hemo's task, you'll take control of him once control is gained at all, so make for the front desk to find out what's goin on here. This place is packed with little easter eggs, and background info on previous games, so if you're interested in that kinda stuff, this place is a gold mine - read every plaque, every book, and talk to every robot replica... Or not, so once in control again, head to the back room where the rows of bookshelves are, and go to the northeast section, to the right of the dragon statues, to find another Mofly hole, and inside, another guru who tells you about the secret office. Search the dragons if you like, but head back to the entrance for another short scene, and then tell Edda you can't do this without him to get him motivated again, and take over. From the entrance, head straight up to the next area's entrance, but don't go in. Notice that rock head in the center of the top tier that follows you as you move? You need that thing to not look at you in order to remove the gemstones, so from the next area's entrance, hug the wall as you make for the dragon heads, whichever order you chooce, but you need both of them. Take those gemstones to the next area where the second dragon statues are hanging from, and insert the red gem on the left, and blue on the right, or option 1 when prompted, and the door to the secret office will open up for you. Head straight up to find the head librarian staring at an empty display, and talk to him for another cutscene. Apparently the previous hunter was Milmarnan, so time to backtrack and ask Span for some help again. Once you've gotten all the info Span has to offer, the Lamda Temple becomes the next destination to look for Boris by the western gate, so head there for a couple more scenes before heading to the Ice Gallery from the world map. From the entrance of the ice cave, make your way through the slew of familiar enemies east, north, west, west, north, and east to a room that will have 4 enemies surrounding an ice wall. These guys, like before, will have an impossibly large agro range, so I actually used the ravine in the room to kinda trap them into a cheap kill, but whatever gets the job done. Break the ice wall once the area is cleared to get the Cheryl card! With card in hand, continue east, then north, west, to come to a linear room with the double order of cheesey cheese that you didn't order... The two Cerberus type things in the back blocking the entrance are some of the cheapest mofos thus far, and the fact that Boris is simply obsessed with getting in the way and screwing the pooch here, doesn't help at all. To cheese back - If you've got the CP here and any long range spell (ie; Meteor Fall works great here) you can simply lock on at max range, and spam them to death. Done. If you don't, like I didn't for this playthrough you're in for a good pummeling. These guys only do 3 things - Spit 3 fireballs in a frontal arch, bite straight forward which will always knock you down, and dodge your attacks. My favorite tactic for these guys, is to bait them out 1 at a time, at max range to avoid fireballs, use Boris as bait (don't worry, he can survive a couple fireball sprays), and use a combo to knock him down when he provides the opening to do so. Use the opening when he throws fireballs at Boris to land the combo, and when he's down, DON'T stop attacking, because your last attack in the combo will also always knock him down, so he constantly gets up just to fall down again. Don't rest just yet, cause once you go through the next door, there's going to be another pair of these cheapos waiting for you at the next exit, so take care of them in a similar fashion to get through the archway, and into the final room of the Ice Gallery. Talk to the two guys on the right to find out what's really goin on here if ya feel like it, or don't, but talk to granny on the left there to watch the scene here, and finish up this section of the job. When you gain control again, head south to leave the Gallery, and head back to the library in Peisus, go straight back to the secret office again (it's still open from last visit), and fill in the librarian on what happened in the Gallery. When the scene ends, you'll be back in Milmarna where Hemo suggests that you visit with the guild again, so let's do that real quick. Talk to Boris if you wanna a little more background on things, but talk to Span to see what they found on Cragh Island and get another scene out of the way. Once you have control again, it's time for more of those counter tasks that have a payout - YAY! ======================================================================== 6b) Get the Ogre's Power Ring!: ======================================================================== We're gonna kick it up another notch at this point, and grab some A class tasks - better payout, new options... why not? Grab these next 3 tasks, and head out for Mt. Lamda first to get this task rollin. This battlefield is another linear one, so not much instruction needed. Just make your way through to bugs and snakes until you find the tier that the ogre patrols around on, clear out the snake companion while he's off in the back area, and you should do fine. These new snakes just lunge at you for weak damage, and if you let them, will spit a cloud of noxious gas at you, which is easy to dodge as well. The ogre mostly just lugs that club around clumsily, highly advertising his attacks, so just sidestep around him when he readies, smack him a couple times, and repeat as needed. When he dies, he'll drop that power ring that we need, and you can head off to the Malgar Mountains for the next task. ======================================================================== Kill the Phoenix-Eating Cobras!: ======================================================================== The cobras that you need in this area like to hang around the big construct enemies, so be careful when chasing them down for the kill. The golems like to punch at you mostly, but they do have a long range skill where they throw a slow moving giant hand at you to knock you down, so watch out for that. The first 6 snakes acan be found on the first screen, so clear them all out, and head up either path when you're ready. I'll go east first. At the first turnaround you'll be squaring off with a malademon golem, and another snake, so pull the malademon away so you can take care of him first, and then go for the snake before heading farther up the path. Head south first to clear the easier section, and then go west and up the ramp to face two golems that don't agro and chase. If you try to pull them individually, they'll just throw those big hands at you, and stay in their original positions. Run to the side of the eastern golem first, out of range of the second one, and strafe side to side dodging his attacks to take him down, and then work on the second one. Easy enough. You'll be thrown out to the continent map again when you're done reading the little background, so from there head to Adenade to the Tuptsee Desert. ======================================================================== Stallius Punition Force: ======================================================================== This one's surprisingly easy for a Class A task. You enter with 4 other hunters who can all do their part on the little scorpions that agro in, and take a few good hits at least so you don't have to act as a punching bag the whole time. If you talked to the hunter in the guild in Rueloon prior to this task, you'll know that the desert devil scorpions follow a leader, and disperse when the leader is killed, and if you didn't, you do now. Anyway, the target here becomes the giant blue scorpion for that reason, so make him your priority. Clear a path to the big guy and use the hunters as a distraction while you beat him senseless from the back. You can hit him from the sides if you like, or if that's the only opening, but his claw attack has a pretty large arch to it, so it's just safer from the back. Fend off the little scorpions as they come, but that's pretty much the gist of that business, and being that this task will fill up the gauge for this rank's requirement, make for Rueloon for the next exam. ======================================================================== 7) *Rueloon Hero Hunter's Exam: ======================================================================== Head to the hunter's guild first off, to settle up on the tasks that have just been completed, and head up to the exam center... but wait, the clerk is away from the counter. Go west to the assembly building, and talk to Leggon real quick for his side of the scoop, and go up the stairs to have a scene with Ganz. Once the scene is over, head over to the exam center and talk to Ganz instead to take the exam. Round 1: The first round will pit you against 3 Death Knights. These guys like to spam a spinning attack with their sword that strikes in a full circle (duh), and do not stagger between hits, so you can either pull them individually aside to take them on, or gather them up and spam Lancer Spirit on the group, which will daze them almost every time. Either way, it's nothing too difficult for you at this point. Round 2: Two of those cheeseball Cerberus in this round, but now you have a bit more experience dealing with them from the Gallery, so this should be no problem now, especially since they're spaced out far enough so that you can pull them away from each other. With no distraction this time, just smack em twice, strafe away from the attack, and repeat as needed until the round is yours, just mind the mines that they put down for ya this time. Round 3: This is another trapping task with those giant beetles again, only this time there's some fire traps set out to mess you up. Otherwise, nothing new, just use the same tactics as last time, just stay away from the traps, and you'll be fine. Round 4: You'll actually be fighting Ganz again this round. He's a bit stronger, and faster this time, but same general idea as before, just strafe behind him, and smack him around where you get an opening. This time around, he'll use more horizontal attacks in his combos for a wider range, heal himself if you give him a chance to, and from a medium range, he'll throw traps, grenades, and goo balls, while at a long range, he has a nasty rocket barrage that he'll shoot at you. Keep a close distance so that you don't get any surprises, and it's really not bad at all. Collect your cards with your rank up, and watch the scene that follows. ======================================================================== 7a) Arrest the Evil Swordmaster!: ======================================================================== Before heading off for the ruins, let's follow the pattern and fill up on this rank's counter tasks first. Grab these next 3 tasks from the counter clerk here in Rueloon, and head off for Ragnoth -> Dragon Cave again. Enter the Dragon Cave, where you'll see 2 familiar dragon types again, but this time they'll be hangin out with some skeletons. The skeletons are nothing to worry about, they're super slow, and only attack with a basic sword swing. From the entrance, head north, east, north, and then north to find the swordsman, who will mostly just try to run away from you. I actually used Darc for this fight just to mix things up a bit, but the swordsman for me just swung his sword around clumsily and didn't use any abilities, so basic combos worked well for this arrest task, just strafe to dodge, and keep knocking him down. Easy peasy. ======================================================================== Deliver the Cobra Anti-venom!: ======================================================================== When you're done at the Dragon Cave, make for the Kanara Desert in West Halshinne for the next section, which is a protection mission by the way, so prepare some defense abilities, and healing rain if you want to. This is kind of a longer one, so be ready for the long haul here. The main enemy here is going to be combras, of course, so nothing spectacular with the combat tactics. Again I used Darc, but tactics should be the same, so head east, southeast, east northeast, southeast, and east to get to an area that has a constant sandstorm going on in it. At this point the enemies will be giant sandworms that appear when you first enter, but then burrow underground before you can engage them, so you're not going to see when they attack, but at least you have a rough idea of where they're going to be coming from. These giant worms will attack with a medium range body slam in a straight line, or a spinning close range headbutt that attacks in a circle, but really aren't that tough anyway, so should be no problem. From the first sandstorm area, head northeast, north, and then northeast again to make it to the survivor waiting for their anit- venom. Case closed. ======================================================================== Remove the Boss, Lupinae!: ======================================================================== This one takes place on Aldrow, the same continent the next board task will be on, so go check out the Mulmoth Meadows to get started. This battlefield is just a large field full of wolves, and the target is at the northwest corner of it. Make your way through to pack of hungry wolves, and when you get there you'll find that the mark is surrounded by about 6 of the pack, so you'll have to employ group tactics. The smaller wolves will respawn through the entire fight, so try to finish him quickly by making all of your attacks hit as many as possible. Since you can't stagger him with the first hits of the combo like the smaller wolves, you can actually use the small ones as a buffer between you and the boss to take less damage if you're having trouble, but either way, it's not terrible, so mop up quickly, and head for your favorite hunter's guild to turn those in real quick. ======================================================================== 7b) *Final Battle(?): ======================================================================== There's no board notice for this mission actually, even though it counts as one, so once you turn in the other counter tasks, just head for Aldrow to the Cathena Labs. My equipment for the last dungeon: Leather Wristband, Leather Vest, & Armor Stone. Recommended equipment for the last dungeon: Exorcist's Shaft, Lizard Guard, & Healing Pygmy. My abilities: Cure III, & Lancer Spirit. Recommended abilities: Healing Rain III, Strike Power, Protection, Lightning Storm II. Remember to fill up on CP before entering! Enter the ruined capitol, and head up the northwestern stairs into the town proper, and keep going north. There's nothing to see or do in the town area, so look around if you like, but go into the main building when ready. Again, everything is in ruins, so there's not much to be doing, so hit the blinking elevator switch, and go up the tube for another scene. Go through the 2 sets of triple doors to the northeast to enter the battlefield for this task. This area is littered with Intruders, and cannon traps, but the same basic tactics will work fine for them as well. The new enemy here looks like a giant spiked turtle, and basically just walks at you, so just don't be in its path while it's moving and you should be fine with them. From the entrance, head north, and then north again. Head around the desk to inspect the picture and then read the book when prompted, then watch the scene that follows. From the office, exit west for another scene, and you'll be thrown back into the office, so go east this time, through the 2 linear hallways that follow, at the T junction head north, then west, to get to a large room with 2 turtle guys, 3 malademon turtles, and a metal golem. Pull the mobs down to the southeastern corner one by one as best you can, and from there it's just a matter of using your best tactics to take them down. The metal golem still uses the same punch attack, but instead of the golem hand ability, it uses a spinning punch to attack in a full 360 around him. Once the golem bites the dust, he'll leave the Kharg card behind for you! Head west from there to find Ursula's office, and thumb through her diary at your leisure... ya little sneak. When you're done going through a lady's personal stuff, keep goin west to a monitor flashing and watch the scene there, then head south to another linear path when that's over for another scene. ======================================================================== 7c) *Final Boss - Chalice: Yggdrasil and Nidhogg: ======================================================================== Phase 1: Once the scene ends, it's time for the boss fight... Remember to kill the Dovalin in here, which are weird fly lookin monsters, cause they're missable for your beastiary list. The boss will continuously pepper the arena with seeds that deal minor damage, but are super annoying, while the flies will buzz at you with a charge attack, and shoot a red glob at you that slows you, similar to the Coleopt attack, at medium range. From a medium range, the boss can do a spinning vine attack that is easily dodge by using [] to get out of range, and from close up, the boss will punch you with a purple bulb thing that shoots out of his mid-section as he jumps up. After taking some damage, the Chalice will hop up onto some vines with those turtle things grounding him, charging up a super attack, while spawning 3 seperate turtles that roam around. Once he stops charging, he'll shoot out 3 lasers to the ground, one for close range, one medium, and one long range, so the whole arena is covered, you just have to dodge between them, or outrun them without running into a creature, generator, wall, or vine... I'd suggest dodging between the lasers, but whichever works, and remember, the generators will NOT block the lasers. You can tell where the lasers are going to fire from when he shoots by looking at where the 3 cannons on his underside are pointing, which makes it significantly easier to dodge. For a cheesier vitctory, just run up and Lancer Spirit him until he hops up, make him drop, and repeat until it's over. ___________________ ROUGHLY: / \ [] - Unbreakable Cover / [] X [] \ X - Turtle Spawn point / ___ \ BBB - Boss Location | |BBB| | | X |___| X | | | \ / \ [] X [] / \___________________/ Phase 2: Once you deplete the first bar, you'll get a mini scene where he changes forms, and Ursula jumps in as a guest. The second phase is in the same arena, however, the previously indestructalbe barricades, can now be destroyed for some goodies, the turtles won't spawn, but their locations still count as impassible obstacles, and the original boss point is also impassible. The only thing Ursula will do the entire fight, is shoot the Nidhogg with her Stark Dispeller, which will stun the boss long enough for a full combo, so about 3 seconds or so. If she goes down, fission mailed, so keep her alive, which isn't too hard actually, she usually keeps distance pretty good. The Nidhogg has 4 attacks that he does through the whole fight, but they're annoying enough to ruin your day pretty quick, and the weakest one does about 120 damager per hit if you're underequipped for whatever reason, like writing a guide using basic equips. First portion of the fight, he will just fly at you with a quick charge from anywhere on the screen if you're at a distance (~250 damage), and close up he will use a claw swip straight forward if you're in his frontal arch. You can use him to quickly destroy the 4 generators to collect the goodies if you want (2 CP orbs, 1 rage crystal, and 1 full heal), and also distract him while you get a few cheap shots in. That's the easy part. At about 75% or so, he'll start to use a skill that shoots out 7 mini "Dark One" eyes at you, which hurt when they first appear, and also have a second chance to hurt again as they fly out towards where you were standing during their launch. And lastly, his patented acid drip skill he'll start to use at about 50% HP, where he will jump straight up and off the screen, at which point you can't damage him, and chase you around the arena dripping acid on your head for minor damage, however, even though the damage from each acid drop is low, if you're hit by even one of them, count on the rest hitting you too, and if it's long enough into the drips that he traps you, he will land on you for some massive damage. Make sure you have a good distance away from him when he lands from the acid drip as well, or you'll take damage or be knocked down from the AOE effect of the landing as well. It's only close range that the landing deals damage, but the knockdown goes out to a medium range. So what do you do about this? Start the fight out by kiting him around, and taking cheap shots while he's recovering from sprinting at you, this opens a nice frame of attack where you can land a few hits, and if Ursula is being useful for the time being, you can follow up with a full combo. It takes a good 10 seconds or so for her to charge the Dispeller, so try to drag the Nidhogg to where she's aiming at so the shots are at least somewhat useful. When he starts to use his Dark One attack with the eyes, he doesn't move through that whole ability, so dodge to the side, and lay waste in your favorite fashion (light spells work well here, as in Lightning Storm II if you purchased that earlier). The staff attacks will deal miniscule amounts of damage (mine did 5 =/ ) during this fight, so only use it when you know you can spare the opening, or run out of CP, which you shouldn't if you prepared properly. Once he's at lower HP, he'll pretty much just spam the acid drip on you, which is annoying as hell, so when that happens, keep your distance by running away, or mashing on [] if he's got you in the range where you can't sprint, and when he lands, you'll have a frame of about 3 or 4 seconds to smack him around, just don't try to land a full combo if you use the staff on him, or he's likely to claw swipe you, or trap you in the drip right off the bat. The most important thing to remember during this fight, is that it's an exorcism battle, so don't get carried away and jump for joy when his HP bar is depleted again, cause you still gotta exorcise him before Ursula shoots him, or he'll revive back to 1/4 HP and you get to do all that over again. With the right preparation, this fight actually isn't too bad, just a bit lengthy depending on how cheesey the boss feels like being. For a cheesier victory, as always, just run up and spam Lancer whenever you get the opening where he will sit still long enough for it to hit, dodge the acid drips as needed, and repeat. Simple as that. Once you've tackled the final boss, watch the cutscene for the end, but wait, DO NOT TURN THE GAME OFF YET. Wait through the credits; after the copyright screen it'll say FIN, but keep going for another scene. At the end of the second ending scene, it will ask you to save and keep going, so save and keep going for some post story content. ======================================================================== 8) *Post Story Tasks: ======================================================================== Edda wakes up in Milmarna again, thinking it was all just some crazy dream, so head outside to find the townspeople waiting for you, and watch the scene that follows. Once you get control again, head for the palace and talk to Maru in his room in the northeast corner. Once the scene ends and you have control, leave the room to be greeted by Hemo again for another mini scene. ======================================================================== 8a) *Rueloon General Hunter Exam: ======================================================================== Once you finish up in Milmarna, make for the Rueloon arena again, for another exam. Watch the scene after you enter the town, and then head up to the exam center after whatever preparations you need. Round 1: There's a total possibility of 7 death knights here, but you only need to kill 5 of them. They won't run from you like the swordsmen tend to, they'll try to gang up on ya which is no good with their spinning sword attack. I had 2 of them just sit and spam that on me, so basically I just spammed Lancer back at em for an easy win... that'll teach em. If you don't wanna do that though, they're spaced far enough to take them to a corner and fight one on one, or group them up and use group tactics to kill them all at once with Lightning Storm II or whatever you got. Round 2: 3 of those Cerberus characters this time, and the mines are back to make trouble as well. Just bring each of the Cerberus to their respective corner, and repeat the tactics from before and you should be fine. The mines won't detonate from the safety of the corner, so just watch your step as you go between enemies. Round 3: Trapping round! 3 Giant beetles to trap, with 5 fire traps laid out through the battlefield. I suggest bringing the beetles individually to the center walls of the arena, to avoid extra damage from the traps. Use the staff, or paralyzers to get them dizzy enough to catch with the net, as usual, but do it quickly, cause you only have 3 minutes on this one. Round 4: Escort round! I never liked these, but maybe you do... Anyway, there's a crate maze of course, so just stay one step ahead of the girl hunter, and take out the 3 dragons as you can. The dragons use wind slash at a distance, and either Tornado or bite at you when up close, so use 2 smack and dodge combos unless they're distracted by the girl, in which case, use a full combo to knock them down. Round 5: Alec! Alec likes his Big Bang II (~100 dmg) at a medium and long range, and heals himself at lower HP if you let him, so this fight will mostly be up in his face. He's pretty quick with his sword, so side strafing is a must here, and keep at least arm's length from him, cause if you're too close, he'll hunker down spam his Tornado II (~150 dmg) spell, which also is no fun. Rarely, he'll use Diamond Dust (~100 dmg), or Impulse Bomb (~200 dmg) to freeze or detonate the immediate area around him, so watch for those as well, but mostly, just keep a safe distance while hes immune to damage, and interrupt anything he does when you can hit him again. Congratulations General! You'll get 20 card for this achievement instead of the usual 10. So go hit up the lottery for more unique prizes, or more hidden characters. While you're in Dilzweld, make your way to the bottom tier where the first Hemo hole was, and head south to talk to Tatjana for a post game scene. No stars or cards or anything, but you'll get a little closure on some of the story at least. (You can skip this paragraph if you're not into the story, in a hurry, or don't care for easter eggs.) Head to Yewbell and go to the back room in the hunter's guild, where they had the party earlier in the story, to find Paulette sitting at her new desk. Watch the scene there to find out what ever happened to Kharg, and see that she's acting a bit suspicious when you ask about her situation with him. Still no mention of Darc though unfortunately =/ . At this point, they cut you off on board tasks and their respective stars, so there's several ways to go about getting the next ranks, so just get a few higher ranked counter tasks done and you'll be all set. Because he's my personal favorite, we'll go get Volk first. ======================================================================== 8b) *Orcoth: ======================================================================== Head for Aldrow, and go to Orcoth. Watch the mini scene after entering, and look around if you want, but the destination is right next to the bottom of the stairs from the town entrance, nestled under the wall. Go down into the jail to see two familiar faces butting heads, and watch the scene there before heading to the ghetto rigged hunter's guild at the southwest corner of the town square. Enter to see the man himself returning to the city, and watch the scene here before exiting to the northeast of the square to meet him face to face in the arena/throne room. Before heading into the arena with Volk though, make some preparations for a decent fight if you need to, he's got some power to that guillotine axe. Volk is quick on his feet, like any wolf should be, and for the first half of the fight will mostly try to just cut you up with his guillotine, or fire a Water bubble off at you at a range. Closer to half HP, he'll start to use Wind Slash II, Raging Soul to berserk up, heal himself if you give him a chance to, and uses an ice dash kinda thing to close distance on you for moderate damage, while up close, he'll start to use Diamond Dust like Alec did. Stay on your toes cause he'll try to shoulder you for a cheap shot and quick combo, and interrupt his attacks and abilities where you can, and this fight actually isn't too hard... I was disappointed in Volk. Once down, he'll even surrender his card to you! Nice job hunter. Volk respects strength over much of anything else, so he'll change his tune at this point, and makes you watch the scene that follows before heading back to the prison in the basement, and talk to Delma to free Kirika, and that's about it here, unless you wanna check out the shop for anything... maybe materialize Volk? Grab these next 3 tasks from the counter, and make for East Halshinne to get started on them stars. ======================================================================== 8c) Collect a Great Phoenix Feather!: ======================================================================== Malgar Mountains again for this task, and when you enter you'll almost immediately be faced with two black dragons. I actually went with Lilia on this one, cause her giant boomerang is great for interrupting large monsters, and coupled with her high SPD, she's just great for this task. Anyway, head up the western ramp, killing as you go, and about half way up you'll find a stationary dragon that doesn't move even if knocked down, so just run straight up to him so he doesn't spray you with fireballs, and take him out. Go east at the turnaround and enter the next screen, to go up the hill, and then west up the second hill, where the phoenix is waiting for you, sandwiched between two golems. The phoenix will try to run to the golems until you're close enough for him to surprise attack, so either be quick to take him down, or take out the golems individually first, but when the bird is dead, grab the feather to end the taks. ======================================================================== Escort the Lamda Priest!: ======================================================================== This one was surprisingly easy for its rank score. The priest will continue to move, regardless of enemies in range, except for the random attack he'll make every now and then. Basically, just move as far ahead as you can, and smack the snakes and beetles around until he moves forward past them, and continue up the mountain in that fashion... I think I killed a total of 1 enemy in the process, so just keep moving, and it's over pretty quick. ======================================================================== Defeat the Giant Spider!: ======================================================================== Head to the Pyramids in West Halshinne, and enter when you're ready again. This is basically a repeat of that board task, although now there's zombies and necromancers roaming around the back area as well. Follow the same instructions from before, to find that there's no boss room in that location this time! So from that last room, head east, then north twice, and you should be in the same room in a different location, with the giant spider waiting for you. Employ the same tactics as before, only with better cards this time, and he'll be pushin up daisies in no time. ======================================================================== 9) *Rueloon Legend Hunter Exam: ======================================================================== Head back to the Rueloon hunter's guild to settle up on those tasks, and then up to the exam center for the next exam. Round 1: Again, you just have to round up some death knights in this one, only 7 this time, but the same tactics as before still apply this time as well. Round 2: 4 Cerberus guys this time, and the mines are in the corners, as well as one in the center of the arena too. Same tactics as always, but if you get stuck with 2 riding on ya as soon as the battle begins, like I did, just make Lancer Spirit your best friend, and you'll come out on top within the first minute and a half of the fight. No problem at this point. Round 3: Capture 4 of those Giant Beetles this time, and the fire traps are all in the same spot, except for one that's repositioned to the northeast corner as well, so that's now a death trap area, while the southeast is free for a multi trap if you can pull it off. Round 4: Escort again. This time you're escorting one of the dumber yokels from town, and he brought a t-shirt for his armor, so it can get sloppy in this one. The bottom dragon only has a small range to attack in, and the guy goes to it first, so clear the nortwestern dragon first, and then if the guy can't reach the exit on the east, give him a hand with the northeastern dragon when the first one is down, and he should get there with at least half HP left to spare. Round 5: This time you're up against Elc, and he's a quick little bastard, so stay on your toes. Close range, he'll mostly just spam his martial arts combo, but he does have Heat Wall he might throw at you. From long range, he'll either Big Bang II, same as Alec did, or launch a barrage of fireballs at you, either way, range is bad. As all the bosses do at this point, he has a Cure spell he'll use if you let him, so don't. Stay at arm's length the whole fight, float like a butterfly, and sting like lemon juice in a paper cut when you get an opening. For finishing this one, you'll get 30 cards, and of course your rank up. ======================================================================== 9a) Romariah's Silver Cup: ======================================================================== Make for your favorite hunter's guild from there, to pick up at least 2 of these next 3 counter tasks. Why 3 when they're all S class tasks you might wonder? Well that's cause we like money, and it helps open up the bestiary to do more tasks than you need to. Anyway, once you've gotten these, head for Ragnoth, and start the Romariah Cup. You're on a time limit here, so don't do any unnecessary dilly dallying. This place is a damn maze, so if you get lost, it's hard to get to the right spot, so I hope I got these right (let me know when confirmed please). The area is littered with Intruder pods, and hunters who are also looking for the cup, and want to stop you from finding it, so be quick if you take them all down. From the entrance, go east, east, north, northeast, east, east, north, northwest, northwest, west, and northwest. You'll come to the hall that had the hole blown out of it where we went to fight Lalyuk at, but go past there to find another dragon, who is holding the cup you need. This guy has a huge frontal arch of attack, so hit twice, MOVE (not dodge) to the left until you see him start to attack THEN dodge to the side, and repeat as needed. If you do this, he should never use his tailswipe, and only use his ice breath when you're approaching from behind the barrels. If you happen to get smacked out of rhythm, just get back to his feet and keep going with this strategy. Once he's dead, grab the Diekbeck statue, and you're all done here. ======================================================================== Destroy the Driven Cliff Gigant!: ======================================================================== Enter the cave and follow the same path as before to get to the back room where granny and the two scientists were waiting for you (basically just go east and then north... a lot), and this time there's gonna be 4 warlocks surrounding a giant ... yeti-corn? The warlocks will continuously heal the Gigant, so they're the real targets. Drag as many to the entrance to the room as possible, and then dash outta that business to the back of the room for some personal space. Kill and of the warlocks that you can trap back there, and leave the Gigant at the door for now. In this area where you're safe, you'll have room to buff up if you want to, and clear the icicles out for some extra room on the field. At least two of the warlocks will always hug the yeti thing, so be prepared for several hits at ~100 a piece from the Gigant while you're polishing off those two. Lancer as needed to get these guys down, and don't worry about the yeti, he dies when they die. Not bad with proper preparation. ======================================================================== Destroy the Darkness Bones!: ======================================================================== What they fail to mention in the description for this one, is that what the bones are spawning are GIANT skeletons, complete with full combos, and bad tempers. Enter the Varam Barrens from the east, and head to the southeast corner to where the first of the darkness bones are lying. There will be the first of the giants around this one, along with one of the normal skeleton buddies nearby as well. Go straight back behind the bones, and camp there, using the bones themselves as a buffer between you and the giant. If the little guy chases you back there, just take him out as quick as you can, but the giant can't fit in the small area, so bait out the combo, and attack when the timing / range is right. The second pile of bones is located at the soutwest portion of the map, and the third at the norteastern section, and with the second two piles of bones, there is actually two giants guarding them, but still, the same tactics apply to those as well. Use Lancer from a distance behind the bones if you're having any trouble. Note that it may be worth reloading and trying the task again if you get no drops, because a Romantic Drop card can drop from the Giants, so make sure to get at least one from them. ======================================================================== 10) Rueloon Arc Exam: ======================================================================== You know the drill... Round 1: 10 of these death knights this time. I actually got sick of these guys by the last hunter exam, so go ahead and just spam the hell out of Lancer to take them down quickly with little effort... it's okay, noone's watching. Round 2: Now you're up against 5 Cerberus guys this time... see previous round info -.- Round 3: Aaaaan now you gotta trap 5 of those Beetles in this one, but only 4 of those fire traps, that form a barrier kinda, seperating the arena into two sections. Even with the new setup, it's basically the same thing you've been doing for the last 3 exams. Go get em tiger. Round 4: Another escort round, of course, and there's 4 dragons instead of 3 this time, with more boxes to get in the way... or more chances for goodies??? Anyway, the guy's weaker in this one too, so there's no point beating around the bush with this one. Just lead the guy to where he'll retreat into a pile of boxes and trap himself, he'll survive the 1 hit if a dragon wind slashes him, and then spam the hell out of the dragon til it dies. by the time the guy can move again, you should already be heading to the next dragon to repeat the process, which should keep you 1 step ahead of the escort person. Easy enough, and you should have much better equips to do it with. Round 5: Ooooh, who's gonna be the last boss in the exams??? Well, Arc himself of course! Arc has pretty quick strikes with his sword, and likes to block a lot, so take some cheap shots while he blocks. Almost any chance he gets, he's going to spam Total Healing for +150 HP, which is not cool. Up close, if he doesn't attack with his sword, he also uses Diamond Dust, Tornado II, or can shoulder you for a cheap shot of his own. At medium and long range, he can Thunder Storm II, and Big Bang II, so keep it close and personal with this guy. I actually did the whole fight with 3 hit combos, and a couple of Lancers to speed things up, which prevented him from falling down, or healing at any point, and it was actually pretty easy, just time consuming. Alternatively, Thunder Storm II deals nice damage to him if you want to go that route, but just remember, if he's invulnerable at any point during the fight, it's for long enough to heal which will basically restart the whole fight. For finishing this exam, you get no cards friends, sorry.... instead, you get a cutscene, and the Arc card! Watch the cutscene for finishing the exam, and exit to get another scene with Kirika, and then you're done! Congratulations on completing End of Darkness!!!! _________ ___________ __ _ | ______| |____ ____| | \ | | | | | | | \ | | | |___ | | | |\ \ | | | ___| | | | | \ \| | | | | | | | \ | | | ____| |____ | | \ | |__| |___________| |_| \_| ======================================================================== Continue playing if you want, there's still plenty of tasks to complete, characters to deck out, and recipes to play around with! Unfortunately, as previously stated, there's no more online play to PvP on, and as far as I know, this closes the series. ======================================================================== Appendices: ======================================================================== ======================================================================== AA) Shops: ======================================================================== Keep in mind that not everything is available at the time you first go to each shop, more will unlock as you gain ranks in the guild. Milmarna Shop: Parts: Abilities: Wristband 60G Flaming Arrow 200G Leather Wristband 360G Big Bang 500G Broken Beads 80G Water Bubble 160G Crystal Beads 300G Diamond Dust 500G Jade Beads 600G Divide 800G Bewitching Beads 1000G Cure 400G Survival Guide 600G Healing Rain 600G Cloth Outfit 40G Strike Power 400G Combat Gear 300G Protection 400G Leather Vest 500G Iron Ball 100G Chain-mail Vest 800G Throwing-Knife 300G Traveler's Robe 400G Spray Cannon 1000G Sayer's Robe 1200G Craft Gloves 160G Leather Gloves 320G Ninja Hand Guard 800G Power Stone 200G Magical Stone 200G Techno Stone 200G Armor Stone 200G Whirlwind Bandana 1000G Antidote Ring 800G Angel Statuette 3200G Illusion Secrets 500G Magic Secrets 500G Cane Secrets 500G ======================================================================== AB) Yewbell Shop: Parts: Abilities: Wristband 60G Flaming Arrow 200G Leather Wristband 360G Big Bang 500G Power Wristband 600G Water Bubble 160G Muscle Wristband 1000G Diamond Dust 500G Broken Beads 80G Wind Slash 300G Crystal Beads 300G Tornado 500G Jade Beads 600G Cure 400G Bewitching Beads 1000G Healing Rain 600G Survival Guide 600G Strike Power 400G Weaponry Manual 1000G Iron Ball 100G Cloth Outfit 40G Oil Orb 300G Combat Gear 300G Gunpowder Orb 400G Leather Vest 500G Steel Trap 500G Chain-mail Vest 800G Ring Armor 1200G Traveler's Robe 400G Sayer's Robe 1200G Leather Gloves 320G Magical Stone 200G Armor Stone 200G Whirlwind Bandana 1000G Angel Statuette 3200G Sword Secrets 500G Physical Secrets 500G Cane Secrets 500G ======================================================================== AC) Rueloon Shops - Both red hat Quorups sell different stocks here: Parts: Abilities: Wristband 60G Flaming Arrow 200G Leather Wristband 360G Big Bang 500G Power Wristband 600G Water Bubble 160G Muscle Wristband 1000G Diamond Dust 500G Battle Armband 1600G Dark Sphere 800G Fighting Travelog 300G Wind Slash 300G Cloth Outfit 40G Tornado 500G Craft Gloves 160G Cure 400G Leather Gloves 320G Healing Rain 600G Cairngorm Beads 1600G Protection 400G Battle Magazine 80G Iron Ball 100G Survival Guide 600G Oil Orb 300G Complete Combat 1600G Gunpowder Orb 400G Weaponry Manual 1000G Steel Trap 500G Ninja Hand Guard 800G Chain-mail Vest 800G Ring Armor 1200G Heavy Armor 1800G Battle Armor 2400G Power Stone 200G Antidote Ring 800G Magical Stone 200G Angel Statuette 3200G Sword Secrets 500G Blade Secrets 500G Physical Secrets 500G Cane Secrets 500G ======================================================================== AD) Dilzweld Shop: Parts: Abilities: Wristband 60G Flaming Arrow 200G Leather Wristband 360G Wind Slash 300G Power Wristband 600G Golem Hand 400G Muscle Wristband 1000G Meteor Fall 800G Broken Beads 80G Rising Blast 800G Crystal Beads 300G Cure 400G Jade Beads 600G Protection 400G Bewitching Beads 1000G Iron Ball 100G Battle Magazine 80G Flamethrower 1000G Fighting Travelog 300G Spray Cannon 1000G Survival Guide 600G Gunpowder Orb 400G Weaponry Manual 1000G Dilz Bomb 600G Combat Gear 300G Leather Vest 500G Chain-mail Vest 800G Ring Armor 1200G Heavy Armor 1800G Battle Armor 2400G Rune Armor 3000G Leather Gloves 320G Ninja Hand Guard 800G Power Stone 200G Techno Stone 200G Armor Stone 200G Engineer's Manual 400G Shooting Secrets 500G Machine Secrets 500G Physical Secrets 500G ======================================================================== AE) Sulfas Shop: Parts: Abilities: Leather Wristband 360G Big Bang 500G Power Wristband 360G Flaming Arrow 200G Muscle Wristband 1000G Golem Hand 400G Broken Beads 80G Meteor Fall 800G Crystal Beads 300G Thunder Storm 600G Survival Guide 600G Cure 400G Fighting Travelog 300G Strike Power 400G Weaponry Manual 1000G Iron Ball 100G Cloth Outfit 40G Throwing-Knife 300G Combat Gear 300G Oil Orb 300G Leather Vest 500G Gunpowder Orb 400G Chain-mail Vest 800G Steel Trap 500G Ring Armor 1200G Spray Cannon 1000G Heavy Armor 1800G Discharge Machine 1000G Battle Armor 2400G Rune Armor 3200G Traveler's Robe 400G Sayer's Robe 1200G Craft Gloves 160G Leather Gloves 320G Ninja Hand Guard 800G Power Stone 200G Techno Stone 200G Armor Stone 200G Engineer's Manual 400G Blade Secrets 500G Shooting Secrets 500G Machine Secrets 500G ======================================================================== AF) Orcoth Shop: Parts: Abilities: Wristband 60G Big Bang 500G Power Wristband 360G Flaming Arrow 200G Muscle Wristband 1000G Golem Hand 400G Fighting Travelog 300G Meteor Fall 800G Cloth Outfit 40G Thunder Storm 600G Leather Vest 500G Cure 400G Leather Gloves 320G Strike Power 400G Ninja Hand Guard 800G Water Bubble 500G Power Stone 200G Diamond Dust 500G Antidote Ring 800G Oil Orb 300G Physical Secrets 500G Wind Slash 300G Illusion Secrets 500G Steel Trap 500G Magic Secrets 500 Tornado 500G Rising Blast 800G Divide 800G Dark Sphere 800G Healing Rain 600G Protection 400G ======================================================================== BA) Counter Tasks: ======================================================================== D Class Tasks: --------------------------------------- Clear the Hay Bundles!: From the world map, head over to the Romastle Farm to initiate the first task. Again, combat is automatic, but the squirrels here are little more than the walking fungus back at the cave. The goal here is to smack the hay stacks around until destroyed, however, just to spice the task up a bit and wet the hunter's beak a little, they threw in the squirrel combat for gits and shiggles. Just head over to each pile of hay, clear the immediate area of squirrels, destroy the hay, rinse and repeat. There's a malademon squirrel near the center of the combat zone, so make sure to excorcise the demon, and "make this house clear" before heading back to turn in the job well done. --------------------------------------- Retraining at Lamda Temple: Enter the temple proper for a cutscene (is that monk fighting a baby? o.O ), and head northeast and talk to the reluctant high priest. Watch the cutscene to see that the priest has a change of heart, and agrees to let Jungk come back and train again if they can best two of the higher ranked monks in combat, so it's off to the training area to show them what for. The fight is another standard match, though this time, you have a guest with you! Your guest will behave as you would imagine most would; doesn't dodge much, makes bad combat decisions like attacking from the front, etc., so it's up to you to pick up the slack. Same strategy as before, just circle around as best you can with dodging and running, and knock him down with O if one of them gets a bit too focused on Jungk. After a couple good combos, they'll be down for the count, and the priest will welcome Jungk back to training. Head back to the guild for another job well done. --------------------------------------- Eliminate the Stone Blobs: As you enter the battle area, 3 stone jellies will "come atcha bra," so go ahead and use your favorite tactic to make short work of them. Bust up some barrels if that's what ya fancy, and when that screens all taken care of, move it up to the next, where a nice set of 5 jellies will bombard you with headbutts and rock spitting in any way they can get ya. I found that backing up a bit, straffing around, backing up some more, and then giving them then 10 squirrels at once treatment from the exam battle was the best method of giving em the business, but honestly they're not scary, so you do you. --------------------------------------- Guide the Sheep to Safety!: Upon entering, you'll be standing next to two ram-looking sheep, and a ...roll(?) of hay. The goal here is to play hockey with the hay, while the sheep follow it, careful though, there's a pile of wolves that are ready for a snack. Easiest way I found to get this done, was to leave the sheep unattended, run north a piece, and bring on the pain to any wolves in the area, then backtrack to the poor sheepies, and shoulder the hay up to the opening where the farmer is. Use [] instead of X for this, because if you smack it too many times, the hay will be destroyed, and the sheep will make a bee line for the closest pile, using [] doesn't harm it, so you can mess up as much as you need to and the sheep will still love you. --------------------------------------- Destroy the Snake-Eating Rhokes!: You're gonna enter this battlefield on the southeastern edge of the screen, and remember, your job here is only to kill the rhokes, the snakes and flys don't get you completion for the task. Make your way to the western board first, dodging any large rock cairns, cause they'll spit some nasty purple crap in yo face which hurts. In the western area, you'll immediately be bombarded by a swarm of flies, so either be ready to take on a group, or haul balls outta that nonsense, and the first of your 3 rhokes will be at the northwestern part of that area. Once you've taken care of that, head back to the first area of the battlefield, and this time, head northeast to the final section, where the last two rhokes flap around, waiting for their beating in the north edge. Great jorb out 'dere Strong Sad, now head back to town and turn that task in for some cash! --------------------------------------- Exterminate the Ranch Flies!: *Sigh*.... those yokels up at the ranch need some help again, so head back to the Romastle ranch, and see what they want this time. It's just 4 groups of 4 flies, no big deal for a highly trained baton twirler like yourself at this point. Just run to each group and employ the patented "group be good special" that's gotten us out of so many group fights at this point, and they should bow to your strength in seconds. Just remember that the pink ones may explode and deal some AOE damage, the red ones may spit fire at you in a straight line, and the green ones might.... disappoint the rest. Easy enough task, it's just another filler fight really, finish up and head back to turn it in. --------------------------------------- Arrest the Criminal Godolla!: This one takes place on Adenade, so head there to accept the task, and enter when ready. Fairly straightforward, just make your way to the northwestern exit, watch for fly groups and rock cairns, and at the second screen head for the northwest again. He likes to hang out next to one of the cairns there, so try to approach them from an agle the cairn can't fart on you, and proceed to lay the smackdown on the little green deviant. Done. --------------------------------------- Recover Parts From the Kuskles!: Anyway, whenever you're done shopping around, head over to the Greylia Plains, and zone in to start the task. More squirrels to smack around, awesome! The grey ones are the ones carrying the parts you need, and you need all 5 of them, so you have to go through both sections of the battlefield to find all of them. Round em up, and smack em down, and then you'll have your parts! --------------------------------------- Capture a Kuskle: You need to trap your target instead of killing it, so the system by default swaps for a different set of abilities for you to use. kill any of the other targets to get your mark available for trapping, and then hold down the R2 button for some paralyzing skills. There's gonna be tons of mooks around these guys, including all types of flys, poison jellies, and squirrels, so make sure you leave the mark alive in order to complete this, because failing means you lose any equipped cards! --------------------------------------- Liberate the Mine From Thieves!: This one isn't so bad if you've been paying attention thus far, but you're thrown into the meat of it right off the bat unfortunately, so be prepared for that. 3 monks and a hound bum rush you as soon as you load into the battlefield, so circle around behind em, and employ that group tactic. Once the initial rush is down, head northwest across the bridge where another hound, and two bullies with machine guns are waiting to ruin your day. The trick was to wait for them to already be shooting, and then run around behind them and land a combo, dash out, and repeat. If you're having trouble with that, since reloading is a pain, just hug the eastern wall of the bridge and bait them out one by one... kinda cheap, but if you're not lookin to play nice, it's definitely a good idea. ======================================================================== BB) C Class Counter Tasks: --------------------------------------- Wipe out the Giant Slime!: Make your way through the east exit first, and then south to find this colossus of a slime. This guy's more annoying that anything; he will immediately revive any small slimes that are in the area, he takes up 1/4 of the screen so obviously you can't knock him down or interrupt, and he tends to trample you constantly. Try to lure him over to one side away from the little guys, so there's minimal interference when you're acting as a human punching bag for the slime, but dodge left and right waiting for your opening between his attacks to jump in and get a couple good hits in here and there. You can play it safe, using smaller combos to avoid taking damage, or you can settle with the fact that this guy's 4 times your size, let him beat you around, and just mash on the attack button, up to you. If you happen to have a couple items to throw at him, you can use those to ease your pain, but if you're following this guide so far, you're probably just gonna have to bite the bullet on this one, and take some pain, which is okay, cause you heal between missions. What a bastard... back to Adenade for the next task once he's fertilizing the forest. --------------------------------------- Wipe out the Mushroom Monsters: Arrive in the forest to discover a new type of shroom here now. The goal is to just wipe them out, as the name implies, so tromp through the area in whatever order your little heart desires, and kill em all. Just remember that the ones planted in the ground when approached, will jump up into the air and be invulnerable to damage in the process, so don't let them get a cheap shot on you when they do that, just wait for them to be back down to land a combo on em, and you'll be golden. Also, you don't get a counter on this one, but if I had to guess, there should be about 20 of them total in here, between poison mushrooms, and myconids, and all were spread out nicely, so you don't really need to take groups of them if you don't want to. Easy as pie, now go hand them in, and grab a couple more. --------------------------------------- Capture an Alraune!: Make your way to Ragnoth, and enter the combat area when ready. This one can be annoying if you don't have a handle on the captures still. Easiest thing to do, is chase one eastward so that he goes across the bridge, make short work of the 2 shrooms on the bridge, and trap it into the small alcove over the bridge. Once your got him cornered, just bombard him with paralyze equipment until you see the stars over his head, and throw the trap to catch him. Done. Next, make for Epistia. --------------------------------------- Johnny's Bomb Hunt: This task is all about making sure the dog is safe as he hunts for the bomb stashed away, so just make sure he's in good health, and you'll be fine. Johnny moves clockwise around the junk heap, stopping to sniff the ground or the junk every now and then, and the enemies are well scattered, so this really isn't much of a challenge for a skilled hunter such as yourself. The new enemy ninjas aren't much more than just a better dressed monk from earlier, so don't worry here, just stay one step ahead of the dog, and make short work of all of the cowboys before they can trap you down with their guns. Go turn those two in when you're done, and grab a couple more. --------------------------------------- Junk Equipment Hunt: The goal here is to collect the junk inside the junk heaps (the piles of scrap). After entering, there's a pile right next to the fence to the northeast, and then if you go in a counterclockwise pattern around the map, you'll find the 3 more near some fly swarms and mushroom men. From the 4th pile, backtrack to the 3 way split, and go up the northwestern path, and wrap around the small building there for the last pile for the collection. Once collected, the task automatically ends, as usual, and it's off to Mt. Quina Fort for the next task. --------------------------------------- Wipe out the Elementals: On entering this abandoned fortress of death (from TOTS), you'll immediately be face with a couple of guard dogs, who like to bark, and run, and bark, and run, etc., so make short work of them before heading up any of the 3 stairs. Up the East stairs, you'll find a dead end with a couple of containers for the breaking, but up the west set of stairs, you'll find the quicker route to where you need to go. On the second tier, head west, and up the winding stairs following to the northern exit to continue to the cave area where the elementals are. Okie dokie artichokies.... these guys are annoying... like REALLY annoying... any of the ones that do NOT have that red arrow over their head to indicat that they're the mark, will continuously respawn at the spot you found them in, which means 4/5 of the enemies here are a useless stall monster put forth to ruin your day. The mark for the task is at the northern end of the area, sandwiched between two of the bigger respawning enemies. Bum rushing the mark is a big no no, cause you'll drag the two from the lower area with you, and have all 5 on you, or best case scenario, 4 of them instead. Up close, these guys just punch you, which is enough to interrupt your combo, and at a range, they'll shoot a fireball that explodes doing AOE damage on you, which knocks you down, which leaves only the cautious approach. Drag the first guy over to the bottom of the ramp that leads to the mark, making sure not to catch the attention of his buddy on the bottom tier, and smack him around til he respawns back at the entrance. Now you only have to deal with the 3, which is one less fireball that you have to deal with, so from there, wait for them to fire their initial volley to the bottom of the ramp, dash forward, and plow into the middle one so as to catch all 3 in the combo, and continue until these bombers are reduced to ash. --------------------------------------- Protect the Great Phoenix Egg!: Routh Forest in Epistia. This is a defense mission, so stay with the egg, and put 2 minutes on the clock. Only 3 monsters will spawn at a time, so this isn't a difficult mission, but the Alraune will come from the north, while the 2 Dragon Flies will come from the southwest, so you need to be ready to be flanked constantly. Easiest way I found, was to drag the Alraune to the fly group, and single hit the group just to interrupt their actions, cause at the end of the day, you're just trying to run the clock out, not kill stuff. --------------------------------------- Capture the Canidae!: Elzark Plain on Adenade is the location for this task, so head there to begin. You can actually dash straight back to where the Canidae is waiting, and skip all the Rhokes in the way if you like... or fight them and hope they drop something, but either way, head north to chase him northwest. Kill the mushroom hangin out back there so it doesn't get in the way while trying to capture the guy, and just employ your normal trapping tactics to bring this guy down. --------------------------------------- Rescue 4 Miners!: Ragnoth -> Plumb Canyon. This one is rather easy for its class I thought, but hey, money's money. There's 4 miners that come out of the cave in the northwest, and they walk either north or south of the well in the center of the main battle arena. There are 2 Wyverns blocking the path that they move in, so you can either watch which direction the miner is going, and attack accordingly, or roll the dice and jump ahead. On mine, the miner went north first, and there was a malademon waiting for him, so smack the wyvern to get the attention, stay close, and wait for it to bite at you before dodging to take the offensive. When you take down the first one, the miner will continue to the exit, and you can kill the other before the second miner even makes it to the arena, at which point, you're just waiting for the other miners to walk out, with no interruption. Easy. --------------------------------------- Collect Seabed Gravity Stones!: East Halshinne -> Seabed Oil Field. The goal in this one is to run through the corridors, and destroy the giant crystals in hopes of one of them having one of the gravity stones that you need. It's more of a stall task than anything, so I don't recommend it if you're just trying to rush through. Anyway, just head through the corridors, killing as you please/need, and at the first junction go east. After the first path you get to choose a direction, the rest is linear again, so just go through, bust up the crystals, and grab the stones to be done with it. --------------------------------------- Collect Scorpion Skins!: Adenade -> Elzark Plain. This is a hunting task, you need to kill specific things to get the drop, so wade through the swarms of mushrooms and rhokes to get to what you need, beat it around, and grab the loot. When you enter, if you go north, and loop around west, you'll get the first two, by a fence, and around the bend. From there head east through the waste to find the 3rd, before heading northeast through the fencing to find the fourth next to a barrel. Head north to a pack of rhokes and a mushroom, clear them out, and grab the last skin. --------------------------------------- Capture the Elementals!: Back to the Seabed Oil Field for this one, and again, it's very linear. At the first two junctions, go East, and then South to enter a huge room with 3 cannons, and the 2 elementals that you need to catch. Take out the cannons first so you don't have any interference, and then just capture the elementals with the paralyzer bombs and nets. Simple. --------------------------------------- Secure the Missing Junk Dealer!: Epistia -> Torey Hill. This task was odd for me, the game must have glitched or something, cause both of the malademons I encountered just died like normal creatures, with no opening to exorcise them... hopefully it was random and doesn't happen to you too. Anyway, from the entrance head south and take the first eastern path all the way to the opposite end, head north, and wrap around the building westward, killing as you go, to find the junk dealer cowering next to a junk pile. --------------------------------------- Old-Generation Parts Hunt: Epistia -> Parenz Ruins. This was kind of annoying, cause some of the ninjas will respawn, so try to be quick here. The junk piles are the real targets here, so clear as you have to, but make those your priority. As you enter, you'll be ambushed by about 3 enemies, so clear them out, and head counter-clockwise, taking out the junk piles as you go, and you'll find the last one in the northeastern corner. --------------------------------------- Capture the Orcon!: Adenade -> Elzark Plain. Fairly simple, just head northeast through the fencing to where the Orcon is waiting by a barrel. Clear the way before taking him on though, these monsters all have a pretty impressive agro range, so you might get there with a horde following if you just make a run for it. --------------------------------------- Lucky's Bomb Hunt: Epistia -> Mt. Quina Fort. Again with the dog, just defend him while he sniffs out some bombs. You're on a time limit here, so no dilly dallying. First make your way to the west of the second tier from where you enter, and while Lucky sniffs around, head east to cleat the mid section of the gunner traps patrolling around there. Lucky will sniff around the huge shutter door there for a second before making his way up the ramp westward, so lead the way to clear the enemies on the ramps before he gets there. Wait for the dog at the top where he'll sniff around by the door for a second, and enter the second area. Clear out the first area before the trap gets a chance to shoot the dog, and immediately head over to the northwest of the bottom tier to clear the other enemy there, and after that, it's just a matter of waiting for the dog to find the bomb which concludes the task. --------------------------------------- Capture the Lakelta!: Adenade -> Elzark Plain. Basically the same as the Orcon trapping task. Enter and cleart the way northeast, and go through the fencing. Head north from the T intersection, and find the Lakelta waiting by the fence on the northeast corner of the battlefield. ======================================================================== BC) B Class Counter Tasks: --------------------------------------- Annihilate the Orcon!: Adenade -> Tsatuga Plateau. Run the familiar arena counter clockwise as usual, and back north in the mid section as usual. The difference to this task is that you're accompanied by a squad of hammer wielding Lakelta. The Lakelta can actually handle themselves pretty well, surprisingly, but the catch is that their hamme strike can knock you down as well, so you need to stay clear of their attacks, even though they're suppose to be helping you. Other than that, it's straight forward, so clear out the Orcon, and after the last one, the task is done. --------------------------------------- Collect a Wyvern Scale!: Ragnoth -> Dragon Bone Valley. This one will start you out on the outside of the cave for a change, so take the southern path into the cave, which is now blocked at the entrance room. You can either clear your way there, or just dash, and there should be enough room to drop agro to enter when you get there. Anyway, once inside the cave, there's 4 black dragons guarding the wyvern, so take out the two closest to the entrance, and the second two will stick with the target, so you're gonna have to use group tactics... which is basically just spamming Lancer, or Lightning Storm II if ya got it. --------------------------------------- Old Man's Key Hunt: Ragnoth -> Garagne Graveyard. Honestly I'm not even sure why this task exists, it was literally the exact same as the trader's gloves task, so just do exactly the same thing. Run south to the next area, grab the gloves in the same spot. Done. --------------------------------------- Protect the Truck Installation!: This one is a defense task, so when you enter, you'll want to stay close to the target to better defend it, although not too close, cause the shades will throw energy balls which can hurt it. I strongly admonish you do NOT use target lock in this area (i rarely use it anyway), because it will impair you're ability to see any new targets approaching the defense point. Other than that, you should be able to take these guys 2 at a time if you time things right, so just approach from behind or the side, like normal, and take them down for the 2 minutes that you have to keep the miners safe for. --------------------------------------- Get Back the Scroll!: This one's an arrest task, so you only have one target. This theft has been perpetrated by some ninjas, of course, so remember that they have that illusion dodge trick, which means you'll want to attack from anywhere but the front to land a full combo on them. When you clear the first 3, you'll find the target all by his lonesome in the back, however, when you approach him to lay down some law, he summons 3 more of his buddies from the shadows, so be prepared for an ambush at arm's length. They all behave in the same way that you're use to by now, but the red guy will throw knives at you from a distance if you let him, so employ your favorite group tactics, while keeping him in that sweet spot where you can hit him, but he can't reach you... or just spam AOE damage, for those cheese win. Case closed, watch the scene. --------------------------------------- Rescue the Lost Coleopt Kids!: Adenade -> Water Shrine. This task seems a lot harder than it really is, cause just about everything throws everything off... it's annoying. Anyway, once you enter, there's an armored tortoise straight ahead, so run forward and take him out first. Behind the turtle is a teleporter pad (the black swirly thingy) - DO NOT STEP ON THESE AT ANY POINT, FOR ANY REASON - they reset the whole map. You need to get across that pad behind the turtle, which seems impassible without tripping the trap, but just hug the northwestern wall along the side of the pad, and you shouldn't hit it. Head northwest to kill another turtle, and then northeast to kill the last one. Now that all the enemies are cleared, head all the way back, and get as many of the fly children to follow you as possible, which isn't as easy as it sounds, cause they made you rescue the special needs class it seems like... you basically have to hold their hands through the map, cause if you get more than just a few feet away, they return to their spawn locations. Gather up the 3 kids at the entrance to the map, and head to the opposite end, where the two Coleopt warriors are waiting (by where the 3rd turtle was), and drops them off with them. Head down to the southeastern area with the other two kids, gather them up, and bring them to the warriors as well to end the task. Phew... --------------------------------------- Get Some Man-Eater Leaves: Ragnoth -> Shrine Ruins. This was actually the old Drakyr city, not a shrine, but whatever... Enter and make your way to the top of the shrine. Kill the first collection of 3 insect types, before wrapping around south where a black dragon is waiting next to the first of the man-eaters. After that, everything very well spread out, and it's just a matter of getting to the top tier to kill the last one. Simple as that. --------------------------------------- Track Down the Stolen Book!: You actually don't even have to kill anything here if you don't want to, but where's the fun in that? This place has tons of wyverns, those weird bug things that you've grown to hate, and maneaters, so there's plenty to kill on each screen. You'll wanna kill those wyverns long enough to get a lizard skin off of one too if you've the patience for it, but if not, just head East, North, East, South, East from the entrance to find the book sitting behind some plant guys, ready for the collecting. --------------------------------------- Capture the Crazed Army Dog!: This one can't be any more straight forward. Enter and kill the little gunner pods flying around and when you have an opening, toss a quick paralyzer bomb with R2+[], and for me at least, he was ready to be trapped on the first shot. Can't be easier. --------------------------------------- Save the Tour Group!: Ragnoth -> Scrappe Plateau. Enter the battlefield to be ambushed by up to 3 paralyze slimes. Spam Lancer if you have to, but just get that first area cleared out. After clearing the first wave, you have some wiggle room, and can pull the rest one by one if you need to, but the objective here is to get to the 5 tourists... at least you don't have to run them back to the entrance. The first 4 can be found on the bottom tier, 2 on the north, 2 on the south, and the last can be found up the catwalk in the southwest corner near the monument found during the tour there earlier in the story. --------------------------------------- Catch the Armored Tortoise!: Adenade -> Tsatuga Plateau. This is a trapping task, and the target is in the mid-western porion of the map. The area is littered with black dragons, and beetles, so work your way down, and try to chase the turtle into the southwestern corner to trap it in in a corner, preventing it from running around too far. Alternatively, later in the game if you come back to this task for whatever reason, you could just make a break for it, and book it to the mark, toss a quick paralyzer bomb, trap it, and be done with it, but earlier on this might be too much damage to handle. --------------------------------------- Discipline the Grave Robbers!: Ragnoth -> Garagne Graveyard. Another one that can't be more straight forward. There's 6 areas to the graveyard, and each one has a few different monk types in it, and your job is to clear the whole area of all the bad guys. No real tactics needed that you haven't employed before, but as a tip, you can use the multitude of headstones to evade ambushes, or set up an ambush of your own. --------------------------------------- Help the Mine Worker!: West Halshinne -> Gazlua Wasteland. First and foremost, you need to clear a path to the hostage. Rather than winding around the arena, go southwest until you hit the border, and go north to the T intersection, clearing the mobs as you go. From the T, head eastward towards the compound, but go east around the fence, to find the hostage sitting on the ground next to a robber. Clear the robber out, and drag the little guy back the way you came in, all the way to the entrance, and the job's done. --------------------------------------- Collect an Armored Insect Shell!: East Halshinne -> Nien Forest. It's kind of a maze in here, and you only need one critter to close the deal on this one, so from the entrance head west, north, west, and south to a clearing with 3 enemies, and the target. clear the enemies before tackling this guy, which should be easy cause he loves to turtle inside of his giant carapace. In order to take him down, either use ranged attacks while he's out, cause he'll go back into the shell up close a lot of the time, or bait out his attack, and smack him around from the side. Once you get the shell from him, it's closing time. --------------------------------------- Mt. Sion's Knight Cup: Epistia -> Mt. Sion. The timer for this mission is very generous, but even still, you'll want to just go for the trophy, unless farming cards. From the entrance, go west, west, north, southeast, northeast, northeast, east, and northeast. Alternatively, you might be able to go the same route as you did to get to Dunsanny earlier, but I figured they would mix it up, and didn't try the same route, so that's what I did this time through. You'll eventually come to the same area Dunsanny was in the first time anyway, and the trophy will be sitting where he was meditating at. Done. --------------------------------------- Arrest the Criminal Stan!: Ragnoth -> Chaos Forest. This is an arrest task, so kill the enemies on the way if you're farming, or just book it to the criminal for the bust. From the entrance, go east, north, east, south, west, and west to find Stan hiding among some of the locals. He just runs until you get close enough to kill him, so either clear the way to stop interruptions, or head straight for him and spam Lancer on him to take him down a little quicker. --------------------------------------- Defeat the Mafia Gang Leader!: Epistia -> Kassim Highway. Another task where you're sent in with a squad, so take advantage of their help if you're doing this one early on. You'll be ambushed right in the door, so clear that first wave, and creep forward, because there's going to be another 4 that come from the shadows for another ambush, just past the first few barrels spotted on the northwest side of the screen. Again, creep forward for another wave, but don't stop to kill the ones that respawn, just keep moving forward. The boss is in the back, and he's a high ninja that likes to use the illusion dodge trick, especially when cornered or at lower HP, so strafe around him for better combos, or spam Lancer to take down as many as you can, with him being the main focus. --------------------------------------- Lamda Temple Trainee Session: East Halshinne -> Lamda Temple. Every game so far had one, and this is this one's. You're up against the trainee monks of Lamda Temple, and they shouldn't be taken lightly, as if you let them, they will gang up on you and prevent you from pulling off a decent combo, or an effective spell. Stick to the corners if you're underequipped and you'll be just fine, but that also makes for a much longer battle, because you need 20 of them to win. The monks just use basic martial arts combos, so there's really nothing of note here other than that. --------------------------------------- Rescue the Twin Girls!: West Halshinne -> Megist Jump. Once entered, it's pretty linear, so just head on up and grab some attention. I suggest the first 3 guards, cause the two behind the first are knife guards anyway, but your call. take care of the bottom tier's guards, and bust up the second set of crates to rescue the girl behind them (she looks like a CP container until the boxes are broken), and continue up the stairs that follow. At the top of the first flight is a swordsman waiting to ruin your face, so take him out with a side or back combo to keep him down, and proceed up the second flight where a rifleman leader is waiting. He's easy to stagger, but his rifle has great range, and hurts, so don't neglect those shoulder buttons. When he's down, bust the crates up and rescue the second little girl. --------------------------------------- Defeat the Red Dragon!: Ragnoth -> Dragon Bone Valley. You enter the battlefield with a squad of 4 female hunters, that means whips, spears, and katanas, so every one of them will be melee attackers... makes it kinda hard to pull off combos of your own. The target is in the back of the cave, and when you enter, 2 of the black dragons will approach first, so take out those two first, and work your way to the back. If you can't get an opening on the target, just strafe around to the side or back of a different one to help contribute to the fight instead, and cut down on the damage doled out. Once the red dragon is dead, the fight is over, and the ladies respect you a little more. --------------------------------------- Destroy the Giant Ooze!: This guy's cheap, so in turn, use a cheap tactic =) . When you enter there's two smaller oozes on either side, 3 explosive barrels on the opposite ends, and the giant ooze in the middle with 5 buddies surrounding him. Remember the last ooze? Just about every hit knocks you down and stuns you, so you want as few of his pals around you when you engage, and try to do so at a distance. Meteor fall, and lancer spirit are good tools for whittling this guy down in that fashion, so try to pull him to the northeastern corner where you'll get the least amount of adds, kick his little buddy to the curb, and spam lancer spirit, or whatever your weapon of choice is. About 75 HP, and 5 hits later, he should be down with little trouble in this manner. --------------------------------------- Annihilate the Ogres!: Adenade -> Tsatuga Plateau. This task is kinda silly in that it sends you in with 5 Orcons to help fight with you, but they all die in seconds, so count on being alone in this anyway. From the entrance, go west counter clockwise around the perimeter of the map taking out every ogre in your path. The general idea is to bait out the attack, and strafe around them for a couple quick strikes, and repeat as needed - apply Lancer or Thunder Storm II if this is too much trouble. Towards the center of the southern border, you'll run into 3 of them, so just bait them out one at a time to avoid a nasty ambush. From the eastern border, head back west along the norther path, to find the entrance of the northern compound where we found the leader of the Truth Sword earlier, and the last Ogre is waiting. All done here. --------------------------------------- Track down the Trader's Gloves!: Ragnoth -> Garagne Graveyard. Assuming this isn't randomly placed on the battlefield, it really can't be any simpler: Just run to the south portion of the middle of the battlefield (south from where you enter), head southeast and pick up the item. Done. If you're on the hunt for any cards, take your time to farm a few, but otherwise, that's that. --------------------------------------- Arrest the Mad-Dog Criminal!: East Halshinne -> Seabed Oil Field. Because it's a higher class task, the monsters will be a bit tougher, but the path is still very linear. Just follow through the first halls, and at the first junction head northwest, to go through some more halls, and then northwest again at the next junction. Following the halls there will spill you out into a room that's set up like where you found the worker all those tasks ago, and the criminal will be waiting for you to beat him up, on the eastern side, so oblige to end the task. --------------------------------------- Defeat the Swordsman Ghosts!: West Halshinne -> Rodion's Castle. Proceed through the entry hall of the castle to come to the first locked room. Try to exit the north door to make 2 ghosts appear on either sides of the doorway. Clear them out to open the exits again, and head north through the huge main hall to the next north exit. In the following room, again, try to exit north while the room is locked, and the last 4 ghosts will appear and try to ambush you. Make your way to one of the opposite corners to get only 2 to follow, and take them out as best you can, you can stagger them when you hit to interrupt them, so it shouldn't take much, and clear the last 2 when you're done to finish the task. --------------------------------------- Save Cylinder and the Archaeologists!: Ragnoth -> Shrine Ruins. Clear the insects and man-eaters all the way to the top of the map again, only this time you actually get to enter the chief's room when you get there. You don't have to kill anything on the way up if you don't want to, they're just gonna change when you come out, but you have to close combat so that you can enter at least. Anyway, you'll find the archaeologist inside waiting for you, so collect him real quick, and exit. The trick with this is to stay as far ahead as you can, cause this guy's pathetic, he'll die in like 3 or 4 hits. Stay way ahead of him, as far as possible anyway, and kill all 3 of the dragons in the way to lead him back to the entrance. --------------------------------------- Get Back the Stone Tablets!: West Halshinne -> Pyramid Ruins. From the entrance break the wall to go west, then west, north, to break the wall and go west one more time. Behind that wall, the robber is waiting with the tablet, and tries to get away from you, of course. I trapped him in the southeastern corner to finish up quickly, but if you're underequipped, you should clear the spiders out first, and then trap him and take him down. --------------------------------------- Ring of Happiness Hunt: Ragnoth -> Garagne Graveyard. Exactly the same as the trader's gloves task, unless it's randomized of course, except this one's found in the southwestern corner of the southwestern section of the field, so from the entrance, go west, then south, and make for the southwestern corner to pick it up. Done. ======================================================================== BD) A Class Counter Tasks: --------------------------------------- Eliminate the Crimson Rhokes!: Aldrow -> Tindalos Woods. The red birds are the target here, so kill everything if you want, but eventually, the path needed from the entrance is going to be south, east, north, south, south, east, and then north for the final bird. All 5 rhokes should be along that path. --------------------------------------- Destroy the Neo-Dilzweld Army!: West Halshinne -> Maluise Tower. That's right, we go back to the end of ATL: TOTS for this task! It's disappointing though, sorry fans. Anyway, First things first, this is an extermination mission, that means every section will lock until everything on the field in that area is dead. So, take out the 3 dogs in the first area at the base, and head up the tower. Those returning to the series, this tower is the exact same set up, with different fight setups, so just keep heading up the tower, killing as you go. These are all familiar enemies, but just in case, take the knife guards down in groups, and pull the tanks and intruders individually. At the top of the tower you'll get 2 knife guards, 2 guards with pistols, and the commander, so take down the knife fighters seperately before heading in for the last 3, which you should circle around to group them up as best you can, and just spam Lancer on them, cause they're cheeseballs too... better to get the d rop, than to be dropped on. --------------------------------------- Gather Mantrap Grass!: Aldrow -> Mulmoth Meadows. This is a huge arena fight, if you choose it to be. The target is in the northeast corner of the map, it's the only plant type monster here, so you can either fight your way there, or cheese it and run straight up there, and spam the hell out of Lancer, up to you. --------------------------------------- Return the Pyramid's Stone Tablet!: West Halshinne -> Pyramid Ruins. In this one, you're actually just returning a tablet that was retrieved earlier, so I'm not sure if this task unlocks without having done that one first. Anyway, don't head north as that's a trap dead end that forces you to fight a group of spiders. Instead, head west, west, north, north, east, east, north, west, and then north to come to the huge room we fought the spider boss in. This time the room is filled with skeletons instead, but all you really have to do is run to the opposite side and touch the altar, sarcophogus whatever thing. Once you reach the other side of the room, the tablet is put into place, and the task is done with. --------------------------------------- Kill the Phoenix-Eating Cobras!: East Halshinne -> Malgar Mountains. The cobras that you need in this area like to hang around the big construct enemies, so be careful when chasing them down for the kill. The golems like to punch at you mostly, but they do have a long range skill where they throw a slow moving giant hand at you to knock you down, so watch out for that. The first 6 snakes acan be found on the first screen, so clear them all out, and head up either path when you're ready. I'll go east first. At the first turnaround you'll be squaring off with a malademon golem, and another snake, so pull the malademon away so you can take care of him first, and then go for the snake before heading farther up the path. Head south first to clear the easier section, and then go west and up the ramp to face two golems that don't agro and chase. If you try to pull them individually, they'll just throw those big hands at you, and stay in their original positions. Run to the side of the eastern golem first, out of range of the second one, and strafe side to side dodging his attacks to take him down, and then work on the second one. Easy enough. You'll be thrown out to the continent map again when you're done reading the little background, so from there head to Adenade to the Tuptsee Desert. --------------------------------------- Arrest the Evil Swordmaster!: Ragnoth -> Dragon Cave. Enter the Dragon Cave, where you'll see 2 familiar dragon types again, but this time they'll be hangin out with some skeletons. The skeletons are nothing to worry about, they're super slow, and only attack with a basic sword swing. From the entrance, head north, east, north, and then north to find the swordsman, who will mostly just try to run away from you. I actually used Darc for this fight just to mix things up a bit, but the swordsman for me just swung his sword around clumsily and didn't use any abilities, so basic combos worked well for this arrest task, just strafe to dodge, and keep knocking him down. Easy peasy. --------------------------------------- Deliver the Cobra Anti-venom!: West Halshinne -> Kanara Desert. This is kind of a longer one, so be ready for the long haul here. The main enemy here is going to be cobras, of course, so nothing spectacular with the combat tactics. Again I used Darc, but tactics should be the same, so head east, southeast, east northeast, southeast, and east to get to an area that has a constant sandstorm going on in it. At this point the enemies will be giant sandworms that appear when you first enter, but then burrow underground before you can engage them, so you're not going to see when they attack, but at least you have a rough idea of where they're going to be coming from. These giant worms will attack with a medium range body slam in a straight line, or a spinning close range headbutt that attacks in a circle, but really aren't that tough anyway, so should be no problem. From the first sandstorm area, head northeast, north, and then northeast again to make it to the survivor waiting for their anit-venom. Case closed. --------------------------------------- Stallius Punition Force: West Halshinne -> Tuptsee Desert. This one's surprisingly easy for a Class A task. You enter with 4 other hunters who can all do their part on the little scorpions that agro in, and take a few good hits at least so you don't have to act as a punching bag the whole time. If you talked to the hunter in the guild in Rueloon prior to this task, you'll know that the desert devil scorpions follow a leader, and disperse when the leader is killed, and if you didn't, you do now. Anyway, the target here becomes the giant blue scorpion for that reason, so make him your priority. Clear a path to the big guy and use the hunters as a distraction while you beat him senseless from the back. You can hit him from the sides if you like, or if that's the only opening, but his claw attack has a pretty large arch to it, so it's just safer from the back. Fend off the little scorpions as they come, but that's pretty much the gist of that business, and being that this task will fill up the gauge for this rank's requirement, make for Rueloon for the next exam. --------------------------------------- Remove the Boss, Lupinae!: This battlefield is just a large field full of wolves, and the target is at the northwest corner of it. Make your way through to pack of hungry wolves, and when you get there you'll find that the mark is surrounded by about 6 of the pack, so you'll have to employ group tactics. The smaller wolves will respawn through the entire fight, so try to finish him quickly by making all of your attacks hit as many as possible. Since you can't stagger him with the first hits of the combo like the smaller wolves, you can actually use the small ones as a buffer between you and the boss to take less damage if you're having trouble, but either way, it's not terrible, so mop up quickly, and head for your favorite hunter's guild to turn those in real quick. --------------------------------------- Gather the Spider Silk Strands!: West Halshinne -> Pyramid Ruins. This task is about gathering the silks that the spider-spawning igloo lookin things drop, rather than hunting spiders. From the Entrance, make your way east, east, north, north, north, south, west, west, west, and then south, and all of the silks should be along that path. Most of the spiders will try to swarm at you while you beat their home down, so again, fight the cheese with extra cheese, and just spam Lancer, or Lightning Storm II... I actually used Cragh Spirit to do it, but whatever AOE you got works. --------------------------------------- Maluise Tower's Knight Cup: West Halshinne -> Maluise Tower. This time around, they take out the Dilzweld soldiers, and replace them with golems, and SA-100s, so it's a little tougher on ya, but the crates appearing and locking you in is the same, so plan for that as well. Make your way up the tower, the first two rooms are just shotgun traps, and then it gets a little tougher with the SAs, and then it's just two golems at the top floor, although they don't budge, you have to fight both side by side, so it isn't a bad idea to spam Lancer on the first, and take the second however works - side strafe the punches and combo him down, or Lancer him as well. The trophy is waiting at the very top though, so you get to return to where you killed the General in the last game for that. --------------------------------------- Collect Repulsion Tree Fruit!: Aldrow -> Tindalos Woods. This will be the first task so far, that the target is actually the traps. Don't worry about any set path to take, just find as many of the flame traps as is needed to make the fruits drop, and clear the area before you start attacking them, because they can take a minute to take down if you're not properly prepared. The enemies are nothing new, so take them out as usual, however, the traps can be taken out quickly with a few Lancers, or higher level spells of choice. If you're short on CP, or doing this earlier on and simply run out, all is not lost, as you can stand between the flames in the diagonal clearing, creep up as close as you can without getting him, and use the exorcism attack, since that's the only attack that won't actually move you forward. It takes longer, but it's doable. ======================================================================== BE) S Class Counter Tasks: ======================================================================== --------------------------------------- Romariah's Silver Cup: You're on a time limit here, so don't do any unnecessary dilly dallying. This place is a damn maze, so if you get lost, it's hard to get to the right spot, so I hope I got these right (let me know when confirmed please). The area is littered with Intruder pods, and hunters who are also looking for the cup, and want to stop you from finding it, so be quick if you take them all down. From the entrance, go east, east, north, northeast, east, east, north, northwest, northwest, west, and northwest. You'll come to the hall that had the hole blown out of it where we went to fight Lalyuk at, but go past there to find a dragon, who is holding the cup you need. This guy has a huge frontal arch of attack, so hit twice, MOVE (not dodge) to the left until you see him start to attack THEN dodge to the side, and repeat as needed. If you do this, he should never use his tailswipe, and only use his ice breath when you're approaching from behind the barrels. If you happen to get smacked out of rhythm, just get back to his feet and keep going with this strategy. Once he's dead, grab the Diekbeck statue, and you're all done here. --------------------------------------- Destroy the Driven Cliff Gigant!: Enter the cave and follow the same path as before to get to the back room where granny and the two scientists were waiting for you (basically just go east and then north... a lot), and this time there's gonna be 4 warlocks surrounding a giant ... yeti-corn? The warlocks will continuously heal the Gigant, so they're the real targets. Drag as many to the entrance to the room as possible, and then dash outta that business to the back of the room for some personal space. Kill and of the warlocks that you can trap back there, and leave the Gigant at the door for now. In this area where you're safe, you'll have room to buff up if you want to, and clear the icicles out for some extra room on the field. At least two of the warlocks will always hug the yeti thing, so be prepared for several hits at ~100 a piece from the Gigant while you're polishing off those two. Lancer as needed to get these guys down, and don't worry about the yeti, he dies when they die. Not bad with proper preparation. --------------------------------------- Destroy the Darkness Bones!: What they fail to mention in the description for this one, is that what the bones are spawning are GIANT skeletons, complete with full combos, and bad tempers. Enter the Varam Barrens from the east, and head to the southeast corner to where the first of the darkness bones are lying. There will be the first of the giants around this one, along with one of the normal skeleton buddies nearby as well. Go straight back behind the bones, and camp there, using the bones themselves as a buffer between you and the giant. If the little guy chases you back there, just take him out as quick as you can, but the giant can't fit in the small area, so bait out the combo, and attack when the timing / range is right. The second pile of bones is located at the soutwest portion of the map, and the third at the norteastern section, and with the second two piles of bones, there is actually two giants guarding them, but still, the same tactics apply to those as well. Use Lancer from a distance behind the bones if you're having any trouble. Note that it may be worth reloading and trying the task again if you get no drops, because a Romantic Drop card can drop from the Giants, so make sure to get at least one from them. --------------------------------------- Topple the Mysterious Machine!: Ragnoth -> Romariah Tunnels. This one was odd, not because there was a boss at the end, but the way you could kill it, kinda fun, kinda funny, mostly just silly. From the entrance, it's much like the tunnel the first time through, very linear, so go east, east, southeast, southeast, east, southeast, north, northwest, and northwest to come to what looks like the main sewer of old Romalia. Out from the sewage, pops this giant robot you're looking for, and on 4 of the platforms are SA-100s, and 4 cranes. If you hit the cranes, you can destroy them, however, if you run up to them and press [], you can enter them, and swivel them about 60 degrees or so, and press X to actually attack with them for about 30 damage a hit. While in the crane, you can't use skills, and the damage you take is actually sent to the crane, so it has a separate HP bar that it takes from while you're inside operating it. Alternatively, if the cranes are destroyed, you have to chase the boss down and use boss tactics to kill it. This giant does 3 things: it can pull different types of wreckage from the sewers to throw at you from a range, each type of thing he throws has a different size and hit box but about the same damage - I saw what looked like a truck trailer, a junk pile like in other battlefields, and a cluster of crates, but there may be others. He has a machine gun he fires from his head up at close ranges, which will trap you and knock you down, similar to Nidhogg's acid drip attack, and lastly, he has a ground pound which is rarely used in my experience, but was his highest damaging attack (~150). Basically, choose your tactic, but keep it simple cause it's more of an endurance fight than anything. Run up and spam Lancer if that's your bag, or spam Lightning Storm if you can, or use the cranes to shield you while smacking him down as much as you can before he takes them out, or simply chase him around smacking him with your stick, strafe dodging incoming attacks as they come (highly advertised). Any way you choose to approach this guy, just be ready for a longish fight, and don't underestimate his attacks and you should do just fine. --------------------------------------- Collect a Magical Warlocus!: East Halshinne -> Ice Gallery. Why this one was in this class is beyond me, but whatever, easy money. From the entrance, head east, north, north, and then east to find the warlock waiting for you on the east side of the area. Kill him to get the drop, and close up shop here. Done. --------------------------------------- Kill the Deimos-Striking Ghosts!: Aldrow - Zedora Abyss. A new area finally! With enough CP to spam Lancer, this is actually pretty easy. The ghosts like to disappear and reappear at different points on the map, but fret not, they still show on the mini map... kinda defeats the purpose of the cloaking trick entirely, but anyway, the area's littered with death knights and swordsmen who like to gang up on you if you let them, so basically you're gonna round em up, and Lancer them down. For a more honorable battle, stick to the southwestern portion of the map and lure them there one by one. You can't stagger any of these guys for the interrupt, so just keep strafing to dodge the sword strikes, [] to dodge the spinning slash, and get a smaller combo in at every opening. Don't chase them when they run or you'll end up pulling multiple targets at once. --------------------------------------- Eliminate the Legendary Altima!: East Halshinne -> Mt. Sion. *Fun Fact: "The Ultimate Dragon!" Legendary because they were thought extinct, until a job in ATL3 where one was released from a card (yeah, thanks Theo -.- ), which actually unleashed 8, if irc, who scattered from the volcano in different directions.* Anyway you can follow the same route as last time we were here actually, which was west, west, north, southeast, northeast, northeast, east, and northeast to come to a medium sized arena with the great white buffal.... 'scuse me dragon waiting inside for you. He has only 3 attacks, which are very basic, but also very annoying. The first attack is the classic dragon bite, nothing special, but the kicker is that if you make your way to the side or behind the guy, he uses his second attack - a large range AOE. The third attack is a barrage of fireballs that is completely ineffective at close range, and easily dodged to the sides. You're really not safe from anywhere on the field, just the way we like it - keeps things interesting - so either cheese him with a barrage of your own (Lancers of course), or get creative with a combination of spells and staff strikes. You'll have a window of 2 attacks when you bait out the bites, but 3 or 4 will cause you to not have enough time to run from the AOE. When he uses the AOE, he only recovers for about 2 seconds, which is not enough time to try mount the offensive, so don't try unless you're casting. When he does the fireballs, he leaps into the air, so only certain spells will affect him, at reduced efficiency, so it's not worth it. Personally, I employed the staff strikes, while dodging the AOEs, and running mid range while he was recovering to use Cragh Spirits, and repeating in a similar pattern. He has a good amount of HP though, so depending on your preparation, it might be a lengthy battle, but either way, his attacks aren't incredibly strong, so you should be ok. --------------------------------------- Romariah's Gold Cup: Ragnoth -> Romariah Tunnel. Back to the tunnels again, and put 30 minutes on the clock please... From the entrance go east, east, north, northeast, east, east, north, northwest, and northwest, which brings you to the same place as with the silver cup, only this time is a giant green dragon instead. Same tactics apply here as they did before, but remember this guy is more keen to the tail swipe, so a bit more dodging backwards instead of side to side. Done in just shy of 5 minutes, so you should be good with about 18 or so (saves a few extra minutes just in case) to farm some cards if that's your bag, just don't get lost, or you might run out of time finding the way to the boss. --------------------------------------- Protect the Tortoise!: Aldrow -> Zedora Abyss. This task is only made difficult because of the "turtle's" impossibly horrible DEF. The little guy comes out to play from the north, hobbles east, wraps around south to the west, does whatever he's doin for a couple seconds, and heads back home. The enemies are standard, though they can't be staggered between attacks, so best use Lancer to keep them all from ganging up on you or the poor turtle. Stay as far ahead as you can, cause it only takes about 4 hits for them to take down the turtle. If you can get the 4 in the south to group up on you all at once, without putting the tortoise in jeopardy, that'd be wonderful, cause you can use Thunder Storm II, or Cragh Spirit on them to clean up quick as hell too. Either way, just keep ahead of the defense and it's not too bad. --------------------------------------- Protect the Tortoise Eggs!: Aldrow -> Zedora Abyss. Once the tortoise is safe, you have to go back to protect its eggs. Same battlefield as last time, only this time there's a few crates scattered about. Only two enemies approach at a time, but that's more than enough for an unsuspecting player. Of the 3 clutches of eggs, only 1 needs to survive to get the victory, and the enemies seem to just not care that you're here this time, so they mostly ignore you even when attacked. Idk if all spells will, but at least Cragh Spirit will actually damage the eggs too, so don't use that at least, but instead, just spam Lancer, or combo them from the back, but whatever tactic you choose is best for your character and stats, just do whatever it takes to get the enemies off of the eggs. That's all the tasks I managed to find, and as I've read, there's still a couple of lower class tasks that I couldn't open up, and I actually went and did every one of them, so message me if you find out how to open them. ======================================================================== CA) Synthesis: ======================================================================== Some of these will be out of order. All synthesizers are found at both locations, so the only difference between the two locations, is what items will be sold at the shop synthesizing at, which isn't a huge difference anyway really. Magic Synthesis (Sorcie): Cure - Healing Rain x2 Cure II - Cure + Magical Stone Cure III - Cure II + Magical Stone Big Bang - Flaming Arrow x2 Big Bang II - Big Bang + Magical Stone Divide - Dark Sphere x2 Dark Sphere - Divide x2 Dark Sphere II - Dark Sphere + Magical Stone Divide II - Divide + Magical Stone Diamond Dust - Water bubble x2 Diamond Dust II - Diamond Dust + Magical Stone Flaming Arrow - Big Band x2 Flaming Arrow II - Flaming Arrow + Magical Stone Golem Hand II - Golem Hand + Magical Stone Meteor Fall II - Meteor Fall + Magical Stone Golem Hand - Meteor Fall x2 Meteor Fall - Golem Hand x2 Healing Rain - Magic Secrets + Cure Healing Rain II - Healing Rain + Magical Stone Protection - Magic Secrets + Armor Stone Rising Blast - Thunder Storm x2 Rising Blast II - Rising Blast + Magical Stone Thunder Storm - Rising Blast x2 Thunder Storm II - Thunder Storm + Magical Stone Water Bubble - Diamond Dust x2 Water Bubble II - Water Bubble + Magical Stone Wind Slash - Tornado x2 Wind Slash II - Wind Slash + Magical Stone Tornado - Wind Slash x2 Tornado II - Tornado + Magical Stone Healing Rain III - Healing Rain II + Magical Stone ======================================================================== CB) Gimmicks (Philon) Numbing Ball - Oil Orb + Alraune Seed Slow Bomb - Time-Bomb + Alraune Seed Throwing Knife - Bent Throwing Knife + Shooting Secrets Paralyzer - Lusah Cane + Big Bang Bent Throwing Knife - Blade Secrets + Light Metal Ointment - Cure + Empty Bottle Firebomb - Oil Orb + Empty Bottle Hand-Grenade - Gunpowder Orb + Light Metal Time-Bomb - Gunpowder Orb + Hand-Grenade Dilz-Bomb - Gunpowder Orb + Hard Metal Healing Rod - Lusah Cane + Healing Rain Iron Ball - Light Metal + Hard Metal Small Stone Sack - Stone + Lizard Hide Shockwaver - Lusah Cane + Tornado Paralyzing Bomb - Numbing Ball + Time-bomb Flamethrower - Spray Cannon + Oil Orb Poison Bomb - Oil Orb + Time Bomb Discharge Machine - Vilner's Unit + Spray Cannon Polished Stone - Universal Cloth + Transparent Stone ======================================================================== CC) Attack Parts (Masakane) Iron Fang - Hard Metal + Battle Armband Weaponry Manual - Battle Magazine + Survival Guide Cairngorm Beads - Bewitching Beads + Magic Secrets Jade Beads - Polished Stone + Broken Beads Crystal Beads - Transparent Stone + Broken Beads Popular Stuffed Toy - Universal Cloth + Cairngorm Beads - Bebedora High Priest's Crest - Complete Combat + Lamda Crest - Iga Tome of Five Rings - Survival Guide + Complete Combat Bewitching Beads - Crystal Beads + Jade Beads Diek's Pencil - Vilmer's Unit + Engineer's Manual - Diekbeck Complete Combat - Survival Guide + Fighting Travelog Tactical Gloves - Weaponry Manual + Gauntlet - Cheryl Chief's Claw - Mysterious Ore + Hard Metal - Delma Monster's Fang - Illusion Secrets + Irong Fang Devil Armband - Iron Fang + Physical Secrets Exorcist's Shaft - Lusah Cane + Lark Coat of Arms - Edda Power Wristband - Leather Wristband + Wristband Silver Rosary - Mysterious Ore + Light Metal Sol's Shaft - Lusah Cane + Sol's Crest - Theo Battle Armband - Muscle Wristband + Power Stone Nidellia Hilt - Nidellia Crest + Mysterious Ore - Kharg Gold Rosary - Mysterious Ore + Silver Rosary Brain Hilt - Weaponry Manual + Mysterious Ore - Alec Shining Cross - Polished Stone + Silver Rosary Muscle Wristband - Power Stone + Power Wristband Dilz Unit - Techno Stone + Vilner's Unit - Tatjana Manual of Warfare - War God Tome + Tome of Five Rings ======================================================================== CD) Special Skills (Louis) Blade Rain - Blade Secrets + Strike Power - Lutz Bloody Thorn - Magic Secrets + Golem Hand II - Camellia Cragh Spirit - Cane Secrets + Illusion Secrets - Edda Crimson Slash - Physical Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Delma Cross Javelin - Power Stone + Cane Secrets - Theo Diek Missile - Machine Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Diekbeck Divine Judgement - Illusion Secrets + Rising Blast II - Kukuru Earth Spirit - Golem Hand II + Cane Secrets - Edda Gigant Bazooka - Shooting Secrets + Weaponry Manual - Ganz Heat Cyclone - Blade Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Paulette Heat Wall - Magic Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Elc Ice Smasher - Physical Secrets + Water Bubble II - Volk Impulse Bomb - Magic Secrets + Big Bang II - Alec Lamda Punishment - Physical Secrets + Lamda Crest - Iga Lancer Spirit - (Free from Mofly) Cane Secrets + Magical Belt - Edda Lilia Spiral - Blade Secrets + Rising Blast II - Lilia Mind Control - Illusion Secrets + Dark Sphere II - Bebedora Mirage Field - Machine Secrets + Rising Blast II - Tatjana Mortal Spray - Shooting Secrets + Wind Slash II - Shu Napalm Frenzy - Shooting Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Cheryl Pyron Summons - Magic Secrets + Illusion Secrets - Darc Ravish - Illusion Secrets + Golem Hand II - Leeza Sakura Slash - Sword Secrets + Flaming Arrow II - Tosh Shuffle Shot - Shooting Secrets + Dark Sphere II - Maru Total Healing - Magic Secrets + Water Bubble II - Arc Vanichoo - Magic Secrets + Magical Stone - Choco Windblade Shot - Sword Secrets + Magic Secrets - Kharg ======================================================================== CE) Special Parts (Sarhua) Angel Statuette - War God Tome + Mysterious Ore Antidote Ring - Toy Ring + Polished Stone Armor Stone - Techno Stone + Romantic Drop Balanced Ring - Toy Ring + Transparent Stone Engineer's Manual - Machine Secrets + Survival Guide Goddess Statuette - Mysterious Ore + Tome of Five Rings Healing Card - Cure III x2 Healing Pygmy - Healing Card + Universal Cloth King's Statuette - Manual of Warfare + Mysterious Ore Lark Coat of Arms - Silver Rosary + Gold Rosary Magical Stone - Romantic Drop + Polished Stone Magical Belt - Warrior Charm + Cloth Belt Ninja Scarf - Whirlwind Bandana + Universal Cloth Power Stone - Romantic Drop + Transparent Stone Red Earrings - Blue Earrings + Romantic Drop Romantic Drop - Water Bubble II x2 - Online reference says any lvl 2 spell x2 will work. Romantic Stone - Yellow Earrings + Romantic Drop Techno Stone - Romantic Drop + Mysterious Ore Violet Racer - Silver Rosary + Shell Warrior Charm - Lizard Hide + Hard Metal Whirlwind Bandana - Universal Cloth + Lizard Hide Yellow Earrings - Red Earrings + Romantic Drop ======================================================================== CF) Defense Parts (Zerote) Battle Armor - Heavy Armor + Warrior Charm Chain-Mail Vest - Leather Vest + Light Metal Combat Gear - Cloth Outfit + Whirlwind Bandana Crause Shield - Battle Armor + Warrior Charm - Paulette Dragon Bone Armor - Dragon Guard + Dragon Scales - Darc Dragon Guard - Rune Armor + Dragon Scales Dubach Mask - Armor Stone + Lizard Hide - Maru Elven Chain-Mail - Sayer's Robe + Violet Racer Gauntlet - Leather Glove + Light Metal Fiona's Outfit - Sayer's Robe + Universal Cloth - Lilia Heavy Armor - Ring Armor + Hard Metal Hermit's Robe - Magic Robe + Magical Stone Holy Mother's Sash - Cloth Belt + Romantic Drop - Kukuru Horn Outfit - Hermit's Robe + Universal Cloth - Leeza Largo's Belt - Magical Belt + Romantic Drop - Choco Leather Gloves - Craft Gloves + Lizard Hide Lizard Guard - Rune Armor + Lizard Hide Lupine Cloak - Traveler's Robe + Warrior Charm - Volk Magic Shoes - Blade Boots + Magical Stone Magic Robe - Traveler's Robe + Magical Stone Mercenary's Boots - Survival Guide + Lizard Hide - Ganz Monji's Coat - Magical Belt + Combat Gear - Tosh Ninja Hand Guard - Craft Guard + Whirlwind Bandana Pianta Petal - Alraune Seed + Romantic Stone - Camellia Pyulka Jacket - Hermit's Robe + Lizard Hide - Elc Ranger Suit - Combat Gear + Cloth Outfit Ring Armor - Hard Metal + Cloth Outfit Rune Armor - Battle Armor + Magical Stone Sasha Tool Bag - Small Stone Sack + Lizard Hide - Lutz Sayer's Robe - Traveler's Robe + Cloth Belt Scar of the Elite - Ninja Scarf Whirlwind Bandana - Shu Smelian Armor - Rune Armor + Mysterious Ore - Arc Traveler's Robe - Cloth Outfit + Ranger Suit ======================================================================== DA) Lottery House Mini-Games: ======================================================================== Card Roulette: Not really much to explain here, but I'll start with saying that EVERY time you choose to go flip cards, no matter how many you're heading to do, SAVE FIRST. When you enter the Lottery House in Dilzweld, it's the first building on the top tier, on the right. Straight ahead from the entrance is the Card Roulette attendant. When prompted, choose "Draw a card," and she'll pull 5 cards at random from a pile, and flip 4, removing them as she flips, until 1 is left face down. Regardless of what you want, this is the card you're left with, and the mystery cards are taken either way, this is why you save first. The cards won from her, range from character cards, unique synthesis cards, equipment, spells(/abilities?), and of course junky gimmick cards. A handful of characters will always be available in the flip, until you get the last one, so count on 1 of these 5 being a character EVERY time, until you get the last, but the rest are completely random, and vary more and more as you gain ranks in the exams. Unfortunately, there's really no way to "tip the scales" with this, it's all just dumb luck, so there's really no strategy needed. ======================================================================== DB) Combat Simulators The 3 combat simulators are a great way to earn extra mystery cards, provided that you've taken the proper precautions. Other sources online say that the Violet Racer card is a must here, but honestly, it's doable without. The goal is to kill the set number of enemies of a specific type, within the time limit. As far as I could see, the fights always have the same number of enemies, the same enemy type, and the same battlefield, so it gets easier as you try to get more cards, and once again, very little strategy is needed here. Just run from enemy to enemy, killing as quickly as possible, so you can see that the Violet Racer is a VERY handy tip here... that's about it. All of the enemies will run from you, which is what makes it hard, so if you can round up any extras into a group, AOE the crap out of them, and if not, use only the combo strikes that will NOT knock them down, cause this will add extra seconds that you need to move around in, while the enemy is getting back up. ======================================================================== EA) Monster List Checklist: ======================================================================== In order to get the secret character car "Choco," you have to complete the full monster list from the Mofly in Rueloon in the alley. Here's a full list to use as a checklist to achieve that goal. Remember, in order to complete the list, you have to find, and kill, 1 of every monster in the game. 1. Alraune 2. Altima 3. Armored Insect 4. Armored Tortoise 5. Attack Dog 6. Bandit 7. Bomber Fly 8. Canidae 9. Cannon Trap 10. Cerberus 11. Chalice - Nidhogg 12. Chalice - Yggdrasill 13. Cliff Gigant 14. Cobra 15. Coleopt 16. Coleopt Larva 17. Commander 18. Corpse 19. Crimson Rhoke 20. Dainn A 21. Dancing Shell 22. Dandelion 23. Dark Dweller 24. Dark Knight 25. Desert Devil 26. Dovalin 27. Dragon Fly 28. Drakyr 29. Elemental 30. Evil Eye 31. Fungus 32. Galum Head 33. Ghoul 34. Giant Ooze 35. Giant Slime 36. Gold Dragon 37. Golem 38. Great Phoenix 39. Green Dragon 40. Gun Trap 41. Gunmech 42. Gunner 43. Gur Apis 44. Hell Kite 45. Hellhound 46. High Ninja 47. Hunter Fly 48. Intruder 49. Kiesel 50. Killer Gargoyle 51. Killer Wolf 52. Ko Apis 53. Kuskle 54. La Apis 55. Lackey Demon 56. Lakelta 57. Lalyuk 58. Laughroom 59. Le Apis 60. Lupinae 61. Mage 62. Mandrake 63. Man-Eater 64. Mantrap 65. Mer Apis 66. Mighty Fly 67. Monk 68. Mummy 69. Mycoinid 70. Ninja 71. Ninja Master 72. Ogre 73. Orcon 74. PA-200 75. Pit Scorpion 76. Poison Slime 77. Pugnacious 78. Reaper 79. Red Dragon 80. Reecher 81. Rhoke 82. Rognas Gormon 83. SA-100 84. Sand Worm 85. Scorpion 86. Selkis 87. Shotgun Trap 88. Sidewinder 89. Silver Dragon 90. Skeleton 91. Skull Warrior 92. Sleeping Gust 93. Slime 94. Soldier 95. Stallius 96. Steingraf 97. Stone Blob 98. Stun Smog 99. Suskle Squirrel 100. Sword Master 101. Swordsman 102. Tarantula Lord 103. Terrorist 104. Terrorist Leader 105. Thief 106. Tin Golem 107. Toxic Ooze 108. Viper 109. Warlock 110. Web Puppy 111. Witch Plant 112. Wyvern 113. Zombie ======================================================================== FA) Closing: ======================================================================== The FAQ is only intended to be on GameFAQs.com, and is an original work. In the future, I would like to locations to the monster list, but as this is an older game, I have no idea if that may even happen. ======================================================================== Version Info: ======================================================================== 1.00 - This is the raw guide as it left my pc, of course. Submitted on 7-25-2017 1.01 - Minor corrections & permissions -----------------------Credits------------------------ Dark_Lavitz -> Your project seemed abandoned after attempts to contact, but your guide made double checking recipes MUCH quicker, and added a few that I didn't find on either playthroughs. Thank you. SheenavsKilley -> Providing a full monster list of the in game monster book, needed to acquire the Choco card. Thanks! GameFAQs.com -> You've always been there for me when I needed help, so I hope this helps those in the future that may need it. ======================================================================== Legal: ======================================================================== No section of this article may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including photocopying, recording, or any other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author (myself - P. Frentz), except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Use of this guide on other web-sites or on public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. For permission requests, write an email and send it to the appropriate address below. The latest update of this text file can always be found at GameFAQs.com (c) 2017 - KKW07ISG06 - AKA "Fretz" Currently, as previously stated, the only site with permission to post this guide is GameFAQs.com, please notify me via email if you see this anywhere else, and thanks for reading along, and respecting the FAQ authors. --------------------------------------- (Edit) Additional sites permitted to use this guide: neoseeker.com For questions, updates, and permissions, please contatct me, the author, at pfrentz88@gmail.com