======================================================================= ```````````````````BREATH OF FIRE V: DRAGON QUARTER```````````````````` `````````````````````Strategy Guide & Walkthrough`````````````````````` ```````````````````````Version 5.0 by DavidK519```````````````````````` ```````````````````````E-mail- DKK5@comcast.net```````````````````````` `````````````````````````Updated March 7, 2005````````````````````````` ======================================================================= ================= Table of Contents ================= _________________________________________________ / \ | 1. Version History | | 2. Introduction and Character Bios | | 3. Game Systems | | A. The Main Menu | | B. Equipment and Skill Threading | | C. PETS | | D. The Battle System | | E. The Scenario Overlay System | | F. The Dragon System | | G. Special Note on PAL Version | | 4. The Walkthrough | | I. Lift to Bio Corp | | II. Old Waste Shaft | | III. Lift: Low Sector | | IV. Corp Lab | | V. Frozen Road | | VI. Storage | | VII. Industrial Area | | VIII. Old Trade Sector | | IX. Trinity Pit | | X. Lifeline | | XI. Power One | | XII. The Final Mission | | 5. Skills | | A. Ryu | | B. Bosch | | C. Nina | | D. Lin | | E. Shield Skills | | 6. Side Quests | | A. Fairy Colony | | B. Kokon Horay | | C. Party XP and Zenny Loops | | D. D-Ratio | | E. Secret Weapons | | 7. Acknowledgments and Closing | \_________________________________________________/ To quickly find the section you're looking for, hit Ctrl+F and type in the full name of the section from the table of contents above. ======================================================================= 1. VERSION HISTORY ======================================================================= (3/7/05) Updated to Version 5.0- NO! I haven't forgotten about this FAQ. It took me a while, but I finally got around to making an update. I did a little bit of reformatting, mainly an overhaul of the D-Ratio areas within the walkthrough. I also added a short section under Game Systems dedicated to the differences between the NTSC and PAL versions. Finally, I enhanced the Fairy Colony section with an in-depth explanation about how to make big money with your colony. That's pretty much it for now. (10/31/03) Updated to Version 4.0- I've made some adjustments in the formatting, as well as completed the Shield Skill list. Some more frequently asked questions have also been added to the D-Ratio section. And finally, I have also switched over my listed e-mail address to my Comcast mailbox. (8/16/03) Updated to Version 3.0- I reformatted the entire guide, putting in lines for all the sub sections and chapters to make things easier to read. (8/3/03) Updated to Version 2.0- Added tips to all the Review Board Challenges. Added chest item, Save Token, level, and D-Counter listings for each chapter. Added a skill missing from the skill list. Added the steal item for the Cyclops boss. ======================================================================= 2. INTRODUCTION AND CHARACTER BIOS ======================================================================= Ages ago, a terrible disaster destroyed the surface of the planet, forcing all life to retreat underground. Humanity has been hidden below the surface for so long that the sky has become a legendary myth. Ryu, a low class member of the government force known as the Rangers, begins his journey with a seemingly ordinary assignment under the wing of an aspiring high ranking ranger named Bosch. During the assignment, Ryu inherits the powers of an ancient dragon who reveals Ryu’s destiny: to reach the sky. Later, Ryu meets a girl whose life is jeopardized by the poor atmospheric conditions of their dying world and vows to save her, even if it means committing anarchy. As Ryu and his companions climb closer and closer to the surface, they face opposition spawned from fear, doubt, and rivalry, and he will only be able to achieve his destiny through the destructive powers granted to him and his own determination. %%%%%%%%%% Characters %%%%%%%%%% Ryu- Ryu is a ranger grunt with a D-Ratio of 1/8192 and the hero of the story. Despite his low rank, Ryu is driven by determination and has just the right attitude to back it. Early on, he receives the powers of the dragon Odjn. His out of battle action is the D-Dash, which allows him to drive through enemies without initiating a battle. In battle, he wields a nice arsenal of close-range sword skills. Putting that together with his practically invincible dragon powers makes Ryu your most valuable party member. Bosch- With his 1/64 D-Ratio, Bosch is a high class ranger with the dream of one day becoming a regent. However, his blind arrogance may cost him dearly in the future. His field action is a simple kick which he can use to initiate battles. With his initially high stats and Beast Blade fencer, Bosch is your most valuable attacker at the beginning of the game. Nina- Nina is a young girl who grows extremely fond of Ryu after he rescues her early in the game. Although she cannot speak, her emotions and actions convey her desire to stay under Ryu’s protection. For some unclear reason, the rebel organization known as Trinity wishes to capture her. Nina’s field action is the item vacuum, which allows her to suck up loose items in an area. In battle, Nina attacks from a long range with magic spells, making her incredibly useful at exploiting elemental weaknesses. She can also set magical traps during battle which can block enemies from attacking you. Lin- Lin is a member of the rebel organization called Trinity and joins your party when Nina refuses to leave Ryu’s side. Since she’s part of a group committed to anarchy, her government ranking is withheld. Lin’s out of battle action her gun blast, which can be used to start a battle from a distance or blow enemies away. You can lock onto enemies by holding down R2. While fighting, Lin can attack from a distance using various shot skills, therefore, making her very useful against enemies that can only attack at a close range. Lin has a vast arsenal of special attacks which can be used through combos. ======================================================================= 3. GAME SYSTEMS ======================================================================= ---------------- A. The Main Menu ---------------- If you press Start anytime outside of a battle or a cut scene you can access the main menu. In the upper right hand corner is the D-Counter (if it has been activated yet) and below that is a small box with your D-Ratio. Underneath your D-Ratio there is a box labeled Data that displays your zenny (money), party XP, your number of retries, and your total game time. In the upper left corner, you’ll find a brief status screen for all of your party members, and underneath that is the list of main menu commands: Item- Selecting this allows you to view, use, sort, and drop the items in your inventory. You can also view vital items here. Trap- Here you can view and select various traps to use outside of battle. The number to the right of each trap is the number of traps you have in your inventory. Equip- This lets you view the equipment for each of your characters. Here you can change equipment, look at equipment stats, and look at the skills you have threaded into your equipment. Skill- Selecting this lets you change the skills you have threaded to your equipment. There will be more about this in the Equipment and Skill Threading section. Party- This allows you to view your party’s full stats including HP, AP, core stats, equipment, skills, and experience. By using the Add XP option, you can distribute party XP to your characters here. Options- This command lets you adjust your game settings such as button configuration and sound. Quit- Selecting this allows you to make a temporary save if you suddenly need to stop playing. There are two types of saves in this game, and this is one of them. First off, a save you make at a Telecorder using a Save Token (a “hard” save) is just like a normal save you would make in other RPG’s. A temporary (or “soft”) save can be made just about anytime and is separate from your hard save file. However, when you load a soft save, it will be erased. Under the command box you’ll notice an L2 option labeled emergency Give Up. If you get into a bad situation an need to make an SOL Restore or SOL Restart, you should use this option to do so. By using this option as opposed to getting killed, you will retain ALL of your party XP and zenny. -------------------------------- B. Equipment and Skill Threading -------------------------------- In this game, each member of your party has three main pieces of equipment: a weapon, a piece of armor, and a shield. You can look at and change your equipment by selecting Equip on the main menu. You’ll notice that for each type of equipment there are three slots for each character. This is because each person can carry up to three pieces of each type of equipment. This is so that you can change equipment during battle. However, only one piece of each type of equipment can be equipped at once. Although you can buy equipment, it isn’t a wise thing to do in the early stages of the game when zenny is scarce. However, this is hardly a problem as the enemies you fight in normal battles frequently drop equipment. Once you find some equipment out in the field, it will be labeled with question marks, and you must carry it in your item inventory until you get it appraised. You can do appraisals with the Item Storage girl found near most shops and save points. The cost to appraise any piece of equipment is 100z. Once it is identified, it gets placed in your Weapon Locker. Now, you can either keep it in your locker, sell it, or take it out of the locker to carry with you. Weapons and shields can have skills equipped or “threaded” into them. You can do this using the Skill option on he main menu. First, select the weapon or shield you want to thread skills onto. Although a shield can only have one skill threaded onto it, each weapon can have up to nine skills. For weapons, there are three levels of skills, and you can thread up to three skills for each level depending on the weapon. You’ll notice that each skill slot can have one of three kinds of conditions: No lock over the button- This means you are free to thread any skill from your skill list you want to this slot. Locked button with a pre-threaded skill- This means that this slot already has a skill threaded to it. You cannot unequip these pre-threaded skills. Locked button with UNAVAILABLE in the skill slot- This indicates that the slot cannot have any skills threaded into it. Each weapon has it’s own unique configuration of available, pre-threaded, or unavailable skill slots. In most cases, better weapons have more available slots. And a weapon’s slot configuration does not change with its level. For example, a normal Dragon Blade will have the same configuration as a Dragon Blade+9. Note that you cannot thread skills to levels other than their own. For example, you can’t equip a level 1 skill to a level 2 slot. Likewise, you can’t thread weapon skills to shields and vise versa. So, how do you get skills? You can either find skills in treasure chests, steal them from enemies, or get them pre-threaded with a weapon. When you find a skill, it will be in the form of an item. To learn the skill, simply use the item. Take note that when you use a shield skill item, all of your characters learn it. Also keep in mind that some skills (for example Violet Death and Grand Smash) that are pre-threaded into weapons cannot be learned. Therefore, the only way to use these skills it to have that weapon equipped. ------- C. PETS ------- Dragon Quarter has a unique enemy encounter system called the Positive Encounter and Tactics System or PETS. In this system you can interact with enemies on the field to gain the advantage before the battle even begins. This is done through the employment of various traps that can be found or purchased throughout the game and the use of your characters’ special field actions. Traps can be used to do various things such as attract or repel enemies, damage enemies both in and out of battle, and induce status changes to enemies. You can scroll through your trap list on the field by using L1 or L2 or you can select your trap using the Trap command on the main menu. To set your trap, simply hit the Square button. If you want to throw your trap, hit the Square button and tap the analog stick in the direction you want to throw it in. Keep in mind that you can only have three traps on the field at once. You can recover your traps simply by picking them up like a normal item. If you start the battle with a trap on the field, you can use that trap during the battle by walking up to it and selecting Use from your L2 battle options. If you use a damaging trap during battle, every enemy within the trap’s damage radius (indicated by the red circle) will take damage. The simplest way to gain a huge advantage in every normal fight is to initiate the fight. To do this, all you have to do is hit the enemy with your weapon using the X button. The character who starts the battle will get an extra turn to attack before turn 1 even begins. You should try to spend all of your AP during your extra turn as AP left over from extra turns does not carry over to the next turn. Be cautious, however, because if the enemy attacks you on the field first, then it will get an extra turn. In some special cases, you might not even have to initiate a battle to defeat your enemy. Some extraordinarily weak enemies (an example would be Hychees) can be defeated just by hitting them with your weapon on the field. Other foes can be manipulated into situations where they can be killed outside of battle as well. Besides making battles easier, employing good strategy using PETS also has another reward. As you might know, you can gain party XP after every battle and find party XP on the field. Party XP accumulates just like money and can be distributed to your characters outside of battle to level them up. The amount of party XP you receive from a fight is determined by how well you conduct yourself both in and out of battle. It is based on many factors including how many enemies you defeated, how quickly you defeated them, how much damage you took, and how well you utilized PETS. -------------------- D. The Battle System -------------------- The battle system in this game incorporates some elements of real time fighting into a turn based system. When a battle is initiated, you will be fighting in the same exact environment that you were in on the field. This allows the environment to play a role in battle, unlike in most turn based RPG’s. Before starting what could be a tough battle, think about how your surroundings could give you an advantage. Just about everything you do in battle, from attacking to simply moving, revolves around your AP. You start each battle with a full AP gauge, and one AP gauge is restored after every turn. If your AP reaches zero after an attack your turn will automatically end. However, any AP that you don’t use during a turn will be carried over to the next turn. For example, if your total AP is 60, and you have 10 AP left after ending your turn, you will start the next turn with 70 AP (Note- AP from extra turns does not carry over). You can have a maximum of two full AP gauges, so if your AP is 60, the maximum amount of AP you can have at any time during battle is 120. Your freedom to move about the battlefield is controlled by your Movement rating and your AP. You consume a good amount of AP by walking on the battlefield, so in many cases, it’s best to let the enemy come to you. Just how much AP you use up through walking is determined by your Movement stat. The greater your Movement rating, the less AP you’ll use. Your Movement also determines your Movement Radius, which is the big green circle that limits how far you can walk from your location at the beginning of the turn. The greater your Movement rating is, the bigger that circle will be. Like moving, attacking also costs AP. As you probably already know, your attacks are divided into three levels. Level 1 attacks cost 10 AP each, level 2 attacks cost 20 AP, and level three attacks cost 30 AP. Obviously, you can only use a skill if you have enough AP. The most effective way to attack is to attack in combos. To do this, hold R2 when you want to add a new skill to your combo. Consider this skill arrangement for Ryu for the next few examples: Level 1 Skills: O- Side Slash X- Slice []- Rust Armor Level 2 Skills: O- Vert Slash X- Crimson Raid []- Discharge Level 3 Skills: O- Deathcleaver X- Roundsaber []- Deathbringer While attacking in a combo, you can only combo into skills with the same level or button assignment on the next level. So, if you were to use Slice you could combo into either Side Slash, Rust Armor, or Crimson Raid. However, if you have already used multiple skills on the same level, you can combo into any skill in the next level as long as it has the same button assignment as a skill you’ve used on the lower level. For example, if you use Side Slash then Slice, you could combo into either Rust Armor, Crimson Raid, or Vert Slash. Also, you can never combo backwards. So you can’t use Slice then Side Slash then go back to Slice again. Likewise, you can never combo to a lower level skill from a higher level one. For instance, you can’t use Vert Slash and then go down to Side Slash or any of the other level 1 skills. Also, whenever you add a new attack to a combo, you get a 10% damage increase bonus. Let’s say you started your combo with Discharge and then used Deathbringer. If Deathbringer normally did 100 damage, that 10% bonus would cause Deathbringer to do 110 damage. The more different skills you use in a combo, the higher your bonus damage percentage will get. The only thing that doesn’t cost AP in battle is the use of items. To use items, hold down R2 and hit the desired button (Note- You can also use this function to change your equipment and access the special battle abilities of that character). As long as your AP is above zero, you can use an unlimited amount of items in a single turn, given you have an unlimited amount of items in your inventory. You should take advantage of this luxury as items are the only way to heal your characters. Like in most RPG’s, you can also run away from battle. There are three ways to do this. One way you can flee from battle is to get near a door which you have opened on the field. You can then use the Retreat option on the L2 battle menu. You can also run away by using an item called the Escape. The last way to run form battle is to use the Penalty Retreat, which can be accessed by pressing Start. However, doing a Penalty Retreat will cause you to lose 10% of your zenny. ------------------------------ E. The Scenario Overlay System ------------------------------ Scenario Overlay, or SOL, is a unique system within Dragon Quarter that lets you start over either from the very beginning of the game or from your last save point while retaining some of the thing’s you’ve worked so hard for. These are the things you keep and don’t keep in any SOL situation: Things you keep: - Everything you have stored in the item and weapon lockers - All equipped and carried equipment - All the skills that you have learned - All of your zenny and party XP *if you use the Give Up option* - Half of your zenny and party XP *if you die* - Five Heal Kits, one Tonic, and one Save Token Things you don’t keep: - All the items in your inventory - Your Backpack pages except for the initial two you start with - Your levels - Your D-Counter Whenever you die (whether your D-Counter reaches 100% or your party is defeated) or select the Give Up option from the main menu, you’ll have two SOL options to choose from (Note- When you die, you’ll also get a Game Over option): SOL Restart- This option lets you restart the game from the very beginning. By doing this, your D-Counter is completely erased and you return to your initial levels. SOL Restore- This option allows you to return to the last Save Token or “hard” save. Your D-Counter will return to what it was when you made that save. Your characters’ levels will also return to what they were at that save. The SOL System serves many different purposes. First of all, by using SOL, you can unlock cut scenes that you wouldn’t normally be able to see. Since SOL also applies to starting over after completing the game, some scenes can only be unlocked until you have beaten the game at least once. Also, this system can be used to help you get out of emergency situations such as major problems with the D-Counter. However, its most useful purpose is gaining party XP, which is done in a cycle called a loop. To do this simply save using a Save Token and store anything in your inventory that you don’t want to lose in the item locker. Then, go out and gain as much party XP as you can using your dragon powers. Then use the Give Up option to SOL Restore. And remember to ALWAYS USE THE GIVE UP OPTION FROM THE MAIN MENU WHEN DOING ANY KIND OF SOL FUNCTION! -------------------- F. The Dragon System -------------------- First of all, if this section seems familiar it’s because I borrowed it from my own D-Counter Guide. Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, like all the Breath of Fire games before it, features its own unique dragon system. After a certain event early in the game, Ryu hosts the powers of a dragon named Odjn. From that point on, Ryu can transform into a dragon during battle. In dragon form, you wield incredible powers and are able to defeat just about any foe in the game with great ease. However, this power comes at a price. As you progress through the game and employ your dragon powers, your D-Counter will increase. What’s the D-Counter? It’s the icon with the little cube inside that ominously hangs in the upper right corner of your screen. After receiving your dragon powers, a counter appears under the cube. The counter starts at 0.00% and gradually goes up as you move through the game. It goes up rapidly whenever you use your dragon powers. When the counter reaches 100%, your entire party is automatically wiped out, and you can continue your game with the same Scenario Overlay options you get when your party is defeated normally. THERE IS NO WAY TO DECREASE THE D-COUNTER Learning to use your dragon powers sparingly and otherwise utilizing methods to keep the D-Counter from rising too quickly is vital in order to finish the game. Here is a list of Ryu’s dragon abilities and things that otherwise increase the D-counter: D-Dive ------ Description- Dragonized Form. Draws out the power of the Wyrm D-Counter cost- 1.00% Notes- Provides a great increase in stats and grants you immunity to all negative status effects and stat lowering spells. It costs no AP to move and your movement radius is infinite in dragon form. Weapon range is carried over into dragon form. It costs 2.00% on the D-Counter per turn to stay in dragon form. Vortex ------ Description- Target: Unit, Universal Damage, Base: Attack Power x2 D-Counter cost- 1.00% Notes- A Level 1 attack that can only be used in dragon form Hurricane --------- Description- Target: Spread, Universal Damage, Base: Attack Power x2 D-Counter cost- 1.25% per target Notes- A Level 2 attack that can only be used in dragon form Twister ------- Description- Target: Unit, Universal Damage, Base: Attack Power x3 D-Counter cost- 1.50% Notes- A Level 3 attack that can only be used in dragon form. It hits the enemy twice and has a hit-back effect. D-Charge -------- Description- Increase Attack Power for 1 turn D-Counter cost- 2.00% Notes- It can be used several times in one turn to increase your attack power tremendously. Three D-Charges will give you enough power to defeat nearly any enemy in the game with one Twister. D-Breath -------- Description- Target: Line, Universal Breath Attack D-Counter cost- Dependant on how long the breath is emitted Notes- The range of this attack is unlimited. The longer the O Button is held, the more damage the attack will do and the more it will count towards your D-Counter. This attack makes the D-Counter go up very rapidly. D-Dash ------ Description- Grants great speed and invincibility on the field D-Counter cost- Dependant on how long it is used Notes- This is Ryu’s special field skill and can be used by holding down the R2 Button. It is useful for getting past enemies when you do not want to fight. The most effective way to use it is to approach the enemy normally and then quickly tap the R2 Button to drive through the enemy. Doing this only adds hundredths of a percent to your D-Counter, whereas holding down R2 for several seconds increases the D-Counter very quickly. The D-Counter increases 0.01% every 9-20 steps outside of battle and every turn in battle (not including extra turns). ------------------------------ G. Special Note on PAL Version ------------------------------ This is a VERY important note for those of you playing the PAL version of this game. Some changes were implemented in the PAL version of the game creating a significant difference in gameplay between it and the NTSC version (this FAQ was written based on the NTSC version). And since the PAL manual is (as far as I know) identical to the NTSC manual, I'll explain the differences here. There is NO soft save (temporary save) option in the PAL version. Don't ask me why they removed it, I think it was a stupid idea too. As consolation, you begin the game with 9 Save Tokens instead of just 1, and I also believe you get 9 Save Tokens back whenever you use the SOL System. There may also be a difference in how many hard save slots you have available, but I'm unclear on this. ======================================================================= 4. THE WALKTHROUGH ======================================================================= Here’s the walkthrough that you can use if you ever get stuck somewhere in the game. I’ve divided the missions up into chapters to make things more convenient. At the beginning of each chapter, I will display a list of the treasure chest items and the number of Save Tokens in the mission, as well as level and D-Counter recommendations for the start of the mission. Keep in mind that the set patterns of enemies and item boxes that you face in each mission are chosen at random. Save for a few situations in the beginning of the game, the enemy patterns stay somewhat consistent with each other so there shouldn’t be too much difference in difficulty no matter what pattern you get. Also be aware that when I am making a reference to a direction (e.g. north, west, left, right) I am referring to that direction on your map in the lower right corner of the screen, or the big map you can access by hitting the O button on the field. I will also indicate when an SOL scene will appear, but I will not go into any detail about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Lift to Bio Corp ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Steal, Side Slash, Kick Save Tokens- 2 (Including the one you start with) Recommended level- 1 Recommended D-Counter- None After a brief SOL scene, the game’s introduction begins amidst a scene of the rangers Ryu and Bosch preparing for their day’s assignment. Once the scene is over and you gain control of Ryu, head out the door at the top of the screen. Follow this hallway and go up the stairs at the end. In this next room, head right and go through the door at the end of the hall (Note- If you talk to the people in this area you may get some helpful tips). Go talk to Bosch, who’s waiting for you outside captain Zeno’s office. You’ll then go inside and get a mission briefing from the captain. Your mission is to protect a lift holding some important cargo from the Bio Corp labs. Once your briefing is over, Bosch requests to speak with the captain alone. After a brief SOL scene, Bosch emerges from Zeno’s office and tells you to meet him up at the Liftport. Now, leave this room and head left. Go through the door ahead past the stairs to the left and there will be an SOL scene. Afterwards, climb down the stairs and head left. Go through the passageway on the left end of this area to reach a small town area called the Low Sector Borough. Explore a little bit and pay a visit to the item shop. You have 300z, so buy some Heal Kits. Once you’re done here, go back to the Low Sector Junction and go through the passageway to the right to reach Liftport. Meet up with Bosch, and you’ll discover that the transport has broken down, and you’re going to have to walk all the way to the lift. Bosch then joins your one man party. So now, climb down the small stair set and go through the big passageway to reach the path to the lift. ----------------------------- Lift to Bio Corp 1 (-1000.0m) ----------------------------- First, go through this hall picking up any items in the white boxes along the way and go through the door at the end. Head forward past the opening to the south and you should encounter your first Duke monsters. These guys aren’t too tough. If you picked up some Fresh Meat from the previous hall, use it to distract the Dukes while Bosch kicks them to initiate the fight. With most of the enemies in this first mission, you’re going to want to divide up their groups and fight them one at a time. In battle, have Bosch use Snakebite and then combo up into Lion Smash to perform his powerful Twin Wake skill. Ryu should stick to using Deathbringer for now. Once you’ve defeated all the enemies in your way, continue up the path and go inside the small room to the north to find a yellow box. Take the item inside of it and head back to the beginning of this room. Go through the southern opening and you may encounter some little creatures with big eyes called Nuggets. You shouldn’t have any trouble with Nuggets as they are considerably weak. Follow this path going west and head through the door at the end. Now, you’ll find yourself on a catwalk with a small troop of Nuggets and maybe a Duke roaming around in the middle of it. Try to use Fresh Meat to draw them away for the group one at a time to make the fighting easier. Again, Ryu should use Deathbringer and Bosch should attack with his Twin Wake combo. If you’re having trouble starting the battle with Bosch’s kick, switch over to Ryu and have him initiate the fights with his sword. After killing all the genics on the catwalk, a key will appear. Throughout the missions in this game, treasure keys will appear after defeating certain enemies. You can use these keys to unlock big blue chests which usually contain skills, equipment, or even Backpack pages. So pick up the key and continue into the next room. Walk west, defeating any genics that may be in your way, and open up the blue chest at the end of the path to get Steal, a shield skill that lets you steal items when enemies attack you. Thread it to your shields and go through the opening just to the north to find a band of duke genics. Among them is the Duke Leader, who is considerably formidable. If you can fight the leader by himself, he’s much easier to handle. Without any other monsters around, the Duke Leader will attack you less often and try to run away. So chip away at him while he’s trying to flee. Once the leader’s dead, the remaining dukes should be divided and conquered without much difficulty. Now, head east on the northern side of this area and go through the doorway at the east end of the room. Take this catwalk east into the next room and pick up the Save Token in the yellow box there. Head back across the catwalk into the room you were in before. Pick up any items in here and then continue through the door at the northwest end of the room. In this small room you’ll find an elevator and a girl wielding a silly green puppet. Talk to her to get some good advice and then ride the elevator down (Note- If this is your first time playing the game, make sure you talk to that girl whenever you see her for helpful advice). ----------------------------- Lift to Bio Corp 2 (-1020.0m) ----------------------------- After an SOL scene, leave the elevator room and pass through the short hallway. In order to get the treasure key in this room, you’ll either have to fight a Deathcow or a Goo Element depending on the enemy pattern you got. You could easily continue without fighting anything, but then you would miss out on a really good skill for Ryu. If you see a really big monster trying to charge you when you enter this area, it means you have to fight a Deathcow. Check your inventory before starting a fight with this guy, because he’s extremely tough. If you don’t have very many Heal Kits, you may want to go back to town and buy some before taking on the Deathcow. If you don’t have any money to buy Heal Kits, continue on with the mission until you find some. When fighting it, stick to your most powerful combos like Twin Wake for Bosch and Deathbringer for Ryu. Try building AP for a turn and then do hit and run attacks using the platform you start on to keep yourself out of the Deathcow’s reach while you’re building AP. Fighting the Goo Element is much easier, although you’ll have to look carefully in the area around the chest to find it. Just keep Ryu and Bosch as far apart as possible to avoid mass casualties from its Expand attack. Once you’ve defeated either the Deathcow or the Goo Element, the treasure key will appear, allowing you to get Ryu’s Side Slash skill from the blue chest. Continue south through the next door once you’re done in there. Run south down this catwalk and through the next door. Keep heading south and go through the door at the end of the path. Pass through this small hallway and ride the elevator in the small room to the north. ----------------------------- Lift to Bio Corp 3 (-1040.0m) ----------------------------- Exit the elevator shaft to find yourself in a room flooded with Lantern and Lil Lantern Bats. The easiest way to fight these bats is to fight them one at a time. However you can get great amounts of party XP by fighting them in large groups. You can get several bats into a nice tight group simply by tossing some meat into their midst. If you do this, keep Ryu and Bosch a good distance apart from each other as their Flare spell can hit both of your characters at once if they’re close together. Position Ryu so that he can hit as many bats as possible with Side Slash. Combo up from Side Slash into Vert Slash and you can do Ryu’s special spread combo X Blade. Also, stick Bosch in a position where he can nail multiple targets with his Fang attack. Once you’ve had enough bat action, continue through the door to the south. Pass through the next two small rooms and head south all the way to a dead end and a yellow box. Pick up the item inside, go back, and head over to the east side of this room. Make sure to use your camera angles to check around the corners and on the ceiling around here, because there are some dukes lurking around in the darkness as well as some Hychees that drop from the ceiling. Hychees are little worms that look like capsules. Not only can these weaklings be defeated on the field with a single hit, but they always drop a Heal Kit after they die. So, convert the Hychees into Heal Kits and deal with any duke genics that get in your way around here. When you’re ready to move on, exit this room through the doorway to the south. You will emerge in a small hallway inhabited by more duke genics with two automatic doors leading to catwalks along the southern side. Once again, take care of any dukes that get in your way and go through the automatic door at the far end of the hall. Pick up the item in the yellow box there and head over to the adjacent catwalk. Go through the door at the end of the catwalk to emerge inside your first danger room. Danger rooms, which you will find frequently throughout the game, are rooms that get locked up once you enter them. The only way to get out of a danger room is to defeat all the enemies inside. If you venture into the darkness on the east side of the danger room, you’ll run into a fairly large pack of dukes with a Duke Leader among them. Fight them the same way you’ve fought them before. Remember that divide and conquer is always the key for easier fights, but you get more party XP by taking on several monsters at once. After you kill all the dukes in this hall, head over to the western side of the room. Here, you’ll either find more dukes, or you may run into a family of Nuggets with a big Mama Nugget among them. Unlike the smaller Nuggets, the Mama Nugget is a formidable foe. Just stay spread out as her Jolt spell can hit both Ryu and Bosch at once if they’re too close together. Once again, your best bet attacks are Bosch’s Twin Wake and Ryu’s Deathbringer. Once you’ve cleared the room of all it’s enemies, the treasure key will appear. Pick it up and get Ryu’s Kick skill from the chest. Continue through the next door. Pass through the next two rooms and then head south down the hall with all the automatic doors. Take the elevator at the end of the hall up. ------------------------- Approach South (-1020.0m) ------------------------- Head north up the next hall and open the next door. Ryu then has a vision of an old dragon calling out to him, telling him to go to the sky. After Ryu comes to his senses and you regain control, continue into the next room and take the path up to discover the corpse of a huge dragon. Once that’s over, head left and go through the next door. Pass through the next hallway and go up the elevator at the end. ---------------------------- Genic Accumulator (-1000.0m) ---------------------------- Use the Telecorder in this next hall if you need to and then continue into the next room. Go through the door at the very end of this next hall and pick up all the items in the side area there. Go back into the previous hall on go through the automatic door just to the right. Pass through this small room into a room full of caged up genics. There are more Hychees in this area so hunt them down and reap their Heal Kits. There’s also an Odd Hychee in this room. Although this bigger version of the Hychee cannot be defeated outside of battle, you should have no problem killing it anyway. However, when you defeat these guys they will drop a very useful Mega Aid Kit every time (Unless you use fire magic on them, in which case they will drop an even better Trauma Kit). After you’re finished here, continue through the northern door. Head through the automatic door in the northeast corner of this small room to emerge in another room cluttered with genic cages. Some of the Nuggets, including a Mama Nugget, may be running around loose in this room. Fight them if you wish or just avoid them. Continue through the door to the southeast and run down this hall. There’s an Identification girl hanging out at the end of the hall, so if there’s any equipment in your inventory that needs to be identified, do so now. Go through the door at the end of the hall to arrive at the lift just in time for departure. While you’re taking it easy on the lift, Bosch tells Ryu about his aspirations of becoming a regent, one of the top class supreme rulers over society. But just as Bosch asks Ryu for his scores, a Trinity soldier riding a war genic appears on the adjacent tracks and begins attacking the lift. And just when you think they’ve given up, the rebel fires at you with a big rocket launcher, shattering the lift to pieces. This sends Ryu falling into the abyss below. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Old Waste Shaft ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Solid Shell+1, Weaken, G-Iceblast, There! Save Tokens- 2 Recommended level- 7 Recommended D-Counter- None After his fall, Ryu has yet another vision of the ancient dragon. Following a brief SOL scene, Ryu gets up amongst the rubble from the destroyed lift. Once you regain control, head right to find a Telecorder and an item shop girl. If you’re somehow short on Heal Kits, make sure that you buy some now. I’d also suggest using a Save Token to record your game at the Telecorder. When you’re ready to continue, go through the door there. ----------------------------- Old Waste Shaft 2F (-1200.0m) ----------------------------- Head west through this first room and through the automatic door (Also take note of the blue chest in here). Go through the next door to enter a large area full of junk piles. Upon his arrival, Ryu sees the war genic that the Trinity soldier was riding carrying a poor little girl. Suddenly, something sparks within Ryu causing him attack the monster in a quick, fiery rage. After Ryu recovers the girl, the enraged genic comes up behind him and your first boss battle will begin. Boss fight: Cyclops HP: ~450 XP- 70 Items- Ogre Slice Recommended level- 7 Notes- For your first actual boss, this guy really isn’t that hard. The Cyclops has a very poor Movement rating, and he uses Spiritcharge to raise his attack power if he’s not close enough to attack you. His attacks can do a considerable amount of damage to you, but if you have a good amount of Heal Kits with you, you should have nothing to worry about. In fact, if you use this guy’s poor movement to your advantage, he might not even get a chance to touch you. During your first turn, take a few steps back away from the Cyclops and then end your turn. Watch the Cyclops’s Movement radius during his turn to see just how far he can walk. He’ll make his way towards you but won’t be able to get into attacking range. On your next turn, hit him with a Deathbringer and then run away far enough so that he won’t be able to reach you during his next turn. If you can keep up this hit and run tactic, you will beat him slowly but surely, without taking any damage. After the fight, the little girl wakes up, and Ryu assures her that everything’s alright. Then he asks her what her name is, and she can barely even blurt out, “Nina”. After a touching moment, Nina joints your one man band. She starts at level 1, so it might be a good idea to use some of your party XP on her to get her on par with Ryu. You’ll regain control after an SOL scene. Once you do, you’ll be informed that you can now use Ryu’s D-Dash ability. For right now, you can use D-Dash as much as you like with no penalty towards you. Take advantage of this luxury now, as it won’t be around for long. Exit this room through the door in the northwest corner of the room. In this hall, you may see some Worker Ants standing around a red box containing a Save Token or some spider-like creatures roaming around. You can beat the ants without much difficulty, but the Bind Spiders are a little tougher (Note- Be aware that throughout this mission you will find Bind Spiders on the ceiling, so be sure to look up before blindly waltzing into a new area). You’re going to want to utilize Nina’s G-Flare magic trap against these guys. A simple, but effective, way to do this is to just set a G-Flare between the spider and your party and then just let it walk right into it. If you try to duke it out at close range with all the spiders you fight, you’ll find yourself running out of Heal Kits fast. So just let Nina’s G-Flare do the work for you while Ryu does hit and run attacks. After you defeat the Worker Ants, the treasure key for the blue chest you saw back in the room before the Cyclops appears. If you want to, hike back to the first room and pick up the unidentified Solid Shell+1 from the chest. Return to the room where you got the key and head west across the hall, looking out for those pesky Bind Spiders on the ceiling (Note- You can use D-Dash to avoid being ambushed by sneak attacking spiders). Go inside the room at the west end of the hall and pick up all the items from the white boxes inside. Return to the previous room and pass through the automatic door to the south. Exit this room through the door to the southwest to emerge in a long “L” shaped hallway. Round the bend of the hall to find some more Bind Spiders hanging from the ceiling. You’ll now have an even greater advantage using G-Flare because this hallway is so narrow. However, it is still a wise idea to fight them one at a time. Once you’re done with the spiders, go through the door at the end of the hallway and climb up the ladder there. ----------------------------- Old Waste Shaft 3F (-1190.0m) ----------------------------- Leave this small room and pass through the “L” shaped hallway. Go through the automatic door to the northeast and proceed through this hall. Get any items in this small room and then return to the room with the two automatic doors. Head through the door to the southeast and you’ll be ambushed by the Trinity soldier who attacked the lift. She demands that you hand Nina over to her. But once she sees that Nina refuses to leave Ryu, she proposes that you cooperate for now, and she joins your party (adding a page to your item list, which should be quite a relief). You’ll then see a scene of Bosch reporting back to captain Zeno back at the Ranger HQ. Bosch then gets strict orders to eliminate the cargo you were guarding. After regaining control, continue through the door to the east. In this room, you’ll find a Goo Element in the far corner maybe amongst a few white boxes. Fight it if you wish, then continue through the automatic door to the northeast. Pass through this short hallway to emerge in a room containing two or three Hermit monsters. To initiate a battle with them, walk close enough to them to get them to pop out of their shell, then attack them. Since they can only be harmed by magic, the best way to kill them is to have Nina set a G-Flare behind the Hermit, and then have Lin use her Outta My Way skill to knock it into the trap. If you’re lucky, one of the Hermits will drop Nina’s Jolt spell. Once you’re done fighting the Hermits, head through the next door and climb up the ladder. ----------------------------- Old Waste Shaft 4F (-1180.0m) ----------------------------- Exit this small room and you’ll immediately emerge inside a danger room full of Bind Spiders. This room is divided into two parts by a wall with a small doorway. Hold down R2 and use D-Dash to lure all the spiders into one side of the wall. You can even use Fresh Meat to do this if you need to. Now that all the spiders are on the other side of the room, stand in the doorway and initiate a battle whenever one of them gets close. This way, you can just stick G-Flares in the doorway and use Lin’s Outta My Way skill to keep the spiders out of your side of the room. While Nina repeatedly sets up G-Flares to block and damage the spiders, have Ryu build AP and do hit and run attacks every other turn. Once you’ve cleared the danger room, there will be an SOL scene. After it’s over, continue through the door to the northeast and pass through the next hall. In here you’ll find little bug-like creatures called Baby Rustphages. Beat them during your extra turn, because they’re quick and like to do hit and run attacks. On your map you’ll notice a door with a lock on it in the middle of this room. This happens to be your first D-Ratio door, so ignore it if this is your first time through the game, and check it out if you’ve already beaten the game once before. ____________ \ D-Ratio Area \______________________________________________ \ When you enter this room, you’ll probably get charged by | Skull Diggers, who are incredibly similar to the Skeletons | you fought in Power One. However, you only have to defeat a | Lesser Karon to get rid of all these guys. You’ll find the | Lesser Karon lurking around on the west side of the room. | Use D-Dash to ward off any Skull Diggers as you make your | way over there. Although it’s just a Lesser Karon, still | finish it quickly before it gets a chance to nail you with | Pre-Primus. Once you kill it, all the Skull Diggers will | vanish, and the treasure will materialize, allowing you to | pick up Weaken from the chest. | ____________________________________________________________/ Exit this room through the door to the west and walk through this hall, fighting any enemies that may be hanging round. When you reach the southwest area you’ll encounter more Bind Spiders. Once again, kill them off using G-Flare tactics. Head west in this area and then proceed through the door to the north. Pass through the junk filled room and you’ll find some ants guarding a red box. Kill them off and take the item from the red box. Continue east down the hall. Go through the door at the end of the hall to emerge in a large room. Exit through the eastern door and ascend the ladder there. ----------------------------- Old Waste Shaft 5F (-1170.0m) ----------------------------- Head east out into the bigger hall and then walk north. Watch the ceiling in this area, not for Bind Spiders, but for some helpful Hychees. At the very north end of the room there is another D-Ratio door as well as a couple dead end halls yielding an item box or two. However, there’s also a powerful DeVolve genic hanging around there as well. The DeVolve will charge at you very quickly if you get too close, so be prepared. The best way to fight it is to use Lin’s Outta My Way skill to keep the DeVolve at bay while Nina sets G-Flares in its path and Ryu carries out hit and run attacks. Again, if this is your first time through the game, just ignore the D-Ratio door. ____________ \ D-Ratio Area \______________________________________________ \ Amidst the junk piles to the north, you’ll find a large | group of Soldier Ants. Among them is a much bigger Boss | Ant. You can either try to divide up the group to make the | fighting easier, or go for big party XP by bunching them up | into a tight group using Fresh Meat and killing them as | quickly as you can with spread attacks. Once you’ve taken | down the Boss Ant, the treasure key will appear. Get | G-Iceblast from the chest at the south end of the room and | then go through the door to the northeast. Pass through the | short hall and then go through the door to the south. | | You’ll find a mixed group of Soldier and Worker Ants | standing around in this area. Fight them as you will, you | should know how to deal with them. Go through the door at | the west end of this area and get the item in the red box | there. Go back and exit this area through the D-Ratio door | to the south. | ____________________________________________________________/ Continue by taking the southernmost hall on the east side of the room. Go through the door there and you’ll find an Odd Hychee hanging from the ceiling. Kill it and reap its Mega Aid Kit. Continue across the hall and go through the door at the end of the hall. Pass through this big room and climb up the ladder inside the small room to the north. ----------------------------- Old Waste Shaft 6F (-1160.0m) ----------------------------- Run through the junk filled room ahead and then go through the door to the left once you emerge in the bigger hall (Note- You may find another Hermit in the junk filled hall. If you missed out on getting Jolt from the previous Hermits, you may want to consider fighting this one). Look around this room for a dead DeVolve body. Inspect it and a bunch of Baby Rustphages will scatter out of the body, creating a danger room. Luckily, these guys aren’t very tough. Fight them the same way you have fought them before. After you beat the danger room, pick up the treasure key that appears and go through the door to the north. Run through this small hallway and pick up Lin’s There! skill from the chest. Now, head back to the big hall before the danger room. Walk east and you may encounter some more Hermits. Again, if you haven’t gotten Jolt yet, I highly suggest you fight them. You may also find another DeVolve at the east end of the room. Use the same G-Flare tactics on it that you used on previous DeVolves. If there wasn’t one there, go through the door at the east end of the room to find one standing inside a junk filled room. To beat this DeVolve easily, have Lin initiate the battle from far away and, once again, use her hit-back skill to keep it at a safe distance while Nina sets up G-Flares in front of it. Pick up any items there are in here and return to the previous room. Head through the remaining door on the west side of the room to emerge in a large area. Grab any items scattered about in here. Now, you can either continue through the door at the north end of the room, or you can fight all the Worker Ants in the northern area. If you defeat all the Worker Ants, another danger room will initiate. This time you have to do battle with a Boss Ant, who is quite a tough foe. If you have any damaging traps, such as Dynamite or Bombs, use them to damage the Boss Ant as much as you can before you initiate the battle. As you’ll soon find out, the Boss Ant prefers to pound you with powerful long range attacks rather than fight in close. So, have Ryu stay close to the Boss Ant and pester it with his sword attacks. Lin and Nina should strike from afar, standing on opposite sides of the Boss Ant at all times to avoid mass casualties from its spread attacks. Be aware that it can also cast Sleep, which is another reason you should keep your party as spread out as possible. When the Boss has gone to ant heaven, go through the door at the north end of the room. Pick up the Save Token from the box in this room and proceed through the next door. After an SOL scene, you will arrive in the End Sector Borough. ----------------------------- End Sector Borough (-1160.0m) ----------------------------- You’ll find everything you need to prepare yourself for the next mission in this lonely town. Have all of the equipment you found in the Old Waste Shaft identified and be sure to sell the equipment you don’t want. If you have a good amount of zenny in your pocket, you may want to consider buying some better equipment from the local weapon shop, but still make getting all the healing items you need your first priority. Also be sure to make a save at the Telecorder in the lower section of town. Once you’re fully prepared to go, head through the big entranceway near the Identification girl. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Lift: Low Sector ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Joltball, Blow up!, Rust Armor, Backpack Save Tokens- 2 Recommended level- 9 Recommended D-Counter- 2-6% As your group is walking through the End Sector lift port, Bosch shows up, much to your surprise. It turns out that he has come to take care of the cargo you were guarding. Unfortunately, that cargo is Nina! Instead of answering Ryu’s inquiries as to what’s going on, Bosch loses his patience and impales Ryu right through the knee with his Beast Blade. Just as Bosch is about to go after Nina, Ryu struggles against him once again, only to be stabbed right through the neck this time. This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Ryu suddenly has another fiery awakening which unleashes the power of the Wyrm! Boss fight: Bosch and the Rangers HP: Bosch- 360, Battler and Gunner Grunt- 160 each XP- 600 Items- Fang, 6000z, 300z, Ranger Shell+1, 300z, N/A Recommended level- 9 Notes- After a cool transformation sequence, Bosch and his two lackeys attempt to attack Ryu in his new form, but they fail miserably. With Ryu in his dragon state you can crush Bosch like an empty beer can. Although you may be tempted to drag out the fight so that you can steal some of those items, keep in mind that YOUR D-COUNTER HAS BEGUN TICKING. The longer you wait to end this fight, the more you’ll pay via your D-Counter. If you really want some of that stuff (especially the 6000z), you can make a hard save back at the Telecorder in the End Sector Borough and turn this fight into a money loop. Otherwise, you’ll want to end this fight in one turn. First have Nina and Lin inflict as much damage as they can to the two ranger grunts. Then when Ryu gets his turn, have him smack Bosch with a Twister, which should be enough to take him down, and then have him use Vortex on each of the grunts. After the battle, Ryu passes out and later awakens with Nina hovering over him with concern. He then asks Lin why Trinity wants Nina so badly. She, however is more curious about that power he just awakened. That aside, Lin says that you can probably find out more about Nina by going to the Bio Corp laboratory. To get there you have to get back to Low Sector. ----------------------------- Lift: Low Sector 1 (-1140.0m) ----------------------------- This is a fairly small area so take some time to get acquainted with it. Pick up any items that may be lying around and head down to the area to the southwest. There you’ll find a Telecorder, and to the west of the Telecorder you’ll find an item shop and a yellow box containing a Save Token. Pick it up and buy some more healing items if you happen to be low on them. When you’re ready to go, walk back north and go down the stairs in the northeast corner of this room. ----------------------------- Lift: End Sector 1 (-1150.0m) ----------------------------- Go through the door ahead of you and take this path south to another door. Go through it and pick up the item in the yellow box in this small area. Now, return to Lift: Low Sector 1 and this time go down the stairs in the northwest corner of the room. Head through the first door and through this short hall to emerge in a room crawling with Rustphages. These guys are just like the baby ones that you fought in the Old Waste Shaft except they’re quite a bit tougher. However, similar tactics work well here. If you have Lin initiate the battle from a distance while standing on the white platform, you can set some G-Flares in front of the small stair set to block the Rustphages while you pluck away at a distance. Just don’t expect to go unscathed, as Rustphages have very high speed and movement. Once you’re done with those guys, continue through the door to the south. Pass through this hallway going east to emerge on a catwalk running parallel to another catwalk to the south. You’ll notice that there are tons of Lil Lantern and Lantern Bats swarming the adjacent catwalk. Head east across the catwalk and then south in the next area. Go through the automatic door to the west to reach the other catwalk (Note- If you follow this catwalk west you can get back to End Sector Borough). In order to get the treasure key for this area, you’ll have to take down all the bats. By now you should be confident enough to take on large groups of these bats for some big party XP. Use Fresh Meat to bunch all the bats up into a tight group and then pound them with spread attacks. Ryu’s X Blade and Nina’s Jolt work especially well. Once you’ve killed all the bats, pick up the treasure key that appears. Also make sure you pick up all the Dynamite and Bombs the bats dropped. Head east from the southern catwalk and go through the door there. In here you’ll find the blue treasure chest, but you have to get by a Deathcow and a Beak (lesser Deathcow) to reach it. First, toss some meat their way, and while they’re distracted, pelt them with all the explosive traps you have. The more damage you can cause before the actual fight begins, the easier it will be. Once you initiate the battle, have Ryu use Deathbringer while Nina and Lin attack from a distance. Both of these guys are weak against electric attacks, so Nina’s Jolt spell is quite effective here. Get Joltball from the chest once you’ve defeated them. Then, return to Lift: Low Sector 1 once again and proceed to Lift: Low Sector 2 via the stairs in the southeast corner of the room. ----------------------------- Lift: Low Sector 2 (-1130.0m) ----------------------------- Open up the first door in front of you and pass through this short hall. In this area, you’ll find a group of two Duke Lancers and two Duke Hunters roaming around on a white platform on the east side of the room. You’ll also notice that there’s a blue treasure chest in the same area. Walk over and stand near the edge of the platform to get the dukes’ attention. When they all start charging you at once and bunch up, initiate the battle. Since they’re up on that platform, the Duke Lancers won’t even be able to touch you if you keep your distance from the edge of the platform. That only leaves you to deal with the long range onslaught of the Duke Hunters, and that’s not even much to worry about. Have Ryu stand away from the platform to build AP while Lin and Nina carry out a long range assault of their own. After building up some AP, Ryu should carry out a hit and run attack, using X Blade on them as many times as he can afford to (just make sure you leave him with enough AP to get away from the platform). Once you defeat them all, the treasure key will appear on the platform. Don’t worry about it for now and exit this room through the door to the south. In this room, you’ll find more Duke Hunters and Lancers, and perhaps even some Duke Magi. Have Nina keep the Lancers away with G-Flare while Ryu takes out the Hunters at close range. The Duke Magi aren’t really anything special. Just don’t bunch up, because they use Flare. Once you’re done here, continue through the door on the east side of the room. Right when you enter this next room you’ll encounter a little guy called a Trickster. These guys aren’t too powerful. Just stay spread out, because he likes to use Side Slash. Venture further into this room and, sooner or later, you're bound to run into a giant Duke Battler. Not only does the Duke Battler deal a great amount of damage with its attacks, it also has a special armor that only breaks after several physical or shot attacks. Until then, its defense is quite high, not to mention it also counterattacks at close range. To beat this guy without taking too many casualties, you’re going to want to use more G-Flare tactics. Have Lin initiate the battle from a great distance and begin hitting the Duke Battler with level 1 attacks. Also be sure to save some AP to use to back up a little. Then, Nina should set up G-Flares in front of the Duke Battler while Ryu stays back building AP and Lin keeps shooting away at long range. You should also have the party back up every once in a while to keep it from getting too close to you. Once you’ve cracked the Duke Battler’s armor, have Ryu run in and use Deathbringer as many times as he can in one combo while Nina and Lin back him up with long range attacking. Once you’ve defeated the Duke Battler, head through the door at the northeast end of the room. Pass through this next hallway to emerge on the platform where the blue chest is. If you’ve already defeated the four dukes in this area, pick up the treasure key and open the chest to get Blow up!, a very useful skill for Lin. Now, return to the room where you fought the Duke Battler and continue through the door to the southeast. ----------------------------- Lift: Low Sector 3 (-1120.0m) ----------------------------- Proceed through this next hallway going south to emerge in a room with spider genics hanging from the ceiling. Among a few Bind Spiders there are also some Black Widows which like to induce poison on your party. Fortunately, the same G-Flare tactics that are effective against the Bind Spiders also work against these guys. After you’re done dealing with the spiders, go inside the little sub-room in the southwest portion of the room to find a Goo Element hanging around. Remember that magic is most effective against it. Once the Goo Element has been defeated, the treasure key will appear. Pick it up and take either of the two catwalks going south into the next room (However, there are one or two Black Widows hanging on the ceiling above the west catwalk). Grab Ryu’s Rust Armor skill from the chest at the east end of the room and then descend the stairs to the west. ----------------------------- Lift: Low Sector 4 (-1130.0m) ----------------------------- Follow this next path around to a door in the northeast corner of the room. Go through it and head left to reach a big group of Hychees on the ground. Turn them all into Heal Kits and cross over to the north side of the room. Head right and you’ll find an Odd Hychee and another Duke Battler. You’ll want to defeat this Duke Battler the same way you beat the last one. Break its armor from long range and then have Ryu run in and quickly finish it with a close range assault. Remember to use Nina’s G-Flare to help block him. After you’re done fighting them, continue through the door head. You’ll probably encounter a few enemies in this hallway such as Duke Lancers and another Odd Hychee. Fight them off and continue through the next door to enter a danger room. In here you’ll have to fight two Duke Battlers along with a few Duke Magi and Lancers. You’ll want to hunt down the lesser dukes before taking on the Duke Battlers to make things easier. If you accidentally initiate a fight with a Battler and a lesser duke at the same time, it’s really not too much of a problem. However, fighting two Battlers at once is a BIG problem. Avoid this situation at all costs. Once you’re up against the Battlers, use the same strategy as before. Just keep the Battler out of striking distance by using G-Flare and having the party back up ever once in a while. Have Lin break its armor from a distance and then have Ryu run in and finish it off. After you clear the danger room, pick up the Save Token in the yellow box in this room and also retrieve the treasure key that appears. Open up the treasure chest to get a Backpack, which will add a page to your item inventory. Then, ride the elevator to the south. ----------------------------- Low Sector Borough (-1000.0m) ----------------------------- After a scene with Bosch and Zeno at the Ranger HQ, you see another scene involving an assembly of the regents. It seems that even the most revered members of society have cause for concern over this situation. Once all that is over, you’ll arrive in the Low Sector Borough, the little town near the Ranger HQ. Get reacquainted with the place and make sure to buy some more healing items and some Antidotes before you continue. When you’re ready to move on, go down the stairs near the item shop. ---------------------------- Corp Lab Entrance (-1010.0m) ---------------------------- First, check out the area to the southwest to find two small rooms. The first one contains some items while the other contains... a fairy!? When you choose to open this door you’ll meet a fairy who thanks you for releasing her by letting you build an underground colony. Choose to go to the colony and then learn all about it in the Information topics (you can also learn more about it in the Fairy Colony section). Once that’s over, go through the east door in this area and take this path to a locked door. Examine the door and then return to Low Sector Borough to find that it’s been flooded with nerve gas. It turns out that three rangers have ambushed you and are using nerve gas to weaken you. So get ready to fight the rangers. Boss fight: Ranger Goons HP: Battler Lieut- 600, Gunner Lieut- 500, Mage Lieut- 520 XP- 1050 Items- Ranger Edge+2, 500z, Handgun+1, 800z, Magic Wand+1, 500z Recommended level- 12 Notes- This can be a tough fight, but you should be able to handle it without using your D-Dive. Because of the nerve gas they released, your party will be induced with poison every round. You can heal the poison during the fight if you wish, but make sure to save at least three Antidotes to use for after the fight. The Mage Lieut is the guy you want to worry about the most, because not only are his attacks the most damaging, he also heals his comrades with items. Once you defeat him, the fight is much easier. No specific element is particularly effective here, so have Nina attack with any spell she’s got while keeping a good distance form the action. If she isn’t making any headway with her attack spells, she should set down G-Flares. After building some AP, Ryu should run in and start attacking the Mage. If the other goons are standing close to the Mage, Ryu should use X Blade to get them caught up in the attack as well. Have Lin use Blow up! from a distance. This should hit all three of them for a good amount of damage. Just remember to keep everyone’s HP above 100 at all times to avoid instant death from the Mage’s Hundredgears spell. Also make sure to keep your party spread out as the Mage’s Iceblast can strike in a line and the Gunner likes to use Spread. Once you’ve taken down the Mage, work on the Battler, as he can deal out much more damage than the Gunner. After he’s dead, you should have no problem taking down the Gunner. When the fight is over, the remaining ranger will turn up the gas, bringing the pollution to a dangerously high level. After Ryu tells Lin and Nina to move to higher ground, he attempts to turn off the gas but faints in the process. Then, Nina runs down to try to help him. When Ryu won’t wake up, a strange blue light envelopes them and the gas is dispersed. Once Ryu wakes up and you regain control, heal any poison you have and pick up the Bio Corp ID card near the empty gas tank. Then, head back to the Corp Lab Entrance. Go through the door to the east and there will be an SOL scene. Return to the door that was locked before and go through it. Follow this path and you’ll end up in an area with an item and weapon shop, as well as an Identification girl and a Telecorder. Take care of any business here and continue through the big door in this area. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Corp Lab ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- G-Inferno, Roundsaber, Blunt, Backpack Save Tokens- 1 Recommended level- 13 Recommended D-Counter- 10-15% After an SOL scene, Lin returns after scouting the area ahead. The answers to your questions lie at the top of the Bio Corp complex, so it’s time to get going. ---------------------- Corp Lab 1F (-1010.0m) ---------------------- First, head east and go through the door there. Head through any of the two automatic doors in this next hall and pick up the items inside this small room. Go back out into the hall to find a D-Ratio door to the south leading to quite a large side area. If this is your first play through, then just skip past it. ____________ \ D-Ratio Area \______________________________________________ \ Ride down the elevator and leave this small room. In this | hallway you’ll find several Goo Plasma, Ruby, and Sapphire | hanging from the ceiling. Try to throw some Fresh Meat on | the ground under them and then walk towards them. When they | drop from the ceiling, they’ll go for the meat, and then | you can attack them. Remember to use Nina’s spells to | exploit their elemental weaknesses while fighting them. | When you’re done with them, go inside the room to the west | via one of the two automatic doors. In here, you’ll run | into a greater version of the Hychee called the Bon | Appetits. Have Nina initiate the battle and kill them | easily with her spells. You also may run into a single Goo | hanging from the ceiling in here so watch out for it. | | Next, head through the door to the west and continue west | into a room containing some Odd Hychees and a few Bon | Appetits. Once again, eliminate them with Nina’s magic and | pick up the healing items they drop. Then, go back to the | previous room and through the southern door. There are more | Goos in this area. Defeat them all (including any that are | hanging out near the chest in the small room to the | southeast), and the treasure key will appear back in the | room to the north. Pick it up, return to the small room to | the southeast, and get G-Inferno from the chest. Return to | the outermost hallway (where all the Goos were on the | ceiling before) and head west along the north end of the | hall. Take this path all the way to an elevator and ride | it down. | | Pass through the next hallway to emerge in a room with a | few Kanaphages and a big group of Rafflesia in the | southeast corner of the room. Have Lin get up close to the | Kanaphages and use Shatter! so that you can defeat them in | one hit and get 10000z off each one! If you want to earn | some extra party XP, use Nina’s magic to charge up the | Rafflesia and then have Ryu and Lin go in for the kill. | | Once you’re done here, continue through the northeast door | and pass through this hallway going south. This room | contains two sleeping machines called Armstrongs. Not only | do they have really high defense, but they also | counterattack if you attack them up close. For some reason, | Lin’s attacks seem extremely ineffective against these guys | so have Ryu stick to his strongest combos while Nina uses | spells from a distance. After beating those two, head | through the door to the west. Pass through this tiny area | to enter a room with two smaller rooms alongside of it. | Pick up the items in the west area and then pay a visit to | the southern room. Examine the doll on the table and you’ll | see an SOL scene. Inspect the doll again after the scene is | over to receive the Buki, a secret weapon for Nina. | ____________________________________________________________/ From here, head back to where you started from and go through the door to the west. Pick up all the items in the side room along the path and then ride the elevator at the end. ---------------------- Corp Lab 2F (-1000.0m) ---------------------- Leave the elevator room and pass through this next hall. Go through the automatic door just to the south and pick up any items in this small room. Continue through the door to the south to emerge in a large area with two catwalks running parallel. As you’re walking across this catwalk, you may encounter bug-like genics called Buzzes. These guys are especially vulnerable to shot attacks, so use Lin to defeat them without much difficulty. Go through the door at the end of the catwalk to and you’ll be pounced upon by some big plant-like creatures called Rafflesia. Quickly toss out some Fresh Meat to distract them while you can prepare yourself for battle. Try to fight them one at a time as they can be difficult to beat. Unless you’re very confident in your ability to win fights, refrain from hitting these guys with any kind of magic (including traps), as it makes them stronger. However, it also increases the amount of XP you receive from them. You’ll also want to build AP on your first turn because the Rafflesia can regenerate HP. Once you’ve killed all the Rafflesia in this room, pick up the treasure key that appears. Now, you have two choices of what to do next. You can either hike through a side area to get a skill that’s not even very useful, or you can finish up this floor and continue on with the mission. If you’re kind of short on healing items, I don’t suggest you visit the side area. If you’re skipping the side area, then read ahead. Go through the automatic door to the east and continue into the hallway to the south. There will be two guards called Patrollers roaming this hallway. These guys are quite easy to beat, however, you’ll probably want to avoid them. Why? Because when you kill them, they’ll request backup, which make incredibly large groups of much harder guards called Bouncers appear later on. So, Pick up any items in this hall and continue through the door to the east. If you killed the Patrollers in the previous room, this hall may be overrun with Bouncers. If you have enough healing items, you might be able to fight your way through them. Just try to divide them up as much as possible. If they’re just too much for you to handle, either give up on the side area or D-Dash through them. Either way, pass through this hall and go down the elevator at the end. Proceed through this next hall to enter a danger room full of Goo Plasma and Goo Rubies. They’ll either be spread out amongst the cages or all sitting around in one big group. Divide and conquer is the best strategy here. While in battle, make sure you stay spread out to avoid having everyone get hit by their level 2 spells. Try to defeat a Goo Ruby early on so that you can have Nina learn the Flare skill that they drop. Then use Flare on the Goo Plasma to exploit their weakness towards flame attacks. Once the danger room is clear, pick up the treasure key that materializes. Then go inside the room to the northwest and pick up Blunt from the chest (Note- There‘s a giant Armstrong enemy asleep in this room. If this is your first game or the danger room just wore you down, then I wouldn‘t suggest fighting it, because it is quite strong). Now that you’re done here, return to Corp Lab 2F. Go back to the area near where you got the treasure key and take the east catwalk back to the north side. Along the way, you’re bound to encounter a very large group of Buzz enemies. If you’re bold enough, throw some Fresh Meat towards them to get a bunch of them huddled into a tight group. Then have Lin start the battle and use Blow up! to cause a good deal of damage. If you can finish them off quickly after the extra turn, you’ll get a hefty amount of party XP as a reward. Now, go through the door at the end of the catwalk and head inside the small room to the left. Kill off the pack of Hychees and the Odd Hychee hanging from the ceiling in here and then pick up Roundsaber, a really good skill for Ryu, from the chest. Return to the previous room and go through the east door. Pick up all the items in here and then ride the elevator in the southeast corner of this area. --------------------------- Corp Lab 3F North (-990.0m) --------------------------- Head through this first hall into the next room. Some genics called Kanaphages reside in this room along with a few trios of varied elemental Goos. You can receive large a amount of zenny from the Kanaphages, given you defeat it in as few hits as possible. The amount of zenny the Kanaphage drops is cut in half every time you hit it with an attack. If you defeat it in one hit, you’ll get a whopping 10000z. Unfortunately, if this is your first game, you won’t have any attacks powerful enough to accomplish this (that’s assuming you don’t want to use D-Dive). Ryu’s Deathbringer is probably your best bet for picking up a few thousand zenny here. Now, the Goos in here are in groups of three, with a Goo of each element in each group. Try to split them up so you can exploit their elemental weaknesses without inadvertently using the wrong element on the wrong Goo. After you’re finished up here, continue through the door at the west end of the room and collect the items in this small room. Then, head through the next door. --------------------------- Corp Lab 3F South (-990.0m) --------------------------- Pick up any items that are lying around in this next hall and go through the next door. Run across this catwalk and go through the door at the end. Walk south down this hall and open the door leading to the other catwalk on the west side of the hall. Here you’ll find another swarm of Buzz genics, but this time, there is a Queen Buzz among them. While the Queen Buzz is around, the others become tougher to beat. So try to fight the Queen separately from the others, and then take out the rest of them. Again, you can pick up a good amount of party XP by fighting them in large groups. Continue into the next room after taking care of the Buzzes and get all the items in this small area. Then go back across the catwalk. Go through the southern door in this hall and pass through the tiny room. Head through the automatic door in this next area to emerge in a Bio Corp operating room. After an extremely brief SOL scene, a Bio Corp scientist comes in and inquires as to what you want. Through his tactless remarks about Nina, you discover that Nina was a Low-D girl who was turned into an experimental anti-pollution mechanism. Disgusted by the scientist’s indifference towards Nina as a human being, Ryu gives him a knuckle sandwich dragon style. He then tells you that Nina will eventually die from the air pollution, so Ryu then vows to take her to the sky where the air is clean. Once that’s over, Exit this room through the door to the southeast and ride the elevator at the end of this hall. --------------------- Corp Lab 4F (-980.0m) --------------------- Proceed through this next hallway to find yourself in a hall with two Patrollers walking around. Since you already know what will happen if you fight them, you can decide whether to fight them or try to sneak past them. I’d suggest trying to get around them if this is your first game. However, it’s going to take some fancy maneuvering and maybe even some D-Dash to get around these guys. For now, ignore the little room near the middle of the hallway and just concentrate on getting through the door at the west end of the area. Once you manage that, breeze through the next two halls. In the next room, you’ll find two more Patrollers. But there’s also a Goo Prism sneaking around here as well. Like its weaker cousin, the Goo Element, the Goo Prism is transparent but turns visible from time to time. Usually it hangs out in the small room where all the cages are or in the corner where the hallway bends. After you start the battle, just use Nina’s spells to kill to without much trouble. Pick up the treasure key that forms after the Goo Prism’s defeat and return to other hall where the two Patrollers were. Now, you’re going to want to make your way into the small northern room near the middle of the hall. If the Patrollers see you before you get there, then just keep running and tap R2 when they get close to you. Now, pick up the Backpack in the chest. Chances are, if they saw you, the Patrollers have followed you into this room. Don’t panic. Watch your map out of the corner of your eye so you know where they are at all times. Then when the time is right, bolt out of that room towards the western door. Again, use D-Dash intelligently if you have to. Return to the room where you got the treasure key and go through the door to the northeast. Pass through the next two hallways and ride the elevator at the end. --------------------- Corp Lab 5F (-970.0m) --------------------- You’ll be happy to know that there are no enemies on this floor. So, go inside the room alongside of this first hall. Get the Save Token from the yellow box as well as any other items lying around. Head through the next door and continue through the door at the west end of this area. Follow this path and you’ll end up in a small room with a Telecorder and the item/weapon/locker girls. Stock up on some more healing items and even buy some weapons if you want. You should have a decent amount of zenny by now, so buying some equipment wouldn’t be a bad idea. This is also a perfect time to check on your Fairy colony if you’ve already forgotten about it. So, do whatever needs to be done here, return to the center room on this level, and go through the big door there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Frozen Road ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Greetings, Feint, Cleaner, Fragball Save Tokens- 1 Recommended level- 14 Recommended D-Counter- 11-25% First, collect any items that may be lying around in this entranceway and then head through the next door. Follow this path, go through the door at the end, and climb up the ladder there. ------------------------ Frozen Road 1F (-960.0m) ------------------------ Exit this small room and walk west to a fork in the path. Continue west to reach a small room full of item boxes and two new enemies called Gar Snipers and Gar Pikes. These guys are very similar to the Duke Lancers and Hunters that you fought back in the lower sectors except they’re a lot tougher. Like most of the enemies you’ll find in here, these guys are weak against electric attacks and resistant towards ice attacks. So, have Nina use spells like Jolt and Lightning while Ryu and Lin attack with electric based weapons if you happen to be carrying them. Clean up all the items in here after doing away with the Gars and then continue through the northern door. In here you’ll either find a large group of Goo Sapphires among an Ice Goo or a few Goo Sapphires and several little Drillbug creatures walking around. Regardless, they’re all vulnerable to electric attacks. The Ice Goo is just a bigger, more powerful version of the Goo Sapphire, so separate it from the rest of the group and nail it with Nina’s electric spells. The Drillbugs are a bit of a nuisance as they like to put you to sleep and attack you AP, so try to waste them on your extra turns. Once you’re done here, go through the door to the east. This room contains a very large group of flying frog-like creatures called Aggrossers with their leader, the Frogressor, in the middle of the pack. You can either approach them slowly or throw some meat towards them to bunch them up into a tight group for some extra party XP. Once again, electric attacks are effective here. Lin’s shot attacks also inflict a lot of damage to these guys as well. Defeat them all and pick up the treasure key that appears. Take Greetings from the chest and return to the previous room. Head north and climb up the ladder at the end of the room. ------------------------ Frozen Road 2F (-950.0m) ------------------------ In this next area, you’ll find a couple of average looking item boxes that you can’t break open. Among them is a giant white box. These things are actually genics called Jack-Boxes, and the giant one is the Big Jack-Box. These enemies can potentially drop a lot of zenny depending on the amount of times you hit them before they die. The more times you hit them, the more zenny they’ll drop. Otherwise, they’re relatively easy to beat with Ryu’s physical attacks. Get the treasure key by defeating the Big Jack-Box and continue east into the next room (Tip- If you‘re having trouble getting the Jack-Boxes to pop out, try standing next to them and placing some Fresh Meat on the ground. When it comes out, quickly hit X twice to retrieve the meat and initiate the battle at the same time). The treasure chest lies within this room, but you must battle through a few Gars, a Beak, and two Deathcows to reach it. First, take care of the Gars. By now you’ve seen what they can do, so either divide and conquer or fight them in groups, whichever you’re most comfortable with. Once you’ve taken out the Gars, slowly approach the Beak and the two Deathcows so that the Beak will start chasing you without the big guys even noticing. If you haven’t fought Beaks before, all you need to know is that they are a much weaker version of the Death Cow. Kill it up close, because it likes to use Howling to Bind your party. Next, approach the two Deathcows the same way, except make sure you walk towards them from a side so you won’t risk having both of them charge at once. Unless you’re extremely confident in your abilities (or just don’t mind using D-Dive), then taking on both of them at once can be deemed as suicidal. Chances are you’ve fought one or two Deathcows already, so you should have a good idea about how you want to fight them. If you’re skilled at using Nina’s traps, then you can put Joltball to good use here. After fighting through all those foes, you can reach your rewards which include the Fient skill from the chest and a Save Token from the yellow box. Then, go through the door at the north end of the room and ascend the ladder there. ------------------------ Frozen Road 3F (-940.0m) ------------------------ Run through this next room to emerge in a room containing a family of Goo Sappires led by a big Ice Goo. Again, Ice Goos are just bigger and stronger versions of the Goo Sapphires, so tactics that are effective against the small ones are just as potent against the big guy. Take the Ice Goo down with electric attacks and it will drop the next treasure key. Pick it up and collect any other items lying around in this area. Then, continue into the next room. In here you’ll find more of those annoying Drillbug monsters mindlessly wandering around. Among them is their superior, the Bug Leader. First, kill off all the Drillbugs before going after the Leader. This is because the Bug Leader becomes harder to cope with in battle if it witnesses one of its little friends going to Drillbug heaven. The big guy doesn’t differ much from the little ones besides the fact that it is bigger and stronger. Once you defeat it, it’ll drop Leech Power, a very useful shield skill. Now, get the Cleaner from the chest in the northwest end of the room and continue through the eastern door to emerge in a danger room. This danger room is home to a few Aggrossers who are hanging from the ceiling, as well as two Beaks. Throw some meat under the Aggrossers and then approach them until they drop from the ceiling. Instead of trying to ambush you, they’ll go for the meat, so attack them while they’re distracted. When it comes time to fight the Beaks, approach them slowly. The second one of them begins to charge at you, put some Fresh Meat down and run the other way. Then run back and hit it while it’s eating. Just rely on close range attacks from Ryu and long range spell casting from Nina to deal the most damage. Once those two are out of the way, you’ll only have a few more Aggrossers to deal with. Just kill them using the same tactis as last time. Clear the room and there will be an SOL scene. Afterwards, go through the next door and up the next ladder. ------------------------ Frozen Road 4F (-930.0m) ------------------------ Leave this small room and head right to find another group of Gars and possibly more Jack-Box enemies. Take out the Gars first so you can focus all of your attention on the Jack-Boxes when the time comes to fight them. Just remember to split them up if you’ve been having trouble with them up until now. Once you’re done here, head through the door at the north end of the path. Veer to the right to stumble upon a small area with some Hychees and a few Odd Hychees hanging from the ceiling. Kill them, take their healing items, and continue through the door to the left. Now in order to get the treasure key for this floor, you’ll have to defeat all five Beaks roaming around on the metal walkway. Unless you’re certain you can take them on in groups, divide and conquer is the best strategy. Approach them carefully, only letting one of them see you at a time, and then use Fresh Meat to distract them until you’re ready to start the fight. Kill all of them and get the treasure key they drop. Pay a visit to the small room to the south and pick up any items that are in there. Go inside the small room to the north to reach the chest containing Fragball. Proceed through the next door at the east end of the room and take this path to a Telecorder and the item/locker girls. Appraise any equipment that’s taking up space in your inventory and then fill that space up with healing items. You’ll need them for what comes next. I’d also recommend making a save at the Telecorder as well. When you’re fully prepared to move on, ascend the ladder at the northeast end of the room. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Storage ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- None Save Tokens- 2 Recommended level- 15 Recommended D-Counter- 11-26% Head north in the next hallway and go left at the junction. As your group enters the main room of the Storage area, you’ll be ambushed by a platoon of high class rangers led by Bosch and Captain Zeno. After Bosch throws some insulting comments in Ryu’s direction, Zeno will step in and try to reason with you. She tells Ryu that he’s linked with a Bio Corp experiment, causing him to go crazy. But a voice in Ryu’s mind assures him that she’s lying. And when Ryu refuses to cooperate with Zeno, she has her troop of rangers attack you. Boss fight: Ranger Platoon HP: Lead Battler- 750, Battler Capn- 620, Lead Gunner- 720, Gunner Capn- 520 XP- 3981 Items- Ranger Shell+3, 500z, Counter, 800z, Dent Weapon, 550z, Third Eye, 800z Recommended level- 15 Notes- This is definitely the hardest battle yet. There are three groups of formidable rangers surrounding you. The group that you have to worry about the most consists of two Battler Capns and the Lead Gunner. The Lead Gunner annoyingly casts support spells on the Battler Capns while they wail on you with powerful physical attacks. They also have a special shield that can sometimes greatly reduce that damage you inflict on them. First off, you’ll want Nina to get away from the action until Ryu and Lin have taken care of the Battler Capns. Then have Ryu stay where he is at the moment and have Lin back up towards Ryu a bit. This is so that the Battler Capns will run right up near you, but they won’t be able to get within attacking range. Then on the next turn, go all out on the Battler Capns and maybe the Battler Leader if you want to get him out of the way first. You’ll want to get rid of those swordsmen as quickly as you can. If they bunched themselves up while moving towards you, use spead attacks like Ryu’s X Blade and Lin’s Blow up! to take them down quicker. Nina should stay away from the fighting for now and carry out hit and run magic assaults every other turn to help quicken the Battlers’ demise. Once all the Battlers are gone, the fight gets much easier. Now the combined efforts of your party should be able to take down at least one or two Gunners per turn. However, you’ll want to eliminate the Lead Gunner first, as he tends to run away once all the other ranger have been killed. Just remember to heal very often, especially at the beginning of the fight. If one party member falls victim to too many attacks in one turn, it could be fatal if you never get a chance to heal. Having plenty of healing items is the key to winning this fight. If you find yourself in a tough spot and your D-Counter is considerably low, then simply D-Dive and give the Battlers a few good thrashings with Vortex. Just don’t go overboard. Since the rangers failed, a giant robot then emerges from one of the lifts. It’s time for another battle. Boss fight: Asimov HP: 1400, Annex HP- 200 XP- ~1500 (dependant on how many Annexes are defeated) Items- Take this!, Generator, Battery Pack Recommended level- 15 Notes- Compared to the last battle, this fight is quite easy if you use the right strategy. You’ll notice that the Asimov stars the battle behind a bunch of junk. If you can keep it trapped there, it’ll rarely attack you. To do this, have Nina constantly place Fragballs in front of Asimov throughout the entire battle. Every turn the Asimov will create two little machines called Annexes, which attack you with Jolt if given the opportunity. If you put Fragballs in the right places, the Asimov will release the Annex right on top of the trap, causing it to take massive damage. The Annexes are also weak towards Lin’s shot attacks, so have her use Blow up! every round to eliminate them and get the big robot caught in the crossfire. Ryu should move into a position where he can attack the Asimov without being an obstruction to Nina’s Fragballs. Eventhough your main goal should be to take down the big guy quickly, you should also kill off the Annexes before they get a chance to attack. Once Asimov’s HP reaches 1, you’ll no longer be able to harm it (unless you use dragon form). It’ll then initiate a countdown to self destruct in three turns. In the meantime, continue fighting as usual. Keep it trapped behind the machines and continue to eliminate the Annexes it produces. But, when there’s only one turn left until it blows up, have everybody get as far away from it as possible. You’ll be safe as long as you’re out of its Movement Radius. After the giant robot goes out with a bang, Zeno finally decides to step in and kill you herself. Boss fight: Zeno and the Mage Capns HP: Zeno- 1600, Mage Capn- 580 XP- 3840 (both Mages defeated) Items- Valor, V, Magic Wand+2, 450z Recommended level- 16 Notes- This can be quite a tough fight. Zeno is capable of dealing out a lot of damage through multiple strings of attacks, and the Mages like to cast Iceblast which can deal over 50 damage to anyone in its wake. You’ll want to keep your party spread out for the entire battle to avoid having multiple characters being hit at once with Iceblast and Zeno’s spread attacks. The first thing you’ll want to do is have Nina set up a Fragball right in Zeno’s path. Half the time, Zeno refuses to run into magical traps, so if you can position Fragball so that Zeno can’t get by it, she may try to reach you by walking around the big junk pile instead. It’ll take her about three turns to reach your party if she does this, so use those three turns wisely by preparing for her arrival. If you didn’t manage to set up a good Fragball, that’s OK. Just have Ryu focus all of his attacks on Zeno, while Lin and Nina combine their efforts to kill off one of the Mages. Once you’ve killed one of the Mages, begin attacking the other one but don’t kill it. As soon as both Mages die or Zeno is down to half HP, she’ll use Last Resort. This not only increases her attack power, but it also sets up a special shield, very similar to the ones the Battler Capns had when you fought the rangers. After this point, Zeno will also begin using her Violet Death skill, which is incredibly devastating. Make sure everyone’s at full HP before Zeno’s turn. Well, once she uses Last Resort there’s no need to keep the remaining Mage alive anymore, so kill him off and then go all out on Zeno. If you’re running out of healing items, you can D-Dive and use a Twister (and maybe a Vortex as well) as a finishing move for only a few percent towards your D-Counter. Once Zeno is dead, Bosch flees, and Ryu hears the voice of the Odjn once again. Then Lin suggests that it’s time to go to Trinity’s headquarters. To reach the Trinity area, you’ll have to hike through the industrial zone ahead. When you regain control, inspect the sword that Zeno left lying on the ground to receive the Violet Blade. Make sure you head back to the end of the Frozen Road now to have it identified, as well as restock your healing items. The Industrial Area is a long mission, so be sure to bring plenty. Then, return to the main Storage area and go inside the small room to the northwest to reach a bunch of items, including two Save Tokens. Now, continue through the middle door on the west side of the area and head north at the junction in this next hall. Then, climb up the ladder in the small room at the end of the path. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. Industrial Area ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Reflect, Let's dance!, Fireball, Spiritcharge, Too slow!! Save Tokens- 2 Recommended level- 17 Recommended D-Counter- 20-31% After an SOL scene, you will arrive on the first floor of the Industrial Area’s first zone. ----------------------- Indust One 1F (-890.0m) ----------------------- Leave this small room and pass through the short hall ahead. In the next area you’ll encounter some new enemies called Bandits and Highwaystars. Although the Bandits are pretty easy to beat, they will steal from you if they get the chance, so kill them to recover any items that get stolen from you. Also, if they see you they’ll chase you relentlessly, so be prepared. The Highwaystars aren’t much harder to defeat. Just make sure to keep everybody in a wide formation because they like to use spread attacks. When you’re done with them, continue along the metal path and go through the door in the northwest corner of the room. You’ll find several Odd Hychees in this small area, so convert them into healing items and return to the previous room. Head through the door to the southwest and go through the automatic door at the end of this short path. This room contains some bats called Ebonfires, and among them is their leader, the Baphomet. Like many of the enemies you will face in this mission, these guys are weak against ice attacks, so use Nina’s Frost and Iceblast spells. They’re also vulnerable to Lin’s shot attacks, so her Blow up! skill is ideal here. While the Ebonfires are not too difficult to kill, the Baphomet is quite a formidable foe. Not only does it regenerate a small fraction of its HP every round, but it also likes to hit your party with annoying spells like Silence and Fireblast. To keep the bad effects of both of these spells to a minimum, keep your party as spread out as possible. Also, before the fight even begins, lure the Baphomet in as close to the walkway as you can with Fresh Meat so that Ryu can get into attacking range. Once you’ve defeated them, Continue through the door in the northwest corner of the room and ride the elevator there. You’ll arrive on the second floor after an SOL scene. ---------------------------- Indust One 2F West (-880.0m) ---------------------------- Head east through the small room ahead. You may come across some machines called Capeks in this next area. Use Nina’s ice spells and Ryu’s sword attacks to defeat them without much trouble. If you follow the metal walkway to the southeast corner of the room there may appear to be a blue treasure chest there. Don’t be fooled. This is an enemy called the Wonder Box, which is very similar to the Jack-Boxes you fought back at the Frozen Road. Instead of zenny, however, you can get some good items from it depending on how much damage you deal to it before it commits suicide at the end of the first turn. So, bring it down to a sliver it its HP, and then let it kill itself to get your prize. Now, go through the automatic door to the east. If you didn’t see any Capeks in the previous room, you’ll definitely see them in here, along with another Wonder Box. Get rid of the Wonder Box and then divide and conquer the Capeks. If you do manage to fight several of them at once, try to line them up so that Nina can hit the lot of them with Iceblast. After defeating them all, you’ll have clear access to the D-Ratio door at the south end of the room. ____________ \ D-Ratio Area \______________________________________________ \ This door empties you out into a danger room containing | either a large group of Petrophages or a combination of | Capeks and Petrophages. If you’re dealing with both | Petrophages and Capeks, go after the Capeks first. Either | split them up for easy fighting or battle them in groups | for more party XP. If you’ve managed to leave the | Petrophages undisturbed, them you can finish off this | danger room without even having to fight them. Stand behind | the short fence and have Lin use her charged shot on the | Petrophages. They’ll then charge at you and get flipped | over as they crash into the fence. Then hit them while | they’re flipped over to kill them without even initiating a | fight. If you got the danger room with all Pertophages, you | can clear it without having to fight a single battle using | this tactic. So, clear this room and pick up the treasure | key that appears. Go through the automatic door to the | southeast and get Reflect from the chest in this small | room. Exit this area through the southern door. | ____________________________________________________________/ Continue through the next door and pass through this short hall to reach the east wing. ---------------------------- Indust One 2F East (-880.0m) ---------------------------- Pass through this short hall and into the next room. Here you’ll run into more Capeks as well as some new enemies called Petrophages. These guys are similar to the Rustphages you fought earlier on in the game, however, they’re much faster and stronger. The best way to deal with these guys is to simply defeat them outside of battle. If you quickly run in front of them or get their attention by using Lin’s charged shot, they’ll charge at you. Quickly move out of the way to make them hit a wall, flipping them over. If you attack them while they’re flipped over, you can kill them outside of battle. So first take out the Capeks roaming around and then use Lin’s charged shot to kill the Petrophages safely from the metal walkway. However, there’ll probably be two Petrophages you can’t reach from there, so walk down to the lower area and run past them to make them charge and run into the metal walkway. Then quickly take them out while they’re flipped over. Once you’ve killed them all, the treasure key for this wing will appear. Retrieve it, go through the automatic door in the northeast corner of the room, and head through the door at the end of this hall. Proceed inside the small sub-room just ahead to encounter some Fire Goos and Goo Rubies. You’ve seen the Goo Rubies before, and the Fire Goos are simply a stronger version of them. Use Nina’s Frost and Iceblast spells to weaken their attacks and wipe them out easily. Grab Let’s dance! from the chest and continue to the west side of this area. There may be a family of Goo Rubies lead by a Fire Goo in the lower area amongst a few item boxes, or you’ll find a variety of enemies you’ve seen here before. Defeat them, grab all the items, and exit this room through the southeast door. Pass through this hall, and you’ll find more Bandits and Highwaystars. Unlike when you met them before, the Highwaystars in this area are as aggressive as the Bandits on the field. After dealing with them, take the metal walkway in the middle of the room left to find a pair of Petrophages near the next door. Quickly pass in front of the so they charge into the railing, allowing you to eliminate them outside of battle. Go through the door and pass through the short hall there. -------------------------------------------- Indust One 2F West (-880.0m) *Southern Area* -------------------------------------------- Breeze through the first two small rooms. You’ll emerge in a room with a bunch of Petrophages sitting around in the lower area. Have Lin get their attenion from the safety of the metal walkway using her charged shot. Then shoot them again when they’re flipped over to easily defeat them without even starting a fight. Once you’ve gotten rid of them all, go down the the lower area and clear out any Bandits that may be hanging around. Get the Save Token from the yellow box and then ride the elevator behind the door to the southwest. ----------------------- Indust One 3F (-870.0m) ----------------------- Exit the elevator shaft and you’ll face yet another danger room. This time you’ll have to kill another family of Ebonfires led by a Baphomet. Use the narrow hallway they’re in to your advantage. First, lure the Baphomet into the doorway so that you can initiate the battle with your party outside the hallyway while keeping the Baphomet trapped in. Ryu can run in and attack it from inside the hallway if you wish while Lin and Nina strike from outside. Remember to keep a spread out formation as the Baphomet’s worst attacks hit over a large area. Once the big guy’s out of the picture, you can rack up some party XP by killing off the Ebonfires in large groups. Or you could just split them up if it’s easiest for you. If you’re after party XP, toss some meat towards them to get them into a compact group. This will allow you to nail them all at once with your spread attacks. Keep in mind that Nina’s ice spells are extra effective here. After an SOL scene, continue through the door at the northeast end of this area and pick up all the items in this next room. Exit through the door to the east to emerge in a large room with a bunch of Capeks roaming around. They tend to stay pretty spread out by themselves, so dividing them up for easy victories shouldn’t be too difficult. Just remember to use ice spells on them. Get the treasure key that appears in the small room to the northeast and get Fireball from the chest there. Now, pick up all the trap items from the small rooms on the east side of this area and continue by riding the elevator on the east side of the room. Following an SOL scene, you’ll reach the second zone of the Industrial Area. ----------------------- Indust Two 1F (-860.0m) ----------------------- This next room is littered with the bodies of dead rangers who were probably trying to ambush you. Examine some of the bodies and the locked doors to the north and south. Then take a look around in the lower area to find a drunk looking guy standing there. Talk to him, and you’ll find out that he’s the one who killed all the rangers so that he could fight you one on one. It’s time for another battle! Boss fight: Tantra HP: 1800 XP- 2001 Items- C’mere!, 300z Recommended level- 17 Notes- This guy isn’t nearly as hard as he is annoying. Not only will he hit you with Sleep, but he also frequently uses his trademark spell, Forcacion, which literally drains the victim of their abilities. Anyone hit with spell basically becomes a nearly useless attacker for three turns. If his status change spells weren’t bad enough, Tantra can also use Multi Strike and Drain to heal himself for as much damage as he deals out. First off, get your party into wide formation surrounding Tantra so that he can’t hit your entire party with Sleep. Then, have Ryu get in close and unload on him with level 3 skills such as Deathbringer and Violet Death, while Nina and Lin attack from a distance. If it suits your fighting style, you can even have Nina lay down magic traps while Lin knocks Tantra into them. Have anyone who gets hit with Forcacion test out their attacks on Tantra afterwards to see if you can still manage to deal some decent damage with them. If not, just have that character bide their time away from the fighting until their three turns are up. You may even want to have Lin get right up close to Tantra while Ryu and Nina get far away at the very beginning of the fight so she’ll fall victim to Forcacion instead of Ryu and Nina, who are your best attackers in this fight. I really wouldn’t suggest using dragon form on him, but if you feel you absolutely need to D-Dive, give him no more than a D-Charge and a Twister. Once you’ve bested Tantra, Lin tells you that he’s a highly trained assassin, obviously working outside the government ranks. Pick up the IndZone 2 ID card that he dropped and then go through one of the two locked doors. No matter which door you choose, you’ll fight a sub-boss and eventually end up in the same place. If you want, you can come back here after fighting one sub-boss so that you can take the other path and fight the other sub-boss as well. However, if this is your first game, I strongly suggest you only fight one of them. After leaving the room, Tantra will suddenly wake up in a brief scene. Then, you’ll see a scene of the regent meeting during which the leader announces his plan to send the Dark Rangers after you. After an SOL scene, you’ll arrive on the second floor of zone two. ----------------------------- Indust Two 2F North (-850.0m) ----------------------------- Exit the elevator shaft and go through the automatic door at the end of the short path. Follow this path and go through the door to the northeast to reach another danger room. This one is home to Deegon, a quick monster with a long reach. Deegon is capable of inducing a wide variety of status changes to your party, so come packing plenty of Multimeds and Wake Ups. It can also counterattack with the powerful Sledgehammer skill and hit your party with Fireblast. Keep Lin and Nina just within attacking distance on opposite sides of Deegon and have Ryu stay up close to minimize the casualties from Fireblast. Since Deegon will counterattack Ryu after each of his attacks, have Ryu attack in one long combo each turn. Not surprisingly, Deegon has a weakness towards ice attacks, so have Nina unleash her most powerful ice spells on him. Defeat Deegon, and its spirit will fly out of its disintegrating body. Pick up the treasure key it drops and get Too slow!! from the chest in the southwest corner of the room. Then ride the elevator in the northeast corner of the room. ------------------------------------- Indust Two 3F (-840.0m) *From Deegon* ------------------------------------- Pass through the small room ahead and into a room full of items to the east. Be sure to pick up all the items in this room, and when you’re ready, proceed through the door to the south. You’ll end up in the last room of the Industrial Area where the other path also empties out into. Skip down to the path from Geegagis to continue. ----------------------------- Indust Two 2F South (-850.0m) ----------------------------- Exit the elevator shaft and you’ll immediately emerge inside another danger room. The sub-boss you must fight in here is Geegagis. This guy has very high defense, so rely on Nina’s ice magic to do the most damage to it. Since it likes to use Fireblast occasionally, make sure your party is spread out in a formation surrounding Geegagis. Have Ryu use Rust Armor until it has no more effect and then pound away with level 3 skills. For the most part, Lin’s attacks do miniscule damage to Geegagis, so have her use attacks that ignore defense. After taking a good amount of attacks from you, Geegagis will begin charging up for its special attack. When it begins to gather fury, you’ll want to have everybody move as far away from it as possible. The next turn, Geegagis will unleash it special attack which does damage depending on how close you are. Once that’s over, run back in and attack until Geegagis prepares to use it again. After the fight, its spirit will fly away. Collect the treasure key it drops and get Spiritcharge from the chest to the southeast. Continue through the next door and go through the door at the east end of this next room. Then ride the elevator there. --------------------------------------- Indust Two 3F (-840.0m) *From Geegagis* --------------------------------------- Follow the metal walkway in this next room and go through the door inside the small sub room at the end of the path. Now you’ll be in the room where the two paths meet. In here, you’ll find more dead rangers, and much to your surprise, Tantra returns with his dead companions with him now. He’ll then absorb his deceased comrades and become stronger than ever. It’s time for the final show down against Tantra (He’ll be in one of three forms depending on whether you fought Deegon, Geegagis, or both of them). Boss fight: Tantra+Deegon HP: 2000 XP- 2802 Items- Brainquake, 7th Sense Recommended level- 19 Notes- If you thought Tantra was tough the first time you fought him, then you’re really in for it now. Not only has Tantra retained his most annoying attacks such as Sleep, Drain, and Forcacion, but he’s also inherited Deegon’s speed and ability to counterattack. But unlike Deegon, Tantra can counterattack from a distance, making even Lin susceptible to it. Once again, you’ll want to keep a formation surrounding Tantra. Ryu and Lin should build up plenty of AP before attacking Tantra in the form of long combos to keep the number of times Tantra counterattacks you to a minimum. Since Tantra can now attack as many as four times in a single turn, make sure you keep your party healthy at all times. Also, if you have any stat boosting items, such as a Power or Magic Boost, this would be a great time to use them. You may even want to snatch that 7th Sense from Tantra to use for this fight. This will help make the fight go faster. As long as you have enough healing items, you should be able to out last Tantra and pull off another victory without D-Dive. However, if you deem it necessary, give him no more than a D-Charge and one (maybe two) Twisters. Boss fight: Tantra+Geegagis HP: 1600 XP- 3000 Items- Blunt, 7th Sense Recommended level- 18 Notes- This is probably Tantra’s easiest form. Although he inherits the defense of Geegagis, it won’t cut down the damage of your physical attacks nearly as much as the original Geegagis did. Otherwise, Tantra’s skill set is basically the same. He comes back packing his trademark Forcacion spell, as well as Sleep, Multi Attack, and Drain. However, he does also have Geegagis’s special attack, so when Tantra begins to gather fury, move far away from him. Then, after he unleashes the attack, go back in and start pounding on him again. Once again, Ryu should get up close and use his most powerful combos or level 3 attacks, and Lin and Nina should strike from long range. Since Tantra frequently uses Drain, make sure you are always dealing more damage than he’s draining from you. To help quicken Tantra’s defeat, you can steal his 7th Sense an use it on your best attacker, probably Ryu. There’s really no need for dragon form in this battle, but if you want to use it, a D-Charge and one or two Twisters should do him in. Boss fight: Tantra+Deegon+Geegagis HP: 2400 XP- 3600 Items- Crimson Raid, 7th Sense Recommended level- 23 Notes- Oh man are you in for a tough battle. Tantra now has the speed of Deegon, and high defense like Geegagis. He comes packing a frightening arsenal of spells and skills including Pre-Primus and Hundredgears, as well as some old not-so-favorites such as Forcacion, Sleep, Multi Strike, and Geegagis’s Take That ability. Not only that, but Tantra can also counterattack from long range using Drain. If this is your first game, the odds of you winning this fight without D-Dive are slim. But even if this isn’t your first game, don’t expect this to be a walk in the park. The key to winning this battle is healing items, and lots of them. As long as you can go into each of Tantra’s turns with your characters at full (or near full) HP, then you should be fine. First, surround Tantra, keeping Lin and Nina at a good distance while Ryu moves in close. Then use any stat boosting items that will be of help to you, especially Power Boosts for Ryu and Magic Boosts for Nina. Unless you’re at a higher level, don’t even bother with Speed Boosts, Tantra’s just too fast. It would also be a very good idea to steal Tantra’s 7th Sense to use during the fight. Make sure to have Ryu and Lin attack in lengthy combos to take his counterattack ability out of the fight as much as possible. If you really want to crack down on Tantra’s counterattacking, then have Ryu and Lin attack only every other turn with two full AP gauges. Also, if you want to pick up a nice skill for Ryu, snatch Crimson Raid from him. But to really humiliate Tantra, D-Dive and D-Charge twice. Then use Twister to kill him in one hit! Now that the crazy drunk, Tantra, is finally pushing up daisies for real, go through the automatic door to the south and get the Save Token, among other items, in this room. Then exit the Indusrtial Area through the northeast door. After an SOL scene, you will arrive in the middle sector. ------------------------- Mid Sector Mall (-840.0m) ------------------------- Well, this isn’t exactly your average mall, but you will find everything you need to continue your journey here including a Telecorder, the Item/Weapon/Locker girls scattered about town, as well as a fairy (in case you managed to lose you Fairy Drops somewhere between here and the Bio Corp labs). Stock up on healing items and get all the equipment you found in the Industrial Area identified. Then, if you have some spare change, check out the weapon shop for some good upgrades. When you’re ready to leave, walk over to the far side of town, past the weapon shop, to reach the entrance to the Old Trade Sector. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. Old Trade Sector ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Backpack, Circle Stage Save Tokens- N/A Recommended level- 20 Recommended D-Counter- 25-35% Upon reaching the old Borough, there will be an SOL scene. Afterwards, head left over the broken path and down the stairs there. ---------------------------- Old Trade Sector A (-840.0m) ---------------------------- First, go through the door in front of you to emerge in an area overrun with enemies called Zombies. No matter how many times you defeat the Zombies in battle, they will not go away until you kill their host, the Brokenheart. The Brokenhearts are the little green ghosts floating around. In battle, you’ll find these guys to be extremely evasive. However, using ice spells on them freezes them solid, allowing you to easily beat them with Ryu and Lin’s attacks. As you go about hunting Brokenhearts, you may also find some Worm-Men in the east and west areas. Be sure to use their poor movement to your advantage. Also keep your party spread out to keep damage from their Circle Stage attack to a minimum. That’s it for the enemy run down for this first area. So, from the beginning, head north and go through the doorway on the left at the end of the room. Walk south and get the item from the red box at the southwest end of this area. Now, return to the beginning again and go through the doorway just to the right. Make your way around the shelves in this area and go through the eastern door. Walk east across this next hallway and you may run into a small group of Brokenhearts near a junction in the path. Eliminate them with a combination of Nina’s ice spells and Ryu’s physical attacks. Head north at the junction and go through the door at the end of the hallway. Walk up into the open part of this room to find more Zombies and Brokenhearts. Also, make sure you look before rounding the corner, because there may be a Bandit hanging from the ceiling waiting to ambush you. Be sure to hunt down all the Brokenhearts in here before continuing through the door to the west. The next room is large and cluttered with shelves. You can find many different enemies lurking round amongst the shelves including Worm-Men, Zombies, Brokenhearts, and even some Bandits. Do what you will with the other foes, but make sure you defeat all the Brokenhearts before continuing. In the small sub-room at the north end of the room you’ll find some Rustphages, as well as the treasure chest for this floor. The Rustphages should be simple to defeat at this point, just don’t let them ambush you. Continue through the door at the west end of the room to emerge in a room containing more Zombies and Brokenhearts. Dodge the Zombies and eliminate the all Brokenhearts to get a message saying the treasure key has appeared. Return to the previous room and go inside the sub-room to the north. Pick up the treasure key in here and get the much needed Backpack from the chest in this room. Go back to the room you where just in and go through the door to the southwest. This corridor contains some more Worm-Men, as well as a few Rustphages. Kill them and climb down the ladder to the south. ----------------------------- Old Trade Sector In (-850.0m) ----------------------------- The In is a small network of corridors that’s not too hard to navigate once you’ve got the entire floor revealed on your map. Since the enemy patterns are a little more random than usual, just please refer to the following enemy synopsis for a run down on how to fight the enemies in this area. You’re bound to see some of the same old monsters such as Zombies and Brokenhearts, but you may also encounter a few old enemies and a new one as well. One old foe you may encounter is the Kanaphage. Remember to defeat them with as few hits as possible to get some big zenny. You may even be able to beat them in one hit with a Spiritcharge Deathbringer combo from Ryu. Be sure to check around corners as you turn them so you won’t get ambushed by Petrophages. It may be more difficult in these narrow hallways, but still attempt to defeat them outside of battle. If you can’t, then use fire attacks on them in battle. The new enemy you’re certain to meet sooner or later is the Trilizard. These guys are both tough and annoying because their elemental weaknesses change every turn. However, since the Trilizard is most likely to go first (yes, even before Nina, scary huh?), you can determine their elemental weakness depending on what attack they use. For example, if it uses Flare, then hit it with ice magic that turn (Note- Its weakness is always electric during the extra turn). Now, exit this small room and head north in this next hall. Fight off any enemies that may be around here and head right at the junction. Continue east and go through the door at the end of the hallway. Keep going east until you reach another fork in the path. Head south from here and climb up the ladder at the end of the path. Get the item from the red box in this small area and then go back down the ladder. Walk back to the fork in the path and head north. Go through the door at the end of the path and ascend the ladder at the end of the next hallway. ---------------------------- Old Trade Sector B (-840.0m) ---------------------------- Leave this small room and head south to find some Brokenhearts hanging out at the south end of the hall. Defeat them and continue through the door to the west. This room contains a few Worm-Men, as well as some Petrophages hiding amidst the shelves. Unless you’ve found the Worm-Men to be extremely easy to cope with so far, I’d suggest you split them up and fight them individually. Just keep a careful eye out for the Pertophages, as they can cheaply charge at you right through the shelves. Once you defeat all the Worm-Men in here, pick up the treasure key they drop and get Circle Stage from the chest. Now, return to Old Trade Sector In and pass through this hallway going south. Head west at the junction and go back through the door to the west. Turn right and go through the door to the north. Take this hallway north and then west to another junction. If you haven’t encountered a Trilizard yet, you’ll probably find one around here. Once you’re done here, continue up the ladder to the northwest. Exit this small room and head south. Fight the Brokenhearts hanging around near the puddle of water at the south end of the hallway if they’re there. Go east from the junction and go through the door there. Continue to the east, and then north to reach a big door leading to Trinity’s headquarters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Trinity Pit ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Enfeeble, Discharge Save Tokens- 1 Recommended level- 21 Recommended D-Counter- 28-36% Upon your arrival at Trinity’s headquarters, Nina is in bad shape, so Lin calls for help. Once the situation is under control, Lin suggests that Ryu take a look around while she keeps an eye on Nina. So after regaining control of Ryu, go explore the base. The layout of the base is somewhat confusing, so make sure you take some time to familiarize yourself with the place. Go into the office near where the three Trinity soldiers are having a briefing to meet Mebeth, Trinity’s leader. After having a chat with him about Nina, there will be an SOL scene. Now, you have two options of what to do next. You can either continue on with the game, or you can do a fairly long side quest with just Ryu and Lin in your party. Before you decide on what to do, you should know that you’ll mostly be fighting a combination of enemies native to the Old Trade Sector, as well as some foes you fought back a while ago. It might be a little difficult without Nina in your party, but you will get quite a few good items out of this, among them is an excellent skill for Ryu. Even if this is your first game, I’d highly recommend that you do this side quest. To start the side quest, go talk to Lin and get her back in your party. Then climb down the ladder near the room where you can choose to rest (Note- If you want to do the side quest, do NOT rest until it’s finished). ---------------------------- Old Trade Sector 2 (-860.0m) ---------------------------- Leave the ladder room and pass through this next hallway. In these initial halls you’ll probably encounter some Aggrossers hanging from the ceiling. These guys should be easy enough to defeat, as you fought them way back at the Frozen Road. However, in the next area, you’ll face some much tougher enemies. Among them is a new genic called the Gigantis, which looks just like the Cyclops boss you fought at the very beginning of the game. Just hack away at them normally in battle and heal after their potentially high damaging attacks. Also, make sure not to get too close to them on the field, or they will charge at you with great speed. Other than that, you’ll encounter some more old friends in this area including some Worm-Men and Gars (whom you also battled back at the Frozen Road). The Gars shouldn’t give you any trouble, but be sure to divide and conquer the Worm-Men. Once you’ve dealt with all the monsters, head east in this room. Go south down the hallway at the east end of the room and climb down the ladder at the end. ---------------------------- Old Trade Sector C (-870.0m) ---------------------------- First off, you’ll be fighting a lot of Brokenhearts in the side corridors of both sectors C and D. Since the enemy patterns are chosen at random, it may be hard to say where exactly they will show up. I’ll just indicate where I’ve known them to be. Without Nina’s ice spells, you may have to take a different approach to fighting these guys. Try using attacks that favor accuracy, such as Lin’s Too slow!!. Ryu’s Third Eye skill followed up by a good level 3 attack like Roundsaber or Deathbringer works beautifully in this situation. Now, from the ladder, head up this next hallway and turn left at the junction. Go through the door at the end of the path and pick up all the items in this area. Return to the junction in the previous hallway and go through the door to the north. Fight the Brokenhearts in this next hall and make a left at the junction. In the next room, you’ll find a bunch of Petrophages, a Wonder Box, and probably a few Zombies lurking around. Remember, the best way to eliminate the Petrophages is to run in front of them so that they’ll charge and hit a wall, allowing you to kill them outside of battle. The Zombies aren’t very hard to dodge due to their ridiculously slow gate, but be careful not to accidentally run into them while you’re trying to exterminate the Petrophages. The Wonder Box is easy enough to beat as well. Just deal as much damage as you can, then let it kill itself to hopefully get a good item, such as a Gold XP. Once you’re done in here, go back to the junction in the hallway outside. Head north and descend the ladder at the end of the path. ---------------------------- Old Trade Sector D (-880.0m) ---------------------------- Exit this small room and head up this next hallway. Go left at the junction and go through the door at the end of the hall. You’ll now be in a fairly wide hall. There’s a flock of Aggrossers flying around in the middle of this area, and a Gigantis on either side of the Aggressors. Draw the Aggrossers in with Fresh Meat and kill them in large groups with spread attacks. Then, go after the two Gigantis. Remember to keep on your toes, because they’ll charge at you with a lot of speed if they see you. Pick up the treasure key that they drop and get Discharge from the chest to the north. Continue through the big door to the south and climb up the stairs. ------------------------------------------- Old Trade Sector C (-870.0m) *Central Area* ------------------------------------------- Go through the door in front of you and pick up the items lying around in the small area just to the west. Continue to the south and go through the door at the end of the room. Retrieve all the items in the area to the west and return to where you found Discharge back in Old Trade Sector D. Go back into the hallway to the far east and go through the door to the north of the junction. Pick up any items in this area and then hike all the way back to Old Trade Sector 2. ---------------------------------------- Old Trade Sector 2 (-860.0m) *Continued* ---------------------------------------- Exit this small ladder room and head up this path back into the open portion of this area. Walk left and go through the door to the north in the middle of this room to emerge in a big network of hallways, much like the Old Trade Sector In. You won’t run into too many enemies while roaming these halls, but be sure to peek around corners to avoid getting ambushed by some Gars or maybe even a Gigantis. Moving on, run up this hallway and make a right at the junction. Follow this path all the way to a red box. Pick up the item it holds and return to the intersection you were just at. Head west from there and go through the door to the north. Continue to the east at the next junction and go through the door at the end of this path. Head left in this next hallway and climb down the ladder to the north. -------------------------------------------- Old Trade Sector D (-880.0m) *Northern Area* -------------------------------------------- Go south down this next hallway and then head west. Open the door at the end of th path to emerge in a danger room overrun with Gars. There are two groups of them. One group is made up of a few Gar Pikes and a big Gar Sniper, and the other consists of a couple Gar Snipers lead by a big Gar Pike. Without Nina’s spells, you won’t be able to exploit their weakness to electricity, unless you have an electric based weapon. However, you should be able to take them on anyway without too much trouble. For big experience, bunch them up with Fresh Meat and defeat them quickly with your best spread attacks, such as Roundsaber, Violet Death, X Blade, or Blow up!. Once you clear the danger room, there will be an SOL scene. Now, return to Old Trade Sector 2. Head south from the ladder room and continue west at the intersection. Go through the next door and head north at the next junction. Climb down the ladder at the end of the path to emerge back in sector D. Leave this small room and head south to a junction. Pick up any items in the hall to the east and continue through the door to the south. Keep going south, making sure to get any items that may be in the dead end hall to the east of the next junction. Then, continue up the ladder at the south end of the hallway. ---------------------------------------- Old Trade Sector C (-870.0m) *Continued* ---------------------------------------- Head south from the small ladder room and fight any Brokenhearts that may be hanging around in this hallway. Continue east at the intersection and go through the door there. To win the key for the treasure chest in this room, you’ll have to do battle with four Worm-Men. Unless they’ve been really easy to beat so far, you should probably stick to fighting them one at a time, as multiple unanswered Circle Stages from them could mean trouble. They’ll probably start out in a neat little line, so to divide them, throw some food off to the side of the group so that it’s just close enough to get the attention of the Worm-Man on the end. It also helps if Ryu initiates the battle, because Lin is usually capable of bringing distant enemies into the fray. After you’ve beaten them all, pick up the treasure key they drop. Grab Enfeeble from the chest and return, once again, to Old Trade Sector 2. When you get there, exit the ladder room and head west at the junction to the south. Get the Save Token from the red box at the end of this path and then return to Trinity’s base. Take care of any unfinished business, such as stocking up on healing items, when you return to the base before you rest. Once you’re ready to move on, go inside the room near where you entered the Old Trade Sector side quest and then talk to the guy sitting at the desk to rest. During your little break, Ryu ponders upon his dragon powers, wondering why he was chosen to have such power. But then, a sudden yelp from Nina interrupts Ryu and Lin’s conversation. It turns out that some Trinity soldiers are trying to attack Nina, so now it’s time to come to the rescue! Boss fight: Trinity Attack HP: Trinity!?- 800, Trinity??- 700, Servu- 600, Trinity!!- 800 XP- 2841 Items- Heavy Suit+3, 600z, Magic Wand+4, 650z, Slave Clothes+6, 1000z, Ruby Maser+3, Legwarmers Recommended level- 21 Notes- Overall, this fight isn’t too bad, but it can prove difficult at first. Unlike in previous boss fights, you now have victory conditions that you must meet in order to win the fight. In this case, it’s too keep Nina alive at all costs. If Nina gets knocked out, you’ll automatically lose. She starts the fight surrounded by a Trinity fighter (!?) and a Trinity mage (??) with the Silence status condition. First off, cure her Silence with a Multimed and then have her get as far away from the Trinity fighter as possible. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to get her out of range of the mage’s Iceblast attack, but Nina should be able to survive it. While Nina is fleeing, have Ryu and Lin run up and intercept the two Trinity members. Have them both gang up on the fighter to kill him quickly, as his attack combinations can spell death to Nina in a single turn. Once he’s dead, the mage can easily be taken care of. He’ll target Nina with Iceblast every turn, but as long as you heal Nina after each of his blasts, she shouldn’t ever run the risk of dying. As Ryu and Lin attack, Nina should continue to make her way into the corner near the door where Ryu and Lin came in. Once you’ve killed off those guys, two more will come to attack you. Fortunately, they start off very far away from you, giving you a turn or two to prepare for their arrival. If you like, have Nina place a trap or two out in front of the doorway in the outer hall where your assailants will be coming from. Then, plant either Ryu or Lin right in the middle of the doorway, so that if one of those guys get can inside the room where Nina is, it’ll have to be over their dead body, literally. Although Servu can use Flare to attack Nina from a long range, it doesn’t do too much damage. When you’ve gotten everybody set up, just stand and wait for them to come. Ryu should stick to his most power level 3 skills, unless there’s already a good combo that you’re comfortable with. Blow up! and Let’s dance! are Lin’s best bet here. Just make sure to keep Ryu and Lin healed as much as possible, as they are your line of defense for Nina, and a combined effort from these two Trinity goons can cause a hefty amount of damage. And just so she’s not sitting back letting Ryu and Lin do all the work, have Nina carry out hit and run magic attacks whenever she’s got two full AP gauges. Since you’re dealing with multiple enemies, using D-Dive here can potentially add a lot of unwanted points to your D-Counter. I’d suggest not using it at all, but if you must, simply use it to eliminate the two initial soldiers. Afterwards, Mebeth steps in and confesses that he ordered this attack. It turns out that he did it to try to make Ryu think that the rangers were responsible, so that Ryu would join Trinity’s fight against the government. Somewhat disgusted with Mebeth‘s actions, Ryu and company stick to their decision to find the sky. Surprisingly though, Mebeth accepts this and gives you the M-Key, which you need in order to unlock the mystery to the sky. Now, it’s time to head onward. Go get plenty of healing items and other supplies that you may need from the local shop and maybe even make a save on the Telecorder in the base if you haven’t updated your hard save file in a while. When you’re ready to go, ride up the elevator near where Mebeth is standing to reach the Lifeline. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- X. Lifeline ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- That's It!, Slapper+3, How's That?, Backpack, Reversal, Kidding! Save Tokens- 3 Recommended level- 22 Recommended D-Counter- 31-39% ----------------------------- Lifeline Low Sector (-800.0m) ----------------------------- Head west from the elevator across this first hallway and go through the automatic door to the south. Continue west and go through the automatic door to the north at the end of this path to find yourself facing some Bandits or a few Gigantis genics. You’ve dealt with Bandits before, and they should be quite east to defeat, but if you didn’t do the side quest back at the Trinity Pit, this will be your first encounter with the Gigantis. Be careful approaching these guys, as they’ll charge at you very quickly if they see you. Their fighting style is very much like that of the Cyclops, the first boss you fought. They like to attack at close range, and if they can’t get into attacking distance, they’ll power up with Spiritcharge. You can either defeat them the slow way by using hit and run tactics, or you can just hack away from up close and take the hits the Gigantis dishes out. If you’re fighting Bandits instead of Gigantis, then you’ll meet a much tougher thief called the Shadowplayer at the end of the hallway. The Shadowplayer is fast and likes to use status changes on your party, especially Blindness and Poison. If you can drag a Bandit into the fight along with the Shadowplayer, it’ll use Command on you instead of attacking. However, if you faced Gigantis in the hallway, you’ll encounter a couple of those annoying Trilizards at the end of the hall. Remember that their elemental weaknesses change each turn, so watch what attacks they use to determine their weakness. Their weakness during the extra turn is always electricity. After clearing all the enemies around here, pick up any items lying around at the north end of the hallway and open the D-Ratio door to the left. ____________ \ D-Ratio Area \______________________________________________ \ This broken down elevator shaft is the game’s smallest | D-Ratio area. In here you’ll find either four more | Trilizards, or four DeVogues. Due to their slow gate, the | Trilizards should be easy to divide up, but the DeVogues | will charge at you as soon as you enter the room. The | DeVogues aren’t too difficult to beat, just lay into them | with Ryu’s physical attacks and Nina’s level 2 spells. For | the Trilizards, just exploit their elemental weaknesses, | but remember that they change every turn. | ____________________________________________________________/ Now, go back to the area to the south and head east. Go through the door at the east end of this room and get the Save Token from the red box just ahead. Continue to the west and go through the first automatic door on the south side of this room. Go through the door at the end of this path to emerge in a small room containing four DeVogues lead by a Gigantis. If you get too close to them, they’ll all charge at once. Unless you’re very confident in your abilities, I wouldn’t suggest taking on all five of these guys at once. To separate them, approach the group from the side so that they’ll charge you one at a time. Each of these guys by themselves shouldn’t be too hard to beat, but don’t take the Gigantis lightly. Once you kill the Gigantis, pick up the treasure key that appears and return to the previous room. Get That’s It! from the chest in the middle of this area. Chances are you’ve already noticed the big band of thieves standing around in this area. All of them are Bandits except for one Shadowplayer. Once again, try to initiate the fight with the Shadowplayer with at least one Bandit in the mix so that he’ll waste his turns telling the Bandits what to do instead of attacking your party. Then, focus all of your attacks on the Shadowplayer. Get all the items from the dead end hallway to the south and continue by riding the elevator to the west (Note- There’s a D-Ratio door that leads to a path that runs parallel to the normal route. I’ll go through the normal path first and then the D-Ratio path). --------------------------- Lifeline Mid East (-760.0m) --------------------------- After leaving the elevator shaft, grab any items along this next path and continue through the door to the west. Head west in this next room and double back around the big pipe running down the center of this room to find some Hychees and Odd Hychees hanging from the ceiling. Turn them into healing items and proceed into the next room. At the west end of this room, you’ll encounter a barricade of Trilizards, along with a DeVogue, blocking the next door. You’re going to have to fight your way through them, because they’re so close to the door that you can’t even D-Dash past them. The only good chance you have to avoid fighting the lizards is to first take out the DeVogue, then toss some bait off to the side of the path to draw them away from the door. You might be able to sneak by this way. To make these fights easier, approach the group slowly so that they’ll come after you one at a time, because fighting a group this big can prove deadly if you’re not careful. Get rid of the DeVogue first and then take out the Trilizards one by one. Again, let Nina get the extra turn so she can hit them with Lightning to deal some major damage. And always keep in mind that their element changes each turn. When you defeat them all, continue through the door they were guarding and pass through this short hallway. --------------------------- Lifeline Mid West (-760.0m) --------------------------- Go through this next short hallway. In this next room, there will be a couple of Goo Prisms lurking around. Since they constantly stay invisible on the field, initiate the battle by having Lin target them and then kill them easily using Nina’s magic, any element will do. At the far end of the hall you’ll find a Wonder Box shuffling around aimlessly. Do as much damage to it as possible without killing it and them let it kill itself to get a good item like a Gold XP. Now, go through the next door. There are three Gigantis lined up on the left side of this next room. If you really don’t want to fight them, you can actually get by them if you hug the right side of the hall as you walk by. Otherwise, divide them up and fight them individually by approaching them slowly. Have Ryu slice away with his best level 3 skills or whatever combos that work best for you, while Lin and Nina strike from a distance. Then, head inside the next room. Get all the items lying around in here and ride the elevator to the west. ____________________________________ \ D-Ratio Area: Lifeline Mid East/West \______________________ \ Pick up all the items in this first hallway and head | through the door to the west. You may be pounced upon by | some Bandits as soon as you enter this room, but you should | still be able to get the extra turn as long as you’re | paying attenion. Once you’re done with them, go take care | of the Bandits and another Shadowplayer at the far end of | the room. Remember, the Shadowplayer is less aggressive | when there are Bandits around during the fight. Now, | continue through the next door. In this room you’ll find a | large group of Trilizards hanging around at the far end of | the room. If you want some big experience at the cost of a | tougher fight, group as many of them together as you can | with Fresh Meat and have Nina initiate the battle, so you | can start dealing some big damage with Lightning or | Valhalla. If the Trilizards are still a pain at this point, | then just divide and conquer. When they’re done for, | proceed through the next door and pass through the next two | short hallways. | | Get all the items in the small room to the far west and | continue through the door in the middle of this room. Be | careful making your way into this next hallway, because | there is a Gigantis standing on either side of the | intersection. Use you camera angles to look around the | corner, so you can then quickly run out and start the | battle before they get a chance to charge at you. Kill both | of them and grab any items there may be at the east end of | the hallway. Go through the door at the west end of the | hallway to enter a small room containing a Goo Crystal. | Like Goo Prisms, the Goo Crystal cloaks itself on the | field, so use Lin to target it. Physical and shot attacks | do miniscule damage to the Goo Crystal, so rely on level 2 | spells from Nina to do the most damage. Also, make sure to | keep your party spread out, as the Goo Crystal likes to | attack you with Expand, as well as a full arsenal of level | 2 spells. Once it’s dead, pick up the treasure key it drops | and head through the automatic door to the west. Now, you | can either go inside the small room to the south to fight a | couple of Trilizards and a Cerebus for some extra | experience (and perhaps a 7th Sense as well), or you can | continue through the door to the west. Once you decide to | move on, pass through this next hallway and get the | Slapper+3 from the chest at the east end of this room. | Then, ride up the elevator to the west. | ____________________________________________________________/ --------------------------- Lifeline Top East (-720.0m) --------------------------- Regardless of whether you came from the D-Ratio path or the normal path, leave the elevator shaft and pass through this next hallway. At the north end of of this next area you’ll find another band of Bandits led by a Shadowplayer. Defeat them as you have throughout the entire mission and pick up the treasure key that the Shadowplayer drops. Now, go through the door at the south end of this room and get all the items from the boxes in the area to the east. Behind the big line of boxes you’ll run into some worm-like creatures that look just like Hychees. These guys are called Bon Appetits, and unlike the Hychees, they can’t be defeated on the field. However, they are easily eliminated in battle with Nina’s magic. Pick up all the Aid Kits they drop and head through the door to the west. Pass through this next hallway. Take caution going into the next hallway, because there are two Gigantis lurking around waiting to ambush you. Peek around the corner using your camera angles to spot the Gigantis before they spot you. Once you defeat them, head over to the far end of this area to find some more Bon Appetits and a few Sebons, or big versions of the Bon Appetits. They are also easily killed with magic. Now, return to where you got the treasure key and continue through the door to the north. Get all the items from the boxes lined up in the dead end hallway to the east. You’ll probably notice that there’s a monster behind the boxes that looks like a black Trilizard. This is the Cerebus, a much weaker three headed creature. Just use Nina’s ice spells and Ryu’s sword skills to beat it without much difficulty. These guys usually drop a 7th Sense so be sure to pick it up after the fight. Then, proceed through the door to the west. Follow this next path and go through the door at the end. Go through the southeastern door in this room and get How’s That? from the chest in here. Return to the previous room and go through the door to the west to reach the Top Sector Junction. As you enter the junction, you’ll find that Bosch has been waiting for you. As he turns and reveals himself, you’ll see that Bosch has gone through a transformation by grafting a D-Construct arm to himself, for the sole purpose of taking you down. Get ready for round two against Bosch! Boss fight: Rebuilt Bosch HP: 2000 XP- 9000 Items- Thrust, Mega Panacea Recommended level- 24 Notes- This could very well be the toughest fight yet. Bosch comes into this fight packing his trademark Twin Wake attack, and now it does more damage than ever. He has some new tricks up his sleeve as well. His Kirin Flight attack can be devastating if your characters are standing too close together, and Dragonslayer is a high damaging attack that can even penetrate your mighty dragon form. If Bosch’s new arsenal of powerful skills wasn’t enough, he also regenerates a good amount of HP every turn. Fortunately, as Bosch’s HP gets lower, he won’t regenerate as much, however, he does get more dangerous as his HP decreases. Since Bosch can strike multiple targets in a line, make sure to keep your party spread out. He’ll exclusively attack Ryu unless Lin or Nina attack him directly, so use this to your advantage and equip Ryu with the skill Discharge. As long as you have plenty of healing items, especially Aid Kits and Tonics, you should be able to pull off a victory without resorting to D-Dive. During the first round have Lin and Nina spread out away from Ryu, while Ryu just sits back and waits for Bosch to walk right up to him, building up two full AP guages in the process. Then, unleash all of his AP during the next turn in the form of your best skills and combos. Don’t use Discharge just yet, because it’s best to wait until Ryu has taken more punishment. To maximize the damage you deal with this assault, use a Power Boost or 7th Sense on Ryu for this turn. You should deal more than enough damage to override Bosch’s HP regeneration. Now, just attack with all of your AP each turn, as opposed to building up two AP gauges. As long as Ryu’s attacks are consistently outdoing Bosch’s HP regeneration and your healing items are holding up well, then refrain from having Lin or Nina attack so that Ryu can continue to build up damage for Discharge. But if Ryu just isn’t doing enough on his own, feel free to have Lin and Nina help him out. Once Bosch starts going out of control, it’s time to end the battle as quickly as possible. Lin and Nina should begin attacking with everything they have if they haven’t begun attacking already. Ryu should continue to attack in the biggest, most powerful combos you can muster, but now he should throw Discharge into the mix to deal some insane damage. If you find Bosch to be just too much for you, or you run out of healing items, there’s no shame in employing D-Dive in this battle. Two D-Charges and a Twister should do him in. Even after being defeated, Bosch still refuses to give up. But suddenly his D-arm goes out of control, causing him to fall off the junction platform. Despite Ryu’s efforts to help him, Bosch disappears into the abyss below. While your party is leaving the junction, a voice calls out to Bosch down below, and his D-Construct arm drives itself right through his neck. Following an SOL scene, you’re now faced with a decision. You can either continue up the elevator to the northwest to reach the next town, or you can take on the game’s final D-Ratio area, which is a five floor side dungeon. You have to have a pretty good D-Ratio to get in (1/256 I believe), so if this is your first game, just ignore this place. Along with some good items, you’ll also get a nice preview of the tough enemies you’ll be up against if you ever decide to venture into the Kokon Horay dungeon. If your D-Ratio is high enough, I’d highly suggest going in, but if the fight with Bosch wore you out, you can go get some healing items from the next town beforehand. When you’re ready to move on, go through the door to the southwest and ride the elevator there. Exit the elevator shaft and go through the door to the south. Head through the automatic door at the south end of this next room and continue through the automatic door to the northeast. Pass through this next room and go through the D-Ratio door at the end of the path. ________________________ \ D-Ratio Area: Main Shaft \__________________________________ \ Ride the elevator in here up to reach the first floor of | the Main Shaft dungeon. Leave the elevator shaft and pass | through this small room. Take this path east until you | reach a fork, where you’ll find a bunch of white | Hychee-looking creatures squirming around. These guys are | exactly like Hychees, except they drop Med Kits instead of | Heal Kits. So, turn them all into Med Kits (believe me, | you’ll need them) and go through the door to the southeast. | Follow the catwalk in this next room and you’ll run into a | bunch of little ghosts that look like red Brokenhearts. | These guys are called Crushedhearts. Like their green | cousins, they are quite evasive, so use high accuracy | attacks like Ryu’s Third Eye. Nina’s electric spells also | seem to work pretty well against them. If you’re fighting | them in groups, make sure you try to defeat them all at the | same time, because if a Crushedheart witnesses the death of | a friend, it’ll use the potentially deadly Twin Strike. | | Make your way around the shaft in the middle of this area | and you may run into some of this dungeon’s toughest foes, | the Duke Knights. The Duke Knights have a special armor | (just like that of a Duke Battler’s) where you can only | break it by hitting them with several physical attacks. Not | only that, but their attacks do 100+ damage. Definitey | divide and conquer these guys. Fighting more than two Duke | Knights at once can prove foolish if you’re not up to it. | Spread out and surround the Duke Knight, as they can use a | spread attack. Have Ryu go in and hit it with as many level | 1 attacks as his AP will allow. Then have Lin follow up | with some level 1 shot attacks. You’ll need to hit the Duke | Knight around 15 times before its armor breaks. Once its | armor cracks, run in and kill it. After you’re done | fighting in here, keep following the catwalk going east. | Then ride up the elevator at the end of the path. | | Follow the catwalk going south from the elevator shaft all | the way to a red box containing a Save Token on the west | side of this room. Head around the big post here and | you’ll encounter a flock of Ebonfires led by a new enemy, | the Mahadevan. Like their relative the Baphomet, the | Mahadevan regenerates a good amount of HP every turn. | Electric attacks are most effective against it, so use | spells like Lightning and Valhalla. Shot attacks work well | here also, so have Lin use her most powerful skills like | Shatter!. For the most part, it’s attacks aren’t too | devastating, however, if there aren’t any Ebonfires around, | the Mahadevan will nail you Blizzard. So, defeat the | Mahadevan and then take out the Ebonfires with ice magic | and shot attacks. Pick up the treasure key the Mahadevan | drops and continue through the door to the west. Around the | next big post in here you’ll find some more Crushedhearts | and maybe a few Duke Knights at the far end of the area | guarding the treasure chest. There’s also a Goo Crystal | roaming the catwalk around the big post, so don‘t let it | surprise you. It really helps if you have the Tracker item | so you can see invisible enemies on the map. Remember, | magic works best against them. Fight off the rest of the | enemies as you have done before and get the Backpack from | the chest at the north end of the room. Then, proceed by | riding the elevator to the southwest. | | Along this next path you’ll find both old and new foes. | There’s probably a Kanaphage or two running around in this | area, so hunt them down to get some extra zenny. Remember | to kill them in as few hits as possible to get the most | money from them. On the square platform in the middle of | the path you’ll enounter a few creatures that look like | dark Worm-Men. These are Nerve-Men, and they’re very | similar to their relatives the Worm-Men, except their | attacks do a lot more damage and it takes longer to bring | them down. Stay spread out while fighting them, because | their Circle Stage attack does a good amount of damage. Ryu | should attack up close while Nina uses spells from a | distance. If Lin has Shatter!, get up close and blow them | away with it. Unless you’re a fine tuned veteran at the | game, don’t try fighting too many of these guys at once. | Once you’re done with them, continue through the door to | the east and take this next catwalk up to the north end of | the room. | | Here you’ll see a bunch of insect-looking creatures | hovering around called Buzz Militants. These guys are | pretty easy to beat if you distract them with meat and get | the extra turn. Pound away with spread attacks during the | extra turn if you’re fighting a group of them, and then | have Nina follow up with Lightning. You may also find a few | Worm-Men around here as well, but compared to the | Nerve-Men, these guys should be no problem. Go through the | door to the west to emerge on a short path leading up to | this floor’s treasure chest. As you approach the chest, a | towering Nerve-Man will stand before you. Don’t let its | size scare you, because this goliath Nerve-Man is no | stronger than the ones you previously fought. Pick up the | treasure key it drops after you defeat it and get Reversal | from the chest. | | Return to the previous room and you’ll find that not only | have more Buzz Militants appeared, but there’s also a giant | version of the Kanaphage called the Kanaphage DX sitting in | the middle of the path. The Kanaphage DX is a fast and | powerful foe who’s not to be taken lighly. Its hit and run | attacks with Inferno can be devastating, so try to take it | down as fast as possible. Have Lin use Shatter! while Ryu | uses Spiritcharge followed up by your strongest level 3 | attack. However, if you don’t mind adding a few points to | your D-Counter, you can D-Dive, and then use one D-Charge | and a Twister to kill the Kanaphage DX in one hit and get | the most zenny out of it. Once you’re done here, ride the | elevator at the east end of this area. | | Exit the elevator shaft and head over to the west end of | this area, where you’ll find three doors and another flock | of Ebonfires headed by a Mahadevan. Remember to take down | the Mahadevan first with Nina’s electric spells and Lin’s | shot attacks and then go after the Ebonfires to avoid | getting hit by powerful spells, such as Blizzard. Beat them | all and proceed through the middle door at the west end of | this room. Along with a bunch of Crushedhearts scattered | about this area, you’ll find three Duke Knights hanging | around near the large shafts. You’ll have to beat them all | in order to win the final treasure key for this D-Ratio | dungeon. Unless you’re very confident in your abilities, | avoid fighting more than one or two of these guys at a | time. Fortunately, Duke Knights are quite easy to split up, | especially if you have some kind of food to lure them with. | Hack away at them with level 1 attacks until you’ve hit | them about 10-15 times. Then when the Duke Knight’s armor | cracks, run in and kill it quickly. Also make sure to keep | your party in a fairly wide formation to avoid mass damage | from their Spread attack. Once you kill them all, pick up | the treasure key they drop. Collect Kidding! from the chest | in the middle of this area and return to the previous room. | Go through the northwestern door and ride the elevator at | the end of this next path. | | The last obstacle you’ll face in this dungeon is a line a | several Nerve-Men blocking this next catwalk. Since there’s | no treasure key to get here, you can either fight through | them all for some experience, or you can D-Dash through | them all, which will only cost less than a percent towards | your D-Counter. After you get past them, go through the | door to the east. Head north at the fork in this next path | and get the Save Token from the box in the middle of the | path. Continue through the door at the east end of the room | and ride the elevator there. Following an SOL scene, exit | the elevator shaft and walk north in this next area to | reach the Top Sector. | ____________________________________________________________/ ---------------------------- Top Sector Borough (-680.0m) ---------------------------- This is the last town in the game, so make sure you come out of here fully prepared. You’ll find everything you need here: item and weapon shops with excellent wares, a locker girl, a Telecorder, and even a fairy who’s hanging out at the top end of town. Stock up on plenty of healing items and maybe even buy some better equipment if your budget allows it. The layout of the town may be confusing at first, but once you have a look around you’ll be able to figure it out. The only really tricky thing is reaching the weapon shop. To get there, go through the passageway near where the two people are talking and make your way down the little hallway to the right to reach it. Once you’re ready to go, continue through the small door at the top of town (just left of where the fairy is) to reach the Top Sector power plant. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- XI. Power One ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Backpack, Divine, Crossviper, Shatter! Save Tokens- N/A Recommended level- 25 Recommended D-Counter- 35-42% ---------------------- Power One 1F (-660.0m) ---------------------- Pass through this first small room to emerge in a large room crawling with speedy Skeleton monsters. The Skeletons will charge at you with incredible speed if they catch sight of you, however, they are incapable of changing direction. To dodge them, simply take a few steps out of the way as they’re coming towards you. Like the Zombies back in the Old Trade Sector, the Skeletons will not go away until their host has been killed. In this case, their host is the tiny Karon, who likes to hang out either in the northwest corner of the room, or along the catwalk to the south. Don’t let the Karon’s size fool you. With attacks like Pre-Primus and Death, and the ability to regenerate HP, the Karon is a force to be reconed with. It’s weak against flame attacks, so have Nina use attacks like Flare and Fireblast while Ryu hacks away with his best combos. However, if you have purchased Nina’s Holy Heart weapon from the fairy colony, you can use its Kyrie skill to kill these guys in one hit. After you defeat the Karon, pick up the treasure key that appears at the northwest end of this room. Continue across the catwalk at the south end of the room where you’ll find a bunch of little red ghosts called Crushedhearts. Like their green look-a-likes the Brokenhearts, these guys are quites evasive towards physical and shot attacks, so use accuracy skills like Ryu’s Third Eye and Lin’s Too slow!!. Also, Nina’s electric spells are very effective against them. If you fight them in groups, make sure you try to kill them all at once, because if one of them dies, the others will use Twin Strike on you, which does damage equal to their remaining HP. Once you’re done here, go through the door at the southeast end of this area. Right when you enter this room, get the Backpack from the chest just to the north and go through the door in the northwest corner of this area. Pick up all the items along this dead end path and return to the previous room. At the east end of this room you’ll find a large family of Nugget-type genics hanging out between two automatic doors. Although you don’t have to fight them, you should for the experience. The little Nuggets and Mama Nugget shouldn’t cause you any difficulty, but now there’s a Papa Nugget in the mix, who’s quite a formidable foe. Not only is he really fast, but his attacks are powerful and he has a lot of HP. Fire is the most effective element to use here, so employ Nina’s best fire based spells while Ryu and Lin chip away with their most powerful skills. Just don’t use electric attacks, as it makes them stronger. When you’re done with them, you can continue by taking either the northern path, which leads to the second floor, or the southern path, which leads to the third floor. Whichever you choose, you’ll eventually end up at the fourth floor, however, you can go back after taking one path to explore the other. I’ll do the northern path along with the second floor first, and then the southern path and the third floor. ---------- North Path ---------- Go through the next door in this small room and pass through this next hall to emerge inside of a danger room full of Skeletons. Among them is the single Karon you need to defeat to clear the entire room. Dodge the Skeletons and go after the Karon. Remember, stick to Nina’s best fire spells and Ryu and Lin’s best combos to beat it. Once again, having Nina’s Holy Heart weapon will make this fight pathetically easy. After you clear the danger room, continue through the door to the west and ride the elevator there. ---------------------- Power One 2F (-650.0m) ---------------------- Exit the elevator shaft and pass through this small room. In this area, and in many other areas as well, you’ll find a bunch of machine enemies roaming around. The blue, four-legged robots are called Karels, who are very similar to the Capeks you fought back at the Industrial Area. However, their attacks are much more devastating, so beat them quickly using a combined effort of Ryu’s best combos and Nina’s strongest ice magic. Where there are Karels, you’re also bound to find little post-like robots called Rescue Mechs. As long as there are Karels around, the Rescue Mechs won’t attack you. Instead, they’ll assist the Karels by healing their HP and AP. If you catch them by themselves, they’ll hit you with Lightning. Take this opportunity to steal the Transfer skill that they carry, as it will prove as a very useful skill in fights to come. So fight all the Karels and Rescue Mechs in this area and head through the door to the east. This hallway contains even more Karels and Rescue Mechs. Be alert right when you enter the room, because the Karels will charge at you relentlessly if they see you. Fight off all the robots in here and continue through the next door in the middle of the west side of this hallway. Follow this next path to the south end of this room, where you’ll find, yes you guessed it, more Karels and Rescue Mechs. Unlike in the previous hallway where you had little room to maneuver, here you should have plenty of room to move around and split these machines up to make the fighting easier. Just remember to refrain from using electric spells. Spells like Iceblast are very effective here. When you’re done cleaning up the enemies here, head over to the southwest corner of the room where you’ll find two doors right near each other. Go through the western door (as opposed to the southern door) to emerge in a hallway containing more Skeletons, the single Karon host, and maybe a few tiny Crushedhearts hanging out near all the item boxes in the middle of the hall. Defeat the Karon to eliminate the Skeleton pests and pick up the treasure key that appears. Then go after any Crushedhearts there may be in this room. Remember to use accuracy weighted attacks and Nina’s electric spells to beat them easily. Now, retrieve Divine from the chest at the north end of this hallway and return to the previous room. Go through the southern door and pass through this small room to reach the elevator leading to the fourth floor (Note- Now I’m going to cover the southern path back on the first floor and then the third floor). ---------- South Path ---------- Pass through this small room and proceed through this next hallway to enter a danger room. This danger room is home to another Nugget family, featuring both a Mama and a Papa Nugget. The lesser Nuggets and the Mama Nugget should be easy to defeat, it’s the Papa Nugget you have to worry about. Fire is the best element to use against him, so have Nina cast Flare and Fireblast, while Ryu gets up close and uses his best combos. If there are a lot of other Nuggets caught up in the battle as well, have Lin use long range spread attacks like Blow up! to take care of them while getting the Papa Nugget caught up in the assault. His attacks can do quite a lot of damage so keep an eye on your HP and heal when you need to. Once you’ve cleared this danger room, go through the door to the west and ride the elevator there. ---------------------- Power One 3F (-640.0m) ---------------------- Leave the elevator shaft and pass through the next two rooms. In here you’ll find a plethora of machine enemies. The ones that look like blue Capeks are called Karels, and the little post-like robots that follow them around are Rescue Mechs. The Karels like to use long range spread attacks, so fight them up close using Ryu’s best combos and Nina’s ice magic. While the Karels are attacking you, the Rescue Mechs will heal them. However, once the Karels are out of the picture, they’ll start hitting you with Lightning (Note- You should try to steal Transfer from the Rescue Mechs, which is a very useful skill for Nina). At the far end of the hallway, you’ll find a huge version of the Karel called the Proto-Karel. Not only does this guy have a lot more HP than the normal Karel, but it also can use the nasty Pre-Primus attack if you make it angry. Regardless, the same tactics work just fine here. Rely on Nina’s Iceblast to do a tremendous amount of damage. Once you defeat it, pick up the treasure key it drops. Get all the items from the small room to the north and continue through the door at the southwest end of this hallway. Take this next path west and continue going west at the 3-way intersecton. Go inside the small room at the end of the path to find yet another group of Nuggets and some Lightning Goos. You should know how to deal with the Nuggets by now. The Lightning Goos are just big versions of the Goo Plasma that you fought way back at the Corp Lab. To beat them, simply use your strongest fire spells to both weaken them and cause massive damage. Once you’ve cleared this room of its foes, gather up any items that may be lying around in here. Return to the intersection in the previous room and head north. Go through the door at the end of this path to emerge inside another hallway full of Karels and Rescue Mechs. The Karels may be lined up along one of the walls, so approach them carefully, as they tend to charge without warning in this situation. If you’ve already done the second floor, this will be your last chance to steal Transfer from the Rescue Mechs, so if you haven’t gotten it yet, do so now. After you’re finished here, head through the door at the southwest end of this hallway and go inside the small room to the west to reach the treasure chest containing Crossviper. Go back inside the northern hallway and ride up the elevator to the west to reach the fourth floor. ---------------------- Power One 4F (-630.0m) ---------------------- The first part of this floor can be difficult, but the path is very straightforward. No matter which floor you came from, you’ll eventually end up in the same place, which is the eastern room. To get there, you’ll have to make your way through a few hallways. Along the way, you may run into a Proto-Karel, so defeat it using Nina’s best ice magic. In the latter halls, you’re bound to run into some Skeletons. They may be harder to dodge in these confining halls, so do the best you can. It helps if you have some extra Fresh Meat or other food traps. Just toss some meat off to the side right when you enter a room cluttered with Skeletons, so you can run by while they go after the meat. Once you reach the eastern room, you’ll come face to face with the hosts of all these Skeletons. Not only are there two Karons, but there are also two Lesser Karons to deal with as well. While the Lesser Karons don’t have the HP to last very long against you, their attacks are still a threat, so kill them during the extra turn. Again, you can beat them all quickly and painlessly if you have Nina’s Holy Heart weapon. When they’re done for, continue through the door in the middle of this area. There are two small groups of Crushedhearts in this next room. For some big party XP, to can toss some Fresh Meat out into the middle of the intersection to merge the two groups together. While fighting them, remember to use accuracy skills along with Nina’s electric spells. Ryu’s Third Eye followed up by Roundsaber or Violet Death is a great way to deal huge damage to multiple Crushedhearts. After you defeat them all, pick up the treasure key they drop and go collect all the items in the hall to the south. Continue into the northern room and you’ll find a bunch of little white worms on this next path. These guys are just like Hychees, so defeat them on the field to turn them into Med Kits. Proceed through the next door and follow this next path all the way around to the treasure chest containing Shatter!. Be sure to equip it now. Then ride the elevator on the west side of the room. ------------------------ Power One Roof (-620.0m) ------------------------ Climb up the stairs in this next room to reach the Power One Transport area at the very top of the power plant. Ascend the next set of stairs to reach the very top. As you’ll learn in this next scene, the portal ahead leads directly to the Centre, the home of the regents. But suddenly, someone appears on the transport. One of the regents, who holds one of the keys that you need, has come from the Centre to challenge you to a fight. So get ready to fight the regent, Deamoned! Boss fight: Deamoned HP: 3800 XP- 16002 Items- Anger, Pump Muscles Recommended level- 27 Notes- For a regent, this guy isn’t all that tough as long as you can quickly adapt to a new style of fighting. Along with just about every single boss you’ll fight from now on, Deamoned has Absolute Defense, which is a shield that prevents you from even damaging him until you break it. You must deal enough damage to get through the Absolute Defense before you can actually damage his HP bar. In this case, Deamoned’s Absolute Defense rating is around 200, so you must deal 200 damage to his Absolute Defense before his HP will start to drop. Since this shield regenerates after every string of attacks, the only way to effectively break through it (outside of dragon form) is to attack in very lengthy combos. Besides his Absolute Defense, Deamoned isn’t all that scary. He’ll use Spiritcharge to power up if he’s not in range to attack and occasionally cast Howling to Bind your party. Besides Multi Strike, which you’ve seen before, the only other attacks you really have to watch out for are Meta Impact and Fatal Strike (or as I like to call it, Not-so-Fatal Strike, as it reduces your HP to 1). Just make sure to heal anyone who get its by Fatal Strike with a Med Kit or two. The basic strategy for beating Absolute Defense bosses is to build AP for a turn, then attack in one long combo the next turn. Deamoned starts the battle a very good distance from your group, so on the first turn, simply stand there and build AP, letting Deamoned come to you. If you have any stat boosters, it would be a good idea to use them for your second turn. Now on your second turn, unleash all the AP you’ve built up in one huge combo. Ryu should begin his combo with all of his level 1 skills, then work up and use all his level 2 skills, and go into his level 3 skills. This way, by the time you begin using your most powerful attacks, you’ll have a very high bonus damage percentage to boot. Just remember to skip skills on the lower levels that you can’t combo out of, such as Spiritcharge and Third Eye. If Ryu takes a lot of damage after one of Deamoned’s turns (especially from Fatal Strike) have him throw Discharge into the combo. Nina should use the same 1,2,3 method (as I like to call it) as Ryu. Have Lin get as close to Deamoned as she can and use her new Shatter! skill repeatedly, which should deal huge damage. Afterwards, just repeat the process of building up AP for a turn and then attacking the next turn. If you got the Transfer skill for Nina, you can actually give all of her AP to Ryu or Lin so that they can attack every turn. You really shouldn’t have to move around all that much in this fight, because if you just stay where you are, Deamoned won’t play chase because he can only attack at close range. And he doesn’t really use his hit-back attack all that much either. Although D-Dive really isn’t necessary in this fight, don’t let me stop you if you’ve got plenty of leeway on your D-Counter and feel like giving this guy a good dragon beating. Two (no more than three) D-Charges and a Twister should suffice. There will be an SOL scene after the fight. Once it’s over, Pick up the D-Key that Deamoned dropped. Now, if there is any unfinished business that you need to attend to, do it now. Because once you use that portal and reach the Centre, there’s absolutely no turing back. If you need healing items, then don’t worry, because there is an item shop and a locker right at the Centre’s entrance. So when you’re ready to go, step on the portal and teleport to the game’s final confrontation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- XII. The Final Mission ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Treasure Chest items- Backpack, Angel Coat+4, Princess Gard+4, Inferno, Blizzard, Drop dead!, Snatch, Hyper Kick, Lag Valhalla Save Tokens- N/A Recommended level- 30 Recommended D-Counter- 40-45% Well congratulations! You’ve made it to the game’s final mission. The road ahead isn’t long, but it certainly isn’t going to be easy if you haven’t been conserving your D-Counter up to this point. However, if your D-Counter is a good deal less than 50%, then this may be the easiest final mission you’ve ever faced. There are a total of five bosses in this mission that you must best in order to beat the game, and if your D-Counter is low enough, you can simply waste each and every one of them using your dragon powers. If not, then you have some extremely tough fights coming up. Regardless, you should buy a very hefty supply of healing items from the shop in this first room, as the random battles in the Centre can be considerably hard. If you are low on zenny, now would be a good time to sell any unwanted equipment that you have in your weapon locker. So make any last minute preparations in this entrance hall and continue into the Centre. ------------------- Centre 1F (-500.0m) ------------------- First off, as you explore the Centre make sure you use your camera angles to check around corners, behind staircases, and such as there are a lot of item boxes in discrete locations such as these. Now, head east along either the north or south paths in this room and go through the door at the end of the path. In this room, you’ll find a bunch of bug-like creatures called Buzz Militants hovering around in the lower area in the middle of the room. You can easily get them into tight groups by tossing some food their way. Then have either Ryu or Nina initiate the battle from up close. Ryu should use multiple X Blades, while Nina casts Lighting and Lin uses her strongest spread attacks, like Blow up! from a distance. You’ll want to defeat these guys before they get a chance to cast Shield, which will greatly reduce the effectiveness of Ryu and Lin’s attacks. If you look around the lower area carefully, you’ll spot a monster that looks like a puddle. This is a Creepstalker, and they like to disappear when you get too close to them, so initiate the battle with Lin. Although the Creepstalker is incredibly weak against physical attacks, it is also incredibly evasive towards them. However, if you use Nina’s ice magic on it, it’ll lose its evasiveness making it very easy to kill. Just watch out though, because once you anger the Creepstalker it’ll cast the devastating Quake spell on you. Once you’ve defeated the Creepstalker, pick up the treasure key it drops and continue through the eastern door (Note- There is a Telecorder in the small room to the west in case you need to use it). In here you’ll find some Darkstalkers, which are very similar to the Creepstalker, except they aren’t nearly as evasive. This makes them relatively easy to beat, but don’t let them live too long or else they’ll steal from you. After you’re done with them, head over to the small pavilion-like room to the east and get the Backpack from the chest there. There may be a big Creepstalker sitting in front of the chest, but it’ll vanish as you walk towards it. When you’re done here, you have a big decision to make. In the upper area of the room, there are two portals that are just like the the one on the Power One roof. Once you use one of them, there’s no going back. The two portals here lead to two different paths on the second floor, which lead to two different bosses. It doesn’t make too much difference which path you take if you plan on using D-Dive on the boss, however, the treasure chest items and monsters are different for each path. If you want to get the easier boss (in my opinion), then take the northern path. However, I’m putting down the southern path first. ------------------------- Centre 2F South (-480.0m) ------------------------- In this first room, go down the staircase to reach the lower area, where you’ll find a huge, golden, armor clad monster guarding a door. Meet the Pantagruel, who is capable of using some fearsome magic if you give it the chance. Not only that, but it also has a little bit of Absolute Defense, so make sure to attack in long combos. Once you break through the Pantagruel’s Absolute Defense, you’ll find that Ryu’s physical attacks will quickly deplete its HP. Magic is ineffective here, so Nina should transfer all of her AP to Ryu (that is, if you have her Transfer skill). After you defeat the Pantagruel, go through the door it was guarding to emerge in a small area with a flock of Ebonfire bats along with their leader the Mahadevan in the middle of the area. Make sure to fight the Mahadevan with at least one Ebonfire in the mix, as the presence of Ebonfires prevents the Mahadevan from using its powerful Blizzard spell. The Mahadevan is weak against electric attacks, so have Nina use Lightning, while Lin gets up close and uses Shatter!. Keep in mind that it regenerates HP, so do as much damage as possible to override the HP regeneration. Once the Mahadevan is dead, go after the Ebonfires. Since they are relatively weak, group them all together with some Fresh Meat and kill them quickly with spread attacks to get some big party XP. Now, pick up the treasure key the Mahadevan drops and return to the previous room. Head back up the stairs and continue along the path going east. On the small balcony on the left side of the path you’ll find an item box that has the Silence status change. This is really an enemy called the Pandora Box. Although Ryu can possibly defeat it during his extra turn, it drops different items depending on how many turns you let it live. Be warned, however, because the Pandora Box can inflict some major damage to your party if you let it attack. When you’re done here, continue through the door to the east and go through the automatic door at the end of this next path. Walk north in this room and go through the door to the northeast. Get the Angel Coat+4 from the chest here and use the portal to the southeast to reach the third floor. ------------------------- Centre 3F South (-460.0m) ------------------------- Exit this small portal room to emerge in a room with a few Rafflesia hanging around. You fought these guys way back at the Corp Lab, so they shouldn’t give you any trouble. However, you could try powering them up with magic to increase the amount of XP they give you. When you're done with them, head up the stair set to find a bunch of Trilizards in this upper area. Remember to use their elemental weaknesses against them, keeping in mind that it changes every turn. If you initiate the battle with Nina, use electric attacks during the extra turn. Continue through the next door to enter a danger room with three Cerebus inside (Note- The danger room will only initiate if you defeated all the enemies in the previous room). These guys are very easy to defeat with Ryu’s physical attacks and Nina’s ice magic. Not only that, but they drop a valuable 7th Sense most of the time. Once you clear the danger room, pick up the treasure key that appears and collect Inferno from the chest in the middle alcove. Proceed through the door to the east and pass through this next room. Use the portal at the northeast end of the room to reach the domain of the regent Hortensia. She holds another key that you need, and she’s not about to hand it over without a fight. So prepare to battle Hortensia. Boss fight: Hortensia HP: 3500 XP- 16002 Items- Bangle+4, Save Queen+4 Recommended level- 30 Notes- Hortensia can be very tough to beat, especially on your first play through. But an effective strategy and a good supply of Med Kits and Tonics in this unique fight will make things a lot easier. At the beginning of each turn, Hortensia will cast Fortune, which changes the layout of the colored square tiles on the floor. Later in the round, she will cast Hymn, which has different effects depending on what color square you’re standing on. Green will heal you, red will cut your HP in half, and white has no effect. She’ll follow up Hymn with some very powerful spells, which can do 150+ damage per casting. Not only that, but Hortensia will never move, nor can she be moved, which forces you to use up valuable AP walking to her. Make sure you equip armor that offers as much movement as possible. Since Hortensia only attacks with magic, heavy and defensive armor is completely worthless here. Nina should equip a shield that cuts down magical damage. After each casting of Fortune, you’ll want to move everybody to either a green or a white square. You may want to use some items that boost your Movement and Speed to make this easier. Once you get into attacking range, wait there and build AP. Hortensia has some high Absolute Defense, so you’ll want to attack with as much AP as possible. It really helps if you have Nina’s Transfer skill, so you can feed Ryu some much needed AP, as he is probably your most valuable attacker in this fight. Just make sure to leave some AP to use for moving. When Ryu and Lin are right near Hortensia with two full (or near full) AP gauges, have Ryu unleash all his AP using the 1,2,3 combo method (using all level 1 skills, then all level 2 skills, then level 3 skills). Lin should repeatedly use Shatter! as close to Hortensia as possible. After taking a good amount of abuse, Hortensia will cast Divine Shell, which pushes all of your characters back to the edges of the battlefield. As annoying as this is, there’s nothing you can do now except hike back over to where she’s standing to attack again. Remember that getting on a green or white square should be your top priority, as anyone who takes damage from Hymn and is then the target of Hortensia’s follow up magic is certain to die. However, if you go into each of her spell castings with full health, courtesy of the green squares, a Med Kit should be all you need to restore those hit with her follow up magic. If you’re just going to use D-Dive, three D-Charges and a Twister is usually enough to kill her. After the fight, pick up the H-Key that she was holding and teleport using on of the portals in this room. The left portal will take you to the Centre 4F Main, and the right portal will take you to the Centre 4F South. These two paths, once again, lead to two different bosses. Refer to the proper fourth floor section (after I do the north path for the second and third floors) to continue. The stats for both bosses will follow the four fourth floor sections. ------------------------- Centre 2F North (-480.0m) ------------------------- Leave this small portal room and head down the stair set in this area to reach the lower level, where you’ll find a monster called a Gargantua guarding a door. Not only does this guy have a very strong physical attack, but it also has an Absolute Defense of around 500. In order to get by that huge Absolue Defense, you’re going to have to attack in big combos. Have Nina transfer all of her AP over to Ryu, and have Lin get right up next to the Gargantua and use Shatter! as many times as she can. Once you’ve defeated it, go through the door it was guarding. In here you’ll see a huge group of Ebonfires hanging out in the middle of this area along with their leader, the Mahadevan. The Mahadevan’s attacks are considerably powerful, and it regenerates HP every round. As long as there are Ebonfires around, the Mahadeven will refrain from using its most powerful attacks, so kill it before you take out all the lesser bats. Nina’s electric magic and Lin’s best shot attacks, such as Shatter! and Blow up! are most effective here. After you kill all the enemies in here, pick up the treasure key that the Mahadevan drops. Go back into the previous room and climb back up the stairs into the upper area. Walk down the path going east, and you’ll notice a suspicious item box that is Silenced. This is actually a monster called the Pandora Box, which drops different items depending on how many turns you kill it in. Just be careful, as it is a foe to be reckoned with. I’d simply kill it before it gets a chance to attack, because that way you’ll still get a 7th Sense. Now, proceed through the door to the east. Pass through this next room and go through the door at the southeast end of this area. Grab the Princess Gard+4 from the chest and teleport using the portal to the northeast. ------------------------- Centre 3F North (-460.0m) ------------------------- Exit this portal room and go through the door in the northeast corner of this next room. Pass through this hallway, picking up any items that may be in the alcoves off to the side of the path, and go into the next room, which is overrun with Ice, Fire, and Lightning Goos. There are three of each type roaming around, and unfortunately, they’re all mixed up. However, do the best you can to exploit their elemental weaknesses. Divide and conquer if you must, or just rely on spread attacks from Ryu and Lin. Once you’ve defeated all the Goos in here, return to the previous hallway to find yourself in a danger room. Unlike the southern path’s danger room, this one yields some incredibly powerful foes. In two of the alcoves you’ll find your toughest adversaries, the Goo Kings. Not only do physical and shot attacks do miniscule damage to them, but they also have a terrifying array of area affect spells including, Inferno, Pre-Primus, Primus, and Expand. Surround the Goo King in a wide formation to minimize the casualties from its attacks. Although their attacks won’t do too much damage, Ryu and Lin should still attack anyway with their best skills while Nina uses spells to inflict some decent damage. In the middle of the hallway (between the two Goo Kings) there’s a Goo Crystal lurking around, so don’t let it take you by surprise. Once again, magic of any element works best here. After you clear the danger room, pick up the treasure key that appears and get Blizzard from the chest in the middle alcove. Now, go back to the room where all the Goos were before and use the portal at the southeast end of the room. Here, you’ll meet a kid who actually turns out to be a regent. And when Ryu refuses to give up his quest to save Nina, the regent Cupid has no choice but to eliminate you. Boss fight: Cupid HP: 3200 XP- 16002 Items- Silver Arc+4, Divine Coat+4, Celtis+9, Superheavy+3 Recommended level- 28 Notes- This fight shouldn’t be too hard, but still don’t take it lightly. For the most part, Cupid will just run away from you, letting her powerful pet Gargantua, Oncotte, do all the attacking for her. However, she will annoy you with skills like Push and Shadowstitch to make chasing her down more difficult. Oncotte cannot be damaged (even with dragon form) so never even bother to attack it. However, its attacks can do around 200 damage, so be prepared to heal after its assaults. A Bari shield, or any shield that will cut down on physical damage will be a tremendous help in this fight. Otherwise, light armor will be helpful since you’ll be playing chase the whole battle. While Ryu and Lin chase down Cupid, Nina should follow close behind, feeding them AP with her Transfer ability. Once you get within attacking range of Cupid, unleash everything you have in the form of long combos. The 1,2,3 combos work best for Ryu, while Lin’s best bet is to use Shatter! as many times as she can. Cupid’s Absolue Defense is about average (around 200-250) so breaking through it and inflicting decent damage shouldn’t be too much of a problem for Ryu and Lin. You’ll notice that Cupid will occasionally use Command on one of your party members, which will cause Oncotte to target that character. If you really want to avoid taking a lot of damage, you can have whoever gets targeted by command run away, and while Oncotte is chasing that character, your other two members can focus on Cupid. Then when someone else gets targeted, have that person run while the former target comes back to help attack Cupid. If you do this, make sure you’re not running towards your other two party members, because Oncotte will attack other characters if the targeted member is out of range but someone else is in range. It also helps if you use a Movement Boost to increase that character’s Movement Radius. Two D-Charges and two Twisters, or Three D-Charges and a Twister is enough to end the fight if you just want to use dragon form. But remember to only attack Cupid, because Oncotte is indestructible. When Cupid is dead, get the C-Key lying on the ground and then use one of the two portals in this room. The left one leads to the Centre 4F North and the right one leads to the Centre 4F Main. Both paths yield different bosses. To continue on with the walkthrough, refer to the proper fourth floor section just ahead. The stats for both bosses will come after the fourth floor sections. ------------------------- Centre 4F South (-420.0m) ------------------------- When you leave the portal room, you’ll emerge in a room with a bunch of Buzz Militants hovering around in the balcony-like area ahead. If you found the Buzz Militants to be hard when you fought them back on the first floor, then fight them in small groups or individually if you can manage it. If you’re bold enough, you can group as many together as you can and defeat them quickly for some huge party XP. Remember to use Ryu and Lin’s spread attacks while Nina casts Lightning. Once you’re done here, continue through the door to the southeast. In this hallway, you’ll find a giant Kanaphage know as the Kanaphage DX. This guy is not to be taken lightly, as its hit and run attacks with Inferno can really hurt. The more times you hit the Kanaphage DX, the less zenny it will drop, so use your most powerful level 3 skills. For Ryu, a Spiritcharge followed by Deathbringer is very effective here. However, if you want the most zenny, you can use D-Dive to kill the Kanaphage DX in one hit. After you defeat it, go through the door to the east. This last room yields a few Creepstalkers who are roaming around in the open part of the room. Among them is a giant Creepstalker, who holds the treasure key for this floor. If you get too close to it, it’ll vanish, so have Lin target it from far away to initiate the battle. Then use her C’mere skill to drag the Creepstalker towards your party. Use Nina’s Frost or Iceblast attack to take away the Creepstalker’s evasiveness, so you can then run in and easily defeat it with Ryu’s physical attacks. Kill it and pick up the treasure key it drops. Return to the previous room and get Drop dead! from the chest in the midde of this hall. Now, go back to the room where the Creepstalkers were and head over to the northeast end of the room. Here you’ll find a bunch of little white worms on the ground. Turn them into Med Kits and use the portal to the southeast to reach the next boss: the regent Vexacion. ------------------------- Centre 4F North (-420.0m) ------------------------- Leave this portal room and you’ll encounter a large group of Buzz Militants flying around in the area ahead. If you were comfortable fighting them before, then try using some food to bunch them up into large groups for some really big party XP. Otherwise, fight them in smaller groups. Remember that Nina’s electric attacks work best, along with spread attacks from Ryu and Lin such as X Blade and Blow up!. Continue through the door to the northeast once you’re done with them and head up this hall. There’s another Pandora Box sitting in the middle of this path. I’d just kill it during your extra turn and reap the 7th Sense it drops, but it you want to draw out the battle for another item, then don’t let me stop you. Just be careful of its powerful spells. Proceed into the next room and you’ll find a few Darkstalkers hanging around in the open portion of the room. You’ll want to go after the oversized Darkstalker, as it holds the treasure key for this floor. The Darkstalkers seem to be less skiddish than the Creepstalkers, so try to initiate the battle up close. Then cut them down using physical attacks and Nina’s ice magic. After you defeat the giant Darkstalker, pick up the treasure key it drops. Return to the previous room and get Snatch from the chest in this hall. Head back inside the room where you fought the Darkstalkers and walk over to the southeast end of this area, where you’ll find a bunch of white worms on the ground. Kill them, reap their Med Kits, and use the portal at the northeast end of this room. After a scene, you’ll fight your next boss: the regent Jezuit. ----------------------------------------- Centre 4F Main (-420.0m) *From Hortensia* ----------------------------------------- Exit the portal room and go through the door at the east end of this hall. Continue east in this next room and head north into the middle of the room, where you’ll find a line of Duke Knights blocking the path. If you haven’t fought these guys before, know now not to take them lightly. Not only are their attacks very powerful, they also have armor (like that of a Duke Battler) which can only be broken through multiple physical strikes. You’re going to have to hit the Duke Knight about a dozen or so times before it’s armor will crack, so spend you first turn chipping away at its armor. You’ll want to keep your party in a fairly wide formation, as the Duke Knight can use a spread attack. Once its armor breaks, keep pounding away with your best attacks and combos until it dies. After you fight your way through all the Duke Knights, you’ll come face to face with the greatest of all Dukes, the Duke Lord, who’s sleeping at the end of the path. The Duke Lord is just like the Duke Knight, except the Duke Lord has a little bit of Absolute Defense to break through. Regardless, defeat it using the same stategy you employed against the Knights. Then, pick up the treasure key that appears and grab Hyper Kick from the chest on the balcony behind where the Duke Lord was standing. Continue through the door at the northeast end of the room and teleport using the portal at the end of this path to reach the regent Jezuit. ------------------------------------- Centre 4F Main (-420.0m) *From Cupid* ------------------------------------- As soon as you leave the portal room, you may find yourself surrounded by Darkstalkers and Creepstalkers. You can fight them if you wish, but know that they do not hold the treasure key for this floor. If you do decide to fight them, remember to freeze up the Creepstalkers with Nina’s ice magic to make them less evasive. Then defeat them quickly with physical attacks. Once you’re done here, climb down the stair set on the right side of the path. Go through the door inside the small pavilion-like room to the east to emerge in an extremely narrow corridor with some Nerve-Men standing around along the path. Nerve-Men are very similar to their relatives the Worm-Men in the way they fight, however, their attacks are much stronger. Since you can’t really make a wide formation in this narrow hallway, surround the Nerve-Men to avoid having multiple people getting hit by their Circle Stage attack. They aren’t particularly weak against anything, so just use your most powerful attacks. Ryu should stick to his best combos, while Lin uses Shatter! from up close, and Nina uses spells from a distance. Once you defeat them all, pick up the treasure key that appears in the middle of the corridor and continue through the door to the east. Ascend the stair set just ahead and get Lag Valhalla from the chest at the west end of this path. Proceed by using the portal to the east and you’ll reach the regent Vexacion. Boss fight: Vexacion HP: Vexacion- 4200, Ryked- 2400, Nalaka- 2600 XP- 30000 Items- Terabreak, Mandau Blade+9, Strong Sword+9, Solid Shell+7, Strong Sword+5, Solid Ring+8 Recommended level- 32 Notes- Vexacion is quite hard, especially since you have his two bodyguards to deal with as well. Ryked will specifically target Lin, and Nalaka targets Nina, while Vexacion will go after Ryu. Nalaka and Ryked will assault their targets with Twin Wake and Kirin Flight, as well as go into counterattacking mode every few turns. Nina’s magic and Lin’s shot attacks are ineffective against their respective assailants, so keep this in mind before you attack. At the start of the fight, Ryked and Nalaka will come after you, while Vexacion will stay where he is and build AP for a turn or two. While Vexacion is building AP, you’ll want to dish out as much damage to his two lackys as possible. Since Nina is your weakest character defensively, you’ll probably want to put all of your efforts into taking out Nalaka first. Nina should use Transfer to feed all of her AP to Ryu, so he can pull off 1,2,3 combos every turn against Nalaka. While that’s going on, Lin should get right up next to Nalaka and blast away with Shatter!. If you have any Power Boosts, now would be a good time to use them, as getting rid of Nalaka before Vexacion joins the fight would be a huge help. After a turn or so, Vexacion will approach your party and begin hitting Ryu with Snakebite, Lion Smash, and Kirin Flight. However, every so often he’ll use the most deadly attack you’ve faced yet, the fearsome Quint Wake, which randomly hits everone within its range with five powerful strikes. Keep your party somewhat close together so that the strikes of Quint Wake aren’t focused all on Ryu, because not even Ryu has a chance of surviving this attack if he’s taking all the hits. Just be prepared to use a Trauma Kit to heal up your group after each Quint Wake. Eventhough Vexacion has joined the fight, you should still take out Nalaka and Ryked before going after the big guy himself. Just let Ryu take the hits from Vexacion as they come, because if you have the Discharge skill, you can pay him back once Nalaka and Ryked are dead. Once Nalaka is out of the way, you can either have Lin begin attacking Vexacion, or she can help Ryu take down Ryked. Just keep in mind that her attacks won’t do as much damage against Ryked. By the time Nalaka and Ryked are both out of the picture, Ryu will have probably taken a great deal of damage from Vexacion. Now, have Ryu use 1,2,3 combos, and be sure to include Discharge within the combo to cause some major damage. Vexacion’s Absolute Defense is pretty high (around 300), so you’re going to want to do as much damage as possible with each combo. Nina should continue to feed Ryu and Lin AP by using Transfer. While Ryu is pulling off his huge combo strings, Lin should just get right up next to Vexacion and pound him with Shatter! repeatedly. As long as you have pleny of healing items, you should be able to outlast him, as long as you can get through the initial toughness of the fight. If you’re just going to go dragon on his behind, then three D-Charges should give you enough power to take out Vexacion and each of his two cronies with a single Twister. However, if your AP won’t allow for three Twisters, then just give Vexacion a Twister and use Vortex once or twice to take out Nalaka and Ryked. Boss fight: Jezuit HP: 3600 XP- 16002 Items- Excel Suit+9, Solid Ribbon+8 Recommended level- 31 Notes- Jezuit is pretty tough, but you should be able to handle him. He comes into this battle packing a bunch of mean attacks, including Stun Gun, Pre-Primus, Primus, and his trademark Backflip attack. All of his skills do a very good deal of damage, and he can pull off three to four attacks in a single turn. Not only that, but Jezuit will always go first, so make sure your party is healed before ending each round. You’ll probably need to bring some Tonics along, as Jezuit’s assaults may prove too much for your weaker characters (especially Nina) to handle. His only downfall is his pathetic Absolute Defense, which is only around 50. At the very beginning of the battle, Jezuit will use Shadowwalk, which makes him completely untouchable. The ONLY way to break him out of this invincible state is to make him walk into one of Nina’s magical traps. If you don’t have any magic traps equipped to Nina’s weapon, it is pretty much impossible to win this fight. After Jezuit makes his first move, have Nina plant a magic circle right in front of him. There’s really nothing more you can do now, so just have Ryu and Lin build AP and end the turn. On the second turn, Jezuit will walk into the trap, forcing him out of his impervious state, and will begin attacking your party. Although getting past his Absolute Defense is hardly a problem, long 1,2,3 combos from Ryu and multiple Shatters! from Lin are still most effective in this fight. Since Jezuit’s defense is kind of high, those damage percentage bonuses will help out a little. If you’re still not happy with the damage you’re doing, you can always use a Power Boost or 7th Sense to increase your attack power. Eventhough it isn’t absolutely necessary in this battle, if it seems that Ryu or Lin is doing a great deal more damage than Nina, then just have Nina transfer her AP to that character. Every few turns, Jezuit may go back into his Shadowwalk form. When this happens, have Nina set a trap or two and then move your party members behind them. Then just wait for Jezuit to run into the magic circles so you can begin attacking again. If you just want to use D-Dive for this fight, first shatter Jezuit’s Shadowwalk form, and then hit him with three D-Charges and a Twister, or two D-Charges and two Twisters if you’re really trying to be conservative. Once you’ve defeated your second regent of the mission, regardless of who it was, pick up the key they dropped and step onto the portal ahead. You’ll then be transported to a very familiar location: the meeting hall of the regents. Pass through this room and use the next portal to leave the Centre and reach the Cemetery. In this area there are three stone monuments with key holes in them. Inspect one of them, and together, your party unlocks the three huge doors ahead. In the next room, there stands a single red monument. Examine it and you will insert Mebeth’s key to unlock the final security door before you, all in dramatic fashion. This next area is home to all three shop girls, as well as a Telecorder (Doesn’t that beat all?). I’ll warn you right now... THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE YOU’LL HAVE TO SAVE AND PREPARE FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD! Beyond this point is the game’s final confrontation, so do not continue until you are ready. If you still need to conserve your D-Counter, then I’d highly suggest that you buy all the healing items you can. Scrap together all the zenny you can by selling any equipment that you don’t need. Check up on your fairy colony if you haven’t done so in a while. However, if your D-Counter is low enough to wipe out the remaining bosses, then store all of your important items in the locker. Store nonpurchaseable items, such as 7th Senses and Gold XP, first. Then, if you have room left, store some of your better healing items. Once you are positive that you’re ready to move on, go through the next door (to the left of the Telecorder). After an SOL scene, you will arrive at the terminal (Note- This goes without saying, but there are some major SPOILERS ahead, so read at your own risk). --------------------------- Geovator Terminal (-370.0m) --------------------------- In this area, climb up the stair sets just ahead to reach the elevator that will take you up to the main gate at Geo Front. Go inside the little control room to the left and activate the lift. The Geovator will then begin its ascent to Geo Front. There will then be another SOL scene. But just as you were beginning to relax a little, the lift is suddenly attacked and everything goes dark. Then (in quite an awesome cut scene) Elyon, the Origin and highest of the regents, appears and challenges you to a battle. This is your last test to prove that Ryu truly is a Chosen. Prepare yourself, for it’s time to do battle against the Origin, Elyon! Boss fight: Elyon HP: 6000, Alter Ego HP- 3000 XP- Dependant on how many Alter Egos are defeated Items- Tonic, 7th Sense Recommended level- 35 Notes- You’re in for one heck of a battle if you don’t use dragon form. First of all, you MUST defeat Elyon within 20 turns or the game is over. But since this battle actually gets HARDER as it goes on, chances are you won’t be able to win if you need the whole 20 turns to beat him. Because of this, the key to winning this fight is to beat Elyon as quickly as possible. There are four different stages to this fight. In the first stage, Elyon will begin the battle (and I do mean “begin” as Elyon will ALWAYS go first) by creating two shadows of himself called Alter Egos. Although each of them has no Absolute Defense and only half as much HP as Elyon does, their attacks are just as potent as his. And unlike Elyon who will only attack once per turn, the Alter Egos will pull off two attacks each turn. Fortunately, their attacks aren’t too bad, for now at least. Their Jolt and Sledgehammer attacks don’t do too much damage, but the attack you really need to watch out for is Pentastroke, which does loads of damage. As long as you stay healed with Med and Aid Kits, the only person who shoud have the risk of dying from this attack is Nina. During your first turn, you should move in close to Elyon and his two shadows. As long as you don’t move too much, Elyon and his pals will stay relatively close together, making them vulnerable to spread attacks. For now, you should focus your assaults on Elyon, but try to get the Alter Egos caught in the crossfire. Ryu should stick to his 1,2,3 comboing method, ending his combos with multiple level 3 spread attacks like Roundsaber or Violet Death to damage the Alter Egos. After taking a good amount of punishment, Ryu should also throw Discharge into his combo. Elyon’s Absolute Defense is quite high, but his normal defense isn’t all that high, so using items like Power Boosts and 7th Senses will make breaking through the Absolute Defense and causing decent damage easy. Nina’s not going to be able to do very much damage with her spells, so have her use Transfer on Ryu every turn. Lin should, once again, use Shatter! repeatedly. Since this is a spread attack, you should try to get the Alter Egos caught up in it as well. To make the fight easier, don’t kill off both Alter Egos until you reach the second stage of the fight. Because if both Alter Egos die before you reach world two, then he’ll create two more. After five turns Elyon will cast the most powerful spell in the game, Karma, on a random character. Whoever gets cursed with this dreaded Karma circle is certain to die when the timer above their head runs out (unless that character has well over 10000 HP, because that's how much damage the spell does :P). Anyone standing within the circle will also be killed when the attack goes off, so when your timer is about to run out, quarintine that character away from the others and just let them die, it’s inevitable. However, once Elyon casts this horrible trap, he’ll spend three turns charging up for the attack. Kill off any remaining Alter Egos at this time and then unleash everything you have at Elyon. Now is a better time than ever to end this fight, so use any stat boosters that will help you take him down quickly. Nina should continue to feed Ryu AP using Transfer, while Lin uses Shatter!. If you really want to maximize your damage output, you should use an AP Charge or a Full AP on either Ryu or Lin, preferably the one who is doing the most damage. After three more turns, Elyon will unleash his Karma attack and then proceed to nail your party with Primus every round. Now, you should spread out so that Elyon can’t hit all three characters at once. Around round 12, you’ll enter the final stage of the fight, and if you haven’t won by now then you’re really in for it. Elyon will now start creating Alter Egos again. Elyon will then continue to cast Primus, and the occasional Focus, which draws all your party members close together. Meanwhile, the Alter Egos will attack with Stinger and Valhalla, sometimes using the latter of the two twice in one turn! Needless to say, that will leave your party holding on by a thread, so be ready to use some Trauma Kits and Tonics. At this point, you should just try to take down Elyon as quickly as possible, because the fight will end once he dies. Well, if you’re just going to use dragon form for this fight, D-Charge three times and then use Hurricane on Elyon and his two shadows. Then Twister Elyon to seal the deal. Whew! That was long! After the fight, the Geovator stops at the top terminal and Elyon openly accepts his defeat. Once you regain control, go down the stairs to the right, heal up, and then go through the door to the left. Following the game’s last SOL scene, you will reach the Geo Front gate. Excited that this is the last leg of the journey, your party runs down the entranceway to bask in awe under huge gate above. This is it! You’ve reached the final gate. There’s not much more between you and the sky now. But then, footsteps are heard coming down the entranceway. You are then shocked to see that Bosch has returned once again! But don’t be fooled by his calm composure. This is definitely not a joyous reunion. It turns out that Bosch has linked with a dragon and he’s looking for another rematch. So get ready to fight Bosch, again! Boss fight: Bosch HP: 2400 XP- 10002 Items- None Recommended level- 35 Notes- If you could handle Elyon, then you should have what it takes to bring down Bosch, given your healing items hold out. Bosch comes back with the same old tricks, but he also has some new moves up his sleeve, as well as some Absolute Defense. His Twin Wake attack is no more devastating than it was the last time you fought him, however, Bosch is now capable of pulling off two Twin Wakes in one turn. Not only that, but he also comes wielding a new combo called Tri Wake, which is quite deadly, even to Ryu. Bosch can also cast Blizzard, which does a good deal of damage, so keep your party spread out. I hope you have a good amount of Tonics on hand, because you’ll need them. Although Bosch’s Absolute Defense isn’t all that impressive, it is still a factor, as he has good regular defense. Stick to your basic Absolute Defense boss strategy of building up two full AP gauges and then attacking in huge combos. The 1,2,3 method works best for Ryu, while multiple Shatters! are still Lin’s best bet. Once again, Nina proves to be a mediocre attacker, so she should feed AP to Ryu and Lin by using Transfer. Since Bosch can easily wipe out Nina with his powerful attacks, she should stay far away from him, while Lin and Ryu take the hits as they come. If Ryu has Discharge, be sure to include it in your combo after taking substantial damage. Use any of your remaining Power Boosts or 7th Senses if you feel the battle is going by too slowly. If you’re just going to use D-Dive, then two or three D-Charges and a Twister should get the job done. Just make sure your D-Counter is LESS than 90% coming out of this fight. I don’t mean around 90% or at 90%. I mean LESS THAN 90%. You’ll send Bosch flying into a wall upon his defeat. Just when you think it’s finally over, Bosch disappears, and then reappears in his dragonized state. He’s not holding anything back now, so prepare for the final bout against Bosch! Final boss fight: D-Bosch HP: 5000 XP- 65535 Items- None Recommended level- 37 Notes- Well, who would have thought that this bitter rivalry would escalate into the game’s final conflict? Bosch comes into this fight with an 0-3 record standing against him, and now it’s time to finish this once and for all with a four fight sweep. You will need to use three D-Charges and two Twisters in order to take him down. If you can’t spare the 10% needed to completely own Bosch, then your chances of winning this fight are slim. Bosch cannot be damaged with non-dragon attacks, unless his dragonized form is first shattered by one of Wyrm’s attacks. And even then, he will only remain vulnerable for a turn before he regains his non-dragon attack resistance. Not only that, but he has some pretty brutal attacks. His Quake spell can nearly kill all of your party members instantly, and he also has an attack that inflicts tons of status changes. However, if you have enough healing items and at least a few percent on your D-Counter to work with, then there is still hope. First have Nina transfer all of her AP over to either Ryu or Lin. Then have Ryu D-Dive and hit Bosch with D-Breath for just a split second, using less than a percent on the D-Counter barring the transformation cost. Revert out of dragon form and then go all out with 1,2,3 combos. Lin should follow up by using Shatter! as many times as you can. If you have any stat boosters, preferably 7th Senses, then use them. Bosch’s defense is kind of high, so you’ll need all the extra power you can get. Once the turn ends, repeat the whole process of shattering his dragon form and then attacking. I know this is a long shot, but it’s the only way if you don’t have 10% to spare. Defeated once again, Bosch is now at your mercy. Unfortunately for him, Ryu isn’t exactly feeling merciful after four attempts to kill you. As Bosch gradually approaches his final moments, Ryu speeds things along by impaling him right through the chest. But after he dies, Chetyre, the dragon whose powers Bosch was hosting, literally comes tearing out of him. Don’t worry though. All you have to do now is use D-Breath until you hit 100% on your D-Counter. As crazy as this may sound, believe me, it’s what you’re supposed to do. Afterwards, the final clash between Odjn and Chetyre will commence. Who will emerge victorious? You’ll have to see for yourself. So enjoy the ending and the credits. Make sure to save your game after the credits are over to get your new D-Ratio. ======================================================================= 5. SKILLS ======================================================================= Here’s a list of character skills that I’ve arranged in alphabetical order within each skill level for each character. ------ A. Ryu ------ -------------- Level 1 Skills -------------- Act Delay ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Reduces enemy Speed by 5%. Brainquake ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Reduces enemy Magic Power by 5%. Cutspace ~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Reduces enemy Move Power by 5%. Dent Weapon ~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Recuces enemy Attack Power by 5%. Kick ~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 75% and a hit-back power of 2.5M. Ogre Slice ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Accuracy -50%. If it hits, it causes a critical attack of 75%. Rust Armor ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Reduces enemy Defense Power by 5%. Side Slash ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Accuracy -20%. Slice ~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack. Normal physical attack. Third Eye ~~~~~~~~~ Ensures that the next attack will always hit. Thrust ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 25%, regardless of enemy Defense Power. -------------- Level 2 Skills -------------- Bladesmack ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Normal Physical attack. Adjusts Attack Power so that enemy HP will not become 0. Crimson Raid ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Normal Physical attack. Restores HP to you equal to 10% of the damage dealt. Discharge ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack. Records the damage received during battle, and returns it in this attack. Fang ~~~~ Target: Line Physical attack with an Attack Power of 40%, regardless of enemy Defense Power. Hazecut ~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 120%. Accuracy +50%. Hex ~~~ Target: Unit Causes no damage. Increases XP value of attacked enemy by 10%. Hyper Kick ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 120%, and a hit-back power of 4.0M. Reversal ~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack. Varying damage according to the amount of your remaining HP. Skullsplit ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 125%. Deals damage to enemy’s AP. Spiritcharge ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Attack Power multiplied by 1.5, for the next turn (attack) only. Vert Slash ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 130%. Accuracy -20%. Wild Swing ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack Randomly multiplies damage between x0.5 to x2.0. -------------- Level 3 Skills -------------- Circle Stage ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Circle Physical attack. Normal physical attack. Crossviper ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Hit-and-run Physical attack. Critical Chance +75%. Deathbringer ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 125%. If it hits, a Critical Attack is 100% assured. Deathcleaver ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 200%. You receive 10% of the damage you deal. Great Smash ~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Normal Physical attack. May cause a one-shot kill. (“Legend Blade” skill) Roundsaber ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread Physical attack with an Attack Power of 150%. Terabreak ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Normal Physical attack. Damage ignores enemy Defense Power. Violet Death ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread 1st hit: Attack Power 20% regardless of enemy Defense Power. 2nd hit: 100% Critical. (“Violet Blade” skill) -------- B. Bosch -------- -------------- Level 1 Skills -------------- Snakebite ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 80%. Poisons enemy. (“Beast Blade” skill) Thrust ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 25%, regardless of enemy Defense Power. -------------- Level 2 Skills -------------- Fang ~~~~ Target: Line Physical attack with an Attack Power of 40%, regardless of enemy Defense Power. Lion Smash ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Physical attack with an Attack Power of 110%, and accuracy -20%. (“Beast Blade” skill) ------- C. Nina ------- -------------- Level 1 Skills -------------- Blunt ~~~~~ Target: Unit Reduces enemy Attack Power by 10%. Chop! ~~~~~ Target: Unit Normal physical attack. (“Slapper” skill) Divine ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Reduces enemy Move Power by 10%. Enfeeble ~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Reduces enemy Magic Power by 10%. Flare ~~~~~ Target: Circle Fire Magic Attack Lv. 1. Frost ~~~~~ Target: Circle Ice Magic Attack Lv. 1. G-Flare ~~~~~~~ Fire Magic Circle Lv. 1++ A magic wall that blocks the movement of some enemies. Jolt ~~~~ Target: Circle Electric Magic Attack Lv. 1. Joltball ~~~~~~~~ Electric Magic Circle Lv. 1+ Magic trap that paralyzes (Stuns), enemies that come into contact with it. Slow ~~~~ Target: Unit Reduces enemy Speed Power by 10%. Weaken ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Reduces enemy Defense Power by 10%. -------------- Level 2 Skills -------------- Fireball ~~~~~~~~ Fire Magic Circle Lv. 2+ Magic trap that Stuns enemies, that come into contact with it. Fireblast ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread Fire Magic Attack Lv. 2. Fragball ~~~~~~~~ Ice Magic Circle Lv. 2+ Magic trap that freezes (Stuns), enemies that come into contact with it. G-Iceblast ~~~~~~~~~~ Ice Magic Circle Lv. 2++ A magic wall that blocks the movement of some enemies. Iceblast ~~~~~~~~ Target: Line Ice Magic Attack Lv. 2. Lightning ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Line Electric Magic Attack Lv. 2. Mirage Bomb ~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets up the Nina doll. Goes out with a bang when, enemies mistake it for Nina and attack it. Teleport ~~~~~~~~ Switches position with a companion. Transfer ~~~~~~~~ Gives 20 AP to a companion. -------------- Level 3 Skills -------------- Blizzard ~~~~~~~~ Target: Circle Ice Magic Attack Lv. 3. Death ~~~~~ Target: Unit One-shot kill Magic. Kills creatures with one shot. (“Demonscythe” skill) G-Inferno ~~~~~~~~~ Fire Magic Circle Lv. 3++ A magic wall that blocks the movement of some enemies. Inferno ~~~~~~~ Target: Circle Fire Magic Attack Lv. 3. Kyrie ~~~~~ Target: Circle One-shot kill Magic Very effective on the undead. (“Holy Heart” skill) Lag Valhalla ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Electric Magic Circle Lv. 3+ Valhalla is launched at the end of the turn. Requires one turn to charge. Mirage Blast ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sets up the Nina doll. Goes out with a bang when, enemies mistake it for Nina and attack it. Ragnarok ~~~~~~~~ Lock-on Magic Lv. 3+++ Requires 3 turns to activate. (Cannot move for 3 turns) Shazam ~~~~~~ Target: Circle Hit-back magic. Affects enemies over a wide area, sending them flying. Valhalla ~~~~~~~~ Target: Circle Electric Magic Attack Lv. 3. ------ D. Lin ------ -------------- Level 1 Skills -------------- C’mere! ~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Non-damaging attack. A vacuum that sucks in enemies. Greetings ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with an Attack Power of 75%. Feint Attack. Hey, hey! ~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack. Adds effects to successive attacks. How’s That? ~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack. May change into an ability-reducing attack, depending on the preceeding attack. There! ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with an Attack power of 70%. Gives weight to Critical Chance. Too slow!! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack with an Attack Power of 70%. Gives weight to Accuracy. -------------- Level 2 Skills -------------- Go on! ~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack. Adjusts Attack Power so that enemy HP will not become 0. Keep at it! ~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Line Shot Attack with an Attack Power of 120%. Gives weight to penetration. Kidding! ~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack. Either misses or has a Reverse effect. Outta My Way ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot Attack. Hit-back shot. Stay here! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with an Attack Power of 110%. Reduces enemy Move Power. Take this! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with a 60% Attack Power, regardless of enemy Defense Power. That’s It! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with an Attack Power of 130%. Adds effects to successive attacks. -------------- Level 3 Skills -------------- A Present! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Copies previous attack or misses. Blow up! ~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread Shot attack with an Attack Power of 150%. Drop dead! ~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Unit Shot attack with an Attack Power of 60%, regardless of enemy Defense Power. Let’s dance! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Target: Circle Shor attack with an Attack Power of 150%. Shatter! ~~~~~~~~ Target: Spread The closer you are, the more damage it deals. ---------------- E. Shield Skills ---------------- Anger ~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 5 When you are hit, Spiritcharge activates automatically. Counter ~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Counterattacks physical and shot attacks. Nina cannot use it. Duststorm ~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Blows attacking enemies away. Explosion ~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 0 When you are hit, it explodes and reduces enemy HP to 1. You lose your shield. Feint ~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Blocks an enemy attack once during a battle. Leech Power ~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 0 Recovers 5 AP whenever you are hit by an enemy attack. Mag.Def-25% ~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Reduces Magic Attack Damage by 25%. ("Astral" series skill) Mag.Def-50% ~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 20 Reduces Magic Attack Damage by 50%. ("Astral" series skill) Phys.Def-25% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Reduces Physical Attack Damage by 25%. ("Solid" series skill) Phys.Def-50% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 20 Reduces Physical Attack Damage by 50%. ("Solid" series skill) Reflect ~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 20 Counterattacks magic attacks. Nina cannot use it. Shield Boost ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 5 Every time you are hit, your Defense increases by 1%. Snatch ~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 15 Cuts damage by 25%. Steals items from attacking enemies. Steal ~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 5 Steals items from attacking enemies. Univ.Def-25% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 15 Reduces all Damage by 25%. ("Barrier" series skill) Univ.Def-50% ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 30 Reduces all Damage by 50%. ("Barrier" series skill) Valor ~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 10 Can recover from being Unconscious once during a battle. Weapon Boost ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 5 Every time you are hit, your Attack increases by 1%. Willguard ~~~~~~~~~ Equip AP cost: 15 Reduces all Damage. Varies according to remaining HP. ("Soul" series skill) ======================================================================= 6. SIDE QUESTS ======================================================================= ####################################################################### A. Fairy Colony ####################################################################### When you return to the Low Sector Borough after going through the Low Sector Lift, you will have the opportunity to start your own Fairy Colony. You can do this by freeing the fairy trapped in one of the rooms at the west end of the Corp Lab Entrance. Although the colony does require some initial investment on your part, once you start running it efficiently, it’ll prove to be worth the trouble. The very first thing you should do when you begin developing your colony is to go through all the information help topics that are available. These will give a basic idea about how the colonly works. Nonetheless, the following is a rundown of the colony basics. First of all, your entire colony is run by the ants that you hire, and time in the colony passes by the number of enemies you defeat. To hire ants, talk to ones standing near the sign to the right of where the fairy is. When you talk to them, you can see their stats, their age, and their wages. Their stats determine how well they can do certain jobs: HP........ Excavation, Explorer, The Daily Smarts.... Market, Laboratory, Bank, The Daily, Review Board Taste..... Cafeteria, Concert Hall, The Daily, Stockhouse Each ant has a unique set of stats which grow as they get older. The ants you hire are generally young, anywhere from age 1-20 usually. However, when ants get too old (around 40-60 depending on their job) they will die. There’s really nothing you can do about this except hire more ants to take their place. When you first start developing your colony, the most important factor in deciding which ants to hire is their wages. The ants you have working are payed 10% of their cost for each enemy you defeat outside the colonly. So, if a certain ant’s wages are 10z, then that ant would be payed 1z for every enemy you kill. Ants are payed from the colony funds, and if there is no money in the colony funds, then the ants will not work and your colony will fall apart. So don’t hire too many ants at first or you won’t be able to pay them. This is why you should continue to put money from your own pocket into the colony funds until the colony begins to make money by itself. You should keep at least a few thousand zenny in the colony funds at all times. Now that you’ve hired some ants, it’s time to put them to work. To do this, talk to the fairy and select Orders. You’ll then be faced with a menu with a few different sections that you should be aware of. At first, the only sections you can really deal with are the Team and Free sections. The Free section is where you’ll find the ants you just hired. From there you can move them to either an excavation team or a job. The box marked Team is where you can put your ants to work on excavation. Excavation allows you to uncover rooms where you can then run jobs. You can make three different digging teams by placing ants under the three flags. The more ants you have on a team, the faster they can dig. After you assign ants to excavation, you’ll be able to select where you want them to dig each time you enter the colony. You can do this by selecting one of the flags on the colony map. The more enemies you defeated before coming into the colony, the more your ants will be able to dig that session. While digging, you can uncover rooms, but you can also run into traps such as rocks and Ant Lions. Getting hit by traps and fighting Ant Lions will damage your ants’ HP. If their HP reaches 0, then they can’t work until it gets restored. Now, here’s a crude map that you can refer to for excavation: ----- | | | | -------- --------------- | | | | | | -------- Room--- ---Room -----| Main Room |---- | | | | | | | ----- Prize--- --------------- ----- | | | | | ---Room-------------- | | | ---Ant Lion -------- | | | |--Room --------- | | | ---Prize | | | | | | | ------- | | | | | | Room---- | | | | | | ---- | ----- | | | Room-------Room | ----------------- | | -------------------- --- | | | | ----Water Trap------ | --------------------------- | Room | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------Ant Lion ----- --------Secret Dungeon Kokon Horay Once you uncover some rooms, you can begin to create jobs. Your rooms are shown along the bottom of the Orders menu screen. To assign a job to a room, simply select the icon on the left side of the room space and select a job from the list that appears in the upper right corner of the screen. You only start out with two jobs, but you can unlock many other jobs by doing research in the Laboratory. After you select which job you want, that room will go under construction. The next time you visit the colony, the construction will be complete and you can start placing ants in that room to work. To visit a room and check up on the job there, Exit the Orders menu and select Move. The Info box in the upper right corner of the menu displays your funding information. The long thin box at the top displays the amount of zenny you have in the colony funds. Under that, there’s a box displaying Income and Spending. Income is the money that your jobs are making and Spent is the money that your jobs are spending. Your balance is shown at the very bottom of the box under the white line. You can view the financial information of each particular job by highlighting it with the hand cursor. As long as your colony balance is positive, your colony funds will grow. But if your balance is negative, your colony funds will deplete. Also, after you leave the colony for the first time, you’ll receive an item called the Fairy Drops. You can use the Fairy Drops to return to the colony at any time, as long as there are no enemies around. Although the Fairy Drops will never run out by using them, you can lose the Fairy Drops if you perform an SOL function without first storing them in the item locker. In order to get your Fairy Drops back, you’ll have to talk to the fairy that appears in End, Low, Mid, and Top Sector Boroughs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Job List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ Market ~~~~~~ Here you can set up four different kinds of shops that sell various equipment and skills. At first you have a very limited selection, but over time the shops will have more and more items for sale. This is a very good job to have, especially since some of the things that you can find in these shops can’t be found anywhere else in the game. Here’s a list of wares for all of the shops: Ryu’s Shop Nina’s Shop ---------- ----------- Impact Gear+3- 4680z Antenna+5- 1800z Bari Shell- 5000z Impact Check+3- 3900z Ruby Maser+2- 3600z Bari Ring- 5000z Plasma Maser+3- 3900z Holy Heart- 20000z Bari Guard- 15000z Deluxe Antenna- 6800z Sapphire Maser+4- 4200z Bari Loop- 15000z Protect Suit+1- 66000z Divine Coat+1- 52800z Strong Sword+8- 2700z Demonscythe- 20000z Chobham Plate- 36000z Platinum Arc- 9000z Legend Blade+1- 88000z Wizard Wand+1- 88000z Lin’s Shop Skill Shop ---------- ---------- Flameblaster+2- 3840z Hex- 240z Bari Ribbon+1- 5500z Fireblast- 240z Impactproof+2- 3690z Iceblast- 240z Thunder Rifle+3- 4160z Lightning- 240z Ice Cannon+4- 4480z Weapon Boost- 240z Bari Bangle- 15000z Shield Boost- 240z Quick Garter+6- 6240z Cutspace- 240z Save Queen+1- 59400z Divine- 240z Lightwave- 9000z Slow- 240z Grenade+1- 129800z Skullsplit- 240z ~~~~~~~~~~ Laboratory ~~~~~~~~~~ This job lets you research new jobs and items. You should open up a lab as soon as you can when you first start developing your colony so you can create new jobs quickly. Once you have all the jobs, you can research items. While studying items, every once in a while your lab will create an item and then give it to you for free! Here’s the list of items you can get (Note- Once you’ve gotten all the items, you can close the lab and then reopen it to get all the items again. You can do this as many times as you like): -Junk -Gold XP -Stuffed Toy -Present -Mirage Bomb -Tracker -Slapper -Mirage Blast ~~~~~~~~~ Cafeteria ~~~~~~~~~ A café where ants can eat. This job doesn’t have any rewards besides making money for your colony. It’s probably a good job to have if you are having problems keeping your colony funds up, but once you get some real money making jobs, like the Bank, the Cafeteria becomes pretty useless. ~~~~~~~~ Explorer ~~~~~~~~ Here you can send ants out to explore the different sectors, looking for items. Although exploration in previous Breath of Fire games was extremely profitable, the Explorer job in this case is extremely useless. Exploration failure rates are high, and when ants actually come back alive, they usually either find very ordinary or poor items, or they don’t find anything at all. This is a job that is best left untouched, unless you’ve already developed an incredibly efficient colony and you’re just bored. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Concert Hall ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This job lets you play all of your favorite music from the game. You start off with very few tracks, but as time goes on, you’ll end up getting just about every single song in the game on your list. Not only that, but put qualified ants in this job and it’ll actually make a decent profit. This is a great job to have if you loved the game’s music, but don’t want to dish out $40 for the soundtrack (like I did). ~~~~ Bank ~~~~ Now here’s your cash cow job. You can store money in the Bank under a variety of Checking and Savings accounts, and you can make literally millions of zenny through the Foreign currency exchange. To do this, first wait until you are allowed to use the Foreign exchange option. Then buy “mils” when they are priced low (around 100z or less). Check up on your colony often and then sell your mils when they are priced high (200z or higher). Once you get a good amount of zenny doing this, start trading mils by the hundreds (or even thousands) and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a millionaire. Not only that, but if you fill your Bank with highly intelligent ants, it’ll make huge profits for your colony funds. ~~~~~~~ Trainer ~~~~~~~ This is a gym where you can train ants in a particular stat. While in training, the stat under which the ant is training will grow very rapidly. This is a great thing to have if you wish to maximize the efficiency and income of your jobs. The best way to utilize the Trainer is to set up the following cycle. First train ants until the desired stat is maxed out (or nearly maxed out). Then put them into the job you’re training for, while hiring new ants and placing them in the trainer. In most cases, by the time the ants in your job die, the ants in your Trainer will be ready to take their place. ~~~~~~~~~ The Daily ~~~~~~~~~ This is a newspaper run by a team ants. Although a top class newspaper team offers the most income of any job, it is a huge hassle to manage an efficient newspaper team. It involves training three ants, one in HP, one in Smarts, and the other in Taste, which can be difficult to keep up. Not only that, but ants seem to die at a very young age in this job, making it even harder to run effectively. I wouldn’t recommend pursuing this job, unless you want to add some challenge to your colony management. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Review Board ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here you can view various statistics such as how many battles you’ve fought, how many enemies you’ve killed, and how many times you’ve saved, among others. Besides that, there are also several challenges that you can take to win prizes. Take note that you cannot do more than one challenge at a time. You will not get credit for completing a challenge that you weren‘t going for (Example- You won‘t get credit for Goo Slayer if you were going for Duke Hunter) And also keep in mind that you cannot use D-Dive to complete Hard Puncher. Chicken Runner -------------- Description- Run away from battle 9 times in a row. Prize- C’mere Tips- You can really do this challenge anywhere where you can initiate a battle with a door nearby. Or you could store all of your zenny in the fairy colony Bank or funds and just use the Penalty Retreat 9 times in a row. Combo Master ------------ Description- Use 9 different skills in one combo. Prize- Auto Rifle+9 Tips- You can only do this challenge if your character has 9 different skills and at least 90 AP. Get into a battle with an enemy that has a lot of HP and/or Defense Power (like a Trilizard or a Duke Knight) and just build up AP until you have at least 180 AP. Then attack with one massive combo, using all of your level 1 skills, then all of your level 2 skills, and then all of your level 3 skills. Goo Slayer ---------- Description- Defeat 9 Goo enemies in a row. Prize- 30000z Tips- The best places to to this are the Corp Lab and the Centre 3F North, as those areas are home to large groups of Goo enemies. Remember to use their elemental weaknesses to your advantage. Technician ---------- Description- Win 9 battles in a row without being damaged. Prize- Bladesmack Tips- This is best completed on a second play through, especially in the game's earlier missions. Hunt down weak enemies and kill them quickly. Duke Hunter ----------- Description- Defeat 9 Duke enemies in a row. Prize- 1000 party XP Tips- Do this at the Lift: Low Sector, because that area has the most Dukes. 1-Round Warrior --------------- Description- Win 9 battles in a row in one turn. Prize- Kidding! Tips- This is very similar to trying to get the Technician. Just split up and fight weak enemies that can be defeated easily within a turn. Tri Buster ---------- Description- Defeat 9 Rafflesia, Trilizards, and/or Cerebus in a row. Prize- Angel Coat+6 Tips- The only really good place to do this is at the Centre 3F South, where Rafflesia, Trilizards, and Cerebus are abundant. Hard Puncher ------------ Description- Deal over 999 damage with a single character in one round. Prize- Celtis+9 Tips- Use Fresh Meat to bunch up a large group of weak enemies, such as Odd Hychees or bats, and hit them with powerful spread attacks. A really good way to do this is to hit three Odd Hychees at once with Lin's Shatter! ability at close range. Another common method is to cast Kyrie from Nina's Holy Heart weapon on the Karons at Power One. Robocrusher ----------- Description- Defeat 9 machine enemies in a row. Prize- Chobham Plate Tips- Without a doubt, Power One is the best locaion for this challenge. Go up to the second of third floors and beat up on the Karels and Rescue Mechs. ~~~~~~~~~~ Stockhouse ~~~~~~~~~~ Here you can buy a nugget and then raise it to sell later on. You should buy a nugget when the market price for them is low, and then sell them when the market price is high. However, the market price changes very slowly. To raise a nugget you have to pay for its feed from the colony funds. Raising your nugget on the more expensive feeds yields better stat growth. This can be a fun way to make some decent money if you have the patience to wait for the market to change. However, profits are usually only in the thousands, whereas trading mils at the Bank will eventually make you millions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Building an Efficient Colony ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So you're familiar with all of the colony basics? Dug out all of the rooms and unlocked all the jobs? Good. Because now you're ready to turn your colony into a sinfully efficient zenny-making machine! Using the following method, you'll be able to produce more money than you'll know what to do with and establish a positive colony balance in the hundreds. The best part about all of this is that you can get it going in a relatively short amount of time, and everything is extremely simple to maintain. Ok, enough of me sounding like a infomercial. Let's go through the process. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Getting Started ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are two particular jobs that act as the foundation of an efficient money-making colony: the Bank and the Trainer. A bank staffed with 3 ants with max (or near max) Smarts will contribute a few hundred zenny of positive income to your colony funds. That's overkill for overall colony stability. To establish this and maintain it, just follow this cycle: 1. Set up a Bank and a Trainer. 2. Hire 3 ants and train them under Smarts. 3. Once those 3 ants are nearly maxed out in Smarts, place them in the bank. At the same time, hire three more ants to replace the ones you just took out of training. 4. When the ants in the bank die, replace them with the ants in training. Once again, hire more ants to replace the ones who left training. As long as your colony is running decently when you begin this process, you should be able to start it and maintain it without much or any trouble. Just make sure to keep a few thousand zenny in the colony funds to be safe. You'll be able to use any extra money in the next part of the process. And if you don't think the one bank you've set up is making you enough money, then just build another bank and trainer and do the same thing. You'd probably end up doing this anyway later down the road to further expand your financial horizons, but there's no harm in starting early. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Playing the Foreign Currency Exchange ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that you've established a virtually permanent, positive flow of money into your colony funds, you can take all the excess "safety" money you've been holding in the colony funds for so long and begin trading mils with it. The stock exchange becomes available a brief time after you start running your first bank, so it should be open by the time you get your training-bank cycle going. Even though there are both dals and mils to trade, dals are pretty much worthless since their price is more or less constant compared to mils. So only trade with mils. The main question you have to face when trading mils is when to buy and sell them. Generally, you should go by these parameters when you first start out in order to get a nice pile of money quickly: - Buy when the price is about 100z. NEVER buy above 120z. - Sell when the price is about 250z. NEVER sell under 200z. This way you'll at least double your money each time you sell. Initially, you'll want to invest all of your excess colony funds along with all the money you're willing to put in from your own pocket. When you decide that you want to buy, don't hold back. Put in all the money that you're willing to spend and get as many mils as you can. The same goes for selling. When you sell, sell everything. As your money continues to double, start getting more and more picky about buying and selling prices. Let greed and good judgement be your guide. Set standards for yourself like "I'm not buying at anything more than 100z", and stick to those standards. You may have to wait longer to make your trades, but you'll end up with much bigger profits this way. Just check your colony often and you'll eventually hit the prices you want. And on that note, I'd like to mention the extremes. If you get lucky and the price for mils hits an extreme low or high, you'll want to buy/sell like crazy. If you buy at an extreme low and sell at an extreme high, you will more than triple your money. The extremes are as follows: - About 80z or less is an extreme low. - About 300z or more is an extreme high. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where Everything Goes From Here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This has all been pretty simple so far, right? Well, once you've begun trading mils and accumulating a lot of cash, everything pretty much stays that simple. After only a few big trades in the stock market you should have a couple hundred thousand zenny available to you. You'll soon find yourself buying up and selling mils by the hundreds, and later by the thousands! Before you know it, you'll have a few million zenny piled up in front of you. From here, it'd be wise to fill up your checking and savings accounts with a few million zenny each. Those savings account payouts will be huge now. Start investing millions into mils at a time. When it comes time to sell, you'll have more money than you could have ever imagined. Ultimately, you can max out your colony funds, bank accounts, and your own pocket with 9,999,999z each. You'll end up running out of places to hold all the money you're making. And to think money is so scarce early in the game! ####################################################################### B. Kokon Horay ####################################################################### Once you begin developing your fairy colony, and you dig all the way to the bottom of the map, you’ll uncover a secret dungeon called Kokon Horay. The dungeon consists of 50 floors with progressively harder danger rooms on each floor. After clearing each room, a treasure key will appear, allowing you to open the chest on that floor. When you enter the dungeon, your character’s levels are set to 1 and your D-Counter is set to 0.00%. But don’t worry, because when you exit the dungeon all of your stats will return to what they were before you went inside. If you get killed inside Kokon Horay, you’ll lose all of your items. However, there is a fairy you can talk to every five floors that allows you to escape. The trip through Kokon Horay is hellish and long, but items you can find in here are worth the trip. First, here are a few tips: -Bring a good amount of party XP. Since you start the dungeon at level 1, you should use some party XP to bring your characters up to a decent level. If you plan on going through the entire dungeon, level 25-30 is ideal. However, be aware that you will not get back any party XP that you use inside Kokon Horay when you leave. Regardless, you should still use some. -Bring plenty of healing items. Enemies don’t drop items in Kokon Horay, so the only healing items you’ll be able to use throughout the entire dungeon are the ones you bring with you. I’d suggest bringing a few stacks of Aid Kits and Tonics, several stacks of Med and Trauma Kits, and one or two stacks of Multimeds. I also strongly recommend that you bring at least one stack of bait, whether it be Fresh Meat or a status changing mushroom. It may also be wise to bring along a Tracker if you have one. Even though you’ll eventually pick up a Tracker in one of the later floors of Kokon Horay, it will prove beneficial to have one earlier on. -Store ALL of your money in the fairy colony Bank or colony funds. You won’t have any use for money in Kokon Horay anyway. And by doing this, you can use the Penalty Retreat as much as you like for free. -Take on Kokon Horay near the end of the game. Why? Because you’ll have the most Backpack pages then. Since the majority of the items you’ll find in Kokon Horay are unidentified pieces of equipment that you must lug around in your inventory, you’ll need all the space you can get. -Don’t get in over your head. There are no save points in Kokon Horay, so a stupid mistake can cost you hours of hard work. If you encounter some enemies that you haven’t fought before, don’t just charge into battle against them. Split up hard enemies and use the Penalty Retreat whenever you need to. Fight wisely and think about what you’re going to do before you do it. If you get tired, make a temporary save and take a break for a while. Now, here’s the list of all the 50 floors of hell. I’ve put down the types of enemies and the reward you’ll get for each floor. I don’t have the exact number of each type of enemy for each floor, but be aware that, in most cases, floors with very little enemy variation usually means a greater concentration of the enemies that are present. And due to some cases of equipment being of the same type and level, I did refer to the Brady Games Official Strategy Guide to organize some of the items that were duplications. Kokon Horay B1 (-1510.0m) Enemies- Nuggets, Mama Nugget, Papa Nugget Item- Present Kokon Horay B2 (-1520.0m) Enemies- Dukes, Duke Leaders, Goo Element Item- Impact Gear+4 Kokon Horay B3 (-1530.0m) Enemies- Aggrossers, Lantern Bats Item- Magic Wand+6 Kokon Horay B4 (-1540.0m) Enemies- Duke Battler, Duke Hunters, Duke Magi Item- Blind Gear+4 Kokon Horay B5 (-1550.0m) Enemies- DeVolves Item- Bladesmack Kokon Horay B6 (-1560.0m) Enemies- Duke Lancers, Duke Hunters, Wonder Boxes Item- Blind Check+5 Kokon Horay B7 (-1570.0m) Enemies- Deathcows, Beaks Item- Auto Rifle+7 Kokon Horay B8 (-1580.0m) Enemies- Duke Battlers, Duke Magi Item- Sleep Check+5 Kokon Horay B9 (-1590.0m) Enemies- Goo Rubies, Goo Plasma, Goo Element Item- Stun Proof+4 Kokon Horay B10 (-1600.0m) Enemies- Ebonfires, Baphomet, Mahadevan Item- Teleport Kokon Horay B11 (-1610.0m) Enemies- Beaks, Bon Appetits Item- Sapphire Maser+5 Kokon Horay B12 (-1620.0m) Enemies- Black Widows, Rafflesia Item- Bind Check+4 Kokon Horay B13 (-1630.0m) Enemies- Gigantis, DeVolve, Rustphages Item- Strong Sword+6 Kokon Horay B14 (-1640.0m) Enemies- Worm-Men, Aggrossers Item- Impact Check+4 Kokon Horay B15 (-1650.0m) Enemies- Guard Ants Item- Duststorm Kokon Horay B16 (-1660.0m) Enemies- Duke Knights, Gar Pikes Item- Gold XP Kokon Horay B17 (-1670.0m) Enemies- Duke Magi, Gar Snipers, Kanaphages Item- Bari Ribbon+3 Kokon Horay B18 (-1680.0m) Enemies- Worm-Men, DeVolves Item- Flame Blaster+5 Kokon Horay B19 (-1690.0m) Enemies- Aggrossers, Primas, Odd Hychee Item- Lightwave Kokon Horay B20 (-1700.0m) Enemies- Armstrongs, Black Widows Item- Act Delay Kokon Horay B21 (-1710.0m) Enemies- Gar Snipers, Gar Pikes, Beaks Item- Excel Suit+4 Kokon Horay B22 (-1720.0m) Enemies- Goo Prism, Kanaphage, Kanaphage DX Item- Lockproof+4 Kokon Horay B23 (-1730.0m) Enemies- Duke Knights Item- Fireproof+5 Kokon Horay B24 (-1740.0m) Enemies- Trilizard, Worm-Men Item- Mirage Bomb Kokon Horay B25 (-1750.0m) Enemies- Duke Lord, Trilizards, Gar Snipers Item- A Present! Kokon Horay B26 (-1760.0m) Enemies- Gigantis, Petrophages Item- Platinum Arc Kokon Horay B27 (-1770.0m) Enemies- Cerebus, Ebonfires, Baphomets Item- Mandau Blade+5 Kokon Horay B28 (-1780.0m) Enemies- Gigantis, Worm-Men Item- Angel Coat+8 Kokon Horay B29 (-1790.0m) Enemies- Gar Pikes, Gar Snipers, Trilizard Item- Stinger Kokon Horay B30 (-1800.0m) Enemies- Worm-Men, Nerve-Men Item- Weaken Kokon Horay B31 (-1810.0m) Enemies- Armstrongs, Nerve-Men Item- Chobham Plate+2 Kokon Horay B32 (-1820.0m) Enemies- Karons, Lesser Karons Item- Talisman+6 Kokon Horay B33 (-1830.0m) Enemies- Gar Snipers, Gar Pikes, Crushedhearts Item- Holy Heart Kokon Horay B34 (-1840.0m) Enemies- Kanaphage DX, Goo Prism Item- Protector+3 Kokon Horay B35 (-1850.0m) Enemies- Goo Kings, Crushedhearts Item- Cutspace Kokon Horay B36 (-1860.0m) Enemies- Mahadevans, Ebonfires Item- Hymnal+6 Kokon Horay B37 (-1870.0m) Enemies- Duke Knights, Crushedhearts Item- Impact Gear+8 Kokon Horay B38 (-1880.0m) Enemies- Nerve-Men, Goo Prism Item- Tracker Kokon Horay B39 (-1890.0m) Enemies- Duke Lords, Crushedhearts Item- Wizard Wand+7 Kokon Horay B40 (-1900.0m) Enemies- Duke Knights, Gargantua Item- Deathcleaver Kokon Horay B41 (-1910.0m) Enemies- Nerve-Men, Duke Knights Item- Demonscythe Kokon Horay B42 (-1920.0m) Enemies- Fire Goo, Lightning Goo, Ice Goo, Goo Element, Goo Prism, Goo Crystal, Goo King Item- Riot Guard+7 Kokon Horay B43 (-1930.0m) Enemies- Creepstalkers Item- Save Queen+5 Kokon Horay B44 (-1940.0m) Enemies- Crushedhearts Item- Wizard Wand+9 Kokon Horay B45 (-1950.0m) Enemies- Pantagruel, Duke Knights, Duke Lords Item- Valhalla Kokon Horay B46 (-1960.0m) Enemies- Kanaphage DX Item- Superheavy+7 Kokon Horay B47 (-1970.0m) Enemies- Darkstalker, Nerve-Men, Creepstalker Item- Buki+7 Kokon Horay B48 (-1980.0m) Enemies- Cerebus, Duke Lords Item- Grenade+9 Kokon Horay B49 (-1990.0m) Enemies- Duke Knights, Duke Lords, Pantagruel, Gargantua Item- Legend Blade+9 Kokon Horay B50 (-2000.0m) Enemies- Dover Item- Ragnarok When you reach the bottom this huge dungeon you’ll encounter its final boss, the anti-dragon program, Dover. This fight will either be very easy or very hard depending on both your D-Counter and your remaining healing items. If you have 50% or so to spare on your D-Counter, then this should be an easy fight, that is if you have just enough Med Kits and Tonics to last you two or three rounds. On your first turn, you should have Nina use Transfer to feed Ryu and Lin AP. Come Ryu’s turn, use D-Dive and D-Charge ten times (yeah, you heard me). Then smack Dover with a Twister, which should do a surprisingly small amount of damage, considering you charged up ten times. After being hit with a dragon attack, Dover will begin to resist dragon attacks for the rest of the turn. However, this makes him extremely vulnerable to non-dragon assaults. Now, cool down out of Wyrm form and pound Dover with your strongest combos. The 1,2,3 combo method works best for Ryu (which is using all of you level 1 skills, then using all of your level 2 skills, then using your level 3 skills). Meanwhile, Lin should get up close to Dover and use Shatter! as many times as she can. Once the first turn is over, Dover will begin resisting non-dragon attacks again, so simply repeat what you did the first turn. Dover has a nasty area effect breath attack, so you should keep your party in a wide formation surrounding Dover, which shouldn’t be very difficult since Dover is so big. He has 16000 HP, so it may take two or three turns to take him down this way. If your D-Counter is high coming into this final floor, then you’re in for a slightly longer fight. You’ll want to use the same tactics, but instead of using ten D-Charges and a Twister, just use one Vortex. ####################################################################### C. Party XP and Zenny Loops ####################################################################### If you read the Scenario Overlay section, you should have a basic idea about what a “loop” actually is. A loop is a term used to describe the utilization of the SOL system to accumulate great amounts of party XP and/or zenny in fairly short amount of time. Here are the basic steps to doing a loop: 1. Make a save at a Telecorder using a Save Token. 2. Go out and gain party XP and/or zenny by any means necessary (which will usually involve employing D-Dive). 3. Store all of your items in the item locker. 4. Use the L2 Give Up option from the main menu and choose to SOL Restore. 5. You will be brought back to the point at which you saved along with all the party XP and zenny you gained, and your D-Counter will be reset to what it was when you saved. 6. Repeat steps 2-4 to rapidly accumulate party XP and zenny. This whole process may seem a bit fishy, but I assure you that using the SOL system to perform loops is NOT cheating. As you know, the number of enemies you can fight are limited without the SOL system, therefore, the only way to continuously level up your characters is to use loops. However, keep in mind that you do not have to use loops to beat the game, and abusing loops can rob the game of its challenge. ####################################################################### D. D-Ratio ####################################################################### If this is your first time playing through the game, you may be wondering what exactly D-Ratio is all about. Your D-Ratio (not to be confused with your D-Counter) is the fraction which represents your social ranking. The D-Ratio that you start the game with is 1/8192, and it goes up after beating the game according to how well you performed in certain aspects of the game. Please refer to the D-Ratio FAQ at Game FAQs to get more information on the categories that determine your new D-Ratio at the end of each game. So what is your D-Ratio good for anyway? Well, throughout the game you’ll come across doors leading to side areas that you cannot open unless your D-Ratio is high enough. By going through these side areas you’ll have access to more items, enemies, and even more cut scenes. Not only that, but the higher your D-Ratio is, the higher level some of the game’s secret weapons will be at. Now, here are some frequently asked questions and concerns about D-Ratio which should clear up a lot of misconceptions and confusion: Q: Is there any way to increase my D-Ratio besides beating the game? A: No, you have to beat the game and save after the ending credits in order to receive a new D-Ratio. Q: I just beat the game and my D-Ratio went up, but the title screen D-Ratio is still at 1/8192. What’s up with that? A: The title screen D-Ratio always stays the same. Just don’t worry about it, because it doesn’t affect anything. Q: Will everyone still keep calling me a grunt and a “low-d” even after my D-Ratio gets high? A: Yes, and it actually makes some of the dialogue quite funny. Q: I’ve already beaten the game, but there are still some doors that I can’t open. Why can’t I open them? A: If you can’t open a door that actually checks your D-Ratio, then your D-Ratio is not high enough. If you find a locked door that doesn’t check D-Ratio, then that door simply can’t be opened. Q: How many times do I have to beat the game in order to see all of the game's extra SOL cut scenes? A: The number of times you beat the game doesn't have anything to do with unlocking SOL scenes. In order to have access to all of the game's SOL scenes, you must earn a D-ratio of 1/256, regardless of how many times you beat the game. Q: Do I really have to get a perfect score in all those categories to get the best D-Ratio? A: No. If you read the D-Ratio FAQ at Game FAQs carefully, you’ll notice that there are 110 possible points that you can earn, and you only need 100 points to earn a perfect score of 1/4. Q: If I open all the treasure chests in one play through, I won’t have to open them all again in another game, right? A: Wrong. D-Ratio points you earn from one play through have no effect at all on the points you earn in another play through. So to get credit for those chests in your next game, you’ll have to open them again. This also goes for all the other categories as well. Q: When I started a new game, my time from my previous play through carried over on the clock. Will this affect my D-Ratio? A: No, don’t worry about that. Your time in a previous play through doesn’t count against you. So, if your time in your first game was 30 hours, and the clock at the end of your next game reads 45 hours, then you’ll get points for 15 hours, not 45 hours. Q: Do soft (temporary) saves count against my D-Ratio score? A: No. The only time you can be penalized for saving is when you actually use a Save Token. This also means that using SOL Restore or SOL Restart will not count against you either, because you do not use a Save Token. Q: Does the time I spend in the Kokon Horay dungeon count against me? A: Yes. The time you spend inside will, indeed count toward your time for D-Ratio. Q: Do I really have to get all 100 points in a single play through to earn a perfect D-Ratio? A: Yes. The points you earn for D-Ratio are not cumulative, so you must earn all 100 points in one game to get a perfect score. Q: What if I do really badly in a game. Will my D-Ratio go down? A: No. D-Ratio can never go down. So even if you do very poorly in a game, you’ll retain whatever D-Ratio you’ve earned so far. Q: So what’s so special about getting the 1/4 D-Ratio anyway? A: Mainly bragging rights. Getting the perfect D-Ratio is a great accomplishment, but it has very few concrete benefits. Q: I keep trying, but I can’t seem to get the 1/4 D-Ratio. Do you have any advice? A: The best way to get the 1/4 D-Ratio is to earn as many points as possible in the categories that you are good at. Build up plenty of party XP and think up a plan for getting those 100 points that suits you best before you make a run at getting 1/4. Remember that you don’t have to be perfect in everything. ####################################################################### E. Secret Weapons ####################################################################### Within the game, there are a few weapons that are attained differently from all the other equipment in the game. Some of these can only be acquired after beating the game at least once, and their levels depend on different factors. Keep in mind, like all the equipment you find on the field, you will have to get these weapons identified. %%%%%%%%%%%% Violet Blade %%%%%%%%%%%% After you defeat Captain Zeno in the Storage area, she’ll drop her sword. Pick it up and you’ll receive the Violet Blade, which proves to be an excellent weapon for Ryu throughout the rest of the game, if it is your first play through that is. Every time you beat them game, the Violet Blade’s level will increase by 1. Since you get a normal Violet Blade in your first game, Zeno will drop a Violet Blade+1 in your second game, a Violet Blade+2 in your third game, and so on. %%%%%%%%%%%% Dragon Blade %%%%%%%%%%%% When you’ve beaten the game at least once, walk right at the junction in the Genic Processor where Odjn’s corpse is hanging. Head down to the lower area beneath Odjn’s body and look around until you come across a twinkling sword. Pick it up to acquire the Dragon Blade, Ryu’s best weapon. The level of the Dragon Blade depends on your D-Ratio. The higher your D-Ratio is, the better the Dragon Blade will be. It maxes out at the Dragon Blade+9 for D-Ratios of 1/8 or 1/4. %%%% Buki %%%% If you fully explore the D-Ratio basement area inside the Corp Lab, you’ll find a stuffed doll on top of an operating table. Inspect it and you will see an SOL scene. After the scene, examine the doll again to get the Buki, a weapon for Nina. Like the Dragon Blade, the Buki’s level depends on your D-Ratio. You can also get a Buki+7 from the 47th floor of the secret dungeon, Kokon Horay. ======================================================================= 7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CLOSING ======================================================================= I’d like to thank the following for either help or inspiration on my FAQ: Capcom- For making such a great game and such a great series. Game FAQs- For providing a website where gamers can share their secrets and expertise with others. All the contributors to Game FAQs- The site wouldn’t exist without those who put time and effort into writing the FAQs. IGN- Another great gaming site. The Brady Games Official Strategy Guide- Which I used as a reference for organizing some of the Kokon Horay items. ---------------- COPYRIGHT NOTICE ---------------- This document Copyright 2003 David Kovaz. This document is not to be reproduced and/or distributed in any way for profit. It is not to be reproduced and/or distributed at all without the author's prior written consent and approval. This document is not to appear anywhere without the author’s alias (DavidK519, DKK5, or David Kovaz) in or attached to it. This document is not to appear anywhere in an altered or incomplete form. This document is not to be used as a reference for any publication unless proper credit is given to the author and the source. Most recently updated versions of this guide can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com http://faqs.ign.com http://www.neoseeker.com