STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME FAQ/WALKTHROUGH (v1.3, 2-23-04) by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) ****************************************************************************** IMPORTANT! THIS FAQ IS BASED ON THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE RELEASE OF STAR OCEAN 3. THE NORTH AMERICAN RELEASE IS BASED ON THE DIRECTOR'S CUT VERSION OF STAR OCEAN 3. IF YOU ARE PLAYING THE NORTH AMERICAN RELEASE, REFER TO MY FAQS IN THE DIRECTOR'S CUT SECTION OF GAMEFAQS. ANY EMAILS ASKING WHY MY FAQS LEAVE OUT THINGS ADDED TO THE DIRECTOR'S CUT WILL BE SUMMARILY IGNORED. ****************************************************************************** Revision History v1.3 (2-23-04) Quick update on the status of the US release. v1.2 (1-18-04) Expanded descriptions of the various support/tactical skills. Added more description on Cancel Combos. v1.1 (6-13-03) Corrections to Battle Collection. Added more tips. Added HP/MP for all bosses. v1.00 (5-30-03) Virtually complete. Private Actions turned out to be so big I decided to move them to a separate FAQ. Revisions and corrections throughout. v0.95 (4-01-03) All boss descriptions complete. Correction to Arbel's skills. Battle Collection gaps filled (except for one). Next Update: Private Actions (I swear!) v0.9 (3-30-03) Corrections to the Battle Collection. Corrections and additions throughout. Added descriptions of the battle skills. Added a "hints and frequently asked questions" section. Coming in the next update: Private Actions, extra Boss descriptions. v0.85 (3-21-03) Small update; corrected a requirement for getting Roger. v0.8 (3-20-03) Added Cave of Trials, Sphere 211, Ancient Ruins of Mosel to the secrets section. Added descriptions of Item Creation. Added more detail to the battles section. Added Battle Collection info. Added level-up charts for each character. On a side note, I'll be away on vacation for the next ten days or so, so don't expect the next update until after then. v0.5 (3-18-03) First version. Main walkthrough and FAQ complete. Next version to contain Item Creation, Sidequest/Secrets info. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Basics --Controls --Menus --Skills --Characters --Battles --Item Creation 3. Walkthrough The Beginning --Grand Tear --Emergency Shelter --Helre Vanguard --Pesotto Forest --Whipple Village --Coffer Ruins --Norton's House Elcoor --Underground Waterway --Airyglyph --Traum Mountains --Cirlsour --Cirlsour Cave --Becquerel Mountain Path --Alias --Aire Hills/Cirlsour Hills --Grana Hill --Cirlsour Ruins --Palmira Plains --Peterny --Sunmight Plains --Douglas Forest --Iris Plains --Sealand --Becquerel Mine --Battlefield --Immorality Way --Shrine of Canan --Sir Felious --The Grace and Thirst Corridor --Mosel Sandhill --Ancient Ruins of Mosel --Airyglyph Castle --Bar Mountains/Bar Cave --Urza Lava Cave Back to Space --Diplo --Aquaelie --Moonbase --Planet Stream FD Space --Recorder --Gemity City --Sphere Corporation Endgame --Immorality Way/Shrine of Canan --Mosel Sandhill/Ancient Ruins of Mosel --Firewall --Spiral Tower 4. Side Quests/Secrets --Ladel and Lumina --The Ancient Scrolls --Battle Collection --Ancient Ruins of Mosel (Depths) --Cave of Trials --Sphere 211 --The Final Secret Boss --Tricks 5. Hints/Frequently Asked Questions 6. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION This is an FAQ and Walkthrough for the PS2 RPG, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (otherwise known as Star Ocean 3). Please note that the US release of Star Ocean 3, currently scheduled for late Summer '04, is actually the Director's Cut version of the game that was released in Japan in early 2004. Thus, if you are playing the US version, please look at my FAQ/Walkthrough for the Director's Cut instead. This FAQ is Plot Spoiler free. What that means is that you do not need to worry about being spoiled for the plot by reading this FAQ. However this FAQ is not TOTALLY spoiler free, as in, there are secrets and sidequests revealed in this FAQ. Thus, if you want to stay TOTALLY spoiler free, I suggest you avoid the Side Quests/Secrets section. This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Certain versions of Windows should have it built in; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer (free from Microsoft) and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. 2. BASICS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Controls ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SO3 is "exclusively compatible to the DualShock 2", according to the game's box. I don't know exactly what they mean, but you might be missing some functionality if you attempt to play with only a PS1 controller. O: the circle button X: the X button S: the square button T: the triangle button On the field/towns/dungeons: Directional pad: Movement Left Analog: Movement Right Analog: Not used O: Examine/Talk X: Walk (hold X while moving to walk instead of run) S: Activate Vanish Items T: Camp Menu L1/R1: Rotate the map clockwise or counterclockwise L2: Not used R2: Cycle the minimap between small, large, and none Start: Readjust the camera angle Select: Not used On menus: Directional pad: Move through choices Left Analog: Move through choices Right Analog: Not used O: Confirm X: Cancel/Exit S: Switch between multiple screens (on equip screen) Discard item (on items) Turn on/off tactical skills T: Detailed information (on item descriptions) L1/R1: Page up/down (on equip/status/skills menus) L2/R2: Switch between characters (on equip/status/skills menus) L2: Not used R2: Not used Start: Not used Select: Not used During battles: Directional pad: Movement Left Analog: Movement Right Analog: Not used O: Light attack X: Heavy attack S: Targeting (during manual mode only) T: Battle menu L1/R1: Change the active character L2: Step (hold while moving directional pad) R2: Switch between manual and auto modes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Menus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ スキル - Skill: Divided into Heraldry (紋章術使用) and Set Skills (スキル設定). Under Heraldry you can cast spells such as Healing and Antidote on yourself, as well as turn on/off the spell with the square button. (Turning off a spell means the AI won't use it). Under Set Skills you can set your Battle, Status, and Tactical skills. See the Skill section for more information. アイテム - Item: Divided into Weapon (武器), Armor (防具), Accessory (アクセサリー), Used Item (ユースドアイテム), Food (食べ物), Other (その他), Materials (素材), Important Items (貴重品), Battle Items (戦闘用), and New Items (新規入手). In each category, square changes the ordering of items (alphabetical or default), X cancels out, and circle selects the item. Once an item is selected a submenu pops up. Here, square throws away the item, triangle changes to a screen with more info, X cancels, and circle uses the item. In the case of weapon or armor, "using" the item on somebody will equip it. 装備 - Equip: Pretty self-explanatory. Triangle automatically equips the strongest setup (though this is in terms of numbers only) and square shows you the basic stats for each item. ステータス - Status: Self-explanatory. Circle lets you change a character's name. コンフィグ - Config: Consists of Event Skip (イベントスキップ) (On/Off), Sound (音声) (Both/Subtitles Only/Voice Only/Auto Change), Battle Targeting (バトルターゲット) (Auto/Manual), Battle Camera Work (バトルカメラワーク) (Active/Fixed), Battle Voice (バトルボイス) (On/Off), Battle Step (バトルステップ) (L2 + directional pad/directional pad only), Vibration (振動) (On/Off), Sound Effect (サウンド環境) (Monaural/Stereo/Headphone/Dolby Surround), Key Customize (キーカスタマイズ) (Normal/Customize), Window Color (ウィンドウカラー) (Normal/Customize), Screen Size (画面サイズ) (4:3/16:9), Battle Collection (バトルコレクション) (Collect/Don't Collect), and Data Reading (よみこみ) (from Hard Drive/DVD-ROM) (only when installed) 作戦 - Divided into Tactics (作戦), Exchange (入れ換え), and Formation (隊形). For most characters, Tactics lets you choose in order, Use all your strength!, Use good balance!, Conserve your Guts!, Focus attacks on one enemy!, Don't use battle skills!, and Don't do anything!. For Sophia only, her choices are Use good balance!, Focus on healing!, Focus on Attacking!, Support allies!, Don't use magic!, and Don't do anything!. Exchange exchanges your party members. Formation lets you choose your battle formation. Pressing triangle here lets you choose the leader (the default character that you control). 辞書 - Dictionary: Consists of Newest Terms (最新単語), Countries (国家勢力 地名), People (人名), Races (種族), and Other (その他) 発明情報 - Takes you to Item Creation screen. Here you can select from Newest Info (最新情報), Accept Ratings (特許申請), View Information (情報参照), Change Orders (命令変更), and Alert (アラート). See the Item Creation section for more info. カード - Card: Choose between Save (セーブ) and Load (ロード). You can only save on save points. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skills ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are four different kinds of skills in Star Ocean 3: Battle Skills (which are further divided into active and support skills), Heraldry, Status Skills, and Tactical Skills. Battle Skills are naturally enough what your characters use in battle. On the Battle Skill set screen, you can set 6 different battle skills per character: short range circle (weak), long range circle (weak), short range X (strong), long range X (strong), and two support skills. Six may be the maximum; however, each skill also costs a certain number of Capacity Points (CP). You cannot exceed the natural CP of your character. Your characters' CP will go up as you gain levels, maxing out at 15. Thus, if your character has fifteen points, and you equip an 8 CP battle skill, you cannot equip another 8 CP battle skill at the same time. The vast majority of battle skills can be set to either short or long range, and can be bound to a weak or strong button. In general a battle skill bound to a strong button (i.e., to X) will cost a lot more in terms of Guts and HP/MP, but it tends to be more effective and like regular strong attacks, it can break an enemy's Protect. To use a battle skill in battle, simply hold the button it is bound to. Each battle skill has a usage count (熱練度) and an associated level, along with an indication of how many more times it must be used before getting to the next level. The higher the level, the better the skill, generally doing more damage and/or hits. Support skills are always active in battle and do not require activation. Heraldry works much the same way as Battle Skills for Sophia. Definitions about CP, short/long range, weak/strong attacks, and experience all apply. Status Skills consume status points (SP) to strengthen your characters. You will gain SP when you level up; on this screen you can strengthen your character by spending your SP on Life Strength (生命力), which raises your HP, Mental Strength (精神力), which raises your MP, Attack Technique (攻撃術) which lets you do more effective techniques, and Avoidance (見切り), which may let you defend against attacks even without Protect. Each skill has a max level of 10. Tactical Skills are similar to support skills but can be turned on/off during battle. These things include things like Berserk, Training, and so on. Most Tactical Skills default to Off (because they have negative side effects), but turning them on with the square button will default them to on during battle. They can also be turned on during battle by selecting the T. Skill selection from the battle menu. Most Tactical Skills are learned from Books created by Item Creation, not by gaining levels. Here is a list of the general skills in the game. Character-specific skills are listed under each character in the characters section. Battle Skills Active チャージ - Charge; short range skill only, character charges at enemy (4 CP) エリアル - Aerial; short range skill only, character uses anti-air attack (2 CP) クリティカル - Critical; gives a chance of causing 35% more HP/MP damage for the attack it is bound to. At Level 1 the chance is about 6%, at Level 10 it is 30%.(2 CP) スタン - Stun; attack it is bound to has a chance of dizzying enemy. At Level 1 about 6%, at Level 10 about 30%. (2 CP) フィアー - Fear; attack it is bound to may cause the enemy to attack less. At Level 1 about 15%, at Level 10 about 42%. (2 CP) ドレイン - Drain; attack it is bound to has a chance of dropping enemy's Guts to 50%. At Level 1 about 18%, at Level 10 about 30%. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) ゲットアイテム - Get Item; attack it is bound to forces enemy to drop a treasure chest if it downs enemy. Chance rises as the skill's proficiency rises. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) HP ダメージアップ - HP Damage Up - Attack it is bound to causes more HP Damage. At Level 1 50% more, at Level 10 80% more. (4 CP) MP ダメージアップ - MP Damage Up - Attack it is bound to causes more MP Damage. At Level 1 50% more, at Level 10 80% more. (4 CP) スタミナアップ - Stamina Up - Guts consumption is reduced. At Level 1 30%, at Level 10 50%. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) ダブルアップ - Double Up - Attack it is bound to causes more HP and MP Damage. At Level 1 about 30% more, at Level 10 60% more. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Support ガードレス - Guardless - Character will not stagger if damage received is less than 1/15th current HP (5 CP) コモンアッタクスペル - Common Attack Spell - Character will be able to use "Firebolt", "Ice Needle", and "Earth Grave". Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) コモンサポートスペル - Common Support Spell - Character will be able to use "Healing", "Silence", and "Antidote". Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) レトロヒール - Retro Heal - While standing still, character regenerates HP at a rate of skill level x 20 HP every 4 seconds. (1 CP) Guts エクステンション - Guts Extension - Occasionally character's guts may go to 100% automatically. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) ファーストエイド - First Aid - When getting attacked, a character has a chance of regaining 20% of Max HP. At Level 1 this is about 5%, at Level 10 15%. (1 CP) ラッキースター - Lucky Star - When getting attacked, there is a chance of stars dropping on the field. Picking up a star fills the Heat Up Gauge 30%. The chance of a star falling is 4% at Level 1, and 10% at Level 10. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) クリティカル HP - Critical HP - All of a character's attacks have a chance of causing 30% more HP damage. This chance is 4% at Level 1 and about 48% at Level 10. This stacks with Critical. (2 CP) クリティカル MP - Critical MP - All of a character's attacks have a chance of causing 30% more MP damage. This chance is 4% at Level 1 and about 48% at Level 10. This stacks with Critical. (2 CP) クイックチャージ - Quick Charge - Spell chant time cut down. Amount cut down depends on spell; there is a 2 second lower limit so already-fast spells will not be sped up any more. Must be learned from a book. (Sophia Only)(3 CP) MP エクステンド - MP Extend - Max MP increased 40%. Must be learned from a book. (Sophia Only) (3 CP) Tactical バーサーク - Berserk - Attack up 30% and Guts consumption cut in half, but Defense down 80% 修行 - Training - Experience gained 40% up, but Guts consumption multiplied by three. Must be learned from a book. オーラセレクト - Aura Select (for Counter Auras) - Choose between Standard (スタンダード) (linear, dizzies), 2WAY (2 way aura, 70% chance of dizzy), Ring Wave (リングウェーブ) (damages), Aiming (エイミング) (homes on opponent, dizzies), Wide Aiming (ワイドエイミング) (homes on opponent, damages), Regeneration (リジェネレーション) (heals self), and Star Guard (スターガード) (causes stars to damage opponent). All of these auras require the associated Counter Aura book in your inventory before you can select them. Also Star Guard can only be selected if you have the Star Guard accessory equipped. バランスコンディション - Balance Condition - Choose between Protect HP and Protect MP. If Protect HP is selected, all HP damage is divided by 7 and applied to MP instead. If Protect MP is selected, all MP damage is multiplied by 13 and applied to HP instead. Must be learned from a book. キュアコンディション - Cure Condition - The effects of Poison, Paralysis, Petrify, Frozen, and Dizzy are weakened. Poison does only half damage, and the other effects last only half as long as they normally would. However Defense down 20%. Must be learned from a book. 挑発 - Taunt - Draws opponents to you (rather than your allies). エネミーサーチ - Enemy Search - Reveals the selected enemy's HP, MP, weaknesses/strengths, and dropped items. Note that for bosses HP/MP will not be revealed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Characters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is the cast of the game. Each character's battle skills are explained with the required CP, Guts, and HP/MP displayed. There are usually two entries, indicating the amounts required when the skill is bound to the weak attack and when the skill is bound to a strong attack. For Sophia, there is also an entry for casting from the Heraldry menu in the battle menu. FATE LINEGOD Sex: Male Age: 19 Height: 177 cm Weight: 67 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic Fate is the main character of the game. He wields a sword in battle. He's one of the fastest at moving around and average in attack speed. You don't have much of a choice if you want to use him or not, so you might as well, though he isn't the greatest. Skills ブレードリアクター - Blade Reactor (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 2/Guts 47 HP 300): Fate's sword becomes surrounded with energy and he then swings at the enemy. Continue mashing on the attack button for a series of slashes. A bit slow and not the greatest. ブレイズソード - Blaze Sword (4 CP; Guts 10 MP 2/Guts 37 MP 30): Fate imbues his sword with fire. Great against opponents weak against fire. However it's a slow move and it wears off after awhile, so be sure to use it at long range. While imbued, his sword can cause MP damage as well. Fire- elemental. リフレクトストライク - Reflect Strike (2 CP; Guts 10 HP 2/Guts 37 HP 300): Fate sidesteps and then kicks the opponent for multiple hits. A fairly good move, this can help you evade some attacks. アイシクルエッジ - Icicle Edge (4 CP; Guts 10 MP 12/Guts 37 MP 36): Fate imbues his sword with ice. Like Blaze Sword it has its uses and it can cause MP damage. Water-elemental. ショットガンボルト - Shotgun Bolt (4 CP; Guts 35 HP 20/Guts 62 HP 600): Fate creates a wall of fire in front of him. Does a lot of hits and relatively good damage, but the range and area is pretty limited. ライトニングバインド - Lightning Bind (6 CP; Guts 10 MP 15/Guts 37 MP 45): Fate imbues his sword with lightning. Akin to Blaze Sword and Icicle Edge, it can also cause MP damage. Air-elemental. ヴァーティカルエアレイド - Vertical Airraid (8 CP; Guts 40 HP 200/Guts 67 HP 900): Fate flips into the air and causes several lines of energy to rise up from the ground. Perhaps his best Battle Skill. ストレイヤーヴォイド - Strayer Void (8 CP; Guts 30 HP 200/Guts 70 HP 900): Fate charges up. Continue holding the attack button to charge further (this doesn't increase damage and consumes more Guts, but causes a small amount of area damage). After the button is released, Fate teleports to the nearest opponent and slashes them. The damage is not entirely spectacular and this battle skill is actually kind of useless. ディバインウェポン - Divine Weapon (8 CP; Guts 10 MP 50/Guts 80 MP 250): Fate imbues his weapon with divine power. Like the elemental imbuements, this can be a good move as it causes MP damage, but as an added bonus, this will work against opponents who have elemental resistances (no enemy is resistant against Divine power). イセリアルブラスト - Iserial Blast (8 CP; Guts 70 HP 300/Guts 90 HP 900): Fate grows wings, hovers into the air, and then blasts the enemy with a ray of light. Reaaaaaaaally slow, and the area of effect isn't really worth it. Not recommended. Learning Chart Level 2: Blade Reactor Level 3: First Aid Level 4: Enemy Search Aerial Level 6: Blaze Sword Level 7: Critical Level 9: Charge Level 10: Retro Heal Level 11: Critical HP Level 14: Taunt Level 15: Reflect Strike Level 16: Guardless Level 17: Stun Level 20: Icicle Edge Level 21: Berserk Level 22: HP Damage Up Level 23: MP Damage Up Level 25: Shotgun Bolt Level 30: Lightning Bind Level 32: Fear Level 40: Vertical Air Raid Level 50: Strayer Void SOPHIA ESTEED Sex: Female Age: 17 Height: 160 cm Weight: 49 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic (joins after second Cirlsour Ruins event) The dedicated heraldry user of the game. As such, Sophia gets sole access to some very powerful spells. On the downside, even with stuff like Quick Charge it takes a very long time to chant some of the spells. Still, there's no better healer in the game, and depending on the situation having her in the party might be required. Skills ヒーリング - Healing (Guts 20 MP 20 Spell): Heals a character for a good chunk of their HP. Doesn't heal MP, sadly. アンチドート - Antidote (Guts 20 MP 10 Spell): Cures the "Poison" condition from a character. ファイアボルト - Firebolt (3 CP; Guts 20 MP 5 Weak): Creates a firebolt that homes in on the enemy. Fire-elemental. As the proficiency of this spell increases, more firebolts are created. サイレンス - Silence (Guts 20 MP 10 Spell): Prevents the enemy from casting spells. Unfortunately most of the really dangerous spellcasters are immune to this spell. アイスニードル - Ice Needle (3 CP; Guts 20 MP 5 Weak): Creates an array of icicles that spray forward in a cone-shaped area. Small chance of freezing the enemy. Water-elemental. アシッドレイン - Acid Rain (Guts 20 MP 15 Spell): Lowers an enemy's physical defense within a certain area of effect. ライトニングブラスト - Lightning Blast (4 CP; Guts 20 MP 5 Weak): Creates an arc of lightning between Sophia and the target. Air-elemental. プロテクション - Protection (Guts 20 MP 30 Spell): Increases a character's physical defense. アースグレイブ - Earth Grave (5 CP; Guts 20 MP 5 Weak): Creates spikes of earth in front of Sophia, impaling the enemy. Earth-elemental. レイズデッド - Raise Dead (Guts 60 MP 40 Spell): Returns a fallen character to life. グロース - Growth (Guts 20 MP 30 Spell): Increases an ally's attack power by 40%. ディープフリーズ - Deep Freeze (5 CP; Guts 72 MP 250 Strong/Guts 40 MP 50 Spell): Hits an opponent multiple times. Has a chance to freeze opponents. Water-elemental. イフリートソード - Ifrit Sword (6 CP; Guts 72 MP 250 Strong/Guts 40 MP 50 Spell): Summons an Ifrit to attack the area just in front of Sophia. Fire-elemental. プレス - Press (Guts 20 MP 15 Spell): Causes a weight to fall on the opponent. キュアコンディション - Cure Condition (Guts 20 MP 15 Spell): Cures any status effects from an ally. サンダーフレア - Thunder Flare (4 CP; Guts 72 MP 100 Strong/Guts 40 MP 20 Spell): Creates a thunderstorm that hits the opponent for numerous hits. Pretty good range and can keep an enemy busy for quite a long time. Air- elemental. フェアリーライト - Fairy Light (Guts 20 MP 40 Spell): Heals all party members for a good amount of HP. リフレクション - Reflection (Guts 20 MP 30 Spell): Halves the damage an ally receives from spells. ダークサークル - Dark Circle (8 CP; Guts 96 MP 900 Strong/Guts 60 MP 300 Spell): If the enemy is weakened, this spell will kill them instantly. Good range but its use is pretty limited. レイ - Ray (6 CP; Guts 87 MP 250 Strong/Guts 50 MP 50 Spell): Causes several beams of light to shoot down, damaging a large area. Good damage, relatively fast to cast; however it's a little slow on the startup. エクスプロージョン - Explosion (8 CP; Guts 96 MP 900 Strong/Guts 60 MP 300 Spell): Causes a ball of fire to drop slowly to the ground, which then explodes in a huge shockwave. Covers a really large area and is a fairly good spell. Fire-elemental. ロックレイン - Rock Rain (5 CP; Guts 72 MP 250 Strong/Guts 40 MP 50 Spell): Causes rocks to fall on enemies within a wide range. Not as good a range as Explosion but causes more hits in the long run. Earth-elemental. グラヴィテーション - Gravitation (Guts 20 MP 30 Spell): Slows down all enemies within the area of effect. Pretty useless if you ask me. サンダーストラック- Thunderstruck (8 CP; Guts 96 MP 900 Strong/Guts 60 MP 300 Spell): Causes a column of lightning to hit an enemy repeatedly. Pretty small range but great spell otherwise. Air-elemental. エンゼルフェザー - Angel Feather (Guts 20 MP 30 Spell): Raises all of an ally's stats by 20%. ブラッドスキュラー - Blood Scylla (8 CP; Guts 93 MP 900 Strong/Guts 60 MP 300 Spell): Causes a spirit to appear which sucks up the HP and MP of enemies within an area and then gives it to Sophia. サザンクロス - Southern Cross (8 CP; Guts 96 MP 750 Strong/Guts 70 MP 150 Spell): Causes a cross of light to appear under Sophia's feet, damaging everybody who steps inside. Air-elemental. グレムリンレア - Gremlin Lair (6 CP; Guts 40 MP 50 Weak/Guts 40 MP 50 Spell): Causes several gremlins to appear, who home in and attack the opponent. メテオスォーム - Meteo Swarm (10 CP; Guts 80 MP 200 Weak/Guts 96 MP 950 Strong): Causes several meteors to fall onto the battlefield. This spell cannot be cast from the Heraldry menu; it must be set as a Battle Skill. Learning Chart Level 2: Healing Level 3: First Aid Level 4: Antidote Level 5: Firebolt Level 7: Silence Level 10: Ice Needle Level 12: Acid Rain Level 13: Enemy Search Level 14: Retro Heal Level 15: Lightning Blast Level 17: Protection Level 19: Earth Grave Level 20: Raise Dead Level 21: Taunt Level 22: Growth Charge Level 23: Critical HP Level 24: Critical Level 25: Deep Freeze Ifrit Sword Level 26: Aerial Level 27: Press HP Damage Up Level 29: Cure Condition (spell) Stun Level 30: Thunder Flare Level 32: Fairy Light MP Damage Up Level 36: Fear Level 37: Reflection Level 40: Dark Circle Ray Level 42: Berserk Level 43: Explosion Level 45: Rock Rain Level 46: Guardless Level 47: Gravitation Level 55: Thunderstruck Level 57: Angel Feather CLIFF FITTER Sex: Male Age: 36 Height: 196 cm Weight: 96 kg Race: Claustro How to recruit: Automatic (joins during the boss fight with Norton) The strong man of the group, he's got the most physical strength and HP out of anybody. He's a pure brawler when it comes to battle, and he's got some really useful skills. He also has tons of HP to soak up damage, but watch out for enemies that inflict MP damage, as he doesn't have very much. Skills マイトディスチャージ - Might Discharge (4 CP; Guts 13 HP 10/Guts 55 HP 400): Cliff creates a ball of energy in front of him that hits the opponent multiple times. Okay range but it might miss short enemies. マイトハンマー - Might Hammer (4 CP; Guts 10 HP 15/Guts 52 HP 300): Cliff jumps into the air and causes a shockwave to hit the ground, spreading outwards and damaging all the enemies in the area of effect. カーレントナックル - Current Knuckle (6 CP; Guts 9 HP 10/Guts 51 HP 300): Cliff swings three fast punches at the opponent. Fairly good damage and range. バーストタックル - Burst Tackle (6 CP; Guts 12 HP 20/Guts 51 HP 300): Like a pumped-up version of Charge, Cliff charges at the nearest opponent in a fast tackle attack. Not too great but fast. エリアルレイド - Aerial Raid (4 CP; Guts 12 HP 80/Guts 54 HP 400): Cliff jumps into the air, then lands heel-first, causing a shockwave. Doesn't hit many times but causes a good chunk of MP damage in exchange. If you press the button again in midair, he changes to a fist-first landing which causes more hits but less damage per hit. フラッシュチャリオット - Flash Chariot (6 CP; Guts 8 HP 200/Guts 50 HP 800): Cliff hits the enemy with a lightning-fast series of punches. Perhaps his best battle skill. ビーンバッガー - Bean Bagger (6 CP; Guts 12 HP 300/Guts 54 HP 900): Cliff floats the opponent high into the air with a rising uppercut. Can disrupt your allies' combos so beware. アクロバットローカス - Acrobat Locus (6 CP; Guts 10 HP 400/Guts 52 HP 950): Cliff hits a martial arts combination on the opponent, flip-kicking them into the air and continuing from there. Good number of hits but a little on the slow side. インフィニティアーツ - Infinity Arts (8 CP; Guts 12 HP 500/Guts 54 HP 950): Cliff launches into a long series of sweeping kick attacks. Great range and coverage, and unlike most of the secret battle skills, actually pretty fast. A great move when surrounded. マックスエクステンション - Max Extension (8 CP; Guts 15 HP 900/Guts 95 HP 950): Cliff charges up his energy and then sends a shockwave travelling forward from him. Really slow and not that worth it. Learning Chart Start: Retro Heal Level 4: Might Discharge Level 6: Critical Level 8: Guardless Taunt Level 10: Might Hammer Level 12: HP Damage Up Level 13: Stun Level 14: Critical HP Level 15: Current Knuckle Level 16: First Aid Level 17: Berserk Charge Level 20: Burst Tackle Level 21: Aerial Level 22: MP Damage Up Level 25: Aerial Raid Level 30: Enemy Search Flash Chariot Level 32: Fear Level 40: Bean Bagger Level 50: Acrobat Locus MARIA TRAITOR Sex: Female Age: 19 Height: 168 cm Weight: 47 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic (joins after the Bandein attack event) As a user of a phase gun, Maria has the best attack range out of anybody. However this is balanced out by the fact that she's exceedingly slow at moving on the battlefield. Still she's got several useful techniques that let her use hit-and-run tactics to play a long-distance fighting game. She also has the second-highest MP total in the game. Skills エイミングデバイス - Aiming Device (2 CP; Guts 28 MP 2/Guts 75 MP 15): Maria uses a laser-sight to target the enemy and then shoots them. Only hits once. On the plus side I don't think this move ever misses, and it does MP damage (though not that much). プルートホーン - Pluto Horn (2 CP; Guts 30 HP 10/Guts 75 HP 400): Maria shoots a spread pattern of bullets. Not entirely useful. Number of rays goes up as the proficiency increases. マグネティックフィールド - Magnetic Field (6 CP; Guts 5 HP 20/Guts 50 HP 200): Maria creates an area of EM flux on the ground which can damage all enemies that step into it. パルスエミッション - Pulse Emission (4 CP; Guts 25 HP 50/Guts 75 HP 500): Maria fires her gun four times at the opponent. She seems to miss more often than she should. She fires more shots as the proficiency increases. クレッセントローカス - Crescent Locus (4 CP; Guts 30 HP 50/Guts 55 HP 800): Maria kicks up with her foot and causes a shockwave. Good for floating/ flying opponents and it has decent range. トライデントアーツ - Trident Arts (6 CP; Guts 18 HP 60/Guts 55 HP 900): Maria does a triple kick combination with energy trails following her feet. Does a decent amount of damage and has great range. レーザーエミッション - Laser Emission (4 CP; Guts 30 HP 100/Guts 75 HP 400): Maria shoots a laser in a circular pattern around her, which causes a row of flames to shoot upwards. Good area coverage; use it if Maria is surrounded. グラビティビュレット - Gravity Bullet (4 CP; Guts 30 HP 300/Guts 80 HP 900): Maria launches a globe of gravitational energy that hits the opponent many many many times. Great battle skill. バーストエミッション - Burst Emission (8 CP; Guts 40 HP 200/Guts 95 HP 950): Maria causes a wide beam to emanate in front of her. Not that great but it has range. レディエーションデバイス - Radiation Device (6 CP; Guts 50 HP 100/Guts 77 HP 950): Maria creates several drones that float around her. For a limited period of time, whenever Maria does a basic attack, the drones shoot as well. They can cause a goodly amount of MP damage, making this one of Maria's best battle skills. Learning Chart Start: Aiming Device Pluto Horn Retro Heal Critical MP Berserk Enemy Search Level 21: Taunt First Aid Level 22: Charge Level 23: Critical Level 24: Aerial Level 25: Magnetic Field Level 27: HP Damage Up Level 30: Pulse Emission Level 31: Fear Level 34: Stun Level 35: Crescent Locus Level 40: Trident Arts Level 45: Laser Emission Level 50: Gravity Bullet Level 55: Guardless SOUFFLE ROSETTI Sex: Female Age: 14 Height: 132 cm Weight: 36 kg Race: Belbeis How to recruit: Souffle will join you temporarily at the Moonbase. After the Moonbase event, you'll be presented with an option. Choose "Take her along" (連れて行く) and she'll join you permanently. A circus performer, she's got quite a wide range of acrobatic attacks. Unfortunately a lot of them are slow, and a lot of them are fairly short range. I honestly don't find her too useful, but some may like her peppiness. It's also said that she's the best at item creation out of any of the player characters. Many of her battle skills are unique in that they don't directly attack the enemy, but help out your party instead. Skills ビヨーンドルアー - Beyond Lure (2 CP; Guts 10 HP 5/Guts 47 HP 500): Souffle attacks the enemy with a fishhook. It's got some range but it's not a terribly great battle skill. フローズンダガー - Frozen Dagger (4 CP; Guts 10 HP 2/Guts 47 HP 300): Souffle creates a few ice daggers and then tosses them at the enemy. Unlike Nel's Touga, these daggers are a LOT slower and thus much harder to hit with. However they still can freeze the opponent. Water-elemental. シャイニングダンス - Shining Dance (6 CP; Guts 15 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 25): Souffle begins to dance and a symbol appears on the ground. All allies within the area get an increase in attack power. ドキューンブラスト - Dokyuun Blast (4 CP; Guts 15 HP 4/Guts 52 HP 800): Souffle points her finger and an invisible blast hits the enemy. A great battle skill as it's near-instant and can be used with some range; however it only hits once. パニックダンス - Panic Dance (6 CP; Guts 15 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 25): Souffle dances, but this time she causes confusion to the enemies. Not that great, many are immune to this effect. パパパスプラッシュ - Papapa Splash (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 6/Guts 57 HP 900): Souffle creates an area of pyrotechnics around her. Use this when surrounded. プリズミックダンス - Prismic Dance (6 CP; Guts 15 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 25): Souffle dances, and all allies in the area of effect start regaining HP. Good in a pinch but it may not warrant taking Souffle out of action. フェアリーアーツ - Fairy Arts (6 CP; Guts 20 HP 8/Guts 57 HP 500): Souffle summons a creature that mimics her movements, doing good HP and MP damage. Unfortunately it's a bit slow. マジカルダンス - Magical Dance (6 CP; Guts 15 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 25): Like Prismic Dance, only heals MP instead. Since there's very few good ways to heal your MP, this is a great skill. ドリームコンボ - Dream Combo (8 CP; Guts 25 HP 10/Guts 62 HP 900): Souffle summons a giant hammer. Once the hammer is summoned, continue pressing attack buttons to let her attack with the hammer, which will cause good HP and MP damage. The hammer lasts for a certain period of time or until Souffle is damaged. Great skill. Learning Chart Level 5: Beyond Lure Level 6: Charge Level 10: Frozen Dagger Level 11: Taunt Level 12: First Aid Level 14: Critical MP Level 15: Shining Dance Level 17: Retro Heal Level 18: Aerial Level 20: Dokyuun Blast Level 22: Enemy Search Level 25: Panic Dance Level 26: Stun Level 28: HP Damage Up Level 29: MP Damage Up Level 30: Papapa Splash Level 31: Berserk Level 33: Critical Level 34: Fear Level 40: Prismic Dance Level 50: Fairy Arts Level 52: Guardless NEL ZELPHER Sex: Female Age: 23 Height: 171 cm Weight: 51 kg Race: Elicoor How to recruit: She'll join you after the escape from Airyglyph event. She'll leave temporarily after you leave Alias, and join again at Cirlsour Ruins. She'll then leave before you return to the Diplo. To recruit her permanently, either do not trigger the Roger or Arbel events (see below) and she'll join you after the second Cirlsour Ruins event, or visit her in Sealand after returning from Gemity and tell her "We can't take it easy" (ゆっくりしていけない) (you can't have recruited Souffle in latter case). A spy in the service of Sealand. She's quick and has some fast, multiple hitting techniques. She possesses some of the best battle skills in the entire game. Her only downside is her lack of high HP, though for awhile she'll have the highest MP out of anybody in your party. Skills 肢閃刀 - Shisentou (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 5/Guts 62 HP 300): Nel creates a shockwave that travels forward along the ground, hitting the opponent multiple times. Somewhat limited range. 影祓い - Kagebarai (2 CP; Guts 10 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 300): Like Shisentou, only Nel creates an arc pattern that gives the move a much greater area of effect. It also manages to hit flying opponents. 凍牙 - Touga (4 CP; Guts 40 HP 30/Guts 62 HP 400): Nel throws ice daggers at an opponent. Not too great for damage (it's easy to miss) but it can freeze opponents, and hitting a frozen opponent means instant death for them. Water-elemental. 訃霞 - Fuka (2 CP; Guts 10 HP 3/Guts 52 HP 300): Nel creates a poison cloud that poisons opponents who wander into it. Fairly useless. 風陣 - Fuujin (3 CP; Guts 30 HP 80/Guts 72 HP 600): Nel surrounds herself with a hurricane. Any enemy that touches the hurricane takes multiple hits worth of damage. The great thing about this move is that after the hurricane is created, Nel can move around freely and even attack. Air- elemental. 黒鷹旋 - Kokuyousen (4 CP; Guts 30 HP 40/Guts 72 HP 800): My vote for the best battle skill in the game. Nel uses her large sword as a boomerang-type weapon, causing a large disc to fly out and return to her. The HP damage is nothing to write home about, but the MP damage this move causes is insane. This move can hit from 4-7 times, causing a net total of 500- 1000 MP damage when she first gets it and a possible 10000-20000 towards the end of the game, which puts down most enemies in quite a hurry. While the disc is out, Nel can move around freely, thus directing the disc's movements. 雷煌破 - Raikouha (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 40/Guts 62 HP 900): Nel creates a chain of lightning to rush forth. Okay move, but nothing compared to Kokuyousen. Air-elemental. 鏡面殺 - Kyoumensatsu (8 CP; Guts 40 HP 100/Guts 82 HP 900): The "Mirror Slice" that showed up in previous SO games makes its return as Nel's skill. She hits the opponent for a quick combination of slashes, floats them into the air with a flipkick, hits them multiple times with a spray of lightning, and then dashes forward in one final attack. Pretty good damage and hits, but beware Counter Auras. 裏桜花炸光 - Uraouka Sakkou (6 CP; Guts 25 HP 200/Guts 67 HP 950): Like Kyoumensatsu, only better. Nel rushes VERY fast at the opponent, then hits them multiple times with a whirlwind of attacks, finishing by causing a hurricance that can hit multiple enemies for numerous hits. Because of the fast dash at the beginning, this move can actually be used pretty effectively as a Far range attack. 封神醒雷破 - Fuujin Seiraiha (8 CP; Guts 40 HP 160/Guts 67 HP 950): Nel floats into the air surrounded by a globe of electricity, and then causes a huge bolt to fly forwards. Does really good HP and MP damage, but like most of the hidden Battle Skills, it's really, really SLOW. Air-elemental. Learning Chart Start: Shisentou Level 5: HP Damage Up Level 6: Aerial Level 8: Critical Level 10: Kagebarai Level 13: Stun Level 15: Touga Level 16: Berserk Level 17: First Aid Level 18: Critical HP Level 19: Charge Level 20: Fuka Level 22: Retro Heal Level 25: Fuujin Level 26: Taunt Level 28: MP Damage Up Level 30: Kokuyousen Level 32: Fear Level 34: Enemy Search Level 40: Raikouha Guardless Level 50: Kyoumensatsu ROGER S. HUXLEY Sex: Male Age: 12 Height: 85 cm Weight: 30 kg Race: Menodix How to recruit: In the Douglas Forest, you'll meet him. Choose to have him help (ロジャーに協力してもらう) and he'll join you until you leave the forest. Afterwards head to Sir Felious and you'll meet him again. Choose to help him (協力する) and he'll join you again until you return to the Diplo. To have him join you permanently, either trigger the Roger event by visiting the house across the shops in Sir Felious after Arbel joins you, in which case he'll join you again after the second Cirlsour Ruins event; or visit him in Sir Felious after returning from Gemity (you can't have recruited Souffle in the latter case). Small and surprisingly strong, both in attack power and HP. His techs aren't necessarily the greatest but some of them do have range while others have power. His secret battle skills are perhaps the best in the game, but you won't see them until the very end. Skills ヒートアックス - Heat Axe (2 CP; Guts 10 HP 10/Guts 52 HP 300): Roger charges up his axe, then dives forward and causes an explosion. Really slow, you'll probably get hit out of it first. Fire-elemental? ヒートウィップ - Heat Whip (2 CP; Guts 12 HP 15/Guts 54 HP 500): Roger causes a line of fire to spin around him, stunning enemies momentarily. Okay range, certainly much better than Heat Whip. タレルマイン - Tareru Mine (4 CP; Guts 15 HP 10/Guts 57 HP 400): Roger charges up. Afterwards, when he moves he'll automatically lay mines that can damage the opponent. Okay if someone's chasing you, but otherwise pretty worthless, and again it's really really slow. ラストディッチ - Last Ditch (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 50/Guts 62 HP 400): Roger flies forward in a torpedo type attack. Great range, but recovery time is long, so make sure you don't miss. エクスアーム - Ex Arm (4 CP; Guts 15 HP 30/Guts 57 HP 400): Roger uses his arm as a drill in a charging type attack. Not as good range as Last Ditch but it executes faster and has less recovery. ストリームアタック - Stream Attack (4 CP; Guts 15 HP 40/Guts 57 HP 800): Roger shoots some blasts forward, then charges forward in a fiery aura. Good series of attacks but it seems to be Fire-elemental so many will have defenses against it. カノンシールド - Cannon Shield (8 CP; Guts 40 HP 200/Guts 95 HP 900): Roger puts up a shield and lobs off a grenade-like weapon. The description says his defense increases while he does this but it never seems to work, and the grenade is hard to control. ジークビーム - Jeek Beam (6 CP; Guts 20 HP 200/Guts 62 HP 600): Roger tosses his helmet into the air, then shoots up into it, causing an arcing pattern of lasers to fall around him. It's a bit on the slow side but has 360-degree coverage. トライファンネル - Tri Fauna (6 CP; Guts 30 HP 300/Guts 72 HP 800): Roger lets lose what appears to be three small animals, who each attack enemies independently. Good for keeping Roger out of danger. スターフォール - Star Fall (8 CP; Guts 50 HP 500/Guts 92 HP 900): Roger causes meteors to fall onto the field. The meteors cover the entire field, but it takes a LONG time for them to appear. Sort of a bargain version of Meteo Swarm. Learning Chart Start: Heat Axe Level 10: Heat Whip Level 12: Charge Level 13: Retro Heal Level 15: Tareru Mine Level 16: Guardless Level 18: Berserk Critical HP Level 20: Last Ditch Level 21: Taunt Aerial Level 23: MP Damage Up Level 25: Ex Arm Level 26: First Aid Level 29: Critical Level 30: Stream Attack Level 31: Fear Level 32: HP Damage Up Level 33: Stun Level 36: Enemy Search Level 40: Cannon Shield Level 50: Jeek Beam ARBEL NOX Sex: Male Age: 24 Height: 185 cm Weight: 64 kg Race: Elicoor How to recruit: He'll join you temporarily after the Airyglyph Castle event and he'll leave before you return to the Diplo. To have him join you permanently, trigger the "Arbel event" by going to Peterny while he's in your party and resting at the inn there. He'll ask you if you hate him. Respond "Not really" (そうでもない) and he'll join you again after the second Cirlsour Ruins event. Otherwise, go visit Walter in Cirlsour after returning from Gemity, then go to Crosel's lair in the Urza Lava Cave. There you'll fight on him one on one in battle. Afterwards choose to let him join you (許可する) (you can't have recruited Souffle in the latter case). One of the generals of Airyglyph, he wields a katana and has some good battle techniques. He's got fairly high HP but low MP, and some great basic attacks which are basically multiple slashes. One of the better characters. Skills 空破斬 - Kuuhazan (2 CP; Guts 5 HP 5/Guts 47 HP 200): The famous "Air Slash" makes its return. Arbel causes a shock wave to travel forward along the ground to hit the opponent. Decent range but that's about it. 衝裂破 - Shouretsuha (2 CP; Guts 15 HP 10/Guts 57 HP 500): Arbel causes another ground shockwave, but this one travels in a circular pattern around him. Use this when surrounded. 気功掌 - Kikoushou (4 CP; Guts 10 HP 5/Guts 52 HP 300): Arbel gathers energy in his palm and sends it forward in a short-range blast. 魔掌壁 - Mashouseki (6 CP; Guts 30 HP 50/Guts 45 HP 800): Arbel creates a wall of aura in front of him. Enemies that walk into it take a lot of damage. However the wall itself is small and this is trickier than it seems. 双破斬 - Souhazan (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 10/Guts 40 HP 500): Arbel does a vertical two-slash combination on the enemy. Fairly good range. 魔光閃 - Makousen (6 CP; Guts 10 HP 300/Guts 52 HP 500): Arbel creates a field on the ground that sucks up enemy's HP and gives it to him. Good in a pinch, but may not warrant the 6 CP, and it's fairly slow. 剛魔掌 - Goumashou (4 CP; Guts 20 HP 60/Guts 52 HP 700): Arbel causes his claw to glow with energy, then he charges forward for a number of swipes. Great move; does a lot of damage and has great range, just watch out for the Counter Auras. 吼竜破 - Kouryuuha (6 CP; Guts 20 HP 40/Guts 62 HP 600): Arbel charges up, then several dragons fly forth from the ground, hitting the opponent for multiple hits, all with good HP and MP damage. Unfortunately the move is quite slow and its easy for it to miss completely, or worse, for the enemy to hit Arbel first. 無限空破斬 - Mugen Kuuhazan (6 CP; Guts 5 HP 150/Guts 47 HP 900): Like Kuuhazan, only mashing on the attack button will have Arbel continue putting out Kuuhazan waves. A great attack as it does both HP and MP damage, is quite rapid, and Arbel can keep the enemy far far away. 無限双破斬 - Mugen Souhazan (6 CP; Guts 5 HP 150/Guts 47 HP 900): Like Mugen Kuuhazan, this is a charged up version of Souhazan, so keep pressing the attack button to continue. Almost as good as Mugen Kuuhazan, but this puts you at much more risk for Counter Aura. Learning Chart Start: Critical Stun Kuuhazan Shouretsuha Guardless Retro Heal Critical MP Level 25: Taunt Kikoushou Level 26: First Aid MP Damage Up HP Damage Up Level 29: Aerial Level 30: Mashouseki Level 32: Charge Level 34: Fear Level 35: Souhazan Level 36: Enemy Search Level 40: Makousen Level 45: Goumashou Level 50: Kouryuuha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Battles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Star Ocean series' battle system has always been one of the best, and SO3 takes it to a new level. While wandering around on the field, you'll see enemies wandering around as well. Running into one will cause you to go to battle. In a battle, you'll be on a 3D field along with your enemies. Battles are in full real-time, with the computer controlling the enemies and your allies. You're fully responsible for one character, but you can switch between characters at any time by pressing L1 or R1. Your characters stats are shown at the bottom of the screen. HP and MP represent physical and mental health, respectively; if EITHER of these goes to zero, that character dies. The third rating, Guts, approximates your characters' stamina. Running around will cause it to stand still; standing in place will cause it to regenerate (after a brief delay); using battle skills or getting hit will cause it to drop. Movement is accomplished simply using the directional pad or the left analog stick. Sidestepping or strafing can be accomplished by holding L2 and moving. You can set it in the options so that directional pad is always sidestepping/strafing and left analog stick is always movement. If your targeting is set to auto, you will target the nearest opponent. A display in the upper left will tell you if you are considered to be short or long range from the opponent. This will affect the kind of attacks you can do. There are three basic actions that can be taken in battle: weak attacks, strong attacks, and protect. Weak attacks (default O button) are fast, but are defeated by protects. Strong attacks (default X button) are slow, but can break through a protect. Both weak and strong attacks may change depending on enemy range. Protects (stand still while Guts is at 100%) will deflect weak attacks but not strong attacks. You can tell a weak attack appart from a strong attack because a purple shadow will appear around the character while they are doing a strong attack. A side benefit of the Protect is the Counter Aura. If you have a Counter Aura learned and a protect succeeds, a counter aura will come out and attack the enemy. Depending on what type of Counter Aura you have active, this can dizzy the opponent or cause damage in a number of ways. To use battle skills, you must first bind them to a button in the Skill menu (outside of battle). Then, inside of battle, hold the indicated button to perform the battle skill. The battle skill you use depends on range as well. Each character can have two short range skills bound (one to weak and one to strong) and two long range skills bound (one to weak and one to strong). Logically, skills bound to the strong attack button are more damaging and effective, but also consume more HP/MP and Guts. The theory of cancel combos is simple. Certain basic attacks can have their recovery time cancelled by starting a weak battle skill, and certain weak battle skills can likewise be cancelled into strong battle skills. Strong battle skills can then be cancelled into weak battle skills, and so, at least until your HP/Guts runs out, you can do: Normal Attack -> Weak BS -> Strong BS -> Weak BS -> Strong BS... Cancel Combos don't really give you that much incentive save for cutting down recovery time. Other actions in battle may be performed by first bringing up the battle menu (default triangle). From here you can use Items, Heraldry, Tactical Skills, change your Equipment, change your Tactics, or Escape. The first four options can only be done once every few seconds. Going to items will take you to an item menu where you can choose the item and then the target. Heraldry will do to same, only with magic. Tactical Skills let you turn on or off certain tactical skills (see the skill section for details) using the square button; you can also change the counter aura effect here. Changing Equipment lets you change your equipment, logically enough. Changing Tactics will change the general Tactics of the AI for the computer-controlled characters. Finally, escaping will cause you to attempt to run. To the right of the screen is a combo indication meter and the "Heat Up" gauge, as well as a percentage. The percentage indicates how fast the Heat Up gauge fills up, and gradually decreases during a battle. It starts at a percentage determined by the strength of the enemy. Thus, if you go up against a really weak enemy, it'll start at 0%, and you won't fill up the gauge at all. Conversely, some bosses may start you off at 250%. Filling up the Heat Up gauge converts the current battle (and all subsequent battles) into "Bonus Battles". These Bonus Battles give you special things once the battle is over. The initial bonus depends on what kind of attack filled up the Heat Up gauge: Weak Attack: 3x EXP Strong Attack: 2x Fol Battle Skill: Recovery Up Spell: Get Item Rate Up Once the gauge is filled it will remain filled from battle to battle. This effect is called "Chain". As your chain grows larger, more and more effects get added to the Bonus Battles. Thus, after a while you can get all four of the above effects in one battle. However your gauge may "break" when full, emptying the gauge to zero and breaking the chain. The more you get damaged by the enemy, the more likely your gauge will break. Running away will also cause the gauge to break. Finally, saving and restarting won't cause the gauge to break per se, but it will empty your gauge. There are also several status effects that may afflict you or the opponent during a battle. "Paralysis" (symbolized by a lightning bolt over your character portrait) prevents you from moving, and you're basically a sitting duck. However it wears off after awhile. "Petrification" (a little rock) makes you unable to act, like Paralysis, but is permanent. If your entire party gets petrified, the game is over. "Poison" will cause you to lose HP slowly. "Frozen" (a little snowflake) is like Paralysis, but it lasts shorter. However, if your character is hit by a physical attack while Frozen, they'll instantly drop to 0 HP. "Confusion" causes your character to wander around aimlessly. "Silence" prevents your character from casting spells. Perhaps the most common effect is "Dizzy", which is usually caused by an opponent's Counter Aura. Like paralysis, you won't be able to act, but it wears off after you are hit once. After defeating all the enemies you will be rewarded a certain number of Fol and Experience, and possibly items. Your characters will also recover a little HP/MP based on their level and how long the battle took. If your characters levelled up, you'll see that information now. Afterwards you'll return to the field and you'll be free to continue wandering around. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Item Creation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Item Creation is the way to create some of the most powerful items in the game. Thus, you'll want to dedicate yourself to the process starting early and building up over the course of the game. You can start Item Creation when you first arrive in Peterny (see the section on Peterny in the walkthrough for details). Once you get the Telegraph, you'll start receiving updates from Welch and the guild about the progress of Item Creation. There are eight types of Item Creation. Each different specialty is capable of creating different kinds of items. The eight specialties are: 料理 - Cooking; create food items 錬金 - Alchemy; creates jewels and other miscellaneous magic items 細工 - Craft; creates jewelry and accessories 調合 - Compounding; creates used items and medicines 鍛治 - Blacksmith; creates weapons and armor 執筆 - Writing; creates books 機械 - Machinery; creates guns and bombs 合成 - Synthesis; fuses an item to a weapon to transfer attributes To do Item Creation, you'll have to use a factory. Most cities have factories, but Alias and Sir Felious do not. Cirlsour has two. There are two ways to do Item Creation: doing it yourself, or assigning Creators to do it. Self Item Creation To do it yourself, go to any factory and approach a bench. On the Item Creation screen, you'll have three choices; Creation Performance (クリエイションの実行), Expand Factory Attributes (工房の機能拡張), and Transfer of Creators (クリエイターの人事異動). Under Expand Factory Attributes, you'll be able to expand that factory's abilities in exchange for money. In order to do a specialty at a factory, that factory has to be equipped for the specialty in question. Each factory comes preequipped to do a few specialties; if that factory isn't equipped for that specialty, you'll have to spend some money and "buy" that specialty. You can see what specialties your factory is equipped for in the lower left of the screen. Highlighted ones are already equipped. Here you can also add Lines to your factory. Most factories start with either 0 or 1 line. You need at least 1 line to do Item Creation; however you can have as many as three. I don't find multiple lines terribly useful, as all it does is save time and in many cases it might waste money. To do Item Creation yourself, pick Creation Performance. This will take you to the Creation screen itself. Now choose up to three people to put onto a line. You'll want to pick people who have a high talent for whatever you want to make. Pressing triangle will bring up a chart of each character's abilities - the higher the better. Put them into a line, and in the next blank under "Type" pick the actual specialty you want to do. Then under "Plan" you can pick one of two choices. "Original Creation" (創作オリジナル) will have your characters attempt to create an item from scratch. "Recipe Designate" (レシピ指定) will have you choose an item that you will try to refine (i.e., improve its attributes). Once you choose a Type and a Plan, a cost will come up. The cost determines the item that you will come up with, so if you get an item that you like remember the cost that produced that item. If you want to change the cost, simply repick "Original Creation" and the cost will change. Now press the square button to start creation. This will bring up two bars, Quality, and Time. Quality starts out full and slowly goes down. As time goes by, the Time Bar will fill up. Once the time bar reaches max, your selected characters will display an emotion (either happy or frustrated), and the time bar will drop to zero. If your characters' faces were happy, that means you succeeded in creating an item. If your characters look frustrated, they failed to create anything. You can continue to let time go by to have your characters create multiple copies of an item, or you can stop the item creation by pressing X. This will show you what item you ended up creating. If you pick Recipe Designate, you will be prompted to choose an item in your inventory. This item will be the one that you attempt to improve. The Quality and Time bars still apply as above. However, an added requirement for Recipe Designate is that you need an associated Materials item for that Specialty. Thus, if you want to improve a piece of armor, you'll need "Blacksmith Materials", which will be consumed in the process; to improve a food item, you'll need "Cooking Materials". NPC Item Creation You can also have specialized NPCs, known as Creators, create items for you. Provided they are in the factory you are currently in (you can move them around by choosing "Transfer of Creators"), you can pick them in lieu of one of your characters in the method above. Creators, unlike your characters, only have talents in one specialty, but in many cases they have values much higher than your characters do. Creators usually also have associated Cost and Time modifiers (given as + or - a certain percent); this affects the Cost and Time it takes to create an item, obviously. They can also be assigned to create items automatically while you go out and explore. To do either, you must first recruit the Creator. This will usually require you giving them either money or some sort of contract item. Once recruited, you must send the Creator to one of the factories. (Remember to send them to a factory that is equipped for whatever specialty they are!) Once there, they will automatically start creating items for you, and you'll receive an alert by Telegraph whenever they do. On the Telegraph menu (via the main menu screen), you can choose from Newest Info (最新情報), Accept Ratings (特許申請), View Information (情報参照), Change Orders (-ｽ-ﾟ変更), and Alert (アラート). Under Newest Info, you can check on the latest inventions (アイテム), the latest items sold in the shops (ショップ), and newly announced Creators (クリエイター). Under Accept Ratings, you can patent any item that you've created and/or found. Select the item from the list then wait for the rating to come up. The higher the rating, the better public approval it has. View Information gives you a summary of all the info on Creation so far. Creator Information (クリエイター情報) gives you a list of the creators and if they're working for you (red) or not (blue). It also shows if they're currently working (実行中) or on standby (待機). Invention List (発明品リスト) gives a list of all items invented so far and who created them. Shop Information (ショップ情報) shows you what stores are selling what across the continent. The fourth option gives you a map of the continent and the location of the factories, and the last option gives a ranking of all the creators. Back on the main menu, Order Change (命令変更) lets you change the orders for any of your creators. You can tell them to work (the default) or to standby... there's really no benefit for standby, so you can probably just never touch this option. Finally, Alert (アラート) lets you choose when to be notified - if somebody patents an item (License), if some item is now on sale (On Sale), if one of your creators invented something (Invent), and if a new Creator is announced (Entry). Synthesis Synthesis works a little differently from the other specialites. First, no Creator specialized in Synthesis, so only your characters will be able to do so. Synthesis also requires a "Synthesis Materials", and there is no option to choose Original or Recipe Plan. Once you choose Synthesis, you'll be prompted to pick a weapon that you want to improve. Then you'll be prompted to pick an item to fuse to that weapon, in general an item that possesses the properties that you want that weapon to have. (For instance, fusing an item that raises your ATK by 30% has a good chance of giving the weapon the "ATK +30%" attribute). Recruiting Creators To recruit a Creator, they must first be announced by Welch. Thus, even though you meet some creators very early, they may not be able to be recruited until later in the game. A description of the creators, when they are announced, what is required to recruit them, and their specialties is listed below. (Initial Group) ダムダムーダ - Damda Muda (Cooking 6) (Costs +10%) He's in the western block of Sealand. He'll need the 酔迎 liquor dropped by the thief enemies in the Douglas Forest. ミレーニア - Milenia (Compounding 19) (Costs -20%) She's in the chapel in Alias. All she needs is 3800 Fol. マユ - Mayu (Cooking 20) (Costs -30%) She's in the kitchen on the third floor of the Cirlsour Ruins (she's the one who gave you the key). You'll need to give her the "Soothing Kitty" (癒しネコ), which can be created by Craft (use Fate, Nel, and Star Anise, cost 181-205) (Upon entering Sealand) エリザ - Eliza (Alchemy 4) (Time -30%) She's wandering around the eastern district in Sealand. All she needs is 10000 Fol. グラッツ - Gratz (Blacksmith 25) He's in the factory on the outside of the Becquerel Mines. He needs 13500 Fol. スターアニス - Star Anise (Craft 20) (Time -30%, Costs -20%) She's inside the "Inn" in Sir Felious. She needs the Limited Dolphin (限定ドルフィン), which is in a treasure chest in the Douglas Forest. (After returning to Alias after the Becquerel Mines) ゴッサム - Gossam (Compounding 9) (Costs +20%) He's in the northern part of Peterny. You'll need to give him the Fake Youth Medicine (若返りの薬(ニセモノ)), which can be created by Compounding (Cost 5). マクウェル - Macwell (Alchemy 31) (Time +40%) He's in the eastern library of Sealand Castle. He needs the Prophecy Book 1 (予言書1) in a treasure chest in the Shrine of Canan. リジェール - Rijeil (Cooking 47) (Time +40%) She's in the food store of Cirlsour. Give her the Golden Curry (ゴールデンカレー) which you can create through Cooking (Fate, Nel, Mayu, cost 41-47). (After returning from the Shrine of Canan) ミスティリーア - Misty Lia (Alchemy 50) She's wandering around the Bar Mountain factory. You can recruit her by giving her the Soul Gem (魂宝玉) which itself is in the Bar Ruins. ライアス - Raias (Blacksmith 36) (Costs +20%) He's in the bar in Airyglyph. He needs 28000 Fol. 発明王デジソン - Invention King Dejison (Machinery 6) (Time -20%, Costs +40%) He's wandering around the streets of Airyglyph. To get him, give him the Ultimate Destruction Unit (超絶破壊ユニット), which can be created by Machinery (Fate, Cliff, Maria, cost 166). (After reaching Airyglyph coming from Ancient Ruins of Mosel) 殺人シェフ - Killer Chef (Cooking 75) (Time -30%) He's wandering around Sir Felious. Give him the All-Purpose Knife (万能包丁), which can be bought in Gemity. コーネリアス - Cornelius (Writing 15) (Time -40%) He's in the weapon store in Airyglyph. Give him the Sunrise Dictionary (サンライズ辞書) found in the Moonbase. バルバトス - Barbatos (Craft 37) (Time -40%, Costs +50%) He's in the shade of one of the mountains in the Mosel Sandhills. Give him the Orc Jewelry (オークジュエリー) which is in the portion of the Cirlsour Caves with the Torokko (take a left turn then a right turn, then stop; you'll need the Vanish Ring). (After defeating Crosel) ミシェル - Michel (Writing 35) (Costs +10%) He's wandering around the main avenue of Sealand. Give him 85000 Fol. ガスト - Gast (Blacksmith 60) (Time -20%) He's in the south section of Peterny. Give him 60000 Fol. バニラ - Vanilla (Machinery 32) (Costs +30%) You'll have already met him (her?) in the Urza Lava Cave. Go back there and hand over 30000 Fol. (Entering the Eternal Sphere) アンサラー - Anthler (Alchemy 99) (Time -20%) He's in one of the rooms on the first floor of Sealand Castle. He'll need the Philosopher's Stone (賢者の石), created by Alchemy (Misty, Eliza, Sophia, cost 11-12). パフィ - Puffy (Compounding 57) (Time -40%) She's on Floor 5 of the Cave of Trials. Give her the Experimental All-Purpose Antidote (万能 解毒剤試作タイプ) that's found on Floor 2 of the Cave of Trials. アクア&エヴィア - Aqua and Evia (Craft 49) (Costs +10%) They're in the Church in Peterny. All they need is 20000 Fol. (Returning to Sealand after FD Space) メリル - Meryl (Machinery 46) (Time +30%) She's in the east section of Peterny. She'll need the Doramera Tool Set (ドラメラ工具セット) which is in the Sphere Corporation. ノッペリン伯爵 - Count Nopperin (Writing 44) (Costs +40%) He's on the second floor of Airyglyph Castle. Recruit him with 150000 Fol. ボイド - Boyd (Blacksmith 95) (Time +50%) He's in the store in Alias. He'll need the Broken Magic Sword (折れた魔剣), which can be bought for 100 Bunny Race Points in Gemity. (Returning from the Shrine of Canan the Second Time) チリコ - Chiriko (Craft 60) (Time +60%, Costs -10%) In the item shop at Sir Felious. She needs 82000 Fol. 賢者オースマン - Sage Oseman (Writing 73) (Time +40%) He's in the church in Airyglyph. Give him the Skeptic in the Paranormal Book (専門猟奇懐疑書), which is created through Writing (Fate, Michel, Cornelius, cost 5670-6210). 占い師ルイド - Fortuneteller Ruid (Compounding 98) (Time +30%) He's in one of the homes in Sir Felious. Just give him 90000 Fol. (Extra) イザーク - Isaac (Machinery 65) (Costs -50%) Isaac is never announced. Instead you can recruit him at any time after fulfilling certain conditions. First, you need Meryl, Vanilla, and Dejison all under contract. Then, you need two items, the Blueprints (設計図) given to you by Lumina after the Ladel/Lumina sidequest (see sidequests section), and the AI Program (AIプログラム) given to you by one of Brea's coworkers in the Sphere Corporation. After having all this approach the broken down robot in the western part of Sir Felious, and you'll get Isaac. 3. WALKTHROUGH This walkthrough is written based on the default "Galaxy" difficulty setting; HP and MP totals are also for this setting. On "Earth" setting, enemy stats are multiplied by 0.7; on "Universe", stats are multiplied by 1.5, and on "FD" difficulty, stats are multiplied by 1.8. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Beginning ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GRAND TEAR Items in this section: Rosetti Troupe Ticket, Shake The game begins with an event with Sophia. After the event, exit into the hallway and then enter the transporter rooms on either end of the hallway. It doesn't matter which one. Once into the main part of Grand Tear, head to the northeast room. Here you will meet Souffle and the Rosetti Troupe. At one point Souffle will ask you whether you believe her when she says she'll become a big star. Pick the first option (いや、信じるよ) to make her like you more; otherwise pick (ちょっと言い過ぎじゃないかな？) to make her angry. Regardless, either way you'll get the Rosetti Troupe Ticket. Afterwards, head to the central room. Fate will look at the simulation device. Check the machine in the middle of the room (a replicator) to get a shake; then check one of the simulation room panels to start the next event. You'll be presented with two questions. The first one asks between "Persuade Sophia" (ソフィアを説得する) and "Give up" (とりあえず、今は諦めよう). Pick the first one. Then another question will pop up, asking between "It's ok, I'll protect you" (大丈夫だよ。僕が守ってあげるからさ) and "Oh, you don't like playing with me" (そうか、僕と遊ぶのがイヤなんだね) Again, pick the first one. Now you'll enter the fight simulator. You can read an explanation of the battle system, but most importantly you'll want to create the Battle Collection here. If you don't create the Battle Collection, you won't be able to collect any Battle Collection events throughout the entire game. After a lengthy explanation of the Battle Collection, you'll be given a menu. Pick the first one (バトルコレクション。) Another menu will pop up. Pick the first choice again if you want to read the explanation of the Battle Collection again. The second choice will create the Battle Collection on your memory card (初期化を開始する。). If this is your second time through the game, pick the third choice (バトルコレクションの データをロードする) instead to add to the Battle Collection instead of overwriting it. The fourth choice cancels. When you're done, go back to the main menu and pick the last choice (実際にゲームを開始する) to begin the battle. This battle is actually comparatively hard compared to most of the beginning battles, and Sophia will die fairly easily if you let the enemies get too close to her. Nevertheless win or lose the game will continue. Depending on if you lost or won the battle another choice may pop up, but regardless of what you pick an event will interrupt. Head back to the transporters and find your first Save Point. Make sure to save here. Then proceed forward for another event and eventually three forced battles. These ones are significantly easier than the ones in the Battle Simulator, and for the second two you'll also have Souffle join you. After the battles, continue on to the Emergency Shelter. EMERGENCY SHELTER Items in this section: None Look around and talk to people. There's no treasure chests here. After collecting information, head to room 509 to meet up with Souffle and company again. Then head to room 506 for another event. Afterwards you'll be able to walk around but there's still not much to do, so head towards one of the beds and choose to rest (いざという時のために眠っておく). After resting there will be another event so head back to the transporters and this time get on the Helre. HELRE Items in this section: None After transporting onto the ship, head straight forward to the waiting room for an event. Talk to people in the waiting room, then head back out into the hallway and enter the second door towards the est side. Here you'll run into another event featuring a nameless angry man. Talk to everybody in the hallway, then head back to the waiting room for yet another event. Enter the door where the angry man was again, and this time climb the stairs to head for the Bridge by going into the door north of where you exit and north again through the door. Talk to the captain, then head back downstairs to talk to Souffle and company. Go back upstairs into the hallway and south again and make your way to the escape pods. After this there will be a long series of events. In the escape pod you can choose whether to hear information on the "Undeveloped Planet Interference Act" (確認しておこうか。。。) Eventually you'll end up on Vanguard 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vanguard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PESOTTO FOREST Items in this section: Inferior Sword As soon as you land there will be an event and you will gain the Inferior Sword. Explore the forest - there aren't any treasures - and head towards the north. The enemies here are fairly weak so you can level up if you want, or simply skip them all. Once the area changes, head towards the north again. A group of punks will block your path, so head towards the northeast for now and enter the village of Whipple. WHIPPLE VILLAGE Items in this section: Blackberry x2, Aquaberry, 600 Fol, Blueberry You'll end up in Nokia's House. Search the village for some helpful treasures, and buy a Ring Mail (リングメイル) at the village shop. Read the sign in the center of the village and talk to the village elder (in the northeast house), then afterwards head back to Nokia's House. He'll give you back your sword. With it, head back to Pesotto Forest and head towards the south, to the crash site, for another event. Afterwards head back to Pesotto again and enter Nokia's house for another event. Leave the village. The path to the north that the punks were blocking should now be clear, and you should be able to enter the Coffer Ruins. COFFER RUINS Items in this section: Blackberry x3, Blueberry x3, Cooking Materials x2, Ripe Berry, Compounding Materials, Aquaberry x3, Fresh Sage This area is big but it's not very confusing. Search around for lots of helpful treasures. None of the enemies here are particularly threatening. From time to time you should see giant numbers painted on the walls - remember them. Head towards the north. Eventually you'll come across a house. You can't bust down the front door, so loop around towards the back. Here you'll run into a forced battle against three punks (Chinpira x3). They still won't be anything to be concerned about. After the battle they'll drop your first Counter Aura Book (Standard). Head into the entryway at the back of the house to descend into Norton's lair. NORTON'S HOUSE Items in this section: Safety Jewel, Fresh Sage, Orgel Part, Skill Book "Support Spell" This area is small and not very confusing. Unforunately you'll run across your first really challenging enemies, the skeleton. They're surprisingly fast in attack speed and if you run up to attack them, even with a small attack, they'll likely hit you out of it. This is where your counter aura comes into play. Eliminate the other enemies first, then wait for your Guts to reach 100%. Face the skeleton and let it attack you. If it uses a small attack, your counter aura will go off and dizzy it; use a strong attack on it. If it prepares for a strong attack (you can tell because of the purple shadows), either hit it first with a weak attack or move out of the way. Rinse and repeat and you should have no problems defeating them. Collect the two treasure boxes in the first wide room, then head to the south. Where the hall forks, head west. In the room there will be a mini- event and you can save your game. Check the computer terminal, and it will ask you if you want an explanation (説明を読む will give you the explanation) and then prompt you for the code. If you paid attention to the numbers that were painted on the walls, you should know what the code is -- or you can just read this FAQ and find out the number is 256. You'll hear a door opening somewhere. Head back out into the hallway and this time head east. You'll start another event, and then have your first Boss fight, against Norton. Boss: Norton ノートン 1600 HP, 35800 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Avoid 10 Norton Attacks, Defeat Norton in 30 Seconds, Defeat Norton Without Taking Damage Norton would be tough, except now you have a new party member, Cliff. Cliff's an absolute tank, and you should have an easy time with this battle, as Cliff can soak up most of Norton's attacks without any problems. While you're here you might as well try to get some of the Battle Collections, such as avoiding 10 of Norton's attacks or defeating him without taking any damage. The only Battle Collection that might give you problems is defeating him in 30 seconds -- it's not likely you'll be able to do this unless you've levelled up significantly in the Ruins. He'll drop the Skill Book "Support Spell" when you defeat him. After defeating Norton there'll be another event. Head back to the room with the computer terminal to pick up the Orgel part, and then return to Whipple village. After the event, talk to the village elder to receive the "Medestra Augite" (a handy accessory that makes your battle skills cost less HP). Leave the village for another event. Then, head for Pesotto forest, this time slightly south of the crash site. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elicoor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EAGLE Items in this section: None There will be a long series of events. Talk to Cliff, and then talk to Mirage three times. Leave the ship after the event. Afterwards you'll end up in jail, and another series of events will ensure. You'll get another character at this point, Nel Zelpher. Once the events are over, follow the hallway for a forced battle against some knights and the torturer (fairly easy now that you have three characters). After the battle you'll automatically go to the underground waterway. UNDERGROUND WATERWAY Items in this section: Skill Book "Attack Spell", Ring Mail, Blueberry x2, Aquaberry The first thing you'll see is a save point and also a recovery point, which as the name implies will heal you as if you had rested at an inn. Utilize both of these, and move on. Head south in the hallway. Be sure to grab the treasure chest with the Skill Book "Attack Spell" in it. I suggest you use both this and the Skill Book "Support Spell" that Norton dropped on Nel, as she has higher Intelligence and MP than either Cliff or Fate. In the next room, a large glacier will block your path, but there will be a hole in it which you can pass through. To the west is a ladder which you can climb down - it leads to a path with two treasure chests. There is also a treasure chest on the walkway next to the river. Cross the bridge to the east and you'll enter another room with a glacier, this time with two holes in it. Use the south one, head south, and in the next area, head east. Loop back to the north for another treasure chest. Backtrack to the glacier with two holes, and this time take the north path. Continue heading north and then west. In the next area, Fate will say how the ground will look slippery. You'll have to walk (not run) on the ice by holding X, or else you'll slip and will have to start the area over again. After the first patch of ice head north for a small room with a single blob enemy and a treasure chest, then exit the room and head west over another patch of ice. Follow the corridor until you reach a save point. This is your sign that a boss fight awaits, and indeed once you enter the next room you'll face the Larva Crab. Boss: Larva Crab ラーヴァクラブ 3500 HP, 80 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Larva Crab in 1 Minute, Defeat Larva Crab Without Taking Damage This guy's big but slow. Avoid his claws and loop around behind him. Try to sandwich him between your characters and keep the attacks coming so that he won't be able to pull off any big attacks. He doesn't have that much HP and you should be able to take him out fairly easily. After the fight, head to the east of the large room. The ground is again covered with ice so continue walking. Exit and you'll be in the city of Airyglyph. AIRYGLYPH Items in this section: Aquaberry, Ripe Berry, Cooking Materials x3, Blackberry x2, Blueberry x2, Very Ripe Berry x2, 2000 Fol, Compounding Materials Despite it being an enemy city you can wander around pretty freely, and you should, collecting treasure as you go along. The weapon and armor in the stores here are probably way too expensive for you here so ignore them. You can save and rest in the inn (towards the east), and then exit to the east for another event. After the event you'll be in the middle of the Traum Mountains. TRAUM MOUNTAINS Items in this section: Alert Jewel, Ripe Berry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Aquaberry Your goal is to head to the town of Cirlsour to the east. You actually start fairly close to the exit, so you might want to backtrack and pick up the five chests that appear in this area. If you do backtrack (to the west), the road will fork to the west and to the north. The area to the west has two treasure chests. The area to the north heads back to Airyglyph and has some fairly strong enemies and no treasure, so avoid this area for now. Once you're done collecting and exploring, head to the east. There'll be an event, and then you'll be in the town of Cirlsour. CIRLSOUR Items in this section: (Town) Blueberry x2, 520 Fol, Blackberry, 1400 Fol, Ripe Berry, Very Ripe Berry x2, Aquaberry, Compounding Materials (Walter's Mansion) Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Cooking Materials, Synthesis Materials, Blackberry x2, Prophecy Book 2 The items in Walter's Mansion cannot be gotten now so ignore them. Walk around town collecting the treasure chests and buy new equipment for your party. In one of the houses across from the Inn will be a subordinate of Nel's; talk to him. Also talk to the old man in the southwest of the town, standing next to the mine shaft. Eventually, just north of the inn Nel and another subordinate of hers will appear. Head towards the area to eavesdrop on them. After that event, you'll end up having to go through Cirlsour Cave, to the north of the town. CIRLSOUR CAVE Items in this section: Blackberry x2, Scale Armor After entering head to the east. Follow the path until the road splits. Head south for a Scale Armor, which you should equip (unless you bought too many already). Then head back to the north and follow the path as it winds around to the west. You'll run into a save point and recovery point fairly quickly, which as you should suspect indicates another boss coming up. As soon as you enter the next room, Earth Pluto will attack. Boss: Earth Pluto アースプルート 3600 HP, 163 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Earth Pluto in 1 Minute, Defeat Earth Pluto Without Taking Damage He's big and fairly strong. Watch out for his wide reach. I suggest letting Cliff and Fate go automatic and controlling Nel. With Nel, use her far range strong attack (where she jumps and cannonballs in) while avoiding his attacks. He'll probably take awhile to go down, but as long as you have enough Blueberries handy you should win. He'll drop another Skill Book "Support Spell". After the boss battle, examine the small machine on the platform to the north. Pull the lever (レバーを倒す) to open the gate into the mineshafts. Both doors to this room are one way only, so you'll have to head to the west and loop back around. This time, when you come across the area with the five buttons and the torch, you'll be able to read the manual about using the Torokko monsters. When the choice comes up, pick Kenjitsu (けんじつ). Then enter the mineshaft. In the mineshaft at various points you'll be prompted to steer your Torokko, speed up, slow down, or stop. You can stop at various points to pick up treasure, though there's nothing of extreme value in here that you can get yet. With Kenjitsu, turn in the following order - Left, Right, Left, Left, Left. You'll want to keep your speed under 25 kmph so that you can make the turns and also so that you can avoid the dangers. When the falling rocks warning appears (this will happen twice) immediately drop to minimum speed. After the second rock fall, speed up to bust through three gates, and then drop your speed back under 25 so that you can make the final left turn. After a while you'll reach the exit and you'll be on the Becquerel Mountain Path. BECQUEREL MOUNTAIN PATH Items in this section: Blackberry, Craft Materials, Ripe Berry, Compounding Materials, Aquaberry, Writing Materials You'll start out in the southwest of the area. Alias, your destination, is in the southeast, but you can explore the entire map for some treasures. However, the enemies to the north are quite strong (since you're not supposed to go there until later) so avoid fighting them. The two paths to the north lead to places that aren't important for now. After you're done, head down to the southeast and enter the village of Alias. ALIAS Items in this section: Cooking Materials, Multi Flask, Very Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Blackberry Explore the village for some treasure, then head to the central building with its entrance to the northeast. This is headquarters. Enter the back room and meet with Claire. After the event, head to the second floor and talk with Cliff and check the bed to rest (眠くて仕方が無いよ。). This will prompt another event and Nel will depart your party temporarily. After waking up, head to the conference room again to talk to Claire. Eventually Claire will tell you where Nel went, and you decide to chase after her. Nel went to the Cirlsour Ruins, so you will have to backtrack to Cirlsour. Instead of going through the Becquerel Mountain Path/Cirlsour Mine, though, you'll want to take the shorter road by heading out through the southwest exit of the village, into the Aire Hills. AIRE HILLS/CIRLSOUR HILLS Items in this section: Blueberry x3, Safety Jewel, Blackberry, Compounding Materials The Aire Hills and the Cirlsour Hills are the same area - the name changes halfway through the area. Search around for some treasure chests while heading West. Eventually you should reach Cirlsour, no problem. Restock in Cirlsour if you want, and then head out of town, this time to the south. GRANA HILL Items in this section: Blueberry, Blackberry, Steel Dagger This is a winding area. Your ultimate goal is to the southeast. There are a few treasure chests scattered in the area. There's not much more to say about this area. CIRLSOUR RUINS Items in this section: Aquaberry x2, Middle Dagger, Poison Check, Blackberry x3, Blueberry x3, Cooking Materials x4, Counter Aura Book, Compounding Materials x2, 8000 Fol, Skill Book "Attack Spell" Once you enter the ruins you'll be forced into a battle with some knights, so be prepared. Afterwards use the save and recovery points. Then head to the west. (The east corridor has a one way door that you can use to leave but not enter). Circle around, collecting treasure chests as you go. In the north-south corridor on the east side of the building, head west into the hallway. In the north of this hallway you should find a door that will eventually lead you to the stairs for the second floor. On the second floor, you'll start in the middle of the building. The stairs to the third floor are in the northeast, so make your way there - there's multiple ways and there's treasure chests to gather while you're at it. Climb up to the third floor. Here, there will be a door in the north-south corridor on the west side. Going through this door, the first door to the north will lead you to a kitchen with two women inside, a save point, and a recovery point. Talk to the younger of the two, and she'll give you a key. Now backtrack to the first floor and head to the northeast. Here you'll reunite with Nel shortly before another forced battle with some knights. Dispose of them and use the key the girl gave you, which will open up the door to the elevator. Take the elevator up to the floor and get off, searching the room next door for two treasure chests. Do NOT go through the door to the south in this room as it is a one-way door. Instead head back to the elevator and make your way to the fourth floor. The fourth floor is quite simple. Just follow the path and save at the save point. Head to the south and get ready for - you guessed it - another boss. Boss: Shelby シェルビー 5100 HP, 13816 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Shelby in 1 Minute, Defeat Shelby Without Taking Damage Shelby comes along with four knights. You'll want to focus on taking out the nameless knights first, as they can be an annoyance if you try to pound away on Shelby. After taking them out one by one, go for Shelby. He's got some powerful attacks but he shouldn't be too hard, especially with your three members all fighting him. After the battle there will be another event, and you'll meet Shelby's superior, Arbel Nox. After the event, head back to Alias via Grana Hill, Cirlsour, and the Cirlsour Hills. Head to headquarters for an event, and afterwards you'll decide to head to Peterny. Exit the village to the east and you'll be on the Palmira Plains. PALMIRA PLAINS Items in this section: Safety Jewel, Blueberry, Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Angel Statue Palmira Plains is relatively straightforward. Peterny is to the north. However you'll want to pick up the Angel Statue in this section, as it increases the success rate of Craft. PETERNY Items in this section: Iris Maiden Flower, Blackberry x3, Blueberry, Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, 3400 Fol, Telegraph There will be an event as you enter the town and you'll split up. Search through the town. The major shops are to the west. In the west district, the first green triangle on your map to the south will be the creation guild. Enter here, and talk to Welch Vineyard. She'll ask you if you're interested in creation. Pick the second option (はい、そうです) and you'll get launched into a lengthy explanation of the item creation process. You'll also get 1000 Fol in startup funds. Welch will take you to the factory itself, and you should use the 1000 Fol to add a line to the factory. You'll also get the Telegraph. From this point on you can do Item Creation; for more details see the Item Creation section. After you're done exploring town, head to the front of the church (in the middle of the town) and choose to wait (ノンビリと待つか). This will launch another series of events in which you'll meet Amina. Afterwards you'll receive the Iris Maiden Flower. Head to the inn on the west side of town, and talk to the desk clerk behind the counter to the left as you enter. She'll tell you that your rooms will take just a moment to be prepared, so leave and explore town again. This time head to the east district, and head to the south as soon as you enter. You'll hear familiar voices, and this time you'll meet with Amina again as well as her next-door neighbor. After these events, head back to the inn and talk to Nel to rest (ああ。もう終わったよ)。 As soon as you exit the inn, Amina's next-door neighbor will come up to you begging for help; Amina's collapsed in the Douglas Forest. You'll have to go there to save her. Exit Peterny out of the West exit to end up in the Sunmight Plains. SUNMIGHT PLAINS Items in this section: Blacksmith Materials, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cooking Materials, Very Ripe Berry This area can be divided up roughly into two parts. The enemies in the northern part are very strong and will likely wipe out your party if you do not run away. There is no need to go towards the north anyway, cross the stone bridge, get the treasure chest right next to it, and then stick towards the south and head west. Eventually you'll find the entrance to the Douglas Forest. DOUGLAS FOREST Items in this section: Compounding Materials x3, Aquaberry x2, Blackberry x2, Blueberry x2, Ripe Berry, Wind Fairy, Alert Orb, Limited Dolphin, Craft Materials, Alchemy Materials x2, 1200 Fol, Heavy Armor This is quite a large area. In the first section, there will be many trees blocking your way. Head to the approximate center of the area and you'll run across a tired fairy. After talking to her, you'll need to get water from a spring, but not just any spring. You'll have to search the area for a spring which is glowing. Take the water from this spring and return to the fairy. The fairy will explain that some of the trees in the forest are actually monsters. With her tagging along, you'll be able to tell which are which and you can clear the path by defeating the tree monsters. Continue heading along the general direction towards the west. The next area will contain many traps in the form of tumbling rocks. They won't hurt you, but you'll have to start the section over again if you get hit. Proceed to the southwest of the forest, and you'll find a shack. There will be an event here, and inside you'll meet Roger S. Huxley, a potential party member. Before you can free him, two thieves will attack you (they're weak and nothing to worry about). After the battle, you'll have an option to have Roger join you temporarily. (ロジャーに協力してもらう). There's no disadvantage to having him join you now - he'll leave you soon anyway - so choose to have him come along. Upon exiting the shack, if you chose to have Roger come along, you'll run into a boss, the leader of the "Tsukikage" thieves. Boss: Tsukikage Leader 月影団長 5500 HP, 250 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Tsukikage Leader In 1 Minute, Defeat Tsukikage Leader Without Taking Damage He's actually pretty easy. Getting both of the Battle Collections might be a little rough but it's still not impossible. After defeating the boss, head to the north and loop around to the west again. Eventually you'll find a save point. Save, and then head to the next area, which is covered in dense fog. To the north there are two paths; take the one more towards the west. You'll find a spring, an event will happen, and then you'll face the real boss of the area, Mudman. Boss: Mudman マッドマン 8000 HP, 500 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Mudman In 1 Minute, Defeat Mudman Taking No Damage He's strong but he doesn't have much HP at all. You should be able to get the "less than 1 minute" Battle Collection fairly easily, and if you're careful you should get the "No Damage" one too. After beating Mudman the mist in the area will clear up. Head towards the south for some treasure chests and finally take the path to the northwest. Here you'll find Amina, and Roger will leave your party. After an event, you'll automatically be taken back to Peterny. After some more events, you'll finally be able to head towards Sealand. Head out of Peterny taking the north exit this time. IRIS PLAINS Items in this section: Alert Jewel, Magical Berry, Blackberry, Ripe Berry, Synthesis Materials The plains actually has two sections; a large vast one (the first one you enter) and a very small, thin area to the northwest of the large one. Explore them both for some treasure, then head north to Sealand. The enemies here are significantly stronger than the ones on Palmira Plains, so be careful. SEALAND Items in this section: (Town) 1800 Fol, Synthesis Materials x2, Blackberry, Compounding Materials x2, Aquaberry x2, Blacksmith Materials, Cooking Materials, Ripe Berry (Castle) Aquaberry, Alert Jewel, Compounding Materials, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, 4700 Fol, Blackberry x2, Blueberry You'll finally have reached Sealand. Search around town for treasures, and then enter the castle. Nel will guide you, but ignore her for now and collect treasures on the first floor, then head towards the second floor. Here you'll meet the Queen of Sealand. After the event, head back to the first floor and enter the main chapel (the large room in the middle) and talk to Cliff for some info. Talk to Nel near the entrance of the castle. Then head to your own room (towards the south east on the first floor) and rest. Head to the second floor again and go towards the southwest, where you'll meet with Elena and Dion. After another lengthy event, it will be decided that you will need some copper. Unfortunately there's only one place to get it - Becquerel Mine, in enemy territory. Exit the castle and head south. You'll be asked if you are ready or not, but it doesn't really matter as you can always come back. Head back through the Iris Plains, Peterny, and Palmira Plains and make your way back to Alias. Save here and stock up, because it will be a long road ahead. When you're ready, head towards the northwest exit for some events. You'll end up facing some dragon knights. These guys are fairly strong. If you have trouble beating them, you might want to just reset and level up on Palmira/Iris Plains. Once beating them, you'll automatically end up inside Becquerel Mine. BECQUEREL MINE Items in this section: 15000 Fol, Cooking Materials, Blackberry x2, Paralyze Check, Aquaberry, Compounding Materials, 23600 Fol, Ripe Berry, Skill Book "Attack Spell", Synthesis Materials, Magical Berry This is quite a long dungeon with quite a few riddles. Head to the north with an event of Cliff lighting a torch. You can light most of the torches in the this dungeon. Continue north, and you'll find an barred door. Light the torch next to it and then approach. It will automatically open and you'll be forced into a fight with a dragon. After defeating it, you'll get the Light Stone, which Fate can equip to brighten the area around him. Do so and continue on. At the fork, you'll be attacked in quick succession by three dragons; none of them are particularly hard. After defeating all three, follow the corridor as it heads south. There will be a door to the west. Read the stone tablet next to it, which says "Two other selves; make a single line". This is a hint for the next room. Enter the room. There will be two torches standing in the middle. Light both of them, and then stand between them in a way such that both of your shadows line up to make a straight line. After doing so the door to the west will unlock. Enter this door and follow the path up north. Here, you'll find a dragon that instead of chasing you, runs away from you. You'll want to chase the dragon down and defeat it, as afterwards you'll get a key. Follow the paths to the east until you find the door that the key unlocks. In this next room, the door to the north is afraid of light, so extinguish all the torches in the room and unequip the Light Stone from Fate. Then you should be able to pass through the door. If you accidentally close the door, simply leave to the south and reenter, and it should be back open. Through the door, head west and then north again. There will be another door with a stone tablet. This one tells you that the doors in the next room are afraid of the dark. Head inside and the door will close behind you automatically. Head to the center of the room and stand on the plate. This will open all three doors (north, west, and south) and turn on all three lights. You'll want to head through either the north or west door - they both end up in the same place, but the path to the north has a few treasures. Whichever the case, turn off two of the lights (whichever lights are not next to the door you want to go through), and then approach the door in such a way that your remaining shadow does not touch the door. If you entered the north door, head to the west and loop around for some treasure, then backtrack and head to the north this time. Continue north until you find a save point, and of course immediately afterwards, a boss. Boss: Cockatrice コッカトライス 15500 HP, 431 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Cockatrice In 1 Minute, Defeat Cockatrice Taking No Damage The only thing you have to worry about this boss is that it can petrify you. Be sure to bring along some Sage to counteract this. Otherwise it's not much to worry about. After defeating the boss check the northeast corner of the room to find the copper. Now, exit the room out of the west. You'll find another save point. Follow the path far far south, and then as it curves to the west. Eventually you'll reach an outside area. This area has some treasure chests, but it also has a building, in which are your allies. Talk to the man standing more towards the west near the carts for a free rest. When you're ready, talk to the soldier near the carts to leave the mountain. This will force you into several fights, so be prepared. The first fight will be against some knights - fairly easy - but the second one will be against a boss, Demetrio. Boss: Demetrio デメトリオ\ 14800 HP, 17776 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Demetrio in 1 Minute, Defeat Demetrio Taking No Damage Demetrio's got some strong attacks - watch out for the dragon breath. Again, use Nel's strong attack cannonball to hit-and-run from afar. Try to keep your characters spread out so that in the case that one of them gets caught in the full brunt of the fire breath (which will likely kill him/her) another character can revive. After the battle you'll be right outside Becequerel Mine. Fate will say how you should probably rest before heading back to Alias. This is the game's not-so-subtle hint that another boss awaits. Head back inside and talk to the soldier near the carts to get transported back to the building if you want to save and recover. Regardless, afterwards head towards Alias. Slightly before you reach Alias, though, you'll be interrupted and there will be another boss battle. Boss: Arbel アルベル 26000 HP, 2600 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Arbel 1 With Items Only Arbel comes along with a few soldiers. He doesn't seem as strong as Demetrio to me, but maybe that's because he's easier to hit since he's not flying all over the place. Take out his companions first and then focus on him. After defeating Arbel there will be another event. Start in Alias and then go all the way back to Sealand via Peterny. In Sealand you'll have another event as you meet up again with both Mirage and Amina. After the event with Amina in the inn, head to the castle's second floor and find Dion. Take Dion to the Inn for another event. Afterwards, the war is fast approaching. Head back to Alias and make sure you're prepared. Talk to Claire, then rest on the second floor of headquarters and then talk to Claire again. Tell her you're ready (はい). This will take you to the battlefield. BATTLEFIELD Items in this section: None This section is pretty straightforward. Head towards the west, avoiding as many enemies as you can, and eventually you'll run across the opposing general, Vox. Boss: Vox ヴォックス 30000 HP, 20000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Vox is like a vamped up version of Demetrio. Use the same sorts of strategies and make sure you have plenty of curing items on stock, and you should be just fine. After defeating Vox there will be another long event. Head back east across the battlefield, for yet ANOTHER long event. When it's all over you'll be back in Sealand. Head to Dion's room in the castle for ANOTHER event, then to the inn to pick up Amina. Take her back to Dion's room to trigger yet ANOTHER series of events, probably the longest in the game. Meet the Queen and eventually you'll also gain another party member, Maria Traitor. Then head to the chapel on the first floor of the castle for ANOTHER event. Talk to the priest standing by the stairs to get some Vanish Hammers, then finally head down the stairs towards the next dungeon. (This whole series of events will likely take you 30 minutes to an hour, so be prepared.) IMMORALITY WAY Items in this section: Blueberry x2, Cooking Materials, Luna Talisman, Gold Chain, Blackberry After descending down the stairs, head straight forward for a loooooong walk, and then finally you'll be in Immorality Way. Head straight forward into the first room. There is a large blob monster here; he's pretty strong so try and avoid him if at all possible. Grab the two treasure chests in the back, and then examine the statue in the northwest corner of the room. There will be a switch here. Press it. Exit back to the first room and now enter the door to the east. Follow the path around and you'll see some blocks moving up and down. Head across the blocks and then enter the north door. In the next room, you can head west (avoiding the two blocks) to get another treasure chest. Then head north under the three moving blocks and enter the east door. In this next room, head across further east. You'll find that there's cracks in the east wall. Use the Vanish Hammer here (by pressing square and then pressing circle when the cracks highlight) and a path will open up to two treasure chests, including the Gold Chain, which you should equip on Nel or Maria. Go back to the previous room and now enter the northwest door. There'll be a save point here, so make sure you save, before navigating under the group of six blocks. Head north. You'll find another blob monster here and a group of two, unmoving blocks to the west. Avoid the monster and head north, then east. In this next corridor, look along the south wall for another cracked wall. Use the vanish hammer again and enter. Examine the statue for another switch. Leave by the same way you came in and head east. There will be a treasure chest in this room containing a Luna Talisman. At this point you can continue on south through a one way door, or backtrack. Either way make your way back to the save point, save, and now continue west through the two blocks that previously were not moving. Now you'll face a boss. Boss: Floating Knight フローティングナイト 17000 HP, 240 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's strong but not terribly fast. His move "Sword Quake" can really take out your guys in a matter of seconds, so be prepared to heal. I suggest hanging back with either Nel or Maria and letting Fate and Cliff keep him busy. Long range attacks are the way to go. If your Nel is high enough to have Kokuyousen by this point, this will last very very short; otherwise killing him with MP damage via Maria's Aiming Device also makes it easy. After defeating the Floating Night, enter the north entrance and you'll be in the Shrine of Canan. SHRINE OF CANAN Items in this section: Counter Aura Book, Blackberry x4, Cooking Materials x3, Heavy Armor, Prophecy Book 1, Synthesis Materials x2, Compounding Materials x4, Saint Stone x3, Blueberry x2, Aquaberry, Enemy Orb, Alchemy Materials x2, 54000 Fol, Star Fairy, Blacksmith Materials, Stone Check, Piyohan The shrine is fairly big so be prepared. Don't be afraid to backtrack all the way to Sealand to restock and rest if you need to. From the entrance, head north. In the next room, there will be a crystal statue in the middle. You can avoid fighting it, but you need something it has, so go up to it and examine it. This will prompt a battle with the Crystal Statue. It's only got physical attacks so it's susceptible to Counter Auras, but keep your weaker characters out of its way. After defeating it, you'll get a Saint Stone. Continue north for an event. Now head east into another room with a Crystal Statue. Defeat this one as well to get another Saint Stone, then head south. Loop around to the east and you'll enter a room with a seeming dead end. Simply wait here for awhile until an earthquake starts. Debris will come falling from the ceiling so try to stay close to the walls. After the earthquake subsides, one of the walls to the west will have become cracked. Use the Vanish Hammer here and enter. You'll find two treasure chests here, one with a Saint Stone. Once you have all three Saint Stones, approach the benches here, which are actually a factory. You'll automatically forge the Saint Amulet, which you'll need. Because of the earthquake, some of the other walls have also become cracked. Both rooms in which you fought Crystal Statues now have cracked walls, so you might want to backtrack and collect those treasures. Once you're finished, head back to the room where the second Crystal Statue was, and this time head east. Immediately inside the next corridor to the south is another cracked wall. Collect the treasures inside, then loop around to the north. Here's a save point and of course in the next room lies a boss. Boss: Crystal Cerberus クリスタルケルベロス 45000 HP, 4500 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Crystal Cerberus In 1 Minute, Defeat Crystal Cerberus Without Taking Damage The Crystal Cerberus is basically like a stronger version of the Crystal Statues, so the same strategies will apply. It's faster than the Statues so beware. However, there's a catch: If you don't have the Saint Amulet, you won't be able to damage it at all. If this is the case, run away and collect the Saint Amulet as described above. Once you defeat Crystal Cerberus, head north. You'll eventually enter a room with four pillars; head north again. To the north of this room is a locked door. To the west is a corridor which you should follow to get some treasures. In the room with the four treasure chests, there is also an empty treasure chest. Examine this one to start another earthquake. After the earthquake the wall to the east will become cracked, so use the Vanish Hammer and get the treasures inside, then backtrack to the room with the locked door to the north. The east wall in this room is also cracked, so use the Vanish Hammer again and go in. In this room, there is a closed treasure chest. Do not open it, however, because it will explode. Enter the next room and head north. (There is a passage to the east but it contains nothing of interest for now). Once you climb up the set of stairs going west, enter the door to the north to enter the next area. In this area continue heading north for a few rooms. In the room with doors to the east and west, just ignore both doors; there's nothing in them that you can do anything about now. Further north there will be a room with four doors. By examining the statue in the middle, you can send each of your four characters through one of the doors for one-on-one battles. However you can just enter the crack in the wall to the east to bypass the doors completely. If you really want to fight, they get progressively harder, so pick your strongest characters last. You'll be rewarded with a Stone Check for your efforts if you didn't bypass the doors. Afterwards, head north again. In this next section loop down to the south. There will be a door with two inscribed plates flanking it; read them both. Then continue north along the east side of this room, collecting treasures as you go. In one of the rooms you'll find a red gem. Touch the gem (the first choice), then loop back to the door with the inscribed plates, and enter it. In this next maze-like section, there will be large blocks moving about. Touching a block will make you start over, so avoid them. Once you enter the door to the north, there will be another section like this. There are two treasure chests in this area to the east that you might want to collect. Head north again into a room with four treasure chests, and then north again. Save at the save point, examine the door for an event, and then enter to finally confront the Bandein Soldiers. Boss: Bandein Soldier x4 バンデーン兵 7400 HP, 336 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Bandein Soldiers in 1 Minute, Defeat Bandein Soldiers Taking No Damage All of the soldiers are armed with guns, making this a rough battle. If your Maria is a high enough level, use her, since she has the best range out of your characters. Otherwise gang up on one soldier at a time to minimize your damage. Remember to heal and you should be all right. MP damage makes this battle short. After the battle, examine the pedestal, then backtrack all the way out. There won't be any enemies in here anymore, making your task easier. Near the entrance, there will be another event with Nel. Now head back through Immorality Way and enter the castle, and visit the Queen in the throne room. This will kick off another series of events. Nel and Cliff go to visit Airyglyph, leaving Fate and Maria at the castle. While talking to Maria, you'll start up a long flashback sequence revealing Maria's past. For the most part these events are automatic, but at a few points you'll control the child Maria. During these point talk to everybody in the area, then talk to Maria's mother continuously until the event proceeds. After the long flashback return to the throne room. It will be decided to go to the Mosel Ruins, west of Sir Felious, which itself is west of Peterny. Head back to Peterny and go out the west exit (like when you were headed to the Douglas Forest). However this time cross the stone bridge in the Sunmight Plains. This will kick off a small event, and you'll be attacked by Schweimer. Boss: Schweimer シュワイマー 16800 HP, 1400 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None This guy is weak, weak, weak. You should have no trouble taking him out. He has virtually the same sort of attack patterns as Demetrio and Vox, but at your level he shouldn't be any problems. After disposing of Schweimer head north, and you'll enter the watery town of Sir Felious. SIR FELIOUS Items in this section: Machine Materials, Aquaberry, Blueberry, Blacksmith Materials This is a good place to rest and stock up. There's no weapons or armor here, just items. If you head southwest along the first branch, you'll meet up with Roger and his pals again. Here you can choose to have Roger join up with you again. Again, at this point it won't affect your final party whether he joins you or not, so have him join (協力する). He'll also give you seven Ancient Scrolls. (For more on the Scrolls see the section on them in the sidequests section). When you're done in Sir Felious head out the west exit to enter The Grace and Thirst Corridor. THE GRACE AND THIRST CORRIDOR Items in this section: None There's absolutely no treasure in this section so just head straight west, ignoring the branches to the north and south. Near the exit, an old man will tell you about the desert dunes ahead. He'll warn you to make sure you have enough water. He'll also sell you a map to the dunes for 10000 Fol, which you may or may not want to buy. Regardless exit the cave. Head north after the first screen of desert and you'll be on Mosel Sandhill. MOSEL SANDHILL Items in this section: Very Ripe Berry, Aquaberry x2, Machine Materials, Cooking Materials, Synthesis Materials, Blacksmith Materials, Alchemy Stone, Fire Fairy, 22400 Fol, Blackberry In Mosel Sandhill you'll have to make sure you don't run out of water. Your water meter (to the right of the screen) will continuously empty, emptying much faster if you run then if you stand still. Luckily you can examine any of the oases to fill your water back up to 100. There's many treasure chests scattered around here, but don't bother with them now. It'll be easier to collect them on your way back. Head in the northeast direction, hopping from oasis to oasis, and you'll eventually find the area to the Ancient Ruins of Mosel. ANCIENT RUINS OF MOSEL Items in this section: Blackberry x2, Blueberry, 40000 Fol, Aquaberry, Aqua Veil Save at the first save point and then head forward. Examine the middle pedestal for an event. The chess pieces here come to life. Thief defeats Wizard, Wizard defeats Knight, and Knight defeats Thief. These are important, so remember them. After the event the door to the north will unlock. This dungeon is fairly simple. Simply proceed around in a counterclockwise direction. Occasionally you'll run into rooms with a black chess piece. Examine the pedestals next to them, and you'll be prompted to choose a piece. Pick whatever white piece can defeat that black piece. The last such room is towards the center section, which can be entered from the west side of the ruins. There will also be a save point here as well as a treasure chest containing the Aqua Veil, which will make it so that you won't have to collect water in Mosel Sandhill. Put the third chess piece into place here, save, and then enter the south door for a long event. Afterwards, you'll have to head to Airyglyph Castle. Leave the Ruins, and use your newfound Aqua Veil to collect the treasures from around the Mosel Sand Dunes. Then head back through the Grace and Thirst Corridor, Sir Felious, Sunmight Plains, Peterny, Palmira Plains, Alias, Aire Hills, Cirlsour, Traum Mountains, and finally Airyglyph (phew!). AIRYGLYPH CASTLE Items in this section: Blacksmith Materials, Synthesis Materials, Compounding Materials, Blueberry, Treasure Jewel, Magical Berry Before entering the castle look around town. This time you should be able to afford some upgrades to your equipment. Upgrade as you wish, except getting a new weapon for Nel. (She'll get a better one very soon). Then enter the castle, where you'll be greeted by Walter. He'll take you down to the dungeons, and here you'll meet up with Arbel again. Arbel will now join your party. Upon leaving Airyglyph, there will be a dragon knight just off the bridge who will offer to fly you to the Bar Mountains. While this is useful, there's a number of other things you should do now, so refuse his request for now. The first thing you should do is head to Cirlsour. You will now be able to go into Walter's mansion, so go visit and collect the treasures there. Upon reaching the second floor, there will also be a PA where Walter gives Nel her father's old weapon. This is probably the strongest weapon you'll have period for now, so be sure to get this PA. Nel will equip it automatically. The next thing to do is to decide who goes in your party and who stays. Eventually, you'll have to choose two out of four characters: Nel, Arbel, Roger, and Souffle. For now, you'll have to decide who your fifth character will be: Nel, Arbel, or Roger. If you want Nel, you can proceed without doing anything special. If you want Roger, head back to Sir Felious and visit the first house there. There will be an event involving Fate protecting Roger. Triggering this event will make Roger your fifth character. If on the other hand you want Arbel, head to Peterny and stay the night at the inn. There will be an event. Here Arbel will ask you if you hate him. Pick "Not really" (そうでもない), and eventually Arbel will become your fifth character. (The sixth character you get to decide later). Regardless of who you pick, your party for now will be Fate, Cliff, Maria, Nel, Roger (unless you didn't pick him up at Sir Felious at all), and Arbel. Head to the Bar Mountains, either by taking the dragon knight's offer, or by heading out of the northwest exit in Alias, and then heading Northwest in the Becquerel Mountain Path. BAR MOUNTAINS/BAR CAVE Items in this section: Blacksmith Materials x2, Blackberry, Aquaberry, Writing Materials x2, Glare Chain, 46000 Fol, Blueberry x2, 18100 Fol, Treasure Jewel, Ripe Berry Maybe it's just me, but the difficulty level of the game really picks up right around here. However, if your Nel is a high enough level, she'll have learned the Battle Skill "Kokuyousen" (黒鷹旋). This skill alone gets my vote for the most useful in the game, and having it will make the battles actually fairly easy from this point on. (Well, most of them, at least). Head north upon first entering the mountains. This will dead end into an east-west fork. Take the west for a treasure chest, then loop back to the east. Check behind the waterfall for two treasure chests. This will then fork north-south. Take the south fork for another treasure chest, and head back to the north. You'll see another waterfall, this one with a cave behind it. Enter the cave. Inside Bar Cave, head in a general north direction. There's a path to the east which you can explore, but you can't do anything about it yet. Continue north. There are two treasure chests in the northwest corner, and an exit to the northeast. After exiting the cave, continue north. You'll run into a creator, Misty Lia (whom you can't recruit yet) and a factory, which you have no use for at the moment. Head north for another east-west fork. The east branch will take you to several treasures, so collect these before heading west. The west fork will loop north and then east again, before deadending into a cave and a save point. Use the save point and then enter the cave. Here you'll be forced into a battle with a Blue Dragon Zombie. He might be tough, but if you have Nel and Kokuyousen, he'll go down in no time at all. After defeating him you'll get the Dragon Resonating Body Cavity (yum!). Head back south again to the place with the factory. Here you'll automatically forge the Cavity into the Dragon Bone Flute. Now head back into Bar Cave. Exit out the south exit of the cave and now head west. To the northwest is a treasure chest; to the northeast, past another waterfall, is an area where there is a dragon flying around, but unlike the other dragons he won't attack you. Stay in his shadow for awhile until he picks you up and drops you off. In the new area, try to avoid the baby dragons and head south. To the east there is a treasure chest with the Glare Chain; otherwise head west and loop around south. Here, in a small cave, you'll meet a different kind of baby dragon. He'll lead you to the cave exit, but before you leave, try to play you Dragon Flute (with the X button) here. There's four ways you can play the flute: Glad (喜び)(pressing X weak and short), Sad (悲し) (strong and short), Fun (楽し)(weak and long), and Angry (怒り) (strong and long). The dragon will react to your flute playing, which is a hint for later. After meeting the dragon, enter the cave entrance, which will drop you off into a section of the Bar Cave. Now head a little south and then east, and you'll find a gigantic dragon relief. Examine it for clues on its emotion (the color will help: Yellow is Glad, Red is Angry, Blue is Sad, and Green is Fun) and then play the appropriate note on your Dragon Flute to make it disappear. This will open up the entry way to the Bar Ruins. BAR RUINS Items in this section: Synthesis Materials, Suit Armor, Blackberry, Blueberry, Soul Gem, Wind Fairy, Magical Berry, Damascus Plate Save at the save point, then proceed north. Examine the large door to the north for a mini-event, then loop back to the entrance and head east. You'll end up in a laboratory of some sort. After the next mini-event, examine the jars to receive the Dragon Head. Now return to the room with the large cross on the floor. You'll have to light up each and every panel. Some of the panels can be lighted up by simply stepping on them, but others you will have to light up remotely. To the west is a small area with two such plates and three treasure chests. In the north of this area you'll find a dragon door that changes emotions. You'll not only have to play the correct note on the Dragon Flute, but you also have to play them in the right order and at the right timing (so that you play Angry when the color of the door is red, and so on). To the east there is an area with two more plates and four treasure chests. Like in the section to the west, there is a changing door here, but this one only has two emotions, which makes your job easier. After stepping on all the plates you should find that only the center of the cross is unlit. Head north (by playing the "angry" note on your flute in front of the large door). There is another save point here, and as soon as you head through the door, Robin Wind will attack you. Boss: Robin Wind ロビンウインド 50000 HP, 1800 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Robin Wind in 1 Minute, Defeat Robin Wind Taking No Damage This guy's pretty tough, for a fairy kid. His whirlwhind type attack will pretty much kill you if you take the full brunt of it. Again, I prefer having Fate/Cliff/Arbel keep him occupied, while using Nel's Kokuyousen from afar. This should let you get the "Taking No Damage" Battle Collection fairly easily as well. Just remember to stock up on healing items before hand. After the battle, head into the last room. The final plate is here. Light it and head back to the room with the cross. Stand in the middle of the cross to offer up the Dragon Head. Finally the door to the north will be opened and you can make your way to the Urza Lava Cave. URZA LAVA CAVE Items in this section: Damascus Knuckle, Rabbit Ear Key, Rabbit Ear Grail, Cooking Materials, Blackberry, Craft Materials, Fire Fairy With everything so red, it can be hard to see some of the enemies, and the small flying types are extremely fast; you probably won't be able to avoid fighting them. Luckily Nel's Kokuyousen makes things pretty easy. The entrance room contains three paths. First head to the east. Follow the fork north for a treasure chest, and then follow the path around east. You'll find a giant Bunny statue. Examine the back of the statue to receive the Rabbit Ear Key. If you head to the north you can get a treasure chest, but the way into Crosel's lair is blocked by a giant rock. What do you do? Head to the west for the answer. The west section is simple and doesn't wind much. There are two treasure chests here. Head north and you'll find the door that you can use the Rabbit Ear key on. Head inside. The next section switches to a weird over-the-shoulder camera perspective. Keep checking your minimap. First head over to the east and grab the treasure chest there. Then explore the western part to find the path to another door. Enter and you'll meet the rabbit creator, Vanilla. Vanilla will tell you that in order to get rid of the rock in front of Crosel's door, you will need a Vanish Ring, something similar to the Vanish Hammer. He will then say that he can make one for you. He'll ask you how much you are willing to pay; if you can afford it, pick the highest price (30000 Fol). This will prompt him to give you the Gutsy Bunny accessory as well as 10 Vanish Bombs. These Vanish Bombs work like the Vanish Hammer, but they work on ice blocks, not cracked walls. Vanilla will tell you that in order to make the Vanish Ring, he'll need the Magic Glowstone, which can be found in the waterway under Airyglyph. Backtrack all the way out of Urza Lava Cave, Bar Ruins, and Bar Mountains. On the way you can take the "Soul Jewel" you found in the Bar Ruins and present it to Misty Lia, who'll join you as a creator. Talk to the dragon knight who'll be hanging around close by and get him to take you to Airyglyph. Enter the underground waterway. The Magic Glowstone is behind the large chunk of ice immediately to the north when you first enter the waterway. However, be sure to be standing on firm ground (and not the ice) when you Vanish the ice or you'll have to start over. Take the Magic Glowstone. While you're here, you can try to get other treasures in the area that are behind the ice walls. Return to Urza Lava Cave and talk to Vanilla again. He'll make the Vanish Ring for you. Now you can return to the main room and head north. Vanish the rock in front of Crosel's Lair. Now would be a good time to head back to the Save point inside Bar Ruins and save. Upon entering you'll meet up with Crosel. After some chitchat, you'll have to fight. (You honestly thought you could negotiate?) Boss: Crosel クロセル 68000 HP, 6000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Crosel in 1 Minute, Defeat Crosel Taking No Damage Man oh man, he's tough. And to make matters worse, you have to fight him twice, with no chance of resting, saving, or healing in between. In the first fight, he'll attack you with physical attacks. Even these are pretty strong, so use a tank with lots of HP like Cliff to keep him busy while you chip away at him with Nel and Kokuyousen. Even so he'll probably kill Cliff quite a few times so keep those items coming, or better yet have Nel use Healing on him (provided that you used a Skill Book "Support Spell" on her). In the second fight, Crosel will have gained a few special attacks. If he gears up for one (you can tell because he poses with his wings) either run FAR FAR AWAY, or a little more risky, get a Counter Aura on him. As long as you keep the Kokuyousen's coming, you should be able to take him out, though you'll probably burn through all your items. After defeating Crosel, you'll automatically be taken back to Sealand. After the events, talk to all of your party members. Cliff is in a hallway in the castle; Nel is in her room in the castle (southeast section of first floor), Maria is in the chapel, Arbel is on the main road of the city, and Roger is in the food store. Also talk to Mirage, in your room. After talking to everybody, head back to the castle balcony (the doors are behind the throne in the throne room) and another event will start. After this quite long event, Nel, Arbel, and Roger will be taken out of your party. Finally, you're headed back to space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to Space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIPLO Items in this section: None The first thing you should do is check your party. Since Nel, Arbel, and Roger are out, rearrange your party so that you have Fate, Cliff, and Maria all active. Otherwise the coming battle could get really hard... start at the bridge, then walk around the Diplo - it's not too large - and talk to all the Quark members. You'll get a communication from Maria. Then head to the transporter room to head down to the Cirlsour Ruins. CIRLSOUR RUINS Items in this section: Very Ripe Berry, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, Skill Book "Support Spell", Cooking Materials An event will happen, after which you'll be forced into a battle with some Bandein soldiers. They aren't too tough to take out. Afterwards you'll enter the Ruins. You've been here before. Now that you have the Vanish Ring, you'll be able to get some of the treasures here that you couldn't before. After the event, you'll end up in the kitchen on the third floor. Make your way down to the first floor, collecting the treasures as you go. There aren't any enemies on the second or first floor. After you reach the first floor, head to the elevator in the northeast and go up to the fourth floor. Exit, save at the save point, and then proceed south just like before for another event. During this event, one of your old companions (either Nel, Roger, or Arbel - see the Airyglyph Castle section for details) will make his or her return. However you'll be forced into the next battle with your party of Fate, Cliff, and Maria. Boss: Biwig ビウィグ 26000 HP, 13816 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Biwig in 1 Minute, Defeat Biwig Taking No Damage Biwig comes along with two Bandein soldiers. He's not too tough; just a little buffer than his Bandein soldiers friends. He doesn't really have any attacks to watch out for. If you were able to take out Crosel, this should be a piece of cake. After this there will be another series of events. At this point whoever came to help you (Nel/Roger/Arbel) will permanently join you, as will Sophia. Sophia is weak weak weak (she starts at Level 1), but there's not much you can do about this now. After the series of events, you'll end up on the Space Federation Battleship Aquaelie. AQUAELIE Items in this section: None After the events in the conference room and on the bridge, head to the southwest section. In one of these rooms will be Maria. Talk to her to initiate an event. Afterwards head to the southeast section. One of the rooms (with a save point in it) is yours. Sleep in your bed to progress the story (今日はもう眠ろう). After waking up, head to the bridge for another event, then make your way to the long range transporter (in the south section) to head to the Moonbase. MOONBASE Items in this section: Mind Safety, Aquaberry, Cooking Materials, Ripe Berry x3, Laser Protector, Blackberry x3, NC Program Disc, Carbon Protector, Life Safety, Synthesis Materials x2, Sunrise Dictionary, Magical Berry x2, Alert Jewel, 19000 Fol, Laser Chain, Very Ripe Berry, 24000 Fol Head westwards. You can ignore the first north/south fork. Upon entering the main area, you'll meet Souffle again. To the north of this area is a weapon shop which sells some really nice stuff. Upgrade your equipment but don't break the bank - there's even better stuff coming up soon. To the south is the items store. To the west is the area where the Rosetti Circus is waiting, along with a save point. When you're ready, head along the path that leads northwest. In the next section collect the treasure chests, then head west. Before you can proceed much further, however, you'll run into a boss battle. Boss: Daibensha (Speaker) 代弁者 50000 HP, 50000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Daibensha in 1 Minute, Defeat Daibensha Taking No Damage This will be a really rough battle. Get two of your melee characters to try and sandwich her while you take a third character (preferably Nel or Maria) to the outside. The third character should focus on healing your melee characters as well as using long range attacks. If you have Cliff, put Flash Chariot on him and have him take her on. You should be able to take her out eventually. If not, reload, upgrade your equipment, and try again. After you defeat the Daibensha another event will occur, and Souffle will join your party temporarily. Head back to the main area and take Souffle to the bar (it lies on a path that shoots off the path to the northwest that you came from). Here another mini event will happen and you'll be able to get some fairly nice treasures for your efforts. Return to the area where you fought the Daibensha and head west. In the next section, collect all three treasure chests (one is accessed via the elevator in the central circle), then head southwest. There are two treasure chests in this area. Get them, then head straight east. In this area there are two more treasure chests. Collect them and then loop around to the elevator next to a save point. Save if you want (don't worry, there's no boss coming up), then descend into the research lab for some crucial events. After the events, take the path southwest. This area has lots of treasure - four treasure chests out in the open, and 6 more accessed via the three elevators. After you're done go east again. The next section has just one treasure chest in the open and one via elevator. Head northeast after this and you'll end up back in the main area of the Moonbase. Upon reaching the main area again another event will happen with Souffle. Here you decide whether to make her a permanent member of your party. Beware - if you choose yes (連れて行く), you won't be able to get anybody else in your party. In other words, if Nel was the one that came to rescue you at Cirlsour Ruins, if you take Souffle along here, you won't be able to get Roger or Arbel. Bottom line, if you want Souffle in your party, take her; if you don't, don't. When you're done with the Moonbase, head back to the Aquaelie. After the event on the bridge, go to your room and rest again. (Talk to people if you want to for some semi-interesting conversation). After resting, you'll be summoned to the bridge again, after which you'll be direction once again to the long range teleporter. Head here and you'll be in the shuttlecraft "Calnus" (a reference to Star Ocean 1). Head out the door and you'll be on the Planet Stream. PLANET STREAM Items in this section: None There are absolutely no treasures here so don't worry about exploring. There is a save point and a recovery point here that you'll want to utilize. Afterwards head in a generally northern direction. The enemies here are extremely strong - don't be afraid to run. They're worth a lot of exp. if you can take them out, but it's not likely that you'll be able to win consistently. After you head far north the area will change. Head north some more until you reach the Time Gate. Another event will happen here, and you'll be able to enter FD space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FD Space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RECORDER Items in this section: 35000 Fol, Ripe Berry x2, Cooking Materials, Vitality Stimulator, Alert Jewel, Smithy Hammer After a series of events in which you meet Flood, you'll be forced into a battle with the Security Service. They've got guns and they can hurt you pretty badly, so gang up on them one at a time. They don't have much HP so if you can get the first attacks in you'll be able to take them out quickly. Afterwards you'll get the "Certification Disc". Go around and explore the city. Each house has one treasure chest in it so collect them all. (Flood's house has the Smithy Hammer on the second floor but you won't be able to collect it for now.) Once you're done, head to the teleporter in the middle of the area. This will take you to another district. There's a weapon shop here but don't waste your money - better ones will be coming up soon. Take the teleporter in the west of this area to head over to Recorder Station. In the far north is an inn - again don't bother - and in the middle is the station itself. Enter the station and head over to Gemity City. GEMITY CITY Ripe Berry x2, Jet Spell, Synthesis Materials Wow, shades of Fun City, anyone? After exiting the station, immediately head to the south of the station where you'll find three treasure chests tucked away. Then head back north and explore the city proper. The girls standing behind the counters to the east and west as you enter the main street will heal you for free. There are also several shops here. You'll want to buy new and improved weapons and armor, as well as the All-Purpose Knife (万能包丁). (Buy two if you can since you can give one to the Killer Chef in Sir Felious as a contract item). Further north you'll find a large circular area. If you use the transporters towards the middle of the circle (either east or west side), you'll be taken to the Eternal Sphere Terminal. Talk to the clerk here and you'll be transported to another room. Examine the terminal here for an event. Talk to all of your party members and then talk to Maria again. This will trigger another event, and you'll get to decide where you want to go: Vanguard 3, Elicoor 2, the Moonbase, or Planet Stream. I suggest heading to Elicoor 2. As soon as you exit there will be a small conversation. Now you can head immediately back to Gemity, by taking the little dimensional ripple transporter that appears wherever you show up - in the case of Elicoor 2, it'll be in the Cirlsour Hills/Aire Hills between Cirlsour and Alias). However beforehand it might be wiser to go and recruit your final party member, provided you didn't pick up Souffle. If you didn't recruit Nel and you want her, go to Sealand and talk to her in her room. Tell her "we can't take it easy" (ゆっくりしていけない) and she'll join you. If you want to recruit Roger, head over to Sir Felious and find him. If you want to recruit Arbel, first head to Cirlsour and talk to Walter; afterwards go back to Urza Lava Cave and head to Crosel's Lair. Arbel will be here, and you'll have to fight him in a one-on-one battle with Fate. After this you can have him join you (許可する). After you're done taking care of business, head back to Gemity via the warp point. Head down to the station and talk to the clerk. Another event will happen, and now the Sphere Corporation will be added to your list of destinations. Before heading over there, I suggest going back to Recorder and collecting the Smithy Hammer from Flood's house. Then save, rest up, stock up, and then warp over to the Sphere Company. SPHERE CORPORATION Very Ripe Berry, Cooking Materials, Mind Stimulator x2, Synthesis Materials x3, Ripe Berry x2, Resuscitation Medicine, Dramera Tool Set, Vitality Stimulator, Wind Fairy, 5000 Fol, Ceramic Guarder, Laser Weapon, Alert Jewel, Counter Aura Book, Star Fairy, AI Program As soon as you arrive you'll be forced into two battles. The first one will pit you against several Security Officers - beefed up version of the Security Service. They won't be too much trouble. However immediately afterwards, you'll get attacked by Azazel. Boss: Azazel アザゼル 99000 HP, 9000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Azazel in 1 Minute, Defeat Azazel Taking No Damage He's a little tough but no big deal. He does lots of MP damage, so if you have somebody with low MP, like Cliff, be sure to use lots of Blackberries and/or Mind Stimulators on him. The usual boss tactics - Nel Kokuyousen, Cliff Flash Chariot - apply here as well. After fighting Azazel head north to find a save point and recovery point. Use them both, then enter the Sphere Corporation itself. At the fork, head a little to the west and then north again. Loop around to take the stairs to the second floor. There will be more Security Officers wandering around so watch out. On the second floor, take the path to the west for a treasure chest, then head to the east. Loop around counterclockwise to find the stairs to the third floor and a treasure chest. After climbing up, head north. The room to the west has a treasure chest. Follow the path northwest until you get to another long north-south corridor. The west door here also leads to some treasure chests; collect them, then come back and head north to loop around to the stairs to the fourth floor. Head east out of the stairwell room and then head north. This hallway deadends into a corridor going west; follow it, then take the fork north for a few rooms with a total of three treasure chests. Take them, then head back and continue following the path west until it loops around to the stairs to the fifth floor. Exit the room with the stairwell and head west. In the middle of the next hallway there will be some events, and you'll meet Brea. After the event talk to everybody in the room; they'll give you some helpful advice, services, and or items. The girl that gives you lots of items will also function as an item store if you talk to her again. Stock up on items. When you've talked to everybody continue on west to the elevator room. Before you can use the elevator, however, you'll be stopped by two more of the Owner's lackeys, Belial and Beelzebub. Boss: Belial and Beelzebub ベリアル&ベルゼブル Belial: 70000 HP, 5000 MP Beelzebub: 62000 HP, 30000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Belial and Beelzebub in 1 Minute, Defeat Belial and Beelzebub Taking No Damage Wow, these guys are TOUGH. Beelzebub is fast and has annoying reach with that whip, but the real danger is Belial and his missiles - one hit with a salvo will pretty much K.O. any character. Keep moving and don't let him get a clear shot on you. Try and team up on him and take him out first before taking out Beelzebub. After eliminating Beelzebub, using long range attacks - Maria's guns, or Kokuyousen with Nel - will take him out pretty handily. After the battle the elevator will stop functionining, so you'll have to take another way up. Head back to the point where you met Brea and head west. In the next room, you can head south for two treasure chests; then take the northeast door. Continue on, collecting four more treasure chests along the way, and finally take the northwest path to find a terminal. Operate the terminal and the other elevators in the building will start functioning. Head back to where you met Brea again and go back east. There are two elevators here; the north one will take you up to the 6th floor, the south will take you down to the fourth floor. On the sixth floor you'll begin in the middle of a cross. The west and south arms lead to treasure chests. Then take the north arm and head east. This will lead to another cross. Head south this time, then follow the path around to the west and then east again to find another elevator. This elevator will let you go from any floor from 1-100. There's not too much interesting on the intervening floors so go ahead and shoot straight for floor 100. You'll start in a room with a treasure chest. Head south twice, then east three times; you'll find two more treasure chests along the way. Then go south again and then west. In this room's northwest corner you'll find an elevator to the top floor. Take it. The top floor is symmetrical. Head north. The east and west arms both have 1 treasure chest apiece. The middle arm (north) has a save and a recovery point. Use them, then continue north for another event. A series of rough battles are coming up. You'll end up on Planet Stream again, and then you'll head into a series of battles. You won't be able to use Sophia for these battles (not that you'd want to anyway, as chances are she'll still be really weak). The first will be against a Daibensha, and the next against a Shikkousha (Executioner). The Daibensha shouldn't be too tough for you at your current level, but the Shikkousha might give you a few problems. Its counter aura really sucks - does fairly heavy MP as well as HP damage to you - so avoid setting it off if at all possible. Upon defeating these two there will be another event, and then you'll face the big daddy, the Danzaisha (Convictor). Boss: Danzaisha 断罪者 120000 HP, 10000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Danzaisha in 1 Minute, Defeat Danzaisha Taking No Damage He's pretty tough. He's strong, and his attack where he creates a whirlwind in front of him will take you out quickly. Thus, if he gears up for a strong attack, loop around behind him as fast as possible. Keep Nel or Maria far away and using Kokuyousen or any of Maria's long-range attacks. On the close range side, use Cliff's Flash Chariot or Fate's Reflect Strike. After this battle there will be another event. Brea will talk to you. Now head south. You'll end up in the large area of Planet Stream. However because of the earthquake the terrain will be changed, so you can't backtrack directly. Nevertheless continue heading south. Once you reach your landing site another event will happen, and you'll be back on the Diplo. After the bridge event talk to everybody on the ship again. Then talk to Mirage on the bridge. Head to the teleporter and you'll beam down to Elicoor 2 again, just south of Sealand. Head into Sealand and talk to the Queen for an event. She'll let you borrow the Sefira, so head down into the Shrine of Canan again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Endgame ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ IMMORALITY WAY/SHRINE OF CANAN Items in this section: Magical Pen, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, 22000 Fol, Compounding Materials, Blueberry The area is old, but unfortunately the enemies are new, and quite strong. Run if you want or spend time levelling up. Immorality Way has nothing new in terms of treasure, so just continue on as before. Once you reach the area where the Floating Knight was before, you'll be attacked by an Inferior Eye. Boss: Inferior Eye インフェリアアイ 230000 HP, 56000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Inferior Eye In 1 Minute, Defeat Inferior Eye Taking No Damage He floats and can petrify your team, so bring along appropriate counter- measures (whether Sage, Stone Check, or something else). Use two characters with appropriate anti-air attacks (Maria or Fate work well) and have Nel, as usual, do Kokuyousen from afar. He shouldn't be too hard. When he floats very high into the air, pull back far away from him until he comes down again. Now head into the Shrine of Canan. Unlike Immorality Way, there are several areas here where you can use your Vanish Ring to get new items, so explore thoroughly. There are also several bosses here. At the point where you fought Crystal Cerberus, there will now be a Dark Armor. Boss: Dark Armor x3 ダークアーマー 67000 HP, 6000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Dark Armor in 1 Minute, Defeat Dark Armor Taking No Damage These guys are strong, but they only have physical attacks, so try hit-and-run tactics. Watch out for their "Hammerquake" which will cause heavy damage to anybody in their immediate area. Nel's Kokuyousen again works wonders. As long as you keep an eye on your HP they shouldn't be much problem. Continue on as before. In the next area, the room with the stairs going up towards the west will have a battle with a Crystal Statue. Boss: Crystal Statue クリスタルスタチュウー 168000 HP, 10000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Crystal Statue in 1 Minute, Defeat Crystal Statue Taking No Damage He's just like the Crystal Cerberus, only a lot faster. You shouldn't have too much trouble with him, though. Just keep him preoccupied with lots of physical attacks (like Flash Chariot) and stay out of his way when he rears up for his charging attack. Continue north as before. You'll see more Crystal Statues along the way but they can be avoided, and they're not worth fighting. (You can't even get Battle Collections from them). In the room where there were four doors headed north, you'll meet up with Dark Eye. Boss: Dark Eye ダークアイ 330000 HP, 56000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Dark Eye in 1 Minute, Defeat Dark Eye Taking No Damage His battle patterns are pretty much like Inferior Eye's. Just use the same sorts of strategies and you should be fine. Afterwards you'll be done with the bosses for this section. Head to the back room and you'll gain the Sefira. After an event, leave the Shrine and head back to the throne room of Canan. Another event will happen, and you'll be clued into go to the Ancient Ruins of Mosel. Before heading there, buff up your stock. If you completed all of the Ladel/Lumina sidquests (see Sidequests), they'll be in Sealand; find them to find the best buyable weapons and armor in the game. If you didn't, don't worry; a rabbit-like salesman in the west arm of Peterny will have the same stuff. Be sure to get stuff from them before going on. Then head through Sunmight Plains, Sir Felious, and the Grace and Thirst Corridor. MOSEL SANDHILL/ANCIENT RUINS OF MOSEL Items in this section: None As soon as you exit the Grace and Thirst Corridor and enter the Mosel Sandhill, you'll be attacked by a Chimera. Boss: Chimera キメラ 258000 HP, 35000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Chimera in 1 Minute, Defeat Chimera Taking No Damage Tough, tough, tough. Perhaps the hardest boss in the game excluding all the secret bosses. He'll take you out in no time with his charge attacks, and his breath can cause status ailments. If you improved your equipment via Ladel/Lumina or the rabbit-like salesman in Peterny, this will help you immensely. Still make sure you have full stock of healing items. If the Chimera stops running, move out of the direction of his head immediately, as he'll likely do his massive charge attack that will hurt you badly. Otherwise use the same old boss strategies - Kokuyousen, Flash Chariot, and so on. After defeating the Chimera you'll be able to head across Mosel Sandhill and into the Ancient Ruins of Mosel again. Head to the room in the middle with a save point. Save here, then proceed into the conference room. You'll then be attacked by a Stone Golem. Boss: Stone Golem ストーンゴーレム 300000 HP, 15000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Stone Golem in 1 Minute, Defeat Stone Golem Taking No Damage This guy's powerful but slow, and nowhere near as hard as the Chimera. Keep him busy with a melee character - one should be enough, preferably Cliff with a lot of HP - and snipe at him from a distance with Nel or Maria. He shouldn't be much of a problem after that. There will now be two sets of stairs. Heading down the east stairwell will take you to the Ancient Ruins of Mosel Depths, a completely optional area (see the Sidequests section for details). When you're reading to advance the plot, head down the west stairwell. There will be an event here, and you'll end up inside the Firewall. FIREWALL Items in this section: None There are absolutely no treasures in the entire firewall; however the area is pretty maze-like. To make your way past the first section, simply take as many left turns as you can; you'll end up curving your way around clockwise and you can proceed to the next section from here. The next section is a headache. Most of the doors here are one-way, plus you'll have to hit two switches before the door to the exit will open. Also, rolling around this section are many polyhedra (as you might have seen earlier in the Shrine of Canan). These polyhedra aren't enemies, however; touching one will warp you back to the beginning of a section, which can get really annoying. To get through the Firewall, step-by-step: --from the entrance, head north. There will be a three-way fork. Take any one of them, then head north again via either of the two paths. There will be one way doors to the north, west, and east. Head through the east one. --head north. At the deadend, follow the path back west through the one way door. --head north. Go through the east one way door at the dead end. --continue east. There are two doors in this section, one to the east and one to the south. Go through the south one. --turn towards the east and go through the one way door. --head all the way north and go through the one way door. --continue north then turn east and go through the one way door. --stand on the switch to change its color. --return through the one way door. --head west through the one way door. --hugging the south path, continue along until you find a one-way door to the west. Go through this door. --you'll be in a long, maze like section. Avoid the polyhedra and make your way to the northwest of the section. (Blowing up the minimap and tracking the polyhedra is a very good idea here). Once you make your way to this, go north through the western-most door. --continue north through the one way door. --follow the path around to the east through the one way door. --stand on the switch to change its color. --return west through the northern path (i.e. through the door you just came through). --go south through the door you previously came through. --go south through the door you previously came through again (i.e. the western-most door). --loop through the maze section, but this time head to the southwest. There will be a save point. Save here, then enter the one way door. There will be a short event, and then you'll be threatened by the Gau. Boss: Gau ガウ 200000 HP, 30000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Gau in 1 Minute, Defeat Gau Taking No Damage He's got a lot of HP but he shouldn't be too hard to handle. He tends to rise up and then drop a lot of missiles, so if you see him rise up, move out of the way. Once again long range and/or anti-air attacks will save the day. Keep at it and you'll whittle him down. After the boss battle another save point will appear. Save here and then proceed onto the teleporter to make your way to the last dungeon. There is a switch here but you can ignore it (you only need to activate it if you want to leave; simply follow all the steps above in reverse order to leave). SPIRAL TOWER The Spiral Tower is fairly long and complicated. The many crystals that block your path can all be taken care of by the Vanish Ring. The Tower has ten floors. Floor One Items in this section: Synthesis Materials, Blackberry Simply break all the crystals as you move along. This floor is fairly wide but there's nothing tricky about it. Collect treasures as you see fit, or just try and find the elevator to the second floor. Floor Two Items in this section: None Save first then proceed forward. You'll end up into a battle with Brea. Boss: Imitative Brea ブレア 100000 HP, 13992 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None She's pretty weak. She's got some area-effect attacks, so either disrupt them as fast as possible, or use hit-and-run and keep-away tactics. After defeating her, head straight north. Eventually you'll run into the real Brea. She won't know how to reactivate the elevator and free her, but the gems sparkling around her are a clue. Each of the three paths from the middle deadend in a room with a large weird object in the center of them. Examining them will cause a miniboss to appear. Defeating the miniboss will cause that crystal to cease functioning. The green object causes you to face Ructogias. He's strong but slow, so keep away from him and attack. The red object has you face 2 Deathgazes. As opposed to Ructogias, they're fast, but really weak. Take them down straight on, and you should have no problems. The blue object has you face three Chimera Hawks. They're fast and they also cause status abnormalities, but otherwise they're weak. Anti-air attack work best here. After breaking all three objects, head back to where Brea was. Then take her to the elevator and she'll restart its function for you. Take the elevator up to the third floor. Floor Three Items in this section: Bunny Shoes, Fenrir Crystal x2, Very Ripe Berry, 62700 Fol, Ifrit Crystal x2, Blackberry, Counter Aura Book Examine the crystal pedasatal for some clews. The crystal set in the red pedestal changes from black -> white -> yellow -> blue -> red. The blue pedestal crystal changes from red -> blue -> yellow -> white -> black. Remember this for later. As you explore the area you'll find more crystal pedestals like these. You'll also find various colored doors. If you get close to a door, a nearby crystal pedestal (it's nearby but usually in a different room) will activate. A large colored crystal with a number in it will also appear. The trick is to change the crystal in both the blue and the red pedestal such that the middle crystal matches the color of the door you were trying to go through. (Use the Vanish Ring to change the color of the crystals). Adding the colors together in a logical sense will get you the right combination. For instance if you want to go through a purple door, you'll have to change one of the crystals to red and another to blue. However, your chances are only limited to the number displayed. If you take less than the number displayed, everything is fine. However, if you use EXACTLY the number displayed turns, then not only will the door open, but a treasure chest will also open. The correct method for each of these are as follows. These will indicate how many times you should activate the crystal in each pedestal. Purple Door (2 tries): Red once, Blue once Green Door (6 tries): Red three times, Blue three times Orange Door (10 tries): Red nine times, Blue once Red Door (9 tries): Blue eight times, Red once Yellow Door (16 tries): Blue five times, Red seven times, Blue three times The treasures are mostly random, but the last one will give you Bunny Shoes. After going through the doors, head to the fourth floor. Floor Four Items in this section: None Short and there's only one path. Head to the fifth floor. Floor Five Items in this section: None Just like 4. Continue on to the sixth floor. Floor Six Items in this section: Blackberry x2, Compounding Materials x2, Synthesis Materials x2, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry After heading forward a bit, you'll run into the elevator, but it's not functioning. There's also three doors from this area. In each of the doors is a small area. The trick is that each of these areas contains one wall that is cracked. (The bright white part of the walls are cracked so they're a little hard to see). Use the Vanish Ring on each of these, and then step on the switch inside. Upon pressing all three switches, the elevator will activate. Take it up to the seventh floor. Floor Seven Items in this section: None Short and one path. Go to the eighth floor. Floor Eight Items in this section: None Short and one path. Go to the ninth floor. Floor Nine Items in this section: None Short and one path. Go to the tenth floor. Floor Ten Items in this section: None From here, just ignore the branches and head straight north. After many many stairs, you'll reach the final save point. This is your cue that the last battle approaches. When you're ready, continue forward to meet Lucifer. After an event, you'll fight him. Boss: Lucifer ルシファー 200000 HP, 60000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's pretty weak here. He flies around but doesn't have much to be worried about. Standard boss tactics will get you far here. After the battle another event will happen, and you'll fight Lucifer again. Of course you fight him again! It's RPG custom that the last boss always has several forms. Boss: Lucifer ルシファー 400000 HP, 120000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Lucifer, Defeat Lucifer in 1 Minute, Defeat Lucifer Taking No Damage, Defeat Lucifer At Level 1, Defeat Universe Lucifer, Defeat Universe Lucifer in 1 Minute, Defeat Universe Lucifer Taking No Damage, Defeat Universe Lucifer Under Level 10, Defeat FD Lucifer Under Level 10, Defeat FD Lucifer in 1 Minute, Defeat FD Lucifer Taking No Damage, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Weak Attacks, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Strong Attacks, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Counter Aura, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Magic, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Battle Skills, Defeat Lucifer Using Only Charge, Defeat Lucifer Alone, Defeat Universe Lucifer Alone, Defeat FD Lucifer Alone, Defeat Lucifer With All-Male Party, Defeat Lucifer With All- Female Party His attack range has been strengthened considerably, but he's still not that hard. Try to stay towards his back as several of his big attacks only aim towards the front. Keep him busy with multiple-hitting melee attacks and then aim for him from afar. He has one pretty nasty spell where the entire battlefield will turn bloody and waves of energy come shooting across. What's more he disappears during this spell making him invincible. If he manages to get this off, run to the edge of the screen and as far away from the waves as possible. This is the last battle so don't be afraid to use all your Magical Berries and such. After the battle you'll be treated to the ending, which is QUITE long. After a while the credits will run, and then MORE of the ending will show. After all of that, you'll be prompted to save your game, which you should, as this will allow you access to the secret dungeons (see below). 4. SIDE QUESTS/SECRETS None of this is required to complete the game, and indeed, you might have to complete the game before you can do some of this stuff. This section contains some SPOILERS, so be warned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ladel and Lumina ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This takes place as a series of PAs. To trigger this "miniquest", first head to the Inn at Peterny after returning from Sealand. They'll be lost there and they'll ask you how to get to Cirlsour. Tell them to head south (南). Next, go to Alias. They'll be at the Inn there, arguing again. They'll ask you which way to go. You can tell them either northwest or southwest (北西/南西). Then, after the events at Becquerel Mine, head all the way to Airyglyph. They'll be at the Inn there. Tell them they went too far (行き過ぎましたよ). Now head back to Cirlsour. They'll be in the bar there. As a reward, Ladel will sell you items (nothing too great, but some unique items), and Lumina will sell you the Blueprints, which you'll need to recruit Isaac later, for 5000 Fol. Later the pair will be in Sealand, selling the best possible weapons and armor that can be bought, although if you miss this miniquest you can still get these items in Peterny, so it's not that critical. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Ancient Scrolls ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you met Roger in the Douglas Forest and agreed to help him out, when you arrive in Sir Felious he'll be there again. If you get him to join you again (see main walkthrough for details), he'll give you 7 Ancient Scrolls (太古の書者). Each scroll has a riddle written in it which is a clue on how to get a treasure. The 7 scrolls read: 1. Hidden one's spring which calls forth the white mist / what do the strong parent and child think? 2. In the darkness of a cave five existences meet in battle / where is the light that guides them? 3. The halls decaying once protecting from the gods' soldiers / the Sun King sleeps in a coffin / what do wordless corpses say? 4. Where three types of soldiers gather / who sits on the masterless throne? 5. Offspring of the winged servants of god / is the sight there hope or despair? 6. At the end of the cave where copper sleeps / the sage that stand over the lake / is the foundation there holding ancient strength? 7. In a burning hell / The long-eared giants look down upon red twins / what power lies sealed within? Each riddle points out a secret location where a treasure can be found. However, there is a catch: it seems that all of the treasures are limited in time. Specifically, it seems that you must get these before you defeat Crosel, or they will never show up. Have you given up yet? The answers are below. 1. This refers to the area in the Douglas Forest where you fought Mudman. If you recall, after beating him the white mist disappeared. Search the rock on the left side of the area. You will get a Con Seed. 2. This refers to the area in the Cirlsour Cave where you could press a button to choose a Torokko. Search the torch right next to the buttons. You will get a Magi Seed. 3. This refers to a coffin in Immorality Way. Search the coffin in the room just south of the place where you found the Luna Talisman (towards the north of Immorality Way). You will get an Int Seed. 4. This refers to the throne in the central room in the lowest floor of the Ancient Ruins of Mosel, in the same place where Count Matterin challenges you to a battle chess game. Search the throne towards the north. This is the hardest one to get as the window of opportunity is quite small (you must have the Vanish Ring, but you must not have defeated Crosel yet.) You will get a Str Seed. 5. This refers to the Bar Mountains. After getting carried away by the adult dragon and dropped in the baby dragon nest, search the skeleton there. You will get the accessory Elven Boots. 6. This refers to the outside area of the Becquerel Mines. Search the roots of the tree standing to the far north of the area (you can see a lake in the distance off the cliff). You will get the accessory Demon Cross. 7. This refers to the giant Bunny statue in the Urza Lava Cave. Search the left-hand torch to get the item. You will get the Rabbit Ear Grail item. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Battle Collection ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As long as you created the Battle Collection in the fight simulator waaaaay back in Grand Tear (see the walkthrough for details), you can collect different Battle Collections by fulfilling different conditions during battles throughout the game. Here I will list the conditions for each of the Battle Collection items. Please note that some of these descriptions refer to your character only. Thus, for something like "Defeat Arbel with Items Only", you don't HAVE to beat him with items only; what this means is that the character YOU control can only use items; the other two computer-controlled characters are free to beat up on him. Similarly, the "Taking No Damage" conditions means only the player character has to take no damage; your allies can still take damage. Also, for any of the conditions which are "Defeat X with Y Only", Y has to be used a certain number of times. Thus for the above example, you can't just use one item on Arbel and then sit there and wait for your other companions to beat up on him. The exact number of times you need is unknown, but if you're really high level there's a chance that you'll defeat somebody before you've fulfilled the requirements, so be warned. Finally, getting a certain percentage of the Battle Collection unlocks new stuff. Unlocking 30% (90/300) lets you play on Universe difficulty. Unlocking 60% (180/300) lets you use the music test, and unlocking 70% (210/300) lets you play on FD difficulty. Finally, unlocking 95% (285/300) lets you use "Full Active" Mode (unconfirmed). Note that some of these conditions themselves have to be fulfilled on Universe and FD difficulty, so you'll have to play through more than once to get everything. A list of the conditions follows. There are blanks in this list. If you know what conditions are in these, please let me know. 001 50 Battles 151 Defeat FD Gabriel in 1 Minute 002 500 Battles 152 Defeat Iseria 003 1000 Battles 153 Defeat Iseria Taking No Damage 004 2000 Battles 154 Defeat Iseria in 5 Minutes 005 5000 Battles 155 Defeat Universe Iseria 006 10000 Battles 156 Defeat Universe Iseria No Dmg 007 50000 Battles 157 Defeat Universe Iseria 9 Minutes 008 10 Hits 158 Defeat FD Iseria 009 30 Hits 159 Defeat FD Iseria Taking No Damage 010 50 Hits 160 Defeat FD Iseria in 18 Minutes 011 70 Hits 161 Defeat Lenneth 012 100 Hits 162 Defeat Lenneth Taking No Damage 013 150 Hits 163 Defeat Lenneth in 5 Minutes 014 200 Hits 164 Defeat Universe Lenneth 015 250 Hits 165 Defeat Universe Lenneth No Damage 016 300 Hits 166 Defeat Universe Lenneth 6 Minutes 017 Chain 3 167 Defeat FD Lenneth 018 Chain 10 168 Defeat FD Lenneth Taking No Dmg 019 Chain 20 169 Defeat FD Lenneth in 15 Minutes 020 Chain 30 170 Defeat Freya 021 Chain 40 171 Defeat Freya Taking No Damage 022 Chain 50 172 Defeat Freya in 15 Minutes 023 Chain 60 173 Defeat Universe Freya 024 Chain 70 174 Defeat Universe Freya No Damage 025 Chain 80 175 Defeat Universe Freya 20 Minutes 026 Chain 90 176 Defeat FD Freya 027 Chain 100 177 Defeat FD Freya Taking No Damage 028 Chain 200 178 Defeat FD Freya in 50 Minutes 029 Chain 500 179 Taunt Gabriel 10 Times 030 Defeat 300 Enemies 180 Taunt Iseria 10 Times 031 Defeat 600 Enemies 181 Encounter Serious Vox 032 Defeat 900 Enemies 182 Defeat Serious Vox 033 Defeat 1500 Enemies 183 Get Item from Serious Vox 034 Defeat 3000 Enemies 184 Protect Against Serious Vox 035 Defeat 6000 Enemies 185 Counter Aura Against Serious Vox 036 Defeat 10000 Enemies 186 Protect Break Against Serious Vox 037 Defeat 50000 Enemies 187 20 Hits Against Serioux Vox 038 Win in Under 30 Seconds 188 50 Hits Against Serious Vox 039 Win in Under 20 Seconds 189 Over 10000 Damage Against S. Vox 040 Win in Under 15 Seconds 190 Over 50000 Damage Against S. Vox 041 Win in Under 10 Seconds 191 Taunt Serious Vox 10 Times 042 Run 10 Times 192 Taunt Serious Vox 30 Times 043 Run 50 Times 193 Win Using Only Weak Attacks 044 Run 100 Times 194 Defeat Lucifer Only Weak Attacks 045 Knocked Out 10 Times 195 Defeat Iseria Only Weak Attacks 046 Knocked Out 50 Times 196 Defeat Freya Only Weak Attacks 047 Knocked Out 100 Times 197 Win Using Only Strong Attacks 048 Press Buttons 10000 Times 198 Defeat Lucifer Only Strong Attacks 049 Press Buttons 100000 Times 199 Defeat Gabriel Only Strong Attacks 050 Press Buttons 1000000 Times 200 Defeat Lenneth Only Strong Attacks 051 Finish Attack 10 201 Win Using Only Counter Aura 052 Finish Attack 50 202 Defeat Lucifer Only Counter Aura 053 Finish Attack 100 203 Defeat Gabriel Only Counter Aura 054 Finish Attack 500 204 Defeat Iseria Only Counter Aura 055 Finish Attack 1000 205 Win Using Only Items 056 Reach Level 10 206 Defeat Arbel 1 Using Only Items 057 Reach Level 77 207 Defeat Arbel 2 Using Only Items 058 Reach Level 100 208 Defeat Arbel 3 Using Only Items 059 Reach Level 128 209 Win Using Only Magic 060 Reach Level 255 210 Defeat Lucifer Using Only Magic 061 Protect Break 10 Times 211 Defeat Gabriel Using Only Magic 062 Protect Break 50 Times 212 Defeat Lenneth Using Only Magic 063 Protect Break 100 Times 213 Win Using Only Charge 064 Protect Break 500 Times 214 Defeat Lucifer Using Only Charge 065 Protect Break 1000 Times 215 Defeat Gabriel Using Only Charge 066 Angered 10 Times 216 Defeat Lenneth Using Only Charge 067 Angered 50 Times 217 Win Using Only Battle Skills 068 Angered 100 Times 218 Defeat Lucifer Only B. Skills 069 Angered 500 Times 219 Defeat Iseria Only B. Skills 070 Angered 1000 Times 220 Defeat Freya Only B. Skills 071 Over 1000 Damage 221 Win Alone 072 Over 5000 Damage 222 Defeat Lucifer Alone 073 Over 10000 Damage 223 Defeat Gabriel Alone 074 Over 50000 Damage 224 Defeat Iseria Alone 075 Over 99999 Damage 225 Defeat Lenneth Alone 076 Win Taking No Damage 226 Defeat Freya Alone 077 Defeat Norton in 30 Seconds 227 Avoid Firebolt 078 Defeat Norton Taking No Damage 228 Defeat Metal Chinke (Funny) 079 Avoid 10 Norton Attacks 229 Defeat Chinkethief Lvl.99 080 Defeat Larva Fang in 1 Minute 230 Encounter Monjagora 081 Defeat Larva Fang Taking No Damage 231 Defeat Monjagora 082 Defeat Earth Pluto in 1 Minute 232 111 Damage 083 Defeat Earth Pluto Taking No Damage 233 222 Damage 084 Defeat Shelby in 1 Minute 234 333 Damage 085 Defeat Shelby Taking No Damage 235 555 Damage 086 Defeat Tsukikage Leader in 1 Minute 236 777 Damage 087 Defeat Tsukikage Leader No Dmg 237 5555 Damage 088 Defeat Mudman in 1 Minute 238 7777 Damage 089 Defeat Mudman Taking No Damage 239 77777 Damage 090 Defeat Cockatrice in 1 Minute 240 Win 10 Consecutive No Damage 091 Defeat Cockatrice Taking No Damage 241 Win 50 Consecutive No Damage 092 Defeat Crystal Cerberus 1 Minute 242 Win 100 Consecutive No Damage 093 Defeat Crystal Cerberus No Dmg 243 50 Consecutive Battles Alone 094 Defeat Bandein Soldiers 1 Minute 244 100 Consecutive Battles Alone 095 Defeat Bandein Soldiers No Dmg 245 500 Consecutive Battles Alone 096 Defeat Demetrio in 1 Minute 246 Avoid Firebolt 10 Times 097 Defeat Demetrio Taking No Damage 247 Avoid Firebolt 50 Times 098 Defeat Aurora Ganash in 1 Minute 248 10 Continuous Finish Attacks 099 Defeat Aurora Ganash No Damage 249 20 Continuous Finish Attacks 100 Defeat Blue Dragon Zombie 1 Minute 250 50 Continuous Finish Attacks 101 Defeat Blue Dragon Zombie No Dmg 251 5 Continuous Level Up 102 Defeat Robin Wind in 1 Minute 252 10 Continuous Level Up 103 Defeat Robin Wind Taking No Damage 253 20 Continuous Level Up 104 Defeat Crosel in 1 Minute 254 10 Consecutive Protects 105 Defeat Crosel Taking No Damage 255 30 Consecutive Protects 106 Defeat Biwig in 1 Minute 256 50 Consecutive Protects 107 Defeat Biwig Taking No Damage 257 100 Consecutive Protects 108 Defeat Daibensha in 1 Minute 258 250 Consecutive Protects 109 Defeat Daibensha Taking No Damage 259 500 Consecutive Protects 110 Defeat Azazel in 1 Minute 260 5 Consecutive Back Attacks 111 Defeat Azazel Taking No Damage 261 5 Consecutive Surround Attacks 112 Defeat Danzaisha in 1 Minute 262 5 Consecutive Raided Attacks 113 Defeat Danzaisha Taking No Damage 263 10 Consecutive Get Items 114 Defeat Inferior Eye in 1 Minute 264 10 Consecutive One Hit Kills 115 Defeat Inferior Eye No Damage 265 30 Consecutive One Hit Kills 116 Defeat Dark Armor in 1 Minute 266 50 Consecutive One Hit Kills 117 Defeat Dark Armor Taking No Damage 267 30 Consecutive Runs 118 Defeat Crystal Statue in 1 Minute 268 0 Damage 30 Consecutive Times 119 Defeat Crystal Statue No Dmg 269 0 Damage 50 Consecutive Times 120 Defeat Dark Eye in 1 Minute 270 Defeat Universe Lucifer Alone 121 Defeat Dark Eye Taking No Damage 271 Defeat Universe Gabriel Alone 122 Defeat Chimera in 1 Minute 272 Defeat Universe Iseria Alone 123 Defeat Chimera Taking No Damage 273 Defeat Universe Lenneth Alone 124 Defeat Stone Golem in 1 Minute 274 Defeat Universe Freya Alone 125 Defeat Stone Golem Taking No Dmg 275 Defeat FD Lucifer Alone 126 Defeat Spirit Trio in 1 Minute 276 Defeat FD Gabriel Alone 127 Defeat Spirit Trio Taking No Dmg 277 Defeat FD Iseria Alone 128 Defeat Gau in 1 Minute 278 Defeat FD Lenneth Alone 129 Defeat Gau Taking No Damage 279 Defeat FD Freya Alone 130 Defeat Belial/Beelzebub 1 Minute 280 Defeat Lucifer All Male Party 131 Defeat Belial/Beelzebub No Dmg 281 Defeat Gabriel All Male Party 132 Defeat Lucifer 282 Defeat Iseria All Male Party 133 Defeat Lucifer in 1 Minute 283 Defeat Lenneth All Male Party 134 Defeat Lucifer Taking No Damage 284 Defeat Freya All Male Party 135 Defeat Lucifer at Level 1 285 Defeat Lucifer All Female Party 136 Defeat Universe Lucifer 286 Defeat Gabriel All Female Party 137 Defeat Universe Lucifer No Damage 287 Defeat Iseria All Female Party 138 Defeat Universe Lucifer 1 Minute 288 Defeat Lenneth All Female Party 139 Defeat Universe Lucifer Level 10 289 Defeat Freya All Female Party 140 Defeat FD Lucifer No Damage 290 Win Auto Battle 141 Defeat FD Lucifer 1 Minute 291 Hit Battle Sphere 5 Times 142 Defeat FD Lucifer Level 10 292 Battle Over 10 Minutes 143 Defeat Gabriel 293 Battle Over 60 Minutes 144 Defeat Gabriel Taking No Damage 294 Battle Over 120 Minutes 145 Defeat Gabriel in 1 Minute 295 Don't Get Attacked for 1 Minute 146 Defeat Universe Gabriel 296 Happy New Year 147 Defeat Universe Gabriel No Damage 297 Star Ocean Christmas 148 Defeat Universe Gabriel 1 Minute 298 Star Ocean Commemoration Day 149 Defeat FD Gabriel 299 Second Story Commemoration Day 150 Defeat FD Gabriel No Damage 300 Till the End of Time Com. Day And now an explanation on some of the less-than-clear conditions: X Battles: Simply get in X battles. You can see how many battles you've been in on the main menu screen. However I believe this total is cumulative over games (so if you had 500 battles in your first saved game and get 500 battles in your second saved game, as long as they used the same battle collection, you should get the 1000 battles condition) X Hits: This refers to a hit combo. The combo indicator is displayed to the right of the battle screen. To get high combos, I suggest giving your characters high-hitting moves that don't move the enemy much, like Cliff's Flash Chariot or Maria's Gravity Bullet. X Chain: Chain refers to having consecutive battles with the Heat Up gauge filled. Thus, Chain 100 means get into 100 consecutive battles with a full Heat Up gauge. Press Buttons X Times: Refers to the number of times you've pressed a button in battle. Thus, a weak attack, strong attack, or battle skills is one time, unless you mash on the controller. Finish Attack: Finish Attack refers to your character only (the player controlled one) dealing the final blow in the battle. Angered X Times: Anger is a condition in which your characters may go to if an ally is knocked out. It'll give them increased attack power and they'll say something. Over X Damage: This means that your characters must deal in ONE HIT a damage equal or over to the indicated value. Thus, if in one hit your characters deals 1200 damage, that will satisfy the "Over 1000 Damage" condition. Defeat Metal Chinke: The Metal Chinke is an enemy found on certain floors of the Cave of Trials. Defeat Chinkethief Lvl. 99: The Chinkethief Lvl. 99 is an enemy found on floors 152 to 161 of the Sphere Corporation. Encounter Monjagora/Defeat Monjagora: The Monjagora is the boss of the 7th floor of the Cave of Trials. X Damage: Unlike Over X Damage, your characters must deal in ONE HIT the EXACT amount of damage listed. Thus, getting 5560 damage will NOT trigger the "5555 Damage" condition. Defeat Arbel X Using Only Items: There are three times you can possibly fight Arbel in the game. "Arbel 1" refers to the very first time you fight him, during the escape from Becquerel Mines. "Arbel 2" refers to if you attempt to go fight him at the Urza Lava Cave immediately after reaching the FD world (before going to the Sphere Corporation). "Arbel 3" refers to if you fight him at the Urza Lava Cave any time afterwards. To fight him at the Urza Lava Cave you must first talk to Walter first in Cirlsour. X Continuous Level Up: This means that in ONE BATTLE, a character of yours must get X levels up at once. 0 Damage X Consecutive Times: This means that your player-controlled character must get hit for 0 damage X number of times. This refers to curing as well, so if your character is cured for 0 damage (such as with the Regeneration Counter Aura), then that will work towards this condition. Battle Over X Minutes: This refers to ONE BATTLE. Thus you'll have to stay in a single battle for over 2 hours just to get all of these conditions. The last five conditions are special in that they can't actually be triggered in-game. To get them, set the system clock on your PS2 to the day before the one indicated (thus, for New Year's, set the clock to December 31st), and set the time to about 11:58 PM. Now start SO3, load, and get into a battle. Once the day rolls over to the next day, you should get that condition. Also realize that the year does matter in that it has to be after the date given. Thus, for Till the End of Time Commemoration Day, you will need to set your clock to at least 2004. New Year's: January 1st Christmas: December 25th Star Ocean release date: 7/19/1996 Star Ocean Second Story release date: 7/30/1998 Star Ocean Till the End of Time release date: 2/27/2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ancient Ruins of Mosel (Depths) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to get here: This really isn't a secret dungeon. However, you don't ever have to set foot inside of it to beat the game, so consider it a bonus dungeon. You can enter as soon as you get the Vanish Ring. Visit the area where the meeting took place and use the Vanish Ring on the door in the ground; this will cause a set of stairs to appear and you can proceed down. Alternatively, once you defeat the Stone Golem the second time you go to visit the Ancient Ruins of Mosel, simply head down the east stairs instead of the west stairs (which will take you to the Firewall). The second way is recommended as the enemies are very strong and will probably wipe you out if you head down immediately after getting the Vanish Ring. However if you want the Ancient Scroll #4 treasure, you will have to do it then. (See Ancient Scrolls section for details). Items in this section: Cooking Materials, 160000 Fol, Ripe Berry, Blacksmith Materials x3, Star Talisman, Synthesis Materials x4, Luna Talisman, Magical Berry, Very Ripe Berry, Counter Aura Book, Star Guard, Skill Book "Support Spell" You'll start in a sewer-like catacomb. Head to the west section for a treasure chest, then go over to the east side. On a ramp slanting down from north to south, you'll find a Torokko, similar to the ones in the Cirlsour Cave. Speak to this one and get on it to swim over the water. Now head east and then north. Head into the tunnel to go into the next area. In this area there are places you can get off to collect more treasure, but it'll be faster if you wait until later (as the Torokko is quite slow). Go west with the Torokko, then south again, then east again to the middle of the screen, then take the tunnel south back to the first part of the screen. Here, head to the southwest corner of the area. There is a ramp here, so get off the Torokko. Run into the giant amoeba monster to fight. He isn't too hard (certainly not compared to the Chimera) but be prepared all the same. After defeating the amoeba monster, the water throughout the sewers will drain. Now you can walk around freely and collect treasures if you wish. There is one treasure in the southeast part of the northern area that you will have to climb up to get to. When you're done collecting the treasures, head to the south part of the southern area. There are some pillars here that you can get rid of with the Vanish Ring, and behind the pillars is a door and a plate in the ground. What you want to do here is find one of the glowing enemies in the room and lure them towards the plate. When you do, the door will open. However the enemy will change into Aurora Ganash, and you'll have to fight. Boss: Aurora Ganash 285000 HP, 212025 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Aurora Ganash in 1 Minute, Defeat Aurora Ganash Taking No Damage As a color swap of monsters you've seen before, he's got most of their similar attacks. Stay away from him and go for long distance hit-and-run. If you defeated the Chimera easily, he'll be no problem. After defeating him, take the door to descend to the second level. The second level has but three treasure chests, all towards the east of the area, and two of them in a room that you can access only via Vanishing the stone blocks covering the door. If you head west from this point, you'll find a save point, and this is a sign that a boss is coming up. Enter the next room for a pretty comical scene featuring your old friend Robin Wind, and then a boss fight. Boss: Spirit Trio (Robin Wind, Aqua Regia, Novas Blaze) Robin Wind: 140000 HP, 30000 MP Aqua Regia: 148000 HP, 50000 MP Novas Blaze: 135000 HP, 40000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Spirit Trio in 1 Minute, Defeat Spirit Trio Taking No Damage A fairly tough battle. Robin Wind's still tough as usual but now he has two friends to help him along. Rather than going 1-on-1 with your three, try focusing all your attacks on one at a time to take them down. You should go for Robin Wind first, then Aqua Regia (the golden mermaid) next. Though you should focus your attacks on one opponent at a time, don't cluster together, or you may get eliminated really quickly by an area attack from the opponents. After the battle go north. Here you'll meet the ghost of Count Mattarin, with whom you can play a Chess Battle game (much like the ones in Gemity). The board is really quite simple, and if you just put your pieces across from his such that yours win (remember thief beats wizard, wizard beats knight, knight beats thief) you'll win the game easily. Once you win, the Count and the chessboard will disappear, and in its place there'll be a set of stairs down to a treasure room with many nice treasures. Collect these and you're done with the Ancient Ruins of Mosel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cave of Trials ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to get here: After beating the game and watching the long long ending, the game will automatically save to your memory card. What it does is add the "Clear" designation to your save file. Note that it doesn't affect it in any other way; you can still proceed and fight Lucifer again. Upon loading the "Clear" file, head south. You'll find a bunny. Talk to him, and he'll say that he's been told to give you a prophecy: "Head for the town of bridges". Hmm. The town of bridges is Cirlsour. Make your way out of the Spiral Tower and the Firewall, then head for Cirlsour. The entrance to the Cave of Trials will be in the previously closed cave entrance in the southwest of town. Go in through the cave here (you'll have to use the Vanish Ring to clear away some rocks) and you'll find a teleporter that will take you to the Cave of Trials. There are 8 floors and absolutely zero save points in here. I highly recommend frequent backtracking so you can rest, restock, and save in Cirlsour. FLOOR ONE Items in this section: Very Ripe Berry, Synthesis Materials x3, Shadow Bullet, Cooking Materials, Alchemy Materials, Blackberry x2, Compounding Materials x2, Aquaberry, 60000 Fol, Blacksmith Materials, Ripe Berry, Dark Eye Helm, Holy Staff Pumpkin Wraith (After hitting switch on Floor Three) Blood Scylla, Blueberry, Cooking Materials, Blackberry x2, Aquaberry, 40000 Fol, Reflex, Synthesis Materials There really aren't any tricks to the first floor. Just proceed forward and use the Vanish Ring to get rid of crates in your way. Some of the doors cannot be opened yet; you'll come back to them later so don't worry about them for now. Throughout the Cave of Trials you may see treasure chests floating in midair. To get them, you'll have to knock them down to the ground first, usually by Vanishing nearby crates in such a way that they fall and hit the treasure chest. After proceeding to the far north you'll face the boss of this floor, Bigfoot. Boss: Bigfoot ビッグフット 350000 HP, 50000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's big, strong, and faster than you'd expect. Nevertheless he's not that hard, comparatively. The only move to watch out for is his Ice Beam, which may take out your party all at once. Nevertheless if you've managed to Item Create some items that absorb water element, you won't have to worry about that either. His physical strength is high but nothing constant curing can't take care of. Also remember that he's weak against fire. Collect the two treasure chests behind him, then proceed to the second floor. FLOOR TWO Items in this section: Youriten Shell, Aquaberry, Tri Faunas, Experimental All-Purpose Antidote, Blackberry, Mirage Robe, Very Ripe Berry, Cooking Materials, Magical Berry, (Via Elevator) Elemental Edge, 74000 Fol, Cooking Materials, Compounding Materials First head to the southeast of the area. There is a switch here that you'll need to activate. To the north, you'll find stacked boxes that when Vanished, drop a ton of treasure chests that end up blocking the path. There are some useful treasures here, but there's also treasure on the other side. To get across, Vanish the bottom box and then try and run through as quickly as you can to get to the other side. Grab the two treasure chests there, and if you can't get back across, simply use the Reset function (press square to bring up the Vanish box, then press Select) to get warped back to the hallway's entrance. Make your way to the northwest area. As you enter a door that heads south, you'll run into the boss of this floor, Succubus. Boss: Succubus サキュバス 40000 HP, 50000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None She's pretty easy, actually. She can confuse your characters, but if you just keep the pressure on her (Flash Chariot with Cliff; Gravity Bullet with Maria, etc.) she won't be able to do a thing. After defeating her you'll be able to head into the puzzle section of this floor. You'll basically be on a four-by-four grid of rooms. Thanks to the switch you pressed earlier, you'll be able to slide the rooms around by examining the pedestal in the middle of each room. Basically the grid starts with the "gap" in the lower right section. Your job is to shift around the rooms such that the gap will be in the extreme upper left, and then jump into the gap. (However, before you do so, go ahead and drop into the gap at other places on the grid; it'll take you to different places on the third floor and you'll get other treasures you couldn't get otherwise. Be sure to get Maria's "Burst Emission" by arranging it so that the gap is in either of the two middle squares on the bottom row). When you've rearranged the grid as you like, simply jump into the gap in the ground to head to the third floor. FLOOR THREE Items in this section: Blacksmith Materials, Very Ripe Berry, Burst Emission, Synthesis Materials, Blueberry, Mystic Chain, Reflex, Compounding Materials, Raven Gauntlet. (Via Elevator) Magical Berry, Aquaberry, Cooking Materials, If you positioned the grid correctly, you should drop into a room with three treasure chests. Follor the path out. When the halls branch east, follow the corridor east to find another switch to activate. Then continue on. When you enter the next door to the west, you'll face the boss of this floor, the Basilisk King. Boss: Basilisk King バシリスクキング 79365 HP, 3607 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He doesn't have much HP at all, and he isn't too dangerous. Just keep on him with multi-hitting attacks and he'll go down in no time. Since he's a basilisk presumably he could petrify you, but he never got the chance to do it to me. If you have Nel with a high ATK, a single Kokuyousen will take him out thanks to his pitifully low MP. Afterwards you'll enter stairs that'll take you back to the first floor, to a section you haven't seen before. The doors that were previously locked should now be open (if you hit the switch). Collect the treasure chests, then head north and then east. You'll find an elevator. You can take this elevator down to the fourth floor, but in the meantime you should visit floors 2 and 3 as well as the elevator will take you to new sections. On Floor three you'll be able to meet Santa, who can sell you some stuff if you like. If you have the cash, I recommend getting Santa Boots, which have a small chance of giving you tri-Emblems when you rest at an inn. When you're done, head down to the fourth floor. FLOOR FOUR Items in this section: Efreet Cape, Ripe Berry x2, Mystic Chain, 61000 Fol, Magical Berry x2, 58000 Fol This floor is very, very dark. When you enter the second (large) room, there will be many glowing enemies around that light the area. They're useful, but in order to proceed you'll have to kill all of them. Make sure you go around and collect the treasures first though, otherwise you'll have a hard time finding them. When you've killed all the lights, head to the southwest for the exit... but first a boss. Boss: Earth Dragon アースドラゴン 420000 HP, 48000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's got some strong attacks, but thankfully he's really, really slow. Take advantage of this with hit-and-run tactics and you should be fine. Once you get his HP down, he'll start flying in midair and breathing fire, but this is still fairly easy to avoid - and if you got the Reflex's from the earlier floors, the fire breath won't do any damage at all. When you're finished with him, head down to the fifth floor. FLOOR FIVE Items in this section: Blueberry x2, Blackberry, Synthesis Materials x2, Very Ripe Berry, Magical Berry x2, 22000 Fol, 150000 Fol, Uraouka Sakkou, Ripe Berry x2, Infinity Arts, Magical Dance Head to the east first for some treasures, then proceed north. After a short while, you'll run into your old friend, Puffy! In typical Puffy style she'll summon a monster to attack you. Boss: Shubringer シュブリンガー 182900 HP, 3645 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None His attacks are similar to the crab like monsters from the earlier floors. However he isn't too tough. Just take him out with lots of MP damage (Kokuyousen!) and he'll go down in no time. After the battle Puffy will run off. There's a door behind her which you can't open yet, so go chasing after her. She's towards the south, but look around and collect the treasures first. When you find her, she's being menaced by a monster. Choose to help her (助ける) and you'll end up in another fight. Boss: Arlie アーリ 182900 HP, 3645 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Easy, just like Shubringer. He's slow, and MP damage will kill him sooner than you'd think. After this event Puffy will drop a key. Pick it up and take it to the locked door that was there before, and you'll be in her lab. Here you can give her the Experimental All-Purpose Antidote from the second floor to have her join you as a creator. Her lab also contains the stairs to the sixth floor, so take them down. FLOOR SIX Items in this section: Blackberry, Blueberry x2, Aquaberry, Mugen Kuuhazan, Blacksmith Materials, Very Ripe Berry This floor has the same pattern as the second floor. The switch this time is in the northeast, so take the east door in the first room and activate that. Before you'll have a chance to, though, you'll run into ?Lenneth, a nice cameo from Valkyrie Profile. She'll summon up a boss for you to fight... it's Vox! No, wait, it's not Vox... it's SERIOUS Vox! Boss: Serious Vox 本気ヴォックス 455000 HP, 50000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Encounter Serious Vox, Defeat Serious Vox, Get Item from Serious Vox, Protect Against Serious Vox, Counter Aura Against Serious Vox, Protect Break Against Serious Vox, 20 Hits Against Serious Vox, 50 Hits Against Serious Vox, Taunt Serious Vox 10 Times, Taunt Serious Vox 30 Times, Over 10000 Damage Against Serious Vox, Over 50000 Damage Against Serious Vox He's a buffed up version of Vox. He's got a lot of HP/MP, but his attacks aren't too threatening. Even better, if you have the Reflex his fire breath won't do any damage, so take advantage of this fact. He's a little hard to hit since he's flying, but you should be able to take him down. He also has a ridiculous number of Battle Collection Opportunities so try and take advantage of these. He'll drop a 1/1 Bunny after you defeat him. Proceed forward to hit the switch, then backtrack and head through the north door in the first room for the grid. This grid is significantly harder than the last one, but your goal is still the same - jump down the northwest corner of the grid. Also change the hole so that it's in the first position from the left on the second row down; this'll let you get Fate's Divine Weapon. If you also change the hole so that it's at the third from the left in the top row, you can get the Holy Sword Farwell. FLOOR SEVEN Items in this section: 162000 Fol, Blacksmith Materials, Magical Berry x3, Compounding Materials, Divine Weapon, Mystic Chain, Holy Sword Farwell, Synthesis Materials Head forward from where you dropped. There's only one way to go. Once you reach a the southernmost room, head east to face a boss. Boss: Monjaragora モンジャラゴラ 468000 HP, 47800 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Encounter Monjaragora, Defeat Monjaragora This guy is really, really strong, despite his appearance. Luckily there's only one of them (in later areas these guys appear as regular enemies, and in groups), so if you team up on him and don't let him get off any major attacks, you should be ok. After defeating the boss take the elevator down to the next floor. FLOOR EIGHT Items in this section: Reflex, Synthesis Materials, Mirage Robe, Very Ripe Berry, High Grade Fire Spirit, Star Guard This is the last floor. At the very beginning you'll find an elevator marked escape. This will warp you up to the sixth floor. I highly recommend you take this up and save in Cirlsour and restock, as the coming challenges are a bit rough. Unfortunately it is one-way only, and you'll have to walk back down to the eighth. Thankfully the walls in the grid puzzle on Floor 6 are now gone, making it really easy. This floor is pretty simple. There are four rooms to the north, and each one contains a boss and treasure. After defeating three bosses, I suggest leaving and saving again, as after defeating the fourth boss, the boss of the entire Cave of Trials, Gabriel Celeste, will show up when you try to leave. From left to right, the bosses are: Boss: Tri Chimera トライキメラ 682000 HP, 38500 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None This guy's similar to the giant enemies on the 10th floor of the Spiral Tower. He's really powerful, IF he gets an attack off. Like all other big strong but slow bosses, keep him occupied with multi-hitting attacks and pick at him from long range. I suggest Cliff using Flash Chariot to keep him busy at short range, then Maria and Nel at long range using Gravity Bullet and Kokuyousen respectively. If you keep him busy long enough he shouldn't even be able to damage you. Boss: Guardian Haunt x3 ガーディアンハント 95000 HP, 3720 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: These guys must not count as a "boss" in the game because Enemy Search will show you their stats. They only have slightly over 3000 MP, so take advantage of this and Kokuyousen to death. It should be over really quickly. Boss: Pile Chimera パイルキメラ 662000 HP, 35000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Like all the Chimera type battles, a pretty tough battle. He's tough, he causes status abnormalities, and his tail can hurt you even if you just run into it. The AI has the unfortunate habit of running into his tail and just standing there. Stay far away and be prepared to heal your teammates, and get the heck out of the way if the Chimera charges up for a strong attack. Boss: Shadow Savant x3 シャドーサヴァン 100000 HP, 4000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None They can cast some spells, but like the Guardian Haunts they've got pitifully low MP, and rapid and frequent Kokuyousen will eliminate them faster than you can say "Kokuyousen". Boss: Gabriel Celeste ガブリエセレスタ 1000000 HP, 200000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Gabriel, Defeat Gabriel Taking No Damage, Defeat Gabriel in 1 Minute, Defeat Universe Gabriel, Defeat Universe Gabriel Taking No Damage, Defeat Universe Gabriel in 1 Minute, Defeat FD Gabriel, Defeat FD Gabriel Taking No Damage, Defeat FD Gabriel in 1 Minute, Taunt Gabriel 10 Times, Defeat Gabriel Using Only Counter Aura, Defeat Gabriel Using Only Magic, Defeat Gabriel Using Only Charge, Defeat Gabriel Using Only Strong Attacks, Defeat Gabriel Alone, Defeat Universe Gabriel Alone, Defeat FD Gabriel Alone, Defeat Gabriel with All Male Party, Defeat Gabriel with All Female Party Tough and it shows. I'd say watch out for his move where he jumps into the air and crashes down with his spear, but it's just too quick to avoid. Your only real chance is to keep him too busy to attack you, and you'll want as much help as possible, be it through items, created weapons/armor, and such. When you get his HP down, he'll start using "Brutish Bolt", a move that creates lots of lightning across the field. (Yes, this is the same one as from Valkyrie Profile). Try not to let him use it, but if he pulls it off run as far away from the area as possible. After defeating Gabriel Celeste the doors to the southeast and southewest of the floor will open which you can go to for more treasure. Also, all the monsters have disappeared so feel free to wander through each floor collecting what you might have missed. Floor 4 even gives you a fancy light so you can see! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sphere 211 (AKA The Sphere Corporation) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to get here: After defeating Gabriel Celeste in the Cave of Trials, he'll tell you that "the seal has been broken". What this means is that you can now head to the Sphere Corporation for the second secret dungeon. Head to the Sphere Corporation by first warping back to Gemity by taking the warp point just outside Cirlsour in the Cirlsour Hills. Then take the Gemity transporter station to the Sphere Corporation. Now work your way up to the sixth floor. Whereas previously you could go to any floor from 7-100 via the transporter in the east here, now you'll be able to go to 7-101. You start at floor 101 and work your way up one floor at a time. As the name implies, there are 211 floors, meaning that there are 111 floors total in the "secret" part of the dungeon. Unlike the Cave of Trials, the floors here repeat in pattern. Thus even though there are 111 floors, most of them will have the same pattern. Giving a floor-by-floor walkthrough would thus be pointless, so I'll just give a general description of the floors here and point out unique floors below. The enemies change every ten floors, starting with floor 112. Thus, from 101-111 you'll encounter one set of enemies, then from 112-121 you'll encounter a different set, and so on. Obviously the enemies get MUCH harder as the floors increase in number, and towards the top you'd do well to consider pretty much every fight a boss fight. Running away is certainly key in many situations. Here are the quickest routes to get to the next floor. Keep in mind that this may skip some treasure chests, so if the floor you are on has a unique treasure (see below) you may want to comb the floor to find it. 1. Upon transporting in, check where you are. A. If you are in a room: I. If you can go west, take that door, then go west again, south, then east. II. If you can go east and south, take the south, then south again, then east, east, east, south, west. III. If you can only go east, take that door, then go northeast, south, northeast, west. B. If you are in the center of a cross-shaped hallway: I. If the hallway to the south splits into southeast and southwest, take the southwest, then southwest, southeast, and then east in the next cross's southern part. II. If the hallway to the north has a door going east and west, take the east, then go south, and then loop around east again. III. If the north, west, and south hallways all have doors going west, take the west hallway's west door, then go north, east, then loop around west. IV. If the hallway to the west has a door going southwest, go in. a. If there are enemies here, go north, northwest, northeast, north, west, south, then west. b. If there are no enemies here, go north, north, east, and then east. Although most of the treasure chests on these floors are miscellaneous items like Int Seeds, Con Seeds, Synthesis Materials, and so on, some of the floors contain really unique items. Some of the floors also contain bosses. I will list these below. 063 - Prophecy Book 4 079 - Prophecy Book 6 084 - Prophecy Book 3 101 - Boss: Returned Norton (drops Lilith's Kin) 102 - Gold Grail 106 - Valiant Mail 108 - Southern Cross 111 - Dragon Leather 114 - Iserial Blast, Star Guard 115 - Boss: Enraged Crosel 118 - Seraphic Garb 120 - Dragon Leather 122 - Valiant Mail 126 - Dream Combo, Boss: Shadow Dragon (drops Valor Gauntlet) 127 - Dragon Leather 128 - Valiant Mail 135 - Mugen Souhazan 136 - Seraphic Garb 137 - Boss: Revenge-seeking Shelby (drops Death Bringer) 142 - Seraphic Garb 147 - Boss: Frenzied Biwig (drops Kirakuten Shell) 150 - Max Extension 159 - Boss: Monjara Green (drops Cross Helm) 166 - Star Guard 169 - Fuujin Seiraiha 170 - Boss: Archdemon (drops Dragoon Laser) 179 - Crystal Grail 181 - Boss: Angered Azazel and Furious Beelzebub 187 - Radiation Device 192 - Boss: Reckless Belial (drops Angelic Cape) 200 - Boss: Super Brea (drops Demon Sword Levantine) 202 - Star Fall 205 - Prophecy Book 5 209 - Gremlin Lair 210 - Meteor Swarm, Boss: Lenneth (drops Valkyrie Garb) 211 - Boss: Iseria Queen (drops Lilith's Kin) Now, I'll list a description of the bosses you'll encounter on each floor. Boss: Returned Norton 帰ってきたノートン 500000 HP, 100000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None A buffed up version of the first boss in the game, you'll fight him when you try to leave Floor 101. He's significantly stronger, but if you survived the Cave of Trials he's not much of a threat, and he doesn't really have any new attack patterns. He does have quite a bit of HP and MP though. Boss: Enraged Crosel 激昂のクロセル 700000 HP, 100000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Crosel was tough, but this guy's not that much tougher. Like all the Sphere Corporation bosses he's got a lot of HP and MP to whittle down, but he doesn't have much you have to watch out for, especially if you have fire protection. He's slow so take full advantage of this with ranged attacks. Boss: Shadow Dragon シャドゥドラゴン 1000000 HP, 200000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's like a pumped up version of the Earth Dragon you fought in the Cave of Trials. Faster than Crosel, certainly, but he likewise isn't much to worry about. If you're having trouble with him, simply level up - you'll need it for the coming floors anyway. Boss: Revenge-seeking Shelby 復讐に燃えるシェルビー 1500000 HP, 200000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Your old friend Shelby makes a return. By himself he's not that tough, but he's gained the ability to cause status ailments to you, so beware. Still a hit-and-run, long-range battle strategy works best. Nel's Kokuyousen and Arbel's Mugen Kuuhazan are both excellent. Boss: Frenzied Biwig 狂乱のビウィグ 2000000 HP, 300000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Like Shelby, he comes back from the grave. (Or does he?) Anyway, also like Shelby he's gained the ability to do status ailments, but again his attack patterns aren't that worrisome. Keep him occupied at close range, as range is one advantage he does have. Boss: Monjaragreen モンジャラグリーン 2500000 HP, 400000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's basically Bigfoot from the Cave of Trials with a different color. This is where the battles really start to get tough, so be prepared. His close range whirlwind can take you out fast and he has his ice beam at long range, so if you decide to go for a long range battle make sure you keep moving (easier with things like Kokuyousen or Maria's Gravity Bullet then it is with say, Arbel's Mugen Kuuhazan). Boss: Archdemon アークディーモン 3000000 HP, 500000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None This guy doesn't play fair. Not only can he teleport, but he also has a wicked area attack that can sap your HP and MP quickly. Your only option is to keep him busy, trying with two characters at close range, while a third stays to the periphery and alternates between sniping and healing the other two. Boss: Angered Azazel and Furious Beelzebub ご立腹のアザゼル&憤怒のベルゼベル Azazel: 261030 HP, 11865 MP Beelzebub: 3000000 HP, 500000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Beelzebub is back, this time with Azazel. Maybe it's just me, but Azazel died REALLY quickly from MP damage, so take him out first. Unfortunately Beelzebub is a lot tougher. He's got range with his whip, and can do status ailments. Once he gets low on HP or MP, he'll start sucking HP and MP out of your characters, but you can't really do anything about that, so just keep the pressure on. Boss: Reckless Belial 猛進のベリアル 3000000 HP, 500000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None He's not paired with Beelzebub, thankfully, but his missiles still hurt, a lot. He'll jump up into the air frequently, but he can be knocked out of it, so use anti-air moves as much as possible. Of course, it'd be better if you could stop him from jumping altogether. Boss: Super Brea ブレア超人 4000000 HP, 600000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: None Unlike her Spiral Tower incarnataion, she's really really tough. She's got a near-instant close range radius attack that really hurts. Try the same strategy as with the Archdemon, with two characters occupying and a third on support. Boss: Lenneth レナス 7000000 HP, 700000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Lenneth, Defeat Lenneth Taking No Damage, Defeat Lenneth in 5 Minutes, Defeat Universe Lenneth, Defeat Universe Lenneth Taking No Damage, Defeat Universe Lenneth in 6 Minutes, Defeat FD Lenneth, Defeat FD Lenneth Taking No Damage, Defeat FD Lenneth in 15 Minutes, Defeat Lenneth Using Only Strong Attacks, Defeat Lenneth Using Only Magic, Defeat Lenneth Using Only Charge, Defeat Lenneth Alone, Defeat Universe Lenneth Alone, Defeat FD Lenneth Alone, Defeat Lenneth With an All-Male Party, Defeat Lenneth With an All-Female Party Hey, it's Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile, only in ultra-cute chibified form. Nonetheless she'll tear your heart out and give it back to you if you give her the chance. Her spear attacks are brutal and cover a wide range. Your best bet for the weak one is to hope a Protect -> Counter Aura interrupts her; for the strong ones you'll probably just have to suck it up. Once she gets down in HP, she'll start using Nibelung Valesti. Avoid letting her use it at ALL COSTS. The range on the move is insane, and even with 1/10th damage syntehsized to your weapons, you'll still have to heal frequently. Your suffering isn't without results, though. Lenneth will drop the Valkyrie Garb, the best armor in the game (only Nel, Maria, and Souffle can equip it though), and you'll be able to advance to floor 211, where the Iseria Queen awaits. Boss: Iseria Queen イセリアクイーン 10000000 HP, 2000000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Iseria, Defeat Iseria Taking No Damage, Defeat Iseria in 5 Minutes, Defeat Universe Iseria, Defeat Universe Iseria Taking No Damage, Defeat Universe Iseria in 9 Minutes, Defeat FD Iseria, Defeat FD Iseria Taking No Damage, Defeat FD Iseria in 18 Minutes, Defeat Iseria Using Only Weak Attacks, Defeat Iseria Using Only Counter Aura, Defeat Iseria Using Only Battle Skills, Defeat Iseria Alone, Defeat Universe Iseria Alone, Defeat FD Iseria Alone, Defeat Iseria with an All Male Party, Defeat Iseria With an All Female Party I actually found her a lot easier than Lenneth. For one thing most of her attacks are linear, not circular, so they're a lot easier to avoid. Also, her super technique (Celestial Star) doesn't have nearly the range Nibelung Valesti does, and she can get hit out of Shin no Sabaki easily with a Counter Aura. Nevertheless she does seem to have more HP and MP than Lenneth so it will take you awhile. After defeating Iseria Queen, you're done with Sphere 211. Just like the Cave of Trials, the building will now be cleared of enemies and you can roam around as you wish. (Once you exit though, the monsters will be reset). Iseria also drops a gem, which you can use to find... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Final Secret Boss ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to get here: After defeating Iseria Queen in Sphere 211, she'll drop a gem. The description tells you that "something" has been sealed inside and warns you that it's dangerous, but if you want, you can take it to where the prideful dragon used to rest and set it in the sun's rays. The prideful dragon is Crosel. Take the gem to Urza Lava Cave (by going out of Alias through the Becquerel Mountain Path, Bar Mountains, and then Bar Ruins) and then head to Crosel's lair in the back. Make sure you save your game in the Bar Ruins. Here you'll have the choice on whether or not to put the gem into the light. If you do, the final secret boss of the game, Freya, appears. You can fight her and she'll drop the Jinki: Ether Frozen (a very nice weapon for Sophia). You can actually fight her as many times as you wish simply by exiting and reentering the room and putting the gem in the right place again. Boss: Freya フレイ 20000000 HP, 3000000 MP Battle Collection Opportunities: Defeat Freya, Defeat Freya Taking No Damage, Defeat Freya in 15 Minutes, Defeat Universe Freya, Defeat Universe Freya Taking No Damage, Defeat Universe Freya in 20 Minutes, Defeat FD Freya, Defeat FD Freya Taking No Damage, Defeat FD Freya in 50 Minutes, Defeat Freya Using Only Weak Attacks, Defeat Freya Using Only Battle Skills, Defeat Freya Alone, Defeat Universe Freya Alone, Defeat FD Freya Alone, Defeat Freya with an All-Male Party, Defeat Freya With an All-Female Party Wow. She's tough tough tough. (But see below for an easy way to beat her.) Unlike other bosses, she uses her special (Ether Strike) straight off from the bat, and it hurts, a lot. Fortunately it's rather small in range (at least compared to Nibelung Valesti), so if you have Bunny Shoes equipped you should be able to avoid it most of the time. The initial wave can also be Counter Aura'ed, and if you have your CA set to something that dizzies, it'll interrupt the whole move, thankfully. Otherwise, just try to pressure Freya from all directions. It's a lot harder to knock her out of her moves than anybody else, so anything you have to help, use it. This it the final final final battle after all. After defeating Freya, she'll drop the Divine Weapon: Ether Frozen, a great weapon for Sophia. (Too bad you couldn't get it earlier!) You can come back and fight Freya as many times as you want, though you get nothing new for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRICKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here are some miscellaneous tricks and/or glitches in the game. "Get Item" Trick "Get Item" is a battle skill, learned from a written book (via Item Creation), that forces opponents to drop items if you down them. The gist of this is that you can get multiple copies of a "rare" item using this. For instance, Lenneth drops the Valkyrie Garb, the best armor in the game. If you want three Valkyrie Garbs (since Nel, Maria, and Souffle all can equip it), all you have to do is get Get Item to activate twice. You can raise the probability of downing the opponent by using a skill that hits many many times, like Gravity Bullet, and overlapping with another skills that knocks down. Near-Instant Kill Trick This is a glitch in the system. It involves the "Gutsy Bunny" ド根性バーニィ item that you get from Vanilla. This item makes weak enemies stronger, basically by doubling their HP and MP. However, certain bosses, such as Freya and Iseria and Lenneth, have HP and MP values so high, that equipping the Gutsy Bunny messes them up. Thus, if you go into a battle with them with the Gutsy Bunny equipped, then immediately deequip it, their MP drops to 99,999 MP, which is certainly easy enough to deal with a high-level Kokuyousen, Aerial Raid, or Radiation Device. Near-Invincibility Trick This is a glitch in the system. Unlike the Near-Instant Kill Trick, this glitch seems to have been fixed in the newest releases of SO3. The trick concerns the accessories "Shield Emblem", "Resist Emblem", and "Reflect Emblem". All of these accessories reduce damage by quite a bit, but have a chance of breaking. The trick involves refining the Shield Emblem until it has "Physical Damage reduced to 1/10th, 15% chance of breaking" and refining the Reflect Emblem until it has "Magical Damage absorbed, 20% chance of breaking" and then Synthesizing them to your weapons. The glitch is that despite your weapon will never break despite having the chances of breaking on them. Thus, with that weapon equipped you will never take more than 1/10th the possible damage from any enemy. Using this in conjunction with Guardless makes your characters nigh-invincible. Alternate Near-Invincibility Trick Not nearly as powerful as the Emblem tricks, this trick is not a glitch, and therefore is still present in the new releases. It involves the Red and Green talismans, which have a percent chance of reducing HP and MP damage to 0. Refining them to the highest level, you can get a 30% chance of nullifying damage per attack; by synthesizing multiple ones of these to your weapon you can have increased chances. They don't stack fully (so two 30%'s does not mean 60%) but it's still fairly powerful. Frozen Trick Freezing an enemy and then hitting them with a physical attack means instant death. This trick works on a lot more enemies than you'd think; even enemies in the final dungeons can be frozen. The easiest way to freeze enemies is to equip the Bunny Trophies from the Battle Arena or the Bunny Races at Gemity; they both add Freeze attack to your attacks. However, these trophies are pretty hard to get. Other skills that freeze are Nel's Touga, Souffle's Frozen Dagger, and Sophia's Ice Needle and Deep Freeze. Touga is comparatively fast, making it one of the best skills in the game. Stun Bomb Interrupt Many bombs that you can create through Item Creation have the effect of dizzying the opponent. This is very powerful as it can interrupt an opponent's attack. In the case of the secret bosses, for instance, if you see a Nibelung Valesti from Lenneth coming, you can use a Stun Bomb and knock her out of the animation, thus stopping the move. This can help save your life, though make sure you have plenty of bombs on hand. 5. HINTS/FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS This section is for miscellaneous tips for SO3, as well as for answering some common questions. There are spoilers in this section so be warned. Q. How many Factors (in Item Creation) can an item have? A. Eight. Q. How many endings are there to this game? A. There are multiple endings. The exact number is nine. Basically you can have all your characters split up, or have Fate paired with any of the other 7 characters, or even pair Fate up with Mirage. To get these endings you'll have to make good use of the Private Actions... (see my Private Actions FAQ for details). Q. How come all of the characters' "ultimate weapons" suck? A. The characters' ultimate weapons, which you'll find in the Sphere Corporation (past Floor 101), are the strongest weapons in the game. However they have a plethora of negative effects, such as reduced EXP or DEF, high chances of breaking, and so on. This is where Item Creation comes in to save the day. Refining each weapon (under Blacksmith, or in Maria's case Machinery) can erase most of the negative effect, and each weapon also has ATK +1000 built in as a bonus, which refining can duplicate. (Thus you can get multiple ATK +1000s on each weapon just by continually refining it). Q. What is the best possible weapon I can make? A. You're limited to eight slots, so make the best of them. Without a doubt one thing you'll need is ATK +1000, which can either be obtained by getting the Hidensho (from the Rank S Team Battle in the Arena at Gemity) and Synthesizing it to a weapon, or by collecting each character's ultimate weapon in the Sphere Corporation, which all have ATK +1000 built in. Once ATK +1000 is on your weapon, refining the weapon usually can cause further ATK +1000s to show up, thus increasing the power of the weapon greatly. However remember that you only have eight slots to work with, so don't burn them all on ATK +1000s. Another Factor you'll want to have is the "ATK and DEF +30%", which can be put on by creating Battle Boots, refining them, and then Synthesizing them to the weapon. Other Factors you might want to add (from here on it's really a matter of preference) include "Attacks x3" (Synthesized from the Lilith's Kin) or "Emits Light when Attacking" (Synthesized from the High Grade Star Spirit). See the "Invincibility Tricks" above for more suggestions. Q. I'm running out of Materials for Item Creation. Help! A. Santa, on Floor 3 in the Cave of Trials (after taking the elevator), can sell all of the Materials except for Synthesis to you. Synthesis Materials can be gotten in numerous numerous chests throughout the Sphere Corporation and the Cave of Trials. Some of the enemies in the Spiral Tower also drop Synthesis Materials. Q. I can't win the Bunny Races in Gemity. What do I do? A. Unfortunately the Bunny Races are completely random. You'll just have to button mash and hope things turn out your way... Q. How is this game related to Star Ocean/Star Ocean Second Story? A. Not very related. Though the games take place within the same universe (and thus is more related than each of the Final Fantasies are to each other) the timeline is approximately 400 years after SO2, and the connections between them are very few indeed. There aren't any characters in common (though some of the characters are similar "in spirit") and basically SO3 stands alone. Q. So there are no cameos and no links? A. There are links, but not from where you'd expect them. Valkyrie Profile, tri-Ace's most recent game prior to SO3, has numerous references in the game. Two of the secret bosses, Lenneth and Freya, were playable characters in VP. Slightly more hidden is the fact that Roger's "friends" in Sir Felious are named after Rucio (Rucio was the US name for Lucian), Lezard, and Belion. (For those of you who can't remember Belion in VP, he was the orc-like creature that Lezard commanded.) Q. I've heard some of these voices before. Where? A. The voice actors and actresses in the Japanese version are actually pretty big names in anime and other games. Fate is voiced by Hoshi Souichirou, known for his work as the leads in Scryed and Onegai Teacher. Sophia/Amina is Enomoto Atsuko, known for being Yukino in KareKano. Nel is Asakawa Yuu, who also played a plethora of badass roles including Motoko in Love Hina, Priss Asagiri in Bubblegum Crisis 2040, and Jura Basil Elden in Vandread, among others. Kurata Masayo, who plays Souffle, is also a Love Hina cast member (as Shinobu). Maria Traitor is voiced by Neya Michiko, who was in Vandread (as Barnette) but is more well-known for her work in other video games, such as her role as Emeralda in Xenogears and as Sophitia in the Soul Calibur series. The cameos from Valkyrie Profile retain their old voice actresses, so Lenneth is still done by Touma Yumi (who's also done a number of other famous anime and game roles, too many to list, though in games notably she's been Lei Fang in the Dead or Alive series, Elly in Xenogears, Nephilim in Xenosaga, and Ivy in Soul Calibur) and Freya is still done by Kawamura Maria (who Slayer fans may recognize as the voice of Naga). However, Gabriel Celeste and Iseria Queen seem to have new voice actors. 6. CREDITS Thanks go to: Everyone who told me how to use Arbel's Mugen battle skills. tri-Ace and Enix for the best RPG I have ever played. This FAQ Copyright 2003 to Edward Chang. Redistribution in any form, including reprinting in electronic or print media, without express permission of the author is strictly forbidden.