Lords of Thunder(TCD) - Walkthrough Version 1.2 Copyright May/27/2008 by Apathy000 Update: February 15, 2009 savage_clown@hotmail.com Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Turbo CD VS Sega CD Version III. Game Story IV. Options V. Basic Controls VI. On the Difficulties VII. Pickups VIII. On Taking Damage IX. Shop X. Armors XI. General Strategies XII. Dezant XIII. Auzal XIV. Llamarada XV. Bosque XVI. Helado XVII. Cielom XVIII. Dark Tower XIX. Final Boss XX. Music XXI. No Death Run Video XXII. Codes / Cheats XXIII. Copyright I. Introduction Lords of Thunder is the possibly best shooter I have ever played. You can maneuver a knight that flies and shoots stuff and can walk on the ground. The music is incredible and really makes playing the game more exciting than it already is. After five minutes I was hooked with this game. You will most likely not be satisfied with Normal and will need to play it on harder difficulties. The PC Engine CD version has the best difficulty increase, because Super truly is a satisfying difficulty. The strategy elements when selecting armor, and buying from the shop can nearly guarantee your victory or destroy any chance you have. If you spend all your money before the hardest levels there is almost no chance of defeating them. Keep in mind that I really making this for the TURBO CD version, since the SEGA CD version is a shit game in comparion. However you can use this for the Sega CD version as well, since anything you find in the Sega CD version is done in Turbo CD version. I really hope you enjoy this game. I put the first six levels in their order of difficulty. II. Turbo CD VS Sega CD Version I recently got to play the Sega CD version, and found it to be FAR inferior to the Turbo CD version. Here is the list of things that were different. 1) Sega CD version has much worse graphics, and has a really crappy looking palette for most of the common enemies. 2) ALL the sounds are weaker on Sega CD. Maybe the Turbo CD has better sound than the Genesis? 3) Unlike the Turbo CD version, here when you die on a boss, instead of restarting on a boss you have to do the level over again. 4) No revenge shots in the Sega CD version. 5) In the Sega CD version there are less enemies. I mean entire waves of enemies are missing. Lots of interestingly placed enemies are just not there. Enemy's are not as aggressive. The only one that is more aggressive than in the Turbo version is the little flying mechanical bird. 6) In the Sega CD version when you are hit you cannot move, and it's really annoying. They may also have increased the time until you recover, and it feels sloppy and is more frustrating to play the game. 7) In the Sega CD version the shop lady says something and she has the best example of sound in the game. The only sound I would want to listen to in this version. 8) In the Sega CD the bosses do not have as sophisticated attacks and they have less health. 9) Cielom's boss has a lot more health it seems than in the Turbo CD verion. 10) Sega CD version has almost no flashing on the enemies to show that they are dying. It also has less interesting deaths. 11) Bosses have almost no build up in the Sega CD version, they just appear and start firing. 12) The ending is worse in the Sega CD version. I have no IDEA what went wrong here in the release of this game to the Sega CD console. Lords of Thunder took two years to get to Sega CD and when they released it, it seems like they pumped it full of date-rape drug and took a few turns with it before releasing it. The only thing that is an improvement in this game over the Turbo CD release is that the shop keeper has a sexy voice. That is it. EVERYTHING else is better in the Turbo CD version! Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Difficulty, and Replay value on higher difficulties! Hell, even the PLOT is better! There is no possible reason to play the Sega CD verion over the Turbo CD. The Sega CD version is trash comparatively. III. Game Story The little man, Lord Landis, is supposed to fight and defeat the devil Zaggart and his minions that are trying to resurrect him. IV. Options Difficulty - You can set it to Normal, Hard, or Super. Music - listen to music tracks Sound Effects - listen to sound effects *There are two known cheats regarding this Option screen. These cheats work on PC-Engine CD, but are untested on the Sega-CD. Cheat: 10,000 Crystals At the Configuration screen, put the level on Super, the music to 02, and the sound to 02. Finally, hold Select and press Button I. Cheat: Fight the Bosses At the Configuration screen, put the level on Hard, the music to 01, and the sound to 01. Now hold down Select and press Button I. The exit selection will change to Boss. You may now change your settings to anything you want. V. Basic Controls 1) You can fire constantly if you hold the fire button. 2) The man moves in any direction of the d-pad you press. 3) One button is to fire and the other is to use a Bomb. 4) Press Run(AKA Select AKA Start) to pause the game. VI. On the Difficulties I do have one thing to say about the difficulties when comparing the Sega CD and PC Engine CD versions. When the game was released for the Sega CD they decided to dumb down the difficulty. Super difficulty on the Sega CD is like Hard on the PC Engine CD, although they really increased the amount of bullets the mechanical looking birds fire on the Sega CD version. Normal Normal is an easy and fun difficulty for everyone. It's is not completely easy but it is not overly hard. When I beat it I was enthralled with the game. Enemies do not shoot that much, but defeating the bosses when first meeting them was a challenge. Hard Hard really ups the ante. Enemies shoot fairly rapidly and there are more of them trying to kill you. Some of the bosses get new attacks and each of them gets upgraded attacks. A fairly challenging difficulty but still beatable without getting too frustrated. Super Super difficulty is very difficult. After a few hours of playing it I was wondering whether I could actually beat it. Enemies shoot more and as an added bonus after they die they have revenge shots from the grave. So if you have 20 enemies on screen and each of them fires once you got 20 shots coming at you. Kill them all and if each of them only shoots one revenge shot at you, that is 40 shots on screen. With larger enemies they will fire even more revenge shots after their death. Revenge shots from dead enemies also makes it harder to collect the money you need to buy health, powerups, elixirs, and shields. Health and powerups are not dropped by as many enemies on Super difficulty. Bosses get another upgrade on top of their difficult levels. It's bad enough that you will probably only get to the boss with a few bars of health, but that they are tougher than before does not help things. Well I am not familiar with the skill levels of others but this took me about two or three times longer to defeat than Hard. I beat Hard in a day, and Super took me about 2 days. This is recommended for those who really like this game (me) or are just awesome at shooters. VII. Pickups Blue Powerup - This will give you 1 bars for power Red Powerup - This will give you 5 bars of power Heart - This will give you 3 bars of life. On Super, Hearts will not drop from most enemies they used to. Ex: In Dezant a falling spire will give you a heart on normal. On Super it does not. Blue Jewel - 5 money Red Jewel - 25 money VIII. On Taking Damage Knowing what enemies damage you the most is important. You can take 1 or 2 damage per hit, and you have 14 bars for Power and Health. You lose 2 bars of health for these attacks. 1) Touching a tough enemy. 2) Getting hit by fire. 3) Getting hot by an obstacle such as a spiked ball, spikes. 4) And some other enemy attacks will take 2 bars. You lose 1 bar of health for the following 1) Touching a weak enemy. 2) Getting hit by a regular shot or a revenge shot after their death. 3) There is some oddness with if your character is pushed out of the screen. You can either get hit (the game acts like you took a hit), or you die. If your character cannot just take the hit and move slightly back into the level he will die. At almost the last section of Llamarada a wall abruptly moves forward and can trap you against the far side of the screen and you will die. Or you will just be hit and you can continue the level. ***If you got stuck in a corner and you MUST take a hit, make sure to get hit by a weaker attack.*** IX. Shop The shop is the most important place in the game. You can buy continues (AKA lives), elixirs, health, bombs, power, and shields. Here are the list of stuff you can buy and their cost. 2 Hearts - 100 5 Hearts - 200 Max Hearts - 500 - most times it is better to buy 2, 5 heart upgrades instead of this. 1 Hit Shield - 200 - protects against one hit 2 Hit Shield - 500 - protects against two hits 3 Hit Shield - 1500 - protects against three hits Blue Power - 300 - 3 extra bars for Power Red Power - 600 - 8 extra bars for Power Bomb - 100 - Erases shots that touch it, and deals heavy damage. Extremely important. Elixir - 2000 - Best item in the game. When you lose all your health it will restore it to full. Continue (AKA extra life) - 1500 X. Armors Each Armor has 3 levels of power. As the level increases the attack changes and becomes more powerful. Each Armor also has their own unique bomb. Using an armor is more a matter of choice of what kind of style you wish to play as at the lower difficulties. As the difficulty increases you may find that a particular seems to be more suited for a specific level. At the Normal difficulty you can, without much difficulty, go through every level in the game with it. A. Fire Armor - Special Quality(s) - Strength - Good Range Fire Armor is the cheapest armor in terms of power. It has by far the best level 1 attack out of any of the armors. The level 1 attack shoots forward and up and down at an angle. It is not as strong as the Earth Armor at level 1, but the range is by far better. Level 2 armor is stronger than any other armor but Earth, but it is the second worst level 2 (Wind Armor has the worst level 2), because it only shoots forwards at a slow rate of fire. However Fire Armor's level 2 does have the quality of piercing through and can hits multiple enemies through obstacles which is definitely a plus. Fire Armor's level 3 is very strong (possibly as strong as level 3 Earth Armor), however it is the worst level 3 in the game. The range is poor and it will not constantly hit the enemy you want it to because the two flames it shoots out oscillates between forward and up/down. The Bomb is probably the best to use on any boss if you need to hit the boss and at the same time not get hit. A fire dragon comes out and will circle around the available weak spot and will erase any shots coming at you. It lasts almost 5 seconds which also makes it the longest lasting bomb. Every armor has a forward shot that is not dependent on the level or armor. The only armor that can shoot backward is the Water Armor at level 3. Pros Level 1 - Range Level 2 - Strength / Full-Ranged Piercing Level 3 - Strength / Medium Range Piercing / Vertical protection Cons Level 1 - Lacks Strength / Lacks Piercing Level 2 - No vertical or diagonal protection. Level 3 - Lacks Range All levels - no backward protection B. Earth Armor - Special Quality(s) - Super Strength This armor is my personal favorite, but it is also the hardest armor to use not surprisingly. It is by far the strongest armor at all levels. The reason why it is the hardest to use is that the range is extremely poor. It has the worst defense of any armor. The Bomb is very strong but you cannot rely on it to save you from getting hit. The Bomb makes large rocks fall from the sky in two waves that have gaps in between them. It is the slowest Bomb, but it covers the most area and it is the strongest out of any armor. Level 1 has a fire-bomb that falls down slightly forward of Landis and is very strong. The fire-bombs also have a slight vertical piercing. Level 2 adds a fire-bomb that flies upward slightly forward of Landis and is equally as strong as the first one. Level 2 is truly a large improvement. Now you have some upward coverage where before you had none. Level 3 improves the fire bombs by giving them a medium length horizontal flame that can hit multiple enemies and is piercing. Level 3 makes getting hit with Earth Armor less likely because it gives it some more range. Pros Level 1 - Strength / Slight Range Piercing Level 2 - Strength / Slight Range Piercing Level 3 - Strength / Medium Range Piercing / Slight Backward protection Cons Level 1 - Lacks Range - No upward or diagonal or backward protection/Lacks Piercing Level 2 - Lacks Range - No diagonal or backward protection/Lacks Piercing Level 3 - Lacks Range / Lacks Full-Ranged Piercing C. Wind Armor - Special Quality(s) - Full-Ranged Piercing Wind Armor has the weakest first two levels in the game. However, all of its attacks are piercing. I do not like using this armor, because it is only really effective at level 3. The bomb is the best at saving you from getting hit. A column of thunder comes straight down upon around you. The attack is not that great, but it is acceptable. Level 1 is the weakest piercing attack in the game. It only shoots forward at a slow rate and it can only kill one enemy per shot. Worst level 1 in the game. Level 2 however is much better. Level 2 has a fast forward rate of fire and it can kill multiple enemies per shot. Level 3 Wind Armor is my second favorite, right behind Earth Armor. Level 3 has a fast rate of fire and adds two piercing diagonal shots that also give you a little horizontal protection. Very nice for levels with a lot of enemies lining up with obstacles in the way. Pros Level 1 - Full-Ranged Piercing Level 2 - Strength / Slight Range Piercing Level 3 - Strength / Medium Range Piercing / Slight Backward protection Cons Level 1 - Lacks Strength/No backward protection, and little horizontal protection / Only hits once per shot Level 2 - Lacks Strength/No backward protection or horizontal protection Level 3 - No backward protection and little horizontal protection All levels - no backward protection D. Water Armor - Special Quality(s) - Shoots Backward and Forward at Level 3 - Semi-Piercing The favorite of those new to Lords of Thunder. It is my least favorite armor. The first reason is that it is only really effective when it is level 3. The second reason is that it is not as strong as the other armors at higher levels. The third resaon is that you can lose level 3 easily by getting hit on higher difficulties. The fourth reason is that the Bomb. It has a weak attack and short range (but it will erase and damage opponents around you). The fifth reason is that is has no piercing qualities. However, when playing through normal you will not get hit much (which takes away Power bars), money is plentiful to buy back your level 3, and enemies are not that tough. For normal I recommend this armor. For higher difficulties you will probably not use it that much. Water can go through most obstacles, but cannot pierce through spiked balls or enemies. Level 1 has some horizontal protection, because the shots start above and below you before they move forward. Level 2 increases the size of the shots and makes them move in waves that cover most of the forward screen. Level 3 mirrors the two shots that shoot in front of you to shoot behind you. Level 3 is extremely effective at wiping out weak enemies, but it is easy to lose. Pros Level 1 - Slight vertical protection / Stronger than Wind Armor at level 1 / Semi-Piercing Level 2 - Range / Semi-Piercing Level 3 - Super Range - forward and backward protection / Semi-Piercing Cons Level 1 - Lacks Strength / No backward protection / Lacks Piercing Level 2 - Lacks Strength / No backward protection / Lacks Piercing Level 3 - Lacks Strength / Lacks Piercing XI. General Strategies 1) Get hit as little as possible. 2) If you must get hit, get hit by something that will only take 1 bar of health. 3) Experiment with armors. Despite what I recommend you may find something more to your taste. 4) Practice the bosses until you can consistently kill them by getting hit only once or not at all. Getting hit once is acceptable. 5) Practice tricky parts in the levels until you can go through them easily. 6) Be miserly! Conserve your money and use it wisely. 7) Move in small jerks when a lot of shots are being fired at you to avoid having shots all over the place. 8) The hitbox for Landis does not include much of his feet or back. Its better to dodge above shots then below. 9) Destroying an entire wave of enemies will make the last one drop a Blue Powerup(gives only 1 bar to Power) or a Red Jewel). XII. Dezant Level Difficulty - ** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor Fire Armor is my recommendation for this level. This is the easiest level in the game so you will not find many tough enemies trying to slam themselves into you. There are tough guys but they can be avoided or killed. The only really tough guy in this level is the armadillo when you go underground. Earth Armor will kill him quite quickly but with Earth Armor's limited range the level is more difficult. A. Sand This is the first section of the level. Kill all the flying birds in a wave to get a one bar power-up or red jewel from the last one you kill. The mechs flying around are dangerous. They shoot a fast lightly colored wave shot across the screen so try to either kill them before they shoot or do not go across from them. Mechs can also shoot a string of shot at you so watch out. The antlions that pop up from the sand are easy to slash to death. A dragon monster will come rushing towards you at one point with a mech on its back. Go above it and move with it so that you can kill the mech quickly before shots fill the screen. Then keep Landis above the dragon's head and fire until it dies. A sand mage will appear in the upper right corner and fire a horizontal shot. Unless you have some vertical or backward capability just leave it alone as it will disappear quickly. Birds will be flying towards you and they are easy prey. More mechs and antlions and then you have passed this part. B. Cave This is kind of difficult to not get hit here at all. The falling spires and birds shooting at you will restrict your movement, and if its on super it may be a good idea to not kill a lot of enemies. Otherwise their revenge shots will most likely hit you at some point. When you see the ground the armadillo will fall from above on the right side of the screen so be on the left side. This is the second hardest miniboss in the game (the hardest is found in the Dark Tower). He will be severely restricting your area by shooting homing spikes and by jumping in to the air and spinning around and trying to ram you. He will try to ram your current position so if you move close to it before it starts moving you can move backwards quickly to avoid it. If you bomb the armadillo once while dodging and firing and it will not be a problem. The Fire Armor's bomb will protect you from shots while damaging the enemy. It is a good idea to kill the armadillo because it will drop money, health, and a red power-up. The rest of the cave is fairly hard. Falling sand and exploding rocks will be pushing you around the screen and into enemies and their enemy bullets. Not as well planned out to severely reduce your health as in Helado's cave, but still a pain. There are mages that shoot fire rings at you and the sand mages that fire horizontal shots. The flying birds are still as commonplace as ever. There are jumping centipedes that give you a nice amount of money and a red jewel or a powerup. As you are leaving the cave there are mechs and birds flying around shooting at you. Falling rocks and spires can become a real problem if you do not stay near the bottom to dodge when appropriate. And then you come to the last section of the level before the boss. C. Castle This part is short, but filled with money and enemies. Birds and scorpion enemies that cling to the ceiling immediately attack as you enter the castle. A large jumping enemy with a sword will greet you as well. Do not get to close to because he jumps forward and shoots a large wave forward. That is his only move so just avoid that. The birds and falling spires will continue to harass you alongside mechs. There are walls that you have to slash to destroy that give you a very generous amount of money. Two sand mages will appear to the right and can be easily killed. And after that it is finally time for the boss. D. Dezant Boss Boss Difficulty - * to *** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor This boss is the most consistently easy boss in the game. Makes sense since Dezant is the easiest level of any difficulty. The only way you will die on this guy is if you are already heavily damaged from the level. Lvl 1 or Lvl 3 Fire Armor / Lvl 2 or Lvl 3 Earth Armor / Lvl 3 Wind Armor / Lvl 2 or Lvl 3 Water Armor With the armor you can immediately start slashing at the blue jewel on its chest. The beak on the bottom will shoot at you. If you move back and then down you can easily avoid it. Then you can stay near the back across from the beak and fire at an angle at the blue jewel. This is the easiest way to hit it, and it makes it so you do not have to deal with its fire breath attack and sword attacks. When it corners you against the wall use a bomb to escape from damage when it fires at you and sword slash the jewel. If it lasts this long it should be dead after this. Other Armors at different levels You will have a harder time of defeating the boss with anything else. The boss has a lot of forward attacks and you will have to get across from the jewel to hit it. Just bomb the thing to death and keep hitting it and hopefully you will not get hit too much. XIII. Auzal Level Difficulty - ** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor, Earth Armor If you have Fire Armor and especially Fire Armor at level 2 you can destroy this level. Piercing full range attacks make this a piece of cake. It has only a few enemies that come from behind in the last section that are difficult to avoid. A. River There are dragon boats, water dragons, and mechs in this section. By far the most dangerous are the water dragons. The water dragons will attempt to ram you with its head first and then spew fire. If you are playing on super you should destroy it when its head far from you, because the revenge shots are very hard to dodge. The dragon boats rush you from the bottom, but if you to the left and a little up you are safe being rammed and its fireballs. There are units that fly up on its back, but is you stay in front you will be safe from these. The mechs with their flying around and firing are the largest problem in this section. After you are past most of the enemies a waterfall will appear. Do not rush into the waterfall. Enemies come out of the waterfall quickly. Kill them all then enter when the waterfall when enemies no longer come. B. Underwater Cave If you have the forward piercing moves of an armor than you are as good as gold. Water Armor at level 3 would be the ideal for this part because lots of stuff come from behind and it would allow you to relax more. But as I have stated before keeping the Water Armor at level 3 when you lose 3 bars of a power-up per hit is difficult. Not to mention it is horrible for the mini- boss near the castle and boss. Once you pass through the waterfall mechs will come and odd frog monsters that spit fireballs up into the air that then fall. Both are not much of problem. A frog will sneak on screen from the left and is unkillable unless you have vertical or backward shots. You will start to descend further into the cave where squid fly up towards you. Near the end a small worm tries to ram you, so move quickly to kill it. Now you get to fight another mini- boss. This is possibility the easiest of the mini-bosses. Stay far to the left across from it and keep firing. You will only need to move up and down to dodge its shots. The water bubbles it shoots from its tail are destroyed by your shots. It will die shortly and leave lots of powerups and money. The level starts moving forward very quickly. You need to bust your ass forward, or you will end up die or with much less health. Octopus come from behind shooting across screen and leave bubbles that need to be destroyed if you wish to move through them. Large stationary bubbles will block your pass so jam your character into it or past it if possible. You can die if you are stuck on the left side of the screen by bubbles or the land that appears in the middle so do not even be there. Also be wary of the small worms that try to ram you. When the screen starts to slow down you need to get in the bottom right section and kill the squid that are above and below the opening for you to exit the cave. Worms and other squid creatures will come from behind. You can dodge them by going to the right of the screen and up out of the water. C. Castle After the squid a couple of small worms will attack you. An interesting little man with a hammer starts smashing the ground creating holes. The water drains away after the first hole. After he appears on screen kill him for the health he drops. Then you fight another little mini- boss, a mech on a strange creature that shoots out spikes and tries to smash you with its arm. You can go above the area where he will appear and kill off the rider. Then hover over its head and shoot to kill it. If you are slick you can pull it off without getting hit once which is pretty satisfying. The castle interior is sparse with enemies and obstacles. There are only a couple of spiked balls, mechs, and little Aztec looking guys that slowly climb stairs. The Aztecs are the most dangerous enemy here so make sure to kill them. Otherwise they fire homing fireballs at you. If you let them keep firing the fireballs will take massive damage from you. D. Auzal Boss Boss Difficulty ** to **** Definitely one of the harder bosses. It shoots out an annoying homing fireball with other normal shots, and it also has these odd objects that come at you when it is going back underwater. The only time you can hurt it is to hit its mouth when it opens. The water blades it shoots out can be dodged by being on the far side of the screen and moving below them. The bad thing about that maneuver is that the homing fireball will be on your tail, and the boss will try to kill you by shooting a fireball into the water that causes water geysers. The best thing to do is to take this boss up close and personal and use bombs whenever it opens its mouth. Dodge as few things as possible and keep shooting or slashing its face. It will die quickly with this method. Earth Armor With Earth Armor you can quickly destroy this boss. You bomb it from above as it comes out of the water. Then you navigate to its head when its fully out and use a Bomb the second you see it start to open its mouth. If you are uncomfortable with possibly taking a take a hit, then just move backwards and shoot it. Move back near it and repeat. If you do not kill it fast enough object will come from the water vertically and try to smack you. Be wary of them as each hit will take 2 bars of health from you. It will eventually resurface and then repeat what you did before and it should die in no time. Fire Armor The strategy is the same as above, but there is a fine trick with the bomb of this armor that is worth explaining. If you fire it just as its mouth is open you can get it to rotate in place on the enemy boss's body. This will remove most of the shots and allow you to keep slashing it. Any Other Armor Modify the above strategy a little. XIV. Llamarada Level Difficulty - *** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor This level is not one of the toughest, but it is very near that thin line from becoming a level like Bosque. The difference between this and Bosque is that the enemies are more sparsely arranged here. The boss is no joke, and is one of the toughest in the game. I recommend a ranged armor, but keeping a nicely upgraded armor is hard, so just pick the Fire Armor. Fire Armor has nice range at level 1, and has a good bomb. Armors that have short range and no up cover will make your life harder than it needs to be. After you go a little bit inside the volcano there will be falling rocks all over the place until you get inside the castle. A. Volcano Surface The first part of this is fairly easy. Stay up away from the tortoise and foxes that appear below and shoot the birds down as they appear. The birds do little cartwheels so if you stay in one area and shoot you should be able to kill them all. The second part is where you will most likely get hit a few times. As you start to ascend the volcano, mages will appear behind you and fire shots forward. They start to appear from around the middle of the screen and gradually go down. What makes this a bit difficult is that there are rocks falling down. Some are large rocks that give you a powerup, and some are small ones that give you a blue jewel. A little worm will appear from the bottom of the screen after you destroy or avoid the mages. Some mechs come flying in the middle of all these flying rocks, and it is a good idea to destroy them quickly. Then fireballs come from the right and when they are destroyed they burst into four little fireballs that shoot in the four diagonal directions. Destroy these fireballs by hitting them directly across from them. As a last resort a mage and some birds will try to keep you from entering the volcano. B. Inside Volcano After the mage and the birds the miniboss will appear. He is a large pod with two arms. The arm shoot out little homing fireballs and the center shoots out a small blue fireball. While you fight it mages appear from behind you and fire horizontal shots. If you destroy this mini-boss too quickly you will be unable to get the heart, red powerup, or money it drops. This is extremely annoying. I recommend two ways to deal with this boss. The first is to continually slash it as it appears and then keep hitting it until it dies. This way is good but you will probably take a hit. The other way to do it is to wait until the mages appear and then use a bomb to take it out. Then maybe hit it a little if it does not die. The second way is a very good way to deal with it, but you lose out on using a third bomb on the boss. After the mini-boss birds will come from behind you and in front of you in waves. The revenge shots after they die disappear if they hit into a wall so use the level to your advantage. The scorpions and mages can be a pain if you fail to kill them quickly. After that little stuff the ceiling rises away and rocks continually fall. Stay away from the bottom since foxes jump on screen and spray fire. Also stay away from the upper left corner since a worm appears from there. Destroy the mechs as soon as they appear. You will want to concentrate on dodging the rocks. C. Castle Inside the Volcano The first part of this is the hardest in my opinion. Scorpions, mechs and firebirds constantly move forward trying to push you back and corner you. Do not let them. The enemies are in the upper, middle, and bottom positions. I find the level 1 Fire Armor ideal for this, since its shots go to those points. Any other armor at a higher level than 1 should do fine here. Firebirds fly from behind you when you come to the section with lava streams moving all over the place. The streams move to another opening in the floor or ceiling. Stay in between these little openings and dash to the next safe spot as they appear. The level will stop giving you a lot of space to move around rather abruptly. You will notice a scorpion and a small ax thrower in the first small opening. As you go through this part try to get as far as you can each time the sections open up. The level closes and will trap you in tiny boxes, but will not kill try to kill you in this fashion until the end. At the end there is a flame thrower guy who needs to be killed as soon as possible. The bottom section of the level slams left and will kill you if were on the bottom. When it moves left the flame thrower will move left as well and can take a lot of damage. The final is simple. Avoid the worms that appear, and the spiked balls that fall from the ceiling and you get the pleasure of fighting the boss. D. Llamarada Boss Boss Difficulty - *** to **** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor, Earth Armor He is possibly the toughest boss in the game. All his moves take two bars of health from you. As the fight progresses he becomes harder and harder to kill. If you do not kill him before he turns into two invincible balls that bounce around the screen for the second time you will most likely die. After the second ball transformation he will not give you more than a second or two damage him. He will use his fireball move and quickly transform into the balls and bounce around the screen. Fire Armor To kill him I suggest Fire Armor because with it you can kill him without getting hit with a reasonable amount of practice. Keep slashing him as he appears and he will move to the upper right corner. When he touches the top of the screen use a bomb and the dragon will circle around him. This will erase all shots he will fire at you. Sometimes the dragon will only stay on him a short time, but it will still do a lot of damage. Then he will transform into the invincible balls and bounce around. He will reform in the lower left corner. Use a bomb when he appears to get rid of the shots. Slash at him and he should die before he gets off another attack. Earth Armor As above keep slashing him as he appears and use a bomb. Back off when he turns into a ball. When he reforms from his ball form in the lower left corner, stay to the extreme left and up a bit. Keep using the Earth Armors lavabomb and bombs. He will die quickly. XV. Helado Level Difficulty - *** Recommended Armor - Fire Armor If you have Fire Armor and especially level 2 Fire Armor you can destroy this level. Piercing full range attacks are important for the castle section of this level. I suggest starting with level 1 Fire Armor and after the miniboss you will get level 2. Although level 3 would also suffice for the castle section. A. Snow You should maneuver to be hitting as many enemies as possible, while trying to stay in the upper right side of the screen. Do not stay near the edges since enemies will be coming into the stage. Try really hard not to get hit here. There are a bunch of enemies but if you can get it down then you have a high chance to get to the boss. You need to kill the lizardmen that walk onto screen immediately otherwise they will shoot out tiny homing fireballs. The roc will most likely not be killable by you unless you have earth armor or are powered up with another armor. Do your best to kill the enemies while dodging the tough bird. Before going into the cave a line of weak birds will fly in a semicircle coming from the left side of the screen. If you stay down you can kill them easily as they swing around. B. Cave When you first go in here there are falling crystals, dragons, and the fat birds flying around. It is not that tough. Then there are the flying soldiers and they are a bit tougher to dodge because of crystals obstructing your movement. And after them comes the currents. This is one of the most challenging parts of the game. There is some type of current that will push you around here. If you do not understand exactly where to go, the currents will push you into tough enemies and into the shots of enemies. At first you should stay down around the center of the screen to avoid being pushed into the fat bird that would you would be pushed into that comes from the left side of the screen. Then try to go to the upper- left while shooting the enemies and the shots from a large antlion that pops out from the top. Try to stay in the upper part of the map to avoid the turtle's shots. If you only got hit a couple of times then you are doing good. Next is the miniboss. The miniboss gives you a breather and an opportunity to regain power and health. Antlions pop up from the top and bottom that can be killed for power. The miniboss itself is easy. It fires little fire balls that explode into several slow moving shots. It also shoots small worms at you. You should easily be able to get to level 2 here. C. Castle Level 2 or level 3 are important for this section. The piercing quality will help you immensely here since there are so many obstacles and walls in the way. I suggest staying back as much as possible and killing off enemies before advancing. Several enemies will come from behind and it takes perfect timing to be able to kill as many of them as possible, move forward while dodging in the cramped space and not get hit. Getting hit three times is a reasonable amount for this part. But make sure you do not get hit by fire or the falling, rotating spikes as they both take two bars per hit. Right before the boss is a straightaway with lots of the little weak enemies. Their revenge shots from the grave can make this very difficult on Super to not get hit unless you have a piercing weapon that can kill many of them at once. D. Helado Boss Boss Difficulty * to **** Like the Auzal boss, this one is hard if you do not play it right. As the difficulty of the increases he fires more, gets different moves, and uses them more rapidly. He is only vulnerable when he opens his mouth to fire a shot. The open mouth is also his only weakpoint. Earth Armor Earth Armor wipes him out before he can finish his FIRST shot. You bomb it from above once it finishes appearing. Once it opens its mouth use a bomb. If it does not die then your timing was off. It will then jump into the air and open its mouth to fire another shot at you. When it jumps put Landis across from it and fire and use a bomb. It should definitely be dead after this. Fire Armor Hopefully you have level 2 when you get to this boss, because then you do not have to be so precise when shooting it. If you have level 1 that is fine as well, as long as you have 2 or 3 bombs. Be across from its mouth and continue to shoot. When it opens its mouth use a bomb. After it jumps keep shooting it and use a bomb. If it is not dead after this then it will become a bit harder. It will shoot up little crystals and rush forward quickly. After it rushes you will be on the upper part of the screen. Use your last bomb if you have it and move back to your original position while dodging falling crystals to fire at its mouth. Get in a few more hits and it will be dead. Any Other Armor Modify the above strategy a little. XVI. Bosque Level Difficulty - **** Recommended Armor - Earth Armor, Level 3 Wind Armor This level is one of the true bullet curtain style levels in this game. So listen to my advice carefully. When you see an opening you must jam your little man in there. You do not want to let an opening like that go untouched and unused. Keep jerking back and forth. The constant motion will prevent you from being stuck. When you finally release your little man from that tight cage you will not regret the effort it took. The large amount of tough enemies begs for firepower, so bring it. I suggest a pimped out armor, or just level 1 Earth Armor. If you are using the Earth Armor try to stay near the top of the screen. You will just rain lava bombs on all the enemies below and kill them in one or two shots. If you have Fire Armor, place your character more near the bottom, so you can defeat the enemies just lined up on the bottom for most of this level. To beat this level your first time just bring all the stuff you can. Bring full bombs, a shield, full power, full health, and an elixir. When you get better remove the elixir and the powerup to preserve your money for Cielom and the Dark Tower. A. Jungle The jungle area is full of enemies. Enemies fly in from the front, bottom, and the back. The enemies are just lined up on the ground for pretty much the entire section. If you are playing on anything besides Super, then you can defeat this without much trouble with Fire Armor at level 3. However, if you are playing this on Super, than you are going to have to play much more carefully. The revenge shots will make this very difficult. You cannot just stay near the front and just blast away. You have to kill the enemies rushing you and dodge their shots. You will also want to get what they the drop. You will have to go through this many times to learn a path that works for you. If you have Fire Armor, place your character more near the bottom, so you can defeat the enemies just lined up on the bottom. If you let them stay, they will fill the screen with axes, bullets. and spores from the giant plant that suddenly appear. With the Earth Armor play a high game. Since the Earth Armor drops little lava bombs, you can rain hell down upon those below you. When the jungle floor drops out a large mini-boss comes out from the bottom. It has a central section that spits out little spores at you, and two arms. The arms shoot out a large laser beam straight up. The right arm contains a heart. Earth Armor will make short work of this. With Fire Armor you may want to use a bomb if get trapped between the spores, the laser beam, and the enemies coming onto the screen. B. Cave On Super difficulty the vines that block your path become a real problem. They regrow fast and they seem to take more damage. If you manage to get a long range piercing attack that has decent power you will not experience much difficulty here. For example, the Fire Armor at level 2 is ideal for this part. If you do not have much in the way of firepower you need to jam your character through this mess carefully and quickly since you will probably not have enough time to destroy the vines in time before they corner you against the corner of the screen. Flying red monsters, birds, and spore bombs further complicate this section. If you go near the spore bombs they will become agitated and then explode shortly afterward. This is a good tactic to use to clear out a few of these. Fly near a few then fly a little bit away before they explode. Be careful not get stuck against the ceiling or floor of the cave. It has little grooves that make it impossible to run on the floor, or move forward flat against the ceiling. If you get stuck in one near the left side of the screen when the screen pushes you off screen you can die. C. Castle The castle is full of obstacles, spiky balls, and lots of enemies. The area is extremely cramped so be careful not to destroy enemies that will force you take a hit from their revenge shot. The first obstacles are spinning metal poles around a central point, and a large flat pole that moves along the ground or ceiling. The red flying monsters will fly into the perfect position to be killed just as you need to get in an area to dodge these obstacles. If you kill them, you will probably take a hit from their revenge shots. The rest of the castle is full of spiky balls dropping all over the place and tons of enemies. A long range piercing attack does wonders here. But if you do not have such a thing you must play very aggressively. Rush forward constantly and try to kill as many enemies as possible. On Super, the last section is crammed full of enemies so you may need to use a bomb to avoid dying. D. Bosque Boss Boss Difficulty - * to *** Recommended Armor - Any This guy is tough only the first few times you fight him. He does not have many tricks up his sleeve, and he does not have much life. He starts the round with two long tentacles coming up out of the ground that will try to touch you. They also fire little shots. Destroy these first. Now you can hit the boss in his weakpoint without having to deal with the tentacles. The boss fires a long stream of blue fireballs that will force you to dodge up or down. While you are moving he will fire large fireballs at you. If you get trapped up or down then use a bomb to erase the shots. When the tentacles are destroyed little homing mouths will try to ram you. They also leave a little trail down wherever they go that will restrict your movement as well as blocking non-piercing shots. The tail of the trail only remains on the screen for a second or two, but it still can get in the way. Keep firing and this boss will go down in no time. XVII. Cielom Level Difficulty - ***** Recommended Armor - Earth, Fire, Level 3 Water or Wind Armor Easily the hardest level in the game. Almost every enemy on this map can take 2 bars of health from you. Birds fly in from all over the screen as well as giant heads spewing fire in a circle. Mechs move on screen and fire at you most of the time. But the giant worms and mechs that shoot the homing fireballs really take the cake. To complete this level on Super will basically require an elixir and full health at the bare minimum. If you could possibly keep a Water Armor at level 3 this level would not be bad, but the sheer amount of enemies firing and cramming themselves onto the screen makes it difficult. On other difficulties besides Super this level is still very difficult and will take up a lot of money to prepare. My advice is to first beat the level before restricting your money. Spend on max health, shields, bombs, powerups, and an elixir. With those you should defeat the level. Then you should possibly go into the level without a shield, and after you complete that, go through it with no power-ups. In this way you can conserve enough money for the Dark Tower. The Dark Tower is also a difficult level and you should have enough for an elixir and full health. You need to do two things to succeed in this level. 1) Eliminate fireball mechs before they fire. 2) Eliminate the worms as quickly as possible. A. Sky -Concentrate on killing the fireball mechs. -Avoid the giant heads that spew out fire. B. Under the City -Avoid getting hit by the worms at all costs. I suggest using bombs if you are not good at dodging them. -When you are seeing the city above you cut off, you will see three of those blue flying obstacles. The one furthest from you contains a heart. -When you start moving up again concentrate on killing the fireball mechs. -Right before you are in the flying castle a large amount of small flying enemies will rush you will firing. To avoid getting hit, stay near the top and move in small jerks forward. Their shots go to your last position, and in moving in small increments you can get yourself a lot of room to dodge. C. The Flying Castle -There are mechs that shoot out fire on top of towers. They are harder to kill than their flying counterparts, because part of their body cannot be harmed. -Near the end a flying turtle will come from behind you. You can run on the ground to go behind it. D. Cielom Boss Boss Difficulty - ** to *** Recommended Armor - Earth or Fire This boss will punish you good if you let it do what it wants. As soon as it is vulnerable use a bomb and keep slashing it. And when your bomb runs its course use another. If it is not dead, it will move a little down screen and shoot out lots of fireballs all over the left side of the screen. Avoid those and keep firing. Use another bomb if you have it. If you have not killed it at this point you will be in some trouble. It will throw its bow at you and it can be very difficult to dodge. But if you keep your cool and stay back a little you should see where the bow is going and you can dodge it. XVIII. Dark Tower Recommended Armor - Earth Armor One of the hardest levels in the game for a few reasons. One is that there are mini-bosses all throughout it and if you are not ready to lay the smack down you will take a few hits. It is also the final level before the last boss and you will probably not have much in the way of continues or money. Because of the high amount of tough enemies I recommend Earth Armor. There are two part where you will be inconvenienced because of its lack of backward fire and close range fire, but getting through the first section is the hardest and wiping out enemies quickly is important. Water Armor at level 3 makes sense for a section of the level where the screen scrolls backwards, but Water Armor's lack of power is a severe disadvantage here. Use all the money you have to beat this level. You do not have to worry about the last boss because he is extremely easy on any difficulty. I suggest an elixir, and max health at the minimum for this level. If you have more money than definitely use it to buy shields and power-ups from the shop. A. Bottom Obstacles abound here in the form of spiky balls, fountains on the ground, and large moving blocks with spikes attached to them. You fight two armadillo mini-bosses back to back almost immediately. Destroying these tough enemies quickly is the key to success here. This is why I recommend the Earth Armor. You really need those bombs for the miniboss right before the boss in this level. After you destroy the armadillos more enemies will start to appear and be a bother. Destroy the last two fountains on the ground. You get a heart and a red power-up from them. After a little ways and lots of spiky balls is a tricky part with moving blocks. On Super the blocks move too fast to simply move forward to dodge them. You have to move forward and then down a little about halfway while moving forward the entire time. More enemies and then our old friend from Auzal. The mini-boss with a rider on its back that will try to smack you with its arms. With the Earth Armor this guy can be killed in no time flat. Just stay near the top and when he approaches kill the rider, and then keep hitting it on the head. Do the best you can after this mini-boss. Spiky balls block non-piercing shots while scorpions and little Aztecs climb stairs to shoot homing fireballs at you. Kill as many as possible while hopefully not getting hit much. Try to clear the ceiling in anticipation of the following part. The ceiling will then disintegrate and any enemies hanging on the ceiling fall straight down on top of you. The mini-boss from Llamarada appears when the ceiling falls apart. Slash him as much as you can and then shoot him until he dies. The position of this boss is annoying in this level as well. Once you destroy it the chance of you getting the items it drops is small. Shortly after it appears the screen will start scroll backwards. B. Backwards Water Armor at level 3 here, but Water Armor's lack of power is a severe disadavantage for all these mini-bosses. This section has flying birds that fly from behind you and huge spiky balls that swing along the top. A small spiked block also moves along the bottom occasionally to try to force you hit into something. The mini-boss is the one from Bosque, only the right arm does not give you a heart. Just keep hitting that central section to destroy it. C. Top After that mini-boss is section with moving spiked blocks that move left and right. The best thing to do is to wait until you can get into the middle. Destroy all the birds that fly down the middle directly above you. The last one gives you heart. Once you pass the moving blocks a few large blue worms will attack you. They are easier than the ones you killed in Cielom, and die in only a few hits. They also do not have any revenge shots after you kill them. The unique miniboss of this level is by far the hardest of the mini- bosses. It is harder than most bosses. The only weak point of the boss is its middle section. It is a really bad idea to spend a large amount of time on this boss. I suggest using up your bombs to destroy the three middle sections of this boss. If you want to conserve your bombs for the boss you will need to learn how to dodge the attacks. It fires a large beam from the center so attacking if from the front is risky. It shoots long yellow string that home. Blue worms are constantly popping out and causing a problem by trying to ram you. Once you destroy a section of the mini-boss's middle, the destroyed section has revenge shots that shoot forward. D. Dark Tower Boss He has two forms which he switches between. The starting gundam form is invincible. The second ball form is vulnerable. First Form - He is invincible as long as he looks like a gundam. He will jump and shoot blue fireballs that do not home-in on you. A good spot to dodge them is near his feet, or by a far wall. He will create blue orbs that will rotate around him, and be a pain in the neck if you are cornered against a wall, so try to stay away from him. He will occasionally shoot out a dragon-worm that will be very easy to kill. Second Form - After some attacks he will break apart and a little ball will be on screen. Use your bombs and keep hitting/shooting it, but be careful because it will shoot out blue fireballs. If you do not use bombs at this point you will be in a difficult position. This will probably take 2-3 times of the ball being exposed to kill him. XIX. Zaggart Armor recommended - Any At the beginning of the final level you get all your health and power back, and this is the easiest boss in the game. :) First Form - Stab the little man in the face until he dies. Second Form - Avoid his balls, and when he throws his pole, use your bombs and shoot him. Third Form - Pull a Fern Gully and lodge yourself in its mouth. You will take 4 units of damage or less, but that should be nothing. He will turn green and die. Hey, it's just like the movie! XX. Music On one site it states Satoshi Miyashita as the one who did the music, but in the credits of the game it says "T's music". I know T's music also did the music for Super Darius 2. The TCD music is better than the Sega CD version. The Sega CD is more commercial sounding, not as harsh or emotional. XXI. No Death Run Video It was separated into 5 parts and put it on youtube. The sound did not come out properly but that's ok. It was also not my best run, BUT since the game was done without dying it was put up. Super difficutly with only Earth Armor on TCD AKA Turbo CD AKA PCECD. Even though the sound is drowned out, you can tell the superior music on the TCD version compared to the Sega CD. PART 1 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wktLIVTIkm8 PART 2 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4lzMBnzwJ4s&feature=related PART 3 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7UaizEkBMHU&feature=user PART 4 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yy981Tw-UmU&feature=related PART 5 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fBcpxTZQUWI&feature=related XXII. Codes / Cheats These are tested and they work on the PC-Engine CD. I am not sure if they would work on the Sega CD version. Cheat: 10,000 Crystals At the Configuration screen, put the level on Super, the music to 02, and the sound to 02. Finally, hold Select and press Button I. Even if you put the code in multiple times you will only get 10,000. Cheat: Fight the Bosses At the Configuration screen, put the level on Hard, the music to 01, and the sound to 01. Now hold down Select and press Button I. The exit selection will change to Boss. You may now change your settings to anything you want. Got cheats from http://cheats.ign.com/ob2/068/005/005580.html XXIII. Copyright January/10/2008 by Apathy000 aka Michael Zacka This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Sites that have my permission to use this guide are gamefaqs.com.