BRANDISH 2 THE PLANET BUSTER GUIDE BY Jax Aagar Created on April 13, 2004 Updated on July 21, 2005 Email me at cerubix_7@hotmail.com Version 2.5 -------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS -------------------- A. Version B. Introduction C. Disclaimer D. For The Novice E. Hints/Tips Playing Brandish 2 F. Walkthrough -Prison -Islet -Cave -Wharf -Castle Wall (Outer) -Castle Town -Wood (West) -Castle Town (Revisited) -Wood (East) -Ninja Yashiki -Dark Zone (Prelude) -Castle Wall (Inner) -Castle -Tower -Prison (Revisited) -Laboratory -Castle (Revisited) -Dark Zone -Fortress -Prison (This is it!!!) -Nucleus G. Secrets/Mysteries H. Item List I. Shop List J. Bestiary K. Special Thanks ------------------- Part A: VERSION ------------------- Version 1.0 Created at 4-13-04 -Entire guide put together, Menus, Items list, beginning walkthrough, etc. -Walkthrough completed up to Wharf. Version 2.0 Updated at 1-31-05 -Walkthrough completed up to Inner Castle Wall. That means Castle Wall, Castle Town, Wood, Ninja Yashiki and Dark Zone. Wow! That's a lot of areas! -Shop List and Bestiary Updated. -Major work done on Item List. I've changed some item names and added more items in. This item name change will be done throughout the guide in future updates. Version 2.5 Updated at 7-21-05 -Walkthrough completed up to Laboratory. This includes the Castle, Tower, Prison and obviously the Laboratory. -Item and Shop sections updated. -I chose not to update the Bestiary Section this time as I want to finish the Walkthrough as soon as possible. Look for this area to be updated next time though. ------------------------ Part B: INTRODUCTION ------------------------ Well, well, look who's back for more Brandish...it's Jax once again after so long. Hopefully you didn't miss me that much there, heh but it seems now it is time to make a Brandish 2 guide. In case you didn't realize it now, this game is completely in Japanese so unless you're a native speaker, you're going to need my help tremendously, unless you want to go through the hardships yourself like I did. This guide will help pretty much anyone who is struggling through the game with nothing but confusion written on his or her face and what not. So just sit back and relax, we got a long ways to go with this extensive guide here. (Hopefully...) ---------------------- Part C: DISCLAIMER ---------------------- For liability purposes, if anything happens when you play Brandish 2 on an emulator or console, I am not responsible for loss of data or damage. No illegal use of this document in any way, plagiarizing, use for own without my consent, use for sale, you know, the usual. All you have to do is ask me and I will gladly see that you will get the answer you were looking for. Just ask, it never hurts you know. Failure to comply will result in severe punishment! So just don't do it then ok??? -------------------------- Part D: FOR THE NOVICE -------------------------- This is for the beginners out there, which I'm sure there are. Anyway, this is here for people who have no clue how to work the game. I will show you how to maneuver through the game, what all those foreign icons mean, and whatever is left. Let's start with controls. ----------- CONTROLS ----------- All the buttons are used for this game. START - Opens menu screen. In order from left to right is the status of your character, Varik. Next is the Map of the current level you are on. The third button is the Auto-Walk button, which I'll discuss in further detail later on. The last three are Save game, Load game and the Configuration buttons. SELECT - Selects the item screen, game still in play so the enemies are still moving, but Varik can't! You can equip items, use them or dump them. R or L - Used for Lateral/Rotate movement. R and L - Press them together to rest. Get HP and MP back gradually, but all defenses are reduced to zero and enemies are still moving. Press them again to end rest or press B. The next buttons are customizable, but these are their defaults. A button - A is the action button. You use it to attack the enemy, block and can be used to use items when on the item screen. B button - is to jump one space in front of you or out of pits. X button - this lets you use your items. Y button - this is the Take/Examine/Trash command all in one. Basically you press the Y button, you get a message saying, "Everything seems ok" just like in Brandish. The button becomes Take when you open a chest or door otherwise it's default is always Examine. The Trash command comes in when you are in your Item list and you want to throw some items away. The Examine command also is used to read plaques, talk to people and examine items. You can also see the monster's statistics when you use the examine command on it. -------------- MENU SCREEN -------------- That's all for controls. Now let's move on to the Menu Screen. The Menu Screen has the status, map, auto-walk, save, load and configuration screens. ---------------- STATUS SCREEN ---------------- The Status Screen shows all your vital stats and gold you have. It has your character's name, in this case, Varik, your current level, HP, MP, Gold, Attack power, Defense power, Arm Strength, Knowledge, and Magic Endurance. Level - Shows current level. Defeating enemies gives exp. in the form of percents. Once it reaches 100%, you gain a level. HP/MP - Shows current/max for both Arm Strength - Your strength multiplier. As this number increases, Attack Power will rise gradually. Attacking enemies raises your arm strength. When the percent reaches 100, you gain one point up. Knowledge - The power of your magic. Using scrolls or rings on the enemy raises it. When the percent reaches 100, you gain one point up. Magic Endurance - Your defense against enemy magic attacks. To raise this stat, magic attacks must hit you. When the percent reaches 100, you gain one point up. Attack Power - Your strength with equipment that raises attack. Arm Strength contributes to increasing attack power. Defense Power - Your defense with equipment that raises defense. Gold - How much gold you have on you. ------------- MAP SCREEN ------------- Basically a map of the area you are on. The flashing red X represents you, black areas are places where you can walk on and gray represents the walls. Entrances and exits are two flashing dots closely together, treasure chests are blue, shops are purple, revealed pits are gray-squared dots and doors have a gray outline and a black box inside. Yellow dots are obstacles or special events and areas. Blue areas on the map are bodies of water. ------------------- AUTO-WALK SCREEN ------------------- Think of this thing as the Warp Magic from Brandish, but as walking instead of warping. If you don't understand that then here's a quick explanation. This is the exactly like the Map Screen, but you have a cursor now. Point the cursor on any black area of the map and you will see Varik start moving automatically to there, provided there aren't any enemies or obstacles in the way because then he will stop moving. Use this option when you don't feel like walking back to an already explored area. -------------- SAVE SCREEN -------------- It may be stupid to write about it, but if you weren't paying attention or new to the game, then it could be good to read it. The game saves automatically when you start playing or you continued from a previous game. It also saves automatically when you enter a new floor. So if you were in Cave B2 and went on to Cave B3, then right when you entered, it saved the game for you. Could be annoying for those experienced players out there, at least it was for me...especially playing on an emulator because more glitches can happen on it. -------------- LOAD SCREEN -------------- Load your previously saved game. That's pretty much it. ----------------------- CONFIGURATION SCREEN ----------------------- This lets you change how the game is played. You can change the game speed, message speed, the window color, L/R Keys, and controls. The first option is used for the PC game only. It lets you change controls to the mouse instead of the control pad. Thanks to Ivan Ferrel for this one here. The second option is the game speed, L being the slowest and H being the fastest. The third one is the message speed, same deal as the game speed. BGM stands for Background Music. Either you can have it on or off. Below BGM are stereo/mono options. The sixth option is changing the window color. L/R Keys - This could be where players get confused. If you started playing, then you noticed when you tried to go left or right, it changed your perspective right? That was because the mode was Lateral. Lateral lets you move up and down and changes perspective with left and right. You can move left and right if you hold either L or R, but that's just annoying. Rotate lets you move in all directions and when you want to switch perspective, hold L or R and press left or right. I prefer Rotate and recommend new players to use Rotate because Lateral can be confusing. Both these modes are useful in certain situations as well. Like for example, Lateral would be useful when you fight against the Squid boss. The last option is for changing the customizable buttons. That's all for you beginners and I'm sure what I just wrote made sense! ----------------------------------------- Part E: HINTS/TIPS PLAYING BRANDISH 2 ----------------------------------------- This section is probably the most important one because it's going to give you some very helpful pointers before and during the game so listen up! TIP #1 ALWAYS SAVE!!! Even though the game saves for you every time you enter a new area, you should save when you come across something out of the ordinary, like many switches on the floor. You should save before fighting monsters and bosses that are hard, so that way you won't have to start way back again in case you die. Saving your game file is important so that you won't lose track of anything and have a grueling process of starting over again. TIP #2 Be organized in your items list so that you know where's your items that you need. Put important items in your bag so you can get to them quickly and less important items in your Dimensional Boxes. You can put all your equipment in one box, magic and potions in another and miscellaneous items in the last. Organization might be a lifesaver in a crucial moment during Brandish 2. TIP #3 Money doesn't grow on trees so don't waste them on stupid junk. There's no other way to get gold besides Gold Bars, so be shrewd when buying. TIP #4 Take your time! Look thoroughly around the floor you are on and make sure you have completed it. Don't leave holes in the map because it may contain treasure there or switches needed to move on. Make sure you look at every angle and perspective in case you missed a wall switch, magic wall or weakened wall too. HINT #1 Try not to use weapons that aren't permanent. I know in the beginning there aren't any, but fighting unarmed gives you more Arm Strength. Sell those swords for cash to buy better equipment or weapons. Speaking of selling, sell things you don't have much use for like H.Potions, Magic Rings and in some cases, Steel Balls. They are useful, but really not that vital to surviving. Selling is a good way to rack up some dough for better items. HINT #2 If you can, take your time to level up in areas that have tough enemies, it'll be worth it later on. Gain Arm Strength, Knowledge and Magic Endurance so you can be more powerful and prepared for bosses. Kill all the enemies you see because some of them may never revive when you leave and come back. HINT #3 If you have trouble surviving, keep a Ring of Life or two in your bag as insurance so you won't have to pout about how the Ninja took you out like a rag doll. HINT #4 Talk to every person you see at least twice to ensure you're not missing something important. I know you probably don't understand the dialogue but bear with it for now. Sometimes talking to certain people in the game is the only way to progress on with the story if you are stuck and don't know what else to do. HINT #5 Ignore Hint #1...kidding! I would also recommend purchasing Ice Rings because it is just so good. Keep some M.Potions and H.Potions available; sell some if you have too much. These tips will help you last in the world of Brandish 2, but you can play any way you like. I'm just giving you some stuff that helped me when I played, but you have your style and I have my style. ----------------------- Part F: WALKTHROUGH ----------------------- Now for the walkthrough of the levels in Brandish 2. I will try to explain each part and their levels so that you won't be stumped or confused. If you still can't beat a certain area, then email me and I can help you further. Also, just to let you, the reader know, this game isn't as linear as Brandish was. What I mean is that you didn't have the Ruins level, then the Tower, then the Cave, Dark Zone and Fortress. You will end up going through one level and not finishing it all in one trip, then you will have to come back later to complete it. So do not worry if you can't seem to finish the Prison first time through, in fact you go through the Prison three times!!! --------------------- PRISON WALKTHROUGH --------------------- This is where the adventure all begins, in the Prison. Not the fancy of places, but you gotta start somewhere. The story begins with Karl, the main guy who has captured Varik and taken his Planet Buster sword and locked him up. He finds out that Varik has a bounty on him so he throws him in the Prison until he can figure out what to do with him. Your goal, escape the Prison and free Varik once again! ------------ PRISON B2 ------------ Enemies: Wall, Beetle, Moth, Blue Slime, Prison Jailer, and Prison Guard (Boss) Treasures: Short Sword(10), Rapier(10), Kaiser Knuckles 4x(15,15,15,20), Leather Armor, Skull Key, Green Key, Master Keys(6), Chipped Gold Bar 5x(3,3,1,1,5), Ring of Fire(5), H.Potion 2x(1,2) Shops: NONE Strategy: This is it. First thing to do is to go to the Configuration menu and change the L/R button to Rotate instead of Lateral (seventh option down). Once that is done, break down the wall to escape the cell and talk to the other prison inmates, whether you can understand it or not. Then go around and pick up items and do some exploring here. Kill enemies that you see and use the Master Keys when you get them to open locked doors and chests. When you find the Skull Key, you use that key where you fight the two Prison Jailers, north of where you first started. There you fight the first boss of the game, the Prison Guard. This guy is pretty tough, but he's not that hard once you do a little hit and run tactic. Go to the Bestiary section if you want a more in depth strategy to beat him. Take his sword when you beat him and go get the Green Key in the next room. Forget about that locked door too, it leads to the Laboratory level which is far away from now so backtrack to the locked door on your way to get to the Prison Guard and use the Green Key to unlock it and move on to the second area of the Prison. Also, forget about the bottom right part of the map as well. That locked door is the Elevator, which you will not use until you return to the Prison once again. ------------ PRISON B1 ------------ Enemies: Beetle, Moth, Blue Slime, Toad, and Centipede Treasures: Rapier(20), Great Sword(20), Kaiser Knuckles 3x(15,20,Permanent), Leather Shield, Master Keys(4), Gold Bar(2), Ring of Fire(5), Sledgehammer(3), H.Potion(2) Shops: Blacksmith and Black Market Merchant Strategy: Same deal like the Prison B2, explore and defeat enemies. You can do some shopping here if you have Gold. Be careful of the pits around this place. Soon enough you will find the Sledgehammer, which can break down weakened walls. There is one weakened wall near where you get the hammer, just look for a wall that has a rectangle or something odd on the wall and break it down. There is also a magic wall here as well, an imaginary wall that you can pass through. It's located in the middle of the map and you should figure it out pretty easily too. There's one puzzle here that can confuse you. It has six wall switches and the plaque next to it says something along the lines that only one of these switches will open the locked door. The answer, the second switch to the left or the fifth switch to the right, it's the same switch depending on how you look at it. Press the switch there and press the switch near the locked door and plaque to open it. If you pressed the wrong one, you will know and the six switches will reset so you can press them again. Use the last two sledgehammers to break the weakened walls and leave Prison B1. --------- PRISON --------- Enemies: Rakshahsa (Boss) Treasures: Choose one of these four from man: Steel Axe(30), Power Knuckles(30), Great Sword(30), Cross Shield Shops: NONE Strategy: The moment you enter, Karl and one of his lackeys talk to you and throw you in another area of the Prison. Just keep walking until you see the man again and talk to him. He will give you a choice of four items to fight the boss they prepared for you. You can only pick one so pick carefully. The first one is the Steel Axe, the second are Power Knuckles, third is Great Sword and last is Cross Shield. After your pick, you fight Rakshahsa, the four-armed boss. If you played Brandish before, you'll remember that it was one of the bosses in Brandish, just like it is again here. Since the room and small, it makes for a harder fight since Rakshahsa has one move that may prove devasting to you. It has the standard sword hit and block move, but its other attack is the whip hit, which can't be blocked and hurts the most. You'll have to use hit and run attacks or fight it head on and then retreat to recover HP using the Rest command quickly. This will probably a very tough fight if your Arm Strength is low so be patient and careful not to die. When you defeat it, open the door to find the guards surprised that you defeated Rakshahsa. As they try to capture you again, Alexis comes to the rescue! Who could forget Alexis from Brandish? She's back again and this time she's helping Varik escape this time rather than capture him. Skip the text and see the both of them leave the Prison by boat. You are now done with the Prison for the time being and continue onward with Islet. -------------------- ISLET WALKTHROUGH -------------------- I don't know why I should even have a section for this place, but let's not break tradition. Basically all you do on this small island is explore, kill enemies, pick up items, go to the only building, examine the corpses and go to the Cave level. That's Islet for you in one single sentence. -------- ISLET -------- Enemies: Toad, Lizard and Centipede Treasures: Short Sword(15), Rapier 2x(10,15), Power Knuckles 2x(10), Master Keys(5), Sledgehammer(5) Shops: NONE Strategy: Explore Islet! That's all there is to it. Pick up and find weapons lying around the island, then find the entrance to the small building in the middle of the map. Search and examine both corpses to see the story about something, and then go down into the Cave level...once again. ------------------- CAVE WALKTHROUGH ------------------- Does this place bring back any memories of the Cave level in Brandish? Don't worry, this cave isn't as hard as the first cave. There are only three areas and this level is fairly easy to get past, but just in case, I'm here if you need help of course. ---------- CAVE B1 ---------- Enemies: Skeleton, Bat, Three-Legged Beast and Thunder Goddess (Boss) Treasures: Rapier 3x(20), Great Sword 2x(20,30), Power Knuckles 2x(20,25), Chain Mail, Key of Ruby, Sapphire Key, Master Keys(10), Book of Darkness, Dimensional Box A, Gold Bar 2x(10 in D. Box A,1), Chipped Gold Bar 3x(2,2,5), Fire Magic, Ring of Fire(10), H.Potion(3), H.Poison(2), Invisibility Potion(3) Shops: NONE Strategy: Go north from the start point and break down the weakened wall. Explore this area and find the Ruby and Sapphire keys. When you find those two keys and finish exploring, go back to the entrance of Islet to unlock the two locked doors here. The Ruby Key unlocks the door in front of the entrance and gives you the Book of Darkness, which you need to use in this level. All it does is translate certain plaques and opens doors when you have it equipped in your item list. You do not have to use it, just have it in your list because if you put it in a Dimensional box and try to examine one of the Cave's plaques, you may get a message saying you need the book to read it correctly. When you reach a room with three doors and two plaques next to one door, that room is rigged with a trap. The two plaques say something along the lines of watch out for the next room but I can tell you what it is. That room has magic pits that will activate when you step on the floors. You only have a small amount of time to move before the pit is revealed and you fall in. Not much of a puzzle or anything but worth noting in case you didn't realize what is going on. Remember to look at the walls at every perspective so you don't miss a treasure or wall switch. Press the purple wall switches to unlock some doors and keep on moving. Soon you will come across the Cave boss, the Thunder Goddess. She's not really hard since you can leave the room and recover lost HP without having to worry about getting hit in Rest mode. She warps every time you hit her once so keep that in mind and keep attacking her until she dies. This may also be good if you kept getting hit by the Thunder Blast move she does. You get magic endurance when she hits you with the attacks, so you should get some endurance now before you defeat her. Both her attacks raise endurance, but the long-range move is better and faster to gain it, just make sure you do not die in the process. When you defeat the Thunder Goddess, you can move on to the next floor of the Cave. ---------- CAVE B2 ---------- Enemies: Skeleton, Bat, Three-Legged Beast, Magic Floor Tile and Ghoul Treasures: Short Sword(20), Rapier(20), Holy Sword(30), Sword of Darkness(40), Power Knuckles(20), Holy Hammer(15), Wood Shield, Dragon Key, Master Keys(10), Gold Bar 2x(2), Chipped Gold Bar(2), Freeze Magic, Ring of Ice(10), Ring of Anger(10), Sledgehammer(10), H.Potion 2x(2), M.Potion 2x(1), Invisibility Potion(2) Shops: NONE Strategy: Watch for the pits and ice on the floors. The ice will cause you to slip and usually you will end up falling into a pit, which can hurt you bad so try to jump over them if you can. There is also a magic wall south of where you begin, which give you some Master Keys if you find it. Be on the lookout for weakened walls too. They look like a hole in the wall, so use the sledgehammer to break them down. Use the Master Keys to unlock doors and chests. Use the Dragon Key you find here to unlock one of the locked doors here, south of the map somewhere. Keep an eye out for purple wall switches too. ---------- CAVE B3 ---------- Enemies: Skeleton, Bat, Three-Legged Beast and Ghoul Treasures: Great Sword(20), Axe 2x(10,15), Red Hammer(15), Armor of Darkness, Shield of Darkness, Master Keys(10), Gold Bar(5), Ring of Life, H.Potion 2x(2,3), H.Poison(3), M.Poison(1) Shops: NONE Strategy: When you get to the room with lots of holes, use the Fire Magic Scroll you have on the Ghoul that is blocking this one door to move on. From here, just explore, use sledgehammer to break walls and find purple wall switches. Remember to keep the Book of Darkness in your inventory so you can read the plaques here. Soon you will reach a garden in this underground cavern. There's a nearby spring that will recover your HP and a middle room that holds another Dark equipment to use for later. Speak to the spirit of the boy in the garden to get more storyline and he will open up a path for you to move on. The next part is a little tricky. The plaque next to the wall switch says to be very quick to get to the locked door ahead. That is because the door will close automatically in the couple seconds if you did not make it fast enough. To get there before the door closes, use the Jump button to move faster and you will get past it. If you want to go back through the door, there's another switch on the other side but you'll have to be fast too or it will close on you. Finish this last area and you will be done with the Cave. -------------------- WHARF WALKTHROUGH -------------------- The Wharf is nothing but a port town where you can talk to the people and shop for items. There are some treasures here and a pretty tough boss to defeat, but that's it for the Wharf. -------- WHARF -------- Enemies: Squid and Tentacles (Bosses) Treasures: Short Sword(Permanent), Key of Bone, Key of Garnet(Boss), Thunder Magic, Ring of Protection(10), H.Potion(2), M.Potion(2) Shops: Magic Shop and Blacksmith Strategy: Just look around this port town, find treasures and unlock doors. Talk to the people here at least twice so you don't miss anything. Find the Bone Key in a chest near an old man. Use that key to unlock the port to move on. Jump through the rocks until you get to the other side. Obviously the door is closed, but that will change when you jump on one of the rocks that reveal the Squid boss. This is probably one of the hardest bosses in the game so far, at least it was for me. Here is a useful tip for you if you are having trouble navigating on the rocks. Change your L/R button to Lateral so that you can change perspectives quickly and jump around the rocks faster. Never stay in the middle of the Squid or you will see the Game Over screen pretty fast. Attack the Squid from behind and jump around so that it does not surround you. You can attack and kill the tentacles but they will revive every time the Squid surfaces and resurfaces. Your Fire and Thunder Magic can help a little if you gained some magic attack. You can also freeze the tentacles in case they annoy, but forget about them since the Squid is the main boss here. You can jump back onto the area with the locked door to recover life or go back to the Wharf to regroup. This guy will take a long time to take down so make sure you save in case you die because if you leave the Wharf and come back, its HP should remain the same if you hurt it a little and left. You are going to put your jumping and perspective skills to the test here. You can also slow down the game speed if it helps. When you finally kill the darn thing, grab the Garnet Key from it and move on to the next level, the Castle Walls. ---------------------------------- CASTLE WALL (OUTER) WALKTHROUGH ---------------------------------- The outer Castle Wall is not that difficult to beat really, just be careful of the Knight in this level, he's the main threat here. Once you get past the Castle Wall, you should be at the Castle Town. ---------------- CASTLE WALL A ---------------- Enemies: Spear Soldier, Archer and Knight Treasures: Great Sword 3x(10,10,20) Shops: NONE Strategy: This is the outer portion of the Castle Wall, meaning there is more to explore here later on. Just watch out for pits, be careful of the enemies here and find the entrance to Castle Wall B. I also like to point out that you can go to Castle Wall D as well, but it's probably better to go in alphabetical order. And in case you didn't know, the Castle Wall is connected together, so you could go around in circles if you wanted to. ---------------- CASTLE WALL B ---------------- Enemies: Spear Soldier, Archer and Knight Treasures: Great Sword 2x(10,20), Chipped Gold Bar 2x(2,3) Shops: NONE Strategy: At the beginning, there is one guy here. Talk to him and accept his offer. He'll run off somewhere and that is all. If you come back here, this guy will be back and do the same thing again I think. I'm not sure what he does, but accept his offer the first time though. There is more exploring to do here. That's all there is to the Outer Castle Wall. It's not really that hard is it? ---------------- CASTLE WALL C ---------------- Enemies: Spear Soldier, Archer and Knight Treasures: Great Sword 3x(10,20,20), Gold Bar(3) Shops: NONE Strategy: Same strategy as the previous Castle Wall. This area of the Castle Wall leads to the Castle Town as well. Find the entrance and go to Castle Town when you are finished with the Castle Wall. ---------------- CASTLE WALL D ---------------- Enemies: Spear Soldier, Archer and Knight Treasures: Great Sword(20), Saber(10), Gold Bar 4x(3,5,5,10) Shops: NONE Strategy: Here there is an old man near the bottom left of the map. Speak to him for some information or whatever. Explore what's left of this place, go back to Castle Wall C to get to the Castle Town. You are now done with the Outer Castle Wall. -------------------------- CASTLE TOWN WALKTHROUGH -------------------------- The Castle Town can be tricky because of the language barrier unless you know Japanese. There will be lots of things to do here before you can progress to another level, so be thorough here and get every nook and cranny. -------------- CASTLE TOWN -------------- Enemies: NONE Treasures: Twisted Key Shops: Weapon Shop, Magic Shop and Blacksmith Strategy: Talk to all of the people here at least three times. This will ensure that you get all the information you need to progress. Once that is taken care of, you can do activate two quests to do. One of them being mandatory to progress, the other is completely optional. The mandatory one is to rescue the town mayor's grand daughter from the bandits hiding out in the Woods. The optional one is to defeat the Master Ninja at the ninja hideout. You can do either one in any order. There's also an Arena in town where you fight two bouts. You will have to beat the Arena if you wish to gain entry in the Wood to rescue the girl. The Arena is located at the bottom left corner of the map. Talk to the big man inside and he will ask if you want to fight in the Arena. Say yes and he will let you enter. Before you do, make sure you are prepared. If you die here, you'll have to fight again to pass. Once you beat both fights, talk to the man again and he gives you some money. As you leave the town mayor pleads with you to save his grand daughter and will pay you for it. Afterwards, talk to this one guy just outside of the Arena to gain entry into the Western part of the Wood. Enter the church to get the ninja event. The ninja that encounters you will drop the key to go to Ninja Yashiki. Use the Twisted Key to open the locked door next to the Church to go there. My advice here is to complete the optional event, Ninja Yashiki because you get something good if you do, another Dimensional Box to store more items. -------- ARENA -------- Enemies: Fire Demons and Umber (Bosses) Treasures: NONE Shops: NONE Strategy: There are two separate fights in the Arena that you must beat if you want to go to the Wood (West). The first fight is with two Fire Demons. The only solid way to go about this is trying to take out one of them first. Use a Hit and Run tactic to injure them. Now once you hit one, it will transform into fire and begin to chase you down. Run away from it until it reverts back to its demon form because if you do not, then you will lose your life as it chases you and burns you. The Fire Breath move is easy to avoid and is a good way to rack up some Magic Endurance here. Once these two are beat, you will face the Arena's champion, Umber. She is pretty tough to beat because of her speed and quick but deadly attacks. If you have some Ring of Ice or Freeze Magic, then you can freeze her and attack her freely, otherwise you'll have to use Hit and Run, which may be difficult because of her jump move. Once you manage to take her down, the guy outside will let you pass so you can go to the Wood to rescue the girl. -------------------------- WOOD (WEST) WALKTHROUGH -------------------------- There are two different Wood levels, the western Wood and the eastern Wood. This one is the bandit hideout where the town mayor's grand daughter is being held. Varik's job is to eliminate all of the bandits and rescue the girl from the bandit leader. -------------- WOOD (WEST) -------------- Enemies: Bandit and The Kidnapper (Boss) Treasures: Great Sword 2x(20), Saber 3x(20), Power Knuckles(Permanent), Crescent Key, Emerald Key Shops: NONE Strategy: This is the western part of the Wood, with the bandits hiding out here. You have to jump across the water to get to the other side and reach the center of the map where the boss is. You have to kill all of the bandits on the map to get the Emerald Key to unlock the door in the center of the map. The last bandit you defeat will drop the key. There is also the Crescent Key hidden in a tree here. It's located at the top left of the map, with three trees lined together. Put your perspective at North and search the left tree. It contains the Crescent Key needed to open the locked chest in the room with the girl. Here's a simple illustration in case you still don't understand. T=Tree X=Tree with Crescent Key W=Water WWWWWWW X T T <<<<