Juusou Kihei Valken, aka Assault Suits Valken FAQ/Guide (SNES) 6/13/2005 v1.1 dammit9x at hotmail dot com Copyright 2005 This document may be 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 unauthorized web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited and a violation of copyright. ------------------------------ Contents * Introduction * Gameplay Controls Gravity Power-Ups Lives * Option Mode * Weapons List * Two Endings * Mission Walkthrough * Closing ------------------------------ * Introduction #### This guide has NO story-related spoilers. #### | I was 22 years old when | | I enlisted in the United | | Pacific States Marine | | Corps. Unluckily for me, | | around the time I'd | | finished my Assault Suit | | training, the war had | | spread to the far | | reaches of the Earth- | | sphere. | | Nobody remember exacly | | what started this war | | any more. It continues | | because people still | | fight over control of | | what little fossil fuel | | remains on this planet, | | and over territorial | | rights on the moon. | | Our leaders have no | | intention of sharing | | what little resources | | they retain. | | I do not fight out of | | patriotism, a desire for | | justice, or any other | | sort of silly personal | | ideal. I fight because I | | am a soldier, and the | | only way a soldier can | | survive is to fight and | | defeat his enemies. | This game was released, only in Japan, in 1992 by NCS, the same developer that put out Assault Suits Leynos (known as Target Earth in the American release) two years earlier. At some point, the translation group "AGTP" (Gideon Zhi and Ian Kelly)released an English translation for the ROM. The translation makes the story understandable for English speakers. However, you don't need to know how to read to play the game. The only part left undone is the name entry feature in the option screen. As such, I don't know what the main character's name is. The excerpt above is taken from the AGTP translation. It is unclear to me why NCS failed to port the game to American markets. Compared to Leynos, Assault Suits Valken has tighter controls, more interesting gameplay, character advancement, multiple endings, character design by Satoshi Urushihara, and is overall a classy game. * Gameplay Controls: Shoot (default Y) The hero fires the currently selected weapon in whatever direction he's aiming. Except for the punch, all weapons can be fired rapidly or continuously by holding the button. Jump (default B) The hero jumps. Holding the button while airborne fires the booster pack, resulting in a higher, longer jump or a slower descent. After a few seconds the booster overheats and can only be used to slow the descent, but it can be used again in the next jump. Dash (default A) The hero moves at double speed, and his profile is lowered slightly. After a certain distance the dash ends, but you can push the button again. An alternative way to dash is to double tap right or left. You must have your feet on solid ground to dash. Some auto-scroll sequences are in dash mode. Weapon Select (default X) Cycles through available weapons. You can do this while the game is paused. Hold (default L) This causes the hero to hold the direction of the gun constant, regardless of what's going on with the D-pad. So you can do things like fire at the enemy while withdrawing, or hover over the enemy while firing down on them. This is extremely useful and should be learned early. Shield (default R) The hero actually holds up a shield. This prevents all damage, from any direction, even from behind. Most but not all attacks can be blocked. However, being hit will still cause you to recoil. You must have your feet on solid ground to block. The punch meter does not rise, and the vulcan and laser do not reload while the guard is held. Gravity: Some areas have normal gravity, which means you walk and jump around normally. Some areas are lo-grav, so you can move in any direction with the D-pad, and the jump, dash and shield buttons don't do anything. However, if you plant your feet on solid ground in a lo-grav area, you can use those moves. Power-Ups: "H" Energy chip Recovers two bars of health. That's 20%. "P" Power chip Brings your currently selected weapon one step closer to the next level. "W" Weapon chip Adds a new weapon to your arsenal. Lives: If you lose all your energy, fall down a pit, get crushed in an auto-scroll segment, or fail a critical objective, it's game over. You can continue from the last checkpoint 3 times. Checkpoints occur where there are area changes. Most levels have a few. * Option Mode NAME ENTRY As mentioned earlier, the name entry feature is still in Japanese. The hero's name never comes up in the game, however. MESSAGE: FAST SLOW Controls the automatic speed of the pre-mission and in-game messages. You can always make the pre-mission messages go faster by pushing a button. SOUND: STEREO MONAURAL Controls stereo/mono sound. CONTROL: TYPE A-D There are four available control schemes, including two in which the shoot button always holds the aim steady. * Weapons List There are four weapons in the game. Two you start with, and two are found in the missions. They all start at level 1 and can be upgraded twice, by collecting power chips. The number in parentheses is the number of power chips required to upgrade. Picking up a power chip when the selected weapon is at max level does nothing. You can pause the game and cycle the weapons to decide before picking it up. Punch (start with it) L1 (5): This is a close range weapon that cannot be aimed. It can be extremely powerful, more powerful than the vulcan because it all comes out at once. The power depends on how high the meter is when you release the punch. This means that rapidly pushing the button releases only weak punches and is a bad idea. At level one, the meter goes up to 50%. L2 (6): The meter now goes up to about 80%. At this power, the range is increased slightly. L3 (-): The meter goes to 100%. The punch is huge at this power. This weapon is formidable and should not be underestimated. Vulcan (start with it) L1 (4): Rapid fire gun that fires in a spread pattern. When the clip (19 shots) is empty it reloads itself after about 1 second. When you shoot a solid surface, the shots bounce off and can hit enemies around corners. This is the basic weapon you will use most often. L2 (8): The shots are bigger and more powerful. Rate of fire is increased and reload time is reduced. (Slightly.) L3 (-): Further improvement in size, power, rate of fire and reload time. Missile (Found in Mission 2) L1 (4): You have 39 missiles which can be fired fairly rapidly. This weapon is somewhat more powerful than the vulcan. You don't get any ammo refill until the next mission, so don't waste them. L2 (6): The missiles are now homing. They're not very good at hitting small targets though, and they get confused when there are a lot of targets. Basically, they should be saved for bosses. L3 (-): The missiles can be fired at a faster rate. Laser (Found in Mission 5) L1 (3): This fires a focused yellow beam. The laser can only be maintained for about 4 seconds but it recharges quickly. It is superior to the vulcan and does more damage, especially against large opponents because it penetrates and damages multiple locations. However, the beam doesn't reflect like the vulcan shots. L2 (6): The laser is wider and more powerful. L3 (-): The laser is now enormous. * Two Endings There are two endings for the game, a good one and a bad one. Which one you get depends on what happens at the end of level 5, Twilight Pursuit. That's all I will say. * Mission Walkthrough Note: The placement and contents of the chests in the levels is predetermined, but some items are dropped by enemies. The exact enemy that drops the item varies, but the item will always be found in the same general area. 1. Colony Invasion This level is quite easy and you should take the opportunity to get used to the controls: hovering, dashing, blocking, and holding aim steady. Remember that enemies don't come back after you kill them, so you can take your time and explore. The boss is at the far right and clearly marked on the radar. Power chip locations: On the first large gray block to the right of the starting point there is a chest [1]. Not far to the right of the chest some enemy will drop a chip [2]. There's a chest on the floor under some red machinery farther to the right [3]. The second platform past the red machinery has a chest on it [4], and an enemy containing an energy chip is nearby. Past the next gray block there are a bunch of cannons, two energy chips can be found in nearby enemies. Just before the final gray block that leads to the boss there is a chest on a platform that has the final power chip [5]. The boss is a huge engine suspended from the ceiling. It starts near the bottom of the room and gradually moves upwards. It has a smaller, lower section which is destroyed first, and a large upper section. You must destroy both before it reaches the top, or it's game over. It attacks by sending down guns from cables on either side. The guns will be replaced if destroyed so try not to waste too much time on them. Whichever weapon you upgraded in this level, you should use that one against the boss. 2. Orbital Hideout This is a lo-grav level, and the first part is autoscrolling. Not a difficult as it looks, just blast away with the vulcan at approaching missiles and red enemies. Small asteroids can be shot up, but don't get caught behind big ones. No power chips to worry about here, but if you're lucky you may find an energy chip. When you reach the end of this area your boosters cut off. In the second part, if you haven't learned how to hold your aim, now is the time; otherwise you will have a hard time hitting your targets. Watch out for proximity mines, which are red discs on the surface of asteroids. They can be safely detonated by approaching until they are triggered (the top part retracts), then backing off to a safe distance. Be certain to pick up the new weapon on this level. Power chip locations: In a chest on the first large rock beneath you, between two mines [1]. In a chest on a small rock above and to the right of the previous one [2]. In this area, somebody should drop another chip [3]. There's a chest on the large rock below that has an energy chip. The new weapon (missile) is in a chest on a rock that houses a cannon shooting purple blasts [W]. A bit to the right of the new weapon blow stuff up to find an energy chip. A bit more to the right is another chest with a power chip [4]. And around this area someone should drop another power chip [5]. Further on, in front of a purple blaster cannon at the bottom of the screen (the third cannon, right before the boss) is a chest with the last chip [6]. At the far right you'll meet the boss. In fact it will start shooting missiles at you before you reach the far right. He has a halo of asteroids spinning around him, some with guns implanted. If you destroy the asteroids more will just come later. Since you don't want to get close, avoid using the punch. Aim carefully and blast away with your missiles, which probably aren't homing yet. Try to make them go between the rocks instead of hitting them and the boss will be dead in no time. If for whatever reason you run out of missiles, just finish the job with the vulcan. 3. Fall of Arc Nova The first part of this level is lo-grav. You will be starting at the upper left and navigating fuel platforms while heading to the lower right. A new enemy here is the homing laser cannon. They take a lot of damage while offering a small target. Even worse, they retract into the platform between shots. The safe way to deal with them is to approach with the vulcan blasting and back off when the laser gets close. This will require several tries before the cannon dies. The big circular fuel tanks can be destroyed, and in some places you need to blow them up to get through. At the lower right you will find a door. Blast it and go through. Power chip locations: One of the cannons on the green platform near the start should drop one [1]. A chest at the upper right on a rock wall [2]. A chest at the left tip of the second green platform [3]. A cannon on the underside of the second green platform has another [4], and there's a chest near number four with the last chip [5]. In the second part, the interior of the base, there is normal gravity. You will be navigating a lot of narrow corridors, and banking your vulcan shots off the walls is very useful. (Notice how the surface gets dented up when it gets shot.) Keep an eye out for the little people armed with guns. Unlike in Leynos, you can't kill them just by stepping on them. You will find a needed energy chip a few doors into the base. When you reach the hub at the right end, the gravity disappears and you must fight a trap that has two devices rotating around the sides of the room, shooting beams. Occasionally they line up at the top and bottom and shoot a giant beam between them. I recommend you use the punch and keep nailing one of them. When you kill one, the other will die. The gravity returns to normal, and you can proceed. In the next area, heading left, watch out for the floating round things. They are mines and they hurt. They approach relentlessly and can float through walls. Back up when you need to and keep blasting with the vulcan. Or you can use the punch if you prefer. Make your best effort not to fall down through the holes in the floor because if you make it all the way to the left you will find chests with an energy chip and power chip [6]. On the next floor down there are some spider bots and all the way to the right is an energy chip, in the control room. From the control room you must proceed all the way to the left and drop down to proceed. At this point you must choose which path to take to the bottom of the base. (a) You can head to the right, which takes you through a corridor with soldiers and a zig-zag shaft with mines. This leads to the lower right corner of the base, where there is a chest with a power chip [7]. To proceed to the left, you must dash by flame traps that explode when you get near. Or, (b) you can go down through the two doors to the missile tubes. This will put you in the path of the missiles as they are being launched. It is possible to avoid being hurt if you move in after a missile passes and then start dashing. In a nook about halfway across there is a power chip chest [8]. Proceeding down one level and to the right there is another nook with another power chip [9]. On the next level down, in the middle, there is an energy chip. From this point you can drop down on the right side, which leads to the same place the first path did, or drop to the left, which will let you bypass the flame traps entirely. It is possible to get the items from both (a) and (b), but when you enter the part with the flame traps there's no turning back. Now you need to drop down a long wide shaft, and there will be explosions following you. Halfway down (use your radar) there is a shaft leading to the right that has two chests with power chips [10] [11]. To reach it you must fire your boosters a little before passing the opening and float in. It's easy to screw up. If you miss it, just proceed to the right at the bottom, avoiding the flame traps. Both paths lead to the boss. In the next area, you have two minutes to defeat the boss and destroy the engines. To take the boss out, start by unloading your missiles. They should be at level 2 by now, so you won't need to worry too much about aiming. If he's not dead when you run out, finish him with your other weapons. He only has one attack, launching out his arm. It's easy to dodge, and it's a valid target too. You need to take him out fast, so don't worry about finesse. Now you need to head to the right, then all the way up and to the left to reach the engines. There are four in total. Just bash the part at the bottom with the punch to get it done. 4. In the Atmosphere In the first part of the level, you will be dogfighting enemy suits in lo-grav (free-fall, actually). Every one of the enemies you kill during this part drops a power chip! There are two gray suits, and when one dies another will take its place. The red one won't die, so don't bother with him. It lasts about 30 seconds, so make it count. Use your missiles if you want. You should be able to bag about four chips, or more. For the next part, you can't really do anything. There will be some scenes, then the end of the level. 5. Twilight Pursuit The first part is autoscrolling with the boosters, like in level 2, though it doesn't last long. Avoid the little gray missiles. Soon enough, you'll land. Once on the ground, you'll be up against some heavy equipment as you proceed to the right: tanks, bomber aircraft, and mobile cannons. Don't bother with the bombers unless you have a strong punch. Otherwise, just block. I find it easier to use the punch here. Later on, before reaching some buildings, you'll find a chest with a new weapon, the laser which will be your new best friend [W]. Watch out for the pit at the bottom of this area. Falling into it will kill you. Power chip locations: One of the vehicles you meet before reaching the buildings drops a chip [1]. At some point before reaching the pit one of the vehicles on the platforms should give an energy chip. A power chip will be dropped by a vehicle in the upper left part of the building [2]. A chest is on the upper level near the front of the building with another [3]. Towards the right end of the pit on the highest platform there's a chest with another chip [4]. One floor down there's a chest with an energy chip, and someone close by should give another power chip [5]. There's a little island in the middle of the pit. You can reach it by jumping and hovering from either side. There's a chest on it with a chip [6]. There's another island to the right of this one with another chip, but it can only be approached from the right [7]. When you're done exploring, head through the narrow passage at the right and the music will change. This whole next room is for fighting the boss, but you won't need that much space. If you've upgraded the laser once, this will be an easy battle. You don't need to do a lot of jumping around, so you can stand your ground and block more than in the previous battles. In the next room, there's a chest on an island at the bottom with a power chip [8]. Proceed to the lower right to the exit. The level isn't over yet! Time for the real boss. Now it's lo-grav again. This boss has two mounted turrets shooting at you, and there are also booster suits attacking with well aimed lasers. When you kill the suits, they will be replaced. Regarding each pair of suits, one of the two carries a power chip, and each gun has an energy chip, but you need to catch the chips before they fall. You can try holding your aim up and getting underneath the enemies. You can't keep it up forever, tough. Eventually the shuttle will escape if you don't take out its rockets. The laser is the best weapon for this job. If you fail to kill the shuttle, you will still proceed to the next level. It doesn't affect the gameplay but you will get the BAD ENDING after the last level. 6. Summit Firefight You start out in an autoscroll segment. It's not lo-grav, but auto-dash. The machines that attack you are very tough and the grenades they throw hurt a lot. If you get in front they'll fire lasers, which you can't block because of the dash. Try to focus on not getting hit, because you don't get anything for killing them. Eventually this section will end. Kill a few mobile cannons, which are especially annoying because they're hidden, and enter the facility. It's dark in here and your radar doesn't work. Neither does your punch or laser! You have a light though, which is pointed in the direction of your gun. When you reach a room with a waterfall, you'll be attacked by a giant burrowing centipede. The thing likes to burrow up underneath you, and you can't block its attack. Before you get too excited, you may want to grab the power chip in the chest at the far right of the room [1], though your available weapons may already be fully upgraded. The missiles don't work well if fired haphazardly because they detonate on the body and only the head can be damaged. To do it right, get on one side of the room and get him to chase you across. You should be flying backwards, firing missiles at his head. He will die pretty fast this way. When he's gone, a floor will open up on the left side of the room. Down the hole and to the left is another chest with a power chip [2], and to the right is an energy chip. One of the annoying mobile cannons (they like to jump right on top of you now) should drop another power chip [3]. Soon there will be a fork. If you take the (a) upper path and follow it to the right you'll find a bridge. Watch out for the glowing brown orbs; those are mines. You can shoot them. Going up and left will take you to a nook with an energy chip. To the right is a hole with some mines and a power chip [4]. Proceed to the upper right to the exit. If you go (b) down instead, and explore to the right you'll find a dead end with an energy chip. All the way down and to the left, you'll reach a couple long pits under a low ceiling. Hovering across the pits takes you to chests with two energy chips and a power chip [5]. Don't fall in the pits. Proceed to the lower right corner to reach the exit. Of course you can explore both paths but this place is annoying and your available weapons are probably maxed out by now. If they are, you should head straight for the exit. Both paths meet up in a sideways shaft, where a drilling machine will chase you to the right. Jump up to the platform at the end. To the left is another power chip chest [6]. All the way up and to the right is another [7]. To find the exit head for the lower right. Once out of there you can use all your weapons again. Now you need to take out all the gun emplacements, which are harmless to you unless you jump into the line of fire. Soon a mobile wing will arrive. He attacks by dropping blue stuff on you, and occasionally coming down to the tracks and ramming you. When he does this, he hurts just by touching you. Jump to avoid it. If you take too long to take out the guns, it's game over, but you should have enough time to handle the boss first. Missiles and lasers work well on him. Once you've wreaked havoc all over the whole place, the mission ends. 7. Soldiers' End You get thrown right into the action here. You will be attacked by little people and all kinds of ragtag vehicles, but they are more agressive than before. You may wish to rise above and blast down with the vulcan to start out. They are really much more dangerous than they look, so proceed with caution. Continuing to the right, you should find five power chips, more or less evenly spaced, from killing enemies [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The next area is more of the same, but now they like to come from behind as well. You'll find two more power chips [6] [7], but no energy chips. There's no reason why all your weapons shouldn't be maxed out by now. Boss time. He shoots bullets from his gun, and has two satellites that also shoot bullets. He also uses an unblockable shoulder rush when on the ground. Each satellite drops an energy chip when killed, so you may want to go for them first. Also, your booster won't overhead for this battle, so you can use the whole room to dogfight. You can use this to your advantage, because he can only fire his gun horizontally. I know of a couple cheap tricks: get him to stand on the stairs facing the middle of the room and fire up at him from ground level, or get him underneath the stairs and fire down from above. Stick to the laser or vulcan here. Once he's done there will be another scene, then more action. In this auto-scroll, auto-dash segment, you will be attacked by hovercraft, some of which conveniently leave energy chips. Stay facing to the right, so you can blast the closing doors instead of crashing through them. Heads up when the explosions start, because you need to jump over all the holes that appear. Now another boss. You're still auto-dashing and you need to avoid the obstacles. He attacks by shooting lightning at your position every couple of seconds. Try to time your jumps so the lightning misses every time. Use the laser for this one and keep it pointed horizontally. Just before the exit, you'll find two energy chips. Last boss. Lo-grav. He has several parts: A cannon near the bottom, a swinging arm, and the jet thruster area at the bottom. That cannon's got to go first. Ignore everything else and watch the cannon's timing. Blast it when it's not firing, and dodge when it is. When it dies it drops an energy chip so try to catch it. Fire UP at the cannon so the chip falls on you. Once the cannon's dead, the chin and forehead will start shooting homing fireballs. But don't go up there yet. You can hit the jets and the arm from complete safety. The arm shoots non-homing fireballs once it breaks, so don't kill it yet if you'd rather deal with the punches. To attack the chin, move up, fire at it, then retreat down before you get hit. Repeat. It'll die. At this point the mouth shoots a big laser periodically, which can reach almost to the bottom. To hit the forehead/mouth, it's better to stay near the top and dodge carefully. Start moving right before the fireballs zoom toward you and you should avoid them. Once he's dead, you've finished the game. * Closing This document is my own work. Any questions, comments, corrections or complaints should be addressed to the address below, with clear indication in the subject line that the email is concerning this FAQ. Given that I prefer to write for obscure titles, I enjoy hearing from people who read my guides. If you've played the game and used the FAQ, feel free to drop me a line and tell me what you think. dammit9x at hotmail dot com