~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Breath of Fire 5: Dragon Quarter ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Full Walkthrough and Guide By: Cyril ffantasyxgears@msn.com ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Table Of Contents `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` 1:Introduction 2:Version Information 3:Characters 4:Frequently Asked Questions 5:Battles 6:PETS System 7:Skills 8:Combos 9:Skills List 10:Shield Skills 11:Dragon 12:Walkthrough: Section 1: Ranger HQ Section 2: Lift to Bi-Corp Section 3: Genic Processor Section 4: Old Waste Shaft Section 5: Dragon and Lift-Low Sector Section 6: The Evils of Science Section 7: Frozen Road Section 8: Storage Section 9: Indust (One, Two, Three) Section 10: The Trinity Section 11: Side Quest: Nina's Medicine Section 12: Lifeline Section 13: PowerOne Section 14: Centre Section 15: The Beginning of the End 13:Determining your D-Ratio 14:SoL 15:Boss Strategies 16:Ant Colony 17:Korkon Horay 18:Weapons List 19:Armor and Shield List 20:Items List 21:Monsters 22:Misc ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Introduction `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` I have played all of the BoF games before, so I had extremely high expectations of this game. It did not let me down. Breath of Fire has always been the story of the dragon boy, Ryu, and his friends. While the characters may change, there is always the familiar faces of Ryu, as well as Nina to look upon. For those new to the BoF series, think of this as your first step into magnificence. This game is completely different then any other RPG I have ever played. And because of that, I decided to make a full guide, not just a boss walkthrough like I did before. While the transition from the normal turn based to this, may be hard for some people, I personally find it a breath of fresh air. Lastly note, that while I try to keep the spoilers at minimum with the guide, any normal walkthrough has spoilers. So unless you want to be spoiled, don’t look past where you are supposed to be. And so, without further ado: Cyril’s Breath of Fire 5 Guide Note: Some of this information may be a bit off, as I noticed some things change each time you go through...such as what items where, and enemy locations. Also the SoL ads many different things to the game. This is based off the first game. I hope to, in the future, have a SoL changes area... ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Versions `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Version 1.96 September 24th 2003: Made the format a lot easuer to read. Namely bigger headers, so people can find the areas in the FAQ easier. YEs I know my format is bad, I am working on improving it slowly. Version 1.95 August 30th 2003: Finished half of Korkon Horay (finally). All the way up (down?) to floor 24. I am doing some more later, but some is better then none, right? Version 1.90 July 31st 2003: Small, but good update. Added a Cupid to Vexacion walkthrough, and some SoL scenes. Also finished all the D-Ratio doors. Version 1.80 July 24th 2003: Finally. Not too big of an update, but a good one. I did the D-Ratio doors in IndustOne and Lifeline. I will finish the last D-Ratio door tonight, and then try and have it updated ASAP. And then I am going to do the path: Cupid to Vexacion. And from there it may take a while for the path Hortensia to Jezuit. Version 1.75 May 19th 2003: Added the "Boss Strategies" Section after reading on FCB about lazy readers (hey, we are all lazy at times!) who dont want to look through the guide to find the strategies. Version 1.70 May 2nd 2003: Finally got back on track with this thing. I FINALLY started the Ant colony section. YAY! Actually, that surprises even me, that I started it. Also added that little side area on the Bi Corp Labs B2. Finally, version 1.70! Version 1.66 April 22nd 2003: Added some notes, and made a few minor changes. Started playing again. Version 1.65 April 9th 2003: Made some smaller changes...more like formatting and the like. Starting on a new FAQ so I wont be updating as much. My EMail is currently down, and I dont know when it will be back up, so I may be slow with replies. Version 1.60 April 4th 2003: Added the Determining your D-Ratio section, and added a lot of weapons and armor. Also spellchecked it. Version 1.55 April 3rd 2003: I did the Sheild Skills section. I still have one or two more to add, but I am basically done with that. Tomorrow, I am going to add some more weapons and armor. Version 1.5: April 2nd 2003: Thank f***ing god. I have FINALLY finished the monster strategies. It has taken at LEAST 20 hours to do them all. Woooo...Ouch... Version 1.3: March 31st, 2003: woah...I redid the entire thing....UGH. Added more monsters as well. Took a while, for not much. Version 1.27: March 30th 2003: I added some more SoLs...And made a totally new section called Monsters. it will take a long time to finish, but I have finished it up to "C" for now. Version 1.25: March 28th 2003: Made it smaller by closing a lot of the enters. And added the walkthrough for centre 2-3F south, as well as Vexacion. Version 1.20: March 27th 2003: Added all of Lins Skills that I have. Added 10 floors of Korkon Horay, and added more SoL. Version 1.05: March 26th 2003: Added some of the Skills to Nina and Ryu. All of them that I have, actually. So about 30+ Skills in all. And added the first level of Korkon Horay...lots to do still....but I am getting along well. Version 1.0: March 25th 2003: FINALLY finished the walkthrough! Yes! Now I am going to finish the Skills, Weapons, Armor, the D-Ratio doors, and a new D- Ratio Section...as well as SoL....there’s a lot to do, but I have started most of it. YAY for me! Version .80 March 24th 2003: Alright..I am doing LOTS here....I made 2 new sections, Dragon and PETS system. And finished more walkthrough (up to PowerOne 1F). Also (FINALLY!) added more weapons and armor. Next will be skills, finishing the walkthrough, and Korkon Horay (which really isn’t as hard as one makes it out to be) Version .65 March 21st 2003: Decided to make version 1.0 when I finished the walkthrough alone. I FINALLY got around to changing the SoL area, added some D-Counter doors, made minor changes to a few areas, and finished Walkthrough up until the last third of Nina's side quest. Version .33-.45 March 9th through the 19th: Finished walkthough from Storage bosses to the end of IndustOne. My game stopped working at this point, and I was delayed for a while. Version .22-.30: Walkthrough from CorpLab to Frozen Road completed. As well as some minor sections. Version .01-.20: February 21-28 2003: Started, and added some of the weapons, armor, and all of the rest. Walkthrough to Bosch done. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Characters `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` This is a section devoted to each character. It tells strengths and weaknesses, and my personal strategies with them. This is the layout: Character: The characters name. Starting level: The level the character starts at Weapon: The characters weapon Personal Skill: The characters personal Skill Battle Skill: Skill the character, and only THAT character can use in battle. Can be used by pressing R2. Profile: About the character Strengths: What the character is good at Weaknesses: What the character lacks at. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Ryu ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Starting level: 1 Weapon: Sword Personal Skill: Dash Battle Skill: D-Dive Profile: Ryu, your main character, is a low ranking Ranger who probably wont get far in the world. He is still devoted though, and will do what he must for people he cares for. He is good friends with Bosc. Strengths: Ryu is definitely your main attacker throughout the game. All of his skills are for attacking, and damaging enemies. While he starts the game off rather weak, he gets stronger very quickly. Ryu can equip the strongest armors, and he has high defense. Weaknesses: Well...normally one would consider it a strength, but I say it is a weakness. Ryu’s transformation. It ads the D-Counter at the top, and limits your game play time. It makes me very stressed. Another of Ryu’s weaknesses is the fact that he is so damned slow. He just doesn’t attack enough for me. And early on, his skills just don’t cut it. Plus, his Personal Skill ups the D- ratio. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Bosch ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Starting Level: 1 Weapon: Rapier Personal Skill: Kick Battle Skill: None Profile: Bosch has a high D-Ratio, making him a natural choice for a leader. He was born into an aristocratic family, and has high hopes for his own future. Strengths: For the short while you have Bosch, he is great. He has very strong physical attacks, and his skills do a lot of damage. In the beginning, he can use PoisonBite maybe 6 times in a row if he doesn’t have to walk. His second level 2 Skill is also great. He is fast, compared to Ryu. Weaknesses: You do not get to keep Bosch for long. You may have accidentally use party EXP on him. But his personal skill makes starting battles with him harder, as it does not reach far. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Nina `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Starting level: 1 Weapon: Rod Personal Skill: Draw Items Battle Skill: Remove Magic Circles Profile: Not much is known about Nina. She is a young girl of twelve, who does not speak, but seems to want to protect Ryu. She looks up to him, and seems to love him. With little wings on her back, she is a mystery to our heroes. Strengths: Nina is the fastest character in the game. No doubt. She also has the longest range of movement in the game. Her skills are very helpful, as they hinder an enemy, and she works good as a support character. Weaknesses: Nina is weak physically. She takes a lot of damage, can not physical attack, and has low HP. She can not equip the strongest armors, and shields. She will get hurt easily, and early on, maybe killed in two hits from a foe. What makes her even worse is that she starts at level one. Her battle Skill is almost worthless, as you almost NEVER want to remove magic circles. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lin ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Starting level: 10 Weapon: Gun Personal Skills: Shoot, Blast Battle Skill: View Profile: Lin is a member of the Trinity. They are known as outlaws, and are hunted by the rangers. She and Ryu get off to a very bad start. She seems to be looking for Nina, and wants to protect her. Strengths: Lin is a great character to have lead the party. Her Personal Skill attack enemies from far away, and push them away so you can get by them. She is rather strong, and her skills usually cause harmful status effects to enemies. She is able to equip strong armors, and her weapons reach in battle is the longest in the game. If you want to finish a battle before it starts, she is the one you are looking for. Her battle Skill, View, is awesome as well. it lets you see an enemies status, as well as EXP, Items, level, and Zenny it may drop. Weaknesses: Her strengths are her weaknesses. To do a whole lot of damage with her, you have to combo, and that takes a lot of AP. Otherwise, her attacks just are not as strong as they could be. Nor are her skills. Not to downgrade her, she can do a lot of damage, she just doesn’t do as much as she should. She is rather slow, and her Personal Action takes a while to shoot, leaving you vulnerable to attack in the meantime. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ FAQ `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Is it possible to lower the D-Ratio?: NO. There is absolutely, positively NO way to lower the D-Counter. Though I have noticed that if you are running around aimlessly, and haven’t gotten in a lot of encounters recently, then it will go up faster. Some other things, even though it is common sense, that make it rise faster: Using Ryu's Dash skill Transforming Ryu Using strong, and frequent, attacks when you are forced to have Ryu in Dragon form. And a hint to keeping it low (I had like 8% and I when I died, and the guide itself had like 13%): During the Bosch battle, Ryu will usually attack last. At this point, Lin will attack before him, and if she has steal equipped she can so the stealing (see battle)and have Nina use multiple Jolt attacks(if she doesn’t move, she should be able to do around 120+ damage with them, and have Lin finish the first one off that same turn. Don’t have Ryu Attack. Do the same thing, and then have Ryu kill Bosch with Twister. I ended this battle with 4.5%. The normal is around 6-8% though...That IS getting all the items though. Just try for the lowest you can get during the first battle. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~ How do I activate SoL?: You have to have either died before, or have beaten the game and saved after. The farther you are into the game, the more SoL movies you will see. To know if a movie is SoL or not, you will see a small marking in the bottom right corner that says SoL. The more you beat the game, the more movies as well. SoL also gives you all of your weapons you had equipped when you died, and you retain all of your skills. You get half your money, and half your party EXP (or all on the latter I am not positive.) ~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Help! I don't have enough Zenny!: In the beginning of the game you will be screwed Zennywise. You will finally get enough Zenny after Lift: LowSector, and the return to LowSector Borough. A good trick to get a lot of healing items though: You start the game with 300 Zenny. You can buy 5 Heal Kits. If you purposely die in the first dungeon (store ALL of your Healing Kits before dying, and when you choose to restart, you will have those Kits in storage, so you can have them. Restart the game multiple times and you can make it much easier. You also wont have to use your starting money if you have enough of them. Try to get at least 15 Heal Kits. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~ How do I save??? I Don’t have enough Save Tokens!: You Don’t have to use a save token to end the game. You can create a file called a "soft save" like those on the Game Boy Advance. A Soft Save temporarily saves data. It will delete when you load it though, so if you Don’t want to be pushed back a LONG way, try to save once a dungeon, usually at the beginning of one, and the end of the other. Try not to save for the first time in this game until you get to the Genic Processor. The Soft Saves are your best friend, but use them wisely. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~ You say Lin is so good, yet I can't seem to find ANY use for her!: Lin is awesome, though SHE IS EASILY THE MOST COMPLEX CHARACTER IN THE GAME. You have to be able to utilize combos REALLY well to use her well though. She may not do as much direct damage as Ryu does, but she can reach VERY far, and easily accumulates AP as she does not have to move toward her enemies. At a long range, she is unstoppable, especially when protected by Magic Circles. A good strategy to use with Lin and Nina together: Have Nina use 1 or more Magic Circles, and have Lin use the Skill Come here! And that will pull the enemies into the magic circles, forcing damage. Come Here! Also saves characters like Ryu AP as they do not have to travel as far to get to the enemy. For combos with Lin I usually use: Hey Hey!, There!, Keep At It! (1 or more times) and then Blow Up! That is a good attack combo, and you can obviously build from there. For support this will work: Hey Hey!, There!, Stay there!, Out of the way! That will make an enemy bound to one place, far away from Lin, leaving her safe from any counters, or damage from that enemy. And one of my favorites: Hey Hey!, There!, That’s It!, Stay There! That last combo will stun an enemy, creating an effect like Nina's Fragball (when an enemy hits it). That’s It! Work well with just about ANY skill. Those are basic combos, you have to have your own definite play style to use Lin. If you can master her combos, you will see how truly powerful she can be. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~ I beat the game, but the ending wont play, whats wrong, and how do I get around it? Well some of the games that Capcom released were faulty, so they did not play the ending movies. If you still have the reciept you can send it to capcom and they will send you a new game. They had an official announcement about it on their website a while back. But if you don't want to do this, you are screwed, sorry people. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Battles `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Battles in this game will remind you a lot more of Grandia then they do normal Breath of Fire. Capcom decided to completely ditch the entire old combat system, and go for a more technical fighting system. I am not going to explain all of the functions of the battle system(yet), but these few basic tips should help you begin. Battle Basics: Battles can be fought in many different ways. But the most important part is when, and how, you actually begin a battle. It is like Grandia. Either the enemy touches you first, or you touch it first. If you touch it first, then whatever character you have set as leader will get an extra attack, making the battle easier for you in the long run. A good strategy when starting a fight, is to throw some Dried Meat at an enemy, and let it rush for it. The enemy will ignore you completely, and go for the food. With this advantage, run up to the enemy, and press either X, or Triangle to attack him first. You will get an extra turn at the beginning of the battle with the character you are currently controlling, and when you win the battle, you will end up some extra experience called tactical experience. So all in all, this tactic is very helpful as it will allow you to finish battles faster. But be warned, if you come rushing at the monster, he can look up and notice you from a distance, and you might accidentally run into him, giving HIM the advantage in battle. It is a double edged sword, and you will have to hone the point to master this game. In battle, a character is totally reliant on AP. Ap allows a character to move, use magic, and use skills. Using items does not cost AP. You gain AP as you level up, or through an AP enhancing item. See the skills section for more information. Items are absolutely invaluable in this game. To use them, you have to press R2, and then O. Choose the item from a list and then the character/enemy to use it on. See the Items section for more information. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ PETS System `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` The PETS system is what you will rely on totally throughout the entire game. The PETS system is really basic, but takes a LONG time to master. The PETS system is basically the out of battle system that you use to harm, avoid, or get the drop on enemies. For an example, you have an Item called Fresh Meat. You throw it out (by pressing the Square button) when close to an enemy, and the enemy will come running towards it, and begin eating it. At this point, you can either run past him, dodging the battle completely, or you can attack him from a distance with Lin, or close in with Ryu. You can also throw things like Dynamite and Bombs at them to get an advantage dealing damage out of battle. Depending on the item, it will have a different effect when used before battle. PETS Items: Bind Bomb: When you use this item before/during battle it inflict quite a bit of damage to your enemies, and also causes them to be bound to one place. A.K.A.: Damage and Bind status. Bomb: When used in before battle, it inflicts damage. But it has to hit the enemy to detonate. Confusion Mushroom: Like a Fresh Meat, except when an enemy eats this item, it becomes confused. Dynamite: Like the bomb, this one explodes near enemies, so even if it misses it will still blow up. More useful in the long run then the bomb. Fire Bomb: I have to say, that for the rarity of this item, it isn’t worth it. This bomb will stay in one place, detonate, and then have a ring of fire around it after detonating. It will do good damage, but it MAY require you to waste another PETS item (like a Fresh Meat) Meat/Fresh Meat: This is the main item you will use in the PETS system. It draws enemies to the item, and they will start eating it. This lets you ambush them easily, or slip by them. Also sets the target up for any damage dealing traps you might have with you. This, unlike damage dealing traps, will attract only Genic’s, so humans wont go after it. Poisoned Mushroom: The same as a Confusion Mushroom, except it poisons enemies instead of confusing them. Prox Bomb: Basically the same as a Fire Bomb, except the area is larger, and the time it lasts is shorter. Rotten Meat: This is mainly for dodging, or scattering enemies. If you want less enemies in a battle, throw this at them, and the enemies will go running. Sleepy Mushroom: Same as the PoisonShroom or the Confushroom. Except this one makes an enemy fall asleep. probably the most useful of Mushrooms. The best way to use a damage dealing PETS item is to start with an item like Fresh Meat, and then throwing the damage dealing item out. the enemy should be too busy feeding to really realize something is going to happen. This takes time to master, but once you do, you will easily get the game down. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Skills `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Each character has certain skills they can learn from different enemies, and different skills they automatically come with when the character joins. Skills are the main attacks a character uses in battle. A character can learn skills three different ways: The first way is by coming with the Skill. Ryu himself comes with the Skills, Slice, Deathbringer, and Vert Slash when he starts the game. Another way a character can learn a skill is through getting attacked with it. When a character gets hit by a certain skill (Such as Ryu with Wild Swing) they have a chance to learn the skill through an item they will automatically receive. To make the chance greater that an enemy will actually use the skill you want, I suggest you have the character you want to learn the skill lead the party, as they seem to be attacked most. So if you are going to attack a Duke, and you want Ryu to learn Wild Swing, have Ryu at the head of the party, and have him go on the main offensive. That will maximize your chances of learning the skill. You have to have the steal ability quipped to get the item from the enemy you want the skill from, and the character with steal must be hit withe the skill. The last way a character can learn skills is through getting a treasure key through a boss, or stronger then normal monster, and opening a chest. These chests usually contain stronger skills then the ones you get from enemies. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Combos `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Combos are done by having a lot of AP, and by using multiple skills to link attacks together. You will notice, after you get one attack done, that in the lower right hand corner, a miniature menu will say COMBO: And you will see a letter with a button. Usually a O. If you want to get the combo stronger, and use more AP, pres, and hold R2 and you will see the level 2 Skills. Currently, on my Ryu(I prefer Lin), I have Vert Slash, and Fang. So if I were to do a combo of just about 3 hits, I would press the buttons like this: O, O(for an extra Slash hit), R2-O(for Vert Slash) , X. Also, R2 will keep you on the level you were on with the last combo, so I could use Fang without having to press R2 again. This combo would be a Slash, Vert Slash, Fang Combo. Also, the longer the combo, the more damage each successive attack will do. This may not be EXACTLY right. But it should help you get the basics down. If you have played Xenogears, it is rather like that system, with the combo's. It takes a long time to completely understand. But if you decide to play with Lin (when you get her) you will be forced to learn it, as she is completely reliant on combos. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Skills List ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` This is a list of the Skills I have found so far in this game. This is how it will look: Character Name: The name of the character that can use the skill. Level: I only do this at the beginning of the each level type, so three times per character. Also has the AP cost by it. Skill: The name of the Skill Type: The type of damage the Skill does. If an enemy defends against a certain type of power,(such as physical) then the skill of that same type will do lower damage. Location: Where you get the Skill Description: The description and effect(s) of the Skill. On the paragraph after I have the direct definition from the game. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Ryu ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~Level 1: 10 AP`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Slice Type: Physical Location: Ryu starts the game with this Skill Description: Slice is the equivalent of a normal physical attack. Weak, but for a O attack, it is quite strong. Lately, I have been using it more with Combo's. Normal Physical Attack Skill: Side Slash Type: Physical Location: get this skill after beating the Death Cow or the Goo element in Lift to Bi-Corp 2. Description: Side Slash hits a rather large range of enemies in the area in front of Ryu. Though it only does an extremely small amount of damage to them. Skill: Thrust Type: Physical Location: Ryu must steal this skill from the Gar attackers. Description: Just like Bosch's attack. It does damage to the enemy, no matter how high their defense is. There are a lot of enemies with high physical defense, but there are probably better skills then to damage them. Attack Power 25% (regardless of enemy defense) Skill: Ogre Slice Type: Physical Location: Ryu must learn this skill from the Duke, or Duke Leaders in the Lift’s to Bi-Corp levels. Description: Don’t really use it, as to risky, but if you are willing to risk it....ouch... Accuracy -50% and, if hits, causes a critical attack of 75%. Skill: Kick Type: Physical Location: After defeating the Magma Nugget in the first Danger Room, you get a Treasure key. Use the key in the chest in the same room to get this skill. Description: Very, very useful. I find myself using this more and more. When paired with Nina and G-Flare etc, this Skill can obliterate all in its path. It pushes an enemy away from Ryu. Don’t use it if you plan to combo though, as you wont be able to do anymore consecutive attacks after this. This is more of a finishing move. Attack Power 75% and Hit-Back power of 2.5 m. Skill: Rust Armor Type: Physical Location: The treasure chest in Lift: LowSector: 3. Description: Lowers an enemy defense by five percent. Can be useful if used multiple times in a row. Not that strong. Attack Power 80% and reduces enemy defense by 5% Skill: Third Eye Type: Special Location: You must steal this skill from the Gunner Leader during the long trio of battles with Zeno. Description: This skill makes it so that Ryu’s next attack WILL NOT miss, and ups the accuracy of the attack after that. You will need to use this a few times throughout the game, especially during the Nina's medicine side quest. The bad thing is that it cant be used in Combo's. Ensures that the next attack will always hit Skill: Dent Weapon Type: Physical Location: A few locations, I got mine from the Fairy Skill shop. Description: Dent weapon does damage ( a bit lower then normal) and lowers an enemies attack power. for strong enemies, this can be a blessing. A shame that it hardly ever works. I suggest not having this, and setting Nina up with the stat lowering Skills. Attack Power 80% and lowers enemy Attack power by 5% Skill: Brainquake Type: Physical Location: You must steal this skill from the second battle with Tantra. But if he is only merged with Deegon. Description: Again, Nina is better at stat lowering Skills, but this one lowers an enemies magical attacks. If you prefer damage to a higher percentage of getting the status effect, then use this one. Attack Power 80% and Reduces enemy Magic by 5% Skill: Act Delay Type: Physical Location:...Don’t remember.....Probably also from the fairy shop. When I get it again, Ill write it down. Description: Again, same as Rust Armor, Dent Weapon etc. Except this one works with speed. Attack Power 80% and Reduces Enemy Speed by 5% Skill: Cutspace Type: Physical Location: Ant Colony Shop Description: Same as the above’s...Except this is probably the least useful of them. You should almost never use this. Attack power 80% and reduces enemy Move by 5% ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 2: 20 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Vert Slash Type: Physical Location: Ryu starts the game with this Skill Description: Very useful in the beginning of the game. A stronger normal attack. Attack Power 130%, and accuracy -20% Skill: Wild Swing Type: Physical Location: Ryu must get this skill from a Duke, or Duke leader in the Lift to Bi-Corp levels. Description: Like any other Wild Swing from BoF, I don’t really use it too much. It can do a lot of damage if you get lucky though. I personally think that it is too much of a chance. Random Damage between 50% and 200%. Skill: Fang Type: Physical Location: You must learn this from Bosch during the battle in EndSector Borough. (See EndSector Borough) Description: The same as Bosch’s skill. Is it worth it to waste D points on? Probably not, but if you want to get all the items, then go for this one. But when you get it, it is one of the better skills for Ryu. Attack Power 40% (regardless of enemy Defense Power.) Skill: Hex Type: Special Location: In the Ant colony, in the item shop. Description: This attack does not do any damage, but any enemy hit by it gives 10% more EXP. It can only be used once a battle, and can be used in combos. Increases EXP value of enemy of attacked enemy by 10% (causes no damage) Skill: Hazecut Type: Physical Location: You must steal this from the Shadowplayer’s in Lifeline. Description: This is a VERY accurate skill. Once you get this, you will probably never use Third Eye again. It is also fairly strong. Attack power 120% and Accuracy up 50% Skill: Spiritcharge Type: Special Location: After beating Geegais in IndustTwo, you get the Treasure Key, and can open the Chest. The Chest contains this Skill. Description: Somewhat like Third Eye, except this Skill ups the attack power of the Skill used after this. Also, just like Third Eye, this can not be used in Combo's. Attack Power 1.5 for the next turn only. Skill: Discharge Type: Physical Location: Old TradeSector D. During Nina's Medicine Side quest, it is in the Treasure Chest. Description: During some battles, you will find this very useful. It does damage equal to the damage you have received. So in effect, it can be very strong. Records damage received during battle and returns it Skill: Crimson Raid Type: Physical Location: Steal from the second form of Tantra, but only if he has absorbed Geegais AND Deegon Description: Actually, this Skill is very strong, unlike what you might think. It does quite a bit of damage, and heals you a bit. While the healing will almost always be insignificant, it still does a lot of damage. Restores HP to Ryu equal to 10% of damage dealt. Skill: Skullsplit Type: Physical Location: I Don’t know...I just kind of ended up with it....Probably the Ant Colony....I got a LOT of Skills from there. Description: Probably one of Ryu's best level 2 Skills. It does a LOT of damage, and caused AP damage. The latter is really rare on your Skills. I always try to have this equipped. Attack Power 125% (deals damage to enemies AP) ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 3: 30 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Deathbringer Type: Physical Location: Ryu starts the game with this Skill. Description: While strong, it takes a lot of AP, and so it is not worth it. I am a cheap wad. But against stronger enemies, this works wonders. Attack Power 125%(If it hits, Critical Attack is 100%) Skill: Roundsabre Type: Physical Location: Locked treasure chest in CorpLab 3F Description: This attack is basically a more powerful version of Side Slash. Attack Power 150% Skill: Crossviper Type: Physical Description: This attack LOOKS awesome, but you will rarely use it. It attacks, and brings Ryu to the opposite side of the monster. Hit-and-Run Physical attack (Critical chance +75%) Skill: Circle Stage Type: Physical Location: A Treasure Chest in Old Trade Sector Description: Just like the Skill the Worm Men use, except that it doesn’t hit nearly as bog of range, making it a lot less useful. It hits a circular area around Ryu. Normal Physical attack Skill: Violet Death Type: Physical Location: This Skill is ONLY on Zeno's Violet blades Description: Probably one of the best Skills in the game. It hits Twice, and the second hit almost always does over 150 damage. If you have Zeno's Blade equipped (I did throughout the entire first game), then this will be your main attack. 1st Hit: Attack Power of 20% (Regardless of Defense) 2nd Hit: 100% Critical (to a large range) ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Bosch ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 1: 10 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Thrust Type: Physical Location: Bosch starts the game with this Skill Description: I personally overlook this skill for the second of Bosch’s skills. I use that one far more frequently, as it is capable of doing more damage in the long run. Attack Power 25%(regardless of enemy defense.) Skill: PoisonBite Type: Physical Location: Bosch starts the game with this Skill Description: Good for wittling down enemies with high HP, I find it very useful. If you have a lot of AP, you can use this attack, maybe six times in a row, making it Bosch’s greatest damage dealer. Attack Power 80%, Poisons enemy ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 2: 20 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Fang Type: Physical Location: Bosch starts the game with this Skill Description: I also tend to use the second skill more then I use this one. But if the enemy is hard to damage, it helps. It hits a small area. Attack Power 40% (regardless of enemy Defense Power.) Skill: Lion Smash Type: Physical Location: Bosch starts the game with this Skill Description: This is my main attack with Bosch, as it is very damaging, and works well. Attack Power 110%, Accuracy -20% ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Nina `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 1: 10 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: G-Flare Type: Trap Location: Nina starts the game with this skill Description: Nina makes a rather large area of the battlefield go up in flames, and stay there until an enemy hits it. When an enemy DOES hit it, it will take a large amount of damage. When an enemy runs into the flame, then the flame will extinguish. Magic that Blocks the movement of some enemies. Skill: Jolt Type: Magic Location: You get the Jolt item randomly from the enemy Hermits in the later levels of the Old Waste Shaft. Description: I love this skill...very useful early in the game. Nina seems to accumulate AP faster, and because of this, she can use this skill a lot. Thank god for no MP! If Nina is at max AP, she can attack with this baby at least 8 times! Great for damage dealing. Electric Magic Attack Skill: Flare Type: Magic Location: You have to win this item from the Ruby Goo in the Corp Lab. Description: Same as Jolt, but it takes you a LOT longer to get it. This is fire elemental, and seems to be a bit more powerful the Jolt, as more enemies are weak versus fire. Fire Magic Attack Skill: Frost Type: Magic Location: You must win, or steal this spell from the Sapphire Goo's in Corp lab 3F and up. Description: By the time you get this, you will probably already have Flare and Jolt, making it almost useless. But it does quite a bit of damage to enemies weak against ice. Ice Magic Attack Skill: Joltball Type: Trap Location: The locked treasure chest in Lift LowSector 1. Description: Even more useful the G-Flare, Jolt ball not only seems to do more damage, but it paralyzes whatever enemy hits it for a turn. Meaning that whoever hits it loses his(or her) attack for a turn. Use it like G-Flare, and you are in the money. Magic Trap that Stuns enemies that come into contact with it Skill: Blunt Type: Special Location: After the danger room in CorpLab 1F, you get a treasure key. use it in the chest in the next room to get this spell. Description: Lowers an enemies attack by 10%. Can be used multiple times, making it useful, for defeating physically strong enemies. It doesn’t do any damage though. It is really your style of game play that dictates if you will actually use this. Reduces enemy attack power by 10% Skill: Weaken Type: Special Location: .....*is playing through the game...again...* Description: This is probably the most useful of the stat lowering Skills. It lowers Defense instead of attack. Also does no damage. Reduces enemy defense power by 10% Skill: Enfeeble Type: Special Location: Ant Colony Description: Like all of the other Stat lowering Skills. This one lowers magic instead. Reduces enemy Magic by 10% Skill: Slow Type: Special Location: Also the Ant Colony Description: Yet another stat lowering Skill. This is probably the second most useless of them. I was usually faster then the enemies as it is. Reduces enemy speed by 10% Skill: Divine Type: Special Location: Ant Colony, and PowerOne 2F Treasure Chest Description: Yes, this is the most useless of the status affecting Skills. If you are in range of actually using this Skill, you will already be in the enemies range. And it also makes for more traveling for Ryu. Reduces enemy Movement by 10% ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 2: 20 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Note: You can get the Three level 2 Attack Skills from a Trilizard. Every time his element changes, so does his item. Skill: Fireblast Type: Magic Location: In the Ant Colony in the item shop Description: This is the most useful of the level two skills. It hits a HUGE area in front of Nina, and around her a bit. It does about 60 damage normally, and 100 if the enemy is weak against it. I find this my new fave spell. Fire Magic Attack Skill: Iceblast Type: Magic Location: In the Ant colony, at the item shop Description: Iceblast hits an enemy(or enemies) in a line in front of Nina for good damage. Not as good as Fireblast, as it doesn’t have the range, but good if the enemy is weak against the element. Ice Magic Attack Skill: Lightning Type: Magic Location: You get this from the Ant colony shop in the second batch if items Description: Lightning, like Iceblast, hits a straight line in front of Nina, limiting it's use. Use it the same way you use Iceblast. Also found from the Bouncers in CorpLab. Electric Magic Attack Skill: Fireball Type: Trap Location: One of the IndustOne Treasure Chests. Description: This is a useful Skill. It works like a larger Joltball. A MUCH larger Joltball, meaning in the long run it will be cheaper to use at longer distances. It stuns enemies with a higher probability as well. You use these a lot. Fire Elemental. Magic trap that Stuns all enemies that come in contact with it Skill: Fragball Type: Trap Location: Treasure Chest in Frozen Road 4F Description: My personal favorite trap skill. It is basically the same as Fireball, but it just seems better to me. Ice Elemental. Magic trap that Stuns all enemies that come in contact with it Skill: Transfer Type: Special Location: You must steal this from the Rescuemechs in PowerOne. Description: At the late stages of the game, you will use this and only this Skill with Nina in boss battles. This Skill is a lifesaver when using it on Ryu when the enemies have ABD. Give 20 AP to a companion Skill: G-Iceblast Type: Trap Location: One of D-Ratio doors in Old waste Shaft. It is in one of the treasure chests. Descriptions: Unlike the other level 2 Traps, this one doesn’t stun enemies. But because it is lacking that ability, it does about twice as much damage. So basically this is a very strong trap. It will be useful if you Don’t mid giving up the stun effect. it also seems to keep enemies away... Magic trap that blocks the movement of some enemies. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 3: 30 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Blizzard Type: Magic Location: Centre 3F. Cupids route, in the Treasure Chest, after the danger room. Description: This is a hugely ranged, and very strong attack Skill. It does about twice the damage of a level 2 attack Skill. Has a range about as large as Lin's Let's Dance!. Ice Magic Attack Skill: Valhalla Type: Magic Location: On an Antenna Weapon, and Korkon Horay Description: This is the electric equivalent of Blizzard. This is also the last of the three you get, so it is probably the least useful. Electric Magic Attack HISTORY LESSON: Valhalla was the place of the gods in Norse Mythology. If you were a warrior, and died in battle, you went to Valhalla. Valhalla is basically paradise. Skill: Kyri Type: Magic Location: This skill is ONLY on the weapon , Holy Heart. Description: In as few dungeons in the game, you will consider this Skill a godsend. It instantly kills any undead enemy. It had a large range around Nina, and can not be avoided. One-Shot Kill (effective against Undead) Skill: Death Type: Magic Location: This is only found on the Weapon Demonscythe Description: This skill is like Kyri, except not nearly as effective. It only works on living enemies, and doesn’t work all the time. Also, it only works on one enemy. Instant-Death Attack Skill: Mirage Blast Type: Trap Location: You can get this from Korkon Horay, or from A Pandora's Box in Centre, if you last 4 turns. Description: This is a very odd trap. It is small, the size of a level 1 trap. When you cast it, a little Nina will be placed inside of a the trap. Enemies will usually run toward that trp instead, so it basically fools the enemies into thinking that the Trap it the Real Nina, and when they attack it, they go boom. Very cool. Sets up a Nina doll that Explodes when enemies attack it. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lin ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 1: 10 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Hey! Hey! Type: Shot Location: Lin starts the game with this Skill Description: This will be one of the main attacks you start your combos with, at least until you get another Skill. It doesn’t do much damage, but it makes your other attacks a bit stronger. Almost required to ad status effects to enemies Adds Effect to Successive Attacks Skill: There! Type: Shot Location: In Old Waste 6F, you have to do the danger room near the end of the level. If you turn left, and search then monster, you will enter a danger room event, and when you kill all of the Roaches, you get a key. Head north from this room and open the treasure chest with your new key. The skill will be in it. Description: Another of Lin’s Primary combo starters, this enhances the effect of the next attack in the combo. So if you use Stay Here! It will cast Bind instead of just lowering their movement. Doesn’t up damage too much though. Useful, and in the hands of a trained warrior, deadly. Attack Power 70% and Increases Critical Chances Skill: C’mere! Type: Special Location: On the Cleaner Weapon, and you can steal it from the first battle with Tantra Description: This is an odd Skill. It draws enemies to Lin. It can be very useful. It lower the amount o AP Ryu has to use, and can bring them into Nina's magic traps. Interesting, but useful. A vacuum that sucks in enemies. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 2: 20 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Stay Here! Type: Shot Location: Lin starts the game with this Skill Description: This skill lowers the distance an enemy can move. Useful, as Lin is able to stay far away from her enemies and attack, making her invulnerable at times. Attack Power 110% Reduces Enemy Movement Skill: Outta My Way Type: Shot Location: Lin starts the game with this Skill Description: Very useful when used with Ryu’s kick, and any of Nina’s Ground spells. This attack forces an enemy backwards, and even if it doesn’t take extra damage from hitting a wall, then the enemy still has to expend more AP to attack you again. If you kick them into a Ground spell, the enemy will take damage. Only use this attack at the end of a combo, as you can not continue your combo after you use it. Hit-Back Effect Skill: That’s It! Type: Shot Location: .......DAMN IT WHY DON’T I WRITE THESE THINGS DOWN????????????? Description: Probably Lins best normal damage dealer. It doesn’t have any special effects, or require you to do anything to do good damage. If you are lazy and don't combo well with Lin, then this is the Skill for you. Attack Power 130%, and adds effect to successive attacks. Skill: Keep At It! Type: Shot Location: On the elemental guns Description: This is a strong attack skill that hits quite a long range. It is not quite as strong as That’s It!, but it hits a LOT more targets. It's range is around the size of Nina's Lightning and IceBlast Skills. Has a low accuracy though. Attack Power 120% gives weight to penetration Skill: Take This! Type: Shot Location: Asimov, during the series of battles in Storage. Description: This attack is not as string as the other two damage dealers in the Level 2 Slots, but it does damage no mater the enemy defense. Lin needs these, as she wont be able to damage some enemies otherwise. 60% attack power regardless of enemy defense Skill: Outta My Way! Type: Shot Location: I think she comes with this Skill Description: This is basically the same as Ryu’s Kick Skill. It is not meant to do a whole lot of damage, but force an enemy back out of range. Always use this as a combo ender, as you cant do anymore after using it. Hit-Back effect ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Level 3: 30 AP `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Skill: Blow Up! Type: Shot Location: Lin can learn this skill in Lift Sector 2. After one room with a fight with Dukes, you get the treasure chest key, and this will be the prize. Description: Very strong, and very useful. This attack hits a large area in front of Lin, and does quite a bit of damage. When you first get it, it does about 50 damage, but the damage quickly rises. As this is Lin's first level three Skill, you will use it a lot. Can also be gotten from the gunner Gar on Frozen Road. Attack Power 150% Skill: Lets Dance! Type: Shot Location: Treasure Chest in IndustOne Description: Somewhat like Blow Up! Except that this Skill hits more of a circular range. More like Nina's level 3 attack Skills. It depends on what you like, this or Blow Up!, better. Attack Power 150% Skill: Shatter Type: Shot Location: PowerOne 4F Treasure Chest Description: Shatter has the potential to be one of the strongest skill in the game. The closer Lin is to the enemy, the more damage the Skill does. It can do over 300 damage if you are close enough. The closer Lin is to the enemy, the more damage this Skill deals. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Shield Skills `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` This is a list of all the Shield Skills in the game. Shield Skills can (and usually do) take AP to equip, but they give your party much better advantages over their opponents. Certain Skills, like the reduce damage (physical or Astral), can not be found off certain weapons, and are not really considered Skills. Skill: The name of the Shield Skill Location: Where to get this Shield Skill AP: AP it takes to equip the Skill Effect: What this Shield Skill does Skill: Anger Location: Steal this Skill from Deamoned AP: 5 Effect: This Skill will make you automatically use SpiritCharge when you get hit with a physical attack. It basically powers up your next attack. Best used on Ryu. Skill: Counter Location: Steal from the Duke Battlers in Lift: LowSector. AP: 10 Effect: This Skill Counters an enemy attack with whatever skill you have on the top of the Level 1 Skills (The circle on the circle area). If you are at a high level, it can work well, but it isn’t exactly the strongest, as Level 1 Skill's only work well in Combos. Skill: Explosion Location: Steal this from the Petrophages in IndustOne. AP:0 Effect: I personally Don’t use this skill at all. When you are attacked by an enemy, your shield is destroyed, and the enemies HP is reduced to 1. Basically you waste a shield to damage your enemies. Only good if your Storage is overflowing. Skill: Feint Location: Frozen Road, Steal from Zeno in Storage AP: 10 Effect: This Skill is a personal favorite of a lot of people I know. It basically negates the damage of the first PHYSICAL attack that hits you, no matter the damage it may have done. It is very easy to abuse, especially if you have it equipped on multiple shields. It doesn’t work on Magic though, limiting it's use. Skill: Leech Power Location: You get this on Frozen road after killing the bug leader. AP: 0 Effect: This Skill can be very useful for large groups of monsters, or frequent attackers. Basically, every time the enemy hits you, the character will restore 5 AP. Very cool, and useful in the long run, but it doesn’t lower damage, meaning you will be rather vulnerable. Skill: Shield Boost Location: Ant Colony Skill Shop AP: 5 Effect: This skill basically raises your Defense percentage by 1% each time you get hit. So it you are hit 5 time is battle, this skill will up your defense 5%. It is NOT permanent, and only lasts through the battle. So basically, unless you plan for a long battle, this is not worth it. You may find use for it though. Skill: Snatch Location: Centre, Cupid to Jezuit. In the Treasure Chest. AP: 15 Effect: One of my personal favorites, Snatch is basically a souped up Steal. It does the same as steal, except, it lowers all damage taken by 25%. Basically, two Skills in one. Skill: Steal Location: The Bandits in IndustOne drop it, and from the Treasure Chest in Lift to Bi Corp. AP: 5 Effect: Whenever a monster attacks you, there is a specific chance that you can steal one of their items. The chance of getting the item depends on your speed, the enemies speed, and how hard the item is to get. You can only get certain items through steal. Skill: Valor Location: dammit... AP: 10 Effect: This skill will automatically allow the character equipped with it to return from unconsciousness automatically. It only works once per battle, but with enemies (bosses) that can kill you easily, this will work miracles. Skill: Weapon Boost Location: Ant colony Skill Shop AP: 5 Effect: Basically the same as Defense Boost. Every time your character is hit by the enemy, they will grow 1% in attack power. You will usually only want to use this if there are a lot of enemies and they plan to get hit a lot. Ok Skill, but there are better. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Dragon `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` Note: I am going to do this area with as little spoilers as possible, unlike some others who tell all, I will do this telling only the skills. Note: The more you turn into a Dragon, the more of a chance you will die a D- Counter death. Each attack, and turn you last/do in Dragon form adds a certain number to your D-Counter. When your D-Counter gets to 100%, the game is over. So be careful when using it. Another Note: The D-Breath and the D-Dash fill up at a certain rate. So the longer you hold the R2 button in D-Dash, the higher the counter will get. It is the same for D-Breath. To get into Dragon form, you have to be past a certain point. Then, in battle, press R2, and square, and you will D-Dive, which means you transform. Every turn you stay in Dragon form adds 1% to your D-Counter. Note: Moving does not take any AP in Dragon form, and you have the biggest move range in the game. The Circle button, 10 AP attack in Dragon for is called Vortex. It hits one time, to a single enemy. This will kill most any enemy early in the game, and some bosses. But late in the game (or even in the middle) it is just a waste of D-Counter points. Vortex costs 1.25% to use. A.K.A.: It adds 1.25% to your D-Counter. The X button, 20 AP attack is called Hurricane. This attack is much like Side Slash in the range, and effect, except it does about 300+ more damage. You will probably only use this attack in one or two boss battles throughout the entire game. * In the long run this skill uses a LOT of D-Counter points. If you are attacking three enemies with it, it will use 3.75% of the D-Counter, even IF it was only one attack. Hurricane costs 1.25% (per target*) of the D-Counter to use. The Square button, 30 AP attack for the Dragon is called Twister. If you go into Dragon form, this will easily be the most frequently used attack. It does as much damage as Vortex, but it hits twice, and pushes and enemy back across the room, as far as they can go. Twister is the most cost efficient attack the Dragon form has, at 1.5%. D-Breath: D-Breath is a rather, different skill. It is not by a button. It is somewhat like D-Dash with the longer you use it, the more D-Counter points it adds. This is ALWAYS a waste of D-Counter points as it is not nearly strong enough to be worth it in the long run. You should only use this once in the entire game. D-Breath=Most Wasteful skill in the game D-Charge: In the end of the game, you will be REQUIRED to use this if you want to use your Dragon form on the last bosses of the game. This skill is not an attack, but rather, ups your attack power to incredible heights. With three charges (and 8.0% left on the D-Counter) you can obliterate the Final boss in one attack. You can even kill the second to final boss with 2 Charges. You can use this skill up to 10 times a round. It wears off the next round, but if you are in say, the final battle, you should use this 10 times, and twister, to see how much damage you do. See how you literally tear him apart. Not even Korkon Horay's Boss will last too long against this. Each D-Charge you use Adds 2% to the Dragon counter. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Walkthrough `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` I follow the same basic formatting for every area of the game. I will give you exact directions on where to go, sometimes comment on enemies, and give guides for Bosses and Sub-Bosses. My format will look like this: Location: Where you will be Shops: If there is any, I will have the list of equipment you can buy Enemies: A list of enemies you will fight in the area Boss: The Boss, or Sub-Boss(es) in the area. Boxes: This is the number of boxes in the area Yellow, and White, as well as sometimes Red or Orange, but they go into the Yellow section. Any items you get from them is random. ****************************** This (the asterisks) signifies a D-Ratio door, one you cant get in the first game, and you have to have a certain D-Ratio the second (or third, or fourth) time to get in. D-Ratio numbers like, 1/4096, 1/2048, 1/1024 etc. ****************************** ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ This area signifies a new area. This is the name of the area, or the name of a totally new section. Take note and look for these. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Note: At the beginning of the game, you are allowed to choose the name for your main character. Usually it is Ryu, and so that is what I will refer to him as in this guide. Feel free to name him whatever you want. Another Note: ALL weapon and Item shop lists are Random. Obviously, the set of weapons will get stronger the farther you get into the game (ones in MidSector Mall will be stronger then those in LowSector Borough), but the lists will be completely randomized. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 1: Ranger HQ `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Ranger HQ 1F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ You start the game in a locker room on the first floor of Ranger HQ. Exit through the door above you, and walk into the hallway. To the North of you, you will notice a man standing by the window, and a doorway across from him. If you need some tips, go through the doorway to the right, and talk to the man in there. Usually talking to people will give you tips about battles, or the story. When you are done asking him questions, leave the room the same way you entered, and head up and to the left in the Main hallway. On the side of the screen, after the left turn, there is stairs. Go up them. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Ranger HQ 2F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ From the top of the stairs, go to Ryu’s left, toward the screen. You will notice that to Ryu’s right, right when you enter there is a guard. Remember that location, as you will need it in a few minutes. Head down this hall, and to the right when you have to. Talk to the rangers around here for hints. Go through the door at the end of this hallway. There are four Rangers in this next room, down the little set of stairs. Talk to then if you wish, and then go to the far right of the screen, and talk to Bosch, who is standing by the door to the Captains office. Talk to him, and you will both enter the office. You will watch a cut scene, and are then asked if you have any questions. If this is your first time through, I suggest you ask all of the questions. When you are done, and exited, head back out to the hallway and head to that door the ranger was guarding when you first entered Ranger HQ 2F. Go through it. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ LowSector Junction ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Walk down the stairs. You can talk to the mom and kid if you want. It may make you feel good if you say that the kid can become a ranger. Head to the far left side, on Ryu’s left. There are two Rangers over here, and two Telecorders (save points), as well as a door. I do not suggest you save your game just yet, as you will need all the Save Tokens you can get later. Go through the door on the left wall. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ LowSector Borough `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Shops: Weapons Items You see another Telecorder toward the bottom of the screen, to Ryu’s left. I still follow the no save plan. A rule to follow in this game: Don’t save unless you are absolutely positive you need to. Such as clearing a whole area, or fighting a few Bosses and Sub-Bosses. Continue to the right of the screen, straight ahead for Ryu, and down. Go down the stairs to the right, and enter the main town of Borough. Go a bit to Ryu’s right and straight ahead, and you will see a girl in the corner of a building. This girl is the appraiser. She also stores items for you, so use her often, you need all the inventory space you can get at all times. Head a little north of her, and you will see a man with a red shield, this is the arms merchant. You shouldn’t buy weapons at this point, and you probably don’t have the money anyway. A bit to the north of him, and to the left, are two people talking to each other. The younger one is the Item merchant. I suggest you spend all of your 300 Zenny on Heal Kits, as you will defiantly need them for what is coming up. After buying what you want, or need, go back around the junk in the middle, and go back up the stairs and through the door you originally entered to get here. Important Side Note: If you have gotten past, or to the Corp labs in a previous game, and started the Ant Colony, then you can talk to the fairy to the left of the Item Shop in Low Sector Borough (or any other town in the game) and get the fairy tear, which allows you to restart the Colony where you left off when you died or beat the game. You can also buy the items there still. If you did not get them before, I suggest buying Ryu's Hex Skill and both of Nina's skills, as well as anything else that you may have accumulated through the colony. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ LowSector Junction ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head directly across the screen and enter the second door. The door exactly opposite of the door you just exited, near the little boy and his mom. Go through it. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lower Sector Air Lift ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head straight down the stars in front of you, and continue in that direction until you trigger a cut scene. At this point Bosch joins your party. He will currently be leading your party. If you want to get Ryu back as leader press R1. I suggest having Bosch lead though, as he is a greater person in battle. Yes, battles ARE coming up soon. Head down the small set of stairs to your right, and through the long dark tunnel. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 2: Lift to BiCorp `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift To Bi-Corp 1 ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Duke, Duke Leader, Nugget Boxes: Yellow: 2 White: 8 Head straight foward, and kick the two white boxes for some Fresh Meat. (To smash boxes, use either of your characters Personal Skills). A little ahead, after a short tutorial, break the next white box, and slowly proceed. You should see an enemy called a Duke. The best way to get rid of this foe, is to throw out your newly acquired Fresh Meat(only one mind you) when you are close enough, to taunt him. He will head to the meat, and completely ignore you, giving you an advantage for a first attack. To actually begin the fight, go run up to the feading monster and use a Personal Action when in the right range. It takes a while to perfect the exact ranges, but Ryu's is the longest at this point, but Bosch's attacks do more damage, so once you get good enough with Ryu's range, I suggest having Bosch lead if he is not already. When you are in battle, I find the best combos to be: Bosch: O, X, X,( X is continued depending on the number of AP you have. If you have a lot, you can do it six times or more!) or X, X, X. They are the easiest to pull off, and will do significant damage to the enmy. Ryu: He will keep this one for a while. X, O, O. That will do the most damage to enemies. Also, the X-Blade combo is supposed to be good, which is Slash, Side Slash and Vert Slash. (O, O, X, R2X) When you defeat the Duke, head up the hall, and up the stairs to the right. Enter the door here, and follow the hallway to another room, where a yellow box awaits. Yellow boxes always hold better items then white boxes do. head back out of the room, and head to the first intersection again, around where you fought the Duke. head over the small bridge to the right, but be warned of the enemies that are around here. Throw some meat out, and hope they go for it, instead of you. Head to the left, and you will see some boxes. After getting the boxes (I suggest killing the enemies before), head all the way to the right of the small bridge. Go through the doorway at the end. In this next room, you will notice a middle platform with 3 enemies on it. Throw some Fresh meat out, and attack them. If you kill them all, you get a treaure key. PICK THIS UP NOW! You will need it very soon. Continue heading straight across the bridge, and enter the next room, where evn more encounters await you. You will notice, straight ahead of you, a treasure chest. Before you go to open it, I suggest you kill all the enemies (4-5 sets depending on if you get more then one in an encounter). if you dont, they can get a sneak attack on you, and that is NEVER a good thing. When you have obliterated the threat, go back to the treasure chest across from the enterance, and you will get your first skill: "Steal". Very useful. I suggest you equip it on Ryu right away. From the chest, head right, and over another small bridge. And then head to Ryu's left. Head throught the large door, and back through one of the rooms you just went through (the one with the treasure key...This is the other side of the room) and go all the way to the end, and through the door. here, you will find a yellow Box, and it most likely contains a very useful, and ever so rare, Save Token. Head back through the doors, and go up the stairs slightly to the right of you. if you didnt kill the before, there may be some Dukes and Duke Leaders wating for you. When it is clear, go break the boxes, and head over to the right. You will see some boxes hidden behind the metal, unbreakable boxes. You can get some awesome items from these boxes. Namely, party experience and a good amount of Zenny. TIP: Do not use any party EXP on your party just yet. And do not use any at all on Bosch, if you do decide to use some, as it will be wasted. Also, if Ryu is hit by the Skills (or any other normal attack): Wild Swing, or Ogre Slice from the Dukes, and Duke leaders, and has the steal Skill equipped, then he can learn them as well. After you finish breaking the boxes, head to the left, and through the door on the far wall. The only one you have not entered yet. In this room, you will see a lift, and a girl behind it. Go talk to the girl (whom you just may recognize) and she will answer some questions, and give you tips about the game. You will see her quite a bit early on. To enter the lift, press X near the front. This will lead you to the next area. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift to Bi-Corp 2 ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: None Sub-Boss: Death Cow, Goo Element Boxes: Yellow: 0 White: 6 Note: At any time during this dungeon, you can go back to Lower Sector Borough to get items, weapons, and anything else you may need. I suggest having at least 5 Heal Kits on you at all times, even if you have a lot of HP currently. After exiting the lift, go to the next room and there will be a Death Cow enemy. There is more of a chance you will get the Death Cow, but you can also get a Goo Element. This is a Sub-Boss who is very strong. Though you do get a good item for killing it, as well as a new Skill. I suggest you go for it, but it is your choice. it is best to initiate combat as Bosch, and you should try to get an extra turn by using a Fresh Meat before the battle. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Death Cow LVL: 22 HP: 530 EXP: 88 Items: ??????? equipment, or a stat upping item. Strategy: The Death Cow is one tough customer. He is VERY strong, and has a lot of HP. If you have not fought all the enemies, and do not have a large supply of healing items on hand, then this boss could be almost impossible to beat. His normal attack the Skill "Wild Swing"(Which Ryu can learn if he has Steal equipped) does about 80 damage to a single character. His other skill, an ice spell, does about 25 damage to a range, but he ALWAYS gets an extra attack after, doing over 40 damage. So the damage can pile up very quickly. You will probably need to revive one character at least in this battle, so I hope you still have that Tonic you started with. For the offensive, I suggest you have Bosch use PoisonBite until Death Cow is poisoned, and then use LionSmash (or Poison if you think it will do more damage in the long run as two attacks for the price of one.) Try to LionSlash Death Cow until he has the lowest defense possible, and then attach with PoisonBite. Ryu should use Vert Slash as much as possible, as that is definately his strongest attack at this point. heal your characters if their HP gets below 90. You may want to have Ryu run to the corner, and use Bosch as bait while Ryu gains AP and unleashes a HUGE combo. This is a hard battle but when you win, you get the second treasure chest key. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Goo Element LVL: 10 HP: 150 EXP: 50 Strategy: You are lucky if you get the Goo Element instead of the Death Cow. Each of the Goo Elements attacks do around 30 damage, and he has a range attack that can hit both characters for 30. He attacks twice a round, usually before both characters. He has high defense versus physical attacks and combo's and Skills that cast status effects dont work on him. He will take a lot of pounding. Attack with your strongest combo's, and try to end Ryu's with Deathbringer, as that will do the most damage. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After beating the enemy(if you decided to skip it, just skip to the next paragraph) go pick up the treasure chest key, and get the chest which will be to your left. By opening this chest, you recieve a "Side Slash" Skill for Ryu. I also suggest going back to Borough now and getting more items to replenish any you may have used in battle. Head back to the right, and go all the way to the end, getting the boxes, and through the door. Continue heading foward, and you will see the girl again, next to the door. this time she will teach you about Skills. Go through the door, and break the box(es) for an item. You can not get through the door at the end of the hall, by the 3 boxes, so head up the short stairs to the side, and go through the door to the right. In this next room are two boxes. Head to the right, and go through the next door to the next lift going down. Press X to go down it, just like before. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift To Bi-Corp 3 [North] `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Lil Lantern Bat, Lantern Bat, Hychee, Duke, Duke Leader Boss: Magma Nugget Boxes: Yellow: 0 White: 0 Head straight out of the room with the lift and make sure your trap is set to meat. In this next room, you will see a LOT of bats. You have to be strategic here, or they will easily make life far more difficult then it should be. The bats will either be on the lower level or the higher level. When they are on the higher level it is easier. Here is a good strategy: Start by throwing out a meat. The bats will swarm after you the second you enter the room if they are on the top level, so you have to be really fast. Here is a good Strategy to kill them off before they can completely overpower you. And they will if you dont kill them off quickly. Strategy: After you throw the meat out, you must close in a few seconds after. Make sure a few of them have swarmed the meat, as you need to make every hit count. Quickly change your Trap/Bait to Dynamite, a Bomb, or the Prox kit, if you have one. Use all of your Dynamite's and Bomb's against them, and then use the Prox bomb. That bombardment should weaken them enough to fight them easier. When you do initiate battle with them, you need to kill them swiftly, as while alone, they are not strong, in this large of group they can literally obliterate you. Their Flare does about 25 damage and their physical attacks do about 30. They have low defense, so you dont need too strong of attacks to kill them, especially after the onslaught you may have done before the actualy battle. If you didnt damage them before the battle at all, this battle WILL take a lot out of you. After killing the bats, kill any stragglers that you may not have fought, get the boxes, and head to the right, and through the door at the end. In the next room, head straight, at the intersection, and kill the Hychee's (You do not even have to do battle with them, if you slash them before the battle begins, you can kill them off without a scratch). Try and kill a many of them as you can, as they drop valuable Heal Kits. Open the yellow box a bit to the right. Head back to the first intersection, and fight the Hychee's that drop from the ceiling here. Be warned that it is really easy for them to get the drop on you here. Head left, killing the enemies you come to, and get the three white boxes you find at the dead end. Turn back around, and head straight down the hall, and go through the door. Head foward, and through the next door, head right. Go straight at the first intersection, and tak the two white boxes(you will most likely have to fight for them.). Head through the door to the left, and get the yellow box at the end of the short platform. head back to the intersection, and take the right path. There is a Duke leader directly behind that door, and he will most likely get the jump on you if you are not prepared. Even if you are prepared it is hard to get the jump on him. Actually, this battle may take a few tries to beat, as the Duke runs almost the entire time. be patient, and you will eventually kill him. Before you enter the next room, try and be healed as much as you can without being waseful with items. Preapare your skills, and get ready. When you are ready, enter the door at the end of the long platform. This room is what is called a danger room. There are quite a bit of these rooms in this game. The basic aspect of a danger room is this: Kill all the enemies, or you cant get out. So your goal is to kill all enemies, by whatever means necissary. There are a lot of enemies in here. Work from the first room using all the tactics and skills you have. Any type or Lure(fresh meat etc.) is extremely helpful in a danger room. When you have killed almost all of the enemies in the room, head over to the second side of the room and you will see the biggest Nugget you will ever see. approach him to initiate battle to get out of the room. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Mama Nugget LVL: 18 HP: 400 EXP: 75 Items: JuJu Strategy: This sub boss is definately easier then the Death Cow. To best kill this boss, have Bosch use PosionBite. Build up Bosch's AP, to almost max, and use a HUGE combo of O, X, X, X, X, X (continued). Each X should do around 30 damage, and that is the fastest way to kill him. But just because this boss is easier then the death cow, does not mean that it is less deadly. It can cast Jolt, to hit a character(or two!) for 30 damage, and he uses two physical attacks a round for 30 damage each. Magma Nuggets super attack, Lightning, does about 75 damage to a single character. Ryu should use Vert Slash. And for max damage, have Bosch use LionSlash before the big combos to allow not only him, but Ryu to do more damage for the AP price. Try to keep yourself over 70 HP at all times. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After you win the Magma Nugget, you get an item (or two) and thr key to the treasure chest which was located behind him. The treasure chest holds the Skill: "Kick" a very useful skill. You should put it on Ryu's level one skills right away. Break the white box nearby. After finishing with this room go up the small set of stairs to the side, and enter the door. Go foward, and enter te next door to get to the next area. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift to Bi-Corp 3 [South] ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Magma Nugget Boxes: Yellow: 2 White: 5 The girl is here again, and this time she is going to teach you about the controls.(as if you need to know them...you already have been playing them game for a while now) Exit through the door to the left of the one you entered. After going through a few sets of doors that open automatically, you will fight a raging Magma Nugget. It is hard to get the jump over this one as he will see you before you see him. Kill him the exact same way you killed the other one. I actually found this one easier, though some may find him harder. After beating the Nugget, go to the next room, and go up the lift. Congrats! You have beat your first full dungeon! Now go pause the game and give yourslef a pat on the back. You totally deserve it. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 3: Genic Accumulater/Processor `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Approach South `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head straight through the first door. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Genic Processor ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Watch the cut-scene, and then re-enter the room. Go up the small set of stairs to the left and through the door. Note: If you have beaten the game, then you can go right at the intersection here, down the stairs to the left, farther left, and past the carcas you will find a wepon called the Dragon Blade. The higher your D-Ratio, the stronger the wepon will be. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Approach West ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Go straight, and turn right when needed. Near the end, you will see the tutorial girl again. This time she will teach you about escaping from battles. In the next room, go up he lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Genetic Accumulater ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Hychee, Odd Hychee, Nugget Boxes: Yellow: 3 White: 5 Go through the door and save at the telecorder, if you want to. I suggest you do, but you may want to wait just a tad bit longer. Continue following the hallway, after it turns left, continued down it usntil you reach two doors. (I dont remember what is in the straight one, but...go through it if you want). The door to the left is where you want to go. When you enter the room, break the white box directly to the left of you. Explore more of the room by heading foward. When you go foward, you will notice enemies. They Nuggets etc. can not get to you, as they are in cages, so don't worry about them. As you turn right in this room, you will notice enemies to the side above you. Go and kill the Hychee's and the Odd Hychee for Heal Kits. Again, if you have the first attack on the Hychee's, you wont actually need to fight them, they will die without battle. You will have to fight the Odd Hychee though. If you HAVE to fight them, use SnakeBite, and any other strategy you might prefer. In this short side area is a white box slightly around to the right, where you get a Mega-Aid Kit. Go back to the larger area, and head to the left, and through the door. Head straight foward, and enter the room on the right. Throughout the room, there are a lot of boxes, both Yellow and White. Most are in the corner after the first left. Go foward, and when you take a direct left, head left here, through the little crevices near the cages to the White box. Search around by going foward. This place is full of cages, and things to mar your way, but keep looking and get all the boxes that are in open view. When you have all of the items in this room, head ut of the door to the far left. In this next hallway, you will see an Appraiser. She will appraise any ??????? items you have, and will store Items for you. I know my inventory was busting it's seams at this point, so use her as much as possible. You need all the space you can get! Go through the next door and..... ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 4: Old Waste Shaft `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Bi-Corp Lift `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Shops: Items: After a cut scene or two, you will end up here. To the right of you, is a woman, and the tutorial girl. Talk to the woman, and she will sell you items. I suggest stocking up on as many Heal Kits as you can, as Ryu is alone now. Some other equipment you might want to buy, is maybe one or two Footlooses, but it is not necissary, a the enemies that cause the statuses here drop them. But that is the main status here that is caused. You also may want to have a tonic, if you dont have one already. If you didnt save in the Genic Processor, I suggest you do so now, as it will be a while until your next save. And those save Tokens are so damned scarce. Head to the right of the woman, and you will enter the next area. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 1 ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head through the first room, and in the second, you see a box. You can not open it just yet, as you do not have the key, so ignore it. Head through the second door, and make sure you have a lot of HP. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 2: `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Worker Ant, Bind Spider Boss: Cyclops Boxes: White: 5 Red: 2 After an event, you will be forced directly into a boss fight with th Cyclops. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Cyclops: LVL: 17 HP: 440 EXP: 70 Items: Treasure Key The Cyclops has very strong attacks, so try and keep your HP up. His normal attacks do 60+ damage, and he can use them twice. The best, and easiest way to beat the Cyclops is to run. That may sound odd, but you have a LOT longer range then he does, so if you run, you have an advantage. If you run your max distance, he will follow you, but he wont be able to reach you, as he does not have a lot of range. The best direction to run is toward the door, counter clockwise. When you get halfway done, ytou will notice a small area with a VERY small hole. Only you can get through that, the Cyclops can not, so he will start heading back the opposite direction. When you have max AP(you should at this point if you have not attacked him). When he gets close to you, go up and attack him with about 80 AP, and then run behind the small area (it is a small area in between some junk.) If you attack him, then run there, he cant hurt you, and will head to the opposite direction. On the next run, move SLIGHTLY in his direction, and he will turn around, and if you did it right, he wont be able to reach you. The next turn, you should attack him again, and then do the same thing over and over, until he dies. If you Choose to fight him like a man, then build up your AP by running away a few turns, and then let it all out on him. Heal on every turn, as you never know how much damage he can do. This tactic is rather wasteful, but if you want a faster fight, you may want to go this way. From DAVE RUDD (and another person, but this one is fuller): You do not need to run away all the time; nor do you need to have more than one hit point. All you need to do is get the Kick skill and equip it in the level one slot before entering this room. One your first attack, Cyclops charges up, so you have no fear of any hits. Just walk toward him until the second he lights up, telling you he is in range. Use your level three attack, Death-whatever, and then give him a kick. That will knock him back to the place he started advancing from, and with your remaining points, turn around and move back from Cyclops until you are at zero points and still have a green area halo. You will then be back out of his range again on the next turn. If you keep doing EXACTLY that (in other words, don't get cocky, grasshopper), the battle will end with you having taken exactly no damage whatsoever. As it turns out, this is a fairly good strategy over all, and can be used in a lot of fights both prior to this and after. Just remember to equip your skills after you learn them! ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After the battle, and a scene, Nina joins your party. You also get Ryu's Personal Action, D-Dash. Use it as much as you want now, as later it wont be so cheap. Lastly, Nina starts at level 1. You may want to use some Party EXP to get her to at least level 7. Your choice. From where the cut-scene ends, go foward and up the ramp to the left. Follow the ramp right, and go through the left door. In this next room, a Bind Spider will drop down from the ceiling, he is rather strong, so finish him as fast as possible. This is also a good battle to test out the wonders of Nina's trap skills. G-Flare does a hell of a lot of damage for this point of the game, and can be used to protect characters. But the farther away you cast it, the more AP it takes to cast, so use it wisely. After this battle, head a bit foward, and destroy the Army Ant's. They will try to run, but you have to kill them all if you want the treasure key. After killing them, pick up the treasure key, and head back to the room where you fought the boss. Retrace your steps, and head back into the first room where you saw the chest (Old Waste 1) , and use the key on the chest for an ?????? item, which, when you get it appraised, will become an armor for Ryu. Head back to the same room you got the key in (foward, left, up the stairs, and right through the door), go straight at the intercetion. In this room there are a lot of enemies, but if you fight them all off, you can get some really good items from the boxes. I suggest you do it. After getting what you want from the room (or not) head out the door, and go directly to to your right, and enter the door here. In this room, there are more enemies, and a few more boxes. Get what you want from this room, and head out the door to the top right. Head straight from the doorway, turning right when needed. Beware of the spider that will drop down from the ceiling on you. Continue to follow the hallway to the end. Go through the door, and up the ladder to reach the next area. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 3F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Goo Element, Hermit Boxes: Yellow: 5 Red: 2 Go through the door in front of you. Head straight, then turn right through the next hallway. Go through the door at the end. In this room are 3 Yellow boxes and two doors. Head through the far door. (the one to the far left) and you will get $600. Go nack to the room with the two door, and head to the left, the other door that you didnt go through originally. Approach it and a cut scene kicks in. Lin now joins your party. Put Lin at the head of the party so that she can start battles with the jump on the enemy. She attacks both in, and out of battle, at a long range, making her very useful. Also note, that when Lin joins, you have an extra five item slots to hold items in. Head through the door straight ahead of you. The next battle will be against a Goo Element. He is rather strong, but not too much to worry about. The best way to kill him is to have Nina cast G-Flare and have Ryu and Lin knock him into it with Kick and Out of the Way. After you kill him, head out the door to the left, and through the hallway to the next room. The boxes in this room are actually enemies. Approach them and they will get up and try to attack you. Make sure you attack them first, as they can be strong. The only way to kill the Hermits is to have Nina use G-Flare, and having Ryu or Lin push him into it (with Kick or Out of the Way). other then that he is invulnerable. Also, try to get an item called a Jolt from them. They drop it after battle. This item allows Nina to learn her first attack skill, Jolt. Very useful. When you are done with the Hermits, head through the far door. Go up the ladder to the next area. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 4F ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Worker Ant, Bind Spider, Baby Rustphage Boxes: Yellow: 3 Red: 1 Head through the door in front of you. The next room is a danger room, so heal up. This danger room has a lot of Bind Spiders. Normally, that wouldnt be too much of a problem, but the thing is, in the first part of the room alone, thereis about 7 spiders, so if you attack one, you get into an encounter with them all. The best way to go about this danger room is to have Nina constantly G-Flare the Spider's way, so they will be harmed if they hit you. Make sure you try and have three out at all times. If you got Nina's attack Skill, Jolt, that will help a lot as well. The Spiders will cast Shadow Stitch on your party members, making them bound to one spot for 3 turns (they will not be able to move). I hope you have some footlooses. Luckily, the Spiders usually drop Footlooses, giving you an advantage from them. If you can block that doorway in the middle of the room, the enemies wont try and escape, and you can kill them off, and they will be screwed. NOTE: After this, I suggest you go back to the Item shop and restock on healing items. You should do this a lot, most likely every two floors. There are usually item shops at the beginning of every dungeon, so you should restock often. After winning go through the door to the side (the one you were blocking with G-Flare) head straight, turn left, and follow the hall going through the door at the end. Beware, in this room there are more monsters. Head straight through the room, past the door on the right, and go through the door at the end. Head straight, and left through the hall, killing the roaches (rustphages) as you encounter them. Go through the door at the end. Head right, killing even more enemies. Get the three yellow boxes, and head through the door on the right. ****************************** D-Ratio Door: 1/4096 Enemies: SkullDigger, Lesser Karon Boxes: Yellow: 3 Brown: 2 Note: At this point, you do NOT want to engage in these enemies in a normal fair and square battle. They will EASILY kill you within 2 hits. Have Nina equipped with the Holy Heart, and have her use Kyri if you accidentally encounter one. If you keep moving at all times, you shouldnt have a problem avoiding the SkullDiggers. Head straight, and get the yellow box to the right. Go a bit left, and get another box. Go a bit right, then up, and to the right again. Pass the Treasure Chest, and kill the larger enemy (Lesser Karon, from PowerOne...be warned, he is just as strong now as he was then, so he will do a lot of damage..at least 80+ with an attack) for the treaure key. Go right, break the two boxes, and go back to the Treasure Chest and open it for Nina's newest Skill: Weaken. ****************************** Go straight through this hallway and through the next room. In the third room, there are enemies. Kill them, and and break the red box for a ?????? weapon/armor. Head through the door on the right. Go down the hall, and go through the door to get to an open area. Head straight and get the red box slightly to the right. Ignore the enemies for now, as you can not fight them yet. Go through the door on the far side stright ahead of you. In this next room, talk to the girl, and go up the ladder. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 5F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Hychee, Odd Hychee Sub-Boss: Devolve Boxes: Red: 1 Head stright into the next room and kill the Hychees. Hope that they drop the Heal Kits. Now, killing Hychees is easier then ever, as with Lin you can slay them from a distance not risking anything. Break the box to the right and head left. Notice a large enemy in the middle of the hall. Attack him. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Devolve LVL: 26 HP: 600 EXP: 145 Devolve can be a rather hard enemy if your party does not have a lot of healing items. His attacks usually do 80+ damage, so keep your HP above that number. The first thing you do is cast G-Flare in front of your characters to damage Devolve and protect your characters a bit. Devolve has a huge move range. Nina will be busy the entire battle with G-Flare, so Jolt won't be too much help here. Try to have 3 traps out at ALL times. Attack with your naormal strategy and combos. One of my faves at this point was with Lin. Have her use Hey! Hey! then use Stay Here!, and lastly use Out of the Way!. It does quite a bit of damage, and is useful for pushing him back. Have Ryu build up his AP bar and use X-Slash, or whatever other combos you decide to use with him. I personally prefer Slice, Vert Slash, Vert Slash, Vert Slash, Kick. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ This room is big. The doors at the very end, to the side, hold red boxes, and good items, so get them. For a D-Ratio door, go through the door at the top of the Devolve screen. When you get them, go through the door on the right. Follow the hallway, and head through the door at the end. In this next room, you cant get through the first door, so head right. Head through the area, get the box on the right, and head left. Through the next door, go straight across the yard, as there is nothing there, and through the next door. Climb up the ladder to the next, and last area of this dungeon. ****************************** D-Ratio Door(s): 1/2048 Enemies: Guardian Ant, Worker Ant, Boss Ant Boxes: Brown: 6 Red: 2 Yellow: 2 Head straight, and to the left of the junk pile. Kill the King Ant (Boss Ant) and the Treasure Key will materialize. After killing all of the Ants, head back to the enterance, and get the Treasure key by the door. To the right of the door, is the Treasure Chest. Open it for another Nina Skill: G- Iceblast. Go back to the center of the room, and head up, straight, and to the right. Circle around the junk, and go through the door on the right. Break the box, and go straight through the next door. Circle around the junk (and the dead Devolve) to the right, and go through the next door. Kill all of the Ants, and get the two boxes. Head straight, and go through the door at the top of the screen to get that last red box. ****************************** ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Old Waste Shaft 6F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Devolve, Hermit, Baby Rustphage, Worker Ant, Sub-Boss: Boss Ant Head straight and kill the Hermits. You now reach a four way intersection. On the right is another Devolve, and a few treasures. You can go get them, but it is optional. Start by heading west (to the left). In this room, head to the left, and search the body of the dead Devolve. Enemies will jump out of it, and this room will become a danger room. It is not a hard danger room, as the enemies dont do too much damage. There will be about 9 enemies. After finishing the danger room off, get the Treasure Chest key, and head to the north room (right of the door you entered). In the treasure chest this time is Lin's Skill: There!. Very useful, especially paired with Stay There! Head back to the main intersection, and head north. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Boss Ant LVL: 24 HP: 520 EXP: 132 If you kill all of the eneimes in this room (there are two main sets, one to each side of the junk), then you will trigger a harder battle with a Boss Ant. The battle is not really worth it, but if you want the EXP, go for it. Besides, who doesnt like a good challenge? *hears silence* uh... never mind... If you do decide to fight the Boss Ant, you can snatch a Fire Bomb from him. Ant does not like any type of close range combat, so get as close to him as you can, and he will have to waste a LOT of AP running away. Also, his close range attacks do not do a huge amount of damage (around 40), and they do not hit often. Use your main attacks, and you should win easily. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Go through the northern door, and notice the Devolves. Dont worry, they wont attack you unless you attack them. And you do not want to in this room as they will overwhelm you. head to the left and get the Save Token (you will need this) go back to where you entered, and head through the door straight ahead of the other one you came from (it is on the left if you are coming from the Save Token's direction.) ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ EndSector Borough ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Shops: Weapons Items Head up the path, and on the left you will see a Telecorder. I suggest you save your game now. This is a town, so there is an appraiser, an Item Shop and a Weapon Shop. I suggest your first stop be the Appraiser and have her appraise all the ????? items you have. I had about 7. The Appraiser is to the left. But DO NOT GO THROUGH THE LEFT DOOR YET!!!!!! Equip whatever of the items you want, but IMO, Lin's Victorious weapon is not that good, and you get more money from it if you sell it. You will get a better weapon soon. If you have Any JuJu's from the Magma Nuggts, then make sure you use them on Nina, so she will be better at magic. Store items. After getting your items appraised, go over to the right area, and sell whatever ones you dont need at the weapons shop (the person on the right). At the item shop, I suggest you buy 10 minimum Heal Kits. Maybe even a few Aid Kits, so you can survive better (Soon you will have to begin relying on those totally!). I suggest waiting on buying any weapons or armor until you have enough healing items. If you are going to buy any at all, I suggest going for Nina's Thor Hammer +2, as she will be able to use better Skills. When you are done, heal up to as much as you need, and go through the door on the far left. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Boss: Bosch, Battler Sgt, and Gunner Sgt. LVL: Bosch: 18, Gunner Sgt: 13, Battler Sgt: 12 HP: Bosch: 360, Gunner Sgt: 160, Battler Sgt: 160 EXP: Bosch: 300 Gunner and Battler Sgt: 160 each Strategy: This is a really easy battle normally, but the real challenge lies within stealing items, and getting through with the lowest D-Ration percentage possible. Each enemy in this battle has two sets of useful items. Before the battle, put LIn at the head of the party, and have her equipped with Steal. At the very beginning of this battle Ryu wioll transform into a dragon, and he is locked into that form. Lucky for you, the enemies will usually attack Lin, most likely giving you items on the first time they do. Both the Gunner and the Battler will drop a weapon and some money. Lin will almost always get the items. Have Nina use Jolt on them unstoppably, she should be able to do it about 6 to 7 times. That should get the first one REALLY close to death. Have Lin finish him off. Try to move Lin into the middle of the screen. Ryu will go last. Have him move over to the far side of the screen between Lin, and Bosch. Make sure he is out of Bosch's range. To get the lowest D-Ratio, dont have Ryu attack yet. On the next turn, Bosch will attack Lin, most of the time giving her the one time Skill, Fang, available nowhere else! He also has 6000 zenny on him if you want to steal that as well. Have Nina and Lin Kill the second Sgt the same way you did the first. If you have ANY spare AP with Lin after killing him, use it to attack Bosch. On this turn, Have Ryu fly up to Bosch and kill him with Twister. If you did this battle right, you should finish with 5%, about the lowest you can get for this battle. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ BIG Note: After this battle, you will notice that the D-Counter in the top right corner of your screen (the little square) slowly goes up. There are quite a few things that can make it go up. Such as: Using Ryu's Dash ability, Using Ryu's new Skill: D-Dive, and walking around too much. If it gets to 100% it is Game over! For more Info see the FAQ section. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 5: Lift LowSector `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: Lower LiftSector 1 ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: None Boxes: White: 5 Yellow: 2 To the north of where you start is a Telecorder. To the right if that, through the fence door, is an item shop, and the tutorial girl again. The Yellow box in this room contains a Save Token. After you are done, head out of the side room and directly to the left and get the white boxes. Head back over to where you started and head to the head to the left of the starting location (if you are coming from this direction it is all the way left, and a bit to the north of the screen). ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: End Sector 1 [Left] ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Boxes: White: 3 Yellow: 1 Head through the door and turn right. Head down the stairs, and turn left. Get the white box. Head back to the right, and through the tunnel as it turns right, then go left. Go through the door at the end. There is a Yellow box here. Head back to the main room, by heading left, then right until you see the stairs again. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: Lower Lift Sector 1 ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head straight across the way, and head down the stairs. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: End Sector 1 [Right] ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Rustphage, Lantern Bat, Lil Lantern Bat Bosses: Death Cow, Beak Boxes: White: Yellow: Head straight through 2 doors, to the left, and down the stairs. Beware the enemies that come after you from under the mie carts to the right. Head all the way around the mine carts to the right (after you killed them all, there is quite a bit of them) and get the yellow box. Head back to the right (from your location, it should be right) and go through the big doors at the end of the hall. Head left in the next hall and get the two white boxes. In this next room, is a HUGE amount of bats. they are all in the middle, so have Lin use her gun to initiate combat. After you kill them, a treaure key appears on the platform to the right of the one you are on. Ignore it for a minute, and head through the door at the end of the current platform you are on. After going through the door, head right. At the next intersection, head right again. This will lead you into the other side of the room with the bats. Head foward a bit, and get the treasure key. Note: You can use Nina's Personal Action to get all the items that the Lantern Bats dropped. Press, and hold R2 with Nina at the head of your party, and the items will come to you. Head back to the last room (the one you just came from) and head straight at the intersection. Go through the door. In this room is the next Sub-Boss. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub-Boss: Beak, Death Cow LVL: Beak: 30, Death Cow: 22 HP: Beak: 540, Death Cow: 530 EXP: Beak: 120, Death Cow: 88 This duo can be really hard. You may thing that the big guy will be the problem, but in actuality, the little guy (AKA: Beak) is going to cause this battles most stressful moments. The best way to appraoch this annoying battle is with a LOT of healing items, and maybe a few Tonics. Have Lin start the fight, so she can have an extra turn, and have her use the combo, Hey Hey!, then go for Stay There! a few times on the Beak. Dont use There! with Stay There!, as Beak is immune to bind. If you can lower his range, the battle will be a bit easier. His main close range attack causes around 100 damage at times. And his long range attack gets a large range of characters for about 30 damage and the Bind status, making Ryu useless for the first turns of this battle. You know Death Cow already. Have Nina constantly use her G-Flare trap to damage any enemy coming toward you, as you need it. Then have her Jolt, or Flare an enemy into oblivion with any remaining AP you might have (If you do, bad bad player! Try and use as many G-Flares as possible.) Focus all of your attacks on Beak, as he is the main threat. Heal if you get around 110 HP. Again, you may have to use a Tonic or two in this battle. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After the battle, head up and left. Open the chest with the treasure key, to get a new Skill for Nina: Joltball. This skill is almost exactly like G- Flare, except that it can paralyze enemies for a single round, if they run into it, making it FAR more useful the G-Flare. Head back out of the room, and head straight at the intersection again. head stright over the platform, and through the door at the end. Get the two white boxes in this room, and head through the door. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Endsector Borough ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head straight across the platform and go through the door. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ EndSector Lift `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head toward the screen here, and up the small stairs to the right. Head right, toward the screen, and up the stairs. Go through the door. You are back in town. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ EndSector Borough ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Shops: Weapons Items Note: At this point, you can go back into the Old Waste Shaft and get any items, or skills that you may have missed on your last time through. Do what is needed. At this point, you probably FINALLY have enough zenny to buy some weapons. If you do buy any, I suggest buying a Thor Hammer for Nina +2, as with your new Joltball spell is electric elemental, and this will strengthen it. Try to store some items. When you are done, head back up the stairs to the right, and head back to the main room. To get back, head left ot the lift, down the stairs, to the right, and through the door. Head through the next door back to the platform room and straight ahead. Next, you turn left, through the door on the left, over the second platform, and through the door. Head straight and follow the hall right. Go up the stairs to the right, and through the door. You are now back in the main room. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lower Lift: Endsector 1 `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head to thr right and by the telecorder, head left. This will bring you farther into the game. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: LowSector 2 `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Many types of Dukes Sub-Boss: Duke Battler Boxes: White: 7 Yellow: 1 Head stright through two doors, turn right, and go down the stairs. From the bottom of the stairs, head right. You may notice the enemies on the raised platform. They can not get to you, but you can get to them. Try to kill them off now, as you will take less damage. If you keep your distance, only the Mages will be able to hurt you. Dont put your characters too close to the wall, or they will be able to hit you normally as well. Ryu will be worthless. If you do not want to fight them you dont have to, but you miss out on a skill. After killing them, you see the treasure key. You cant get it just yet, so be patient. Head to the far right, and through the sliding doors. In this room, there are enemies, ad they are free to attack you this time, so be warned. Head straight foward, ignoring the stairs to the left, and get the yellow box at the end. Head back to the stairs, and go up them. Head right, and get the white box. Go through the door on the left. Head foward and get the white box directly in front of you.Head back a but, and to the right. Get two more white boxes. To the northeast is a Sub-Boss. By it, are two more white boxes. You dont have to fight the boss, but if you want to, get the boxes first. Sub-Boss: Duke Battler LVL: 30 HP: 380 EXP: 220 Fight this enemy the same way you fought the last sub boss. he cant do as much damage, but he DOES have the counter skill. Note, you can learn counter from him if you have steal equipped. After beating him, head through the left door and follow the hallway. Go through the door at the end. You are now in the room where you fought those Dukes before for the treasure key. Get the items if you didnt before, and head over to the far side of the raised platform to get the key itself. The chest is on the platform by the door.The chest Holds Lin's level 3 Skill: Blow Up!. A great skill it is, as well. Head back the way you came, (through the door, and down the short hall) and in the room with the Duke battler, head striaght across the room, and then left through the hallway. Go through the door and up the stairs. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: LowSector 3 `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Black Widow Boxes: White: 9 Yellow: 1 Head right and through the door. The enemies here cast bind and poison, so have status healing items. This area is dark, so dont let the spiders get the jump on you from dropping off the roof. Get the white box to the right of the door (a spider drops down, so careful), and enter the room above it. Head to the left in this room (killing the many spiders that drop down) and get the yellow and white box. Head through the door that will be to your left if you are leaving, and kill the last spider in there. You should get the treasure key. Head down thid platform, and through the door at the end. Turn right in theis next room, and open the treasure chest. Ryu will get the skill Rust Armor. Head through the door closest to the chest, and heads straight down the platform. You are back in the same room you enteredt. here though, is a goop, and another spider. Kill them both, and get the boxes ahead of you, and to the right. Turn around, and go back through the platforms, and back into the room with the tresure chest. Head all the way to the right of the box, and down the stairs above you. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Lift: LowSector 4 `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Hychee, Odd Hychee, Many types of Dukes Boxes: White: 6 Yellow: 1 Head left and break the white box. Go up the stairs and continue going left. Go through the door. Head left in this room as well, ad go down the small stairs. Get the white box, and (finally changing direction here) go right. Go straight foward, and get the heling kits from the Hychee enemies in front of you. Continue foward, and head over a small "bridge" to the right of you. Get the boxes to the left of this bridge, and then go right. Soon, you will see another Duke Battler. You dont have to fight this one, but if you want EXP, or you didnt get the Counter skill before, you should fight him. Use the same tactics as before. Get the two white boxes behind him. Continue heading straight (which is right on the map) and go through the door. Head straight through this hallway, and through the next door. This room is a danger room. The trick to making this an easy room is engaging the enemies separately, as if you get them all in one or two fights, they can do some heavy damage. Try ans spread the fights out to maybe 3 enemies in one battle, and try to engage the Duke Battler alone, as he can decimate you paired up with any other enemies. When you are done, the treasure Key materializes, and you can open the chest. The chest is to the right of the door, against the wall. Open it with the key to get the Backpack item. This increases your inventory capacity by 5 items. YES! From the chest, head left to the door, and head through it. Head up the lift in the next room, and you are done. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ LowSector Borough `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Yes, you are back in town. The original town from the beginning of the game. Buy new items, and weapons if needed. And be sure get all the ??????? items appraised, as some of them are valuable. You may want to go up the stairs, and use the Telecorder as well. You cant go back into Ranger HQ right now, so stay in the main town. Your next goal is the Corp Lab. But dont go before buying at least 3 antidotes. By the items shop,to the right, is a door that was once guarded when you were here before. Enter that door to get to Corp Lab for the first time. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` `~ Section 6: The Evils of Science ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ Corp Lab Entrance ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Boxes: White: 8 Yellow: 1 Head straight, and tur right when needed. Head down, and follow the path until you see a room to the left. Enter it. In here are three boxes, break them and exit the room through the same way you came in. Head left some more through that small hallway, and yoiu are in another small room. On the left side of this room is another door. Enter it to meet a Fairy. She will allow you to start the Colony Mini-Game. This is a great opportunity! ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ The Colony `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Here, you will be given a short tutorial of what you will have to do. For more tutorial, ask the lead Fairy. I suggest hiring all the ants you can find, as you will need them. Put them all on excavation at this point. Whenever you need to come back (usually every few battles) you will be able to dig some more. Exit this area by talking to the Fairy, and choosing leave. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab: Entrance ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ When you are back in the enterance, the Fairy will give you Fairy Drops. Head out the room the same way you came, and head to the right. When need, follow the hallway to the left, and up the hall. head left again, and back to LowSector Borough. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ LowSector Borough ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Gunner Lueit., Mage Lueit., Battler Lueit. LVL: Gunner: 22, Mage: 18, Battler: 19 HP: Gunner: 500, Mage: 520, Battler: 600 EXP: Gunner: 370, Mage: 350, Battler: 330 At the beginning of this battle, your characters are poisoned. You can cure it, but you will just be re-poisoned at the beginning of the next round, so there isnt much you can do about it. The Battler causes multiple status effects, so I suggest going for him first. He usually attacks twice a round as well. During the first round, you should have Nina set up Joltball in front of your characters, as it may paralyze your foes. The Mage can be dangerous. He has an attack that does 100 damage and paralyzes a single party member. The Gunner is the least threat, but the easiest to kill off. The best way to go about this battle is by starting off stealing their items. They have good weapons, and you can get money from them. Have Ryu use combos, Nina use any level 2 spellls you may have (you probably wont at this point), if you dont, have her pound away with Jolt and set traps. Have Lin use Blow Up! And try to Stay There!(paired with There!) the Battler. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After you are done, and have seen the movies, head straight. You will see an object that sparkles (items will do ANYTHING to get you to pick the up). Go over to it and pick it up. Head back into the CorpLab Entreance, whic is a bit to the right. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab Entrance `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Shops: Weapon Now that you have the ID card, you can get into CorpLabs. Head straight, and when you get to the intersection, head left, and go through the door. Head straight in this hallway, and turn right when needed. Use the ID Card on the box by the right side of the door, and go through it. Head straight through this hallway, and then to the right. At the intersection, head straight to see the items, wepons, and appraisal shops. If you stole the wepons from the last bosses, then you may not need to buy any new weapons. If you already have better ones (how, I dont know, they are rather good) then appraise them and sell them off, you should get some good money for them. Equip all your new equipment as you will need it. Head back to the intersection, and go right, through the double doors. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 1F [North] `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Goo Plasma, Armstrong, Goo Ruby Boxes: White: 2 Yellow: 2 Head straight, and go through the door. In the next hall, go through the door on the right (if you arent careful, its easy to miss) for a yellow box. The room on the right hold nothing, and to the left is a currently inaccesable door. ****************************** D-Ratio Door: 1/4096 Enemies: Bon Appetite, Goo Plasma, Goo Ruby, Goo Sapphire, Kanaphage, Raffleshia, Armstrong, Odd Hychee ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab B1 `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ This is the main area you didnt have access to during the first run through the game. It is somewhat like a Mini-Side dungeon, not just a few rooms this time. Right after you enter, enemy Goos attack you. Kill them all, and head through the first door on the right. Circle the room to the left, killing all of the Bon Appetites and Goo. Exit the room through the door paralell to the one you just entered, and get the boxes. Head straight, and through the door. In here, many Odd Hychee's and Bon Appetites reside. Not that it is a bad thing...Kill them all. Just remember to use fire! Exit the room the way you entered, and head through the door on the right. kill all of the enemies, and head through the door on the top right. Kill all of the enemies in this room, and the Treasure Key materializes. Note: The Treasure Key will materialize ONLY if you have killed all the other Goos. Head back into the last room, and go through the door. The Key is in the center of this room. Head back two rooms, and open the Treasure Chest on the right side of the room. The Treasure Chest contains the Skill: G-Inferno Go back into the first hall. Follow the hall left, and through the door at the end. Go straight and go through the left door at the end. Dodge the large "canister" and go through the door on the right. Follow the hall straight, left, and through the door. Go down the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ BiCorp B2 ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Through the first door, follow the hall straight, and right. Go through the door. To the left are the main enemies of this floor. There are three Rafflesia's, and three Kanahages. There is also 6 boxes on each side of the wall. Dodging the test tubes, head to the opposite wall. A bit to the left is a door. If you wish to continue on, you can, but you can also go back. If you choose to continue on, you may have to fight some Armstrong enemies. Armostrongs are very strong. But if you can get past them, then you can see some cool movies. From the top door, head right, and through the door on the far end of the hall. In this smaller, square room, head directly right and through the door. Be careful in that square room, there may be armstrong sleeping, and you want to dodge them as much as you can. In this next room, go through the next door. In the main lab at the end of this area, go straight up, dodging the bed, and head through the door on the top. Go right, and examine the item on the bed, and you will see a SoL scene. Examine the item again, and you will have a choice. Choose yes, and you will get a weapon for Nina, called Buki. Head right out of this room, and once in the large lab again head all the way left. Head into the side hall, and there should be quite a few boxes. They contain some good stuff, so make sure to open them. When you are done with all of this, head back up to BiCorp Labs 1F. ****************************** Head back to the hallway you came from, and head left through the door. In the room where you started, head all the way straight across this room, and go through the door at the end. In this room, go straight, and follow the hall left. (Beware, a Goo drops from the ceiling) On the left, there is a room. The room holds two white boxes, and a yellow box, as well as another Goo. You can not enter the second door, so go back to the main hall, and enter the door to your left. Head up the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 2F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Hychee, Odd Hychee, Raffleshia, Buzz, Queen Buzz, Trooper, Bouncer Boxes: White: 5 Yellow: 1 Head through the door, and go straight, then right through the hall. head through the next door, and make an almost immediate right. In this room is a white box, and some doors. Head straight through the door in this roomm and head stright across to the next room. This room holds enemies. Sub Boss: Raffleshia x2 LVL: 32 HP: 400 EXP: Changes (doubles the more magic you use) This battle can be hard. Stay away from these enemies, as at close range they can be deadly. Try to use Lins: There!, Stay There! from a distance to keep them bound in one spot, but only bind one of them. And get away fast from that one. The second one will follow you. Use ONE spell on them. It will make them regenerate HP, but it will also double their EXP. They will regenerate half their current HP each turn, so you have to do a lot of damage to them initially. Once you do that, it will be much easier. Try to kill the first one before the second one gets unbound. Magic will damage them, but it will also make them stronger. After you win, get the Treasure key, and enter the door to the left. Get the white box, and then head left. There are enemies here as well. Go straight and kill them. In the next room, kill the Hychees from afar, and step foward a bit to get the Odd Hychees to fall from the cieling. Kill them as well, and get the white box in this room. The treausre chest is in this room, and it contains Ryu's second level 3 Skill: Roundsabre. Head back out of this room, and go through the door on the right in the next room. Head back across the platform, and straight across the room with the Raffleshia's. In this next hallway, kill the two troopers, and head all the way to the right to get a yellow box. Turn around, and head all the way to the left and through the door at the end. There are about 7 Bouncers in this room, but: DO NOT TAKE ON MORE THEN THREE AT A TIME RIGHT NOW! Without strong spells they will slaughter you. Tactics: The Bouncers usually work in larg teams. They have the Lightning Skill they use, and drop, so if you need it, get it here. Try to kill at least one off quickly. You can steal an item called a "zennypurse" from them, which can be sold for 300 zenny, but be warned, they will get furious and continually cast Lightning on you. Also, they can stun you, much like Nina's Joltball spell. Use caution when fighting these enemies. When you are done, head left, and through the door. Go down the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpbLab 1F [South] ~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Ruby Goo, Goo Plasma Sub Boss: Armstrong Head throught the first door, and follow the hall right. Go through the door at the end. This is a danger room. The room is filled with Ruby and Plasma Goos. These normally arent that much of a threat, but if you encounter them in groups of 4, and they use all their levle 2 Skills on you, then you could be in trouble. Do not use the same elemental attacks on them, as they will be healed, and their atack will strengthen. Use Ice attacks on Electric monsters. If you use the opposing element, they will only use level one spells. There is quite a bit of enemies in this room, so it may take a while to clear them all out. After you are done, get the treasure key, and head to the top left corner of the room (mapwise). In this room is the treasure chest and a big enemy. The Sub Boss is easy to run by, and extremely hard to defeat, so I suggest not fightint him at all....but if you want to... ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Sub Boss: Armstrong LVL: 44 HP: 1000 EXP: 1200 First things first. This boss has VERY high defense. Physical attacks wont do more then 2 damage, and you are lucky if they do a single point anyway. You are going to have to rely on magical attacks, and attacks that ignore armor. Because of this, this battle will go very slow. Also, to make matters worse the Armstrong will cast Rest on himself to restore his HP and AP, so you need to do a LOT of damage quickly, and frequently. I suggest using Lin as a healer, as she doenst have armor piercing attacks, but use Nina as well, because of her faster speed. Try to keep your HP close to max. The Armstrong can do 200+ damage. He uses combos, and so the damage just piles on. Go into the battle with a lot of items (mainly tonics), and good skills, and you may be able to win. If anything goes bad, you should run through the south door and he will not be able to hit you, as he can not get past the door. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ After fighting him (or not), head over to the left side of this room, and get the treasure chest, which holds Nina's newest Skill, Blunt. Now to head back. head out of the room, and over to the lower right corner of this next room (mapwise). Exit the room, and go back up the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 2F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Head straight then right, and through the door. Head through this door on the right, and straight back through the Raffreshia room. Head straight through the next room, and the room after that. You are back in the main hallway of 2F. Turn right, and go through the door at the end. Use the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 3F [North] `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies: Goo Plasma, Sapphire Goo, Kanaphage, Goo Ruby Boxes: Yellow: 3 White: 1 Head straight and turn left. Head straight through the next door, and fight more Goos. Note: This is an awesome room. There are enemies here called Kanaphages. These enemies whole 10,000 Gold, but it lowers each time you hit them. You will most likely be needing money at this point, so have Lin lead the party, and shoot them from afar. Do not have her attack. Instead have her end her turn, and Nina shouldnt go either. Have Ryu Move up to him, but have at least 60 AP. This will most likely take several turns. After one move, dont have Ryu move anymore. Soon, the Kanaphage will end close enough to Ryu. When he does, head over to him, and have Ryu use DeathBringer 2 times in a row to kill them off. You should get 5,000 gold a battle this way. There are multiple Kanaphages in this room. Another Note: The Sapphire Goos Drop the Skill: Frost. So try and get it from them. To the left of the starting point are three white boxes, so go get them. This room is one big square. There are also 3 white boxes to the right of the entrance to this room. Also one on the top left corner, and three in the top right. Head out of this room through the far left door. In the next room there is a yellow box. Head through the left-hand door. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 3F [South] `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Enemies (for 3F, 4F, and 5F): Patroller, Bouncer, Buzz, Queen Buzz, Plasma Goo, Ruby Goo, Sapphire Goo, Prism Goo Boxes: White: 1 Yellow: 2 Head straight to the end of this hall for 4 white boxes. Then head back a bit, and enter the door to the right. Head straight, kill the enemies, and go through the next door. Head left in this hall, and into the door on the right. Go through the door at the end, and break the two yellow boxes in this area. Head back into the hall, and take a right. Go through the door, and enter the next two doors on the right. Head straight and enter the door on the left for a cutscene. After the scene, exit the room by going through the door on the left. Turn left when needed. Go through the door and up the lift. ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~ CorpLab 4F `~ ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ Boxes: White: 3 Yellow: 1 Head straight and turn right. Go through the door. Continue heading straight, and enter the first right door. In here i