STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME FAQ/WALKTHROUGH (v2.5, 9-6-04) by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) Revision History v2.5 (9-6-04) A few more name changes; added the Hall of Shame, added more Frequently Asked Questions. v2.1 (9-5-04) Various name changes to accomodate the North American version; for a full list, refer to Ammo's helpful FAQ on GameFAQs. v2.0 (4-25-04) Major revisions throughout thanks to the new info straight from the SO3: DC Final Guide (ISBN 4-7577-1860-8). v1.5 (2-13-04) Whoops, forgot I left out some info for Urza Cave Temple. Info added, as well as revisions throughout. v1.0 (2-11-04) All parts fully revised for DC. Added Versus Mode info. v0.5 (1-27-04) First version. Main walkthrough, characters complete with learning charts revised for the DC. Still working on bonus dungeons and the new minigames. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Basics --Controls --Menus --Skills --Characters --Battles --Item Creation 3. Walkthrough DISC ONE The Beginning --Grand Tear --Emergency Shelter --Helre Vanguard --Pesotto Forest --Whipple Village --Coffer Ruins --Norton's House Elcoor --Underground Waterway --Airyglyph --Traum Mountains --Kirsla --Kirsla Cave --Becquerel Mountain Path --Alias --Aire Hills/Kirsla Hills --Grana Hill --Kirsla Ruins --Palmira Plains --Peterny --Sanmite Plains --Duggus Forest --Iris Plains --Aquios --Becquerel Mine --Battlefield --Immorality Way --Shrine of Kaddan --Surferio --The Grace and Thirst Corridor --Mosel Sandhill --Ancient Ruins of Mosel --Airyglyph Castle --Bar Mountains/Bar Cave --Urza Lava Cave DISC TWO Back to Space --Diplo --Aquaelie --Moonbase --Planet Stream FD Space --Recorder --Gemity City --Sphere Corporation Endgame --Immorality Way/Shrine of Kaddan --Mosel Sandhill/Ancient Ruins of Mosel --Firewall --Spiral Tower 4. Side Quests/Secrets --Ladel and Lumina --The Ancient Scrolls --Battle Trophies --Surferio Underwater Garden ***NEW*** --Ancient Ruins of Mosel (Depths) --Cave of Trials --Urza Cave Temple ***NEW*** --Sphere 211 --The Final Secret Boss --Tricks 5. Versus Mode ***NEW*** 6. Hints/Frequently Asked Questions 7. Hall of Shame 8. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION This is an FAQ and Walkthrough for the PS2 RPG, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Director's Cut. It is also known as Star Ocean 3, and is the version of Star Ocean 3 that the North American Release is based on. This guide was written with the Japanese game as a base, so some names were changed in the US version (for no apparent reason). I have changed some of the names but not all (for instance, Peppita -> Peppita, but not Kokuyousen -> Flying Guillotine as the latter is many more characters and will screw with my margins). For reference, you can check out Ammo's awesome Name Changes FAQ to make sense of everything. This FAQ is Plot Spoiler free. What that means is that you do not need to worry about being spoiled for the plot by reading this FAQ. However this FAQ is not TOTALLY spoiler free, as in, there are secrets and sidequests revealed in this FAQ. Thus, if you want to stay TOTALLY spoiler free, I suggest you avoid the Side Quests/Secrets section. Things that are new or unique to the Director's Cut will be marked with ***NEW*** to facilitate the reading of this FAQ for those of you used to the regular version of Star Ocean 3. Here is a quick list of new features to the Director's Cut: --two new playable characters, Mirage Coast and Adray Lasbird --two new dungeons, Surferio Underwater Garden and the Urza Rock Temple --Versus Mode, playable by obtaining a certain item --at least 3 new costumes for each character --a revised Battle Trophies --improved Item Creation - some formerly useless items now valuable --revised Factors on items, better descriptions --fixing of some bugs present in the original (Shield/Reflect Emblem, Gutsy Bunny, Invincible Step) --different treasures from before in some treasure chests --various changes in Battle Skills - different CPs, learned at different levels, added status effects, and so on --Fayt, Maria, and Nel now learn certain spells as they level up --various tweaks to certain enemy attacks This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Certain versions of Windows should have it built in; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer (free from Microsoft) and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. 2. BASICS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Controls ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SO3 is "exclusively compatible to the DualShock 2", according to the game's box. This means, do not try to use a PS1 controller to play the game - it won't work. (The reason appears to be the DualShock 2's analog button press detection, which the PS1 controllers do not have. This is important for places like the Bar Ruins and the Dragon Flute). O: the circle button X: the X button S: the square button T: the triangle button On the field/towns/dungeons: Directional pad: Movement Left Analog: Movement Right Analog: Not used X: Examine/Talk O: Walk (hold X while moving to walk instead of run) S: Activate Vanish Items T: Camp Menu L1/R1: Rotate the map clockwise or counterclockwise L2: Not used R2: Cycle the minimap between small, large, and none Start: Readjust the camera angle Select: Not used On menus: Directional pad: Move through choices Left Analog: Move through choices Right Analog: Not used X: Confirm O: Cancel/Exit S: Switch between multiple screens (on equip screen) Discard item (on items) Turn on/off tactical skills T: Detailed information (on item descriptions) L1/R1: Page up/down (on equip/status/skills menus) L2/R2: Switch between characters (on equip/status/skills menus) L2: Not used R2: Not used Start: Not used Select: Not used During battles: Directional pad: Movement Left Analog: Movement Right Analog: Not used X: Weak attack O: Strong attack S: Targeting (during manual mode only) T: Battle menu L1/R1: Change the active character L2: Step (hold while moving directional pad) R2: Switch between manual and auto modes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Menus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Use Magic: Separated from Skill in the DC version; this will let characters capable of using healing magic cast them while out of battle. Set Skill: Under Set Skills you can set your Battle, Status, and Tactical skills. See the Skill section for more information. Item: Divided into Weapon (武器), Armor (防具), Accessory (アクセサリー), Used Item (ユースドアイテム), Food (食べ物), Other (その他), Materials (素材), Important Items (貴重品), Battle Items (戦闘用), and New Items (新規入手). In each category, square changes the ordering of items (alphabetical or default), O cancels out, and X selects the item. Once an item is selected a submenu pops up. Here, square throws away the item, triangle changes to a screen with more info, O cancels, and X uses the item. In the case of weapon or armor, "using" the item on somebody will equip it. Equip: Pretty self-explanatory. Triangle automatically equips the strongest setup (though this is in terms of numbers only) and square shows you the basic stats for each item. Status: Self-explanatory. X lets you change a character's name. Once you earn new costumes (see the Battle Trophies section, below), pressing triangle on the status screen will let you switch between costumes. Config: Consists of Event Skip (イベントスキップ) (On/Off), Sound (音声) (Both/Subtitles Only/Voice Only/Auto Change), Battle Targeting (バトルターゲット) (Auto/Manual), Battle Camera Work (バトルカメラワーク) (Active/Fixed), Battle Camera Mode (バトルカメラモード) (High/Low), Battle Voice (バトルボイス) (On/Off), Battle Step (バトルステップ) (L2 + directional pad/directional pad only), Vibration (振動) (On/Off), Sound Effect (サウンド環境) (Monaural/Stereo/Headphone/Dolby Surround), Key Customize (キーカスタマイズ) (Normal/Customize), Window Color (ウィンドウカラー) (Normal/Customize), Screen Size (画面サイズ) (4:3/16:9), Battle Trophies (バトルコレクション) (Collect/Don't Collect), and Data Reading (よみこみ) (from Hard Drive/DVD-ROM) (only when installed) Battle - Divided into Tactics (作戦), Exchange (入れ換え), and Formation (隊形). For most characters, Tactics lets you choose in order, Use all your strength!, Use good balance!, Conserve your Guts!, Focus attacks on one enemy!, Don't use battle skills!, and Don't do anything!. For Sophia and Adray, their choices are Use good balance!, Focus on healing!, Focus on Attacking!, Support allies!, Don't use magic!, and Don't do anything!. Exchange exchanges your party members. Formation lets you choose your battle formation. Pressing triangle here lets you choose the leader (the default character that you control). Dictionary: Consists of Newest Terms (最新単語), Countries (国家勢力 地名), People (人名), Races (種族), and Other (その他) Telegraph - Takes you to Item Creation screen. Here you can select from Newest Info (最新情報), Accept Ratings (特許申請), View Information (情報参照), Change Orders (命令変更), and Alert (アラート). See the Item Creation section for more info. Card: Choose between Save (セーブ) and Load (ロード). You can only save on save points. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Skills ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are four different kinds of skills in Star Ocean 3: Battle Skills (which are further divided into active and support skills), Heraldry, Status Skills, and Tactical Skills. Battle Skills are naturally enough what your characters use in battle. On the Battle Skill set screen, you can set 6 different battle skills per character: short range X (weak), long range X (weak), short range O (strong), long range O (strong), and two support skills. Six may be the maximum; however, each skill also costs a certain number of Capacity Points (CP). You cannot exceed the natural CP of your character. Your characters' CP will go up as you gain levels, maxing out at 15. Thus, if your character has fifteen points, and you equip an 8 CP battle skill, you cannot equip another 8 CP battle skill at the same time. The vast majority of battle skills can be set to either short or long range, and can be bound to a weak or strong button. In general a battle skill bound to a strong button (i.e., to O) will cost a lot more in terms of Guts and HP/MP, but it tends to be more effective and like regular strong attacks, it can break an enemy's Protect. To use a battle skill in battle, simply hold the button it is bound to. Each battle skill has a usage count (熱練度) and an associated level, along with an indication of how many more times it must be used before getting to the next level. The higher the level, the better the skill, generally doing more damage and/or hits. Support skills are always active in battle and do not require activation. Heraldry works much the same way as Battle Skills for Sophia. Definitions about CP, short/long range, weak/strong attacks, and experience all apply. Status Skills consume status points (SP) to strengthen your characters. You will gain SP when you level up; on this screen you can strengthen your character by spending your SP on Life Strength (生命力), which raises your HP, Mental Strength (精神力), which raises your MP, Attack Technique (攻撃術) which lets you do more effective techniques, and Avoidance (見切り), which may let you defend against attacks even without Protect. Each skill has a max level of 10. Tactical Skills are similar to support skills but can be turned on/off during battle. These things include things like Berserk, Training, and so on. Most Tactical Skills default to Off (because they have negative side effects), but turning them on with the square button will default them to on during battle. They can also be turned on during battle by selecting the T. Skill selection from the battle menu. Most Tactical Skills are learned from Books created by Item Creation, not by gaining levels. Here is a list of the general skills in the game. Character-specific skills are listed under each character in the characters section. Battle Skills Active Charge: short range skill only, character charges at enemy (4 CP) Aerial: short range skill only, character uses anti-air attack (2 CP) Critical: gives a chance of causing 35% more HP/MP damage for the attack it is bound to. At Level 1 the chance is about 6%, at Level 10 it is 30%.(2 CP) Stun: attack it is bound to has a chance of dizzying enemy. At Level 1 about 6%, at Level 10 about 30%. (2 CP) Fear: attack it is bound to may cause the enemy to attack less. At Level 1 about 15%, at Level 10 about 42%. (2 CP) Drain: attack it is bound to has a chance of dropping enemy's Guts to 50%. At Level 1 about 18%, at Level 10 about 30%. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Loot Item: attack it is bound to forces enemy to drop a treasure chest if it downs enemy. Chance rises as the skill's proficiency rises. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) HP Damage Up: Attack it is bound to causes more HP Damage. At Level 1 50% more, at Level 10 80% more. (4 CP) MP Damage Up: Attack it is bound to causes more MP Damage. At Level 1 50% more, at Level 10 80% more. If the move did not originally cause MP damage, this adds a small amount of MP damage to the move. (4 CP) Stamina Up: Guts consumption is reduced. At Level 1 30%, at Level 10 50%. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Double Up: Attack it is bound to causes more HP and MP Damage. At Level 1 about 30% more, at Level 10 60% more. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Support Guardless: Character will not stagger if damage received is less than 1/15th current HP. (5 CP) Common Attack Spell: Character will be able to use "Firebolt", "Ice Needle", and "Earth Grave". Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Common Support Spell: Character will be able to use "Healing", "Silence", and "Antidote". Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Retro Heal: While standing still, character regenerates HP at a rate of skill level x 20 HP every 4 seconds. (1 CP) Guts Extension: Occasionally character's guts may go to 100% automatically. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) First Aid: When getting attacked, a character has a chance of regaining 20% of Max HP. At Level 1 this is about 5%, at Level 10 15%. (1 CP) Lucky Star: When getting attacked, there is a chance of stars dropping on the field. Picking up a star fills the Heat Up Gauge 30%. The chance of a star falling is 4% at Level 1, and 10% at Level 10. Must be learned from a book. (2 CP) Critical HP: All of a character's attacks have a chance of causing 30% more HP damage. This chance is 4% at Level 1 and about 48% at Level 10. This stacks with Critical. (2 CP) Critical MP: All of a character's attacks have a chance of causing 30% more MP damage. This chance is 4% at Level 1 and about 48% at Level 10. This stacks with Critical. (2 CP) Quick Charge: Spell chant time cut down. Amount cut down depends on spell; there is a 2 second lower limit so already-fast spells will not be sped up any more. Must be learned from a book. (3 CP) MP Extend: Max MP increased 40%. Must be learned from a book. (3 CP) Tactical Berserk: Attack up 30% and Guts consumption cut in half, but Defense down 30%. Training: Experience gained 40% up, but Guts consumption multiplied by three. Must be learned from a book. Aura Select: (for Counter Auras) Choose between Standard (linear, dizzies), 2WAY (2 way aura, 70% chance of dizzy), Ring Wave (damages), Aiming (homes on opponent, damages), Wide Aiming (homes on opponent, damages), Regeneration (heals self), and Star Guard (causes stars to damage opponent). All of these auras require the associated Counter Aura book in your inventory before you can select them. Also Star Guard can only be selected if you have the Star Guard accessory equipped. Balance Condition: Choose between Protect HP and Protect MP. If Protect HP is selected, all HP damage is divided by 7 and applied to MP instead. If Protect MP is selected, all MP damage is multiplied by 13 and applied to HP instead. Must be learned from a book. Cure Condition: The effects of Poison, Paralysis, Petrify, Frozen, and Dizzy are weakened. Poison does only half damage, and the other effects last only half as long as they normally would. However Defense down 20%. Must be learned from a book. Taunt: Draws opponents to you. Enemy Search: Reveals the selected enemy's HP, MP, weaknesses/strengths, and dropped items. Note that for bosses HP/MP will not be revealed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Characters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAYT LINEGOD Sex: Male Age: 19 Height: 177 cm Weight: 67 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic Fayt is the main character of the game. He wields a sword in battle. He's one of the fastest at moving around and average in attack speed. You don't have much of a choice if you want to use him or not, so you might as well, though he isn't the greatest. In the Director's Cut, Fayt also learns a number of offensive magical spells, although thanks to his relatively low INT he won't nearly have as much use for them as Sophia would. Skills ブレードリアクター - Blade Reactor: Fayt's sword becomes surrounded with energy and he then swings at the enemy. Continue mashing on the attack button for up to three attacks. A bit slow and not the greatest. ブレイズソード - Blaze Sword: Fayt imbues his sword with fire. Great against opponents weak against fire. However it's a slow move and it wears off after awhile, so be sure to use it at long range. While imbued, his sword can cause MP damage as well. Fire-elemental. リフレクトストライク - Reflect Strike: Fayt sidesteps and then kicks the opponent for multiple hits. A fairly good move, this can help you evade some attacks. ライトニングブラスト - Lightning Blast: Creates an arc of lightning between Fayt and the target. Air-elemental. アイシクルエッジ - Icicle Edge: Fayt imbues his sword with ice. Like Blaze Sword it has its uses and it can cause MP damage. Water-elemental. ショットガンボルト - Shotgun Bolt: Fayt creates a wall of fire in front of him. Does a lot of hits and relatively good damage, but the range and area is pretty limited. ライトニングバインド - Lightning Bind: Fayt imbues his sword with lightning. Akin to Blaze Sword and Icicle Edge, it can also cause MP damage. Air- elemental. ディープフリーズ - Deep Freeze: Encases the enemy in ice that hits multiple times. Has a chance to freeze opponents. Water-elemental. ヴァーティカルエアレイド - Vertical Airraid: Fayt flips into the air and causes several lines of energy to rise up from the ground for multiple hits. One of his better attack skills. ロックレイン - Rock Rain: Causes rocks to fall on enemies within a wide range. Not as good a range as Explosion but causes more hits in the long run. Earth-elemental. ストレイヤーヴォイド - Strayer Void: Fayt charges up. Continue holding the attack button to charge further (this doesn't increase damage and consumes more Guts, but causes a small amount of area damage). After the button is released, Fayt teleports to the nearest opponent and slashes them. The damage is not entirely spectacular and this battle skill is comparatively useless. エクスプロージョン - Explosion: Causes a ball of fire to drop slowly to the ground, which then explodes in a huge shockwave. Covers a really large area and is one of the most damaging spells. Fire-elemental. ディバインウェポン - Divine Weapon: Fayt imbues his weapon with divine power. Like the elemental imbuements, this can be a good move as it causes MP damage and enhances HP damage, but as an added bonus, this will work against opponents who have elemental resistances (no enemy is resistant against Divine power). イセリアルブラスト - Iserial Blast: Fayt grows wings, hovers into the air, and then blasts the enemy with a ray of light. Reaaaaaaaally slow, and the move does not home, so it is hard to hit moving enemies with it, but if you manage to, they will take a large amount of HP and MP damage. Learning Chart Level 2: Blade Reactor Level 3: First Aid Level 4: Enemy Search Aerial Level 6: Blaze Sword Level 7: Critical Level 9: Charge Level 10: Retro Heal Level 11: Critical HP Level 14: Taunt Level 15: Reflect Strike Level 16: Guardless Lightning Blast Level 17: Stun Level 20: Icicle Edge Level 21: Berserk Level 22: HP Damage Up Level 23: MP Damage Up Level 25: Shotgun Bolt Level 30: Lightning Bind Level 32: Fear Level 38: Deep Freeze Level 40: Vertical Air Raid Level 45: Rock Rain Level 50: Strayer Void Level 60: Explosion SOPHIA ESTEED Sex: Female Age: 17 Height: 160 cm Weight: 49 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic (joins after second Kirsla Ruins event) The dedicated heraldry user of the game. As such, Sophia gets sole access to some very powerful spells. On the downside, even with stuff like Quick Charge it takes a very long time to chant some of the spells. Still, magic is powerful in the right circumstances, and she's one of the best. Skills ヒーリング - Healing: Heals a character for a good chunk of their HP. Doesn't heal MP, sadly. アンチドート - Antidote: Cures the "Poison" condition from a character. Not too useful. ファイアボルト - Firebolt: Creates a firebolt that homes in on the enemy. Fire-elemental. As the proficiency of this spell increases, more firebolts are created. サイレンス - Silence: Prevents the enemy from casting spells. Unfortunately most of the really dangerous spellcasters are immune to this spell. アイスニードル - Ice Needle: Creates an array of icicles that spray forward in a cone-shaped area. Small chance of freezing the enemy. Water-elemental. アシッドレイン - Acid Rain: Lowers an enemy's physical defense within a certain area of effect. ライトニングブラスト - Lightning Blast: Creates an arc of lightning between Sophia and the target. Air-elemental. プロテクション - Protection: Increases a character's physical defense by 50% for 1 minute. アースグレイブ - Earth Grave: Creates spikes of earth in front of Sophia, impaling the enemy. Earth-elemental. キュアコンディション - Cure Condition: Cures any status effects from an ally. レイズデッド - Raise Dead: Returns a fallen character to life, restoring some HP/MP. イフリートソード - Ifrit Sword: Summons an Ifrit to attack a large area just in front of Sophia. Fire-elemental. グロース - Growth: Increases an ally's attack power by 50% for 1 minute. プレス - Press: Causes a weight to fall on a fairly large range of the field for non-elemental damage. サンダーフレア - Thunder Flare: Creates a thunderstorm that hits the opponent for numerous hits. Pretty good range and can keep an enemy busy for quite a long time. Air-elemental. フェアリーライト - Fairy Light: Heals all party members for a good amount of HP. ディープフリーズ - Deep Freeze: Encases the enemy in ice that hits multiple times. Has a chance to freeze opponents. Water-elemental. リフレクション - Reflection: Halves the damage an ally receives from spells for 1 minute. ダークサークル - Dark Circle: If the enemy is weakened, this spell will kill them instantly. Good range but its use is pretty limited. ロックレイン - Rock Rain: Causes rocks to fall on enemies within a wide range. Not as good a range as Explosion but causes more hits in the long run. Earth-elemental. グラヴィテーション - Gravitation: Slows down all enemies within the area of effect. Pretty useless if you ask me. エクスプロージョン - Explosion: Causes a ball of fire to drop slowly to the ground, which then explodes in a huge shockwave. Covers a really large area and is one of the most damaging spells. Fire-elemental. レイ - Ray: Causes several beams of light to shoot down, damaging a large area. Good damage, relatively fast to cast; however it's a little slow on the startup. Very useful since it's non-elemental. エンゼルフェザー - Angel Feather: Raises all of an ally's stats by 20% for 1 minute. サンダーストラック- Thunderstruck: Causes a column of lightning to hit an enemy repeatedly. Pretty small range but great spell otherwise. Air- elemental. ブラッドスキュラー - Blood Scylla: Causes a spirit to appear which sucks up the HP and MP of enemies within an area and then gives it to Sophia. サザンクロス - Southern Cross: Causes a cross of light to appear under Sophia's feet, damaging everybody who steps inside for both HP and MP damage. グレムリンレア - Gremlin Lair: Causes several gremlins to appear, who home in and attack the opponent. The higher the level of the spell, the more that appear. Causes both HP and MP damage. メテオスォーム - Meteo Swarm: Causes several meteors to fall onto the battlefield. This spell cannot be cast from the Heraldry menu; it must be set as a strong Battle Skill. Learning Chart Level 3: Healing First Aid Level 4: Antidote Level 5: Firebolt Level 7: Silence Level 10: Ice Needle Level 12: Acid Rain Level 13: Enemy Search Level 14: Retro Heal Level 15: Lightning Blast Level 17: Protection Level 19: Earth Grave Level 20: Cure Condition (Spell) Level 21: Taunt Level 22: Charge Raise Dead Level 23: Critical HP Level 24: Critical Level 25: Ifrit Sword Growth Level 26: Aerial Level 27: HP Damage Up Level 29: Stun Press Level 30: Thunder Flare Level 32: Fairy Light MP Damage Up Level 35: Deep Freeze Level 36: Fear Level 37: Reflection Level 40: Dark Circle Level 42: Berserk Level 45: Rock Rain Level 46: Guardless Level 47: Gravitation Level 50: Explosion Level 54: Ray Level 57: Angel Feather Level 60: Thunderstruck CLIFF FITTER Sex: Male Age: 36 Height: 196 cm Weight: 96 kg Race: Claustro How to recruit: Automatic (joins during the boss fight with Norton) The strong man of the group, he's got the most physical strength and HP out of anybody. He's a pure brawler when it comes to battle, and he's got some really useful skills. He also has tons of HP to soak up damage, but watch out for enemies that inflict MP damage, as he doesn't have very much. Skills マイトディスチャージ - Might Discharge: Cliff creates a ball of energy in front of him that hits the opponent multiple times. Okay range and good for keeping enemies away, but it might miss short enemies. マイトハンマー - Might Hammer: Cliff jumps into the air and causes a shockwave to hit the ground, spreading outwards and damaging all the enemies in the area of effect. Excellent skill in the early period. カーレントナックル - Current Knuckle: Cliff swings three fast punches at the opponent. Fairly good damage and range. バーストタックル - Burst Tackle: Like a pumped-up version of Charge, Cliff charges at the nearest opponent in a fast tackle attack. Not too great but fast. エリアルレイド - Aerial Raid: Cliff jumps into the air, then lands heel- first, causing a shockwave. Doesn't hit many times but causes a good chunk of MP damage in exchange. If you press the button again in midair, he changes to a fist-first landing which hits a wider range but does less damage. フラッシュチャリオット - Flash Chariot: Cliff hits the enemy with a lightning-fast series of punches. It's useful for locking down enemies, though upper-level enemies will simply move out of the way and Cliff will whiff. ビーンバッガー - Bean Bagger: Cliff floats the opponent high into the air with a rising uppercut. Afterwards continue pressing the attack button to float the opponent with kicks. Can disrupt your allies' combos so beware. アクロバットローカス - Acrobat Locus: Cliff hits a martial arts combination on the opponent, flip-kicking them into the air and continuing from there. Good number of hits but a little on the slow side. インフィニティアーツ - Infinity Arts: Cliff launches into a long series of sweeping kick attacks. Great range and coverage, and unlike most of the secret battle skills, actually pretty fast. A great move when surrounded. Does less damage than Acrobat Locus, but causes MP damage. マックスエクステンション - Max Extension: Cliff charges up his energy for as long as you hold the button and then sends a shockwave travelling forward from him. Really slow and not that worth it. Learning Chart Start: Retro Heal Level 4: Might Discharge Level 6: Critical Level 8: Guardless Taunt Level 10: Might Hammer Level 12: HP Damage Up Level 13: Stun Level 14: Critical HP Level 15: Current Knuckle Level 16: First Aid Level 17: Berserk Charge Level 20: Burst Tackle Level 21: Aerial Level 22: MP Damage Up Level 25: Aerial Raid Level 30: Enemy Search Flash Chariot Level 32: Fear Level 40: Bean Bagger Level 50: Acrobat Locus MARIA TRAITOR Sex: Female Age: 19 Height: 168 cm Weight: 47 kg Race: Human How to recruit: Automatic (joins after the Bandein attack event) As a user of a phase gun, Maria has the best attack range out of anybody. However this is balanced out by the fact that she's exceedingly slow at moving on the battlefield. Still she's got several useful techniques that let her use hit-and-run tactics to play a long-distance fighting game. She also has the second-highest MP total in the game. In the Director's Cut, she now learns a number of support spells, making her even more useful to the party. Skills エイミングデバイス - Aiming Device: Maria uses a laser-sight to target the enemy and then shoots them. Only hits once. On the plus side it does MP damage, and it also has a very small chance of Confusing the enemy. プルートホーン - Pluto Horn: Maria shoots a spread pattern of bullets. More useful at close range in order to get all the rays to hit. Number of rays goes up as the proficiency increases. プロテクション - Protection: Increases a character's physical defense by 50% for 1 minute. グロース - Growth: Increases an ally's attack power by 50% for 1 minute. リフレクション - Reflection: Halves the damage an ally receives from spells for 1 minute. マグネティックフィールド - Magnetic Field: Maria creates an area of EM flux on the ground which can damage all enemies that step into it. Good range and lasts for quite a bit. Also has a chance of paralyzing the opponent. All-around good skill. パルスエミッション - Pulse Emission: Maria fires her gun four times at the opponent. She seems to miss more often than she should. She fires more shots as the proficiency increases, and the damage per shot increases drastically as well. クレッセントローカス - Crescent Locus: Maria kicks up with her foot and causes a shockwave. Good for floating/flying opponents and it has decent range and speed. トライデントアーツ - Trident Arts: Maria does a triple kick combination with energy trails following her feet. Does a decent amount of damage and has great range. Knocks the opponent away from Maria. レーザーエミッション - Laser Emission: Maria shoots a laser in a circular pattern around her, which causes a row of flames to shoot upwards. Good area coverage; use it if Maria is surrounded. エンゼルフェザー - Angel Feather: Raises all of an ally's stats by 20% for 1 minute. グラビティビュレット - Gravity Bullet: Maria launches a globe of gravitational energy that hits the opponent many many many times. Great battle skill, almost always knocks the opponent down. バーストエミッション - Burst Emission: Maria causes a wide beam to emanate in front of her. Not that great but it has range. Continue holding the button in order to continue shooting the ray, for more hits. レディエーションデバイス - Radiation Device: Maria creates several drones that float around her. For a limited period of time, whenever Maria shoots, the drones shoot as well. They can cause a goodly amount of MP damage, making this one of Maria's best battle skills. Learning Chart Start: Aiming Device Pluto Horn Protection Retro Heal Berserk Level 21: Growth Level 22: Charge Critical MP Enemy Search Level 23: Critical Level 24: Aerial Level 26: Reflection First Aid Level 27: HP Damage Up Level 28: Magnetic Field Level 29: Taunt Level 31: Fear Level 32: Pulse Emission Level 34: Stun Level 38: Crescent Locus Level 42: Trident Arts Level 45: Angel Feather Level 46: Laser Emission Level 52: Gravity Bullet Level 58: Guardless PEPPITA ROSETTI Sex: Female Age: 14 Height: 132 cm Weight: 36 kg Race: Belbeis How to recruit: Peppita will join you temporarily at the Moonbase. After the Moonbase event, you'll be presented with an option. Choose "Take her along" (連れて行く) and she'll join you permanently. A circus performer, she's got quite a wide range of acrobatic attacks. Unfortunately a lot of them are slow, and a lot of them are fairly short range. Peppita has the unique ability to use special counter attacks; that is, if you press an attack button just as she's about to be attacked, she'll automatically evade the attack while attacking the opponent as well. It's also said that she's the best at item creation out of any of the player characters. Many of her battle skills are unique in that they don't directly attack the enemy, but help out your party instead. Skills ビヨーンドルアー - Beyond Lure: Peppita attacks the enemy with a fishhook. It's got some range but it's not a terribly great battle skill. フローズンダガー - Frozen Dagger: Peppita creates a few ice daggers and then tosses them at the enemy. Unlike Nel's Touga, these daggers are a LOT slower and thus much harder to hit with. However they still can freeze the opponent. Water-elemental. シャイニングダンス - Shining Dance: Peppita begins to dance and a symbol appears on the ground. All allies within the area get an increase in attack power for 30 seconds; the amount of increase goes up as the move gains proficiency, to a max of a 250% bonus. ドキューンブラスト - Dokyuun Blast: Peppita points her finger and an invisible blast hits the enemy. A great battle skill as it's near- instant and can be used with some range, as well as causing MP damage, and it has a chance of causing instant death. パニックダンス - Panic Dance: Peppita dances, but this time she causes confusion to the enemies. Not that great, many are immune to this effect. パパパスプラッシュ - Papapa Splash: Peppita creates an area of pyrotechnics around her. Use this when surrounded. It does many hits, and very rarely it will cause instant death to enemies susceptible to it. プリズミックダンス - Prismic Dance: Peppita dances, and all allies in the area of effect start regaining HP. Good in a pinch but it may not warrant taking Peppita out of action. フェアリーアーツ - Fairy Arts: Peppita summons a creature that mimics her movements, doing good HP and MP damage. Unfortunately it's a bit slow. マジカルダンス - Magical Dance: Like Prismic Dance, only heals MP instead. Since there's very few good ways to heal your MP, this is a great skill, though burning a slot and the CP on this skill is questionable. ドリームコンボ - Dream Combo: Peppita summons a giant hammer. Once the hammer is summoned, continue pressing attack buttons to let her attack with the hammer, which will cause good HP and MP damage. The hammer lasts for a certain period of time or until Peppita is damaged. Great skill. Learning Chart Level 5: Beyond Lure Level 6: Charge Level 10: Frozen Dagger Level 11: Taunt Level 12: First Aid Level 14: Critical MP Level 15: Shining Dance Level 17: Retro Heal Level 18: Aerial Level 20: Dokyuun Blast Level 22: Enemy Search Level 25: Panic Dance Level 26: Stun Level 28: HP Damage Up Level 29: MP Damage Up Level 30: Papapa Splash Level 31: Berserk Level 33: Critical Level 34: Fear Level 40: Prismic Dance Level 48: Guardless Level 50: Fairy Arts NEL ZELPHER Sex: Female Age: 23 Height: 171 cm Weight: 51 kg Race: Elicoor How to recruit: She'll join you after the escape from Airyglyph event. She'll leave temporarily after you leave Alias, and join again at Kirsla Ruins. She'll then leave before you return to the Diplo. To recruit her permanently, either do not trigger the Roger or Albel events (see below) and she'll join you after the second Kirsla Ruins event, or visit her in Aquios after returning from Gemity and tell her "We can't take it easy" (ゆっくりしていけない) (you can't have recruited Peppita in latter case). A spy in the service of Aquios. She's quick and has some fast, multiple hitting techniques. She possesses some of the best battle skills in the entire game. Her only downside is her lack of high HP, though for awhile she'll have the highest MP out of anybody in your party. In the Director's Cut, Nel also learns a variety of support and offensive spells. Skills 肢閃刀 - Shisentou: Nel creates a shockwave that travels forward along the ground, hitting the opponent multiple times. Somewhat limited range. ヒーリング - Healing: Heals a character for a good chunk of their HP. Doesn't heal MP, sadly. ファイアボルト - Firebolt: Creates a firebolt that homes in on the enemy. Fire-elemental. As the proficiency of this spell increases, more firebolts are created. 影祓い - Kagebarai: Like Shisentou, only Nel creates an arc pattern that gives the move a much greater area of effect. It also causes MP damage, making it much more useful. Sometimes it manages to hit flying opponents. アイスニードル - Ice Needle: Creates an array of icicles that spray forward in a cone-shaped area. Small chance of freezing the enemy. Water-elemental. 凍牙 - Touga: Nel throws ice daggers at an opponent. Not too great for damage (it's easy to miss) but it can freeze opponents, and hitting a frozen opponent means instant death for them. Water-elemental. ライトニングブラスト - Lightning Blast: Creates an arc of lightning between Nel and the target. Air-elemental. 訃霞 - Fuka: Nel creates a poison cloud that poisons opponents who wander into it. Good for chipping away at an enemy's HP. 風陣 - Fuujin: Nel surrounds herself with a hurricane. Any enemy that touches the hurricane takes multiple hits worth of damage. The great thing about this move is that after the hurricane is created, Nel can move around freely and even attack. Air-elemental. 黒鷹旋 - Kokuyousen: My vote for the best battle skill in the game. Nel uses her large sword as a boomerang-type weapon, causing a large disc to fly out and return to her. The HP damage is nothing to write home about, but the MP damage this move causes is insane. This move can hit from 4-7 times, causing a net total of 500-1000 MP damage when she first gets it and a possible 10000-20000 towards the end of the game, which puts down most enemies in quite a hurry. While the disc is out, Nel can move around freely, thus directing the disc's movements. サンダーフレア - Thunder Flare: Creates a thunderstorm that hits the opponent for numerous hits. Pretty good range and can keep an enemy busy for quite a long time. Air-elemental. 雷煌破 - Raikouha: Nel creates a chain of lightning to rush forth. Okay move, but nothing compared to Kokuyousen. It lasts longer the more proficiency you have. Air-elemental. 鏡面殺 - Kyoumensatsu: The "Mirror Slice" that showed up in previous SO games makes its return as Nel's skill. She hits the opponent for a quick combination of slashes, floats them into the air with a flipkick, hits them multiple times with a spray of lightning, and then dashes forward in one final attack. Pretty good damage and hits, but beware Counter Auras. サンダーストラック- Thunderstruck: Causes a column of lightning to hit an enemy repeatedly. Pretty small range but great spell otherwise. Air- elemental. 裏桜花炸光 - Uraouka Sakkou: Like Kyoumensatsu, only better. Nel rushes VERY fast at the opponent, then hits them multiple times with a whirlwind of attacks, finishing by causing a hurricance that can hit multiple enemies for numerous hits. Because of the fast dash at the beginning, this move can actually be used pretty effectively as a Far range attack. 封神醒雷破 - Fuujin Seiraiha: Nel floats into the air surrounded by a globe of electricity, and then causes a huge bolt to fly forwards. Does really good HP and MP damage, but like most of the hidden Battle Skills, it's really, really SLOW. Air-elemental. Learning Chart Start: Shisentou Healing Firebolt Level 5: HP Damage Up Level 6: Aerial Level 8: Critical Level 10: Kagebarai Ice Needle Level 13: Stun Level 15: Touga Level 16: Berserk Level 17: First Aid Level 18: Critical HP Lightning Blast Level 19: Charge Level 20: Fuka Level 22: Retro Heal Level 25: Fuujin Level 26: Taunt Level 28: MP Damage Up Level 30: Kokuyousen Level 32: Fear Level 35: Enemy Search Thunder Flare Level 40: Raikouha Guardless Level 52: Kyoumensatsu Level 70: Thunderstruck ROGER S. HUXLEY Sex: Male Age: 12 Height: 85 cm Weight: 30 kg Race: Menodix How to recruit: In the Duggus Forest, you'll meet him. Choose to have him help (ロジャーに協力してもらう) and he'll join you until you leave the forest. Afterwards head to Surferio and you'll meet him again. Choose to help him (協力する) and he'll join you again until you return to the Diplo. To have him join you permanently, either trigger the Roger event by visiting the house across the shops in Surferio after Albel joins you, in which case he'll join you again after the second Kirsla Ruins event; or visit him in Surferio after returning from Gemity (you can't have recruited Peppita in the latter case). Small and surprisingly strong, both in attack power and HP. His techs aren't necessarily the greatest but some of them do have range while others have power. His secret battle skills are perhaps the best in the game, but you won't see them until the very end. Skills ヒートアックス - Heat Axe: Roger charges up his axe, then dives forward and causes an explosion. Really slow, you'll probably get hit out of it first. ヒートウィップ - Heat Whip: Roger causes a line of fire to spin around him, stunning enemies momentarily. Okay range, certainly much better than Heat Axe, has a small chance of causing confusion. タレルマイン - Tareru Mine: Roger charges up. Afterwards, when he moves he'll automatically lay mines that can damage the opponent. Okay if someone's chasing you, but otherwise pretty worthless, and again it's really really slow. ラストディッチ - Last Ditch: Roger flies forward in a torpedo type attack. Great range, but recovery time is long, so make sure you don't miss. エクスアーム - Ex Arm: Roger uses his arm as a drill in a charging type attack. Less recovery than Last Ditch, and also has a very good chance of dropping the opponent's Guts. ストリームアタック - Stream Attack: Roger shoots some blasts forward, then charges forward in a fiery aura. Good series of attacks but it's very easy to miss with the Bazooka, which is the only really damaging part of the skill. カノンシールド - Cannon Shield: Roger puts up a shield and lobs off a some missiles. The missiles increase as proficiency goes up, and some may gain homing powers as well. Still, it's easy to miss with this move. ジークビーム - Jeek Beam: Roger tosses his helmet into the air, then shoots up into it, causing an arcing pattern of lasers to fall around him. It's a bit on the slow side but has 360-degree coverage. トライファンネル - Tri Fauna: Roger lets lose what appears to be three small animals, who each attack enemies independently. Good for keeping Roger out of danger. The higher the proficiency, the longer the animals remain. スターフォール - Star Fall: Roger causes meteors to fall onto the field. The meteors cover the entire field, but it takes a LONG time for them to appear. Sort of a bargain version of Meteo Swarm, does ridiculously good damage. Learning Chart Start: Heat Axe Level 10: Heat Whip Level 12: Charge Level 13: Retro Heal Level 15: Tareru Mine Level 16: Guardless Level 18: Berserk Critical HP Level 20: Last Ditch Level 21: Taunt Aerial Level 23: MP Damage Up Level 25: Ex Arm Level 26: First Aid Level 29: Critical Level 30: Stream Attack Level 31: Fear Level 32: HP Damage Up Level 33: Stun Level 36: Enemy Search Level 40: Cannon Shield Level 50: Jeek Beam ALBEL NOX Sex: Male Age: 24 Height: 185 cm Weight: 64 kg Race: Elicoor How to recruit: He'll join you temporarily after the Airyglyph Castle event and he'll leave before you return to the Diplo. To have him join you permanently, trigger the "Albel event" by going to Peterny while he's in your party and resting at the inn there. He'll ask you if you hate him. Respond "Not really" (そうでもない) and he'll join you again after the second Kirsla Ruins event. Otherwise, go visit Walter in Kirsla after returning from Gemity, then go to Crosel's lair in the Urza Lava Cave. There you'll fight on him one on one in battle. Afterwards choose to let him join you (許可する) (you can't have recruited Peppita in the latter case). One of the generals of Airyglyph, he wields a katana and has some good battle techniques. He's got fairly high HP but low MP, and some great basic attacks which are basically multiple slashes. One of the better characters. Skills 空破斬 - Kuuhazan: The famous "Air Slash" makes its return. Albel causes a shock wave to travel forward along the ground to hit the opponent. Decent range but that's about it. Wind-elemental. 衝裂破 - Shouretsuha: Albel causes another ground shockwave, but this one travels in a circular pattern around him. Use this when surrounded. Wind-elemental. 気功掌 - Kikoushou: Albel gathers energy in his palm and sends it forward in a short-range blast. Causes a little MP damage as well. 魔掌壁 - Mashouseki: Albel creates a wall of aura in front of him. Enemies that walk into it take a lot of MP damage. However the wall itself is small and this is trickier than it seems. Has a small chance of causing confusion. 双破斬 - Souhazan: Albel does a vertical two-slash combination on the enemy. Fairly good range. 魔光閃 - Makousen: Albel creates a field on the ground that sucks up enemy's HP and MP and gives it to him. Continue holding the button to maintain it. Good in a pinch, but may not warrant the 6 CP, and it's fairly slow. 剛魔掌 - Goumashou: Albel causes his claw to glow with energy, then he charges forward for a number of swipes. Great move; does a lot of damage and has great range, just watch out for the Counter Auras. 吼竜破 - Kouryuuha: Albel charges up, then several dragons fly forth from the ground, hitting the opponent for multiple hits, all with good HP and MP damage. Unfortunately the move is quite slow and its easy for it to miss completely, or worse, for the enemy to hit Albel first. 無限空破斬 - Mugen Kuuhazan: Like Kuuhazan, only mashing on the attack button will have Albel continue putting out Kuuhazan waves. A great attack as it does both HP and MP damage, is quite rapid, and Albel can keep the enemy far far away. Unlike Kuuhazan, this is null-elemental. 無限双破斬 - Mugen Souhazan: Like Mugen Kuuhazan, this is a charged up version of Souhazan, so keep pressing the attack button to continue. Almost as good as Mugen Kuuhazan, but this puts you at much more risk for Counter Aura. Learning Chart Start: Critical Kuuhazan Shouretsuha Retro Heal Critical MP Level 21: Berserk Level 25: Stun Level 26: Kikoushou Guardless Taunt Level 27: MP Damage Up Level 28: HP Damage Up Level 29: Aerial Level 30: First Aid Level 32: Mashouseki Charge Level 33: Fear Level 35: Souhazan Level 36: Enemy Search Level 40: Makousen Level 45: Goumashou Level 50: Kouryuuha ADRAY LASBIRD ***NEW*** Sex: Male Age: 58 Height: 188 cm Weight: 100 kg Race: Elicoor How to recruit: Adray will join automatically, but the timing is up to you. To have him join the fastest possiblie, after Dion and Amina's reunion at Aquios, but before heading off to Alias, enter the throne room in Aquios Castle. As you try to leave, an event will occur in which you meet Adray, and you'll have a chance to add him to your party (はい). He'll leave, like the other Elicoor people, once you leave the planet. Later, after clearing the Sphere Corporation visit Aquios Castle again and enter the throne room to talk to the Queen; upon leaving Adray will show up again and join. Alternatively, if you didn't recruit him before the war, go to the west section of Surferio after Sphere Corporation and he'll be there. The father of Claire Lasbird, and former Crimson Blade under the Queen. He is a mix of fighter and magic user (but more magic user), having several common spells with Sophia but many unique ones as well. His weak point is his slow movement and the inability to wear anything but the lightest armor. Adray has both 'battle skills' and 'magic'; battle skills damage depends on ATK, while magic damage is dependent on INT. Skills ファイアボルト - Firebolt: Creates a firebolt that homes in on the enemy. Fire-elemental. As the proficiency of this spell increases, more firebolts are created. ライトニングブラスト - Lightning Blast: Creates an arc of lightning between Adray and the target. Air-elemental. アイスニードル - Ice Needle: Creates an array of icicles that spray forward in a cone-shaped area. Small chance of freezing the enemy. Water-elemental. アースグレイブ - Earth Grave: Creates spikes of earth in front of Sophia, impaling the enemy. Earth-elemental. ヒーリング - Healing: Heals a character for a good chunk of their HP. Doesn't heal MP, sadly. アンチドート - Antidote: Cures the "Poison" condition from a character. Not too useful. サイレンス - Silence: Prevents the enemy from casting spells. Unfortunately most of the really dangerous spellcasters are immune to this spell. アシッドレイン - Acid Rain: Lowers an enemy's physical defense within a certain area of effect. フェイタルヒューリー - Fatal Fury: Adray charges up, then flies straight at the enemy. Okay move, but you may not want to get Adray too close to the opponent. This is a battle skill (not magic). イフリートソード - Ifrit Sword: Summons an Ifrit to attack a large area just in front of Adray. Fire-elemental. プロテクション - Protection: Increases a character's physical defense by 50% for 1 minute. グロース - Growth: Increases an ally's attack power by 50% for 1 minute. サンダーフレア - Thunder Flare: Creates a thunderstorm that hits the opponent for numerous hits. Pretty good range and can keep an enemy busy for quite a long time. Air-elemental. キュアコンディション - Cure Condition: Cures any status effects from an ally. ディープフリーズ - Deep Freeze: Encases the enemy in ice that hits multiple times. Has a chance to freeze opponents. Water-elemental. タイタンフィスト - Titan Fist: Summons a large fist to pound on the opponent. Somewhat useful to keep the enemy away. As the level increases, it begins to inflict status ailments on the opponent. This is a battle skill (not magic). Earth-elemental. レイズデッド - Raise Dead: Returns a fallen character to life, restoring some HP/MP. ダークサークル - Dark Circle: If the enemy is weakened, this spell will kill them instantly. Good range but its use is pretty limited. フェアリーライト - Fairy Light: Heals all party members for a good amount of HP. リフレクション - Reflection: Halves the damage an ally receives from spells for 1 minute. サザンクロス - Southern Cross: Causes a cross of light to appear under Adray's feet, damaging everybody who steps inside for both HP and MP damage. ロックレイン - Rock Rain: Causes rocks to fall on enemies within a wide range. Not as good a range as Explosion but causes more hits in the long run. Earth-elemental. エクスプロージョン - Explosion: Causes a ball of fire to drop slowly to the ground, which then explodes in a huge shockwave. Covers a really large area and is one of the most damaging spells. Fire-elemental. グラヴィテーション - Gravitation: Slows down all enemies within the area of effect. Pretty useless if you ask me. ウオーターゲート - Water Gate: Summons a large shark to attack the enemy. Water-elemental. This is a battle skill, not magic. レイ - Ray: Causes several beams of light to shoot down, damaging a large area. Good damage, relatively fast to cast; however it's a little slow on the startup. Very useful since it's non-elemental. サンダーストラック- Thunderstruck: Causes a column of lightning to hit an enemy repeatedly. Pretty small range but great spell otherwise. Air- elemental. エンゼルフェザー - Angel Feather: Raises all of an ally's stats by 20% for 1 minute. スピキュール - Spicule: Adray charges up, then leaps high into the air, eventually crashing down onto the ground to cause a large amount of HP and MP damage to a huge range of opponents. The recovery time on this move is horrid (after all, he dives down head-first), but damage-wise it's a prety good skill. This is a battle skill, not magic. Fire- elemental. エモーショントーレント - Emotion Torrent: Adray creates a giant globe which he then throws towards the enemy; upon landing, the globe explodes, causing a large amount of HP and MP damage. The orb counts as a random element so it's kind of hard to use effectively; it's also rather slow. This is a battle skill, not magic. Learning Chart Start: Charge Firebolt Lightning Blast Ice Needle Earth Grave Antidote Retro Heal First Aid Level 5: Healing Level 6: Antidote Level 10: Silence Level 19: Acid Rain Level 20: Fatal Fury Taunt Level 21: Ifrit Sword Level 22: Aerial Level 23: Protection Critical HP Level 24: Critical Level 25: Growth Level 27: Thunder Flare HP Damage Up Level 29: Cure Condition (Spell) Stun Level 30: Deep Freeze Titan Fist Level 32: Raise Dead MP Damage Up Level 35: Dark Circle Berserk Level 36: Fear Level 37: Fairy Light Level 39: Reflection Level 40: Southern Cross Level 42: Rock Rain Enemy Search Level 45: Explosion Level 46: Guardless Level 48: Gravitation Level 50: Water Gate Level 54: Ray Level 57: Thunderstruck Level 60: Angel Feather MIRAGE COAST ***NEW*** Sex: Female Age: 27 Height: 181 cm Weight: 53 kg Race: Claustro How to recruit: Mirage will automatically join on Disc 2, after talking to her on the Diplo when you return from the Planet Stream. Cliff's partner, an NPC in the original SO3, she now joins the party albeit late in the game. Storywise, she's a better fighter than Cliff, as well as Maria's martial arts teacher; thus, she has several of Cliff's and Maria's moves as well as a few of her own. Skills マイトディスチャージ - Might Discharge: Mirage creates a ball of energy in front of him that hits the opponent multiple times. Okay range and good for keeping enemies away, but it might miss short enemies. マイトハンマー - Might Hammer: Mirage jumps into the air and causes a shockwave to hit the ground, spreading outwards and damaging all the enemies in the area of effect. カーレントナックル - Current Knuckle: Mirage swings three fast punches at the opponent. Fairly good damage and range. エリアルレイド - Aerial Raid: Mirage jumps into the air, then lands heel- first, causing a shockwave. Doesn't hit many times but causes a good chunk of MP damage in exchange. If you press the button again in midair, he changes to a fist-first landing which hits a much larger range but does less damage. クレッセントローカス - Crescent Locus: Mirage kicks up with her foot and causes a shockwave. Good for floating/flying opponents and it has decent range and speed. トライデントアーツ - Trident Arts: Mirage does a triple kick combination with energy trails following her feet. Does a decent amount of damage and has great range. Knocks the opponent away from Mirage. アクロバットローカス - Acrobat Locus: Mirage hits a martial arts combination on the opponent, flip-kicking them into the air and continuing from there. Good number of hits but a little on the slow side. フェスティブアベンジャー - Festive Avenger: Mirage launches into a spin-kick combination on the opponent. Doesn't float the opponent, so it's easier to land all the hits for this than it is for Acrobat Locus. Fire-elemental. インフィニティアーツ - Infinity Arts: Mirage launches into a long series of sweeping kick attacks. Great range and coverage, and unlike most of the secret battle skills, actually pretty fast. A great move when surrounded. Does less damage than Acrobat Locus, but causes MP damage. キャノンブレイズ - Cannon Blaze: Mirage rushes the opponent and knocks them into the air, then hits them with a series of energy blasts while they're even at long range. Learning Chart Start: Might Discharge Might Hammer Charge Aerial Critical Retro Heal First Aid Level 6: Taunt Level 32: HP Damage Up Level 33: Current Knuckle Berserk Level 35: Fear Level 36: Stun Level 38: MP Damage Up Level 39: Critical HP Level 40: Enemy Search Level 41: Aerial Raid Level 42: Guardless Level 46: Crescent Locus Level 49: Trident Arts Level 56: Acrobat Locus Level 62: Festive Avenger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Battles ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Star Ocean series' battle system has always been one of the best, and SO3 takes it to a new level. While wandering around on the field, you'll see enemies wandering around as well. Running into one will cause you to go to battle. In a battle, you'll be on a 3D field along with your enemies. Battles are in full real-time, with the computer controlling the enemies and your allies. You're fully responsible for one character, but you can switch between characters at any time by pressing L1 or R1. Your characters stats are shown at the bottom of the screen. HP and MP represent physical and mental health, respectively; if EITHER of these goes to zero, that character dies. The third rating, Guts, approximates your characters' stamina. Running around will cause it to stand still; standing in place will cause it to regenerate (after a brief delay); using battle skills or getting hit will cause it to drop. Movement is accomplished simply using the directional pad or the left analog stick. Sidestepping or strafing can be accomplished by holding L2 and moving. You can set it in the options so that directional pad is always sidestepping/strafing and left analog stick is always movement. If your targeting is set to auto, you will target the nearest opponent. A display in the upper left will tell you if you are considered to be short or long range from the opponent. This will affect the kind of attacks you can do. In manual mode, you can select your target by holding down square. There are three basic actions that can be taken in battle: weak attacks, strong attacks, and protect. Weak attacks (default X button) are fast, but are defeated by protects. Strong attacks (default O button) are slow, but can break through a protect. Both weak and strong attacks may change depending on enemy range. Protects (stand still while Guts is at 100%) will deflect weak attacks but not strong attacks. You can tell a weak attack appart from a strong attack because a purple shadow will appear around the character while they are doing a strong attack. A side benefit of the Protect is the Counter Aura. If you have a Counter Aura learned and a protect succeeds, a counter aura will come out and attack the enemy. Depending on what type of Counter Aura you have active, this can dizzy the opponent or cause damage in a number of ways. To use battle skills, you must first bind them to a button in the Skill menu (outside of battle). Then, inside of battle, hold the indicated button to perform the battle skill. The battle skill you use depends on range as well. Each character can have two short range skills bound (one to weak and one to strong) and two long range skills bound (one to weak and one to strong). Logically, skills bound to the strong attack button are more damaging and effective, but also consume more HP/MP and Guts. The theory of cancel combos is simple. Certain basic attacks can have their recovery time cancelled by starting a weak battle skill, and certain weak battle skills can likewise be cancelled into strong battle skills. Strong battle skills can then be cancelled into weak battle skills, and so, at least until your HP/Guts runs out, you can do: Normal Attack -> Weak BS -> Strong BS -> Weak BS -> Strong BS... ***NEW*** In the Director's Cut, using Cancel Combos increases the damage of the combo. For instance, doing Nel's dashing weak attack then cancelling into Shisentou successfully causes "Cancel Bonus 175%" to appear on the field, and the Shisentou does 175% of the damage it normally would. Cancel Bonus makes some battles a lot easier, and there are also new Battle Collections centered around it now. Further cancelling gives a 200%, 250%, and a max of 300% bonus damage. Other actions in battle may be performed by first bringing up the battle menu (default triangle). From here you can use Items, Heraldry, Tactical Skills, change your Equipment, change your Tactics, or Escape. The first four options can only be done once every few seconds. Going to items will take you to an item menu where you can choose the item and then the target. Heraldry will do to same, only with magic. Tactical Skills let you turn on or off certain tactical skills (see the skill section for details) using the square button; you can also change the counter aura effect here. Changing Equipment lets you change your equipment, logically enough. Changing Tactics will change the general Tactics of the AI for the computer-controlled characters. Finally, escaping will cause you to attempt to run. To the right of the screen is a combo indication meter and the "Heat Up" gauge, as well as a percentage. The percentage indicates how fast the Heat Up gauge fills up, and gradually decreases during a battle. It starts at a percentage determined by the strength of the enemy. Thus, if you go up against a really weak enemy, it'll start at 0%, and you won't fill up the gauge at all. Conversely, some bosses may start you off at 250%. Filling up the Heat Up gauge converts the current battle (and all subsequent battles) into "Bonus Battles". These Bonus Battles give you special things once the battle is over. The initial bonus depends on what kind of attack filled up the Heat Up gauge: Weak Attack: 3x EXP Strong Attack: 2x Fol Battle Skill: Recovery Up Spell: Get Item Rate Up Once the gauge is filled it will remain filled from battle to battle. This effect is called "Chain". As your chain grows larger, more and more effects get added to the Bonus Battles. Thus, after a while you can get all four of the above effects in one battle. However your gauge may "break" when full, emptying the gauge to zero and breaking the chain. The more you get damaged by the enemy, the more likely your gauge will break. Running away will also cause the gauge to break. Finally, saving and restarting won't cause the gauge to break per se, but it will empty your gauge. There are also several status effects that may afflict you or the opponent during a battle. "Paralysis" (symbolized by a lightning bolt over your character portrait) prevents you from moving, and you're basically a sitting duck. However it wears off after awhile. "Petrification" (a little rock) makes you unable to act, like Paralysis, but is permanent. If your entire party gets petrified, the game is over. "Poison" will cause you to lose HP slowly. "Frozen" (a little snowflake) is like Paralysis, but it lasts shorter. However, if your character is hit by a physical attack while Frozen, they'll instantly drop to 0 HP. "Confusion" causes your character to wander around aimlessly and lose HP and MP from time to time. "Silence" prevents your character from casting spells. Perhaps the most common effect is "Dizzy", which is usually caused by an opponent's Counter Aura. Like paralysis, you won't be able to act, but it wears off after you are hit once. After defeating all the enemies you will be rewarded a certain number of Fol and Experience, and possibly items. Your characters will also recover a little HP/MP based on their level and how long the battle took. If your characters levelled up, you'll see that information now. Afterwards you'll return to the field and you'll be free to continue wandering around. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Item Creation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Item Creation is the way to create some of the most powerful items in the game. Thus, you'll want to dedicate yourself to the process starting early and building up over the course of the game. You can start Item Creation when you first arrive in Peterny (see the section on Peterny in the walkthrough for details). Once you get the Telegraph, you'll start receiving updates from Welch and the guild about the progress of Item Creation. There are eight types of Item Creation. Each different specialty is capable of creating different kinds of items. The eight specialties are: Cooking; create food items Alchemy; creates jewels and other miscellaneous magic items Craft; creates jewelry and accessories Compounding; creates used items and medicines Blacksmith; creates weapons and armor Writing; creates books Machinery; creates guns and bombs Synthesis; fuses an item to a weapon to transfer attributes To do Item Creation, you'll have to use a factory. Most cities have factories, but Alias and Surferio do not. Kirsla has two. There are two ways to do Item Creation: doing it yourself, or assigning Creators to do it. Self Item Creation To do it yourself, go to any factory and approach a bench. On the Item Creation screen, you'll have three choices; Creation Performance (クリエイションの実行), Expand Factory Attributes (工房の機能拡張), and Transfer of Creators (クリエイターの人事異動). Under Expand Factory Attributes, you'll be able to expand that factory's abilities in exchange for money. In order to do a specialty at a factory, that factory has to be equipped for the specialty in question. Each factory comes preequipped to do a few specialties; if that factory isn't equipped for that specialty, you'll have to spend some money and "buy" that specialty. You can see what specialties your factory is equipped for in the lower left of the screen. Highlighted ones are already equipped. Here you can also add Lines to your factory. Most factories start with either 0 or 1 line. You need at least 1 line to do Item Creation; however you can have as many as three. I don't find multiple lines terribly useful, as all it does is save time and in many cases it might waste money. To do Item Creation yourself, pick Creation Performance. This will take you to the Creation screen itself. Now choose up to three people to put onto a line. You'll want to pick people who have a high talent for whatever you want to make. Pressing triangle will bring up a chart of each character's abilities - the higher the better. Put them into a line, and in the next blank under "Type" pick the actual specialty you want to do. Then under "Plan" you can pick one of two choices. "Original Creation" (創作オリジナル) will have your characters attempt to create an item from scratch. "Recipe Designate" (レシピ指定) will have you choose an item that you will try to refine (i.e., improve its attributes). Once you choose a Type and a Plan, a cost will come up. The cost determines the item that you will come up with, so if you get an item that you like remember the cost that produced that item. If you want to change the cost, simply repick "Original Creation" and the cost will change. Now press the square button to start creation. This will bring up two bars, Quality, and Time. Quality starts out full and slowly goes down. As time goes by, the Time Bar will fill up. Once the time bar reaches max, your selected characters will display an emotion (either happy or frustrated), and the time bar will drop to zero. If your characters' faces were happy, that means you succeeded in creating an item. If your characters look frustrated, they failed to create anything. You can continue to let time go by to have your characters create multiple copies of an item, or you can stop the item creation by pressing X. This will show you what item you ended up creating. If you pick Recipe Designate, you will be prompted to choose an item in your inventory. This item will be the one that you attempt to improve. The Quality and Time bars still apply as above. However, an added requirement for Recipe Designate is that you need an associated Materials item for that Specialty. Thus, if you want to improve a piece of armor, you'll need "Blacksmith Materials", which will be consumed in the process; to improve a food item, you'll need "Cooking Materials". NPC Item Creation You can also have specialized NPCs, known as Creators, create items for you. Provided they are in the factory you are currently in (you can move them around by choosing "Transfer of Creators"), you can pick them in lieu of one of your characters in the method above. Creators, unlike your characters, only have talents in one specialty, but in many cases they have values much higher than your characters do. Creators usually also have associated Cost and Time modifiers (given as + or - a certain percent); this affects the Cost and Time it takes to create an item, obviously. They can also be assigned to create items automatically while you go out and explore. To do either, you must first recruit the Creator. This will usually require you giving them either money or some sort of contract item. Once recruited, you must send the Creator to one of the factories. (Remember to send them to a factory that is equipped for whatever specialty they are!) Once there, they will automatically start creating items for you, and you'll receive an alert by Telegraph whenever they do. On the Telegraph menu (via the main menu screen), you can choose from Newest Info (最新情報), Accept Ratings (特許申請), View Information (情報参照), Change Orders (-ｽ-ﾟ変更), and Alert (アラート). Under Newest Info, you can check on the latest inventions (アイテム), the latest items sold in the shops (ショップ), and newly announced Creators (クリエイター). Under Accept Ratings, you can patent any item that you've created and/or found. Select the item from the list then wait for the rating to come up. The higher the rating, the better public approval it has. View Information gives you a summary of all the info on Creation so far. Creator Information (クリエイター情報) gives you a list of the creators and if they're working for you (red) or not (blue). It also shows if they're currently working (実行中) or on standby (待機). Invention List (発明品リスト) gives a list of all items invented so far and who created them. Shop Information (ショップ情報) shows you what stores are selling what across the continent. The fourth option gives you a map of the continent and the location of the factories, and the last option gives a ranking of all the creators. Back on the main menu, Order Change (命令変更) lets you change the orders for any of your creators. You can tell them to work (the default) or to standby... there's really no benefit for standby, so you can probably just never touch this option. Finally, Alert (アラート) lets you choose when to be notified - if somebody patents an item (License), if some item is now on sale (On Sale), if one of your creators invented something (Invent), and if a new Creator is announced (Entry). Synthesis Synthesis works a little differently from the other specialites. First, no Creator specialized in Synthesis, so only your characters will be able to do so. Synthesis also requires a "Synthesis Materials", and there is no option to choose Original or Recipe Plan. Once you choose Synthesis, you'll be prompted to pick a weapon that you want to improve. Then you'll be prompted to pick an item to fuse to that weapon, in general an item that possesses the properties that you want that weapon to have. (For instance, fusing an item that raises your ATK by 30% has a good chance of giving the weapon the "ATK +30%" attribute). Recruiting Creators To recruit a Creator, they must first be announced by Welch. Thus, even though you meet some creators very early, they may not be able to be recruited until later in the game. A description of the creators, when they are announced, what is required to recruit them, and their specialties is listed below. (Initial Group) Damda Muda (Cooking 6) (Costs +10%) He's in the western block of Aquios. He'll need the 酔迎 liquor dropped by the thief enemies in the Duggus Forest. Milenia (Compounding 19) (Costs -20%) She's in the chapel in Alias. All she needs is 3800 Fol. Mayu (Cooking 20) (Costs -30%) She's in the kitchen on the third floor of the Kirsla Ruins (she's the one who gave you the key). You'll need to give her the "Soothing Kitty" (癒しネコ), which can be created by Craft (use Fayt, Nel, and Star Anise, cost 181-205) (Upon entering Aquios) Eliza (Alchemy 4) (Time -30%) She's wandering around the eastern district in Aquios. All she needs is 10000 Fol. Gratz (Blacksmith 25) He's in the factory on the outside of the Becquerel Mines. He needs 13500 Fol. Star Anise (Craft 20) (Time -30%, Costs -20%) She's inside the "Inn" in Surferio. She needs the Limited Dolphin (限定ドルフィン), which is in a treasure chest in the Duggus Forest. (After returning to Alias after the Becquerel Mines) Gossam (Compounding 9) (Costs +20%) He's in the northern part of Peterny. You'll need to give him the Fake Youth Medicine (若返りの薬(ニセモノ)), which can be created by Compounding (Cost 5). Macwell (Alchemy 31) (Time +40%) He's in the eastern library of Aquios Castle. He needs the Prophecy Book 1 (予言書1) in a treasure chest in the Shrine of Kaddan. Rigel (Cooking 47) (Time +40%) She's in the food store of Kirsla. Give her the Golden Curry (ゴールデンカレー) which you can create through Cooking (Fayt, Nel, Mayu, cost 41-47). (After returning from the Shrine of Kaddan) Misty Lear (Alchemy 50) She's wandering around the Bar Mountain factory. You can recruit her by giving her the Soul Gem (魂宝玉) which itself is in the Bar Ruins. Raias (Blacksmith 36) (Costs +20%) He's in the bar in Airyglyph. He needs 28000 Fol. Invention King Dejison (Machinery 6) (Time -20%, Costs +40%) He's wandering around the streets of Airyglyph. To get him, give him the Ultimate Destruction Unit (超絶破壊ユニット), which can be created by Machinery (Fayt, Cliff, Maria, cost 166). (After reaching Airyglyph coming from Ancient Ruins of Mosel) The Killer Chef (Cooking 75) (Time -30%) He's wandering around Surferio. Give him the All-Purpose Knife (万能包丁), which can be bought in Gemity. Cornelius (Writing 15) (Time -40%) He's in the weapon store in Airyglyph. Give him the Sunrise Dictionary (サンライズ辞書) found in the Moonbase. Barbatos (Craft 37) (Time -40%, Costs +50%) He's in the shade of one of the mountains in the Mosel Sandhills. Give him the Orc Jewelry (オークジュエリー) which is in the portion of the Kirsla Caves with the Hauler (take a left turn then a right turn, then stop; you'll need the Vanish Ring). (After defeating Crosel) Michel (Writing 35) (Costs +10%) He's wandering around the main avenue of Aquios. Give him 85000 Fol. Gusto (Blacksmith 60) (Time -20%) He's in the south section of Peterny. Give him 60000 Fol. Vanilla (Machinery 32) (Costs +30%) You'll have already met him (her?) in the Urza Lava Cave. Go back there and hand over 30000 Fol. (Entering the Eternal Sphere) Anthler (Alchemy 99) (Time -20%) He's in one of the rooms on the first floor of Aquios Castle. He'll need the Philosopher's Stone (賢者の石), created by Alchemy (Misty, Eliza, Sophia, cost 11- 12). Puffy (Compounding 57) (Time -40%) She's on Floor 5 of the Cave of Trials. Give her the Experimental All-Purpose Antidote (万能 解毒剤試作タイプ) that's found on Floor 2 of the Cave of Trials. Aqua and Evia (Craft 49) (Costs +10%) They're in the Church in Peterny. All they need is 20000 Fol. (Returning to Aquios after FD Space) Meryl (Machinery 46) (Time +30%) She's in the east section of Peterny. She'll need the Doramera Tool Set (ドラメラ工具セット) which is in the Sphere Corporation. Count Nopperin (Writing 44) (Costs +40%) He's on the second floor of Airyglyph Castle. Recruit him with 150000 Fol. Boyd (Blacksmith 95) (Time +50%) He's in the store in Alias. He'll need the Broken Magic Sword (折れた魔剣), which can be bought for 100 Bunny Race Points in Gemity. (Returning from the Shrine of Kaddan for the second time) Chiriko (Craft 60) (Time +60%, Costs -10%) In the item shop at Surferio. She needs 82000 Fol. Sage Oseman (Writing 73) (Time +40%) He's in the church in Airyglyph. Give him the Skeptic in the Paranormal Book (専門猟奇懐疑書), which is created through Writing (Fayt, Michel, Cornelius, cost 5670-6210). Fortuneteller Ruid (Compounding 98) (Time +30%) She's in one of the homes in Surferio. Just give her 90000 Fol. (Extra) Isaac (Machinery 65) (Costs -50%) Isaac is never announced. Instead you can recruit him at any time after fulfilling certain conditions. First, you need Meryl, Vanilla, and Dejison all under contract. Then, you need two items, the Blueprints (設計図) given to you by Lumina after the Ladel/Lumina sidequest (see sidequests section), and the AI Program (AIプログラム) given to you by one of Brea's coworkers in the Sphere Corporation. After having all this approach the broken down robot in the western part of Surferio, and you'll get Isaac. 3. WALKTHROUGH This walkthrough is written based on the default "Galaxy" difficulty setting; HP and MP totals are also for this setting. On "Earth" setting, enemy stats are multiplied by 0.7; on "Universe", stats are multiplied by 1.5, and on "FD" difficulty, stats are multiplied by at least 1.8 (though certain bosses get boosted up to 3.0). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DISC ONE - The Beginning ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GRAND TEAR Items in this section: Rosetti Troupe Ticket, Shake The game begins with an event with Sophia. After the event, exit into the hallway and then enter the transporter rooms on either end of the hallway. It doesn't matter which one. Once into the main part of Grand Tear, head to the northeast room. Here you will meet Peppita and the Rosetti Troupe. At one point Peppita will ask you whether you believe her when she says she'll become a big star. Pick the first option (いや、信じるよ) to make her like you more; otherwise pick (ちょっと言い過ぎじゃないかな？) to make her angry. Regardless, either way you'll get the Rosetti Troupe Ticket. Afterwards, head to the central room. Fayt will look at the simulation device. Check the machine in the middle of the room (a replicator) to get a shake; then check one of the simulation room panels to start the next event. You'll be presented with two questions. The first one asks between "Persuade Sophia" (ソフィアを説得する) and "Give up" (とりあえず、今は諦めよう). Pick the first one. Then another question will pop up, asking between "It's ok, I'll protect you" (大丈夫だよ。僕が守ってあげるからさ) and "Oh, you don't like playing with me" (そうか、僕と遊ぶのがイヤなんだね) Again, pick the first one. Now you'll enter the fight simulator. You can read an explanation of the battle system, but most importantly you'll want to create the Battle Trophies here. If you don't create the Battle Collection, you won't be able to collect any Battle Trophies events throughout the entire game. After a lengthy explanation of the Battle Collection, you'll be given a menu. Pick the first one (バトルコレクション。) Another menu will pop up. Pick the first choice again if you want to read the explanation of the Battle Trophies again. The second choice will create the Battle Trophies on your memory card (初期化を開始する。). If this is your second time through the game, pick the third choice (バトルコレクションの データをロードする) instead to add to the Battle Trophies instead of overwriting it. Note: The Director's Cut version is incompatible with the original. You cannot use the same Battle Trophies file, so you will have to start a new one. The fourth choice cancels. When you're done, go back to the main menu and pick the last choice (実際にゲームを開始する) to begin the battle. This battle is actually comparatively hard compared to most of the beginning battles, and Sophia will die fairly easily if you let the enemies get too close to her. Nevertheless win or lose the game will continue. Depending on if you lost or won the battle another choice may pop up to fight some more; you can fight up to three times. After winning three, or after losing, an alert will interrupt your playtime. Head back to the transporters and find your first Save Point. Make sure to save here. Then proceed forward for another event and eventually three forced battles. These ones are significantly easier than the ones in the Battle Simulator, and for the second two you'll also have Peppita join you. After the battles, continue on to the Emergency Shelter. EMERGENCY SHELTER Items in this section: None Look around and talk to people. There's no treasure chests here. After collecting information, head to room 509 to meet up with Peppita and company again. Then head to room 506 for another event. Afterwards you'll be able to walk around but there's still not much to do, so head towards one of the beds and choose to rest (いざという時のために眠っておく). After resting there will be another event so head back to the transporters and this time get on the Helre. HELRE Items in this section: None After transporting onto the ship, head straight forward to the waiting room for an event. Talk to people in the waiting room, then head back out into the hallway and enter the second door towards the est side. Here you'll run into another event featuring a nameless angry man. Talk to everybody in the hallway, then head back to the waiting room for yet another event. Enter the door where the angry man was again, and this time climb the stairs to head for the Bridge by going into the door north of where you exit and north again through the door. Talk to the captain, then head back downstairs to talk to Peppita and company. Go back upstairs into the hallway and south again and make your way to the escape pods. After this there will be a long series of events. In the escape pod you can choose whether to hear information on the "Undeveloped Planet Interference Act" (確認しておこうか。。。) Eventually you'll end up on Vanguard 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vanguard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PESOTTO FOREST Items in this section: Inferior Sword Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny As soon as you land there will be an event and you will gain the Inferior Sword. Save at the save point here, newly added for the DC, and explore the forest - there aren't any treasures - and head towards the north. The enemies here are fairly weak so you can level up if you want, or simply skip them all. Once the area changes, head towards the north again. A group of punks will block your path, so head towards the northeast for now and enter the village of Whipple. WHIPPLE VILLAGE Items in this section: Blackberry x2, Aquaberry, 600 Fol, Blueberry You'll end up in Nokia's House. Search the village for some helpful treasures, and buy a Ring Mail (リングメイル) at the village shop. Read the sign in the center of the village and talk to the village elder (in the northeast house), then afterwards head back to Nokia's House. He'll give you back your sword. With it, head back to Pesotto Forest and head towards the south, to the crash site, for another event. Afterwards head back to Pesotto again and enter Nokia's house for another event. Leave the village. The path to the north that the punks were blocking should now be clear, and you should be able to enter the Coffer Ruins. COFFER RUINS Items in this section: Blackberry x3, Blueberry x3, Cooking Materials x2, Ripe Berry, 200 Fol, Aquaberry x3, Fresh Sage, Counter Aura Book 1 (With Vanish Ring) Trapping Card EX 16, 35000 Fol, 65000 Fol, Earth Fairy, Very Ripe Berry, Bunny Shoes Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny This area is big but it's not very confusing. Search around for lots of helpful treasures. None of the enemies here are particularly threatening. From time to time you should see giant numbers painted on the walls - remember them. Head towards the north. Eventually you'll come across a house. You can't bust down the front door, so loop around towards the back. Here you'll run into a forced battle against three punks (Chinpira x3). They still won't be anything to be concerned about, though they may try to run away which will rob you of XP, so don't let it happen (unless you're trying to keep Fayt's level low for Battle Trophies). After the battle they'll drop your first Counter Aura Book (Standard). Head into the entryway at the back of the house to descend into Norton's lair. NORTON'S HOUSE Items in this section: Safety Jewel, Fresh Sage, Orgel Part, Skill Book "Support Spell" This area is small and not very confusing. Unforunately you'll run across your first really challenging enemies, the skeleton. They're surprisingly fast in attack speed and if you run up to attack them, even with a small attack, they'll likely hit you out of it. This is where your counter aura comes into play. Eliminate the other enemies first, then wait for your Guts to reach 100%. Face the skeleton and let it attack you. If it uses a small attack, your counter aura will go off and dizzy it; use a strong attack on it. If it prepares for a strong attack (you can tell because of the purple shadows), either hit it first with a weak attack or move out of the way. Rinse and repeat and you should have no problems defeating them. Collect the two treasure boxes in the first wide room, then head to the south. Where the hall forks, head west. In the room there will be a mini- event and you can save your game. Check the computer terminal, and it will ask you if you want an explanation (説明を読む will give you the explanation) and then prompt you for the code. If you paid attention to the numbers that were painted on the walls, you should know what the code is -- or you can just read this FAQ and find out the number is 256. You'll hear a door opening somewhere. Head back out into the hallway and this time head east. You'll start another event, and then have your first Boss fight, against Norton. Boss: Norton ノートン 1600 HP, 35800 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Norton in 30 Seconds, Defeat Norton Without Taking Damage Norton would be tough, except now you have a new party member, Cliff. Cliff's an absolute tank, and you should have an easy time with this battle, as Cliff can soak up most of Norton's attacks without any problems. While you're here you might as well try to get some of the Battle Trophiess, such as defeating him without taking any damage. The only Battle Trophies that might give you problems is defeating him in 30 seconds -- it's not likely you'll be able to do this unless you've levelled up significantly in the Ruins. He'll drop the Skill Book "Support Spell" when you defeat him. After defeating Norton there'll be another event. Head back to the room with the computer terminal to pick up the Orgel part, and then return to Whipple village. After the event, talk to the village elder to receive the "Medestra Augite" (a handy accessory that makes your battle skills cost less HP). Leave the village for another event. Then, head for Pesotto forest, this time slightly south of the crash site. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Elicoor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EAGLE Items in this section: None There will be a long series of events. Talk to Cliff, and then talk to Mirage three times. Leave the ship after the event. Afterwards you'll end up in jail, and another series of events will ensure. You'll get another character at this point, Nel Zelpher. Once the events are over, follow the hallway for a forced battle against some knights and the torturer (fairly easy now that you have three characters). After the battle you'll automatically go to the underground waterway. UNDERGROUND WATERWAY Items in this section: Skill Book "Attack Spell", Ring Mail, Blueberry x2, Warrior's Bracelet, Fresh Sage (With Vanish Ring) Synthesis Materials, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, Frozen Check Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny The first thing you'll see is a save point and also a recovery point, which as the name implies will heal you as if you had rested at an inn. Utilize both of these, and move on. Head south in the hallway. Be sure to grab the treasure chest with the Skill Book "Attack Spell" in it. In the DC Nel comes pre-equipped with Healing, which boosts her usefulness immensely (as if she weren't already good). You might want to use the Attack Spell book on her as well to boost her repertoire, or you might want to give it to Fayt - you'll get more books later, so don't worry about it. In the next room, a large glacier will block your path, but there will be a hole in it which you can pass through. To the west is a ladder which you can climb down - it leads to a path with two treasure chests. There is also a treasure chest on the walkway next to the river. Cross the bridge to the east and you'll enter another room with a glacier, this time with two holes in it. Use the south one, head south, and in the next area, head east. Loop back to the north for another treasure chest. Backtrack to the glacier with two holes, and this time take the north path. Continue heading north and then west. In the next area, Fayt will say how the ground will look slippery. You'll have to walk (not run) on the ice by holding X, or else you'll slip and will have to start the area over again. After the first patch of ice head north for a small room with a single blob enemy and a treasure chest, then exit the room and head west over another patch of ice. Follow the corridor until you reach a save point. This is your sign that a boss fight awaits, and indeed once you enter the next room you'll face the Larva Crab. Boss: Larva Crab ラーヴァクラブ 3500 HP, 80 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Larva Crab in 1 Minute, Defeat Larva Crab Without Taking Damage This guy's big but slow. Avoid his claws and loop around behind him. Try to sandwich him between your characters and keep the attacks coming so that he won't be able to pull off any big attacks. He doesn't have that much HP and you should be able to take him out fairly easily; or, he has very low MP, so by using Fayt's Blaze Sword you can take him out very quickly. After the fight, head to the east of the large room. The ground is again covered with ice so continue walking. Exit and you'll be in the city of Airyglyph. AIRYGLYPH Items in this section: Aquaberry, Ripe Berry, Cooking Materials x3, Blackberry x2, Blueberry x2, Very Ripe Berry x2, 2000 Fol, Compounding Materials Despite it being an enemy city you can wander around pretty freely, and you should, collecting treasure as you go along. The weapon and armor in the stores here are probably way too expensive for you here so ignore them. You can save and rest in the inn (towards the east), and then exit to the east for another event. After the event you'll be in the middle of the Traum Mountains. TRAUM MOUNTAINS Items in this section: Alert Jewel, Ripe Berry, Blueberry, Blackberry, 400 Fol Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny Your goal is to head to the town of Kirsla to the east. You actually start fairly close to the exit, so you might want to backtrack and pick up the five chests that appear in this area. If you do backtrack (to the west), the road will fork to the west and to the north. The area to the west has two treasure chests. The area to the north heads back to Airyglyph and has some fairly strong enemies and no treasure, so avoid this area for now, or at least run from the fights. Once you're done collecting and exploring, head to the east. There'll be an event, and then you'll be in the town of Kirsla. KIRSLA Items in this section: (Town) Blueberry x2, 520 Fol, Blackberry, 1400 Fol, Ripe Berry, Very Ripe Berry x2, Aquaberry, Compounding Materials (Walter's Mansion) Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Cooking Materials, Synthesis Materials, Blackberry x2, Fire Fairy The items in Walter's Mansion cannot be gotten now so ignore them. Walk around town collecting the treasure chests and buy new equipment for your party. In one of the houses across from the Inn will be a subordinate of Nel's; talk to him. Also talk to the old man in the southwest of the town, standing next to the mine shaft. Eventually, just north of the inn Nel and another subordinate of hers will appear. Head towards the area to eavesdrop on them. After that event, you'll end up having to go through Kirsla Cave, to the north of the town. KIRSLA CAVE Items in this section: (Front) Blackberry, Scale Armor (With Vanish Ring) Compounding Materials, Ripe Berry x2, Very Ripe Berry, Magical Berry (Hauler Section) Blueberry, Blackberry, Falchion, Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Fresh Sage, 5000 Fol, Earth Fairy (Hauler Section with Vanish Ring) Orc Jewelry, Water Fairy, Synthesis Materials, 3000 Fol Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny After entering head to the east. Follow the path until the road splits. Head south for a Scale Armor, which you should equip (unless you bought too many already). Then head back to the north and follow the path as it winds around to the west. You'll run into a save point and recovery point fairly quickly, which as you should suspect indicates another boss coming up. As soon as you enter the next room, Earth Pluto will attack. Boss: Earth Pluto アースプルート 3600 HP, 163 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: None He's big and fairly strong. Watch out for his wide reach. I suggest letting Cliff and Fayt go automatic and controlling Nel. With Nel, use her far range strong attack (where she jumps and cannonballs in) while avoiding his attacks. He'll probably take awhile to go down, but as long as you have enough Blueberries handy you should win. He'll drop another Skill Book "Support Spell". Again, he also has low MP, so try using Fayt's Blaze Sword or Nel's Kagebarai if she has it yet. After the boss battle, examine the small machine on the platform to the north. Pull the lever (レバーを倒す) to open the gate into the mineshafts. Both doors to this room are one way only, so you'll have to head to the west and loop back around. This time, when you come across the area with the five buttons and the torch, you'll be able to read the manual about using the Hauler monsters. When the choice comes up, pick Steady. Then enter the mineshaft. In the mineshaft at various points you'll be prompted to steer your Hauler, speed up, slow down, or stop. You can stop at various points to pick up treasure, though there's nothing of extreme value in here that you can get yet (most of the treasures require the Vanish Ring to get). With Steady, turn in the following order - Left, Right, Left, Left, Left. You'll want to keep your speed under 25 kmph so that you can make the turns and also so that you can avoid the dangers. When the falling rocks warning appears (this will happen twice) immediately drop to minimum speed. After the second rock fall, speed up to bust through three gates, and then drop your speed back under 25 so that you can make the final left turn. After a while you'll reach the exit and you'll be on the Becquerel Mountain Path. BECQUEREL MOUNTAIN PATH Items in this section: Blackberry, Craft Materials, Ripe Berry, Compounding Materials, Aquaberry, Writing Materials Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny You'll start out in the southwest of the area. Alias, your destination, is in the southeast, but you can explore the entire map for some treasures. The two paths to the north lead to places that aren't important for now - you can venture inside the Bar Mountains and try for a premature treasure raid (which will give you some good items) but the enemies there are extremely strong for your current level so be warned. After you're done, head down to the southeast and enter the village of Alias. ALIAS Items in this section: Cooking Materials, Multi Flask, Very Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Blackberry Explore the village for some treasure, then head to the central building with its entrance to the northeast. This is headquarters. Enter the back room and meet with Claire. After the event, head to the second floor and talk with Cliff and check the bed to rest (眠くて仕方が無いよ。). This will prompt another event and Nel will depart your party temporarily. After waking up, head to the conference room again to talk to Claire. Eventually Claire will tell you where Nel went, and you decide to chase after her. Nel went to the Kirsla Ruins, so you will have to backtrack to Kirsla. Instead of going through the Becquerel Mountain Path/Kirsla Mine, though, you'll want to take the shorter road by heading out through the southwest exit of the village, into the Aire Hills. AIRE HILLS/KIRSLA HILLS Items in this section: Blueberry x3, Safety Jewel, Blackberry, Compounding Materials Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny The Aire Hills and the Kirsla Hills are the same area - the name changes halfway through the area. Search around for some treasure chests while heading West. Eventually you should reach Kirsla, no problem. Restock in Kirsla if you want, and then head out of town, this time to the south. GRANA HILL Items in this section: Blueberry, Blackberry, Steel Dagger Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny This is a winding area. Your ultimate goal is to the southeast. There are a few treasure chests scattered in the area. There's not much more to say about this area. KIRSLA RUINS Items in this section: Aquaberry x2, Middle Dagger, Poison Check, Blackberry x2, Blueberry x3, Cooking Materials x4, Counter Aura Book 4, Compounding Materials x2, 8000 Fol, Skill Book "Attack Spell", Courage Crest, Copper Key (With Vanish Ring) Cooking Materials, Ripe Berry, Very Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, Skill Book "Support Spell", Compounding Materials, Synthesis Materials Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny Once you enter the ruins you'll be forced into a battle with some knights, so be prepared. Afterwards use the save and recovery points. Then head to the west. (The east corridor has a one way door that you can use to leave but not enter). Circle around, collecting treasure chests as you go. In the north-south corridor on the east side of the building, head west into the hallway. In the north of this hallway you should find a door that will eventually lead you to the stairs for the second floor. On the second floor, you'll start in the middle of the building. The stairs to the third floor are in the northeast, so make your way there - there's multiple ways and there's treasure chests to gather while you're at it. Climb up to the third floor. Here, there will be a door in the north-south corridor on the west side. Going through this door, the first door to the north will lead you to a kitchen with two women inside, a save point, and a recovery point. Talk to the younger of the two, and she'll give you a key. Now backtrack to the first floor and head to the northeast. Here you'll reunite with Nel shortly before another forced battle with some knights. Dispose of them and use the key the girl gave you, which will open up the door to the elevator. Take the elevator up to the floor and get off, searching the room next door for two treasure chests. Do NOT go through the door to the south in this room as it is a one-way door. Instead head back to the elevator and make your way to the fourth floor. The fourth floor is quite simple. Just follow the path and save at the save point. Head to the south and get ready for - you guessed it - another boss. Boss: Shelby シェルビー 5100 HP, 13816 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Shelby in 1 Minute, Defeat Shelby Without Taking Damage Shelby comes along with four knights. You'll want to focus on taking out the nameless knights first, as they can be an annoyance if you try to pound away on Shelby. After taking them out one by one, go for Shelby. He's got some powerful attacks but he shouldn't be too hard, especially with your three members all fighting him. Defeating him in 1 Minute might be a little hard, but if you're sufficiently levelled and focus your attacks on him you'll do fine. After the battle there will be another event, and you'll meet Shelby's superior, Albel Nox. After the event, head back to Alias via Grana Hill, Kirsla, and the Kirsla Hills. Head to headquarters for an event, and afterwards you'll decide to head to Peterny. Exit the village to the east and you'll be on the Palmira Plains. PALMIRA PLAINS Items in this section: Safety Jewel, Blueberry, Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, Angel Statue Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny Palmira Plains is relatively straightforward. Peterny is to the north. However you'll want to pick up the Angel Statue in this section, as it increases the success rate of Craft. PETERNY Items in this section: Iris Maiden Flower, Blackberry x3, Blueberry, Ripe Berry, Aquaberry, 3400 Fol, Telegraph There will be an event as you enter the town and you'll split up. Search through the town. The major shops are to the west. In the west district, the first green triangle on your map to the south will be the creation guild. Enter here, and talk to Welch Vineyard. She'll ask you if you're interested in creation. Pick the second option (はい、そうです) and you'll get launched into a lengthy explanation of the item creation process. You'll also get 1000 Fol in startup funds. Welch will take you to the factory itself, and you should use the 1000 Fol to add a line to the factory. You'll also get the Telegraph. From this point on you can do Item Creation; for more details see the Item Creation section. After you're done exploring town, head to the front of the church (in the middle of the town) and choose to wait (ノンビリと待つか). This will launch another series of events in which you'll meet Amina. Afterwards you'll receive the Iris Maiden Flower. Head to the inn on the west side of town, and talk to the desk clerk behind the counter to the left as you enter. She'll tell you that your rooms will take just a moment to be prepared, so leave and explore town again. This time head to the east district, and head to the south as soon as you enter. You'll hear familiar voices, and this time you'll meet with Amina again as well as her next-door neighbor. After these events, head back to the inn and talk to Nel to rest (ああ。もう終わったよ)。 As soon as you exit the inn, Amina's next-door neighbor will come up to you begging for help; Amina's collapsed in the Duggus Forest. You'll have to go there to save her. Exit Peterny out of the West exit to end up in the Sanmite Plains. SANMITE PLAINS Items in this section: Blacksmith Materials, Blackberry, Blueberry, Cooking Materials, Very Ripe Berry Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny This area can be divided up roughly into two parts. The enemies in the northern part are very strong and will likely wipe out your party if you do not run away. There is no need to go towards the north anyway, cross the stone bridge, get the treasure chest right next to it, and then stick towards the south and head west. Eventually you'll find the entrance to the Duggus Forest. DUGGUS FOREST Items in this section: Compounding Materials x3, Aquaberry x2, Blackberry x2, Blueberry x2, Ripe Berry, Wind Fairy, Alert Orb, Limited Dolphin, Craft Materials, Alchemy Materials, 1200 Fol, Heavy Armor, Enchant Book (Water: Null) (With Vanish Ring) Craft Materials x2, Alchemy Materials, Compounding Materials, Blacksmith Materials x3, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny This is quite a large area. In the first section, there will be many trees blocking your way. Head to the approximate center of the area and you'll run across a tired fairy. After talking to her, you'll need to get water from a spring, but not just any spring. You'll have to search the area for a spring which is glowing. Take the water from this spring and return to the fairy. The fairy will explain that some of the trees in the forest are actually monsters. With her tagging along, you'll be able to tell which are which and you can clear the path by defeating the tree monsters. Continue heading along the general direction towards the west. The next area will contain many traps in the form of tumbling rocks. They won't hurt you, but you'll have to start the section over again if you get hit. Proceed to the southwest of the forest, and you'll find a shack. There will be an event here, and inside you'll meet Roger S. Huxley, a potential party member. Before you can free him, two thieves will attack you (they're weak and nothing to worry about). After the battle, you'll have an option to have Roger join you temporarily. (ロジャーに協力してもらう). There's no disadvantage to having him join you now - he'll leave you soon anyway - so choose to have him come along. Upon exiting the shack, if you chose to have Roger come along, you'll run into a boss, the leader of the "Tsukikage" thieves. Boss: Tsukikage Leader 月影団長 5500 HP, 250 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Tsukikage Leader In 1 Minute, Defeat Tsukikage Leader Without Taking Damage He's actually pretty easy. Getting both of the Battle Trophiess might be a little rough but it's still not impossible; focusing on MP damage makes this even easier. After defeating the boss, head to the north and loop around to the west again. Eventually you'll find a save point. Save, and then head to the next area, which is covered in dense fog. To the north there are two paths; take the one more towards the west. You'll find a spring, an event will happen, and then you'll face the real boss of the area, Mudman. Boss: Mudman マッドマン 8000 HP, 500 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Mudman In 1 Minute, Defeat Mudman Taking No Damage He's strong but he doesn't have much HP at all. You should be able to get the "less than 1 minute" Battle Trophies fairly easily, and if you're careful you should get the "No Damage" one too. Just like with Tsukikage Leader, his low MP is a weak point. A Cancel Bonused Kagebarai will take him out in no time. After beating Mudman the mist in the area will clear up. Head towards the south for some treasure chests and finally take the path to the northwest. Here you'll find Amina, and Roger will leave your party. After an event, you'll automatically be taken back to Peterny. After some more events, you'll finally be able to head towards Aquios. But first, you can optionally head back to the Sanmite Planes and go north this time to get to Surferio. You might want to do this for 3 reasons: one, you can get Roger back again (once again it won't be permanent, so there's no advantage to); two, you can start to trigger his Ancient Scrolls subquest (see the sidequests section); and three, if you head even further into the Mosel Sand Hills you can pick up some nice treasure. When you're ready to move on with the story, head out of Peterny taking the north exit this time. IRIS PLAINS Items in this section: Alert Jewel, Magical Berry, Blackberry, Ripe Berry, Synthesis Materials Map Completion: 1/144 Bunny x2 The plains actually has two sections; a large vast one (the first one you enter) and a very small, thin area to the northwest of the large one. Explore them both for some treasure; the northwest section in the DC now contains the entrance to the Surferio Underwater Garden, which you can explore, although it will probably be a little tough for your current level. Head north to Aquios. The enemies here are significantly stronger than the ones on Palmira Plains, so be careful. AQUIOS Items in this section: (Town) 1800 Fol, Synthesis Materials x2, Blackberry, Compounding Materials x2, Aquaberry x2, Blacksmith Materials, Cooking Materials, Ripe Berry (Castle) Aquaberry, Alert Jewel, Compounding Materials, Ripe Berry, Magical Berry, 4700 Fol, Blackberry, Blueberry, Enchant Book (Fire: Null) You'll finally have reached Aquios. Search around town for treasures, and then enter the castle. Nel will guide you; follow her or she'll get angry at you, and you'll lose emotion points from the people in your party. Here you'll meet the Queen of Aquios. After the event, head back to the first floor and enter the main chapel (the large room in the middle) and talk to Cliff for some info. Talk to Nel near the entrance of the castle. Then head to your own room (towards the south east on the first floor) and rest. Head to the second floor again and go towards the southwest, where you'll meet with Elena and Dion. After another lengthy event, it will be decided that you will need some copper. Unfortunately there's only one place to get it - Becquerel Mine, in enemy territory. Exit the castle and head south. You'll be asked if you are ready or not, but it doesn't really matter as you can always come back. Head back through the Iris Plains, Peterny, and Palmira Plains and make your way back to Alias. Save here and stock up, because it will be a long road ahead. When you're ready, head towards the northwest exit for some events. You'll end up facing some dragon knights. These guys are fairly strong. If you have trouble beating them, you might want to just reset and level up on Palmira/Iris Plains. Once beating them, you'll automatically end up inside Becquerel Mine. BECQUEREL MINE Items in this section: 15000 Fol, Cooking Materials, Blackberry x2, Paralyze Check, Aquaberry, Compounding Materials, 23600 Fol, Ripe Berry, Skill Book "Attack Spell", Synthesis Materials, Magical Berry (With Vanish Ring) Synthesis Materials, Alchemy Materials, Craft Materials x2, Silver Dagger, Ripe Berry x2, Very Ripe Berry x2, Water Fairy, Battle Sphere Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny This is quite a long dungeon with quite a few riddles. Head to the north with an event of Cliff lighting a torch. You can light most of the torches in the this dungeon. Continue north, and you'll find an barred door. Light the torch next to it and then approach. It will automatically open and you'll be forced into a fight with a dragon. After defeating it, you'll get the Light Stone, which Fayt can equip to brighten the area around him. Do so and continue on. At the fork, you'll be attacked in quick succession by three dragons; none of them are particularly hard. After defeating all three, follow the corridor as it heads south. There will be a door to the west. Read the stone tablet next to it, which says "Two other selves; make a single line". This is a hint for the next room. Enter the room. There will be two torches standing in the middle. Light both of them, and then stand between them in a way such that both of your shadows line up to make a straight line. After doing so the door to the west will unlock. Enter this door and follow the path up north. Here, you'll find a dragon that instead of chasing you, runs away from you. You'll want to chase the dragon down and defeat it, as afterwards you'll get a key. Follow the paths to the east until you find the door that the key unlocks. In this next room, the door to the north is afraid of light, so extinguish all the torches in the room and unequip the Light Stone from Fayt. Then you should be able to pass through the door. If you accidentally close the door, simply leave to the south and reenter, and it should be back open. Through the door, head west and then north again. There will be another door with a stone tablet. This one tells you that the doors in the next room are afraid of the dark. Head inside and the door will close behind you automatically. Head to the center of the room and stand on the plate. This will open all three doors (north, west, and south) and turn on all three lights. You'll want to head through either the north or west door - they both end up in the same place, but the path to the north has a few treasures. Whichever the case, turn off two of the lights (whichever lights are not next to the door you want to go through), and then approach the door in such a way that your remaining shadow does not touch the door. If you entered the north door, head to the west and loop around for some treasure, then backtrack and head to the north this time. Continue north until you find a save point, and of course immediately afterwards, a boss. Boss: Cockatrice コッカトライス 15500 HP, 431 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Cockatrice In 1 Minute, Defeat Cockatrice Taking No Damage The only thing you have to worry about this boss is that it can petrify you. Be sure to bring along some Sage to counteract this. Otherwise it's not much to worry about; his excessively low MP makes him vulnerable to the same old tactics (Kagebarai, Blaze Sword/Icicle Edge) After defeating the boss check the northeast corner of the room to find the copper. Now, exit the room out of the west. You'll find another save point. Follow the path far far south, and then as it curves to the west. Eventually you'll reach an outside area. This area has some treasure chests, but it also has a building, in which are your allies. Talk to the man standing more towards the west near the carts for a free rest. When you're ready, talk to the soldier near the carts to leave the mountain. This will force you into several fights, so be prepared. The first fight will be against some knights - fairly easy - but the second one will be against a boss, Demetrio. Boss: Demetrio デメトリオ\ 14800 HP, 17776 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Demetrio in 1 Minute, Defeat Demetrio Taking No Damage Demetrio's got some strong attacks - watch out for the dragon breath. Again, use Nel's strong attack cannonball to hit-and-run from afar, or when he uses his fire breath, run behind him and use Nel's Aerial. Try to keep your characters spread out so that in the case that one of them gets caught in the full brunt of the fire breath (which will likely kill him/her) another character can revive. After the battle you'll be right outside Becequerel Mine. Fayt will say how you should probably rest before heading back to Alias. This is the game's not-so-subtle hint that another boss awaits. Head back inside and talk to the soldier near the carts to get transported back to the building if you want to save and recover. Regardless, afterwards head towards Alias. Slightly before you reach Alias, though, you'll be interrupted and there will be another boss battle. Boss: Albel アルベル 26000 HP, 2600 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Albel 1 With Items Only Albel comes along with a few soldiers. He doesn't seem as strong as Demetrio to me, but maybe that's because he's easier to hit since he's not flying all over the place. Take out his companions first and then focus on him. Note that for the Battle Trophies, your other two characters cannot do anything. For the BC, set all your characters to manual, then use Items to kill off the enemies; I hope you created a lot of MP-damaging Bombs back in Peterny. After defeating Albel there will be another event. Start in Alias and then go all the way back to Aquios via Peterny. In Aquios you'll have another event as you meet up again with both Mirage and Amina. After the event with Amina in the inn, head to the castle's second floor and find Dion. Take Dion to the Inn for another event. Afterwards, the war is fast approaching. Here is now your chance to recruit Claire's father, Adray. Before heading back to Alias, enter the throne room again, and then try to leave. When you do, you'll run into Adray, and you'll see an event in which he 'asks' to join up with you. By agreeing (はい) he'll join you until you leave the planet. He's fairly interesting and considering you don't have Sophia anyway, a dedicated magic user would be pretty handy. Now, head back to Alias and make sure you're prepared. Talk to Claire, then rest on the second floor of headquarters. You can either talk to Claire again, which will give you a Private Action (some characters will like you more, others will like you less), or you can just avoid it by leaving Alias through the southwest exit. BATTLEFIELD Items in this section: None This section is pretty straightforward. Head towards the west, avoiding as many enemies as you can, and eventually you'll run across the opposing general, Vox. Boss: Vox ヴォックス 30000 HP, 20000 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: None Vox is like a vamped up version of Demetrio. Use the same sorts of strategies and make sure you have plenty of curing items on stock, and you should be just fine. Again, Nel's Aerial is an excellent tactic. After defeating Vox there will be another long event. Head back east across the battlefield, for yet ANOTHER long event. When it's all over you'll be back in Aquios. Head to Dion's room in the castle for ANOTHER event, then to the inn to pick up Amina. Take her back to Dion's room to trigger yet ANOTHER series of events, probably the longest in the game. Meet the Queen and eventually you'll also gain another party member, Maria Traitor. Then head to the chapel on the first floor of the castle for ANOTHER event. Talk to the priest standing by the stairs to get some Vanish Hammers, then finally head down the stairs towards the next dungeon. (This whole series of events will likely take you 30 minutes to an hour, so be prepared.) IMMORALITY WAY Items in this section: Blueberry, Cooking Materials, Luna Talisman, Gold Chain, Blackberry, Enchant Book (Earth: Null) Map Completion: 1/60 Bunny After descending down the stairs, head straight forward for a loooooong walk, and then finally you'll be in Immorality Way. Head straight forward into the first room. There is a large blob monster here; he's pretty strong so try and avoid him if at all possible. Grab the two treasure chests in the back, and then examine the statue in the northwest corner of the room. There will be a switch here. Press it. Exit back to the first room and now enter the door to the east. Follow the path around and you'll see some blocks moving up and down. Head across the blocks and then enter the north door. In the next room, you can head west (avoiding the two blocks) to get another treasure chest. Then head north under the three moving blocks and enter the east door. In this next room, head across further east. You'll find that there's cracks in the east wall. Use the Vanish Hammer here (by pressing square and then pressing circle when the cracks highlight) and a path will open up to two treasure chests, including the Gold Chain, which you should equip on Nel or Maria. Go back to the previous room and now enter the northwest door. There'll be a save point here, so make sure you save, before navigating under the group of six blocks. Head north. You'll find another blob monster here and a group of two, unmoving blocks to the west. Avoid the monster and head north, then east. In this next corridor, look along the south wall for another cracked wall. Use the vanish hammer again and enter. Examine the statue for another switch. Leave by the same way you came in and head east. There will be a treasure chest in this room containing a Luna Talisman. At this point you can continue on south through a one way door, or backtrack. Either way make your way back to the save point, save, and now continue west through the two blocks that previously were not moving. Now you'll face a boss. Boss: Floating Knight フローティングナイト 17000 HP, 240 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: None He's strong but not terribly fast. His move "Sword Quake" can really take out your guys in a matter of seconds, so be prepared to heal. I suggest hanging back with either Nel or Maria and letting Fayt and Cliff keep him busy. Long range attacks are the way to go. If your Nel is high enough to have Kokuyousen by this point, this will last very very short; otherwise killing him with MP damage via Maria's Aiming Device also makes it easy. After defeating the Floating Night, enter the north entrance and you'll be in the Shrine of Kaddan. SHRINE OF KADDAN Items in this section: Counter Aura Book 2, Blackberry x4, Cooking Materials x3, Heavy Armor, Prophecy Book 1, Synthesis Materials x2, Compounding Materials x4, Saint Stone x3, Blueberry x2, Aquaberry, Enemy Orb, Alchemy Materials x2, 54000 Fol, Star Fairy, Blacksmith Materials, Stone Check, Piyohan (With Vanish Ring) Compounding Materials, 22000 Fol, Magical Berry, Magical Pen, Ripe Berry, Blueberry, Synthesis Materials, Treasure Jewel x2, Blackberry, Alchemy Materials, Safety Jewel, Aquaberry Map Completion: 1/1 Bunny The shrine is fairly big so be prepared. Don't be afraid to backtrack all the way to Aquios to restock and rest if you need to. From the entrance, head north. In the next room, there will be a crystal statue in the middle. You can avoid fighting it, but you need something it has, so go up to it and examine it. This will prompt a battle with the Crystal Statue. It's only got physical attacks so it's susceptible to Counter Auras, but keep your weaker characters out of its way. After defeating it, you'll get a Saint Stone. Continue north for an event. Now head east into another room with a Crystal Statue. Defeat this one as well to get another Saint Stone, then head south. Loop around to the east and you'll enter a room with a seeming dead end. Simply wait here for awhile until an earthquake starts. Debris will come falling from the ceiling so try to stay close to the walls. After the earthquake subsides, one of the walls to the west will have become cracked. Use the Vanish Hammer here and enter. You'll find two treasure chests here, one with a Saint Stone. Once you have all three Saint Stones, approach the benches here, which are actually a factory. You'll automatically forge the Saint Amulet, which you'll need. Because of the earthquake, some of the other walls have also become cracked. Both rooms in which you fought Crystal Statues now have cracked walls, so you might want to backtrack and collect those treasures. Once you're finished, head back to the room where the second Crystal Statue was, and this time head east. Immediately inside the next corridor to the south is another cracked wall. Collect the treasures inside, then loop around to the north. Here's a save point and of course in the next room lies a boss. Boss: Crystal Cerberus クリスタルケルベロス 45000 HP, 4500 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: Defeat Crystal Cerberus In 1 Minute, Defeat Crystal Cerberus Without Taking Damage The Crystal Cerberus is basically like a stronger version of the Crystal Statues, so the same strategies will apply. It's faster than the Statues so beware. However, there's a catch: If you don't have the Saint Amulet, you won't be able to damage it at all. If this is the case, run away and collect the Saint Amulet as described above. Once you defeat Crystal Cerberus, head north. You'll eventually enter a room with four pillars; head north again. To the north of this room is a locked door. To the west is a corridor which you should follow to get some treasures. In the room with the four treasure chests, there is also an empty treasure chest. Examine this one to start another earthquake. After the earthquake the wall to the east will become cracked, so use the Vanish Hammer and get the treasures inside, then backtrack to the room with the locked door to the north. The east wall in this room is also cracked, so use the Vanish Hammer again and go in. In this room, there is a closed treasure chest. Do not open it, however, because it will explode. Enter the next room and head north. (There is a passage to the east but it contains nothing of interest for now). Once you climb up the set of stairs going west, enter the door to the north to enter the next area. In this area continue heading north for a few rooms. In the room with doors to the east and west, just ignore both doors; there's nothing in them that you can do anything about now. Further north there will be a room with four doors. By examining the statue in the middle, you can send each of your four characters through one of the doors for one-on-one battles. However you can just enter the crack in the wall to the east to bypass the doors completely. If you really want to fight, they get progressively harder, so pick your strongest characters last. You'll be rewarded with a Stone Check for your efforts if you didn't bypass the doors. Afterwards, head north again. In this next section loop down to the south. There will be a door with two inscribed plates flanking it; read them both. Then continue north along the east side of this room, collecting treasures as you go. In one of the rooms you'll find a red gem. Touch the gem (the first choice), then loop back to the door with the inscribed plates, and enter it. In this next maze-like section, there will be large blocks moving about. Touching a block will make you start over, so avoid them. Once you enter the door to the north, there will be another section like this. There are two treasure chests in this area to the east that you might want to collect. Head north again into a room with four treasure chests, and then north again. Save at the save point, examine the door for an event, and then enter to finally confront the Bandein Soldiers. Boss: Bandein Soldier x4 バンデーン兵 7400 HP, 336 MP Battle Trophies Opportunities: None All of the soldiers are armed with guns, making this a little rough. If your Maria is a high enough level, use her, since she has the best range out of your characters. Otherwise gang up on one soldier at a time to minimize your damage. Remember to heal and you should be all right. MP damage makes this battle short; if Nel has Kokuyousen, you'll have absolutely no problem. After the battle, examine the pedestal, then backtrack all the way out. There won't be any enemies in here anymore, making your task easier. Near the entrance, there will be another event with Nel. Now head back through Immorality Way and enter the castle, and visit the Queen in the throne room. This will kick off another series of events. Nel and Cliff go to visit Airyglyph, leaving Fayt and Maria at the castle. While talking to