"Strangers waiting up and down the boulevard; their shadows searching in the night. Streetlights, people, living just to find emotion, hiding somewhere in the night." ~ Midnight Train (Don't Stop Believin') - Journey @ @@@ @@@@@ @@@ .@@@. .@@@@@@@@@. @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ .@. @@@@ @@@@ @ @@ @@@ @@@@ @@@ @@ @@@ *@* @@@@ @@ @@@ @@@@ .@@@@@. .@@@@. @@@@@@ @@@ .@@@. @@. .@@ .@@@@@. @@ .@@. @@@ .@@@@@. @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@@ @@ @@ *@@ @@* @@ @@ @@@**@@ @@@ @@ @@ @@@@ * @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@. .@@ * @@ @@ @@ @@@ * @@ @@@@ .@@@@@ @@@. @@ @@@ @@@@@@@ *@@ @@* .@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@ .@@@@@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@.@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ .@@@ @@ @@@ @@ . *@@@* @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ .@@@ @@ @@ @@.. @@@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ .@@@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ .@@@ @@@@ *@@@*@@ *@@@@@* @@@@ @@@ @@@@@ *@* *@@@*@@ @@ @@ @@@ *@@@*@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@ @@@@ @@@@ D A W N O F S O R R O W @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ *@@@@@@@@@* *@@@* @@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ ASCII thanks to Atom Edge, with my incredible modifications of changing the name. +----------------------------------+ | | | Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow | | For the Nintendo DS | | FAQ/Walkthrough | | By T. Jackson | | Started : 7/18/06 | | Finished : N/A | | Last Updated: 11/23/06 | | Version 0.4 | | | +----------------------------------+ This guide was composed in Metapad. It's best viewed with 1024x768 resolution, Courier New font, and your browser's small text setting. Yarr. Table of Contents: I. Introduction 1.01: Table of Contents 1.02: Introduction II. Soma Basics 2.01: Story 2.02: Characters 2.03: Controls 2.04: Souls 2.05: Status Effects III. Walkthrough - Soma Cruz IV. Appendices 4.01: Bosses 4.02: Bestiary/Souls 4.03: Weapons 4.04: Armor 4.05: Accesories 4.06: Items 4.07: Shop List/Soul Synthesis 4.08: Boss Rush Mode 4.09: FAQ 4.10: Secrets 4.11: Endings V. Last Words 5.01: Copyright Information 5.02: Revision History 5.03: Contact Information 5.04: Credits 5.05: Boo! If you need to find anything, press CTRL + F and type in the numerical code of the section in question (e.g., if you're looking for the story, type 2.01). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I. Introduction -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 | 1.01: Table of Contents | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 Look up. Ugh. People. 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 | 1.02: Introduction | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 Hey hey, and welcome to this guide for the latest (as of this writing) installment of Castlevania. I don't get to say that much, being the sweet old school writer that I am. This is my first game for the DS, the first full fledged guide I've written in awhile, and the first game since this game's sequel for which I've written a guide without doing a few important things first (e.g., writing the introduction, playing the game, etc.). So this'll be entertaining. And I hope this guide entertains you - there are a few attempts at humor and song references in here, just because that's my style. Good luck with the game, though. Also, there be spoilers ahead for all Castlevania games, so read at your own risk! Especially if you're playing the sequel here without first playing the prequel! --Trace -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- II. Soma Basics -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 | 2.01: Story | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 This is the first game in forever where it has an instruction manual sans a story. While there is a pretty good summation of the story at the beginning of the game, take this as a remedy for your nescience - a summary by me. Hah, there's none better. Count Dracula. We all pretty much have a good idea of who he is (or at least his fictional version), if only because of our dad's terrible impersonations, which we're subjected to every Halloween, shortly before the low-flying witches crack. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, he's a persistant one, haunting the Belmont family for generations - from the Middle Ages to 1999 (Chrono Triggers era, what what!). The premise is that, as a supernatural being, he can't really die. Instead, he ressurects himself every century, or some other being (e.g., Shaft) ressurects him. He has had a number of foes over the aeons - the Belmonts, other random families, and even Alucard, his own son. Why does he revive? Because otherwise the franchise would end. In 1999, during the apocalypse (COME ON PEOPLE), a man named Julius Belmont fought the Count and defeated him; however, to completely eradicate the Prince of Wallachia, Julius sealed Dracula's castle - Castlevania - in the solar eclipse that occurred in 1999. This truly did defeat the Count - no convenient plot devices. The deux ex machina to save him, however, was that someone had to inherit his power. It's a religious theory that's expounded upon in this game - for God to be the ultimate good, there must be an ultimate evil, and since you've fought the Devil himself as one of Drac's underlings, Dracula must be said evil. There were three candidates who could inherit his powers, two of whom are introduced in this game. They could do so because they were born at the moment of Dracula's demise. What luck! The third is Soma Cruz, the Scientologist (hah!) whom you play in this game. You played as him in the prequel to this game (while Castlevania is a series, few games are direct sequels. There are three true sets of sequels - Castlevania I and II, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and this set: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow), when you found out that Soma inherited Dracula's powers. Well now you have to fight to keep those powers. Woohoo! And that's the premise of this game: there are two people, Dario and Dmitrii, who at the behest of the priestess of a cult, Celia Fortner, want to become Dracula by killing off Soma. You've gotta take those two out and meet up with Celia at the top of the cult's base - right where Dracula would be. 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 | 2.02: Characters | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 These will be listed in order of appearance. Allies ====== Soma Cruz --------- He who inherited Dracula's power in 2035, the last time you played. He's a headstrong youth who wants to save his friends. The typical RPG hero. Mina Hakuba ----------- She is one of Soma's best friends, his raizon d'etre, and just the normal damsel in distress and chief motivator of Soma. The typical RPG supporting lady. Genya Arikado ------------- He's a really mysterious fellow who seems to know a lot about stuff he probably shouldn't know about. He may be the secret identity of someone! Uh oh! Enigmatic, helpful, and always there when you need him (and only when you need him). The typical RPG supporting enigma. Hammer ------ Can't touch this! This former army soldier decided, in the last game, that killing people needed to take a backseat to the American Dream, so now he has a shop. He's got a major crush on Yoko. Yoko Belnades ------------- The descendent of Sypha Belnades, who fought alongside Trevor Belmont in Castlevania III, she offers information and weapon synthesis. She's a witch who works for the church. As opposed to a witch who gets burned by the church. Julius Belmont -------------- The guy who sealed Dracula away in 2035, he's a strong vampire hunter who seems to really want to kill Soma, despite being his friend, as seen by Julius' greeting at the beginning of the game. Not the nicest guy. He lost his memory in the last game, but he was nicer then. Not So Much Allies ================== Celia Fortner ------------- She's a priestess of a religious cult. Yeah, that was pretty obvious. She wants to revive the Dark Lord because according to her, for God to be truly good, there must be an ultimate evil. Of course, you'd think that the ultimate evil would have to manifest itself. Additionally, if she thinks we need an ultimate evil, she clearly has not met Brittany Spears. Dmitrii Blinov -------------- One of the potential successor to the Count, he's a reserved Russian who's not drunk. He can absorb souls and abilities like Soma. He's cool. Dario Bossi ----------- Unlike Dario, who's a fiery (hence his control of fire) jerk. He's the other successor to Dracula. Other ===== Konami Man ---------- !! 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 | 2.03: Controls | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 Basic Controls ============== o--------o-----------------------------------------o | Button | Function | |--------o-----------------------------------------o | A | Special attack*, confirm (menu) | | B | Jump, cancel (menu) | | Y | Attack | | X | Switch equipment** | | L | Dash backwards | | R | Use Guardian soul | | Up | Activate warp, epitomize You're So Vain | - Seriously. Look at him | Down | Duck | | Left | Move left | | Right | Move right | | Start | Go to menu | | Select | Change screens*** | o--------o-----------------------------------------o *This varies from weapon to weapon and costs MP. See the weapons section for more. **You need to acquire the Doppleganger soul from the Garden of Madness first. I got into more explanation there (CTRL + F Doppleganger if that's what you're here for) ***For an explanation of the screens, check the Menu section (2.05). This changes the displayed screen on the top screen of the DS. Complex Controls ================ B + B -> Double jump (note: you need the Malphas soul) Down + B -> Slide. You can damage enemies with the slide too. You can also drop through narrow floors with this. If you do this after you've gotten the Malphas soul, you can jump kick (though obviously you must be in mid-air to do so) Up + Y -> Use Bullet Soul Touch Screen Controls --------------------- -After you get the Balore soul, touch ice to break it. -You can order a familiar to attack an enemy with the touch screen (simply touch the enemy). -You draw the Magic Seals by connecting the dots in the given order. 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 | 2.04: Souls | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=0 For a full listing of the souls, see 5.02; this section is designed to give you a primer on how to use souls, hence its inclusion in the Basics section. See, this works. There are four types of souls: 1.) Bullet Soul - These are the equivalent of subweapons, only more ----------- permanent. Up + Y activates these. For the most part, they're the Use kind (read on for more information). These are primarily for attacking. These are red souls. 2.) Guardian Soul - These are usually helping souls, hence the name. Hold R to ------------- activate them. They're usually familiars of the Time kind who serve as backup, but the basic premise is that these aren't used for direct attack, for the most part; if they cause damage at all, it's either in the form of a familiar (e.g., Great Armor) or in the the best defense is a good offense way (e.g., Armor Knight). These are blue souls. 3.) Enchant Soul - The yellow soul doesn't attack. These generally give you ------------ some sort of stat boost (e.g., increased strength) or some other ability that's useful but not damaging (e.g., the Ghoul soul lets you eat poisoned food). These don't take up any MP. 4.) Ability Soul - The final kind of soul also doesn't take up MP. The ------------ controls vary, but the game generally tells you what to do. These are the only souls you need, for the most part, to advance, as these let you do things like double jump. 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 | 2.05: Status Effects | 0=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~0 There are two: Poison: You lose all of your attack bonus that's attributable to STR and all of your INT bonus. So basically, you do less damage with your attacks. Curse : You lose all of your MP. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- III. Walkthrough - Soma Cruz -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- First off, a few notes: 1.) Soul equipping is really up to you because I don't know what souls you have. Play around with them. There are some souls I'll really suggest you get, in which case, you should probably get them. You know. Because I'm not just wasting my breath- er, typing here. 2.) Unlike other games, you don't necessarily want to sell your old equipment because it could be used in synthesis; that said, anytime you get any equipment, equip it if it helps your stats (if you pick up something that an enemy drops, obviously I can't remind you to equip it). 3.) Break every single candle/light source you see. 4.) Think like Doctor Who - "What do monsters have nightmares about?" "Me - hah!" 5.) Due to the nature of weapon acquiring in this game (aside from the finds, you have to synthesize to get good weapons), I can't really recommend what to equip, as I don't know what souls you get. I personally prefer the Great Sword line of swords - they give you the best bang for your buck. Others might prefer a different style. All I can say is go for it! Experiment! The one thing that I caution you about is don't synthesize with the souls of bosses until you have 100% soul collection rate and acquire the Chaos Ring (once you've got that, at the end of the game, you can forge your Valmanways and your Death's Scythes). I do recommend, however, for the purposes of this walkthrough, that no matter what weapon branch you use, keep a good arcing weapon (something from the Great Sword or Axe line). I use the Great Sword stuff myself, but just having an arcing weapon is very useful, even if it's not your primary weapon. After the intro, you'll be plunged directly into a fight. En medias res indeed. No bones about it, though (ha!), this is a very easy fight. Genya Arikado graces you with a Knife. Smack the Skeleton twice with it to gain his soul. After a short explanation on how to use the soul, an Armor Knight teleports in. Use your newfound soul (Up + Y, if you're confused) twice to take him out (should he launch his spear, simply jump over it). You'll be treated to a short explanation on hos to use Guardian souls. Now a Golem will appear! As with the last foe, use your newfound soul to help - throw bones at the Golem, and when he gets near, press and hold R to activate the Armor Knight soul to help save your soul. You'll then get the Golem soul (later on, you'll wish the souls came this easily; for now, they've got the neighborhood tricycle feel, if you know what I mean). The explanation ensues, followed by a little more exposition. The end result is that Ms. Fortner has a very annoying laugh. Some more story occurs (note the map on the top screen) - and just as a side note, poor Hammer looks so dejected when you tell him Yoko's not coming! Now would be a good time to tell you what conditions you're in now. Right now, you've got no equipment aside from the Knife Arikado gave you, your clothes, and the souls you just received. You have three Potions, and there are some pretty sweet terms in the Library in the menu. Other than that? Nothing. Good luck! Head right to get to... The Lost Village ---------------- When you enter this screen, you'll see a Skeleton and possibly a Bat. The Bats spawn infinitely, so now might not be a bad time to get their soul (get three to level it up completely, but you don't have to do this just yet). It also couldn't hurt to get more Skeleton souls either (or Skelesouls, as I like to call them), but don't spend a ton of time on this, as it gets old fast. Cross the suspension bridge, and head to the next screen. On this next screen, note the lamp to the right. You can destroy this lamp for an item. Make sure you destroy all lamps, candles, enemies, etc. throughout the game. As you continue, there is a freaking HUGE Peeping Eye. This seriously scared me. Take him out (don't worry about getting its soul - it's rare; it can wait). Head to the next room. Pick up the Short Sword here, and make sure you equip it (as it does no good otherwise). Drop down and head right to grab a Potion and, in the next room, save your game (these rooms, in addition to saving your game, could save your life inasmuch as they heal you, so use these often, even if you don't wanna save!). Once saved, climb back up the platforms (ignore the door to the left; we'll explore it later), and head out to the right. This next room introduces some more baddies. First up is the Warg, which you SotN veterans will recognize. Deliver three quick sword swipes to him to finish him off. There are also an unlimited number of Zombies spawning, who take a minimal amount of effort to kill. Finally, there's the Axe Armor, who is a large piece of armor that throws axes. He'll throw them in two ways: either at a higher elevation or at a lower. If it's the higher elevation, duck under the axe, smack him a few times, and duck under it again. If it's a lower axe, leap over said axe, attack him, and jump over the axe again (the Armor Knight soul is very useful here). I _really_ recommend getting the Axe Armor's soul, as it's the equivalent of previous games' Axe subweapon (and it's very useful on the upcoming boss), though the Warg soul, if properly used, is very useful. Once you've cleaned out this screen satisfactorily, head to the next room. You meet up with Yoko (yay for Hammer! You can't touch this, but she sure can!) and Julius. The latter delivers the best ally-to-ally greeting in video game history. After another little exchange (Yoko's facial expression rocks, you get the Magic Seal 1. After practicing it, you have to escort Yoko somewhere. Backtrack the way you came (killing a few Zombies just for the sadistic pleasure of watching their heads fall off). When you reach the screen where you got the Short Sword, drop down to the funky door from earlier. Yoko will explain that you'll need a Magic Seal to finish off the upcoming monster. Oh snap! You'll enter the door automatically; however, if Yoko's incredibly subtle hint didn't tell you this, you've got a boss coming up. It's smart to have the stylus ready, as when you defeat the boss, you have to draw the magic seal relatively quickly, and you don't want to struggle with getting the stylus out, risking having to fight the big guy again. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: FLYING ARMOR First real boss fight time! Flying Armor is a floating creature with two hovering swords. These swords act as a sort of barrier, such that it's difficult for you to get close to him. Watch for the tips of the sword - when they flash, the swords are about to attack you. They do this in one of two ways - if the swords are both facing you (they're normally facing down), then when they flash, their positions will be locked in, and they'll fire straight in the direction they're pointed in, meaning don't be in their way. If the swords are pointed diagonally up in either direction, they'll circle around and try to squish you; jump over them to avoid the piercing blow. This is the easier of the two to dodge. Now, if you don't have the Axe Armor soul, this is the time to attack, as he's defenseless for the moment. Beat up on him until the swords come back, rinse, and repeat. His only other attack is floating around, which isn't so much an attack, per se, as much as a horrible video game cliche (i.e., the "touch of death") at its finest. If you have it, though, now's the time to use the Axe Armor soul. It makes the fight loads easier - you can just make a slight hop, regardless of where the swords are (unless the swords are, you know, inside of you), toss an axe, cause damage (as each axe will not only hit for a fair amount of damage, but it'll also hit multiple times), and repeat. Just make sure to watch out for the sword attacks, and resort to the earlier strategy when your MP runs low. If your HP falls below a certain level (i.e., how much HP each of the Flying Armor's attacks take away from you), remember that you do have three Potions, so feel free to use one. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> For your troubles, you get the Flying Armor soul, which "reduces the speed of falling." This is the same thing it did in Aria of Sorrow, only you have to fight for it (I'm glad we didn't last time!). After the exchange with Yoko, grab the oversized orb to replenish your HP/MP. Before you do anything else, go two rooms to the right and save! Return to the boss room, and then head through the left door. Hah, there seems to be potential for another Flying Armor in here. Check out the mantel. Anyway, drop down one step, and jump for the platform on the left side of the room, using the Flying Armor soul to get you over there. Grab the Claymore, and head to the next room. Hop to the left to grab the aptly named Spear, though statistically and practically speaking, I find the Claymore to be better. Drop to the platform to your right, and fall through that platform. Take out the Armor Knight to your left, and enter the room he was guarding. In here, take out the Ouija Table (its soul is useful if you get it - you can recover HP by sitting in chairs. Don't bother equipping it unless there's a chair nearby, though). Grab the Mace to the left of the deceased dinnertable, and continue left. Drop through the platforms. To your left is a save point; to the right, $1000. Make use of both, and head through the right door. Drop down to the bottom of this room, and go through the left door to reunite with Yoko. She'll explain the art of synthesis to you. See the weapons guide later in the FAQ for more information on this. You can synthesize weapons here depending on what souls you have. I advise that if you want to perform a synthesis, make sure you have multiple copies of the soul you're using so that you don't permanently lose it. You're welcome to make these if you want; however, it's not required by any stretch. Just make sure to have multiple copies of the soul you're using. If you need a reminder as to where to find enemies, either check the bestiary, or I'll tell you now - you can find Armor Knights in the previous room. The Wargs and Axe Armors are a few rooms back. While the Cutlass isn't too great now, if you can get another Warg soul and make a Falchion, that would rock. There's one thing about this I can't stress enough, though - Whatever you do, until you have 100% of all souls, never ever _EVER_ use a boss soul. You can't get them back. I don't care how useless it is. I don't care if it hurts you. Don't use it until you have 100% soul collection. When you're done, trot across the way to Hammer's shop. I recommend buying the Castle Map 1 and whatever else you can afford. Look in the Items section to see what the UMA News says, so don't worry about buying that. I also bought the Gym Clothes, and the Scarf. Equip it all. Now, if you're low on money, there's a cheap way of fixing that. Credit for this goes to FairEmma. Buy some Brass Knuckles, and go find some Zombies (this is not a hard task, unfortunately). Synthesize the Brass Knuckles and the Zombie Soul to get a Cestus. Sell the Cestus to make a serious profit. Return to the center room. Hop on the hippie van, and hop up a few levels until you can go right. Go right when you can. Make sure you collet the $1000 bag as you move through this next room (side note: you can destroy the chairs in a variety of ways. This looks cool), and head out through the door at the bottom. You're greeted with a funky sight in this next area: a skull in a cyclone (a Spin Devil). Wizard of Oz jokes aside, use a Bullet Soul to take him out. Kill off the Skeleton, and grab the Potion on the right side of this platform. Drop to the bottom of the room, and head right through the next two rooms to find a Cape, which isn't as good as the Scarf from Hammer's place, but whatever. Backtrack to the larger room. Once back in here, climb up to thje top left corner. Use the Flying Armor soul to cross the gap, look at Celia Fortner's ugly mug + cleavage, and head through the door. Kill off the Student Witch (such an adorable kitty!), and make your way through the rest of the room, killing the other two Student Witches. Exit through the top right corner. Make your way through the small hallway, and in the next room, you'll find a gate impeding your progress. Such inconvenient things, gates. If you attack the switch next to it, the water behind the gate will drain, and the gate will open. This actually drains the moat of the castle, which is where you are now. Take care of the Spin Devil, and head straight across the way to finally enter a new area! Wizardry Lab ------------ In your first room, you're greeted with a neverending spawning of Ghosts. Woohoo! Deal with them as best as you can as you drop down through the entrance room. You'll reach a small landing after a little while. Grab the Mind Up from the left side (the room behind the Mind Up is a save point), and then head through the right door. You'll now confront a Bomber Armor. Take care of it (when it lobs a bomb, just make sure you're out of the way of the explosion!), and continue on. When you see the Slime, just kill it before it slowly crawls at you. Hop across the gap to get a Blunt Sword (just what I always wanted!), and continue down through the room. At the bottom right corner, you'll see a treasure chest. Smack it open with your weapon, and then backtrack to the previous room. Continue your descent downwards to the door at the bottom, and then make use of said door. I find it useful to slide (down + B) through this row of Skeletons and the Skull Archer. The rest of this room is nothing you've never seen before (although if you hit the Student Witch when she tries to fly, she falls, and it looks so sad), so continue through the room. In the next room, drop down a few levels, and take the first right that you can (though it may be advisable, before you take this right, to go to the bottom of the shaft, take a left, and grab the Scarf, if you don't have one). There be Manticores in this room - the head of a lion, the tail of a scorpion. Watch out for the tail as you destroy them. Also, note the eyes in the painting! Ahh! Go all the way right, and in the next room, take your first right to find a warp room. The game will explain the concept. Warp up to the Lost Village real fast (press up, and then press left to get there). The Lost Village ---------------- If you were paying attention to the map earlier, you noticed you couldn't get to the room you're at now. But now you can, so it's all good. Anyway, it puts you out by a save point, Yoko, and Hammer. Make use of them if you want, and then teleport back to the Wizardry Lab. Wizardry Lab ------------ Once back in the Wizardry Lab, return to the room before the warp chamber, drop to the bottom, and head right. Go through this next room (your goal is the bottom left corner), which has two new enemies: a Slaughterer and The Creature. The Slaughterer is by far the easier of thw two. It's a giant pig thing that hops around and shoots fireballs in an arc. Dodge the fireballs as you attack him, and he'll die quickly. The Creature - Frankenstein's Monster - is substantially harder. He'll be energized with lightning, stumble over to you, and smack you really really hard. If he's energized, when he sees you, he'll stumble really fast, making it difficult to get out of the way. You want to attack him from afar - in here, you can lure him to the right side of his level, hop up to the level above him, and get him with the Axe Armor soul. His soul is useful (you restore one HP/second) but difficult to obtain, so do so at your own risk. Anyway, once you've cleaned out this room, head out through the bottom left corner. Drop down through this room and take the bottom right door. After a nice little cutscene, you can continue through the room. In the next room, go through the bottom right door to find a save point. Uh oh! Go left to encounter... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: BALORE A beam suddenly cuts through the ice! Go through the ice to find Balore himself. Balore has two basic attacks, and the safest place to evade both of them is right in between his hands. His most obvious attack is a GIANT laser beam that comes out of his eye. There'll be a dead giveaway when he's about to use this attack - you'll see him charge it. When you see it, immediately duck to avoid the beam. His other attack is to punch with one of his fists. You can avoid all of these if you're positioned where I told you to be. When he brings his fist close to him, though, jump on it (and then jump off when the coast is clear) to avoid being hit by it. The easiest way to take him out is with a weapon with a sweeping motion, like the Axe. Simply jump, use it, and repeat until Balore is no more! <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Take the orb and head right to find an ice wall. Use your new soul and your stylus to clear away the ice (just press an ice cube to make it go away. This would be inefficient, so run your stylus around the screen like a crazy man). Make sure to save your game! Now we've got some backtracking to do. Use your map to help you with this - you want to get to the first room of the Wizardry Lab (on the map, it's the room touching the closest save point to your current location, excluding the save point you just used). You can either go through all those halls again (go an alternate route to increase map percentage), or you can go to the warp room, warp to The Lost Village, and make your way to the moat (where you saw Julius), drop into where the water used to be, and take the door. Either way, get to the top of the first room, and head through the top right door. In here, you'll see some ice. Before you go and destroy it all, look at what's behind the ice - a pillar. You need to get over this pillar, so destroy the ice like this: o--------------o o----o------------------------o | xxxxxx | |Key | | | xxxxxx | |----o | | xxxxxx | | - - Stairs | | xxxxxx | | o - Don't destroy this ice | | ooooooP | | x - Destroy this ice | | J ooooooP | | P - Pillar | |-- ooooooP | | J - Jump from here | | -- ooooooP | o-----------------------------o o--------------o Jupm from the stairs, and invoke the use of the Flying Armor soul to land on the ice. This gives you an easy way of getting over the pillar. With the next bit of ice, destroy all the ice but the bottom level, and on the next set, destroy only the top three layers of ice by giving it the cold (ha!) shoulder with the stylus. Continue with this pattern (of destroying all the ice except those which are level with the pillar). There's one tricky one, where the pillar extends from the ceiling, so you have to go under it, but then there's no apparent way to overcome the next pillar. Do the easy thing, then, and make a staircase out of the ice to get over the pillar. In this next room, destroy all the ice to get to the bottom. Head left to grab a Combat Knife (woo hoo!), and then go back into the other room. It seems hard to get back up, but you essentially have to use the staircase strategy again. Destroy the set of 16 ice blocks (4x4) closest to you except for the ice in the bottom right corner in this fashion: o----o-----------------o o--------------o |Key | | |XXXXoooooooooo| |----o | |XXXXoooooooooo| | X - Destroy this ice | |XXXXoooooooooo| | o - Don't | |XXXooooooooooo| | D - Door | | oooo| | - Stairs | D | o----------------------o D | |-- | |---- | o--------------o Jump to the lone remaining ice block, and create a staircase of ice to get back to the top. Now backtrack all the way back to the main room. Drop down to the bottom of this shaft (giving the Ghosts the shaft while you're at it), and take the door there. Make your way through this room, and when you come out at the shaft (there are certainly quite a lot of these) on the other side, drop down and take the first door on the right. Once you've made your way through the Manicore-infested room with the creepy painting, make your way up through the shaft (note: this shaft has a warp room. If you haven't already done so, it may be a good time to return to The Lost Village and drop by the shop; I _highly_ recommend getting the Castle Map 2), and head to the top-right door. Head through the next room (it's nothing new; however, if you're using the Axe, you can destroy enemies above you by jumping and swinging)) to emerge at a new room at the top-right corner. If you have an uncontrollable urge for an Armor Knight soul - which is understandable, considering you got it at the beginning of the game - this is the place. Ignore the first set of ice, but as you go through the room, destroy all the rest of the ice. Run back to the start of the room, jump on the ice block you spared, and use that to get to the platform. Ride it - and duck while you're riding it to evade a very inconvenient pillar, hop off and head two rooms to the right to reach... Garden of Madness ----------------- This room has two new enemies: the Une and the Skelerang. The Une is very easy; just attack it without doing something funny like running over it. As for the Skelerang, it can, as the more astute among you may derive from its name, throw a boomerang. Dodge them as you destroy the Skelerangs. That's really all there is to this room. There's a save point halfway up. Save, climb to the top, and head left. This next room has the huge Treant enemy. Aside from the obvious pun in its name, it's got a nice mythology reference. Anyway, dodge its kicks as you attack. Once it's destroyed, grab the Magic Seal 2. Awesome! Hop up to the next room. Take your first left to activate the warp room, and then continue up through the previous room. There's a new foe here, a Corpseweed, but it's the same concept as an Une only bigger (because a head sprouts). In the next room, head right, and grab the Breastplate from atop the ledge (instead of jumping and getting it by using your video game magic to go through the pillar, hop on the junk as a stepping stone to that ledge, as we're going up). Hop onto the next ledge, and go up one more time to find a Skeleton Ape. This is a Skeleton wielding bad posture and a barrel (this is a Donkey Kong reference, kids). Take him out (jump over the barrel Mario style if you need to), and head to the next room. A Cateoblepas awaits you here. They've got stone breath, so watch out! Take it out from the doorway (it helps if you use an Axe or something that attacks in an arc), hop up to the top of the room, and go right. In the next room, dodge the barrel that the Skeleton Ape will throw at you almost immediately upon your entrance, kill it, and hop over to the next ledge. Break the lantern to get the Doppelganger soul. Now for a word of explanation on this puppy. You'd think a soul with that title would be interesting, possibly allowing you to, you know, doppelgang someone (that sounds nasty; it means to look like them, just to clarify). No, this gives you the ability to alternate between sets of equipment and souls. Go to your Equipment menu. You'll see an A and a B in the heading. Press X to switch between them. The game recommends you have a travelling and a fighting set, but you probably don't have good enough souls for that. Keep this in mind while equipping - just because you use it on one set doesn't preclude you from using it in another. For instance, if you have one Warg soul, and it's in your A soul set, you can still use it in your B soul set. Here's what I'd do: for now, have a short range and a long range set. Have A be your go-to equipment/souls; these are what you already use. For B, concentrate on defense - use your longer reaching bullet souls (e.g., the summons), and for your equipment, beef up on defense and/or luck, or some other stat. When necessary, you can do a quick swap. This soul will come in handy later, or so I hope. This is also good for soul combos (e.g., in this very room, you can get a Skeleton Farmer soul at the bottom, which enhances the power of plant souls, and a Mandragora soul, which is already a really strong soul. If you keep both of these together in a soul set, you can hit for massive damage. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, it'd be a good idea to drop to the bottom of the screen and acquaint yourself with the Skeleton Farmer. He throws out five seeds: four Unes and one Mandragora. The Unes are harmless, but if you're in the Mandragora's range (it pops out of the ground and explodes), it'll hurt. Oddly enough, the background influences his seed throws - he can't throw into pillars. You really want the Mandragora, and having the Skeleton Farmer is nice too. Once you're done, head back to the previous room. If you want some money and a new weapon (which you may not use), climb to the top of the shaft and head left. Make your way through this room (there is a new enemy - Rycuda - which is a weak lightning shooting bird. Make sure to get its soul). Take them out, drop through the floor, kill the Catoblepas, and go left to find a treasure chest. Destroy it for some money, grab the Fleuret from the ledge, and head back to the shaft. Go through the top right door, cross this room to the top right door here, and head through there. This shaft contains nothing new, so go through it and exit at the bottom. Dodge the Skeleton Ape's barrel, and drop to the bottom of this room, go right, and drop through the floor. Descend through this room until you reach a gold door marked 777. These are the last three digits you need your money value to be. There's a light right outside of the door. Break it, grab money, drop through the floor, come back up, and repeat. Do this until you reach 777 (to help you out, blue = $1, brown = $10, grey = $50). Enter the room and grab the Three 7s armor. I recommend equipping this to your alternate equipment setting for soul harvesting. Anyway, backtrack back to the big room, go all the way right, and head to... The Dark Chapel --------------- Finally. I just wanna give a tangent here real fast. Most of the Metroid- esque Castlevania (e.g., Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, etc.) have a chapel in them. No one stops to consider the fact that this has no place in an unholy castle. That said, this is the base of a religious cult, so they need a good chapel. GET IT STRAIGHT, KONAMI! Anyway, there are two Mini Devils. They appear, fly around, and fire these large crescent, Pharaoh Shot-esque projectiles at you. Dodge them as you destroy the Mini Devils (who bear, both in name and in visage, a resemblance to my sisters). Run to the right side of the room, save, and then start hopping up the ledges. There's one more Mini Devil in your path, but exit at the top right corner of the room. This next room is populated with Ghouls, which are upgraded Zombies, but they're just as easy. There's also a Witch, who will fly around spouting magic spells, Space style. Ghoul souls are easy to get and recommended - they let you eat food that's normally "unpalatable" (e.g., Rotten Meat, which you can get from these guys, etc.). The next room is filled with Ghost Dancers, who are very easy to take care of (you only have to destroy one of the pair to take them both out), and their souls are the luck equivalent of the Golem soul (think about that one for a second - the suave Ghost Dancers. Luck. UH OH PREGGERS). There's also an Amalaric Sniper in here. This is the equivalent of the Sniper of Goth from previous games, and his soul is pretty sweet too. Anyway, hop up the nearest set of ledges, jump to the right, and grab the Potion. Now drop to about midway down the room, enter a room on the left (it's a warp room), and now head to the bottom of the room, working your way through the enemies as you go (in addition to the Amalarics and the Dancers, The Creature awaits you at the bottom). Enter the bottom left door. Now you enter the mainstay of any good church - the torture chamber. Head left to find a Hell Boar, the blue version of the Slaughterer (wait...a blue pig...GANON!). The difference between the two is that, in addition to fireballs, the Hell Boar can attack with an uppercut, so watch out. Ghouls abound in here too, but they're no threat. Head through the room. You'll come out in a shaft which get get to explore. Start with the top left door. In here, you'll encounter a Barbariccia, named for a demon from The Divine Comedy as well as a certain fast food restaurant. He flies around, acting clever, wielding a spear. He'll lunge at you occasionally, but he's no threat. Grab the $2000 and regress to the previous room. Drop through the shaft, watching out for the Bone Pillars (they be shootin' fiuh!). Take the first left to find a White Dragon. Get under it (to dodge its attacks), and use your souls/Axe to take it out. Swipe the Traveler Cape (you can equip it to your B set of equipment if you like), and then return to the shaft. Finish your descent, and head left. Your first new foe in this room is a Guillotiner. It splits apart into a head and a...um...lower body, but you only need to destroy one part. Once you've taken care of it, head down the shaft to the bottom, and take the right door. In this room, you'll find a Barbariccia, but before you go killing it, look at the ceiling - spike traps. Get close to them, let them fall and rise again, and then run under them. There are two in this room, so watch out! In the next room, grab the Red Scarf, and then head back to the shaft and take the bottom left door. In this room, take out the Bone Pillars (if you have it, the Mandragora soul rocks for this), and do what you can to destroy the Hell Boar on the other side of the partition. Look at the pink wall - it's got a picture of a Skeleton on it. Equip the Skeleton soul, lob a bone at the wall, and watch the wall come tumbling down. Now watch out - there's a rogue White Dragon here who'll be spitting fireballs. Dodge them as best you can while you get under it. Grab the Halberd, kill the White Dragon, and then backtrack to the Ghost Dancer room (if you don't remember where it is, check the map - it's the room touching the nearest warp room). Once in the dance hall, head up to the top left corner of the room, and go through the door there. This room has two Great Armors, who are great pushovers, despite their size. Get up close to them (in real life, this would be a mistake), and hit them with your Bullet Souls and with whatever weapon you have. Make sure to back up if they get too close. The Great Armor soul is pretty sweet - it's a familiar, though. At the end of the room, continue on int he only direction you can. The next room contains a Valkyrie, a winged warrior who flies around and tries to spear you. Kill her off (if you use the Great Sword as I do, you'll want to get her soul so as to be able to upgrade the Great Sword), and exit the room through the upper exit. You'll be met with a Witch and a never ending supply of Ghosts in this room. Hop onto the platform, ride it up, and jump over to the platforms on the right. Continue on to exit the room on the right side. Ascend this shaft to the top, and head right. This takes you to a passage with a Tombstone, which is a tombstone (as you may have inferred) with the ability to throw a temper tantrum. You may want its soul, as it stops petrification, which is useful later on. Kill it, and head to the next room, which is the bell tower. There are Mini Devils in here. Destroy them all while you climb to the top left corner. Grab the Anti-Venom, and then backtrack to the last shaft. Use the top left room as a save point, and then drop to the bottom of the shaft, and enter the door... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: DMITRII BLINOV After a nice cutscene (imagine him saying that with a Russian accent; it's funnier), you'll fight Dmitrii with cool music. He'll lumber over to you and use the Cthulu attack you just saw. That attack's easy to dodge, but you want an easier one. I recommend using either an Une, a Student Witch, a Skeleton, or a Zombie soul. Regardless, Dmitrii is very easy to figure out. He'll use whatever soul you've used on him (and when you use a new one, he'll copy that too), knife you if you get close, jump around, or dash backwards - he's essentially Soma. I recommend using whatever soul you're using to beat him. Additionally, if you have a long range weapon (e.g., an Axe), you can use that too. Jump towards him, smack him, and move away. Rinse and repeat. He's a very easy boss. Note that you don't need to use a Magic Seal at the end. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> (note: When you beat him, Soma exclaims, "What? Dead? That can't be!" Because dying is not normally what one does when one is whacked several times by a large weapon and/or screaming plants.) When you've beaten him, you'll gain his soul (though you won't be able to use it). Go back to the shaft, save, and then return to Dmitrii's room. He's been replaced by a Quetzalcoatl, a Fleaman on a dragon. It bounces around, so look for the spaces between the dragon bones, and then attack. Once he's been bested, head to the next room. This room is very simple. Head through it, and at the top you'll find... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: MALPHAS Malphas is exactly like Symphony of the Night's Karasuman. He's just as easy too. Malphas has three basic attacks. The first is an attack where he summons black ravens to him and faces you. When you see this, move so that you're behind him (when he flies up) so you can dodge his onslaught of black feathers. For his second attack, he flies and faces you, the player (not you Soma; i.e., he's facing forward). When he does this, get under him to dodge the blue feathers. His final attack is to summon these orbs which will try to track you down. Jump over them. The best plan is to stay under him while he's in the air - if you see an orb forming, run away, and when they come near you, jump back towards Malphas; if you see blue feathers, stay still. When he lands, you know he's about to break into the first attack. In between attacks, smack him a few times. This is really easy with the first attack, as he's firing away from you, making him a sitting duck...er, raven. Mutant raven. You get it. Make sure to have the stylus ready for the Magic Seal. Also, make sure you remember how to do the seal (start from the top right, go to the bottom left, to the bottom right, to the top left). <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Now you get the Malphas soul, which lets you double jump. Additionally, if you press down and jump while double jumping, you'll do a jump kick. It rocks. Sweet. Grab the orb, and head back to the previous room. On your way down the first set of stairs, notice how there are two squares that extend onto the stairs. Stand by the first square, activate the Flying Armor, and jump right. As you fall, jump again to double jump up to the ledge. Grab the Hoop Earring, and now head back to the save point. From here, if you want, head back to the bell tower, climb to the top right bell, activate the Flying Armor, and fall/double jump to land on a ledge just below the top ledge to grab a High Mind Up. Anyway, from the save point, drop down and take your first left. Once back in this room, go left to the platform that rises and falls. When it reaches its peak, double jump around the ledge to get a Power Belt. Now backtrack to the dance hall. Drop and take your first left. Go left two rooms, and in that room, go as far left as possible. You can double jump onto a ledge to get a Long Sword, and then return to the room with the Dancing Ghosts to use the warp. If you'd like to get some map percentage now (and a few items), read this part; otherwise, skip this section. ***EXPLORING*** The Lost Village ---------------- Warp here, and then head back to the second room in the game. It takes some cleverness to get up to the upper parts of this room. Stand on the left side of the room near the door. Wait for a Bat to come by, jump kick him, and double jump to the ledge above you. Head to the room to the left to get a Pumpkin Pie. Now head back to the previous room, and move right to the next room. Double jump up to the upper parts of this room. There's a High Potion in the upper left corner, and a door leading to the Demon Guest House in the upper right. Demon Guest House ----------------- Ignore the Persephones for now (well, you can kill them if you like; they're not overly powerful, and this is the area we're heading to next anyway), and go all the way right to reach a weird room. Grab the Cestus, and then return to... The Lost Village ---------------- Drop down to the bottom, and then run right for a few rooms until you reach the castle moat. From the doorway, double jump to the ledge above you, and then double jump to the ledge above that. Run right to grab the Crimson Cloak. Now head back to the warp room, and warp back to the Garden of Madness. ***END EXPLORING*** Garden of Madness ----------------- When you've warped here (it's the third warp from the left, if you're lost), ascend the passage, and in the nex troom, take the top right exit. You'll be in another shaft with a Catoblepas. Climb that shaft, take the top left door, and go left. This is all old stuff. Go left until you reach the pile of junk with a skull above it. Double jump to that skull, grab the Elfin Robe, and take out the Skeleton Apes. In the next room, kill the Mollusca (I recommend jump kicking it until it gets backed into a corner - hitting its eye stalks seem to achieve that - and then taking it out with a weapon), and progress to the next room. This room has two Ents- er, Treants as well as a Barbariccia, all of whom should present no threat to you at this point. At the far right, there's a save point. Use it, go back to the last room, and ascend to the next room, take out the Rycuda, and enter the boss door. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: DARIO BOSSI After a nice, friendly chat with Dario, you'll get ready to fight - again with awesome music. This fiery foe presents way more of a threat than his counterpart did, but he's still nothing you can't handle. His attacks are thus: He can shoot a fireball at you. Jump over the fireball (there's a trend!). His other attacks are preceded by a "Hahaha!" - these include a fire wave (jump over this) - though the "Hahaha!" here comes right when he punches the ground, teleporting (if he wants to be Drac, he's got this down!), and creating fire pillars (the trend with these is that he'll create one fire pillar close to him. A second fire pillar will emerge at a length away from him, and shortly thereafter, another will come up between these two. The trick is to, when you see the first fire pillar, run away from Dario. If you need help figuring out the locations of these pillars, right before they come up, you'll see some fire, followed by the pillar). The time to extinguish this pugnacious punk is after he attacks. There's a pause between each attack. Move in - preferably with a quick weapon or with a Bullet Soul - attack, and get ready to move away to counter his next attack. Familiars don't help too much. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Once you've utterly humiliated Dario, a cutscene will ensue (wherein Celia breaks the fourth wall!). Go back, save, and then proceed to the room after Dario's. Fight your way through this disturbingly easy room, and at the top, go left to get to... Demon Guest House ----------------- In this pleasant area, head left, and take out the Persephones. They know Kung Fu, so watch out (hint: girls with Kung Fu - doesn't work). In the next room, you'll meet up with Genya Arikado, who will give you Mina's Talisman. Once the cutscene's done, continue left. In this massive room, drop down the chandeliers until you reach a room on the right. It's a save point, so make use of it. Continue to the bottom, through the Ghost Dancers. There's a Devil at the bottom. Take him out, and head right. In this room, kill Persephone, grab the money, and run. Now head back up to the save point. Head left from there, killing the Lilith (note that if she hits you with her kiss, you lose all your MP - you're cursed). When you get to a hole, drop down the hole, and take the left door. In here, go left, killing your foes as you go. At the far left is where the fun begins. There's a puzzle in this room. You already saw part of it if you did the backtracking. If you don't want any treasure, you can skip this part and just head through the door and follow the path to the top, but where's the fun in that? Now, you need to chart a path to the following rooms: Room 1 : Cestus Room 5 : Cutall Room 8 : Turquoise Stud Room 9 : Justaucorps Room 12: Great Sword Additionally, find a way to exit in the top right corner to get a Ring Mail. If you went exploring earlier, you already have the Cestus. The bottom left corner takes you to The Lost Village, the top right to the Ring Mail, the bottom right to the puzzle room, and the top left to where you need to go. The trick is to touch the tiles with the stylus to move them - it's a very classic game. If you want 100% map coverage, you've gotta visit all 16 rooms (the 15 numbered ones plus the blank square - the blank square is a free space; it takes you all four ways). Once you're done, go back, hit reset, and follow the path. This room has Killer Dolls which curse you if you touch them, so be careful as you make your way up. The next room has a Killer Clown, who attacks you with cards after he shuffles them about three times. You really want his soul for later in the game, so now is as good a time as any to get it. Continue through the room, and take the top left door. Cross the piano (nobody knows what the heck this does - email me if you do!), and go to the next room. This room has a TON of Bone Pillars! It's great for soul harvesting. The trick here, though, is strategy. Knock down all the Bone Pillars but five in the first column, and double jump on top of them. From here, kill off some of the next column's Bone Pillars, but leave about two or three higher than you. Continue this process until you can go no higher. Jump from column to column to find a hole. Starting from the left, make yourself an ice stairway to heaven. At the top are some War Fatigues (the top right houses an UMA News 2-4). Now backtrack to the room before the piano room, and head through the top right door. This next room has a Buer wheel in it, which is the flaming wheel of Hell. Kill it like the rest of the foes, and take the top right door. In here, drop down real fast to grab the High Potion, and then return to the above room. Take out the Skelerang (this is turning into the Demon Fun House, not the Demon Guest House). Something about Lilith really disturbs me, though. Or turns me on, one. Anyway, take the top left door. In the next room, run left, kill the Killer Clown (as pennace for your childhood nightmares), and in the left room, you'll see a warp room. Sweet! Anyway, take either the top left or the top right exits (they both work, though if you cross the room, you'll encounter the Devil, who's designed to make you feel right at home in the Guest House), ascend the shaft, and enter the next room. This room is really chaotic - you've got Quetzalcoatls, Buers, Killer Clowns, etc. In the top right corner is a room with three Killer Dolls and the Uma News 2-2. The top left corner has the overly complicated Magic Seal 3, which is definitely a necessity. Finally, go to the upper right side of the room, and exit through the top. Make use of the save point to the right, and then enter the boss door. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: PUPPET MASTER I dislike this boss. He's got three main attacks. He can summon miniature ghosts who fly around and try to hurt you (kill them off). The second is to summon a monster to hold in his hand. You need to destroy this monster, or you'll switch places with him and end up in one of the spiked coffins. The third and most effective - he's plain ugly. Your top priority are the monsters in his hands - if you get into a coffin, it will hurt a lot. You'll see and hear some blue sparks when he's summoning the monster. Destroy it (it'll take two hits), and then attack the Puppet Master himself. The Mandragora soul is great for inflicting damage on the Puppet Master himself. As for the monsters, use the Doppleganger soul - equip your Knife to the B attack setting, and when you hear the Puppet Master summon a monster, do two quick jabs to defeat the monster, switch back to set A, and move on. The Mandragora is also great for destroying all of the little marionettes he sends out. With this strategy, he should be relatively simple. The biggest danger is just getting coffined up in a coffin. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Take the orb and his soul, and retreat from the room. Save. Now's a good time for me to tell you about the Puppet Master soul - you throw a puppet and switch places with it. If you've done any exploring, you may have noticed small crevices through which you couldn't fit because Soma's a little on the hefty side. If you throw a puppet through there, you can make it. Awesome. Now for a _ton_ of backtracking. You know the first save point in the Demon Guest House? Go there. The best way to do so is by going a few rooms right of the warp room - it connects to a shaft (use the Puppet Master soul to get through) that leads back to a large room. Head to the right side of the room (note: if you ignored my advice earlier, definitely get the Killer Clown soul here now). Go through the door at the far right side to find two Killer Dolls and $2000. Continue down until you find another room, containing a Persephone and a Devil (if you kill the Devil first, the Persephone has to hold her dress down, so she's defenseless). Kill them both, take the UMA News 1-2, and continue. The bottom room contains a Skeleton Waiter. Kill him, and then sit in the chair. A Crown will appear - take it (you can sell it to Hammer - it's a reference to the original Castlevania). Now run left, drop through the hole, and you'll be in the room outside of the aforementioned save room. Drop down to the bottom, go left, and drop through the floor. Kill off the Persephone, lob a puppet through the crack, and take the High Mind Up. Drop through the floor, and head left for a few rooms, reuniting with some old foes. At the far end, you'll reach... The Lost Village ---------------- It always comes back to here. Kill off the Skeleton Ape and the Warg, and head left. Hit the switch to lower the drawbridge that Julius used to show off earlier. Head left, and if you missed the exploring section from earlier, take this time to do all of that. Make for the warp, buy whatever you need, and then warp to the Dark Chapel. The Dark Chapel --------------- You wanna head for the torture chamber area (that sounds weird, but bear with me). Drop to the bottom of this dance hall to do so. Make your way through here to the last shaft in the torture chamber region (we explored this area earlier; you should have rooms in both directions at the bottom of this shaft). Take the first right in this shaft to reach a room where you can use the Puppet Master soul. Watch out for the spike trap above you (75% of you read this sentence after being hit by it - haha, you suckers), lob the puppet through the crack, and take out the Catoblepas and Guillotiner you find here as you move right. Watch out for the spike trap near the Barbariccia. Once overcoming it, head through the door. Subterranean Hell ----------------- Well this is an encouraging name. First thing's first. Drop to the bottom of this room. The only new foe here is the Dead Pirate - fortunately, he's not too hARRd. Watch out for the sword swipes. If you use the Puppet Master soul, you can get around him, incidentally. At the bottom is a save point. Use it, and then head back to the top. Go through the right door. Kill off the Cave Troll (it hops around, sticks its tongue out, and summons lightning. Kill it before it does the latter), and head through the boss door. Oh good, this is early. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: RAHAB At first glance, you're screwed. You're fighting a water foe. You can't swim underwater. Yay! His attacks are fairly simple. Rahab can jump out of the water and fall back in. Occasionally, he'll launch some icicles below him, so watch out for those. He can also fire ice that turns into platforms. You can tell where Rahab is by the air bubbles. If you have a good Bullet Soul (e.g., Mandragora), a weapon like the Great Sword or the Axe, or even the Bomber Armor soul, you might be able to hit him while he's underwater, but your best bet is to wait for him to shoot ice platorms. Jump onto the platforms as leverage to attack. So that's basically your strategy - wait him out, attack when you can, and be done with it. He can't hurt you that much. Also, note that you don't have to hit his head - anywhere on his body will do. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> At first having the orb fall underwater seems cruel, but Rahab's soul gives you the ability to - the more astute of you may have seen this coming - walk underwater. Jump up (you can jump an unlimited amount of times underwater with Rahab's soul, plus once more above water), admire the background, go back and save, and then progress to the right. As a side note, judging by the music, the overall ambience, and the boss here (fish boy), odds are against this really being true Hell. And in videogames, if it's not fiery Hell, it's puzzle Hell. OH NO! In this room, you'll see a Decarabia spin down to the bottom. Go down and spin it right round, baby. Also, watch out for the Fish Heads, aquatic, missile launching versions of the Bone Pillars. Go up the stairs, and jump to the ledge above you to see a treasure chest. This is actually a Mimic, so watch out - its bite is worse than its bark. Destroy it, drop down, and drop through the floor. Drop to the left, take out the Needles, and see a massive stack of Fish Heads. This seems intimidating. That's exactly right. Or it would be if you didn't have Mandragora (I really hope you do). Use it to destroy them all in one or two hits. Now head right, grab the $2000, and then continue left. You'll reach a fork - take the upper path, destroy the Killer Fish and Needleses, hop up, take out the Fish Heads and Merman (make sure, as you go through here, that you get some Merman souls. It'll help a ton for a boss fight later), and grab the Chain Mail. Return to the fork and take the lower fork. Jump over the large Fish Head set, drop down, and use the Mandragora strategy to take them out again. Kill the Merman, grab the High Mind Up, and continue right. Go right as far as you can, kill the Killer Fish (turnabout is fair play and all), and grab the Rusty Food Tin. Now head left as far as you can. I recommend you make small double jumps to descend through this Needles infested passage. Dodge them, head up the next passage and down the last. Exit to the left. Run as far left as you can to lure the icy Procel to you. Procel's soul is one you really want - it's an Ability Soul that lets you walk freely underwater. Lure it to you, use the Mandragora, exit, re-enter, and repeat until you have this rare soul. Once you get it, continue left through the room - try to stay on land - and exit to the left. In here, hop up to the ledge and kill the Frozen Shade. She'll summon three icicles, aim them at you, and then fire them. Dodge them and attack. I highly recommend that at some point, you get her soul. It's even better if you max it out. It makes some stuff later easier. At the top, go right. In here, you'll want to use the hammer weapons you have on the seesaw - it's an old carnival game. The Mace will net you a Potion. To get the other prizes (the Morgenstern nets you a High Potion, while the Mjollnjr gets you a Super Potion), you need to upgrade the Mace via the weapon synthesizer (and fortunately, there's a warp coming up). Exit the room and head left to the next room. Jump kick the Unes, and drop to the bottom. As you go left, you'll find another member of the Une family - the Alura Une. She's evil. She'll sprout these sharp vines to attack you if you come near her, and she can also shoot out some flowers. Jump over the flowers, and attack from a distance with a Bullet Soul. Once you've eliminated her, continue left. In here, run left and go into the room above you. In here, you'll find the pyromanical Ukoback. Dodge the fire and then attack (hey, it's a rap smack!). You really, really want his soul (not for using it now, but it'll come in handy later - trust me), and this room is one of the best places to get it, so do so now. Once you have it, exit to the right. This room has a Bone Ark. It's a demonic skull version of the Ark of the Covenant. It's also really powerful - it has two carriers (who give up souls as readily as the Ark) and a skull. Take out the carriers and jump behind the Ark to smash it. Get its soul, and then backtrack two rooms. In this large room, drop to the bottom, head right, and collect $2000 (if only this happened in real life!). Now run left into the next room. The left door here is a warp room. Use it to return to The Lost Village and save if you want (I also recommend right now that you get your gold supply so that the last three digits are 666 - and leave it like that for awhile. Trust me, it'll save you so much grief later, and there are plenty of candles around here) - you can synthesize the Mace and go back to the earlier game if you want. Once you're done, go back into the previous room and drop through the hole. This next room has nothing new. Grab the Mushroom from the left (make sure to use the Ghoul soul if you need to eat it!), and navigate your way through this room. Head left at the bottom to find another Ukoback. Get its soul here if you haven't already, and then continue into the next room. Drop down to the bottom of the shaft. There's a save point to your right. Use it, and then head left. This room serves almost no purpose to us right now, so drop to the bottom and go left. Watch out for the Medusa Heads - the gold ones can petrify you, so in order to make sure they don't kill one stone with two freaky head birds, dodge the yellow ones (though you can jump kick them). The next room is a shaft with Dead Pirates and an Ukoback. It's nothing new or haRRRRD. Kill them all, and head to the next room. This room is apparently insurmountable, but if you got the Bone Ark soul, it's really pretty easy. Just use the Bone Ark, watch the funny bit with Soma riding the Bone Ark across the spikes, and at the end, take the door to reach... Wizardry Lab ------------ We're in a funky new area of this level. Drop into the water to find a Homunculus. They're attached to life support systems and try to chase you. There are two ways of dealing with them: kill them or let them chase you. After awhile, they'll break apart from their oxygen supply, and after a little more chasing, they'll suffocate (I recommend everyone sees this, as this is something you must see once in your life - as is Michael Jackson's face). Head left, and when you pass the second Homunculus, jump up to the top of the water to grab a Serenity Robe. Drop back down, continue left, kill off one more Homunculus, jump to the top, and go left. In here, you've got two Larvae to deal with. They're just caterpillars that squirm around. Nothing too bad. Drop to the bottom and head left. In here, drop to the bottom and collect the Super Potion (after killing your pal Homunculus). Jump back up and continue left. At the far left is a pit leading to a Bloody Stud (what you get when a guy finds out his cheerleader girlfriend is cheating on him - hah!). Now jump up to the top and head left. I really utterly despise this next room. It's the kind of room where you think something should be located or something should happen, BUT IT DOESN'T. Keep on moving. This next room is funky, so we're skipping it for now. Drop down, take out the Mermen, and head left. This room is populated by all manner of Killer Fish and Homunculuses...Homunculi. At the far upper left is a golden door with 666 on it. You need the last three digits of your monetary supply to end in 6. (the last room with just candles only seems to supply $1 coins, though). If you didn't follow my advice earlier about this, read on and then backtrack - but it'll be painful (albeit worthwhile). Enter the door, grab the Gold Ring (equip this immediately - Hammer has had, since you defeated Malphas, a ring in his shop called the Soul Eater Ring. It costs $300,000, but it's well worth it. The Gold Ring increases the amount of money monsters and candles drop - it's not uncommon to get $500 in one drop), and then backtrack to the junction room with the massive amount of Ghosts (it's right after the weird room with the candles). This room really stinks. Or it did for me, as I had to backtrack through here to get the 666 money thing going. Also, I didn't have the following really convenient map. This room is really annoying - Ghosts are everywhere, spawning infinitely and existing in majorly not nice numbers, and you have to navigate through an invisible series of platforms. Your only clue as to their location is that the Ghosts pass right through them, and you can see the platforms. While the Ghost soul helps here, because there are so many enemies, you don't really get a good chance to use it. I recommend having the Armor Lord soul ready to go to defend yourself. The only way to get through this room is to use the Ghosts as boosts - jump kick them to elevate Soma up. ------------------- | | o----o--------o | | | | |Key | | D | | | |----o | |---------- ------| | D - Door | | | | | - Barrier | | --- | | - - Barrier | | | | \ - Ramp | | --- | o-------------o | | | --- | | | |---- -- | | | | | | | | | | | | | -----------| |---- | | | | D \ / \ / \ / ------- (next area) That should give you an idea. And now I can walk you through it. Double jump off Ghosts to get up into the maze. When you can't jump higher, go left. You'll land on a platform. Double jump up, right, and left again (you're going around a platform), and then double jump to the platform above you. Double jump from there across the way to the upper right platform, and jump kick Ghosts to get into the upper area. If any Ghosts knock you off, use the platforms according to the map. Have fun! Go left at the top. This room has an Iron Golem. Use Puppet Master to get behind him. No matter what, you'll always deal 1 HP of damage to him, so you'll wanna use a weapon/soul that can hit multiple times, such as the Kaiser Knuckle or the Une soul. The Lost Village ---------------- Hey, we're back! Immediately slide under the White Dragon and take it out with Mandragora. Now begin your ascent. After awhile, you'll reach a door. Go through it. Wizardry Lab ------------ You just need to connect the dots on the map real fast. There are two new enemies in here - a Great Axe Armor and a Heart Eater. The Heart Eaters are easy - just kill them with Mandragora and take the massive amount of hearts they drop. For the Great Axe Armor and its huge axe (compensating for something?), run up to it. If you're right next to it, it can't hurt you. Let him have it, and then run right. Take the UMA News 4 and hit the switch. Now retreat back to the shaft. The Lost Village ---------------- Continue up the shaft. As you go up, you'll see an object on the right side that's pick upable (it's my new word; shut up). Don't get it yet. Continue to the top to find a basin of water next to a drain switch. Step on the switch to get access to the upper area of The Lost Village, but wait, there's more! Drop back down to the aforementioned object. Collect it, the Neck Warmer, and then drop to the nearest ledge on the left side of the shaft. In between this ledge and the next ledge on the left side is a secret door. Attack the wall to open it (it's closer to the upper ledge), and go through. This room has both known versions of the Axe Armor. Take them out, grab the Caviar at the far end, and continue on. There are Mermen in this room, but they're nothing you can't handle. Kill them, ascend to the top, and drain the water again. Head up through here to reach your main base of operations - Hammer's shop, Yoko's syntheizer, a warp, and a save point. Excellent. I used this opportunity to save up for a Soul Eater Ring (Gold Ring + Ghost Dancer soul + Zombie/Warg/Axe Armor room + Cestus trick). Don't do this. It takes forever. Just keep the Gold Ring equipped. It's easier. Buy what you need to, and then warp back to... Subterranean Hell ----------------- Well that was fun. Head two rooms to the right from the warp, and in here, go right until you reach some platforms, and then head back up to the Ukoback room. Go through here, and in the next room (the Bone Ark room), head all the way right to find a save point. Leave the save room and head up. Grab the UMA News 1-3, and then go all the way left. Take out the Frozen Shades, and use a Bullet Soul on the treasure box. It's a Mimic in disguise, and these things will hop around you with their vicious fangs - like you'd expect a treasure chest to do. Now drop back to the platforms and head up. Ascend all the way through this shaft to reach... Garden of Madness ----------------- Everyone should seem ever so weak in here. It's too easy. Near the top is a room on the right. Kill the Treant and take the Small Sword. At the top of the shaft, head left, and continue left until you reach the warp room. From there, warp to... The Dark Chapel --------------- You emerge in the dance hall. Work your way up to the top exit, and then go through it. Duh. Continue working your way through this region - your ultimate goal is the next save point. From there, head right. I once again highly recommend that you get the Tombstone soul from here, as it'll really help. In the bell tower, ascend the bells and get to the top right side of the room. Toss a Puppet Master puppet through the crack and continue right. Now you're in a brand new massive room. Drop down and head right. Jump over the crack, and stand in between the two broken parts of the pillar. Equip the Puppet Master soul, double jump, and lob a puppet up to the ledge where the sword is. This'll get you up there. Grab the Kotetsu, and then return back to the gap. The next level has a Quetzalcoatl. Kill it, and then head left. Jump over the gap and continue left to get the UMA News 3-2. Drop off the ledge, and head right. Equip the Flying Armor and Puppet Master souls. Activate the Flying Armor, jump right, double jump after a few seconds, and when you get relatively close to the ledge, toss a puppet up there to get a High Potion. Drop down and head left now. Go right, drop down the ledge, hit the button, and now run right to finally get out of this massive room from Hell and reach... Condemned Tower --------------- Head through the entryway (check out the music!), and into the next room. Take out the Draghiganazzo (which is an upgraded version of Barbariccia, appropriately enough - they're both devils from The Divine Comedy), and keep on going. The next room is another one of those horrible rooms that feels like it has some significance but doesn't, so just keep going. In the next room, grab the Mind Up, and go to the door beyond the Mind Up to find Julius. MORE ENIGMATICNESS! After the scene, go back to the previous room, and start your climb. When you reach the door, keep going up to find a Silver Stud. Drop back to the highest door, and enter it. This room hsa a Disc Armor. Jump over its disc as you attack it. It's pretty easy. Exit to the left, and then begin ascending this shaft. Climb to the door and go through it. Kill off the Fleaman, and continue on through. Climb up to the top of this region and drop through the platforms. Continue left. There's a trend here. Kill these Fleamen, and then go through the Skeleton Ape-infested next shaft. At the top of the shaft is a Great Axe Armor. Remember, get up close and attack to avoid its Great Axe. Its soul is pretty Great, so it couldn't hurt to get it (although it's rare). Continue on up to grab an Estoc, drop back down to the door, and go right. This room has a Werewolf, who fights as dirty as the one in Symphony of the Night. It can dash at you really fast (jump out of the way), or do an attack where it clings to the wall and drops down, sending fire in both directions! Kill it really fast (try to get its soul and use it to get the Kaiser Knuckle, as it's effective against Iron Golems), and then work your way up through the rest of the room. The next room has a Buer, so watch out for it speeding at you the second you enter. In the next room, climb to the top to grab the UMA News 2-3, and then drop back to the highest door in the room. Exit through there. A Great Axe Armor inhabits this room. Kill him, and then destroy the Fleamen in the next room. At the top of the room, save, and then enter the boss door (note the snake seal: SNAKES ON A CONDEMEND TOWER, BABY) <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: GERGOTH This boss is a pain. If you have too hard a time against him, use the Great Axe Armors to level up (there's a room with one right near the boss room). The strategy for this is almost counterintuitive. The first thing I want to do when I see a giant dinosaur - and ask people from Tokyo; they'd agree - is run. You want to get right next to him. Be under his head and duck, as it's the best place to counter his three attacks. His first is to shoot this massive beam at you. When he does this, get right next to his feet and duck. It's ever so critical to dodge this attack. If you disagree, get hit by it and check the damage. His second is to back into the back wall and then jump across the room. When he does this, run with him. Get so his rib cage will land on you, and then duck - this keeps you safe. His third attack his harder to counter - it will appear that he is charging up for the beam, but he'll bite. All you can do is dodge as you would the laser. As for attacking, just do it constantly. Toss a few Mandragrenades (Mandragora + grenade), hit him with your sword, and just make sure to dodge his attacks, as they hurt like crazy. When the battle's halfway over, his face will turn red. Back away to the closest wall. He'll go ballistic and break the floor. At the bottom, he'll - and this is one of the greatest scenes in the game - get his head stuck in the ground. Let him have it at this point. When he breaks free, the battle really gets rough. He loses his anklets and can seriously jump around now. Slide under him when he jumps. His other new trick is to shoot gas out of his rib cage (as opposed to...). Dodge this gas - it's really localized to right in front of him, so just get away. Other than that, he keeps the same old attacks, so you keep the same old dodges. You get his sweet soul when you finally seal him away. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> After that pain, you'll notice you're at the bottom of the tower now. Now you get to climb it again. I'll refer you to the earlier directions if you need help. The only thing new is the lack of a floor in some rooms (because that's what tends to happen when giant extinct zombies fall on them), so use the double jump + Flying Armor combo to get through there. Get to a door quickly if you miss a door. When you cross Gergoth's room, you'll get the Tower Key. The next room is a warp room. Use it if you want, but then return to Gergoth's ruins. Drop down two doors and go left. Climb this room until you reach the first door. Go through it, and run into the barrier to open it. Once it opens, proceed to the door. Cursed Clock Tower ----------------- Run left to see a cutscene. Julius tells you to stay away. So keep going left. I love the music here. Anyway, welcome to the requisite clock tower level. Every Castlevania has one. Drop to the floor, and use the candle (the Gold Ring helps here too) to get the last three digits of your gold supply to be 573. Now go through the door to get a Shaman Ring. Drop to the bottom of this long shaft and head through the door on your left. Because clock towers are obviously nothing but a bunch of pendulums and spikes in the real world, you're met with some pendulums here. Equip the Flying Armor soul to make this journey a little less arduous. When the pendulum is swinging towards you and passes the midpoint of its oscillation, jump for it. Ride this pendulum until it reaches its peak on the left side of the oscillation, and then jump to the next pendulum. Hop off here onto the solid platform and move to the next pendulum. From here, you have two options. You can either sit here and wait for the movements of the pendulums to be such that you can safely hop to the next one, or using the Flying Armor soul, you can make a leap of faith. It depends on just how you roll. Either way, once on the other side, head through the door. This spikey shaft introduces the wonder of the Golden Medusa Head. Unlike their verdant counterparts, these ladies can turn you to stone (they're just that ugly. I think this is a racist statement), so try your best to avoid them (if you have the Tombstone soul, now is the time to equip it). Drop to the bottom of this shaft (either running against the motion of the gears or pressing down and B to drop down through them), avoiding the spikes, and head west. This room opens with an Imp and a Harpy. Take them out quickly (especially the Imp, as the Imp can take control of you), and continue left. The next foe is a difficult one. This is a Malachi. Although the name is Biblical, the only thing holy about him is that holy is the first word in the two word phrase you'll exclaim upon fighting him. The second word is one I'll leave to your imagination, but Malachi has two attacks: he can summon this star looking thing, which shoots out slow moving balls of plasma (duck these), or if you're close, he'll coil up and slash you. Back off if he does this, and beat him down with Mandragora/your sword. Deal with the Harpy/Imp combo, and drop down the hole at the end of the room. In this room, run left so as to avoid the Tanjelly. Take him out, and then deal with the Dead Pirate to your right. Go through the door to find another spikey, gear-y shaft with Medusa Heads and Imps. Drop to the bottom of the room and run left to find a door. Garden of Madness ----------------- Take out the two Corpseweeds here. Take out the Skelerangs on your way down through the room, making sure to kill the two Unes at the bottom. I think Une is Latin for something. Maybe "TOTALLY GOT THE SMACK DOWN OH SNAP?" Possibly. Anyway, continue on. Make quick work of the Rycudas in here, and in the next room, snuff out the Catoblepas. Continue working your way through this room until you get to the bottom. Here, use the Frozen Shade or Fleaman souls to take out all the Yoricks and Unes at the bottom. Drop through the whole at the end of the room. Run to the far right side of the room to get a Handgun. Be wary of the Mimic in the treasure chest above you. Now backtrack all the way to where you entered the Garden of Madness, busting caps up the rears of enemies as you please (if you deign to equip the Handgun). Once at the top of this shaft, head left. While this room has Ghouls, the main attraction here is Wakwak Tree. This thing grows Fleamen. Destroy the little pus-looking balls as they arise (so as to destroy the Fleamen before they're a problem), and cut the brances in order to kill the tree. Once it's been defeated, hop on the switch to the left. Use the map to get to a save point if you like; otherwise, regress back to the door and back to the... Cursed Clock Tower ------------------ The return trip is a lot harder than the fore trip. Take out the Imp, and run right. Hop on the vertical platform, and use it to get to the gear. Use the gear to get to the door. Continue backtracking until you get to the shaft just before the Malachi room. Ascend to the top of this shaft and take the left exit. This room is nothing new - just two Harpies, two Imps, and a Catoblepas. Once they've been exterminated, move left through the door. Drop to the bottom of this room, and go left to get to another room with an Army Jacket. Now backtrack all the way back to the first shaft in the Cursed Clock Tower. Ascend to the top of this room and head left. This room is tricky. Look at the pistons: XXOXX X = Don't stay here long O = Rest point The middle ons is bloodless. So run to the third piston and duck. Wait for the pistons to begin to go back down, and the second you have enough room, run to the other side of the pistons, sliding so as to decrease your height. The same principle holds for the next set of pistons: duck on the first, and run/slide to the last. After that, you're home free to move to the next room. Drop to the bottom left of this shaft (the bottom right has our old friend, spikes), and run into that room to save. Now hop on the platform and ride it to its apex. From here, hop onto the next platform and take that to the room at the top. Head right. This next room has a bunch of rotating spikes. Great. Run along the bottom, dodging the lower part of the spikes as you go. Be extra careful when you get to the three-pronged spike bar. Hop onto the top ledge, and do the reverse of what you just did (be really careful with the 120 degree spiked one - wait for the longer break between spike attacks to run), and enter the room above you. This room has a lot of Imps and pendulums. Start off by running right and entering the small room at the bottom right side of the room to get a Scale Mail. Reverse directions, and go back to the pendulum room. Hop onto the first pendulum, and use it to get to the second. Once on the second, duck. Once you pass under the next pendulum, jump up to it, duck, and repeat the process until you can jump to the exit at the top right side of the room. This next room introduces the Bugbear, an upgraded version of the Peeping Eye. Grab the Magic Soul IV from next to the rotting Bugbear corpse, and continue on after practicing this complicated seal once or twice. Drop down to the bottom of the following gear shaft, dodging the Medusa Heads as you go to grab the UMA News 3-3. Now ascend the shaft, taking care to eliminate the Medusa Heads as you go. At the top, head to the next room. Slide under the conveniently placed spike trap. Kill off the Slime and Tanjelly and move carefully through this room. In the next room, you've got Medusa Heads, spikes, and platforms - enough to make the sanest person curl up into the fetal position and sing It's A Small World. Hopefully you won't sucumb. Ride the platform up to the top while killing/jumping over the Medusa Heads. At the apex, hop into the next room. Kill off the two Imps that confront you. Run left, and hop on the giant pendulum (if you can't make it from here, go to the left side of the room, climb the boxes, and jump from there). When the pendulum's at the peak of its swing on the right side of the room, use the Flying Armor soul to jump to the right. You'll land on a platform. Use this as a stepping stone, much to the chagrin of the Monkees, to get to the room above. Use the Mandragora soul here to get a Flying Humanoid soul. Go right to save, and then head left to encounter... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: ZEPHYR Of no relation to the water company, Zephyr is your staple time freezing boss, so we need to show this poor excuse for Flashman who's boss (no pun intended)! Zephyr struts a lot, but he has two attack types: The first involves him curling up. He'll laugh and freeze time, and instead of taking this time to slash the heck out of you, he flies over you, laying out knives in a strategic pattern above you. Once he resumes time and gravity kicks in, they fall. In the interrim between time resuming and the knives falling - if this isn't obvious - get out of the way! Get into a gap between knives. His curling attack involves him charging at you. Jump over him. His other attack type is the non-time freezing variety. He can also simply toss a dagger (jump over it) or slash you (back away). This is indicated by him curling up while still standing up. If he jumps onto the ceiling, he'll jump down towards you, bringing a knife down with him. Dodge them both by sliding under them. Slash him while he's struting. Mandragora is particularly effective. Make sure to use the Magic Seal IV that you just acquired to seal him away. Zephyr doesn't take much in the way of pain before he goes down the drain. And that's another water joke. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Go to the next room to find a path left and down. Go left to find a warp. Take this warp to Subterranean Hell. Subterranean Hell ----------------- Kill off the Dead Pirate, and then descend through this room. This next room greets you with a Frozen Shade, perhaps a Merman, and a Procel. Kill them all (get the Procel's soul here if you haven't already). Head left, grab the Mushroom, and the go to the far right side of this room. Drop down and go left to exit the room. The following room has one solitary Ukoback. Again, get his soul before you leave (if you don't already have it - you'll need it later), and then continue. In this next room, take out the Frozen Shades above you and get to the top exit. The subsequent room has a large waterfall in it, as well as an opportunity to sequence break. This is totally optional, and you can do this later, but climb up as high as you can in this room. Using the Flying Armor, jump kick off the Medusa Heads to get to this platform high above you. Make your way left two rooms to get to the... Wizardry Lab ------------ Kill off the Mimic and the Cave Trolls. Continue west to get an Aquarius tunic. Destroy The Creature on the other side of the dual partitions before hitting the switch to bring down this wall. Now head back to the waterfall room of Subterranean Hell. Subterranean Hell ----------------- Head back, and drop to the very bottom of the waterfall room (when you get down from your high horse, go left to find a Devil. Kill him, and jump left). Head right. Snag the Mushroom that's on the ledge above you if you like, but continue through the right door. In here, hop on the ledge, send those Dead Pirates back to Davy Jones' Locker, and go through the door. Equip the Zephyr soul while you're going to the next room. If you don't, you'll see a cannon shoot one pillar but stop short of the second. The second pillar has a rabbit with a clock - he's the Chronomage, if you've played Aria of Sorrow, or the White Rabbit if you haven't. Either way, with Zephyr equipped, when you activate it, time will reactivate, and the cannonball will blast the second pillar. Welcome to the... Silenced Ruins -------------- ! This area is very familiar to some of you. The music is Vampire Killer, arguably the theme and most prolific song in Castlevania. This area is supposed to bear a resemblance to the first level of the original Castlevania. Yay! As such, it's very easy - just move right, taking out all the enemies who dare oppose you. In the next room, descend until you find a door that would be out of reach if you couldn't double jump. Double jump to it. The Gorgon in here appears to pose a threat - it's a large golden bull that can poison you! Jump on top of it and start throwing Mandragoras to kill it and everything else in the room. In the following room, go through the hole above you. You'll encounter a Dead Crusader as you rise. These guys block just about anything - you've gotta kill them while they're attacking. Or you can hit them from the bottom. Whatever works. At the very top, you'll find a Larva. Kill it by attacking its head, and then double jump to the top. Go right to find two Waiter Skeletons. Dodge the curry (CURRY!), make sure to grab a Waiter Skeleton soul, and go through the door. Subterranean Hell ----------------- Because you needed another link between these two areas. Hit the switch, then backtrack to the room with the Larva. Silenced Ruins -------------- Now go through the left door, grab the Mana Prism, and return to the Larva room. Descend all the way through this room, as well as the following room. Kill the Bone Ark, and go left. Make your way through the next room (being extra wary of the Dead Crusaders - you can actually Mandragora them from a distance without them blocking), and continue into the following room. This is the bottom of the shaft where you took the double jump path. Go through the left door to find a very ice puzzle. Remember Jezzball? That game where you had to trap the little balls in smaller and smaller areas? Well this is just like it. Using the stylus, you have to try to get the little energy ball up to the top row. There's only one block of ice leading there, so you have to trap it as high up as possible. If you hit the ball, the game is over - go out and come back in. The trick to this game is just to slowly get it as high as possible, and then cut off its escape route. Once it gets up to the top row, immediately destroy the block linking the top row with the bottom rows, and slowly trap it into being in the far left two blocks. Once it's there, touch it to blow it up and open the ceiling. You can't get there just yet. Come back in, destroy the top three layers of ice, and double jump up there. Watch out for the Devil lying in wait, and grab the Rare Ring. Now back track three rooms back - to the room where you desended from the ceiling and dealt with the Skelerangs and the Bone Ark. Go all the way right to the lower right door of the room. Proceed through the next room. Although there's a Larva, Bats, and Ghouls here, your main foe is the Dead Mate. Although you can dispose of him by killing his dog, if you want his soul, avoid killing his dog and kill him (wow, think about that one for a second). Hit the warp, and then backtrack to the room before the Dead Mate room. Now go to the top right exit. You'll see a cutscene between Julius and Dario. Keep going right. At this next hub, take the bottom right door to save. And now I'm caught up! I know you wanted to know this, but the reason for the delay in writing this was because after I had written for Rahab, I got kinda bored and just kept playing through. I got all the way to here and accidentally saved, so I had to catch up to myself on a new game. I'm so happy. Anyway, ascend through the shaft. The vestibule to the boss' chamber contains nothing new - just some Skeletons and a Dead Crusader. Take the latter out from a distance, and continue. When you reach a ledge, jump on top of it, and move right, killing off your foes (it's easier than the bottom path). Enter the boss door at the far end. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: BAT COMPANY First off, this is a really dumb name for a boss. I mean, BAT COMPANY! AHH!! Come on now, Konami. Anyway, as per the name, it's a bunch of bats. But they're not just bats. They're _red_ bats. Anyway, it'll assemble into one of three patterns: 1.) It'll turn into a giant hand that chases you. Run away. Duh. 2.) It'll start shooting these blue rings. The best strategy for these is to equip some rapid fire soul to protect you (e.g., Skeleton) or to jump kick the rings. 3.) The most common form, the Bat Company will form a bat and swoop at you. Jump kick it to dodge the swoops. It's easiest to attack with a sword or with Mandragora and to do so during either the first or third attacks. You can also use Bomber Armor on it to do some serious damage. Jump kick to escape if need be (hit it - but don't hit the bat in between the wings, or it won't work), and this terrible - this really bat - boss will go down sooner than you can call him batty. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Now you get the Bat Company soul, which, despite its terrible name, enables you to fly. Yay! The end is now in sight. To the Cursed Clock Tower! From the boss room, go back to the shaft two rooms before (notice the lava in the background too - this is just funky, but it makes the game all the hotter). Descend the shaft, save if you like, and then head left two rooms. Drop down through this room, and go through the bottom right door. One room later, you'll arrive at the warp. Warp to the uppermost warp on the map now. Cursed Clock Tower ------------------ Go right to the next room, and drop through the hole in the floor. Drop to the bottom of this room, and hit the switch to open the way back to the clock tower. You can go through this newly opened hole and work your way through the room that is accessed through the hole on the bottom of this pendulum room for percentage if you like (you should definitely do this. Use the Bat Company soul to get through the spiked bars, and then in the top portion of the next room, you'll see a ton of spikes with one lone area of safe ground. Fly here and kneel to receive KONAMI MAN!), but otherwise, from the switch, head through the western door. This next room has a ton of Golden Medusa Heads, a platform, and of course, spikes. Gotta love 'em. Anyway, drop down so that you land on the edge of a spikey ledge (the eagle outcropping). Drop down from there to the door. The subsequent room has more gears. Just drop straight through them (come a little ways from the wall first, so as to avoid the spikes), and head through the left door after that. In this room, the more acute among you (ha ha!) will notice the acute spikes. If one pricks you, you won't think it's a cute object. Anyway, head left, drop through the platforms, and look at the spikes in awe. The only way to pass through this is just to run straight at the spikes. But that's if you really want to die. Use the Bat Company soul to turn into a bat and navigate through these treacherous shafts. I'd diagram it, but it should be pretty obvious. Once you've escaped this area, continue right. More spikes. Great. Hop over to the box and then to the solid ground. Drop down through the platforms, and get right up next to the wall (DON'T TOUCH IT!). Slide under it, stand back up, hop over the spikes, and continue. This next room is deceptively empty. When you get to the middle, a Devil appears! Kill him (although you don't need it for reasons other than completion purposes, this is the best room to take the Devil's soul. You're taking the Devil's soul. Put _that_ in your pipe). Continue on. This next room's got a bunch of Harpies. Go back and forth between the two rooms to collect a Harpy soul if you want it (as you're confronted by three Harpies when you enter, and one Mandragora should take them all out). At the far left lies a door leading to... The Pinnacle ------------ This is it! The pinnacle of the game! Go left to find Yoko swinging her hips seductively. Don't take that. Smack her - she's a Succubus. She goes naked and then attacks you. Backdash away from her when she starts the heart thing - it hurts! The next room has a Bugbear in it. Kill it off (this is an easy room to get its soul). Continue until you find a hole. Drop through it. Kill off the Werewolf in this room (this is a great room for his soul!) - he's pretty dangerous. He can shoot fire, charge at you, or hit the ground and cause fire to burst up - and then continue your downward spiral. Now you're confronted with a Flame Demon. His soul is pretty useful too, and there's no better spot to get it. Flame Demons shoot fire downward, so at first, you're safe, but watch him when he's above you. If you get his soul, set one equipment set to have both the Bat Company and the Flame Demon soul, as you can shoot fire as a bat now. Drop down and take out the Werewolf. Follow the room to its conclusion. The next room has a Succubus. Take her out from the entrance with Mandragora, and then head to the top right exit to save. Drop back down to where the Succubus was and go left. In the next room, you'll have an Erinys to contend with. Take her out before she can charge at you (she can also sit there and destroy anything really close to her, so when you attack, do so from a distance). Drop down to the bottom, but avoid the Dead Warrior (take him out from in the gap in the pillar, where you're safe). Attack the floor below the platforms to find a secret room containing a Truffle, and then hop up the two platforms to your left to find a warp. Now that you have it, backtrack back to the last save point. Note that this is a great area to get the Erinys, Succubus, and Dead Warrior souls, since they're all right here, and there's a save point right there. Once you're satisfied, head through the hole in the top of the shaft. Go right to connect the dots on the map, but then backtrack to the save point and take the upper left exit in the room. This room has a lot of Yoko-Succubi in it. Although you can take them all out, the easiest way is just to jump in between each Yoko (or fly over them all). They don't transform into Succubi this way, so you're safe. You can also jump kick and run if you like to see Yoko lose her clothes. However you do it, at the far right side of the room is a door. Demon Guest House ----------------- You're back! Kill off the Persephone and the Succubi as you move left. In the next room with the Ghost Dancers, hop on the switch to open a hole to the previous area of the Guest House. You can drop through the hole in the floor to find a Killer Clown (GET HIS SOUL!), but otherwise, head up. The passage on the right side of the room, as you use the chandeliers to ascend (if you don't want to explore, just use Bat Company to get to the apex of the room) contains a Mimic. Kill it, and continue up. Ignore the door on the left for now as you continue climbing. The top right room has a ton of female villains - Two Witches, a Student Witch, a Persephone, two Liliths, and a Succubus. Kill them all, and exit the room. Go left to find a Flame Demon, followed by a room with an Iron Golem (this is a great room to get his soul in - Bat Company over him, and use a soul like Une to inflict a lot of damage on him in a short period of time). Go back and save, and then head to the door in the middle of the room on the left side that I told you to ignore. This room has three pink walls with pictures of three enemies on it. As you might guess, you need to attack each wall with the soul of the enemy. That's deep. Anyway, the first is an Axe Armor (go back to the antechamber of the drawbridge in the Lost Village if you need help with this soul). The subsequent is the Killer Clown - there are plenty of these around here (try the room below the room you just came from). The final one is the Ukoback, who abounds in the Subterranean Hell. Once you've cleared all three pillars, continue left. Make sure to destroy all the candles to get hearts. In the next room, wait until you've recovered your MP (it may be worthwhile to equip Lilith, as that increases your INT), and then enter the boss door. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: PARANOIA? Paranoia is amazingly easy. As you walk by the mirror, you'll notice a little clown thing as your reflection! Oh no! Once you walk by it, this little clown - Paranoia - will come out. It will dash at you with its knife. Jump over this. After awhile, it'll disappear into the big mirror and emerge from one of the smaller ones. From here it'll shoot a laser. Although you can try to guess how the laser will go, I just recommend ducking in the bottom right corner and adapting if you need to. Paranoia here falls really easily. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> But you don't get a soul! Interesting. Let your MP recharge, continue left through the boss door, but... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: PARANOIA This time it's for real. This one's harder than the DDR series of the same name if you're not sufficiently levelled up. Fortunately you had practice for this guy. He'll float around the room and occasionally pull an M. Bison head drop (you'll know this when he starts floating directly over you - in this case, keep moving). After a few rounds of this, he'll hop into the big mirror and shoot lasers twice (instead of his little reflection's (ha!) one round of lasering). This requires as much skill as the last to avoid - the best trick is to just minimize the damage (if a laser hits you, jump out of the way). You can also use the Medusa Head soul to float in mid-air between the lasers. The best time to attack him is while he's floating. You can also Mandragora him once or twice after he drop kicks you, but other than that, keep your health high, and you should do fine (level up if need be). <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Now you get the PARANOiA soul (sorry, couldn't resist - it's esoteric, though). The next room has a call back to one of the previous rulers of the upper part of the castle, Olrox, as you collect the Olrox's Suit. Backtrack to the room where you fought the smaller Paranoia, and use the Paranoia soul to enter the mirror and collet a Mana Prism. Now that we can enter the castle's myriad of mirrors, it's time to go look for them. With the Bat Company soul in tow, we can get to all of the secret rooms the castle has to offer, so it's exploring time! This is completely optional - CTRL + F "***END EXPLORING***" if you want to skip it, but otherwise, go back through the mirror, and head to The Pinnacle's warp room. Warp to The Lost Village. (side note: This part is terribly boring. To save some monotony for both of us, since you've been through these areas once already, with the exception of the secret rooms, I'll give you a barebones walkthrough; refer to the first visit sections if you need help) The Lost Village ---------------- First off, head back to the first room of the game. Use the Waiter Skeleton soul to lure out the Yeti, and then use either the Flame Demon soul, the Mandragora soul, or the Zephyr soul to kill him off. Exit and re-enter until you get his soul. From here, go to the drawbridge of the castle. In the room after that, fly up to the top. Kill the Hell Boar and grab the Heart Pendant. Now backtrack to the warp. From the warp, head to the middle right door in the room outside of the warp room. Move down through the room, killing the Ouija Table and the Zombie. In the next room, kill the Spin Devil, and go to the bottom right exit. Slide through all the Zombies, and you'll open a secret passage. Drop through here to get some Corn Soup and $2000. Move back to the previous room, and continue right. You'll see a mirror here. Enter the mirror, go right, and exit mirror world to find a Tear of Blood. Eww. Leave this room, and backtrack to the room with the Spin Demon in it. Climb to the top of this room, and make your way all the way right to the... Wizardry Lab ------------ In here, head through the top right exit. Use the stylus to clear away all of the ice (as you now have the double jump, so you don't need to be too careful here). Make a hole through the ice here to get to the bottom, and use Paranoia in the next room to find a Rosary. Backtrack to the entry hall of this area (you can use the Balore soul to clear away the ice even while the Bat Company soul is enabled, so that helps immensely here). Use your map to get you to the room just outside of this area's warp room, and then use the top exit. Work your way through this room, and kill the enemies off the floor in the following room (which is the room with a moving platform and a bunch of ice). Go right through this room on the floor until you get to the point where there's one constant line of ice (instead of sporadic blocks). Continue until the height of that ice drops. Make a hole in the fifth block of this series and Bat Company up through it. Use your weapon (preferrably something with an arc movement, such as a Great Sword or an Axe) to make a hole in the ceiling. Due to a glitch in the game, you have to Bat Company through the hole to find a Foie Gras. Backtrack to the warp, but this time, go to the bottom of the room. In this room, go all the way right, and continue right until you reach... Subterannean Hell ----------------- Continue right until you reach the waterfall room. Drop down, and go left. Hop off the Devil-infested cliff and through the waterfall. Now activate Bat Company/Flame Demon. Go down until you're under the platform from which you jumped, and then fire (or de-transform and attack) the wall to your left. This will open up a secret chamber leading to an Eversing. Very cool. Now head a few rooms right to get to the warp, and go to the Silenced Ruins. Silenced Ruins -------------- It's like you never left! Go left through the room with the Old Mate. In the following room, get to the left side, and then go straight up. You'll reach a shaft. Ascend this shaft to the top, dodge the Larva, and go left. This room has a mirror, behind which is a Super Potion (what's kinda neat is that you can see any Ghouls pop up in the room behind you). Leave this room, and go all the way right. Subterannean Hell ----------------- Go through this room (if you've upgraded your hammer since the last visit, go through the top right door and use it to win new prizes), and then go right in the next room. This is the Procel room. Go all the way right through it. In the next room, get to the top of the pool, and then slowly descend through it (by jumping a lot) and use the Une soul to clear out the Needles. At the bottom, head to the top, and then go right. Ignore the fishy smell, and make your way to the exit at the top right of this room. Go left until you reach... The Dark Chapel --------------- You'll be in the torture room chamber portion of this area (so ironic). Remember that in this room, there are spikes on the ceiling that fall down on you as you go. So jump over those or suffer incredible pain (well, they're not soft and snuggly). Go left (use the Puppet Master soul to get through the wall), and in the shaft, drop to the bottom. Go right two rooms (watch out for the falling spikes!) to reach a mirror. Pass through it to get a Megingiord. Cool name. Now make your way to the Dark Chapel's warp room, and warp to the Garden of Madness. Garden of Madness ----------------- Work your way to the top of the shaft here, and use the top right exit of the next room. Ascend to the top of this shaft, and then go left. Get to the top right part of this room, kill the Corpseweed, and attack the ceiling above him. Use the Bat Company soul to get in there and acquire a Ninja Suit. Leave this room, and go right. Follow the path until you get to a divergence. Take the left path to reach... Demon Guest House ----------------- From the stairway, double jump and attack the ceiling. Fly through the new hole to get a Rune Ring. Drop back through the floor, and run all the way left. When you get to a big room, use the lower left exit (not the floor) to get back to that annoying sliding tile puzzle. Move the tiles in this order: 12 -> 8 -> 5 -> 10 -> 8 -> 3 -> 12 -> 5 -> 10 -> 8 -> 3 -> 12 -> 5 -> 3 -> 8 -> 10 -> 3 Follow that path to find a mirror with Dracula's Tunic. Go back, reset the puzzle, and follow it to the area outside of the puzzle. Head to the warp room, and warp to our final destination, the Cursed Clock Tower! Cursed Clock Tower ------------------ Drop down to the next room, and go right into the large clock tower. Drop through the hole in here, and make use of the bottom right exit (you can use the Bat Company soul to overcome the spikes if need be). Slide under the spikes here, and descend the shaft until you reach the first door. Go left, kill the Bugbear, go left, drop to the floor, and go right again. Use Paranoia to go through the mirror in here to get a Platinum Stud - just like you! And now you're done! Go back to the warp room, and warp to the Pinnacle! ***END EXPLORING*** The Pinnacle ------------ Head to the save room. Go through the top hole, and move left to find a Dead Warrior. The best way to deal with him, I find, is to jump kick him until you figure out just how far he'll go. Then stand a few feet behind it (so he won't hit you), and when he comes at you, toss a Mandragora. Continuing left will make you encounter a Mushussu. This thing's weird. It's basically an upgraded Manticore (so watch the tail) plus a bad case of heartburn (jump over the fireballs). Keep going left to find one more Dead Warrior. Take out the Guillotiners as you ascend through the following chamber. Go through the hole at the top to arrive back in the snowy area on the roof. Hop up a few platforms, and toss a Mandragora at the Dead Crusader from the top of the last platform. Fly up to the point where the ceiling connects to the wall, and attack the wall to enter a secret chamber containing a Durandal. Cool! Go back down, and hop onto the Dead Crusader's platform, and drop down on the Werewolf, who despite being an enemy, is no easier than his Symphony of the Night boss form. Take him out, and head right. Drop down through the platforms and take out the Guillotiner and the Mushassu. You're now confronted by a new enemy: Alastor. Alastor is this giant shadow with a sword. You can only be hurt by the sword, and attacking the sword is the only way to hurt him. Drop through the floor to get percentage for this room, and then return to the previous room. Hop up the platforms at the far end of the room, collect the Mana Prism, and exit via the top-right exit of the room. Once you've disposed of this room's Erinys and Dead Crusader, drop off to the right, go through the column, and from the top platform, throw a Mandragora at the Dead Crusader. Kill the Erinys, grab the Lance, drop down, and exit the room. Kill off the three Werewolves in this room (the sound they make when they die is akin to that which my mom makes when she wakes up), and head through the left door to find WHOAMYGOSH WHAT IS THAT? That large hunk there is a Final Guard. The trick to besting him is to fly over him with Bat Company and take him from behind. His sword can't hurt you unless it's attacking, so you can fly over him safely, even if it seems like he'll hit you with his sword. Once you've beaten him, go to the middle of the room. You'll see a projector. Hit it with Rycuda's soul to start it up and to summon Mothman, the final hidden soul. Kill him and hope you nab his soul (otherwise, repeat the process - you don't have to kill the Final Guards if you don't want to). Once you're done, kill off the last Final Guard in the same manner as you killed the first, and then backtrack to the werewolf room, and this time, exit through the top exit. The following room has four lion statues. Break them for items, and then head through the hole at the top via Bat Company. Kill off the Flame Demon and the Werewolves as you make your way to the top of this room. Head through the hole at the top to find a room with a Final Guard and three treasure chests. Deal with these accordingly, and backtrack to the previous room. Once you eradicate the enemies again, make use of the bottom left exit. This next room has Dead Warriors. Kill them as you go to the left (note that you should also fly through here for the sake of map completion). In the next room, go through the door on the left and save, and then head through the hole in the top of the room. Up here, you'll find four Bugbears. Eliminate them (one Flame Demon shot works wonders), and continue left to find a very traditional area: the antechamber to Dracula! The famous stairway to the maw of Hell itself! It's actually pretty dull, but there's something eerie about it anyway. From the entrance, fly up to find an exit leading to the right. This room is another Final Guard treasure room, so once you're done here, go back to the Drac approach room. Go all the way through this room (make sure it's totally covered on the map), and when you enter the following room, jump up and to the right, and use something that'll hit above you (a Great Sword or Axe weapon works here). This'll open a secret room. Fly up there to get a Fragarach and Satan's Ring. Cool. If I were you, I'd equip what you want, go back and save, and then return here. I really mean it - save. We're about to get the worst ending, and you wanna be able to just go straight to the decent ending when you come back. Anyway, go through the boss door, watch the scene, ignore the thing in the mirror, and fight... <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: DARIO BOSSI MK. 2 Same old same old. He can shoot fireballs in three directions: o---o----------o F |Key| | o---o | D F | D - Dario | | F - Fireball | F o--------------o They're easy enough to dodge. As before, when he says "Hahahaha!" he's gonna pull out the two fire columns. Don't get trapped between them (as a third emerges between them). If you hit him enough, he'll teleport around. The room is divided into three sides: the left, the middle, and the right. You'll know on which side he'll appear because the demon in the mirror will go to that side of the mirror. He can pound the ground to produce a fire wave, which you should just jump over. Once you've seriously hurt him (he'll clutch his heart), he'll have a new attack: he'll send two fiery dragons in a wave pattern like so: 1 2 o---o----------o 1 1 2 2 |Key| | 1 1 2 2 o---o | D 1 1 | D - Dario | 2 2 1 1 | 1 - Dragon 1 | 2 2 1 1 | 2 - Dragon 2 | 2 1 o--------------o (sinusoidally) And they'll go to the end of the room. The trick is just to Bat Company over them. Just hit him when you can. It's not too hard. In between attacks and during the fire column attacks are the best time. I just Mandragoraed him to death (with a dash of sword smashing). It's really simple, and the sealing is automatic. Another good strategy - a really good one - is the Frozen Shade soul. I had it maxed out at the time, but if you just use that, you'll end the fight before it begins - it's super effective on poor Dario. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Congratulations! Sit back and enjoy the worst ending. When you reload, come right back here. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: DARIO BOSSI MK. 2 This time, if you didn't figure this out last time, use Paranoia to get through the looking glass. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> BOSS: AGUNI I've heard that his name comes from the Sanskrit for "fire" and that it's a weird way of saying "agony." Both apply. He's a seriously offensive creature; his attacks are devestating. He can fly up off the screen. When he does this, run! Don't run too close to the walls. He'll fall somewhere close to you (unless you stop running - then he'll fall on you) and let out a fire wave. Jump over this. He can spit fire at the ground, which manifets itself in waves. Jump over them (there will be multiple waves). Be aware that they'll gather on the wall, so don't be too close to the wall when he does this attack. Aguni can attack you with his claws. He'll do this three or four times in a row, and the trick is just to slide away from the claw that's gonna hit you (which you can figure out by looking at which one he raises). The trick is to slide away from his whole body too, so he doesn't switch claws. Aguni can swoop at you (he'll move away from you a little bit and then swoop). Slide under this. He can do it a few times in a row, so watch out. So how do you cope with this crazy threat? I recommend the Merman soul - you probably have a few of them by now. I also recommend something from the Great Sword/Axe line of weaponry. When he tries to slam you and creates the fire waves, jump over the wave, and hit him with Merman/your weapon. When he spits fire, Aguni is a sitting duck. Hit him with all you've got. When he claws you, just dodge; don't attack, and when he swoops, with an arcing weapon like the two kinds I recommended, you can hit him as he passes. The interrim pause between attacks is also a prime time for your own attack. He's hard, but once you get his attacks down, he'll go down pretty easily. The Axe Armor soul also works here. <-----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Grab the soul, and head back to the other side of the mirror. Watch the scene (Dario runs away like a little girl!). Once Celia lures you to the...*sigh* center of the castle (it's always there), go to the next room. Grab the Magic Seal V (it's freaking COMPLICATED - practice it!). There's no way around the fact that now you have to get back to The Pinnacle's warp room, and it's a long walk. Use your map. Play with Aguni's soul too - it's good stuff. Once you get to the warp room, warp to the Garden of Madness. Garden of Madness ----------------- First, it's really important that you go down and save, as you're about to get the medium ending. Once you've saved, go back to the warp. Ascend this shaft, and then go right. Upon entering the next room, kill the Mollusca, and now you can finally enter this door! You'll witness a scene where Celia kills Mina. Soma becomes the dark lord. OH SNAP! Julius and Arikado talk about unleashing their powers. This unlocks Julius Mode. Now restart the game. Come back to this room, but before you enter, equip Mina's Talisman, which you got from Arikado early on. After seeing the new scene, head back to the Garden's warp room, and warp to the Lost Village. Get some Anti-Venoms, Uncurse Potions, and other helpful items before warping to the Condemned