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**************************************************
* *
* Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari) *
* *
* *
* General FAQ/Walkthrough *
* Version 1.0 *
* By Justin Morgan *
* Created 3/22/2010 *
* Last Updated 3/31/2010 *
* *
**************************************************
Version History:
0.0 (3/22/2010) - Started the guide.
1.0 (3/28/2010) - First complete version of the guide.
1.1 (3/31/2010) - Fixed some errors.
Added the "Easter Eggs" section.
Added a translation note in the Introduction.
Added various tidbits of info.
1.2 (4/8/2010) - Added some new tidbits sent in from readers.
Minor revisions.
=====================
= Table of Contents =
=====================
Introduction
I) Basics
1-01 General Information
1-02 Story
1-03 Characters
1-04 Controls
1-05 Main Menu
II) Walkthrough
2-01 The Beginning
2-02 Egg Corridor
2-03 The Bushlands (Grasstown)
2-04 Sand Zone
2-05 The Labyrinth
2-06 Escape
2-07 Plantation
2-08 The Final Battle
2-09 Welcome to Hell!
III) Extended Information
3-01 Weapons and Items
3-02 Upgrade Locations
3-03 Enemy List
3-04 Extra Modes (Wii version only)
3-05 Easter Eggs
3-06 Hints and Tips
V) The End
5-01 Credits
5-02 Copyright
5-03 Contact Information
================
= Introduction =
================
(NOTE: AS OF 3/25/10, there are some known issues with the sound in Cave Story
on the Wii that can be remedied. It's said there will be a patch, but until
then I'm going to leave this note both here and at the beginning of the Walk-
through. Go into Options, lower "Sound" by about 4 notches and change Music
from New to Original. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.)
Cave Story is a classic game that's been legally available as freeware for the
PC since 2004, with an English fan translation floating around for many years
now. I've played it as early as 2006 and have loved the game since, but it
wasn't until it was released for WiiWare that I decided to undertake writing an
FAQ for it; I suppose doing so for Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 via the same
service made it seem like a logical thing to do. I feel almost a sense of duty
to add something to the Cave Story community and with a flood of new fans
coming in due to the first official release on a game console, it's not too
late.
The game mostly emulates classic NES-era video games, though aspects of it
probably could only have been done on a Sega Genesis or SNES. The graphics and
sound design, whether you choose new or original, are an homage to games of
that era, and unlike similar games on WiiWare such as Mega Man 9 and 10, Cave
Story has nothing to do directly with any previous game series, and is not
created by a game company you'd recognize from that time period. It's in fact
created in its entireity (aside from new features added exclusively to the Wii-
Ware version) by Studio Pixel, which in fact consists of a single person,
Daisuke Amaya, who singlehandedly crafted and fine-tuned every single aspect of
the original game; the sound, the music, the graphics, the characters, the
story, the artwork, the programming.. all of it. The game primarily plays like
a classic action/platform/adventure, most heavily influenced by 2D Metroid
games, but with a lot of unique quirks all its own.
Keep in mind that though by all means nothing's stopping you from downloading
and completely enjoying this game for free on your PC, there are a number of
reasons why you should consider buying it on the Wii if you're able;
- Pixel, the original creator of the game. He deserves all profit he gets
from this after years (and continuing) of offering it for free via PC.
- Nicalis, the distributor of Cave Story, is also bringing many excellent
indie games to the console table that many gamers very likely would never even
know about otherwise. In addition to Cave Story, they're in the process of
bringing a similar retro-style gem, La-Mulana, to the Wii, as well as NightSky,
a brand new game by the creatof of Knytt and Within a Deep Forest (fantastic
retro freeware games in their own right). Support for Nicalis means better
chances for more games like this getting their moment to shine on a real
console.
- Most importantly to the gamer, there's a ton of new stuff in the WiiWare
version of the game compared to the PC version; options for new enhanced
graphics and sound, Easy and Hard difficulty settings, and lots of new modes
such as Curly Mode, Boss Rush and Time Attack.
This guide is written with the WiiWare version in mind, as I'm writing it while
playing that version; the walkthrough is for Quote on Original difficulty, so
it should be perfect for the PC version of the game as well. However, I'll
include information about all the new modes as well.
(Note: And just so we're clear, here, I'm using the Wii version translation
for MANY things, such as Chako instead of Chaco, Bushlands instead of Grass-
town, Red Ogre instead of Red Demon, Delete instead of Deleet, etc. It's
supposed to be closer to what Pixel intended, anyway)
=============
= I) Basics =
=============
-----------------------------
- 1-01 General Information -
-----------------------------
Title: Cave Story (International)
Doukutsu Monogatari (Japan)
Developer: Pixel Studios
Publisher: Nicalis
Genre: Action/Platformer
ESRB Rating: E 10+
Release Dates:
- PC
- December 20, 2004
- Wii (WiiWare)
- North America: March 22, 2010
- Europe: TBA 2010
- Japan: TBA 2010
Cost:
- WiiWare: 1200 Wii Points
Space Required:
- Wii: 220 blocks
---------------
- 1-02 Story -
---------------
It's honestly quite difficult to summarize the story, even from the very
beginning, without including at least some spoilers, so if you want to find
everything out for yourself, feel free to skip this section. Below is a short
bit--as spoiler-free as I can get it--regardin what the game's about for those
who wish to at least know what's going on when they start playing before
delving deeper into the game itself.
(TO REITERATE, THERE ARE MINOR SPOILERS BELOW)
You control a young boy.. or, precisely, a boy-looking robot named Quote.
Waking up in a strange watery cave and without any memory to speak of, Quote
looks around until he finds his way out of the small room and into a much
larger system of caves. It's your job to guide Quote through the massive
labyrinth, find and use weapons and items, meet other characters and unravel
the mysteries of this world while Quote learns more about himself and why he's
here.. and beyond that, how he can help the gentle rabbit-like race of Mimigas
as well as the humans who have found themselves trapped in the caves before the
nefarious "Doctor" and his minions brings doom to them all. Good luck!
-------------------
- 1-03 Characters -
-------------------
Again, it's very difficult to say much about the characters without some form
of spoilers, especially given the way in which this game's story unravels
itself. They are listed in the order in which you meet or hear about them.
This is going to be as spoiler, free as possible, but...
(MINOR SPOILERS AGAIN IN THIS SECTION, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED)
- Quote: The main character, who you control through the entireity of the
main game. He's an android who's been so perfectly crafted that most people
have trouble believing he's not a human boy. Though he has no readable text,
he seems to be able to speak normally considering other characters' reactions
to him. You won't actually find out his name for a long time, but I'd hardly
consider it a spoiler.
- Kazuma Sakamoto: Sue's older brother and a whiz when it comes to computers.
He seems to be trapped in a building somewhere and keeps contacting Sue for
help, though it seems Quote has the ability to pick up his messages as well..
- Sue Sakamoto: A female Mimiga with a scar on her face. She just recently
found her way into the Mimiga Village and acts strangely, keeping to herself
and not wanting to have anything to do with the other Mimigas. Strangely, she
seems to have a human as an older brother, even though she's a Mimiga.
- King: The aptly-named leader of the Mimiga Village. His face may look
menacing, but he's actually kind-hearted and only wants what's best for the
Mimigas he watches over. He doesn't trust Sue, but more because she acts
bitter and cares only for herself than the assumption that it's only because
she's an outsider. He blames himself for Arthur's death, and has taken it upon
himself to be Toroko's big brother in his place.
- Toroko: A female Mimiga who's the late Arthur's younger sister. She's very
warm and openly accepts and cares for Sue despite her actions. Though she's
looked after by the other Mimigas, she still somehow manages to get herself
into trouble often.
- Jack: The self-proclaimed "number two" of the Mimiga village, this glasses-
wearing Mimiga tries to assist King however he can. Otherwise, you can find
him guarding the entrance to the Cemetary so that none of the monsters within
can attack the village.
- Arthur: The hero of the Mimigas, Arthur was slain before the beginning of
the story by The Doctor. King aspires to be like him and blames himself for
Arthur's death.
- The Doctor: An evil scientist who has the Mimigas and the humans within the
cave system fearing for their lives. He intends to force the Mimigas and
humans to fight each other while he searches for absolute power, and slays all
who oppose him.
- Balrog: A rectangular being serving The Doctor. He uses his brawn to aid
The Doctor's advent and has no second thought about crashing into whatever or
whoever he pleases. However, he can tend to become aloof and quickly stops
caring about things that don't immediately concern him.
- Misery: A witch with a host of magical abilities that assists The Doctor.
She's rather cold and has no remorse using even her own allies as pawns.
- Igor: A hulking Mimiga that lives in the Egg Corridor. He's not very
smart, but doesn't think twice about punching the lights out of anyone who
resists him, even if it's a girl.
- Santa: A Mimiga living in the Bushlands. He's very forgetful and has
locked himself out of his own house, but he knows about weapons as well as some
secrets of the Bushlands.
- Chako: This Mimiga is unique in that she has a purple coat of fur, rather
than the white one shared by all other Mimigas. She also likes to wear
lipstick for whatever reason. She lives in a house that separates the tamer
western areas of the Bushlands from the more dangerous eastern areas. She
offers weary travellers a place to rest, as well, but... she has a bad habit of
getting a little too friendly with the males, even if they're not Mimigas!
- Malco: A robot who lives in the Power Room in the Bushlands. He's a master
at bomb-making.
- Professor Booster: A scientist who seems to know Kazuma and Sue. He's
supposedly been working on perfecting a type of jetpack.
- Curly Brace: A blonde-haired young girl that lives in the Sand Zone and
protects a group of orphaned young Mimigas. She seems to share some connection
with Quote.
- Jenka: An old witch who lives in the Sand Zone and seems to have been
around for a very long time. Unlike Misery, she's a warm and friendly witch.
She dearly loves her five dogs, despite all the trouble they get into.
You'll find many more characters as you advance through the game, and you're
sure to find out much more about the existing ones as well. Anything further
here would likely contain big spoilers!
------------------
- 1-04 Controls -
------------------
(Wii [Wii Remote held sideways])
Control Pad: Moves Quote around, and moves the cursor in menus. In-game,
press Up to cause Quote to look upward; he can shoot upward and also shift the
camera in this direction. Press Down to cause Quote to examine whatever he's
in front of, talk, interact, etc. You can also hold Down in midair to aim
downward.
A Button: Starts the game at the title screen. During gameplay, press it to
shift your weapon selection forward.
B Button: Shifts your weapon selection backward.
+ Button: Opens the menu screen and pauses the game.
- Button: Opens the map system, if you have it.
Home Button: Opens the Wii Menu.
1 Button: Jumps, 'confirm' button in menus.
2 Button: Shoots, 'cancel' button in menus.
(PC)
Up Arrow: Look/aim upwards.
Down Arrow: Examine whatever you're in front of. Shift camera downwards. Aim
downwards in the air.
Left Arrow: Move left.
Right Arrow: Move right.
Z: Jumps, 'confirm' button in menus.
X: Shoots, 'cancel' button in menus.
A: Shifts your weapon selection backward.
S: Shifts your weapon selection forward.
Q: Opens the inventory menu.
W: Opens the map system, if you have it.
Esc: Pause. Exits the game while paused.
F1: Resumes the game while paused.
F2: Resets the game while paused.
-------------------
- 1-05 Main Menu -
-------------------
(Wii version)
Press A (the big circular button next to the Control Pad, not the "2" button)
to get past the title screen. Press left and right to cycle through the
different modes, though I very highly suggest you complete Story Mode at least
once before attempting any of the other modes. Press down to access the
options.
Modes:
- Story Mode
Play the main game. You get to choose from three different difficulty
settings; the differences between them and Normal difficulty are outlined later
in the guide.
After choosing Story Mode, you get to choose between one of three save slots
for your game; you also have the option to delete a save, if one exists.
- Curly Story
Play the game as Curly Brace instead of Quote. Contains three separate save
files for use only in this mode.
- Boss Attack
Face off against all the bosses in the game.
- Sanctuary Time Attack
Try to beat the hardest area in the game as fast as you can. Not recommended
until you've at least found and finished this optional area in Story Mode.
Options Menu:
- Music Volume
Press left and right to adjust the music to be louder or softer.
- Sound Volume
Press left and right to adjust the sound effects to be louder or softer.
- Music
You get to choose between New and Original music, the Original option using the
exact same music as the PC version of Cave Story.
- Graphics
You can choose between New and Original graphics. Original uses the exact same
graphics as the PC version of Cave Story, which are simpler and have less
detail but carry some nostalgia value.
===================
= II) Walkthrough =
===================
(NOTE: AS OF 3/25/10, there are some known issues with the sound in Cave Story
on the Wii that can be remedied. It's said there will be a patch, but until
then I'm going to leave this note both here and at the beginning of the Intro-
duction. Go into Options, lower "Sound" by about 4 notches and change Music
from New to Original. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.)
This walkthrough is for Story Mode on Original difficulty, which is identical
(as far as I can figure) to the PC version of the game. For differences of the
various modes and difficulties compared to this mode, refer to the Extended
Information section later in the FAQ.
-----------------------
- 2-01 The Beginning -
-----------------------
When you begin the game, you'll be reading a transmission of an instant message
chat being sent by a frantic young man. After a bit of dialogue, you'll
finally take control of your main character.
- STARTING POINT -
You're in a small room with a pool to the bottom and a door to the top. On
your right are a couple contraptions; move in front of one and press Down to
activate it. The box with the heart heals your completely (and eventually will
restore your ammo as well, for weapons that use it). The floppy disk will
allow you to save your game onto whatever file you started your game on. Both
of these devices will be integral throughout your adventure, so remember them.
Jump up and go through the door at the top (again, by pressing Down).
- FIRST CAVE -
There's a path going in either direction. The one to the right is sealed by
strange blocks, so for now go to the left. Be mindful of the spikes, as they
can destroy you in one hit. Further left you'll see some Bats which you can't
do anything about yet, so just avoid them. You'll find a Life Capsule in an
alcove on the left wall; grab it to increase your maximum life by 3.
Turn right and avoid more Bats until you reach a pool. You won't be able to
jump high enough to pass over the ledge leading to the next section of cave if
you touch the water, so run and jump from the block stuck in the ground just to
the left of the pool. On the other side, jump over the Critter and move right
to a door shaped like a lion's head. Go inside.
- HERMIT GUNSMITH -
A small room with a sleeping man and a treasure chest. Try not to fret the
fact that you're stealing from the poor guy as you open the chest and grab the
Polar Star, your first weapon! After obtaining it you'll intercept another
transmission from the man at the beginning of the game. Read the short dia-
logue and run back out.
- FIRST CAVE -
Now you can shoot the enemies that've been pestering you. You'll notice when
you destroy them that they may drop hearts (which heal 2 HP) or these little
bouncing yellow triangles. Those triangles are energy crystals, which you need
to collect to power up your weapon. Every weapon can reach up to level 3, and
if you get hit you'll lose power for whatever weapon you're using at the time.
Past level 3, you can get any weapon to "MAX" level which is no more powerful
than level 3 but helps ensure you won't level down back to 2 when you get hit,
so keep that in mind. These enemies only drop measly tiny crystals, one at a
time, so it may take entering and leaving a room to respawn them a few times if
you want to level up your Polar Star.. but it's really not needed right now, so
don't worry if you don't manage to level it up by the time you reach the next
area. Go back to the blocks that were covering the path to the right of the
entrance of the Starting Point and blow them up with your Polar Star. Beware
the door at the end of the upper path, it's actually alive and will deal 4
damage to you if you run into it. Defeat it then go through the doorway it
leaves behind. Watch yet another intercepted transmission from Kazuma before
continuing.
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Your camera will automatically shift down to focus on a couple of humanoid
rabbit creatures in a conversation regarding a new girl in town named Sue..
sounds like who Kazuma keeps trying to contact. You'll fall down from the
ceiling at the end of this conversation, startling the Mimiga and giving the
small one at the brunt of the argument, Toroko, a means to escape. Talk to
King, the larger Mimiga with the red cape who you've just inadvertently KO'ed.
Help him up and get a bit of dialogue, then head right to heal and save in the
Save Point room.
There are a few different things you can do in the village. First, go back
left and past King to the Reservoir, the first area in the game with a body of
water that's big enough to actually be dangerous if you're not careful. Make a
long jump from the rightmost hilltop to the platform above the water, then left
again to meet Kanpachi, the Mimiga who loves fishing. Talk to him to find out
more about Sue then jump into the water and grab the sparkling object, which
ends up being a Silver Locket. Kill the Chin Fish (It's not Egg Fish! :C) walk
to the right and out of the water before you drown. Looks like Toroko was
watching you, but she'll run off when you approach.
Walk outside to see another dialogue between Toroko and King, then jump up to
the top of the village and go through the door to the Yamashita Farm. Run all
the way to the right and into the pool to grab a Life Capsule, worth 3 HP.
Leave and drop down to the right of the Save Room, holding right as you fall,
so that you're on the platform to the east of Mahin, the fat Mimiga. Jump to
the right a couple more times to reach an alcove with a treasure chest
containing the Map System. You can now press the - Button on the Wii Remote
(W on the keyboard if you're playing the PC version) to open a map of the room
or area you're in.
(NOTE: As of 3/24/2010, the Map System is a bit broken in the Wii version; it
doesn't display your position and it has a glitch issue in large areas)
When you're done collecting everything and meeting all the Mimiga, save again
then head to the Shack on the lower-right edge of the village. If you have the
Silver Locket, walking to the right into the Shack will trigger a scene. After
meeting the two baddies, Misery and Balrog, Misery will leave the "cleaning up"
to Balrog--and she's referring to you. This is an interesting part, as Balrog
will ask you straight up if you want to fight him. Choosing "No" will cause
him to just leave you alone and be on his way, but you might as well get in
some practice with the first boss in the game, don't you think?
****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALROG *
****************
Balrog has earned his place as the easiest boss in the game, and likely among
the easiest bosses in any 2D shooter ever created. He'll basically just run
forward about a fourth of the room then stop. Every third time he dashes,
he'll add a jump to it; so if you need to get past him, it's easier to jump on
the first or second charges after the battle begins or after a jump, and easier
to run under him on the jumps themselves. He's pitifully easy even if you only
have the Level 1 Polar Star. If he does manage to grab you, he'll just hold
you there for a moment and do minimal damage before tossing you away.
After defeating him, he'll drop some small weapon crystals.
* DEFEATED BALROG! *
When you're finished in here, head back out and save. Many Mimiga will have
new dialogue now, but the only one you need to talk to is Jack, who's guarding
the Cemetary due east of the Save Point. Follow him to the Assembly Hall to
talk to him and King for a hint and more story details, then head into the
cemetary he was guarding. This place is full of small mushrooms called Pignons
and one Giant Pignon; they give no item drops, but mow through them anyway to
avoid damage. There is one unique enemy in here, the Gravekeeper, who is quite
deadly and is invincible from the front. You'll have to jump over him and
shoot him in the back if you want to kill him, and he does drop items if you
do. Your destination is the large gravestone on the upper left of the room;
this is Arthur's grave, and if you examine it you'll find that a key to his
house was left here. Take Arthur's Key and access Arthur's House on the bottom
left of the Mimiga Village. There's another Refill Terminal and Save Disk in
here, as well as a lot of curious technology in the background and some Red
Flowers in the basement.. Examine the computer terminal on the left to find
that it was the very computer Kazuma was trying to contact all along, and allow
yourself access to the Egg Corridor. Examine the teleport pod on the left and
get ready to go to a new area!
----------------------
- 2-02 Egg Corridor -
----------------------
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Jump up and talk to the robot to learn about the most important hazard in this
area; that little spark on the ground that looks kind of like a porcupine going
at hyper speed? It's instant-death if you touch it. Luckily, due to the way
this area's made up there'll only be a few times you'll even have to worry
about it. Unluckily, the first time is now. Drop down to the left and wait to
drop to the ground level until JUST as the spark hits the wall and turns
around. Run after it as fast as you can and the screen will move with you,
causing it to shift much further than the right than it would have otherwise.
Follow it until you're able to jump up and get the Life Capsule for +3 life.
Now, head right and destroy the elephant-looking Behemoth; it may look big,
but it's so slow and predictable that it's probably the easiest single enemy in
the game. You'll notice when you destroy it that (unless it drops a heart)
it'll drop a whole bunch of power crystals--and this area is chock full of all
manner of easy enemies that all will potentially shower you with more crystals.
From this point on for the rest of the game, it's in your best interest to try
your best and keep all your weapons as MAX, or at least Level 3. Of course,
while your only weapon is the Polar Star, that's extremely easy to do.
Keep going right and deal with more Behemoths, a new, slightly stronger, green
variant of the Critter enemies from the First Cave, and flying Beetle enemies.
After a bit of enemy-slaying action you'll come to a new Mimiga in a blue shirt
and a huge, monstrous Mimiga wearing a green tie. Approach them for a scene
and stare there doing nothing as the bad guy takes away the cute Mimiga girl,
you jerk! Follow them to the right and drop down to the door, ignoring the
Heart Capsule above for now.
- CTHULHU'S ABODE -
Save, talk to the strange man in the frog suit named Cthulhu (shouldn't he look
like a giant monster with tentacles for a face?) to learn a bit more about your
history, then shoot the blocks above and climb out onto the roof.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Run and jump from the edge of the platform (mind your head on the ceiling you
can barely see) and grab the Life Capsule for a slightly larger boost of 4 HP!
Drop back down and head right; this is the first part of the area in which you
really have any danger of hitting the spark (called Basil, by the way) at the
bottom of the screen, but it's easy to avoid if you just stay near the top
platforms. You'll find a new type of Beetle that flies back and forth across
walls, and will only move if you actually get in front of it. Head east and
drop down between Eggs 7 and 6. Defeat the Beetle and Critter and climb back
up on the other side; repeat this all the way to Egg 4 then become greeted by
a Save Point and a new type of enemy, the Basu, which is basically a giant
Beetle that takes many hits to destroy and will periodically rain green orbs
down onto you that are easy to avoid. Enter the building.
- EGG OBSERVATION ROOM -
While it does have a Save Disk, this is more than just a normal Save Point.
There's a computer terminal with a note on it and a bed with Red Flower petals
..a bad omen. Run in front of the various monitors around the room to activate
them then examine them to see the status of the various giant numbered eggs
around the Egg Corridor. Let the elevator rise above you then run under it for
some hearts, then examine the monitors on the bottom level to see a pair of red
ones which contain information on a couple abnormal eggs; Number 6 and Number
1. Ride the elevator to the top of the room and grab the chest containing the
Missile Launcher, a new weapon that's extremely powerful but, unlike the Polar
Star, has limited ammo. From now on, enemies will have the chance to drop
Missile Ammo in addition to hearts and power crystals, and also Refill
Terminals will be able to replenish your ammunition. Save if you haven't
already and head back out.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Our first destination is to go to Egg 6, which is back to the left, but not
far. Take the upper route from the right across the gap between Eggs 4 and 5,
then get ready to drop down and play your first game of chicken with the Basil
spark. The spark will stay roughly on your field of vision, so the trick is to
drop down and hug the wall just to the right of Egg 6 then drop down to the
ground just as it zooms past you to the right. Run left and jump up into the
opening under the egg and jump behind the '6' to enter a secret room.
- EGG NO. 06 -
Open the treasure chest to obtain the ID Card, which is required for the next
step of the Egg Corridor.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Wait for the Basil spark to move left past you then run back to the right where
you came from. When you reach the Observation Room save if you feel the need,
and notice that there's now three units of missile ammo at the end of the
bottom section of the room. Use this room to recharge and save while you kill
the enemies outside and power up your Missile Launcher to Level 3. You can use
your Polar Star to kill enemies without wasting ammo, then switch to the
Missile Launcher to pick up the crystals and level it up. When you reach the
red barrier on the far right, drop down and use the same tactic as you used to
get into Egg 6 for Egg 1.
- EGG NO. 01 -
There's a single unit of missile ammo in here which you can keep entering and
leaving the room to completely refill your Missile Launcher if needed. There's
also a terminal which you can only activate if you got the ID Card from Egg 6.
Activate it to remove the red barrier.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Go back left to the Observation Room if you want to save and power up, and you
probably should because the game's first real boss is just past where that red
barrier was. When you're ready, move east and finally catch up with Igor, the
monstrous Mimiga from earlier.
**************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: IGOR *
**************
From the get-go you'll notice that the damage you do to Igor in relation to his
life bar is miniscule compared to how quickly you were able to hurt Balrog (if
you fought him), even if you're using the Polar Star Level 3. Switch to your
missiles and deplete them into his face to take out a huge chunk of his health,
then switch back to your Polar Star to finish the fight.
Igor will generally attack by rushing forward then short-hopping at the end.
He's easy to jump over while he's rushing but the hop makes it difficult and
it's too low for you to run under, so try to time it so that you only jump over
him when he's in the first phase of the dash if you feel you're going to be
cornered. Every once in awhile, he'll back up and lean forward, opening his
mouth wide and charging up energy. When this happens, switch to the Polar Star
if you don't already have it out, face him and just fill him full of shots.
As long as you don't move or jump and keep shooting, you'll avoid the shower of
energy blasts he releases. The lower ones will be destroyed by your shots and
the rest will fly harmlessly over your head. Keep this going until you finally
deplete all his health and you've finished the first real boss.
* DEFEATED IGOR! *
Though Igor will transform back into a normal Mimiga, talking to him will get
you no reply... it's sad that it had to come to that. Run right and ignore the
Save Point as it's closed tight for the time being. Open the door to the left-
most building.
- EGG NO. 00 -
Enter the room to find the girl Mimiga from earlier on the floor. Help her up
and answer her question however you like, it won't change anything. It looks
like she's accidentally wound up exactly where she wanted to go, but
unfortunately she's unable to continue further due to needing a password.
Listen to her story and you'll regain control of yourself once she leaves the
room. Ends up she's that Sue girl so many people have been talking about.
You can look around the room if you want, but there's no need. You may notice
that examining the far right wall will reveal a cold breeze, but there's
nothing you can do here now, so follow Sue back to the Mimiga Village.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Now the Save Point to the right is opened up; go in and heal after your battle
with Igor and save the game. When you're done, head left all the way back
through the Egg Corridor and teleport back to Arthur's House.
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Watch a scene in which Sue finally is able to contact Kazuma back.. odd that a
Mimiga has a human for an older brother, no? Jack and King will bust in now
that the door's unlocked and more dialogue will ensue before you teleport back
in and gain control again. Talk to Jack and leave Arthur's House to view
another scene between King and Sue and proceed to scale the middle of the
village and talk to Sue. Go back to Arthur's House and take the new teleport
destination to the Bushlands.
-----------------------------------
- 2-03 The Bushlands (Grasstown) -
-----------------------------------
The Bushlands is known as Grasstown in the Aeon Genesis PC translation, so I'll
keep that name in the title for this section... however, since the Nicalis
translation found on the Wii version is supposedly closer to Pixel's original
Japanese text, I'll be using it to refer to the area everywhere else in the
guide.
- BUSHLANDS -
Climb up and talk to the Mimiga here (strangely named Santa) to find that he's
locked himself out of his own house. You can talk to the cthulhu above for a
tip about the monsters in the area, then proceed east.
You'll quickly find two new types of enemies, both based on the Critter types
you've seen before. First you have Flying Critters, which look a lot like the
green Critters in the Egg Corridor but are slightly stronger and able to float
around. After they jump, they'll always float for a second and drop back down.
Pretty easy. The other type is the more dangerous Power Critter. These fat
blue Critters act much like Flying Critters but are much more powerful and
cause a tremor whenever they land. Fight through them and you'll eventually
find a key sitting on an owl-faced panel on the ground. Grab Santa's Key and
backtrack to the beginning of the Bushlands, handing it over to Santa. Follow
him inside for "something nice".
- SANTA'S HOUSE -
Santa has a nice setup with a Refill Terminal and Save Disk, but for whatever
strange reason, he's also got a bed of instant-death spikes in a small room on
the left with a sign that explains their danger. Possibly to warn travellers
who stay with him since these types of spikes are found later on in the Bush-
lands? Either way, jump up and talk to Santa to get his reward--a new weapon
called the Fireball. It has infinite ammo like the Polar Star and is more
powerful, but is less rapid-firing and bounces along the ground as more of an
anti-ground weapon. Santa will also inform you that you must head east to a
Mimiga named Chako's house in order to explore the rest of the Bushlands, so
head on that way.
- BUSHLANDS -
Go east and past where you found Santa's Key. Ignore the platforms above you
until you reach a set of two horizontal rows of platforms each with two
destructible blocks in the middle. Jump to the top one here and then to the
hanging platforms to the left. At the top of the left end of these is a Life
Capsule worth 5 HP! Head east again, jump over the spikes and slay the bats
until you reach another house. Go inside.
- CHAKO'S HOUSE -
This is the small home of the only non-white Mimiga there is, Chako. Save your
game and speak to her, then go examine her fireplace like Santa told you to.
She'll walk over and explain that you need Jellyfish Juice in order to put out
the flames and continue on, which will cause Jelly enemies (as well as the
single huge jellyfish, Kulala, capalbe of actually dropping the juice) to spawn
all over the western side of Bushlands.
Now, before you leave, while Chako's standing in front of her bed after she
walks over to the fireplace, it's your only chance in the entire game to get
the Chako's Lipstick item. It has no use but is nice to have if you're a
completionist. Go to sleep in her bed while she's standing there and when you
wake up, she'll be asleep on the bed! You naughty little robot. You'll
automatically receive Chako's Rouge as a constant reminder of what you did in
the Bushlands that day... Whenever you're done, head out to get that Jellyfish
Juice.
- BUSHLANDS -
You'll notice that Jelly enemies have come to Bushlands conveniently since you
talked to Chako about them. No ordinary Jelly will drop the juice you need,
though. Head West toward Santa's house and just over where you found his key,
there'll be a huge swarm of Jellies. Clear them and all the other small
enemies out then climb up to the platform with the single destructible block
in the air above it. Hanging from the ceiling is a giant jellyfish, Kulala.
Take out your Missile Launcher and giver her what-for. When she succumbs,
she'll drop a treasure chest containing the Jellyfish Juice. This item is
unique in that it's the only key item you can obtain more than once, but you
can only hold one at a time; if you try to kill Kulala when you already have a
Juice, she'll just drop one measly small power crystal. Anyway, now that you
have the Jellyfish Juice, you could continue on further in the Bushlands, but
there's a couple things you'll want to do first. To begin with, run back to
the teleporter and take it to Arthur's House.
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Now, run up to the top of the village and east to the Assembly Hall. You may
recall there's a fireplace here. Put out the flames with the Jellyfish Juice
and you'll find a hidden weapon, the Bubbline! This weapon is very weak at
Level 1, but it becomes the first automatic wepaon at Level 2 and a shielding
weapon with a unique projectile at Level 3. Note that in Aeon Genesis' English
translation of the PC version, this weapon's called the Bubbler. Also note
that though its ammunition repleneshis on its own (much faster at Levels 2 and
3), you can instantly recharge it to 100 at Refill Terminals. Go back to Bush-
lands when you've got it.
- BUSHLANDS -
Now go east and defeat Kulala again, nabbing another Jellyfish Juice. This
time, go back to Santa's House and put out the fire in his fireplace. You'll
get a Charcoal item which you'll need very soon. Leave and head east again,
getting the Jellyfish Juice once more on your way back to Chako's house. Put
out her fireplace and go through to pop out across the wall outside her house.
She'll renew her fireplace as soon as you leave, so it's impossible to carry
more Juice beyond this point.. right now, anyway. Go east and jump over the
first death pit and kill the bats hovering in front of the second. Now, ignore
the pillar of owl blocks in the middle of the second death pit, trying to land
on it is dangerous and pointless. Just run to the edge of the ledge to the
left and jump across. You'll have to repeat this for the third and final pit
without any pillar at all anyway. Once you're across, start blowing up the
Bats and more will fall down from the ceiling to your left. Destroy them all
and head left, stopping in between the two smaller spike pits. Now, this new
enemy, known as Mannan, will just stand there looking like a greaveston and not
attack you until you attack him, but you'll have to in order to get past. As
you hit him, he'll send a rather low-velocity red donut of energy your way that
is easy to jump over. He'll only launch one at a time so unless you're using a
very weak weapon there should only be one donut before he explodes. He'll turn
into a cartoony burnt image of his former self when he's done for, and you can
safely pass. Ignore the Power Supply Room and Save Point for now and continue
east. There will be more Mannans but many of them are stuck far into the
ground or facing east so they're no trouble. There's also a new type of enemy,
a Frog, but it's simple and predictable. You'll eventually come to a large
building with a pink motorbike in front, but don't worry about it yet. Turn
around and jump onto the platform above you. Now, you can either leap across
the long gap with the Bats on the ceiling to use the save point and take the
'normal' way to the treasure chest but there's a much quicker way. Just stand
on the left edge of the platform to the right of the long gap on the right of
the Save Point, then jump left and turn right so that you land on the platform
directly above you. Now hop across a hanging platform to reach a treasure
chest on the other side of a wall to the left of a small house directly above
the large building you ignored earlier. It'll have your first Missile
Expansion, which permanently increases the maximum number of Missiles you can
carry for your Missile Launcher by 5.
Now drop down and try to go into the large building with the bike in front to
find out that it's locked. Someone will start yelling out of a small crack in
the wall between the door and the bike. Go examine the crack to find someone's
trapped in there--must be Kazuma! He'll give you a Rusty Key in hopes that
it'll unlock the door to his prison. Try to open it only to find there's no
keyhole, then examine the crack again to talk to Kazuma. Now go back to the
left, heal and save at the Save Point and use the Rusty Key to enter the Power
Supply Room.
- POWER SUPPLY ROOM -
There's a robot here but it's deactivated. Go to the terminal on the left and
turn on the power supplies for the fans and "Malco". Ends up Malco's the name
of the powered-down robot you saw. He'll freak out as soon as he comes back to
life, thinking you're an intruder.. luckily (or unluckily), he's immediately
decommissioned by Balrog, who suddenly barges into the room. However you
answer his question this time, you're going to have to fight him.
****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALROG *
****************
Not only is Balrog inevitable to fight this time, but he's a lot more dangerous
than he was in Mimiga Village. He's still not that much trouble, though.
Basically, he'll jump up and flap his.. "wings" to fly across the room, before
slamming hard into the ground. As he lands, he'll launch several white energy
spheres, which are destructible just like Igor's. Just use your Polar Star and
shoot fast as he lands so you destroy enough spheres to be able to safely run
across the room back under him. Keep repeating this to whittle away his life
bar. When he's at critical health, he'll stop flying and start just hopping
around with heavy force. Each hop targets the position you were at when he
began the hop, and each time he lands he'll send out energy spheres again, now
at a much more rapid rate. This is when you switch to your Missile Launcher.
Punish him and eradicate the spheres simultaneously with every missile you can
fire, and he'll quickly surrencer.
* DEFEATED BALROG! *
After Balrog flees, go examine the crushed Malco and help him up. He'll
acknowledge that you're a good person after all and wish that he could do some-
thing to help you, but "all he's good at is making bombs". Now, if you haven't
examined the door to the house Kazuma's stuck in after getting the Rusty Key
and then talked to Kazuma again afterward, do so now, or else Malco will never
actually offer to make a bomb for you. Once you convince him that you need a
bomb to blow up the rusty door, he'll send you on a mission to collect three
different components needed to create the bomb; Charcoal, Jellyfish Juice and
Gum Base. Leave the Power Supply Room and begin your quest.
- BUSHLANDS -
The fans are now activated all over the Buslands. They propel you in the
direction they're blowing; hold Jump to increase the effect (which you'll need
to do to use them at all, really). Now, as for the components...
The Charcoal can be found in Santa's house behind the fireplace, so
go get that first if you haven't already. The Jellyfish Juice is obvious, and
now that you've activated the Bushlands fan system you can grab a jar then just
use the fan to fly over Chako's house so you don't have to use it to get past
her fireplace. As for the Gum Base, that's at the far upper-right corner of
the Bushlands and should be the last component you go after. When you're
ready, go talk to Kazuma through the crack again. It just so happens he has
another key, one to the room containing the Gum Base--the Gum Key.
Now directly east of here you can obtain two more power-ups. Right the fan
just to the right of Kazuma's room to the hanging owl block pillar on the right
and jump to the left to enter that house you saw when you got the missile
expansion earlier.
- BUSHLANDS HUT -
Grab the chest containing a Missile Expansion and get ready to face Rabil.
Rabil's another insane Mimiga like Igor but is so far gone there's not even
dialogue, just a fight. It's really more of a miniboss than anything.
Basically Rabil will just bounce around twice and then lunge at you. Very easy
to jump over, and this is all it does over and over. Finish it and head back
outside.
- BUSHLANDS -
Drop down and head immediately to the right into the tall building with the
skull emblem above the door.
- EXECUTION CHAMER -
There's a trick to this. First, destroy the block directly above the door to
drop the left Press and immediately run to either wall. When the Press falls,
jump on top of it and onto the left ledge. Now destroy the right Press, jump
to where he was, destroy the block above you and grab the Life Capsule for +5
HP. Destroy the other Press and go back through the door.
- BUSHLANDS -
Now, head all the way to the easternmost edge of the Bushlands. You'll see a
cthulhu but he only tells you what you probably already know about the game
mechanics of fans. Fly up and save your game then make a running leap to the
left with the help of the fan to reach the other side. Once you're up on the
platform you'll have to act quickly since there's a lower fan here as well that
will push you off if you don't jump fast. Jump to the right and you're finally
at the Gum room.
- GUM ROOM -
A whole building built just to store a stick of gum? Either way, just run and
open the chest to obtain your Gum Base.. and get a surprise visit by Misery and
Balrog. Since Balrog just failed at beating you as his normal self, Misery
takes the liberty to give him a more monstrous form, lovingly referred to as
"Balfrog".
*****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALFROG *
*****************
As you'll notice by the faster-tempo boss theme and the sheer size of your
enemy, this is a boss unlike any you've fought up to this point. He's
completely invincible from all angles until you find his weak spot, and his
stature makes him impossible to dodge without the aid of the fans located on
either end of the room. He'll begin the fight by simply hopping slowly toward
you, causing a tremor each time he lands which will cause a small frog (they're
called Puchis for reference) to drop down from the ceiling. The Puchis are
incredibly and drop powerups but they can be annoying if you let them amass in
numbers. Wait for Balfrog to get close to the right edge of the room and then
float in the fan wind until he's close enough that you can hold the jump button
and fling yourself over him. Every time you get behind him like this, he'll
open his mouth which is his only weak spot and let loose a bunch of slow-moving
red goo projectiles toward you. Switch to your Missile Launcher and let him
have it; Level 3 missiles will shred through all his projectiles and do lots of
damage to him simultaneously.
Repeat this until you run out of missiles then start to use your Fire Ball
which can bounce up into his mouth even if you shoot them from ground level.
When he loses enough health, he'll start to make high leaps straight up into
the air after his red goo attack when he lands from one of these, it'll cause
several Puchis and even a couple big Frogs to drop down all at once. Shoot
into the air to avoid taking a hit if you can, then quickly destroy all the
frogs for a host of supplies. Keep this up and the battle will be won soon
enough. Balrog will go back to his normal self and escape one more.
* DEFEATED BALFROG! *
Now that you have your gum, there's nothing to do but take all the ingredients
back to Malco.
- BUSHLANDS -
Make a long leap west from the Gum Room to land safely beyond the spikes. Make
a stop at the Save Point and then head to the Power Supply Room.
- POWER SUPPLY ROOM -
And finally, you've got all the components Malco needs to make his patented
explosive device. Hand them over and wait a bit for him to work, then he'll
toss you the Bomb. Time to finally get Kazuma out of his key-infested prison.
- BUSHLANDS -
Take the bomb back to Kazuma's building and examine the door. You'll auto-
matically set the bomb as the scene changes to the inside (haven't seen this
room since First Cave..) as you blow your way in and automatically enter.
- SHELTER -
After a conversation with Kazuma, another human will come in through the
teleporter that presumably led to Kazuma's being trapped.. but luckily for
Professor Booster, the entrance is now clear! After the scene's over with, a
Refill Terminal and Save Disk will appear out of nowhere on the left side of
the room. Save your game and heal then exit the building.
- BUSHLANDS -
Kazuma and Booster automatically board the motorbike and haphazardly speed
their way back to Arthur's House. Follow them.
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Sit back and view the long scene involving just about every main character up
to this point in which a big chunk of the story is explained. It would seem
that the only person capable of helping both the Mimiga and humans out of this
predicament is you (not enough on your shoulders already with the whole memory
loss and all). It would seem that The Doctor is planning a raid on the Sand
Zone in order to collect a bunch of those mysterious Red Flowers we've seen and
heard so much about in order to turn all the Mimiga into bunny war machines.
Your goal is to get there before he does and destroy those Red Flowers for good
before they can cause any more trouble for anyone.. now get to it!
-------------------
- 2-04 Sand Zone -
-------------------
- SAND ZONE -
Teleport to Sand Zone and go left. You'll find a robot girl who looks a lot
like yourself. Follow her west and up past the wall-clinging Beetles. You'll
have to purposely get the Beetles to fly off their walls then blast them mid-
flight if you want to make it up. When you get to the top, go to the left to
see a building with a wine glass symbol above it. Enter here.
- SAND ZONE RESIDENCE -
You'll see the robot from earlier with a bunch of young Mimiga. Approach her
to get some dialogue and get forced into a fight.
*********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: CURLY BRACE *
*********************
It's a basic fight but has a couple interesting challenges thrown in. You
can't use missiles against Curly at all, if you try a bubble shield will auto-
matically protect her while they harmlessly explode. In addition, all four of
the Colons (the young Mimiga) will bounce around and try to attack you. They
aren't dangerous but it can be hard to dodge them when they're all over they
are a very real hazard as far as de-levelling your weapons. Shooting a Colon
one time will knock it out, but only for a few seconds. While all this is
going on, Curly will run back and forth and occasionally flash, a sign that
she's about to launch a Machine Gun burst. Jump high into the air when you see
her flash and try to angle your jump toward her current position. The stream
of machine gun bullets is quite long and can take some practice to dodge
perfectly.
I highly suggest the Fire Ball in this battle as even if you do take hits and
de-level it it stays powerful enough to do the job well. Curly stays planted
firmly on the ground and the Colons don't jump very high either, so it's a
great weapon here. Basically you'll want to try to clump the Colong into a
small group and knock them all out then focus on Curly until they wake up again
while dodging Curly's Machine Gun whenever she flashes. If you're able to keep
your Fire Ball at Level 3 this fight will be over in no time, but even if it
levels down it shouldn't be too hard.
* YOU WON! *
After the battle Curly will reveal more about yourself and realize that you
aren't the enemy. She'll offer to give you her Machine Gun in exchange for
your Polar Star. This is actually a pretty major decision. If this is your
first time playing, I highly suggest taking the Machine Gun as it's the
strongest and easiest to use weapon you could possibly get for awhile, it's the
least difficult of the Polar Star trades and earliest available, and perhaps
most importantly it gives you nearly-INFINITE mobility as long as you keep it
at Level 3, making all platforming segments for the rest of the game utterly
simple. Whether or not you take it, talk to the Colons to learn about the Sand
Zone and what you'll have to do to progress; remove the curse from the Sun
Stones and talk to a lady named Jenka. Go in the back room to heal and save
and pick up the dog if you want, you don't need it yet but it makes a cool hat.
Now, you have the option of getting another special item that serves no used
other than a full inventory. In the back room, open up your Map System.
You'll see the signs of a hidden path behind the wall. Jump up to the left of
where the wall juts out to go behind it. Now use the Map System to navigate
the short, simple path to the bottom right corner. Go left and press down to
open a hidden chest containing Curly's Panties. I won't even go into detail
about this, just enjoy your completionism or something. When you're ready, go
back outside.
- SAND ZONE -
Now head east and past the destructible blocks. You'll see some big angry-
looking blocks that make a 'reflection' noise if you try to shoot them rather
than the normal sound when you shoot an object; these are the Sun Stones the
Mimiga kid talked about earlier, so you'll have to come back later to explore
the lower half of the Sand Zone.
Keep going right and you'll run into a Polish, a big angry sun-looking enemy
that rolls around walls. Stay in the safety of the destructible block wall and
shoot him to cause him to split into several Babies. Try not to destroy too
much of the wall to the east when dealing with these enemies as you'll need at
least some of it to be intact to climb up and reach the Life Capsule (worth 5
HP). East of here there are several more chambers that are more or less
identical to the first one more Polishes, but now you've got the added danger
of the sand pits in the bottom, which contain Sandcrocs. It's possible to
dodge and even destroy a Sandcroc, but it's risky, so I'd suggest just staying
in the destructible walls to take care of the Polishes then moving on.
When you get to the area with the spikes, shoot the inside of the backwards "C"
platform to earn some hearts and make your way to the top of the room, even if
that means backtracking a bit so you can climb up. You should notice a little
pawpad-marked block at the top of the room on the side of the lower ceiling;
that means you can pass through the wall at that point. Go through here for a
Save Disk and to skip past the next few hazards, and you'll come out on top of
a huge structure of destructible blocks. Just climb over them to avoid all the
Polishes, but you'll eventually come to a Polish that's stuck on top with you.
Slay him and the last Polish if you accidentally break the blocks (you can use
the Fire Ball to avoid doing this if you really want to). At the end of this
section you'll see two small sand pits in the middle of suspended platforms.
The one on the left with the Refill Terminal is safe, but the one on the right
has a Sandcroc in it so avoid it and head east. Jump up and go through the top
section of the destructible block wall so that you can destroy the Presses
before they even drop. Past here, go into the large empty room and walk to the
middle to trigger a scene with Misery, after which you get the pleasure of
fighting Omega, the Sand Zone guardian.
***************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: OMEGA *
***************
Omega will emerge from the sand in the middle of the room and promptly fill the
air full of spheres. The beige-colored rock-looking spheres are indestructible
but less dangerous as they simply float in a lobbing pattern then fall off the
screen. The "opened rock" spheres that look like they have red heating vents
inside are destructible, and they should be blown up whenever possible as they
will bounce around upon hitting the ground and stay a potential threat for much
longer.
Omega will basically just keep doing this, going underground, coming back up,
and repeating. He's only vulnerable while his head is open. You may notice
that, just like Curly, Omega refuses to take any damage from Missiles; if you
try to shoot him with any, he'll just instantly retreat back underground before
any can hit him. The best weapon against him right now is the Machine Gun,
which not only damages him severely but is great for dispatching the red
spheres. However, if you kept your Polar Star, don't fret. Use the Fire Ball
to deal heavy damage to him when he pops up, then switch to the Bubbline or
Polar Star to take care of the spheres.
When Omega falls to half health he'll pop completely out of the ground and
never go back in. At this point he'll hop around the room and each time he
lands he'll spray a volley of spheres. This is when you'll finally, happily be
able to get some use out of your Missile Launcher again. Switch to the Missile
Launcher and just start pumelling him. He's completely vulnerable even when
closed up now, and every time you hit him with missiles while he's opened up
he'll immediately close and jump again before finishing his volley. His second
half is a joke with missiles.
* DEFEATED OMEGA! *
After blasting Omega, the "curse on the Sun Stones" will automatically be
lifted. Basically, this means that those angry blocks to the east of Curly's
house will move out of the way. Run west back to them (which will be a lot
easier this time, since you've already destroyed all the enemies in the way)
and witness the Sun Stones uncurse themselves. Go grab the dog from Curly's
place if you haven't already and drop down where the Sun Stones moved. Break
down through the layers of star blocks (I'll be calling "destructible blocks"
"star blocks" from now on); the Skullhead enemies here take some punishment but
their only strategy is to simply bounce back and forth, so no big deal. You'll
come to a house on the left, enter it.
- JENKA'S HOUSE -
Enter the house and talk to the old lady. Hopefully you have the dog from
Curly's house. She'll take it back and send you on a mission to find the other
four who've hidden themselves all around Sand Zone. I'd highly suggest paying
close attention to Jenka's dialogue as she reveals a huge amount of the story-
line of the game as you bring her back more of her dogs. It's a pretty cute
part of the game, I think, giving a warm old lady back her puppies and getting
a truckload of important story elements told in a very passive manner as a re-
ward. When you're done, save your game and let's go find some dogs!
- SAND ZONE -
From here you can go to any of four different areas to collect the dogs in any
order you wish, but I'll list them in order of their proximity to Jenka's house
for ease.
- Mick: This dog's very closeby, but it's easy to miss the secret passage
leading to him. Go back up to where the Sun Stones were and keep an eye on the
wall to your right. Beyond the rightmost block of the top row of star blocks
you'll see a pawpad block. Run through it to the right and at the end of a
corridor you'll find a small cove with a Life Capsule (+5 HP) and a treasure
chest containing a dog.
- Kakeru: Drop down from Jenka's house all the way to the floor. Head east
and after a bunch of monsters you'll finally come to a bone-tossing Skeleton
enemy with the dog waiting closeby. Kil the Skeleton and approach the dog to
cause it to run around at great speed--too fast for you to catch up with. You
pretty much just have to wait for the dog to run by you and time your pressing
of the Down button so that you grab the dog. It can be helpful to clear out
all the enemies in this area if you plan on chasing after the dog a bit to save
time.
- Shinobu: After dropping off Kakeru, drop down to the same area again but
this time opt for the upper platform route. Not too far from the right edge
where you found Kakeru if you stay near the top you'll see a couple pawpad
tiles in the ceiling. Jump up and to the right here then over to the left and
run through the passage to a small house with a dog in the doorway. Approach
the dog and he'll run inside. Follow him and save your game as this completely
dark house contains a dangerous Sandcroc monster where the skeleton is. Use of
the Map System is recommended to get a feel for the 'shape' of the house. Jump
up while standing in front of the left side of the table and hold right to get
a foothold in the darkness. Now move so that you're just above the right half
of the table, jump and hold left. Once you're up here jump high and hold right
so that you're just under the ceiling, and higher than the dog. Now run right
all the way to the dog, grab it and go back the way you came.
- Nene: The last of the dogs is in plain sight, but of course is sleeping at
the furthest corner of the Sand Zone. Drop down the same way you found Kakeru
and Shinobu but keep going past the end of the sand pit. When you get past the
Skullheads and Skeletons you'll come to an area with lots of pillars and a TON
of Crows. There's no easy way past here, though it might be a good place to
use your Missiles. Nene is just past here, sleeping above and to the left of
the entrance to the Warehouse. Grab her and shoot the star blocks to reveal a
Refill Terminal and Save Disk, then head back to Jenka.
Once all the dogs are returned, Jenka wil give you a Life Pot (it completely
restores your HP but can only be used once... there's one more later in the
game, though, so don't beat yourself up if you have to use it) and send you to
stop the Doctor and his henchmen who've gotten the key to the Warehouse. Make
your way back there the same way you went to get Nene and open the door.
- WAREHOUSE -
Watch the scene and become both pissed off at what happens and pissed off that
you have to fight THIS boss of all bosses as soon as it's over.
*********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: TOROKO PLUS *
*********************
Toroko is way more violent and powerful once enraged than you'd probably have
imagined. She makes Igor look like an absolute pushover--well, every boss up
to this point, kind of. Basically, she doesn't seem that complicated, and
isn't really, but she's still very tough; her chucked bricks will do massive
damage, and they're both a bit tricky to dodge and completely indestructible.
They even absorb shots, acting as a sort of shield for her.
She has three methods of attack, and seems to use any of them at random. All
involve throwing blocks; she'll either jump straight upwards and toss one, toss
from the ground or leap across the room and toss one at the apex. The third
option is the one she does most often; keep moving so the blocks don't hit you,
because they hit HARD. If you're cornered, it's better to just take a hit from
Toroko herself or ideally a Flowercub if there's one around; they "hatch" from
thrown blocks after they hit a surface. The Flowercubs are also a good source
of pickups if you need any, which will be likely.
Stick to your Missile Launcher and blast her until you run out. Switch then to
your Machien Gun or Polar Star and either attempt to finish her off like that
or collect more missile ammo from the Flowercubs and switch back. Her pattern
doesn't seem to really change throughout the battle, but she'll often surprise
you by lulling you into a pattern of leap attacks then suddenly throwing a
block from the ground.
She can be challenging, but I'd hold out on using the Life Pot for good reason.
Just remember that anything's better than getting hit by one of her blocks and
keep pummeling her, no matter how much you probably don't want to :C Eventually
you'll win.
* Defeated Toroko... *
After the battle, talk to King and he'll entrust you with his Blade weapon.
This weapon is quite short-ranged and fires slowly, but is very, VERY powerful.
Level 3 Blade is easily the coolest-looking weapon in the game, and drastically
changes the weapon from Levels 1 and 2 (though these levels can still be used
as a bosskiller as they can be shot more rapidly than Level 3 at close range);
I highly suggest you level it up and see for yourself as soon as you get the
chance.
Anyway, even after all you've just been through, you can count on Misery to
show back up and make things even worse. You are henceforth cursed to the
innermost bowels of the island, never to be seen again... unless you can find a
way out.
-----------------------
- 2-05 The Labyrinth -
-----------------------
- LABYRINTH I -
You wake up on the ground of a vertically huge rom with a bunch of other
robots. Talk to them to learn a bit about their (and your) situation then hit
the star block on the right to access a Save Disk. Now, this room is a breeze
if you have the Machine Gun; just propel yourself upwards from in front of the
door, take rests on the platforms, kill any purple Critters you need to and
just keep scaling the middle of the room until you reach the top. If you still
have the Polar Star, get ready for the most challenging platforming segment of
the game so far. Take out your Blade and get used to using this new weapon.
It will take out the Critters even from Level 1. The Critters here are unique,
when you get near them or shoot at them they'll lift up into the air, shoot two
bullets (that can be destroyed but take several hits) and then fall back down.
Scale the room, killing whatever Critters get in your way, until you reach a
Life Capsule (that gives +5 HP). Now, just above where you dropped down to get
the capsule, notice the large block with an eyeball on it to your left. When
you move in front of this block, it will scoot across the room to the opposite
wall and stay there until you again are in front of it, like a large, deadly
wall Beetle. You need to activate this block without getting yourself squished
against the platform just under it, so jump up and hold right to land on the
platform and be safe. Immediately jump on the mooving block and another block
above will start moving as well. Jump to the left on top of it like a stepping
stone then up again to the safe ledge. Now walk up a bit and wait on the block
coming from the right, jump on it and immediately jump to the block on your
left, then on the final block coming from the right and finally up to the final
ledge. Examine the terminal here to open the door at the bottom; the robots
promptly leave. Drop all the way back down to the bottom and follow suit.
- LABYRINTH II -
Walk inside and meet a new enemy, the cockroach-like Gaudi.. which, for now,
are relatively harmless. Continue left and don't worry about any more eye
blocks until you get to the top of the room. A block will come in from the
left, so run left and jump up into the little cranny above the block as it
passes by then drop down to the left. A block down here will move from the
right; jump up on it and to the door to the next area.
- LABYRINTH W -
Introduce yourself to the faster-paced remix of Jenka's theme as you traverse a
hall full of purple Critters tucked into holes. The Blade works wonders here,
again. To the right you'll each a building with easy Gaudis in front. Enter
this building.
- LABYRINTH SHOP -
Don't worry, all the Gaudi in here are friendly. Talk to them if you wish to
and hear some backstory and explanation of the Labyrinth. Save your game and
talk to the shopkeep, Chaba. Depending on the first-slot weapon you're holding
when you talk to him, he'll give you a different choice of reward. If you have
the Machine Gun, you'll get the Turbocharge, which passively doubles the rate
at which your Machine Gun recovers ammo. If you're still using the Polar Star,
he'll offer to combine your Polar Star and Fire Ball into a new weapon, the
Snake. This weapon is unique in that it can pass through walls, but it's
mainly only useful in dungeon areas and not boss battles, and is the most
outwardly weak of the three first-slot weapon choices, though it does have
strategic value in many areas of the game. The final item he can offer you is
impossible for you to obtain right now as the weapon required for it is found
later in the game--and you'll need to keep your Polar Star even longer, denying
the Snake here, to get that weapon. Whatever your decision, when you're done,
head back out.
- LABYRINTH W -
Go east and you'll quickly come face to face with a slightly more dangerous
type of Gaudi. These fly in a circular pattern and will periodically flash
purple before releasing a goo projectile to your current position. They fall
just as easily to King's Blade as their brothers, though. Go all the way to
the right to find a door, and enter it.
- CAMP -
There's a couple new characters here, a small box-like couple of green medical
personnel. The one on the left, Dr. Gero, will heal you and give you a Clinic
Key needed to progress. The one on the right warns you about the ghost in the
Clinic should you choose to venture there. Curly Brace is here, too, weak and
on the bed. All you can do for now is save your game and tackle that Clinic.
- LABYRINTH W -
You'll have to make a couple weird jumps to get up to the Clinic if you don't
have the Machine Gun. Go to the ledge on the left first then jump up onto the
platform to your right.. then, you have to jump left beyong the 'lip' of the
platform above and immediately turn right again to get on top of it. To the
upper right you'll see a star block. If you have the Machine Gun you can get
in there now, but otherwise you'll have to come back later. It leads to the
top section of the Camp which contains the Arms Barrier, a useful item which
permanently decreases the Weapon Energy you lose from getting hit by half.
Either way, your destination is the Clinic, the door with the cross symbol
above it on the upper-left.
UPDATE:
Well, it looks like you *CAN* get the Arms Barrier right now, even if you don't
have the Machine Gun.
"Just one thing, you're wrong about needing the machine gun to get the arms
barrier. Call me an insane Mario fan but, after a half hour of attempting to
destroy it, it occurred to me to jump on the flying purple critter after it
jumps and what do you know, it works. My brother tried it as well during his
play through and it worked. You'll get hit of course but it's worth it."
- Dakaggo X
"Heya, I was just poking through you walk through for Cave Story and thought
I'd mention a little trick to aquire the Arms Barrier without the Machine Gun
or Booster. There's a purple bear right next to the pathway that leads to the
Arms Barrier door. If you jump into the bear when it jumps up the hit will
bounce you that extra little bit into it."
- Stanley
- CLINIC -
Grab the chest with the Cure-All, then brace yourself for a boss attack.
*******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: PUU BLACK *
*******************
Also known as "Pooh Black" in the Aeon Genesis English translation of the PC
version. This strange creature looks a heck of a lot like a dark twin to
Balrog, but its lack of dialogue or explanation leads anything pertaining to
this to speculation. It does heavily resemble the small box creatures Pixel
seems to love drawing more than anything, and definitely fits the "soap bar"
explanation for his Balrog character design more than Balrog himself. But
enough talk.
Puu Black can be kind of intimidating. He basically stand there, generates a
very rapidly-growing bubble shield (kind of like your Level 3 Bubbline, except
the bubbles are larger and you don't have to worry about electric bolts) then
after a few seconds flies off. He'll be undetectable for a moment, then a vast
wave of bubbles will be flung through the room around your current position, at
an angle that can be different each time. It's easy to tell when Puu's abou to
slam back into the ground with the bubbles giving him away, but the bubbles
themselves can be very hard to avoid given the randomness of their pattern and
angle. The only surefire way to not get hit by them is with the Level 3 Bubb-
line, but all the audio and visual stimuli it generates can make actually
avoiding Puu's descent much more difficult, so be careful.
You want to use the Level 3 Blade as your main means of attack until/unless you
get hit. The spirit of King will go into a frenzy when it hits any kind of
enemy or projectile, then proceed to slash everything in a wide area. This is
perfect for stripping Puu of his bubble shield, and doing massive damage to him
in the process. If you at any point get hit your blade will level down, at
which point it's best to fall back to the Missile Launcher. If you run out of
missiles and STILL haven't beatn him, just use your main weapon to finish him
off.
* DEFEATED PUU BLACK! *
Nothing to do now but go back outside.
- LABYRINTH W -
Just head down back into the Camp. (I know some of these area summaries are
awful short, but I feel like the FAQ's strange or incomplete if include them
all.)
- CAMP -
Get Dr. Gero to heal you and simultaneously complete your quest by handing him
the Cure-All. This shuld help Curly get back on her feet, but it's going to
take some time. Save and head back into the labyrinth when you're ready.
- LABYRINTH W -
Go east until you reach the dead end with spikes. A block will scoot down from
the ceiling here, so walk near the right edge and time a jump into the little
crevice on the right so that you can turn around and land on top of the block.
Ride it to the top, drop down onto the next and turn instantly to the left to
fall off the block into the next crevice before being crushed. Turn right and
you'll come into a long corridor full of both kinds of Gaudi and a strange
machine. Before you go far into this corridor, make absolutely sure that both
your Blade and Bubbline weapons are at MAX. When you're ready, continue on.
*******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: MONSTER X *
*******************
Without a doubt, this is the most dangerous boss you've faced yet in Cave
Story. When you walk far enough into the long corridor, even before you've had
a chance to get rid of all the Gaudi, the large machine you ran past will
activate and charge you. There are many elements to this battle that I'll
explain before getting down to attack strategy.
First of all, by far the most deadly danger in this battle is the machine's
treads. The machine goes surprisingly fast and will smack you for 10 damage if
it runs over you, simultaneously taking a lot of juice out of your current
weapon. You'll want to jump on top of the treads for a safe ride, but at the
same time you don't want to ride too long or Monster X will drive you right
into a force field. If you jump around to the other side, Monster X will shift
direction and chase after you again. You have to jump past it and force it to
change direction three times before it'll open up and attack, revealing its
weak spot. Before anything else, however, I'd switch to the Polar Star/machine
Gun/Snake (whichever you have) and cleanse the area of any and all Gaudi. That
way, if you get hit it won't matter as these weapons you'll not be using in
this fight unless you must.
Now, when you're ready to attack, do what I said above; jump over Monster X's
treads to get it to turn around, then repeat twice more. It'll finally come to
a screeching halt after the third turn, and open up in the middle. It will
reveal a set of four glowing green orbs that each bombard the area with purple
goo shots (the same as the flying Gaudi). These can be a blessing because they
all have a chance to drop items and there's so many of them that you're likely
to get some good stuff. There are two ways to deal with this; in my opinion,
the best way is to use King's Blade Level 3, which will ruin all his shots and
also deal huge damage to all four targets at once. The next best option is to
spam your Missile Launcher, which should clear all the goo and do decent damage
to the orbs; you should also very easily be able to keep a full set of missile
ammunition from all the drops you'll get. The best place to stand while
attacking is directly under the middle of Monster X, between the bottom two
treads. Of course, once it closes itself up, quickly jump to one side and run
so it doesn't run you over. Repeat the process of getting it to open up then
punishing it until all four orbs are destroyed. Note that this phase of the
boss doesn't have its health meter drained.
When the last orb is destroyed, Monster X will close up and begin to drive
around again. The process to open its weak spot is the same, but what happens
afterward has changed. The boss will now launch several small homing torpedoes
and only stay open for a short time before beginning the chase once more. The
Level 2 Blade (Level 3 works if you still have it, but Level 2's actually
optimum since it can be spammed extremely fast at close range) is what you'll
want to use to deal MAJOR damage to Monster X. As it stops, assume position in
between its bottom treads then start jumping straight up and tossing your Blade
upward. The machine itself won't hurt you, only the torpedoes--which circle
around carelessly until after Monster X closes up and starts to move again.
When it does close up, immediately switch to the Bubbline Level 3 and cover
yourself with a barrier. Even though the bubbles will pop when they hit the
machine's treads, there should always be enough of a barrier to thwart any
missile that attempts to ram into you. Just keep repeating this process, even
if your Blade falls to Level 1 it should be excellent for dealing huge damage
to Monster X given how close you can get to the boss without taking damage.
After a long battle, he'll finally fall and reveal his dastardly, evil,
twisted, disgusting true form as he flies out of the exploding machine. Did I
mention adorable?
* Defeated Monste X! *
Now, you can go east and enter the doorway to proceed, but before you do...
"I'd recommend you note that if you intend on getting the booster v2.0 and you
have low health after the Monster X boss battle you should consider going back
to the clinic to heal, or at least kill some gaudi for hearts. My brother had 6
health left and the battle against Balrog was a nasty surprise. You'd want at
least 16 health or so to be safe."
- Dakaggo X
- LABYRINTH B -
As soon as you enter this room, the screen will flash and a tone will sound.
Someone will fall from the roof, but you can't move to do anything. When you
regain control, save your game. What you do in this room is actually an
important decision.
So that you experience every part of the game, I'd highly suggest that if this
is your first time playing the game you simply fall down and check on Booster.
If you do this, he'll give you the Booster 0.8 right then and there, which will
allow you to press "Jump" in the air to gain even more height. Of course, this
is next to useless if you have the Machine Gun, though it is nice if it falls
below Level 3 or you decide to use another weapon. It also makes the game in
general a bit easier, especially the next big boss encounter, but if you take
the other option and DON'T check on Booster you'll get the much more powerful
Booster 2.0 later in the game--which is needed to access the secret super-hard
bonus area. Again, if this is your first time playing, I'd say just to go
ahead and take the Booster v0.8, but it's your call. Getting up to the next
room is simple if you take the Booster or have the Machine Gun, but otherwise
there's a bit of a trick to it. The jump is very difficult and must be done
precisely. Starting from the western door (coming in from Monster X) you
should see a little red mark on the floor if you look closely. The goal is to
run forward and jump just as your foot touches that mark. Hold Jump and Right
as you go and you should hopefully land on the ledge on the other side. If you
mess up and still want the Booster 2.0 you're going to have to reset and reload
your save, as once you've fallen there's no way to get back up unless you take
the Booster v0.8. Either way, once you're on the other side, go through the
door.
- BOULDER CHAMBER -
You'll find yourself in a small room with Curly standing in front of a massive
boulder. If you didn't get the medicine for Curly earlier you'll have to do
that so that she appears here, or you won't be able to continue. Talk to her
and then examine the left side of the boulder to try and move it out of the way
with her. When you fail, a familiar face will drop down from the ceiling. Of
course, you'll have to fight him for the billionth time before he'll listen to
you.
****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALROG *
****************
He's really packing heat this time, but he's still not much of a threat. He'll
run toward you, stop, run toward you again, stop, then leap across the room
in your direction while leaving behind a set of four Super Missiles. Repeat.
The easiest way to deal with the missiles is to use the Blade Lv 3 or your own
missiles; weaker weapons like the Bubbline won't deal enough damage to bring
them down quick enough. If you happen to lose Blade Lv 3, Levels 1 and 2 are
still powerful enough to clear out the missiles, you just have to shoot them
rapidly.
* Defeated Balrog! *
Once he's been given the beatdown for the FOURTH TIME, Balrog will finally come
to his senses enough to help you out instead of trying to hinder him. With his
brawn you're finally able to move the boulder, but you have to KEEP IT A SECRET
FROM EVERYBODY. Though he seemed really miffed that he had to help you out, he
makes up for it by leaving behind the Super Missile upgrade which changes your
Missile Launcher into a real death machine. Looks like he's a swell guy after
all. Save at the conveniently-spawned Save Disk and head on through where the
boulder used to be.
- LABYRINTH M -
(Note: In this area, Curly Brace will actually aid you as a non-playable ally
by pretty much just sticking near you and shooting things. Her weapon depends
on if you took the Machine Gun from her or not; if you did, she's using your
old Polar Star. If you didn't, she's using her Machine Gun, fully-powered now.
She also has infinite life, so don't worry about her taking hits.)
You'll come to a room full of eggs. Gaudi Eggs, to be exact. They're
completely harmless and drop lots of goodies, so be sure to blow them all up
and power up your shiny new Super Missile Launcher with the weapon crystals you
find. To the right you'll see your first Fire Whirr, an evil fan that moves up
and down and periodically releases a flaming ring forwards. These are really
easy to deal with. Pass it and you'll run into an Armor, an upgraded version
of the Gaudi enemy which bounces around quickly, high and low, and will throw
a pair of deadly blades every so often which are invincible and absorb shots.
They're not too much trouble, though, especially with Curly to get behind their
shots. Going east more you'll find a group of purple Critters that are best
dispatched by running under them and shooting upwards. You'll next come to a
trio of Fire Whirrs, positioned so that you can't possibly avoid their shots
head-on. Whenever they fire, hide behind the nearby crates then peek out to
hit them with something with a good range. Eventually you'll come to an air
vent blowing upwards; ignore it and drop down the shaft to the right.
Now you're in another egg-filled chamber. Break them open for goodies and head
left. You'll find your first Buyobuyo Bases which cling to floors and ceilings
and launch Buyobuyos three at a time, small erratic homing flyers which are
very annoying but very useful to farm for powerups. Try to kill a lot of the
Buyobuyos until you can get your Super Missile Launcher to level 3 and refill
your missile ammo and life, then blow up the Bases and head left again. After
a couple more Buyobuyo Bases you'll find an area where the water slopes off and
gets deeper. If you have the Machine Gun or Booster v0.8 here, there's nothing
to worry about. However, if you have neither, this place can be a real hazard.
Basiclaly you're going to be jumping across the water with tons of enemies
popping out from the drink that are impossibly annoying. The best way to deal
with this is to go down through the deep water and kill all the Bases and
Critters, but after the far left Base don't worry about whatever they dropped,
just turn back and haul it to shallow water. If you haven't noticed up till
this point, your air supply drains VERY fast in this game, you only have some-
thing like 15 seconds and you're done. Anyway, jump along, using the solitary
top platform if you don't have any boosters to get across (don't worry, you
won't hit the spikes when you leap). Past the pool and a weird dead-end fan
vent below you you'll come to a very dangerous room guarded by a Fire Whirr and
filled with Armors. If you're anywhere near low on life I'd suggest to just
stick back and let Curly go in and take care of things, just give her covering
fire from the other side of the crates. When you've slain them, head to the
left edge of the room and activate the terminal to open the way down. Hug the
right wall as you fall so as to not to hit any spikes. There's a teleporter
here; if you have the Machine Gun or Booster v0.8, activate it to go back to
Chaba's store early in the labyrinth, at which point you can save your game,
run to the Camp for healing, and power up your weapons on the easy enemies
around that area. If you don't have any kind of boost power, you'll have to
run all the way back from Chaba's if you do this, but it can still be useful
for preparing, so it's your call. Also, if you took the Booster v0.8 and
didn't backtrack to it already, now's the perfect time to go ahead and grab the
Arms Barrier from the path behind the star block on the upper right of the room
past the Camp and Clinic. When you're done, teleport back and continue east.
Ignore the upper vent and you'll come to meet yet another new enemy, the Fuzz
Core and smaller Fuzz floating around it. You may notice that if you approach
the enemy without shooting Curly won't even try to attack it. This is a hint
toward the fact that you can leave Fuzz Cores alone and pass by them safely if
you're careful. Of course, after the first Fuzz Core you'll face three more in
a row that are quite difficult to pass without getting hit. There are two last
Fuzz Cores at the very end that are virtually impossible to pass by unharmed.
Use a wide area weapon like the Blade Lv 3 or Bubbline to try and pass them
without getting hit by the small Fuzzes, though it's still difficult as they'll
very speedily home in on you when you attack the Core. Luckily, they drop so
many power crystals and hearts that you should be able to make up for what
damage you do take. Finally, at the end of this gauntlet, you'll come to a
door that leads to a rest stop.
- DARK PLACE -
Let Curly talk and then save. As she said, the lion head door in the back is
of no use to you yet. Now, it's time to prepare. Basically, you're about to
fight what many consider one of the most challenging bosses in the entire game,
ESPECIALLY if you don't have the Machine Gun and didn't take the Booster v0.8
(both of which are generally ttue if you're going for the final weapon or the
secret area/best ending). Before you continue onward, go back out either to
try and farm Fuzzes or back a bit further to the teleport to Chaba's so you can
easily farm Gaudis. For those of you unfamiliar for the MMO terminology that's
seeped its way into even classic gaming, "farming" means to kill the same type
of enemy over and over for whatever it drops upon defeat. In this case, it's
all the missiles, hearts and weapon energy you need to fully power yourself and
every single one of your weapons up to maxmimum. The only exemption is the
Fireball, which is all but useless against the upcoming boss. When you feel
you've sufficiently prepared, go back to the Dark Place, save, and continue on.
- CORE -
A nice, cool-looking room with smooth background music--a nice change of pace
from the dank old Labyrinth. Well, this place is dank too, but it has signs of
an advanced civilization--which is good news for a couple of robots who've had
to run through ancient caves so much. Talk to Curly then jump up to the
terminal to open the blast doors. Follow Curly deeper into the Core to find
a jammed blast door that she refuses to walk past. Walk under the door (with
the curious red blotch above it) and shoot up at the bottom of it. You'll know
you're shooting the right spot if it emits red particles like an enemy. After
shooting for awhile it'll finally give way and go into place. Now go back to
the first terminal and activate it again to lower the lift into the water
below. Head right, activate the terminal to open the last blast door and get
some air. When done, go back out of the water and go back to Dark Place to
save one last time before following Curly.
Now, if you DID NOT take the Booster v0.8, head straight for the lower right
corner of this huge room and ignore Curly for now. You should see a sparkling
object on the ground in front of some robot rubble in the background. Examine
it to receive the Tow Rope. It is imperative that you get this item or else
choosing not to get the Booster v0.8 was pretty much for naught (well, you'll
still get the awesome Booster v2.0, but other important things later on won't
happen). If you DID get the Booster v0.8, this item won't exist, so don't
worry about it. Anyway, when you're ready, talk to Curly who's standing on the
top row of platforms.
After a conversation with her and the old robot, the Core of the Island will
wake up and start to attack you.
******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: THE CORE *
******************
You'll know this is going to be scary by the tone of the music playing during
this fight. The Core will float toward you from the right wall but at the same
time will keep its distance. Basically, if you run to the left edge of the
room it will follow you, but if you advance on it it will move back. Of course
it moves quite slowly so you can advance on it to attack from time to time, but
being too offensive in this battle won't get you very far since the Core is
fully capable of backing up all the way behind the rightmost wall, rendering
itself quite invincible until you pull back. The Core will remain closed for a
period of time, and the smaller "mini-cores" surrounding it will periodically
open up to shoot destructible spinning energy blasts toward your position.
When the mini-cores open up they're susceptible do damage but they're not
actually able to be destroyed; attacking them will only serve to push them back
so you can hit the main Core when it opens up. But let's not get ahead of our-
selves, there are other hazards to go over before we get into attack mode.
First of all and by far the most dangerous thing if you don't have the Machine
Gun or Booster v0.8, is the water. The ENTIRE arena will fill to the roof with
water on a regular basis--even with the Machine Gun keeping you airborne at all
times technically, it can get really scary when you go to the very top of the
screen and still can't get a breath of air. Now, just imagine that without any
way to get back up if you fall to the bottom of the screen other than running
and jumping with severely impaired mobility. Just trying to move around at all
in the water without either 'jetpack' option is extremely dangerous, so even if
you're in an awkward position compared to the Core I'd suggest focussing on
just staying on any of the higher platforms until the water recedes over
anything else. What makes things even worse is that sometimes when the main
core opens up, it'll create a gust blowing to toward the back of the room
that could be compared to a giant Bushlands fan covering the entire right-hand
wall being activated and lasting for several seconds. Not only is this
annoying in its own right, but knocking you down to the bottom of the screen
during or just before a flood can be extremely deadly. If you do find yourself
kissing the floor, your primary goal should be to make your way back up as fast
as possible by climbing the left series of ledges and then jumping back to the
platforms on the right. Luckily for Curly, she can somehow magically stand on
the background platforms that Quote can't, so she'll never fall to the bottom.
Spekaing of Curly, she'll start the battle being KOed but after about 20
seconds or so she'll get up and join the fray. Don't expect her to win the
battle for you, though she can add some much welcome extra damage, especially
if she happens to still have her Machine Gun.
Now, when you're ready to attack, stay on the left part of the room to lure the
Core toward you (it's a bit safer on the left side, anyway). I stand by the
notion that it's best to just use up all your Super Missiles at the very
beginning to leave the Core's health meter heavily dented and not have to worry
about when to use your missiles on top of everything else. Super Missiles, if
you haven't already noticed, are insanely fast and powerful, and easily one of
the very best weapons in the game. Hopefully you got them to Level 3, because
the triplet of missiles sent out per shot is key to damaging the Core heavily
while knocking away whatever mini-cores might be in front of it when it opens
up. When it does open up, the Core will shoot either a large series of
tadpole-like energy blasts forward or, at lower health, a sequence of about
three or four huge blasts. that do big damage. The tadpoles and giant shots
are easy enough to dodge, it's just all the other things you have to think
about during this battle can throw you off a bit. Once you're out of Super
Missiles, your options will be different depending on which weapon you have.
If you took the Machine Gun, that's definitely the easiest and most powerful
weapon next to Super Missiles you can use against this boss. If you have the
Snake or Polar Star, things are slightly more complicated. Of course, you can
just shoot the Core when it opens up as fast as possible and hope you get
enough hits in without the mini-cores blocking, but there's a couple things you
can do to improve your odds. King's Blade Lv 3 can be used to thrash all the
mini-cores and get them out of the way; then you can quickly switch to another
weapon to deal as much damage as you can before it closes again. Of course,
the Snake is much easier to use and more powerful here than the Polar Star, but
you'll have to eventually fall back on either the Star or Bubbline if that's
still the weapon you have. I'd suggest the Bubbline as it can shoot rapidly,
shield you from the various Core attacks and unleashing all the bubbles at once
when the Core opens up virtually guarantees at least SOME damage, so playing
defensively it's likely you'll eventually come out on top.
One last tip; this is easily the most difficult boss you'll fight before you
can get your hands on the game's second Life Pot, so don't hesitate to use it
if needed. That's pretty much all I can say about the boss, the rest is up to
you.
* Defeated the Core! *
Watch the scene with the Doctor who's delightfully frantic at your attempt to
destroy the heart of the island and welcome the inevitibility of your death as
water fills the entire Core room with no way for you to exit. It doesn't
matter what you do here, just let yourself run out of air. (You can, at least,
grab the Tow Rope at this point if you didn't earlier like you should have)
Of course, it isn't the end yet. Depending on if you have the Booster v0.8 or
not (picking up the Tow Rope may also be a factor) you'll either be simply
given Curly's air supply (if you have the Booster) or given a bit of story
involving the secret final area (if you don't). Afterward, again, if you don't
have the Tow Rope (i.e. took the Booster) there's nothing you can do here,
don't worry and continue on. If you DO have it, examine Curly to take her with
you so that she's not left to rust in this room. Go west and out of this
chamber once and for all.
- DARK PLACE -
The place's covered in water now, but luckily, for the rest of the game now,
you have infinite air. The Save Disk has moved but is still functional. Your
only option is to enter the lion head gate that was barred off earlier.
----------------
- 2-06 Escape -
----------------
- WATERWAY -
It's a good thing you can "breathe" underwater now, since this next area's
filled with it. Drop down and go left to face some flying Critters, and roof
Bats, the same you faced in Bushlands awhile back. It's a nice, safe place to
regain weapon energy, missiles and health you lost during your battle with the
Core. Keep going west past some easy spike traps and you'll reach a deep pool
of water. Hop in, and turn right and shoot the empty-looking corridors for
some bonus health. Go left again and below you you'll see a fast current rush-
ing eastward. This is the Waterway's primary hazard (well, using currents in
conjunction with enemies and spikes, anyway) so you'd best get used to it.
Jump in and let it carry you eastward, but be prepared to jump over a small
spike bed. It'll keep carrying you automatically for a bit until you come to
an area in which you'll just be looped around forever until you jump up along
the bottom of the large backwards "L"-shaped platform. Next, you'll come to an
area swarming with Jellies, though you'll have a small safe platform from which
to dispatch them without worrying about the current. Use the Blade Lv 3 then
any long-ranged weapon you have such as the Bubbline to take out the
stragglers. When you're done, drop off the left side of the platform to be
pulled to a small house.
- WATERWAY CABIN -
You HAVE to get in this house if you have Curly. If you fall down, reset the
game and try again. Just hold left as you're coming out of the jellyfish whirl
pool area and you should stay on the one safe tile that you have to jump from
(of course, difficult without a Booster which you can't have if you have Curly
anyway, but possible). Go in the house, look at the computer, rest, and look
at the computer again. Now, examine the right half of the bookcase next to the
door. It will explain why you need air in this game despite being a robot, but
beyond that it's needed to resussicate Curly. Once you've done this, examine
her a couple more times to get the option to leave her here or not. Select
"No" to pick her back up, save, and leave.
If you don't have Curly, none of this is needed, of course, but you can still
use the cabin to rest and save.
- WATERWAY -
Fall down and get ready to jump over a series of three spike beds. The camera
may be very annoying here; the best way I've found to get it to behave is to
simply fall into the current and then FACE the way that the current is flowing.
Alright, so basically, there's going to be a spike bed just under left side of
the jellyfish whirlpool area, and a long one. Leap over it then keep your head
down for the spike above, then IMMEDIATELY jump so that you go between it and
the spikes on the floor just past it. Next, at the end of the long flat
section of floor, there'll be one more long spike bed before a rest stop.
when you're ready, fall down to the *left* of the platform so that you'll be
able to leap over the spike bed that you can plainly see from the platform.
After this, keep your head down and then be ready to make a short hop followed
by a long leap just after it. Now, here, you're going to wanna try to hop
twice so that you're on the second-highest platform. You'll avoid all the
spikes and jump safely over the huge spike bed at the end. After this, just
one more jump over a small bed and you're taken to a new area.. at which you're
greeted with some dialogue.
"Something's coming!!"
******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: IRONHEAD *
******************
It may be interesting to note that this boss is actually a cameo of sorts from
Ikachan, a previous game by Pixel. Now, the first thing you should know in
this battle is that you have a control scheme totally unique from the rest of
the game. You can move freely in any direction, but you'll only be able to
face right the whole time. It's actually quite comfortable and fun, though, if
I say so myself.
Immediately you'll be swarmed by a large mob of fish, but they're harmless, at
least at first. When they reach the eastern edge of the screen they'll inflate
into spiky pufferfish which DO cause damage, then float effortlessly back into
you. As soon as they leave the screen, a fresh school will emerge from the
left, and this repeats for the entire battle. The fish can be destroyed at any
time and drop powerups whcih flow with the current. The other major hazard is
random 1-tile or 2x2-tile blocks of debris which will wash from right to left
all during the battle and absorb attacks. Ironhead himself will appear after a
moment and start to swim around, rather slowly. He's easy to avoid, but does
big damage if you do run into him. Sometimes he'll release three small
Mannan-style energy rings while he falls back, which are simple to avoid.
Just exhaust all your Super Missiles and then switch to Blade or whichever
weapon you have out of the Machine Gun, Snake or Polar Star. It's actually a
refreshingly easy boss battle. If you manage to defeat Ironhead without taking
any damage, you'll earn a cameo from Ikachan, the main character of the game
Ironhead appeared in, and earn the "Alien Medal" which depicts the likeness of
Ikachan.
* DEFEATED IRONHEAD! *
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
You wake up in the Reservoir of Mimiga Village, without Curly if you had her.
The music's different and no one seems to be here. Explore as much as you
want, but your destination if Arthur's House. Now, if you took the Booster
v0.8 earlier in the game, just examine the computer then teleport to the Egg
Corridor. Otherwise, you'll receive the Booster 2.0 here. The Booster 2.0 has
more juice and goes faster than the v0.8, and can go in any direction, but
can't change direction mid-flight. You'll have to release the jump button,
hold a new direction and then press the jump button again to change direction.
Of course, you can do this very quickly and potentially can change directions
many times in a single jump before you have to land for the jetpack to re-
charge. This is very important stuff to get used to if you plan on tackling
the secret final dungeon later on, which you probably will if you've got the
2.0.
Now, if you still have the Polar Star after all this time and didn't take the
Machine Gun or Snake, there's another very powerful goody you've got access to
finally. Use the Booster 2.0 to fly back into the First Cave, from the top
left of the Mimiga Village. Make your way back to the Hermit Gunsmith where
you found your Polar Star at the very beginning of your adventure. Now, the
hermit is finally awake and lamenting the fact that someone pilfered his incom-
plete Polar Star while he was napping. If you still have it with you, he'll
take it back... and then, after a heartfelt speech, complete it and give it
back to you as the Spur. The Spur is unlike any other weapon; it doesn't gain
experience from power crystals, but it doesn't need to! You simply hold the
fire button down to charge it up; its charge power is represented by the weapon
level, up to MAX (it's the only weapon with four different phases, with MAX
being different than Level 3). Level 1 is a version of the Polar Star Lv 3
which can be fired as rapidly as you like, but Levels 2, 3 and MAX are increas-
ingly larger and more powerful laser shots that travel across the screen and
pierce through enemies they're able to destroy. Needless to say, this is one
damn fine weapon, and widely considered to be the best in the game. What's
even better is that due to the fact it doesn't use energy crystals, you it
can't be 'levelled down'. Be aware that after you get the Spur the First Cave
will be absolutely smothered in enemies, but they're just the normal Critters
and Bats from here, so it's not like it's dangerous.
Anyway, if you took the Snake or just got the Spur and went the route of the
Booster 2.0, that means you still haven't been able to go back and grab the
Arms Barrier from above the Camp in the Labyrinth. Luckily, if you skipped the
Booster 0.8, Professor Booster will have activated the teleporter at the bottom
of Labyrinth B and you can select it from the Arthur's House teleport pad.
Backtrack to the Camp and boost to the star block on the upper right to claim
your prize. And to top it all off, if you have the Spur, you can drop by
Chaba's Labyrinth Shop to grab the Whimsical Star, a special item that will
surround you with small shielding stars that refresh each time you charge the
Spur to MAX.
When you're all done, go back to Arthur's House and teleport to the Egg
Corridor.
- EGG CORRIDOR? -
Uh oh.. this place is in bad shape these days. The good news is that little
Basil spark no longer exists, so you don't have to worry about instant death.
The bad news is that the place is now filled with the remains of what could
have been wondrous Sky Dragons, and some of them seem to have gotten into Red
Flowers which have caused them to become Dragon Zombies. Go to the right and
say hello to your old friends, Beetles, Bakus and Critters. Eventually you'll
come to Egg 12 which contains your first Zombie. Go to the floor and crawl to
Egg 12, noting that debris will fall from the ceiling throughout these ruins.
The zombie stays in one spot, and periodically releases a blast of several
powerful fireballs. Hide just under it until it releases a blast then
immediately jump up and blast it to pieces. Grab the chest behind it to get
a Missile Expansion then head back out and go east again until you come to a
building.
- CTHULHU'S ABODE? -
It's like it used to be, only without Cthulhu...and with a lot of traps.
Avoiding the spikes, position yourself just under the Press and past up as fast
as you can to destroy it. You should have weapons good enough for this now,
but if you feel unsafe jump out of the way just after you hit the block and
before it falls. Repeat for the higher Press and boost your way to the door.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
For a laugh, run under Egg 08 without hurting the upper Dragon Zombie and watch
it be KO'ed by a stalactite. Go east and make sure you kill the next Zombie as
you'll want to run back to where it lay shortly. Just to the right is the one
and only Counter Bomb in the game, a huge flaming puffball that simply hovers
in place and counts down from 5. This guy can be destroyed, but he has really
massive HP and he still drops items if you let him suicide. Simply activate it
then run back to Egg 08 to avoid its massive kamikaze. Keep going east to and
past Egg No. 5 then run under the stalactites to trigger them before running
back. When the tall stalactite falls shoot it to clear it out and continue.
Pass the Dragon Zombie and go into the open vent hold to the left of the rubble
covering up what used to be the Egg Observation Room.
- EGG OBSERVATION ROOM? -
Grab the chest containing the Missle Expansion and get ready for another boss.
*********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: THE SISTERS *
*********************
There'll be an explosion and you'll feel a cold breeze... before being
assaulted by a pair of especially rabid Sky Dragons. You'll be more or less
confined to the central platform as they circle aroudn you, always in a
formation in which each sister is parallel to the other along their circular
flight path. They'll take turns opening their mouth to expel several shots of
flame toward you, which are large and destructible, so not much of a problem.
They can only be damaged when their mouth is open, but if you do enough damage
to them fast enough they'll become shocked and bear a unique expression during
which time they can be freely damaged without fear of retaliation.
They'll sometimes slow down then switch directions, and when they've taken
enough damage they'll begin to simply keep their mouths open indefinitely and
continually spout fireballs without stopping. The Super Missiles are by far
the best tool for the job here unless you have the Spur, and with all the extra
missiles you should've picked up in this area the 30 missile max you've
attained should be enough to completely deal with them. If neither of these
weapons ends up being an option for you and they're still alive, finish them
with the Blade. Note that the life bar is shared by the two Sisters, and when
either of them dies, they both die.
* DEFEATED THE SISTERS! *
A Save Disk will appear below. Use it, and head through the open vent on the
right side of the room.
- EGG CORRIDOR? -
You'll have to deal with more falling rubble and Dragon Zombies as you trek
east, but you should be familiar with how to deal with them by now. There's a
strange activateable fan where Egg 01 used to be, I suppose its only use is if
you're challenging yourself by turning off your Booster. Head right past where
you fought Igor long ago and into the Side Room to heal and save, then go into
the main building.
- EGG NO. 00 -
Examine the computer screen. You'll be greeted by Kazuma and have a nice bit
of dialogue.
At the end of this conversation, Kazuma will ask you if you want to escape the
island with him on a Sky Dragon. If you answer Yes here, you'll actually get
one of the three endings in Cave Story-- the "worst" ending. It's pretty
depressing and all, but go ahead and view it if you want, you can simply reload
your game and continue on when you're finished. Say "No" to progress forward
in the game. Kazuma will fill you in on a possible way to defeat the Doctor
then reveal an exit where the breeze could be felt if you examined the right
edge of the room earlier in the game. Follow him out.
- THE OUTER WALL -
Now, you may be interested to know that there's a hidden optional house under
your starting position out here. You can reach it by flying left just under
the right ledge, and be mindful of the small pitfall along the route to the
house. If you enter it, you'll have to squint to see the tiny people living
inside, made up of just a small mass of pixels. This house is key to getting
the Nemesis, one of the best weapons in the game, later on. For now, climb up
past Kazuma and his dragon on your ascent toward the top of the island. There
isn't much interesting for a bit until you come to a long corridor to your
left, with a block with a clock symbol and some kanji to your right. If you go
all the way to the end of this left path and examine the small fence-looking
thing you'll find a hidden room.
- CLOCK ROOM -
There's nothing here but a chest and a bunch of spikes. You can only open the
chest if you rescued Curly earlier and are going for the hidden final area.
The chest contained the 290 Counter (known as the Nikamaru Counter in the PC
version), which serves no purpose until you reach said bonus area. Head back
out.
- OUTER WALL -
Keep scaling and you'll quickly find a simple yellow bouncing enemy, called a
Hoppy appropriately enough, that bounces along the western wall as if it were
the floor. Another type of enemy you'll see around here is the Night Spirit,
a large floating cat made up of a white bedsheet (by how it looks) that likes
to launch barrages of indestructible white... pillowy tadpole things, that I'd
say are a bit suggestive given their color and shape. They're actually pretty
annoying projectiles, but just stay parallel to the Night Spirit whilst
attacking and they should be easy to dodge. You may notice that the powerups
here float in place then slowly shift to the left, much like during the Iron-
head boss battle.
Keep climbing the wall and you'll reach a section made up of grey blocks. You
will notice upon closer inspection that nestled within each set of these blocks
is a narrow pit of white sand. Stepping over one of these pits will cause a
blue variant of the Sandcrocs you fought in Sand Zone to try and snap you, so
be extra careful around here. Just keep on climbing, there are no new hazards
for the rest of this area. Eventually you'll reach a place with an actual
solid background at which point you're close to the door back inside the
island. Enter it when you come to it to reach the next chapter of the game.
--------------------
- 2-07 Plantation -
--------------------
- STOREHOUSE -
You'll be greeted by a Mimiga freaking out. Go talk to him and he'll
eventually warm up to you and reveal his name, Itoh, and his story. Keep
talking to him several times until he starts to repeat himself. Apparently,
he's a master engineer but is a bit of a coward who's become scarred by all the
crazy bad series of events that've happened since coming to the island
originally as a human that he's lost his touch and sense of worth. Remember
him, as surely he'll come in handy eventually. Save and leave through the left
exit.
- PLANTATION -
Awwright, the title theme! Now, there are several places you can go from here
as this is a wide open area but most of them are rather useless at this point
unless you just feel like exploring. One place of interest that never has a
real use but is worth checking out is directly above you as soon as you enter;
scale the blocks on the wall until you come to a door.
- PASSAGE? -
This room may look rather ordinary, but it's actually... Well, no matter yet,
go on to the right.
- STATUE CHAMBER -
A completely optional room that contains statues of each being who's ever owned
the Demon Crown, on order from left to right. The first two look rather alien,
the third looks like a human from long ago, and on the far right, we have the
latest owner...a familiar face, but his statue's unfinished. The statue carver
is completely silent and as far as I know you can never get him to say anything
other than an ellipsis. Head back out when you're done.
- PASSAGE? -
And out..
- PLANTATION -
Now, first things first. Head left and across the platforms. You'll run into
an Orange Bell, a very fat, happy bat surrounded by legions of smaller bats.
The Orange Bell itself is relatively harmless, flying in a predictable up and
down swerving motion, but the bats orbitting it will persue and dive-attack
anyone who gets near. The Blade Lv 3 and Spur are your best options against
these. Keep going left and ignore the door hidden in the ground for now. Just
past it you'll see a large orange monster called a Droll which watches over the
Mimiga that farm this area. He'll leave you alone unless you attack him, at
which point he leaps backward and tosses a huge swirling appendage toward
wherever you were when he began his leap. Another new enemy here is the
Midorin, a little hyperactive plant bulb that dashes haphazardly left and right
but is quite weak and can evern be safely stepped on. The Mimiga here will
refuse to talk to you for now, so there's no use in trying. Keep going left
past a sprinkler, a door, and another sprinkler, then start climbing upwards.
This area's filled with Stumpies, little dragonfly enemies that aren't really
challenging so much as annoying--like aerial Midorins, they fly around while
attempting to home in on your position, and can be quite bothersome in a group
like this. Shred them up with the Blade Lv 3 and climb up one last bit to
reach a Life Capsule for +4 Max HP.
From the Life Capsule, drop down and to your left and enter the doorway.
- JAIL NO. 2 -
Talk to the Mimiga behind the bars, the only Mimiga in the Plantation who'll
talk to you at this time. Go through the Teleport to...
- SHELTER -
...activate a link between the Bushlands and Plantation... and look where you
are! Seems like that's the jail where Kazuma and Booster were held. Heal and
save, then head back.
- JAIL NO. 2 -
Head back out to the Plantation.
- PLANTATION -
Now, drop down and go through the door between the two sprinklers you skipped
earlier.
- -
There are a bunch of unique-looking Mimiga here but none of them will talk to
you.. except the one you've already met before, the Mimiga with the fishing
pole, Kanpachi from the Mimiga Village. Talk to him until he decides to go
fishing, then follow him.
- PLANTATION -
Make your way down to the bottom level of the Plantation. There's a new type
of enemy in the water here, called Gunfish. They will annoyingly shoot rows of
bubbles in a low arc, but can be safely stepped on to be used as platforms over
the deep water. Go all the way to the west end of this section to find
Kanpachi fishing off the edge of a platform. If you came here earlier you'd
have seen a flashing object in the bottom of the lake that was unobtainable
since it was in the middle of an instant-death spike bed, but luckily Kanpachi
is able to fish it out. Talk to him, then examine the bucket behind him.
You'll receive the Teleporter Room Key, which opens the door directly to your
left, on the bottom-left corner of the Plantation. If you can't reach it past
the water, exit and re-enter the area to respawn the Gunfish to the left of
Kanpachi and don't kill them this time so you can use them as platforms. Go on
in when you get there.
- TELEPORTER ROOM -
There's a seemingly friendly Droll standing here when you come in, but he won't
talk to you. Try to use the teleporter to somehow fall into the most obvious
trap in history and view a scene.
- JAIL NO. 1 -
You wake up behind bars... Talk to Mahin, the fat Mimiga, to find out Sue was
here and left a note in your pocket, that he suspects is a love letter. Open
your inventory and examine the note to read it. You'll find out a big chunk of
story, and on top of that get a password required to enter that door nestled in
the ground in the middle of the Plantation. When you're done, save the game
then go through the water below the Save Disk and behind the wall. Loop around
up then left to reach a door leading back outside.
- PLANTATION -
Okay, this may be a good time to mention that the long shaft near the top right
of the Plantation is very dangerous, and when you see the red skull signs you
should drop back down. If you go too far up past this, an unavoidable set of
Presses will kill you without fail. There's actually a way to get up here now
using a Stumpy as a platform, but it's very difficult and not worth it, as you
won't even be able to enter the next area if you make it.
Anyway, your next real destination is the house in the middle-right side of the
Plantation, hidden underground. Fall down to the little empty alcove above the
section with the door and press against the left wall to go through a false
block. Feel your way down to the door and go inside using the (automatic) pass
word written in Sue's Letter.
- HIDEOUT -
Talk to the lady in here who ends up being Momorin Sakamoto, the mother of Sue
and Kazuma. She's trying to build a rocket that will pass the Press barrier
barring entrance to the top of the island where the Doctor resides. To help
with building it she'll take your Booster, whether it's v0.8 or v2.0 makes no
difference, and give you a Mimiga mask in return so that you can finally talk
to the Mimiga around here--and also so you can get her a sprinkler with which
she can give the rocket the electric jolt it needs to get moving. After your
conversation, enter the door to the right to appear in the bottom level where
you can rest and save your game, then head out when you're done.
- PLANTATION -
You can now speak to all the Mimiga here. Doing so will earn you more of the
story revealed, from the Mimiga's innocent viewpoint. When you're done, head
back to the Rest Area between the sprinklers.
- REST AREA -
The Mimiga here have more interesting things to say, but the only one you need
to talk to is Megane, the one with glasses on the far left side. He looks over
all the sprinklers here, but so many of them break he's not going to give you
any of them unless you absolutely require a new one. Leave to go look for some
way to convince him.
- PLANTATIOn -
Jump up on the right ledge past the door then make a long leap to the left.
Climb up and talk to the Mimiga until you finally reach the one standing on top
of the highest point of the Plantation under the platforms. Talk to him and he
insists that you go trade his broken sprinkler for a new one. Examine the
nearby sprinkler to obtain it, then head again to the Rest Area.
- REST AREA -
Go talk to Megane to trade the broken sprinkler for a working one, then head
back out.
- PLANTATION -
You can go talk to the Mimiga that asked you to trade spinklers for him for a
bit more story dialogue, he won't actually take the new spinkler back. Head
back to Momorin's hideout with the working sprinkler in hand.
- HIDEOUT -
Hand the sprinkler over to Momorin and she'll send you on another mission, this
time to find a man named Itoh. If you recall, he's the easily frightened
Mimiga you met when you first entered the Storehouse from the Outer Wall. Go
rest and save again then get hopping.
- PLANTATION -
Just go to the east wall past the Orange Bell and enter the Storehouse on the
bottom right corner.
- STOREHOUSE -
Talk to Itoh and he'll give you a Controller to take to her in place of
actually going to help himself. Head back to the Plantation when you have it.
- PLANTATIOn -
..and back to the Hideout.
- HIDEOUT -
Hand Momorin the Controller. There's nothing you can do now but rest in the
bed in the bottom level of the Hideout until she's finished. Head back out the
top when you're awake.
- PLANTATION -
Looks like Itoh finally came out of his hiding place. Talk to Momorin to trade
back for your Booster, and Itoh if you want.
Now, before you just go flying off on your rocket, there's a couple things to
do first. Well, first off, you SHOULD activate the rocket, but JUMP OFF when
you reach the line of platforms high above that have the red skull signs all
hanging above them. Just wait for the rocket to come back down and try again
if you fail. There's a dog here, one of Jenka's dogs. Surprisingly, it can
speak, and it gives you both the final (non-bonus) Life Capsule for +5 Max HP
AS WELL AS another Life Pot if you used the one you got from Jenka before this
point. Now, if you didn't do EVERY SINGLE ONE of the following steps this play
through:
- Skipped the Booster v0.8
- Got the Tow Rope
- Took Curly from the Core Room
- Entered the Waterway shack and put Curly on the bed
- Read how to drain a waterlogged robot, and did this for Curly
- Took Curly back with you through the rest of the Waterway
- Got the Booster v2.0
then just go ahead and ride the rocket up again to the top. You'll reach the
Final Cave, and an easy version of it, at that. Otherwise, read on.
Go to the very bottom-right of the Plantation, to the entrance to the Store-
house. Now, head left, and soon you'll find a hole in the ground leading to a
small room. Unless you did every step listed above, this room will simply
contain a lone cthulhu with a bit of story dialogue. However, if you did
everything correctly, Curly will also be sitting ont he bed. Talk to her to
find she's suffering complete amnesia, even worse than she already had to begin
with. Talk to the cthulhu afterwards and he'll tell you that he's heard of a
type of mushroom that can help people recover lost memories. Now, where have
you seen mushrooms in this game before? Go all the way to the left of the area
past the lake and enter the Teleporter room again...
- TELEPORTER ROOM -
...and warp back to Arthur's House.
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Now, head to the top right of the village and to the Cemetary.
- CEMETARY -
Blow up the enemies if you want, your destination is the room on the top right.
You couldn't get here earlier, if you recall.
- STORAGE -
Even if you did come in this room before this point, or in a game in which you
had to leave Curly at the Core, this mushroom refused to talk to you. Now,
however, you have the ability to actually get it to listen to you. Talk to it
and select "Yes" when it asks if you have business with it.
When it asks if you want the Mushroom Badge, select "Yes".
When it asks if you really need it, select "No".
When it asks if you want it after all, select "Yes".
When it asks if you REALLY want it, select "Yes".
When it asks, once more, if you really need it, select "No".
So, Yes, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, No.
Finally, you'll receive the Mushroom Badge, a useless item. Talk to the mush-
room once more to cause it to become flustered and engage you in battle.
*******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: MA PIGNON *
*******************
As you'd expect, Ma Pignon isn't the most threatening boss, but it's actually
kind of surprisingly powerful if you're not careful. Basically, it'll just hop
around one side of the room four times, then on the fifth hop it'll glow with
energy and bullet directly to the opposite wall. During this time, it's
invincible, and when it hits the wall it'll cause several boulders to fall from
the ceiling, which are indestructible. It'll repeat this a few times, then
glow and bullet straight up into the ceiling. When it does this, it'll fall
along with about five clones of itself which are easy to defeat and drop items.
There's not a whole lot else to say about this battle. Just take out your
favorite weapon and chop down its pathetic HP meter.
* "I've... lost." - Ma Pignon *
If you win, you'll receive Ma Pignon as an item. Nothing to do but head back
out.
- CEMETARY -
But don't run back to the Plantation just yet! If you want the Nemesis hidden
weapon, there's something else you need to do while you're in the Cemetary.
Look around the central set of tombstones on the ground level. Just keep
examining them, as it's quite impossible to actually see what you're looking
for. You'll eventually get dialogue from a tiny, tiny man. This is the same
man that's been separated from his family in the Tiny House along the bottom of
the Outer Wall. Take Mister Little into your inventory and head back out.
(Wait... seriously. So we have two living, breathing little people in our bag,
a pair of panties, lipstick, keys for just about every locked door on the
entire island, all kinds of electronic gizmos, a stopwatch with no buttons, a
bunch of useless medals, jars of strange substances, a jetpack created by a
small man with a mohawk, a letter of desperation from a rabbit girl who's
actually supposed to be a human... This is the coolest inventory I've ever seen
in my life!)
- MIMIGA VILLAGE -
Now, heal and save at Arthur's House then teleport to the Egg Corridor.
- EGG CORRIDOR -
Make your way through here again. Refer to the above section in the walk-
through if for any reason you have trouble.
- EGG NO. 00 -
And head out the back. You may want to save at the Save Point just beyond this
egg room in case you were to fall on your attempt to reach the Little House.
- OUTER WALL -
Run past where Kazuma was and fall off the right ledge then immediately bost to
the left just under it. Watch out for the small hole halfway through this
hallway as you head to the house on the far left end.
- LITTLE HOUSE -
As soon as you open the door, Mister Little will let himself out of your pocket
and into his home. Talk to Mister Little and he'll offer to trade you his
'splendid' weapon for King's Blade. Now, this is actually a pretty difficult
decision. Not only is King's Blade a great weapon, easily the coolest-looking
in the game and has a load of sentimental value, the weapon Mister Little
offers you in return is easily one of the best weapons in the game, probably
only contended with by the Spur for that title. It really depends, but I'd say
to go ahead and trade away your Blade for the Nemesis. It's a truly awesome
weapon and has the best mix of power and rapid-firing in the game, and I don't
think King will mind. You used his Blade to valiantly tear up enough baddies
by this point that I'm sure you've done him proud.
Whatever your decition, it's time to go back to the Plantation when you're
done.
- OUTER WALL -
Go back and save in the Egg Corridor if you want, then repeat your ascent up
the wall.
(Note: If you're having trouble getting back over the ledge to the right of
the Littles' house without falling, try this. Just run and fall off the ledge
to the right and don't use your Booster at all until you're further right than
the right edge of the lip above, then boost straight up.)
Be sure to try out your new Nemesis if you got it; though it has the
same general "blow up things in front of you" quality as the Spur and Machine
Gun, its main benefit is its speed. It has incredible velocity and can be shot
quite rapidly, so in cases in which you really need to mash the shot button, it
can beat the Spur at its own game. Just remember the major unique aspect of
the Nemesis; it's by far the strongest if you keep it at Level 1. Levelling it
up costs 1 exp per level and it gets increasingly weak as it goes. Level 2's
still pretty good, but Level 3 shoots rubber ducks that more or less emulate
the Bubbline at Lv 1. Anyway, continue your ascent dodging yellow frogs and
sperm-cats (I had to) until you reach the top once again.
- STOREHOUSE -
Save and head out to the Plantation.
- PLANTATION -
Walk to the left and fall down into the hole again. Take Ma Pignon to Curly.
"Stuffed it into Curly's mouth", it says. Hahaha.
Afterward, you'll be rewarded with a bunch of storyline dialogue that actually
pertains to you and Curly for once, instead of just the Mimiga or humans. Oh,
and if you didn't know it already, you find out that your name's Quote. Talk
to Curly another couple times and she'll give you the Iron Band, a keepsake to
remember her by. As far as I remember, this is required for the secret final
area of the game, as it signifies you completed the entire Curly sidequest to
its completion.
When you're finished, at last, ride the rocket up all the way past the Press
deathtrap and to the next area.
--------------------------
- 2-08 The Final Battle -
--------------------------
- LAST CAVE -
This area will be rather different depending on if you have the Booster v0.8 or
the Booster v2.0. If you have the v0.8, it will be slightly challenging, but
nothing fancy; basically a small gauntlet of red Critters and Bats with spikes
all round, and though the enemies and spikes will likely level you down
considerably they will each only drop a single small power crystal so things
can get annoying. The top corridor is full of Presses which you can easily
avoid by simply running without stopping, and then you're homefree. This is
all I remember about this cave with the v0.8 as I haven't actually gone through
it like that in awhile, if you'll forgive me. I may write up the 'easy' Final
Cave in more detail in a future version.
- LAST CAVE (HIDDEN) -
Now, if you have the v2.0, it's time to get rockin' in the real, super-tough
"Hard" Final Cave. To begin with, unlike the "easy" version, a black wind will
blow through your body (makes me think of Magus from Chrono Trigger), resetting
all of your weapons to Level 1! Of course, having the Nemesis and/or Spur in
your posession makes this little trick pointless, but otherwise you're gonna be
in for a wild ride. Go to the right, past some Red Critters you'll find that
you're squeezed in between a spike-covered ceiling above and pools of deadly
lava below. There's a reason that you're only given access to this dungeon if
you have the Booster 2.0... it is REQUIRED. You'll have to make a low jump
then boost straight to the right between the spikes and lava. When you reach
the skinny, tall pool with the Critter inside, take out the nest of several
Critters to your right on the platform before continuing. Squeeze through the
spikes and grab the weapon energy capsule; I'd highly recommend levelling up
the Super Missile Launcher first and foremost. Jet past the next lava pool and
forget about even messing with the weapon energy capsule unless you have the
Snake. Boost up through the hearts above and land on the pillar to your right,
before climbing up to the next corridor.
(Note: You may also want to level up the Bubbline or Snake if you have it to
make the last section of this cave a bit easier)
Here, you'll be harassed constantly by a steady stream of red Bats that swerve
up and down while you head to the left; they never, ever stop spawning, so you
will have to deal. Grab the three hearts and boost up. Fall down the middle
of the shaft to the left and you can turn right to grab a weapon capsule. Up
and to the left are a couple more weapon capsules, then fall down and head left
past two more lava pools. Go up, left and down past the pillar with spikes, it
is slightly tricky but you'll get the hang of it. Just past is a set of three
hearts and another weapon capsule. Go up and turn around.
You'll come to two sets of spikes on the top and bottom of two tiny squeezes
set up so that you'll have to boost forward, up, and forward again just right.
This may seem hard to you but just wait 'til the bonus area; this cave is
actually the best practice you'll get for it. In the small room of spikes, go
right and up at the last moment. Try to get the heart above the pit here but
don't waste too much boost power as you'll need some to jolt right at the
bottom of this pit to avoid a spike. Go up, avoid three easy sets of spikes,
then you're at the hardest trap yet. You have to fall between two spikes, jet
forward before you hit the lava, between two more, then up between a final set
before boosting right to land safely. Whew. Don't sweat it if you take a hit
here, if you mess up just try again and consider it practice. There's another
weapon capsule here, then a super thin corridor of spikes before a huge room
in which no wall isn't infested with even more spikes. Luckily, there's a safe
platform in the middle at which you can steel yourself before you head high
straight up into the air; you'll barely have enough juice to make it. Get one
more weapon capsule to your right then head left and meet the boss. Yeah, this
version, unlike the easy version of the cave, has a boss to top it all off!
******************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: RED OGRE *
******************
This guy looks like a really pissed off Droll. Supposedly Arthur, the hero of
the Mimiga, fought this guy awhile back, but it looks like he's still around.
He'll repeat the same attack pattern, throwing three flailing appendages (the
same kind Drolls do) in a row, then leaping and throwing three more. They're
not hard to dodge and he's predictable, but the rate at which he keeps this up
can be tough to keep up with. There is no better advice I can give than to use
up all your missiles then switch to the Nemesis and give him all you've got (or
Blade, if you have that instead). His pattern never changes, and his HP isn't
that great, but after the long trek up here it's likely you'll be exhausted and
low on HP, so try to hang in there. Eventually you're sure to take him down.
* And thus, the demon plagues the island no more... *
He turns to stone and leaves behind a lot of weapon crystals and a treasure
chest. Open the chest to receive the Medal of the Red Ogre, signifying you
conquered the Hidden Last Cave and the Red Ogre atop it. Now, with a perfect
inventory, you should have all but one slot filled up, including a jar of Jelly
fish Joice and a Life Pot--but don't worry unless you're a completionist, as if
you're to this part you've proven yourself enough anyway.
Head left and take care of the Critters before you try to cross this treacher-
ous little section full of red acid dropping from the ceiling. Make sure you
know their pattern well before passing by. The next room's filled to the brim
with red Critters, but it's nothing fancy. After that you have a hallway of
Presses, like the end of the easy version of this area, with red Critters here
and there. Take care of the Critters from afar then just run at full speed to
avoid the Presses. Now, stop at the three-tile-long safe spot just before the
pools of lava. Take care of the Critters in the lava then... well, technically
this area's passable safely if you boost to the left, run across the platform
then boost again, but that's awfully risky considering all the stuff you just
went through without saving. Of course, there are a few weapons that can help
you out immensely here by taking out the rightmost Press so you can jump up in
the hole it left and safely remove all the remaining ones with any weapon you
choose. The Snake is of course the best option if you happen to own it, just
jump up past the wall to your right and shoot the Press until it dies. The
Bubbline is another fine option, if you happen to have it levelled up enough.
The Whimsical Star is great too if you have that, just equip it, charge your
Spur to MAX then keep jumping just to the right of the Press. Once you pass
this super-dangerous hall you're finally near the end--wath out, there are two
red Critters hiding in the very last lava pool. Once you're past them, you're
finally out of this difficult dungeon.
- BALCONY -
It's suddenly serenely calm, a start contrast of where you came from. Head to
the right, though, and you'll soon come face to face with a pair of Kulalas,
the rabit Mimiga miniboss from Bushtown. They fight just like they used to,
but have a lot more room to maneuver here; of course, your weaponry should take
them down quickly. Further east and you'll see the helicopter that originally
brought the Doctor, Sue and all the others here some time ago... and just
beyond it is a small house they probably used as a living quarters before the
whole mess started. Go inside.
- PREFAB HOUSE -
Here, you can rest in the bed to heal your wounds from the Last Cave, and save
your game. Examine the bookcase on the left to read a memo left by Professor
Booster. Reading this with the Booster v0.8 in your inventory makes it rather
heartfelt and is one of the reasons I'd suggest to just go with it on your
first playthrough; reading it with the Booster 2.0 is more like a hint towards
the fact that there's more of the island left undiscovered, a section that you
would need the 2.0 to even explore in the first place. Head out when you're
finished in here.
- BALCONY -
Now, heading further east, you'll come across a Kulala and an Igor-clone enemy
at the same time. This Igor fights just like the boss, has the same HP (300)
and is even faster. You may want to just fly past him, but if you have a
powerful weapon or max Super Missile ammo go ahead and dispatch him. Once you
reach the eastern edge of the area climb up towards the sky rather than going
through the entryway. You'l eventually come to a huge block of star blocks
with tons of hearts, missiles and weapon capsules all throughout. Use these to
replenish your missiles, any health you may've lost against Mimiga and level
up your weapons (your primary weapon, Super Missiles, and King's Blade if you
still have it being the most important). Go up and touch the clouds along the
top to be teleported back to the Prefab Building; keep entering and exiting the
building then coming back here if you need more missiles or weapon crystals,
and go back and save your game once you're fully prepared. After this, go
through the entry on the bottom right side that you skipped before.
- THRONE ROOM -
(Note: As of this room, you're going to be fighting a grand total of FOUR boss
battles in a row. If you're NOT planning to go for the secret bonus area--i.e.
you took the Booster v0.8 or didn't save Curly fully--make sure you use your
Life Pot when you reach low health, even if you're on an early boss. Staying
alive means you get more practice in, even if you don't think you'll be able to
slay all the bosses during that particular try, and more practice means a
better chance on all future attempts. If you DO have the Booster v2.0 and DID
completely save Curly, earning the Iron Band, do NOT use your Life Pot here!)
You may slightly recognize this room from the short intro video in which the
Doc finds the skeleton of the previous owner of the Demon Crown along with
Balrog and Misery in stasis. Go all the way to the right and you'll soon be
greeted by Misery. You've persued the bad guys all the way back to their home
base now, so there's nowhere for her to teleport you to or for her to run away
to herself; the only option left is to finally face you head-on. Get ready to
finally get the chance to get back at this witch for all the trouble she's
caused!
****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: MISERY *
****************
Misery is always floating around in the air, teleporting to change her position
around the room after every attack or so. She'll start by releasing a wave of
five black energy orbs toward you soon after the battle begins. She'll then
teleport and send three solid-looking orbs forward, which bob up and down as
they travel across the screen; this is one of her favorite tricks. Whenever
you run under the orbs they'll blast bolts of lightning toward the ground, but
as long as you don't stop under them you won't get hit. She'll keep repeating
these two attacks in tandem, but will also sometimes summon a huge block and
throw it at you--very powerful but easy to dodge.
She's completely vulnerable at all times, the tricky part's just hitting her
while she teleports around, often high above the ground, while dodging her
array of attacks. I would definitely suggest NOT wasting any missiles during
this battle; the Spur and Nemesis are fantastic if you have them, but otehrwise
just use your Machine Gun or Snake.
After she loses about 1/3 health she'll start summoning a couple black bubbles
that orbit around her parallel to each other each time she teleports. Not only
do these absorb all your attacks that don't pass between them, but the next
time she teleports after summoning them they'll turn into orange Bats--and then
she'll immediately summon two more as she finishes the teleport. These bats
aren't at all dangerous but can cause your decision-making to falter when you
add them to all the other stuff going on during this battle; they do drop
supplies, though!
When she's down to about 1/4th health, Misery will increase her defenses to a
total of FOUR bubbles, making her hard to hit with anything but the most
spammable weapons. She never gains any new attacks past those mentioned,
though, so as long as you keep your cool it's very possible to finish this
fight without taking a single hit, given some practice.
* DEFEATED MISERY! *
Of course, you aren't done yet. A set of blocks will form on the left side of
the screen after Misery runs off, leading you even further atop the island.
You'll also notice that the way back to the rest of the island has been sealed
off now, so you have nowhere to go but up.
- THE KING'S TABLE -
Cages and cages full of Mimiga. This must be where the Doctor plans to stuff
them full of Red Flowers against their will. Go right and you'll quickly find
the Doctor himself, who'll lecture you on the power of the Red Flower and on
the splendidness of his latest creation, a Red Crystal formed from the
concentrated essence of Red Flowers--which can even give a human unspeakable
strength. Finally, he offers to face you himself, now that you've come this
far...
********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: THE DOCTOR *
********************
Without fail, he begins the battle by sending blast of two red orbs with long
energy trails that snake around each other, forming wider and wider loops and
eventually blasting off toward either corner of the room. This is one of his
favorite attacks and he'll use it very often; the easiest way to dodge it is
to just try to move close to him and boost above it, though you can also wait
far away from it for it to split apart and run through. He'll then warp around
the room, like Misery, though he tends to stay on the ground. The Red Crystal
will annoyingly hover around him at all times and absorb attacks that hit it,
though with good aim this isn't too much of a problem. The good thing about
the Crystal is that every time the Doc teleports, the Crystal will stay at his
previous position and quickly fly to his new one, which tells you exactly where
he's going to appear next--useful both for attacking and getting ready to dodge
his next move.
The main thing to worry about here is that after every three normal attacks, on
the fourth teleport the Doctor will hang in the air for a second then release a
massive volley of red bubbles in all directions around him--which proceed to
bounce off all surfaces around the room and stick around for several seconds.
They're invincible and quite difficult to dodge, though paying attention to the
number of times he attacks so you can prepare yourself for the volley can help
you learn how and when to avoid them, along with practice. I've found that as
long as you find a safe place to avoid the initial release of them, they seem
slower and easier to predict as they bounce off surfaces--the main danger is
that the Doc never rests and will immediately start to teleport and attack you
with more dual red orbs, so be prepared for that.
He actually has really pathetic defenses beyond his attack-absorbing orbs and
Crystal, so if you keep at him he'll fal soon enough.
* But don't celebrate yet!! *
Without even a brief pause aside from a couple windows of dialogue, The Doctor
succumbs to the maddening power of the Red Crystal...
*************************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: MUSCLE DOCTOR *
*************************
Hey, that's what they call him in the ending.
Anyway, the Doc fights SLIGHTLY like he did before, teleporting here and there,
with the Red Crystal orbitting and shielding him--however, this time he doesn't
use impenetrable energy-based attacks but rather fights with brute force, and
doesn't teleport as often as before, preferring to dash and jump around. When
he does teleport, he tends to teleport high into the air in an attempt to drop
down and crush you, so be prepared to boost out of the way a lot. When he's on
the ground he tends to use a frenzied dash attack which is short-ranged and
easy to get out of the way of, but is very powerful. Sometimes, he'll stand
still and put his arms out in front of him, a sign that he's about to release
his Bat attack; he'll spray a massive cone of red Bats toward the other end of
the room which will bounce around the room for awhile until destroyed.
Anyway, when you're ready to actually attack him, his combination of
easy-to-avoid attacks and equally squeamish HP (somehow) as the initial fight
against him makes him a quick beatdown. The lack of attacks that absorb your
shot and the fact that his more massive stature keeps the Red Crystal from
being able to guard him as well means he will fall even faster.
* DEFEATED THE DOCTOR! *
Now you can have a moment to rest, and talk to the Mimigas if you like. Chako
is actually the only one with 'worthwhile' dialogue, though I always found it
funny that Santa doesn't seem to really care much for what's going on, and
actually seems more concerned as to if you remember him or not. Aww.
Talk to Chako multiple times and she'll eventually mention Arthur, at which
point the generic Mimiga all around the upper cages will heavily blush and
hearts will form over their heads (Arthur must have really been something!).
These hearts are actually the pickup item that can heal you, so collect them!
When you feel ready, go up once more to the highest point on the entire island
and prepare for the final (non-bonus) battle.
- BLACK SPACE -
Enter here and you'll see some familiar objects... pieces of the Core that the
Doc had sent here so he could try and revive it. Walk to the right to meet up
with Misery once more, who, acknowledging that she cannot defeat you in combat,
tries to use Sue as a hostage to keep you from messing things up even further.
Past a bit of dialogue we learn that the Doc has in fact transcended mortality
with the help of his Red Crystal and, in the blink of an eye, transforms Misery
into a brainless skeletal being and Sue into a super-powerful enraged Mimiga-
Human hybrid. He then proceeds to posess the remains of the Core in a final
bid to rid the world of you forever. Get ready!
*********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: UNDEAD CORE *
*********************
Rockin' final battle tunes aside, you've got your hands full in this fight--
Misery, Sue and the Undead Core are all separate enemies with tons of health
each that simultaneously try and put an end to you. To begin with, I'd focus
all my firepower on Sue. She's fast and powerful, bouncing around all over the
place, and unlike Misery she doesn't produce enemies which can be slaughtered
for items. I'd save the Core for last, maybe hurt it here and there when it's
just asking for it, though you may want to keep Misery in the fray the entire
battle since as mentioned before she can indirectly give you health, ammo and
weapon crystals.
Move to the left side of the arena and lure Sue, who'll try to attack you with
various dashes and spinning attacks. These hurt, but can be easily enough
avoided without having to worry about the attacks of the other bosses. There
will be small attacks from the others that reach across the screen and mini-
core segments that will harmlessly weave by you and act as platforms, but
as long as you focus all your attacks on Sue and don't take too long it should
be easy pickings. Even if you do get interrupted by the other enemies, focus
everything you can on Sue until she falls.
Now, by this point Misery has probably al ready summoned a legion of orange
Critters; destroy them for pickups, then you have two options. Either focus
everything you've got on dealing with Misery so you can spend the rest of the
fight with nothing to worry about but the Undead Core itself, or keep Misery
around so you can keep getting more ammo and health from her summons-- though
this option will make things VERY FRANTIC, for some players it's preferred. It
really just depends on how you play, and what you think is the better option.
Personally, I feel that if you're NOT going for the bonus area and still have
your Life Pot, just use it here if you get low on health and destroy Misery,
it'll make things much smoother. If you've already used your Life Pot or are
going for the bonus area, keep her around at least long enough to fully heal
yourself and restore all your Super Missiles, attacking the Core in between,
then killing her off and focussing on the Core completely.
Whenever you ARE ready for the Core, switch immediately to your Super Missiles,
of which you should definitely have 30 from Misery's Critters. In some ways,
this could be considered less annoying than the battle against the normal,
living Core earlier, as the mini-cores are really no problem at all and can
even be helpful; an infinite supply of them will constantly be moving from the
right side of the area to the left that are harmless and can be used as plat-
forms to easily get within shooting range of the Undead Core's face, and the
little eyeball mini-cores orbitting the main one are in the background so they
won't impede your attacks against the Core. Now, the Undead Core will show one
of three faces every time it opens up; the 'default' skull face you saw when
the battle began will shoot bombs toward the top and bottom of the screen which
explode ont he floor/roof and sand shockwaves all the way across the area.
These can be easily avoided by just riding on the mini-cores or standing on the
platform on the left. When the big toothy grin appears, the mini-cores in the
background near the main Core will open up and shoot several spinning firebals
straight forward, which absorb attacks. When the open mouth appears--usually
later in the battle--you need to get as low as possible as it will launch
several huge laser blasts that are extremely dangerous. This is basically its
entire attack pattern.
The core will close back up after receiving a set amount of damage, this is
especially worth remembering when you see the open mouth as if you launch
enough Level 3 Super Missiles it will do huge damage and also cause it to close
back up before it obliterates you. Super Missiles are definitely the weapon of
choice here and with a full ammo count you should be able to either completely
or very nearly destroy the Core, though the Spur is another fantastic weapon,
and any long-ranged weapon like the Nemesis, Machine Gun or Snake Lv 3 are also
fine options. Keep at it and you'll win.
* DEFEATED UNDEAD CORE! *
Now, if you have the Booster v0.8 and/or don't own the Iron Band, this is the
end of the game. Just run back to the beginning of the Balcony and make a leap
toward the left edge of the screen from the angel statue. This is a great
ending, definitely worth seeing even if you happen to be on the right track for
the bonus area but haven't seen it yet.
Anyway, elsewise, just follow Sue until you get to the Prefab House again, then
go in. The door will only open if you meet all the requirements for this final
area.
- PREFAB HOUSE -
Save your game. The bookcase on the left side now serves as a means to 'reset'
your adventure back to before you entered the house in case you want to see the
normal ending, if this area's too hard for you... but that's not what you went
through all the trouble of getting this far for, right?! Drop down the hole
when you've prepared yourself!
--------------------------
- 2-09 Welcome to Hell! -
--------------------------
(Now, if you still have your Life Pot after all this, do not at all be afraid
to use it at any point you need it down here--don't try to save it for the boss
until you know you'll be able to REACH the boss. Using it to save you from
death on the way to the end means you'll have a much better chance of getting
further into the Sanctuary, which means more practice, which means better
chances next time.)
- BLOOD-STAINED SANCTUARY: B1 -
Known in the PC version of the game as the Sacred Grounds, this pit of Hell
(hey, even the sign calls it that!) is by far the most difficult and dangerous
area in all of Cave Story. There are no Refill Terminals, no save points, no
beds to rest in, nothing like that. It's a test of your wits and reflexes, and
those who survive it are treated to the last chunk of story in the game,
detailing the origin of the Island and why it came to be in the first place, as
well as the true overlord of it--the creator of the Demon Crown and the most
powerful warlock in all history, Ballos!
As you fall down, you'll get hit by another 'black wind' just like in the
hidden version of the Last Cave; your weapons will drop to Level 1, though
again, if you have the Nemesis and/or Spur this matters not though you will
still want to level up the Super Missile Launcher for sure. In addition, the
290 counter will activate if you got it earlier--this area's what it was made
for, to test your speed at defeating the Sanctuary, though by no means should
you worry about beating it *fast* before you can beat it *at all*.
Immediately you're met with a hilariously difficult instant death spike trap.
Falling down the initial area is easy enough, but you'll have to turn right,
then boost high up before you're out of the woods--you'll have to use your
Booster juice really perfectly to do this. Expect to die a few times. If you
really have a lot of trouble, you can forcibly land on one of the smaller
spikes to simply take damage without actually dying, and refuel your Booster,
but this CAN be done without touching a single spike; it just takes practice.
Once you complete this obstacle you'll be greeted with some dialogue out of
nowhere--this happens throughout the Sanctuary and explains everything about
the story of Ballos; I won't spoil it here, as it's worth it to experience it
yourself, being told to you in bits and pieces as sort of 'rewards' for
reaching deeper and deeper points of the Sanctuary.
Once you've read it, grab the weapon energy capsules and fall to the safe plat-
form. Now, you'll want to boost left past all the spikes, but try and leap and
push left on your own as much as you can and only use just enough boost power
to scape by the leftmost spike, as after you drop down a bit (past a ton of
camouflaged wepaon capsules if you wanna grab them) you'll need to boost right
and into a small alcove if you expect to live. In this alcove is conveniently
placed a Life Capsule, the bonus capsule of the game that should bring your
health total to 55 if you collected all the rest, with +5 HP. Now drop and
boost to the right to find Curly, who seems to have found and attempted to
venture into this area herself, but has been bested. Using the Tow Rope you'll
attach her to your back, and continue on.
- BLOOD-STAINED SANCTUARY: B2 -
In here you'll meet a new type of enemy, a tiny angel type of creature called
a Bute. They'll quickly swarm behind you and follow/divebomb you like faster
versions of the Stumpy dragonflies from the Plantation. You can easily destroy
them; they drop and squirm a moment before exploding into pickups, though, like
Gaudis, and it may be a better idea to simply boost as fast as you can to the
right and avoid the falling debris, only destroying the Butes that get in your
way.
Note that all the dialogue boxes that pop up won't do so on subsequent entries
into the Sanctuary unless you reset the game, so don't worry about having to
read them all.
- BLOOD-STAINED SANCTUARY: B3 -
The screen may be quaking and the 290 Counter may still be ticking, but this is
actually an area in which you can take all the time in the world if you need
to--and it's advisable you do so until you're good enough at the Sanctuary to
speed it up.
Just to your right are a couple hearts, and to your left is a new type of Bute
which doesn't fly but rather runs and bounces around the ground, trying to
attack you with a sword; they're fast but just as easy to dispatch as the
flying variety. BE MINDFUL of the Presses here; don't dare go too fast until
you've memorized where they all are, as they can easily and quickly end your
journey even far into the Sanctuary.
Now, you may also notice that around this time Curly will snap out of it and
wake up, but she stays on your back; she's now equipped with the Nemesis and it
will never level past 1 with her, meaning it stays at peak strength. She
shoots in the opposite directoin as you when you shoot, except when you aim
upwards from the ground, in which case she'll shoot with you in tandem. This
is important to remember--and yes, you can use your Nemesis at the same time.
Head left and you'll face a third type of Bute, this one sits still on a plat-
form and shoots arrows in an arc. Up past this you'll fight a Mesa, a large
bulky angel that attacks by lobbing shot-absorbing blocks forward over and over
... they can be annoying if you're trying for a good time, but otherwise just
keep your distance and play it safe and they're quite easy to deal with. Past
this you'll find another Mesa behind two sword-Butes, these will stay still
until you get close to them and you'll notice that in this stance they block
all shots with their sword, so you'll have to lure them without being hit by
the Mesa to even be able to destroy them OR the Mesa. On the wall behind them
is a Delete, which is basically an eyeball that sits on walls until disturbed
then performs a countdown from 5 just like the Counter Bomb you met in the Egg
Corridor and explodes, though the explosion has a tiny range and even helps you
by removing the wall the Delete was stationed on. These guys really only
exist to make you angry if you're attempting a low time.
Past the Delete you'll be assaulted by a pair of arrow Butes, then you have to
turn right, pass through some star blocks and activate another Delete. The top
right star blocks hide hearts, but some of the bottom row are concealing spike
traps. After the Delete blows up, a bunch of flying Butes will swarm down from
the ceiling behind you. Below is another hall with a Delete at the end, this
one protected by Rollings, invincible eyeballs that roll around a rectangular
path which they stick to forever even if it means going through midair. Past
the bottom Delete, head left and watch out for the army of arrow Butes on
either side. There are a pair of Mesas on the far left, but ignore them unless
you TRULY need the hearts they're guarding; behind them is nothing but a death
trap. Your goal is the top of the stairs with arrow Butes, with a Delete on
top.
Head through here and try to fall between the rain of arrows and rocks. A
mass of flying Butes will, again, drop down behind you as you go through here.
Ignore the hearts to your right until after you've activated the Delete to your
left on the bottom. Go left to the pillar with three Deletes; a bunch of
flying Butes will pop up through the spikes behind you as you wait for any or
all of the Deletes to explode, though the top one should be your path of
choice. The room beyond is filled with hyperactive flying Butes, and there are
a couple of arrow Butes playing sentry on either side of a hanging platform
that you'll want to destroy as you boost before you land there. Open the star
block above this platform, and get the chest it reveals: it contains the bonus
Missile Expansion, which almost DOUBLES you max Missiles, giving you a set of
24 and bringing your total to a massive 54 Mssiles! None too soon, as you're
about to fight an onslaught of the true final bosses in the game at this point.
Drop down and activate the Deletes, fighting off the horde of flying Butes that
pop up from the ground as you wait, then head west. There's a curious-looking
object in the ceiling here, and it looks like it's the end of the line...
*********************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: HEAVY PRESS *
*********************
The wall will close behind you and a pair of Rollings will spawn, which roll
along the bottom of the room for the duration of the fight. The Heavy Press
will start to charge up its bottom-middle section then release a powerful
lightning bolt, so even though this section is its only weak point you'll want
to move when the bolt crashes down. Flying Butes will neverendingly pour out
of either side of the room during the whole battle, so unless you're hell-bent
on harvesting them for supplies my advice would be to try and finish the fight
as soon as possible, before things get overwhelming.
There's an extremely simple and fast way to win this--if you have the Nemesis,
just stand directly under the center of the Heavy Press and shoot upwards,
only jumping when you must, as only when you're on the ground will Curly shoot
at the same time as you. The barrage of Nemesis shots from both robots will
end the boss very quickly and painlessly. If you don't have the Nemesis, just
use your main weapon (Spur, Snake or Machine Gun) and shoot rapidly up into
the Press, causing Curly to hit it with the Nemesis at the same time.
As you damage the Heavy Press, more and more of it will become revealed. Your
goal is to reveal it completely (upon depleting its health meter) at which time
it will open its eye and crash through the ground, revealing the way onward.
As SOON as you deplete the boss's health, run for cover on either side of the
screen, or it will kill you.
* DEFEATED... er... caused the Heavy Press to fall! *
Follow it.
- PASSAGE? -
You should remember this room from the east of the Plantation... the top doors
connect the Plantation to the Statue Chamber. You can't go back to the
Plantation, but you are free to enter the Statue Chamber.
- STATUE CHAMBER -
The statue maker's gone now, and the Doctor's statue is finally complete. You
can view it to learn his real name, "Date Fuyuhiko". Now, you can actually
blow up each of these statues to reveal a 20 EXP weapon energy crystal inside
each and 're-chisel' them into the characters Quote, Toroko, King and Curly.
Leave when you're done.
- PASSAGE? -
Now take the bottom-right door.
- CORRIDOR -
Run east, there's nothing dangerous here. You'll find the ghost of a
presumably long-dead dog that looks just like the ones Jenka takes care of. It
was owned by Ballos long ago and begs you to end his master's suffering. Go to
the far right and enter the door.
- SEAL CHAMBER -
You fall in between two sets of spikes, in a large room covered with skeletons.
Go right and be welcomed by the lord of the Island, the ancient wizard Ballos.
After some dialogue, your inevitable battle will begin.
****************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALLOS *
****************
Ballos will dash forward, rise up into the air, dash in the opposite direction,
then stomp into the ground--all in an attempt to ram you. He only stops and
changes direction during this attack when he intercepts you at parallel. Upon
landing, a pair of shockwaves will emit from wherever Ballos hit the ground,
which will travel all the way until they hit the wall. After waiting a brief
time, Ballos will repeat this. Sometimes after a shockwave, Ballos will float
up into the air then proceed to rain down eight fast lightning bolts--you may
want to shoot him as he hangs in the air, but you'll have to keep moving if you
don't want to take heavy damage. After the eighth bolt lands, he'll summon a
slew of bolts simultaneously, but just before they strike you'll see flashing
circles all around the room denoting where the lightning's about to strike.
Curly is indespensable here. You'll be running from him most the time on the
ground, but with her on your back you can still greatly damage him--and when he
is in the air you can doubleteam him. Just keep shooting and he will... well,
get stronger, of course!
***************************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALLOS, PHASE TWO *
***************************
Ballos transforms into a giant boulder-like monstrosity bearing the image of
his face. Basically it'll just jump back and forth, sending bone shockwaves
across the room every time it lands. Green devils flood the top of the room at
all times--they can be destroyed for supplies, and you can safely step atop
Ballos' head to collect them. It's a good idea to try your best and resupply
as much as you can at this point, because this is the easiest of the battles
yet to come.
When you're ready to attack, Ballos' eyes are his weak points. It's possible
to stand within his eyelid without taking damage and hammer him with everything
you've got. You may want to start expending your Super Missile cache here, as
all forms of this boulder-headed Ballos take severe damage from point-blank Lv
3 Super Missiles right in the eye.
Keep damaging him then killing the Green Devils to replenish your health and
ammo. As long as you're not trying to go for a fast time, make sure you've
got 54 missiles by the time you defeat him to make the further battles easier.
*****************************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALLOS, PHASE THREE *
*****************************
The final boss tune will start to play as Ballos summons a ring of spiked eye-
balls around himself. He'll hover around the entier room in a clockwise
fashion. When he's going left to right along the top of the room, he'll drop
skulls toward the ground at regular intervals that are far apart, making them
quite easy to avoid. However, the real trouble starts when he comes back down
and moves right to left across the bottom of the room. He performs no actual
attacks here but the eyeballs orbitting around him will do really severe damage
to you if you touch one. What you have to do to avoid them is actually to
stand under him and between the eyeballs; since they actually orbit counter-
clockwise, the key is to run up close to one as he moves toward you and keep as
close to it as possible while running under him, not allowing the eyeball
behind it to catch up to you.
The key here is just to destroy each eye until it closes, rendering it
invincible. If you have a high stock of missiles here you can use some; you
shouldn't need more than 20-30 I would think by the end of this form. If you
start running low, switch to your favorite non-Nemesis weapon... the Nemesis is
fine as far as damage goes but the Green Devils across the top of the room will
constantly rain down power crystals if you shoot up there which can ruin your
Nemesis, and you don't want to *have* to take damage now. Once each eye is
closed, he'll keep moving--without attacking--until he's on the right edge of
the screen, so don't worry when he doesn't instantly shift forms.
****************************
* WARNING *
* BOSS: BALLOS, PHASE FOUR *
****************************
Here we are... the very last phase of the very last boss. Ballos will hover in
the air, and a set of platforms will form around him--beyond the eyes he formed
last phase--which you should immediately stand on for safety. It'll sound
like an earthquake as all the walls and floor of the entire room become covered
in long impaling spears, so that the only truly safe spot to stand is on the
platforms that hover close to Ballos himself. The Green Devils along the top
of the room will go away, but they'll quickly be replaced by legions of red-
faced Butes that act as a combination of the flying Butes and the arrow Butes
from earlier in the Sanctuary--these guys will fly all around the sides of the
arena and fling arrows which are annoying but not as deadly as the ones you met
earlier. They do drop supplies, too, and instantly instead of wriggling on the
ground like the Butes you met before, though it's harder to actually collect
the supplies than it was with the Green Devils.
A great tip is that the spears all around the room actually cause tiny damage,
1 damage to be exact, so if it looks like you're going to get hit or you need
to collect some crystals or something it can actually be to your best interest
to stand in the spears.
Ballos himself will appear to be crumbling apart in this form, with various
cracks and crevices in his face torn away to reveal bloody red skeletons. This
time, his whole face is vulnerable to attack instead of just his eyes, but the
eyeballs orbitting him can absorb your attacks. Luckily, some of the eyes have
re-opened after the third phase and can be damaged again--this time destroying
them for good. Sometimes, Ballos will send an eyeball to the ground, which
will bounce around and is quite dangerous, but generally not an immediate
threat as long as you stay on the floating platforms.
Basically, he's very easy to attack in this phase since all you have to worry
about absorbing your attacks is the closed eyeballs. If you have any Super
Missiles left at all, exhaust them immediately--if you've saved up enough
(about 20-30 is an educated guess for how much it'll take, though it depends on
your accuracy) you should be able to obliterate Ballos with them. otherwise,
by far the most powerful weapon here is the Spur. Charged up to Level 3 or MAX
it will pass through the open eyeballs, and deals very heavy damage to Ballos.
The only thing to worry about when using the Spur is that you have to shoot
quickly rather than charging up to cause Curly to take care of the Butes behind
you, but if you don't care about taking hits it's much more to your advantage
to use it anyway. The Nemesis is another fine option, as you no longer really
have to worry about weapon crystals landing on you, and if none of these
options are avilable the Blade is a good fallback--Level 3 should wreak havoc
on both Ballos and the eyes, whichever you hit with it.
With perserverance, you will eventually come out on top, having destroyed all
four of Ballos' health bars and finally bringing him the sweet release of death
he and all those close to him have been begging you to give to him.
* ALL CLEAR! DEFEATED BALLOS, AND FINISHED THE GAME! *
Now, it'll look like you might have to make one more run before the game's
finally over, but worry not. Read the dialogue and you will be saved without
having to lift a finger before viewing the ending--the BEST ending, the one you
have earned. Sit back and enjoy! You've conquerred Cave Story!
Now, how good a time can you get running Hell?
=============================
= III) Extended Information =
=============================
---------------------------
- 3-01 Weapons and Items -
---------------------------
Note that many weapons are hidden or optional, and some weapons may only be
obtained if you haven't already obtained certain other weapons in the current
playthrough of the game; don't worry about these until you've finished the game
at least once, and go with what you get as you get it. That way, you'll be
able to experience all the different weapons and be able to decide which you'll
want to keep and which you'll want to skip for others.
(THIS SECTION CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
** WEAPONS **
You can find a wide variety of different weapons throughout your adventure.
Collect Energy Crystals dropped my enemies and you can level your weapons up,
causing them (in most cases, anyway) to become more powerful--and usually in
more ways than just damage-wise.
- Polar Star
L1 > L2: 10 EXP
L2 > L3: 20 EXP
L3 > MAX: 10 EXP
You find this weapon at the very beginning of the game. It's not the strongest
weapon, but it's definitely one of the easiest to use and useful in a wide
variety of situations. Keep it when Curly asks you to trade in the Sand Zone
if you want the Snake or Spur weapons later.
Level 1: A small, fairly short-ranged, very weak thin shot. On the bright
side, it's quite rapid-firing. 1 damage.
Level 2: A pair of thin shots at once which are stronger and have a longer
range. 2 damage.
Level 3: A large shot that's even more powerful and longer-ranged. It's
actually a bit less rapid than Level 1 or 2 of the Polar Star; you can only
have up to two shots onscreen at a time. 4 damage.
- Machine Gun
L1 > L2: 30 EXP
L2 > L3: 40 EXP
L3 > MAX: 10 EXP
Given to you by Curly Brace if you trade her the Polar Star. Keep the Polar
Star when she asks you by choosing "No" if you want the Snake or Spur later in
the game. The Machine Gun is still an excellent weapon, though, and perfect
for your first time through the game as it's not only the easiest Polar Star
trade-off weapon to obtain but Level 3 allows you to float upwards in the
air as long as you have ammo, vastly increasing your mobility. It has an ammo
count of 100 but auto-recharges, and the recharge rate vastly skyrockets once
you get the Turbocharge key item which only works with the Machine Gun.
Level 1: Small shots in a slight spread that shoot rapidly as you hold the
shot button down. 2 damage.
Level 2: Long, more powerful shots, otherwise identical to Level 1. 4 damage.
Level 3: Fat, powerful shots. Hold down and shoot in the air to float upward
while holding down the fire button. 6 damage.
- Snake
L1 > L2: 30 EXP
L2 > L3: 40 EXP
L3 > MAX: 16 EXP
Obtained by keeping the Polar Star when Curly asks you to trade and then giving
both the Polar Star and Fireball weapons to Chaba (the Gaudi shopkeep in the
Labyrinth) when you reach him. It's unique in that it's the only weapon in the
game capable of passing through walls. It's very similar to the Wave Beam in
early Metroid games.
Level 1: Very rapid, powerful and can pass through walls, but very short range.
4 damage.
Level 2: Longer ranged and more powerful. 6 damage.
Level 3: Even longer ranged and even more powerful. Only four can be onscreen
at a time. 8 damage.
- Spur
L1 > L2: About 0.5 seconds
L2 > L3: About 1 second
L3 > MAX: About 3 seconds
Unique weapon considered by many to be the ultimate weapon in the game, and it
probably should be considering how long you have to keep the Polar Star if you
want this. You'll need to get the Booster 2.0 and fly back into the very first
area of the game--before the Mimiga Village--and revisit the hermit weaponsmith
with your original Polar Star to earn the Spur. Instead of levelling up
through crystals, it "gains levels" the longer you keep the shot button held
down, and is the only weapon that has a different effect at MAX level compared
to Level 3.
Level 1: Identical to Polar Star Level 3 but can be shot with the same rapidity
as Polar Star level 1 and 2. 4 damage.
Level 2: Releases a thin laser beam that reaches across the screen and pierces
enemies that it's able to destroy. 15 damage.
Level 3: A twin beam that pierces enemies. 50 damage.
MAX: A wide beam that pierces almost anything. 50+ damage depending on how
long it's able to continually penetrate the enemy.
- Missile Launcher
L1 > L2: 10 EXP
L2 > L3: 20 EXP
L3 > MAX: 10 EXP
You recieve this early in the game, in the Egg Corridor. It's the only weapon
with limited ammo that doesn't automatically replenish, but it's also very
powerful. Easy to use, mostly works like a longer-ranged and more powerful
version of the Polar Star.
Level 1: Shoots a small missile forward. The impact explosion causes splash
damage (damage to an area). 8 damage.
Level 2: A very fat missile. 15 damage.
Level 3: A volley of three missiles. It only takes one ammo per shot, even
though you get three missiles. 8 damage (24 total).
- Super Missile Launcher
L1 > L2: 30 EXP
L2 > L3: 60 EXP
L3 > MAX: 10 EXP
Found in the Boulder Chamber, this is an upgrade to your Missile Launcher which
basically makes every aspect of it better, though it takes a bit more EXP to
level up. Besides raw damage, the most noticeable upgrade from the standard
Missile Launcher is the velocity of the missiles, or the speed at which they
travel across the screen. Also, the missiles launched by this weapon are gold
in color.
Level 1: Identical to Missile Launcher Level 1, with but with more velocity and
damage. 20 damage.
Level 2: Another fat missile. 28 damage.
Level 3: Identical to Missile Launcher Level 3, but with a massive boost in
velocity and damage. 14 damage (42 total).
- Fireball
L1 > L2: 10 EXP
L2 > L3: 20 EXP
L3 > MAX: 20 EXP
Given to you by Santa (the Mimiga with a strange name, not the Christmas guy)
in the Bushlands for helping him get back into his house. This can be a decent
alternative to the Polar Star or Machine Gun early in the game, as it's the
only weapon other than the Polar Star you'll find with truly unlimited ammo for
awhile. It shoots balls of plasma that bounce around along the ground, great
for grounded enemies and for use around slopes, and its rapidity mixed with its
good power for its point in the game makes it good against many bosses.
Level 1: A small fireball, up to two onscreen at once. 2 damage.
Level 2: A more fancy-looking fireball with a trail. Up to three onscreen at
once. 6 damage.
Level 3: White-hot fireballs that move faster. Up to four onscreen at once. 6
damage.
- Bubbline (aka Bubbler)
L1 > L2: 10 EXP
L2 > L3: 20 EXP
L3 > MAX: 5 EXP
A very unique hidden weapon obtainable by taking a Jelly Juice jar back to the
assembly hall in Mimiga Village and putting out the fireplace there. It's
called the Bubbler in the English fan-translation of the PC version of Cave
Story. It has a lot of potential use at Level 3 but is otherwise pretty under-
whelming. It has an ammo supply of 100 which regenerates on its own slowly.
Level 1: Shoots very short-ranged small bubbles forward. Up to four onscreen
at once. Extremely slow ammo regeneration. 1 damage.
Level 2: Rapid-fire bubbles, longer-ranged, more powerful, and they spread out
quite a bit. Much faster ammo regeneration. 2 damage.
Level 3: Now, this is where things get interesting. Holding the fire button
will release a barrage of white bubbles which will float around you, such that
keeping them at capacity (holding down the button) will create a makeshift
barrier. After a few seconds they'll pop and send out a small bolt of
electricity which travels straight across the screen wherever you're facing.
Releasing the fire button at any time will cause all bubbles to simultaneously
pop and release bolts. This can be used as either a shield weapon or a unique
projectile. 3 damage (up to 45 total if you can hit an enemy with all 15 bolts
simultaneously).
- Blade
L1 > L2: 30 EXP
L2 > L3: 60 EXP
L3 > MAX: 0 EXP
Very powerful weapon given to you by King at a certain point in the story. Its
rapidity is very low (except for rapid releases of Level 1 or 2 shots in a
strong enemy or boss's face) and it has a short range, but the damage is huge
and it has infinite ammo.
Level 1: Throws a small spinning blade forward. Only one onscreen at a time.
15 damage.
Level 2: Throws a large sword forward. Much shorter range than level 1, and
still only one onscreen at a time. This level is unique in that it is
potentially one of the most powerful--if not THE most powerful--weapon in the
entire game if used correctly. Against powerful enemies or bosses, if you're
skilled enough to get close enough to use this you can launch it extremely
rapidly as you can immediately throw another once it dissipates upon hitting
the enemy or boss. 18 damage.
Level 3: Launches a spirit of King imbued within the sword. The spirit will
dash forward, creating a myriad of slashes all around himself until he
disappears halfway across the screen or hits something. If he comes in contact
with an enemy or projectile, he'll stop and let loose a huge area-effect of
slashes all over the place. Though Level 2 is potentially more powerful, Level
3 is much safer and easier to use, much better for normal/smaller enemies and
can deal a huge amount of damage to large boss enemies that take hits from as
many of the smaller slashes as possible. Since MAX is 0 exp from Level 3, this
weapon will always level down if you take any damage. The damage from the
weapon is very random depending on how many and what type of energies from the
weapon hit an enemy.
- Nemesis
L1 > L2: 1 EXP
L2 > L3: 1 EXP
L3 > MAX: 0 EXP
Special weapon of great strength that can be obtained by trading King's Blade
to Mister Little. The weapon is unique in that levelling it up outright causes
it to weaken in every possible way, and it only takes 1 exp to level it up both
levels. Luckily, this also means that taking a hit from just about anything
will guarantee resetting it to Level 1, at which point it's at its strongest.
Overall, it's probably a more similar weapon to the Polar Star than anything
else, even the weapons that you actually trade the Polar Star for. Infinite
ammo.
Level 1: Shoots a large bolt of lightning forward that has great range, great
velocity and great damage. Only two onscreen at once, but the velocity is so
great that you can generally shoot it very rapidly regardless. Did I mention
it pierces? 12 damage.
Level 2: Probalby the hardest specific level of any weapon in the game to
attain. I kind of wish this were more powerful than Level 1 given how
difficult it'd be to keep the weapon at this level, but it's not the case.
Basically a slower, weaker version of Level 1, but still could be likened to a
"Polar Star Level 4" if there were such a thing. 6 damage.
Level 3: This would make a great weapon for a challenge run through the game,
it's too bad you couldn't possibly have it until very far in the story. It
launches rubber ducks that travel extremely slowly, it's worse in every way
than the Polar Star Level 1 except for equal damage. 1 damage.
** KEY ITEMS **
- Map System
Allows you to press the - Button on the Wii Remote to bring up a map of the
room you're in. The map is tiny, doesn't show your current position and has a
strange graphical glitch that makes the rightmost section of mose large areas
unviewable, so it's of very little use except collectibility.
- Silver Locket
An item found in the fishing hole to the west of Mimiga Village. It triggers
an event in the warehouse at the bottom right of the village.
- Arthur's Key
Found at Arthur's grave in the Cemetary. Use it to access Arthur's house, at
the bottom-left of Mimiga Village.
- ID Card
Found in Egg #06 in the Egg Corridor. Use it in Egg #01 to open the barrier to
the eastern edge of the Corridor.
- Santa's Key
The key to Santa's house that he dropped to the east in the Bushlands.
- Rusty Key
A key Kazuma found in the room he's stuck in. Gives access to the Power
Control Room in the Bushlands.
- Gum Key
Another key conviniently located in Kazuma's captivity room. It opens up the
gum room in the very upper-right corner of the Bushlands.
- Jellyfish Juice
A jar full of juice that you can find by defeating the huge jellyfish stuck in
the ceiling a bit east of Santa's house that only appears after talking to
Chako. Use it to put out fireplace fires; it's also one of three components
needed to create a bomb. It's the only Key Item you can receive more than
once, but you may only carry one at a time.
- Chako's Rouge
Some red lipstick. Obtained by examining Chako's fireplace before you obtain
Jellyfish Jelly, causing her to walk up to you and explain some things, and
then sleeping in her bed while she's standing there. It has no use, other than
proof that you really, really, REALLY like Mimigas, you scoundrel.
- Charcoal
A lump of charcoal found by putting out the fireplace in Santa's house. It's
one of three components needed to create a bomb.
- Gum Base
A stick of chewing gum found in the room in the very top-right corner of the
Bushlands. It's one of three components needed to create a bomb.
- Bomb
A bomb crafted by Malco, in the Power Generator Room of the Bushlands. Use it
to blow open the door of the building Kazuma's trapped inside.
- Curly's Panties
Found in a hidden alcove behind the wall in the bedroom of Curly Brace's house
in the Sand Zone. They have no use, other than proof that you really, really,
REALLY like robots. If you own both this and Chako's Rouge, you are officially
the most envied man in Cave Story! Okay, I made that up.
- Hajime
A dog that stays in Curly Brace's bedroom in the Sand Zone. One of Jenka's
five missing dogs. He's the leader of the bunch.. or so he claims.
Arf!
- Mick
One of Jenka's dogs. He's supposedly an adept treasure hunter, and loves to
sleep in treasure chests. What he does with the contents is anyone's guess.
Found in a chest at the end of a hidden path between the Sun Stones and Jenka's
house.
Woof woof!
- Shinobu
Another of Jenka's dogs. He has poor vision so he prefers to stay in dark
places. Found in an abandoned house at the end of a hidden road that begins in
a false ceiling along the path to the Sand Zone warehouse.
Bow wow wow!
- Kakeru
Yet another dog of Jenka's. He loves bones and has buried them all over the
place. You can find him at the end of the sand-bottomed section of the path
toward the Sand Zone warehouse.
Woof woof woof woof!
- Nene
A beautiful dog, the only female of the group. She sleeps all the time, and
can be found taking one of her long naps at the very end of the lower path of
the Sand Zone, right next to the warehouse.
Wan...
- Life Pot
Restores all of your HP when used. It can only be used once, and there are
only two in the entire game, so use wisely!
- Turbocharge
If you chose to take the Machine Gun from Curly in the Sand Zone, then you can
receive this for free from the Gaudi shopkeeper, Chaba, in the Labyrinth. It
speeds up the recovery rate of ammo for the Machine Gun.
- Clinic Key
Opens the door to the Labyrinth Clinic, the building with the cross above it
up and west from the Camp. Obtained from Dr. Gero, the physician in the Camp.
- Arms Barrier
Halves weapon EXP lost when you take damage. Found the top part of the Camp,
accessible via a hidden passageway in the ceiling in the large Labyrinth room
from which you can access the normal Camp entrance and the Clinic nearby.
Unless you took the Machine Gun, you'll have to come back to this area with the
Booster to be able to reach it.
- Cure-All
A pill found in the abandoned Clinic in the Labyrinth. It supposedly has the
ability to cure anything. Give it to the Physician in the Labyrinth Camp.
- Booster v0.8
A jetpack that can be equipped and unequipped from the inventory menu. Once
it's equipped, press and hold Jump while airborne to launch upward for a few
moments. Can only be used once in the air until you hit the ground again.
Received in the Labyrinth, past the Clinic and Camp.
- Booster v2.0
A powerful jetpack that allows you to move freely for a time at high speeds in
midair if you press the jump button. If you want this instead of the Booster
v0.8, jump over the large gap in the Labyrinth room where Professor Booster
falls down by leaping just at the red marker on the ground. It's required if
you wish to access the hidden, super-difficult Sanctuary area at the end of the
game, but you may want to go for the normal ending with Booster v0.8 first.
- Tow Rope
A tow cable found in the far lower-right corner of The Core (only appears if
you didn't take the Booster v0.8). It was used by the robots who came to the
island years ago to carry downed comrades.
- Curly's Air Tank
Given to you by Curly Brace after the events at the Core. With it, you're
automatically encased in a bubble whenever you enter water, giving you infinite
air.
- Alien Medal
Reward for defeating Ironhead (the boss of the Waterway) without taking any
damage. It's engraved with an image of Ikachan, the hero of a game named after
himself that was Studio Pixel's previous work before Cave STory.
- Whimsical Star
A trinket that you can receive from Chaba, the Gaudi shopkeep in the Labyrinth,
if you talk to him with the Spur weapon in your posession. It will cause small
stars to float around you as a meagre shield when you charge the Spur to MAX.
- Teleporter Room Key
This key is visible but unobtainable behind a cluster of instant-death spikes
in the pools at the bottom of the Plantation. You'll need to talk to Kanpachi,
the fishing Mimiga, to help you get it. Use it to unlock the room just west of
where it was fished up.
- Sue's Letter
You'll find this stuffed in your inventory after you wake up inside the jail.
It's a leeter from Sue explaining a lot of what's been going on as far as the
story that you've had to just piece together by this point. It also contains
the password to enter the Safe House on the Plantation.
- Mimiga Mask
A head covering that looks just like a Mimiga. Wearing it will allow you to
speak to the Mimiga in the Plantation who aren't allowed to speak with humans.
- Broken Sprinkler
A broken water sprinkler from the Plantation. Useless by itself, but can be
traded to Megane in the Plantation Rest Area.
- Sprinkler
It's new... isn't it? This can be taken back to Momorin in the Plantation Safe
House to help complete her rocket.
- Controller
A technologically impressive device that could only have been made by a master
technician. Too bad he's a big fat coward. Obtained from Itoh after giving
Momorin the Sprinkler.
- Mushroom Badge
Useless item given to you by Ma Pignon in hopes you'll leave him alone. I hope
you know how to answer his questions correctly even if you want this garbage.
- Ma Pignon
Mystical, ultra-rare mushroom that's said to restore people's memories. Has a
smart-aleck personality and is known to be a surprisingly potent combatant, as
well. Found in the small storage room above the Mimiga Cemetar.
- Mister Little
This guy's very, very hard to see and has gotten himself very, very lost. At
the end of the game, you can find him wandering around the Mimiga Cemetary.
It's said he is the proud owner of the world's most splendid gun. Has a
fascination with fine blades.
- Medal of the Red Ogre (aka Clay Figure Medal)
Proof of the warrior who's finally able to put an end to the Red Ogre. It's
extremely heavy despite its size.
** PICKUPS AND OTHER ITEMS **
- Heart
Looks like a nice fat heart. Dropped by enemies, it floats in the air wherever
that enemy was destroyed. It heals 2 HP.
- Heart Bundle
Looks like a cluster of three hearts. Dropped by enemies. Heals 5 HP.
- Missile
A missile that's dropped by enemies and hangs in the air. Restores one missile
launcher ammo.
- Missile Bundle
A set of three missiles dropped by enemies. It restores three missile launcher
ammo.
- Small Energy Crystal
A flashing yellowish triangle that drops from enemies and bounces around.
Gives one weapon energy.
- Medium Energy Crystal
A larger flashing yellowish triangle that drops from enemies. It gives five
weapon energy.
- Large Energy Crystal
A huge yellowish triangle that only drops from the most powerful of enemies.
It gives twenty weapon energy.
- Life Capsule
A short tube with a flashing heart inside. Raises your max HP by anywhere from
2 to 5, depending on the capsule.
- Weapon Energy Capsule
A short tube with a flashing triangle inside. If you break this, energy
crystals will spill all over. It has 2 HP.
- Treasure Chest
Small orange chests hidden all around Cave Story. They hold all kinds of
useful items.
- Save Disk
Looks like a red, spinning floppy disk. Press Down in front of it to get the
option to save your game. If you choose to retry after you die, you'll revive
at the last Save Disk you visited.
- Refill Terminal
Restores all of your hearts and Missile Launcher ammo instantly. What it
doesn't tell you is that it also refills all your ammo for all weapons that use
it back to full, such as the Bubbline and Machine Gun. Looks like a computer
monitor with a red screen and a black heart silhouette in the middle.
- Missile Expansion
This triplet of missiles looks like a Missile Bundle pickup, but it's only
found in treasure chests. It permanently increases your Missile Launcher's
ammo capacity by five. Once you have the Super Missile Launcher, these appear
gold.
- Dog
Found in Sand Zone, these dogs must be taken to Jenka when you find them.
There are a total of five, and you can only carry one at a time.
---------------------------
- 3-02 Upgrade Locations -
---------------------------
** LIFE CAPSULES **
These will give a set Max HP boost, between 3 and 5, depending on the capsule.
You will have 50 life if you find them all, 55 if you include the bonus
capsule. Some of these are possible to miss.
- First Cave: In plain sight as you descend toward the Polar Star, on the left
wall. +3 HP.
- Mimiga Village: Found in Yamanshita Farm on the top of Mimiga Village. Head
to the far right, it's in the small pool. +3 HP.
- Egg Corridor: At the very beginning, you have to drop down to the left just
as the Basil spark hits the wall then chase it so it extends its loop length.
+3 HP.
- Egg Corridor: Go through Cthulhu's Abode and out the top door. Jump left.
+4 HP.
- Bushlands: Just past where you found Santa's Key, go east to a set of two
horizontal rows of star blocks, jump on them and to the left. +5 HP.
- Bushlands: In the Execution Chamber, the tall building with the skull on it
to the right of Kazuma's shack. +5 HP.
- Sand Zone: East of Curly's House and past the Sun Stones, it's in the top of
the first thick pillar made up of star blocks. Try not to blow up all the star
blocks when fighting the Polishes to create a path and reach it. +5 HP.
- Sand Zone: At the end of the hidden path behind a pawpad block on the far
right wall between the Sun Stones and Jenka's house, behind a line of star
blocks. Found next to a chest containing one of Jenka's dogs. +5 HP.
- Labyrinth: Nestled next to the left wall of the first room of the labyrinth
when you're sent there, a ways up into the room. +5 HP.
- Plantation: Sitting on a platform hanging from the far upper-left ceiling.
+4 HP.
- Plantation: Talk to the puppy that appears on the left platform just under
the red skull signs on the top right section of the Plantation after Momorin's
finished the rocket. +5 HP.
- Sanctuary: Bonus life capsule. Found in plain sight as you make your
initial descent. +5 HP.
** MISSILE EXPANSIONS **
These each give +5 Max Missile Launcher Ammo. Your max ammo carries over to
the Super Missile Launcher. You'll have 30 missile ammo if you find them all,
54(!!) with the bonus.
- Bushlands: To the left of the hut in the air above the shack where Kazuma's
trapped. Jump around the series of platforms around where the Save Point is
between the Power Supply Room and Kazuma's shack to reach it.
- Bushlands: Inside the very hut that the previous expansion's sitting next
to. Opening it will trigger a fight with Kulala.
- Egg Corridor?: When you go back to the Egg Corridor later in the game,
you'll find the eggs have hatched. The dragon where Egg 12 used to be is quite
pissed and will fervently guard the chest containing this expansion.
- Egg Corridor?: In the ruins of the Egg observation Room, in plain sight.
Opening it will trigger a fight with The Sisters.
- Sanctuary: Bonus expansion. Just before you fight the Heavy Press at the
far west end of Blood-Stained Sanctuary B3, just past the pillar with 3 Deletes
covering it, in the room filled with flying Butes and with a hanging platform
with an arrow Bute on either side. Above this platform is a single Star Block
concealing a chest containing this massive expansion of 24 Misisles.
-------------------
- 3-03 Enemy List -
-------------------
Normal enemies from the game in order of appearance.
- Critter: You see these from the beginning to the end of the game, there are
several varieties. The first you meet are dark blue and live in the First Cave
but in the Egg Corridor you'll find green ones that are slightly more powerful.
Bushlands introduces Critters that can fly around, the Labyrinth has purple
Critters that fly in place and launch bullets at you, and the Final Cave has
very tough and fast red Critters (that are otherwise just like the first, non-
flying ones you meet). Lastly, during the Undead Core battle, Misery has the
ability to summon weak but annoying Orange Critters.
Their basic action is to just stay completely still until you approach or shoot
them, at which point they bounce or fly into the air.
- Bat: The most basic enemy, you'll find them in many different areas as
well. Dark blue ones fly in vertical patterns in the First Cave, black ones
that are slightly tougher hang on ceilings and chase anyone who runs by in the
Bushlands, weak black ones swarm around Orange Bells in the Plantation and red
Bats snake up and down horizontally in the Final Cave. Misery also has the
ability to summon orange Bats, when you fight her.
- The Door: This posessed door with an eyeball is located only once, at the
end of the First Cave. He's just a trap that'll deal damage to anyone who
doesn't pay attention. What's more, he only spawns once ever, never again once
you defeat him.
- Chin Fish: There is only one! Also known as "Egg Fish". He floats lazily
in the Reservoir to the west of Mimiga Village. He drops no items.
- Pignon: A little white mushroom that hangs around the Mimiga Cemetary.
Quite weak and drops no items.
- Giant Pignon: A bigger mushroom that's basically as defenseless as normal
Pignons, but takes more hits to defeat. Doesn't drop items.
- Gravekeeper: An angry orange being with a knife. He's invincible from the
front, but susceptible to damage from the back.
- Behemoth: Blocky elephants in the Egg Corridor. They're slow, extremely
weak and can even be safely stepped on.
- Basil: The spark that runs around the ground in the Egg Corridor. Instant
death to the touch, and is invincible; just avoid it.
- Beetle: There are two types of Beetle; one flies around freely and is
usually a sign of a Basu approaching. The other hangs on walls and flies to
the adjacent wall if you pass in front of it; these are found later in the Sand
Zone as well.
- Basu: A giant beetle that takes a lot of punishment and periodically shoots
green orbs of energy toward your position.
- Power Critter: A big, fat blue Critter found in Bushlands. It's slow, but
if it lands on you, it'll deal a LOT of damage.
- Jelly: A little jellyfish that flies around more or less in place in the
Bushlands. For whatever reason, they don't exist until you examine Chako's
fireplace.
- Kulala: A huge jellyfish that lives in the ceiling east of Santa's house.
It's tough and can make itself invincible for short periods so heavy firepower
is recommended. It drops Jellyfish Juice.
- Mannan: A ghostly gravestone-looking monster in the eastern areas of Bush-
lands that never moves or attacks, except for a retaliatory energy blast to
anyone who shoots it. Can only shoot where it's facing.
- Frog: A large frog. It jumps around. That's all there is to say.
- Rabil: Rabid Mimiga that lives on the east side of the Bushlands. Hops and
dives at you. You'll find more Mimiga just like this at the Balcony.
- Press: Instant-death trap that falls from above. Luckily, it falls rather
slowly and you can run under them easily. Can only be damaged after they're
falling (or as they're falling).
- Puchi: A tiny frog that falls from the ceiling during the boss battle in
the Bushlands. Pathetic, great to kill for supplies.
- Polish: An angry sun-looking monster that rolls around walls, ceilings and
floors. Destroying it will produce several Babies.
- Baby: A tiny Polish that floats and rolls around. Very weak but comes in
packs.
- Sandcroc: Dangerous trap of a monster. Stepping on certain pits of sand in
the Sand Zone and Outer Wall will cause them to snap up quickly. You can dodge
and destroy them but it's dangerous. They retread back into the ground if they
take damage.
- Skullhead: A long reptile skull that bounces along the ground ceaselessly.
- Skullstep: A Skullhead with legs and more HP. Can run around quite fast.
Hurt him enough and he'll lose a leg and move drastically slower; hurt him more
and he'll lose his other leg and suicide.
- Skeleton: Tough lizard skeleton that leaps high into the air and tosses
bones at your position.
- Armadillo: Looks more like a snail of sorts, it crawls along the ground on
the very bottom of the Sand Zone.
- Crow: A big green bird found in the lower Sand Zone. Some of them carry
skullheads which can shoot bones when airborne. Others fly by themselves and
are generally peaceful until threatened, at which point they angrily home in on
and try to peck the perpetrator.
- Flowercub: Terribly weak living flowers produced by the boss of the Sand
Zone. Use them for supplies.
- Gaudi: The guardians of the Labyrinth. There are two types; ground Gaudi
are nearly defenseless but aerial Gaudi are capable of shooting a purple goo
that travels to your current position.
- Armor: Fully-equipped Gaudi found only in the deepest parts of the Laby-
rinth. They're very athletic and bounce around high and low, tossing sets of
two blades at a time periodically.
- Gaudi Egg: Defenseless eggs that deal no damage. Useful for supplies.
- Fire Whirr: They hover up and down in enclosed spaces, spitting out a ring
of flame every few seconds.
- Buyobuyo Base: A long, flat contraption that sits on floors and ceilings in
the Labyrinth and ejects Buyobuyos to defend it. The Base itself isn't
dangerous but needs to be destroyed to stop the onslaught of the Buyobuyos.
- Buyobuyo: Small, annoying flying creatures that exit the Buyobuyo Base
three at a time then swerve around, attempting to home in on your position.
They're a mess to handle but the longer you can deal with killing them without
killing the Base, the more powerups you'll earn.
- Fuzz Core: A fluffy round white floating sphere found in the deepest parts
of the Labyrinth. They float up and down and won't attack unless threatened,
but they tend to stick around short hallways along with other Fuzz Cores in
such a formation that's very difficult to pass by without shooting.
- Fuzz: One of many smaller orbs that orbit a Fuzz Core. They stay in their
vertically elongated orbit until the Core is disturbed.
- Porcupine Fish: These fish come in droves as soon as you enter Ironhead's
underwater arena and never stop. They swim in from the left in large schools
and are completely harmless until they reach the apex of their swim partway
through the room, then inflate into needle-laden pufferfish and dift backward
and towards you. Try to kill as many as you can before they get dangerous.
- Dragon Zombie: The sad, Red Flower-enraged remains of the latest batch of
Sky Dragons in the Egg Corridor. They stand around helplessly until someone
approaches or damages them, at which point they'll go berserk and attmpt to
incinerate the intruder with waves of fireballs.
- Counter Bomb: There's only one of these in the game, and it's super-strong.
It waits at the end of the "Egg Corridor?" and floats there, soaking up huge
amounts of damage and counting down to 0. When it reaches this, it'll explode
about the size of an entire screen around itself into nothingness. It looks
like a large flame.
- Night Spirit: A big ghost cat that floats up and down the sky near the
Outer Wall. It has a habit of launching huge waves of "sideways balloons" all
at once toward the wall.
- Hoppy: A small yellow creature who loves to defy gravity by hopping along
the side of the Outer Wall as if it were a floor.
- Midorin: A little hyperactive plant bulb that runs around the Plantation.
It's weak and harmless to stand on, but very fast and random in its movements.
- Droll: An orange giant who keeps watch over the Mimiga at the Plantation.
It won't hurt you unless you try to attack it, at which point it'll leap back-
ward while tossing a huge spinning limb at you.
- Gunfish: These large fish found in the lake at the bottom of the Plantation
like to stay near the surface, inhale water then spew it out in a trail of
beads. They can be a nuisance to travelers but they also happen to make good
platforms over the water.
- Orange Bell: A big, fat, happy bat with a wide grin. He's not that tough,
but swarms and swarms of smaller black Bats will shield him with their life.
- Stumpy: Super-quick dragonflies that zip all about the Plantation. Their
movement is extremely erratic.
- Bute: A small cherubin that lives in the Sanctuary. They come in three
different types; one flies around, chasing you at high speeds and will often
divebomb you; the next uses a sword and will block all attacks until you get
close, at which point it'll dash and jump around attempting to stab you; and
the last sits motionless sniping you with arrows.
- Mesa: A hulking brute of an angel that lives in the Sanctuary. His only
attack is to lob blocks toward you, which absorb your shots.
- Rolling: An eyeball that rolls along floors, walls and ceilings in the
Sanctuary. It is invincible.
- Delete: An enemy in the Sanctuary that sits on walls. If you disturb it,
it'll count down from 5 then cause a small explosion that will leave the wall
behind it destroyed.
- Green Devil: Fat little demons that flood the Seal Chamber at all times.
Kill them for supplies.
---------------------
- 3-04 Extra Modes -
---------------------
The WiiWare version of Cave Story comes equipped with various new modes that
weren't in the original. All of them really beg that the main story be
completed at least once before you try them; it's likely they were originally
intended to be downloadable content. Either way, at least three of them are
selectable from the beginning of the game. As far as I know thus far, these
are the only extra modes available; contact me if you find out about any more.
Also, of course, contact me if you find out another major difference in any
mode from Original-difficulty Story Mode that I don't have listed.
** DIFFICULTIES **
In Story Mode, you're given the option to choose between Easy, Original or Hard
difficulty settings when you start a new file. These modes offer little
difference between Original; enemy placement is the same and the story etc is
identical, but they alter key aspects of the game that really do make it far
easier or far harder respectively, and you get to play as a new Quote sprite.
* Easy Mode:
- Quote's sprite is recolored to have yellow clothing and a teal scarf.
- You take half the damage from all sources as you would in Original mode,
rounded down (i.e. something that dealt 5 damage in Original will now deal 2).
* Hard Mode:
- Quote's sprite is changed rather drastically; he has light blue clothes,
blonde hair, and a very human-looking light skin tone rather than the pale
white he has normally. Also, his eyes look a bit different.
- There are no Life Capsules in the game, except for the one you can get from
the dog in the Plantation. The damage you take is the same as in Original.
** CURLY STORY **
Play the game as Curly Brace!
- Mainly just Story Mode, but with Quote's sprite replaced with Curly.
- Three brand new save files just for this mode.
- Can only play on Original difficulty.
- Some new dialogue to reflect Curly being the playable character.
- Your playable character actually has her own dialogue in this mode.
- Curly in the story is replaced by Quote. He's much less talkative than
Curly, of course.
- "Curly's Panties" key item is renamed "Your Panties".
- You can actually see Quote's official "face icon" as created by Pixel in
this mode, in the Plantation if you bring him Ma Pignon, along with what little
official dialogue he has.
** BOSS ATTACK **
Challenge EVERY boss!
This is the game's Boss Rush mode. You'll start by receiving the Polar Star
and a time counter which starts as soon as you press confirm.
You'll start in a room that looks and sounds like the Core area from Story
Mode. To your left is a "Weapon Trade" cthulhu who's useless at this point.
To your right is a Refill Terminal. There'll be a couple Life Capsules for 3
HP each, and several Weapon Energy Capsules. To the far left is a barrier, and
to the far right is a statue of Balrog and a door. Attempt to open the door to
be greeted with the boss's name and be teleported to the very same room in
which you fight the boss in Story Mode.
After beating Balrog, you return to the main room at which point you can power
up and potentially collect more upgrades and weapons. For every boss you de-
feat, the door back to them will crumble but more of the main room will be
revealed so that you can move to more bosses, more powerups and more upgrades.
Note that all upgrades and weapons are received instantly with no stopping for
a fanfare, which is a nice touch. Sometimes, bosses will directly drop items
for you after you defeat them. Also, as you defeat bosses, the Weapon Trades
cthulhu might offer a new weapon for you. A good way to tell if there's a new
weapon ready to trade for is to try and remember after which boss you were able
to attain said weapon in Story Mode. For example, after defeating Curly you
can trade him your Polar Star for a Machine Gun. Conveniently, the path opens
back to him after defeating Curly as well. It's probably also worth noting
that you receive a Life Pot after defeating Omega, and before the fourth Balrog
fight (including Balfrog) you'll be asked if you want the Booster v0.8, which
you can deny if you want 2.0 after a couple bosses. Also, you'll receive Chaba
items (Turbocharge or Whimsical Star) after the bosses after which you'd be
able to obtain them in Story Mode if you have the correct weapon.
If at any point you die, you will restart at the very beginning of Boss Attack,
receiving the Polar Star and counter again. Your time will be reset. Also,
keep in mind that some upgrades (particularly Life Capsules) can be hidden
quite well by the scenery, so make sure you find them all before attempting the
next boss unless you're purposely avoiding them. Lastly, remember to power up
your new weapons with the crystals supplied in the main area; it's embarrassing
how often I've forgotten to do this after receiving a good weapon!
For strategies on any boss, refer to the walkthrough above. The bosses are
identical to Original difficulty in Story Mode.
** SANCTUARY TIME ATTACK **
Do you have the skill?
This is a time-attack of the hidden ultimate area of the game, the Sanctuary
aka the Sacred Grounds. By no means should you attempt this before you've at
least finished the main game enough to actually have completed the Sanctuary
normally.
Starting a game in this mode will place you in a special 'starting area' before
The Sanctuary itself, at which point you can choose which of several weapons
from the game you wish to take with you, and what order you wish to take them
in (the only time you can actually customize your weapon order!); the choices
are:
- Polar Star
- Fire Ball
- Bubbline
- Blade
- Nemesis
- Spur
No Missile Launcher, Super Missile Launcher, Machine Gun or Snake.
You'll also notice that you begin with the Booster 2.0, though you need it to
complete The Sanctuary anyway. Move right to find two Life Capsules which each
give you the MASSIVE bonus of 26 life. For whatever reason, these don't open
instantly like the ones in Boss Attack. Move right a bit more and you'll see
a gap in the floor. Falling down this gap will cause the 290 Counter to
activate and you'll get the black wind message--from this point on, the mode is
identical to playing The Sanctuary on Normal in Story Mode. Good luck, you'll
need it; especially if you want to make a good time!
--------------------
- 3-05 Easter Eggs -
--------------------
- The Great Hero, Arthur (part 1)
Get past the Bushlands (Grasstown) area and to the point at which most the main
characters are collected in Arthur's house and agree that it's your job to go
to the Sand Zone in their stead. Instead of going through the teleport right
away, leave Arthur's House and head up to the right side of the Mimiga Village
and enter the Assembly Hall. Jack will be there alone. Talk to him to learn
all about Arthur, and be told the story about how Arthur fought the Red Ogre.
- Chako's Rouge (Chaco's Lipstick)
The first time you enter Bushlands (Grastown), and go to Chako's house, talk to
her then examine the fireplace so she walks over and talks about it. Go to
sleep in her bed as she's standing here (it's the only time in the game you'll
be able to get her to). You'll receive Chako's Rouge as a useless collectible
and she'll be asleep where you just took a nap..
- Curly's Panties (Curly's Underwear)
At any point in the game go into Curly's place, then into the back room. Use
your Map System and notice the secret passage behind the wall that's invisible
normally. Jump up into the right ride of the lower part of the ceiling, then
jump up and head all the way to the right until you fall. Jump into a tiny
alcove just above and to the left of the lower-right corner and press down to
open an invisible chest containing Curly's Panties, a useless collectible.
- Ikachan!
Ikachan is a short game created by Pixel before Cave Story, detailing the
adventures of a small squid with the titular name. There are several Ikachan
references in Cave Story, but the biggest one is the boss fight of the Water-
way, Iron Head. If you manage to defeat Iron Head without gettin hit a single
time, you'll earn a cameo in the form of a swarm of Ikachans swimming by, then
before falling into the Reservoir you'll receive an item. Check your inventory
and you'll have the Alien Medal, a useless collectible adorned by Ikachan's
face.
- Can I be a Mimiga, Too?
Momorin Sakamoto trades your Booster (whichever one you have) for a Mimiga mask
in the Plantation so you can communicate with the locals. After she and Itoh
finish the rocket, you're supposed to talk to her again to trade back so that
you'll have your rocket for the final challenges of the game (and this is the
only way to explore the Hidden Last Cave and the Sanctuary/Sacred Grounds.
However, you can choose to ride the rocket up to the Last Cave before talking
to Momorin, robbing yourself of the ability to Boost but giving yourself access
to several hidden easter eggs. You'll face the normal Last Cave even if you'd
had the Booster 2.0 up to this point, though even it can be challenging without
a Booster at all. If you make it to the final bosses, much of the text will be
different, especially from Misery and the various caged Mimiga. To top it all
off, during the ending, a couple of the hand-drawn Pixel artwork detailing
Quote's adventures will show him with the Mimiga mask in the areas he was
wearing it, and Quote's sprite will keep the mask during the entire ending!
- The Red Ogre
If you only got the normal ending you may be curious about the Red Ogre (Red
Demon) enemy that "only true heroes face". This is the same Red Ogre mentioned
by Jack in an earlier easter egg. To face it, you must get the Booster v2.0
instead of the Booster v0.8, by jumping past the large gap in the Labyrinth
where Prof. Booster falls down (by jumping as far as you can just at the small
red marker on the ground). If you get the 2.0 back from Momorin later in the
game before riding the rocket to the Last Cave, you'll face the Hidden Last
Cave which is much more challenging than the normal one. At the very end,
you'll have to fight the Red Ogre as a boss. After defeating him, he'll drop a
treasure chest containing the Medal of the Red Ogre (Clay Figure Medal), a use-
less collectible.
- The Great Hero, Arthur (part 2)
After defeating the Doctor at The King's Table but BEFORE you head up to the
Black Space, talk to Chako. Keep talking to her and she'll eventually compare
you to Arthur, the hero fo the Mimiga. After doing so all the Mimiga up around
the room will blush and hearts will form over their heads (Arthur must have
been quite a handsome guy); these hearts are actually Heart items, which you
can pick up to heal yourself before facing the Undead Core!
- Statue Carver
Just after the battle with the Heavy Press in the Sanctuary (Sacred Grounds)
you'll fall into a room between the Plantation and Statue Chamber. Go into the
Statue Chamber and by this point the statue carver has finished his job and
hauled out. Not only is this the only point in the game at which you can see
the Doctor's real name by examining his statue, but you can destroy all these
for huge (+20) weapon crystals, hearts or missile packs. Once destroyed, the
statues change into likenesses of the characters Curly, King, Toroko and Quote.
- Alternate Character Themes
In the PC version (and only the PC version, as far as I know at this time)
you can unlock character themes for the main menu by conquerring Hell fast
enough. They replace Quote with another character on the main menu, along with
their theme song, some of which you can't even hear in the game by any other
means. They are as follows:
Default - Quote; Title Theme
Under 6 minutes - Curly Brace; Running Hell (Isn't this Ballos' theme?)
Under 5 minutes - Toroko; Toroko's Theme
Under 4 minutes - King; White
Under 3 minutes - Sue; Safety
As far as I know, no one's ever finished Hell in under 2 minutes. It's
possible that the Sue theme is the final one.
-----------------------
- 3-06 Hints and Tips -
-----------------------
Though many of the hints here are given in much more detail in the Walkthrough
or other sections, I felt it necessary to put this section here due to its
inclusion in my previous FAQs. There are some tips that just don't fit
anywhere else, either. If you know of a hint that doesn't appear here but that
you feel would be right at home in this section, feel free to contact me (info
at the bottom of the FAQ).
- All over the game, there are spaces with hidden items behind them. If you
shoot them, they'll make a 'tink' sound and if shot enough they'll reveal the
hidden item. Rapid firing weapons like the Machine Gun are ideal for finding
these.
- You can completely avoid the first battle with Balrog by simply answering
"No" when he asks if you want to fight him. You don't miss anything, either,
except for a few weapon crystals you can very easily make up for in the Egg
Corridor.
- Shooting with a simple straight-shooting weapon like the Polar Star or
Machine Gun while behind walls you can walk behind can make finding your way
around and seeing the limits of how far you can walk much easier, as the shots
will dissipate when they touch a solid wall.
- Though getting a weapon to "MAX" from Level 3 may not actually make it
stronger, it's wise to do so, and to keep all your weapons at MAX whenever
possible. Taking hits decreases your Weapon EXP, so keeping them at MAX makes
them safe to use without fear of de-levelling whenever you need them. Well..
without as big of a fear, anyway.
- The Missile Launcher may be more situational than other weapons due to the
fact that it takes ammo, but it can level up too, and it's wise to get it to
Level 3 and keep it there; it'll shoot three missiles for the price of one!
- The Fire Ball and Snake are the only weapons that won't break destructible
blocks, so keep that in mind if you need to keep blocks intact.
- The Machine Gun can push you into the air indefinitely at Level 3 if you aim
it towards the ground. Needless to say, this is incredibly useful for many
reasons. Conversely, you can shoot upward while in the air to push you down
with much greater force than usual.
- The Nemesis is best to keep at level 1 for full power. Levelling it to 2
will weaken it considerably, and levelling it to 3 makes it rather useless;
furthermore, it's the easiest weapon to level in the game, but also the easiest
to de-level.
- This is a rather useless trick, but you can ride the small and large flying
Critters in Bushlands like platforms while you're flashing during invincibility
frames. Many other flying enemies can be 'ridden' like this as well; there's
a way to use dragonfly enemies in this manner in the Plantation in order to
reach the door to the Final Cave before you're supposed to, but it's extremely
difficult, and only earns you a generic 'stay back' message at the door that
you'd otherwise never see.
===============
= IV) The End =
===============
-----------------
- 4-01 Credits -
-----------------
- Huge thanks to anyone who's sent me hints, tips, thank-yous, error reports
and anything else:
~Dakaggo X
~Stanley
- Big big impossibly huge thanks to Pixel, the one-man game-making team that
brought us the original Cave Story and had a heavy hand in all aspects of this
WiiWare version. If you ever read this, you're an inspiration to all us gamers
and have left an incredible mark on the gaming industry with this retro
masterpiece.
- Thanks to Nicalis who brought Cave Story to a much wider audience with its
release on WiiWare, and helped all the new stuff in the Wii version come to
fruition. You guys rule.
- Thanks to the Cave Story Tribute Site (http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/)
for lots and lots of info such as character, item and enemy names, and for
being my number one go-to source for everything involving Cave Story in the
years since I very first played it. (Rockin' forum, too)
- Thanks to GameFAQs, inspiring me to write this FAQ in the first place.
-------------------
- 5-02 Copyright -
-------------------
(c) Copyright 2010 Justin Morgan
This guide may only be used (outside of personal, private use) with credit
given to the author.
Cave Story copyright Studio Pixel and Nicalis.
All other trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders.
-----------------------------
- 5-03 Contact Information -
-----------------------------
Be sure to contact me if you have any additional information, hints, tips,
error alerts, or anything else that you feel would enhance this guide.
(Note: If you send me a hint, error report or anything else you feel should be
added to my guide, be sure to include the name or alias you would like for me
to use to credit you in future versions of the guide!)
E-mail: jkm553(at)gmail(dot)com
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