X E N O S A G A : E P I S O D E I Der Wille Zur Macht W A L K T H R O U G H The game starts in the year 20xx. A group of researchers are at Kenya, when something rather mysterious happens. When then run forward 4000 years. Watch the long cutscene, until you hit the Virtual Tutorial. V I R T U A L T U T O R I A L ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Read through the instructions. What you have to do is to use Shion, the game\'s main character, to talk with KOS-MOS, her creation. Do so by standing in front of KOS-MOS and pressing circle. Afterward, a menu will appear, offering 4 options: Normal Attacks, Tech Attacks, Sub-Menus and Switch to Real Combat. Start off by picking \"Normal Attacks\". Then, use Shion and talk to the soldier nearby, the one in a yellow uniform. When you do, you will enter Battle Mode. You will be given some instructions regarding the game\'s battle mode. Read carefully and pay attention, my friend, for Battles are plenty in this game. You will have plenty of chances to attack your enemies here(2 soldiers) as text scrolls up. Use your Ether Attacks(hit Triangle) twice(you can attack twice each turn, for now) to kill each soldier painlessly. Once the battle finishes, go and talk with KOS-MOS again and select Tech Attacks this time around. Go and approach the soldier again. This time around, it\'s a bit more complicated(but just a bit). With each character, use an Square attack, but just one, so you carry over the AP to the next round. You need to build up 6 AP, you see. Once both characters have don so(by using the tactics given by the game and me), you\'ll have to use their tech attacks to finish each enemy. For Shion, you have \"Lighting Blast\"(S,S,O); Spell Ray(T,T,O). Use either to finish one foe. KOS-MOS has R.Blade(S,S,O), R.Cannon(T,T,O) and F.Gshot/F.Mshot(O). Eliminate the other soldier with any of these(and pay attention to the instructions given about KOS-MOS\'s ammo and all of that). After all of this, talk with KOS- MOS once again and go with Sub-Menus this time around. Approach the soldier once more. This time around, the battle will be against three soldiers. Basically, start off by pressing X before doing anything to bring up a sub menu, where you can use your Ethers that have been set, Items and W- Items(which are used on the entire group; highlight the item and tap T), Move, A.G.W.S and Guard. Now, after that short explanation, we must kill off the guards! Using your techs would waste way too much time, so forget about that now. Instead, simply use two Ether attacks on one guard to kill him. Then, another text box will appear, explaining the Boost Gauge, which goes up as you land hits. When it fills up, your Boost Counter raises by one. There will be further explanations, so just keep attacking and killing until the battle finishes, duh. Those soldiers won\'t attack you, so don\'t worry a little bit. Anyways, once you\'re done, talk with KOS-MOS once again and select the fourth and last option. Select yes when prompted to start off the real thing. It\'s a battle against an Attack Drone and two Soldiers; both of them will attack, and not stay there waiting for you to tear them up. Start off by defeating both soldiers: it\'ll take two Ethers(T button) per soldier. For the Attack Drone, use Ethers too. They\'ll all be gone in no time. After this, there\'ll be another cutscene and you\'ll take control of your characters, on the first \"dungeon\" area of the game. Start off by heading forward toward a gate. It\'ll probably be guarded by an -Attack Drone-, one of the enemies you\'ll fight in this area. They fall prey to Ethers, as well as the Soldiers, or -Drones-, that also inhabit this place. Anyway, next to the gate there is a set of steps. Go down them and approach the rotten truck there. Blow it up by tapping Square. Afterward, go to the small area that\'s behind the now extinct truck and go up another flight of steps. Run across this short path until you come into a destruct-able door. Blow it up and go through it to get a Med Kit. Head back to the gate and run across it. Go right afterward, and dodge or fight the monster there. There is also an open garage nearby, so head through it. In the next area, go forward. There\'ll be a drone by a closed gate; fight him if you want to. Either way, go up and run across the catwalk. There\'ll be a soldier along the way. Eventually, you\'ll reach a bifurcation that\'s by a control room. You can continue further into this catwalk, or board an adjacent catwalk that goes south. Go into the one that goes south and proceed through it, blowing up any debris you may find. In the next area, destroy the crate to get a Revive. Backtrack to the warehouse and go down into the ground floor again. Remember the closed gate that I mentioned when we first started this area. Approach it and press the square button to examine it. You\'ll see a cube, the one we must snatch. Examine the gate again and you\'ll be informed you need a Mission Key to open the door. Now, go up the catwalk again and head to the westernmost side of it, where you\'ll find a door. Go through it by pressing circle in front of it. In the next area, run forward and across the catwalk. You will see a cutscene as you go. A huge robotic monster appears and decides to attack you. It\'s an AGWS and it\'s your first boss. ============================================================================== --------- B O S S B A T T L E --------- ============================================================================== -->Drone SPX<-- Shion will begin on her AGWS, while KOS-MOS stays on foot. For being a robot, SPX is a bit weak: KOS-MOS\'s Ether attacks will cause as much damage as they cause to normal foes, so make good use of them. Shion, being on her AGWS, will dish out a tremendous amount of pain. You\'ll have to bear a tutorial on how to control AGWS, but when it is over, it\'s time to kick ass! Use your AGWS Square attack to dish out around 120 PTS of DMG. It took me four Ethers and one Square attack to kill GPX. The only attack I got to see is the one where he shoots your character three times for about 30 PTS of DMG. Nothing too impressive. ============================================================================== After the battle, there will be a cutscene. Also, all of the Drones that patrolled the area will be replaced with another breed of drones. They\'re sensitive to sound, so you can simply slip past them if you hold the R2 button, to walk quietly, but slowly. At any rate, there is a save point right behind you. Make good use of it. Afterward, head to the right past the destruct-able crate and go down the steps there. Run through the door and you\'ll hit the control room we\'ve seen before. Snag the Mission Key off the panel and blast away the door here. Run outside the control room area. As you exit, you\'re bound to be attacked by a -Drone G2- These things are easy, as usual, but not as easy as the other enemies. For instance, their Shock Bolt attack does around 25 PTS of DMG, which is quite a lot at this time. Furthermore, they\'re airborne enemies, so you cannot hit them with S attacks; you\'re limited to T attacks. Not to worry, since two of these attacks will probably kill them. Anyways, head to eastern end of the catwalk area(the one outside the control room area) and proceed down, into the ground floor. Remember the sound-sensitive enemies I mentioned? There won\'t be one on the ground floor :). There\'ll be a -Drone G1-, instead It\'s an extremely resistant enemy: most of your attacks will do around 10 PTS of DMG to it, while its beam attack does around 30! Plus, they come in packs of three! However, they only have around 60 HPs. I recommend building up your AP and performing TECHs on them to kill them as soon as possible. Be sure to heal if you need to, or they WILL kill you! Now, if you want to meet/fight those sound-sensitive guys, you can go outside and find some. Try and fight them. They\'re -Drones G3s- and are accompanied by G2s. T attacks work surprisingly well against G3s. Now, if you went outside to fight the G3s, go back inside and examine that closed gate. Put your Mission Key into the socket on the right. Once you do, the gate will open and head through it. Approach the cube to trigger a cutscene. After it, Shion will, as nearly every good guy(or girl...) on history, try and fight something she can\'t beat... well, she can, with your help ;) Anyway... ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Drone GX<-- So, let\'s see... this thing\'s a bit tough. First off, Shion\'s attacks will do nothing to it, so, call for that AGWS! KOS-MOS\'s attacks will do a good bit of DMG, but nothing too impressive, really. She\'s just here because she\'s Shion\'s experiment, you see!. Ok, so, use KOS-MOS\'s TECHs, while Shion deals out the most damage with her AGWS S attack. I must admit that GX\'s attacks are far more complicated than what you\'ve faced thus far... but nothing too impressive. He will do his Active Guard pretty often. When he does, he\'ll counter if hit. The counter attack is quite nasty, as it hit twice and for a good bit of damage; KOS-MOS will take the most abuse, especially if hit. Shion, being in an AGWS, should not worry. What you have to do is not to attack it while it Active Guards. Heal and Guard when he does that. ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ###########################[ T H E W O G L I N D E ]######################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shion decides to collect more data. She pulls a death-defying stunt to do so, and, as expected, it goes horribly wrong. Allen, wasting no time, rides in and saves Shion. Keep watching the lengthy cinema until you\'re in Control of the scientist herself. You\'ll be on the Lab area. On the southern end of it, there is a Save Point. Make good use of it. Afterward, head to the north-most end of the area and look for a staircase on a nook on the left. Head up it. On the hall above, turn right. You\'ll come across into a woman, Janice. Talk to her. You\'ll be told that there is a \"red Vector box\" hidden within the Encephalon where they hid some nice stuff. Hmm... anyway, go back down and run to the right until you hit the wall. Then, go down, shuffling along the wall. You\'ll eventually find a door. Try to head through it and you\'ll see a short cutscene. Looks like Allen\'s... bah, whatever. In the next area, proceed to the right across this wide corridor. It\'s a linear path, so simply follow it. On your way, you\'ll find a soldier standing by a panel. If you examine this panel, you\'ll get the map of the ship. RE- like, eh? :) Continue to the end of the hall; as you walk, your control will vibrate and Shion will stop. You\'ve got an e-mail! After you read it, you\'ll have to bear more long, yet important, text about the Unus Mundus Network(U.M.N). Pay attention. Head out of UMN and proceed through the corridor. You\'ll eventually find a blue door. Go through it and you\'ll see another cinema. Allen\'s STILL being picked on! \"Go tiger!\" Ha ha! Anyway, you\'ll regain control of Shion shortly afterward. Head through the nearest door. As you do, you\'ll see this man hitting some rookies right across the face. Slackers they are, he says. What\'s interesting about this guy is that he has a purple cross over his face... does he remind you of somebody?! Furthermore, once Shion looks at the artifact that\'s being kept here, something rather interesting happens... including the return of that infamous necklace that makes a \"ding\" sound... the one that appeared near the beginning of Xenogears. It\'s a rather interesting and mysterious cinema. Once it is done, you\'ll take control back of Shion. There is nothing of further interest here, so continue to the right. You\'ll hit a small, square shaped room. Head through the double doors here. In the next area, run forwards to see another cutscene. Shion had forgotten the data, so Allen, being the good guy he is, brings it to her. They then discuss about KOS-MOS. Once the cinema is done, and you\'re done laughing at Allen for forgetting to ask Shion out, proceed onward. Shion will tell you that she forgot some other data, that\'s on her room. In this corridor, you can go straight down it, or proceed up a steep path to the left. First off, proceed straight. You\'ll see a small control room on the right of the path. If you get inside, you\'ll find a switch... mess with it to see what happens :) On your way, you\'ll see a red patch on the rightmost wall. If you examine it, you\'ll get Segment Address 18. Hmmm... proceed further down the path until you see a blue door on your right. Head through it to hit Shion\'s room... here, you will find a save point, her bed, where you can rest, and the Data she needs, on the table(it\'s the gold, shiny, card-shaped thing). Save if you want to and then head back outside. As you do, you\'re bound to get an e-mail from Miyuki. Read it. If you proceed to the end of the corridor, you\'ll reach a reunion room of sorts. Going up the ramp here will lead to a dead end right now, so backtrack to the start of this area, near the control room with the switch. Remember the ramp on the left that I mentioned? Well, go up it and head left. You\'ll eventually find another set of double doors; run through them. A cinema will ensue once you do. The Lieutenant informs Shion about the situation: he\'s been trying to inject new data into those humanoid beings, yet they regret it... Hmm. Once you are back as Shion, you will need to talk to all the Realians in order to proceed. Do so and another cutscene will ensue. Shion ponders the thought of transferring to Third Division... in fact, she\'s decided! She wants to transfer as soon as her current work\'s finished. Suddenly, Virgil barges in and rants about Realian\'s nature and all of that. Watch the rest of the cutscene. Once it is done, head through the big, double doors here, behind the place you\'re put on after the cutscene finishes. Another cutscene will start; when it is finishes, you\'ll be on a new area. Run across the bridge up north until you reach a closed-off area, because of some wreckage. Talk with the nearest worker, Mr Holgar, or Mr Driller, as he prefers. He\'s the best driller around, and he\'s the one that _should_ clean all of that wreckage. But you, his cute lil\' Shion, will have to help him this time around... if you want to. Agree to do so. Now, if you press Square, the drill will start moving vertically. If you let go, the drill will stop right at that spot. You can move the camera with the Left Analog Stick, or switch between cameras using the R2 button. When you\'re done moving vertically, you\'ll then move the crane horizontally. Switch cameras with R2 and use Square to move the drill, just like in \"vertical mode\". When you\'re done doing both moves, the drill will the do the work on its own, and destroy anything below it. You can quite by pressing X. Keep in mind that if you simply tap Square, the crane will move just a bit. In order to move farther away, hold square. The crane will start moving and WON\'T stop until you let go of square; keep that in mind. Furthermore, both moves, vertical and horizontal, are one-shot only. So, once you move vertically, you immediately go to horizontal mode -_- This doesn\'t mean that, if you fail, you\'ll have to quit and start all over again... no. At any rate, your job is to clear the wreckage around to crate a decent path for Shion\'s round butt... er, personality(o.O) to cross. You can make a simple path and cross over... but, if drill it all up, you\'ll get a Drill Passport! It\'s quite simple to do so: the best camera is the overhead one, as it grants a good view of everything, thus making your moves more accurate. But, regardless of what you do, cross the bridge over... on your way, you\'re bound to get an e-mail. Once you\'re done with it, you\'ll talk with your little, bunny-like friend(the Procurator thingie). Ok, that\'s all good... at the end of this bridge, there\'ll be a big set of blue doors... blitz through them. In this area, there are two doors: the first one leads to a room with a save point and a rather funny soldier. The second door... you can\'t cross it ;) Because you need a key and the room\'s owner is around... if you talk to him, you\'ll be told that key is nowhere to be found! Heh. Head further into this area... if you head to the left, you\'ll find a resting room of sorts, all painted(?) in blue. I got an e-mail once I hit this place, so you\'re bound to get one, too. It\'s from Miyuki, too. You have to reply to it if you want that juicy weapon she\'s talking about... and you need to reply with the correct mail, too!(the 1st one). I recommend doing so, of course ;) At the end of this area, turn right around a corner to find another set of double doors. Run through them, as usual. In the next area, move forward. Shion will then have a short talk with Sgt. Swaine. If you agree to hear, you\'ll get an \"explanation\" of Segment addresses. Examine the red patch nearby for Segment Address number 7. After this, head to the right and through the doors there. In this next area, there is a orange, transparent door; take note of it. But, right now, run to the right and run across the long, winding, yet linear corridor. On your way you\'ll come across Segment Adress No. 16... and at the end, you\'ll find another double doors. Head through them. Look around for a group of two chatting soldiers... when you find them, talk to them and you\'ll be able to play tag. It\'s simple... there is an item behind these two guys starting position. What you need to do is to outrun them and get the item. You can\'t let them touch you. This is PAINFULLY EASY! Just run backward when you start and go around the structure there. Then, run toward the item and snag it. Yes, that\'s all. You\'ll get a Med Kit. If you do it again, you get another Med Kit... hm, easy \'Kits >=) You should remember the transparent, orange door I told you to take note about a while go. Get back there and go through that door. Board the elevator and select to go to the bridge. Once you arrive, head directly forward and up a ramp. Talk with the Captain there for the next cutscene. Shion presents her data, but somebody\'s not too pleased... The Captain, the main man, the only one who matters, understands Shion, though, so everything\'s good. After the cutscene, you\'ll also get the day off. So, start off by getting out of the bridge... as you approach the door, you get another e-mail. It\'s from Miyuki, but you only get it if you replied to the e-mail I told you to reply to(the second e-mail Miyuki sent you). It has an attachment, called \"Sprinkle\". Download it. Then, continue your way outta the bridge by using the elevator. Once you hit the lower floor, you\'ll be told you have a package and that you need to get it at the hangar. Head through the door on the left here. In the next area, proceed left, past Swaine, and up when you can. Head to the westernmost side of this area, to find a nook with some junk and a brown door. Head through the door. This is the hangar. Head left as soon as you enter and talk with the guy on the desk to get an MWS, the weapon you used on the Encephalon. There is also a shopkeeper on the right, who\'ll tell you about a Vaporizer Plug-In after you leave his store... If you head further into the hangar, you\'ll find this guy who\'ll let you use an AGWS simulator. You\'ll get EXP and EP after each fight, so you might want to try and do it. Plus, you get a Med Kit S after each battle. I spent quite a bit here, and you should, too. Keep in mind that the damage you receive in a battle is carried over to the next one. Once you\'re ready, head back to Shion\'s room... I know is a long way, but anyways... Once you get there, there\'ll be a cutscene. Once it finishes, you\'ll be asked if you want to go to sleep. Say no, save, and then take the nap. There\'ll be another cutscene. It\'s lengthy, the lengthiest we\'ve seen so far, yet very cool and interesting. Now, when it finishes, you\'ll be back as Shion, in a Gnosis infested ship. Approach the Gnosis that will be right in front of you to engage battle... attack them and watch the cutscene. You simply can\'t with them. Head forward and turn right as soon as you can, before the bloody body and the Gnosis. When you turn, the Gnosis will start following you. Go past the first switch you find and press the second one as fast as possible in order to lock up the Gnosis. Continue down the path. As you proceed, the camera will aim at another Gnosis you must get past. In this corridor, there is a sideroom to the right. Head there as fast as possible, because the Gnosis will notice you as soon as you get near this sideroom. Tag the switch on the desk there to distract the Gnosis. Move on. On your way, you\'ll find a blue door. Inside, there Is a save point... keep moving. Eventually, you\'ll find another Gnosis. Have him follow you and enter the room with the save point. The Gnosis will simply walk always, leaving the path clear. Head outside this room for another cutscene. KOS-MOS finally wakes up from her slumber. She examines the area until she locates Shion on a map... when she does, she takes off her helmet and opens her big, red eyes... blood... mwhaha Back as Shion: you\'re on the same hallway, so head to the end of it and through the door. In the next room, you\'ll see a Gnosis behind some wreckage. Head forward and look for a ladder. Climb it up and run across this path until you find a shiny, yellow switch. Press it!! Watch the Gnosis being taken away. Now, that was good. Go back down the ladder and proceed to the far left, to the western end of this area. There are two little Gnosis here, but you can just evade them and head through the door here... keep in mind, though, that they\'re protecting a chest. You have to make them blow up the crate blocking the way. I dunno how, really, just goof around it until it explodes. Get the gold that was on it, run into their nest, get the 2 veils off the chest, run away. Heh, easy, no? Get back to the area where the Gnosis got sucked away, and run south. You\'ll find a soldier in fetal position. Talk to him to learn about a car blocking your way. Then, get back to where the 2 veils where and go through the big brown door is. As you enter the hangar, turn right immediately and talk to the guy there to get the Vaporizer Plug-In. Backtrack to the guy in fetal position(who\'s now dead...) and blast the car nearby. Cross the now unblocked path... Two Gnosis will appear and will start to follow you. This will be like another game of tag: run back, around the structure there to confuse the Gnosis and then back to the main path. Run to the end and Shion will automatically escape, just to find Swaine on the floor. He\'ll hand over Decoder 7, and then die. Examine the red door across him to decode it and unlock it. In this new corridor, run up to find a chest containing Robot Part Right Arm. What the hell is that!? Hm. Head back outside. If you head immediately to the right, you\'ll find a bunch of bug-like Gnosis tearing up some dead bodies... nasty. Head left, instead. Destroy the structure in the middle of the room for a Bio Sphere and then proceed downward and through the blue double doors there. Cutscene. As Shion runs down the corridor, she\'s mistake by a Gnosis and gets shot at... a whole bunch of bullets, might I add. Fortunately for her, ALL of the bullets miss and she survives. It\'s not over yet, though. The REAL Gnosis then come and attack the unit here and a major slugfest ensues. It\'s an awesome cutscene. Once it finishes, examine the body nearby you and take the key on it(Crewman\'s Key). If you examine the door nearby, you\'ll unlock it. Inside, you can get a SMP53AG. Good. Get back to the corridor and proceed through it. At the end, head through the door for another cutscene. It\'s lengthy, but awesome, mainly because we get to see KOS-MOS kicking ass and taking names! However... ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Cyclops<-- First things to note: Virgil will be aiding you on this battle. He\'s not uber- powerful, but he\'s got 300 HPs to boot, so I guess it\'s a good thing. Second, the Cyclops hates Ether based attacks. Hitting him with a T attack(ether based) will result in a counter. At first, it\'s weak, but as you continue, his counters will become progressively powerful... so, better stay away from those ethers, as its attacks are rather powerful(like his Spread Beam, which does around 50 PTS of DMG to everybody).It also has an Acid hand attack that lowers defense and does little damage, plus its normal attack. KOS-MOS will do quite a lot with her normal attacks. Build up her AP and use her S, S, O tech for moderate damage. Shion will do almost nothing with her normal attacks, but it\'s not like you can\'t do anything about it. Virgil\'s normal attacks are also powerful and effective, like KOS-MOS\'s, so those two shall be your main attackers while Shion goofs around doing nothing. Just gigglin\'. ============================================================================== There\'ll be a short cutscene where KOS-MOS kicks some more Gnosis ass in a rather cool way, as usual. You\'ll also get another AGWS capsule. But anyway, once the cutscene finishes, head right. Destroy the Thunder Crate by the Gnosis to damage it for a bit. Kill that Gnosis, too, and proceed onward. Eventually, the camera will zoom in into the control room nearby. Get inside and tag the switch. Head outside and head down. You\'ll find another Gnosis as you go; one of those big, Mantis like yellow-things. They\'re called -Golems- and are quite easy. Techs should be enough to kill them. Be wary of their Menace Cannon, though, as it is very powerful. They also have plenty of HPs... On the left side of where the Golem was, there are some destruct-able crates. Two of them contain Escape Pack. Once you\'ve gotten it, head back to the main path and proceed down it. You\'ll find a -Manticore- along the way, too. They\'re VERY weak, but their Flare Bomb attack targets everybody and does a good bit of damage, too. But they\'re nothing too impressive, so move on. It\'ll probably follow you, until you bump into a huge thing blocking the path... it\'s a -Goblin-, another type of Gnosis(well, duh!) They come accompanied by a Manticore, so I\'d recommend killing that first. Goblins have plenty of defense, but low HP; they also do a lot of damage. I\'d recommend using T,T attacks on them constantly, or calling for your AGWS. Behind the Goblin there\'ll be the door you need to cross. Before going there, destroy the gray containers here, around the area where the Goblin was, to got some Revives. Then, cross the door. In the next area, a cutscene will ensue. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Minotaur; Sky Fish x 2<-- The Minotaur is huge, isn\'t it? They\'re airborne enemies, so you have to rely on T attacks. First off, go for the fishes. Kill each of them as soon as you start. Keep in mind, though, that the Minotaur will usually perform an attack once you hit a fish. It\'s well worth it, though, as it\'ll be left alone. To kill the fishes, use T, T combos on those guys. They\'ll go down in about three turns. Also, if you\'re badly hurt, use Med Kits S to get the most health recovered. Heal constantly, too, and if possible, use a tech attack. This battle will be quite tough, because the Minotaur does a lot of damage, is fast and has plenty of HPs. Its attacks and speed are the main problems. The Minotaur should be attacked with T, T combos OVER AND OVER AGAIN, while healing between attacks. The Minotaur only uses three attacks, but they\'re all pretty powerful. The Thunderbolt hits one party member and it does around 30 PTS of DMG. Not a big deal, but it\'s a pain if those fishes are still around. The Diffusion Beam is much more powerful and hits both party members, for around 50-60 points of damage. Lastly, it\'s got its Gravity Attack, which is simply outstanding, doing around 80-100 PTS of DMG. It\'ll be performed once the Mino\' is about to go down... you\'ll also be told a turn or two before it performs it, so be sure to heal. And... the fish\'s attacks are limited to slashing. ============================================================================== You\'ll be given a chance to save as the next lengthy cutscene progresses. KOS- MOS planted a tracking device on the Gnosis ship. They\'ve got the Zohar Artifact, after all. After a couple of hours, we see a ship passing by the battlefield. The crewmembers see a corpse floating around and decide to bounce it off. Yet, this corpse, being KOS-MOS, makes it way to the ship and forces her way in. Shortly after she does, the ship is contacted by Shion and Allen. After much talking, KOS-MOS decides to bring them in inside. Eventually, you\'ll have the chance to save(you can tell how long this cutscene will be...) Then, we\'ll see a brief, hologram-ic video of a planet that looks suspiciously like the Earth being destroyed, tore up apart. A priest of sorts then comes in and talks about Zohar Emulators, Originals and how a experiment failed and shall not fail again. Does this mean that that planet was, in fact, the Earth, and that it was destroyed by a Zohar experiment...!? Who the hell knows! We then shift to Fifth Jerusalem, an orbital tower. A group of people are talking about who seems to be a mercenary, who\'ll do any mission. They then call him in: his name is Ziggurat 8, a robot that was once human and then turned into a cyborg. He wants to eliminate all human traces of his body, to become the complete machine. At any rate, he\'s presented with his mission: he must infiltrate a church-ship of sorts and rescue a Realian that\'s child- shaped. He\'s got no problem with the situation. Only, he\'s got one request: he wants all memories to be deleted off his brain once the mission ends. It doesn\'t matter if they use synthetic parts. In fact, even better that way. We then shift to the church-ship. The Priest we saw a while ago enters the cell where our objective is being kept. He\'s got a little chat with the cute, yet somewhat creepy, girl. We then see a ship closing in to the church-ship. As it arrives, it deploys two soldiers who immediately start to talk. Just when the ship is about to leave, Ziggurat 8 jumps out of it... and he\'s completely invisible, to boot! You\'ll take control of him after this cutscene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ######################[ A S T E R O I D P L E R O M A ]###################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Head right, past the talking guards, to find a save point. From here, go up. At the top, head immediately to the right, along a group of parked cars, until you find two destruct-able crates. One of them will spit out a Scope once destroyed. There is a Red Pipe behind were the crates were. Shoot the pipe out to get 2 Ether Upgrades S. Once you\'ve gotten this, head to northeastern end of this area, by a stone-made path. A cutscene will take place on you approach this area. Once the cutscene finishes, you\'ll be inside the church area, which looks earth-like and not futuristic like everything else. One the other hand, you\'ve lost your camouflage, so you should be more careful from now on. From where you start, head up and then right until you bump into a wall. The staircase nearby leads to nowhere; instead, if you start being pursued, you can go up it in order to make the pursuers get off your ass. So, go around this wall. Your job is to maneuver through this maze-like thing, while avoiding guards. I can\'t give consistent strategies here, as guards move constantly; this all feels like a poor man\'s Hitman ;) At any rate, these guards die in two hits from Ziggurat\'s cutlass(or whatever that is) so don\'t worry if you\'re hit. A good strategy is to bump into the nearest guard you find and kill him. From here, simply follow another guard that\'s facing the other way until you reach the other side. Yeah, I know it sounds overly simple, but trust me, this works. Yet, you may fail; don\'t damn me if this happens. Keep in mind that in order to succeed here, you must walk(press and hold R2) or else your footsteps will echo and you\'ll be found in no time flat. At the other side, go through the doorway on the wall. You\'re bound to be found by a guard, but once you hit the next area, whoever was pursuing you will give up. This next area is very similar to the previous one. However, you have to rely on those candle-like things. Another thing to note it\'s that the enemies here are considerably tougher and faster, so be careful. Start off by killing both of the guards nearby. Yeah, they\'re a bit tough, but they hand over a Med Kit once they die, so not to worry. Besides, Ziggo is quite strong. Also, blow up those two destruct-able things near the entrance. One of them will leave 2 Revives once destroyed. Now, proceed to the right. Eventually, you\'ll find a statue with three guards around. Blow up the statue to reveal a chest. Then, engage one of the guards. Once the battle ends, get the Decoder 11 off the chest and run away; the other guards will have forgotten about you, trust me. The next area is a breather from these two dungeonic areas. You\'re on a bridge, so move on to the right into the next area; in here, head right and then down toward a ladder. As you do, you\'ll be shown an AGWS that\'s on the area. It looks formidable, so it\'s better not to engage him(if you do, and beat it, you\'ll get decoder # 4). Therefore, do not go down the ladder. Head to the left instead where you\'ll find a switch by a crane. Press the switch and move the crane to the left to cause a huge explosion. The AGWS will move away from the ladder, so rush back there and go down. Head right and through the doorway there. Another cutscene will ensue. After it, you\'ll engage two guards; use S, T combos to wear them out. Once the battle finishes, another cutscene will take place. You\'ll be told you need a Master Key to proceed onward. Head to the southwestern corner of this area to find a ramp going down. Take it. In the next zone, approach the thunder capsule there. Move a bit to the left from it to get a guard to follow you. Once he approaches, destroy the capsule to slow the guard down. Head to the left then and get those 2 Veil off the corner. Afterward, run to the far right side of this area. You\'ll find a blue car around. Across it, to the south, there is a door. Head through it. In the next zone, head left as soon as possible, past a Thunder Capsule. You\'ll be on a warehouse. Destroy every box here to get a Bio Sphere, Ether Pack S, 100 G, Med Kit S and a Revive. The other box contains a -Cyber Crab- They\'re shaped like crabs, are robotic and easy. Their laser attack is the most damaging, yet it is still weak. Slaughter them by constantly performing S, T combos. It\'s the most effective one. Now, once you\'ve gotten all of the items here, head out of this small warehouse and continue down the hall. Eventually, you\'ll find a door on your right. Head through it. The camera will then zoom in into a robot of sorts that\'s here. If you go up to the monitors there, you\'ll be able to see that there is a chest on the path that\'s being blocked off by the robot. You don\'t have to fight him right away, so heal up before doing so. When you\'re feeling ready, engage the thing. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Gardis M1<-- What a painfully easy battle! First off, this guy is one of those who don\'t like to be attacked. If he\'s hit, he\'ll call for his flying allies. Two of them, to be exact. They\'re very weak, though, and airborne, meaning you\'re limited to hitting them with T, T attacks. In fact, one of those combos and each of those flying thing dies. They like to use a Laser attack on you that does approximately 20 PTS of DMG; not too much eh? Furthermore, the Gardis itself does nothing. So, what you have to do, is to hit the Gardis with a T, T combo. Then, kill both of its minions that appear. Lastly, hit the Gardis with another T, T combo. Repeat. ============================================================================== After the battle, snag the key off the chest that\'s north from where the Gardis was. It contains the Master Key. Backtrack to MOMO\'s(the little girl) cell block. Before opening her cell, open the other two: one of them holds a destruct-able crate that hides a Speed Stim. Be sure to get it. The other holds a save point. Save, of course. And then, open MOMO\'s cell, finally. There\'ll be a cutscene. After it, the alarm will go off. What you need to do is to backtrack to the area outside of the church(where Ziggo planted those bombs in the cutscene). In there, there is a escape ship on the western side. But it\'s not that easy. Start off by heading to the bridge: do so by exiting the cell block from the upmost door. Then, go up the ladder and through the door on the left corner. On this bridge, you\'ll see a short cutscene. Basically, the bridge is completely blocked off. So, we\'ll have to take another route. Head back to the hallway where Gardis\'s room is. In fact, you must head into Gardis\'s room. A cutscene will take place once you do. MOMO chats up a bit with Ziggo and decides to call him Ziggy from now on... yeah, whatever. I\'ll call him whatever I want. That means, Ziggo is the name I\'ll use the most. Anyways, press the switch here and head outside. Run to the southern end of the hall and you\'ll find a door. It\'s been locked all along, but you just unlocked it! So, head through it and down the ladder at the end of this short corridor. Another cutscene will take place. After it, head to the left, avoiding that mud. You\'ll eventually reach a sewer like system. In the middle, there is a stream of water, and on both sides, ground you must use to cross. You\'ll have to shift between paths in order to reach the end, while being followed by some robotic things... yes, my friend. This is the SAME thing we did in Solaris in Xenogears, with Fei and Elly, in the sewers, being pursued by those flat robots... Ah, the memories! Once again, there is not much science here. Just run. The path is longer and much more complicated, of course, with a lot of obstacles, yet most of them can be dodged quite easily. Just stay away from that mud. Eventually, you\'ll reach the end, where you\'ll find a ladder. Go up it to trigger another cutscene. MOMO decides to use the Hilber Effect on the AGWS nearby in order to make them lost their sensors... she pulls it off but gets a bit hurt on the run. At the end of this cutscene, you\'ll have to fight the three AGWS: two Mercurios and a Zolfo. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Mercurio x 2, Zolfo<-- This battle will be long and tough. It\'s the one of the toughest battles you\'ve had so far, that\'s for sure. At any rate, let\'s study these guy\'s attacks: The Mercurios will use their guns against you. Each of their attacks does around 80 PTS of DMG. The Zolfo will do nothing but guard. However, I noted that, immediately after I killed a Mercurio, the Zolfo began to attack me with its Grenade Launcher attack, which does approximately 90 PTS of DMG. All of these guys are very strong, with tons of HPs to boot, high defense and attack power. Start off by wearing down the Mercurios. Concentrate on one and have Ziggo use T, T combos on him. But not too often; try to save some AP so you can perform the T, T, O tech called \"Lighting Fist\", which does around 80 PTS of DMG. Meanwhile, MOMO should heal. CONSTANTLY. If she loses all of her EP, use an Ether Pack on her. She NEEDS to be kept alive throughout the fight. It\'s good that these AGWS normally don\'t attack her. If they do, heal her immediately, unless Ziggo NEEDS TO BE HEALED IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise, MOMO is priority. As for Zolfo, use the same strategy: T, T attacks, with the T, T, O thrown in sometimes. As usual, heal constantly every time your HP hits red level(around 60 for Ziggo). MOMO should heal every time. Do not move her from her back row. That would be fatal for her. ADDITIONAL STRATEGY(By Matthew DeMattio<[email protected]>): \"In Ziggy\'s fight against 2 Mercurios, and Zolfo, the fight is actually much easier than previously thought. For me, MOMO had a little technique called Sheep Beam. It costs 4EP, and the description says \"Puts enemy M Pilots to sleep\" What that means to us? Cast it on one of the Mercurio\'s and bam! You\'re fighting 1 less Mercurio. For me, Sheep Beam took affect every single time I cast it on the Mercurio, however it didn\'t work on Zolfo. Sheep Beam in this battle actually makes it VERY easy, because once you put a mercurio to sleep, when Zolfo\'s turn comes around he\'ll say \"What are you doing sleeping?!\" and shoot the mercurio! It was doing 120 damage every time Zolfo got a turn! However, it eventually slowed to only doing 60dmg, because the Mercurio was defending.\" ============================================================================== Once the battle finishes, destroy the nearby forklift for 2 Bio Spheres. Then, run forward. As you approach the end of the area, you\'ll find two destruct- able, coffin-shaped boxes. Blast them away to get 8 Med Kit S. Then, go around the structures thrown here and through the door there. In the next room, go up the steps. You\'ll be on the control(?) room. There is a save point here; save, that\'s common sense. Afterward, exit through the double doors here. You\'re back on the church-dungeon thingie. Huh, yeah. Head immediately to the left to avoid confrontation with a soldier that\'s coming your way. Continue going left into the next area. Here, you\'ll see a cutscene, as usual. Margulis stands in your way. He can\'t let you go out, so he performs a formidable a sword tech. Ziggo fends off against it, fortunately for MOMO, mainly. Margulis isn\'t letting you out anytime soon. Time to fight! ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Margulis<-- He\'ll start off by performing a sword attack, that\'ll let you see his true power: it does around 100 PTS of DMG, and it usually goes aimed to Ziggo. Don\'t heal after he gets hit. Simply continue trying to attack(you\'ll do almost no damage). Eventually, you\'ll be killed. But it\'s not all over. ADDITIONAL STRATEGY(By Matthew DeMattio<[email protected]>): \"In Ziggy\'s fight vs. Margulis, it is actually pretty easy to win, if you took the right steps. What are the right steps you ask? Simple: Have Ziggy evolve the ether skill Bodyguard. Then, put MOMO directly behind him in the battle formation. When the fight with Margulis comes around, activate Bodyguard, and suddenly you can do regular damage! The only downside is that you may have to recast it once or twice during the fight. But this shouldn\'t be a problem anyway, it\'s not as if Ziggy has many other skills worth using at this time.\" ============================================================================== Watch the following cutscene. Margulis got Ziggo and MOMO caught; Ziggo\'s good thinking will save them though: he will make the bombs he planted earlier go kaboom, thus freeing the party. As they\'re about to board the nearest escape ship, Ziggo \"feels\" the presence of something around. It\'s probably nothing, so he simply boards the ship and blitzes away. Just then, Margulis crawls out of the fire and stares at the burning AGWS. All of a sudden, a silver-haired man crawls out of the darkness, along with a girl that looks like MOMO. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ##############################[ T H E E L S A ]############################## ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We then shift back to the Elsa. The party\'s ready to eat, and with a good reason: Shion\'s cooked today, and it will be a good meal, no doubt about that. Everybody enjoys themselves under the eternal night that is space. Eventually, it is time to dry the dishes. They do their job with the help of chaos. Once the cutscene finishes, you\'ll be as Shion and you\'ll have the Commander\'s food on your hands. It\'s your job to get it to him. Head through the only door in this room. In the next area, go down the steps. As soon as you do, you will get an e-mail. Read it thoroughly, as it is about a very important matter: the EVS. Afterward, head to the left. Follow the path all the way to the area where the \"Bridge\" staircase is. Here, go to the right where you\'ll find two \"save points\". One of them IS a save point, while the other one is a store. Stock up on anything you may need. Also, you can buy equipment here. I recommend buying a Fiber Suit and a D Unit V2 for KOS-MOS. Lastly, you\'ll be able to buy some cards for the Xenocards game. You might want to purchase them, although it\'s not necessary. Now, explore the area along the west to find the elevator. Board it and select to go to B1. KOS-MOS capsule opens up and chaos approaches it. He gives her a goodnight and just as he leaves, the commander barges in. He sees KOS-MOS\'s capsule open and gets near to it... and gives KOS-MOS a solid, cold, suspicious and what-have-you... stare. A long stare. Then, we shift to the past(we can tell it is so because of the Commander\'s uniform), to a place where it actually rains! The Commander gets a game console control of sorts(uh...). The one that gave it to him disappears shortly afterward. Then there is a cinema inside Shion\'s lab. People are just chilling out, when, all of sudden, a group of soldiers part of the U-TIC organization barge in. They secure the area and then, a man, who\'s OBVIOUSLY Cherenkov, uses the control-like thingie that was given to him to open KOS-MOS\'s capsule. The robotic(VERY robotic; look at the way she moves and sounds) girl crawls out of her bed and goes nuts. Insane. She attacks the nearest soldier and destroys him completely. She then goes after the nearest scientist and cuts her through. The leader of this thing stares, horrified... The Commander is still staring at KOS-MOS. All of a sudden, he takes out a gun and points it to KOS-MOS\'s head... but he can\'t fire. Then, we\'re back as Shion. After the elevator stops, go up. Destroy the panel on the left for a Revive and then take a right. Eventually, you\'ll reach an area where the path branches. Go south first. You will find two panels that can be blown up, on the left. Get them off your way and head into the newly unlocked corridor. Walk through to its end and you\'ll find three crates. Blow them up for an Ether Upgrade A, and 50 Gil. Head out of this area and head to the far right. Once you bump into the wall, go down. You\'ll find a staircase. Down it, blast the crates out and snag the 350 Gold off the crates here(after destroying them). Then, head left, where you\'ll find a door. Go through it. In here, you\'ll find chaos and a save point. You have to go through the door here, but don\'t do so just yet. Head back to the previous area and run to the bifurcation we passed a while ago. Head north this time around and through a door there. You\'ll find a big crate. Destroy it for a Med Kit. Head to the right. Destroy them all to find a Med Kit and 2 Ether Upgrades S. There is also a ladder here. Go down it and head through the door. As soon as you, you\'ll bump into another bifurcation(point a). You can go left, or down. Go down. At the end of the path, turn left. You\'ll bump into another bifurcation(point b). You can go down, or left. Go left. Destroy the crates here for 5 Ether Upgrades A, Med Kit and a Bio Sphere. Now, head back to point b. Go down this time around. You\'ll have to cross a bridge; at the other side, go left past the panel to find two walls that can be blown up. Do so to find Segment Address 8. Going directly down from this Address will lead into another door. Before heading there, backtrack to point a and head left and through the corridor. At the end, there\'ll be a door. Cross it. In this room(the hangar), there is a lot of destruct-able crap. You can find Segment Address No. 14, Ether Upgrade S, 100 Gold, Fiber Suit and an extra 150 Gil. The Hangar is quite expansive though, so you will have to walk quite a bit(but not explore). Head back to where segment address 8 is and go through the door directly down from the address. You\'ll hit chaos room again. Now, it\'s time to do some further exploration. You don\'t need to do so, but it will certainly hold some nifty rewards. Start off by backtracking to the Elsa\'s first floor. In here, look for a map and locate the Passenger Cabin. It\'s on the eastern side of the first \"zone\" of this area. You know, this area is divided in three, circle like shapes. The second one, from north to south, has a door on its bottom end. Head through it. Inside the cabin, there is a red couch. Examine it by constantly tapping circle in front of it. Eventually, you\'ll find a \"Disarm Key\". With this in your hand, backtrack all the way back to the zone where Segment Address 8 is. Look for a glowing panel on this area; examine it and use the Disarm Key on it. Press the switch and you\'ll reorganize the bridge. There are two new paths you can take. The rightmost one leads to a crate that holds 200 G, while the left one leads to a small area behind the hangar where you can find 50 G, a Spirit Pendant, a Bio Sphere and a chest with Decoder 10. With this at hand, head back to chaos room. Finally, exit through the door on the bottom left side of the room. In the next zone, head the down the lift nearby. In the AGWS hangar, there are some things to do. Firstly, if you head through the south-most door, you\'ll reach an area where there is a Coat Beam, on the bottom part of it. In the AGWS hangar itself, on the north, there is a robot who\'ll sell you Gear Expansions and let you tune it up. It would be advised for you to do so. After all, you don\'t know when Gears will come in handy. Lastly, there are some crates along the leftmost side of the hangar. You can gate 5 Ether Upgrades A by destroying them. To the left of the robot who sells AGWS parts there is another lift. Take it and go through the door. The Commander is still trembling at KOS-MOS when Shion walks in. Cherenkov aims at her as soon as she enters the room. Shion looks a little nervous, but the commander explains himself. Apparently, he\'s got the habit of having his gun withdrawn when he\'s doing something. He then haves a good eat and chats with Shion at the same time. Shortly afterward, we shift to Ziggo and MOMO. MOMO\'s happy because they\'re going to Fifth Jerusalem. Ziggo then informs her that they\'re actually heading to the Second Miltia. Oh well, too bad. The action goes back to the Fifth Jerusalem. This part of the cutscene is boring and long. Eventually, we\'ll be back at The Elsa and you\'ll take control of Shion once again. Exit this area through the only door in here. As soon as you hit the hangar, you\'re signaled to go to the Bridge. Also, note that Tony\'s back at the hangar. If you talk to him, he\'ll tell you he\'s looking for a map. Head back to the Elsa\'s first floor and run to the north most portion of it to find the bridge. Inside, there will be another cutscene. Something\'s wrong with the catapult deck and you\'ll have to check it out. Start off by exiting the bridge, obviously. You\'ll need to take the elevator down to B1F. From there, go to B2F. In B2F, head to where Segment Address 8 is. From there, head north across the bridge and turn right. Follow the path until you can turn left. Do so until you find a door by a messageboard that says \"catapult\". Well, you know what to do ;) In the next room, go down the steps and head to the northern end of this expansive area. You\'ll find a switch there. Press it and a cutscene will take place. Once it finishes, run all the way back to the bridge, saving along the way, if possible. Once you hit the bridge, you\'ll see Captain completing the procedures for a gate jump(?) Once this course of action finishes, we\'ll swing back to Ziggo and co. They\'re being pursued by a group of those church-like soldiers. Ziggo pulls off an incredible stunt Hollywood directors would be proud of and gains the edge on the battle. He then fires the cannon and lets the pain go. Ziggo\'s ship then blitzes away and we shift back to the Elsa as soon as he does. Shion\'s discussing about KOS-MOS and her destiny... I don\'t feel like summarizing the rest of this cinema, so watch the rest of it by yourself. It\'s an awesome cinema. After it, you\'ll gave to return to the catapult deck. On your way, there\'ll be various cutscenes. Eventually, you\'ll take control of Ziggo and MOMO\'s party. You\'re on the catapult deck and there are plenty of monsters for you to deal with. -DOMO A- has plenty of HP. Wear them down with Techs and watch out for their Beam attacks, as they do approximately 50 PTS of DMG. Your job is to get out of the deck. Keep in mind that the destruct-able panels here hold some more items. Try to collect them all as you go. Once you exit the deck, follow the path until a cutscene ensues. After it, you\'ll be able to shift through party members. You have to head back to the AGWS hangar. You should know where it is by know, so simply head there, saving on the room chaos once was. Heal up, too. Keep in mind that on your way, you might bump into -DOMO B-, who are weaker than DOMO A, but do much more damage with their beam attacks. At the AGWS hangar, exit through the southern end. You\'ll probably have to fight some DOMO A\'s and DOMO B\'s, but it\'s all good. You should deal with them accordingly: Ziggo\'s physical attacks are stronger than his Ether-based ones, so use those. KOS-MOS\'s ether based attacks are much stronger, on the other hand. Shion is very good with her Techs. Using a mixture of these attacks you should be able to conquer your robotic foes. At any rate, once you exit the hangar through the door I directed you to go through(the one on the south), you\'ll see a short dialogue. Eventually, you\'ll have the chance to attack the DOMO carrier. Make any necessary preparations and when you\'re ready, engage the thing. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->DOMO Carrier<-- ARGH! This battle will be F\'ING TOUGH and F\'ING ANNOYING!! I totally, completely, utterly hated this thing. First off, it\'s got a monumental defense. Ziggy\'s Ethers will do around 1 PTS of DMG to it, while KOS-MOS\'s will do around 40. Shion should be on her AGWS all the battle, especially if you enhanced it. I had quite a bit of a hard time battling this piece of crap. Ziggo\'s main strength here is his Lightning Fist. The first two button presses of it(T, T) will do around 1 PTS of DMG each, while the tech itself does around 90 PTS of DMG. KOS-MOS\'s R . Cannon is simply outstanding here. It does plenty of damage against the monster. Shion\'s AGWS is not terribly useful, but at least it doesn\'t die as fast as Shion would. Use the AGWS\'s square attack for maximum damage. This monster has a crapload of HP, too, so that means this battle will last for a long while. Furthermore, you have to deal with its attacks: Tremor P and its Beam Attack. Tremor P is nearly always done at the start of the battle. Sometimes, the Carrier will take a turn before performing this attack. But, mostly always, it\'ll be done at the start. It does approximately 300 PTS of DMG to normal characters(HOLY S***!) so that means Shion will go down in one hit. Revive her as soon as possible and make her board her AGWS immediately. The first time I fought the Carrier, with Ziggo, it would do this attack just once. Then, I used chaos, and it used it at least twice throughout the battle. Then, I decided to shift back to Ziggo... and guess what? To my surprise, DOMO only used once Tremor P and then forgot COMPLETELY about it. This is more than enough for me to say that the best party is Ziggo, KOS-MOS and Shion. Ziggo because he\'ll block Tremor P off after its initial use, plus it\'s lighting fist skill it\'s not that bad. KOS-MOS\'s T, T, O Tech is DEVASTATING and Shion\'s S, S Tech on the AGWS is not too bad, either. The DOMO will constantly use a Beam attack, that does around 80 PTS of DMG. Nothing you can heal quite quickly. Also, the DOMO will heal itself if it finds the chance. To prevent this, kill it as soon as possible. Use KOS-MOS\'s T, T, O Tech, Shion\'s AGWS and Ziggo\'s T, T, O Tech in order to wear it down quite quickly. Heal if needed, especially after the first Tremor P(you should use a W-Item when the monster uses such attack) Eventually, it\'ll die and self-destruct. This attack can/will kill you, so try to maintain yourself healthy throughout the whole fight. ============================================================================== There\'ll be a cutscene after the battle. The ship\'s been badly damaged and the captain ain\'t happy. Tony and Hammer ain\'t happy, either, and they start a fight out of nowhere about who is stupider than who. The Cap\'n ends the fight with a scream and both of the crewmembers get back to work. We then go to the kitchen, where the party\'s having their meal. Allen\'s taking a nap on the table while everybody else is chatting and enjoying themselves. Shion approaches Ziggo and MOMO and haves a short talk with both, until she\'s directed to give both of the new guys a tour through the ship. You\'re still on the restaurant. Exit it and head inside the bridge, first. After the brief description of it, exit. Now, it\'s your job to traverse the numerous rooms and nooks in the Elsa\'s first floor, including Cabins and whatnot. After a bit of exploration through the Cabins, you\'ll be told if you want to call it a day or if you want to continue showing around. Decide whatever you want. Now, when you decide to call it a day, you\'ll be told if you want to save. A cutscene will ensue. Halfway through it, you\'ll have to fight some little DOMOs with Jr\'s AGWS. Beat them to continue with the cutscene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #####################[ U - T I C B A T T L E S H I P ]####################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You\'ll be as Jr and have in your party Mary and a nameless Soldier... how awesome. Slide down the ramp into the enemy\'s ship. Inside, proceed down and head south through the only door there. In the next screen, run across the \"bridge\". Halfway through it, you\'ll see a doorway on the right. Head through it to find some destruct-able gas(?) pipes. Destroy them all for an Antidote, a Med Kit S, 2 Tech Upgrade A and 2 Ether Upgrade. If you proceed further into this area you\'ll find some laser fields, on both the northern and southern ends of this area. If you try to cross them, you\'ll have to fight some - Soldiers- and a -Gardis M1- The soldiers are quite resistant, but Jr\'s S, S attacks are more than enough to kill them. You should have your AGWS(Mary\'s and the Soldier\'s) deal with the Gardis with constant S attacks(Mary\'s AGWS is especially powerful). The southern laser field can be de-activated though. In this field, there is a generator that can be blown up, thus de-activating the mentioned field. It\'s a bit hard to give locations for this generator, so I guess I\'ll have to use... AN ASCII MAP OF FUN! ________________ | *** | *** | *** | __***___ |__ __| The *\'s represent the laser field and the G\'s | |GG| represent the area where the generator is. Once you | GG| locate it, blow it up with your vaporizer plug-in. | |__|_________ When you do so, the southern laser field will | *** disappear, clearing your path. Cross to the other side | *** | *** |__________***____ ...and go up once you hit a bifurcation(point a). You\'ll notice that you\'re able to destroy one of those oranges panels on the wall. Don\'t do so, because you\'ll liberate a soldier and you\'ll have to fight him. But anyway, go up, like I said, and turn left once you first can. You\'ll find the second generator hidden in a nook. Destroy it to de-activate the northern laser field. Now, head a bit to the right and you\'ll spot a door. Examine it and you\'ll be told it\'s locked. Head back to point a and run south where you\'ll find another locked door. Hm, interesting. Start off by heading toward where the first generator was(refer to ASCII map) and heading up. Cross the now extinct laser field to find a panel with a glowing switch on it. Press it and you\'ll unlock the door on the south part of point a. Head there and proceed down the hall. Halfway through it, you\'ll end up being ambushed by two soldiers. Beat them to nothingness(after the first battle, the second one will still be following you, so beat him too) and proceed onward through this linear hall. On your way, you\'ll see a red door; head through it and destroy the mainframe inside for 2 Frame Repair A. Head back outside and continue on. At the end of the path, there\'ll be a red door. Go through it to reach a control room of sorts. Press the lone switch inside. You\'ll unlock the red door in the middle of point a by doing this. Backtrack to point a and run through the now unlocked door(before doing so, destroy the rightmost panel here. It won\'t release a soldier; instead, it\'ll give you 2 Skill Upgrade A). In the next zone, go through the nearest door. You\'ll be in another control room. The green glowing panel requires a key card, while the red glowing panel won\'t work unless the console is booted up. Head outside this room and proceed on with the hall. You\'ll reach a bifurcation(point b). Go down first to find some destruct-able panels as well as another bifurcation(point c) in which you can continue down or go right. Destroy the panels first for a Cure All and a Bio Sphere. Now, while at point c, continue down and through the small, red door here(there is a big, red one here, too). Inside this room, save if you want to. Yep, that\'s all you were going to do here... head back outside, into point c. Look for a passageway going right. Take it and run across it. Halfway through it, you\'ll spot a red door with a green, glowing panel besides it. DON\'T TOUCH THIS DOOR, because guards will ambush you if you do so. Head further to the right to find a destruct-able panel by another door. Destroy this panel to unlock the door with the green panel. You\'ll find some of your teammates and a U-TIC soldier there... uh. Well, head back outside and proceed to the right. You\'ll find another red door by a green panel. Ignore it for now and proceed down the path until you find the respective panel. Blow it up. Before going through that door(door phi), continue a bit further into this path. Right besides the panel you just destroyed there is another red door, and besides it, another panel that, when destroyed, will grant you 5 Ether Upgrade A. The door is not unlocked, too bad(door omicron). At the end of this hallway, you\'ll find yet another door(on your way, you\'ll be ambushed by two guards; be prepared). Go through this one. You\'ll reach another bifurcation(point d). You can go up, down or straight ahead. Start off by heading down and then right. You\'re on the AGWS hangar. Destroy the panel here for a Cure All. Then, head to the left. You can proceed through a bridge or further to the left and down a staircase. Go down first and explore the eastern end of the hangar for an Ether Upgrade Z. Awesome. Then, go back up and cross the bridge. At the other side, there\'ll be two guards. Fight them and go down this hall. Go through the first door on the right and destroy the crate there for a U-TIC card. Head back outside and proceed down. At the end, there\'ll be another door. Go through it and pick Card No. 3 off the desk. After all of this, run back to point d(there\'ll be some new enemies along the way), which is just outside the AGWS hangar area. Having cleared the DOWN path, take the STRAIGHT AHEAD path, which is basically entering the control room here. Hit the switch inside to unlock the door nearby; go through it. You\'ll be back at the point c/b area. You can go straight up to the control room in this zone and boot up the console with your keycard, or go to the door phi/door omicron area(at point c, go to the right). Keep in mind that some Cyber Crabs will be patrolling this area. Going through door phi will earn you a battle against a solder. Battle him and he\'ll eventually board his Zolfo... I\'d recommend having Junior board his AGWS, too, because this Zolfo\'s no joke. Its various sword attacks are rather powerful, so don\'t get too cocky. But he\'s very beatable, as your S attacks do approximately 100 PTS of DMG, expect the Soldier\'s, which do less. After accomplishing this task, destroy the nearest panel and get 2 Skill Upgrade A and to find Segment Address 11. You should be able to decode it. Do so and run to the end of this Segment path to find \"Coat . Ice\". Now, head back of this room and run toward door omicron. For this one, you need a U-TIC card, which you have. Analyze the panel nearby to unlock the door. In this room, you\'ll find Decoder 16. Now, it\'s time to backtrack to the point b/c area(on your way, destroy those plant pots you may find for some upgrades) Before heading into the control room to boot up the console, save(at the save point that\'s on the south of the hall). Then, boot up the console, tag the switch and head through the now-unlocked door. Run across the hall and through the door at the end. You\'re here for the mainframe, so run toward the \"computer\" in the middle of everything and analyze it. Operate it. Mary decides to deal with the panel; he tells Jr not to touch the terminal. But, he, being the little curious kid he is, does so and activates the security system, sending another new, formidable foe Into their path. Guess what my dear knight? Oh yes... ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Ambix<-- Start off by board Jr\'s AGWS at the start of the battle. This is an extremely easy battle, but, keep in mind, our Soldier will probably die. Anyway, once you\'ve boarded your AGWS, start off by using Mary\'s square attack. In fact, use everybody\'s Square attack and the occasional combo, when it becomes possible. Mary will dish out around 150 PTS of DMG per turn, while the Soldier and Jr make around 100. After quite a bit of mindless S attacks, this thing will explode and die. It has three basic attacks, although one of them is not necessarily an attack. First off, we have a machine gun attack of sorts. Basically, it rapid-fires the entire party for little damage. Its other attack is the missile launcher, which hits everybody for a decent amount of damage(approx. 200). Lastly, we have its third \"attack\". It\'s a bit strange, but it\'s something like this: after pumping up some damage into this thing, you\'ll be told that its output went down to x% and that its counter output also went down to x%. I really could not determine what this meant, but when he did it, he immediately used his rocket launcher attack. ============================================================================== Little Master and Mary hack into the mainframe and start to transmit the data to the Durandal. As they\'re doing this procedure, a convoy of U-TIC soldier crashes in. Jr un-holsters both of his guns and does some John-Woo-ic maneuvers with his gun in order to kill the soldiers. He succeeds, but ends up destroying the information transition cable(made-up name). Too bad, really. Jr decides to head back to the ship, while Mary stays behind for a bit, thinking... At the Elsa, Shion wonders where Cherenkov is. He\'s outside, something that worries the Captain. The Military is not appreciated here and Cherenkov was using his uniform when he went outside, meaning that his life is in danger. Shion decides it\'s better to go and find him, with the aid of Ziggo. As you exit the bridge, you\'ll get an e-mail that\'ll inform you about KOS-MOS\'s new Tech Attack, R . Drill. Perfect. Anyways, Ziggo\'s at the bottom level(use the elevator). Find him up and then exit the ship through the airlock, which is located on the left side of the bridge\'s staircase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #########################[ D O C K C O L O N Y ]############################# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After the short bit of dialogue, head forward across the bridge. At the end, you\'ll find the DOCK-CLINIC. There is nothing interesting inside, so move on. The next building is the TALK TO ME; you can buy a lot of stuff on the counter downstairs, from AGWS equipment to toiler paper! It\'d be advisable to upgrade your AGWS and your characters, too. Furthermore, in this area, there is another staircase that goes into the bottom level of the store. In this creepy zone, you\'ll find some destruct-able debris. Blow it all up to reach a small backroom with Segment Address # 2. Also, if you talk with the man here and give him your e-mail... he\'ll sooner of later send you an e-mail :) Back outside, let\'s continue on down a ramp. Cherenkov is being beaten to a pulp by the locals. Hammer watches in fear and runs away; it seems this is the Commander\'s end. He gets uber-mad and a little sign on his forehead starts to shine... the same sign that was painted on the Zohar Artifact o_O Back as Shion, proceed onward until a second cutscene ensues. The party runs toward the alley Cherenkov was on, ready to fight the thugs... just to find them on the floor, with their bodies painted in crimson. Cherenkov is nowhere to be found, as you\'d expect. We run back to the Elsa, where MOMO\'s trying to heal the Commander, who won\'t let the little girl to do such a thing. Ziggy diverts MOMO\'s attention, saying that he needs a good tune up. Meanwhile, the commander leaves and we see him staggering on the ship\'s bottom level. Something\'s wrong with him... and the Zohar sign shines again. Once the cutscene finishes, you\'ll be back as Shion. Try to exit through the door in front of you to get an e-mail. Then, head through the door. Maneuver through this complex and find the elevator that goes up into the first floor. Your objective is to get to the bridge. Before doing so, you may want to hop on into the EVS for some extra levels and money, especially for that latter. That way, you\'ll be able to enhance your AGWS and characters before leaving, while leveling them up. Once comfortable with everything, head into the bridge. Talk with captain and, if you\'re ready, tell him to depart. Meanwhile, at Cherenkov\'s room, the commander has a seizure and starts to see things. Poor guy... Shion, on the other hand, is resting peacefully on her room and has a vision. Ooo, nice. Not so nice, actually, because the ship starts to tremble as it is taken out of hyperspace, to appear in the middle of an enormous Gnosis fleet. The Elsa gets carried away shortly after this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ########################[ C A T H R E D A L S H I P ]######################## ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To the left of the starting point there is a save point; make good use of it. Then, head upward and destroy the \"structures\" there for a Nightwalker and an Antidote. Continue through this path and you\'ll reach a bifurcation. You can go through the upmost path or through the bottom one. Also, there are some - Cerberus- here. They\'re very strong and fast having a lot of HP and plenty of strong attacks like Fireball(80 PTS of DMG), Frostbreath(80 PTS of DMG) and their fang attack. You should deal with them with Tech attacks; lots of them. If you\'re using KOS-MOS, have her use her T attacks, as they do a helluva lot of damage to these things Now, take the upmost path, as the bottom one leads to a dead end. You\'ll hit another bifurcation, where you can go left or right. Go left to find some destruct-able \"pipes\". Blow them up for a Bio Sphere. Head back to the bifurcation and proceed right this time around. Run across the path into the next area. Proceed to the right into a somewhat wide area. Go the north point of it to find a thin path. Follow it as it is very linear. Eventually, you\'ll reach an area where a cutscene will ensue. This is a rather lengthy and VERY interesting cutscene, especially in the Cherenkov part of it. I recommend you to pay attention to it; good attention. After a bit, you\'ll be back on the Gnosis. You\'ll be in front of the Ariadne sign. This is also a bifurcation in which you can go up and through the thin path next to the sign, or head to the right. Head right first and walk along the path; there\'ll be -Fairy-\'s on your way; they have a lot of Ether Defense, but fall prey to normal physical attacks. Two of them and they\'re done for. At the end of this path, you\'ll hit another bifurcation(point b). You can go up or down. Go up first. You\'ll see a cardboard here. Destroy it and get the Coat . Fire behind it. Head to point b again and go down this time around. Follow the road into the next area. Head right and you\'ll find a door you can destroy. Before heading inside this building, head right and around the building until you find two big crates. Blow them up and head back to the frontside of the building. Head into it and go up the ladder there. At the top, head to the right across the semi-destroyed bridge. At the end, destroy all the debris from some stuff. Also, there is a hidden, destruct-able wall on a nook to the left of the building here. Inside there is a Revive DX. Head back to the front of the building and head to the left of it. Follow the path until you find an elevator. Use it to go down. Then, proceed into the next area. In here, go to the right and up at the end of the path. Here, there\'ll be a staircase. You can go up it or proceed through the pathway right next to it. Head through this linear path and you\'ll find another staircase. Go up and up the next one, too. At the top, head to the right; there\'ll be an -Ogre- on your way; board your AGWS and use KOS-MOS attacks to wear it down quickly(it is slow, but has plenty of Physical Power). You\'ll bump into some pipes; destroy them, pick the items that are left behind and move onward into the next area. In here, move to the right, until you bump into a ramp going down. Take it and you\'ll hit a bifurcation: you can go left or right -- left, you\'ll find nothing. Head right first and run along the path(be careful with the fairy here; if you touch it, you\'ll have to fight 2 ogres and a fairy. It\'s an overly tough and annoying battle, even with AGWS). At the end of this path, there\'ll be a store sign as well as a save icon. Save and head through the opening here, into the mall. In the next screen, run northward across this linear path, destroying the two containers that\'ll block your way(they\'ll also leave behind 2 Skill Upgrade A and a Frame Repair A). At the other side of the containers you\'ll find an enemy you haven\'t seen before. You\'ll notice that he won\'t try to follow you, yet he\'s blocking the path. That means... ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Perun<-- This battle will be easy. I recommend you to use chaos and Shion in this battle, for their AGWS. Be sure they have a reasonable amount of frame health, too. Otherwise, forget about them. The third character could be KOS-MOS and her tremendous physical power. Start off by boarding your AGWS. They should constantly blast Perun with S attacks, as they do around 150 PTS of DMG. Keep in mind that this thing absorbs ether based attacks(T attacks and chaos\' AGWS O attack) so stay away from those. KOS-MOS should, meanwhile, build up AP to elaborate her Techs, preferably R . Blade(that does around 150 PTS of DMG, too). That\'s how this battle should flow; and don\'t be afraid to use healing stuff when low on health. Also, if you\'re AGWS seem to be running low on HP, jump out of them. I don\'t think this will be necessary: between your AGWS attacks and KOS-MOS\'s Techs, you\'ll be done with this thing in no time flat. Perun uses a variety of interesting attacks, such as Thunder Crusher, which is used often and does approximately 100 PTS of DMG. His Zeus Cannon is the weakest, doing around 50 PTS of DMG. His strongest attack is Electric Wave. It tends to miss a lot, but when it connects, it can do anywhere from 150 to 250 PTS of DMG, making it Perun\'s most fearsome attack. ============================================================================== Go up the staircase nearby after the battle. At the top, you\'ll find a store with its glass broken, as well as a door nearby. Head inside the store to find an -Hydra-. If you touch it, you\'ll have to fight five of them. They\'re very weak and defend a lot. I\'d recommend using AGWS and KOS-MOS\'s T attacks to wear them down very quickly and painlessly. If you beat them, you\'ll get Decoder 15. Head forward toward the \"COSTMARY\" counter and get the Flower Seed off the desk. After you\'ve done all of this, head through the door outside. In the next area, run along the catwalks until you find another door. Run through it into the next area, where you should turn left. You\'ll see you can proceed down this path or take the elevator here. Take the elevator first and go through the open door at the bottom. You\'ll hit a warehouse of sorts. It\'s infested by Unicorns, who are no joke, as they come with two Ogres(DAMN!). You should try to destroy everything that\'s out of the Unicorn way. Be sure you snag all of the items inside those crates! There is one that contains a Med Kit DX, which you should try to get, as well as Segment Address 13. Once you\'re done, head back to the previous area and go up the elevator again. Proceed down the path and through the door at the end. In the next screen, go down the ramp. Thoroughly explore the zone, as it is very expansive and has a lot of branches and paths for you to cross. There are some items scattered around, too. The path you must take is to the east of the staircase that comes from the mall; such path is blocked by some stones and when you approach it, you\'ll hear a \"hum-hum-hum-hum\" sound. A cutscene ensues once you destroy the stones and hit the path itself. The camera zooms in into a huge Zohar artifact that\'s apparently the center of the ship. After a bit of dialogue, we shift back to Cherenkov, who\'s still staggering around and going insane. Once you go back to Shion, go and enter the building in front of you. !!!OPTIONAL!!! You may want to explore the area before entering the building; you can find a Blue monster. Engage it and beat it to get Decoder 9(use similar strategies like the ones you used against Perun) !!!OPTIONAL!!! Run across the path, fighting any -Lizard Men- you may find. They\'re weak and give out a bit of EXP. Problem is that they use a poisonous attack that\'s very annoying. But anyway, move on, destroying and killing and through the door at the end of this path. In the next area, you\'ll be able to save in a save icon nearby. Be sure to do so. In the north end of this area, there\'ll be an elevator with some orange panels next to it. Destroy the panels to \"liberate\" the elevator. Before going down it, head through a door that\'s located on the left of the elevator. You\'ll hit an office of sorts. By the panel at the end of this room there is a plant pot you can destroy; do so for a Frame Repair Z. There are two staircases here, on both the eastern and western ends of this area. Look up the eastern one and go up it; head through the door at the top. In the next screen, proceed left and destroy the orange terminal there. Tag the switch here, too. Backtrack to the office and go up the staircase on the west. Head right this time around and destroy the terminal -- take good note of that ladder, also. Make your way inside the office once again. Now, it\'s time to explore those cubicles. The bottom-right one on the right row has a Magical Hat hidden within it. And, uh... well yeah, that\'s all. Head back to the western staircase and climb up the ladder. At the next floor, proceed to the right and destroy the two panels there. !!!OPTIONAL!!! Destroy the panel past the elevator find a door. Go through it to find segment address 9. Decode it if you got the decoder(see the first optional section in this area\'s walkthrough) to get a robot part. !!!OPTIONAL!!! Head back to the first floor, where the elevator is now. Before boarding it, it\'d wise to save and heal. Once done, board the elevator and have it take you to the lower level. In here, run south until you hit a bifurcation -- point d it should be called. You can go right or left. Go left and ride down the path until you see a branch that\'s blocked off. Destroy the debris that\'s protecting and get the Veil inside. Now, head into the main catwalk and run along it until you find the place where both paths merge. Keep in mind that the Lizard Me patrolling around come in groups of three plus an -Unicorn- The Unicorns will revive the Lizard Men up to six times before giving it. A lengthy battle, eh? I\'d recommend to dodge this. If you can\'t, engage them, escape, and while invisible, run away. At any rate, you\'ll be on where both paths merge. Board the elevator in here and you\'ll be taken down into this thing\'s \"basement\". After the lengthy travel, run forward into the LOCKED door. Right next to it there\'ll be a panel. Press the switch on this panel to unlock the path. Heal up and run through the new door. In the next screen the party will find the Zohar Emulator that was stolen off the Woglinde. As they stare at it, Cherenkov appears and starts to mutter something. He slowly approaches the emulator... and something weird happens. He starts to absorb energy off it... or something. After a bunch of this absorbance, Cherenkov turns into a Huge-Ass thing. A Gnosis, to be precise. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Oudogogue x 2, Gargoyle<-- This battle is kinda tough; I hope you have plenty of Cure-All\'s, Revives, Med Kits S and Ether Pack S as well as a good party(mine was chaos, KOS-MOS and Shion) with a good level. The Oud\'s have 1000 HP apiece. After every round, they will most use their Hell\'s Flash attack that hits every party member for around 80 PTS of DMG. Deal with them accordingly: chaos\' Heaven\'s Wrath usually does around 330 PTS of DMG to EVERYTHING, so use it here, too. Constantly. Shion should focus on healing, while letting go the occasional attack if everybody\'s at full health. Meanwhile, the Gargoyle will try to silence you, so I\'d recommend you to extract an skill that prevents silence with both chaos and Shion(if you have it) Each Oud that dies, the Gargoyle powers up a bit. Once both are dead, it\'s time to go town. The Gargoyle has plenty of HP and is somewhat resistant to... everything. chaos\' Heaven\'s Wrath attack is still tremendously powerful, doing over 300 PTS of DMG. KOS-MOS\'s R . Drill is especially powerful, too. Use both of those attacks constantly, while taking any necessary time to heal. Always, always heal and cure the Phys Def Down status effect, that\'ll be your doom if the Gargoyle connects while on it. The Gargoyle uses two attacks: the Hell\'s Lance which hits one party member for around 180 PTS of DMG(Shion usually receives around 300) and its Obsidian claw, which does around 100-180 PTS of DMG(Shion will get like 400!) and puts you on Phys Def Down status. If you\'re hit while in this status, you\'ll probably die. It\'s vital for you to revive, heal and cure any statuses you might get. Both chaos and Shion should heal everybody(I had Shion transfer Medica-All to chaos) if possible. KOS-MOS should also heal and use anything that\'s necessary to use... doh! I can\'t stress how important it is to heal, revive and cure statuses. You\'ll stand a much better chance. ============================================================================== Guess what? cutscene time! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ##########################[ T H E D U R A N D A L]########################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MOMO\'S gone and you need to find her. As you head towards this area\'s exit point, you\'ll get an e-mail. Read it through and run through the exit door. In the next room, head to the left to hit the train(???) station. Explore the areas thoroughly. Start off by heading to the residential area. In here, there\'ll be an \"inn\" as well as some destruct-able crap that hold some nifty items. To the right of the \"GAME ROOM\" board there is a room(The Casino) where you can get the Casino Passport and save your game. To the left of this board there is another door that leads into another area of the ship. Inside the house on the southeast you can find two destruct-able walls that hide a Med Kit S and an Ether Upgrade S within them. Go up the corridor that goes north and destroy the panels around the left wall for a Med Kit DX. At the end of this path, you\'ll be able to go left or right. Go left to find a resting room where you can get 2 Ether Upgrade A by destroying the leftmost aquarium. If you go right you\'ll find another house. Inside, destroy those walls on the room itself to find a Med Kit DX. There is also a store here. You\'re probably a bit short on money, so just ignore it for now. Head into the park to see a cutscene. MOMO\'s worried about her daddy\'s mental state. Was he really a lunatic? Since he built her... is she bad, too? Shion arrives and has a good chat with her. Watch the rest of the cutscene. Once it is finished, you\'ll have to reach your room at the residential area. It\'s an empty room with a red carpet inside; once you get inside, you\'ll know it\'s the correct one(that red carpet is very distinctive. Plus, there is a robot inside). As you approach the area, you\'re bound to get an e-mail from... Namco. It\'s basically some shameless Ace Combat 4 propaganda... honest. They\'re promoting their game inside this game! Isn\'t that imaginative? But anyway, once you hit your room, head to the eastern wing of it and you\'ll be able to call it a day. Do so and watch the Durandal \"dock\" into the foundation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #####################[ K U K A I F O U N D A T I O N ]####################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gaignun Kukai, \"president\" of the Foundation and Jr\'s \"father\"(eh???) greets the party. He then has a lengthy talk with Jr. Eventually, you\'ll get control of Shion. Board the ship\'s \"train\" and head into the dock. In here, go up the automatic staircase(that\'s how we call \'em anyway) and talk with Jr. there. Afterward, board that little ship on the right and you\'ll be sent into the foundation itself. It\'s party time! Enjoy the cutscene and a nice-looking Shion, stripped down to her bikini ;) After another lengthy and interesting cutscene you\'ll be back as Shion. You\'re still on the beach, as usual. Shion told us that she wanted some rest at City 27\'s hotel. Try to exit the beach and you\'ll bump into Ziggo. After a brief talk, exit the beach once and for all. You\'ll hit the Foundation\'s World Map... Xenogears, anyone? Doesn\'t this feel like a certain area of that game? Heh. It sure as hell does. These are the locales: Launch Pad, right next to the Durandal, an AGWS shop that\'s on the western side of the city -- inside this shop, there is a game called Destroy Runner. It\'s a quiz; a very simple one at that. The hardest questions would be the cleaner one(answer: smelly looking purple t-shirt) and the girl at the dock clinic one(answer: Luty). The professor\'s name is Professor and the one who\'s all fired up by the drill is Holgar. In the Dock Colony, the parts shop was called TALK TO ME and... uh, well, that\'s all I remember. You should be able to answer it very easily, though. You\'ll get a PM Card C. On the western portion of the shop there is a staircase that leads into the robot academy where you\'ll find an eccentric old man who\'s looking for some robot parts in order to construct the ultimate robot. Take good note of this old man and head back into the world map. The City sector we have to visit is the building in the middle, so head there. Inside the city itself, run to the left until you find the hotel(\"Our Treasure\") Before heading there, proceed into the next area. There are some things for you to find here: on the East6 house, that\'s up the stairs directly in front of this zone\'s entrance, you\'ll be find a destruct-able car. Blow it up for an Escape Pack. Inside this very same house, go up the stairs and through the door on the western corner. Follow the path into a house; go down the stairs and destroy the closets for 1200 G, 2 Ether Upgrade S and Segment Address No 3. It\'s worth mentioning that this house is enormous, too! Look for, on the upper level of this zone, some catwalks. Board them and ignore the multiple doors that invite you to go through. Look for a ladder and go down it; press the switch to your immediate left and you\'ll make the ladder extend itself, so you can access this area from down below. Now, that\'d be all... head back to Our Treasure and run inside. Talk with the little girl by the counter and you\'ll have your beauty sleep. Now, it\'s time to head back to the Elsa. Board the launch pad(it\'s on the world map) and you\'ll hit the Durandal\'s dock. In here, go down the automatic staircase and head into the Elsa. Once inside, talk with Allen who\'s nearby. The scene shifts to Pleroma, where Margulis chats with some fat man. They debate whether it is possible to access Old Miltia and the importance of MOMO\'s and the data that\'s hidden within her. Action shifts to a silver-haired man inside a robot(I don\'t dare to call it an AGWS... we\'ll learn soon). He\'s talking with Margulis about recovering a certain something. Margulis says that getting this object won\'t be an easy feat. Thus, they might be forced to use the \"Song of Nephilim\". The silver- haired man is surprised about this, as he thought Margulis hated such \"thing2 with a passion. As the connection ends, the silver-haired man\'s identity is revealed: Albedo, a monster born of the Life Recycling process. Pellegri wonders if the Song of Nephilim will be really used... just as Margulis reveals its powers. The Foundation(or the Durandal???) is moving on the Second Miltian star system(while Jr\'s getting all sweet on MOMO) when, all of a sudden, an enormous fleet blocks the way off. The fleet immediately releases its most powerful attacks and hits us hard. Everything blacks out for a bit, just as a Realian informs that we were hit by a Photon Torpedo. The action flies to the Federation, where somebody informs the committee about the Foundation\'s recent acts. They decide to declare a war of sorts to the Foundation and its founders, Second Miltia. All hell breaks loose here, with people arguing about the Foundation, the past, the Gnosis, blah blah. Something fishy\'s going on, as the Durandal\'s being accused of destroying the Woglinde! The U-TIC people doctored some videos here and there and got that... they truly hate us, eh? Meanwhile, the Foundation\'s is being taken over... some Federation people hit the Durandal\'s bridge. They take over of everything and decide to take both Allen and Shion as witnesses. They will also take KOS-MOS with them and MOMO. Jr goes berserk as they take MOMO away and tries to kick some ass but he simply can\'t o.O Ah, too bad. The party geta taken to a room where they\'re held prisoners. Gaignun, who\'s outside, talks with Helmer; apparently they\'ve got some kind of plan. Helmer then shifts his attention to Mr. Wilhelm. They agree that U-TIC is after the original Zohar and U-DO... which shouldn\'t be awoken again(???). Lapis fills the party about the current situation, which doesn\'t look too good. They wonder about a concrete piece of evidence that would get them out of this crap... the Woglinde\'s black box was modified, so that\'s out of the question. Durandal\'s database is way too standard to be of any use... but, then, we have KOS-MOS, whose triple A encrypting protects her from data- modifying. She\'s what we need to prove our innocence. However, in order for the party to get this equipment, they\'d need to open KOS-MOS with the appropriate keys... there is another way around this, though. We\'d need to dive into the Encephalon and experience the data by ourselves. Allen\'s not too fond about such idea, but there is nothing he can do. Now comes a cool part of this cutscene... Lapis hands over a piece of equipment that\'ll open any locked door you come across. Before you can leave, though, you need to make this look real... by knocking Lapis out. Ziggo gives her a good punch and sends her to wonderland. That was pretty cool ;) Yeah, I\'m bad. Just as you exit the room, you\'ll have to fight two soldiers as chaos. Beat them with S attacks. They\'ll also miss most of their attacks, so don\'t worry. Once outside, head to the right. The blue door there is the one you need to go through. Before heading there, go up the corridor and turn right. Head into the house there and get the Equip Item off the chest inside. Back outside, run through the blue door. Proceed on to the right. Go down when you can. As usual, the path is infested by -Fed. Soldiers- They have plenty of HP, but it can be worn down easily wit Jr\'s and chaos\' attacks. Keep in mind that they do A LOT of DAMAGE per attack! Try to kill them as fast as possible to prevent way too much damage. There are also -Gertzog FE- They don\'t do as much damage as you\'d think they\'d do, but try to wear them down quickly with Techs -- phys attack do little damage to them, while ethers do a bit more, depending on which character you\'re using. Jr, for example, is utterly useless against these things, while Shion\'s ethers are particularly good. The door at the bottom is our final destination. Keep in mind that there is a house on an adjacent hallway to the left where you can heal your wounds(it\'s also protected by a Gertzog). The bottom door is protected by two guards. Beat one and, while invisible, rush through the door before the other one can touch you. At the train zone, you\'ll find plenty of guards. Awesomely enough, it\'s overly easy to dodge them(if you want to do so). Simply run past them and board the train. Destination? The Docks. When you hit them, board the Elsa as fast as possible(If you want to fight, do so, but at least skip that blasted Gertzog). ... YOU CAN\'T! The door\'s locked, so you need to find a door for the cargo. The door\'s here at the dock; first off, engage the Gertzog that\'s around. After what will be a rather complicated battle, you\'ll be able to go down the staircase the Gertzog was protecting. Do so and turn right to find a ladder. Take it down. Run across the catwalk and up the ladder at the end. At tope top of it, run to the right and jump into the Elsa\'s roof. Move on and watch the \"cutscene\". Hurry to the maintenance lab(you may want to rest at the Elsa\'s 1F before moving on); from where you arrive, go right and down the path. At the end of it, turn east and look for a staircase going down. Follow it and turn left at the bottom; go through the door. Inside, look for a door on the south and run through it. In the hangar, go down the lift and turn left, looking for another lift(you might want to boost up your AGWS here, or heal them). Take it up and run through the door to find KOS-MOS. Watch the cutscene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ###########################[ E N C E P H A L O N ]############################ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You will take control of a party made out of Jr, MOMO and Ziggo... what a suck-ass team, I tells ya. Anyway, to the left there is a save point. With that in mind, head right. Notice those circular lights... if you step in one of them, you\'ll(obviously) engage a group of -Dirlewangers- and a -Kubel- It will be a rather lengthy fight, but not too tough. Have MOMO use her Ether Attacks on the helicopter while healing. Ziggo and Jr should focus on attacking the Dirlewangers, mainly with Tech Attacks. On the \'wangers are dead, keep on using techs on the Kubel to finally wear it down. This battle will grant you 433 EXP and 1600 G. Not too shabby eh? I wouldn\'t recommend leveling up JUST NOW, though. Move on to the end of this path, outta the light\'s way. At the end of the path, you\'ll find a destruct-able barrel in the middle of everything. Destroy it and quickly get outta the light\'s way. After it\'s gone, snag the Ruby Helmet. From the helmet, go south, flattening along the right wall. Go past the light here and run southward into the next area. In here, another cutscene will ensue. After it finishes you\'ll be as Shion. Simply run through the doorway in front of you. In the next area you\'ll find a save point to the right. Use it if you must and continue eastway from the save point. Destroy the numerous statues here for 5 Ether Pack s, Blade Soul, 3 Bio Sphere, Rejuvenator, a battle against a Gnosis(one of the statues is actually a Gnosis -- it\'s got plenty of physical strength and defense, so deal with him using ethers and the occasional tech) and 5 Revive. Continue through this path and down the staircase at the end. The path here is mostly blocked off, so simply follow it towards the area\'s exit on the south. In the next zone, turn left and walk down the path to find a Gnosis. If you engage it, you\'ll have to fight a -Bugbear-(the one you probably saw before) and 4 -Kobold- Deal with Kobolds using techs and physical attacks while you use Ethers on the Bugbear. It\'s going to be pretty tough if you aren\'t at full health, so please heal before engaging. Once the path is clear, you\'ll hit the main street(point a, walking lane). Go right first to find an opening that lets you get into the street itself. Run down to its end get into the rightmost lane. Run to its top to find an opening to the walking lane. Run down it and head into a nook where there is a chest and a Kobold. Beat the Kobold(have Shion heal and use Lighting blast while chaos uses Heaven\'s Wrath for a less complicated fight) and get the PM Card E off the chest. Heal up and proceed further to the left of this nook to find another opening- Run through it to find the entrance to the sewers(manhole a). Across from it there is a green woman. Talk to her and you\'ll end up engaging a Larva Doll. She absorbs physical attacks so use a healing item on her to kill her. Isn\'t that awesome? Afterward, head to the right of the lady to find a big crate. Destroy it to find a hidden manhole. Go down it. Below, run upward and up the stairs. In the next screen, press the switch nearby and run down the stairs. Head to the left and fight the -Troll- there. Use constant Ether attacks and Techs to wear it down very quickly. After he\'s gone, go up the staircase nearby and tag the switch. Go back down and destroy the panel to the left for Segment Address No. 5. If you got the Decoder back at the Gnosis, you\'ll be able to get the Double Buster hidden within it, which lets you use two Techs per turn. If you didn\'t get the decoder(you probably didn\'t...), still keep this location in mind for the near future, as such item is very useful. Head back to where the Larva Doll was and head down manhole a. Below, go across the small bridge and destroy the rubbish on the left for 5 Ether Upgrade S. Go back across the bridge and proceed east to find a switch and another bridge. Tag the switch and cross the bridge. Run across the winding path. At the end, there\'ll be a Larva Doll. Kill it and go down the steps nearby and head into the next area. You\'ll take control of Jr once again. Go down and you\'ll see a robot; it\'s a variation of the Gertzog, so you know it ain\'t good. I\'d recommend you to dodge them all. Once you hit the southernmost part of this area, turn right and head into the subway. In here, proceed to the left along the debris until you find a save point. Notice all of those little red screens... go through the path under the fourth one(from bottom to top) after saving and you\'ll find a door. In here, run to the left and jam on the circle button until you find Segment Address 15. Decode it and head into the segment corridor to find an Angel Ring, which halves EP used. Save this for Shion. Run back outside. Head toward the save point and go down the staircases nearby. Below, run to the left(ignore the bench as it\'ll release a Kubold if destroyed) and destroy the red thing at the end for two Frame Repairs. Afterward, head through the opening here and run to the right into the next area. Keep heading right until you hit some debris; go down then and into the walking lane. Proceed on to the right and use a ramp made out of metal to board a wrecked train here. Continue on to the right and down the ramp at the end. Go north into a nook of sorts and up the ladder there. At the top, head left and fight the Larva Doll that runs into you. Kill it with a Med Kit, as usual. At the end of this short path, there\'ll be a container. Blow it up and head back down. Head into the wrecked train again and proceed to the left. At its leftmost end, destroy the door for an Ether Pack S. Before running up the ramp here, head outside the train and turn left. Look for the opening you made here with that container and snag the Venom Block off the chest. Run up that ramp afterward and go across the train\'s rooftop. Look for a ramp on the right and slide down it. Study the area for an opening on the top wall and run through it. Head right into the next area. Follow the path to the right, fighting the Gremlins as you go. They\'re pretty easy; simply kill the Gremlins first because their Acid Rain attack is overly powerful. As you go, keep an eye on an short ladder that\'s a bit before the bridge. When you find it, climb it up and go through the door there, but only if you unlocked it as Shion. At the other side there\'ll be a chest with Decoder 12. Now that you have that, advance further to the right, past the bridge to find another ladder. Climb this one up, too. Watch the ensuing cutscene. As Shion, save up on the icon nearby and head east along the path(no way to get lost, trust me). Along the way, you\'ll find Basilisks, a new breed of enemy. They\'re less resistant to Phys attacks than to Ether attacks; make good use of this knowledge. Now, in the next screen, you will see a bunny run away... weird, eh? Run along the linear path. There\'ll be Troll, who should pose no trouble to you. There\'ll be also some Basilisks along the way, who should be easy also. Keep in mind that this path is also pretty long. Furthermore, you\'ll have to make your own path by blowing up stuff occasionally. And if you\'re wondering how to get that chest on a \"tower\", you simply need to blow up the tower; inside the chest is a Topaz. The path will end here and you\'ll be left wondering \"WHAT THE HELLZ D00 I D00 NOUW!!!112?!?\" Simply backtrack through the caves you made and head to the far east into the next area(which was kinda hidden, eh?) Run across the wooden plank to see the bunny again. Run down the grassy ramp on the left and head toward the house here. Someone seems to be home, but there is no response... oh great. WHY DON\'T WE JUST OPEN THE DOOR LIKE WE DO IN EVERYONE ELSE\'S HOUSES! Run to the western end of this area. In a small \"peninsula\" that\'s being patrolled by a Kobold you\'ll find a little bridge. Shoot it down and go across it. Run to the right and head into the cave at the end of the path. In the next area, run left and across the wooden plank. Destroy the \"things\" in this little field for S. Carrot Juice. Plenty of it. Now, if you head right of the cave you\'ll bump into a tree you can destroy; do so for a Frame Repair Z. Head back to the previous area. !!!OPTIONAL!!! With the Juice at hand, you\'ll be able to get what\'s inside the Bunny\'s house. See that log in front of the house. Examine it to set up the juice there. The Bunny will run out of his house for some juice; run inside the house before he does and snag Decoder 3 off the chest. !!!OPTIONAL!!! Back into the previous area, go up the grassy ramp. Run across the wooden plank here and you\'ll get a view of the Rabbit\'s house. Run down the semi- hidden path on the left and follow it into the next area. A cutscene ensues. After it, head to the right and enter the church there; watch the cutscene. Meet Febronia; have her heal you and save the game. Then, go through the door Febronia\'s standing by. Brace yourself, for what\'s to come ain\'t going to be easy(I recommend you to organize your party like this before moving on: Shion, Jr(both obligatory) and chaos) Also, be sure you equip the Angel Ring on Shion. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Tiamat<-- Tiamat\'s a complicated fight, but once you know the trick, it\'s all about maintaining yourself healthy and having tons of patience. First off, Tiamat loves Shion\'s and Jr\'s consciousness. This doesn\'t seem to affect anything, until he\'s about to die. It works like this: when he\'s one hit away from dying, Shion OR Jr should deliver the decisive shot, the one that will kill him. That\'s the only way to destroy it; for a while, at least. Once he\'s been killed once, he\'ll heal up 1500 HP and proceed on with the battle. At this point, wear its HP down again and have Shion or Jr deliver the last shot. Keep in mind that if Jr gave the first decisive shot and he does it again here, Tiamat will simply heal again and you\'ll have to work its HP down all over again. After both decisive shots, Tiamat will finally succumb and the battle will be over. He\'s not overly powerful but can give you quite a bit of trouble, especially if you didn\'t know how he worked. His most powerful attack is Ruined Earth, which hits all party members for around 280 PTS of DMG. I\'ve also noticed that when Tiamat reactions to Shion\'s consciousness(you\'ll get a message) this attack sometimes does around 450 PTS of DMG to her; that\'s quite a lot. The monster\'s normal attack is no weak stuff, either, doing around 150 PTS of DMG per hit. Its other attack, Berserker Fist, is very powerful(around 200 PTS of DMG) but nothing\'s as bad as Ruined Earth. That\'s why you should always keep yourself healthy; don\'t let your HP fall below 400(you heard right) and constantly cure your party members with Medica All or Medica Rest if there is only one person who needs to be healed. Before you think about attacking Tiamat, try to heal a considerable amount of health so that any counterattack is bearable. If one of your characters were to die, spend your turns reviving him and healing him, before doing anything else. I can\'t stress how important is to keep yourself healthy and to revive your partners in this fight. This will be the key to your success. I\'d recommend having Jr deal the first decisive shot. Have Shion, first off, build AP so she can use her Techs. Don\'t use any, though, and have her constantly heal and revive characters(be sure you\'ve got the Angel Ring equipped on her). Have chaos repeatedly use Lunar Seal and Jr use Storm Waltz. Both attacks seem to get critic hits quite often, making them highly useful. Eventually, you\'ll wear Tiamat down to its last bit of health. Have Jr destroy him to complete phase one. Phase two is not too different; chaos and Jr will still have to constantly attack while Shion heals. Please note that chaos healing spells are also quite useful throughout this fight, and should be used if Shion\'s EP is completely empty. I had Medica All on chaos; be sure you too have it by transferring it over. Now, eventually, you\'ll take Tiamat\'s to its last bit of health, once again. Be sure it has around 200 and unleash Spell Ray on him with Shion to end this tough fight. Last words of advice: cure, revive and use EP-restoring items. ============================================================================== Another lengthy cutscene ensues. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ##########[ K U K A I F O U N D A T I O N 2nD I G N I T I O N ]############ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Once you take control of Shion you\'ll be back on her room. Head into where the bedroom area and blow up the walls there to find the armory key. Head out of here and run to the ship\'s train. You\'ll get two E-Mails as you go; read \'em and download the new stuff you get for KOS-MOS. Once you hit the train, have it take you to the Hangar. Here, head to the right to find a locked door; examine it and you\'ll use your Armory Key on it, thus unlocking it. Inside, destroy all of the crap you see for a Frame Repair Z, a weapon( MSS something... hey, I forget things too!) and the infamous Decoder 5. With this Decoder at hand, you\'ll be able to get the Double Buster at Segment Address 5, which is in the Encephalon. I wouldn\'t recommend going there now, though. Go to Kukai using the shuttle and head into the area map. Go to the City Sector; Allen\'s at Ironman. It\'d be advisable to explore the area before you talk to him, because when you do, a lengthy cutscene will start. So, let\'s explore! There are plenty of items for us to get here. Firstly, head inside the clothes shop on the westeeeeeernmost portion of the city. Inside, look for the dryers. One of them has a little staircase in front of it. Go up it and examine the dryer for PM Card B. Go up the staircase by the dryers and examine the white suit there for a Fish Detector. Now, head into the East 66 house and talk with the guy who\'s boxing -- King. Watch the hilarious cutscene. Inside this warehouse there are two destruct-able crates on the top-right corner of the first floor. One of them contains a Pink thing; talk to it for info about Tom, at the Dock Colony. After this, head back to the area map and go to the beach. Use the fish detector to make the fishes appear on the radar. Catch them until you snag a big fish; it\'ll have an Engagement Ring hidden within it. Go to Ironman and talk with the crying girl that\'s inside; you\'ll lend her over the Engagement ring and get Decoder 8 in exchange. After this, talk to Tom inside the AGWS shop. Afterward, head to the Docks at the Durandal and board the Elsa. Talk with the Captain and have him take you to the Dock Colony. There, you will have plenty of things to do. First off, head to the Dock Clinic and talk with Luty, who\'s in the reception room. If you have the Flower Seed with you, you\'ll hand it over to her. Eventually, it\'ll bloom and you\'ll be given a Tech Upgrade Z. But this won\'t happen anytime soon, so be sure you visit the Clinic once again later on for your prize. After this, head out of the clinic. Head into TALK TO ME and upgrade your AGWS if possible. After this, board the Elsa back and go to Kukai once again. Lastly, go back to Ironman and talk with Allen. A lengthy cutscene will start. After it is over, you\'ll be on the Durandal\'s bridge. Before you go to Kukai, head to the Residential District; most precisely into the Casino. Use the EVS icon there so you are taken into the Encephalon. Look for Segment Address 5(explore around and you will eventually find the place -- you\'ll have to go from Jr\'s area to Shion\'s starting point) and decode it to get the Double Buster, which lets you use two Techs per turn(if you have the AP, of course). With that useful item in hand, backtrack to the area where Feb\'s church is; a transfer point is around there. I know that all of this is a lengthy process and is very annoying, but, look at it like this: you\'ll get plenty of EXP, TP, SP and EP and snag the Double Buster as well, which is tremendously useful. Back at the Durandal, use the shuttle to head to Kukai, most precisely the City Sectors. Talk with the major nearby and you\'ll be told you need to rescue the persons who\'re still trapped. Here are the Locations(as well as some item locations) -- 1 -- Inside Iron Man. There will be this guy that\'s trying to hide himself between the Iron 3 cardboard here. -- 2 -- Inside Our Treasure; first off, head to the left and beat the Troll. Unlock the door there by using this number: 1028. Open the door and you\'ll release a little girl. -- Item -- Inside Our Treasure; on the right there is a staircase. Before going up, head to the left to reach the area behind the counters. Get the Swimsuit off the chest. -- Item -- Go up the staircase and head into the warehouse to the right. Destroy the debris for a battle Gear. -- Item -- Behind where you got the Battle Gear there\'ll be an opening. Go through it and activate the switch. Head back to Ironman and go behind the counter to get this item. -- 4 -- See above. Go behind the Counters and destroy the tower of crates there. Behind them you will find another person. -- Item -- Go up the stairs at Our Treasure and head into the warehouse to the right. Go up the ladder and into the room there. Exit it through the bottom to hit the balcony. Once you do, push the stick to the right and don\'t let go of it until you hit a small offshoot with a panel on it. Destroy it to find Segment Address 1 -- 5 -- See above up until you hit the balcony. This time, instead of pushing to the right, push to the left, letting yourself fall into the fenced-off garbage area. Destroy the dumpsters for 100 G and to find the fifth citizen. -- 6 -- In the next area, you\'ll see a Basilisk attacking the statue of the classmate of Gaignun\'s second cousin(honest; that\'s whom the statue\'s shaped after). Beat the Basilisk to rescue the old woman who had climbed up the statue, in fear(you\'ll have to destroy the statue first) -- 7 -- Go inside the Clothe Shop. The only entrance is on the western side of the city; up a staircase by a Bugbear. When you get inside, go forward until you find a Fire Trap by a Larva Doll. Use the Trap on the doll and go down, across the trap, into the shop\'s workshop to find this woman. -- 8 -- Go up the staircase by the Fire Trap/Larva Doll and through the door. Turn right and go into the catwalks there and through the only open door. Inside the bakery, go through the door on the bottom room to hit the catwalks again. Follow them to another door. Inside, follow the path until you reach a room with a Basilisk on it. Kill it and destroy the bookcase. Use that little hole to eavesdrop on the good baker who\'s being harassed by a Bugbear. Exit through the door nearby and turn left. Go down the ramp and tag the switch at the end. Head right and up the ladder and use the newly formed bridge to go through the door that was previously hanging in the air. Kill the Bugbear to rescue this guy. -- Item -- Destroy the structures by where the baker was for 1000 G. -- 9 -- Use the staircase behind the structures where the 1000 G where and right. Go up the ladder there, into the top catwalk. Get out of it and go right, through the first door you come across. Talk with King who\'s nearby to rescue him. -- 10-- Go outside and down the staircases in front of ye. Enter East 66 through the front and engage the Troll nearby. Talk to Johnny and he\'ll tell you that he needs his loved one. Destroy the crate nearby to find her and rescue both. -- 11-- See above(the girl) -- 12-- Exit East 66 and go up the staircase to the right. Go left and hop into the catwalk and through the door by the ladder. Follow the path until you are outside the Bakery, by the Clothe Shop. Get inside and go toward where the woman here was. Destroy the desk that\'s next to the clothe wheels and climb up the ladder. Follow the path past the kitty on the window(do not go into the bakery\'s rooftop; continue right, past it) At the end, there\'ll be a destruct-able panel on the wall. Blow it up to find this little kid. -- 13-- Destroy the gray gate that\'s near where the kid was and slide down. Get into the bakery and maneuver through this place until you find the entrance to the warehouse\'s top floor(the exact area where you found King). From here, you should be able to see a switch by a Larva Doll. Head there, but ignore the switch for now. Instead, run through the door nearby. Follow the path into the clothe shop; go down the staircase and engage the Larva Doll there to rescue this girl(hint: use healing items on the Larva Faces, too. They may escape battle, also) -- 14-- Head back to the switch and press it this time around. You\'ll make a bookcase move, thus unlocking a new path. Maneuver around the catwalks and head through the new door. Go up the staircase and through the door at the top. Run to the left and fight the Larva Doll to rescue this little kitten. You have rescued everyone! Destroy the panel nearby and head left. Go down the ladder to hit the clothe shop. Exit it through the top door and then, head into the bakery through the only passable door. Follow the path through the first two rooms to hit the catwalks again. Use the bridgie here and head to the ladder on the eastern side of the catwalk and go down it. Head back to the Our Treasure hotel and save inside. Afterward, try to exit the town. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Gigas x 2<-- This will be an extremely tough battle. First off, be sure you have plenty of Revives with yourself and that all three characters have Medical All... Ok, ok, AT LEAST TWO OF THEM SHOULD HAVE MEDICA ALL! I recommend KOS-MOS, chaos and Shion(you can replace Shion and KOS-MOS, but, for your own sake, have chaos in your group). Lastly, I\'d recommend you to set chaos\' Heaven\'s Wrath to HI speed, so you can use just by pressing S, O. That will make the battle flow much faster. If you can, set Shion\'s Spell Ray to HI, too, but it\'s not necessary(Heaven\'s Wrath is almost obligatory -- I hope you\'ve been saving those Tps) This thing\'s tough because it has a crapload of attacks, all of them lethal and annoying. First off, we have Wave Blast, which hits everybody for around 80 PTS of DMG. If the Gigas hits CRTC(Critical), prepare to absorb up to 200+ PTS of DMG. Not pretty eh? We also have Frostbite, which the Gigas use ALMOST EVERY TURN and hits everybody for up to 280 PTS of DMG. This is the main problem here, because this attack is used very often. Its Cursed Aura and normal attack do almost the same damage: anything between 130 and 160. I\'ve noticed that the Gigas usually picks a target for Cursed Aura and constantly bombards him or her with that attack, exclusively. It\'s tremendously annoying: Shion gets picked as the target, is bombarded with Cursed Aura until death, is revived, gets bombarded JUST AS SHE REVIVES and dies again. That\'s a typical scenario. And... it has its Deathbringer attack, which kills a party members immediately and NEVER FAILS! The Key here is to maintain yourself healthy. Constantly heal with Shion; make her your main healer. Revive & Heal, that will be Shion\'s main role(keep in mind that if you need to revive or heal with KOS-MOS, for example, or anybody else, by all means do it!). KOS-MOS should build AP constantly for X-Buster. If an extra dose of health or revival is required, have KOS-MOS take such a feat. chaos should be hitting the Gigas with his Heaven\'s Wrath, which is hopefully set at HI(I.e. you can use it just by pressing S and then O) Constantly pound the Gigas and Heal every now and then and they will eventually go down. ALTERANTE STRATEGY(by [email protected] -- re-written by me): Be sure you have Shion and Jr. Give Shion the White Ring, and Jr should have the Bravesoul, Commander\'s Crest and Double Buster. Make sure Shion has safety level and Jr has Storm Waltz, so he can use it twice each turn if he has 6 AP. Your third character should have boost 1. On Shion\'s first turn, have her cast safety lock on Jr. Have the third character cast Boost 1 on him. Attack normally(build up AP with Jr) until Gaignun\'s got his HP in red. Let go two Storm Waltz then. ADDITIONAL INFO(by JG<[email protected]>): \"When you fight the Gigas bosses, you said that they\'re really hard, partly because of deathbringer and frostbite. If you have Jr, use his \'Misty\' ether on them, they can\'t use deathbringer or frostbite, and just lose their turn when they try to do it.For me, chaos\' Angel Blow tech did good damage to the one on the left, and Jr.\'s Last Symphony did good damage to the one on the right, so I\'m guessing that the one on the left is weak against ether, and the one on the right is weak against physical\". ============================================================================== Leave the town and head to the Durandal. Cutscene. After it, head back to Kukai for MOMO -- she won\'t be there. Then, go back to the Durandal. A Long- ass cutscene will ensue once hit the Residential District(enjoy Albedo\'s insanity!) Now, it\'s time for us to go to the Song of Nephilim. Before doing so, we should do a few things: -- Respond to the e-mails you will get as you exit the bridge. This includes one that informs you about KOS-MOS latest weapon, the F . Scythe. -- Go to the place where the Pink Bug is(King\'s warehouse) and talk to him. Choose \"Great Story\"(this only happens if you talked to Tom at the Dock Colony). Then, backtrack to the Durandal, specifically its park. According to the bug, there \"is a segment key on the ground shaded by a potted tree\". After entering the park, head to the far right and you\'ll see a little sparkly. Examine that area for this decoder. Afterward, decode the door at Kukai for a Robot Part. -- Get Decoder 9 from \"Inside a Gnosis\", as well as Decoder 3 from \"Encephalon\" and unlock their respective doors: 9\'s at the Gnosis, while 3\'s at Kukai\'s Clothe Shop. Check the walkthrough for more detailed information about the locations of the decoders & doors. Decode \'em both for 2 extra robot parts. -- Decode Segment Address 8 at the Elsa\'s basement. -- With those 5 robot parts, go to the AGWS shop\'s basement and lend them over to professor. You\'ll get two summon spells. You\'re missing once piece, but you can\'t get it now, sadly. -- Before going to the Song of Nephilim you should train a bit and get a considerable amount of money. The best place is at the U-TIC battleship; fight Meld Gareth constantly and get to level 26 at least. For money, you could rely on Meld Gareth(he gives 1000 G) or the guys at the Encephalon(1600 G). -- Lastly, try to obtain the Battle Passport, which will let you play a neat game. It is at the first Encephalon, right at the end of it, in the area where you fought Drone GX. It\'ll be hidden within a red box next to an Exit Point. Now, with this passport, you can play an AWESOME and fun Minigame. Check it ou. -- You might want to play at the Casino for extra money -- too bad it\'s not _easy_ money, but you can get plenty of it. -- At the casino, I\'d recommend you to purchase the \"Bravesoul\". An excellent item that boosts strength up as you receive damage in battle. Awesome. After you\'ve done all of this side stuff, go to the Elsa\'s bridge and have Matthews take you to the Thong of... er, Song of Nephilim. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #######################[ S O N G O F N E P H I L I M ]###################### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After a cutscene or two inside the Song, you\'ll take control back of your party, along with the groove(???). Organize it and go through the door. In the next screen, run to the other side of the bridge to hit an elevator of sorts. You will notice that there is a tower in the middle, with a shiny little switch on it, as well as a steep ramp on the northeast. And a whole bunch of crates. In order to make the elevator to operate, you\'ll need to destroy certain crates and then push the switch. Because of this, I feel it\'s utterly necessary to represent this room in an ASCII map: ________________________________________ / \\ That\'s, more or less, how / \\ this room is shaped. First / AAAA \\ of all, I must give out / FFFFFOOOO AAAA \\ general pointers: each / FFFFFOOOO AAAA \\ group of letters represent / OOOOO \\ a crate. Not all of them | | are cube-shaped, as you | | can see. For instance, | SSSSS | A is shaped like a tower, | SSSSS TOWERPANEL | like W. Furthermore, we | PANEL | have crates that are on | IIUUU | top other crates. | IIUUU | Firstly, U is on top I. | IIIII | F is on top O and H is \\ IIIII / on top Q. Destroying the \\ HHHHHQQQQ / bottom crate will make \\HHHHHQQQQ / the other one to fall into \\QQQQ the ground -- for instance, \\ WWWW YYYYY / destroy Q and H will hit \\ WWWW YYYYY / the floor. Your Job here is \\ WWWW / to destroy the crates so when \\______WWWW__________________________/ you activate the panel, it takes you *somewhere*, depending on what crates you destroyed. For the breakdown: Destroy W and Y and you\'ll be taken to the second floor. There is NOTHING of interest here. Destroy W, Y, Q, S, I and A to be taken into the fifth floor. Head into it and run to its end to find Decoder 14. Now, back to the first floor... destroy O, F, S, Q, H, W, Y and I to be taken to sixth floor... Run to its ends, and take note of those two doorways that go west(not the little ones, but the big ones). At the end of this path, there will be a Neo Armor Alpha. Destroy A, O and F to unlock the path into level 3. By running to the area\'s end, you\'ll find another crate that, when destroyed, will reward you with a Med Kit DX. Also, inside this level there is a switch you must press. It is across one of the nooks where the Realians hide -- the one near the end of the path. Go through the door and turn left. Start jamming the circle button to activate the switch; press, as it is vital to advance- Destroy I, U, W, Y and S to be taken into level 4, where you\'ll find nothing. Now, having done all of this, head into level six. Remember those two doorways I mentioned? Go through the first one and run across the newly formed bridge. At the next area, head into the center and save. You should notice all of the possible paths that you can take... Hm, decisions, decisions... First off, there are three paths on the north, and two on the south. The southeastern path is the one you used to get here, so let\'s just ignore that. On the north there are three paths. Now, let\'s call this room \"Tower 2 - Branching Room\", for a good reference(fun thing is, this IS Tower 2). Start off by taking the north-center door(the one that\'s up north and in the center...) In the next screen, kill off the enemy that\'s blocking the path(Capto Nortum) and go right. Destroy the container at the end for a cross. Go back to the Branching Room and this time, take the northwestern path. In the next screen, go across the mini bridge and go right. Beat the Realian there(Calx -- as usual, physical attacks and nicely leveled-up Spell Ray will do the most damage, unless you\'ve worked on other techs) and jump down the ladder here. At the bottom, go right. You\'ll spot a ladder as you go; ignore it and proceed further to the right. You\'ll come to another ladder; go down this one. In the level below, go left. Here, there will be two staircase, one that goes up, one that goes down. Go up and across the bridge. In here, go right and blow up the crates to find a Defibrillator Dress, Neo Armor Beta, a fight against a monster called Athra 26 Series... uh, wait a moment!? A monster!? Indeed, a monster. He\'s pretty hard-hitting, so I\'d recommend setting up somebody as your healer, while your other two characters constantly pummel away. He\'s a counter-booster at heart -- pretty much any attack will make him Counter Boost. Ether Attacks are particularly effective against him -- or so I believe. He\'ll sometimes pull a Houdini on you, becoming invulnerable to certain attacks(i.e. Most of \'em). KOS-MOS\'s Techs are always effective against him though, making her a character of choice for this battle. Simply let her Buildup her AP and unleash a R.Hammer on this monster. It is even more effective if you equipped her with a Golden Dice and she\'s been badly hurt. You\'ll get Decoder 2 after the fight. Destroy the last crate to find Segment Address 12. Decode it and go through it to find a W Hammer Rod. With this at hand, go outside and back to the previous area. Go down the ladder again and run to the right. Go down the ladder here and, at the bottom, go right, all the way, until you see a bridge that goes south. Go across it. In the next room, press the button on the terminal to lower the blue floor that\'s at \"Branching Path\". Head back to the previous room and go right until you find another bridge. Go across it and, in the next area, ride to the center and destroy the generator there. Head back to the previous screen and head left; ignore the bridge on the middle, as it leads to the panel with the switch. At the end of this path, however, there will be another bridge. Cross it and destroy the generator. When you do so, you\'ll unlock the path into the next area, but, at the same time, a monster flies around and puts itself in front of the door you need to cross. Engage it to proceed. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Rianon Se<-- This battle is completely boring; I hated it. First off, Rianon\'s got plenty of HP for you to deal with, but in all honesty, it is a pretty easy battle. First off, he\'s flying, meaning that you\'re stuck with T attacks. You could bring Jr her and outfit him with a Bravesoul. Then, have him use his completely infamous Techs, constantly, to deal some good damage. To be honest with ya, I didn\'t bother with him. I simply used the party I\'ve been using all along: chaos, KOS-MOS and Shion. Set on Shion\'s HI T slot a good Tech(like a level 7 Spell Ray) as in chaos\'. KOS-MOS should have her X-Buster on(it must be put on a T slot). Start off by hitting Rianon hard with chaos and Shion, while KOS-MOS builds up AP to release X-Buster. Shion was dealing 500+ PTS of DMG per hit, chaos around 300 and KOS-MOS\'s X-Buster was worth 350, more or less. Keep the pressure up and heal to finish this guy. He\'s got almost no attacks. His physical attack does around 200 points of DMG; heal after it, especially if it hits Shion. His Binding Chain skill is downright annoying -- hit affects all party members and cancels their Boost capabilities! I\'d recommend using W-Item(Cure All) when he uses such skill because, trust me, Boost is a necessary skill in pretty much every battle. He\'s got another nasty attack, called Soul Eater. This attack drains the HP off a character and heals him at the same time. I\'ve noticed something about this attack: he first used it on KOS-MOS, who had 910 HP, and absorbed 400+ HPs. Then, he used it on Shion, who had 47 HP, and absorbed EXACTLY 47 HP. Then, he used it on KOS-MOS later on. She had 130 HP, and Rianon Absorbed EXACTLY 130 HP. He then used it on chaos, who had 800 HP, and absorbed around 400+. I\'ve come to the conclusion that this attack will kill you in one hit if your character is a bit weak at the time. Lastly, he\'s got his Power Hand attack. It pushes the character into the back row while dealing like 150 PTS of DMG. ============================================================================== After the battle, head to the next area by using the door nearby. Examine the panel nearby to activate an Energy Bridge. How do you access it? Remember the Branching Room? *gulps* We... have... to go... back... there *dead silence* Notice that little, eh... protuberance/bridge on the left? Approach it carefully and watch it sparkle... hmmm. Stand on it, and you\'ll be asked if you want to use the elevator. Say yes and you\'ll be taken up, ride next to the energy bridge ;) Well, it wasn\'t that long... in fact, you didn\'t even have to go the Branching Room! I, however, suggest that you go through the door nearby, into the Branching Room. Use a Bio Sphere to completely heal yourself, save and then cross the energy bridge. At the next Tower, go through the only door in the Entrance Room. In the next room, go left until you bump into a staircase, and some weird-ass enemies standing by. They\'re bastards. They can lock up one of your attack buttons and even kill you in one hit! They\'re pretty weak against Ether Attacks, but if they lock up your T button, then you\'re screwed :) In that case, use, physical hits, as they\'d be your only choice(they\'re very effective, too, so no worries) Go down the ladder. Right before you reach the bottom, there will be a platform(not the bottom floor; a platform suspended above it). Get off the ladder and onto the platform. Go to the left to find a set of crates. Destroy them until a bridge falls right in front of you, making the path crossable. At the other side, there will be a Field Ring. Go back to the ladder and continue down it. At the bottom, beat the monster, if you must, and destroy the rest of the crates to make the bridge form here. Cross it and go up the ladder here. When you do, go left to find another tower of crates. Blow them up until you hit the bridge; once you do, cross it to find another ladder. First off, climb it up. At the top, go right to find a mini bridge against the wall. Go across it. At the other side, destroy the terminal to find a hole. Approach it and you\'ll be asked if you want to jump down. Do so to hit a floor below and to snag a Med Kit. Destroy the door nearby for a Med Kit and go through it. In this room, destroy the panel to find a hidden ladder and open up the chest for Decoder 17. Go down the now-no-so-hidden-ladder and destroy the crates on the left again to create another bridge. Cross it to hit the same ladder as before. Now, go back up and head to where the hole was. Go past it to find a container holding a Skill Upgrade S... Go back to the ladder again and this time around climb down to the bottom and through the door there. In the next room, the first thing that comes to mind is \"puzzle\". There\'ll be three light towers here, each one divided in different parts: a blue one, a green one and a red one. The blue one is on the left, the green one on the right and the red one on the bottom; together they form a triangle. Each pillar is made out of six section, all of which can be destroyed. In fact, when you destroy one, you will hear a sound, which is always different for each pillar division. Now, in this room, head to the west to find an offshoot; follow it to find a little panel on the floor with three holes on it, shaped out like the light pillars outside. Each hole spurts out a pillar; when it does, the pillar makes a sound. This is tremendously simple, really. You need a good ear; go back to the previous room and start off by destroying all of the blue pillar\'s divisions- Notice they make a different sound each time... head outside to make the pillar re-construct itself and then head in back. Now, go toward the panel with the holes. Wait till the blue pillar appears and it makes its sound... memorize it and go back to the big, real thing and destroy its divisions until one of them makes the sound of the pillar on the hole-panel... that\'s when you should stop. Do so with the other two pillars and you\'re done! Quite easy, eh? For the breakdown: memorize the sound at the mini pillars, go back to the big pillars and destroy the respective pillar\'s divisions until you come across the one that makes the same sound at the mini pillars. You still don\'t understand... well, I guess I\'ll have to help you even more. For the big pillar, destroy three of its divisions. For the yellow one, destroy one of its divisions. And for the red one, destroy four of its divisions. Once you do all of this, all of three lights will fuse and unlock the path. Go through the newly opened door and down the steps. In the next screen, head right until you find a panel by a door. Tag the switch on the panel to activate the final energy bridge. Afterward, go through the door. In here, stand on the triangle and you\'ll be taken up. Once you do, you\'ll be back at Tower 3\'s entrance. You will notice that there are now three doors: one that goes further into this tower, one that goes back to Tower 2\'s Branching Room(save point) and a third one that leads into... our destiny!(DUN DUN DUN!) Go to the branching room and save/heal. Go back to Tower 3 and head into the door that leads to our destiny...(DUN DUN DUN!). Go across the energy bridge... notice that little offshoot with the three lights? Step on it and have the elevator take you down. Go through the only available door. When you do, you get to see a cutscene. It\'s rather lengthy and describes some of the crap Rubedo\'s been hiding. After it, Albedo boards his... Gear?(It is NOT an AGWS) and decides to fight. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Simeon<-- As the good robot he\'s(Gear or AGWS, he\'s still a goddamn robot), Simeon\'s invulnerable to physical hits. That means, bring it those with good Ether Attack and that have one Ether-Based skill set to HI Speed. For this, I brought in chaos and Shion, as usual. I also took KOS-MOS with me. Yes, that\'s my favorite party ;) I had Lunar Seal and Spell Ray to HI with chaos and Shion, both with high Tech Levels(I.e. they do more damage). Be sure two of your characters know how to use Medica All and Medica Rest and you\'re all set. If you\'re using my party, constantly pummel away with Spell Ray and Lunar Seal, with KOS-MOS letting go of the occasional X-Buster. There is not a whole lot to say here; just heal when possible. Simeon\'s got plenty of attacks to make up for his overall battle-strategy simplicity. First of all, we have his Beam Saber attack which does up to 250 PTS of DMG; an attack worth a heal, if anything. Airds is another powerful attack that looks awfully familiar to Xenogear\'s Aerods. It hits one party member for around 300 PTS of DMG, but, it has an \"upside\". When Simeon uses it, his Ether Def is lowered, giving you the chance to chip in a LOT more damage with your Ether Attacks. If you\'re good on health when he uses such attack, pummel away immediately and worry about healing later; you\'ll score some good damage that\'ll probably decide the outcome of the battle(especially if done more than once!) He\'s got two name-less attacks that I made up names for. They both hit all party members and are called(according to me ;)) Cannonade and Ray. His Cannonade attack consists on deploying a series of missiles on you for 200 PTS of DMG, while Ray is a beam attack that does up to 250 PTS of DMG. Both attacks are worth a heal with Medica All, as they hit everybody and pretty hard, as you can see. And, Simeon\'s got his Psychovise attack, which is like a Psycho-Punch that does up to 200 PTS of DMG. All of these attacks are pretty easy to heal from, making Simeon a very easy fight, overall(a bit long, if anything). ============================================================================== It\'d be advisable to go back to the branching room at Tower 2 to save up and heal before proceeding. Then, go back to Albedo\'s room and approach the blue and talk with him to initiate this battle... after the appropriate cutscene, of course ;) ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Ein Rugel/Doppelwogel<-- This battle is quite easy, but, nevertheless, we should be prepared. This thing\'s a mixed bag, mainly because what comes after it dies. For instance, I started off with my preferred party: KOS-MOS, chaos and Shion. I whooped Ein\'s arse but then, I had a bit of trouble with Doppel\' Only a bit though. I\'d think that in order to prevent you from having any kind of problems throughout the fight you should use Jr. Screw him, I says. It\'s enough with what I have. Ein\'s a bit resistant to physical attacks... I wouldn\'t call this a fact, though. For instance, chaos Heaven\'s Wrath couldn\'t do more than 80 PTS of DMG on Critical, while Shion\'s Lunar Blade and KOS-MOS\'S R . Hammer were doing godly amounts of damage. So, I wouldn\'t know if he really is resistant against physical hits. Nonetheless, all Ether things I threw to him would score a nice amount of damage; somewhere between the 400-500 damage barrier. That means around 1500 PTS of DMG a turn, which is quite a lot :) Yeah, you will need to heal constantly, mainly because of the damaging attacks Ein likes to use. He\'s got this move that disables your Tech Attack capabilities... it hits all party members, and it must be healed ASAP. W-Item with Cure All to get rid of this nasty-ass status effect. His Sonic Frost attack also inflicts an status effect: slow, which can be quite bothersome, plus it does around 190 PTS of DMG. Healing after it is performed is not absolutely necessary yet it\'s advisable to cure the status that\'s put upon you. Lastly, we\'ve got Ein\'s nastiest attack: Lighting Blast. This attack hits all party members for approximately 420 PTS of DMG -- around 500 on Critical. It\'s an attack that must be healed from, as any forthcoming attacks could define the battle on Ein\'s favor. When Ein\'s killed, he transforms into Doppelwogel. Doppel\' is a flying creature, therefore physical hits are worthless again him(he also haves TREMENDOUS evasion, be wary of that) -- you\'re stuck with T attacks(Ether) and those do VERY little damage to him. That\'s why I said Jr might be a good aid in this fight; outfit him with the Bravesoul and have him score the most damage. I did well with my party, though. Now\'s when KOS-MOS becomes really useful, and I will tell you why in a bit. First off, you\'re probably using your party of choice, and that could or could not include chaos or Shion. Not to worry, as all they\'ll need to do is to cast Ether Techs constantly. If they\'re correctly worked-on(read: you spend some Tech Points on them) you\'ll be doing anywhere from 100 to 300 PTS of DMG. KOS-MOS\'s will be utterly useful. Build up her AP to six... see that you can perform his infamous(COMPLETELY infamous) O attack now that you have six AP... I had F. RSHOT at the moment, and I used it. A solid hit for 630 PTS of DMG. Now, wasn\'t that awesome? That\'ll be your winning card: KOS-MOS\'s O Tech Attack. Just be sure you have a decent weapon there(the weapon that she will use here is the one that you equipped to her on the Equip Screen) and you\'ll be scoring high. Again, be sure to heal, even if that means not attacking with KOS-MOS. Staying at full health will ensure your victory, trust me. Doppel\' uses three attacks. First off, there are two unnamed attacks, to which I have names: Arrowful of Light and Blood Swipe. Anyway, the Arrowful is basically an arrow shot at one character that deals somewhere around 200 PTS of DMG. The Blood Swipe is an standard swipe that makes your character bleed a bit... not like it matters, anyway. It simply deals 200 PTS of DMG and that\'s that. And now, we shall discuss Doppel\'s third attack: Eternal Storm. Much like Lighting Blast, it hits all party members for the not-so-nice 430 PTS of DMG. Occasionally, he\'ll pull off TWO of these in A ROW, effectively murdering you unless you\'re at... level 40!?!?! ============================================================================== After the short cutscene, you\'ll be back as Shion. Simply exit this room to trigger another cutscene. The party\'s back at the Durandal. Jr has a little chat with MOMO and decides to finally destroy the Song of Nephilim. The foundation fires its proton cannon(or maybe it is photon? electron? Bah! All of them sound cool ;)) but the shot\'s deflected. The remaining Gnosis start to gather around the building -- they start to be absorbed by it! Actually, it\'s Simeon who\'s doing all of the absorbing. He fires a huge energy ball that makes everything tremble... and, somehow, awakens Proto Merkabah, the place where MOMO was created. We then see Virgil on his ship... it turns out that he was the man in blue! He gets a mental message from somebody(it is SOOO obvious that it\'s Wilhelm). Afterward, the Song attaches itself to Proto Merkabah(it looks so little compared to the gigantic Proto Merkabah). Some things are explained about the place: it seems it is another of Joachim Mizrahi\'s Luna-Jobs(read: crazy stuff he made) and if it is combined with the Original Zohar and the Song... something would happen. It was also created to elaborate MOMO, but also to find the \"true form of the universe\" Merkabah then elaborates the hugest energy wall and makes an energy stream out of it, effectively destroying the entire Federation fleet. Merkabah absorbs the Gnosis and when it does, Shion is reminded about KOS-MOS Gnosis-arse-kicking that happened on the Elsa. Albedo proceeds to explain that the Song, Proto Merkabah and the Zohar used to be a whole. The Gnosis, who seek the Zohar, are responding to the faint waves that the sealed-off Miltia emits. Merkabah uses the Gnosis as a medium to collect the Zohar waves and store it up inside it to create the energy it requires to operate completely well. Albedo reveals that the \"instructions\" on how to control Proto Merkabah were contained within MOMO, and when he accessed here(no impure thoughts here, buddy) he learned how to operate the apparatus. Proto Merkabah elaborates another energy ball and is off to fire at Second Miltia. Rubedo confronts him and he decides to stop... just to wait for the showdown with the red haired youngun. Juli Mizrahi then comes in to explain the basic layout of Merkabah: a network of tunnels, with a core where they all meet. You\'re told that in order to shut down Proto Merkabah completely, you\'d need to destroy the reactor(well, that\'s very obvious, isn\'t it?) After the cutscene finally finishes, you will have a newfound job to do: to destroy Proto Merkabah, once and for all. Get out of the bridge to get an e-mail letting you use KOS-MOS\'s R.DRAGON Tech attack. Head to the Durandal\'s train then, and you\'ll get another e-mail, informing you about the \"add-age\" of the Song to the EVS. Before heading there, do all of the side stuff you might need to do: beating Great Joe, Mintia, Din Gareth, blah blah(check the sidequests and minigames sections for further information). When you\'re fully ready, talk to Matthews at the Elsa and have him take you to Proto Merkabah, where your destiny awaits. After the cutscene, you\'ll be at the Elsa. Go out it to enter this dungeon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ########################[ P R O T O M E R K A B A H ]######################## ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Head left at the beginning, past the steps, along the upper catwalk until you see a path that goes north. Take it and go to its end(the robots along the way fall very easily to Ether). You will hit a bifurcation here. Go right to find a raised bridge... hm, what could this be? Go left and you\'ll find some steps. Go up them and go right at the next screen. Go up shortly afterward and make another right at the end of this catwalk, by using the conveyor that goes the same direction as you. At the other side, destroy the crates. For two Ether Pack DX, 2 Frame Repair A and a battle against a Delphyne. Beat him to gain access to a ladder there. Go down it and destroy the crates across it for 2 Frame Repair Z and 2 Bio Spheres. Afterward, run to the left past the cars. Destroy the crates there for 2 Med Kit DX and then ride north. On your way, look for a passageway on the left wall. Go through it to find two consoles. Boot up the top one(the one near the entrance). This will block the entrance. Boot up the bottom console to create another path out of this room. Continue up afterward. At the end, you will undoubtedly notice a yellow console; the path\'s blocked, however. So, head to the right to find another yellow console. Before entering the room, destroy the crapload of crates nearby for 2 Ether Pack DX. Enter the room and boot up the yellow console to make the path raise, blocking your way out. Not to worry, though. Make use of the conveyor belt in the middle of the room to go back up. Head left into the catwalk and run across it, now that it is fully complete, without gaps and whatnot. At the end, there will be a door. Go through it to be taken into the next area. Here, go right and up the staircase. Before going up the next staircase, go through the door nearby -- before going through it, be sure to memorize this area\'s word of reference: \"Floor 41\", as we\'ll be back here soon. Inside what seems to be a restaurant(???) go through the only available door. Inside this office, check the glowing screen for a bit of interesting information. Go back to Floor 41 and continue up the staircases until you hit Floor 42, where you\'ll find another door. Go through it and then through the only available door you will see. In this office, check the glowing screens for more information regarding wounded people and whatnot. Hmmm... also, there is a path here to leads into a green glass protecting some switch. Interesting, eh? Go back to \"Floor 42\" and ride up the following staircase. AT floor 43, go through the door again. Inside this floor, there will be two offices. One near the entrance door, and another one further to the left. Go through the one near the entrance door and destroy the crate there to get 2 Frame Repair Z. There is nothing of further interest here, so head into the other office, where you will find a save point. Hm, what could this mean? Save and heal, and then examine the nearby hologram to get the core\'s vague location. It seems we are still far from finishing... oh, well. Go back outside and into Floor 43, and continue up. Floor 44 will be the last floor... head through the door nearby. The structure of this room is different from the other floor-rooms. Go left along the path. At the center of this place there\'ll be a destruct-able glass door. Blow it up for a Rejuvenator and then open the chest inside for the dragon rod. Now, head into the western side of this room. There are two doors here. The top one, painted in orange, is locked. So, go through the bottom one, painted in blue. At the next screen, proceed down the staircase. As you go, enter the rooms you come across. Here is the breakdown of what you will find at each floor\'s room: - 43: Press the switch nearby to make the wall slide up, giving you easy access to the save point at the other side. Then, go through the door to find Segment Address 17. Decode it and get the BLOOD9 at the other side, Jr\'s ultimate weapon! - 42: Press the switch nearby to make a stream of energy flow up to floor 44. This is vital to advance. - 41: Go through the door near the entrance. In this office, go all the way to the right to find another door. Go through it and get the M Chip Guard. The rest of floor 41 is completely blown up, so ride back up to floor 44 and go through the door there, into the room we were in a while ago(where we got a rejuvenator and all of that). Head to the center of this area and go down the steps. This path was once blocked, but thanks to the stream of energy you made appear, it\'s now unblocked. Go across it and through the door at the end. In the next area, you\'ll be able to go left or right. You can go right to find a hidden passage that leads to an area with ONE destruct-able crate that holds a Chakra <<something>> I\'d recommend skipping that and head straight to the left. Do your best to evade that big robot and ride down the bridge. At the end, agree to jump down. Prepare yourself. ============================================================================== --------- BOSS BATTLE --------- ============================================================================== -->Schutz; Proto Dora<-- An uneven fight, if there\'s been one. Start off by attacking the Schutz. There are flying enemies, meaning that they\'re only vulnerable to those T attacks(or the rest of Jr\'s attacks). Wear their HP off with your best Ether Techs, which are hopefully set to HI Speed. The Schutz don\'t make up for a threat, really. Their only attack is fairly weak(70-100), and, they\'re VERY weak against Ethers. The only problem you may find is the Schutz\'s speed. They\'re utterly fast. Even though they\'re pretty easy, they\'ll probably take a while to wear down. After all of the battling, you will have to confront Proto Dora, face to face. Now, this part of the battle is what makes it all tough. Proto Dora has the upper hand on you, but that might change depending on your preparations. First of all, have KOS-MOS in here. Set her R.Hammer to HI speed, level it up, and outfit the robotic beauty with the infamous Double Buster and Bravesoul. Your other two characters should have plenty of Ether power, and two good Ether Techs set to HI speed. Plus, they should have one Physical Tech(like Heaven\'s Wrath) set to HI Speed, too. Proto Dora will use its Beam Shield right near the beginning; this will make it invulnerable to almost everything. In fact, it\'ll be invulnerable to anything. Start attacking Dora with your physical techs. You will cause almost no damage, but it\'s the most effective way to bring down its shield to 50%. Once it hits this amount, your other attacks(Ethers) will become highly effective. Shift back to them and bombard Dora with all of your strength. Have KOS-MOS guard for a turn and save her Tech up until she\'s been badly wounded. When she is, do a double R.Hammer on Dora. If KOS-MOS was badly wounded, you\'ll take off at least 2500+ PTS of DMG off Dora\'s HP. Keep this strategy up and Dora will stand no chance. Dora uses plenty of attacks. Its Steel Press hits everybody for up to 500 PTS of DMG. It could cause a bit less, but no less than 300, that\'s for sure. Such attack should be healed off with Medica All -- this will heal KOS-MOS, reducing the damage she\'d do, but it\'s imperative to heal from such a powerful attack, to prevent a potential(and not too pleasant) surprise. It has two other attacks. Its beam attack is fairly standard, hitting one party member for no more than 200 PTS of DMG. If it hits Shion, heal her immediately. If it hits anybody else that\'s not MOMO, keep on fighting. And if it hits KOS-MOS, rejoice! Now, the last attack Dora could use on this fight is called the Sonic Buster. First off, it\'ll announce that it is \"recharging energy\". When it does, you\'ll have one turn to use before it unleashes its Sonic Buster attack, that deals something like 700-800 PTS of DMG. Use the free turn you have before it uses its attack to completely heal yourself and survive. The nastiest thing this piece of junk will do it\'s to cast \"Relief Goods\" on itself, healing 2...3...8...0 HPs. Yep, 2380 Hit Points. At this point, start blasting away. Guard with KOS-MOS to build her AP to six and wait until she hits the red zone. When she does, unleash a double R.Hammer for massive damage on Dora. If you can pull this off again before Dora heals itself again, you\'re done. Otherwise, keep repeating this strategy until you\'re able to chant your victory. Oh, and just to let you know, I hit the x10 Point Enhancement even slot at the end of the battle, getting a nice 900 TP after it. I\'m godly ;) ============================================================================== After that tough battle, you will get Decoder 6. Now, notice that little bridge on the northwest? Head there and go across it, to hit a ladder; climb it. Go across the only available path and through the first door you come across. Head through the following door. In this room you will find an hologram of the universe right in the center. Head straight to the center of such hologram and hit the switch on the console there. After the short dialogue, head to the right. You\'ll come across a nook with a brown door; unlock it but ignore it. Continue on until you find a blue, destruct-able crate. Blast it and go down the ladder. Go around the structure in the middle and destroy the orange panel at the other side, to find segment address 6. Decode it and get the Trauma Plate hidden within it. Go back out and up the ladder. Head to the north point of this room where you will find a blue door. Run through it and turn right in the adjacent room. Go through the door at the end. In the following screen, follow the linear path(use your MAD ESCAPING SKILLZ on those things; ain\'t worth it, trust me). Halfway through, you will find a big double door. Run through them for a cutscene. Afterward, you\'ll be back outside; head to the right. Go down the ladder at the end of the path and use the elevator to dig into the depths of Proto Merkabah. At the bottom, make good use of the save point. Fully heal yourself, too, with a Bio Sphere. Upgrade your characters and pick your party members; yes, the grand finale is approaching. Head through the path on the left, to find an elevator. Press the switch on it and it\'ll start moving. As you go down, an enemiy will materialize on the elevator. You have no choice but to fight, sadly. After it, some more enemies will materialize, too. It\'s like five fights before hitting the core, and the last of \'em are horribly tough(you might want to equip that Erde Kaiser here...) After what seems forever, you will hit the bottom of this place. Crawl out of the elevator and run right to find a set of double doors; go through them. In the next screen, run through the path toward the staircase at the end. It\'s riddled with enemies, but you should escape from all of the battles(or avoid them by walking -- press and hold R2 as you go). When you finish with this path, climb up the stairs and go across the bridge in the following screen. Watch the cutscene. G R A N D F I N A L E ------------- ---------------- ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* <>Albedo<> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* This battle is overly easy. Have everybody have their most powerful techs set to HI. Equip your best physical hitter with a Bravesoul and a Double Buster; be sure his or her best physical tech is set to HI. This guy will dish out the most damage with his or her physical attacks. I picked KOS-MOS, and you should too, and here is why: KOS-MOS did godly amounts of damage with her physical attacks, while Shion and chaos did nothing with them. KOS-MOS, however, did nothing with ethers while Shion and chaos were pumping up the damage with that kind of attack. I don\'t know how this works, exactly, but, for instance, Jr could be weak with physicals and outfitting him with a Bravesoul will be useless in that case. That\'s why I recommend using KOS-MOS -- I assure you she will kick ass, no matter what. Have her absorb some damage and let him have it. Your other two characters should use their better techs, either ether or physical(experiment until you find the one kind that does the most damage). Albedo has some attacks, as you might expect. One of them absorbs half of your HP, another does around 200+ PTS of DMG to one party member, and another one hits all party member for around ~400 PTS of DMG. Lastly, Albedo will also increment its speed by a 50%. Sophie Peithos Firs of all, heal. You are probably wounded, off Albedo\'s battle, so it is imperative to heal. Sophie uses very basic attacks, all of them weak, making this a very easy fight. First off, its Swarm attack; it does around 350 PTS of DMG. It also uses its White Light, which cures status abnormalities. Sophie uses it... on you! Furthermore, we have its Eternal Vestige, which cancels your Ether powers. Sophie will also call for Jaldaboths and Ratatosks. Jaldaboths destroy themselves after you hit them once; they\'re weak against ethers. The Ratatosks should be ignored, but you should kill the Jalda\'s, or else you won\'t be able to assault Peithos. The Ratatosks also use a plethora of attacks, like Blade of Dissolution and Damgogue, all of which hit all party members for plenty of damage. Have those Medica Alls ready and assault Peithos(or the Jalda that gets in your way) with your best ether based techs. Whoever has the bravesoul should first accumulate a healthy slice of damage, before letting go of his/her strongest physical tech, for awesome damage. It should be over in no time. **SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE ENDING! Be sure to save, as that data could be used in Xenosaga: Episode II: <<insert cool subtitle here>>