"Prepare to face your demons!" Rear box insert, DMC4 Devil May Cry 4 FAQ/Walkthrough Version 0.70 by lastfirstborn (Joe Barbee) other info listed at the bottom of the guide February 11, 2008 Ver. 25 - Frame work for the guide, various files inputted, FAQ section updated, Tips updated. February 12-14, 2008 Ver. 40 - Main body of the guide updated to halfway point of the main missions. Full blue orb and secret mission guide complete. Added more files, more tips, more FAQs. February 15-17, 2008 Ver. 70 - Updated enemy and boss information to almost full. Polished up tips and FAQs sections. Added Bloody Palace section (coming soon). Finished up the main Missions of the game in guide. Added techniques for both Nero and Dante to every aspect of the guide possible at this point. February 18, 2008 Ver. 80 - General polishing up. Added some thanks and advice from emails I got from other players. February 20, 2008 Ver. 85 - Worked on Bloody Palace section. Added a little to File section. ------------------- LEGAL INFORMATION: Disclaimer: Please do not use this FAQ on any other site than gamefaqs or gamespot. You may email me for permission to use this FAQ on your site, but please contact me, give me full credit, do not alter the guide in ANY way at all, and wait for my email response over all else. See bottom of FAQ for more info on copyright. This game was made by Capcom, and everythingis also under copywrite by them (in this game, that is). This guide is my intellectual property and is protected by the law. It's come to my attention in the past years of writing guides for games, as both a hobby and a passion for the things we all enjoy, that some individuals take it upon themselves to steal guides and print them out or sell them in pdf format over ebay and sites like that. While we can't completely put a stop to things like this, if the guide bears incredible similarities (style of writing, typos, exact wording), please let me know. It is greatly appreciated and if possible I will take the most appropriate actions. I urge you to do the same for any writers you find out there. This is meant for enjoyment and to help others, this is not intended to make any amounts of money, especially not for the con artists and liars out there. ----------------------------------------- I like any and all input so long as it makes sense (pertains to this guide and/or the game itself). My inbox stays pretty busy around the time I write guides, so please bear with me if I don't get back to you. I appreciate any input you all present, but if I do not answer I was either too busy, or have already addressed the issue in my guide. I am aware of the fact that there are several methods for playing all the games of today, the nextgen, so if I don't get back to you on that, also, please bear with me, as I may never cover that, or I may have already covered it by that time. Anything about grammar or typos will be pretty much ignored, as will anything hateful or unreadable. Forgive me on that one, you know how it is though. If something in my guide seems absolutely, positively hard to understand, and your primary language is English, let me know then. But I'll do my best to avoid that kind of thing. All of that said, let me stress again, I do READ many of the letters, even if I don't respond, and I thank you for it. I know this isn't the flashiest guide, but it'll likely end up pretty big, so I want it to load smooth and be a simple read. And yeah, being a DMC fan and all, I have put several quotes throughout this guide from all of the games. I hope you enjoy it! (keep in mind, most of the few DMC 4 quotes I use don't give away much or any storyline) If you enjoy this guide and found it helpful, feel free to rate it up on gamefaqs by using the thingee at the top of this page! Thanks. Copyright 2008 Joe Barbee Please remember that pressing ctrl F at any time on this page will allow a search box function. Look in the table of contents and put in Mission keywords to skip immediately to the mission you need! ==================== Introduction Hello and welcome to another guide by me, lastfirstborn. Thanks for bearing with me through all that stuffy stuff above. This is my first guide of 2008, and I hope to make it the best one I've written yet. I'm not entirely inexperienced with writing FAQs for this site, but I am still a little rough around the edges. I will do my best to present a complete, understandable guide with multiple combat methods, the best ways to complete difficult sections, good techniques for gaining skills and health, along with any other things that will enhance and improve your gameplay. There are already a couple of good guides out there, and if mine isn't working for you, give them a look. I feel that everyone deserves a chance at different strategies, so I thought I'd give writing this guide a shot, in case the others weren't working for you. I plan to deal with multiple difficulties, a complete mission guide, where to find the hidden stuff, and talk a little bit about the story. There will also be a skills and combo list for both characters, an enemy list and guide, achievements, and any other little tidbits I feel like adding later on. I hope to get this guide out to you all as soon as possible, because there are tons of the same question floating around the message boards right now. Hope this helps some. I've been gaming since the good ole NES days, and I have enjoyed many a Capcom game. I've played every installment in this series, and gotten S ranks for mostly every mission up to (and all of) DMC 3. I'm not trying to brag, so much as I want to assure you I will do my best to offer you top notch service during this guide. A brief warning, this guide WILL contain spoilers. In fact, by the time it's done, it will tell all. Please do not read too far ahead unless you want to know the story, enemies, weapons, items, etc. in advance. Capcom is a long standing, good company. They have brought us many solid hits since the very earliest days of home gaming. Things like the popular Mega Man series, or how about that little gem known to very small circles as Resident Evil? Onimusha is quite good as well. How about Dead Rising on the 360? There's really too much to list, but as far as flagship series go, I'd consider the Devil May Cry games in that catergory, though most would just call it niche gaming. There is a nice History of Devil May Cry in the hidden features of this game, once you beat it on any difficulty. You can learn a great deal about the series there. I also suggest checking out some gameplay vids from all of the games, there's serious action to behold. Dante is a thirllseeker, demon slayer, half human, half demon, hero of the people. His skills with a blade, fire arms, taunts, and overall finesse are second to none. He has a very twisted and powerful family tree in his past, and buckets of blood and steel in his future. He runs a small business out of an office called the Devil May Cry (which is more like a hangout joint), and if you call him with a demon problem and the password, he'll hunt them down to their last breath. He often doesn't even accept much payment. Anyway, I can elaborate more in my story section. Let's dive into the guide, shall we? Here's to a good game! IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Note: PLEASE GO LOOK AT THE END SECTION OF MY WALKTHROUGH FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ON BLUE ORB LOCATIONS AND SECRET MISSIONS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS. This game allows you to replay missions so don't fret if you miss something on the first play of a mission. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -------------------------------------------------- "You got a trick up your sleeve." Dante, DMC 4 "I thought the cat had your tongue. But if it's tricks you're after, TRY THIS!" Nero, DMC 4 --------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: I. Controls (Xbox 360 default layout) II. Basic tips and survival techniques (pretty simple, but give it a skim, new or vet alike) III. The Missions (main guide) Mission 01 Mission 02 Secret Mission 01 Mission 03 Mission 04 Secret Mission 02 Mission 05 Secret Mission 03 (can also be done during 16*Dante) Secret Mission 10 (*Nero Only) Mission 06 Secret Mission 04 Mission 07 Secret Mission 05 (*Nero Only) Mission 08 Mission 09 Mission 10 Secret Mission 06 (also can be done during 12*Dante) Secret Mission 07 (also can be done during 12*Dante) Mission 11 Mission 12 Mission 13 Secret Mission 08 (*Dante only) Mission 14 Mission 15 Secret Mission 09 Mission 16 Secret Mission 11 Mission 17 Secret Mission 12 Mission 18 Mission 19 Mission 20 Hell or Hell mode tips and tricks Blue Orb fragments (many are found within secret missions, but some are not, read on...) Ranks (what you need and on what difficulty) The Bloody Palace (a section dedicated to the enemies, strategies, and all around insanity of the Palace) IV. Files (enemies, skills, items, etc.) V. Storyline and Character layout (a few things you may have missed, some theory, and alot of fun!) VI. FAQ section (Frequently asked questions, please take a look at this if you're new or want tips) VII. Achievements (the list, since many are secret at first, and maybe a few tips from yours truly) VIII. Thanks and Ending Notes (I'd like to thank the Acadamy.) ================================= I. Control Layout for the Xbox 360 "With a spirit unlike any other, and wielding the sword that bore his own name, Sparda eradicated the demons..." Narrator, DMC 2 ================================= Nero: Y button - Close range attack X button - Long range attack B button - Examine / Devil Bringer / Cancel A button - Jump / Examine / Confirm Right Bumper (RB) - Lock on target Left Bumper (LB) - Devil Trigger* (DT) Left Trigger (LT) - Exceed Left Stick - Move / Change lock on target by pressing in Right Stick - Move camera / Reset camera by pressing in Start button - Pause menu Back button - Taunt *later in game, not from the start ---------------------------------------- Dante: Y button - Close range attack X button - Lang range attack B button - Examine / Style action / Cancel A button - Jump / Examine / Confirm Left Bumper (LB) - Devil Trigger (DT) Left Trigger (LT) - Switch long range weapon Right Bumper (RB) - Lock on target Right Trigger (RT) - Switch close range weapon Left Stick - Move / Change lock on target by pressing in Right Stick - Move camera / Reset camera by pressing in D-pad - Change style Up - Trickster Right - Sword Master Down - Royal Guard Left - Gun Slinger Double tap any already entered style direction - Dark Slayer** Start button - Pause Menu Backt button - Taunt **Dante will not gain this style until later, not his from the start ---------------------------------------- Pause Menu: A button - Confirm B button - Cancel Right Bumper (RB) >>>>>both cycle pages Left Bumper (LB) Left Stick >>>>>both move selection cursor D-pad ---------------------------------------- There is a very good in game tutorial as well as several good details to learn about in the File menu, found on the mission select / difficulty screen. I will cover those aspects more in detail in their respective sections of my guide. =================== II. Basic Tips and Survival Techniques "It looks like we have a winner." Trish, DMC "Jackpot!" Dante, DMC =================== IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Note: PLEASE GO LOOK AT THE END SECTION OF MY WALKTHROUGH FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ON BLUE ORB LOCATIONS AND SECRET MISSIONS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS. This game allows you to replay missions so don't fret if you miss something on the first play of a mission. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all, let me say, go down and see my FAQs section for more tips. Things are a little more in depth there. ---------------------------------------- The guns are more useful than you'd think. Especially with level 2 charges. Learn to incorporate gunplay into your combos, not only to keep the style string high from afar, but also to vary your moves so that you can taunt sooner and more often. Charging the guns takes time. Rearrange your controls if you have to, but try to learn when facing certain demons, to hold the charge down while dodging and even comboing! It can be done and will really make you stronger for it. --------------------------------------- Go see my enemies section of this guide for some tips and tricks on taking down lesser demons and bosses! ---------------------------------------- Learn to Instant Rev with Exceed. I will try to get more in depth on this one later in the guide, but for now, know that if you press LT down during the right window (varying for each and every attack animation) as you fight, you can keep your gauge charged. So if you go into battle fully charged up, and continue to IR correctly, you can technically have a fully powered up Red Queen for every hit! This also dramatically increases style if used properly. Don't feel bad if it doesn't come easily, this takes a ton of practice. Speaking of Exceed, the Red Queen features many good hits and combos. In EX, there are twice as many varied moves to use, and they can be charged further by holding Y during the move! ---------------------------------------- Dante is a bit slower than Nero and seems to have less varied moves upon first getting him. Keep in mind that later, he will be able to switch between three Devil Arms and three guns at a time, during combos! He techinically has three times the ability this way. Add in the fact that Dante can switch styles during gameplay, and you have even MORE moves open to you! Switching styles with the dpad will come naturally as you play. Learn to do this constantly, specifically between Trickster and Swordmaster. As you master the Pandora gun, incorporate Gunslinger. Royal Block is very hard to use, especially for beginners, so I recommend using it and ONLY it if that's your thing. Switching in time to block can be very difficult. It can, however, be done. (Dante only) Dark Slayer Style DOES carry over after you unlock it. Enjoy! Forward Y and Back Y work wonders on bosses, and YYY in the air and on the ground adds variety and sheer power to your combos! (Dante only) ---------------------------------------- Learn Buster moves and learn them well. Every lesser demon and boss demon has unique windows for a massive Buster attack, and Busters get even stronger (and sometimes completely different) when you're in Devil Trigger mode! Also, many bosses have 2 or even 3 different Buster-able weaknesses, for even more damage and style! (This applies to Nero) On many levels, time and style matter the most, especially when added to No Item, No Damage bonuses. You should still aim for at least a B in orbs, which comes well if you Style enough during combat as it is. ----------------------------------------- When any character purchases items, the price for that item goes up. For big name items like Blue and Purple Orbs or Holy Water, the price goes WAY up. Plan ahead on what you have to buy and what you don't need. The same as above applies for skills and proud souls. When you purchase a move, skill, or whatnot, the number of Proud Souls to purchase remaining skills goes up a bit. Plan your character well, and keep in mind you can, at any time, pull out all the points spent at once and respend them. This is a great feature for beginners and veterans alike, as you can rebuild your character and take back mistakes specific to every mission if need be! ---------------------------------------- Whenever either character sucessfully taunts, or dodges a near hitting attack, your DT gauge will increase. ---------------------------------------- When in DT mode as Nero, hold down the shot button whenever you possibly can to fire out tons of swords (just like Vergils!). ---------------------------------------- When either character calls DT form, if you're standing still or jumping straight up (no directions), lightning is called down on them and hurts the enemies around you to a very small degree. ---------------------------------------- The hard and fast rule for Nero is, if you run up on tough foes, use that buster and grab move! Don't forget. The hard and fast rule for Dante is, if you really run into trouble, vary your style and weapons. Consult your skill screen (or my in guide section) regularly. You may forget about alot of moves or skills you had, and some of them can really spice up gameplay or even just plain help you survive. The double jump (air hike) is a must have for BOTH characters. Not only does it help you find tons of items throughout gameplay, it is great in combat. Remember, in combat, just because you can jump really high with it doesn't mean you should, or have to. Light taps of double jumps can lead to prolonging combos or even your survival! ---------------------------------------- Combos work best when varied. For Nero, YYYY, back Y, YYY in air, Taunt while foe is on ground, jump up, grab, buster, shoot them, taunt again if applicable, YYY,Y, or in air YY, Y. Watch that style soar! Keep in mind this is just a very basic example, but you still have to purchase many of these moves. For Dante, Rebellion YYYY, back Y, Y, forward Y, Trickster Dash to downed foe, Taunt, Swordmaster and B, then hold B as they come down, jump up while Gunslinger, B twice, land with Trickster, run up enemy, Swordmaster and Gilgamesh press B, forward Y, taunt. Again, a fairly simple move in practice. This is just to give you a basic idea of what you can do. These combos both sound like alot, but in game you will get a natural feel for what your characters can each do, and you will flow from form to form and move to move. Don't focus too much on reading this kind of stuff until you experience it for yourself, and it will come very easily to you in time. ----------------------------------------- Play on Human mode first if you plan on hitting harder modes and/or Bloody Palace. Get all your health, most of your moves, all your devil trigger gauge, and learn your characters and how to both dodge and stylishly attack and taunt. This mode is VERY easy and forgiving if you mess up anything. Keep in mind on higher modes you will meet different enemy groups and even find harder foes earlier on. Also, you won't even see certain bad guys abilities (bosses especially) until you move up to harder modes. But, since all your skills and items (not key items) carry over to the next difficulty, raising up a character in Human is a good idea. Especially if you're new to the series. Also keep in mind foes die very quickly in this mode, so while you can learn alot of stylish skills, know that it gets better. And if you're all about the achievements, this game will basically hand them to you if you spam the lower two difficulties, at least for most of the achievements. Just takes time. ----------------------------------------- On Dante Must Die difficulty, you can feel free to use up any items you have accumulated. However, if you don't, there's a good bonus at the end of a mission. ----------------------------------------- MORE TIPS COMING ==================================== III. Walkthrough "You wanna play huh? Alright, I've got some time to kill..." Dante, DMC 4 "Tough guy, huh? Well...I'll just have to take you down a couple notches!" Nero, DMC4 "Whatever you say kid." Dante, DMC 4 ==================================== Welcome to the main guide. I will be playing at first on Devil Hunter difficulty. Keep in mind, at the bottom of this guide you will find, in this same chapter after the final mission, where to find EVERY blue orb fragment and how to find and beat EVERY secret mission. I know that scrolling through the entire thing can be a pain, so remember to use the Ctrl F function on your keyboard and then type in the Mission number or secret mission number, and it'll take you right to it. I will cover what it's like to play the main game for the first time, and what it's like on subsequent playthroughs with more skills and weapons open. Even though this is the main walkthrough, I cannot stress enough for you to go through and look at the other sections of this guide for tips and tricks. With all that said, let's begin! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Note: PLEASE GO LOOK AT THE END SECTION OF MY WALKTHROUGH FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ON BLUE ORB LOCATIONS AND SECRET MISSIONS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS. This game allows you to replay missions so don't fret if you miss something on the first play of a mission. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am playing on the default normal mode, Devil Hunter. I may come back to add some notes for other difficulties, though much remains largely the same until DMD mode and Hell and Hell mode. Also, if you want to know about story, please go past the walkthrough chapter and find the appropriate story area I have typed out. ----------------------------------------- Mission 01: Birds of a Feather This mission isn't rough at all. If you're new or have tutorials set to ON, the game will have Dante spar with you a bit and you will learn the basics of attacking and dodging. BOSS: Dante The actual battle and ranking time starts up when Dante's life bar appears. If this is your first time playing, you won't have much in the way of in game skills or attacks. Just do what you can. Keep moving, and when you see him do things from the tutorial, dodge accordingly with rolls, though I think jumps are best for everything but his helm splitter, which is an overhead air sword attack. When he taunts, gets into a corner, or if you get a rare window of opprotunity to hit his back after his misses with a stinger (dash sword attack), unleash a three or four hit combo and hop away. Taunt here and there, in close, and destroy all the benches for orbs. If you get a lucky shot at using the Buster on him in close, you can see a cool sword fight sequence and you'll push him away and he loses lots of health. If you get him in the air he'll lose a fair amount as well. Slam dunk! Try to finish this within 2 minutes if possible, and you will likely get an S rank if you got the orbs and C style. If this is your second time through, you can finish this quickly by using devil trigger mode, snatching with the arm, and using DT Buster moves to slam Dante over and over into the ground. He likes to shoot in two random patterns rapidly, block you bullets (cool huh?) with bullets of his own, rush in for a stab, do a three or four hit combo, air attack to slam into the ground, taunt, and dodge alot. None of these attacks should kill you, but if you are in the fight with him for longer than 3 minutes and you consistently get hit it will add up. Ng Jeremy (manwithmustache(at)hotmail(dot)com) wrote to let me know that on ocassion, you can and will lose if you clash with Dante during a Buster attack! He always follows this loss up with a ground combo that you can avoid by jumping! Thanks Jeremy! ----------------------------------------- Mission 02: La Porte De L'Enfer (note: this actually means The Gates of Hell) Repeat the first mission as much as you like, until you're bored of skipping cutscenes with start and briefly loading again and again. You will build up some nice orbs and proud souls along the way. Purchase whatever you can, I highly recommend saving Red Orbs up for Blue Orbs and later on after Mission 6 the Purple Orbs. As for Proud Souls, go for Red Queen stuff. Pretty simple stuff here. Fight off your foes to open the way, smash the trash cans and benches for orbs. Try to combo worth at least a C through here. Get the gold orb shown in the cinema by wall jumping, smash the barrels, go upstairs and smash the crates for even more orbs. In this small room, try not to take any hits if you can help it. Nero is built for speed, just roll and lightly hop about, trying to combo your style up to a C. When you get the final of the three scarecrows on the ground, taunt him for as long as you can. Vary the combos and Buster/Air Busters and your score should improve. Smash up everything in this space and continue forward. Along the linear path you will eventually get "stuck", you need to go down into a tiny lobby and examine a blue sphere to gain the Evil Legacy. Now you can grapple around in style, and even use this to snatch enemies over to you! This grab is great. You can (after this mission) now upgrade the grab's length in the store as well. Continue through, destroying furniture and using Snatch to get far off orbs. At a fountain you'll find a piece of paper with red writing on it. This is a secret mission, number 1. See my special section devoted to this stuff and more below the main walkthrough guide. Go along the path using the Grim Grips and you'll fight a pair of demons. Combo and continue on to fight five or six more weak scarecrows. Try for an A combo style rank here if possible. Using Buster from the air can make everyone fall briefly if you line it up right, and you can taunt them all. Using Snatch also leaves most demons on the ground for a few seconds. Pass through, drop down, clear the alley of the three demons and the smashable objects. Then attack the red orb statue up in that corner. If you're on another play and have DT, use it to gain around 4000 orbs! If not, just use plain Y Y Y Y combos on it until it breaks. Go straight ahead from the mouth of this alley to see a wooden watch tower. You can double jump (using the wall jump you come with) to get into it. There's a ton of red orbs from thin air! If you have air hike (double jump in air), get to the very top of the hut by hopping out and holding down jump hard to rearrange in a U shaped jump. More orbs! Also, just past the red orb statue in the alley back a bit, if you follow the tiny red orbs you'll find a blue orb fragment. Continue along the path, in the next area hang left and jump up high off the wall for a big red orb. Stay away from the large area on the right for now and follow the skinny docks to a grim grip. Shoot over and go into the building on this side of the docks. Meet the new, faster scarecrows! Combo them all with style and try not to get hit by them. Isolate one in the corner at a time if possible. Taunt often, but only between every five or six attacks Taunting too much in a row is useless. Go for an A rank here. You may need to buy some new combos by now to vary your moves and keep them from hitting you. YY, YYYY is good for that. Now, hit that blue switch on the wall until all the flames go around and then enter it. You will get a scene for this that opens your path. Get up to that door that was previously blocked and go to the switchbox. Activate and watch the scene, then leave this building Fight a few more demons outside and go back across the grim grip. Go for an A rank again against these three. Now go to the large dock area. Time for a real fight. You'll face off against eight or so scarecrows of varying types, mostly the agile leg blade type. Just use your best judgement about when to combo, taunt, buster, or snatch. The gun is great for extending combo time briefly, and if you have a charged shot you can put down one or two in one good blast. Once on their backs, taunt away! Just watch your back, that's a big thing in this game. The enemies are all quick for the most part, and they love to hit you from off screen sometimes. If this is your second time through, go for an S rank. If not, try to hold a solid A rank. Don't worry if you take a hit and lose the score, it happens. Just practice on this level a few times and try not to take hits for a bonus at the end. Their hits won't hurt too much anyway, but more than four can really add up on a new character with no extra health bars. Continue across the bridge you lowered, destroying the dumpsters for orbs. In the next room drop down into the waterway for several orbs, then use the Grips to get up top for a green orb and a combat adjudicator statue. I cover this in my blue orb section below. Buy health at the statue if you're doing poorly, but I recommend you save your red orbs for permenant health extensions. Head into the Ferrum Hills map. BOSS: Berial Another basic boss battle. This one is to acclimate you to the big, often slow bosses. Capitalize on their slow speed and any openings they leave you. Berial loves to swing that massive sword around and destroy the buildings. They have small health orbs (green) in them. Shoot him constantly during this fight to chip away at him and keep yourself floating if need be. If you have double jump it can be a help, but it isn't needed. Use the snatch to grapple up to his head level and use air combos on his face, or better, the back of his head and upper back region. Come down and strike his back legs if you get a chance, and repeat, trying to time your grabs to get airborne for when he just swings at you. He also likes to swirl through the air very briefly (he's so big he can't stay up long!) and swing his blade eratically. Just keep up the hits and around a quarter off he'll be stunned and his fire goes low. Grapple up to face level and use a normal buster attack (just B, not lock on B) and you'll do a special slam hit. Brutal! If you get him weak you can also grab his tail and slam him into the buildings around you for big damage. If this is your second time through and you have DT available, be SURE to go into DT mode when using the Buster for even more damage and a more brutal attack. When his head is down on the ground after your slam, rush in with Forward Y (streak) and use Buster again for yet another big attack! When he stands, be careful. He'll taunt you and fire out a massive burst of flames to renew his power. If you get caught in this it counts as a hit and ruins the no damage bonus, plus stuns you AND hurts your style by two or so ranks. He can also send up massive pillars of fire. It's nice to have double jump to avoid this, but you can just roll to the sides and rush him to try to get away. Keep in mind while he keeps you busy with this, he will do a bull rush of his on right into you, and this can deplete a couple bars of health! Plus a flame pillar will likely hit you during this time, meaning you lose nearly four bars on DH mode alone! If you can finish him without taking a hit you will easily score S or SS without even using incredibly varied combos, so long as you Bustered properly. Even with one or two hits, you can finish with a C rank if you kill him WITH a buster attack. He's pretty durable but he goes down hard. Just try not to deplete him to a quarter of his energy until you can stun him again, then use Buster. When he drops to around a quarter of his remaining health, he will constantly use fast, powerful strikes and it's a pain to try and keep a good style rank during that barrage of random attacks. Good job, your first actual boss battle is complete! Head into the wood building that opened and follow the path on your minimap to end the mission. I had a time of 12 minutes, a style of above 6000 points total, and 95 percent orbs found, which is an S rank! Make this your goal if you're on DH difficulty. I also had the No Item bonus. ----------------------------------------- Mission 03: The White Wing Power up if you can. Try to buy a little health in terms of Blue Orbs to extend your overall bar. Get some more Red Queen combos and consider upgrading your Devil Bringer's snatch to 2. Makes things easier in combat and in the platforming sections of grapple, coming up soon. It's good to have Air Hike by now also, if you can. In fact, priority should go to it first. As you enter this mine shaft, on the left is a dead end with tons of extra orbs if you hit the statue enough. If you are replaying and have DT, go into it for several thousand red orbs. By the way, the orb statue is behind a flimsy fence you can knock down. Now, kill the three scarecrows with a B rank if you can, A is preferred. Then use the series of Grim Grips to reach the top platform. Please see my Blue Orb section at the end of this Walkthrough chapter for how to get TWO fragments right in this room. You will need the approriate skills for Nero. Head into the next, larger room, and face off against five scarecrow demons. Remember to try and stay moving, so you don't get hit from off camera. They like to lunge at you and can do it from pretty far off. Go for that A combo rank! Hope up into the little opening and look to the immediate left tunnel for a Vital Star S. Proceed forward into the next area by knocking down the fence. Snow eh?! Look on the map for an open spot nearest you, jump up to nab a red orb. Continue along the long path (I like to have Run by now to make the game go a bit quicker), and go to the bridge for a cinema. Frosts. They are faster than you've seen yet and pretty strong, plus a bit durable. Good all around soldier demons. They have long range attacks for ground and air, so watch your back. They like to jump high and slam down with a wide area of effect ice hit, and many of their ice attacks "stick" to the area for a bit and will also harm you. Keep moving, try to concentrate on one at a time, and to finish them off with style try using Buster on the ground and near walls or objects to slam them around a bunch. You can even throw them at each other! Go for an A here if you can. Climb on top of the two back most large pillars here for hidden red orbs. The tiny pillars you destroy have green health orbs in them sometimes. Head forward to the castle and meet Gloria. Good stuff. Head inside after the scene. In the Grand Hall, take out all the chairs and benches for tons of orbs. You can't do much else here so pick a door (I choose the door on the West side of the minimap). Note the giant Gyro Blade statue at the front of this room. Anyway, there is also a gold lion time statue, but I doubt you'll want to buy anything since you probably just did at mission start. In this hallway, kill off the enemies and smash the mirrors hanging on the walls. One at the very end can't be broken yet. Two can, one has red orbs in it. The other has nothing. Smash all the furniture (candles) you can and try for a B or even A rank while you're at it. Now go into that mini-hall and enter the torture chamber. Time for some fighting. I like how everyone is bunched up here. Try for group hitting combos and clumped together Buster hits from the air. Don't forget to taunt. You can score an A here if you don't take a hit. If you have five combos open and don't get hit, you can manage an S rank with the right taunts. Get up the stairs when the path opens and get ready for some trap action. Up top you will have to use the grim grip of varying patterns to get across. Be SURE you tap the Grip button and not press slowly, or you slam into the spiked ceiling. This damage hurts, takes away your no damage bonus at the end of the mission (if you earned it otherwise), and puts you back downstairs, for ANOTHER identical scarecrow fight in the chamber. This goes on until you die, so watch it. On the third grip set, the far grip moves left to right slowly and back. Time it and tap B quick while locked on and you can make it. The next set with three grips slowly forms then they all dissapear. Be fast! The very next set has the nearest grip to you dissapear and is pretty simple. The final set consists of three grips, with the final one moving slowly back and forth to prevent your from landing at the end. Line it up and just go for it, the final grip hesitates some for you so don't worry! Follow the upper hall path (linear) and grab the orbs by using the Snatch on the top one after a double jump or wall jump. Outside, head up the side area and kill the Frosts. The Buster works really great here. Also, if they encase themselves in ice, BREAK IT fast for style points and to stop them from healing up. Go for an A rank or even S here and move on. Outside near the falls, go towards them and double jump in front of that purple statue object, use your Grab and nab the Vital Star S. Head around to the opposite of where you just came from and into that door, kill the demons on that side of the courtyard, doing what you did before. Back inside the hall but on the other side of the barrier, head around and hit the blue switch until the barrier opens for you. Before you go into that door though, go on past it and destroy the wall mirror here for a blue orb fragment. Again, if you want a comprehensive, detailed guide on this subject, see the end of the walkthrough section. Now go into the door there to reach a well lit room with paintings and lots of furniture to smash. If you don't take a hit in this small brawling area, and taunt a few times while group comboing and bustering the group together, you can get an SS rank here with enough varied combos. If you don't own that many, don't worry, you can come back later for practice. Go for an A rank instead. Clear the room of furniture for orbs (knight armor has health in it) and move on through the newly cleared path. Outside, go to the second pillar with a lion face on it and jump up one level, then jump up to the next one. You need air hike to double jump there. Hidden orbs! Now, enter the library and after the scene get ready to battle. These Bianco Angelos are the elite units of the Order, though these are not the men Nero knew! If you can Buster thier backs you will ram their own lances through their weakpoints and rev it, sending them flying. Speaking of flying, they love to fly about the room and come at you from all angles, and can also rush along the ground. Their shields block many attacks but you can force openings and hit the side and back free of pentalty. By forcing I mean Back and Y for high time, or Charge shot 1 or 2 to send them reeling. You can also break the shield and buster from any direction, but it takes time! Lastly, they like to knock you off guard using their shields and then combo you, so be careful. They are quite durable and strong enough to give you a problem in five or so hits. If you use a charge shot 1 on them in the air, they will go flying down to earth and be stunned for a moment! A pretty good rank is possible in this room if you don't take a hit, but it takes alot of practice. You can get an SS here, even if your combos aren't too varied. If they overtake you, you could use a holy water, but I don't recommend it. After you knock out the little bit of furniture down and upstairs, go into the new room here and get your Anima Mercury for the Gyro Blades of the castle and the end mission screen! I had a time of 16:42 (taunting takes time you know!), which was S rank on DH mode. My stylish was around 10000 I think, which is an S also. My orbs were at 86 percent, which gave me an A. No item bonus and no damage bonus with that, and I had an overall S rank! You don't need the no hit one. Aim for that if you're playing on DH mode or Human. I used to have a pretty high score on the leaderboards for that one, but people have gone way beyond me as of this writing and I've dropped down into the late hundreds. ----------------------------------------- Mission 04: Cold Blooded Do the usual power up thing here. Try to save red orbs to buy blue orbs, and to later on get purple orbs in a couple more missions. Red Queen combos are important but by now you probably have the basics to keep you busy for a while. Get the arm to level 2 if you haven't already, and get charge shot level 1. You should also have Air Hike, but it's no big deal if you don't yet. Time to use that Gyro Blade. A rule here is, if you hit it with the sword, it'll spin a bit after you activate it using buster. Up to three sword hits controls the speed of the Gyro. Hit it once then buster, line it up with the exit door gate, and buster it into that. Head out. Get into another fight in that well lit room, this time there are a couple scarecrows and two frosts. Style up to an A if you can, and an S is very possible as well. If you choose to activate the Gyro, be quick about it and remember that the more your sword strikes it the faster it goes when you Buster. You can kill everything in the room like this and gain an instant A rank if it works out. Retrace your steps back out to the grand hall (remember all my red orb locations from the previous mission) and activate the Gyro Blade. You want to eventually manuver it into the coffin, but you can also use it to take out all the chairs on both sides of the coffin for massive orbs. Now go into that winding hall we were in before to get a few things done. Enter through the eastern door of the grand hall ground floor this time and locate the brown double doors leading into the dining room. Kill the pair of Bianco Angelos and try to Buster slam them into the center dining table to get tons of orbs. By hitting the shields, knocking them down, and taunting a bit, you can get an S here, at least an A. Follow the path and use the Gyro Blade as a shield, hit it once or twice with your sword and use buster to fly into and through fire balls. Go all the way to the hall's end and you destroy the fire maker. There is also a secret mission to be found here. For more information on that and other blue orb fragments, please see my section below this walkthrough. Head on through the door. Go immediately to the right of the door and activate the Gyro Blade and send it flying after a good whack with the sword first. Do this three times and the room should be cleared of all demons and you'll have an easy A rank! Of course, if you combo and taunt well, you can manually score better. Clear the furniture for more orbs and use the blue switch to open the gate. Now, kill everything that moves with the Gyro and get to the faaaaaar end of the hallway here. Break open your other Gyro Blade. Send them both to the central area where the two Gyros are already on the purple, glowing floor pads, do this however you want. Once in place, the way to the courtyard opens. There is a boss behind this door, so if you want to use that gold statue now to power up or buy an item, do so, but this boss isn't so bad. BOSS: Bael The demon is hidden at first. Fight the blue ladies and enjoy the orbs, do alot of damage and it applies to the boss in a minute. Careful too, these ladies can put up a bit of a fight. Suddenly, the demon frog shows his true form. Now the real battle begins. Another slow, big demon, he will telegraph most of his moves like all the big guys do. He's a bit faster than Berial though, so watch out for him. Start by using the grab to fly at his head, and attack the upper region with air combos. Watch out for his spitting attacks, they will freeze you in place and he'll jump on you. He also likes to run from you alot, since he's not a straight forward killer, using his lures on prey and all. Try to corner him to score a couple air combos and he'll likely jump away to spit at you more. Keep pursuing him and dodging his attacks. If he leaps forward he can swallow you so try to keep above and to the back of him using the Buster snatch. You can charge shot 1 at him a bit, but mostly you want to strike the icicle head area with air combos. There isn't much time to taunt yet. If he dissapears on you after swelling up, streak at his feelers and avoid their strikes and ice attacks. Enjoy the red orb shower! Be ready for him to jump back into the battle, he can swallow or crush you like this easily and that damage adds up fast. You may notice his feelers turning red from the pain you inflict. If they go down to a sitting position, be sure to Buster them so that Nero can yank Bael foward hard. This is a smart way to stun him and gain lots of style points in the process. At this stage in the battle he will likely add a new move to his arsenal, if not sooner. He can fire icicle blasts from his head and they arc up and land on your head if you aren't moving. Try to Table Hopper dodge this attack and his lunging gulp attack for big style points. If you hit his front constantly you will stun him. Now you can Buster his fat tongue for alot of damage and style, or head around to his rear and buster his tail and throw him around the area like a ragdoll. If you have DT mode from another play through (if this is your first time you won't have it), activate that for even more violent Buster moves. At his tongue you will crawl into his mouth willingly (wow) and stab out of his head eventually. By now he's likely turned red and his speed has increased a bit. He'll send out his lures to do more of the fighting for him and he will like to try to swallow you alot. The lures can grab you and freeze you in place, which lets him swallow you up very easily. Just keep going, you're almost done, use the same tactics as before and he will die. When it's over note your new ability after you pass through the newest door available to you. At 14 minutes, style of 6000 or more, and 90 percent orbs found, you'll snag the S! ----------------------------------------- Mission 05: Trisagion (this name means Thrice Holy , an ancient latin anthem) Do the usual power up thing I've mentioned in past mission start points. You now probably have a good feel for Nero, so start branching out and doing what you like, but keep in mind in the next mission (well two technically) you'll gain more abilities to buy and another item that costs tons of red orbs. Don't forget, you can replay past missions for orbs and proud souls. The better you do in the mission, the better the payoff in proud souls at the end! Your main goal now is to get through this graveyard. You meet some new demons here called the Mephisto. Use your Snatch arm on them to lower the cloak, then combo the body. It is possible to destroy the body before it can heal, but they do like to heal quick sometimes, other times it takes a while. Keep moving. They dive bomb from any direction, shoot a laser finger at you, and use their tails to slash. Taunting them while down works well on style points. They recover with an upward claw attack, so watch that. Also, a direct Buster attack destroys the cape immediately. Keep in mind EVERYTHING can be destroyed here. The top of the fountain, the graves, the statues, the ice in the fountain itself. Get on top of the fountain by destroying the statue and look over at the awning near where you came from. It is possible to EX charge up full, charge up an EX Streak, shoot off the edge, use the Roulette move in the air, and finish with a double jump, landing on the awning topside. On one end is a large red orb, on the other is a more important Gold orb! The jump over to it is tricky and it's frustrating if you fall, take it easy. Your life bar will probably block your jump, so you kind of have to feel it out. After you conquer all that you will probably find a hard Secret Mission under and back of the steps. You can't physically do it yet unless you have Table Hopper 2 and lots of taunts ready, I'd come back when you gain the shield skill in Mission 9. See my blue orb fragment section at the bottom of this walkthrough for much, much more detail. Head up the steps and into Sanctus' bedroom. There is yet another secret mission here behind the mirror, again I direct you to the end of the walkthrough section. Time to fight some more knights. These Biancos are the same as before, so just use charge shot 1 when they fly, snatch to get behind them quick, high time and streak to knock them off balance, hit the shield and taunt some for rank up, and use Buster on their backs or unshielded bodies if you destroy the shield. Furniture here holds orbs. Make up for those weak Mephistos outside by getting an A or S rank against the trio of knights! Then use the door. Activate the blue wall switch and then smack the gyro blade to activate it, then hit it with the sword some, and sent it flying across. Don't worry, it won't fall off. Thank you for that Capcom! Nero leaps on down into the dungeon area. Note all the orbs you miss on the way down. Kill the pair of Mephistos, and watch out for them hiding within the walls and floor to spring on you. Go for a B combo here if possible. Now grab the cool looking Wing Talisman. If you have air hike this is a bit easier. Use the red pads to bounce up and grab the orbs. Note one orb is hidden UNDER a pad. Also, by landing on other small floors you can explore some jail cells for health orbs and eventually find a red orb statue. Same place, go to the head of the statue poking out with a white glowing ball in it's mouth, and touch the underside for a Holy Water! It's odd, your arm doesn't alert you to this. Now keep going up. Kill every scarecrow and go for the highest style you can muster! S is possible, I even got SS before here. I like to rush through the group to their backs and then start the killing. On DH they have just enough health to get some good style going. On Human they die pretty fast though. While you do this Mephistos appear in a pair. Try to kill off all the scarecrows in a "safe" corner and then go to work on the Mephistos. Do a direct Buster and they break right out of their capes! Go for the style! In the hall, try to lead individual Frosts into corners and combo them. A rank is not hard to get if you can corner them and end it fast. There are three to kill. Back in the Grand Hall, use the Pad here and get to the chandiler. Slash it and watch the scene. Go into the new hole you made. Go down the steps (get the Vital Star S with Snatch) and go all the way down this hall. At 10 minutes, style of 5200 or more, and 80 percent orbs found, you can get the S! ------------------------------------------------- Mission 06: Ressurection I hope you've saved up some red orbs! Do the usual power up thing I've mentioned in previous missions, but have some orbs ready for after this mission. I also recommend saving up lots of proud souls for after. Drop down the long shaft after you get the blue orb fragment (again remember my section at the end of the walkthrough for more info on blue orbs), and go into the door. (there are green orbs behind you near Dante's combat statue) Inside, after the cinematic, face the Cutlass! Luckily, you don't have to see these things much in the game. They are very annoying. Shooting them rapidly slows their progress a bit, giving you time to get near and slash them once to make them pop out of the ground. Combo them and hope they die. Be careful, they land where they jump from, so don't move from one right into the path of another. They like to jump down from the ceiling too. If you snatch at them you can get to their position faster, and can even combo them out of walls and the ceiling! Doing that nets you an A rank when all three die, if you can avoid hits. Follow the path into the next spot. The game room! Okay, the goal is to move your white figurine statue from it's start to nearest the exit door. Red spaces are fights with different demon types, white does nothing, blue fills the room with orbs and lastly, yellow teleports you to other positions on the map (right across from each other). Avoid yellows if you end up going backwards. Some don't land on blue much, but if you do over and over, you will also get treasure chests dropping, which contain orbs, but if you don't destroy they fast (gun works well), they dissapear with nothing. The sword is best, as the gun on some difficulties takes forever to blast open the chests. The trick here is to count the spaces you want to land on, and then find your chits (dots) on the dice. After you find your number, simply count up to six, and it will always be on the number you want. As six approaches in your mind, press the Buster button or use a simple strike, or even shoot, and the die spins. You can hit it after again and again, but it will make no difference at all, the face up side is the number you will ALWAYS get. The Lion statue store is now open to you, doubt you need it. Move on. BOSS: Agnus Very simple stuff here. The room floods with the Gladius. Concentrate on a couple small factors here. One, make sure you aren't in the direct line of a charging attack from a demon. While you do that, concentrate on using Snatch to make the demons fall solid. Then, run up and Buster that demon to fling him at Agnus' glass. That's all there is to it! Sometimes, Agnus will get involved and try to zap you. When this happens you can try to get on the little hub in the center, but I recommend just double jumping when you see it start to zap, and then fire the Blue Rose rapidly to stay in the air. If you are on a replay and already have DT, use it when you Buster the Gladius and you do more damage! After that kick ass cutscene, you now have DT power if this is your first run through! You will always have it now during mission replays and subsequent plays through different modes. Step into the containment chamber for a hidden red orb and smash the small bit of furniture for some more orbs. Head outside. There is a blue orb fragment you can snag here if Nero is equipped right. Check my section at the end of this guide for more details on fragments. Head upstairs and into the labs again, after you smash all the oil drums and use the blue switch on the edge there. Angel Creation eh? So this is where they come from. Agnus did admit it after all. If you need pointers on facing this trio of white knights, see previous missions above or the enemy section below in the right chapter. Note there is also a secret mission nearby, see that section below the full walkthrough as well. Now follow the path around the room, battling the Angelos as you come to them. At the end of this room you will take on two groups of three at one time, so you'll get a decent taste speedy combat with them. Go for the SS rank, if possible! There is also a hidden red orb near the raised, green -ish platform in the area. When you're done go back up to the Grand Hall area and make your way (use the large map on the pause screen) to the waterfall region. Just remember, as you come out of the portrait hole, take either door on your left or right to go through the central courtyard. Face the trio of Frosts and go for an S rank if you can, and continue past to the falls. Head alllllllll the way forward. If your end score is low, or you want an S, remember you can go into other parts of the castle to fight more demons before you take the Falls exit. All the orbs are in the same spots as well. 15 minutes, style of 8500 or more, 80 percent orbs found and a no item bonus nets the S rank! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 07: The She-Viper After that juicy cutscene, time to power up! Okay, you'll probably want to go check out the Yamato's upgrades, and note that you can now also extend your DT gauge by buying the purple orbs! That's why I wanted you to save some souls and orbs to spend. Upgrading the DT time is a MUST, and you could probably do with two purple orbs at this point, if not more. A few things on this map. To the left is a hollow log where you can grab tons of orbs by breaking these seed pods. They are how you find orbs in the forest. If you use Snatch at an open hole in the top of the log area, you can get a Vital Star M. You can also just hop and stick your head into the tiny hole. Under the stone awning structure is a hidden secret mission, but it's for Dante. Please see the section below the full walkthrough for orb fragments. Lastly, there is a red orb statue here to bash, be sure to ALWAYS use DT while you do it for the most orbs possible. Speed matters more than varied combos. Move on through the maps accordingly. Of note, on the ridge as you enter the next map, left side, is a holy water. Smash the seed pods for more orbs and get ready to meet the Chimera Seeds but don't worry they die pretty easy. A buster is a one shot kill. If they take over the demons you meet in this mission, however, the demon gets more durable and lethal. Head forward into the ruined church area and clear it out. Note that using gunshots a ton on the infected demons will temporarily put down the Chimera. You can bust up the glass in there to find orbs and a statue you can't use yet. When you're done here, head upstairs and hit the blue switch. Follow the path that forms quick and note the colors, when it turns lightish blue it will soon be red and gone. Get ready to be annoyed at first. Grip over a couple times and use the blue switch. You can techincally wait on this ledge for a loooooong time for the glass to reform and then double jump or streak out to it, but I recommend going for the style and stepping on the platform. Use Buster and slow down the Mephistos. The glass is pretty slow at first so no worries. When the white parts turn slowly deep blue, you need to move to the only white glass left, as they'll soon hit red and then dissapear. If you fall off, you end up in a special map where you kill off some various demons depending on which mission you're in. Then you can teleport up and try again. If you fall enough times the Mephistos eventually stop coming, I think. I recommend just Bustering and doing charge shot 2s at them. Near the end of the pattern, the glass gets a bit faster. Move on. The lapis river area has tons of seed pods to bust up for orbs. Don't forget under the bridge also. There is a Secret Mission to be found here as well, but check the section after the full walkthrough for that and more. In the next area, if you can lure the scarecrow demons into the circle and hunt down all the Chimera Seeds, this gets easy. If you let them get infected, not so easy. Just battle how you usually do (see my previous missions for notes, or my enemy section for more notes). Use the Gyro Blade in the next area to pass on, and then use it to kill all the enemies, unless you can beat the chimeras and get a better rank that way. Now use the Gyro again on the next barrier, and go into the new area. Time to meet the dragon. Race along the bridge and avoid the dragon, and don't stop for the orbs unless you're way ahead and have double jump. At the end, move on and there is a statue here to combo on for a fragment, see my section below the guide for more info. Skip the demons here and kill the chimeras first if you can, then mop up the rest. Use the statue here if you want, and head into the Den of the She-Viper. BOSS: Echidna A little faster than you're used to if this is your first time in. Dodge her tail and don't let the swirls fool you. Just keep moving to one side or the other, not towards or away. When she goes to eat you, use a charged shot on her "mouth". You can also Buster her here for some good hits, but it's hard to time it. When she stands odd and a small ball descends on her bottom side, use DT and Buster it for a funny sequence and lots of hits. Kill the Seeds she drops if you want to keep this battle between you two alone. Now she'll try to strike you with her "hair" so just know when her head bobs to jump as high as you can (air hike) or jump backwards. Keep slashing her up top, and shoot charged shot 1 or 2 at her, ocassionally doing the YY,Y air combo and in the air also use Back, Forward, Y for more style ups. When she eventually plants herself in the ground, rush up with DT on and combo as best you can. Avoid her tendrils that snake up from the ground, watch out for her hair whip attack again, and know that she can also repulse you away with an invisible barrier. Note that using the gun in DT sends out flying swords as well. When you stun her, you can DT and Buster her for yet another great scene and tons of damage! When she rises up and turns yellow in pain and fury, stun her from a few good, strong hits and then DT and Buster her again for a GREAT ride, lots of style and damage, and a fully revved up sword to boot! Now she's faster and will repeat her pattern but more erratically. The hits hurt a tiny bit more also, but the main thing here is her speed, as those hits add up! She can now also fly around fast and send out lots of seeds to hurt you and take away your style score. Deflect her once more with a Buster or charged shot. If you need health, note that her seeds scattered around the sides of this area give off some, plus lots of orbs. When you're done and she's gone, get rid of the branches blocking the path. S is tough to get at the end here. Try for 15 minutes, 6000 or so style points total, and 80 percent orbs found in the seeds around this level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 08: Profession of Faith You know the Power Up drill. Get to know your moves, and try for full health and DT gauges if possible. The upcoming boss fight is rough. There's HQ! Follow the path, getting orbs from seed pods, and the fragment (see my guide below the walkthrough), and race to kill the two Chimera Seeds, then clean up the Scarecrow demons. A rank is solid here. Move on and get orbs as you go towards the ruined church. The pause screen map helps some here. Near there, you will meet new elite demons, the Assualts! See my enemies section for details on beating them and keeping up style. Be quick and watch out for their long range attacks. The Back, Forward, and Y move works nicely. In the church, try to get the assualt seperated from his scarecrow buddies. Note they taunt sometimes, and that's a free hit for you. Take out everyone and two more assualts appear to battle. Speed is key. Clear out the pods here for red orbs and go under the stairway arch (trough the glass) and examine the tree to move on. In the Lost Woods here, red all around the column for clues, and keep in mind my fragment section is at the end of this main walkthrough to find that. Now, it's pretty simple here, keep your shadow directly at your back, where it belongs. If you near a wrong exit, it will be to your side or right under your body. You want it at your back, stretched out. If you pick wrong any time, you go into a fight screen, kind of like if you fell off the platforms last mission. Keep going through the correct doors, and you're done in like three or four screens. In the next area, don't jump off the left side or you will be really far off mark. Keep going straight, getting orbs from seed pods, and killing enemies. The demons here (assualts and scarecrow combos) can be a bit much, so to avoid hits and to keep up style, use DT. Press on and use the gold statue to purchase one Vital Star M, so that now you should have a total of two. It's just insurance. One gold orb might be good too, if you have zero. Onwards. BOSS: Angelo Credo He's fast and strong and probably the first real boss challenge of the game on lower modes. His shield blocks everything and can't be broken or taken away. You may want a couple of Vital Star Ms, a Gold Orb, and a Holy Water, just in case. Keep in mind that any time you hit him with the sword or Buster in DT mode during this fight, you can unbalance him a bit. When he throws a blade at you, you can Buster it back at him. It's hard to do though, I recommend dodging. If you do it, he's stunned for a second. While he struts around, shoot him. In DT mode, you will fire swords too. Treating him like a knight only gets you so far, because he teleports when his back is open to you. Careful of that. After time, he won't teleport as much when you're at his back though. If you bang on his shield a few times, then dodge up or back, he'll do a big sword swing whirlwind and then be open to some hits from the front and back. He also does a three hit combo that hurts bad, a four hit one, and a strong aerial attack that slams onto your head. When he yells "behold the power of an angel!", be ready for either a combo or if he's far off, a double sword throw you can try to buster at him, but I'd just dodge. After enough hard hits, the shield turns red and will "break" for a moment, giving you time to combo or Buster his body. Ideally, in DT mode. After this, he will start to combo and teleport and throw his weapon at you even faster than before. His health is hopefully at or below half now. Even lower in health, when you Buster him while he is stunned, you will beat him down massively and come close to ending the battle. Keep up the pressure, steaking in close and hopping around quick. Table Hopper 2 or 3 is good here, but hard to master. When it's all over, you will now be able to Grab enemies and use them as shields! Collect orbs and continue into HQ. 14 minutes, stylish points of 6000 or more, and 85 percent orbs found, plus no item, gets you the S rank! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 09: For You Power up and get ready to head on. Smash the furniture and head forward for a cool cutscene. Alto Angelos can be very tough, and make all the other knights around stronger, faster, and a cohesive fighting unit. See my enemy section for in depth tips. Also know that if you can charge shot the black ball Alto summons, you get an instant SSS rank. Every Alto can do this attack one time. The resulting explosion hurts and kills the other knights as well. Mop up the remains. The big tip for DH difficulty and below, is to just keep moving, use alot of charge shots and quick combos, and watch your back. Inside, smash up the furniture and see my Blue orb guide below this walkthrough for tips on the orb statue combos. Keep going forward and examine the red post for a scene, then head inside. Stick close to the wall and jump across, dodging the one laser beam. Go upstairs and you get sealed into the room with Angelos. Clear the room of the four demons and grab the Cronus Key. Smash the furniture for health and red orbs. Use the device in the center of the room and go upstairs. Inside, stand in the middle of the indentation and get red orbs, then use the blue switch on the wall. Welcome to the gauntlet. In this cage, you will face many types of demons. Nero is built to move, and for speed, so this is dangerous. Luckily, this time it's some scarecrows. Please see the blue orb guide below this walkthrough section for my take on a few hidden things here. Use the device to pass the lasers (dropping can get you red orbs), and head into the next cage elevator. Frosts now. Use quick hits and small hops, while dodging. Devil Trigger can end things quick here. After this trio, use the device and pass more lasers. In the next cage, there are three assualts to deal with. These lizards are FAST. Keep moving and using quick hits or small combos, a little dodging, some Buster, along with a nice end helping of DT. You'll end up facing six or seven of these guys, so feel free to build DT and if you have purchased the Back, Y and B move, use it on a pair for a quick SS rank. Use the gold statue here if you need to, and move on. BOSS: Angelo Agnus Odd how none of the furniture at the front gives you any orbs. Maybe he sucked it up? He's quick but honestly not as big a threat as Credo was. Avoid his lunging strikes and use the Buster to pull over to him quick and strike. He can use a portal to summon some more Gladius demons. Let them come, dodge or Buster snatch, and throw them at him or each other for orbs. The cages along the sides of this area hold health orbs. When he jumps back and charges up, get ready to dodge or charge shot him. I'm not sure if a Buster works here, but it probably does break his rush. If his dash attack connects to you, he will drain out alot of your health and make it his. If you DT during his grab, you break free. The key here is keeping up the pressure, really staying on him and laying in the hard hits and combos. Again, snatch keeps you on him most of the time. When he isn't glowing slightly, you can Buster him for a small attack but he sends you back off from him and can hurt you too. If he drains you consistently, this fight gets alot more dangerous, so keep up the dodge! Keep in mind returning a Gladius with Buster to him gets you some white orbs for your DT gauge. He can open his hell portal and shoot fire balls at you in groups of six or eight. Dodging here keeps you moving to him for some more damage. Keep up the hits and he will be stunned. When he screams out and reels, go into DT mode and use Buster to massively damage him and gain three or four style ranks! He will then blow you away. If you have a DT gauge of six or more, stay in this mode to regain some health, keep speed up, and shoot out swords at him with the gun. After he blows you back a bit, he may try floating up and getting an attack ready. Shoot him to make him stop. He'll summon fire again, and some more Gladiuses than before. Just up your speed and keep going after him, throwing Gladiuses at him when needed. Soon he will probably summon groups of simultaneous fireballs for you to dodge roll past, and then some Cutlass demons. Not only should you kill them as fast as you can, by any means you have available (even DT to hit him with harder), and throw them near him for hits, he will also grab two for himself to use in combat! He spins about with them and even throws them into you at high speeds. You can Buster them back, but it's really, really hard to time it right. I like to try and roll to the side of his spin attack, as double jumping sometimes just gets you hit faster. Rush him when you get an opening and go into DT, combo some, and when he's stunned, Buster, and the fight should end or be right near it. After this powerful scene, you'll see your score. 12 minutes or less, a style point total of 12,900, and 90% orbs found gets you an S all the way here. The trick for getting S for sure is to get the SSS marks here two times, and then to go for SS on the lizards and forsts in the elevators. After that, a solid A against the boss (when you Buster him in DT mode), and your style will more than make the grade. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mission 10: Wrapped In Glory Do the power up thing and try to have your health and DT as full as you can. You can't max out your health yet if this is your first time through the game, but you can buy all the blue orbs. You should try to redo some missions to purchase all the purple orbs. A couple Vital Star S items may not hurt. Your goal is to retrace your steps, from Agnus' room, to the gauntlet, back into the main hall of the HQ, and to the bridge you saw lowered in the cinematic. On the way, you will face the Faust demon, and his Mephisto comrads. See the enemy section a couple chapters below this Walkthrough for details. Since it's such a tiny space, just keep moving like you did fighting frosts and the like, and get to know his patterns. If you get hurt badly, use a Vital S. The key here is a level 2 Arm or higher, for longer grabs, keeping you away from their attacks more. Don't forget to consult my Blue Orb section below the main walkthrough. If you get stung by the laser security too many times, once again, a Vital S is helpful to have, though items do ruin your score at the end of the level. Go for the SSS shot I described in the previous mission against the Alto and his friends, which leaves one stunned and shieldless knight to kill quick. If you can't do it, don't worry, consult my enemy section below this walkthrough on killing off the knights. Once downstairs, cross the bridge and head into the Security Corridor. Smash the benches here, and activate the time device. The pattern here isn't so bad. The trick is to have both Air Hike and know how to make quick, tiny hops by tapping the A button. Learn the pattern by watching frrom the sidelines, then leap in and just go for it! Slow lasts quite a while. There is a secret mission near the exit. Consult the Blue Orb section of my guide below the walkthrough for tips. Smash up any furniture and head into the next room. Avoid touching the giant blades while you hop about and dodge, Bustering and Snatching the demons. Now that you have more room, the Faust is a bit less dangerous. The crates in this room have red orbs. When you are open to do so, use the device to slow the fan. Careful, the giant blades do eventually speed back up and will hurt you bad. Hop up all the way and go into the opposite door from the one you entered the room from. Here in experiment disposal, face off against some durable Bianoco Angelos. Up to now you mostly got A ranks (except against Alto of course), so try for some S ranks if possible. Cross the cage, and leap up inside the stone rings for a fragment of health (see my guide at the end of the walkthrough for more info on blue orbs), and use the talisman to make the elevator here function. Be sure you slam all the statues on the way, get some health back if you need it, and hopefully you built up your DT by taunting and dodging the knights. Pass through the meeting room after you take down the very tough pair of Altos, (the key here being to destroy their shields after tons of damage, then Buster and combo like crazy on one at a time), and move down to the gold lion statue. You may want to purchase some health and devil stars at the time god, the next boss one room over is tough. Also, break all the candle sticks here for health and DT gauge orbs. There is a secret mission here, but I again should stress you to go check out my Blue Orb guide below this walkthrough for more details on it. BOSS: Dante Uh oh. Now that you have Yamato and a shiny, powerful DT gauge, Dante doesn't hold back as much. Though he is still obviously just testing you, he will now switch between his four styles and act accordingly. Trickster lets him dodge quickly, Swordmaster gives him some powerful attacks, Gunslinger makes him versatile at a distance, and Royal Guard will just allow him to block you. He has many of the moves from the first fight with him in mission 1, only now they hurt more and are faster. He starts slow though. When he swings a large attack from the air or the ground, the back, forward Y attack gets you in good, and you may even get off a small combo. Charge shot 2 can hit him here, but it's best to rely on your blade and Buster in DT mode. It's best to let him go at you first, because he can counter almost every move you have initially. As soon as your combos knock him into a corner space, go into Devil Trigger (which stuns him for a second) and use Buster to slam him over and over into the ground. This is your best move to use, so try and use it whenever possible. If you run low on health and/or magic, smash the candles, boxes, and jars around the two fireplaces for orbs. Continue to let him strike at you, dodge, and return combos until you get a window to Buster him in DT mode. Combos in DT work well, and he seems to be unable to dodge the swords from firing your gun as well, though this is a waste of your precious time compared to other attacks. If he catches you with his Dance Macbre combo, or any other massive multi-hitter, go immediately into DT mode to cancel him and do a quick Buster. If he gets stuck in Royal Guard style, refrain from shots or hits, he'll release your own power on you and it can be painful. Instead, Buster him. In Gunslinger, he'll bust out his shotgun, so watch for that and just try to stay above him during these moments. Come down hard with the Forward Y air attack. He'll "lose" to you eventually, just keep up your combo patterns and do your best to DT Buster him. At 15 minutes, 12,000 style points, and 70 or so percent orbs found, you'll gain an S every time on DH mode or below. ------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 11: The Ninth Circle Do the power up thing I've desrcribed in previous missions, and try to get comfortable with your character. You're going up, up, up in this mission. Okay, first see my Blue Orb section at bottom of the Walkthrough for info on that. Use the blue switch and then Grip up top quickly, by tapping B. Kill the floaters off (see my enemy section if need be below here), and grab the health orb when you're done if you need it. Activate the elevator at it's red device and head up. Portals appear so that if you ever fall off you can go one floor up without problems. Grab the scarecrow using snatch and then combo the duo of lesser demons to death. Head on up and stand in the elevator shaft for red orbs. Use the grips here carefully, tapping B when needed for quick grabs. Do a wall or double jump at the end to get on top of the next wall and over. To get the red orbs, by the way, just go in reverse order from up high. If you fall, there is a single, large red orb. The next grips are just like the last gap, only now if you fall you get to face some knights, and there are three of them, and the last two are moving up and down. Using double jump (air hike) after the final grip makes things easier. I do recommend falling, because of the fight for orbs and Style, plus you can get a Devil Star S down there! Anyway, once you actually cross the gap, try your best to land on the edge of the wall here and walk to it's end for several hidden red orbs. Drop and keep going. Take down the single Alto Angelus here in the usual manner and try to finish it off with a DTed Buster for some style points. Before using the blue switch, rush to the right for green health, and then further right still and double jump up the wall for a red orb. Now go back and use the switch, then grip up top for a big knight fight. Activate the switch and kill the three white knights and their gold leader. SSS rank is possible here through regular combo means. Don't forget to Buster and DT when you are able. Now go back down a couple floors and hop onto the elevator to go all the way up top and meet up with Sanctus. Of course, on the way you get held up by some...scarecrows?! Hmm. Take down two and an Alto Angelo pair appear. It's funny to let them kill the scarecrow, but I want style and orbs so I do it myself real quick. Take the knights and get ready for three more scarecrows, and then two bianco angelos! Wow. If you don't get hit, you'll have a great style rank! I hope you have decent health and DT gauge, because it's time to go up. BOSS Sanctus Oooh, I bet you were aching for this one. He has a pretty simple pattern throughout this battle. Just keep your eyes open and Snatch whenever possible to get close to him while he floats. Watch out for the various projectile attacks of his two orbs. Know that when you snatch them they dissapear, which is good to stop them from hitting you, but bad for when you want to Snatch close up. Level 3 Bringer is a must for comfort here. Sanctus can also summon down some narrow lighting for now, so watch that if you're on the ground or near his open areas without hitting him. Snatch up high and hit him three or four times, go for a total of six to break the shield up. Snatch to get in closer and hit him again to put him on the ground. Feel free to combo, but don't waste much time. Go into DT mode and then buster him, for a very satisfying damage dealer and to hear some of the best and funniest lines of Nero's in the game! After he will regain his shielding, so stay back for a moment so you don't take a hit. Snatch even faster and watch out for his lightning and ground travelling fireballs. Break him open again and once more DT and buster to do alot of damage. When he gets up and says "I sentence you to death!", hop back quite a bit, the lightning here is not narrow like the other attack. Stay on him with snatch and keep on breaking him open and using DT and Buster. He can now also use aerial fireballs. If you can't stay on him by quicking using Snatch to grapple over, he will renew his shield constantly and pummel you with fire from afar. Keep up with him and keep up the DT Bustering. "Pray for your Savior, cuz you're gonna need it!" When he's down to a quarter of his life bar, things get dicey. The Savior demon statue will try to smash you from time to time. A side roll is best, but double jumping can work as well. Sanctus comes back, and you should treat him just like before. His attacks seem faster and he's hard to catch now. He can also use another type of narrow lightning attack. He periodically goes into the Savior statue, so either wait it out and dodge, or try to attack the hand a little. The fist can be bustered, but it's hard to time it right as the fist crashes down. When you finally take the old man out, you'll see that things are rougher than expected, and the mission is over. With a time of 15 minutes, style from all those knights plus every time you Bustered Sanctus, and 90 percent orbs found, you should grab the S! -------------------------------------------------------------- Mission 12: A New Beginning After some crazy scenes, it's time for Dante! Power him up any way you like, but I recommend Trickster up to 2, maybe 3, Swordmaster to 3, Gunslinger to 2, moves for his Rebellion and a charge for his shotgun. As far as items go, try to buy every blue orb and purple orb. Dante moves a little slower than Nero, but more than makes up for it in terms of raw power. He can also change among four styles on the fly, which all have their own moves and skill sets, and to top it off, he will eventually total at 3 firearms and 3 devil arms, and they can all be switched up on the fly as well!! This basically means Dante's capacity for combos, and therefore style points, is unlimited! This mission is fairly linear. Get accustomed to the basic timing and combs of Dante, and learn a style or two to get good at during this basic scarecrow massacre. Follow the path to face off against the mega scarecrow trio. Just keep moving while you bust out some style (see my enemy section for more tips on megas) and head along the next path. Destroy furniture and collect orbs, and take on some more enemies as you note the timer firing up. Don't worry too much about it though, you have plenty of time to beat the mission and even do some extras if you want to. Fighting Frosts in an enclosed space is tough at first with a new character, so just do what needs to be done using what weapons you have. If you want a better score later, come back when Dante has more unlocked. You can get SSS easily once he is fully upgraded with all his weapons. Pandora and Lucifer alone are key to this, but any weapon and style can do it. You will eventually reach the main hall of HQ and you have to face several knights at one time. For Dante, things at first seem harder than Nero, who can Buster these guys to death. Just hit their backs and learn what unbalances them, combo some, taunt a little, and DT if things get hairy to regain health and flex your devil hunter muscles. They hate the shotgun and swordmaster works well on them too. Before you leave this place, go upstairs (like when Nero was going after Agnus) and you can snag a blue orb fragment after you fight some more demons in the laser rooms. See my blue orb section after this walkthrough for more details. Also note, that to get upstairs you have to go through some lasers and kill a room of gladiuses and on some difficulties, knights. Before you go (finally), be sure to check to the left of the doorway for a Devil Star S. Nero can get it too, earlier here. At one minute, near the front hall, you should probably get to the exit at the front door. When you're done, use the front door and head all the way to the end of the path back to the forest. 9 minutes, a style total of 7500 or so, and 87 percent orbs found gets you the S, plus don't use items. -------------------------------------------------------- Mission 13: The Devil Returns Time to power up Dante some more! For this mission, it's pretty good to have swordmaster and gunslinger up to 3 if possible. Get moves for your default weaponry if you haven't already, and look into learning a little about Royal Block if you care about that style. Max out health (as much as you are able, if this is your first play you can't have all the fragments as of yet) and your DT gauge should also be both full, and in the slow drain that you purchase from DT skill. Okay, we have to retrace some ground through the Forest again if Dante is going to save Nero and the city! Unfortunately for you, Echidna is taunting you from the start and has created weird shadow portals all over the place. Follow me carefully and we'll get through this. For enemies and blue orb information, please see the respective sections below for in depth tips and tricks. Turn around and backtrack some. Get orbs from the seed pods and fall off the ledge and go down under the stone awning (tunnel) area. Straight from here, go through that portal. Suprise, you're back! I asked you to do that to get the orbs in the level though, if you're intersted. Now, as odd as this is, go right back through the same portal you just came from (next to the lion statue shop). Turn around and go through the same opening YET again. You should be near where you can drop off a raised platform once again. Kill the chimeras immediately and then mop up the scarecrow duo. Go straight from here into the next portal after you get the orbs from the various seeds. In the Windswept Valley map (man you travelled far!), Dante meets his old friends, the Assualts. These guys are automatically infected by Chimeras, so enjoy that. Using the shotgun will put down the chimeras for a bit so they don't swipe you and ruin your combos, just try using swordmaster skills with rebellion and taunting quickly from a distance of five or so feet. Trickster level 3 helps alot here as well. When you are done here (see enemy section if you need more tips), head forward to the ruined church portal. You should now be in the Ancient Plaza map. Tadaa, time to face off against four regular assualts on DH or H modes. Enjoy. Avoid long strings of combos here, as they help each other break your stride and style. The shotgun and short sword combos can wear them down quick, especially with the shields down. If you have played before, use the Pandora and Gilgamesh. Head for the opposite exit from where you entered this map. Here in the Lapis River area, don't miss the giant seed pod for orbs on top of the columns near the bridge. Kill the Mephistos with the level 4 swordmaster Dance Macabre for style and ease. Use the portal under the bridge. Inside the ruined church, see my blue orb fragment guide below if you're interested (beneath this walkthrough). Go under the staircase here and through the door. After, do what you did as Nero in the Lost Woods. (follow your shadow trail, be sure it's behind you at all times) Use the statue for items if you want some healing or DT stuff, and head into the she-viper's lair again, this time as Dante! BOSS: Echidna As Dante, much remains the same as for Nero. Certain attacks can deflect her charges, but I like to use Trickster to dodge her and run up her body for sytlish points. Stay moving until she slows down or stops. Use swordmaster to aerial rave her when she drops out seedlings, and for any time you can hit her exposed main body. The shotgun is the weapon of choice here if it's your first time through. Just stay moving, use DT liberally, and combo her in the air using different styles whenever possible. None of her moves will change from Nero's battle. On replay, Pandora works well, using the bazooka (left, right, left, holding X). As is sometimes the case in Capcom games, this boss is kind of weak to her own weapon, so if you're replaying, use the Gilgamesh when she's stunned and open to combo like crazy for a high score and tons of damage. Lastly, Lucifer (on replay) also works very well. Swordmaster 4 is needed to truly use Lucifer correctly though. At mission's end, just under 15 mintues for time, with a style total of 5500 points, and 85 or so percent orbs found nets you the S rank! No item helps here tremendously if you aren't getting your style up high enough. Feel free to come back with more items to get a better rank later. ---------------------------------------------------------- Mission 14: Forest of Ruin Power up Dante however he suits you. I like to have Trickster and Swordmaster generally finished, with Gunslinger close to being max. Basic moves are important, and low to 2 charges, along with slow drain DT. If you want to be learning how to use Royal Block techniques, now is the time to start. Ah, finally, things are back to normal in the Forest. A few notes. See my enemy section well below the walkthrough for tips and hints on faster times and better style. See my blue orb section right at the end of this walkthrough to get through the secret missions and things. Your goal here is to simply travel the forest as quickly as you possibly can. You will fight the usual forest enemies here with one new demon twist, the Fault. If you get caught by one during the fighting, you get teleported to a demon world and made to battle tons of assualts and scarecrows, and chimera seeds before it lets you go. On the plus side, if you kill a Fault (time it well and slash three times with rebellion), not only does it leave you, you get small health orbs. Some areas contain more than one Fault, however. Next up, Dante gets to take on Fausts like Nero did. Use a charge 1 shotgun and you should be just fine on him. Combo with swordmaster as best you can and take him out within two turns if possible. DT can allow you to kill one in one turn, but you won't have time to taunt. Don't forget your usual seed pod orb spots and make your way back to the front of the Forest, using the map on the pause screen or previous chapters in my guide if you need to. If you forgot when the entrance is, it's up a cliff, way across from the ruined church (in the same map). Follow the loooong path back to the castle Fortuna. After all those battles and rushing about, with a time of under 16 minutes, a style rank of over 6000, and 80 percent orbs found, along with no item bonus, you should have the S rank! ------------------------------------------------------ Mission 15: Fortuna Castle For power ups, you should probably know the drill already. See previous Dante missions if you need some pointers. The Dreadnaught Royal Guard level 4 move is quite cool if you can build up your meter. Need some more pointers on killing a Blitz Demon? Check this out: http://youtube.com/watch?v= UmwEmZdlI80&feature=related See thanks section for credit. If the video is gone, basically, you can punch with Gilgamesh and quickly Royal Guard against the lightning that is supposed to hurt you for direct attacks. When the shield drops, use your best Royal Release (or other damaging) attacks and he should die before he even gets a move off! Takes seconds. As for items, a little health never hurts, but I mostly like Devil Stars for Dante IF I need anything, because you extend the amount of time you can wail on a boss or strong creature. Holy Water might be good if you don't get the hang of facing the Blitz in this mission. Be sure your health is as far along as possible up to this point, and also max out your DT gauge by now. Let me start his one again by saying, see my blue orb and enemy guide if you have any issues with this mission. You may also want to look at Nero's walkthrough of the entire castle in previous missions to locate the hidden orbs. Okay, the right side is blocked by magical ice with a massive magical barrier energy, so head up the left and go straight along the path until... It's a Blitz. Great. Don't hit him yet. Get out your shotgun and charge up to 1 and fire. Keep peppering him with shotgun blasts at close range, using Trickster to stay away from his own teleports, and learn his patterns. A hit from this guy HURTS, (on high difficulties at least) so watch it. When he takes enough shotty blasts, go for the DT combo on him after his lightning shield drops. At a certain point, he'll renew his assualt with Red lightning. He's faster and even stronger now, so just keep on using trickster and blasting him to death. He will now shoot out very powerful streams of lightning at you, both into the sky and on the ground. They cover several angles so it's hard to tell what's happening until he fires. Just double jump, air dash, and ground dash. Just before he dies he may try to kamakazie you. AVOID THIS CHARGE ATTACK! I can't stress that enough. Let him run around and keep shooting until he dies. If his charge hits you, first of all, he stabs you through the gut. Second, he pulls down a massive bolt of lightning onto the both of you and explodes while still tacked onto you. Even on DH difficulty, this hit drains you of half your health usually. Head for the grand hall and notice the ice. Feel free to explore the other side but you can't do too much. Note the high jump Nero couldn't reach on the right upper column of the grand hall? If you're facing the picture of Sacntus, it's on your right here. If you can DT for a bit, Dante can do a triple jump and up onto that spot, for a Holy Water! On the left column is some hidden red orbs. Anyway, pass the blue switch and head into the gallery, get some orbs (sweet health!) if you want, and move onto the library. Kill all of the knights here, concentrating on the golden Alto if possible first, since when he's distracted here he's subordinates won't attack as often. When everything is cleaned up here, go into the room where Nero found the Anima Mercury. Use the red orb statue while in DT for lots of orbs. Drop down and note the secret mission section of my guide if you want to do this. Head through the door. Follow the path to the dining room (it's a straight shot with all the ice blocking you). Battle some mega and many lesser scarecrows here, trying to combo with many weapons and styles if you are used to it by now, for an SSS or at least an S rank. Remember, when a megasc dies, avoid his blade! Proceed all the way over to the torture chamber area and kill off the four Frosts here. Ugh. They are fast, so stick to quick styles and fast attacks. Don't overdo it on the combos, as they always help each other out and will stun you often if you misdirect your attention too much. Don't jump too high in the center either, there are spikes here now. Head on over to the hole in the floor an drop. Locate the empty cell with the blue switch in it. Activate and soar up out of here. In the Master's Chambers, time for a bit of a challenge. This is a pretty small space considering you can't destroy the bed. Kill a couple scarecrows and boom, here comes a Blitz to join the party. Treat him just like the first one you faced outside. Keep moving and use Trickster and your shotgun. His attacks sometimes can kill off a foe, but I like to clean up any remaining demons so we can be alone. When you weaken him and his shield drops, DT up and go to town with swordmaster. Get him as weak as you can and when he turns to red, avoid his attacks and keep your eyes open for his kamakazie attack! You can't afford to lose health in this fight, the boss is near! Head outside into the graveyard and destroy every last stone object (including the fountain top) for tons of orbs and a little bit of health. If you couldn't reach the top area (3 overhanging stones) with Nero for the Red Orb and Gold Orb, you can definately do it with Dante and his DT triple jumps and/or Trickster air dashes. Use the Time god statue if you want some items for whatever, and get ready for the boss man! BOSS: Dagon Love the name. Okay, he's very much like his little brother Bael was. The most obvious difference here is that you're facing him using Dante, so the moves and tactics differ. Now, the best thing to do here is to use Ebony and Ivory from afar, have Trickster to air dash ready for the brunt of his attacks, and then get in close and use aerial rave (swordmaster) on his head. Also try some combos on his sides if you're afraid of taking hits and can't switch between trickster well yet. See the basic attack section for Bael in my guide to get a grasp of Dagon's move set. When the ladies come for a piece of Dante (like they always do!), swordmaster and shotgun work wonders. Stay on one at a time and avoid their spinning attacks and ice shots. Dagon rockets back onto the scene for yet another beat down after a few seconds. Hit him from his sides and try to go into DT for best results and bigger combo hits. When you weaken him, go over to his tongue and in DT, use Swordmaster and Rebellion, switching over to the extremely deadly Gilgamesh to finsh your combo string. If you have Forward Y, use it. This should just about end the fight. If not, you can finish him from afar with handgun charged shots, or get in and stinger into a short combo. If you're replaying him, use his own weapon, the Pandora, against him wisely. The laser to his tongue does great damage, but I prefer to use a string of different weapon combos there. However, the crossbow, bazooka, and the gatling gun are great for softening up his ugly hide, and for hurting his girls as well. Pinning the Lucifer into him in a big group and then detonating on his tongue is also a great tactic for eating his health away easy. C'mon, he's always wanted a tongue piercing! Oops, now you're in the labs. Drop down using Trickster to reach catwalks for orbs and finish up your mission. At 21 minutes, 12000 Style, and 85 percent orbs found, with a no item bonus, S is yours with ease! ---------------------------------------------------- Mission 16: Inferno Do the usual power up stuff and get ready to rock! Okay, the lab is flooded, so we need to get out of here as fast as possible. Learn to use the Pandora in a previous level and keep combos limited and strictly just to kill things. The Pandora will do much of your styling for you here. Avoid the Cutlasses group attack and use the shotgun rapidly to slow them when they are blue. Stinger into them (you can nail all three in a row actually) and then combo and scoop them into the air with back and Y, then use B,B,B,B on them in the air in swordmaster style. Pepper them with the shotty until they go back to blue when they go red. Watch your back. They drop health when they die and you can find it all along the hall here too. Use this to stay alive as the poison can really add up. In the game room, enjoy a good laugh at how differently Dante and Nero do things, and then kill all the Gladius demons using the shotgun and gunslinger style. It has various moves, so enjoy if you're at level 3 or 4 and have a charge or two! If you want more style, incorporate the Pandora into things, and use Ebony and Ivory from afar. Your Gilgamesh is slow but can add some style too with swordmaster skills. Each and very Gladius drops some health. Woo boy. In the next room, you are going to square off against a few knights and many Gladiuses. This is where having gunslinger and lots of Pandora skills come in hand. Sweep the room, using gunslinger and trickster, along with your Pandora, and if you're fast enough, maybe the shotgun too. Use every move available to you for the Pandora, even the laser if you've stunned the knight with a good rocket first. You can taunt here, but you really don't have to, since the Pandora and no damage on your part do the work for you. If you don't use the Pandora (for shame!), no worries. Use gunslinger style at all times and just concentrate on the white knights. When you feel like the Gladiuses are going to hit you fast, use the B button firecracker attack to back everyone around you off, while you combo the knights. Stylish! See my blue orb section below for some info on secrets. Leave this room via the window and then door, and emerge to fresh air and some drums to shatter. Fill your lungs and head upstairs. In here, I go for the shotgun and swordmaster with various weapon combos for some S ranks or even SS. Follow the linear path and face off against some more powerful knights. Pandora and gunslinger can really clean up here, but any normal knight techniques work out well for high style (see my enemy section in the next chapter for tips!). SS is very easy to get here, you probably won't even notice the poison sapping you if you're quick to kill them for health. Head up and out of the labs, and to the front of the castle. Feel free to stop for the usual orb spots throughout both the lab and the castle. There are also plenty of foes to take on in a few rooms that are out of your way. Keep in mind, the Pandora laser attack is awesome for clearing out the bench and chair combo in the grand hall! Quick and easy. In front of the castle bridge where Nero met Gloria, we discover some new pets, made by Agnus. How nice of him to send you half man's not so best friend. The Basilisk dogs are a bit annoying. They operate in packs so you always have to stay moving. They love to lunge on you but their favorite and most quick attack (ruins your style nicely...grr) is their skull shot attack. They will fire you on from almost any distance, and can do it in the air or on the ground. Stay moving however you like (trickster for me), and if you like guns use the Pandora's various attacks on them for some decent style IF you take no hits. I like to use some Pandora forms, then finish em up close with the Rebellion. Gilgamesh really hurts them, but it's too slow unless you only have one or two left to kill. See my enemy section for more detail on the dogs. Destroying some of the pillars here nets you health orbs if the dogs gang up on you any. Secret Mission that is very hard to find near here, use my blue orb guide below for help. Move on up the stairs here in this courtyard valley place, and get back to the mines. Time to take down Berial, after you fight through the mines of course. Go for style points! BOSS: Berial Okay. He's a little stronger and faster now, but you will probably hardly notice. See the Nero section for notes on his basic attacks. If you built up the Pandora's disaster gauge, you can immediately remove two to four of his health by using gunslinger and jumping high up, then pressing B to go into the missle pod. Then press B again for a volley, and spam X over and over until it runs out. Now switch to swordmaster and use rebellion or gilgamesh, whatever you know best. Switch them up if you know both well enough. When he is stunned, go into Devil Trigger and let him have it with every combo and offensive skill you know to really knock down his health! Keep moving and use Trickster if needed. If you like Royal Guard and have built up the meter enough, use Dreadnaught (level 4 max) to survive the hard hits and just keep on bashing if you don't care about being hit (no damage bonus). Dreadnaught with Gilgamesh really turn Berial into a joke on the lower modes. No matter how you like to do it, keep moving to avoid his hits, and slam him with your best, and semi-quickest moves. Stun him again and use Gilgamesh combos to finish the fight or get real close to it. Just watch out near the end, his homing dash and lunging overhead sword attack can slow you down and end your style score easy. If this is a replay, he hates the Lucifer! Feel free to stun him however you like, and then plant as many Lucifer blades into him as you possibly can. Swordmaster helps out here some if you know how the weapon works. Be creative! Cover him with blades and then do Back and Y to detonate them whenever! If he's stunned, man does it hurt him! Using Lucifer and Pandora well, along with maybe Royal Guard correctly, one could make this a very quick and one sided battle where you take no damage and score SSS easy! Go for a time of 16:30, style of 9500 total, and orbs found percentage at a nice 90 and you can snag the S rank, so long as you got the no item bonus too! --------------------------------------------------------- Mission 17: Adagio For Strings (by the way, Adagio means either a musical piece, or, more aptly here, moving in a liesurely manner, displaying skillful, well controlled movements.) See previous missions for power up tips. Really, Dante should be basically maxed out for the moves you enjoy, and two or even three styles should be completed now. Redo some missions if you want to keep your stylish combos going easily. I like to have the Pandora with every move possible, this means Gunslinger style has to be max also. As for items, you need to have already purchased all the blue and purple orbs available to you. Some health and magic restoration items, along with a few holy waters is a pretty good idea. If Dante doesn't use them, Nero can in the upcoming missions. NOTE: The Pandora, with all it's moves open to you and full gunslinger style, can consistently, and easily score you SSS ranks in every battle found here in this level. I do not use it exscusively on the boss, but it could be done there as well. Make your way through the city, going for a high style rank (take on scarecrows and both kinds of knight, then later assualts and mephistos) , and you'll end up at the "dead end" where Nero couldn't go back up. However, for Dante, the gate is open. Remember the streets teeming with demon-kind? Yeah, you're going in. Don't forget to check out my blue orb guide under this walkthrough, along with the enemy habits section further down. Lastly, see Nero's previous missions in this area to discover many hidden red orbs. Okay, during this long street battle (one of my favorites in the game), you can do many different things here to earn an SSS rank and keep it there the whole time. Standard swordmaster with every type of weapon (practice in older missions!) does it. Even gunslinger can do it. I recommend using gunslinger and a fully upgraded Pandora. You can cover the street with death from any range this way. Get into a good corner and stinger away scarecrows if they get close. Use varied attacks, crossbow, to bazooka, into laser, ocassionally taunting and repeating, and sometimes using up your disaster gauge to throw the blade-a-rang. When the mega scarecrows appear, use bazooka and laser and finish (around the time the dogs show) with a giagantic missle volley from the pod, full disaster gauge. Mop up what's left by cancelling the pod and opening the case to bathe the demons in deadly gold light, and your style will have been at SSS since around the time the first mega died. If the dogs give you problems and the pod doesn't work, use sword combos to keep them on the ground. That's the simpliest way to hit SSS, just practice not taking hits in between attacks! Now then, that was over quick eh? Head all the way up the street, breaking furniture and garbage cans for orbs. See my blue orb fragment guide below the main walkthrough for info on a couple pieces right here. Then go into the opera house where this all began. In the square, you'll face off against several shadow type enemies (faust, mephistos) and some alto angelos. Be careful about losing your style points here. You probably won't have much trouble killing them all though. If you let the demons hang around the knights, they fight each other as well! See my enemy file section if you need more tips. Head into the Opera House via the gated side door at the end of the fountain path. BOSS: Angelo Agnus Wow, GREAT scene. Hilarity ensued for all, now it's time to take him down for good and get back your Yamato! He's pretty fast and still has many of the same attacks he used on Nero, so see that section or the boss section below the guide for info on his moves. You probably remember most of them anway. Stay moving with trickster and use whatever guns you're most comfortable with. Shotgun seems to be just fast enough and strong enough to work out perfect. Pandora is great but, well, it slows you down alot so you have to time it just right to not take hits. I like to use the Rebellion with swordmaster style until he is kind of stunned, then I let lose with Lucifer and pierce him up a ton, detonating the blades when he regains his momentum, to floor him again and go in for a rebellion combo. Keeps him busy, hurts him really well, and gives you some style! He will likely begin by using his sword on you and summoning some dogs to play with you both. Keep the pressure on the dogs, they can wear you down and distract you enough for him to drain your health. Dodge his fireball attacks using trickster and keep on shooting and trying to cut him up. When he summons more demons to help him fight, use gunslinger the and pandora's missle pod barrage move to even up the odds. Rush in DT and combo him with either rebellion or gilgamesh, and when he drops from being stunned, use (still in DT mode) the best Lucifer moves you have. I like to use Y,Y,Y,Y, the go into Foward Y, then Forward B with Swordmaster style on. He will probably float up and yell "time to die!" at this point, like with Nero, or try to summon more demons. Either way, NOW is the time to detonate your Lucifer blades with Back and Y. Ka-boom! If he hits you with his "time to die" attack, you're going to lose a ton of health, so this method works well. After Pandora's missle battery attack and now the Lucifer's many blades exploding in him, he should be down to half his health or so. Continue to dodge his attacks (escpecially the health drain one, it can turn the tide on your fast), and get ready to go into Trickster to dodge his spinning cutlass attacks. When he summons fire or the "time to die" drain attack now, rush in and try to shoot or slash him as much as are able to cancel the attack. If you use Lucifer, don't forget to use Back Y to detonate the blades! And the rest was silence... Go into the portal end the mission! Great job!! With a time of 17 minutes, style of 15,000 or so, and an orb percentage at around 95 percent, you will have scored an S rank! Right on!! --------------------------------------------------- Mission 18: The Destroyer Powerup based around speed and health. See previous mission starts for power up tips. As for items, some health and blue/purple orbs are key. Congrats, you've got Virgil's coveted Yamato sword! The Dark Slayer style can be accessed via pressing the same style button over again. So if you were already on swordmaster, pressing right again brings it up, got it? BOSS: The Savior Use the bounce platform and be wary of the Angelos here. Use them for style if you like, but it's hard to avoid the savior's blows if you try. If you see the savior trying to slap you with his palm down run up his arm (both arms) and take out what blue crystals you can. There are two per arm, one at the forearm and one at his shoulder. Avoid his petty swipes and dark matter fire balls and use either the yamato, rebellion, or shotgun to take down the crystals. He shakes you off back to the start after time. In the meantime, rush left or right to the jump pads. Let him kill the Angelos for you if you like. You can deflect the dark matter balls back at him using B presses from the dark slayer style (yamato). Avoid his great Fireballs by using either trickster or jump pads. If you go to the right first you will come upon a flimsy metal platform. Get to the jump pad quick because if he destroys it you start over your jumps. On the far right side there is a device enabled by a blue combo switch. Activate it and he will be stunned. Good job. If it's a side you've already cleared of blue crystals, smash at his fingers from the ground to stun him even worse. Now race and use the pads on either side and follow them all around his body. Avoid the Faults (kill for health) and knights (kill for style points) and use the shotgun or pandora to take down every blue crystal you see. Get his back and feet this way. I wanted to add, if you want to kill his black matter balls off more effeciently, use the shotgun. Eventually, he will recover, and on high modes, fast. So just repeat what you've been doing to mega stun him again like before. Remember, DT to kill knights quick, kill faults for health orbs and take out the dark matter energy balls for devil orb refills. Timing is crucial on all this of course. Give it a few tries and you can get the hang of it! If you ever get stuck, use various jump pads and try to find middle pads to get back to where you were. He has blue crystal orbs on his feet, one on his back, on his shoulders and forearms, his forehead and his chest. You can shoot almost any of these crystals any time with Ebony and Ivory from the center platform. Also keep in mind if you come back around to the same places too often, the jump pads will not work for you, leaving you at the savior's mercy, or should I say malice? If you get stuck, use ebony and ivory on him, taunt, and wait for him to either get hurt enough or destroy your platform. ---------------Headshot!------------ When you finally take down the head crystal, (or the final one other than the chest) some things change a little. By the way, you can reach this crystal and number of ways, and Ebony and Ivory do the job fast. Best way to is crawl up an arm and blow it away fast that way. He is faster now and will swing wildly around you at times. He also likes to charge up his massive demon killing beam from the earlier cinematics and try to fry you with it. That one can end your day bad, so try to use the bouncing platforms to avoid it. Keep on using every single jump pad to your right until you get a special cinematic. Now we're into it, a health bar! Taunt him if you feel safe, and let it run fully. Shoot him with super long range guns and keep moving to the right until the second tiny platform with two blue pads on it. Here, wait patiently until he pokes his head up, and get Dark Slayer Style read to rock. Hit his head with the Rebellion and your best combos, DT if you want. When the chest cyrstal briefly shows itself, use the yamato ground and air combos. He then goes to destroy your platform. Repeat to that tiny, two pad platform again. You can bound left to right, back and forth on the three little platforms until he pokes up his face again. DT and slam him until you get a scene. Finally, a real change to damage him! Use all the pads ahead of you to reach his weak spot, and then DT up and go crazy with combos and end them with the Yamato. If you plan to use the big forward Y or backward Y combo, be in close to his crystal and give yourself enough time to execute the slashes properly. Nice damage! Go for the highest style you can and try to get him to a quarter health or so. Now he does a spinning kick and uses more long range, devastating fireball attacks. Keep moving and baiting him on to come for you. Try to keep moving and don't let him destroy your platform or you have to start these jumps over. His giant beam is faster now, so don't stop to taunt unless you are really confident. Repeat this process until you finally send him down. It usually only takes twice. At a time of 12 minutes (yikes), 5000 style (from mostly fighting him at the end there), and getting some orbs from his fire balls and/or enemies around, you will ace the S rank! Go for no item also. This one may take you a few tries to minimize your time and maximize your style. Hang in there! ----------------------------------------------- Mission 19: The Successor Back to Nero. If you want to get reaccustomed to him again, go back and play some early levels and relearn your combos, evasive manuevers, how to snatch and buster, when to taunt, etc. Practice against knights and even some bosses if you want. Now that you have a good grasp on him again, Power Up accordingly. Any and all combos are great, charge shot 2, devil bringer 3, dodging skills, air jumping, etc. are all key. As for items, know that in this mission it's just a straight up brawl. If you need any items, I'd suggest healing and holy water to get through tough spots. Keep in mind I have a detailed enemy section below this walkthrough (ctrl F to search the guide fast), if you need some tips on combat. That's right, back to another type of game room. Remember, spot the number you want on the dice, and then strike the die after counting to six with Buster or something quick like that, and it should always land on what you want. Head forward and enter the next area. The goal is to reach the spaces nearest to the purple portals at the back of each level. Red spaces are combat, and I recommend you avoid them unless you're aching for a fight to raise style. Frosts, Assualts, every type of Scarecrow (megas too), Blitzes, Basilisks and who knows what else await if you land on red. The blue spaces are great, and can even save your life, as they drop a rain of several orbs, with a few differently sized health orbs in there also. Use Snatch 3 or initiate Run real fast to get the most orbs possible. White spots do absolutely nothing, so aim for them if you can't reach any other desirable spots. Lastly, the yellow spots teleport you, just like before. Only this time around, they take you straight over to the end portal of that floor. Shoot for those if you want to ace your time, and move on in the level quick. Note: In the labs, the game board eventually dropped you some treasure chests with orbs on blue spaces. If you weren't fast enough, they ended up empty. This occurs very rarely here also, I think. Upon entering the first purple portal, you will be warped away to the HQ and faced down by five knights. One is an Alto and leads the others. You can shoot the dark matter ball for SSS here, like before, or go into DT mode when you're able to slam them that way. They are highly orgainized until the Alto dies (and he probably won't die first), so anticipate their movements as a unit, and then combo the group, avoiding the charges when they do. Big style rank this way. When you're down to the final duo or just one, use Buster moves to end it and keep up the style. Use the portal that appears after everything is dead to return to the game board. There's health and magic recovery orbs at the back of this floor. Use them if you need to desperately or if you plan on immediately leaving the floor using a teleport space. I recommend going for the blue spaces as well, for more orbs. Do whatever you want here and move on to the end space. When you enter the second purple portal, you are greeted by your old pal, Berial! See that chapter in the walkthrough or look beneath it for Boss strategies. Keep in mind, there are no shacks to destroy here for health this time. On the next floor, there are two tiny health orbs you can grab. If you need more orbs, use the blue spaces to your advantage, and circle around. However you do it, eventually progress. Careful about randomly fighting demons, as things are getting steadily more dangerous you've probably noticed. After that purple portal, you are put up against Dagon! He's faster and stronger than Bael, but the same tactics still apply. See the appropriate mission and/or enemy section below this walkthrough for details. Go for a high style here, as he's one of the easier bosses to avoid losing style on. On the next floor, collect the magic and health orbs up here, then use the blue spaces to your advantage for even more orbs and health! When you're finished here, head into the next floor. At this purple portal, suprise, Echidna! I like to go into this one with my sword already fully revved up. See my boss section or the Echidna Nero chapter for details on here if you need to refresh your memory. Use the right Busters at the right time for big style and try to end the fight like that to maintain the points. When she's dead, if time isn't an issue to you, go around the arena destroying the seed pods to the sides for health and red orbs. On this next, large floor, feel free to simply jump up five spaces and teleport to the finish if you don't need to use the blue spaces for orbs. However you do it (risking combat only if you really know how to fight and preserve your health), move on. After this purple portal, here comes Angelo Agnus! You know the drill, and if not, see his chapter or the enemy boss section I have prepared at a bit down after this section of the walkthrough. Remember to be especially careful of his drain, as it can really slow you down and keep him alive. He is the version Dante fights, I think, because he calls in Basilisks this time. Buster them and it's no issue. Finally, you've made it. Congrats on surviving and Capcom staple, the ultra boss fight level! Take out all the tiny columns here for orbs and slash the rocks to leave. With a time of (wow!) 25 minutes, a stylish of 12,000 points, and by hitting the blue platforms for orbs three or four times and getting 95 percent or so, you nailed the S rank! Try to use no items too. ---------------------------------------------- Mission 20: La Vita Nuova (small note: This is both verse and prose composed by a man named Dante, it means A New Life) Now then. You probably know the power up drill by now. Go for all out power, max health and devil gauge, and the best Snatch (devil bringer) at 3. As for items, none are needed here (as always), but you may want some Vital Star M or even L if you can afford it. Everything else is just icing on the delicious cake. Time to end this. BOSS: Sanctus Diabolica He will begin by renewing his shield, which blows you back. He likes to call down small lightning bolts of negative energy (he screams about the savior and judging you), that are easy to avoid by just backing off. He also fires out speedy fireballs and will send his hovering devices in pairs after you, like before but a little faster now. He can teleport freely about the arena and will if you corner him in the air too much. He will also summon a great bolt down onto you, which is one concentrated burst right under his body, and different from the small bolts. It doesn't pose a threat if you keep moving. Start by Snatching at him to get up high fast, then hack at his shield. You can also Buster it. When it breaks, he is surrounded by negative energy from the Sparda sword, but you still damage him when you strike or buster at him and his dark shield. Keep it up and stay on him to avoid his fireball attacks. When he renews his shield or calls down lightning bolts, jump backwards or roll away to the immediate open side. I like to snatch to him, strike once with the sword, snatch again quickly, and Buster in the air, repeating until he breaks open fully. Now you're getting somewhere. Rush in and do whatever you like, but quickly go into DT at some point to Buster him for a great sequence. If you aerial Buster him, you piledriver him down hard and then give him the massive punch to the body. Now he will begin to teleport at times and use the historical Sparda sword to strike you. He can also throw it a little bit. Keep moving and avoid taking hits if at all possible, so maintain combo rank. Try to be quicker than him and anticipate his movements. Snatch in, hack away, snatch in, Buster, repeat. Good. When he's around a quarter or less health, things change for you and if you mess up not only do you risk death from a major attack, you lose any style you had built up to this point from all the Buster combos. Sanctus flies up and yells at you, and summons the Sparda sword to run you through. The timing is hard, but you probably know what must be done. That's right, go into DT for the added hit and power (and style), and Buster the tip of the sword just before he can destroy you. You may need to do this more than once. CONGRATULATIONS! But is it over yet? After some great scenes, get ready for the last conflict. This isn't bad, so don't worry too much. Basically, you need to Buster away his hands. He first comes down with a punch from above, Buster it up at any point. He then swings from the side with a slapping chop. This one is slightly harder to learn. Buster it in the air. When he drops down, finish it all by air Bustering his ugly face. At around 3 minutes, with a style of 5000 or so, and no orbs to gather, along with no item bonus, you can snag the S rank! ----------------------------------------- Well you've done it! You took on the Missions and handled it like a Devil Hunter. Didn't you? Now try to top your previous ranks, take them to the leader boards online, or upgrade your characters and try a harder difficulty! There's also the Bloody Palace to enjoy, if you beat it on DH mode that is. See below this section for the Bloody Palace guide when it's up. ///////////////////////////////////// Hell or Hell Mode tips and tricks \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ The big time! It's easier to list a series of tips here rather than make tiny notes on the main walkthrough of the guide that could confuse new players. Thanks a ton to aspen1910000 (GT, username) for the pointers! aspen1910000: "It was not as hard as it was made out to be (as I had stated earlier in another thread). I found DmD mode to be maybe a bit more challenging.. only a tad bit more. I did not get good ranks though as it was my first try at it. I had used continues and gold orbs.. while I got S's or A's for time ,style and orbs.. the continues do play a big role in lowering my rank at the end. Yet.. using the 3 gold orbs did not count as using an item so I never got a " used Item" penalty. You do not even need to use the super characters to beat it, you just have to have certain tactics and be a bit more defensive and alert. Tips: (these are easy to perform and not ment to be all top tier and stuff.. but it helped me to not get touched) For nero I swtiched the devil trigger button to RT and the gun button to LB so that I could charge my gun while slicing with comfort. For Dante I kept the default control scheme. Trickster and shotgun/Pandora for guns and rebellion/gilgamesh for arms. (lucifer for bosses when they are down will destroy them) first of all... all types of scarecrows pose no threat even the giant ones. Frosts: keep them bunched up. never let them seperate as one might get a cheap shot with its projectiles.. but as long as you don't throw them while they are seperated you can just avoid with a jump. Once up close, the IR combos rips them apart and the Spinning throw will cancel the other one's attack so you''l never get cheap shotted. For Dante, use jumping shotguns and either Rebellion or Gilgamesh. Spam Kick 13 and stingers. A more tough combo is the frosts with the reapers(mephisto) combonation. This time, you want to seperate the frost from the reapers as the reapers needle attacks can get you if you throw the frost. After that just charge shot 3 the reapers and they are yours for the taking. Dantes double jump shotgun followed by the warp or air dash into more shotgun blasts with decimate a reaper. Note.. most of the time one Jumping shot of the pandora will take out the reapers cloaks.. 3 for the fausts. Assualts: Nero can just IR these guys and bring them in the air with you with a lvl 3 Launch followed by the aerial rave (jump cancel and snatch to get them higher for even safer air fights.. but it is not needed) don't Throw these guys as the animation brings you back to the ground and leaves you open. charge shots help also. Dante again tears these guys up. Just hit them with stingers, kick 13's, warp and double jump around and theyll never touch you. Blitz: Nero has a bit harder of a time than Dante. Charge shot 3 and double jumps to dodge as the camera can get tricky for a roll. once he's gone just DT and spam throw.. as during throw animation the devil gauge doesnt decrease.. or barely decreases. Also mash shoot to add a tad bit more damage. Again dante tears these guys up with the shotgun/trickster combo. and he can just jump around like these guys. Air hike and Air dash and keep shooting even if hes not there so you dont land and have him ram into you. Gladius ( the birdy swords). Nero can stop them from spinning with his shots and just snatch into an instant throw. So if you see them spinning.. shoot and switch targets and then throw them into each other. Dante with shotgun and teleporting into stingers and combos will decimate them. You can also try gunslinger which helps. (fireworks and twosome time) CutLass: Nero has an easier time than dante. His shots can slow them down and you can snatch them out of the air when they jump out of the floor. For dante.. it is good to take note than a DT stinger can bring all three out as the trail of the stinger also hits/does damage. Basililisk: Nero's snatch will stop them. but I cant even remember fighting them so its not that big of a deal. Dante's shotgun and trickster combo will stop them. Warp to them.. helm splitter and stinger FTW. Just stay mobile so their fireballs wont hit you. Angelos. The ones with spears are too easy to handle. Just dont throw them too often as you are very open to attack. IR combos from their backs will beat them. Buster to make them block and just air hike behind them, combo and rinse and reapeat. Charge Shots and Shotgun will wobble them. The Angelos with the Swords are a double edged sword. The Streaks and the Stinger will cancel their attacks if your spam those moves. Charge shots will Shoot back their blackhole attack(but most of you know that) Bosses: Berial: Nero.. stay away and use charge shots...if you want to be safe.. or jump in his face with the snatch and slash while charging your shots.. then jump back and fire away. When he is not flaming. you can use the buster to cancel his attacks.. but be ready to jump if you are on the ground. The only thing you have to worry about his is homing dash.. but a timed roll or air hike will save you. Once you beat him when he's not flamming.. just stay away and use charge shots to avoid the flame shock waves and horizontal slices. Dante can just spam jumping pandora shots or the Pandora Laser attack from far away. Then blast him with the missile supercombos and when he isnt on fire.. run up.. plant a ton of lucifer blades and them slam him with the Kick 13. Bael: You can just the snatch and buster combo for the Maidens.. do them in the air for multiple chances since they will dodge them often. Charge your gun the whole time. When the Frog comes out stay to his side and beat him down. Shot him when he is far away.. and shoot him as he is dissapearing. For Dante you can use jumping pandora shots and use trickster to avoid his attacks. Also beat him from the side. Missle supercombos will destroy him and Stingers and Kick 13s for when he is stunned. he is the easiest boss to beat Echidna: If I have to state it again. here it is! Charge shots and air hikes. then the usually Buster when she is stunned or when she starts spitting out chimeras. Dont buster supercombo right away.. get a few attacks in and Dt then throw.. and spam the gun while the combo is going. Dante's jumping Pandora and Missle combos will kill her.. and dont be too eager to hit her when she is on the ground.. Just keep jumping around with trickster and using pandora. (hardest boss IMO) Agnus: Nero can use the Gladius's against him.. and slice him up while charging your gun. Jump away and shoot when he does his 2 hit slice.. and jump to a wall and/or air hike when he spins with the Cutlass. Dante pandora is not as useful in this battle so stick with the shotgun for his minions.. and just kick 13 and stinger him for the win. When he does his life steal move after he gets stunned just warp up to him then switch to sword master and aerial rave him. Credo... A very easy Fight. Just Charge shot him from far away.. and then dash at him with the streak. If he blocks.. just airhike! don't roll as he mixes up the split and the air blade. use the gun to stay floating then land.. slice once and throw him. Charge your gun when you throw him and rinse and repeat. Sanctus: Easy again. Snatch up to him and just aerial rave him. once the shield is gone stay away.. but not too far then when he attacks with a ranged move.. air hike.. snatch and combo him. Once he is grounded.. you can stick two combos in .. snatch and DT throw him. In the 2nd fight.. if you find him deflecting your sword attack after his shield is gone just ait buster him and jump again and combo him. Once he is in his 2nd phase just take out his shield and wait for him to do the special attacks. Buster the Savior.. or Buster the Sparda rush and his is done for. The savior: Use trickster and the shot gun. the fight is fairy simple and just involves a lot of dodging. Use the shot gun to take out the gems.. and once his lifebar shows up.. all you have to do.. is find that platform where he will peek his head up slowly. memorize where this is and go to the next one and dodge till he does the giant laser attack. after he does this.. leap back to the main platform.. and plant alot of lucifer blades. once he gets stunned again.. jump this his chest and DT the rb+fy for the lucifer. SPam it and it can take from 50-70% of his life. repeat and you win. there you go. I hope it helps. these tactics worked wonders for me. Hell or Hell is a joke." Note: I may add more later, after I've conqured this mode. (which will take a long while) For now, thanks to aspen! ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Blue Orb Fragments "If we don't finish this quickly, it's gonna scar me for life!" Nero, DMC 4 ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 12 Secret Mission Fragments - 3 health 20 Mission "loose" Fragments - 5 health 6 purchasable shop Blue Orbs - 6 health First off, 12 secret missions in this game equals 12 blue orb fragments for you. Since it's four per one orb (and life up), that's a whopping three whole segments, which can make the difference in a heated battle. I know some of the secret missions are a bit frustrating, but try and learn them, because it's worth it if you want to play on harder modes later. It's best to attempt secret missions on easier modes though, first. The secret mission solutions will be listed below, after we collect the "loose" orb fragments. Remember, use ctrl F and type in the number of the secret mission to go straight to it from this point, otherwise scroll down a bit and find it. Before we get into the Secret Mission can of worms, we will go through all the free floating Fragments. Keep in mind this is a work in progress. If I don't have what you need, I hope to have an update later. I will try to be as descriptive as possible, when applicable. Many of these are freebies, so don't worry. And a final note before we get into it. Save up your red orbs, and repeat missions to collect more! Trust me, you're going to want to buy all of the Blue Orbs available to you as quickly as possible. I recommend having the purchasable orbs by Mission 12, actually, but the earlier the better, as that's more health for you as both Nero and Dante! Some of the secret missions are a real pain to even survive, let alone accomplish, so having that extra health from the shop, as well as the "loose" fragments I will list first, will really help you. ----------------------------------------- Mission 02: La Porte De L'Enfer - 2 Fragments 1) Residential District: You will drop down from a high ledge after using the Grim Grip a few times. You will have just fought a small battle against some scarecrows with a little fountain in the middle of the area. Once you drop, you see three scarecrows in the alleyway, some smashable objects, and a red orb Statue. Just past it, on the left you should see a tiny red orb. Jump for it and follow the path of tiny red orbs around the corner into a tiny alleyway. There's your freebie fragment! This is commonly the first one found in the game. 2) First Mining Area: Your first Combat Adjudicator. You will grim grip up the room and see a green orb in one corner, a statue thing nearby, and on the other side of this area a golden lion statue (for upgrades and things). See the flames on that statue? They represent the combo level of style you need to display. This one only requires a ranking of B, so feel free to do whatever you need to do to get it up there. Using Yx4, Y pause then Yx4, some aerial attacks, and Forward Y should do the trick. Remember, vary your moves enough, so that they adjudicator registers your style up. If you keep repeating the same thing, it won't work. You may need some Proud Souls if this is your first time through the game/mission, so buy the appropriate combos or moves you think you will need to score a B. Remember though, it can be done with your default moveset. ---------------------------------------- Mission 03: Fortuna Castle - 3 Fragments 1) Second Mining Area: Okay, you entered, fought some scarecrows, and now you have grim gripped up the blue lights to a wood platform. If you hop left, there is another wood platform, easily visible and not far away. See the two Grim Grips that seem to lead nowhere? Up top of the highest one, is another fragment. Your first goal is to latch onto that second, seemingly highest Grip. A level 2 arm helps here, but isn't required. Now, your momentum will carry you to the wood wall on the right of the Grip. Jump off of it and immediately Grip again to a previously unseen Grim Grip blue light. Now, follow the Grips around until you land on solid ground, and there's your orb fragment. This one can be tricky at first, but overall isn't too bad once you get it. Pay attention, there's a harder one coming right up. Added - From a few emails I recieved and some message board complaints, it's become clear (hey, I did it myself at first also), you CANNOT air hike (double jump) before you grab your first Grip. You absolutely have to JUST latch that Grip, to the second, to the wall, where you can double jump off, then to the other grips. At the final Grip, use your momentum, since double jumping (if you own it now) is out of the picture and all, from the wall jump you just had to do. Be sure to snap the arm out very quickly from the previous Grip, to gain the most momentum. If it doesn't carry you to the platform, you need to change Grips faster. 2) Second Mining Area: Okay, remember your first set of Grips? Not the hidden ones above you we just used, but the first set that lead you to a wood platform and the mouth of another mining area? In that area, you fight five or so Scarecrows. Well, that's just to get your bearings. Don't go into that fight yet. Face the camera (with your back to the mouth of the cave opening). You don't have to have Air Hike for this, but it might help. There are a couple of ways to do this, but I will now list the most sure fire method. First, you will need to own Streak, and the aerial attack Roulette. Charge your EX gauge up to FULL, then press (at the edge of the platform, facing the camera) forward and Y to do a streak. Only now, be sure it's a charged up EX Streak. When you release, get ready. As you fly off a few feet, execute the Roulette Air Combo. You will either make the jump, or hit the wall. If you hit the wall, simply wall jump and press up and forward. You should land on the other side just fine. Or, you could do a regular Streak and then Air Hike (double jump) onto the platform, but this is a little trickier because of the camera change. Also, once you air hike, you cannot wall jump if you fall short. If this is your first time through the game, you will need to buy these moves, so come back later using the mission select screen. A big thanks goes out to Sephirosuy's youtube video found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sephirosuy on this orb. He also has a good blue orb fragment guide out on gamefaqs.com. He actually has 3 good videos for the hard to reach spots from the Japanese version. helene, alluresilver(at)hotmail(dot)com also wrote, "put quickly, mission level 16, jump on second red pad jump for dante, need trickster lev 4, double jump and air ride into the lil alcove..." Thanks alot! Dante uses the second jump pad, and then with Trickster level 4 you can find your way up there!! 3) Grand Hall of Fortuna Castle: Thank goodness, another freebie fragment. On the Eastern side of the map in Grand Hall, seek out a wall length mirror and destroy it with air attacks. Five or six hits does it. The fragment is in here, all by it's lonesome. To get here, you will be travelling around the outside of the upper castle courtyard, and you will have fought a total of four frosts (on human mode). After you get back into the Grand Hall upstairs, you have to hit a blue wall switch over and over until the door area is open to you. But don't go in yet, because the mirror is a bit down past that door. ----------------------------------------- Mission 06: Resurrection - 2 Fragments 1) Underground Laboratory: Near the start area, follow the circle area where you are around back, before you jump down. If you jump down, you miss it, so be careful. You can spot it during the brief scene where they show you to jump down, too. If this is your first time through, that'd be one life digit for you! 2) Foris Falls: This one is a pain. First, you need to have purchase the Run ability. When you first step outside, you will have to hit a blue switch facing the falls. Do that, head up the stairs. First scout the area. At the top metal platform after the stairs, there are some oil drums to break, and a door. Don't go into the door and continue your mission just yet. First, notice how there is an opening at the balcony? Walk over to it carefully and the camera perspective changes. See your fragment? I told you, it's a pain to get. Go all the way down the stairs, and go straight to initiate the automatic Run. Hang around to the platform while running (DON'T break your run, you'll fall uselessly), and if you are still in Run mode, Nero leaps off the opening. Now, the camera changes so fast, that it's hard to get your bearings, but you want to be as close to center as possible, or you'll miss. If you own Air Hike you can initiate it after you leap off. Try to use that and gain the orb fragment. You cannot snatch it with the Arm, just so you know. If you still can't manage to get it now, don't worry. You can return here as Dante and use Trickster's Air Dash to get it with relative ease, consider you are ALSO allowed to air hike along with the air dash trick. So as Dante just Run off the edge, Air Hike, and if you still aren't aimed right, level two Trickster Air Dash over to the fragment. Added - You can also Streak off the opening if you don't like to run, and then do a YY, Y move, along with a double jump if you're Nero. ----------------------------------------- Mission 07: The She-Viper - 2 Fragments 1) Ruined Valley: Here, you'll come across a blue flame switch to activate, which in turn activates a floor for you. Cross them as they appear, and at the fifth one, you can jump and nab the Fragment. 2) Forgotten Ruins: You find this one just after the She-Viper chases you and destroys the gridwork bridge behind you. Not too tough, but harder than the first one. It's a Combat Adjudicator that requires an A ranking. Up to now, you've probably gotten a decent feel for style points and how to combo, and I bet you have purchased some new moves for the Red Queen, so just vary everything up, repeating the same moves only every other two combos. You'll have it in no time. Don't forget too, you can use the Buster attack on it. In Devil Trigger, it brings even more style. Lastly, Exceed attacks add more style as well. ----------------------------------------- Mission 08: Profession of Faith - 2 Fragments 1) Ancient Training Ground: Go to the stone overpass (your arm should be glowing and giving you the hint), there is a large seed above your head in the overpass itself. Airhike up and destroy the seed, jump up again for the fragment. 2) Lost Woods: Take the left path from the junction, to reach a circular area. The orb is hanging from a tree in the north area here. This circular area is a battlefield for if you took the wrong path in the Lost Woods, basically. Kill all the enemies and go to the back area, your arm will probably be alerting you to the fragment. You need Air Hike to reach it. ----------------------------------------- Mission 09: For You - 2 Fragments 1) Grand Hall: Combat Adjudicator found to the immediate left as you enter, just after battling the Angelos. You will need a solid S rank to snag this Fragment, so it's not quite a freebie. But you can still get it. Every three combos, you can repeat, but I recommending repeating every four moves if possible. Don't forget various aerial attacks, Devil Triggering your moves, Ex gauge for fire moves, and using your Devil Bringer to snag and Buster the statue. 2) The Gauntlet: You'll have probably seen this one, and think a level 3 Arm snatch can reach it. Nope, these cannot be touched by the arm, unfortunately. Anywho, when you get to 3F by the elevators, face South on your map, and run out to 2F on your map, by Streaking and dropping. What I basically mean is, drop out the opposite side of the elevator than where you should go to continue the mission. The small doorspace is wide open and seems to lead to nothing, that's what you Stream off of. You'll fall one story down, locate the orb, and hop off a bit to get it. There's your fragment! Added - It may help to note you are (on your minimap) in a square above the one you want, which is to the south, bottom of the map. So when you see the orb, you'll go up the elevator and fight some frosts (or a blitz depending on your difficulty mode), and one floor up from there is where you should be dropping. Thanks again to Sephirosuy for the video from the Japanese version, found, once again, here: http://www.youtube.com/user/sephirosuy ----------------------------------------- Mission 10: Wrapped in Glory - 1 Fragment 1) Experiment Disposal: After you cross into the newer area, past the bridge revealed to you for finishing the previous mission, you'll fight some armors and end up in this area. Go through the empty elevator that won't move for you right now, and into a place with four statues around a flame. Through here continues the mission when you activate this elevator (different from the caged elevators). Don't do that yet. First, note the circular architecture, the stones above. With Nero all you need is Air Hike. It is very possible. Learn your double jump animations. When you do a front flip, you gain a bit more height. That is the height needed. Go up onto the platform, and front flip from a double jump to the first stone ring. Jump up and note the position of your fragment. Jump out and quickly front flip up to the third stone ring spot. If you can line it up right, you don't even need to land to grab the fragment, but it helps. If you can't do this right now, remember this area for when Dante returns. Using Trickster level 2, you can double jump and air dash, making it a bit easier to reach this ring of stone and the fragment. You may have more luck that way instead. ----------------------------------------- Mission 11: The Ninth Circle - 1 Fragment 1) Advent Chamber: At the back of this chamber is the Combat Adjudicator. The very first room of the mission. This one is a bit difficult if you're new to comboing and styles. You need SSS rank with Nero for this one. Remember, Ex gauge, Devil Trigger, multiple Red Queen combos, air attacks, and vary them so that you only repeat every three or even four combos each. You can also grab and use Buster. Treat this statue like an enemy and go to town! Since there aren't enemy bonuses and you can't taunt a statue, it's harder, but you can do it. You could also try to get SS without DT, then do a streak and do combo 1, 2, 3, lift the statue with back and Y, YYYY, then lift again using a Bringer Grab from up top, YY...Y and start over. While trying to get the SS it helps to exceed from time to time. You should get SS by then with ease. From there quickly DT and do Yamato's RB and left stick front then Y, ending with a Buster. Instant SSS. If not for some reason, while still in DT (if possible, I know you only get three gauge to start the mission), continue the same combos I already mentioned, alternating from ground to air and back. Good luck! ----------------------------------------- Mission 12: A New Beginning - 1 Fragment 1) The Gauntlet: Get the key of Cronus in the regular progression of this mission. Go to the Grand Hall and kill all the knights. Instead of leaving the place (I bet you have at least five minutes left on the timer) head up the stairs like you were going to Agnus' room. Kill all the demons, use the key of cronus and head upstairs again. Back in this floor of the gauntlet map, go around the cage and notice the Combat Adjudicator. It requires and lowly B, though you may not be used to Dante yet if this is your first time. Swordmaster level 2 and the Rebellion get the job done. Don't forget to vary ground and air combos. ----------------------------------------- Mission 13: The Devil Returns - 1 Fragment 1) Ruined Church: It's another Combat Adjudicator, but this one wants you to score a style of A. You'll find the statue behind the breakaway glass, you probably, once again, already saw this as Nero. With Swordmaster 2 and the Rebellion with it's first two attacks opened up, you can get this easy. Just keep things varied, and if you can't seem to quite get it, use DT near the end (at B or so) and you'll be fine. Remember, B button is for Swordmaster skills, both in the air and on the ground. ----------------------------------------- Mission 15: Fortuna Castle - 1 Fragment 1) Foris Falls: It's to the left of the fountain, when your back is to the falls. Go up the steps and take it out the Combat Adjudicator statue with an SS rank combo. See the previous two Fragments for tips on Swordmaster, and don't forget to use Devil Trigger if you need a push. SS rank actually appears near the halfway point or less on the S rank, so don't worry over having to slam the entire S bar out, no need. Varied air and ground, along with Swordmaster skills of level 3 or so work wonders. ----------------------------------------- Mission 16: Inferno - 1 Fragment 1) Underground Laboratory: Many people miss this one, which is actually okay at this point, because you need S and may not have the max Swordmaster skill. You'll need it, and the Rebellion with some moves unlocked (you don't need the final sword move really). Feel free to use the Gilgamesh mixed in with your Rebellion if you know how to switch weapons fast, but be sure you purchased the forward and back moves for it. Though using the back and rush foward punch actually takes a bit of time you can't afford, so it's not needed, and charging up can work, but also takes alot of time away from your combo overall. I stuck to the Rebellion with maxed Swordmaster, for the Dance Macabre move. Beware, the final, super hit of the blade leaves you standing still for a minute, though it can be cancelled by using other movements. Devil Trigger, varied combos, and a final push of Dance Macabre at the SS marker will win this for you quick. By the way, the statue you need to SSS is in the FIRST room you start at. Don't miss it if you have the moves for SSS. Also, since you're being poisoned this entire time, you may want to restart or quit mission as soon as you get the fragment. You will also probably want 14 or so bars of health total to even attempt this, in case you have to restart, but you may not need it. ----------------------------------------- Mission 17: Adagio For Strings - 1 Fragment 1) Business District/Terrace You'll end up having a big fight on the street level. Remember, as Nero, you soared over this place using your Devil Bringer Grim Grip. Anyway, after the dust settles from your battle, wipe the blood off your sword and look around the upper levels by double jumping. On the left side of the street is a fenced off balcony area, right? You see your fragment? You can get your footing on top of the blue awning (very small space), and be sure you have Trickster at level 2 for the air dash. Jump off the wall as high as possible using double jump, and then air dash and you should barely make it over the rim of the balcony railing. Voila, Fragment!! --------------------------------------------------------- Secret Missions "There's something so exciting about all this. You think so right?" Lady, DMC 4 "I won't lie..." Trish, DMC 4 -------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to your first real taste of true difficulty in this game. Unless you've already tried to tackle the hard modes without the health these missions provide, tsk tsk. It is very highly recommended you look above and be sure you have all the "loose" orb fragments that you can get, and I also think you should purchase every possible health orb in the store. In some of these secret missions, you may take some hits, and if you're playing on easy (human), you will probably note you take worse damage here than you do in the normal game. It's still not as bad as it could be though, and a few mistakes are okay for the most part. However there are so missions where playing as Nero is a better idea, and there are some where playing as Dante is a better idea. There is one required secret missions a piece though, that only each respective character can actually do. One involves using Anima Mercury as Nero, and one involves using the Royal Block style as Dante. So, keep in mind this is hard stuff and may require a different style of play than the main missions. Also, again, this is a work in progress, and I will do what I can to make things as easy as possible for you. A basic grasp of the game's mechanics, and a full play are also not a bad idea, before you decide on doing most of these secret missions. Each secret missions nets you one orb fragment, and there are 12 total, adding up to three life segments. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 01: Annihilation Found in Mission 02: La Porte De L'Enfer Terrace/Business District (a tutorial will prompt you as you approach, it's a piece of paper with red on it) Destory all the scarecrows! You can do this one with no upgrades if you hurry. YYY or YYYY, followed by busters, knocking them into the air and then using the buster, etc. will kill them very quickly. If you can't do it in time and don't want to work out a strategy, just come back later with more combos and power and destroy them all. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 02: Alley-Oop Found in Mission 04: Cold Blooded In the Dining Room. Use the anima mecury and let the object protect you, slam it up the hall and into the wall and you can now see the piece of paper with red writing on it. Execute a mid air Buster five times without touching the ground. This one isn't so bad when you understand the timing of the grab. If you have air hike (double jump) by now, it's even easier, but can be done without it. If you touch the ground you must restart at zero, and if you kill them all, you lose. Jump up as high as you can and start doing air grabs with the B button. It can be the same scarecrow or any others, so don't worry about that. Just do the grab repeatedly as fast as you can, when you get the timing, you'll have no problem. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 03: Nonviolent Resistance Found in Mission 05 (or 16 as Dante)Trisagion Located in the outdoor Soldier's Graveyard, under the steps you use to proceed. Your arm should be giving you clues when you're near it. Raise your stylish ranking without using attacks. (C rank confirmed, thank goodness it's not higher) This one is very, very hard. As Dante in 16, you can use Royal Guard if you're good at it, along with taunts and dodges, but most won't find that practical. Though for those of you skilled enough, I will list the method that I have found to work with a little testing. You need Royal Guard 4 for the best results, but you can try this with any level, just takes a bit more work. First, get the scarecrows in the far corner of the large, well lit room. Now, lead the Frost over to the L shaped corridor. If you block around 4 times, taunt once, and then royal guard 2 times somewhere in there, along with maybe one other taunt (usually not even needed), you will score this mission. Good luck. Keep in mind, the rank you need is C. As Nero there are a few things you can do and one sure fire method that just takes some getting used to. At this point, all you can do is the Table Hopper move , purchased with Proud Souls. That, along with dodges and the proper use of Taunting, can do this in theory, but it's extremely difficult to avoid taking hits, which destory your score. If you do take heavy hits, carefully bust open the armor on the walls, they have small health orbs in them. The sure fire method here is to have the shield skill. You will gain the aegis shield item from a boss in Mission 8. Now you can Hold the enemy and use it as a shield. So come back to this mission then for an easier time as Nero. Now, a table hop or two (in level 2 or so) can help you start the combo, but you do not need it. Being very careful, you can clear the furniture from the room if you want, they will do it for you eventually. Know the Frost's moves well. It has an ice beam it can fire along the ground, so jump it (air hike too), and it tends to like to jump up and land on you, sending out ice everywhere, that one is a pain. Anyway, use the grab with RB and B, but hold B and do not release it, or you will Buster and fail the mission. Get a scarecrow and let it take damage carefully, while you taunt your enemy. When you get the chance, grab the Frost for when the next one appears, and let it take damage, while taunting sporadically. Don't overuse the taunt, or it won't work, and try to focus on a target when you do the taunt. Keep in mind as well, Nero can only walk while using the shield move. Also remember, the scarecrows die pretty quickly, and the frosts break out of your grip even quicker, so stay moving, and to move while keeping yourself safe with a shield, be locked to an enemy. When you're down to just two Frosts, if you can just keep them as shields (doesn't matter which one, they have alot of health) long enough and bear the onslaught, you can win this. Keep in mind you can do little hops while you hold a shielded demon, if walking just isn't cutting it for you. A couple more small tips. You have to be very close to the Frosts for the Taunts to register at all. Also, if you need health and the armors in the room are depleted, go back out in the graveyard map and destroy the statues (not tombstones) and the central fountain statue. Lots of green orbs there. Now, you can also try a slower, more risky method if the shield isn't working for you. Or, try a combination of tactics listed here (which is what I ended up having to do honestly). Basically, clear the room of furniture in the center first. Don't hit anyone, careful. Now, try to get all three demons onto one side and yourself to the other. Do a snatch on the frost, be sure puppets aren't too near. Remember, L3 (pressed in L stick) switched targets when you stand still. Now, he's on the ground, laying there for a few seconds. Don't do the shield on him, just taunt and be sure you don't take a stray hit or it's ruined. Leap to another point in the room and snatch a seperate demon. Snatch him to you and taunt while he's on the ground. Keep doing this, occasionally picking up a scarecrow as a shield if you want, or if the Frost get's too friendly with it's long range. Be sure to keep him "stunned" so to speak, even if you don't want to taunt him this can help him stay slow. Oh, and as soon as you get your orb, KILL EM ALL! Sweet revenge. It takes alot of patience, alot of health, a cool hand, and random good luck to get this one. This should get you the fragment! ---------------------------------------- Secret Mission 04: Tracking Treasure Down Found during Mission 06: Ressurection. In the Angel Creation lab, look for the praying shells of men (wearing white hoods, from Fortuna town) in cages, with an eerie green glow around them. Your arm will be going crazy when you near them. On the left wall behind them, is the paper with red writing you need to examine for this mission. Find the hidden orbs! This one is hard if you don't know the trick. Your arm has varying degrees of glowing power when something hidden is near. When it glows it's brightest, you are at your destination, and the red orbs are not far. First, don't be thrown by the 99 orbs. You need to find three locations, sometimes four, and you're done with all 99. So first, walk slow when your arm tones and glows a bit. If you walk one way and it stops, simply go the other way and get it glowing again. Slowly walk and find your big glow. From here, when it's really glowing and toning loudly, stand still. If the orbs don't appear after you slowly count off three seconds, move a little tiny bit in any direction until they appear. The orb spots in this Grand Hall room are random, but popular spots are: Upstairs, near the blue switch. Upstairs near the portrait. Downstairs to the left and right where all the chairs used to be with orbs in them. Just above the Gyro Blade in the center hall. At the very top of the roof, using the bounce pad. Right near the very front door to the castle. This is just my experience after going through the mission a handful of times to test. Your locations may vary, so just follow the rules I listed above and find the three or four locations the game gave you. Good job! ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 05: Sky Scraper Found in Mission 07: The She-Viper, in the Lapis River area. Cross the bridge and make an immediate left. Stay up on the riverbank at the corner of the map and locate the paper you need to examine attatched to a tree. It's not down in the riverbed or anything like that. Your Arm will tone and glow to indicate you are close to it. Reach the goal by rising to the top. Nero will be using jump pads and the Grim Grip for this one. I don't think Dante can do this one, even with Trickster level 4. Remember that shaft you travelled in the labs? Well now you have to use the jump pads and get allllll the way up to the top, and it's timed very tightly to boot. One minute leaves little room for error. Know your animations. At the height of a jump, you will front flip, which adds a tiny bit of height. You also probably want to use Air Hike, though it won't make a massive difference overall. And once you use it one time, you cant anymore, until you touch ground. Keep in mind first off, that there is a little ground to the sides of the circular area, so if you fall, hug the wall and pray and you might not fall all the way back down to the floor. If you get up over halfway and drop , just restart by touching the doors at the bottom, as time will be too low to continue. Almost halfway up the pad you want is fenced in. You should use a simple Y button press to destroy the fence, or use Roulette if you want more security on how much fence is destroyed, of course you'll lose aerial control for a bit. If you destroy it and then double jump, you may not need to aim for the pad below you. Otherwise, you'll have to fall to the pad below and try to get within the hole you've opened. Keep in mind the Grim Grip positions. You'll jump up, Grip twice quickly, jump up, Grip twice quickly, jump up, destroy section(s) of fence, double jump or drop down to pad again, jump up to fenced pad, jump up to an akwardly placed Grim Grip you may need to hit more than once, or you can try landing on a nearby wall catwalk but that's hard, jump up, and you're done. This can actually be done with 40 seconds left on the timer. Keep practicing! ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 06: Vermifuge This one can be found in Mission 10 (or 12 as Dante): Wrapped In Glory This one is in the Security Corridor map. As soon as you pass all the crazy wall lasers in slow motion, look on your immediate left. Your arm will likely be going crazy by there. Eliminate all the chimera before the scarecrow is taken over! Wow, they went insane with this one didn't they? You have the grab/shield move from the aegis shield, right? Quickly nab the scarecrow and hold down B. Now, you can only walk or make short hops with him, so quickly and carefully get him to somewhere safe. I like to grab him and double jump my way over to the stairs in the background, taking him to the safety of the ruined church. Get him well into the gates and release B on the ground to slam him down. Careful, more than one slam and he dies, and you fail this mission. When he's safe, run over to all the little guys and start air grabbing and Bustering them apart. Or go into DT mode and just hack away. Try to make sure none get by you. Just because the Scarecrow buddy is realatively safe, doesn't mean you are. These things, en masse, HURT. Avoid hits. Another place to take him is the upper right portion of the map, in front of those big double doors and down the little steps there. The chimera rarely ever follow you in there. And the best for last, you can actually hop UP the cliff behind you at the start, and they will never, ever reach him. However, if he stands up and stupidly walks over, he's in trouble again, so be careful of that and be quick. Normally, the chimera docily spread out and sit down if the scarecrow isn't near, but when you start grabbing, they'll take off towards him again, no matter where he is. So be quick in your killing. Using double jump and the three spots mentioned, you'll find your groove and finish this one easy. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 07: Free Running You will discover this one in Mission 10 as well, and can also revisit it during 12 as Dante. It's in the Meeting Room. Located directly across from the Gold Lion statue (shop) just after you take on the knights in the meeting room itself. Reach the goal without falling through the vanishing floor. Sounds easy right? Wrong. Not only do you have to deal with the flying enemies, the floor moves much more quickly than it did during the normal mission here. It can be done, but it's harder than we want it to be. However, as either Nero or Dante, there are tricks to making this easier. First, if you're Dante in mission 12, activate the floor and have a full gauge for gunslinger Pandora move B. You can simply use the missle launching craft to fly right over to the orb fragment. Wow. Hey, there's no shame in it. Just don't get hit while you're flying, or you drop and you will have wasted your Disaster meter. I highly recommend this method. Another decent methord is to activate the floor switch but don't go on yet. That way, no enemies appear. Wait for the next set of floor, in an X shape to appear. As Nero (streak) or Dante (stinger) your way off the ledge, and note the enemies appearing in midair. Double jump or trickster your way to the floor if you missed using the dash moves. Now you only need survive less than half the normal time of this mission, and the orb fragment is yours. Keep in mind, waiting for the new floor to appear for you will take around 40 seconds or so, I think. I never really timed it, but it's quite a while of waiting. If you try it the normal way, good luck to you. As Nero, grab the baddies so that they fall apart over open space. Sometimes they stay gone if you do this, other times they regain their cloaks and come back quickly. As Dante, a level 2 charged shotgun starts off things well, continue to use gunslinger shotgun attacks and you may stand a chance. Don't forget Trickster 2, double jumping and air dashing is key here. Lastly, these guys hit hard and take more hits to pull out of their cloaks if you're used to playing low difficulty modes. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 08: Royal Blocker This one is found during Nero's Mission 07, but you can't do anything with it at all. This one can only actually be achieved during Dante's Mission 14: Forest of Ruin. Work your way all the way back to the beginning, near where that red orb crystal is, go into the tiny gazeebo looking stone structure, and the paper for the secret mission is right there on the wall. This map is called Forest Entrance. Successfully execute a Royal Block 5 times. Sounds easy right? Well, if you played DMC 3 and remember trying to learn Royal Block style, you'll know how frustrating it can be. If you are good at that, or you just know fighting game block techniques down to the animation frame, you can do a Royal Block. However, if you don't know much about that stuff, luck needs to be on your side, along with some advice from me. The first thing you want to do is eliminate the other shadow. You only want to face one. Holding B down is a normal block, does not count, and can get you hurt. A perfect, Royal Block, executes when you press B at the EXACT moment you would've been hit. If you miss, mess up at all, your counter resets to zero of five again. Ugh. Some people have luck spamming on the B button over and over again until it works. Be certain you are locked onto and facing your enemy at ALL times, blocking does no good if the Mephisto circles you and hits your back. But also be careful about pressing Forward B by mistake, you may kill him. If you get in trouble, touch the door in here, or kill the last demon to get out. It sucks, but restarting the mission is probably better than using up all your health items and yellow orbs on this. Though you could. To use items you have to exit the Secret Mission. I just used DT to regain health. You can also level up this style enough (level 4) so that you can execute Dreadnaught between Royal Blocks. So long as, of course, the Royal Gauge has power in it, which, depending on how you do here, and whether you charged it up or not before hand, may or may not matter. If you do have gauge to spare though, it's great to do Back and B as a level 4 master, because it makes you unkillable for a bit. Even if the gauge is pretty much empty (or completely!) you can use Dreadnaught and it actually works for this exercise. In fact, if you get lucky, you can catch the Mephisto in a small loop of the same quick hit, while you get stuck in the "Dreadnaught charging animation". So long as you're tapping B really, really fast while you transform (and after of course in case he breaks the cycle), you will always score a Royal Guard. Trust me, this works, after four tries I had it, and only had to use a couple items. GREAT job if you get this one! By now, your health should be looking quite good. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 09: Unbreakable This one is available to you during Mission 15: Fortuna Castle. Head to the Library and locate the Stairwell you can fall down. Look at the back portion of the lower stairs, rather than going into the door. Enjoy, this is one of the toughest three challenges in the game (along with the previous Royal Blocker and well before that, Nonviolent Resistance)! Eliminate all enemies without taking damage and without being captured by a Fault. Yikes. I mean really. This one will make you mad. And using Holy Waters over and over is out of the question, you can't access item menus during Secret Missions. First, know thy enemy. If you kill the podlike Chimera demons before they can attatch to the Assualts, you've won half the battle. Seeing as, if they attatch, they attack independtly of the host, so a stray tentacle can ruin your day, even when assualts are on the ground you can be hit. Next up, know that the lizards (assualts) can fire projectile spikes at you, tunnel in the ground and slam up into you quick, can practically fly through the air and into you, and are fairly quick with their combos on the ground as well. Faults appear randomly and can ruin your day, though they drop health when dead. Note that when I call for the "pod missle" attack, I'm referring to Pandora's Argument. ----------------------------------------- My top technique: ----------------------------------------- Added - This is my newest method and one I've found to work every time you try it, but there is no "trick" to this. You just have to be quick, good at Dante, and know the playing field very well, which you will if you keep getting stuck at it. When the battle starts, stay on the ground, locate the three chimeras. Stinger once, YYY once, you should kill it. If not, stinger again. Don't take long on this, as you kill each chimera. Now that you're alone with the assualts, spam the shotgun on the ground and hope they all stay down. If you don't lock on, he automatically fires on the nearest threat, which can be a blessing and a curse, since one in the back may decide to spin attack, dig attack, or shoot you with a spike. Keep them all in a corner and shoot them constantly with the shotgun to make them stay on the ground. That's the first wave easy. Keep in mind you can destroy the eggs and Faults while you're fighting, but more Faults will appear. Good for rebuilding your health in between if you attempt this mission a million times though. Try to build the Pandora a bit if you can get the lizards alone. Just avoid the Faults if you decide on using it's cross bow and rocket attacks. I prefer to gatling gun them twice from a double jump, repositon, and maybe use the crossbow, then going to shotgun again. On the second wave, if you've built up Pandora, use it's Argument from as high as possible and send out a volley of missles with the B button, then use the X button over and over until it runs out. You should kill one, maybe two, before you're done with this. Since it's the second wave, the assualts are automatically infected, so you can no longer safely stay on the ground using the shotgun. I like to just stay in the air using Pandora to build up my missle pod again, for one final rush, but if you feel daring and are skilled enough, switch to Trickster, have Air Dash (level 2), and double jump while air dashing and using the shotgun when you are rarely able. Do not stop to use your sword, even if it's down to one demon, the tentacles will probably nail you and end all your hard work. ----------------------------------------- Okay, there's multiple methods through this one. One (takes some time, five or six minutes) is to have Trickster on. Double jump, shotgun, air dash, repeat repeat repeat. Keep in mind, when using guns on infected Assaults, the Chimera on their backs "die" briefly, so there's less chance of taking a stray hit from their tentacle blades. Be careful of the tunneling assualts, and their projectiles. With a little prepwork, you can use the Pandora and gunslinger technique. Go into the battle with a full disaster gauge (by using the Pandora on enemies and NOT using any specials for it, you can build up your meter by exsclusively using it on five or so demons). Double jump as high as possible, then use the Gunslinger B attack. Encased in the pod, press X X X as rapidly as you can, the missles are heat seeking so you should mostly hit them. Keep moving and shooting, and be ready to drop when the period is over. By now the second wave is up probably, so double jump and use the rest of your disaster gauge on the pod missle attack again. If you avoided the assualts air attacks, you've won! Another decent method is to only use Pandora. This works well if you had a hard time filling up your gauge fighting the Angelos up top, or if you just forgot to (like I did at first). I don't recommend the rockets at all, because the Fault can come up from the ground and nab you. Just double jump, move in the air while shooting the gatling gun twice. This takes even longer than the shotgun method, but the payoff is that with gunslinger on, when you're high enough up, you can automatically use the pod heat seeker method. Remember, pressing B while in the pod fires a volley of missles that may give the edge if you're down to the last one or two enemies. And lastly, though there are other techniques, try just combining the rest for best results. These are the most risk free way of doing things. On the first wave, trickster air dash, double jump, shotty the demons to death. Just as the second wave starts up, gunslinger and whip out the Pandora, double jump way up high and go into the pod using B, and let the missles finish the mission for you. If you're lucky and quick, you won't even drop to the ground after this until they're all dead. You can just shoot the missles without a demon lock on, to move better and avoid attacks. You can also fire a gigantic volley of missles if you press B again while INside the pod (argument). Doing this will drain your meter down quickly, and you will get off two max I think. A few added notes: Keep in mind, using the pod of the Pandora attack takes a moment to build up. When you're up there you will be still and vulnerable while the huge pod assembles. Once you can move, you should be golden. I've noticed on Devil Hunter AND Human difficulty (I think all secrets by default go into DH but I could be wrong), the last two Assualts will CONSTANTLY spin through the air trying to hit you. That's a big part of why I recommend the pod missle method, once hit, if you stay trained on that target, they stay down until dead. When I say last two, I meant the last one or two of each wave, so be careful during both waves. You can feel free to long range (level 2) Singer the chimeras as the start, but be careful. Also, every time you Trickster air dash, you do not have to use the shotgun, as this does present a big risk. Sometimes, you can just dash to move, then resume shooting. If you decide you can't keep a decent eye on your environment, try using the shotgun while on foot. However, this will not help you dodge incoming projectile attacks, or the air attacks of the assualts. If your shotgun hits consistently, though, they won't be able to do these attacks. If you beat this mission, congratulations! ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 10: Puppet Master This one is found during Misson 5, Trisagion, in the Master's Chamber. Break the mirror above his fireplace. Maniuplate the Gyro Blades and raze everything! So, how good are you at this? Gyro Blades take some practice, and you don't get much in the main game. You are given what feels like a decent amount of time on the clock, but in reality, it's not as much as you'd think. Don't mess around. There isn't a great deal to explain here, but I can give you a few pointers. You need to know that you can strike the Gyro Blade when it's active three times for massive speed. If you hit it once, it's less speed. Get it? So to be quick, strike it twice or maybe three times, and send it on it's way using Buster. Your goal is to take out the tiny tower looking objects (like the one you toppled over near the torture dungeon). Know the hallway. It's easy to get your Gyro Blade hung up in corners and bouncing the wrong direction before it's done. You also don't want to lose it down empty mini halls. If you do, you may want to start over by touching a door, to save time and stress. The first few seem fine, with the last two being a little tough but not so bad. Soar all the way down the entire hall, to the end, taking out 3 of your five. Do this by striking it three times or two for more speed on your part. Now, gently buster it with no sword strike, or just one, into the fenced in area. Line it up quickly as you can, and strike it once with the sword, and send it into the 4th object. It *should* hopefully come back to you after bouncing and end up lined up with the final object located just across from the gate you just went into. Give it one quick sword strike and a buster, and hopefully you won the mission! Give it a few tries, you'll learn a little each time you go for it. This one is easy to get frustrated on, but don't give up, you're almost there! ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 11: Point of Impact You'll find this one during Mission 16: Inferno. Alot of people miss this one. Use Pandora to destroy distant objects. First, clear the lab completely and get outside. I'm not 100% sure on whether you need to purchase the laser, so I did anyway. It's probably only going to run you around 3000 proud souls, so if need be simply take out your skills from other stuff and learn it. The move is called Revenge, but you also must purchase Hatred first. We'll get into that later on, just buy them. When this secret mission is done you can always reset them later if you don't like using Pandora. Then, reach the front gates of the castle. Here is where you meet the dogs, called Basilisks. Kill that group and open the way. If you want to practice using Revenge, this is a good time. You probably should also use Pandora alot to build your meter to full. Trust me, get it full for an easy time finding the mission. To use it, hold X down and the crossbow appears but doesn't fire. Now, quickly press any three directions on the stick, I like left right left. It'll turn into a rocket launcher, this is Hatred. But, rather than fire now, spin the stick in any full circle direction twice. I just spin it right twice quickly, since I just pressed right left right I'm already there. Now charge and fire. Pretty nice Revenge, eh? In the next part, you have to climb this broken staircase to get out of this ice area, right? Stay with me on this part as it's kind of hard to put into text. Okay, on the ground level where you just finished, locate the broken stairs. There is a stone archway you will face as you hop up. Jump up seven or so times and locate the first stairs set into the snow. Head up and hop five times past the little gaps. Up here you encounter a small open snowy spot and more stairs leading up. Don't go up those. The secret mission is above this area I have led you to. Position Dante so that the stairs are to your immediate left. Double jump up this wall (and fall down) and you will have collected there very tiny orbs. That's the ONLY in game clue that something is up there. Nice. Okay, getting up top of this cliff is your goal. It's a little off to the right of where the camera actually shows you, keep that in mind. So, you have three methods of reaching the high platform hidden up this wall I just had you hop up. You can either have Pandora fully charged, equip gunslinger and press b at the height of a double jump to fly the Pod up to the mission platform, using the stairs for a bit of height from the left, or you can go into Devil Trigger which allows you to double jump TWO times and try that way. Using Pandora is the easiest method. Lastly, however, you can have Trickster level 2 ready, double jump up the wall as explained, and quickly air dash to the right, hopefully onto the ledge. Can't get it? Big thanks to fromac4's youtube video showing the secret mission locations in the japanese version of the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQYYtJY3vfo Scroll over to the seven minute mark of the video to find this specific location. Whew. That was only half the battle though! Now that you've FOUND the mission, you have to pass it. Once again, practice while it's safe using the Laser. Equip Pandora and hold down the X button. Now press right left right and scroll the stick around to the right two full times after the bazooka for the laser. Fire by releasing the X button. Got it? I hope so. You have 30 seconds to destroy the 2 statues. The camera shows you where to shoot, sort of, so try to memorize the start. Go mostly down the first stairs and be SURE you're lined up straight, as there is little room for error. This simply takes alot of practice. Now, input the proper commands I've mentioned twice now and immediately fire the laser. This is the harder of the two in my opinion, so with it out of the way, turn around and look through the little doors here. If you think you have time, go into the actual room to fire, but you don't have to. Aim through the doorway, and try to blast the final target. Whew. If you don't like that, then immediately go to the opposite statue and try that instead. The camera angles make destroying these two a real problem. If you find you aren't lined up correctly, overcompensate by pressing RB slightly away from the direction you seemed to miss at. So if you aim and it fires too far right, rather than waste time and messing with the camera manually, just aim a little to the left this time and fire. Hopefully you'll have around 17 seconds left after you get the first one, and you'll likely finish with four or so left. ----------------------------------------- Secret Mission 12: Steeplechase You'll find this one during Mission 17: Adagio For Strings. It is located in the Opera House Plaza. Reach the goal without taking damage. As soon as you clear the streets of the scarecrows, basilisks, and the like, you will move into this map. (by the way, for a quick, nice little SSS you can use the many forms of the Pandora to clear out the scarecrows, just beware the basilisk's fire balls, they will ruin your style points, use the multiple regular forms, crossbow, rocket launcher, and laser.) Filling the Pandora's gauge here is important! Like I said, once in Opera House Plaza, go to the gated off door on the right from your entry, and destroy the garbage can to find the piece of paper for this, the final secret mission. As I often say, for the easy fix in many of the secret missions as Dante, fill the disaster gauge with Pandora, and fly to the finish! Double jump high up and activate the Pod and the final Fragment is yours! If you can't, or won't, there are other ways, but it will take your skill and some memorization. If you remember Nero's slo-mo experience, you may have a slight edge. Stand to the left of the beams and watch the patterns as they drop to the floor. Using hops, double hops (not jumps) and normal jumps, you can make this happen, but it's hard. Be careful about dropping your guard at the very end. Remember that the lasers all cycle through and jump up out of the floor to resume their pattern. It'd suck to reach the end and lose like that. Also note, as Jonathan Deering (rbfskatantic(at) hotmail(dot)com) wrote: "There's also another easy way to beat the secret mission, steeplechase with Dante. Just go into the mission with a little bit of energy in the devil trigger gauge, and while in trickster walk up to the lasers, go DT and use the dash to go through the lasers one by one, it's extremely easy as long as you keep hitting B and started at the right time." Thanks Jonathan! ----------------------------------------- CONGRATULATIONS! With all the fragments, all you need now are the Blue Orbs you can purchase, and your health is maxed out for all those hard modes and the Bloody Palace!!! Good job, some of these secret missions are tough! ///////////////////// Ranks \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Here is a list I found on xbox360achievements.com, listed by Archon Fury. Thanks! Note: I have not confirmed every bit yet. This will take some time. Please keep in mind the orb requirements are not listed here, so see my full walkthrough above for those. ---Mission 01 Human Mode - Clear Time: 0:45 Style: 500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 1:00 Style: 500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 1:15 Style: 500 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 1:25 Style: 500 Mission 02 Human Mode - Clear Time: 11:00 Style: 6500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 15:00 Style: 6500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 9250 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 26:00 Style: 9250 Mission 03 Human Mode - Clear Time: 13:30 Style: 10,000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear TIme: 18:00 Style: 10,000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 20:00 Style: 10,000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 25:00 Style: 10,000 Mission 04 Human Mode - Clear Time: 13:30 Style: 6500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 18:00 Style: 6500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 9250 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 33:00 Style: 9250 Mission 05 Human Mode - Clear Time: 9:00 Style: 6000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 12:00 Style: 6000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 18:00 Style: 7750 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 21:30 Style: 7750 Mission 06 Human Mode - Clear Time: 16:30 Style: 12,500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 22:00 Style: 12,500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 25:00 Style: 12,500 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 30:00 Style: 12,500 Mission 07 Human Mode - Clear Time: 15:00 Style: 7000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 20:00 Style: 7000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 23:00 Style: 7000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 28:00 Style: 7000 Mission 08 Human Mode - Clear Time: 11:00 Style: 6500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 15:00 Style: 6500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 17:00 Style: 6500 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 6500 Mission 09 Human Mode - Clear Time: 9:30 Style: 10,000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 13:00 Style: 10,000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 23:00 Style: 13,750 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 28:00 Style: 13,750 Mission 10 Human Mode - Clear Time: 15:00 Style: 10,000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 20:00 Style: 10,000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 25:00 Style: 11,000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 30:00 Style: 11,000 Mission 11 Human Mode - Clear Time: 11:00 Style: 11,500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 15:00 Style: 11,500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 17:00 Style: 11,500 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 11,500 Mission 12 Human Mode - Clear Time: 7:30 Style: 7000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 10:00 Style: 7000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 11:30 Style: 7000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 14:00 Style: 7000 Mission 13 Human Mode - Clear Time: 13:30 Style: 7000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 18:00 Style: 7000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 23:00 Style: 8250 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 29:00 Style: 8250 Mission 14 Human Mode - Clear Time: 13:30 Style: 6000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 18:00 Style: 6000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 24:00 Style: 7400 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 29:00 Style: 7500 Mission 15 Human Mode - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 11,500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 28:00 Style: 11,500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 34:00 Style: 12,250 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 41:00 Style: 12,250 Mission 16 Human Mode - Clear Time:18:30 Style: 10,000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 25:00 Style: 10,000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 30:00 Style: 10,650 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 37:00 Style: 10,650 Mission 17 Human Mode - Clear Time: 13:30 Style: 17,000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 18:00 Style: 17,000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 21:00 Style: 17,000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 25:00 Style: 17,000 Mission 18 Human Mode - Clear Time: 7:30 Style: 5000 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 10:00 Style: 5000 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 11:30 Style: 5000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 14:00 Style: 5000 Mission 19 Human Mode - Clear Time: 22:30 Style: 12,500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 30:00 Style: 12,500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 50:00 Style: 20,000 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 60:00 Style: 20,000 Mission 20 Human Mode - Clear Time: 2:30 Style: 5500 Devil Hunter Mode - Clear Time: 3:15 Style: 5500 Son of Sparda - Clear Time: 3:45 Style: 5500 Dante Must Die - Clear Time: 4:30 Style: 5500 Note: This does not show the orb requirements, so be sure to use my full walkthrough to find the orbs and how many you may need. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The Bloody Palace "I've come to reclaim my power...you can't handle it..." Virgil, DMC 3 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////// You unlock this challenging mode by finishing the game on Devil Hunter difficulty. I have yet to master this mode myself, and would like to thank youtube and multiple users for showing me some of the higher levels I have yet to reach alive. ForeverPheo of youtube in particular. He goes by Devilix on the gamefaqs boards. As far as I know, for both Nero and Dante, opponents are the exact same. Don't worry so much over rating as about surviving, and if you get far enough, you'll neet a great score. If you can beat level 101, you should have S rank, so long as you didn't use a super character costume. Yes, the final boss for both characters is Dante. He has every style, move, and weapon available. Yikes. Good luck. Keep in mind, no matter what difficulties you play, some enemy groupings seem "set" to certain difficulty levels. Meaning Dante at the end is likely on DMD mode. There are bonuses upon each enemy kill with style, and for taking no damage in each level, that add to your time. Please see my enemy file sections below for tips on beating these demons. Don't forget to charge shot constantly as Nero (setting the button helps), use DT alot, taunt when you're able, learn IRing, and if you're Dante, master changing each style on the fly, and learn to use Pandora and for bosses, Lucifer. Don't worry over scoring style unless it's safe and you get one enemy alone, or a group of really weak slow ones. Just survive and keep up health. Try to maintain a steady eight minute marker on time at the end of each battle. With practice, you can do this. Each character owns his own seperate orbs and proud souls in this mode. Getting far obviously earns you a ton. Using Super Characters makes this very simple, however, you automatically suffer a grade penalty at the end. Later on, some enemy totals are hard to measure. Keep that in mind. 1 - Four arm scarecrows. 2 - Six leg scarecrows. 3 - Six arm and leg scarecrows total. 4 - Two Frosts. 5 - Two Bianco Angelos. 6 - Three Mephistos. 7 - Eight (I think) Gladiuses. Devil Orbs here. 8 - Ten or so Chimera Seeds. Health orbs here. 9 - Eight or so Chimera Seeds, Three scarecrows. 10 - Fifteen or so Scarecrows. SSS easy. 11 - Two Assualts. 12 - Two Mega Scarecrows. 13 - Two Assualts and Two Bianco Angelos, that fight each other! 14 - Faust. Seems a little docile. 15 - Alto Angelo leading two Biancos. 16 - Mega leading four or so smaller scarecrows. 17 - Two Alto Angelos. 18 - A lone Blitz. Fairly docile at first. 19 - Pack of Basilisks. 20 - BERIAL. Seems to be on Son of Sparda mode. Health at the end. 21 - Frost and Two Mephistos. 22 - Two Frosts and a Faust. 23 - Three Assualts and Two Frosts. Yikes. 24 - Two Assualts and some Basilisks. 25 - Three gifted Assualts and shortly after, a Blitz. The Blitz loves to kill the Assualts. 26 - A Blitz fighting a pack of Basilisks. 27 - Two Frosts and Two Bianco Angelos. SoS. 28 - Several Gladiuses and some Assualts. Health. DT orbs. 29 - Several Gladiuses for health and DT orbs, and a fiesty Blizt. 30 - Four SoS Frosts. Joined later by several DH Assualts. And I do mean several. Then a Blitz. 31 - Ten Chimera Seeds for health. Then a trio of Mephistos. Some health after. 32 - A few regular scarecrows and a Faust. 33 - A mega scarecrow and a duo of Mephistos. 34 - Six Mephistos. Some health from them. 35 - Three SoS Mephistos and a Frost. 36 - Duo of Scarecrows, then a Faust. 37 - Three Assualts and two Mephistos. 38 - Two Mephistos joined by a Blitz shortly. 39 - Several Chimera Seeds for Health, and a Faust. More Seeds keep coming. 40 - BAEL. SoS mode I think. Hard to tell. Health. 41 - Drastically new stage layout. Several Chimera Seeds for health orbs. 42 - Six or so infected Chimera Scarecrows. 43 - Five or so infected Assualts. Charge shot 3 is great. 44 - Several Gladiuses and Chimera Seeds for health and devil orbs for DT gauge. Keep moving. 45 - Four or so Infected Assualts. Then Blitz. 46 - A few Basilisks and some Chimera Seeds for health. 47 - An Alto leading two Biancos and some Chimera Seeds for health. 48 - Several Chimera Seeds for health. 49 - A trio of infected Assualts on SoS mode, joined later by a Faust. 50 - Many Chimera Seeds and several Scarecrows. Then some Assualts. Then more Chimera Seeds. Then a couple more Assualts, probably now infected. 51 - Some DMD (I think) Scarecrows here. 52 - Several Gladiuses and a few scarecrows. Health and DT orbs found here. 53 - A trio of SoS Mega Scarecrows. Then two Frosts. 54 - Severlal (maybe) DMD Scarecrows and an Alto Angelo on SoS. 55 - A Faust and a Mega Scarecrow. Faust may be on DMD as it hurts alot. 56 - Mega Scarecrow and two Alto Angelos. SoS. 57 - Three or so Scarecrows, joined by a pair of Mephistos eventually, some health here. 58 - Several Basilisks and a Mega Scarecrow. 59 - Many Chimera Seeds and a few Scarecrows. Some health to collect here. Mega Scarecrow later. 60 - ECHIDNA. I want to say she's on SoS difficulty. Health in her arena, and from killing her off. 61 - Four Bianco Angelos. 62 - Three Biancos and three Cutlasses. All of them are on SoS I think. 63 - A Blitz duking it out with a duo of Biancos. 64 - Several Gladiuses and DMD (I think) Bianco. 65 - An Alto Angelo leading a pair of Biancos. SoS. Then more four more Biancos and soon a fifth. 66 - Several Basilisks and an Alto Angelo. 67 - A Blitz on SoS and later on in an Alto. Then another. 68 - Several Scarecrows and two Biancos. 69 - Two Frosts and an Alto on SoS. 70 - Another pretty different looking setup for this level. Five Biancos on SoS. As you kill them, an Alto appears. Then another. Then more Biancos. 71 - Sveral Gladiuses for health and devil orbs. 72 - Several more Gladiuses for the usual orbs, and a mega Scarecrow on SoS. 73 - Several Gladiuses and a Frost. More orbs. 74 - Some Cutlasses and a trio of Basilisks. 75 - Some Cutlasses (three if I remember right), and an Alto Angelo on SoS. Vicious. 76 - Several Gladiuses and Cutlasses. Some health and DT gauge orbs here. 77 - A whole pack of Basilisks. 78 - Several Basilisks and a trio of Frosts on SoS. 79 - A few Basilisks and some Cutlasses. Then several Gladiuses for some orbs. 80 - ANGELO CREDO. I think he's only on SoS. Very agressive. Full health after. 81 - Drastically new looking battleground again. Several lesser Scarecrows and a Mega. DMD I think. SSS easy, durable enemies. 82 - Four Mephistos. Possibly on DMD. Then a Faust. 83 - Three Frosts. SoS. Thenanother Frost. Might be DMD on the last one there. 84 - Many, many Chimera Seeds for health, and some Assualts that will soon be Infected. 85 - A pair of agressive Blitzes. SoS I think. 86 - An Alto Angelo leading two Biancos. SoS. 87 - Several Gladiuses for the usual orbs, joined by a few Basilisks. 88 - Some Cutlasses and a pair of Biancos. 89 - A trio of Mega Scarecrows, joined quickly by a powerful Blitz. I think the Blitz may be DMD. 90 - A couple scarecrows and a mega scarecrow. Three more leg scarecrows. Then several more. Then another group of various scarecrows on SoS. Still another group and this time a Mega is with them. This time the group may be on DMD, very duarable. SSS rank easy. Yet another group of six to eight Scarecrows appear in DMD. The following groups of eight appear in their own DT mode. Several more GROUPS of scarecrows and megas appear. Are there fifty? Then some Chimera Seeds pop in to give off health orbs. 91 - Faust. May be on DMD, but doesn't DT that I've noticed. Soon another Faust joins in. Then a third 92 - An Alto leads a duo of Biancos. Rather than list each wave, know that several more Biancos flood in waves of two or three during the fight. Some drop health. 93 - Here come six or so Assualts at once. Seem to be on SoS. 94 - Some Chimera Seeds and some infected Scarecrows. Health here. Then some Biancos appear (two if I remember right). 95 - An entire pack of Basilisks appears. DMD mode I think. More appear after the first wave drops. Then some Chimera seeds drop for health, and another pack of Basilisks drop. Some have health to give up. More Chimera Seeds for health, and it's done. 96 - Several Gladiusses appear. The usual orbs drop. Cutlasses appear. Then three Biancos appear. SoS. 97 - Four Mephistos appear. Then a Mega Scarecrow. Then another. 98 - Four or so Infected Assualts enter. SoS I think. Chimera Seeds drop for health. 99 - Several knights appear here. I think two Altos, and five or so more Biancos at first. After that it's hard, very hard to keep up with how many waves of knight type demons you must face. More and more keep appearing in waves of four or five after you kill off the other three or so. Are there 100?! Seem to be on SoS mode. 100 - Angelo Agnus. 101 - Shadow Dante with every style, move, and weapon available to him in this game. Good luck to you! And if you beat this mode, especially without Super Characters, you are a king of DMC 4! Now go try Bloody Palace in the other DMC games!! ==================== IV. Files "W-what is it that demons lack? Please, for the sake of my research, please tell me!" Agnus, DMC4 ==================== We begin this section with a note. On the Mission Select Screen, under the heading Library, you can find what I'm about to list here for easy browsing reference. I have added some brief notes on attacking and understanding the demons. The walkthrough will feature something a little more in depth. ----------------------------------------- Items: (Orbs) Red Orb: A magic red stone of crystallized demon blood. Offer it to the gods to earn new power. Green Orb: A magic green stone of crystallized demon fluid. It returns lost life power. White Orb: A magic white stone of crystallized devil spirit. It revives lost magic power. Blue Orb Fragment: Blue fragments of crystallized life force. Four of these form one complete stone. Blue Orb: A magic blue stone of crystallized life force. It boosts one's maximum vitality. Purple Orb: A magic purple stone of crystallized magic. It boosts one's magic power limit. Gold Orb: A magic golden stone made through a secret process. It can restore lost souls. (Item) Vital Star S: This slightly revitalizes lost life power. Vital Star M: This moderately revitalizes lost life power. Vital Star L: This greatly revitalizes lost life power. A spiritual stone made by using Alchemy. Devil Star S: This slightly revitalizes lost magic power. Devil Star L: This greatly revitalizes lost magic power. A spiritual stone made by using Alchemy. Holy Water: This holy water can fend off demons. It severely damages nearby enemies. (Key Item) Proud Soul: Soul filled with the pride of noble blood. Indispensable when boosting one's abilities. Note: It looks like Dante and Virgil's Amulets from the past games sort of. Evil Legacy: A crystal holding the power of an ancient evil. It has the ability to awaken a new power within. Note: Let's you use the Grim Grip. Anima Mercury: An artificial soul made by using alchemy. Breathes life into the inanimate. Note: Let's you use Gyro Blades. Rusalka Corpse: Part of a dangling feeler used by the demon Bael. Those who take it up will find a new source of power. Note: Helps you find hidden orbs and other special hidden things, like items and secret missions. Wing Talisman: A talisman made of crystallized angelwing. It can stimulate a divine response in specific equipment. Note: Activates the jump pads. Sephirothic Fruit: One of Echidna's seeds. This fruit of her womb holds the power that binds together demonic plants. Note: Let's you pass through to new areas in the Forest level. Aegis Shield: Shield once held by Credo. Those who take it up will find a new source of power. Note: This will let you Hold bad guys in front of you like a shield by holding B during Buster. Key of Cronus: Crafted of concentrated magical energies. Can manipulate the very fabric of space and time. Note: Mostly used in puzzles. Has to be activated by a box device you find near laser traps. ----------------------------------------- Enemy: (Lesser Demons) The Scarecrow is borne with sacks filled with Trypoxylus. These insects are unintelligent, however, by moving as one, they bring life to their forms. Scarecrow (arm): Their bladed arms were once used as executioner's blades. Scarecrow (leg): This Scarecrow's leg-fitted blade grants it the ability to unleash breath-taking feats of acrobatic violence. Note: Both types here are pretty quick, faster than you'd expect from their descriptions. The (leg) in particular is very agile and loves to suprise you by flipping at your back with it's blade outstretched. Not a big threat at all, but both these types are worth keeping an eye on, as two hits and you lose all your style, and in one you drop dramatically. Punching bags at heart, use groups of them to perfect your combos and feel free to tear into them with group attacks like Streak, Charged Shot 2, or for Dante, the Dance Macabre. Pandora LOVES to eat these things alive, so keep that in mind for a high style as well. ----------------------------------------- Mega Scarecrow: Filled to the brim with Trypoxylus, this Scarecrow has swollen dramatically in size, and possesses a power that clearly demarcates it from it's other, less powerful brethren. Note: Big and dumb, but not slow. They have a variety of rolling attacks and love to suprise you just like their acrobatic brothers. Tear into them with two or three combos and end them with a power attack. Careful when they die, their giant, wicked blade comes back down on the spot where the body dropped, so don't linger around for orbs. ----------------------------------------- Frost: An elite demon sired by the emperor of demon-kind. Frosts are all purpose soldiers used in a variety of situations. Frosts encase themselves in ice to recover their strength, but quickly destroying their icy cocoon will end this process. Note: First seen in DMC1! Really good fighters to the core. They have long and short range attacks, can teleport, and heal at will in the cocoons mentioned in the description. Stay moving when in the prescene of more than one, use anything related to fire (charged shots, EX attacks, Lucifer), combo like crazy and just keep moving. When grabbed and used as a shield, they break free quickly. They are very durable. ----------------------------------------- Assualt: An elite demon sired by the emperor of demon-kind. Able to burrow through the ground with it's sharp claws. Assualts have varied attack techniques. They use their shields to ward off blows, but destroying it will render them defenseless. Note: First seen in DMC1! Fast fast fast. Not as durable as their brothers in arms, the Frosts, however they get shields to block bullets and weak sword attacks. Stick it to them quickly and then move away even quicker when facing a group. Try to kill one at a time rather than taking them all at once. Shields break after some hits. They burrow and suprise from underneath, they love to charge in with standard ground attacks, they can fire off their spines/nails/claws or what have you rapidly from a distance, and they sometimes howl to make you go flying back. ----------------------------------------- Blitz: An elite demon sired by the emperor of demon-kind. Unable to see, it relies on it's other senses to track a prey's movements, and then attacks with ferocity. However, this occasionally leads it to attack other demons. One should take caution to not fall victim to it's violent blows. New Note: Looking to take them down quick and with style? http://youtube.com/watch?v= UmwEmZdlI80&feature=related That link leads you to the answers! However, if it is taken down, I can tell you here. The basic premise is to go in close with Gilgamesh and punch, then before the electricity can harm you, use Royal Guard. Do this over and over again to build style and hurt the demon. When he's stunned, use your best Royal Release (or other damaging) attacks and he should die off within seconds! See thanks section for credit. Note: I still have yet to fully explore their rage and tenacity. But I will tell you this, they are the most durable of the elite demon-kind mentioned this far, and probably the strongest as well. When they are in lightning mode, they are teleporting to get a bead on your back. Keep moving, however you can. Timing a Table Hop or Royal Block is very hard. Continue to shoot the Blitz constantly whenever you get a clean aiming window. With Nero you may want to charge up shots while he's busy teleporting. With Dante, use the shotgun with whatever charges you like. Trying to use Pandora is risky, because the heavy hitting moves slow you down in one spot and make you a great target. The Blitz loves to appear behind you to slash. He also lowers his head like a rhino and charges. If you hit him while he's crackling, you will take damage and be slowed briefly. However, after shooting him until the lightning on him stops, you can go into Devil Trigger mode and combo him to near death. When he almost drops, he renews his lightning shield and it turns red. Now he's faster than ever and hits a little bit harder. Keep in mind that in BOTH his modes, he also likes to teleport away from you at times and fire a barrage of streaming electricity. If it brushes you it hurts, but if it dead on zaps you it's deadly. He can shoot ahead and up at an angle. Right before he dies he will kamakazie and try to call down a huge bolt and explode. If he manages to impale you on his horn when he does this, it really, really hurts you. Watch out! Of little consequence, one of my favorite character designs for a demon in this game. ----------------------------------------- Gladius: A man-made demon crafted by the hand of Agnus. Magically cross-bred between a sword and a reptile, Gladius is capable of transforming it's entire body into a bladed weapon. But one can cause great damage to other enemies by throwing Gladius in this form. Note: Shoot it down and/or Grab it as Nero. Then Buster the sword and enjoy the chaos. This is the only way to beat the first Agnus, actually. As Dante, Gunslinger is great. Twosome time with Ebony and Ivory, shotgun at medium to close range, or even Pandora for damage that will stun them to the ground, where you can stinger them to death. Fast, but not a massive threat, even in huge groups. Just stay moving and shooting and when you're open, do what you have to do when you spot one on the ground in sword form. ----------------------------------------- Cutlass: A man-made demon cross-bred from a fish and a sword by the hand of Agnus. It's dorsal fin is a sharp blade capable of cutting through earth and stone alike, allowing a Cutlass to traverse these obstacles unhindered. Beware it's unseen attacks. Note: Dangerous. Very. The Cutlass attacks in groups of three or so and loves to "swim" through the ground, walls, and even the ceiling to get at you. It charges quick and dissapears even quicker. You can tell it's coming by noting the red circle on the ground. It lands where it emerges, so you have to dodge him twice in small spaces. From the ceiling it's nearly impossible to keep up with it. Shoot with any guns that are rapid, and while it's slowed VERY briefly, get over to it and hit it with a quick sword strike. This makes him flop up on land and is the Cutlass' only weakness. Finish them before they can recover. Buster on these and you'll do a flying blade attack. ----------------------------------------- Basililisk: A horrid demon-hunting dog abomination with gun-like attributes crafted by the hand of Agnus. It's fiery skull can be shot out from it's body like a bullet. Possesses the ability to regenerate a new skull out of flame. Note: Kind of fast, and very lethal. It's tough to dodge their skull blast attack. It's best to lay into them up close and quickly, but it's hard to maintain a good style combo on these guys since their pack brethern love to nip at you from behind while you fight one. Using the Pandora's multi-hit attacks can help you thin their pack a bit, and give you some style as well. Stay moving, try to kill one at a time to even the odds better, and overall don't slow down during a combo or anything else. Start up some hits, move, repeat. ----------------------------------------- Chimera Seed: A seed from a demonic tree, Chimera Seeds are both sentient and intelligent. After their creation, Chimera Seeds seek out hosts to fulfill their parasitic desires. Note: Sluggish when they first "hatch" into an environment. This is the time to tear them apart, as they have little heatlh and aren't too durable. A Buster from Nero tears them in half immediately. Dante should stick to basic Rebellion hits ending with a Stinger to get it done fast. Chimeras enjoy attatching themselves to scarecrows and assualts in the area. If this happens, the host body becomes stronger, more durable, AND the Chimera can attack independantly from the host. Meaning it's bladed tentacles can strike even while an enemy is stunned or dying. If you use guns of any kind on the host body while it's infected, the Chimera "dies" for a few seconds and cannot attack you. You will know because it screetches and wilts and hangs limp for a bit. Chimera: A demon sporting a sprouted Chimera Seed. It moves unaware that is has become host to a parasite, and attacks alongside the Chimera Seed. Thus it is advisable to weaken the Chimera Seed with small arms fire and then take down it's host. Note: See above. ----------------------------------------- Mephisto: A floating demon wrapped in a black cape of special gas that allows it to pass through objects. Mephisto appears to it's foes as a black demon of death; however, in truth it's physical form is nothing but a tiny coward. Note: It can go anywhere, meaning sometimes you can't hit it (in walls or floors, etc.). It loves to circle you quickly and either swipe using it's "tail" body, or more commonly shoot you with a charged, glowing fingertip. It can also do dive bomb attacks from any direction. To hurt it the most, use your Buster grab on it until the "cape" dissapears, then wail on the bug. These can be killed with one try. As Dante, use the shotgun or Pandora's more explosive attacks. A direct Buster from Nero can knock them right out of their capes! ----------------------------------------- Faust: While closely related to the Mephisto, Faust is leagues more intelligent and cruel. While it's tiny, cowardly physical form is unchanged, Faust's capacity for violence makes Mephisto seem like a mere infant. Gunfire can be effective in disrupting the effects of his magical black cloak. Note: One of my favorite character designs for this game, this demon is quite eerie. Okay, same rules as with Mephisto. If he's in a wall or otherwise away from you, you can't hit him. He takes more grabs or more shots from a weapon to put down. When the bug form falls out from his illusion, destroy him if at all possible using devil trigger and big combos, but don't knock his body far away, as he can recover more quickly when not being hit constantly. Not only that, these guys recover quick anyway, much faster than their brothers. He loves to slash you with his "tail" appendage, and can also dive bomb, but his biggest attack relates to the opening cinema you get of him. He loves to use his floating, creepy hands and send down giant burning, laser like fingers that are several feet long. He can do various attacks with them, all of them quick and lethal. Do your best to eliminate any escorts he has first, because facing him alone is challenge enough! ----------------------------------------- Bianco Angelo: A man-made soldier made from the fragment of a demon known as the "dark angel". Filled with either a human or demonic soul, it carries out it's master's orders with mechanical precision. Note: Oh man. First off, know that the "dark angel" is likely the being known as Nelo Angelo, from the first DMC game. In fact, the name Nelo Angelo means Dark Angel. Bianco means blank, white, or clean. Anywho, this guy is TOUGH. I'm coming up with strategies for facing them, I can offer a few offhand. For one, using Buster on their backs allows you to pierce them with (and rev!) their own lances. This is a great way to finish one and fling him into a group of his fellows. They loves to turbo burst across the ground or sky and slam into you, lances down. They have fairly durable shielding so hitting from the front is out. Shooting a charged shot or powerful gun of any type blast into their front while they fly can knock them down sometimes. When down you can strike them from ANY side, so take advantage. Know when to dodge, and when to fight. Learning their pattern isn't so bad, it's fighting a group of five or more that's rough. I forgot to add, Nelo Angelo was also known as Virgil, Dante's brother. So armor of this design is expected to be quite powerful indeed, since it was worn by him and constructed originally by the demon emperor Mundus. ----------------------------------------- Alto Angelo: A knight turned demon via the Ascension ceremony, the Alto Angelo has donned the armor of a Bianco Angelo to lead them into battle. It is said that an Alto Angelo can raise the abilities of the Bianco Angelos around it. Note: You thought Biancos were trouble? The Alto Angelo is the pinnacle of the elite knights. He has a sword and a VERY durable shield and even when you hit his back he guards. He flies around VERY fast, and can command Biancos to attack you all at once from any distance. The word Alto means the Highest. So he's the "High Angel" basically. Don't ever underestimate this guy, even just fighting him alone. He has decent sword combos, can charge his blade and rush you, and loves to dive bomb from the sky in all directions. When the other knights are around, I think he also makes them stronger. Not sure. He loves to fly up high at seemingly random intervals and open a black hole (!!!!!) above him, summoning a ball of black matter energy to try and off you with. If you see this coming and can charge up a shot or use a strong bladed attack in the air (EX recommended), you can send it back to him and kill him and any other Angelos around. If it doesn't kill them all somehow, they will be dazed, greatly wounded, and without their shields. This also nets you an automatic SSS rank. Enjoy! Now, if you take out Alto's shield through a great number of strong blows, Nero can enter a wrestling sequences where he piledrivers and drop kicks the Alto. He can also do this in DT mode and pull off even more brutal moves! ----------------------------------------- Fault: Faults are sbterranean creatures that dwell in the demonic underworld. They can seek out the magical power of their prey, and once found, they appear suddenly from below wrapping their victims in darkness. The darkness within the Fault's body is often habitat to demonic denizens. Note: When you kill them (you have to be fast), you gain small green orbs for health. Not bad. Plus, they usually (blessedly) stay gone from the battlefield. However there is often more than just one. They love to appear when you're in the middle of a combo or firing the Pandora, to snatch you down into the depths. Once there, you have to fight off tons of the local demons of that level until the portal to leave opens up. Also, you have to repeat whatever map you were on. When you see them, if you don't want to stop to kill them, but are forced to complete combat in a map, just stay moving, it's all you can do. ----------------------------------------- (Boss) For this next section, please refer to the walkthrough of this guide for tactics and habits when it comes to the bosses. I will eventually bring the notes down here as well. Berial: A demon hailing from a cruel circle of the underworld known as the Fire Hell. The otherworldly flames that wrap Berial's body prevent him from falling victim to the magical machinations of others. However, when these flames are extinguished, Berial is at a great deal of risk. Note: Another basic boss battle. This one is to acclimate you to the big, often slow bosses. Capitalize on their slow speed and any openings they leave you. Berial loves to swing that massive sword around and destroy the buildings. They have small health orbs (green) in them. Shoot him constantly during this fight to chip away at him and keep yourself floating if need be. If you have double jump it can be a help, but it isn't needed. Use the snatch to grapple up to his head level and use air combos on his face, or better, the back of his head and upper back region. Come down and strike his back legs if you get a chance, and repeat, trying to time your grabs to get airborne for when he just swings at you. He also likes to swirl through the air very briefly (he's so big he can't stay up long!) and swing his blade eratically. Just keep up the hits and around a quarter off he'll be stunned and his fire goes low. Grapple up to face level and use a normal buster attack (just B, not lock on B) and you'll do a special slam hit. Brutal! If you get him weak you can also grab his tail and slam him into the buildings around you for big damage. If this is your second time through and you have DT available, be SURE to go into DT mode when using the Buster for even more damage and a more brutal attack. When his head is down on the ground after your slam rush in with Forward Y (streak) and use Buster again for yet another big attack! When he stands, be careful. He'll taunt you and fire out a massive burst of flames to renew his power. If you get caught in this it counts as a hit and ruins the no damage bonus, plus stuns you AND hurts your style by two or so ranks. He can also send up massive pillars of fire. It's nice to have double jump to avoid this, but you can just roll to the sides and rush him to try to get away. Keep in mind while he keeps you busy with this, he will do a bull rush of his on right into you, and this can deplete a couple bars of health! Plus a flame pillar will likely hit you during this time, meaning you lose nearly four bars on DH mode alone! If you can finish him without taking a hit you will easily score S or SS without even using incredibly varied combos, so long as you Bustered properly. Even with one or two hits, you can finish with a C rank if you kill him WITH a buster attack. He's pretty durable but he goes down hard. Just try not to deplete him to a quarter of his energy until you can stun him again, then use Buster. When he drops to around a quarter of his remaining health, he will constantly use fast, powerful strikes and it's a pain to try and keep a good style rank during that barrage of random attacks. For Dante: Okay. He's a little stronger and faster now, but you will probably hardly notice. See the Nero section for notes on his basic attacks. If you built up the Pandora's disaster gauge, you can immediately remove two to four of his health by using gunslinger and jumping high up, then pressing B to go into the missle pod. Then press B again for a volley, and spam X over and over until it runs out. Now switch to swordmaster and use rebellion or gilgamesh, whatever you know best. Switch them up if you know both well enough. When he is stunned, go into Devil Trigger and let him have it with every combo and offensive skill you know to really knock down his health! Keep moving and use Trickster if needed. If you like Royal Guard and have built up the meter enough, use Dreadnaught (level 4 max) to survive the hard hits and just keep on bashing if you don't care about being hit (no damage bonus). Dreadnaught with Gilgamesh really turn Berial into a joke on the lower modes. No matter how you like to do it, keep moving to avoid his hits, and slam him with your best, and semi-quickest moves. Stun him again and use Gilgamesh combos to finish the fight or get real close to it. Just watch out near the end, his homing dash and lunging overhead sword attack can slow you down and end your style score easy. If this is a replay, he hates the Lucifer! Feel free to stun him however you like, and then plant as many Lucifer blades into him as you possibly can. Swordmaster helps out here some if you know how the weapon works. Be creative! Cover him with blades and then do Back and Y to detonate them whenever! If he's stunned, man does it hurt him! Using Lucifer and Pandora well, along with maybe Royal Guard correctly, one could make this a very quick and one sided battle where you take no damage and score SSS easy! ----------------------------------------- Bael: A family of demons that resemble toads. They use a gas to conceal their bodies and sensual bait to lure prey which they swallow up. These demons are not used to direct combat, and their huge tongues are a particularly weak spot. Note: The demon is hidden at first. Fight the blue ladies and enjoy the orbs, do alot of damage and it applies to the boss in a minute. Careful too, these ladies can put up a bit of a fight. Suddenly, the demon frog shows his true form. Now the real battle begins. Another slow, big demon, he will telegraph most of his moves like all the big guys do. He's a bit faster than Berial though, so watch out for him. Start by using the grab to fly at his head, and attack the upper region with air combos. Watch out for his spitting attacks, they will freeze you in place and he'll jump on you. He also likes to run from you alot, since he's not a straight forward killer, using his lures on prey and all. Try to corner him to score a couple air combos and he'll likely jump away to spit at you more. Keep pursuing him and dodging his attacks. If he leaps forward he can swallow you so try to keep above and to the back of him using the Buster snatch. You can charge shot 1 at him a bit, but mostly you want to strike the icicle head area with air combos. There isn't much time to taunt yet. If he dissapears on you after swelling up, streak at his feelers and avoid their strikes and ice attacks. Enjoy the red orb shower! Be ready for him to jump back into the battle, he can swallow or crush you like this easily and that damage adds up fast. You may notice his feelers turning red from the pain you inflict. If they go down to a sitting position, be sure to Buster them so that Nero can yank Bael foward hard. This is a smart way to stun him and gain lots of style points in the process. At this stage in the battle he will likely add a new move to his arsenal, if not sooner. He can fire icicle blasts from his head and they arc up and land on your head if you aren't moving. Try to Table Hopper dodge this attack and his lunging gulp attack for big style points. If you hit his front constantly you will stun him. Now you can Buster his fat tongue for alot of damage and style, or head around to his rear and buster his tail and throw him around the area like a ragdoll. If you have DT mode from another play through (if this is your first time you won't have it), activate that for even more violent Buster moves. At his tongue you will crawl into his mouth willingly (wow) and stab out of his head eventually. By now he's likely turned red and his speed has increased a bit. He'll send out his lures to do more of the fighting for him and he will like to try to swallow you alot. The lures can grab you and freeze you in place, which lets him swallow you up very easily. Just keep going, you're almost done, use the same tactics as before and he will die. ----------------------------------------- Dagon: A demon much like a Bael, adaptation has caused it evolve a different body color. This proves to be the only difference between the two, including the particularly weak tongue. Notes for Dante only: Love the name. Okay, he's very much like his little brother Bael was. The most obvious difference here is that you're facing him using Dante, so the moves and tactics differ. Now, the best thing to do here is to use Ebony and Ivory from afar, have Trickster to air dash ready for the brunt of his attacks, and then get in close and use aerial rave (swordmaster) on his head. Also try some combos on his sides if you're afraid of taking hits and can't switch between trickster well yet. See the basic attack section for Bael in my guide to get a grasp of Dagon's move set. When the ladies come for a piece of Dante (like they always do!), swordmaster and shotgun work wonders. Stay on one at a time and avoid their spinning attacks and ice shots. Dagon rockets back onto the scene for yet another beat down after a few seconds. Hit him from his sides and try to go into DT for best results and bigger combo hits. When you weaken him, go over to his tongue and in DT, use Swordmaster and Rebellion, switching over to the extremely deadly Gilgamesh to finsh your combo string. If you have Forward Y, use it. This should just about end the fight. If not, you can finish him from afar with handgun charged shots, or get in and stinger into a short combo. If you're replaying him, use his own weapon, the Pandora, against him wisely. The laser to his tongue does great damage, but I prefer to use a string of different weapon combos there. However, the crossbow, bazooka, and the gatling gun are great for softening up his ugly hide, and for hurting his girls as well. Pinning the Lucifer into him in a big group and then detonating on his tongue is also a great tactic for eating his health away easy. C'mon, he's always wanted a tongue piercing! ----------------------------------------- Echidna: Master of a forest home to many demonic mysteries. Echidna scatters it's seeds to act as hosts for further demons. She aims to create a world where demons prosper through her plant-like progeny. Appearing to be a dragon, Echidna takes the shape of a woman wrapped in petals. Note: A little faster than you're used to if this is your first time in. Dodge her tail and don't let the swirls fool you. Just keep moving to one side or the other, not towards or away. When she goes to eat you, use a charged shot on her "mouth". You can also Buster her here for some good hits, but it's hard to time it. When she stands odd and a small ball descends on her bottom side, use DT and Buster it for a funny sequence and lots of hits. Kill the Seeds she drops if you want to keep this battle between you two alone. Now she'll try to strike you with her "hair" so just know when her head bobs to jump as high as you can (air hike) or jump backwards. Keep slashing her up top, and shoot charged shot 1 or 2 at her, ocassionally doing the YY,Y air combo and in the air also use Back, Forward, Y for more style ups. When she eventually plants herself in the ground, rush up with DT on and combo as best you can. Avoid her tendrils that snake up from the ground, watch out for her hair whip attack again, and know that she can also repulse you away with an invisible barrier. Note that using the gun in DT sends out flying swords as well. When you stun her, you can DT and Buster her for yet another great scene and tons of damage! When she rises up and turns yellow in pain and fury, stun her from a few good, strong hits and then DT and Buster her again for a GREAT ride, lots of style and damage, and a fully revved up sword to boot! Now she's faster and will repeat her pattern but more erratically. The hits hurt a tiny bit more also, but the main thing here is her speed, as those hits add up! She can now also fly around fast and send out lots of seeds to hurt you and take away your style score. Deflect her once more with a Buster or charged shot. If you need health, note that her seeds scattered around the sides of this area give off some, plus lots of orbs. Now for Dante: As Dante, much remains the same as for Nero. Certain attacks can deflect her charges, but I like to use Trickster to dodge her and run up her body for sytlish points. Stay moving until she slows down or stops. Use swordmaster to aerial rave her when she drops out seedlings, and for any time you can hit her exposed main body. The shotgun is the weapon of choice here if it's your first time through. Just stay moving, use DT liberally, and combo her in the air using different styles whenever possible. None of her moves will change from Nero's battle. On replay, Pandora works well, using the bazooka (left, right, left, holding X). As is sometimes the case in Capcom games, this boss is kind of weak to her own weapon, so if you're replaying, use the Gilgamesh when she's stunned and open to combo like crazy for a high score and tons of damage. Lastly, Lucifer (on replay) also works very well. Swordmaster 4 is needed to truly use Lucifer correctly though. ----------------------------------------- Agnus: The chief alchemist of the Order of the Sword, Agnus created both the Cutlass and Gladius, and is able to control them at his will. Note: Very simple stuff here. The room floods with the Gladius. Concentrate on a couple small factors here. One, make sure you aren't in the direct line of a charging attack from a demon. While you do that, concentrate on using Snatch to make the demons fall solid. Then, run up and Buster that demon to fling him at Agnus' glass. That's all there is to it! Sometimes, Agnus will get involved and try to zap you. When this happens you can try to get on the little hub in the center, but I recommend just double jumping when you see it start to zap, and then fire the Blue Rose rapidly to stay in the air. If you are on a replay and already have DT, use it when you Buster the Gladius and you do more damage! ----------------------------------------- Angelo Agnus: The demon form of Agnus after his Ascension ceremony. With wing-like organs attatched, Angelo Agnus can call upon the numerous demons of his pseudo-hell to do his bidding, but only at the cost of his health. Note: He's quick but honestly not as big a threat as Credo was. Avoid his lunging strikes and use the Buster to pull over to him quick and strike. He can use a portal to summon some more Gladius demons. Let them come, dodge or Buster snatch, and throw them at him or each other for orbs. The cages along the sides of this area hold health orbs. When he jumps back and charges up, get ready to dodge or charge shot him. I'm not sure if a Buster works here, but it probably does break his rush. If his dash attack connects to you, he will drain out alot of your health and make it his. If you DT during his grab, you break free. The key here is keeping up the pressure, really staying on him and laying in the hard hits and combos. Again, snatch keeps you on him most of the time. When he isn't glowing slightly, you can Buster him for a small attack but he sends you back off from him and can hurt you too. If he drains you consistently, this fight gets alot more dangerous, so keep up the dodge! Keep in mind returning a Gladius with Buster to him gets you some white orbs for your DT gauge. He can open his hell portal and shoot fire balls at you in groups of six or eight. Dodging here keeps you moving to him for some more damage. Keep up the hits and he will be stunned. When he screams out and reels, go into DT mode and use Buster to massively damage him and gain three or four style ranks! He will then blow you away. If you have a DT gauge of six or more, stay in this mode to regain some health, keep speed up, and shoot out swords at him with the gun. After he blows you back a bit, he may try floating up and getting an attack ready. Shoot him to make him stop. He'll summon fire again, and some more Gladiuses than before. Just up your speed and keep going after him, throwing Gladiuses at him when needed. Soon he will probably summon groups of simultaneous fireballs for you to dodge roll past, and then some Cutlass demons. Not only should you kill them as fast as you can, by any means you have available (even DT to hit him with harder), and throw them near him for hits, he will also grab two for himself to use in combat! He spins about with them and even throws them into you at high speeds. You can Buster them back, but it's really, really hard to time it right. I like to try and roll to the side of his spin attack, as double jumping sometimes just gets you hit faster. Rush him when you get an opening and go into DT, combo some, and when he's stunned, Buster and the fight should end or be very near it. Repeat the process. For Dante: Wow, GREAT scene. Hilarity ensued for all, now it's time to take him down for good and get back your Yamato! He's pretty fast and still has many of the same attacks he used on Nero, so see that section or the boss section below the guide for info on his moves. You probably remember most of them anway. Stay moving with trickster and use whatever guns you're most comfortable with. Shotgun seems to be just fast enough and strong enough to work out perfect. Pandora is great but, well, it slows you down alot so you have to time it just right to not take hits. I like to use the Rebellion with swordmaster style until he is kind of stunned, then I let lose with Lucifer and pierce him up a ton, detonating the blades when he regains his momentum, to floor him again and go in for a rebellion combo. Keeps him busy, hurts him really well, and gives you some style! He will likely begin by using his sword on you and summoning some dogs to play with you both. Keep the pressure on the dogs, they can wear you down and distract you enough for him to drain your health. Dodge his fireball attacks using trickster and keep on shooting and trying to cut him up. When he summons more demons to help him fight, use gunslinger the and pandora's missle pod barrage move to even up the odds. Rush in DT and combo him with either rebellion or gilgamesh, and when he drops from being stunned, use (still in DT mode) the best Lucifer moves you have. I like to use Y,Y,Y,Y, the go into Foward Y, then Forward B with Swordmaster style on. He will probably float up and yell "time to die!" at this point, like with Nero, or try to summon more demons. Either way, NOW is the time to detonate your Lucifer blades with Back and Y. Ka-boom! If he hits you with his "time to die" attack, you're going to lose a ton of health, so this method works well. After Pandora's missle battery attack and now the Lucifer's many blades exploding in him, he should be down to half his health or so. Continue to dodge his attacks (escpecially the health drain one, it can turn the tide on your fast), and get ready to go into Trickster to dodge his spinning cutlass attacks. When he summons fire or the "time to die" drain attack now, rush in and try to shoot or slash him as much as are able to cancel the attack. If you use Lucifer, don't forget to use Back Y to detonate the blades! ----------------------------------------- Angelo Credo: The demon form of Credo after his Ascension ceremony. The shield held in his left hand is meant to protec tthe Order and thus exists as a symbol of Credo's faith. The shield is also capable of repelling any sort of attack. Note: He's fast and strong and probably the first real boss challenge of the game on lower modes. His shield blocks everything and can't be broken or taken away. You may want a couple of Vital Star Ms, a Gold Orb, and a Holy Water, just in case. Keep in mind that any time you hit him with the sword or Buster in DT mode during this fight, you can unbalance him a bit. When he throws a blade at you, you can Buster it back at him. It's hard to do though, I recommend dodging. If you do it, he's stunned for a second. While he struts around, shoot him. In DT mode, you will fire swords too. Treating him like a knight only gets you so far, because he teleports when his back is open to you. Careful of that. After time, he won't teleport as much when you're at his back though. If you bang on his shield a few times, then dodge up or back, he'll do a big sword swing whirlwind and then be open to some hits from the front and back. He also does a three hit combo that hurts bad, a four hit one, and a strong aerial attack that slams onto your head. When he yells "behold the power of an angel!", be ready for either a combo or if he's far off, a double sword throw you can try to buster at him, but I'd just dodge. After enough hard hits, the shield turns red and will "break" for a moment, giving you time to combo or Buster his body. Ideally, in DT mode. After this, he will start to combo and teleport and throw his weapon at you even faster than before. His health is hopefully at or below half now. Even lower in health, when you Buster him while he is stunned, you will beat him down massively and come close to ending the battle. Keep up the pressure, steaking in close and hopping around quick. Table Hopper 2 or 3 is good here, but hard to master. ----------------------------------------- The Savior: The most powerful demon brought forth by the Order of the Sword. It's exterior, oft-mistaken to be a god, holds a millennia of demonic matter and spirit melded together. With the blood of Sparda and his ancient sword, it will be possible to control the Savior for the first time. Note: Use the bounce platform and be wary of the Angelos here. Use them for style if you like, but it's hard to avoid the savior's blows if you try. If you see the savior trying to slap you with his palm down run up his arm (both arms) and take out what blue crystals you can. There are two per arm, one at the forearm and one at his shoulder. Avoid his petty swipes and dark matter fire balls and use either the yamato, rebellion, or shotgun to take down the crystals. He shakes you off back to the start after time. In the meantime, rush left or right to the jump pads. Let him kill the Angelos for you if you like. You can deflect the dark matter balls back at him using B presses from the dark slayer style (yamato). Avoid his great Fireballs by using either trickster or jump pads. If you go to the right first you will come upon a flimsy metal platform. Get to the jump pad quick because if he destroys it you start over your jumps. On the far right side there is a device enabled by a blue combo switch. Activate it and he will be stunned. Good job. If it's a side you've already cleared of blue crystals, smash at his fingers from the ground to stun him even worse. Now race and use the pads on either side and follow them all around his body. Avoid the Faults (kill for health) and knights (kill for style points) and use the shotgun or pandora to take down every blue crystal you see. Get his back and feet this way. I wanted to add, if you want to kill his black matter balls off more effeciently, use the shotgun. Eventually, he will recover, and on high modes, fast. So just repeat what you've been doing to mega stun him again like before. Remember, DT to kill knights quick, kill faults for health orbs and take out the dark matter energy balls for devil orb refills. Timing is crucial on all this of course. Give it a few tries and you can get the hang of it! If you ever get stuck, use various jump pads and try to find middle pads to get back to where you were. He has blue crystal orbs on his feet, one on his back, on his shoulders and forearms, his forehead and his chest. You can shoot almost any of these crystals any time with Ebony and Ivory from the center platform. Also keep in mind if you come back around to the same places too often, the jump pads will not work for you, leaving you at the savior's mercy, or should I say malice? If you get stuck, use ebony and ivory on him, taunt, and wait for him to either get hurt enough or destroy your platform. ---------------Headshot!------------ When you finally take down the head crystal, (or the final one other than the chest) some things change a little. By the way, you can reach this crystal and number of ways, and Ebony and Ivory do the job fast. Best way to is crawl up an arm and blow it away fast that way. He is faster now and will swing wildly around you at times. He also likes to charge up his massive demon killing beam from the earlier cinematics and try to fry you with it. That one can end your day bad, so try to use the bouncing platforms to avoid it. Keep on using every single jump pad to your right until you get a special cinematic. Now we're into it, a health bar! Taunt him if you feel safe, and let it run fully. Shoot him with super long range guns and keep moving to the right until the second tiny platform with two blue pads on it. Here, wait patiently until he pokes his head up, and get Dark Slayer Style read to rock. Hit his head with the Rebellion and your best combos, DT if you want. When the chest cyrstal briefly shows itself, use the yamato ground and air combos. He then goes to destroy your platform. Repeat to that tiny, two pad platform again. You can bound left to right, back and forth on the three little platforms until he pokes up his face again. DT and slam him until you get a scene. Finally, a real change to damage him! Use all the pads ahead of you to reach his weak spot, and then DT up and go crazy with combos and end them with the Yamato. If you plan to use the big forward Y or backward Y combo, be in close to his crystal and give yourself enough time to execute the slashes properly. Nice damage! Go for the highest style you can and try to get him to a quarter health or so. Now he does a spinning kick and uses more long range, devastation fireball attacks. Keep moving and baiting him on to come for you. Try to keep moving and don't let him destroy your platform or you have to start these jumps over. His giant beam is faster now, so don't stop to taunt unless you are really confident. Repeat this process until you finally send him down. It usually only takes twice. At a time of 12 minutes (yikes), 5000 style (from mostly fighting him at the end there), and getting some orbs from his fire balls and/or enemies around, you will ace the S rank! Go for no item also. This one may take you a few tries to minimize your time and maximize your style. Hang in there! ----------------------------------------- The False Savior: Completely assimilating the body of Sanctus, the False Savior may fall short of a true god's power; however, it's repulsive tenacity means one must not let their eyes stray from it for too long. Bring forth final judgement upon this atrocity! Note: Basically, just use Buster when the hands are near. Learn the timing and let it fly. He howls at you in a fury and leers happily when he hurts you. After you Buster his hands, Buster his head when it comes down and it's over! ----------------------------------------- Sanctus: The leader of the Order of the Sword and the one behind all of it's machinations. Surpassing the bounds of human power via his Ascension ceremony, unlike other knights, Sanctus's appearance has changed little. However, he has gained incredible demonic power. Note: Oooh, I bet you were aching for this one. He has a pretty simple pattern throughout this battle. Just keep your eyes open and Snatch whenever possible to get close to him while he floats. Watch out for the various projectile attacks of his two orbs. Know that when you snatch them they dissapear, which is good to stop them from hitting you, but bad for when you want to Snatch close up. Level 3 Bringer is a must for comfort here. Sanctus can also summon down some narrow lighting for now, so watch that if you're on the ground or near his open areas without hitting him. Snatch up high and hit him three or four times, go for a total of six to break the shield up. Snatch to get in closer and hit him again to put him on the ground. Feel free to combo, but don't waste much time. Go into DT mode and then buster him, for a very satisfying damage dealer and to hear some of the best and funniest lines of Nero's in the game! After he will regain his shielding, so stay back for a moment so you don't take a hit. Snatch even faster and watch out for his lightning and ground travelling fireballs. Break him open again and once more DT and buster to do alot of damage. When he gets up and says "I sentence you to death!", hop back quite a bit, the lightning here is not narrow like the other attack. Stay on him with snatch and keep on breaking him open and using DT and Buster. He can now also use aerial fireballs. If you can't stay on him by quicking using Snatch to grapple over, he will renew his shield constantly and pummel you with fire from afar. Keep up with him and keep up the DT Bustering. "Pray for your Savior, cuz you're gonna need it!" When he's down to a quarter of his life bar, things get dicey. The Savior demon statue will try to smash you from time to time. A side roll is best, but double jumping can work as well. Sanctus comes back, and you should treat him just like before. His attacks seem faster and he's hard to catch now. He can also use another type of narrow lightning attack. He periodically goes into the Savior statue, so either wait it out and dodge, or try to attack the hand a little. The fist can be bustered, but it's hard to time it right as the fist crashes down. ----------------------------------------- Sanctus Diabolica: The demon form taken by Sanctus after his Ascension ceremony. The ability to resonate with Sparda that the ceremony gave Sanctus is amplified, giving him power far beyond that of any normal demon, and warping his body into a hellish visage. Note: He will begin by renewing his shield, which blows you back. He likes to call down small lightning bolts of negative energy (he screams about the savior and judging you), that are easy to avoid by just backing off. He also fires out speedy fireballs and will send his hovering devices in pairs after you, like before but a little faster now. He can teleport freely about the arena and will if you corner him in the air too much. He will also summon a great bolt down onto you, which is one concentrated burst right under his body, and different from the small bolts. It doesn't pose a threat if you keep moving. Start by Snatching at him to get up high fast, then hack at his shield. You can also Buster it. When it breaks, he is surrounded by negative energy from the Sparda sword, but you still damage him when you strike or buster at him and his dark shield. Keep it up and stay on him to avoid his fireball attacks. When he renews his shield or calls down lightning bolts, jump backwards or roll away to the immediate open side. I like to snatch to him, strike once with the sword, snatch again quickly, and Buster in the air, repeating until he breaks open fully. Now you're getting somewhere. Rush in and do whatever you like, but quickly go into DT at some point to Buster him for a great sequence. If you aerial Buster him, you piledriver him down hard and then give him the massive punch to the body. Now he will begin to teleport at times and use the historical Sparda sword to strike you. He can also throw it a little bit. Keep moving and avoid taking hits if at all possible, so maintain combo rank. Try to be quicker than him and anticipate his movements. Snatch in, hack away, snatch in, Buster, repeat. Good. When he's around a quarter or less health, things change for you and if you mess up not only do you risk death from a major attack, you lose any style you had built up to this point from all the Buster combos. Sanctus flies up and yells at you, and summons the Sparda sword to run you through. The timing is hard, but you probably know what must be done. That's right, go into DT for the added hit and power (and style), and Buster the tip of the sword just before he can destroy you. You may need to do this more than once. ----------------------------------------- Dante: Son of the legendary Sparda, the Devil Hunter known as Dante has become a legend in his own right. With his sword Rebellion and guns known as Ebony and Ivory by his side, many demons have come to know Dante's incredible power during his long career. Note for the first fight: The actual battle and ranking time starts up when Dante's life bar appears. If this is your first time playing, you won't have much in the way of in game skills or attacks. Just do what you can. Keep moving, and when you see him do things from the tutorial, dodge accordingly with rolls, though I think jumps are best for everything but his helm splitter, which is an overhead air sword attack. When he taunts, gets into a corner, or if you get a rare window of opprotunity to hit his back after his misses with a stinger (dash sword attack), unleash a three or four hit combo and hop away. Taunt here and there, in close, and destroy all the benches for orbs. If you get a lucky shot at using the Buster on him in close, you can see a cool sword fight sequence and you'll push him away and he loses lots of health. If you get him in the air he'll lose a fair amount as well. Slam dunk! Try to finish this within 2 minutes if possible, and you will likely get an S rank if you got the orbs and C style. If this is your second time through, you can finish this quickly by using devil trigger mode, snatching with the arm, and using DT Buster moves to slam Dante over and over into the ground. He likes to shoot in two random patterns rapidly, block you bullets (cool huh?) with bullets of his own, rush in for a stab, do a three or four hit combo, air attack to slam into the ground, taunt, and dodge alot. None of these attacks should kill you, but if you are in the fight with him for longer than 3 minutes and you consistently get hit it will add up. Ng Jeremy (manwithmustache(at)hotmail(dot)com) wrote to let me know that on ocassion, you can and will lose if you clash with Dante during a Buster attack! He always follows this loss up with a ground combo that you can avoid by jumping! Thanks Jeremy! ---------- Note for the second fight: Uh oh. Now that you have Yamato and a shiny, powerful DT gauge, Dante doesn't hold back as much. Though he is still obviously just testing you, he will now switch between his four styles and act accordingly. Trickster lets him dodge quickly, Swordmaster gives him some powerful attacks, Gunslinger makes him versatile at a distance, and Royal Guard will just allow him to block you. He has many of the moves from the first fight with him in mission 1, only now they hurt more and are faster. He starts slow though. When he swings a large attack from the air or the ground, the back, forward Y attack gets you in good, and you may even get off a small combo. Charge shot 2 can hit him here, but it's best to rely on your blade and Buster in DT mode. It's best to let him go at you first, because he can counter almost every move you have initially. As soon as your combos knock him into a corner space, go into Devil Trigger (which stuns him for a second) and use Buster to slam him over and over into the ground. This is your best move to use, so try and use it whenever possible. If you run low on health and/or magic, smash the candles, boxes, and jars around the two fireplaces for orbs. Continue to let him strike at you, dodge, and return combos until you get a window to Buster him in DT mode. Combos in DT work well, and he seems to be unable to dodge the swords from firing your gun as well, though this is a waste of your precious time compared to other attacks. If he catches you with his Dance Macbre combo, or any other massive multi-hitter, go immediately into DT mode to cancel him and do a quick Buster. If he gets stuck in Royal Guard style, refrain from shots or hits, he'll release your own power on you and it can be painful. Instead, Buster him. In Gunslinger, he'll bust out his shotgun, so watch for that and just try to stay above him during these moments. Come down hard with the Forward Y air attack. He'll "lose" to you eventually, just keep up your combo patterns and do your best to DT Buster him. ----------------------------------------- Arms: Keep in mind, I will have a seperate section below for the abilities these weapons bring. ----------------------------------------- (Nero's Arms) Red Queen: A mechanical sword with a powerful fuel injection system. The propellant sprayed onto the blade allows it to unleash attacks of great power; however, the Red Queen's complex customizations mean only Nero is capable of controlling it. ----------------------------------------- Blue Rose: A unique, specially constructed revolver with two barrels, allowing two shots to be fired nearly simultaneously. A product of Nero's own hand. ----------------------------------------- Yamato: A sword imbued with tremendous magic, it unleases the latent power within Nero. Note: It used to belong to Dante's twin brother, Virgil, given to him by his father Sparda. ----------------------------------------- (Dante's Arms) Rebellion: A memento given to Dante by his father, this large magical blade is the physical manifestation of Dante's power. ----------------------------------------- Gilgamesh: Made of a devillish metal that absorbs organic material and transforms it to steel, this weapon will shock and awe enemies with it's brute force. ----------------------------------------- Lucifer: This netherworldly weapon spawns countless explosive blades that hover with the oppressiveness of impending doom. ----------------------------------------- Ebony and Ivory: Personally designed by Dante, these pistols are the weapon of choice when rapid fire is a necessity. ----------------------------------------- Coyote-A: A shotgun firing buckshot, it has been modified for combat use against demonic forces. ----------------------------------------- Pandora: A demonic weapon capable of 666 calamitous forms. It spells misery and disaster for countless foes. ----------------------------------------- Yamato: A katana used by Dante's brother, it is both the key to opening the Hell Gates, and to their very destruction. Note: As was said, Virgil's blade, given to him by his father Sparda. ----------------------------------------- Others: (Nero's Actions) COMING SOON! (Dante's Actions) COMING SOON! (Characters) Please see the next section of my guide, Storyline and Character Layout, for the Character section. ========================== V. Storyline and Character Layout "Hey, don't forget this." -holds up Yamato- Nero, DMC 4 "Keep it." Dante, DMC 4 "What? I thought this meant alot to you?" Nero, DMC4 "Well, that's the only gift worth giving." Dante, DMC4 ========================== (Shawn Mcpherson "Shootie HG" , Hostile Groove) Nero has a main game theme that is broken into two parts, the hard rock part and the slowed down part. Dante has his own original battle theme from the first DMC, remixed. Kyrie sings her songstress tunes in one track. Song Lyrics: ----------------------------------------- Shall Never Surrender - (Shawn Mcpherson, "Shootie HG" and Hostile Groove) The time has come and so have I I'll laugh last cause you came to die The damage done-the pain subsides And I can see the fear clear when I look in your eye. I never kneel and I'll never rest You can tear the heart from my chest I'll make you see what I do best, I'll succeed as you breathe your very last breath. Now I know how the angel fell (just kneel) I know the tale and I know it too well (just bow) I'll make you wish you had a soul to sell (soul to sell) When I strike you down and send you straight to hell My army comes from deep within Beneath my soul--beneath my skin As you're ending, I'm about to begin My strength-his bane-and I will never give in.* Note:*some think this line is "My strength is pain" I am not sure yet. Both make sense. I'll tell you now I'm the one to survive You never break my faith or my stride I'll have you choke on your own demise I make the angel scream, and the devil cry v My honored brethren My honored brethren We come together We come together To unite as one To unite as one Against those that are damned Against those that are damned We show no mercy We show no mercy For we have none For we have none Our enemy shall fall Our enemy shall fall As we apprise As we apprise To claim our fate To claim our fate Now and forever Now and forever We'll be together We'll be together In love and in hate In love and in hate v They will see. We'll fight until eternity Come with me We'll stand and fight together Through our strength we'll make a better day Tomorrow we shall never surrender. (X4) [Whisper] We shall never surrender (X2) ----------------------------------------- Lock and Load (Blackened Angel remix by Shawn Mcpherson "Shootie HG" and Hostile Groove) - Bring the fables from thy tomb Sporadic doom as knights loom Does clergy support this passion? Pure wrath of the winged assassin A time of fate, your spite sooths Untold the stories of thy muse Hour is late as kingdoms unfold Signs in disarray, you fight in loath (More), when you're (In the groove), in core (With the muse), is your (Light the fold), with torch Cues of silence spark the mastery Knights revolt to demonic treachery Can this seal be broken? Has our fate awoken? Who's this antichrist? Judgement waits on the test of Welcome to the thoughts of a coward's disband Cuz now you're in the shadow of an angel's wingspan Choose your cradle of filth Discipline that I've instilled Turn and face your sacrifice As I revolve this lead of might Immune to your parasite, except the hourglass that grains the time Try to find the antidote, counting down towards the undertow In my world where only time is feared, single handedly I draw your first tear Sway strong to the truthful frequency, spirits swim in the wares of history ----------------------------------------- Out of Darkness (Aubrey Ashborn as Kyrie) Listen to my voice calling you Calling you out of darkness Hear the devils cry of sin Always turn your back on him With the wind you go and still I dream of your spirit leading you back home I will give my gifts to you While you're gone and watching on The light in your eyes An angel of dark Lighting to ease the shadows' sight Hearts will grow, the heavens will play Leaving behind the things in the end Listen to my voice calling you Calling you out of darkness Hear the devils cry of sin Always turn your back on him On him On him ----------------------------------------- Taken from the front of the DMC 4 manual: Welcome To Fortuna On the coast of a distant land lies the castle town of Fortuna. It is here that the group known as the Order of the Sword practices a religion so mysterious, no outsider knows what happens behind closed doors. In times past, the Order of the Sword fought to protect manking. They revere the demon warrior Sparda as their god, and their hatred of all other demons runs deep. Their sole purpose is the extermination of these demons. On the day of the annual Festival of the Sword, a powerful man appeared seemingly from nowhere. Before anyone could act, this man assassinated the head of the Order! A young knight of the Order, whose only purpose previously was the extermination of all demons, was immediately ordered to pursue the mysterious assassin... ------------------------------- A number of demons appeared suddenly from deep within the Mitis Forest and attacked the city, destroying a number of houses and inflicting slight injuries to citizens. As luck would have it, Nero, a knight of the Order of the Sword, was present at the scene. All demons were exterminated. During this incident, a private female citizen who was a traveling companion of Nero's, was injured. Nero himself received a minor injury to his right shoulder. The ministry of technology has determined that Nero's sword, the Red Queen, took some damage and is currently being repaired. A detailed investigation of the area was performed, but no conclusions have been made concerning the reason behind the demon attack. There will be another investigation at a later date. ----------------------------------------- Taken from the back of the DMC 4 manual: A shadow knight rose up, holding an enchanted sword named after me. That blade will challenge the devil's reign. Destroying the minions of darkness that stand in his path, the knight finally faced the strongest demon. But his strength was no match for the devil's dark wrath. He was defeated and fell into oblivion. The people offered up their prayers, believing in the day when the darkness would pass, and sang songs of remembrance to the fallen knight. These prayers became our strength, our miracle, and by this miracle the shadow knight ws reborn, and once again fought the devil's power. As the shadow knight said, the darkness has cleared. ----------------------------------------- After a kick ass opening scene before you hit the title screen that displays stylish action sequences and a little bit of plot (featuring the theme song of Nero and battle in it's entirety), we begin. Keep in mind, you simply must see this yourself, firsthand, and this summary of events is just so I can list things needed for a later discussion and theory section. This is by no means the whole of the dialouge, nor is it the entirety of the plot even. Also remember, you can view semi-different parts of the cutscene by using the RT and RS, to zoom and move the direction of the camera a tiny bit! ----------------------------------------- Dante is a thirllseeker, demon slayer, half human, half demon, hero of the people. His skills with a blade, firearms, taunts, and overall finesse are second to none. He has a very twisted and powerful family tree in his past, and buckets of blood and steel in his future. He runs a small business out of an office called the Devil May Cry (which is more like a hangout joint), and if you call him with a demon problem and the password, he'll hunt them down to their last breath. He often doesn't even accept much payment. So then, why is he here to kill off the Order of the Sword?! ----------------------------------------- Prolouge We witness a beautiful Songstress of the holy order, opening the ceremony of the Festival of the Sword. Our hero, Nero, is running late and wants to be there to hear her voice and show his support. He is enjoying his newfound skill and power by acrobatically disposing of a few lesser demons. I don't know if this is a common occurance since the day the portal opened (see manual story at start), or not, but he handles it with a calm demeanor and a cool arrogance. He arrives just in time as Kyrie, the songstress, scans the audience for him. She is pleased he has arrived, as he cooly sits in a pew among all of his hooded brothers of the Order. He becomes clearly bored by the preachings of Sanctus (his holiness). ----------------------------------------- Mission 01 Dante comes busting into the opera house/cathedral during a special ceremony, and kills off several members of the Order of the Sword! That includes Sanctus, their leader (His Holiness). Nero witnesses this act, and even though his arm is "hurt" and in a sling, he attacks Dante. You can tell Dante is merely holding back, and Nero cannot really hurt him. They battle all over the opera house and destroy much of it. Dante points out the fact that Nero and he are alike (half demon?), and then shows him the body of one of the knights of the Order, which is now a mummified demon corpse. Then he leaves, saying he has important things to do. It is revealed that Nero has a demon arm of great power, which somehow possessed him in the story mentioned above from the game manual. Nero has kept it a secret from his Order of the Sword fellows, and his love Kyrie. ----------------------------------------- Mission 02 Nero get's his full sword, the Red Queen together thanks to his stepsister/love, Kyrie. She warns him to be careful and it's obvious how much Nero cares about her. His step brother, Credo, leader of the knights, orders him to follow the mysterious assassin, and to report back to headquarters when done. Nero stylishly, almost arrogantly, kills off many demons that have suddenly overrun Fortuna. After he passes through some residental districts, he ends up near the Mines. In this small shanty town area where the miners lived and worked, he notes a giagantic, black monolith. He recognizes it as the hell portal he saw in the story covered in the manual. Conqueror of the Fire Hell realm, Berial, appears in a great display of fire and power. He ignores Nero until he is taunted by him, noting that humans like him didn't exsist 2000 years ago when he first came to this world. They battle and Nero uses his Arm to harm Berial. Worried and vexed by this outcome, Berial declares a retreat back to the Fire Hell and slams into the monolith. Nero presses on into the mines to chase after the assassin, Dante... ----------------------------------------- Mission 03 Killing a few lesser demons in the mines, Nero use his arm to grapple with far off objects and fly across to new places within. When he emerges near Fortuna Castle, something is amiss. Everything is unseasonably cold, frozen, and the snow is coming down on him hard. He then meets some elite demons known as the Frosts, and kills them with the help of his Arm and cool swordsman's grace. When he nears the front Gate, he sees a volumptuous beauty battling and expertly killing off a horde of lesser Scarecrow demons. She almost takes a hit from one, that he kills for her using his Blue Rose revolver. She thanks him and introduces herself as Gloria, a new member of the Order. She recognizes Nero's brash attitude and compliments his skill, telling him he's very notorious even among his fellows. He brushes it off cooly and tells her he's moving on after Dante. Gloria accepts this and says she is heading into the town to hunt more demons for the Order. Her air and strength is not something normal in the Order, and Nero feels a little (ironically) unsettled by her. Nero is blocked by many statues and odd objects set up as security devices of a sort; and he as well, has to traverse a few trap filled rooms and kill demons. Something is very wrong here at the castle. When he reaches the library, he can see someone has rifled through many of the old tomes and texts. He didn't figure Dante for much of a reader, and starts to wonder if he brought the demons after all even. At this, a majestic White Knight in full battle armor with lance at ready appears in the room with Nero. He tells him "that's a good way to get shot" for sneaking up on him and turns his back, asking if the knight is here for Dante as well, or just out hunting random demons. The knight says nothing, lowers his lance, and prepares to charge Nero. Nero deftly blocks the attack, closing a book on the tip of the lance before it can pierce him, and snidely takes the challenge of this silent knight. The room is filled with knight armor demons and he kills them all. They crumble to useless pieces one by one, and he wonders how they were active with nothing in them. He activates a hidden chamber in the library and discovers the enigmatic Anima Mercury, an item that will allow him to activate large, statue like weapons called Gyro Blades. Now he can clear the path to where he thinks Dante may be going. ----------------------------------------- Mission 04 Nero enters the Castle Courtyard after encountering more demons and using the Gyro Blades to get through various obstacles in his path. It is set up like an arena. As he enters, he notices two beautiful, almost translucent alien looking women, that seem to be enticed by his presense and very much, ahem, enamored by each other as well. Rather than lose sight of his goals, Nero compliments on how they must be the demons causing this blizzard around the castle and it's grounds. He attacks them and easily wounds one of them. At this, Bael, a gigantic, slimy, ice covered toad demon leaps from the darkness, and challenges Nero after he insults him. Nero brashly accepts and proceeds to absolutely destroy the demon. This includes weakening him and his feeler demons, grabbing his giant tongue, zipping into the mouth of the creature with his Arm, and stabbing his way up and out of it's skull. Upon the nearly fatal blow, Bael spouts out how he's not alone and his brothers will come to avenge him. Nero tears one of the feelers off of the demon, and now his Arm can sense hidden objects and other such things. He deals the killing strike, and then wonders to himself where the brothers are. He looks up, scared and suprised for the first time, as he sees several gigantic, enraged toad demons coming for him from one of the monolith hell portals. He quickly rushes to a switch like object nearby and slams down on it hard, sealing the demons inside their dimension temporarily. A new door is open, and Nero rushes through after Dante. ----------------------------------------- Mission 05 In the soldier's graveyard area beyond the courtyard, Nero meets a new and decidely maliscious demon, the Mephisto. He battles them using his arm to show their weakened, true forms, and continues onward. He finally comes across a special item that will invoke jumping powers into certain devices located around Fortuna, built by the Order. He returns to the Grand Hall of the castle and uses a jump pad to reach the giant chandiler. He notes it's weak point and slashes it, sending it flying into a portrait of Sanctus. With a new hole open, Nero enters a place he's never seen before, deep beneath the castle itself. In the bedchamber of the fallen Sanctus, Credo mourns the loss. But suddenly, their great leader's eyes flash open a deep, blood red, veins bulge out in his face and neck, and he reawakens. Credo greets him, and explains that Nero is chasing Dante. Sanctus mentions an ascension ceremony he just participated in, as a new character enters the ascension chamber. Agnus, clipboard in hand, observes the ressurection of His Holiness Sanctus. He overheard that Nero is snooping around the castle. Agnus berates Credo and asks him "what will happen with that boy snooping? What if he finds my lab!" Credo explains, coldly, that the objective is to find Dante, and nothing else matters, which obviously hurts Agnus' feelings and angers him. ----------------------------------------- Mission 06 Sure enough, Nero has travelled down, down, down into the lab area of the castle grounds. Here he first encounters demons that move like fish and can "swim" through even the hardest metals, known as the Cutlass. He kills them to open the path, and continues forward. At this point he enters a room set up like an old game board. There are spaces to cover from entry to exit and it's fairly big. He notes that now a game piece, a life sized white marble statue of himself, has appeared at the start of the "board". A huge, spikey dice lands and Nero has to time his slashes correctly as he "rolls the die" in his favor. If he messes up at all, demons flood the room to attack, if he ends on a strange space he gains tons of orbs of varying types, and if he lands on teleportation spaces he moves more forward than normal. After besting the game and heading into the next few areas, he encounters Agnus. He has a bad stutter, and while a genius in his field, is quote obviously insane and evil. Nero is confused by his part in the Order because of the fact that the man obviously knows alot about demons and seems to respect them. Nero meets flying, sword demons, artificially created by the alchemist Agnus, known as the Gladius. His arm begins to glow while he notes a broken katana blade in a containment chamber. Agnus realizes Nero would come, so after they speak a little and we learn Agnus is a secret part of the Order, he fills the room with the flying demons. Agnus blames Credo for all of this. He also drops Dante's name, and tells Nero he will study him when he is dead. Nero kills all the demons in the room, using his arm to fling them in their giant sword state at the observation glass where Agnus stands, taunting you and writing things down. After Nero shatters the glass, he leaps up and tells Agnus it's time for answers, and Agnus is absolutely fascinated by Nero's devil arm. He tells him everything he can, for the sake of knowledge and research. He explains that the sword was found near that first hell portal (mentioned in the instruction manual), how nothing can assemble it's powerful form, and how it's a legendary blade. He also spills that he knows how to summon demons, as he decides to take out Nero using the Bianco Angelos he's assembled using his summoning and alchemic powers. They lances tear through Nero's body and pin him to the wall, and he is weakened to a near death state. Nero thinks of Kyrie and how he must protect her during all this, and his eyes open glowing with power, as does his Arm. Agnus turns in shock, as the Yamato blade is assembled thanks to Nero's powerful presence. The blade flies through the air and joins with Nero. Nero comes staggering forth from the room, in an almost trance like state, a blue, transpent, giant glowing demon behind him, coming from him and his arm. The essence of the Yamato is one with Nero now. He slashes the blade at Agnus deftly and destroys a large portion of ceiling. Agnus, taking such damage, shows his true self, a moth-like demon. He comments on the impossible power and assembly of the blade, and flies away to regain power and do more research his private quarters back at HQ. Nero escapes the Lab area and heads back up into the castle. It's time to go after Dante, and Agnus, who are both heading towards headquarters it seems. Taking a hidden, waterfall obscured passage he never knew of before, Nero ends up in a gigantic, jungle like forest region he never knew about. He runs into Dante briefly here, who smirks at him and comments on the effects of the hell gate creating the forest. He tells Nero "this is gonna have to wait kid" and leaps off a cliff into the deep of the forest. Nero wonders at what Dante knows about the Order, and heads off into the thick of the trees. ----------------------------------------- Mission 07 In the Meeting Room of the HQ, we see Credo and Sanctus talking about Nero's progress, and then Agnus comes in and angrily stutters out how Nero has full demonic power and the Yamato. He blames Credo. Sanctus interrupts graciously and asks Credo to apprehend his step brother. Credo wonders at Dante's capture, and Gloria claims she can capture and take down Dante. She steps off camera as Credo questions her loyalty. Sanctus reveals that she brought them the legendary Sparda sword. Gloria listens in and Credo talks about how she's a stranger. Sanctus reassures Credo that Gloria will be fine and can be dealt with if she causes problems, and then sends him off to fetch Nero. Agnus whispers into Santus' ear, about how Nero loves Kyrie. He obviously doesn't care how Credo feels on the matter. Sanctus smiles with this new found knowledge. Meanwhile, Nero traverses many areas of this demonic forest, killing off parasitic demons and lesser foes. He gets to a bridge and encounters a serpentine dragon. It destroys the bridge as it follows Nero, trying to dine on him and his power. Nero bests it by escaping and moves on through more of the traps and battles of this strange Forest. Finally Nero emerges into a clearing with a giant, green filled portal monolith. He remarks on yet another one, and then the "dragon" returns, which is actually the demoness Echidna! He runs all up her body as she whizzes about the forest at blinding speeds, but just before he can strike her head, she spits seeds forth that knock him out of the air and onto the clearing ground again. She reveals her true form to him, he kills her offspring and she madly dashes at him in a rage. Using cunning, skill with his blade and gun, and his Arm, along with his new form with the Yamato, Nero wins the battle hands down. Shaken, Echidna flees, knowing that if she dies, so shall her progeny of offspring and her beloved forest of death. Nero recieves a special item from her womb after the battle, which allows him to destroy the giant, demonic tree brances that block his progress to the headquarters. He can finally pursue Dante. ----------------------------------------- Mission 08 After killing some new found elite demons, the Assualts, and their parasite infected forms, Nero braves the forest and reaches the Order Headquarters. Who does he find, just out front, but the loyal Credo. He remarks "that's a look you shoot your enemy", to no response from the gruff Credo. Nero then demands answers for why the Order seems to be involved with demon-kind, and just who Dante is. This insolence provokes a rapid sword attack from Credo, and Nero blocks is using his Arm. Credo didn't know about it, and can't believe Nero is a "demon". Nero comments on not wanting to hurt him, Credo laughs and becomes his true demon form, an angelic general with a large shield. He explains that they are the future, and that he is the leader of the True holy knights. Nero doesn't want a fight, but it can't be avoided, so they struggle about the high set circular area in front of the HQ for quite a while. Repelling his attacks, throwing his own weapon back at him, and getting in powerful blows of his own while in Devil Trigger form using the Yamato, Nero finally manages to slow Credo down. Winded and beaten, Credo gives up his shield to Nero's Arm and reverts to human form. Nero tells him that HE is the demon. Now, poor Kyrie has come up to see what's happening, only to find Nero with his Demonic Arm and her brother Credo on the ground nearby. She shrieks and Nero is hurt to the core. He tries to explain and she wonders what is wrong with him. Agnus appears in human form and tells Kyrie Nero is a demon. He even hides behind her when Nero charges him! Nero pleads with Agnus "let her go!", and Credo is angered greatly as well, claiming this is his fight and not to use his sister. Agnus explains that Sanctus ordered Kyrie be "utilized" to bring in Nero if need be. Agnus turns into a moth demon and flies up to the top of the HQ with Kyrie. Credo is hurt and explains to Nero where Kyrie probably is. He then turns back into his angelic demon form and wounded, flies off after Agnus, leaving Nero to traverse the area on foot. ----------------------------------------- Mission 09 Hurt, confused, and angry as hell, Nero takes off into the HQ area. Before he reaches the front gate, however, a pair of assualts storm up behind him, leap past him, and attack some white knights at the front gate. The Angelos are lead into the battle by their superior, the Alto. Alto annilihates the demons, and sends the Biancos after Nero. After a massive fight on the bridge leading into the castle, Nero manages to kill off all the possesed knight armors and enter. He tries to cross a drawbridge but notes that it's held up by one of Echidna's powerful trees and he can't reach the root with his Arm yet. Heading back the way he came, the entire castle becomes a security trap, with fast, deadly lasers streaming all around the various rooms. Nero takes a detour up into another part of the HQ castle, and battles many knights and demons that have taken over. He finally gets trapped by a series of laser devices, but discovers a special item called the Cronus Key. Using it in tendem with certain special devices found only in this castle, he can slow time and get through the various patterned laser traps. He also slows a giant fan blade mechanism so that he can literally jump up into the fan and use it's blades to continue forward to Agnus' room. When he revists the scientist and demon, he finds Kyrie suspended, unconscious, in a tube of red fluid. Agnus welcomes him and tells him he won't go easy on him this time around. Nero tells him he will kill him to save Kyrie if he has to. The battle about the lab/bedroom chamber begins. After using his own creations against him in battle, and going into devil trigger to slam him around the room, Nero nearly kills off Agnus. Agnus tried hard to suck the health from his body, and could summon demons from his man made hell, but in the end it wasn't enough to stop the enraged Nero and his new powers. Before Nero can kill Agnus however, the room fills with Angelo troops. They distract Nero and Sanctus appears in full Angelo armor. He instructs Agnus to go and prepare. After a spectacular fight sequence, Nero loses his blade and leaps up after Kyrie and Sanctus. He barely reaches her necklace and grabs it (that he gave her), and is then pinned to the floor. Sanctus comments on Nero having Sparta's power in him now. Nero kills all the knights in the room in a rage as Kyrie is taken from him. He looks at the necklace longingly and falls to his knees a broken man. He slams the marble floor with his demon arm, and destroys it. ----------------------------------------- Mission 10 After having recovered from his emotional breakdown, Nero notices that the hole he made in the floor reacts to the fruit taken from Echidna. He can finally remove the massive branch holding the drawbridge up and move into the new parts of the headquarters. After traversing more traps and demon challenges, Nero ends up caged, facing off against many demons in a small space as the elevator travels slowly up. This is the Gauntlet. After finishing off his opposition, including the Faust demon, he discovers he's near his goal of finding Dante, though now it hardly seems worth anything compared to finding Kyrie. Dante provokes Nero playfully, and Nero attacks him. Dante continues to play with him while he tells him he wants the Yamato, that it belonged to his brother Vergil. Nero goes into Devil Trigger mode as Dante laughs it off and says "return it to me and I'll let you go kid". Nero attacks with all he's got and Dante tests his strength once more. After battling about the large room Nero finally manages to get Dante out of breath. Dante laughs and asks him if he's calmed down yet, and tells him he can borrow the blade to accomplish his goals then. He explains how powerful the sword is and how it can open and seal demon dimensions and how it has to "stay in the family". He tells Nero to get goin to save Kyrie. Nero compliments Dante in a very roundabout way, they trade names, and he heads off. Then, the powerful Gloria steps into the frame and Dante is left alone with her. They face off like a massive fight is about to take place, and then Dante busts out laughing. He says "that regal look suits you!". In a flash of movement, we discover that Gloria is Trish. She has infiltrated the Order to give Dante the inside scoop on things. She wonders at Nero's skill and asks Dante what happens if things go wrong. He tells her that he'll just clean up the mess if he has to later. I think he believes in the "kid". ----------------------------------------- Mission 11 Nero solves some more puzzles of the HQ and faces more demons and knights. He makes his way up the tower, higher and higher. He finds a gigantic statue of a man with halo like horns. Sanctus is up on top of it and he taunts Nero with Kyrie, now inside the statue's head, symbolizing it's "mind". Nero prepares to fight but seems distracted. Kyrie smiles down at Nero, realizing now that he is not evil or a demon. Sanctus explains that Nero can join Kyrie, by becoming the statue's core, it's "heart". He tells Nero the statue is the Savior. Nero smiles at Kyrie and tells her to trust him, she smiles back and is absorbed into the beast. Sanctus charges up his demon powers and prepares to fight. They battle, Nero knocks out Sacntus' "holy" shields and goes into DT mode, with some of his best and funniest dialouge. He beats the posessed old man to within an inch of his life and sends him flying with the Arm's power. However, Sanctus just flies away and into the body of the Savior statue demon. Things get hairy for Nero at that point. Just before he can finish off Sanctus completely, he exposes Kyrie and Nero stays his sword hand. The statue grabs him and binds him tightly, and Sanctus mocks him. He explains that he wanted Dante to be the "heart" of the Savior, but he'll settle for Nero's power instead. He steals the Yamato from Nero and absorbs it's might. Before he can absorb Nero fully, Credo appears like a flash and slashes Sanctus. He turns to tell Nero to run away, and in that moment Sanctus is healed fully and runs him through with his Yamato. He asks Credo why he betrayed the Order. Credo explains that he served the old vision of the Order, not the new demons, and that when they stole his sister away, he couldn't just stand by doing nothing. Credo plummets off the statue head in human form, drained to near death, and Dante catches him. Trish waves at Sanctus smugly and he recognizes her as Gloria, brushing it off. He talks about killing Nero, and Dante says "I'd wager the kid still has life in him!" just as Nero uses the Demon Arm to try and kill Sanctus. But he teleports away and stabs Nero through his arm, seemingly killing him. Dante shouts to Nero that he can't give up basically, to which Nero replies "My options...are limited" as he sinks into the Statue to join it's heart. Dante says he'll have to come and get the sword himself then, and Nero smiles and flips him off with the devil arm, saying to "come and get it". Dante smirks about the kid being such a punk. In a deep black nothingness Nero floats and regains consciousness. He sees a reddish light and Kyrie floating just ahead of him. Are they becoming one now inside of this giant demon statue? She awakens and we can hear her song from the proluge being sung. The background goes bright white and Nero tells her he came to save her. They try to touch hands, floating in the light, and she begins to fade, taking the light with her to the "mind", and she says "Nero, thank you". Nero is absorbed by the darkness, as he cries out "I SWEAR I'LL GET US OUT OF HERE KYRIE!". He howls in pain and all goes black in the "heart". We see Nero's fading demon arm, trying to struggle inside an actualy, physical heart, as the statue slowly begins to come to full life and fly away, high above Fortuna. Dante and Trish are left nearby, with a dying Credo. They make light of the statue's power and design, and talk to Credo about it's incomplete state. Credo explains that Sanctus can manipulate the Savior statue by using the sword of Sparta. He will go to annilihate all the demons, and then enslave the human race. Credo tells Dante that he, the son of the dark knight Sparda, can save the world. Credo makes a dying request, he wants Dante and Trish to save Nero and Kyrie. He then turns into light and sparks and floats away, as Dante and Trish solemnly stand by. Dante can't deny a dying request, so he goes off. Trish talks about running into the city to save the people and Dante agrees with the idea, albeit jokingly. Since she is a half demon of some remarkable battle skill, she should be just fine. ----------------------------------------- Mission 12 Agnus, cerimoniously carrying the Yamato, goes to the ascension chamber and stabs it into a sacred rock area, to call forth the demons, both his artificial hell and the real hell are to be opened. We see the city from the sky, as a gigantic black monolith opens, vomiting out shadow after shadow. Upon closer inspection we can see that Mephistos, Fausts, and Assualts are pouring through at an alarming rate. The few survivers that remained after the initial attacks are hounded and hunted by the evil entities Agnus just willingly released. We see a small family about to be killed by a Mephisto, when it suddenly explodes with light and dies. A white knight is behind it, and it's obvious now that the Order's demons are being sent to kill the other demons, in a display of confidence and power, to get the humans on the side of their Order of the Sword. Then, the Savior statue, with Sanctus on it's head, fires a gigantic fire beam that destroys most of the demons in the city, and he tells the people to rejoice for the end is not at hand. Dante observes all this, bemusedly and sarcastically, from a perch atop the HQ building. He has to escape the area and get back to where Nero is being held prisoner. Ironic that first Nero chased him, and now Dante will be chasing Nero through the areas in reverse. As he makes his way through lesser demons in the HQ castle, Dante meets some giant scarecrow demons with big blades. He kills anything and everything that opposes him, from the demons hereto the knightly demons in the lobby. A timer is released and the building begins to fall apart and will soon explode. The Savior's doing, no doubt. After Dante decimates absolutely everything in his path, he exits and the HQ partially explodes. He enters the forest. Dante has a flash back now, and we get to see his office, The Devil May Cry. Trish and he are in there, lounging about, as we get a small glimpse at previous weapons from the other DMC titles and see some other cool stuff, like a jukebox, drum set, and some "two handgun" magazines Dante likes to read. The elusive and sexy devil hunter Lady, an aquantince of Dante's since his early days, enters the office. She tells Dante that she is working a job at Fortuna, and that the humans there worship Sparda as their savior and king, because he opposed the demons so long ago. Dante is amused by this idea and listens on. Lady requests Dante go to Fortuna and stop them from capturing demons and stealing Devil Weaponry. With all that power and a devil collection at hand, Lady fears they are capable of anything. Trish is already gone by the time Dante gets ready to leave, she has the Sparda sword and left a note "see you there". ----------------------------------------- Mission 13 The forest is a mess. It's more overgrown than ever with plants and, more importantly demons and dark energy. Dante can't traverse it normally, like Nero did, and he doesn't have the sephirothic fruit to get through. So he hears the taunts of a female voice and enters various darkness portals to get around the place. He finally comes to the monolithic clearing where Echidna resides. She is flying around and ignoring Dante, so he gets some of her seeds and kicks them back at her body like a soccer superstar! She is very upset by this and greets him with a "who the hell are YOU?!". Dante tells her he was tired of being ignored and will leave the forest now. She proceeds to eat him in dragon form. He let's her clamp down on his body so that she's in close, then he breaks her "jaw" open and exposes her weak point. He then proceeds to beat the crap out of her with ease and style. As she goes to escape, he pulls her back and shoots her in the right spot, making her explode like she was nothing. Dante notes the monolith's power, and gains ability from the dead Echidna. Now he has the Gilgamesh faceguard, gauntlets, and greaves. He uses his martial arts skill and the new, stronger than any material weapon, and annihilates the monolith so that the forest will be safer and easier to travel than it previously was. Smirking to himself he says "two to go", indicating he probably can sense the other powerful demons and monoliths. Way to go Dante! ----------------------------------------- Mission 14 Dante quickly kills all the demons in his path in the forest and reaches the hidden waterfall bridge to the Castle Fortuna. He notices the entire castle is now DEEPLY frozen, and he can't leave yet. ----------------------------------------- Mission 15 As he traverses the castle, seeking out a way to the frozen monolith and thawing the place, he encounters a big, but brief lightning storm. A massive, lighting covered, rage fueled demon called the Blitz appears, and Dante smirks and seems glad to face the challenge. After he decimates his demonic foes, he finally finds his way into the Castle Courtyard. Easy enough. Dante smiles wide and cat calls the two floating, red alien looking women as they take notice in him, and each other, seductively. Dante ice skates (hah!) and poses all around the pair, not quite letting them touch him. He checks them out and laughs, but then calls out the giant toad like ice demon. As it spews nasty green liquid it shouts "HOW DID YOU KNOW?!", and Dante replies "you can cover up that nasty body of yours, but you'll never be able to cover that smell!", and the toad known as Dagon, enraged, launches it's attack. Since the demons are all used to gobbling up prey after tricking them with their feelers, Dante easily trounces Dagon and cuts him in half, mocking him for calling his brothers into combat. Dante discovers a special orb at the monolith and absorbs it, to discover the evil Pandora briefcase. It has 666 forms that match the user's intent, so for Dante, of course, it's all fire power and bladed death baby, woo! He stylishly whips the case about and notes it's powers, just as he sees the arena fill up with giant frog demons. No wonder that ice is so powerful! He laughs as he uses the Pandor's many transformations, from exploding crossbow bolts, to bazooka, around to a bladed boomerang, a big gatling gun, and many other forms, then back into a giant pod covered in missle turrents. After blowing the demons all back to hell, he annihilates the monolith with ease and the case falls in front of him, open, with shining gold light. It begins to get too powerful even for him to see, so rather than try to see what's inside this demonic briefcase, he closes the Pandora and poses like a hero. The ground them promptly breaks away and he falls deep, deep into the labs. Whoops. ----------------------------------------- Mission 16 Taking it all in stride, Dante brushes himself off and surveys the lab area. It's flooded with poinson gas! He quickly retreads the path Nero cut earlier. After facing off against the deadly Cutlasses, he enters the "game room" and the dice fall, just like with Nero. Dante, however, has no time for this kid games, and he smirks, turns, and promptly slashes the die so hard it is slit in half and dissapears. The alarm blares and the room floods with deadly Gladius demons. Using his gunslinger style and the newly aquired Pandora, Dante has no trouble killing everything in the lab until he reaches sweet air out side. It's not done yet, he heads upstairs and back into the gassy lab, being slowly poisoned with he faces off against seemingly endless Knights, in the angel creation lab. He finally bests them all and manages to get up to the Grand Hall again. No more poison! Up top he heads for the city, and the Savior statue demon, and from there, Nero. But as he leaves and enters the still snowy area, he is attacked by a few of Agnus' dear dogs, the Basilisks. Staying quick on his feet using the Trickster style, Dante manages to kill off all the dogs in style as they fire their own skulls (!!!!) at him from afar, and try to maul him up close as a pack. Berial is observing Sanctus inside the Savior, and scoffing at a human's supposed power. Dante is lounging, sitting on Berials tail, not at all harmed by the otherwordly fire that burned Nero so. Berial is shocked and flings Dante about. Dante makes some insulting, snide remarks and Berial looks forward to crushing the son of Sparda. Sadly, it is not to be, and Dante completely kicks the crap out of the Fire Hell lord. Attempting to fly back in a meteor like body and kill Dante as a last ditch effort, Dante simply fires his Ebony and Ivory pistols just so, and Berial goes out with a whimper and not a bang, in a small shower of sparks. Dante seems dissapointed, but perks up when he notices he can gain another weapon from the monolith. He absorbs the firey (laser-y?) power of the quirky Lucifer, and makes many sexual innuendo remarks as he creates a heart of flaming blades on the monolith. He flicks the rose from between his teeth to a catchy Spanish tune and it prompts all the blades he just created to explode, getting rid of the monolith for good in a comical fashion. He then notices the Savior staring down at him, and he holds up his hand to it; "Doesn't look so big from here.", Dante says, as he regains a more serious demeanor and heads into the city of Fortuna from the mines area. ----------------------------------------- Mission 17 Determined to reclaim the Yamato, Dante kills any demons or knights he finds in the city limits and works his way into the heart of the opera house district. After blasting through all his foes and switching up weapons and combos with style, he finally reaches the place where he first shot Sanctus and met Nero, the place where the statue of Sparda overlooks the opera house stage. After one of the funniest and coolest scenes in the game, where Agnus and Dante both ham it up and overact in the theater, Agnus explains that Dante shall never have the Yamato, as it is needed to open the portals and keep demons streaming through, so that they can look like heros in the Order, by killing them all with the Savior. People will submit to their Savior, no matter the cost. Dante scoffs at this robotic, one sided thinking ,and Agnus transforms into his demon form. After a very one sided battle with Dante pulling no punches, Agnus is hit SO hard that he reverts to his weak, stuttering, human form. He just can't understand how since they are both half demon, Dante is so far ahead of him. Dante explains (as Agnus comically takes notes on his clipboard pad) that the hearts of humanity are more powerful than a demon's brute strength. He then promptly blasts the clipboard from Agnus' hands and leaves him trembling, standing near the pews of the House. He tells him if he wants to do better in the afterlife, he should pay more attention, and blasts right through the original bullethole of the paper, and into Agnus' eye, killing him instantly. The shot paper lands across his face, and Dante takes his bow as the "crowd" goes silent. It's time to reclaim the Yamato sword. Dante gets it from the chamber and the portals to hell close up. But the monolith in Fortuna remains. ----------------------------------------- Mission 18 The Yamato can open portals or close them. Dante whips out the blade and slashes the air from many miles away, cutting off tree tops as the slices reach home and destroy the monolith with neat, fine cuts. The Savior statue is looking at Dante and Trish in the town square where this all started, and Trish asks Dante if he got the sword. He says "one more to go", and then asks Trish to make sure all the citizens are as far away as possible. Dante leaps up and Sanctus has his Angelo armors address Dante. There are platforms floating above the city in the Savior's gravitational pull. Sanctus tries to bribe Dante but he says he'd rather die, and leaps forward to attack all the armors. Using the Yamato in JUST it's shealth, and jumping around spectacularly, he kills many of the armors. The Sanctus Armor goes to kill Dante when his back is turned and Dante easily avoids him, appears behind him, and kills him. The armor falls empty to the ground below. Dante squares off and looks at the statue demon ahead, and begins to climb up the high platforms to finish the fight. Dante hops around all the high up platforms as the Savior tries to destroy them and flatten him with giant hands. He quickly destroys the blue crystals all over the Savior's giant body, slowing it down greatly. It begins to fire it's giant lasers at him. Once again in a great visual scene, Dante flips about the aerial platforms while Sanctus taunts him out of fear and spite. He throws the Yamato and it lands just do in the Savior's stone chest. He then flips about, and fires a row of bullets neatly right into each other (!!!!!), as they all slam into Yamato and send it, you guessed it right folks, right into it's heart! Dante yells out to Nero "hey kid, it's time to wake up!" as the Yamato brings Nero forth from the heart and cuts him out. ----------------------------------------- Mission 19 As Dante flips around the outside of the Savior, keeping it distracted, busy, and weak, Nero tells him he's working on taking him down from inside. He goes to a gigantic gameboard-like place like in the labs, and has to roll the dice on a bigger platform this time. As he tries to count the spaces and roll correctly, he battles numerous enemies for his mistakes, gains orbs, teleports his piece at times, and is forced into mandatory portal battles, all within the Savior. He works his way up higher and higher while Dante continues the fight outside. He spectacularly avoids being crushed as Nero emerges from the game area. Dante shouts "Hey kid, you should see what I'm going through" while Nero gets shaken around inside. "Guess we're in the same boat...", says Nero as he heads for the mind of the beast, and Kyrie. He's on a one way collison course with Sanctus and the Sparda sword. ----------------------------------------- Mission 20 Nero tells Sanctus it's all over and he's cornered, but he reveals his true power and takes on a slightly more demonic visage. They speak of love and power, Sanctus mocking Credo and Nero for caring so much about Kyrie because of love. He also talks about wishing Dante had joined with the Savior and says he will do that. Dante seems to be getting a little tired out there. Kyrie floats in a membrane. Sanctus calls Nero a traitor and weak. Kyrie smiles at Nero and he draws his weapon to face off against Sanctus. With Dante and Kyrie cheering him on, Nero and Sanctus clash blades. The Sparda sword is definately more powerful than the Yamato. The battle begins. Nero does his best to fight Sanctus and hurts him a good bit. Sanctus then resorts to dashing about the room with the Sparda sword out, an attack Nero cannot overcome without using the Buster and flinging the Sparda right back into Sanctus. Dying from a fatal blow from the Yamato, Sanctus wishes for Sparda's power. Nero explains that Sanctus lacks a human heart, something Sparda seemed to actually have. Sanctus goes to kill Kyrie while he still can, but Nero tosses the Yamato into the air, distracting him. He then uses the Devil Bringer arm to slam Sanctus into the wall, grabs the Yamato from across the room quickly, and slashes Sanctus repeatedly with the dimensional slashes it posesses. Sanctus howls in agony and bursts into light, dying finally. Nero apoligizes to Kyrie for taking so long and cuts her down, holding her gently in his arms. She smiles up at him. After delivering her from evil, we see Dante outside fending off a final, massive blow from the Savior demon statue. It stops after nearly grinding him into the ground, and Dante laughs it off and realizes it's over. Nero and Kyrie come bursting from the crystal on it's head, and Nero has the Sparda sword to give to Dante. Dante smiles and seems a little impressed by Nero. Nero and Dante both laugh and kind of poke at each other. The Savior, ruined and posessed by the essense of Sanctus, raises up and screams in anger. Nero hands the Sparda to Dante and tells him to hang back, he wants to end this where it all began. He asks Kyrie to wait for him and she smiles and nods. Nero tells God he hated having his Arm like this, but now he understands what it's for. "Who'd have thought?", he says to himself, and the massive statue, now on it's knees, raises up and looks down upon him with malice. Nero smirks. They have a small conflict where Nero uses the Buster to fend off the massive fists of the statue, and looks at his arm. "Now I know" he says, and the arm gets bigger than it ever was, grabbing the head of the massive demon. "This arm is for sending guys like you back to hell!", and then he squeezes his fist, shattering Sanctus/Savior's head completely, finally killing him. Kyrie looks on lovingly at Nero, and he comes back to her in the square. ----------------------------------------- Epilouge 1 La Vita Nuova - Note: By the way, this means A New Life. Coencidentally (or not!) a man named Dante wrote a book called La Vita Nuova in 1293. It was about love. Nero talks to Dante about thanking him, and they joke about both their attitudes. They both appreciate one another. Dante leaves and Nero stops him, wondering if he wants the Yamato back. Dante tells him to keep it, and Nero is shocked. He thought the blade meant alot to Dante. Dante says that's the only gift worth giving, and what Nero does from here is his call. Nero asks Dante if they will ever meet again and as he walks off, Dante gives a cool and collected wave of goodbye over his shoulder. Nero absorbs the Yamato into his Arm and Kyrie asks him if it's all really over. They talk about the city having to be rebuilt. Nero talks about what Kyrie wants out of their relationship, and is afraid he's not human. Kyrie reassures him that she loves him for him, and that she doesn't know anybody as human. They lean in for a passionate kiss and Nero fires off his gun off screen. He just shot a scarecrow demon. There's still a few left to slay. Kyrie says she can wait for her kiss and all the Scarecrows leap up to attack Nero. He shouts "Let's rock!", as he prepares to clean them up. Cue the end credits. During the credits, Nero protects Kyrie (as you play) from all the arm and leg scarecrow demons. If you are successful in keeping her from taking a single hit, you will get a hidden ending! Nero and Kyrie embrace and we watch the credits roll. The broken fountain gushes water onto the cobblestones and we get pretty pictures from various in game moments as they look at one another. They will build a beautiful future together. The music here is awesome! ----------------------------------------- Epilouge 2 Just Another Day At The Office - Back at the Devil May Cry, Lady comes in with their pay. Trish and Dante are lounging and Trish asks Lady for more money, it's pretty meager. Lady scoffs and says half of this is Trish's fault, bringing the Sparda sword and all. Dante is reading his "two handgun" magazine (haha), and both the ladies look to him to resolve the issue. He obviously doesn't care much about the money. Lady goes to leave and a phone call comes in. Trish tells Dante it's a customer with the password, and they're nearby. She asks Dante what they'll do, and he stylishly flourish about the room getting his sword and guns. Lady asks if she can come along, and Dante says "do what you want want, but don't expect to get paid.". Lady asks Trish if she gets as excited about this as she does. Trish replies cooly and Dante tells the babes to prepare. "Let's Rock!!!' they all shout as they pose out front of the Devil May Cry office with their weapons in hand. Time for another adventure! ----------------------------------------- Discussion, speculation, and theory section - This is NOT official. I am just choosing the most logical progression Capcom has presented us with by viewing the entire series as a whole. I just recently came off of playing all the games (including all of Virgil's mode in DMC 3SE), before I played DMC 4, so I hope to have accurate information in my recent memory. I have also used videos and other random speculation from message boards in my theories. Again, NOT official and half the fun is guessing at your own suppositions, so enjoy. My word is not law and I'm not trying to enforce it as such! ----------------------------------------- We know from DMC 3, that Virgil met the emperor Mundus in a hell dimension sealed by Sparda. We know that in DMC 1, which came after 3 in the timeline, that while battling Mundus like his father did, for the challenge of it, Mundus defeated and subverted Virgil to his will, binding him in the Nelo Angelo Armor, which ran off the power of Virgil's essence and amulet. We know that in DMC 1, Dante kills Virgil fully as Nelo Angelo and takes his amulet. The essence faded away into the air of the dark castle they were in, possibly sending him back to his own hell dimension. We know that (thanks to the instruction manual) there was a portal (monolith?) and Nero got his arm somehow there, off camera to us, the players and viewers. We know that it's strong and demonic. We know that Agnus created that first (and all later) portals, seeking the power of a Sparda sword, like the Yamato. It was very likely there in that portal that Nero responded to during routine Order patroling. Nero has the white hair of the Sparda sons. He also has the attitude to match. Nero has an affinity for blue, just like Virgil once did. Nero is the only one whose power (from the possesed arm) can assemble the Yamato, which was Virgil's prized blade, given to him by his father Sparda years ago. We do not know how old any of these characters are, but it can be assumed that Nero is very young and aged normally until he got the arm. We don't know how old Virgil or Dante truly are, or how much time spans between games. Half demons likely age quite slowly. Though one can note that while Lady looks different, and older, she's not THAT much older than in DMC 3. We know that Virgil was once Nelo Angelo and now the Order has specs on his dark armor from Mundus, probably analyzed from the Yamato in statis. That could mean Virgil's essense was floating around the portal where the arm and the Yamato seemingly came from. When Nero is in DT form and using his Blue Rose revolver, his DT form is firing out constant phantom swords into the enemy. This was a favorite and powerful long range attack of Vergil. Nero talks about a voice asking him for "more power" when he first is possesed by the Devil Bringer Arm. Virgil always spoke of having more power, even when he was sort of a "good guy". We know so far that Sanctus sensed either Sparda or Virgil in Nero, thanks to when he kidnapped Kyrie and talked about power inheritence. Nero sure is eager to clash with Dante, and it might not all be his own brash attitude. Virgil may be aching to "finish the fight" from when he and Dante have clashed in the years past. ----------------------------------------- Some people tend to think that Sparda is reborn into Nero and I won't discount that fully. However, just going off of the phrase "you have inherited Sparda's power" doesn't literally mean it's Sparda. It more likely means that it's Virgil. I say this because the Sparda sword did not come for Nero or join with him, but the Yamato does, more than once. Some people think Nero is the lost son of Dante, or even more likely, of Virgil. That would explain the compatability of powers, and we know very little of Virgil before the events of DMC 3, the prequal, and in fact know little of him over all the series. If Capcom chose to write in that Nero is Virgil's son, I see it as doable and possible, but I don't know. His white hair seems to put him into some sort of relation to the Sparda blood line, though. Also his skills, arrogance, half demon blood (now since the arm for sure at least). The fact that Dante mentions keeping the Yamato "in the family" and then lets Nero hold onto it after the game ends could mean something. I don't know what exactly. There may be more to come if I find out any more details. ========================== VI. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) "King? Yeah...here's your CROWN!" Dante, DMC 2 ========================== Hey, check it out. There's been tons of the same questions on the message boards lately. Figured I'd try to stem some of that flow. ----------------------------------------- Q: How many Missions are there? A: Twenty total, seven for Dante, the rest are Nero's. ----------------------------------------- Q: How many secret missions are there? A: Twelve. Two is specifically for Nero, and one is specifically for Dante. That means anyone can do the other's crossover IF he goes through the same territories. Use my guide above to be sure you're okay for doing that. The specifically designed quests require moves only one individual character can do. ----------------------------------------- Q: Do Proud Souls, Orbs, Weapons, Skills, and all that like carry over into other difficulties and past levels? A: Yes, they sure do! Feel free to play on easy levels first to build up your character for the hard modes. ----------------------------------------- Q: Do Proud Souls and Red Orbs split between characters or what? A: When you aquire Dante, all of Nero's spent souls and orbs go to Dante. All the items purchased or found by Nero ALSO carry into Dante's inventory. Yup, that includes his health and devil trigger bars. ----------------------------------------- Q: How many difficulties are there? A: In order of easy to hardest: Human, Devil Hunter, Son of Sparda, Heaven or Hell, Dante Must Die!, and Hell or Hell. The first three just relate to your health, their health, your attack and their attack. As you go up, things obviously get harder for you. In Heaven or Hell mode, they die in one hit, but so do you. Not as bad as it sounds, remember your guns? Oh yeah! Also, in DMD mode, it really hits the fan. Every enemy is really durable, really strong, you're paper thin weak in every way possible, and to top it all off, the foes also get a devil trigger mode where they are unstoppable and twice as strong. In Hell or Hell mode, you die in one hit, but the enemies equal out to something like Son of Sparda mode. You get three yellow orbs EACH level, for free, to survive on, so you technically gain three hits. Good luck. I will eventually expand the guide to cover many of these difficulties, but this will take time, since the game just came out and I have to survive and then master the modes! ----------------------------------------- Q: Are there different costumes? A: Yes. Nero and Dante both get Super modes. I haven't earned them myself yet, but I assume you gain unlimited devil trigger and more speed in these modes. I will update this when I find out more myself. ----------------------------------------- Q: Did you know using the Buster move with Nero on various lesser demons AND bosses busts out super attacks?! A: Yes, yes I did, but thank you for bringing that up, as some don't know this. In fact, most bosses actually allow for MANY different Buster hits, not just one. ----------------------------------------- Q: Well, hey! Did you know that once you gain Devil Trigger mode for Nero, you can do even more powerful Buster attacks on lesser demons and bosses? Huh?! A: Yes, once again, I did, and I also swear by it on the hard modes (or I will when I get there). These moves can really knock an enemy to his death (and into many others) and on bosses, they eat the health away like acid on paper! ----------------------------------------- Q: The guns suck, so does the Lucifer weapon. A: I disagree, but it's up to you how you play your game. However, know that guns have various levels of charge, with Dante's gunslinger you gain many, many more skills (GREAT for Pandora), and with a little practice, the Lucifer is very powerful. Give it a try, and flesh out your skills and gaming experience! Because again, it's YOUR game, that you paid for. Also note, the guns are great for extending combos while not absolutely killing your foes right off. And, that wasn't really a question, ya know. ----------------------------------------- Q: What is the disaster gauge? A: Dante is the one that gets this. It deals with the Pandora weapon only. Using it and only it on enemies and during combos on enemies especially, you will notice it fill. Switch to Gunslinger style and get ready to rock! After you purchase skills, you can use even more devastation attacks. Missle launcher laser, boomerange with blades, opening the case for the gold light to kill everything. ----------------------------------------- Q: How does Royal Guard work? A: Again, this one is Dante only. With this style equipped, press B to block, or press B RIGHT as an attack connects with you from a demon for Royal block. There are various forms of release, I suggest you consult the skill section of my guide or in game for details. But by default, pressing up and B to release the stored energy (you get a gauge for Blocked damage that builds slowly), you can decimate foes and bosses alike. The timing is tricky. ----------------------------------------- Q: Can I go back into other levels and farm for orbs and souls? How, and which missions are good for it? A: As said a bit above, you sure can! Here's a decent example (look for more in the future!): Start up Mission 03. Go down the first right in the mine, kill the three scarecrows with as high a style as possible. Now turn around and go back to the fork, and take the slight left, going through the fence. Go into Devil Trigger mode (earn it in a future mission though), and use your best combos for many, many thousands of orbs. Then press start, go to the Systems menu, and click on Retry mission. You will cash out 3800 orbs or so, and a couple hundred proud souls. After an hour or so of this, you can afford many moves and items, and make your character a bit tougher. This is highly recommended on Devil Hunter difficulty or above, if you have not yet leveled up. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Note: PLEASE GO LOOK AT THE END SECTION OF MY WALKTHROUGH FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ON BLUE ORB LOCATIONS AND SECRET MISSIONS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS. This game allows you to replay missions so don't fret if you miss something on the first play of a mission. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----------------------------------------- Q: What's up with Automatic? A: It's a mode that supposedly makes combos easier. It'll autocharge certain moves and make other skills pop up in mid battle. I actually think it makes the game harder and a bit more distracting, and it will RUIN you if you want to do hard modes later, because you'll have to combo on your own and won't have a good grasp on how. Bottom line? I don't recommend it. ----------------------------------------- Q: What gives?! When I buy an item or a skill, the number goes up for all the other stuff, or said item. A: The series sort of penalizes you for buying expendable items, or really good ones. Let's say you need alot of health, so you want a vital star or three. When you buy one, note how the price for it now goes up by around 1000 orbs or so. When you buy blue and purple orbs (and you HAVE to if you want to play hard modes), they go up by many, many thousands at a time. But it's worth it. When it comes to skills, proud souls make your other remaining, unpurchased skills go up in price by a few dozen to a hundred or so at times. So the more powerful you get in some respects, the more it will cost to fully power others. I will list essential skills in my guide under the skills section, have a look to get those early and cheaper. ----------------------------------------- Q: I keep getting hit and losing my style rank. What's up with that? A: No worries, it happens. You just need to practice against the type of enemy you're having troubles with. Keep in mind that patterns differ by difficulty level. Also, enemies in this game LOVE to hit you from behind or even off camera. Stay moving, stay alive. ----------------------------------------- Q: What is the timeline for this game? I'm a bit confused, and may not even want to play if I'll be lost. A: First off, you won't get lost in the plot. Dante and his crew will be a bit mysterious until you do some later ingame background reading, but that's about it. You can fully enjoy it. The game series falls in this order chronologically: 3>1>4>2. Part 2 is said to take place fairly far into Dante's future, so any number of games can fall into the timeline from 4 and on. ----------------------------------------- Q: Is this game hard? So hard I don't want to play it hard? A: Nah. Play on Human or Devil Hunter. You can still see the entire plot, the secret ending, all the moves, get all the items, and do basically whatever you want. To do much of that in just one play, however, you'll need to go through some missions over and over again to get enough orbs and souls to upgrade. But it can be done, and it's not all that time consuming to manage. However, if you try out Son of Sparda or Dante Must Die modes, you will be in for some real pain and frustration until you get good at playing. I won't even begin to tell you how hard Hell or Hell mode can be. ----------------------------------------- Q: I don't get the theories and/or storyline stuff in some parts. What's up with that? A: Please see my storyline section when it's available, and I'll cover many of the popular theories on things that aren't confirmed, and I will confirm things that are, of course, confirmed. ----------------------------------------- Q: How do I beat that stupid secret mission Unbreakable (kill waves of enemies in the forest without taking a hit)? A: This one is hard. There is one "sure fix". See my section in the walkthrough above, near it's end. Tips for other modes though, include being agressive as the wave starts. Find all the plant foes first (called Chimeras). Then use trickster to dodge about (max 4 is preferred, at least 2 is needed to air dodge) using the shotgun with charged blasts and if you have a chance, gunslinger mode. If the Assualts get taken over, first off pray for luck, secondly enter this battle with your disaster gauge full for the Pandora gun. Double jump high enough to never take a good hit, and use gunslinger and B to fly above firing with X as fast as you can. This can take out a wave, but when you drop down if anything is left have Trickster ready to go, and get moving with that shotty again. It's common sense, but strip down everything to repeatedly using quick attacks and dodges. Don't lead yourself on a wild chase and end up slamming right into another enemy hit though. Side rolls, air dodges, double jumps, and charged guns can save your hide more than anything, it just takes time and some luck. Remember, shooting the plants when attatched to anyone else kills them off temporarily, after a few shots, so keep shooting and don't use your sword, too slow. ----------------------------------------- Q: How do I do a Royal Block? I just seem to do regular. A: You must press B (using this style as Dante only of course) RIGHT as the enemy almost hits you. You have to know the frame of animation really well to get anywhere with this attack. If you're just learning it for the secret msision, you only need do it five times in a row. However, if you get hit OR miss one in that row of five, you have to start over again at zero. ----------------------------------------- Q: I need this life orb fragment and/or that secret mission solution. A: No prob. But bear with me for a bit, this guide is still new if you see this text. I will include sections for this in both the main walkthrough and their own sections, don't forget to use control F to find your area and problem! Again, please see my COMPLETE and very detailed section in my Walkthrough chapter above. ----------------------------------------- Q: If I save during a mission and turn off the game, do I have to restart it fully later? A: Yes, you will have to go back and restart, all saving does is give you a cash out of your orbs and souls earned up to that point, which is better than nothing. ----------------------------------------- Q: How does IR (Instant Rev) work? What exactly is the Exceed System all about? A: Toughie, and will have it's own section. Once you master this and how to dodge correctly, you will be a master. I'm still learning much of it myself. There are many good japanese videos available online. Anyway, you can automatically rev if you press LT immediately after you swing and just as you hit an enemy. I'm still playing around on exact window times for each and every type of swing, so stay tuned. Now, when you use it, your gauge you earned drops on the next hit, right? Well, charge up to three the normal way (see my guide, use LT until all three fill), hit once, IR immediately EVERY time you hit something, and you will always be very powerful. This is by no means needed on the lower three difficulties, or Heaven and Hell mode. But on Dante Must Die and Hell and Hell, it's almost a must to at least understand. Fairly trusted DMC gamers on message boards over at gamefaqs.com seem to think the window for an IR gets smaller every time you use it, so try to feel that out as well. Also please keep in mind, when I finally experiment with IRing to it's fullest for me, I will be thanking a few people for their exellent input and guides that assisted me. This will take some time, as the system is deeper and much more volitle than many people expect. ----------------------------------------- Q: What are all these funky but awesome names I'm seeing? A: I will likely use a mix of the proper names and explain them via visual cues. There will also be a list of skills eventually for both characters, where I will cover it all, and you can refer to it as a glossary! This list is found in game at any time in your files. ----------------------------------------- Q: What is this Bloody Palace? A: Basically it's an arena introduced into the series in DMC 2. You travel many floors to gain power, show off your skill, practice, have fun, get proud souls, and rank up on the Live leaderboards.The challenge here runs VERY high, fairly early on, so be warned and enter with a decent character. You first have to unlock it by beating Devil Hunter, but you may not be strong enough for it unless you replay many levels to upgrade yourself, and have good health and a decent grasp of when to attack and when to dodge (and HOW to dodge). Both characters go into the Palace. Also, they share Red Orbs, but do NOT share Proud Souls earned. Remember that. If you want specific moves for a character, use that character. There are 101 levels, I think. ---------------------------------------- Q: How do these couple of Dice Rolling areas work? A: First, you encounter this game twice. The first time it's farily small and simple. The last is much bigger and there is more risk involved as you will be facing bosses in between areas. Anywho, the quick answer here is: Look at the top of the dice, find the number you want. Count six rolls in your head and you should be at your number. You can use your sword, gun, or buster arm move, it should be the number you wanted on top, and that is the number that counts. The rolling animation doesn't actually mean anything and is just a visual. The top number last displayed on the die is going to be your number. ----------------------------------------- Q: Son of Sparda doesn't seem that different, what's the deal? A: Well, first off, you had to earn that mode, so you now know how to play well enough. You also know where to go and probably have a good deal of power ups and things of that ilk, along with all the moves and weapons. But, the only major difference you'll notice by that point would be enemies in different spots and things like that. Notably, Blitzes (lightning guys). ----------------------------------------- Q: HELP! How do I surive that credits mode for the secret ending? A: First, thanks, you just saved me time on another question. To get a secret ending to appear in your videos forever, you must protect Kyrie from Scarecrows. Types 1 and 2 show up on Human mode. Please only attempt it on this mode. It can be done any time, but Human is the least frustrating for any player. Using Streak 1 keeps you close after you recover, but Streak 2 sends them further back. Also, Charge level 1 or 2 (and oh baby 3) really work wonders against a couple at at time. Streak one side of the area, then shoot with Charge towards the other side. In real distance (in their game world mind you), if a Scarecrow 2 type (foot blade) gets within seven fight of Kyrie, BLAST HIM, fast. They do an air attack that covers that much ground, and it's fast. Once they leave the ground, it's too late. If you notice any Scarecrow at ANY distance looking at her, shoot him with a charge shot or if he's near a bunch of his buddes Streak at them. On Human mode, going back and forth constantly, most Scarecrows will just look at you and never notice her. Also, if you get really bad off, jump, air grab one, and buster him down to the ground and onto all his friends. Everyone falls that way. A quick ground buster works too. Also note, you can devil trigger in this mode, which is good for shooting and streaks, but not for Buster, it'll slow you down too much. ----------------------------------------- Q: Hey, what gives?! You stole my idea/combo technique/boss strategy/hidden whatever location! A: Hmm. Let me start by saying I hate plagarism. With a firey passion. If you still aren't convinced, realize a couple things. One thing, there are a ton of ways to do things, but only certain items are found in certain places, some enemy strategies are popular and maybe I came up with it when or even before you did! I'm not trying to "rip you off" or anything, I promise. In fact, ANY time I see something useful on a message board or wherever (and I don't use other guides unless completely stuck, and I mean bad, i.e. TWO instances with blue orb fragments), I make sure to credit the proper parties involved, fully. First, I will try to reach you if need be. Secondly, if I can't get in touch with you in time or what not, I will simply credit your online alias unless otherwise noted. Lastly, if there is any sort of issue, contact me with the subject line very descriptive, and I will find you eventually and make things right. I'd expect you to do the same for me. ----------------------------------------- Q: You SUCK! And your &%$^@#$ guide sucks too! What's wrong with you? A: Not really a valid question. But no, I'd say I did pretty okay on this guide. And yes, as I have stated perviously, the guide will end up far from perfect. This is a new game as of my writing, and I'm doing my best, in my own free time. Write a better guide, or at the very least TELL me what you think is wrong so that I can work on it in this and other future guides. How many FAQ/Guides have you written? Anyway, relax, it's a video game. And I'm not the only source of info in town, there are still message boards for your well thought out rantings. ----------------------------------------- POSSIBLY MORE SOON ========================== VII. Achievements - "This party's gettin CRAZY!" - Dante, DMC3 ========================== I will likely be adding a few tips where applicable, or at the very least pointing you to the proper sections of the guide when it is completed. A Comfortable Pace (10) Clear mission 11 in Human Mode. A Cut Above (30) Clear all missions in Devil Hunter Mode with an S ranking. - Time and Style are the most important factors, with Style being most important above all. No Item and No Damage bonuses also help greatly. You still need to try and score a B for orbs, as I've seen SSD and only gotten an A for my trouble. This was with a No Item bonus. A Stunning Feat (40) Clear all missions in Son of Sparda mode with an S ranking A Throne of Glory (50) Clear all game modes All Bow Before You (40) Clear all missions in Dante Must Die mode Bat Out of Hell (10) Extend the Devil Trigger Gauge to maximum capacity - They are all purchasable, so just save up the orbs by farming missions over and over with alot of style, or find a mission with tons of orbs right at the start, quit out, restart and keep doing this over and over. Mission 03 is ideal for this once you have Devil Trigger. Brimming with Pride (20) Aquire 100,00 Proud Souls - This one is cumulative, so just feel free to spend as much as you want while you try for it. note: I have not confirmed cumulative status myself. When I have, I will add a permenant note to this one. Covered in Blood (40) Clear all Bloody Palace mode stages Done and Done (20) Clear all missions in Devil Hunter Mode. Easier Said Than Done (10) Clear mission 11 in Dante Must Die mode Easy Does It (10) Clear all missions in Human Mode. Filled with Pride (10) Acquire 10,000 Proud Souls. Cumulative, feel free to spend on your way. See Brimming with Pride above. Half Way There (10) Clear mission 11 in Devil Hunter Mode Hardly a Simple Task (30) Clear all missions in Son of Sparda mode Item Collecter (??) Aquire a Maximum of all items - Needs ALL blue orb fragments as well as total cost of all items in shop aquired. King of the Palace (50) Clear all Bloody Palace mode stages with an S ranking Legendary Devil Hunter (50) Defeat a total of 10,000 enemies - Cumulative over every mission and difficulty. Modus Vivendi (10) Extend the Vitality Gauge to maximum capacity - Buy all blue orbs, find all orb fragments, see my guide for those sections. If you have already beaten the game and have most skills this one won't take you but six hours or less. Never Say Die (50) Clear all missions in Dante Must Die mode with an S ranking Nothing Left Unsaid (10) Clear all secret missions Proud Millionaire (40) Aquire 1,000,000 Proud Souls Cumulative over all modes of play. Can be spent. See Brimming with pride. See Brimming with Pride above for details. Red Orb Millionaire (40) Aquire 1,000,000 Red Orbs Cumulative over all modes of play. Can be spent. See Brimming with Pride above for details. River of Red (10) Acquire 10,000 Red Orbs. - Cumulative, see above. CONFIRMED by me. Rock and a Hard Place (10) Clear mission 11 in Son of Sparda mode Rookie Devil Hunter (10) Defeat a total of 100 enemies. - Done over all modes. You will get this in one play of even Human mode if you redo a couple levels for orbs and things. Simply Spectacular (10) Complete a mission with an S ranking. - Mission 01 is easiest to do this on first. Time and Orbs matter most in 01. Otherwise you want Style and Time. Skill Collecter-Dante (??) Aquire all of Dante's skills Skill Collecter-Nero (??) Aquire all of Nero's skills Skilled Devil Hunter (30) Defeat a total of 1,000 enemies - cumulative over all modes. You will likely get this one if you are trying for all the blue orbs. Otherwise just keep on playing. Smokin' Sick Style!!! (10) Complete a Stylish Rank SSS (Smokin' Sick Style!!!) combo. - See my SSS trick in Mission 09, when facing Alto Angelo at the beginning (or any time, he's the gold knight). Smokin' Style!! (10) Complete a Stylish Rank SS (Smokin' Style!!) combo. - See above. (SSS) Smokin'! (10) Complete a Stylish Rank S (Smokin'!) combo. - See above. (SSS) Speak of the Devil (20) Clear the game with Super Nero (Dante) Step into the Light (10) Clear all missions in Heaven or Hell mode - Won't take you long, use your guns alot. The Best of the Rest (20) Clear all missions in Human Mode with an S ranking. - See Devil Hunter S clear for tips. The Eight Circle (10) Clear stage 80 of Bloody Palace mode The Fifth Circle (10) Clear stage 50 of Bloody Palace mode The First Circle (10) Clear stage 10 of Bloody Palace mode The Fourth Circle (10) Clear stage 40 of Bloody Palace mode The Ninth Circle (10) Clear stage 90 of Bloody Palace mode The Second Circle (10) Clear stage 20 of Bloody Palace mode The Seventh Circle (10) Clear stage 70 of Bloody Palace mode The Sixth Circle (10) Clear stage 60 of Bloody Palace mode The Third Circle (10) Clear stage 30 of Bloody Palace mode Tonight, We Dine in Hell (10) Clear all missions in Hell or Hell mode - Good luck. May add tips section eventually, first I have to get there myself! Your Cup Runeth Over (20) Aquire 100,000 Red Orbs - Cumulative over all modes, spend them, it's okay. See Brimming with Pride above for details. ========================== VIII. Thanks and Ending Notes "You want a date? Well, forget it, because I make it a point not to go out with women who shoot me in the head!" Dante, DMC 3 "Date a demon? I'm not THAT desperate!" Lady, DMC 3 ========================== Well, still a work in progress, and probably will be for a long time with some of these modes. Luckily, I love Capcom's formula. I've already played through the game a couple times now, beaten all the secret missions and found the Blue Orbs. I will be working diligently through Bloody Palace and higher difficulty modes, and updating my guide accordingly. There's a long road ahead. Thank you Gamefaqs, for introducing me to a wonderful community of like minded folks and all types of gamers. Thank you for hosting my guide and giving me proper credit, and thank you for giving us the great message boards! Thank you to my family, you motivate me to strive high. Thanks to Sephirosuy from gamefaqs for tips on Blue Orb Fragments. Especially the 2nd one in the Second Mine area. Thanks to fromac4 of youtube for the wonderful Secret Mission location video for SM 11. Thanks to the hardcore DMC player, aspen1910000 for the pointers on Hell or Hell mode. Thanks to youtube user (japanese): 4GHxNs6y from youtube.com for the tips on Royal Guard killing the Blitz within seconds! Thanks to ForeverPheo of youtube for tips in the Bloody Palace and great vids! He goes by Devilix on the gamefaqs boards. Thank you to my friends that have truly been there for me, both in tolerating, encouraging, and for some of you even joining me, in my hobby, and my pride. Thank YOU for reading this, and if you enjoyed it, for rating it high. I hope I was of some help to you. Thanks to Cnet for rewarding the people that love to write guides and help others. Thanks to helene, alluresilver(at)hotmail(dot)com, for the tip on Dante getting a hard to find Fragment! Thank you to Ng Jeremy manwithmustache(at)hotmail(dot)com for showing me that Dante can beat Nero during a Buster sometimes! Thanks to Jonathan Deering rbfskatantic(at) hotmail(dot)com! MORE COMING SOON ----------------------------------------- Joe Barbee is: lastfirstborn(at)gmail(dot)com Gamertag: lastfirstborn This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. If you want to use this FAQ on your website, just send me an email and let me know. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Feel free to print out this guide, for PERSONAL use only. These websites can use the guide along with full credit given to me, completely unaltered: (revisions pending, possibly) Gamefaqs.com (and all Gamespot users of course) Unlimitedgamer.net Supercheats.com ----------------------------------------- THANK YOU for reading my guide! Now, try a harder mode, gain some more power, and try to beat the Bloody Palace with an S rank!! Good luck! ==================== "Are you crying?" Lady DMC3 "No...it's just the rain." Dante DMC 3 "The rain has already stopped..." Lady DMC 3 "Devils Never Cry." Dante DMC 3 -Trish cries.- "Trish...devils never cry. These tears, tears are a gift only humans have." Dante DMC 1