\ / / ^^^^^^^^^^\^^^^^^^/^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/^^^^^^^^^^^^ \ / __ \ / A |_ K `/ R | E | ) R () F | |_ E II: \ / | S | L M E R | A ................................. | | | | \ / ^^^^^^^^^^^\^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/^^^^^^^^^^^^ \ / >> Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria << >> Walkthrough/FAQ << >> Created by: Monistic_Turtle << >> E-mail: Knives72@hellokitty.com << ============================================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== ~~Intro ...................................................... [COU91] ~~Button Layout .............................................. [SAF92] ~~Battle Mechanics ........................................... [KGB93] ~~FAQ's ...................................................... [GRU94] << The Actual Walthrough >> > Chapter 1 < \Solde/ .......................................................... [SOL02] \Lost Forest/ .................................................... [LOS03] ++ About Einherjar ................................................... [EIN23] \Royal Underground Passage/ ...................................... [ROY04] ++ About Skills ...................................................... [SKI24] > Chapter 2 < \Dipan/ .......................................................... [DIP05] \Dipan Castle/ ................................................... [DIP06] ++ About Special Attacks ............................................. [SPE25] \Kythena Plains/ ................................................. [KTY07] > Chapter 3 < \Coriander/ ...................................................... [COR08] \Serdberg Mountain Ruins/ ........................................ [SER09] ++ About Sealstones .................................................. [SEA26] \Villnore/ ....................................................... [VIL10] ~~\Ancient Forest/ Optional ........................................ [ANC11] ~~\Turgen Mine/ Optional ........................................... [TUR12] \Audoula Temple on the Lake/ ..................................... [AUD13] \Kalstad/ ........................................................ [KAL14] ++ About Releasing Einherjar ......................................... [REL27] \Sahma Desert/ ................................................... [SAH15] \Surts Volcano Caverns/ .......................................... [SUR16] \Crell Monferaigne/ .............................................. [CRE17] ~~\Chateau Obsession/ Optional ..................................... [CHA18] \Crawsus Forest Ruins/ ........................................... [CRA19] ++ Diversions, Sidequests, and Inventory Suggestions ................. [DIV28] ==\The Animal Rings/ ............................................... [ANI29] ==\Power leveling Characters/ ...................................... [POW30] \Dragonscrypt/ ................................................... [DRA20] \Palace of the Venerated Dragon/ ................................. [PAL21] > Chapter 4 < ============================================================================== >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Intro <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< COU91 ============================================================================== Hello, and welcome to my FAQ/Walkthrough for Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. First and foremost, I have a confession to make. I have never played the original Valkyrie Profile for the PSOne. I know, it's appalling isen't it, the sheer tenacity of some people to purchase a game with a 2 marked on the box that CLEARLY indicates it's a sequel or prequel of some sort, when they have never played the first game! Well I did, and it turned out to be one of my best PS2 purchases in a long time. That being said, I also have a warning coupled with my confession. This is only my second FAQ of any sort. I wrote the secret missions guide for Dirge of Cerberus if you were wondering. So read at your own risk. ^.^ And another thing, this game is hard. I'm not talking Super Monkey Ball frustration (oh how I loathe you Super Monkey Ball...) but a previous RPG knowledge definitely comes in handy with this game. It seems Tri-Ace/Square Enix had the veteran RPG gamer demographic in mind when they concocted this monster. But that dosen't mean it's impossible, just don't expect it to be a breeze through button masher. Anyways, on to the guide, finally! >.< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Button Layout........................................................... SAF92 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First off we have our button assignments for the field, which are as follows....... ------------------------------------- >> Field Controls << ------------------------------------- [] Button = Photon /\ Button = Check your Sealstones O Button = Jump and Cancel (for conversations) X Button = Talk/Swing Sword/OK button Left Analog = Walk/Run... duh Right Analog = N/A D-Pad = Alternative for walking or running R1 = Toggle your minimap off or on. R2 = View your overall map. L1 = N/A L2 = N/A Start Button = Pause Select Button = Menu (odd choice for a menu button if you ask me) Note: You cannot use Photons, check sealstones, or go around swinging your sword in towns. Also, minimaps and overall maps are exclusive to the dungeon areas. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// As for battle controls, things are a little more complex. But at the same time it's still simple. --------------------------------------- >> Battle Controls << --------------------------------------- [] Button = Character Attack /\ Button = Character Attack O Button = Character Attack X Button = Character Attack Left Analog = Movement Right Analog = Moves the camera Up and Down on the D-Pad = Switch group (more on this later) Right and Left on the D-Pad = Switchs your active character (Later) L1 = Adjusting your camera, a little further explaining is in store for this button. When the camera is moved off to the side or front or somewhere other then the default position, then just tapping the L1 button will bring it back behind your characters. But if you hold down L1, the camera will fixate on the nearest enemy and stay locked on to it while you move around. But that means moving the camera around with the Right Analog becomes impossible. R1 = Dash (incredibly useful) L2 = Targeting Mode, Press L2 then use the Right Analog or D-Pad to select your enemy of choice. R2 = Switch Radar, switches between different radar projections of your enemies on a shoddy looking map of sorts displayed in the upper right hand corner. L3 = Charge AP, Fairly useful early on in the game. Pressing L3 once will charge your AP 30 points. You can hold it down to charge more if you're so inclined. But the problem with this feature is that your enemies get to move while you charge and your left standing their defenseless. But granted, it does have it's applications. R3 = Switch Camera, Wow, if your intentionally trying to give yourself a migraine then by all means keep the camera as it is. For some strange reason Tri-Ace has made the default camera for battle stay fixated behind your lead character. That means every time you turn, the camera spins with your character, and it's a genuine way to induce headaches in my opinion. I prefer to set the camera to Free, and control it manually with the Right Analog, but that's just me. Start Button = Pause, the pause menu also displays the button layout, just in case you forget something. Select Button = Battle Menu, you can use items, magic, and change weapons in this menu. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Battle Mechanics........................................................ KGB93 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phew, I know you probably don't want to be bored with a lengthy, onerous explanation about how the battle system works, so I'll try to condense it for you as much as possible. Well, when you enter your first fight, the game will provide you with a tutorial as to how the battle system operates. It's useful of course, but there's a few things they could have fleshed out more, so if there's some things your unsure of I'll try to elaborate. ============================== Moving - Moving is pretty self-explanitory, but do note that when the leader of the pary moves, your whole party moves with her or him in one mass group. AP Points - Acronym for Action Points. Action Points deplete whenever you take an action. Such as, attacking, dashing, magic, items. But, just running around fills up your AP bar, and so does pressing the L3 button which the tutorial tells you (I personally am not very fond of the L3 charge, but it comes in handy occasionally). Keep pressing L3 until your AP bar is at 100 to move on with the tutorial. Attack Range - That glowing yellow ring around Rufus and Alicia is your range. Enemies have to be in that circle in order for you to attack them. Run up to Skelly there and attack with whatever buttons Alicia and Rufus are set to. They also tell you about changing lead characters with the left or directional buttons on the D-Pad. Well, there's not a whole lot of point in doing this right now. So just start attacking. Attack Mode - The tutorial says to corrdinate your timing, and this is great advice. Because, if you just mash away at the attack buttons your characters might miss with an attack because some attacks bounce enemies, some ground them, others push them back... you get my drift. So don't be to hasty with your attacks. Once you get used to what Rufus and Alicia's attacks do, you'll figure out a good patern. When you attack you might have noticed how Alicia's second sword attack lifted the Skeleton up into the air. These are things you need to look out for. If you time this properly you can shot him in the air with Rufus. Just play around with this and you'll get the hang of it. Break Mode - Okay.... now I'm going to refute what I just told you about button mashing. When you chop off an appendage or knock off some armor or a tail or whatever on an enemy, you have the chance of getting an item and also you have a chance of entering Break Mode. Break Mode lets your characters attack an enemy for a short time without costing you any AP points. So this basically translates to, go nuts. The only time I recommend button mashing is in break mode. Enemy Attacks - That red glowing range in front of Skelly's feet is his attack range. If you step in it when it's bright red and glowing, you'll be attacked. It's as simple as that. But... if you dash in towards an enemy and press an attack button right away, regardless of whether or not your standing in the enemies attack range, you should be able to get off your attacks without them getting a turn. Of course this dosen't always work, but the majority of the time it does. Thus the importance of dashing. And, of course when the enemies range is faded, he can't attack. Dashing - Dashing is extremely important. Dash can be initiated with the R1 button. If you want a long dash (which you'll be using most of the time) just press and hold R1 while your moving to dash up next to the enemy. Make sure you don't dash right into their attack range, aim for somewhere off to the side or even behind them if that's possible. Why attack them from behind? Because you'll deal double damage when you attack an enemy from the rear. Oh, and if you want a short dash, just tap R1 quickly. For a medium dash you need to tap it twice in quick succession, although I've found this hard to do. Retreat - Getting slaughtered? Sick of fighting? Tired of the battle music? Then just run away. To Retreat, look at your handy little battle map in the upper right hand corner. See those yellow zones? Those are the escape points. Run or dash over to one of those and you'll have the option to escape. It's not 100% foolproof though, ocassionlly you'll get "Trapped" in your attempts at escape. This just means the enemy gets a turn to advance on you and may get close enough to get in some attacks. Victory - Victory! Victory is acheived by winning. The end. Well yeah that's the main gist of it, but in order to win a battle you need to bring down the "Leader". The leader will have a special gold mark next to his HP box in the upper left hand corner. The mark looks like a weird helmet or the end of Poseidon's spear. So if your looking for a quick battle, go ahead and use the L2 targeting button to find the leader and single him out for a quick win. They also explain a little bit about the "Extension Gauge" on the right hand corner of the screen. This is basically an experience/magic crystal enhancer. See how there's five bars to it? This means that if you end the battle with all five bars still lit up you'll get more magic crystals and experience. That basically means you have to defeat the enemies fast. And so if you want, you can go straight for the leader for a better chance of ending the battle with all five bars still lit up. But that's not always the best course of action, because enemies have items you can break off of them, and the more you kill in a battle the more chances you'll have of obtaining the items... obviously. Also, if you win with the bar full, you'll usually get an item from the enemy leader. Winning with all the bars is called a "Direct Assualt" so you'll see this flash up on the screen when you win. Direct Assualt's net you a nice 30 crystals, so if your hurting for crystals, this is the way to go. Advanced Tactics - Dividing your party is great for some boss battles but for normal fights, it's not really necessary. To divide your party press the up or down directional buttons on the D-Pad. Do this and you'll notice that Alicia's little tab with her name and HP on the bottom of the screen will turn red. This means she is now seperate from Rufus and can run around by herself. But now Rufus is a sitting duck. So if you want to switch back to Rufus you need to press right or left on the D-Pad to switch back to him. Again, good for some boss fights, but not practical for your average battle. Menu - Press Select to bring up your battle menu. Note that using an item from the menu, like a Warrior's Arcanum or something will then make it impossible to use another item right away. A little icon next to your Extension gauge will pop up and it indicates that you cannot use an item until it disappears. It goes away after you run around enough. Alright that about does it. And if you want to stop that camera from spinning like an Irish stereotype, press the R3 button to save yourself from a migraine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FAQ's .................................................................. GRU94 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ !COMING SOON! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> \/ ..................................................... \/ || THE WALKTHROUGH || \/ .................................... \/ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ============================================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 1 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== I just want to say, I abhore spoilers. So as great as this story is, and as much as I'd love to share my opinions about the plot, or make fun of some of the more outrageous cutscenes, I'll try to refrain (sorry, I do comment on a few scenes, but nothing spoiler worthy). But anyways, after you get through the initial scenes you'll get control of Alicia and find out that..... it's a sidescroller!? But actually it works really well in my opinion. Anyways, here we go. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Solde................................................................... SOL02 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Burgundy Flask, Warrior's Arcanum ~~Important: Read the first part of the poem Start off by heading right back into the Waiting Area where the scene took place and head to your right to snag a Burgundy Flask. No items to your right, but the ship is so very pretty. ^.^ Head to your left and into the next area of town. The first house you see has a Warrior's Arcanum. Head out and continue left and you'll pass the armory. Your poor right now, but you could afford a couple Sallets and maybe some footgear, and if you really need to you can sell the Burgundy Flask for 792 OTH. But, it's not a huge deal if you skip out on this stuff right now. Also, the lady in the armory gives you a lecture on Valued Customer Items, which will be important later on. But for right now, don't worry about it to much. Continue on and when you get the option to "head inward", do so. ++ IMPORTANT! ++ In the house on the far left here, there is a fragment of a poem on the left most wall. Make sure you read it now. Anyways, after that's done head out you'll spot a cat further over to your right. He wants some seafood, but this is a sidequest you don't have to worry about until much later. Ok, so you can continue on into the chapel, but all that's in there is a book on theology. But, it is remotely informational if you need to brush up on your Norse mythology. Alright, so head back to the main street and keep going left and into the Inn. I'd advise you to save, but that's up to you. And there's not much else to do here now, so head out of Solde. [[ Cutscene! ]] Rufus: Where have you been all this time? Alicia: Well... where have you been? Rufus: Ahh! Mind tricks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lost Forest............................................................. LOS03 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: 400 OTH, Skull Receptacle, Union Plume ~~Enemies: Skeleton, Dire Wolf, Bullet Beetle ~~Einherjar: One Mage You get a scene here, and are given the opition of viewing the battle tutorial, do so. If you want a more thorough explanation of how the battle system functions, then check up top in my Battle Mechanics section. Anyways, after the fight continue on. Photons will be introduced now, your going to be using these alot. And don't worry, you have an endless supply of photons. After you get past your first enemy you'll be in 3rd section of the map. You'll see an enemy down a small decline in front of you. You need to freeze him and use him as a platform to jump off of to reach the higher section you can't very well jump to on your own. Also, note that you CAN kill an enemy and still use him as a platorm. His essence or remnants will be left and you can still crystalize that. Once your up on the small hill you should notice a smaller enemy on top of the next incline. You need to freeze him once by holding up on the analog stick and firing a photon in his direction (Or jumping and shooting... whatever you prefer). Once he's frozen, shoot him again and you'll swap places with him. This will be the basis for many upcoming puzzles and the like. Unfortunatly ;_; Grab the treasure box with the 400 OTH in it and continue. [[ Cutscence! ]] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Einherjar EIN23 << Now you have an Einherjar. So for right now it's just another team member to aid you in battle. But if you go to the staus option in your menu and select Mithra, you'll see his current level which is 2, and then you should see something else that says FreeLV with the number 7 next to it. This means that's his Free Level. Free Level's are the level at which you can get rid of your Einherjar in exchange for some items. Each Einherjar requires you to level him or her up 5 levels in order for you to "Free their Soul". The Free Soul option is found in the Party option in your menu. Once you select Party you'll see the Free Soul option right below Configure. Of course you can't do this now, nor is it recommended to release Einherjar as soon as you level them up 5 levels. I'll expound upon this more later. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When you have control of your character after the cutscene, turn around and head to your left, If you look at your minimap in the upper left hand corner you'll see that there's a ledge way up on top of that cliff. Aim a photon up there and fire until you hear a "ching" sort of sound. When you hear that sound fire another photon from the same location and you'll exchange places with some random item. Grab the Skull Receptacle and the Union Plume. And that does it for treasure in this area. BTW, if you ever need to check to see how much of the map is left to cover, or how much treasure is left in an area, open up your map with R2 and look down at the bottom left corner. The first icon is a treasure box, thus indicating how much treasure you have found in that area, and the icon next to it is how much of the map you have completed. A simple feature, but very beneficial. Anyways, save if you want and continue on into the Royal Underground Path. I applogize for the length of this section. It's just that, there's some things that need explaining and I figure I might as will get it out of the way now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Royal Underground Path.................................................. ROY04 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: 400 OTH, Warrior's Arcanum, Warrior's Arcanum, Gauntlet, Leather Boots, 800 OTH, Elixir, 600 OTH, Warrior's Arcanum, Union Plume, Thunder Gem, Sallet, Dwarf Tincture, Union Plume, Shamshir ~~Enemies: Skeleton, Dire Wolf, Bullet Beetle, Goblin, Skeleton Soldier ~~Einherjar: One light swordsmen and one heavy swordsmen Is is just me or is the music in this section just marvelous? Anyways, head up past the first enemy and jump on that ledge behind you for 400 OTH. Alright, time for another diversion I think, you can skip this section if you've already figured out how to use skills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Skills SKI24 << OK, so by now you should have at least one skull receptacle in your inventory. As you have probably figured out, you need to go to your equip option in the menu, select a character, go down to one of the Accessory slots and you can equip whatever accessories you've picked up so far. You'll get alot of accessories from breaking parts off of enemies, the sheer magnitude of accessories you pick up is just overwhelming in my opinion. Just look at the Item FAQ, it's 830K! OK sorry, so equip a skull receptacle on Rufus for now. Once you've done that you'll notice that the words "Skill Formed!" will flash up above your grid to the right. And the words Fortify Physique will appear under that. This means you now have a skill set on Rufus for him to learn. So your probably thinking, "Where is a list of all the skills I can learn?" Well go ahead and press triangle while your in the equip screen, and viola, there's the list. You'll notice that you need certain Runes to learn certain techniques. And right now the only skill you'll probably be able to use is Fortify Physique. You need a blue armor rune, (which Rufus should already have equip) and a blue earth rune (via the skull receptacle). So if you want to equip this skill on Alicia your going to need to have a blue armor. If you really want this skill on her right now, go back to Solde and buy a Leather Mail for her. And one more thing, when you have learned a skill, go to the skills option in the menu and select a character and assign that skill, but this is pretty obvious. Also, don't forget to equip Mithra's Break Up skill on him right now. All Einherjar come with a skill already learned, so make sure you equip it as soon as possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So after you have the 400 OTH, jump down and freeze that enemy below you. Use him as a platform to jump up and grab the bag containing a Warrior's Arcanum. Next, you'll get a small tutorial on how to jump as soon as you swap places with an enemy. So, freeze him, then do a swap but as Alicia is teleporting, start holding the circle button right away. If done correctly, you should jump as soon as you swap places with the enemy. Once your on the ledge continue on to the next area. [[ Cutscence! ]] Once you regain control, head left and into the small alcove. Keep running and right behind that crate there is a treasure box which is obstructed from view, open it for a Warrior's Arcanum. Now jump up on the ledge and open the other treasure box, but as soon as you do, jump! There is a trap in this box and like many treasure boxes to come, they have traps installed in them. >.< Not fun. Anyways grab the Gauntlet from the box and continue on. Don't forget to equip that on someone! A little blip about Einherjar is there to read on the bridge, it basically tells you what I told you in the Lost Forest section. Continue on and check the sword for a new einherjar. You'll get either Richelle, Sylphide, or Jessica. Keep going and when you get to a section heading down, take that. You should see another einherjar directly to your left now. Release it for either Kraad or Roland. Head left for two treasure boxes, one with Leather boot and another with 800 OTH. Exit here and continue to the right, you'll see a small niche up above you on your minimap and a standing enemy up there, run past both him and the flying enemy and the tall one will just fall off the edge, freeze him and jump off of him to get to the treasure box with an Elixir in it. Keep going right for another box with 600 OTH. Head out of this area and continue to the right in the next section. Keep going and.... [[ Cutscene! ]] You snag yourself an Antique Pendant and a new ally. Now, go ahead and walk off the dilapidated bridge, don't jump off, just walk off the edge. You should land right next to a box with a Union Plume. Now you can jump off into the gully, and head out. Go left up the incline and you'll see three enemies, in order to get up into that little alcove, freeze the flying enemy and do a swap jump. You know, hold circle while your swapping with the flying enemy. This should be enough to get to the ledge with a Thunder Gem. Keep heading up and around and you'll arrive back at the bridge (sorry, this was just to fill out the map). Anyways jump down again and head right this time. Just follow the path until you get to a fork, and then head right for a box with a Sallet. Go left now, and I'd advise you to first kill that enemy in front of you, then crystalize him. Now you can push it, but wow, that's painfully slow. So just use the swap technique to get him over to that box where the Sallet was. Use the crystalized enemy to jump up unto the ledge. The room up here has a box with a trap on it, get the Dwarf Tincture and exit. Continue on and when you see the flying enemy drop down below him and get the Warrior's Arcanum. Now, use him as a platform and exit this area. Now you'll be on the other side of the bridge, and to your left is a Union Plume. Go right until you get to another treasure box and a explanation orb (that's what i call it). It just tells you about how certain weapons let you preform a different number of attacks then just 2. Grab the Shamshir and equip it on someone. Save and continue. \\ BOSS BATTLE // >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ~~Ballistic Rhino ~~HP: 680 ~~Race: Giant, Beast ~~Experience: 5000 ~~OTH: 870 ~~Attribute Resistences: None ~~Status Effect Resistences: +80 Paralyze/Silence , +50 Freeze , Everything else is +100 Well, being your first boss battle, this guys not going to present too many problems. But he has a massive range, so dash in twice to close the gap. He has a plethora of armor, but with each section you destroy, you have a chance to obtain some items. So, first off I'd advise to go for one of his sides and hack away at an arm. Of course you'll hit some armor and after your string of attacks are finished you'll be left with a marginal amount of AP. Thankfully for you this guy is extremely slow so just stay close and run around him. But if you see his attack range change from a long line to a more fanned out close range then you may want to dash further behind him. Anyways, once you get an arm off go for the tail. And from there just head to the next arm. He's pretty simple and shouldn't give you much hassle. Although he can cause stun which is annoying. But, done right, you shouldn't even get hit at all. And if you want to go back and fight him again for some experience points or maybe try again for those items, you will have the option of re-fighting him by going back to that area again and heading up. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< After the battle, save in the next area if you want, and exit. [[ Cutscene! ]] ============================================================================== +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 2 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dipan................................................................... DIP05 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Union Plume ~~Important: Read the next part of the poem here Welcome to Dipan, which in my opinion, is very dreamy and surreal. And the music fits perfectly. But ANYWAYS, ^.^ head up into town when you get control of Alicia. No items in the Inn or tavern, so head to the armory. They have some nice weapons, but they're kind of pricey. Although, if you got enough Amber's from breaking the Bullet Beetle's left and right side of their body, then you shouldn't be hard up for cash. Each one sells for 1200 OTH. Buy whatever you think is necessary. And you might be wondering how you can buy those rare items at the end, well first, to get rid of the question marks, you have to buy a set amount of merchandise from the vendor. Once you purchase enough of his wares they will become available to buy. Then you have to sell the necessary items to make the item. So here we have a Poison Check and a Stun Check. For example..... Stun Check requires: so you'll need to sell these items 2 Amber then buy the Stun Check. But you don't 2 Broken Amulet really need it right now, unless you 2 Stagnant Water just have to have it. When your done at the Armory head left and into the house at the end. ++ IMPORTANT! ++ Make sure you read the next poem fragment on the book shelf here, because you won't get another opportunity to read it. Leave the house and head up into the next section of Dipan. The first house you come across has a union plume in it. Head out and follow the path into the next section. Once you enter, some guards will be talking about how they need to change the guards somewhere else (convenient huh?). So now just head out and traipse on back to where you first entered Dipan. Head all the way to the right and you should see an opening leading up. From there just head into the castle.... the "secret" way. Idiot soldiers ^_^ [[ Cutscene! ]] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dipan Castle ........................................................... DIP06 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Leather Boots, Union Plume, Dwarf Tincture, 700 OTH, Double-check, 1200 OTH, Crest Estoc ~~Enemies: Skeleton Solider, Goblin, Warning Jewel, Living Armor You never really realize the music's there until... it's not there. Nice looking castle though. Anyways, when you get to the fork go right, you'll have to run a ways, but you'll find a treasure containing some Leather Boots at the end. Head back down the stairs towards the save point. Keep going left past the save point for two more items, a Union Plume and a Dwarf Tincture. Head back and save. Now go down for a.... [[ Cutscene! ]] Skeletons are just misunderstood, but tight fighting space huh? Yeah, the fights in this area all have that same tight corridor layout, bummer. So, head down the stairs after the fight. More stairs, then keep heading all the way to the left, there's no items in here, but it's just for the purposes of completing the map. Head out and then take the passage down. Break left, and you'll notice an enemy above you on your minimap. Crystalize him and swap places, head left into the area and the "Open" sign will pop up, inspect for 700 OTH. Another enemy is over head, get on the end of the ledge, jump up and press up and square to hit him, repeat to exchange places. Head in and grab the Crossbow. Now, use that enemy you killed (or passed) and swap him into the area next to the treasure box. Run back, and now stand on top of the treasure box and swap places with him again. Now just jump on top and jump again unto the ledge to the far left corner of the screen for a Double-check. Leave, jump down, and keep going to the right now. You'll come across a red glowing orb, just slash it with X and continue. Alright, the first enemy you see needs to be frozen, use him to jump off of and jump left onto the platform. Jump right onto the next one, then exchange places with the enemy on the next platform. Open the box for 1200 OTH. Now exchange places with the flying enemy above you. See that red orb? DON'T hit it just yet, get on top of it and jump to your left for a box with a Flare Gem. Now go ahead and destroy the orb. Head into the next area and read the explanation on special attacks..... our read mine! ^.^ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Special Attacks SPE25 << Limit Breakers! lol no I can't say that, but these are essentially limit breakers that you can execute far more often. All you need to do is have a weapon that has the Special Attack function (which you'll get from the treasure box right in front of you). Enter a battle with a your new found weapon and attack an enemy. Do you see that little crescent shaped meter on the lower left hand corner? It fills when you attack an enemy, and the little numbers next to it that go up as you attack indicate how much a certain attack was worth. The goal is to chain a bunch of attacks together to fill that meter up, or until it reaches 100. So that means you need to attack quickly but don't mash buttons because then you'll end up missing attacks. So I'd suggest as soon as one characters attacks are ending start in with someone else right before they finish, in attempts to keep the chain going. Once you fill up the bar and you stop attacking, an option for a special attack will pop up, just press the button that corresponds with the character who has the special attack capability and watch the fireworks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open the box for the Crest Estoc, save and continue on. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ~~Primordial Ooze ~~HP: 1200 ~~Race: Giant, Plant, Unholy ~~Experience: 9000 ~~OTH: 1260 ~~Attribute Resistences: -20 Flame, +80 Thunder/Earth, +20 Darkness ~~Status Effect Resistences: +20 Paralyze, +50 Freeze/Stun, Everything else is +100 Hmm, skills are nice, but at this point Fortify Physique and maybe Iron Fist are the only two you'll be likely to have, and that's fine. Fortify Physique helps. So you might want to have that on some characters. But tactics wise, just head around to his side or back. Yes all of those tentacles can be hacked off, and if your lucky you might get some items. So, if your feeling brave, attack his tentacles. He can inflict poison so watch out for that. If you have Mithra leveled up to level 5 he'll have Normalize, and that will heal poison. Be warned that he can regenerate his arms and when he does he'll use a pretty deadly attack that covers a circular area around him. Don't bother spliting up the party because your going to want a full group so you will have enough attacks to initiate a special attack with Alicia. Mithra's also good here for another reason. His frigid damsel attack can inflict freeze, which this boss is quite susceptible to. So, hack off some tentacles, use your healing items when needed (mostly Dwarf Tincture's here) and you should breeze though this boss. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Continue on for the next [[ Cutscene! ]] Dallas: Forgive me Alicia... for going emo. >.< Ok so now, just get out of here and on your way out you'll encounter another [[ Cutscene! ]] After the scene head back to your right a few steps and pick up the sword that was dropped. It's a powerful sword for this point in the game, but it's only capable of one attack. Anyways, once you have the sword, just continue on and leave the castle. But before you can get out, guess what? [[ Cutscene! ]] Old Creepy Guy: Great Odin's Raven! lol (I know Odin is supposed to have a raven according to Norse mythology, but come on, it's like saying "Great Zeus' beard!") Is it just me or do the two older mages give off that creepy pedophile vibe? O_o You'll find yourself back in the Lost Forest and you'll now have a new ally. Head out and prepare for a... [[ Cutscene! ]] I should probably stop announcing every cutscene huh? Anyways, once it's over Kythena Plains will show up on your map. I thought they were just napping, so why wasn't their HP restored? !_! Well, just go and nap in Solde and save if you want. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kythena Plains ......................................................... KYT07 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: None ~~Enemies: Dire Wolf, Goblin, Giant Bat, Warning Jewel, Living Armor, Flying Fish Nothing complicated here, just follow the linear path to the end. The flying fish do have some items you need for a sidequest and so do the Giant Bats, but don't worry about this now. And on a sidenote, your remembering to equip new skills when you can right? Always check new accessories to see if you can form new skills with them. At this point you should at least have access to these skills.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fists of Iron: Blue Armor Rune (easy enough) Blue Soul Flame: Break Warning Jewel's apart (25% chance) Fortify Physique: Blue Armor Rune Skull Receptacle: Obtained from Skeleton's, aim for the head (40% chance) Mental Boost: Blue Armor Rune Fish Scale: Flying Fish, either Direct Assualt one if it's the leader or aim for it's body (50% on the body) First Aid: Blue Armor Rune Beetle Shell: Break the outer wing off of a Bullet Beetle (50% chance) or you can just use the Antique Pendant. Pact Chain: Living Armor, take off his right or left arm (30% chance). This is a little difficult to obtain but First Aid is worth it. Beast Bludgeon: Blue Sword Rune Insect Stinger: Bullet Beetle, go for the head (30% chance) Blue Soul Flame: Warning Jewel core (25% chance) Unholy Purifier: Blue Sword Rune Insect Stinger: Bullet Beetle again. Pact Chain: Living Armor again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some of these are extremely useful, such as First Aid and Fists of Iron. And Mental Boost is good for your mages. Anyways, skills are important in this game so make sure you keep tabs on them. Alright, so once you get through Kythena Plains, Coriander will show up on your map. ============================================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 3 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== [[ Cutscene! ]] Get prepared for an outlandishly long chapter. The majority of the time spent on this game will most likely be in Chapter 3. Just an FYI ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coriander............................................................... COR08 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Insect Stinger, Blue Soul Flame, Earth Gem Continue on and talk to the frist two guys you come across. the one on the left is a merchant who has some great stuff to buy. And the guy on the right gives you an Insect Stinger and a Blue Soul Flame and gives you a homily about skills, but it's not a very good one. Talk to the merchant, and I'd advise you to buy some of his wares. There are two items in the Rare Items section of his merchandise you'll probably want to grab. Those would be the Falchion and 1 or 2 Leather Cloaks. The Leather Cloak won't show up until you make (I think) 8,000 OTH worth of purchases. So buy some armor or whatever until you have spent enough. Anyways... here's what you need to make them. --------------------------------- Falchion: 200 OTH 2 Black Crystal: you should have tons of these, obtained from Skeletons, break their waist (80% chance) 1 Pact Chain: Difficult to procure, obtained from Living Armor, break their left/right arm (30% chance) 2 Empty Shell: Living Armor again, break his legs (about 50% chance) 2 Sharp Spearhead: Living Armor, destroy his weapon (80% chance) So basically, just go out and demolish a bunch of Living Armors, (the merchant tells you this to) and you should get the necessary items for the Falchion. Leather Cloak: 3,500 OTH 1 Beast Pelt: Easy enough, break a Dire Wolf's body apart (75% chance) 2 Bat Wings: Obtained from Goblins, break their wings off (20% chance). Or you can also try for the Giant Bats and aim for their wings (20% chance here as well) Very nice armor for Rufus, Lezard, or any of your mages. And it cost the same as the Silver Cloak which pales in comparison. --------------------------------- Wow, I get sidetracked so easily, sorry. ^_^ After you have bought what you want, continue on and head into the first house, go to the right side and steal an earth gem. lol it's about time someone got pissed that you are just wandering into a stranger's house and taking their stuff. Keep going into the next section of town and you'll spot an inn. Keep going and you'll spot a chicken you can feed bonemeal to. This is part of a sidequest, but if you have any bonemeal, go ahead and feed it to him. But this sidequest can wait for now. Well go ahead and head out when your ready. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Serdberg Mountain Ruins ................................................ SER09 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [[ Cutscene! ]] ~~Items: Ram's Horn, 2500 OTH, Might Potion, Dwarf Tincture, 3400 OTH, Ice Gem, Prime Elixir, Falchion, Dwarf Tincture, Gandeeva, 5000 OTH, Metal Buckler, Fireproof Trinket, Metal Greaves, Dwarf Tincture ~~Enemies: Kobold, Kobold Knight, Giant Hawk, Ghost, Owlbear, Crust Golem, Thunder Hawk, Sack Mimic ~~Einherjar: One light swordsmen and one sorcerer ~~Sealstones: Fog Wrath, Masochist Wrath, Black Anchor Wrath, Sword Blessing My god, that Dragon Orb brings back bad memories... Anyways, time for the next dungeon, enemies get just a little harder here so be forewarned. Ok, so head in and you'll notice the first two enemies standing there. Defeat them to make this easier on yourself. Once that's done, you'll notice a ledge on your minimap that's way up there close to the second enemy you encoutered. So, go and freeze the left most enemy and swap places so he's fairly close to the other enemy. Now freeze the other enemy and jump on top of him. Crouch down and swap places with the left most enemy so they stack on top of each other. MAKE SURE, when you swap places while your crouched that your positioned over on the right most edge of the crystal so when they stack you have enough room to jump on the first one and then jump up to the second one. And do this with haste because the crystals break fast (as you're probably aware). Now you have a makeshift ladder of sorts to get up to that ledge. On the ledge you'll find a Ram's Horn. Continue on all the way to the right. 3 treasures in this room. First box has 2,500 OTH, the other two are a Might Potion and a Dwarf Tincture. Those two boxes have traps on them as well. Head out and go down this time. Go left now (which is your only option anyways) and you'll get a [[ Cutscene! ]] Sealstones. Well, just when you thought they wouldn't throw any new gameplay aspects at you. Now we have sealstones, sealstones are great actually, once you figure out how to utilize them to your advantage, certain sealstones will make some dungeons a breeze. So the game gives you a small tutorial on how to use them, but this didn't help me out much on my first playthrough, so I'll try to make it a little easier to understand. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Sealstones SEA26 << Actually, the game does a pretty good job of explaining this. Just open up your menu, go down to Sealstones, then select Guide. Run through that little explanation if your lost. But anyways, approach the dias and press X. That tree branch shaped thing coming up from the ground is called a dias. When you put a sealstone on a dias it effects all the ENEMIES. But if you take that sealstone with you, it will effect you. The one here is called Fog Wrath. When you press switch and select it you'll notice a blue arrow next to it pointing down. That means that this sealstone is NOT beneficial to your party. So these are the type of sealstones you want to leave on the dias so they affect your enemies. Later you'll get sealstones that have Red arrows pointing up, those are usually positive effects, so your going to want to carry those with you. And then you'll get sealstones that have a white diamond on them. Those are kind of neutral sealstones whose effects can swing both ways. Alright, so what to do with Fog Wrath. All this sealstone does is make is so enemies cannot detect you very well. So you should probably just restore this sealstone. Restore is right under the Switch option, if you have 200 Magic Crystals then just press restore and this sealstone will disapear. Well actually it will go to a spring. You'll come across a spring later. Springs just keep all the sealstones you've restored, and then you can bring them to any dungeon you want. And if your worried about spending 200 Crystals, 200 crystals is nothing, I had 2110 crystals at this point, but maybe I'm just insane. >.< There's more stuff, like Divinity Voids, and Linking Effects across areas, but I'll expound more upon sealstones later. For right now just check the guide in your menu if your really lost. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok so, you did something with Fog Wrath right? Just don't carry it around with you, because then you won't be able to see enemies on the minimap. Continue on out of here and use the new enemy as a platform to jump up to the next section. (Isen't it annoying how Ghosts can only be hurt by mages and Rufus' thunder arrow?) Head down to the next area. You'll see a bunch of platforms up above you here. Don't even think about jumping up on them yet. First just keep heading right and you'll get to a large wall. Stand there and hack away at it with X. After 3 attacks a wall will break away and you'll get 3400 OTH, an Ice Gem, and the last box has a trap so watch out. That box has a Prime Elixir in it. Jump up and free another Einherjar, you'll get either Celes or Tyrith. Head back now and jump up to the top platform and you should see a an item that looks like a large globe. Freeze it then drop down to the platform to your lower left. Turn around, aim up, and swap places with the globe. DO NOT jump and shoot your photon, because the globe will break into pieces. But, if this happens, just exit the area and re-enter. Anyways, keep freezing and swaping places with the globe on each platform until you get it down to the very bottom. See that area on the ground with the small red circle? It's right below the first platform. You'll want to put the globe right in the middle of that red circle, and then some stairs will rise and you can continue on. Save if you want. [[ Cutscene! ]] Two new allys join up, jeez, that's quite a large party we have now isn't it. Freeze enemy, jump up, and you'll be next to another globe thing. Head right a little bit and look at your minimap. See that small corridor area underneath the ground? Well that's where you want to be, but there's an area of cracked flooring that's preventing you from getting down there. So go and freeze the globe and swap it down to the next level or floor. Now, jump down and onto the cracked floor. Jump up and fire a photon at the globe. Jump up again and fire another photon to swap places. The globe will fall and break the floor, giving you access to a Falchion and the Masochist Wrath Sealstone. Grab the sealstone but DON'T get in a fight when your carrying it. Carry it up and put it on that dias that's oh so conveniently placed. Now, whenever an enemy attacks you, some of the damage he deals on you will be inflicted back on him, pretty nice huh? Head out of here, and in the next section head all the way to the right. Stand on the cracked floor and freeze the globe. Now jump up and fire a photon down at the globe to swap places with it in the air. And there goes the floor. Now, you have a sort of sub-boss to deal with. Not really a boss but just...er... an enemy who's a little harder then average. ^.^ But if you put Masochist Wrath on the dias back there, it will speed this battle up a little. Just make sure you take out those annoying Kobold's first. Then get off to crabby claws sides and try to take out his claws. You should get a Karsnaut from the Crust Golem you just defeated, this is a great sword for taking out those annoying ghosts. Anyways, take the Black Anchor Wrath with you and head down to the end of this passage for a Dwarf Tincture and a Gandeeva. Head back and ride the elevator? what the...... Alright, now head inwards. Hidden Treasure directly to your right. It contains 5000 OTH. Continue on and you'll see one flying enemy and one crawling enemy. And then you should see that suspended platform on your minimap way out of reach. Ok to get up there you need to first kill these two enemies (makes things easier). Then freeze the flying enemy and bring it over with the crawling one and position the crawling enemy just a little to the right of the platform. Then stand on top of him and jump and swap places with the flying enemy, so that the flying enemy is now frozen up in the air, pretty close to the platform. Now just do a straight jump, swap places with the flying enemy in mid air, and as soon as the swaping starts hold circle to jump and either land back on top of the flying enemy or jump over to the platform. lol I know this sounds hard but it's really easy, I just probably made this more complicated then it needed to be. Anyways, the box has a Metal Buckler inside. Now, head up into a Divinity Void. This area basically just negates any sealstones you might have in place and you also cannot fire photons. Run through the void and in the next section get the sorcerer Einherjar to your left, it will be either Alm or Woltar. So now, just head up the stairs, and at the top there will be a dias with the Sword Blessing sealstone on it. You might still have the Black Anchor Wrath with you, so restore that, and since Sword Blessing is only 150 Crystals, go ahead and restore that as well. In the next section you'll come across a spring. This is where all your restored sealstones are going. The game will give you a little info about them as well. Save, and continue on. See that large platform above you on your minimap? well there's a globe you can freeze and swap with right on the edge of the platform. So position yourself in the right place and fire some photons up there to swap places with it. You'll get a Fireproof Trinket and Metal Greaves from the boxes. Jump back down, and head all the way to your right for another box with a Dwarf Tincture in it. That should be 100% for the treasure. Now, if you head up your going into a boss fight so I'd strongly advise that you save now. And go ahead and take the Sword Blessing sealstone with you into the boss battle. You can go back for Masochist Wrath if you want and set it on the dias up here... but it's not really necessary. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Wyvern/Upper Lizard HP: 1600 Race: Scale Experience: 10000 OTH: 1750 Attribute Resistances: -20 Ice, +20 Flame Status Effect Resistances: +20 Paralysis/Poison/Confusion/Stone, +50 Doom and Faint, +75 Freeze Lower Lizard HP: 850 Race: Scale Experience: 6800 OTH: 170 Attribute Resistances: -50 for everything Status Effect Resistances: +50 Confusion/Faint/Doom, Everything else +100 Yes I know, there's only one enemy there, not two. But once you shave off half of the boss' HP, he'll split and another lesser enemy will be spawned from his... tail I guess? Anyways, as for strategies.. never stand to close to the edge. Never. If you'll notice when you first get into battle, the Wyvern will have a huge attack range. If your caught in this attack you'll be shot back quite a distance. And if your standing next to an edge and get pushed off... your done. So either A. get close enough without getting attacked to use some sort of attack magic, if there's a sorcerer with you that has some. And if your lucky his attack will change. Or B. split one of your party members off from the group and send him or her up into his huge range and make sure when he pushes this person back they have plenty of ground behind them. Anyways, other then that, this is a pretty normal battle. Get up to his side or behind him and hack away. Once half his HP are gone he'll asexually reproduce and you'll have a smaller enemy to deal with. This guy can poison you, and that sucks. So if you get poisoned make sure you finish this battle fast. Skill wise.. Fortify Physique and Iron Fist are fine. And don't forget to bring in Sword Blessing. Or if his giant wing attack is pushing you off the edge alot. Bring in Black Anchor Wrath instead of Sword Blessing. Good luck! ^_^ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< [[ Cutscene! ]] Now just head on out. On the way out... [[ Cutscene! ]] Arngrim: I've been called a bandit and a pirate, but nobody calls me a graverobber. Dylan: Graverobber says what? Arngrim:...... what? Before you depart to Villnore, make a stop at Coriander again. First, talk to a chicken... O_o for a Golden Egg. After talking to the chicken, keep going and you'll see a man with a fishing pole talking to a woman. Talk to them to unlock the optional dungeon, Ancient Forest. Also, find the girl who is facing away from you with a dog next to her. Talk to her and choose the option "No such luck" for a Royal Jelly. And on to Villnore! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Villnore................................................................ VIL10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Earthproof Trinket, Tiny Flower, 2000 OTH Right next to the Inn on the adjacent sidewalk, you'll see a dog. He's part of the same sidequest I keep putting off. He'll want some Meat Chops, so feed him some if you have any. The max you have to feed him is 15. But if you don't have 15 right now, don't go out of your way to get them. You can do it later. Anyways, now go just a little further and talk to the guy who is facing away from you. Speaking to him unlocks the next area you need to progress in the game. Now, go down the road and go in the first house you get to. There's a treasure box with an Earthproof Trinket inside. Keep going and talk to the girl next to the flowers. She'll sell you a Tiny Flower for 10 OTH, you can buy as many as you want. They improve your HP by 10% if you were wondering. Next, go listen to the guys in the tavern, this will unlock the Turgen Mines, which is an optional dungeon. Then continue on and stop by the armory to stock up. Next house you get to has 2000 OTH inside. Leave Villnore. Alright you should have three choices now, Ancient Forest, Turgen Mines, or Audoula Temple on the Lake. Ancient Forest and Turgen Mines are optional dungeons. But, if you want some nice items and sealstones then I'd strongly suggest you complete both. So you can skip my walkthroughs on Ancient Forest and Turgen Mine if you want and just proceed to Audoula Temple. That's up to you... Before you proceed to any of these I'd advise you to buy some new weapons and armor at the armory in Villnore because your going to need them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ancient Forest ......................................................... ANC11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Screp, Crystal Wand, Dwarf Tincture, Flare Gem, 7200 OTH, Iron Helm ~~Enemies: Thunder Hawk, Toxic Flower, Owlbear, Sack Mimic, Goat Man, Troll, Kobold Knight, Cybersaur ~~Einherjar: One archer ~~Sealstones: Attack with Poison, No Guarding, Sheathed Power Wrath First off, you'll probably notice that the enemies already have an advantage over you. They have the Attack with Poison sealstone in place somewhere nearby. Actually, just press R2 and bring up your map and you'll see the location of the dias with the sealstone on it. So, that should be your first line of business, finding the sealstone and getting it off the dias. Unless your just dying to get poisoned every battle. To get there fast from the starting location, head up, right, and then down. Either restore the sealstone or take it with you. Now head out and in the next section you'll notice another sealstone on a "Shell". You can take a sealstone from a Shell, but you can't restore it there. The sealstone here is No Guarding. Take it with you and go restore it at the spring... provided you don't mind using up 400 Crystals. If you don't want to use the 400 crystals right now, then just put it on the dias where you found Attack with Poison. After you have your desired sealstones in place, head up in the area where you found the No Guarding sealstone. Turn left and release a new Einherjar. It's an archer and you'll get either Sha-Kon or Chrystie (although you have a very low chance of actually getting Chrystie). Now head all the way to your right for a Screp. Oh yeah, and if you run into any Trolls... well good luck with that. They have a constant Regen cast on themselves, so defeating them may take awhile. Anyways, after you get the Screp, head back and go up this time. There's a save point on your right but we want to head left. Run left and when you get to the point where you have the option of going down or to keep going left, go down. In this section there's a box on your right. Watch out for the trap when you open it, inside is a Crystal Wand. Continue left, next section go down and there's a box on your left. You need to swap places with that pillar item in front of you to get to it. The box holds a Dwarf Tincture. Go back up, then up again. Now left, and you should see a dias. We'll be utilizing this later, but for right now just head all the way left for a treasure box with a trap and a Flare Gem inside. OK, now head out of here then go down, right, up, then left. Although you might want to go save right now. Anyways, if you go left you'll encounter a sub-boss on the hill. Sub-boss --------------------- Cybersaur x4 You have to go about this battle very defensively. Even if you have great armor and great weapons, these guys can destroy you quickly regardless of what you have. Thankfully for you these guys are morons, if you lure one out into that big open field, the others will stay in that little area and shouldn't bother you. Althouh, after you destroy 2 of them, the leader and the remaining Cybersaur will come out together (at least they did for me). Destroying their swords also helps ease the suffering, and usually their attack range is small. So dash in, score a few blows, and try to make sure you have at least 15 AP left after your attacks so you can dash away quickly. Then just run around to charge up your AP again, dash in and repeat. And try to get some Soul Crushes in, they always help. ---------------------- After this arduous battle is over, grab the sealstone up here. 30,000 Crystals!? Yeah I know, this is one of those crystals that pretty much just stays in this area unless you farm crystals like mad. Anyways, take the Sheathed Power Wrath, jump off the ledge, go left and put it on the dias. Now the Area Effects should be: No Guarding and Sheathed Power Wrath. It's very important you have the Sheathed Power Wrath on a dias. Ok, so head out, go back and get your Sword Blessing sealstone in case you left it at the Shell where you got Sheathed Power Wrath. And then head over to that save point and save. Head right for the boss fight. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Griffon HP: 2800 Race: Giant, Beast Experience: 47,000 OTH: 6400 Attribute Resistences: -20 Earth, +20 Thunder Status Effect Resistences: +50 Stun, +75 Petrify, +100 Confuse/Transfer I had such a horrendous time with this guy on my first playthrough, but I did fail to use Sheathed Power Wrath. If you have that in place this guy shouldn't pose any problems. Actually you might not even need that sealstone in place because for some reason I went in here and knocked off 80% of his health in one turn. But that's probably because I used Leone, Dylan, and Rufus' Soul Crush one after the other. And I had Sword Blessing on. You might want to bring in Lezard for his Poison Blow... but eh... this guy's pretty much a push over. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Upon defeating the Griffon, you'll receive a Jade Sealpouch. This lets you carry an additional sealstone around with you. And trust me this is a great thing to have, expecially in the later dungeons. So now go right, and pick up the Treasure Blessing Sealstone (another nice one). Keep heading right for two treasure boxes. One with 7200 OTH and another with an Iron Helm. And that should do it, head on out when your ready. Now head over to Coriander and talk to the guy with the fishing pole who's talking to the women. He'll give you a Might Potion. And now you can tackle Turgen Mine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Turgen Mine ............................................................ TUR12 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Prism Gem, Elixir, Crystal Chainmail, Dwarf Tincture, Key to the Mines, 5000 OTH, Honeysuckle Dew, Anointed Cloak, Dwarf Tincture, Overdrive, Prime Elixir ~~Enemies: Wasp Nest, Lizard Lord, Giant Snail ~~Einherjar: One Archer ~~Sealstones: Fetter's Wrath, Brimstone Law, Alarm Blessing, Gold Grubber Law First off, take whatever sealstone you want from the spring. I'd advise Sword Blessing or maybe Attack with poison. Head down the path and you'll pass a lever on the ground, flip it. In the next section jump down on the platform below you and flip the next switch. Jump off and head to your left for a box containing a Prism Gem. Now go ahead and head down. Jump on on the conveyer belts and flip the switch over in the upper east section. (The switchs are just here to provide some much needed light, it's actually not even necessary to flip them, it just makes things easier). Jump onto the ground and open the two treasure boxes, be wary because they both have traps. They contain an Elixir and a Crystal Chainmail. There is also a sack down there containing a Dwarf Tincture, it's hard to spot, but it's there. Over on the ledge to the left is a swarm of Wasp Nest's. These guys aren't fun because they're incorporal enemies and your normal light and heavy swordsmen are worthless against them. Unless they have ghost buster or a weapon like Kaursat equipped. So for these guys you'll want to use mages. And Fire Storm works great against them, so bring in Lezard. But these enemies suck so.... have fun! ^.^ Open the box after the fight for "Key to the Mines" (obviously you'll need this later) Now exit and head to your right this time. Don't flip that switch, instead, just drop down and fight the Wasp Nest to your left. Afterwards, procure the treasure which is 5000 OTH. There's another wasp nest above you, but you can bypass this one if you want. Get in the lift and continue on. You'll run right into two treasures, one is a Honeysuckle Dew, the other a trap box with an Anointed Cloak inside. Fall through the gap and head inward. More Wasp Nest's to deal with.. oh joy. After that's over, grab the Fetter's Wrath sealstone and if I were you I'd take it back to the previous section and put it on the dias underneath the bridge. Regardless of what you do, keep heading right. In the next section just forgo any battles and continue on to the section with the save point. Pick up the Brimstone Law Sealstone and take it with you. Now you can fight those annoying Wasp Nests with everyone. Now, while your here go and open up the cage door with your key, and either take or restore the Alarm Blessing Sealstone. Now, just backtrack to the previous section, jump up on the ledge with the Wasp Nest. After he's defeated get the Dwarf Tincture and the archer Einherjar from the corner. You'll either get Millidia or Lylia. Now, head back to the save point, save and get ready for the next boss fight. Alright, before you jump into this, make sure you have Brimstone Law set as one of your sealstones, for the other... just stick with your trusty Sword Blessing. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Queen Wasp HP: 4400 Race: Giant, Insect Experience: 57000 OTH: 5950 Attribute Resistences: -20 Earth and Fire Status Effect Resistences: +50 Petrify, +80 Stun, +100 Confuse/Transfer First thing you'll notice is all the Wasp Nest enemies scattered about. You can kill as many as you want, but they'll just keep respawning. In order to prevent this you need to find these inanimate objects around the battle field called Insect Eggs. The Insect Eggs only take a few hits to destroy so take out the first two over to your right. The other three are behind Queen Wasp in that little alcove. Try to lure the Queen Wasp out a ways and then start dashing until you get in the alcove. Take out the remaining Insect Eggs and then advert your attention to the actual boss. Well, as soon as you start attacking you'll notice that you aren't doing very much damage to this behemoth. But the nice thing is, this boss is very slow, so you can dash out, fill up your AP and dash back in without getting scrached... in theory of course. :p So the battle should proceed pretty normally for a bit, but when Queen Wasp raises its wings and arms and a green mist forms around it, dash like hell and try to get behind a pillar. Or better yet, try to hide in that little alcove place that had the Insect Eggs in it, because if you get hit with the full force of this attack you will most likely die. Once the attack has stopped, head back in and hack away. But, Queen Wasp has an annoying habit of using the green mist attack (or Variation Omega) a great deal when it's low on HP so just be patient and don't try to be a hero. And don't forget about using your Soul Crushes, your normal attacks probably won't be doing much damage but your Soul Crushes are still as effective as ever, especially Dylans. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Afterwards, grab the Overdrive from the first box. Watch out for the trap on the next box and take the Prime Elixir from it. Open the bag for 15000 OTH and finally get the Gold Grubber Law Sealstone and either restore it or leave it. 1200 Crystals might be a little pricey at this point but it's up to you. And all that's left is to leave. Once outside, head back to Villnore and run all the way to the end of the town. You should see a guy with his back to you talking to a women. Talk to him and he'll reward you with 10000 OTH. And now we leave and head to Audoula Temple to advance the plot, hurray! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Audoula Temple on the Lake ............................................. AUD13 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Dwarf Tincture, Strength Bow, Union Plume, Iceproof Tailsman, Crystal Chainmail, 10000 OTH, Thunder Gem, Evil Eyebrow Ring, Elixir, Anointed Cloak, Charge Break, Thunder Crystal ~~Enemies: Skull Fish, Lizard Man, Lizard Lord, Deep One, Giant Crab, Strobila ~~Einherjar: One sorcerer and One archer ~~Sealstones: Chasm Wrath, Ice Blessing, Gold Blessing This dungeon takes a triffle bit more cerebral output on your behalf. I mean this in regards to certain treasure boxes littered throughout the level. But we'll get to those when they come, for now just follow the path into the next section. You'll also notice that the enemies have set a sealstone which ups their Ice attack by 150%. This isn't to much to worry about unless a Deep One casts Frigid Damsel on you. If that happens you'll most likely find yourself with greatly depleted HP bars. But other then that the rest of the enemies don't really have ice attacks to speak of, but just be wary of the Deep One's until you take that sealstone off its Dias. So as I was saying before I got sidetracked... go ahead and continue on and in the next section you'll find a trusty spring from which you can take your choice of sealstones with you. Up on a ledge you'll probably see another sealstone. Ignore if for now and take the south route that's closest to the Spring. Go to your left and open the box for a Dwarf Tincture. Ok next, you'll probably see that ledge on your minimap which is at an extremely high altitude. Your going to need the two of the flying enemies to get up there. So kill both of them in this area so they don't fly away on you when your trying to position them correctly. Alright, once they're both defeated, move both of the enemies towards the treasure box you already opened. Just keep swaping them until they're over there. Once they are, position the enemies so one they're on either side of the treasure box. Now freeze both and jump on the one to your right. Jump up and at the top of your jump shoot a photon down at the left one and swap places. Now stand where the left most enemy was and jump up about halfway and shoot a photon down at the enemy still on the ground. Jump on top of him and jump towards the enemy in the air and swap places when your right next to him and then perform an air jump and land on top of him. Now you should be close enough to jump on top of the platform. If not, keep playing around with this and remember to keep using your air jumps after a swap is done. The box that's closest to you is a trap so watch out, because it has a tendency to push you off the edge. That box contains a Strength Bow, and the other two have a Union Plume and an Iceproof Tailsman. Now continue on to your right. Keep going and flip the switch on your way, in the next section there's a treasure box that has a trap on it and a Crystal Chainmail inside. Head back this time head up when given the chance. In the next section, you'll see a platform overhead with a treasure box. There's an enemy nearby so just use him as a boost to get up there and open the box for 10000 OTH. Jump over the gap to the right for a Thunder Gem. Jump down to the bottom floor and proceed all the way to your right for another Einherjar. It's a sorcerer, and it will be Khanon. Ok, now there is still another treasure in this area, first you'll need to kill the crawling enemy. Then situate him in a manner that will allow you to fire a photon from the level above and hit it. Now stand underneath the section where there is a hole in the floor up above. And you should be able to hit the flying enemy from there. Once you swap places with it, you'll be back up top. Now aim a photon down at the crawling enemy you destroyed and hopefully you can hit it if you positioned it correctly. Now you'll need to freeze the flying enemy again in order to get back up. Once your back up top, you'll need to wait for the flying enemy to float back up, when he does freeze it. Now, make sure the crawling enemy is right on the edge closest to the platform your trying to jump to. The flying enemy should be positioned farily close as well to your left, obviously. Now freeze the crawling enemy on the edge, turn around and jump and fire a photon down at the flying enemy. Now it should be up in the air high enough for you to either, use the crawling enemy as a boost to jump up on top of it and hopefully you'll be high enough and close enough to make it to that ledge. Or you could use the jump and swap in midair, then air jump and land back on top of the flying enemy. And that treasure box has a trap that will knock you off if you get hit with it, so jump as soon as possible when you open it. Inside is an Evil Eyebrow Ring, which isen't a deserving reward for all the effort went through to receive it. :( Anyways, after that onerous task is over, take either the top most passage inwards or take the far left passage inwards. [[ Cutscene! ]] Leone: She has a certain air about her. I could almost tell she was royalty... because she talks like a prepubescent 12 year on occasion. Anyways, after the scene, keep heading left and you'll see a giant stone block, push that into the waterway on the left and then head back. When you get back to the place with the box that had the Evil Eybrow Ring and the complicated puzzle, jump down to the ground floor and take the inwards path. Go as far left as you can and you'll come across a box with an Elixir inside. See that large enemy sitting on the edge? well the edge is actually broken off so you can get closer then you think. So jump up and press up and X to do an upward slash to engage it in a fight. After that, aim up and bounce a photon off the jagged step shaped stones heading downwards and eventually you'll hit that flying enemy and you can swap places with it. Get the archer Einherjar which will either be Phyress or Ehrde. Continue left and walk up the small incline and you'll see a treasure box half hidden underneath it. It's a trap box and it contains an Anointed Cloak. Then jump up to your right for another trapped box that holds a Charge Break. Backtrack now to the section with the Spring. And get the Chasm Wrath sealstone from the Shell up top. Take this with you to the dias on the bottom path. The water canal should be blocked now, affording you an easy passage to the dias. The dias has Ice Blessing on it, and it's 600 Crystals, so either restore it or something, just don't leave it on the dias. Place Chasm Wrath there instead. Go back now, and head south immediately after you enter the next section. There's a Thunder Crystal in this little section, directly to your left. Continue on and now you should be heading towards a Save point. And if the waterway in front of you is still coursing with water, you need to go the level up above and flip the switch. Anyways, save now and proceed onwards. Lol, wow this next section had me bewildered in regards to obtaining the sealstone up there. But once I figured it out I felt like a complete idiot. First off, there's a flying enemy way up there on the other side of the bars. He's right above the standing enemy. Anyways you'll have to find the correct position and fire a photon upwards and hit him. The photon you fire should just barely make it over the ledge if you do it correctly. Ok fire your second photon to switch places but once you fire it, jump. Yeah, jump AFTER you fire the photon and hopefully if you time it correctly you'll swap with the enemy when your at the top of your jump. Now kill the standing enemy, freeze him, and place him as close as possible to the bars. Stand on top of him and wait for the flying enemy to start floating back, and once it's pretty close to the edge where the photon is, freeze him and swap places. And start holding the jump button so you can jump as soon as you swap. God, that was so easy but it took me forever to figure it out on my first playthrough :( Oh, and the sealstone is Gold Blessing. FYI, combine Gold Blessing with Gold Grubber Law and you'll be loaded with OTH before you know it. Anyways, keep heading east and you'll enter the next boss battle. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kraken HP: 5000 Race: Giant Experience: 38000 OTH: 4200 Attribute Resistences: -20 Fire, -50 Lightning, +20 Ice Status Effect Resistences: +25 Paralyze, Everything else is 100 Someone on your team will most likely mention something about the gates. They're refering to the Floodgates on the adjacent side of the battle field. Ok, actually you can do this without destroying the floodgates, but why make things harder on yourself. So, dash over and destroy both floodgates before you enter the battle with Kraken. He's weak against fire and thunder, so Fire Storm and Rufus' Thunder Arrow work nicely here. But other then that, this is a pretty straight forward battle. Watch out for his Tidal Wave attack when he gets low on HP. And he spins around very quickly so sorry, but you can't just run circles around him and let your AP restore, :( but he's easy anyways. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< [[ Cutscene! ]] Now you will have the Divine Time Giver. This resourceful item lets you have more then one turn per attack sequence. For instance if you use all three of Alicia's attacks, normally that would mean she's done for that turn. But with the Divine Time Giver, Alicia can attack again but each subsequent attack will cost twice the AP. It's a nice item to have because I'm sure there's been times when the enemy just had a sliver of HP left and you couldn't attack anymore even though you still had AP. Well this item solves that problem. Alright, now Kalstad will show up on your map. But for right now, head back to Villnore for a sec. and talk to the same guy you talked to in order to gain access to Audoula Temple and pick the first option. You'll be bestowed a Prism Crystal... that's just great isn't it!? >_< Ok, now you can head to Kalstad. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kalstad ................................................................ KAL14 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: 5000 OTH, Burgundy Flask You'll probably notice the Inn right away in this town. And our merchant is also in the Inn, he has some great wares to but... you'll find out they're pretty costly. But if you need money just go to a dungeon area and use your Gold Grubber Law and Gold Blessing sealstones to pick up some fast OTH. To gain access to the next area make sure you talk to the other two people loitering around at the Inn. After you've talked to them, head out and go to your right and enter the first house you come across, inside is 5000 OTH. Continue on and head left at the next intersection. There's a boy standing here, next to a sheep or a goat... or something. Talk to him twice, and the second time you talk to him he'll ask you for 10 OTH. If you pay him 10 OTH thirty times, he'll give you a nice two-handed sword later in the game. If you pay him ten to twenty-nine times he'll give a weaker sword later on. Anyways, head into the house next to the boy and get the Burgundy Flask. And on a sidenote more then anything, do you or did you have Kraad on your team? Well, if you did I'd advise you realease him right now. And.... I might as will give a little insight about releasing Einherjar. If you already know what you need to know about releasing, then skip this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Releasing Einherjar REL27 << So, you probably have about 9 Einherjar at this point (unless you missed some or have already released a few). But Einherjar are not supposed to stay permanent members of your party. Instead your supposed to release their soul so you can aquire some stat boosting items in return. The items you get are dependent on what weapon and armors you have equip on them. But accessories are NOT a factor when releasing. So before you do this, unequip all of the accessories on the Einherjar you plan to release. Obviously, lower level armor and weapons produce a lower amount of stat items. And another thing, once you release an Einherjar, they are now among the living again. So that means, some of your Einherjar will return to towns and you can go find them and talk to them. And most of them will give you an item when talked to. Personally, I like to save my Einherjar and release them way later in the game. Actually I beat the game and I ended up with 15 of my 20 Einherjar still with me. Some people prefer to release them gradually as they go. Which is probably the smart thing to do, but it's up to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alright, so about Kraad. If you got Roland instead you can skip this part. But if you still have Kraad, he's one Einherjar I'd suggest releasing now. Make sure you have a decent weapon and decent armors equip on him before you release. After your done head over to Villnore. Go to the house at the very end of the city, and Kraad will be inside. Talk to him and he'll give you the Kraadinator. Which is an uber strong heavy sword at this point in the game. And that does it for Kalstad, leave and a new area should show up, provided you talked to the people at the Inn. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sahma Desert ........................................................... SAH15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Enemies: Sand Flower, Giant Scarab, Desert Beast ~~Einherjar: One heavy swordsmen Simple enough, just follow the linear path and pick up the Einherjar at the end. It will be either Dyn, Aaron, or Zunde. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that when you were in Villnore I hope you picked up the "Map of the West Lands" because this item lets you go back and forth between the sections on your map without you having to cross the Sahma Desert section every time you wish to return. Just buy the map for 1000 OTH and then press circle on the world map screen then select the area and press X to enter it. It's not a necessary item, just one that will save you time in the long run. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Surts Volcano Caverns .................................................. SUR16 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Dwarf Tincture, Union Plume, Pallasch, Overdrive, Ice Crystal, 15000 OTH, Spider Fighter, Royal Glove, Might Potion ~~Enemies: Giant Scarab, Fire Bat, Red Jewel, Red Lizard, Skeletal Soldier, Hell Hound, Wild Lizard ~~Einherjar: One archer and one sorcerer ~~Sealstones: Lifeforce Blessing, Barrier Blessing, Cotton Dust Wrath, Achromatic Law, Fire Blessing, Iceberg Law Upon entering you'll notice our lovely adversaries have two sealstones in place. One that decreases their mass and another that boosts their fire attack. The fire increase can be devastating if you get hit with an attack like Fire Storm, Explosion, or some other fire based attack. The decreased mass just makes the enemies bounce higher or get launched farther when you attack with certain attacks. But actually it's kind of fun to watch them go soaring 20 feet in the air after an attack. Regardless, watch out for fire attacks until you take the fire boost sealstone off its dias. Ok, so just head on into the volcano and pretty soon you'll come across a floating enemy next to a ledge. Freeze him then jump towards him and swap and preform an air jump after the swap to land back on top of it and then jump across. The sealstone here is the Lifeforce Blessing sealstone. In my opinion, this is one of the best sealstones in the game. Granted, it is a tad bit taxing on your crystals.. but it's worth it if you have enough. Grab the two treasures which are a Dwarf Tincture and a Union Plume and go down. [[ Cutscene! ]] Lol leave it to Alicia to make the gloomy gloomier. Ok after the scene, head left (since you can't go right yet anyways) and you'll find yourself in a Divinity Void. At the end of the void you'll spot another archer Einherjar. Either Sophalla or Arcana will join the team. Is it just me or does it look like Sophalla is wearing a derby hat? >.< sorry, just wondering. Next section the enemies will have a different sealstone in their possession. Anyways, just head to the hole in the wall, crouch and fire some photons down at the enemy to swap places. Now jump and press up and X to slash the enemy you just swapped with. This battle will be more tedious and complex then previous battles because any damage you do that is less than 50 will be canceled out. So your heavy swordsmen will probably be your best bet for this fight. After that's over you should now have access to the new sealstone, Barrier Blessing. It comes in handy occasionally but most enemies now are probably doing more than 50 damage per attack anyways. In the next section, ignore the path heading south and continue going right. Use the enemies as platforms to get over the lava. Next section, head over to the pillar and slash it. Now head on back and take the south path this time. Once your in the next area go left. To hit that enemy above you jump and shoot a photon at the section of rock that is at an angle. It looks to be at about a 45 degree slant. Hit that and your photon will ricochet up then over to the enemy, hit him again to swap places. Watch out, the box has a poison trap which sucks, the box contains a Pallasch. Jump down then swap the enemy next to the wall, and use him to jump to the other ledge with two boxes (both with traps) that hold an Overdrive and an Ice Crystal. Hey, is it just me or do these enemies seem exceedingly more difficult then the last area... Ok, go to your right now and in the next section you should see a long bridge but DO NOT jump on it. just run across it and stop when you get to the break in the middle. Pull up your R2 map and you should notice two arrows pointing down underneath the bridge. Head over to the second half of the bridge and position yourself right over the second arrow pointing down. Keep checking your map and make sure your in the right spot. When you are, jump and the bridge will come crashing down with you. If done correctly you should land on a small platform in the next area. Get the two treasures, which are 15000 OTH and a Spider Fighter. Jump off to your right for another treasure box that has a trap and a Royal Glove inside. Ok, now just get out of here, and direct yourself back to the bridge, of course this time cross it. Just get through the next section, then the area after that you'll spot a sorcerer Einherjar to your right, you'll materialize either Farant or Psoron. Keep going and in the next area you'll see a dias with Cotton Dust Wrath on it. Restore it if you want and continue on. Now, slash the other side of this pillar and it should fall, creating a bridge for you to cross. If it dosen't fall then you failed to break the debris up on the other side. Cross over the column. Head to your right and you'll spot another sealstone. This one is 4000, so you should probably just leave it there for now. It's the Achromatic Law sealstone. Keep going right and open up the bag in the corner for a Might Potion. Head back to your left and past the save point is the dias that holds Fire Blessing. Either restore it or find a shell somewhere you can put it, but just don't let the enemies have this advantage anymore. Save if you want and continue left. Next you'll see a large... ice flower? wtf? I'll make sure next time I carve an ice sculpture I put it in the middle of a volcano. Somehow it's still in tact so slash it and the ice crystals will magically disperse the lava. ^.^ The sealstone here is Iceberg Law which will turn everyone's attack into an ice based attack... but, you lose all of your fire resistence. Tough call, since this would be really nice for the upcoming boss if it didn't have the side effect of ruining your fire resistance. I actually managed to beat the boss with Iceberg Law on me, but he was doing massive amounts of damage and I was wondering why. So I put Ice Blessing on the dias and took in Sword Blessing and Iceburg Blessing with me into battle. I know, that seems like a stupid idea but Ice Blessing increases Ice attack and halfs fire based attacks, so all of the bosses fire attacks were halved and having Iceburg Blessing makes this battle go by much faster. Whatever you choose, head up into battle when your ready. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Evolve (First Form) HP: 6500 Race: Giant Experience: 72000 OTH: 0 Attribute Resistence: -50 Ice, +50 Earth, +100 Fire Status Effect Resistence: Everythings 100 :( Alright, so if you read above, I brought in Iceburg Blessing and Sword Blessing into this one. And I inserted Ice Blessing on the dias. This is a triffle bit risky, but if done correctly the boss shouldn't land a blow on you. Bring Lezard in and have his Frigid Damsel attack on, this definitely helps. Everyone on your party should now have a ice based attack so this fight should go by relatively quickly. But if you don't have Ice Blessing on the dias, this guy will murder you if he gets off an attack. So just dash to either side of him and start pummeling an arm. Make sure you take advantage of Soul Crushes, Dylans works wonders here as well. And try to have close to 15 AP left by the end of your attacks so you can dash away quickly. This guy can turn pretty fast but me walks slowly, so dash away after your attacks and then run around the edge of the battle field until you restore your AP and then jump back in. If he gets an attack off it probably will do some impressive damage, so don't be afraid to use your Dwarf Tincture's or Heal or any other healing items. But it's very possible to take this guy down in three turns. But your not done! ;_; depressing... Evolve (Final Form) HP: 7200 Race: Giant Experience: 72000 OTH: 105000 Attribute Resistence: -80 Ice, +20 Earth, +100 Fire Status Effect Resistence: Oh joy he's back, much to our dismay. This time he's put on a few and his attacks cover a wider range. Use the same tactics you used against his first form but he won't go down quite as fast. When you deplete about half of his HP bar he might do an attack that covers a huge circumference and if your unfortunate enough to be standing in it after an attack, you'll get hit obviously. But actually this attack isn't to brutal, it just hits a lot, each hit was only doing about 15 to 16 damage to my team. Abuse your Soul Crushes, although Lezards Animate Earth special will do nothing so don't bother using it. So dash away, run around to restore AP, dash in off to his side and attack. Then just rinse and repeat. Oh, and if your out a ways and you see he's getting ready for that massive range attack, try to use some menu magic or something in hopes he'll change his attack. Best of luck ^_^ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> [[ Cutscene! ]] After that's taken care of, head all the way to your right in this area and inspect the dragon orb dias for a Charm. And that should do it. Head out.. [[ Cutscene! ]] Stranger's in the night... After that scene is over swing by Kalstad and speak to the first guy you see. Talk to him and give him the Charm, in return he'll hand over a Foolproof Tailsman. Now go ahead and head on over to Crell Monferaigne. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crell Monferaigne ...................................................... CRE17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Ice Crystal, Busted Staff, Mace Head ~~Important: Read the last part of the poem I like this town for some reason, just keep going and pass up the option to go further in to the town for now. Eventually you'll see the armory, head in. Alright, there is some nice stuff here. Silver Mail's are great at this point in the game. But you most likely won't have many of the materials needed for item creation. So buy what you need, oh and don't forget to buy the Map of the East Lands. I love these things, because it saves a lot of running back and forth between map sections. Anyways, continue to the right and go up into the next section. The house here has an Ice Crystal inside. Head out, and on your way back go up the stairs in the middle of the town. Go right and enter the house. You'll see an old lady over by the fireplace walking away from you. You need to run to the left as soon as you enter so you can catch her in time to talk to her. She gives you a Busted Staff and a Mace Head. Also make sure you talk to the old guy here as well, this will open up the Crawsus Forest Ruins. Go left now all the way to the house on the end. ++ IMPORTANT! ++ Make sure you read the last part of the poem in this house. If you read the previous 2 parts then you'll get your reward in a later chapter. Go to the Inn and talk to the guy next to the Inn keeper, this will open up the next optional dungeon. And again you can skip this next area, but I strongly advise that you go through this optional dungeon because again, you'll get some great items. [[ Cutscene! ]] lol what were they laughing at? Did I miss something? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chateau Obsession ...................................................... CHA18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Dwarf Tincture, Silver Scales, Silver Buckler, Double-check, Dwarf Tincture, Claymore, Golden Egg, Tome of Alchemy ~~Enemies: Will-o'-the-Wisp, Trash Demon, Giant Skeleton, Satyr, Troll Chief ~~Einherjar: One sorcerer ~~Sealstones: Soul-Carver Wrath, Somber Light Wrath, Shield Blessing, Experience Pig Law The first thing you'll see is a spring and a sealstone next to it. The sealstone is Soul-Carver Wrath, which basically inflicts the enemy with a mild form of poison. It's nice for this area, so take with you right now and enter the next section. There's a dias at the bottom of the stairs, so put Soul-Carver Wrath there and return to the spring to grab whatever sealstones you need. And head back down the stairs, past the dias. Head left and grab the treasure box that's hidden behind a large crate. It has a Dwarf Tincture. Next you'll encounter your typical "Zelda" puzzle. Just push or swap the large stone onto the red section of the floor. Keep going and you'll see another dias. Ok, you might have figured this out already, but when you enter a room with a new dias, the sealstone effect you might have had in place in a previous section will be negated. In this case, probably soul-carver wrath. you need to do is link them together by putting a new sealstone on this dias. Then your sealstone effects will stack, which is tremendous. But you probably don't have many negative sealstone effects at your disosal. But if you just wait continue on for now, because you'll come across another Spring pretty soon. Anyways, in this area, take the first north path you see. There's three levels here and on the bottom is a box with a trap and Silver Scales inside. Next level has a sorcerer Einherjer which will be Seluvia. Now freeze the flying enemy next to you, jump up and fire a photon down at him to swap places in the air. Perform a jump after the swap to land back on the platform then do another jump, swap, and air jump to get up to the sealstone. The sealstone is Somber Light Wrath, which basically has no useful applications at all. Anyways, leave the area now. Past the dias you'll spot another "place the object on the panel" thing. Ok, over on the small ledge on the the west side of this area is a stone object you can use on the red panel. Swap that over to the panel and bring that enemy next to the dias down on this level with you. Now once you have both enemies down here, you'll need to stack them in order to reach the box. By now you should probably know how to do this, since you've had to do it once before anyways. In the box is a trap and a Silver Buckler. Continue on up. Head left and swap places with the floating enemy and open the sack here for a Double-check. Go right and swap with the enemy on the other side of the bars and get the treasure on the ground level which is another Dwarf Tincture. Alright, getting the treasure box on that small ledge above the Dwarf Tincture can be a little challenging. First off you need to go over and get the flying enemy from the other section. Bring one of the standing enemies over there so you can get out from behind the bars and still have the floating enemy with you. Now bring the floating enemy over to the bars on the right side. Place him right in front of the bars and swap places with the other standing enemy that should still be inside the bars. Now turn around, jump, and fire a photon down at the flying enemy. Hopefully you'll swap when your at the top of your jump. Now turn around again and shoot another photon at the flying enemy and when you swap to an air jump and you should land next to the box. It has a trap by the way... which you'll probably get hit with, but it's only a confusion trap. Open the box for a Claymore. Now head inwards. There's a ton of enemies here, a spring on your left, and another dias on your right. The dias is being protected by an enemy that is definitely overpowered at this point in the game. If your curious to see for yourself, I'd advise you to first go into the next section because there's a save point there. But it's up to you. Anyways, if you want to put something on the dias, get right in front of the massive enemy and shoot a photon upwards to hit the floating enemy above him. Once you swap places, put something on the dias and then aim another photon upwards and it will bounce off the walls and hit the stone item above you. Now fire another photon down at the floating enemy again and hopefully you won't touch the huge enemy when you swap. If you do however, just escape from the battle. Or try to fight him.. although it will take forever if you want to kill the dragon. Anyways, continue on and in the next section go past the save point and fire a photon up towards the sealstone you'll see flashing on your minimap. You should hit another stone item and you can swap with it. The sealstone is Shield Blessing. Ok, now save and get ready for the boss of this area. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lady Cleo Berserker Trash Demon x2 HP: 8160 Race: Unholy, Magic Experience: 44000, (120200 if you kill everything) OTH: 7200 Attribute Resistences: -50 Lightning, +50 Holy, +50 Earth Status Effect Resistences: +50 Paralyze and Confuse, +80 Freeze, +100 for everything else Nothing to hard here, make sure you put Soul-Carver Wrath on a dias because this helps this battle go by much faster. Obviously take out the trash demons first. Then I'd advert my attention to the Berserker, mainly because he has a suprising long range with one of his attacks and this will cause problems if you just choose to ignore him. Plus, he has some decent items if your fortunate enough to acquire them. Anyways, after he's gone just fight Lady Cleo like any other boss, but watch out for her magic. It packs quite a punch. And note that she is weak to lightning, so bringing in a sorcerer who has lightning bolt will help this progress a little faster. Gravity Control is a move she'll pull off quite frequently, but thankfully it dosen't do very much damage. And having First Aid equip on your characters keeps you from healing so often. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> You will acquire another Sealpouch, which is great. Head down the stairs and pick up the Experience Pig Law sealstone which is another good one, expecially if your good on money and you just want to level up your team quickly. Get the two treasures as well which are a Golden Egg and a Tome of Alchemy. Now before you venture off to Crawsus, head back to Crell Monferaigne and talk to the guy in the Inn. Answer, "Monsters" and you'll get a Sage's Arcanum... although I thought it was a ghost. O_o Anyways now your finished. And now it's time for the Crawsus Forest Ruins... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Crawsus Forest Ruins ................................................... CRA19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Apothecary's Arcanum, Earthproof Trinket, Silver Helm, Dwarf Tincture, Union Plume, Silver Greaves, Foolproof Trinket, Lightningproof Trinket, Apothecary's Arcanum, Mirage Robe, Elixir, Silver Mail ~~Enemies: Vampire Bat, Tear Soul, Electrical Chip, Bolt Dragon, Disgusting Shell, Unclean Glob, Vampire, Phantom Lurker ~~Einherjar: One heavy swordsmen and one light swordsmen ~~Sealstones: Earth Blessing, Lightning Blessing, Thundercloud Law, Mudbank Law Upon entering the Ruins you'll notice a conveniently located Spring. Take whatever sealstones you desire and continue on. In the next section you'll come across a pillar with a pattern on it. These pillars absorb lightning strikes, but you can knock them over if you want. For me, the lightning bolts dissipated after awhile and it didn't matter if I knocked over the pillars or not. Anyways, you'll see a floating enemy adove a small pool of water. Use him to get up to that ledge with the Apothecary's Arcanum, and the Earth Blessing sealstone. Ignore the path leading inwards for now, and continue on to your left. [[ Cutscene! ]] Save if you want and run left a little ways more and head down. Between the Tear Souls and the Electrical Chips, this place is worse then a southern baptist preacher with a megaphone. Well, not quite that bad, but having two enemies that show up quite frequently that possess resistences to physical attacks makes some battles taxing on your time. Ghost Hunter is a nice skill to counter this, and having at least one sorcerer in your party is almost a necessity. And if you can, try to stock up on items you need to create some of the nice weapons in Crell Monferaigne, you'll need them for the next dungeon, trust me. Alright, I appologize for that little diversion, but once your in the next section, turn to your right and drop down into the small pool of water. You'll find a treasure chest with a freeze trap and an Earthproof Trinket. Continue left all the way into the next section. You should come to a dead end with a solitary treasure chest, it contains a Silver Helm. Head back out and continue right until you see the crawling enemy you passed (or killed) earlier. Freeze him this time and jump off of it in order to reach the path overhead. Follow this into the next area, once you enter and drop down you should spot a bag, which contains a Dwarf Tincture. Head all the way to the end of the area for another Einherjar. It's a Heavy Swordsmen and will be either Falx or Adonis. Backtrack, and this time you can take the path heading down. To your right you'll find the Lightning Blessing Sealstone. Either take it off the dias, or restore it, either one will suffice. Just don't leave it there. Ok, now you probably noticed that when you restored or took the sealstone off the dias, you got a short scene. It would be beneficial for you to put a sealstone on this dias that has a negative effect on the enemies. Such as Masochist Wrath or Chasm Wrath, you know... all those sealstones to expensive right now to afford. So use something like Manacles Wrath or Fog Wrath if you have them. Just make sure you put either a negative or neutral sealstone on the diases. If you put something like Earth Blessing or a postive effect sealstone on a dias, all the water pools will be poisoned. Anyways, continue on to your right for a sack containing a Holy Gem. Back to your left, you'll notice a huge troll looming over you. Sub-boss ------------------------------------- Shaman Chief x2 Wild Troll This battle isn't required for completing this dungeon and the sealstone he's protecting requires 20000 sealstones to restore. There is a treasure chest behind him carrying a trap and a Union Plume... but Union Plumes? Need I say more? Not really worth it, but with the right preperation this battle can be pretty simple. First off, bring either Rufus or an alternate archer in to the battle. But make sure they have stone arrow equip as one of their attacks. Second, bring in a heavy swordsmen like Dylan or Arngrim and equip them with the Flamberge sword. This sword has a tendency to cause Fraility on targets, and if your a lower level, this will help out immensely on the Troll. Actually it seems that Argnrim has the innate ability to cause the Fraility status regardless of what sword he has equip. Anyways... third, the Magician Slayer skill is nice to have for this battle. Hopefully you've taught it to someone, or you have a Runeslayer sword which has the ability already immbedded in it. And having at least one person on your team with the Break Up skill helps out as well. When you get into the battle, take out the Shaman first. These guys have have a plethora of parts for you to break off, and that's why you should have someone with the Break Up skill. Because if you enter break mode, you should probably be able to murder these things in one turn. Once you kill one, quickly avert your attention to the other Shaman, because the remaining one will have a tendency to resurrect his fallen comrade. After both of the Shaman are gone, focus on the troll. He's not too difficult, but the constant regen is very annoying. That's why you have the Flamberge, so you can inflict the Fraility status effect and render his regen antics worthless. Also, he is susceptible to the stone effect. So, if your fortunate enough, your archer's stone arrow will work and you'll get in some free turns. And DO NOT attack him on his right side, he's holding his huge bludgeon on that side, and it seems like it has an indefinite amount of HP. So attack from the left side, or from the back if possible. --------------------------------------- For your efforts, you get access to the Thundercloud Law sealstone... which really has no use in this dungeon. And a treasure chest containing a poison trap (watch out for this) and a Union Plume, hurray! >.< Now just backtrack to the save point. Now head to the spring and make sure you pick up another sealstone with a negative effect (if you have any). On your way back to the save point, take the path underneath the sealstone shell and the treasure chest. Now just run all the way to your left to find a chest with some Silver Greaves inside. In the next area, head left and you'll spot another dias. Place a sealstone there. Continue on to find another Troll Chief and company, that's just wonderful... use the same strategy as you did for the last one to bring this guy down. Once he's gone you'll have access to the Mudbank Law sealstone, and a Foolproof Trinket. Head outwards to the next section. Run to your right and you'll notice a crawling enemy protecting a treasure chest. Kill him or swap him somewhere else and open the chest which contains another trap and a Lightningproof Trinket. Now, all the way to your left is a light warrior Einherjar, you'll get either Circe, Fraudir, or Rasheeka. Now freeze the walking enemy that was in the water and jump off of it to reach the ledge up above you. You'll obtain an Apothecary's Arcanum and in the large chest is a trap and a Mirage Robe. Now, head down and in the next area break to your right and across the water is a bag with an Elixir inside. Continue on to the left and you'll spot another dias. Place one more sealstone here, open the chest which has a trap and a Silver Mail inside and now head back to the save point. If you successfully placed the proper sealstones on all three diases then a bridge will lower once you enter the save point area. Now you have access to the boss of these gloomy ruins. Save and head across the bridge. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hydra HP: 13200 Race: Giant, Scaled Experience: 160000 OTH: 12600 Attribute Resistences: +50 Lightning, -50 Ice, Absorbs Earth, +50 Darkness Status Effect Resistences: +80 Stun, +50 Freeze, Everything else is +100 As far as prep work goes, I'd just advise having Descaling Might and/or Giant Killer on a few of your members. First Aid always helps, and so do your normal Iron Fist, Fortify Physique skills. If you have a sorcerer you want to bring with you, equipping Frigid Damsel as their attack is an admirable idea. This boss also has a poison attack which can be devestating, but I never had any Poison Checks on me when I did this battle... but if your really concerned go back and buy some (provided you have the materials). Anyways, you'll probably notice that about 60% of the battle field is comprised of water. This will undoubtly slow you down, so always remember to dash. The Hydra can move a lot faster then you in the water so be prepared to take some abuse. Also, Hydra has a massive range on some of his attacks, so if you want to dash away and heal, make sure you create a nice gap between you and him. He also has an attack called External Pain which has a very high likelihood to inflict Fraility on your characters. This happened to me and every last one of my members were hit with Fraility. Thankfully I only needed one more turn to beat him. But the goal here is to kill him as hastily as possible so you won't have to deal with all these nasty status effects. Oh and try to destroy his "tail"... not much of a tail if you ask me but, if you break his tail you'll have a chance to obtain a Metabolizer which is one of the most important accessories in the game in my opinion. Anyways, good luck with this guy. ^_^ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< After the battle.... [[ Cutscene! ]] You have my condolences random enemy, one look at Dylans face and I'd make a break for the woods to. Ok your done now, so just head out. And now I believe it's time for a few diversions before you head off to the Dragonscrypt. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Diversions, Sidequests, and Inventory Suggestions ...................... DIV28 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lol, otherwise known as, pretentiously long title. Alright, so the upcoming area you will be trudging through is the Palace of the Venerated Dragon. To be honest, this place is extremely tough. If you've been putting off sidequests (like me) or not purchasing the best armors and weapons (also like me) now is the time to do it. So first off, lets start with the Animal Ring sidequest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> The Animal Rings ANI29 << Well, it's about time I covered this. If you've already completed this quest then obviously you can skip this. First off you need 15 Seafoods, 15 Bonemeals, and 15 Meat Chops. Seafood can be obtained from breaking the rear fins off of the Flying Fish. Flying Fish can be found in the Kythena Plains. You can also battle the Gun Fish in the Dragonscrypt that just opened up. Break off their rear fins as well to obtain the seafood. Bonemeal can be obtained from any type of skeleton you encounter. The obvious choice is the skeletons back at the Lost Forest and Royal Underground Path. You'll find the Skeleton in both the Lost Forest and the Underground Path. Also, you'll find the Skeleton Soldier in the Underground Path. You need to break off their legs to get your bonemeals. Also, you can fight the Giant Skeletons in Chateau Obsession and break their legs as well for more bonemeals. Meat Chops can be acquired from Giant Bats or Dire Wolfs. Giant Bats can be found in the Kythena Plains and so can the Dire Wolfs. You need to break the body off of the bats, and hack the tail off of the wolfs. The wolfs can also be found back in the Royal Underground Path. But... you can get all your seafood and meat chops quite easily just fighting enemies in the Kythena Plains. Once you have all the necessary components, go and feed the animals. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Cat Ring - Head over to Solde and take the north path that's right passed the Inn at the front of the town. Now, turn and walk to your right just a little and you should notice a cat hanging out on the street. Talk to him and feed him 15 Seafoods. In return you'll get 4 accessories, which are basically useless. Now, go to the armory in Solde and sell all 4 accessories. Now, in order for the Cat Ring to appear in the Rare Items category, you need to make 80,000 OTH worth of purchases for it to become available. The problem is, the vendor in Solde dosen't have much you'll want to buy right now. Except for maybe the Sun Shower sword. But you won't have the necessary materials at this point anyways. So... you can sell the items and wait until later to spend your 80,000 or you can just buy a bunch of healing and status recovery items like I did. Royal Gloves are also pretty nice at this point. So you could buy a few of those also. The Bird Ring - For the bird ring, go to Coriander and run all the way to the second section and just a little ways past the Inn you should see a chicken on the path. Feed him 15 bonemeals for 4 more useless accessories. Now, if your doing this sidequest now, go over to Kalstad and head into the Inn and the traveling merchant will be there. Sell him the 4 accessories, make the 80,000 OTH worth of purchase (if you haven't already) and buy the Bird Ring. If your doing this much earlier, the merchant should still be in Coriander. The Dog Ring - The dog can be found in Villnore. He's a little ways past the Inn. Feed him the 15 Meat Chops for the 4 accessories. Now, take these accessories and travel over to Crell Monferaigne. Sell them at the armory and making the 80,000 dividend shouldn't be a concern here. This merchant has some wonderful weapons and armor, some of which you've probably already purchased. So... purchase the Dog Ring and your done. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There's one more step to this sidequest, but that won't come until much later in the game. Your probably wondering if this sidequest is worth it... and to that effect I'd say... not really. It's not imperative you do this, nor is it even a lucrative pursuit but if your an RPG purist like myself, you'll probably want to get this out of the way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Power Leveling Characters POW30 << Ok, this is completely optional. This is basically for the people who are A. RPG purists or B. Having difficulty with the game. My first playthrough I was having difficulty with this game, and The Palace of the Venerated Dragon pissed me off to the extent that I did the necessary leveling to obtain the overpowered weapons and items you can get at the end of Chapter 3. So what is this exactly? Allow me to explain. First, this must be done before chapter 3 is over. Second this only concerns Arngrim and Leone for now. If you want the very best, immensely overpowered weapons at the end of chapter 3 your going to need to level up Arngrim and Leone to level 40 or higher. I know that's a lot to ask, but there are ways to do it quickly. But first, I'll list what items you get according to what level Leone and Arngrim are at the end of chapter 3. \\ Arngrim // -- Level 01-19: Guard Potion -- Level 20-24: Expert's Experience and a Guard Potion -- Level 25-27: Expert's Experience x2 -- Level 28-34: Expert's Experience x2 and a Warrior's Wits -- Level 35-39: Improved Dragon Slayer, Expert's Experience and a Warrior's Wits -- Level 40+ : Improved Dragon Slayer, Bahamut Tear, Expert's Experience and a Warrior's Wits \\ Leone // -- Level 01-19: Might Potion -- Level 20-24: Expert's Experience and a Might Potion -- Level 25-27: Expert's Experience x2 -- Level 28-34: Expert's Experience x2 and a Fencer's Familiarity -- Level 35-39: Slashing Sword "Farewell", Expert's Experience, and a Fencer's Familiarity -- Level 40+ : Slashing Sword "Farewell", Valkyrie Favor, Expert's Experience and a Fencer's Familiarity This is for later but, you can also get more overpowered items and weapons if you finish chapter 4 with Dylan and Lezard above level 45. But I'll cover that later. So, how should you go about leveling up your characters? Well, the first thing you should do is go restore the Experience Pig Law sealstone if you haven't already. This will double your experience points but you will cease to obtain OTH from battles. At first I went into the depths of The Palace of the Venerated Dragon and fought loads of enemies there. This works decently, provided you have Experience Pig Law with you. But then I tried the Hydra method, which I can't take credit for because I got it from tri-Ace Fanboys guide. Basically what your trying to do is get a Direct Assualt on the Hydra. With Experience Pig Law and hopefully the skill "Training" on your characters, you'll rack up a substantial amount ot EXP. Check his guide for more details, he goes into depth on what skills to equip and what weapons to have, and frankly... I don't have the patience to do that. >_< So either fight Hydra over and over again or just level up in the Palace, it's up to you. Oh, and one more thing. The boss at the end of the Palace is another good enemy to fight repeatedly for experience. And remember, these weapons will make things much easier. I personally enjoyed having these weapons because I was too lazy to remember to unequip runes and try new combinations to obtain new skills. But remember, you don't need these, it's completely optional. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Weapons and Armor Suggestions << Alright, if you already bought the good stuff from Crell Monferaigne then you can skip this part as well. If you still have lackluster weapons and armor then now is the time to hunt for the materials and get enough OTH to purchase them. First off as far as Armor goes, Silver Mails are great. And anyone can use them, excluding the sorcerers. As far as head, arm, and leg armor goes. Buy what you need, but... if you can afford it purchase some Wind Gloves. These can be used by anyone in your party. Here's the materials you need. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wind Glove: 20,000 OTH -- 2 Bat Wing: You should have plenty of these but they can be obtained from Goblins by breaking their wings (20% chance) or by breaking the wings off of Giant Bats (20% chance). You can find bats at the Kythena Plains or in the Surts Volcano Caverns. Goblins are found at the Kythena Plains, Royal Underground Passage, or Chateau Obsession. Also, breaking the wings off of Vampires at the Crawsus Forest Ruins might net you some bat wings. -- 1 Bone Mace: You might have a few of these from previous boss fights, but the easiest way to get them now is to either A. break the Unclean Globs upper right/left shoulder (75% chance) or B. head into the Dragonscrypt and fight Green Coral's and aim for their tenacles (80% chance). I prefer going after the Green Corals because their tenacles are much easier to get to. -- 1 Ghibli Scale: Obtained from Bolt Dragons by breaking their wings (25% chance). Or you can go all the way through the Dragonscrypt, enter the Palace of the Venerated Dragon and find Dragon Bat's and slice off their wings.. but it's also a 25% chance. The Magic Glove back in Villnore is also a good buy but I always had a horrid time obtaining the Unladen Swallow Scales necessary to craft it. Anyways... Magic Glove: 7,000 OTH -- 2 Unladen Swallow Scales: Obtained by breaking the legs off of Lower or Wild Lizards (15% Chance). You can find these guys in either the Serdberg Mountain Ruins or the Surts Volcano Caverns. Finding the Wild Lizards in the Volcano is much easier BTW. -- 1 Hot Plate: Obtained by breaking the right or left shield cover on the Desert Beasts which are found in the Sahma Desert. Basically just attack their arms on either side (40% chance) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If your adamant on obtaining only the best armors then by all means go right ahead, but I basically just bought a bunch of Silver Mails in Crell, a Wind Glove or two and called it a day. It's the weapons I'd be more concerned about if I were you. This is just my personal setup so yours will probably differ. As far as weapons are concerned, I usually buy what I need just to satisfy my storyline characters. Meaning, I just give the leftover weapons to my Einherjar and don't bother investing OTH into good weapons and armor for them. So basically I'll start with the light warriors. Head to Crell's armory and go to the rare items section. You'll probably notice the Runeslayer at the top. This is easy to obtain and I'd strongly advise you to purchase one right now. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Runeslayer: 50,000 OTH -- 1 Falchion: You should already have at least one of these. If not go find the merchant in the Kalstad Inn and create one. -- 3 Black Crystals: You should have a staggering amount of these. Obtained from any type of skeleton by breaking their waist. (80% chance) You can find them in Chateau Obsession or the Underground Path. Also, breaking the Living Armors chest will warrent you some, they can be found on the Kythena Plains. Or the Desert Beasts body. Lot's of options here. -- 1 Piercing Imprint: Goat Man found in the Ancient Forest, break the right arm (45% chance). Or the Satyr's in Chateau Obesession, right arm as well (60% chance). And also by breaking the weapon on Lizards Lords and Red Lizards. The chances are only about 30% for the Lizards though. I just bought one of these for Alicia, because you'll get another decent light warrior sword in the Dragon Palace. But as for the Arondight? It's a lot of work to make so, sorry for not covering it. *_* For the heavy warriors, you have two options, the Zweihander and the Grand Sting. Both are nice but if you already have the Kraadinator then you'll be fine with just one of these weapons. On my first playthough I didn't have access to the Kraadinator so I bought one Zweihander for Arngrim and a Grand Sting for Dylan. Anyways if you only need one I'd go with the Grand Sting.... but if money is a factor go with the Zweihander. Zweihander: 30,000 OTH -- 2 Busted Greatsword: Great skeltons in Chateau Obession. Find these guys and attack their arm that is holding the sword. It's kind of a rare item so good luck (20% chance) -- 2 Troll Clay: Fight either the Trolls in the Ancient Forest or the Troll Cheifs in Chateau Obession. Break off either their arms or legs for the troll clay (About a 20% chance for both) -- 2 Rotted Bludgeon: Trolls again, but you need to break off that massive bludgeon they are holding. And the trolls in the ancient forest don't have weapons, so your only option is the Troll Chiefs in Chateau Obsession (40% chance). Grand Sting: 115,000 OTH -- 1 Screp: Obtained from a treasure box in the Ancient Forest or you can just buy them in Villnore. -- 5 Charged Tailfeather: Obtained by breaking the tail feathers off of Thunderhawks. (15% chance) Thunderhawks can be found in the Serdburg Mountain Ruins or the Ancient Forest. The ones in the Mountain Ruins don't show up until you get almost all the way to the top. So the ones in the Ancient Forest would probably be your best bet. And yes they are rare, but actually I had 10 of them by the time I first reached Crell, perhaps I just got lucky. -- 2 Lightning Stones: Either the Skeletal Soldiers in the Volcano or the Disgusting Shells in the Crawsus Ruins. Getting them from the Skeletal Soliders is slightly easier. You need to break off their lower body (30% chance). For the Disgusting Shells, attack their head, but to me they just look like a giant head.. to be more precise, aim for the odd looking nose thing in front. (15% chance) Regardless of what you purchase you should now buy one of the bows for Rufus. If you havn't entered the Palace yet, the Greenery Slayer will probably be your only option. The Mage Slayer is nice but the Evil Eye Gems are hard to acquire. You can get them in the Crawsus Ruins but it's much to difficult. So just go with the Greenery Slayer now and wait until you get the Evil Eye Gem from an enemy in the Dragon Palace. Greenery Slayer: 25,000 OTH -- 1 Spiral Arrowhead: Obtained from Desert Beasts by breaking off their arrowheads. What are arrowheads you say? If you look at the very tips of the armor plating on the Desert Beasts arms, those would be the arrow heads. Yes they are a quite challenging to obtain but the drop rate is 50% which is decent. The Beasts are in the Sahma Desert. -- 2 Piercing Imprint: Goat Man found in the Ancient Forest, break the right arm (45% chance). Or the Satyr's in Chateau Obesession, right arm as well (60% chance). And also by breaking the weapon on Lizards Lords and Red Lizards. The chances are only about 30% for the Lizards though. -- 2 Nightshade: Either the Toxic Flower or the Sand Flower. These enemies are small, so just hack away at them. (about 30% chance) The Sand Flowers have a slightly higher drop rate percentage then the Toxic Flowers do. The Sand Flowers are found in the Sahma Desert and the Toxic Flowers in the Ancient Forest. Mage Slayer: 50,000 OTH -- 1 Strength Bow: Obtained from a treasure chest at Audoula Temple or it's the weapon Sha-Kon comes equip with. (If you got her) -- 1 Piercing Imprint: (See either Greenery Slayer or Runeslayer) -- 1 Evil Eye Gem: I always have a dreadful time getting these things. You can either try in vain to get an Evil Eye Gem from an Unclean Glob's head (30% chance) or you can wait until you get to the Palace of the Venerated Dragon and break off a Dyrads upper body. (30% chance) The problem with the Unclean Glob is that his head is so high up it's nearly impossible to hit, unless you have a party of archers. If you really want this before you head off to the Palace then have fun trying to get this from the Glob. I'd advise you to wait and get it from the Dyrads. -- 1 Mirror Fragment: I was fortunate enought to get one of these off of Lady Cleo from Ceateau Obesession. But you can also get these from the Phatom Lurkers in the Crawsus Ruins by breaking off their mirrors that encircle them (15% chance) or you can wait until you get to the Palace and break the armor off of Spectral Knights (40% chance) So just go with the Greenery Slayer for now, and if your so inclined, run back out of the Palace when you have your Evil Eye Gem and/or Mirror Fragment and make a Mage Slayer. It's up to you if the Mage Slayer is worth the extra travel time. And there's only one Wand available, but it's cheap and easy to make so... Mithril Wand: 20,000 OTH -- 2 Busted Staff: You can get one from the old lady at Crell. And can break the weapons off of the Skeletal Soliders in the Surts Volcano (20% chance) or you can break the weapons off of the Trash Demons in Chateau Obsession (40% chance). -- 1 Mace Head: Easy, you can get this from the same old lady in Crell, or you can try to break them off of the Green Corals in the Dragonscrypt. Aim for their tentacles (only a 10-15% chance) -- Golem Eye: A little harder to get then the other two. You can go back to the Serdburg Ruins and fight the sub-boss, Crust Golem. But he only appears once per run through. So a better choice is to find the Giant Crabs at Audoula Temple. Aim for the heads on these enemies. The Giant Crab has a 20% drop rate and the Crust Golem has a 70%. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ And that's about it for weapons and armor. Sure, there's a few I didn't cover but these are about all you should need to handle the Palace. Albeit, you can attain some nice weapons and armors in the Palace, so don't feel like you need all these weapons and armors to survive. Just buy what you can. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Sealstones and Skills << This will be a short section, just some recommendations as to what you should have by way of Sealstones and Skills. \\ Sealstones // --Make sure you have Lifeforce Blessing. You should have this sealstone restored by now, and it will be great for the upcoming dungeon. It costs 2000 crystals and it will double the effect of all your healing spells, healing items, etc. Imperative for harder areas. --Also, if your aiming for the 40+ characters, Experience Pig Law is a must. --And if your running low on cash, there is a great sealstone combo that will net you insane amounts of OTH. Just make sure you have Gold Blessing (only 500 crystals) and Gold Grubber Law (1200 crystals) carry both with you and enter the Palace of the Venerated Dragon. Some of the fights will afford you anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 OTH. --Chasm Wrath is great... but it costs a hefty 4000 crystals, but if your busy leveling up characters for the 40+ weapons then you'll probably reach this pretty quickly if your Direct Assualting enemies. --I liked Soul-Carver's Wrath when I first got it, but it just dosen't do enough damage to the enemies in the Palace to be useful, but it's up to you. --Masochist Wrath is good, but it requires your party to get attacked for it to have an effect on your enemies. At 3000 crystals I'd probably hold off on this one for now. Any other sealstones, you probably already have. These are just some nice ones you might want to restore if you haven't already. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ \\ Skills // Skills.... eh, I probably suck at this game because I don't pay enough attention to my skills but there are some essential ones that even I couldn't do without, such as... ++ First Aid: First Aid is a tremendous skill. Sure it only kicks in half of the time, but when this is coupled with the Lifeforce Blessing Sealstone you shouldn't have to heal your party very often. Later on, when you get enough Metabolizers, you'll basically be invincible. || Requires a Blue Armor, Healing, and Holy Rune || ++ All the stat boosting skills like Fists of Iron and Fortify Physique: Ok, if you don't have these by now... how did you get this far? ++ Training: Great for getting up to that 40+ level goal. || Requires a Red Leg, Strengthening, and Weakness Rune || ++ Psychosoma: I love this skill, it's great for your light warriors and your archers because it combines their Magic stat with the Attack stat and just makes it one collective whole. That means, if your ATK stat with Alicia is 157 and her MAG stat is 42 and you equip the Psychosoma skill, her attack is now 199 instead of 157. Very nice indeed. || Requires a Red Head, Arm, Activation, and Ice Rune || ++ Break Up: I like having Break Up on some of my characters, usually my heavy warriors have this one. It's not necessary but if it increases my chances to enter break mode, then that's a plus in my book. || Requires a Blue Arm, Weapon, Activation, and Strengthening Rune || ++ Regenerate Health: This is a nice one, but to be honest I don't even have this one yet, nor did I ever obtain it during my first playthrough. But it is beneficial to have basically a regen spell on your characters. || Requires a Red Armor, Earth, and Healing Rune || ++ Most of the Critical skills are nice, such as Ghost Buster, Giant Killer or Descaling Might. These make the boss battles much easier provided you have the correct Critical skill available. And Ghost Buster is nice for those pesky ethereal enemies. Anyways, if you find yourself getting murdered in battle, check up on your skills and see if you can make some new ones. They're here to make things easier on you, provided you remember to equip new skills every now and then. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Last Chance Opportunities << Ok, have you completed Ancient Forest, Turgen Mines, and Chateau Obsession? Well, if you haven't, now is your last chance. So make sure you do so before beating the Palace of the Venerated Dragon. And did you talk to that kid in Kalstad 30 times or more? Better do that now if you intend to. Did you read all 3 parts of the Poem? Although, if you missed the one in Dipan, your out of luck on this small sidequest... sorry ;_; If your confident that your ready to progress with the main game, then head over to the Dragonscrypt. I apologize that this section was SOOO long. ^.^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dragonscrypt............................................................ DRA20 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Magic Bangle, Arbalest, Dwarf Tincture, 20000 OTH, Apothecary's Arcanum, Double-check ~~Enemies: Gun Fish and Green Coral ~~Einherjar: One archer This is one of those four part sections such as the Kythena Plains or the Sahma Desert. The only difference is that it actually has a few treasure chests in it. Granted, they are in difficult to reach locations but, some of the items you get are nice. And you'll also notice that this area only has... two enemies!? yup, that's it. And to top things off, they're just rehashes of enemies you fought earlier. Same enemy model, different color scheme, lol I love it. But anyways... No treasure chests in the first section, so just head down into the caves and when you get into the next area you'll notice an enemy above you who's flying back and forth. If you'll notice on your minimap, there's a stone platform suspended in the air right above you. Your goal is to get on that stone. Actually this is really easy, just stand on the ground to the right of the stone that's in the air, aim up at the flying enemy and freeze it. Now jump and at the top of your jump fire another photon in his direction and you'll swap places. As your swaping hold the jump button and then when you do your air jump, aim yourself back over to the enemy you just swapped with and you should land on top of him, and you should be right next to the stone you need to jump on. If your enemy is to close to the ground for you to make the jump, then just get off of the frozen enemy and jump up and fire a photon back down at it. Then do an air jump and land back on him, this should put you very close to the platform your trying to reach. Anyways, once your up there, just jump up to the next platform with the treasure on it to acquire a Magic Bangle. FYI, the Magic Bangle is a superb item for any of your sorcerers. Continue on and you should see two enemies now, a crawling and a flying one. This is a tough couple of treasure chests to retrieve so try not to get to frustrated. First off, kill the crawling enemy. Now, position him over on the right side on the ground. Just a little ways left of the overhanging rock wall above you. Now, freeze him and stand on top of him. Ok, to make things easier I'd suggest you kill the flying enemy as well. With the grounded enemy in position you'll need to have the flying enemy to your left. Jump up off of the crawling enemy and fire a photon down at the flying one. Jump up and fire another one down at him to swap places and then do the trusty air jump to get yourself back on top of the flying enemy. Now you should be able to reach the ledge. Inside the treasure box is a Arbalest, which is a decent bow for your archers. Now, there's also a treasure box further up. If you jump straight up from your current position you should see it on a small ledge. *_* insane... I know. You might need to drop back down and position your crawling enemy a little more to the left, because the goal here is to have your flying enemy farther out away from the rock wall so when you get up on the ledge with the Arbalest you can crouch down and shoot a photon down and swap places with it. Ok when you get the flying enemy in the correct position, and your on the ledge with the Arbalest chest, fire a photon down at it and as soon as you swap places, do an air jump back towards the ledge. When your in the air fire another photon at the flying enemy you just swapped with and you should swap again and be back on the ledge with the enemy relatively close now. Honestly, this part is tough and may take you a few tries, but it is feasible. Now the flying enemy should be right on the edge of the ledge, so just swap with him again to get him closer to the treasure box and now stand on the treasure box and shoot a photon down at it. Once the enemy is on top of the chest, position yourself next to the treasure box and jump up and fire another photon down at the enemy to swap places with it yet again. Now it should be in the air. Get on top of the treasure box, and use the flying enemy as a stepping stone to get up to that meddlesome treasure. And for all your hard work you get a.... *drum roll* Dwarf Tincture!! hurray! ;_; I know, it's depressing isn't it? Ok, the hard ones are over, so just head into the next area and drop down into that gully section you come across. You'll find another archer Einherjar down here, you'll get either Atrasia or Lydia. Head back up and over to the far right. In a small alcove you'll spot another chest, it contains a trap and 20,000 OTH. Keep heading up and into the next section. Now as your running, you'll come across a little dip in the ground. There's a bag in this small rut that holds an Apothecary's Arcanum. On your way up the dilapidated stairs, you'll see a flying enemy at the top. Freeze him, then jump up, swap with him, and then do an air jump to land back on top of him. This will give you enough leverage to reach the box up here which has a trap on it and a Double-check inside. And now just continue on and you'll reach the dreaded... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Palace of the Venerated Dragon ......................................... PAL21 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Items: Sunlight Stone, Eclipse Stone, Tome of Anarchy, Apothecary's Arcanum, Nectar Potion, Halo Stone, Union Plume, 30000 OTH, Dragonlore, Fairy Tincture, Charge Break, Spell Potion, Flare Baselard, 25000 OTH, Valor Greaves, 15000 OTH, Fairy Tincture, Union Plume, Apothecary's Arcanum, Painted Cloud Stone, Fairy Tincture, Valor Gauntlet, Might Potion, Dark Moon Stone, Guard Potion, Tome of Alchemy, Crystal Garb, Power Bangle, Crimson Flame Stone, Union Plume, Elixir, Crystal Garb, Soft Stone, Dragon Armor, Sun and Moon Stone, Golden Egg, Ouroboro's Symbol, Expert's Experience x2 ~~Enemies: Phantom Guardian, Dragon Bat, Gigantic Claws, Green Jewel, Dyrad, Iron Golem, Spectral Knight, Necromancer, Muscular Stalker ~~Einherjar: One sorcerer, one heavy warrior, and one light warrior ~~Sealstones: Experience Friend Law, Wrath of Forcefulness, Wrath of Bread Alone, Stone Hurler Wrath, Powerless Cap Wrath Wow, this place is tough. Not only are the battles unforgiving, but the music will drive you mad after about half an hour. Not to say I don't like the music in this game, because I do. It's just this dungeon... *sigh* Anyways, there's two battle fields in this dungeon. The light areas (which your in now) and the dark areas. The light areas have a very confined battle field, one in which you'll have a troublesome time evading attacks. The dark areas are much more spread out and accommodating. If your having trouble with the battles in the light areas, just forgo any battles in them and do your fighting in the dark areas. That's what I had to do until I was a high enough level to handle the light areas without much difficulty. But anyways... When you get to the first section that heads up, ignore it for now and keep going right. In this small room, go past all the enemies, (or kill them if you can) and obtain the Sunlight Stone from the chest. Now, head back and take the path inwards. I'd strongly advise you save now. Use the Sunlight Stone by the statue and you'll be whisked away to another area of the dungeon. Once you arrive, open the chest next to you with the Eclipse stone in it. Now, head out of this area and you'll immediately have 3 enemies moving towards you at a slow zombie walk. Head to the left, past the two enemies and open the chest at the end for a Tome of Anarchy. Head back to your right and in the next section do a swap and an air jump with the floating enemy to your right to reach the chest on the far right ledge which contains an Apothecary's Arcanum. Jump to your right onto the middle ledge and open the chest for a trap and a Nectar Potion. Now, there's a floating enemy up near the ceiling, find a position on the ledge your on where you can hit him with photons and swap places with him. Fall over to your right and you'll land on a ledge with the Experience Friend Law Sealstone. This sealstone can be beneficial but at the same time it's not. The only reason I didn't use it very much is because if you have one low leveled person in your active party of 4, you can learn skills a lot quicker then usual. So, the Experience Friend law (while nice) gains experience for everyone and will leave you with no low leveled Einherjar. But, it's a personal choice. Anyways, once you grab this, freeze one of the enemies below you and use them to jump across to the far ledge on the upper left. Exit this area and you'll come to an interesting little room. BTY I despise Phantom Guardians, they are the single largest threat for me. Even with Ghost Buster on two of my characters, and a mage in the party they still destroy me.. oh well. But, in this new room you'll notice the statues facing you when you walk in. If you read the little message on the tablet when you first walk in it says "Slash behind the statue, but do not be seen..." Well that should be pretty obvious, just jump behind the statues and slash them from behind. But you can't be seen, which means you can't slash a statue from behind if there's another statue behind him who will notice you. So all three of those statues on the bottom are off limits. Go towards the last statue on the ground floor and jump on top of him. Then jump up to the next level. Now, destroy only one of these statues on the middle level. Only destroy the one on the left, you'll get the Halo Stone from him. Do not sever the other statue in half. Instead, jump on top of him and then jump up to the broken stairs on your left. Open the treasure chest up here for a trap and a Union Plume. Head back down and now destroy that sculpture. Then jump over the small chasm and slice the other sculpture on the small ledge. He'll give you a generous 30,000 OTH. Ok, now fall off the ledge and break the little rule in this room by slashing one of the three sculptures down on the ground level, and you'll be transported to another room. All four of your active party members will be nailed with poison as soon as you enter this area. Your probably saying "What the hell!? you told me to go here!" Well, yes this room sucks, but there are some nice items and an Einherjar you need to procure from here, just make sure you don't get into any fights while your in this room. Once your in here, freeze the flying enemy above you. Now get on the middle ledge and swap places with him and preform an air jump to reach the ledge on the top right. You'll find a sorcerer Einherjar here, and it will be either Xehnon or Masato. Although, you only have a 10% chance of receiving Masato, I've still never obtained him but Xehnon's great anyways. Now, you can either wait for the floating enemy you swapped with to float back up then freeze him and use him as a stepping stone or you could crouch down and swap with him again so your on the middle ledge. Then wait for him to float back down towards you a little, freeze him then jump straight up from the left side of the ledge and swap with him, preform an air jump and land on him and continue on up to the upper left platform. Open the box up here and watch out for the trap inside. The chest contains a Dragonlore, which is a superb weapon for your mages. Much better then that Mithril Wand I had you waste your money on >.< sorry! Anyways, fall back down on to the middle ledge, and then go right and jump over to the ledge on the far right for a chest with another trap and a Fairy Tincture inside. Now go ahead and jump down to the ground floor and head all the way over to the far left for the last treasure box in this section, it holds yet another trap and a Charge Break. Ok, now use either your Halo Stone to move on to the next section, or use the Eclipse Stone so you can go save real quick before you go any further. Anyways, use your Halo Stone when your ready for the next section. And make sure you cure that dreadful poison ailment that four of your characters have been afflicted with. After you use the Halo Stone you'll notice it's not so bright anymore. That means the fights in this section will have a much more accommodating battle field. So don't be afraid to demolish some enemies here, they give an abundant amount of experience points so why not? Anyways, when you arrive here you'll notice there's a spring to your right... finally! Take what you want and go into the next area. On the ground floor in the middle, you'll notice an archaic glowing inscription on the wall. It reads, "Sword-crush, Slingshot, or Vampire... Master the power of one here..." This refers to three sealstones in this area, but more on that later. For right now jump up on the ledge to your left and then freeze the enemy above you, swap with him and continue on to your right. Jump over the gap in the broken stairs when you get to it and you should be at the top most ledge on the right with two treasure chests. They contain a Spell Potion and the big box has a trap and a Flare Baselard inside. Ok, when you go to equip this sword you might think it's weak compared to your Runeslayer (if you have the Arondight then you don't need this weapon). But, this is where the skill Psychosoma comes into play. If you equip this sword on one of your characters MAKE SURE they have psychosoma equip as a skill. This will bring the ATK damage up from 65 to 115 because the psychosoma skill combines your ATK and MAG stat as one. If you already knew this then I applogize for yet again, wasting your time. @_@ Anyways, there's also a ledge underneath the one your on. In order to get to that, jump back over the middle ledge and freeze the crawling enemy. Swap him over to the right most edge, then jump down to the ground floor, aim another photon up at him and swap places. He should now be down on the ground floor. So just use him as a platform to get up to this other ledge. It also has two treasures, the sack contains 25,000 OTH and the chest has Valor Greaves inside. Alright, one more line of business in this room. Head back over and jump on the left most ledge, and then use the floating enemy to swap with and get you up to that ledge on the top left with the sealstone. The sealstone is Wrath of Forcefullness and it's not exactly something you'd want to carry around with you. Leave this one here for right now and continue on into the next area. Just a hallway here, go all the way to the left. Now you'll see a crawling enemy who appears to have a sealstone on him, according to your minimap. So go ahead and smite him. It should be two Dyrads and a Gigantic Claws. If your looking for that Evil Eye Gem, the Dyrads have them. You can get them if you break their bodies, it can be a challenge though. The sealstone you get is Wrath of Bread Alone, another one you should probably leave here. Jump over to the far left wall and get the heavy warrior Einherjar. You'll get either Guilm, Ehlen, or Gerald. Back in the hallway, take the path heading south. In this room head to your left first for yet another sealstone, this one is the Stone Hurler Wrath sealstone. Ok, so when you head over to the right you'll enter a room with a dias. The goal here is to place either the Wrath of Bread Alone, Wrath of Forcefulness, or the Stone Hurler Wrath on the dias. So this is up to you, I personally think the Stone Hurler Wrath is the lesser of three evils... but that's me. The Wrath of Forcefulness gives them an insane attack and the wrath of bread alone enables them to drain your HP and restore theirs everytime they attack you. The Stone Hurler wrath gives them an increase in their projectile attacks, not a big deal. Plus it makes them twice as slow in the battle field. Anyways, you need to place one of these three on the dias. Now turn around and in this room you should see a fan over head. There's a sack up there on the left side, so swap one of the floating enemies over to the left side. Postion him on the ground just left of the fan overhead and jump up and fire a photon down at him to swap places. Now jump back up and fire another one down at him to swap in the air, do an air jump, land on him and jump up to claim the 15,000 OTH in the bag. Backtrack to the room with the glowing inscription and you'll get a tiny scene as the wall disappears. Head through it, save if you want and know that your only about half-way done ;_; Time for me to take a break and make some Chai Tea... Ok, now go ahead and run to your right. In this room you'll find three treasure boxes, two on the ground and one on a ledge on the upper right hand side. You'll receive a Fariy Tincture, Union Plume, and an Apothecary's Arcanum. Head back towards the save point and take the left passage this time. Inside you'll come face to face with Goro's illegitimate child. Actually it's a Muscular Stalker, but go ahead and fight him. They aren't very difficult, just fight them like any other enemy. After the battle, open the chest to get the Painted Cloud Stone. Now head back to the room with the Spring and the warp statue and use your new found item. In the first hallway of the Painted Cloud Stone area, head to your right but take it slowly because you'll soon encounter a statue gliding towards your position. If you make contact with this statue you will be warped back to that horrid poison room. You can't destroy these things either, so just jump over him and continue to the room on the right. Three treasure chests here, the first one contains a Fairy Tincture, but watch out for the second box because as soon as you open it two enemies will materialize out of nowhere. The box holds a Valor Gauntlet, and the third box has a Might Potion. Head up to the right and you'll come across the Powerless Cap Wrath sealstone. It lets you float down gradually after a jump, but you can't open treasure boxes while you have it equip. So what's the point you ask? Well it's here because you need it in order to acquire two treasure boxes in this level. Anyways, go ahead and take it with you for now. Exit the room and back down the hallway, and this time take the path heading west. There are two gliding statues in this room so make sure you don't bump into them. Head upwards when you get the chance then go right, jump over another statue, and proceed into the room with the dias. Place your Powerless Cap Wrath sealstone on the dias and go over to the right wall for the Dark Moon Stone. Before you leave the room, make sure you use the flying enemy to reach the bag that's up on the right side of the fan... or the object that closely resembles a fan. The item is a Guard Potion. Now go ahead and head back to the room that had the two gliding statues. All the way to the left is a box with a trap and a Tome of Alchemy. Now take the path inwards again and go left, in this room you'll find a treasure chest which contains a trap and a Crystal Garb. Go back to the dias room, grab the Powerless Cap Wrath sealstone and use your Dark Moon stone to advance to the next area. Ok, when you exit the statue warping room you'll be on a ledge. Look at your minimap and you should notice a small ledge adjacent to your current location. If you have the Powerless Cap Wrath, you can float on over to the ledge. There's a treasure chest right here, but obviously you can't open it due to the side effect of your sealstone. So as soon as you get over to this ledge, turn around and freeze the standing enemy that you were next to earlier. Swap him over to your current location and jump down to the ground floor. Put the Powerless Cap Wrath on the dias as quickly as possible. Ok, once your rid of the sealstone, run over to your right and stand directly below that ledge with the Muscular Stalker on it and fire photons back up at the standing enemy. If you do this fast enough you should be transferred back up next to the chest. The treasure also has a poison mist trap on it, and item you receive is a Power Bangle, which is a nice accessory to boost someones attack stat. Jump back down to the ground floor and kill the Muscular Stalker. After he's disposed of, you can snag the Crimson Flame Stone. Now, take your sealstone from the dias and head out. You'll enter a divinity void which sucks but for now, just take the path heading down in this section, then go right in the next area. You should end up on another ledge from which you need to jump and glide off of to the adjacent ledge on the east wall. Personally, I can never get Alicia to glide correctly using the left analog stick. So I find using the D-Pad for this purpose much easier. Over here is the last Einherjar in the Palace, it's a light warrior and you'll get either Crescent or Lwyn. Now, drop down and you should probably recognize this area. Head over to the warp area with the spring and use the Dark Moon Stone again. This is to just acquire the treasure chests you missed due to the handicap of the Powerless Cap Wrath sealstone. There's a Union Plume, Elixir, Crystal Garb, and a Soft Stone. These are all easy to find, but when you get done collecting those then head back to the warp point and use the Crimson Flame Stone. You'll arrive next to a dias and a save point, make sure you save. \\BOSS BATTLE// >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dragon Zombie HP: 22200 Race: Dragon, Giant, Unholy Experience: 220,000 OTH: 21,000 Attribute Resistences: -50 Fire, -50 Holy, +50 Ice, +100 Earth, +50 Darkness Status Effect Resistences: +40 Silence/Petrify/Freeze, +100 Everything else First off, if you have either Giant Killer or Unholy Purifier then go ahead and equip them before the fight. And if you bring in a sorcerer, make sure they have Fire Storm set as their attack. If you bring in Rufus or any other archer, assign Stone Arrow as one of their attacks. For sealstones, I'd go with Lifeforce Blessing and Sword Blessing for two, the other one is up to you. If you want to put a negative effect sealstone on the dias by the save point before you head in, then by all means, do so. I spent some time saving up crystals and restored Chasm Wrath to set here. But you don't need it, it just makes things easier. Anyways, for skills, just make sure you have First Aid on everyone and Fists of Iron wouldn't hurt either. And if your really having problems with this guy, go back and fight the Hydra and break off his tail until you get at least four Metabolizers and equip them on your active party. If you have the metabolizers, first aid, and the lifeforce blessing sealstone, you're set for pretty much anything. As far as strategy goes, once you enter the battle you'll probably notice a massive symbol on the ground. If you press L2 and enter your targeting mode, go ahead and try to target something else then the Dragon. You'll find that there are three other targets for you in this battle field. There are two walls that are breakable, one on your right and one on your left. Break these open at the beginning of the fight and inside you'll find the orbs. Destroy the orbs as well. The third orb you need to destroy is right behind the dragon, so dash your way over there and abolish it. Now you're free to start your assualt on the dragon. Just attack him from behind if you can and go about this just the same as you would any other boss battle you've fought up to this point. He'll do his soul crush quite frequently though, and you can't really evade it due to it's massive range. And the fact that he has a habit of doing it right after you've finished a series of attacks dosen't help circumstances. So this is where First Aid and Lifeforce Blessing come in handy. Hopefully they kick in when you need them, if not, don't be afraid to use your healing items. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Once this is over you'll be rewarded with three treasure chests, they contain a Dragon Armor, the Sun and Moon Stone, and a Golden Egg. Head back and save. ++ IMPORTANT! ++ If you want to get Leone and Arngrim to the 40+ level goal then now is your last chance, when you use the Sun and Moon Stone, there's no going back (Unless of course you reset your game). If you don't care about this or you already have them at the desired levels then use the Sun and Moon Stone at the warp statue. [[ Cutscene! ]] Finally, some good plot advancements! After so many cutscenes about object reading and orb banter, it's nice to see some twists in the plot. Anyways, open the three chests here for a Ouroboros Symbol, and two Expert's Experience. And any items or weapons you receive from Anrgrim and Leone will just appear automatically in your inventory if you were wondering. Head back to the warp statue, use your Eclipse Stone and leave this forsaken dungeon. And it's finally time for the next chapter! >.< I told you chapter 3 was going to be long. ============================================================================== ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chapter 4 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== Update coming.... soon? Another update, the next few chapter's shouldn't take quite as long as chapter 3 has taken, and I will include the Seraphic Gate. Hopefully the walkthrough portion of this guide will be finished fairly soon. I know there's probably oodles of mistakes in this guide, so please feel free to e-mail me with suggestions or corrections or anything else. And if you have a legitimate question I'll include it in the FAQ section. Besides, that's what it's there for no? Well have a pleasant day, and goodbye for now. ^_^ And don't worry, I'll include you in the credits if I use your advise or something else of a significant nature. Also, you need to contact me for permission to use this guide on your site, but at this point I doubt you actually want it. When it's finished this will be a little more pertinent. Copyright 2007, Monistic_Turtle Currently hosted at supercheats.com gamefaqs.com