|
The two main characters, Rue and Mint, are on a quest
to find the Ancient Relic so they can do as they wish. Rue, a young cheerful person has just lost his wife to a sinister man
and wishes to get her back with the power of the relic. Mint on the other hand was to become gain the power of the relic to
take back the throne from which her sister stole from her. Each has there own reason of wanting it and will eventually cross
each other in the search for this powerful relic
WALKTHROUGH
Rue's Story
========--
Beginning
The game opens with
a brief shot of a few Pollywogs floating around a
forest, and a shadow scaring them off. Before long, you'll be in
control
of Rue, inside the small log cabin that he and Claire live in. Feel free
to explore about the house and
get used to the controls a bit, as well as
checking the menu out. Before long, the game will take over, and the story
will
progress.
Once the story sequences are over, you'll find yourself at the docks in
Carona. Feel free to talk
about town, and explore the locales. You can
find a Silver Coin in the back alley of town (between the inn and armor
store),
and another Silver Coin down near the riverside, next to the cave
with the strange red vehicle in it. Once you're
ready, go to the gates of
town, and enter Carona Forest.
Location: Carona Forest
Suggested Stats: 60HP, 60MP,
24 Str, 16 Def
Items: Bronze Coin x3, Silver Coin x2, Moon Stone x2
The first time you enter Carona Forest, you'll
have to go through a mini
tutorial on how to play the game. It's not difficult at all, just pass on
through it
(be sure to grab the treasure box with 3 Bronze Coins in it near
the far side of the tutorial area). Then, it's into
the forest proper.
The first real screen of the forest is not difficult. Pick up a Saber
Tiger coin for Rue
to morph into, and increase your HP by fighting enemies
and letting them damage you. You can recover HP by picking
up the blue
potions they drop (the red ones restore MP). I suggest you get your HP up
around about 75 or so before
entering the next area of the forest.
As you enter the clearing, you'll see that those two bandits from the ship
are
picking on a pink-haired girl. Transform into a Pollywog, and then go
and bite the one holding the girl hostage.
You'll want to transform back
into Rue quickly, so that the bandits (Smokey and Blood) don't do excessive
damage to
you. Focus on killing only one of them, as you'll win once one
of them falls (not both). When the bandits are
gone, you'll see another
story sequence, and be back on the path, with Elena telling you to follow
her.
You don't
actually have to follow Elena, though. Run ahead of her, and
jump across the ruins from the topmost part. Then,
take the shortcut path
to the exit. If you manage to make it fast enough (ie. before Elena), she
will reward you
with a Silver Coin. If you morph into a Saber Tiger to do
this, though, you won't get said coin. Keep going,
and watch as another
short story sequence takes place. Before long, you'll be down on the
cliffs below the forest,
on a quest to reach the atelier. Fight your way
down the cliffs (the small hedgehog-like monsters are best defeated
with a
T attack (horizontal slash)).
Once you reach the bottom, you'll see a small spring off to the right,
with
strange glowing white dots on it. Use that to recover your HP, if
necessary. When you're prepped, head up to
the golden emblem at the far
end of the clearing. Defeat the two gargoyles that appear, and use their
form to
transform while facing the gargoyle statue. This will make the
stairs to the atelier appear.
Once at the top,
try to enter the atelier. Surprise! Now you'll have to
fight the first real boss of Threads of Fate, the Nightmare.
Boss:
Nightmare HP: ~100
Difficulty: |--*-------|
NOTE: The gague above for difficulty indicates how hard a boss is.
The
further to the left the * is, the easier the boss is to defeat.
Strategy: To defeat the Nightmare, focus on
attacking it three times in
quick succession (ie. the chained hits with the X button), and then running
out of it's
range quickly. When the mare jumps, keep moving so that it
doesn't land on you (or hit you with shockwaves).
Once the shockwaves have
dissipated, attack it again. Keep this up until the boss is defeated.
With the Nightmare
out of the way, the plot can continue. Enter the
atelier, and grab the three treasures (2 Moon Stones and a Silver
Coin).
Check the vault near the center of the first floor to continue the story,
and when Elena starts calling for you,
go outside and speak to her. Go
back inside after that and talk to Klaus. A brief encounter with Mint
later,
you'll be back in Carona.
Location: Carona
Suggested Stats: 80HP, 65MP, 24 Str, 16 Def
Items: Silver Coin
Once
you regain control, go down to the docks and jump over the crates on
the lower right side of the docks. Follow the
pier to the end and nab the
Silver Coin. Once you've got that, head back up to town, and sell your
monsters collected
(and the Moon Stones). If you can afford it, buy the
Silver Belt. If not, buy a Bronze Bracer and Bronze Belt.
(NOTE: At this
point, high defense is more important than high offense) When you're all
prepped and ready, talk
to Klaus down in his basement, and then head on out
of town to the underground ruins.
NOTE: If you're feeling brave,
you can try taking on Rod right now (he's
down in the grasslands by the river). He's VERY difficult at this point,
though,
since you have such low stats. I suggest you wait until you've
completed the underground ruins before challenging
him, myself.
Underground Mystery [RWUNDER]
----------------==
Location: Underground Ruins
Suggested Stats:
80HP, 65MP 24 Str, 16+8 Def
Items: Bronze Coin x4, Night Stone, Moon Stone, Rare Wine, Legendary Sword,
Tiara, Cube
Go
ahead and enter the ruins (after a brief chat with Mint, who is still
incredibly confident and somewhat annoying).
The underground ruins are
essentially just the same two screens repeating endlessly. To get through
them, first
head straight up to the far northern exit in the first tunnel.
You should hear water running. Go to the right-side
exit to the area
(there's one exit for each direction in each area). Follow the path across
the two waterfalls,
and take the rightmost exit again. From here, go right
again, and get the Moon Stone. Go north, and then right
again (to get the
Night Stone). After that, go left, and cross the small waterfall scene to
the hole down to the
next floor.
On this floor, the goal is simple: gather the six platforms to reach the
next floor down. To do
this, you need to cross four areas with poisoned
ground and crates over the poison. I suggest that you turn into
a Pollywog
to cross the poison unharmed, and take out the Gudons up on the crates via
a jumping tail smack. Once
you reach the end of each of the poison rooms,
be sure to check the room on the far north for one of the six platforms.
At
the top of the tunnel, go into the north room in the final branch to get
the fifth platform, and then take the right path.
Turn into a Gudon and
melt the ice block to get the sixth and final platform. Before you leave,
though, you may
want to melt the other two ice blocks. This requires about
110MP, so you'll probably want to boost your MP a bit
(and your HP; I
suggest a good 125HP at this point). Don't skip out on melting those two
blocks; they lead to
the Rare Wine, an incalculably valuable item that you
will thank yourself many times later on for getting it now.
Leave
the ice tunnel, and jump down the corridor to the entrance (no need
to go through the poison tunnels this time).
Jump across the platforms in
order, from the rightmost all the way across to the leftmost (in a half-
circle motion).
Once done correctly, the path up to the exit to the next
floor will be revealed.
On the next floor, you'll find
that the left path is blocked by a wall,
and the right path by a boulder (with Mint in front of it). Talk to Mint
three
times, and prepare to run! You'll definitely want your sound on for
this sequence. When you hear a crunching
noise, jump quickly to avoid
being slowed down by falling debris. You may want to hug one of the walls
to reduce
the debris dodging a bit (I suggest the left side). Once you get
far enough down the tunnel, you'll see an alcove
off on the left side.
Quickly dive into that to avoid getting crushed, and then go back up to
where Mint fell down.
Keep going right to find an HP recovery spring, then
go all the way left into the lake chamber.
After a short (and
amusing) scene, you'll be presented with a new
challenge: to jump on all of the platforms in the right order as they are
rotating
over the lake. First things first, jump straight across, ignoring
the flashing platforms, and get the Legendary Sword.
Then, jump back over,
and start jumping in sequence on the platforms. It may take a few tries,
so don't get too
mad if you fall into the lake a few times. You'll know
which platform to jump on next, as it will be flashing.
Once you've
completed the sequence, you'll be taken down below the lake, into a small
(and pit-laden) room.
As
you cross the platforms to the far side, you'll find yourself having to
deal with the boss of the underground ruins, the
Skull Beast.
Boss: Skull Beast HP: ~100
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: This boss, while marginally more
difficult than the Nightmare, is
still not very hard. Jump out of the way of it's small fire streams, and
jump
over the arcs of flame that it spits out. When it starts jumping
around, avoid being on the same platform that it
lands on (it will aim for
whatever platform you're on or closest to when it jumps). When it starts
panting and
flickering white, attack it. It may take a while, but the boss
will eventually die.
With the Skull Beast out
of the way, jump across the platforms and down to
the atelier of Grand Magician Elroy. Go ahead and ride the platform
on up.
Be sure to check all of the rooms, and search their floors; each room has
at least one coin in it. The
room with the HP-restoring fountain has a
Gold Coin hidden between the two black monuments on one end of the room, a
handy
find. In all, there are four Bronze Coins here, as well as the Tiara
and Cube. Once you have everything, and
have healed up, head back down to
the elevator. Of course, as luck would have it, you'll have to fight a
boss
before you can leave.
Boss: Duke HP: ~100
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: While not overly difficult,
Duke can still be dangerous. His
main tactic is to dodge your attacks, so don't go swinging out with the
triple-hit
combo unless you know it's going to hit. When Duke separates
into multiple forms, just start swinging like mad; he'll
return to one form
and try to attack, but will get caught up by a sequence of attacks from Rue
before he can hit.
Before long, you'll defeat him.
After the battle, you'll have to go back up, and chase after Duke and
Belle.
But look who returns to fight you! This time, the Skull Beast
cannot actually be defeated. Just get him panting
and then hit him; you'll
be able to take the elevator up after that. Once you do, you'll find
yourself on the
stairwell you saw while going down the first time. The
trick here is to just keep running up! You'll be assaulted
by large spiked
balls as you head up, so be sure to jump over them (this won't work if the
balls are on the inner edge,
as you should be). Hopefully, you'll reach
the top before the Skull Beast reaches you (and thus won't have to do
it
all over again). After the Beast croaks, jump on the platform and you'll
head back to Carona.
Location:
Carona
Suggested Stats: 130HP, 115MP, 24 Str, 16+8 Def
Back in town, go and save at the inn. Then, go talk
to the owner of the
curio shop in the back alley. Give him the Rare Wine, and you'll recieve a
25,000G discount
on his wares (substantial, and worth it). For now, the
wares aren't worth buying, though. Go back into the
town proper, sell your
monsters and the Stones you got in the ruins (do not sell the Legendary
Sword, though), and buy
yourself a Silver Bracer. Now would be a good time
to challenge Rod, since you should have the hang of the game now.
You can
fight him up to 5 times (which I actually recommend), and he'll give you
900G (remember, you have to pay him
100G to fight him) every time you win.
You'd be wise to save after you win each time. Once you've beaten him 5
times,
he'll give you a Gold Coin.
Afterwards, go and visit Klaus again. He'll tell you that you need to go
seek
the help of Fancy Mel, a somewhat insane mage living on the outskirts
of Carona Forest.
Mel's Atelier [RWMEL]
---------==
Location:
Mel's Atelier
Suggested Stats: 130HP, 115MP, 24+8 Str, 16+8 Def
Items: Bronze/Silver Coin x3
As you progress
into Mel's part of Carona Forest, you may notice that she
has, ah, interesting tastes in decor. Go on up to the atelier,
and try the
door. After Rue realizes that Mel's not home, you'll have to talk to and
play with the three dwarves
running around the outside of the atelier.
They each force you to complete an annoying mini-game in order to continue
with
the plot. If you wish to kill Square for this, I wholeheartedly agree
with you, trust me...
Mini-game #1:
Giant Balls
What to Do: First things first: get yourself an Imp so that you can get
through this accursed sequence.
Whenever you find yourself in a situation
where you have an enemy sitting on a platform you need to be on, use the
Imp's
shooting star ability to get them off that platform. At one point,
you need to jump off the back of one of the gigantic
balls that the Fungies
are riding to continue. Do NOT try to run and jump off it; just get on the
far corner of
it and jump off. Also, the last part of that same chain of
blocks starts to fall when you land on it, so jump over
when the Imp on the
far side jumps, and kill both him and his cohort. It's a straight run
(past another ball-riding
Fungie) to the exit.
Sub-Mini-game #1: Whack-a-Fungie
How to Play: Thwack Fungies only when they're above ground;
if you don't,
they'll knock you out. They tend to all get up at once, so a chain of X
attacks tends to work well.
A score of 250-490 will net you a Bronze Coin,
and a score of 500 or higher will net you a Silver Coin.
NOTE: You
may want to use the Cockadoo behind the atelier to save at this
point, and after the next mini-game; the urge to kill somebody
while doing
this sequence gets pretty high, and you may want to take a half-hour break
from it after each mini-game.
Mini-game
#2: Giant Swings
What to Do: By far, this one is the most annoying. Jump across the stage
via the gigantic swings
(keep in mind that they move; you'll have to move
with them so that you land on them properly), and attack enemies that
get
in your way accordingly. You'll want to turn into an Imp at two different
points when there are enemies blocking
the platform you need to land on,
and at one point, you'll have to wait for a bit on a falling block so that
you can
land properly on the incoming swing. Once you finally reach the
end, you'll have to play the next sub-mini-game.
Sub-Mini-game
#2: Collect the Balls
How to Play: Just run around and pick up colored balls that the large tube
launches. Avoid
the black balls, though. If you manage to pick up a ball
that's the same color as the last ball, you'll get 30 points
instead of 10
points. As with the first sub-mini-game, 250-490 will net you a Bronze
Coin, and 500+ will net you
a Silver Coin.
NOTE: Save again, for sake of sanity...
Mini-game #3: Fungie Trumpets
What to Do: This stage
is quite annoying. A few pointers: don't jump when
a Fungie is about to land and blow the trumpet, you'll have to
start the
map over. The teeter-totters can move horizontally as well, and one of
them you have to use like a teeter-totter
to continue with the stage. Be
sure to switch to an Imp and kill the Cockadoo near the exit, so you don't
get
pecked and have to do the entire level over again.
Sub-Mini-game #3: Scaring Cockadoos
What to Do: When a Cockadoo
gets too close to a trumpet, jump on the small
disc in front of the trumpet to scare it off. Do this quickly, or
the
mini-game will end pre-emptively. As with the last two mini-games, 250-490
points gets you a Bronze Coin,
and 500+ gets you a Silver Coin.
At last, they're over! Go ring the doorbell again, and watch as the story
unfolds
even further. Exit Mel's Atelier, and head back out. But wait, is
that Duke standing near the far end of the
path? Go talk to him a few
times, and help him up. You'll have to fight him, now!
Boss: Starlight Duke
HP: ~150
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: Avoid Duke while he's walking/spinning about, and when he falls
on his
back, hit his suit's back with the Arc Edge. It may take a few
tries to get the right rythm down, but once you do,
Duke proves to be quite
easy. Once Duke's down, he'll try to squish you by jumping and landing
hard on the ground
when he starts falling towards the ground again, jump to
avoid taking 20 damage as he lands.
NOTE: You don't have
to fight Duke just yet. If you want, you can ignore
him and return to town. Take note that you will still have
to fight him as
Starlight Duke, though, albeit in the next chapter.
After Duke's defeated, you'll return to Carona.
Go to the inn, save, and
head to Carona Forest.
Location: Carona Forest
Suggested Stats: 125HP, 115MP, 24+8 Str,
16+8 Def
Go back to the large altar where you found Elena originally, and you'll
see Smokey and Blood picking on
the Poppel Purrel you were sent to find.
Once more, you'll have to fight them. Don't worry, they're still as weak
as
they were when you first fought them. Once they're down, you'll return
to Carona, at night. Go visit Rod if
you want to find out more about Rod's
history. After that, just go to the inn, go to your room, and sleep.
After
a short dream, you'll wake up the next morning. Save, and head on
out to Mel's Atelier again.
Rue's Memory [RWMEMORY]
---------==
Enter the atelier,
and witness as more Rue's past is revealed. This is a
long sequence, so sit back and enjoy. Once you regain
control, you'll be
back in Carona. NOTE: This is your LAST CHANCE to fight Rod with Silver
Breeze! If you
haven't gotten the Gold Coin from him yet, do so now!
NOTE: If you didn't beat Duke earlier, you'll have to beat him
when you
leave Mel's Atelier. Nothing is different about the fight than the one
listed in the previous chapter,
save that you have a spectator.
Go back down into Klaus' basement, and watch as more plot is revealed, and
a new
quest opens up. Before you leave for the Ghost Temple, be sure to
buy yourself a Gold Belt and Gold Bracer (if you
can afford it), and of
course, sell any excess items and monsters you may have on hand. Once you
are prepped and
ready, go to the temple.
Haunted Temple [RWHAUNTED]
-----------==
Location: Yordaf's Atelier (aka. Ghost
Temple)
Suggested Stats: 125HP, 115MP, 24+12 Str, 16+12 Def
Items: Moon Stone x2, Night Stone, Left/Right Sollerets,
Left/Right
Gauntlets
Once you're inside the temple and in control, check either door. The one
you need
to enter is the one on the right. Shortly, you'll see three of
the most common (and least valuable) monster type
in this area walk by. Go
follow them to open the door to the next area (ignore the Specter in that
room; you'll
want to get it's coin later, but not yet). Follow the path
until you reach a side-room, and enter it (unless you
have a Saber Tiger in
your transform list). Jump across the pit, and take the left door. Get
the Ootang's
coin, and then leave the side-room back into the main hallway.
Turn into a Saber Tiger, and jump across the gap.
Turn into a Puppet, and
kill the puppet standing on the pedestal there. Then, jump up on the
pedestal and trigger
the door lock as a Puppet. Go ahead and enter, and
prepare to fight the first boss of the Ghost Temple.
Boss:
Chimera HP: ~200
Difficulty: |-----*----|
Strategy: Attack twice, jump back and to the side when it swings it's sword
at
you. Repeat until it's other head pops out, at which point it's defense
goes down. Keep attacking and jumping
away (be careful; the middle head
likes to breathe fire at you), and before long, the Chimera will fall.
After
defeating the Chimera, you'll get the Left Solleret. One down,
three to go. Continue into the next room, and
once you reach the area with
poison pits on the floor, just jump your way all the way to the next door.
If you haven't
gotten a Skeleton coin, get one now, as you'll need to be
able to turn into a skeleton to activate the second door.
Heal up before
entering the door, and prepare to face the second Chimera. This one has
the same attacks and tactics
as the last one, so no worries. Victory will
net you the Right Solleret.
Continue along, and be sure to get
a Specter coin from the two Specters in
the next hallway. Turn into that Ootang you got earlier, and jump over the
high
wall to the skeletons. Kill the skeleton on the right, and turn into
a skeleton yourself. Stand around the
center of the pedestal and hit T.
Just wait, you should reassemble, and the door will unlock. Turn back into
Rue,
and go face off the third Chimera. This one can call lightning to hit
you, so you'll want to keep close to it for
the first three or four bolts,
and jump away quickly after the fourth has struck, so you don't get hit.
Defeat the Chimera,
and get the Left Gauntlet.
As you exit the Chimera's room, you'll find yourself in another hallway.
Extinguish
the four torches with the Specter form, and then enter the door.
Back where you started... Exit the area from the
door you entered it in,
and then go take the left door in the main entry hall. Go ahead and follow
the passage,
until... Hmm, what's that? Why, it's Elena! A short (and
silly) story sequence later, you'll be trapped
in that hallway with Elena
trailing you. Press T to call Elena at any time. Go ahead and go back to
where
Elena was hiding (be sure to call her to follow you on up to the
locked door on the far upper side of the passage).
Hit the switch in the
alcove where Elena was, and the door will open. Go on through, and watch
another cute story
sequence.
In this next area, you need to go jump on the center platform, and call
Elena. After that, you'll
have to fight five monsters (just skeletons and
Puppets), and then go into the hidden rooms behind each wall. Defeat
all
of the monsters on each side, and be sure to break the wall on the right
swing wall, to get the Moon Stone (and
a Stinger coin). Go back out, and
talk to Elena a few times to get another Moon Stone. Then, jump across the
pit
and call Elena to follow you. Walk up to the hole, and turn into a
Stinger. Go into it, and use Rolling Spine
(hold T and move foreward) to
take care of the opposition in the tunnel. Be sure to get the Night Stone
halfway
down the tunnel! Once you've reached the far end, turn back into
Rue and hit the switch to let Elena through.
Continue through the next area, and hit the switch. Call Elena, and go
into the next room. Hit the switch in
there, too (ignore the white
teleport pad for now), and go through that door. Now you need to get back
to Elena,
so go into the left door, kill the Puppets and Specter (get a new
Puppet and Specter coin, if necessary). Turn into
a Puppet, and jump onto
the white pad. Then, hit the switch and go into the room where you left
Elena. Jump
onto the teleport pad where the Puppets abducted Elena, and
then go back to the room where you first teleported, and back
into the
hallway before the first teleport pad. Backtrack to where you fought the
monsters behind the shaking
wall-doors, and go through the right door
(which is shaking again).
After defeating the enemies in there, you'll
have to kill three skeletons
(who break through the door you found the Stinger in earlier). Go through
the door
and reclaim Elena. Now, backtrack to the room where you broke the
switch, and Elena will suggest (somewhat backwardly)
that you hit the door.
Walk up to it, then walk up to it again and hit it with the Arc Edge. Down
goes the door!
You can also just wait for Elena to jump-kick it, if you
want (it's kind of funny when she does). Continue into the
next hallway,
and jump across the rotating discs. Call Elena, and instruct her to jump
when appropriate.
Don't worry if she falls, she'll just appear back on the
far side (much like you would if you fell). Once she's across,
enter the
next room.
The switch here can't be hit, and the upper door has a wall blocking it,
so take the left
door, and go into the next room at the end of that hall.
There, you'll find Duke slaying the fourth Chimera. Now,
you have to fight
Duke.
Boss: Duke HP: ~175
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: Try to deal with Duke in a
secondhand manner: use the crates and
vases about the room, by drawing him close to them, and then attacking the
crate/vase
so that it explodes. If you get out of the way, or hit it far
enough away, Duke will be damaged while you'll remain
unhurt. Once you run
out of crates and vases, turn into a Specter and take him down from a
distance with ice breath.
After Duke is down, Elena will treat his wounds (silly, silly Elena), and
the wall will start to move. Once you regain
control of Rue, start hitting
the small barred door with Arc Edge via the triple-hit X combo, over and
over again.
You should have the door open by the time the wall hits the
halfway mark of the room, or close to it. If you don't
feel like doing
that, don't worry; Elena will figure out how to open the door just in time.
After that, some more amusing
story sequences will play out, and you'll be
back in Carona.
Location: Carona
Suggested Stats: 175HP, 125MP,
24+12 Str, 16+12 Def
Go sell your monsters and excess items now. Go visit Klaus, and then stay
at the hotel
(not the inn). It's 500G to rent the room, but trust me, it
is worth it for this particular bit. Grab the Dream
Stone from the lower
right corner of the room, and then sleep in the bed. You should see a
short dream of an Ootang
jumping into a tree stump. Leave the hotel and go
to Carona Forest. Go down the tree stump in the first area
of the forest,
and make your way to the halfway point (be sure to keep your Specter form;
it's critical for this!).
Turn into a Specter, and blow ice onto the small
Mandola until it grows up into a full-sized (and tame) Mandola.
Jump up
onto the ledge above, and grab The Last Hero. Now, go back to town via the
Go-Home Frog on the cliff edge
of the forest, and give the book to Rod. He
will give you 4 Strength Ups, taking your base attack power up to 28!
If you can afford it, go buy a Platinum Belt and Bracer from Tonio's shop.
Also, be sure to challenge Rod a few times to
get another Gold Coin from
him (which you might as well sell for 2,500G; you really only need Bronze
Coins). Another
thing you may want to do now is go back to the Ghost
Temple and explore the room that was exposed by the wall moving and
almost
crushing you earlier. Do NOT hit the switch you saw earlier; instead, just
go into the upper room that
a wall was blocking before. The room contains
a Moon Stone, a Silver Coin, and a Mysterious Statue. Sell the
coin and
stone, but hang onto the statue. You can sell it to Marcum later for
6,000G (he'll offer 4,000G first,
just tell him to forget it and offer to
sell it again). When all that's finished, save again (of course), and go
onward
to Raging Mountain!
Raging Mountain [RWRAGING]
------------==
Location: Raging Mountain
Suggested
Stats: 175HP, 125MP, 28+16 Str, 16+16 Def
Items: Silver Coin, Legendary Shield
The first part of the mountain is
very straightforward. Just go straight
across (collect monster coins if you want; none in the upper area are of
any
real value), and jump down to the lower area once you reach the far
side (just jump straight out towards the screen; it
may seem like you
can't, but you can). Kill the Bubba down there and claim its coin. Now,
you can smash
the myriad of large boulders which block your path on Raging
Mountain! Just turn into a Bubba whenever you find one
and hit T to swing
it's hammer and shatter the rock. You'll have to do that to get back up to
the area which you
were jumping across before, anyway.
Once you're back up and into the cave on the far end of the area, go ahead
and
break the rock up there. Get the Silver Coin from the chest, and kill
the Specter that appears. Go back over
to the other boulder (two Pollywogs
appear near it), and break it, too. Keep going across the steam pits, and
into
the lava chambers. If you want, you can take the second moving
platform here over to the healing spring, but it may
be smarter not to.
Once you've reached the far end of this cavern (it's a bit tricky; you have
to wait for the platforms
to line up close enough so you don't jump into
the lava), you'll be out on a windswept plateau.
Out here, just
make your way across, killing as you see fit. Before you
try to jump any gaps, take a test jump. If the wind
blows you back too
hard, wait a second and try again. Do NOT try to jump when the wind pushes
you back hard, you'll
never be able to make it across that way. Be sure to
restore your HP and MP before you enter the next area via potions
dropped
by monsters, you'll want at least full HP for the coming boss(es). After a
short (and ever silly) story
sequence, you'll be fighting both Duke and
Belle, simultaneously.
Boss: Duke and Belle HP: ~125 and ~150 (twice)
Difficulty:
|------*---|
Strategy: This is tough early on. Focus on beating up Duke (and avoiding
getting thrown off the cliff
by Hexagon). Once Duke is down, then turn on
Belle and her flying contraption. You'll have to jump away from
the grip
of the Hexagon, then quickly jump in between the hands and do a jump-hit to
Belle. Once she jumps off,
she'll start running around and casting magic
at you. To counter this, keep your distance until she's finished casting
her
magic, then run up and hit her hard. Eventually, you'll win.
With Belle and Duke taken care of, you'll be in
the next area of Raging
Mountain. Go straight left, and use the healing tile (you'll probably need
it after that
boss fight). Once you've done that, go on up the cliff, and
jump across the platforms above the healing tile to reach
the treasure box
with the Legendary Shield. Go back to the path, and walk all the way up to
the fiery bowl of
the volcano. Be sure to heal up before you reach the
upper path, though, as you have a boss fight coming up.
At the top, you'll
meet up with Wylaf, lord of dragons. A few brief exchanges of words later,
you'll be fighting
Wylaf, to prove your worth to him.
Boss: Wylaf HP: ~300 (you only have to do about 150 damage)
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy:
Wylaf is considerably easier to deal with than Belle and Duke
were. Attack regularly when Wylaf lands (ie. 3 X attacks
sequenced), and
avoid his fire breath and cyclones while he's in the air. This fight is a
bit long, but not difficult.
When he orders you to stand down, stop
attacking him immediately, or he'll kill you (regardless of your HP, I
might
add).
After winning, Wylaf will award you with the Phantomite, and send you on
your way. You'll automatically
be taken back to Carona.
Location: Carona
Suggested Stats: 200HP, 125MP, 28+16 Str, 16+16 Def
Upon returning
to Carona, you'll have another run-in with Smokey and
Blood, the moron bandits who can't win no matter how hard they try.
After
they leave, go trade in your monsters and extra stuff. As with the Sword,
don't sell the Legendary Shield.
Buy yourself a few Defense Ups (at least
so that your Defense is up to 20 or so), and if you haven't already, go
save.
(Note that this next sequence is optional; you don't have to respond
to the bandits' challenge at all.) After that,
go to Carona Forest, and
back to the altar around the middle of the forest. Pretty soon, you'll be
fighting Trap
Master.
Boss: Trap Master HP: ~200
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: Pah, this is pathetic. Wait for Trap
Master to jump onto a
platform, and then jump over to a platform nearby that one (or right onto
his platform, doing
a jump hit to him; that will cost you 10HP, but it
works). When you're on a platform right next to Trap Master, just
hit T or
X to smack him. Be sure to get off your platform if it's glowing, or has a
shadow over it (to avoid trap
damage). It won't take long to defeat Trap
Master.
After that's over, Smokey and Blood will attack again.
They're still as
unskilled as ever, so beat one up to end the fight quick. Go right back to
the forest, and make
your way to the cliffside (be sure to keep the Bubba
coin from Raging Mountain, and have it in at least the third slot).
Kill a
Stinger on the path down to the atelier and collect it's coin. Then, jump
over across a gap on the right
side of the cliff (you'll see it pretty
clearly) to a large boulder. Turn into Bubba and smash the boulder, then
turn
into a Stinger and enter the hole. Turn back into Rue quickly, as you
have to kill 20 Small Bats here. Just
use the chained X attack constantly,
and you should have 20 kills shortly. Nab your prize from the treasure box
that
appears (a Star Stone), and then go back into town.
Go ahead and visit Klaus now (note that this is your last chance
to fight
Rod with his Golden Gale before he switches to a new weapon), and then go
to Mel's Atelier. Talk to Mel,
and then go find the Poppel Purrel that you
saved earlier outside (he's behind the atelier). He'll offer to take
you
to Gorotan, accept his offer. Talk to the little flying diamond-thing to
start the fight.
Boss: Gorotan HP:
~250
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: Gorotan has very high defense when his shield is around him, but
even so,
you can still do some damage by attacking then. When he releases
his shield, attack him like mad. He'll die
fairly quickly.
With Gorotan's powers in hand, you can now fully power up Prima Doll. Go
back to Klaus' house
and do just that. After Prima is fully powered up, go
to the lakeside.
Bond with Prima [RWPRIMA]
------------==
Location:
Lakeside
Suggested Stats: 210HP, 125MP, 30+16 Str, 22+16 Def
Upon reaching the lake, you'll see Elena and Mint
there. The three will
talk for a bit, and you'll be presented with a choice. Answer however you
wish, and
watch the scene play out. Then, go back to Carona and visit
Klaus again. Go back to the lakeside with Prima
Doll (you can do other
stuff in town while Prima is following you, as well; try visiting Rod and
Johnny Wolf, for example).
If you want to win the race with Prima, just
hold down the directional button or analog stick upwards. If you want
to
cheat, just walk in front of him (which is pretty mean). After the race,
and some more story, you'll be back
in Carona. Go visit Klaus again, and
watch as Prima is completed at last!
Now you need to get a ride to the
lake ruins. Go down to the grassy field
and visit Rod. He'll want a fight with you, so oblige him. After
you
defeat him with his Black Tornado, you'll get your ride to the lake ruins.
Lake Ruins [RWLAKE]
-------==
Location:
Lake Ruins
Suggested Stats: 210HP, 125MP, 30+16 Str, 22+16 Def
The Lake Ruins is a serious story point, so I won't
be spoiling anything
here. Suffice it to say that you'll have no control over what happens here
at all, and by
the time it's all over, you'll be back in Carona. Once in
town, feel free to go visit Rod, and find out more about
his past. Then,
go to the tavern and find out just what Mint was up to, and why Belle and
Duke were at the ruins
with her. After that, just head back to the inn and
rest up.
Maya's Arrival [RWMAYA]
-----------==
Go ahead and leave the inn. Tonio's shop is now carrying the Mythril
equipment, so be sure to upgrade there.
Also, you can now challenge Rod
with his Black Tornado. Once you've defeated him 5 times, he'll give you a
Platinum
Coin (well worth the effort; they sell for 15,000G at Hobb's curio
shop). Also, now is a good time to build up your
stats and cash reserves
by going back to Raging Mountain and collecting Bubbas to sell. At this
point, they're
the most valuable monster (selling at 90G each). Note that
this isn't critical, but certainly recommended.
When you feel ready, go
back to the lakeside.
Of course, now the lakeside is blocked by the tower, so Rue will
return to
town (after a brief look-in on what Doll Master is up to). Go visit Rod
out on the grassy fields, then
go to the inn and rest up. When Rue wakes
up in the middle of the night, you'll have to chase Claire's shadow all
over
the place. First, follow her into the dark alleyway. Then, go down
to the docks. Next, visit Rod in the
fields. Then, follow her up to the
church. There, you'll have to fight another boss, Psycho Master.
Boss:
Psycho Master HP: ~225
Difficulty: |-------*--|
Strategy: Psycho Master has a seriously unfair advantage: his psychic
attack
ignores your defense, and always does 35 damage. As well, he'll
automatically counter with this attack if you try
to attack him in the
front, and he won't take any damage at all! Instead, try to get behind
him, and attack him
in the back. You can usually get in two hits on him
before he teleports away. When he starts floating around,
avoid him at all
costs, or he'll use his psychic attack on you. If he just stands there,
he'll release an easy-to-dodge
shockwave (jump over it). Be careful, and
victory will be yours.
After the fight, you'll find that it's daytime
outside the church already.
Go ahead and save at the inn, and then go to the Tower of Maya. Note that
this is
your last chance to fight Rod with his Black Tornado, so if you
haven't gotten your Platinum Coin, do so now!
Claire's
Shadow [RWCLAIRE]
------------==
Location: Tower of Maya
Suggested Stats: 215HP, 125MP, 35+20 Str, 25+20
Def
Items: Gold Coin x7, Star Stone x2, Legendary Helmet
Enter the tower, and head up. Trap Master will taunt
you a bit at the
entrance, but he's hardly a big concern. The enemies in the tower are not
difficult, but don't
turn your back on the Pumpkins, they like to blow up
when you do. Hack and slash your way up to the first landing,
and grab the
chest with 2 Gold Coins. Beat up the four Pumpkins that roll out of the
door to the next area, and
go right in.
Inside this room, you need to jump across the pumpkin platforms to the far
side. Three of the
pumpkins are fakes, and they're rotating counter-
clockwise. If you don't want to track that, the trapped ones are
the
leftmost pumpkin in the first pair, and both of the pumpkins on the right
of the trio of pumpkins. You'll
also have to deal with a Witch shooting
pumpkins at you, so be sure to pay attention and jump when it's
appropriate.
Once you reach the other side, kill the Witch and claim your
prize (2 Star Stones). Heal up on the panel, and head
upstairs.
In this next area, there is a treasure box on the ground floor near where
the stairs you just came up
taper off. It contains 3 Gold Coins. Once you
have that, head up the stairs, and be careful of the Witches:
they like to
trap you so that you can't attack them unless you first jump out of the
way of their pumpkin cannons.
Keep going up, take the elevator (just swing
constantly to deal with the Pumpkins until you reach the top floor), and on
the
next landing, grab the treasure box with 2 Gold Coins. Deal with the
Pumpkins as before, and enter the doorway.
In this room, you need to ride the platforms sitting in mid-air to reach
the far end. Don't stay on any given platform
TOO long, or you'll be hit
by the platform spinning around, and take a bit of damage. You'll have to
get the Wabbits
off of each platform you need to take, so it's not tough to
figure out what platforms you have to ride. Once you
reach the far end,
take advantage of the healing tile, and grab the Legendary Helmet. Go up
the stairs, follow
the pathway up (more Witches to be dealt with), and use
the healing tile up there. Then, enter the final chamber.
More story will take place, and you'll shortly have to fight Doll Master,
who reveals himself to be... THE ARM OF
DEATH! Now you have to fight him.
Boss: Arm of Death HP: Infinite
Difficulty: N/A
Strategy: What strategy?
You cannot win this. If you really want to look
fancy, hit him twice with X, then block with T to take less damage
from his
attack. Don't get too angry when you lose; he's impossible even with 200+
attack and defense power...
After your severe beating at the hands of the Arm of Death, more events
will take place, and before you know it, you'll
be inside the Book of
Cosmos. A little more story will unfold, and you'll find yourself fighting
Atenacius.
Boss:
Atenacius HP: ~300
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: He's hardly what you can call "tough", seeing as you do twice
your
normal damage while Rue isn't wearing his hat. Attack Atenacius'
beard relentlessly, until he rushes back away to
the other side of the Book
of Cosmos. Jump across the platforms to reach him (this can be tougher
than it looks,
since Atenacius shoots stuff at you), and resume attacking.
This fight should be short and uneventful.
After the
fight, tons of story unfolds, and about half an hour later, you
will regain control of Rue (yes, the story sequence is
that long; this game
was made by the Xenogears team, can you tell?). Back in Carona, with the
Fortress of Valen
flying overhead, you have a new mission: to get up to
that fortress and stop Valen!
Aim for the Sky [RWAIMSKY]
------------==
Location:
Carona
Suggested Stats: 225HP, 125MP, 35+20 Str, 25+20 Def
A lot of options open up to you at this point.
First off, I suggest you
go buy a Brave Bracer and Black Belt from Tonio's shop. Also, you should
give the Legendary
items to the owner of the pub (save before you do this;
it's easy to accidentally say "Forget it", and that can't be undone
without
loading from a saved game). Then, go hunt down 250 Pollywogs in Carona
Forest (best spot: the ruins with
the pool of water, on the ledge above the
water; two Pollywogs spawn at once there), and 150 Gudons (best spot: right
at
the entrance of the underground ruins; there are three all lined up in a
row, essentially, that keep respawning).
Have Jargen make you 5 Pollywog
Souffles, and 5 Gudon Liver Soups (he offers dishes randomly, so this could
take a while).
That will boost your Strength and Defense by 10 each! Be
sure to talk to Jargen after you get your 10th dish, to
claim a Platinum
Coin (worth 3 more power-ups at Hobb's shop).
Reinforced as you are, go save at the inn and challenge
Rod. He has a new
weapon: Dark Hurricane! Fight and beat him 5 times to get another Platinum
Coin, and trade
that in for 3 more stat enhancers. By now, you should have
about 225HP, 125MP, 48 base Strength, 36 base Defense,
and a bonus of 24 to
both Strength and Defense via the Brave Bracer and Black Belt. Once you're
all prepped and
ready, it's time to find a way up to the fortress in the
skies! Go to Raging Mountain, the obvious choice.
Location:
Raging Mountain
Suggested Stats: 225HP, 125MP, 48+24 Str, 36+24 Def
As you progress through Raging Mountain, you'll
have to fight both Trap
Master and Mode Master. First off, you'll find Trap Master in the steam
cavern near the
entrance of the mountain.
Boss: Trap Master HP: ~300
Difficulty: |--*-------|
Strategy: Trap Master is easier
than before, due to the enhanced stats you
should have now. He likes to set tiles to explode if you land on them,
so
avoid landing on any tiles that Trap Master does. Hit him like before (at
a distance from an adjacent platform),
and he'll be down in short order.
With Trap Master defeated, continue onwards into the cave. Go ahead and
use
the healing point in the lava chamber (it comes in handy, seeing as you
have another boss fight coming up), and make your
way to the wind tunnel.
You'll have to fight Mode Master first, though.
Boss: Mode Master HP: ~300
Difficulty:
|---*------|
Strategy: Attack normally. Due to your higher stats, Mode Master won't be
able to do much damage
to you in her initial form. She'll start morphing
into monsters in your list of monsters once you do about 100 damage
to her,
but she's certainly no threat, even then.
With Mode Master defeated, the way is clear. Go on up to
Wylaf, and claim
your prize: dragon wings! Now, upon returning to Carona, a new option
becomes available at the
gates: Valen's Fortress. When you're prepped and
ready, go ahead and leave for the fortress. Before you do,
though, you may
want to build up stats, visit the tavern, and generally prepare. Once you
have visited everybody
you want to, it's time to soar off to Valen's
Fortress!
Soar into Battle [RWSOAR]
-------------==
Location:
Valen's Fortress
Suggested Stats: 225HP, 125MP, 48+24 Str, 36+24 Def
Items: Bronze/Silver/Gold Coin x4 (special)
After you find Prima at the fortress, you'll automatically be taken to the
first "arena". The path here is pretty
straightforward: your goal in the
first arena is to find the right teleporter to the next area. Nothing in
the
first arena is difficult (save Behemoths, and they're too slow to pose
much of a threat), so you should be able to reach
the elevator to the next
area shortly.
The elevator leads you up to a special mini-game: platform hopping.
If
you can make it across to the other side with 75% or more of the time bar
left, you'll get a Gold Coin. If
you can make it across with 74-50% of the
time bar left (and don't fall more than twice), you'll get a Silver Coin.
If
you make it across with 49-25% of the time bar left (and don't fall more
than four times), you'll get a Bronze Coin.
If you can make it across with
at least some time bar left, you'll get your HP restored. Otherwise, the
elevator
will simply take you up to the next floor, without rewards. Note
that any missing HP you may have will be healed
by decreasing the time bar
when you get on the elevator. As such, it's in your best interest to keep
your HP high
before entering this area.
Next is Arena II, or the second arena. This area is simple, as was the
first area.
Here, you'll need to gain the abilities of certain monsters
(to be exact, a Bubba and a Hellhound) in order to progress
far. There is
little challenge to this; simply explore and find the appropriate monster
for the current blockade,
and then progress. Take note, though: there is
only one version of each blockade along the proper path! If
you come
across a blockade that's the same as the last one, it's a trap. Completing
Arena II takes you up to another
mini-game like the last one, with
different platforms moving about. Then, it's on to Arena III.
Arena III
is a lot like Arena I, except that there are now Jinns running
around, and a wrong turn will force you to fight 3 Shaolons
instead of 3
Gargoyles. It's still not difficult or map-worthy, though. After this
arena is complete, you'll
have another mini-game like the last two, and be
in Arena IV.
Arena IV is the simplest of them all. Go to
each teleporter on either
end of the main area, and defeat the two Behemoths that you can summon in
each one.
This will re-activate the elevator (after you beat another
Behemoth at the elevator point), and allow you to progress to
the final
mini-game, and on to the next area of Valen's Fortress. Be sure to use the
save point here, and then
take the teleporter to the last puzzle area.
This next area has very simple: light all of the torches in each room
so
that they match the initial setup of the first room: the two middle torches
lit. Some rooms are trickier than
others in this task (the first room
being a prime example; put one torch out and re-light it to solve the
puzzle in
that room). In the two rooms to either side of the first room,
the puzzle is simply to put out or light torches so
that they match the
original room. When you solve the puzzle in a room, the screen will flash,
and a stone will
drop onto the floor. Grab the stone each time this
happens, and run back to the main room (as you can't fight or
carry other
stones while you have a stone over your head). The room furthest over is a
bit tricky, though.
You have to put out the lit flame in the left corner,
light the middle left torchiere, and use a Jinn's wind attack to
bring the
small flame to life on the middle right torchiere.
After all four stones are in place, you'll be teleported
automatically to
the next area. Here, you'll have to defeat Psycho Master again to
progress.
Boss: Psycho
Master HP: ~350
Difficulty: |-----*----|
Strategy: Same rules apply as the last time you fought Psycho Master, but
this
time, he has the added advantage of his barriers. The barriers also
ignore defense, and he frequently hurls you against
them, causing a total
of about 55 damage to you. This being so, avoid running into him, and take
him out from
the back as quickly as possible.
Once Psycho is down, it's on to the Cursed Crossways.
Location: Cursed Crossways
Suggested
Stats: 250HP, 125MP, 48+24 Str, 36+24 Def
Here, you'll have to fight previous bosses. If you're running short
on HP
and/or MP, visit one of the top/bottom corner nodes. These contain regular
monsters, and never run out.
The top-center portal leads to the Nightmare,
the left-center portal leads to the Skull Beast, and the right-center
portal
leads to a Chimera. Defeat all three, and the path to the final
area of Valen's Fortress (as well as the last save
point) will be revealed.
Save and move on.
In the next area, you'll come face-to-face with Ruecian, aka. Doll Master,
aka.
Arm of Death. Now is your final battle with him.
Boss: Arm of Death HP: ~400
Difficulty: |------*---|
Strategy:
Avoid getting hit by the arm (it still ignores defense), and do
NOT let him grab you (as that will cut your HP by 1/5th,
quite painful).
Attack him with two chained attacks, then retreat quickly so he can't grab
you. Repeat until he
dies.
With Ruecian down, you'll progress into the chamber of the Dewprism, and
Valen's sanctum sanctorum.
More story and events will unfold, and you'll
find yourself fighting Valen himself, as well as an ever-regenerating
guardian
called Dew RedMoon. This is sort of a pseudo-boss fight. Attack
Valen normally when he comes in range: this
will damage his barrier. As
well, keep killing Dew RedMoon, as Dew RedMoon will heal Valen after a bit
if it's
left alive. Once you've destroyed the Morning Dew, more events
unfold, and you'll have to fight Valen's final form.
Boss:
Valen HP: ~500
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: Valen can only be hurt in his upright form, when his underbelly
is
exposed, and he starts shooting a stream of constant fire at you. His
other forms are impossible to hurt, and your
best tactic is to dodge and
avoid when he does transform. This mostly involves running rapidly in the
opposite
direction, and jumping about when Valen fires at you. When he
does expose his underbelly, run or block until he stops
firing, then
quickly jump-slash his underbelly. Five or six slashes should kill him.
With Valen down, the
world is safe! Now begins a very dramatic escape
sequence (I refuse to spoil any of it), and once you're back in
control,
you'll find yourself at the inn at Carona.
I'll See You Soon [RWSEEYOU]
--------------==
Feel free to save (I certainly did), and then go about town and talk to
people. Be sure to visit Klaus' shop, too.
Once you're satisfied, visit
Klaus again, and watch the touching ending to Rue's scenario.
Congratulations, you've finished
Rue's story!
End of Rue's Story
Mint's Story
=========--
World Domination, Baby! [MWWORLD]
--------------------==
Mint's story begins at East Heaven Kingdom, on the day of Mint's exile
from her home. Feel free to check the menu
and see her stats, as well as
taste the dishes on the table (if you'd like). Before long, the story will
take
over, and Mint will run away from her seriously demented little sister
and her maniacal ways.
Once the story sequences
are over, you'll find yourself at the docks in
Carona. Feel free to talk about town, and explore the locales.
You can
find a Silver Coin in the back alley of town (between the inn and armor
store), and another Silver Coin down
near the riverside, next to the cave
with the strange red vehicle in it. Once you're ready, go to the gates of
town,
and enter Carona Forest.
Location: Carona Forest
Suggested Stats: 60HP, 60MP, 24 Str, 16 Def
Items: Bronze Coin
x3, Silver Coin x2, Moon Stone x2
The first time you enter Carona Forest, you'll have to go through a mini
tutorial
on how to play the game. It's not difficult at all, just pass on
through it (be sure to grab the treasure box with
3 Bronze Coins in it near
the far side of the tutorial area). Then, it's into the forest proper.
This first
real screen of the forest is a cinch. Feel free to take some
time here and get used to Mint's magic controls, as
well as building up
your HP and MP to around 75 or so. Once you've got the hang of it, go
ahead and enter the
next area.
As you enter the clearing, you'll see that those two bandits from the ship
are picking on a pink-haired
girl. Mint will initiate a fight with them,
so get ready. They're close-range attackers, so keep your distance
from
them, and pound on one of them heavily with magic (Vulcan works well here).
When the bandits are gone, you'll see
another story sequence, and be back
on the path, with Elena telling you to follow her.
You don't actually have
to follow Elena, though. Run ahead of her, and
jump across the ruins from the topmost part. Then, take the
shortcut path
to the exit. If you manage to make it fast enough (ie. before Elena), she
will reward you with a
Silver Coin. Keep going, and watch as another short
story sequence takes place. Before long, you'll be down
on the cliffs
below the forest, on a quest to reach the atelier. Fight your way down the
cliffs (the small hedgehog-like
monsters are best defeated with magic,
not physical attacks).
Once you reach the bottom, you'll see a small spring
off to the right,
with strange glowing white dots on it. Use that to recover your HP, if
necessary. When
you're prepped, head up to the golden emblem at the far
end of the clearing. Defeat the two gargoyles that appear,
simultaneously.
You have about 2 seconds after one dies to kill the other one. Once you
succeed, stairs to the
atelier will appear.
Once at the top, try to enter the atelier. Surprise! Now you'll have to
fight
the first real boss of Threads of Fate, the Nightmare.
Boss: Nightmare HP: ~100
Difficulty: |--*-------|
NOTE:
The gague above for difficulty indicates how hard a boss is. The
further to the left the * is, the easier the boss
is to defeat.
Strategy: To defeat the Nightmare, focus on attacking it three times in
quick succession (ie. the
chained hits with the X button), and then running
out of it's range quickly. When the mare jumps, keep moving so
that it
doesn't land on you (or hit you with shockwaves). Once the shockwaves have
dissipated, attack it again.
If you want, try shooting magic at it; but
magic isn't much more effective than regular attacks here, so there's
really
not much point.
With the Nightmare out of the way, the plot can continue. Enter the
atelier, and grab the
three treasures (2 Moon Stones and a Silver Coin).
Check the vault near the center of the first floor to continue the story.
Once
everything's done, you'll be back in Carona.
Location: Carona
Suggested Stats: 80HP, 65MP, 24 Str, 16 Def
Items:
Silver Coin, [Red Magic]
Once you regain control, go down to the docks and jump over the crates on
the lower right
side of the docks. Follow the pier to the end and nab the
Silver Coin. Once you've got that, head back up to
town, and sell your
monsters collected (and the Moon Stones). If you can afford it, buy the
Silver Belt.
If not, buy a Bronze Bracer and Bronze Belt. (NOTE: At this
point, high defense is more important than high offense)
When you're all
prepped and ready, talk to Klaus down in his basement, and then head on out
of town to the underground
ruins (with a new magic type in hand, as well).
NOTE: If you're feeling brave, you can try taking on Rod right now
(he's
down in the grasslands by the river). He's VERY difficult at this point,
though, since you have such low
stats. I suggest you wait until you've
completed the underground ruins before challenging him, myself.
Underground
Trap [MWTRAP]
-------------==
Location: Underground Ruins
Suggested Stats: 80HP, 75MP 24 Str, 16+8 Def
Items:
Bronze Coin x5, Night Stone, Moon Stone, Rare Wine, Legendary Sword,
Tiara, Cube, [Super], [Power]
Go ahead and
enter the ruins (after a brief chat with Rue, who Mint fears
is going to jeopardize her treasure monopoly). The underground
ruins are
essentially just the same two screens repeating endlessly. To get through
them, first head straight
up to the far northern exit in the first tunnel.
You should hear water running. Go to the right-side exit to the
area
(there's one exit for each direction in each area). Follow the path across
the two waterfalls, and take the
rightmost exit again. From here, go right
again, and get the Moon Stone. Go north, and then right again (to
get the
Night Stone). After that, go left, and cross the small waterfall scene to
the hole down to the next floor.
On this floor, the goal is simple: gather the six platforms to reach the
next floor down. To do this, you need to
cross four areas with poisoned
ground and crates over the poison. I suggest that you jump on the crates,
and use
magic (Bubbles works well) against the Gudons on the platforms.
Once you reach the end of each of the poison rooms, be
sure to check the
room on the far north for one of the six platforms. At the top of the
tunnel, go into the north
room in the final branch to get the fifth
platform, and then take the right path. Switch to Burner (Red - Normal)
and
melt the ice block to get the sixth and final platform. Before you
leave, though, you may want to melt the other
two ice blocks. This
requires about 110MP, so you'll probably want to boost your MP a bit (and
your HP; I suggest
a good 125HP at this point). Don't skip out on melting
those two blocks; they lead to the Rare Wine, an incalculably
valuable item
that you will thank yourself many times later on for getting now, and a
new magic type, [Super].
Leave the ice tunnel, and jump down the corridor to the entrance (no need
to go through the poison tunnels this time).
Jump across the platforms in
order, from the rightmost all the way across to the leftmost (in a half-
circle motion).
Once done correctly, the path up to the exit to the next
floor will be revealed.
On the next floor, you'll find
that the left path is blocked by a wall,
and the right path by a boulder (with Rue in front of it). Talk to Rue
three
times, and prepare to run! You'll definitely want your sound on for
this sequence. When you hear a crunching
noise, jump quickly to avoid
being slowed down by falling debris. You may want to hug one of the walls
to reduce
the debris dodging a bit (I suggest the left side). Once you get
far enough down the tunnel, you'll see an alcove
off on the left side.
Quickly dive into that to avoid getting crushed, and then go back up to
where Rue fell down.
If you completed the boulder run without getting
smushed, you can steal a Bronze Coin from Rue by talking to his fallen
form
from the rear. Keep going right to find an HP recovery spring, then go all
the way left into the lake chamber.
After a short scene of Mint musing, you'll be presented with a new
challenge: to jump on all of the platforms in the right
order as they are
rotating over the lake. First things first, jump straight across, ignoring
the flashing platforms,
and get the Legendary Sword. Then, jump back over,
and start jumping in sequence on the platforms. It may take
a few tries,
so don't get too mad if you fall into the lake a few times. You'll know
which platform to jump on
next, as it will be flashing. Once you've
completed the sequence, you'll be taken down below the lake, into a small
(and
pit-laden) room.
As you cross the platforms to the far side, you'll find yourself having to
deal with the boss
of the underground ruins, the Skull Beast.
Boss: Skull Beast HP: ~100
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy:
This boss, while marginally more difficult than the Nightmare, is
still not very hard. Jump out of the way of it's
small fire streams, and
jump over the arcs of flame that it spits out. When it starts jumping
around, avoid being
on the same platform that it lands on (it will aim for
whatever platform you're on or closest to when it jumps).
When it starts
panting and flickering white, attack it with Bubbles. It may take a while,
but the boss will eventually
die.
With the Skull Beast out of the way, jump across the platforms and down to
the atelier of Grand Magician Elroy.
Go ahead and ride the platform on up.
Be sure to check all of the rooms, and search their floors; each room has
at least
one coin in it. The room with the HP-restoring fountain has a
Gold Coin hidden between the two black monuments on
one end of the room, a
handy find. In all, there are four Bronze Coins here, as well as the Tiara
and Cube.
Once you have everything, and have healed up, head back down to
the elevator. Of course, as luck would have it, you'll
have to fight a
boss before you can leave.
Boss: Belle HP: ~100
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: Belle
is a real pain to beat. She likes to surround herself
with a ring of Vulcans, and then launch them all at you.
Avoid her while
she's encased, and then start firing your own Vulcan at her when she
launches hers at you. If
she jumps up in the air, jump afterwards, unless
you want to get hit by a firestorm. This fight is annoying, but
really not
all that difficult.
After the battle, you'll have to go back up, and chase after Duke and
Belle.
But look who returns to fight you! This time, the Skull Beast
cannot actually be defeated. Just get him panting
and then hit him; you'll
be able to take the elevator up after that. Once you do, you'll find
yourself on the
stairwell you saw while going down the first time. The
trick here is to just keep running up! You'll be assaulted
by large spiked
balls as you head up, so be sure to jump over them (this won't work if the
balls are on the inner edge,
as you should be). Hopefully, you'll reach
the top before the Skull Beast reaches you (and thus won't have to do
it
all over again). After the Beast croaks (with Rue's help), you'll be taken
back to Carona.
Location:
Carona
Suggested Stats: 130HP, 115MP, 24 Str, 16+8 Def
Back in town, go and save at the inn. Then, go talk
to the owner of the
curio shop in the back alley. Give him the Rare Wine, and you'll recieve a
25,000G discount
on his wares (substantial, and worth it). For now, the
wares aren't worth buying, though. Go back into the
town proper, sell your
monsters and the Stones you got in the ruins (do not sell the Legendary
Sword, though), and buy
yourself a Silver Bracer. Now would be a good time
to challenge Rod, since you should have the hang of the game now.
You can
fight him up to 5 times (which I actually recommend), and he'll give you
900G (remember, you have to pay him
100G to fight him) every time you win.
You'd be wise to save after you win each time. Once you've beaten him 5
times,
he'll give you a Gold Coin.
Afterwards, go and visit Klaus again. He'll tell you that you need to go
seek
the help of Fancy Mel, a somewhat insane mage living on the outskirts
of Carona Forest. Before you go there, though,
go back to the underground
ruins and examine the fallen Skull Beast. You'll recieve a new magic type,
[Power].
This is well worth the effort.
Fancy Mel [MWMEL]
------==
Location: Mel's Atelier
Suggested Stats:
130HP, 115MP, 24+8 Str, 16+8 Def
Items: Bronze/Silver Coin x3
As you progress into Mel's part of Carona Forest,
you may notice that she
has, ah, interesting tastes in decor. Go on up to the atelier, and try the
door.
After Mint gets told that Mel's not home, you'll have to talk to and
play with the three dwarves running around the outside
of the atelier.
They each force you to complete an annoying mini-game in order to continue
with the plot. If you
wish to kill Square for this, I wholeheartedly agree
with you, trust me...
Mini-game #1: Giant Balls
What to
Do: Load up Vulcan, and be prepared to use it. Whenever you find
yourself in a situation where you have an enemy
sitting on a platform you
need to be on, use Vulcan to get them off that platform. At one point, you
need to jump
off the back of one of the gigantic balls that the Fungies are
riding to continue. Do NOT try to run and jump off
it; just get on the far
corner of it and jump off. Also, the last part of that same chain of
blocks starts to
fall when you land on it, so jump over when the Imp on the
far side jumps, and kill both him and his cohort. It's
a straight run
(past another ball-riding Fungie) to the exit.
Sub-Mini-game #1: Whack-a-Fungie
How to Play: Thwack
Fungies only when they're above ground; if you don't,
they'll knock you out. They tend to all get up at once, so
a chain of X
attacks tends to work well. A score of 250-490 will net you a Bronze Coin,
and a score of 500 or
higher will net you a Silver Coin. On replays, using
Sattelite (White - Circle) is exceptionally effective here.
NOTE: You may want to use the Cockadoo behind the atelier to save at this
point, and after the next mini-game; the urge
to kill somebody while doing
this sequence gets pretty high, and you may want to take a half-hour break
from it after
each mini-game.
Mini-game #2: Giant Swings
What to Do: By far, this one is the most annoying. Jump across
the stage
via the gigantic swings (keep in mind that they move; you'll have to move
with them so that you land on them
properly), and attack enemies that get
in your way accordingly. You'll want to launch Vulcan at two different
points
when there are enemies blocking the platform you need to land on,
and at one point, you'll have to wait for a bit on a
falling block so that
you can land properly on the incoming swing. Once you finally reach the
end, you'll have
to play the next sub-mini-game.
Sub-Mini-game #2: Collect the Balls
How to Play: Just run around and pick up colored
balls that the large tube
launches. Avoid the black balls, though. If you manage to pick up a ball
that's
the same color as the last ball, you'll get 30 points instead of 10
points. As with the first sub-mini-game, 250-490
will net you a Bronze
Coin, and 500+ will net you a Silver Coin.
NOTE: Save again, for sake of sanity...
Mini-game
#3: Fungie Trumpets
What to Do: This stage is quite annoying. A few pointers: don't jump when
a Fungie is about
to land and blow the trumpet, you'll have to start the
map over. The teeter-totters can move horizontally as well,
and one of
them you have to use like a teeter-totter to continue with the stage. Use
Vulcan to kill the Cockadoo
near the exit, so you don't get pecked and have
to do the entire level over again.
Sub-Mini-game #3: Scaring Cockadoos
What
to Do: When a Cockadoo gets too close to a trumpet, jump on the small
disc in front of the trumpet to scare it off.
Do this quickly, or the
mini-game will end pre-emptively. As with the last two mini-games, 250-490
points gets
you a Bronze Coin, and 500+ gets you a Silver Coin.
At last, they're over! Go ring the doorbell again, and watch
as the story
unfolds even further. Now you'll have to go find the Poppul Purrel. If
you talk to Klaus, you'll
get a big hint. Go to Carona Forest.
Location: Carona Forest
Suggested Stats: 125HP, 115MP, 24+8 Str, 16+8
Def
Go back to the large altar where you found Elena originally, and you'll
see Smokey and Blood picking on the
Poppel Purrel you were sent to find.
Once more, you'll have to fight them. Don't worry, they're still as weak
as
they were when you first fought them. Once they're down, you'll return
to Carona, at night. Go visit Rod if
you want to find out more about Rod's
history. After that, just go to the inn, go to your room, and sleep.
After
a short dream, you'll wake up the next morning. Save, and head on
out to Mel's Atelier again.
Starlight Duke [MWDUKE]
-----------==
Enter the atelier, and enjoy as Mel essentially belittles poor Mint.
Quite unlike Rue's scenario, this is not long or painful.
Once you regain
control, you'll be walking down the path away from Mel's Atelier. Talk to
Elena, and then talk
to Duke. Now, you'll have to fight him.
Boss: Starlight Duke HP: ~150
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy:
Avoid Duke while he's walking/spinning about, and when he falls
on his back, hit his suit's back with magic. It may
take a few tries to
get the right rythm down, but once you do, Duke proves to be quite easy.
Once Duke's down, he'll
try to squish you by jumping and landing hard on
the ground when he starts falling towards the ground again, jump to avoid
taking
20 damage as he lands.
After Duke's defeated, you'll return to Carona. Go to the inn and save,
as usual.
NOTE: This is your LAST CHANCE to fight Rod with Silver Breeze!
If you haven't gotten the Gold Coin from him yet, do so
now!
Go back down into Klaus' basement, and watch as more plot is revealed, and
a new quest opens up. Before
you leave for the Gamul Forest, be sure to
buy yourself a Gold Belt and Gold Bracer (if you can afford it), and of
course,
sell any excess items and monsters you may have on hand. Once you
are prepped and ready, go to the gates. But
what's this? Gamul Forest is
way too far away to reach by foot! There's an easy solution, though: Rod
has
an ACV (armored carrier vehicle) that can get you there far faster! Go
on down to the grasslands, and fight Rod.
Once you've won against his new
Golden Gale, he'll agree to take you to Gamul Forest.
Upstream Adventure [MWGAMUL]
---------------==
Location:
Ginema's Atelier (aka. Gamul Forest)
Suggested Stats: 125HP, 115MP, 24+12 Str, 16+12 Def
Items: Brooch, Earrings
As you enter the forest, you'll notice something's very, very wrong here.
The atelier is gone! The small pot nearby
restores your MP (not a big
worry right now, as your MP is automatically refreshed when you get here).
Check the small
book in one corner to resume the plot. Of course, now you
have to fight a boss, but that's life.
Boss: Belle HP:
~125
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: Dodge Belle and her strange vehicle, Hexagon, until she causes
several platforms
to rise up. Then, jump on one of the platforms and jump-
kick Belle. Repeat until Belle's down. You can
use magic if you'd like,
but it's a lot harder that way, since Belle shoots magic at you.
With Belle down, check
her body to get [Green Magic]. Go refresh your MP
with the pot nearby, and then switch to the normal green magic,
Wave. Use
that on the fan (after examining it) repeatedly to cause an elevator to
drop down. Now you can
enter the forest proper.
The area that you arrive in is very straightforward, and devoid of any
enemies (unless
you attack any of the Gamulians; then they'll gang up on
you). Make your way to the far end, and use wind magic on
the propeller at
the far end of the screen to bring an elevator down. The elevator takes
you to a rail of sorts
(why the heck can't Mint just walk across this part?
Ah, Square logic, no wonder...). The switch here should be facing
left, so
if it isn't thwack it. Then, jump on the lift, and enjoy a short trip to
nowhere.
The goal here
is to get to the far end of the area, and hit the switch.
This can be accomplished by using wind magic to get the platform
moving,
and then jumping to the far side. Dispatch of the Ootang, and hit the
switch. Since the platform
has probably stopped moving, just fall into the
pit that it crosses; you'll automatically reappear on the far side that
way.
Ride the lift, cross the first area again, and take the rail ride
again (be sure the switch near the ride itself is facing
left, remember!).
The next area requires you to hit only the leftmost switch. Leave the
rightmost switch
alone. Get back on the elevator, return to the railway,
and ride it again (should still be set to take the left fork).
In the area
that this takes you to, you need to cross not one, but two platforms. This
is deceptively easy, though.
Use wind magic to get the fan you can reach
up to top speed, then run over and ride the lift it activates, jumping on
the
far platform and hitting the switch over there. Then, just fall in the
pit to reappear on the far side again, minus
a bit of HP (and a lot of
frustration). Ride the elevator back to the main area.
Once again, return to the
rail area, but this time, hit the switch up
there to the right. Hop on, and if you didn't hit the right switch in
the
area with two switches, as I suggested, you'll get the Brooch. The lift
will then descend to the final stretch
of the forest. Here, just bully
your way to the far end, and watch the amusing scene that follows. Shortly
afterwards,
you'll be fighting the Cloud Whale.
Boss: Cloud Whale HP: ~200
Difficulty: |------*---|
Strategy: The Cloud Whale
is not easy, that's for sure. He has three
things he does: fly past and cause a wave of water to launch at you, shoot
energy
at you, and try to swallow you. DO NOT GET SWALLOWED! If he eats
you, you lose HP, and he regains HP!
Gamulians will randomly fall onto the
raft you're standing on, providing you with some much-needed HP and MP
restoration
(if you're lucky). The Cloud Whale is immune to all attacks
while generating waves, so just focus on jumping over
said waves (don't
worry if the whale touches you in this state; it can't hurt you). When the
Whale flies up with
it's head glowing, prepare Flare (Red - Power), and
shoot it at the glowing spot before it can launch a Vulcan-like attack
at
you. If it comes up to the edge of the raft without it's head glowing, or
tips the raft, launch a Flare at
it's glowing part in it's mouth as close
as you can stand to be, and quickly start running the opposite direction.
It
will take a while, but eventually, the nasty whale will croak.
With the Cloud Whale down, you've succeeded!
With the Earrings in hand,
you'll return to town, and get to watch an amusing sequence involving Belle
and Duke.
Location:
Carona
Suggested Stats: 130HP, 125MP, 24+12 Str, 16+12 Def
Go sell your monsters and excess items now. Go
visit Klaus, and then stay
at the hotel (not the inn). It's 500G to rent the room, but trust me, it
is worth it
for this particular bit. Grab the Dream Stone from the lower
right corner of the room, and then sleep in the bed.
You should see a
short dream of an Ootang jumping into a tree stump. Leave the hotel and go
to Carona Forest.
Go down the tree stump in the first area of the forest,
and make your way to the halfway point. Shoot water at the
small Mandola
until it grows up into a full-sized (and tame) Mandola. Jump up onto the
ledge above, and grab The
Last Hero. Now, go back to town via the Go-Home
Frog on the cliff edge of the forest, and give the book to Rod.
He will
give you 4 Strength Ups, taking your base attack power up to 28! Note that
you can do this earlier, if
you wish.
If you can afford it, go buy a Platinum Belt and Bracer from Tonio's shop.
Also, be sure to challenge
Rod a few times to get another Gold Coin from
him (which you might as well sell for 2,500G; you really only need Bronze
Coins).
If you want, you can give the Brooch to Anette, in the pub. If
you do, you'll get a significant discount on the drinks
sold there. It's
really not worth it, though, so just sell it to Marcum later.
Dragon Battle [MWDRAGON]
----------==
Location:
Raging Mountain
Suggested Stats: 130HP, 125MP, 28+16 Str, 16+16 Def
Items: Silver Coin, Legendary Shield
The
first part of the mountain is very straightforward. Just go straight
across, and jump down to the lower area once
you reach the far side (just
jump straight out towards the screen; it may seem like you can't, but you
can). Jump
over to the far side where there's a boulder and a treasure
box, and open the box. It's a new magic ability, [Black
Magic]! Now, you
can smash the myriad of large boulders which block your path on Raging
Mountain! Just set
the magic to Bomb (Black-Normal) and blow up the rock.
You'll have to do that to get back up to the area which you were
jumping
across before, anyway.
Once you're back up and into the cave on the far end of the area, go ahead
and
break the rock up there. Get the Silver Coin from the chest, and kill
the Specter that appears. Go back over
to the other boulder (two Pollywogs
appear near it), and break it, too. Keep going across the steam pits, and
into
the lava chambers. If you want, you can take the second moving
platform here over to the healing spring, but it may
be smarter not to.
Once you've reached the far end of this cavern (it's a bit tricky; you have
to wait for the platforms
to line up close enough so you don't jump into
the lava), you'll be out on a windswept plateau.
Out here, just
make your way across, killing as you see fit. Before you
try to jump any gaps, take a test jump. If the wind
blows you back too
hard, wait a second and try again. Do NOT try to jump when the wind pushes
you back hard, you'll
never be able to make it across that way. Be sure to
restore your HP and MP before you enter the next area via potions
dropped
by monsters, you'll want at least full HP for the coming boss(es). After a
short (and ever silly) story
sequence, you'll be fighting both Duke and
Belle, simultaneously.
Boss: Duke and Belle HP: ~125 and ~150 (twice)
Difficulty:
|------*---|
Strategy: This is tough early on. Focus on beating up Duke (and avoiding
getting thrown off the cliff
by Hexagon). Once Duke is down, then turn on
Belle and her flying contraption. You'll have to jump away from
the grip
of the Hexagon, then quickly jump in between the hands and do a jump-hit to
Belle. Once she jumps off,
she'll start running around and casting magic
at you. To counter this, keep your distance until she's finished casting
her
magic, then launch your own magic in counter-attack. Eventually,
you'll win.
With Belle and Duke taken care
of, you'll be in the next area of Raging
Mountain. Go straight left, and use the healing tile (you'll probably need
it
after that boss fight). Once you've done that, go on up the cliff, and
jump across the platforms above the healing
tile to reach the treasure box
with the Legendary Shield. Go back to the path, and walk all the way up to
the
fiery bowl of the volcano. Be sure to heal up before you reach the
upper path, though, as you have a boss fight coming
up. At the top, you'll
meet up with Wylaf, lord of dragons. A few brief exchanges of words later,
you'll
be fighting Wylaf, to prove your worth to him.
Boss: Wylaf HP: ~300 (you only have to do about 150 damage)
Difficulty:
|----*-----|
Strategy: Wylaf is considerably easier to deal with than Belle and Duke
were. Use Icicle (Blue-Super)
when he's on the ground until he takes off
into the air, and then just dodge his flaming breath and tornados. This
fight
is a bit long, but not difficult. Be sure to stop attacking once he
tells you to, or he'll kill you regardless of
your HP.
After winning, Wylaf will award you with the Phantomite, and send you on
your way. You'll automatically
be taken back to Carona.
Location: Carona
Suggested Stats: 150HP, 125MP, 28+16 Str, 16+16 Def
Upon returning
to Carona, you'll have another run-in with Smokey and
Blood, the moron bandits who can't win no matter how hard they try.
After
they leave, go trade in your monsters and extra stuff. As with the Sword,
don't sell the Legendary Shield.
Buy yourself a few Defense Ups (at least
so that your Defense is up to 20 or so), and if you haven't already, go
save.
(NOTE: This next sequence is entirely optional.) After that, go to
Carona Forest, and back to the altar around the
middle of the forest.
Pretty soon, you'll be fighting Trap Master.
Boss: Trap Master HP: ~200
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy:
Pah, this is pathetic. Wait for Trap Master to jump onto a
platform, and then jump over to a platform nearby that
one. When you're on
a platform right next to Trap Master, launch a spell like Icicle at him.
You can try taking
him out at a distance, but he jumps around a lot for
that. Be sure to get off your platform if it's glowing, or has
a shadow
over it (to avoid trap damage). It won't take long to defeat Trap Master.
After that's over, Smokey
and Blood will attack again. They're still as
unskilled as ever, so beat one up to end the fight quick. Go
right back to
the forest, and make your way to the cliffside. You'll see that there's
a boulder a bit out of place
near the top. But that's not the boulder that
we're after here, the one we want is in an alcove further down.
Launch
Graviton (Black-Power) at the rock, and if you've got the right one, it
should break and reveal a treasure box.
Now for the tricky part: jump over
across a gap onto the platform. It's not easy to do, and may take a few
trips
to the forest to pull off, but it can be done. Once you succed, you
can get the magic type [Circle] from the treasure
box.
Go ahead and visit Klaus now (note that this is your last chance to fight
Rod with his Golden Gale before
he switches to a new weapon), and then go
to Mel's Atelier. Talk to Mel, and then go find the Poppel Purrel that
you
saved earlier outside (he's behind the atelier). He'll offer to take you
to Gorotan, accept his offer.
Talk to the little flying diamond-thing to
start the fight.
Boss: Gorotan HP: ~250
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy:
Gorotan has very high defense when his shield is around him, but
even so, you can still do some damage by attacking then.
When he releases
his shield, attack him like mad with your magic. He'll die fairly quickly.
Defeating Gorotan
nets you the last normal type of magic, [Yellow Magic].
With this in hand, you can now fully power up Prima Doll.
Go back to
Klaus' house and do just that. After Prima is fully powered up, go to the
lakeside.
Together
with Prima [MWPRIMA]
----------------==
Location: Lakeside
Suggested Stats: 150HP, 125MP, 30+16 Str, 22+16
Def
Upon reaching the lake, you'll see Elena and Rue there. The three will
talk for a bit, and you'll be
presented with a choice. Answer however you
wish, and watch the scene play out. Then, go back to Carona and
visit
Klaus again. Go back to the lakeside with Prima Doll (you can do other
stuff in town while Prima is following
you, as well; try visiting Rod and
Johnny Wolf, for example). If you want to win the race with Prima, just
hold
down the directional button or analog stick upwards. If you want to
cheat, just walk in front of him (which is pretty
mean). After the race,
and some more story, you'll be back in Carona. Go visit Klaus again, and
watch as
Prima is completed at last!
Now you need to get a ride to the lake ruins. Go down to the grassy field
and
visit Rod. He'll be reluctant, but after Mint offers to ask Miria to
make him a lunch, he gives in. Go save
and do any last minute preparations
or sidequests you have left open, and then go down to the grassy fields and
tell
Rod you're ready to go.
Relic, Here I Come! [MWRELIC]
----------------==
Location:
Lake Ruins
Suggested Stats: 150HP, 130MP, 30+16 Str, 22+16 Def
The Lake Ruins is a serious story point, so I won't
be spoiling anything
here. Suffice it to say that you'll have no control over what happens here
at all, and by
the time it's all over, you'll be stuck in prison. Once you
regain control, examine the sink to resume the plot.
A few scenes later,
you'll be looking at a pit full of platforms, with Rue offering to guide
you across. Tell
him you can do it on your own, and jump across. Even if
you fall a few times, it doesn't really matter. If
you do refuse Rue's
help, you get a free Gold Coin along with your weapons and magic! The next
area is pretty
straightforward: jump out of the way when one of the Witches
tries to shoot you, and then launch Flare at them. Once
you're at the top,
the plot takes over.
Back in town, feel free to go visit Rod, and find out more about his
past.
Then, go to the tavern and find out why Belle and Duke helped Rue,
and a bit of Rue's past. After that, just head
back to the inn and rest
up.
Maya's Here! [MWMAYA]
---------==
Go ahead and leave the inn.
You'll be visited briefly by Psycho Master,
but that's hardly significant. However, Elena running in and telling
Mint
that her mother has been cornered in Carona Forest is. The game takes over
at this point, so don't panic.
Just work your way through Carona Forest,
and don't worry too much about the Specters and Puppets running around.
At
the altar near the center of the forest, you'll find those two idiots,
Smokey and Blood, cornered by Puppets.
Go ahead and save them, it'll net
you a free Silver Coin. Just keep going through the forest, and once you
reach
the cliff edge, the game will take over.
Once you regain control, you'll be back in town, in Klaus' basement.
The
plan is simple: put a stop to those infernal dolls. But before you head to
the Underground Ruins, there are
some things you may want to do in town
first. Tonio's shop is now carrying the Mythril equipment, so be sure to
upgrade
there. Also, you can now challenge Rod with his Black Tornado.
Once you've defeated him 5 times, he'll give you a
Platinum Coin (well
worth the effort; they sell for 15,000G at Hobb's curio shop). Also, now
is a good time to
build up your stats and cash reserves by going back to
Raging Mountain and collecting Bubbas to sell. At this point,
they're the
most valuable monster (selling at 90G each). Note that this isn't
critical, but certainly recommended.
When you feel ready, go to the
Underground Ruins. (NOTE: If you want to beat Rod with his Black Tornado,
this
point is your ONE AND ONLY CHANCE! Don't pass it up!)
Location: Underground Ruins
Suggested Stats: 17HP, 150MP,
30+20 Str, 22+20 Def
Items: Moon Stone, Star Stone
As you enter the ruins, you'll see a brief conversation between
Psycho
Master and Maya. Go on in, and follow the same path as you did the first
time through the ruins (straight
forward, left, left, forward, forward,
grab the treasures in both side-rooms). The waterfalls are all dead, so
you
can't find your way by sound this time. Also, the platforms have been
removed, meaning that you'll have to collect
them again. This isn't at all
difficult, just tedious. Once you've got them back, jump on up them and
down
the pit (doesn't that pit seem illogical? It's right over the hallway
where you collect the platforms, you'd think
it'd just take you back down
there). Go ahead and go into the lake room, and watch as Maya goes insane
on you.
Before long, you'll be back in Carona, and fighting Psycho Master.
Boss: Psycho Master HP: ~225
Difficulty:
|-------*--|
Strategy: Psycho Master has a seriously unfair advantage: his psychic
attack ignores your defense, and
always does 35 damage. As well, he'll
automatically counter with this attack if you try to attack him in the
front,
and he won't take any damage at all! Instead, try to get behind
him, and attack him in the back. You can usually
get in at least one spell
on him before he teleports away. When he starts floating around, avoid him
at all costs,
or he'll use his psychic attack on you. If he just stands
there, he'll release an easy-to-dodge shockwave (jump over
it). Be
careful, and victory will be yours.
After the fight, you'll find that Prima has been kidnapped by
Doll Master,
and that Rue is just one step too late. Go ahead and visit Rod now, and
you might also want to visit
the tavern, briefly. Then, go back to the inn
and rest.
Maya's sooo Dead! [MWSODEAD]
--------------==
Before you take off for the Tower of Maya, be sure to challenge Rod with
his Dark Hurricane at least until you get his
Platinum Coin. This is your
one and only chance to fight him with it (unlike Rue's scenario), so don't
hold back
thinking that you can fight him later. Also, upgrade your stats
via Hobb's shop a bit, if you can afford it, and
complete any stray side-
quests you might have left open. When everything is prepped and ready,
head for the Tower
of Maya.
Location: Tower of Maya
Suggested Stats: 180HP, 155MP, 32+20 Str, 25+20 Def
Items: Gold Coin x7, Star
Stone x2, Legendary Helmet
Enter the tower, and head up. The enemies in the tower are not difficult,
but
don't turn your back on the Pumpkins, they like to blow up when you do.
Blast your way up to the first landing, and grab
the chest with 2 Gold
Coins. Beat up the four Pumpkins that roll out of the door to the next
area, and go right
in.
Inside this room, you need to jump across the pumpkin platforms to the far
side. Three of the pumpkins
are fakes, and they're rotating counter-
clockwise. If you don't want to track that, the trapped ones are the
leftmost
pumpkin in the first pair, and both of the pumpkins on the right
of the trio of pumpkins. You'll also have to deal
with a Witch shooting
pumpkins at you, so be sure to pay attention and jump when it's
appropriate. Once you reach
the other side, kill the Witch and claim your
prize (2 Star Stones). Heal up on the panel, and head upstairs.
In this next area, there is a treasure box on the ground floor near where
the stairs you just came up taper off.
It contains 3 Gold Coins. Once you
have that, head up the stairs, and be careful of the Witches: they like to
trap
you so that you can't attack them unless you first jump out of the
way of their pumpkin cannons. Keep going up, take
the elevator (just
attack constantly to deal with the Pumpkins until you reach the top floor),
and on the next landing,
grab the treasure box with 2 Gold Coins. Deal
with the Pumpkins as before, and enter the doorway.
In this
room, you need to ride the platforms sitting in mid-air to reach
the far end. Don't stay on any given platform TOO
long, or you'll be hit
by the platform spinning around, and take a bit of damage. You'll have to
get the Wabbits
off of each platform you need to take, so it's not tough to
figure out what platforms you have to ride. Once you
reach the far end,
take advantage of the healing tile, and grab the Legendary Helmet. Go up
the stairs, follow
the pathway up (more Witches to be dealt with), and
prepare to fight Trap Master.
Boss: Trap Master HP: ~300
Difficulty:
|--*-------|
Strategy: Trap Master is easier than before, due to the enhanced stats you
should have now. He likes
to set tiles to explode if you land on them, so
avoid landing on any tiles that Trap Master does. Hit him like before
(at
a distance, or from an adjacent platform), and he'll be down in short
order.
With Trap Master down, now
you have to go face off Maya.
Boss: Maya(?) HP: ~300
Difficulty: |---*------|
Strategy: Maya likes to turn you
into a pumpkin, but that's about it for
her most devestating attacks. Focus on blasting her with Flare or Icicle,
and
she won't last long at all. You can all but ignore the pumpkins she
summons.
After beating Maya, you discover
that she's not Maya at all! You'll find
yourself having to figure out which Maya is the real Maya shortly.
Don't
worry, though; even if you hit the real Maya, you'll still end up getting
it right. If you really must know,
the Maya on the right is the real one.
After Kirielle reveals herself again, she and Narcius will take off, after
giving
Maya back the Book of Cosmos. After that, you'll be back in Carona,
with yet another new goal: get up to Valen's
Fortress! But first, go visit
Mel, and get a free Cannon Orb. Trust me, you won't regret it. Once
you've
done that, go back and visit Rod.
Get the Cannon Orbs [MWCANNON]
----------------==
Location: Carona
Suggested
Stats: 180HP, 165MP, 32+20 Str, 25+20 Def
As Rod will inform you, you now need to find 5 Cannon Orbs. Well,
you
already have one, so that leaves four to go! Before that, though, go sell
your stuff, and buy yourself a Black
Belt and Brave Bracer. Save about
5,000G, though; you'll need it in a little bit. Before you go hunting the
Cannon
Orbs, visit Wylaf again on Raging Mountain. He'll offer you [Hyper]
magic if you can defeat him in battle.
Boss:
Wylaf HP: ~300
Difficulty: |----*-----|
Strategy: He hasn't changed at all from the previous fight; you just have
to
take away all 300 or so HP of his this time. Not a difficult task at
all, by now.
After the battle, you'll
have the ultimate magic type, [Hyper]! [Hyper]
is great for building up MP, seeing as all but one of the spells that
use
it take all MP to use.
A note: this is a good time to go give Jargen the legendary equipment (but
save before
you do; it's far too easy to accidentally select "Forget it",
thus causing you to forfiet a potential +20 stat boost).
With the cooking
gear in hand, Jargen can make specialty dishes that raise your stats! The
only ones that are
really worth it are Polywog Souffle (50 Pollywogs), and
Gudon Liver Soup (30 Gudons). Go kill 250 Pollywogs and 150
Gudons, and
get yourself five of each dish. This will give you +10 to both Strength
AND defense (quite nice, hmm?),
and by talking to Jargen again after he
cooks the tenth dish, you'll get a Platinum Coin. Sell it and get some
more
stat boosters.
Go visit Hobb's shop, and when you're given the choice of what to do, put
on an act. This
will make it so that you only have to pay 5,000G to get
the Cannon Orb. If you choose to snatch it, it'll cost 10,000G,
and if you
threaten him, it's 15,000G. Next up on the list is Klaus' home. Talk to
him, and he'll give you
a Cannon Orb, all for a little conversation. What
a nice guy! Last on the list, go visit the pub, and Belle
and Duke will
give you a Cannon Orb in exchange for helping Rue out. After that, just go
visit Rod, and the game
will take over.
If you forgot to get the Cannon Orb from Mel earlier, go back to her
atelier now and talk to her.
She gave it to one of the Poppel Purrels.
And that means that you'll have to find which one, and go through their
mini-game
again. Hating the designers of this game yet?
At last, it's time to take on Valen's fortress! Before you
head out, as a
standard precaution, save your game. Then, go talk to Belle and Duke, and
you'll be off into the
skies!
Final Battle [MWFINAL]
---------==
Location: Valen's Fortress
Suggested Stats: 200HP, 175MP,
48+24 Str, 36+24 Def
Items: Bronze/Silver/Gold Coin x4 (special)
After you find Prima at the fortress (who gives
you the currently useless
[Gold Magic]), you'll automatically be taken to the first "arena". The
path here is
pretty straightforward: your goal in the first arena is to
find the right teleporter to the next area. Nothing in
the first arena is
difficult (save Behemoths, and they're too slow to pose much of a threat),
so you should be able
to reach the elevator to the next area shortly.
The elevator leads you up to a special mini-game: platform hopping.
If
you can make it across to the other side with 75% or more of the time bar
left, you'll get a Gold Coin. If
you can make it across with 74-50% of the
time bar left (and don't fall more than twice), you'll get a Silver Coin.
If
you make it across with 49-25% of the time bar left (and don't fall more
than four times), you'll get a Bronze Coin.
If you can make it across with
at least some time bar left, you'll get your HP restored. Otherwise, the
elevator
will simply take you up to the next floor, without rewards. Note
that any missing HP you may have will be healed
by decreasing the time bar
when you get on the elevator. As such, it's in your best interest to keep
your HP high
before entering this area.
Next is Arena II, or the second arena. This area is simple, as was the
first area.
Here, you'll need to use magic to break through various types
of obstacles in order to progress far. There is little
challenge to this,
even less than in Rue's scenario, since you don't have to hunt any monsters
down. Take note,
though: there is only one version of each blockade along
the proper path! If you come across a blockade that's the
same as the last
one, it's a trap. Completing Arena II takes you up to another mini-game
like the last one, with
different platforms moving about. Then, it's on to
Arena III.
Arena III is a lot like Arena I, except that
there are now Jinns running
around, and a wrong turn will force you to fight 3 Shaolons instead of 3
Gargoyles.
It's still not difficult or map-worthy, though. After this
arena is complete, you'll have another mini-game like
the last two, and be
in Arena IV.
Arena IV is the simplest of them all. Go to each teleporter on either
end
of the main area, and defeat the two Behemoths that you can summon in
each one. This will re-activate the elevator
(after you beat another
Behemoth at the elevator point), and allow you to progress to the final
mini-game, and on to
the next area of Valen's Fortress. Be sure to use the
save point here, and then take the teleporter to the last puzzle
area.
This next area has very simple: light all of the torches in each room so
that they match the initial setup
of the first room: the two middle torches
lit. Some rooms are trickier than others in this task (the first room
being
a prime example; put one torch out and re-light it to solve the
puzzle in that room). In the two rooms to either
side of the first room,
the puzzle is simply to put out or light torches so that they match the
original room.
When you solve the puzzle in a room, the screen will flash,
and a stone will drop onto the floor. Grab the stone
each time this
happens, and run back to the main room (as you can't fight or carry other
stones while you have a stone
over your head). The room furthest over is a
bit tricky, though. You have to put out the lit flame in the left
corner,
light the middle left torchiere, and use a wind spell to bring the small
flame to life on the middle right torchiere.
After all four stones are in place, you'll be teleported automatically to
the next area. Here, you'll have to defeat
Psycho Master again to
progress.
Boss: Psycho Master HP: ~350
Difficulty: |-----*----|
Strategy: Same rules
apply as the last time you fought Psycho Master, but
this time, he has the added advantage of his barriers. The barriers
also
ignore defense, and he frequently hurls you against them, causing a total
of about 55 damage to you. This
being so, avoid running into him, and take
him out from the back as quickly as possible.
Once Psycho is down, it's
on to the Cursed Crossways.
Location: Cursed Crossways
Suggested Stats: 210HP, 180MP, 48+24 Str, 36+24 Def
Here, you'll have to fight previous bosses. If you're running short on HP
and/or MP, visit one of the top/bottom
corner nodes. These contain regular
monsters, and never run out. The top-center portal leads to the Nightmare,
the
left-center portal leads to the Skull Beast, and the right-center
portal leads to another Cloud Whale. Defeat all
three, and the path to the
final area of Valen's Fortress (as well as the last save point) will be
revealed. Save
and move on.
In the next area, you'll come face-to-face with Ruecian, aka. Doll Master,
aka. Arm of Death (although
the first and last names you probably wouldn't
know unless you'd gone through Rue's scenario first). Now is your
final
battle with him.
Boss: Doll Master HP: ~400
Difficulty: |------*---|
Strategy: Although he flies, that
hardly matters, seeing as magic in this
game is enemy-seeking. Use Final Flash for a quick end to the battle.
With Ruecian down, you'll progress into the chamber of the Dewprism, and
Valen's sanctum sanctorum. More story and
events will unfold, and you'll
find yourself fighting Valen himself, as well as an ever-regenerating
guardian called
Dew RedMoon. This is sort of a pseudo-boss fight. Attack
Valen normally when he comes in range: this will damage
his barrier. As
well, keep killing Dew RedMoon, as Dew RedMoon will heal Valen after a bit
if it's left alive.
Once you've destroyed the Morning Dew, more events
unfold, and you'll have to fight Valen's final form (but not without
benefits;
now you have the power of [Cosmos], the one and only Gold spell
in the game).
Boss: Valen HP: ~500
Difficulty:
|---*------|
Strategy: Valen can only be hurt in his upright form, when his underbelly
is exposed, and he starts shooting
a stream of constant fire at you. His
other forms are impossible to hurt, and your best tactic is to dodge and
avoid
when he does transform. This mostly involves running rapidly in the
opposite direction, and jumping about when Valen
fires at you. When he
does expose his underbelly, use Valiant (Gold-Cosmos), and hold it until
he's shot at you
for about two seconds. Launch it off at him, and although
you'll take a hit or two, he'll be hurt a hell of a lot
more. Four or five
Valiants should kill him.
With Valen down, the world is safe! Now begins a very
dramatic escape
sequence (I refuse to spoil any of it), and once you're back in control,
you'll find yourself at the
inn at Carona.
The Aftermath [MWAFTER]
----------==
Feel free to save (I certainly did), and then go
about town and talk to
people. Once you're satisfied, visit the hotel, and tell Gramps that
you're ready to go.
Congratulations, you've finished Mint's story!
End of Mint's Story
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Sidequests
and Secrets
===================--
The main story is pretty short, and not too surprisingly, many of the
sidequests
are, too. Even so, it's well worth it to take care of these
sidequests, since their benefits tend to make the game
significantly
easier.
Rue's Sidequests [SQRUE]
-------------==
Monkey's Playground: Return to Carona
Forest either with an Ootang coin
from the Ghost Temple, or use the Mandola to lure the nearby Ootang in the
altar area
closer, then seed-shoot it to death and collect its coin. Climb
up into the trees via the Ootang form. You'll
find a bonus area up there,
but no items (that I can find, anyway).
Rare Wine: When in the Underground Ruins, build
up your MP to around 115.
Use the Gudon form to melt all three ice blocks in the path where you find
the last platform,
and you'll find the Rare Wine in a treasure box in the
room on the far side of the ice blocks.
The Last Hero: To
get this book, return to Carona Forest after viewing a
dream at the hotel (grab the Dream Stone in the lower corner of
the hotel
room for this to happen), and use the Specter's ice breath on the shrunken
Mandola inside the tree stump that
you saw the ape drop into during the
dream sequence. Climb up the Mandola once it's grown up (it takes a few
shots
for this to happen), and grab The Last Hero. You can get 4 Strength
Ups from Rod with this. Note that you can't
do this until you've gotten
through at least the Ghost Temple.
Mysterious Statue: Return to the Ghost Temple, and
enter the room that the
crushing wall revealed. DO NOT HIT THE SWITCH OUTSIDE THE ROOM FIRST! Go
inside,
and claim the statue (along with the other items). You can sell
the statue for 4,000G (or 6,000G, if you refuse the
first time) to Marcum,
or you can give it to Klaus to get an extra 10 MP.
The Bat-Cave: This one is tricky to get
to. You need both a Bubba and
Stinger coin. Go to the cliffs in Carona Forest, and find the outcropping
that
leads far to the right, to a single large rock. Switch to Bubba and
smash the rock, then switch to a Stinger and
go into the hole. Hold down T
and roll about to kill the Small Bats that charge at you in there, and you
will
get a Star Stone for your efforts once all 20 bats are dead.
Legendary Equipment: If you collect all three of the legendary
equipment
items (Legendary Sword, Legendary Shield, Legendary Helmet) and give them
to the owner of the bar, you can
get ten free meals there. After the tenth
meal, you can get a free Platinum Coin by talking to the bar owner again.
The
meals and their effects are as follows (the first two are especially
valuable, as they give a greater boost than the stat-raising
items sold at
Hobbes' shop do):
Pollywog Souffle (50 Pollywogs): +2 Strength
Gudon Liver Soup (30 Gudons): +2
Defense
Minced Fire Blob (50 Fire Blobs): +10 HP
Mushroom Soup (60 Fungies): +10 MP
Rod, the Blade Star: You
can fight Rod at various points in the game, with
him using various weapons. Here's an overview of each weapon, and
at what
point each is used.
SILVER BREEZE - Twin shortswords. The best strategy here is to avoid him
while
he's running around and twirling, and jump-strike him while he's
recovering. Sometimes he'll knock himself out (literally),
which will give
you a ton of free hits and pretty much guarantee your victory. It's fairly
rare, though, so don't
count on it. Rod uses Silver Breeze from the start
of the game on up to just before you leave for the Ghost Temple.
Defeat
Rod 5 times with Silver Breeze to get a Gold Coin.
GOLDEN GALE - Twin scythes. Focus on bullying into
Rod. He'll counter-
attack, but Golden Gale is actually weaker than Silver Breeze, so this does
little in terms
of damage to you. Rod uses Golden Gale from after the
Ghost Temple on up to before you take Prima Doll to the lakeside.
Defeat
Rod 5 times with Golden Gale to get a Gold Coin.
BLACK TORNADO - A gigantic hammer. Avoidance is the
key here. When Rod is
swinging, you want to be as far away as possible. When he's done swinging,
you can
jump-strike him to do your damage. If Rod slams down his hammer
and fins pop out, run the other way as fast as possible,
unless you want to
have your defense lowered. Rod uses Black Tornado from the point just
after returning with
Prima Doll from the lakeside to just before entering
the Tower of Maya. Defeat Rod 5 times with Black Tornado to
get a Platinum
Coin. Note that your first fight against him with this weapon (to get a
ride to the ruins) doesn't
count.
DARK HURRICANE: A segmented scimitar of sorts. Rod seems deadly with Dark
Hurricane, but he's really
not. The key is to tempt him into attacking,
then jumping off to the side and forward in order to attack him with
a
jump-strike. If he starts charging his water cannon, rush him with a 3-hit
combo. If you're feeling brave,
you can try ganging up close to Rod and
focusing only on 3-hit combos. Rod uses Dark Hurricane from after the
Tower
of Maya right on up to the very end. Defeat Rod 5 times with Dark
Hurricane to get a Platinum Coin. Every 5
victories afterwards that you
fight against him with Dark Hurricane nets you a lesser coin (Gold, then
Silver, then
Bronze). He stops giving coins after Bronze, but you can keep
fighting him regardless.
Mint's Sidequests [SQMINT]
--------------==
Rare
Wine: See the section on Magic type [Super].
The Last Hero: To get this book, return to Carona Forest after viewing
a
dream at the hotel (grab the Dream Stone in the lower corner of the hotel
room for this to happen), and use Droplets
(Blue-Normal) on the shrunken
Mandola inside the tree stump that you saw the ape drop into during the
dream sequence.
Climb up the Mandola once it's grown up (it takes a few
shots for this to happen), and grab The Last Hero. You can
get 4 Strength
Ups from Rod with this.
Brooch: In Gamul Forest, when faced with the two switches on the small
platform
during the trolley puzzle, hit only the leftmost switch (so the
two levers face one another). This will allow you
to later get the Brooch
as you're going towards the boss. You can sell the Brooch for 4,000G (or
6,000G, if you
refuse the first time) to Marcum, or you can get a discount
on all drinks at the pub by giving it to Anette.
Legendary
Equipment: If you collect all three of the legendary equipment
items (Legendary Sword, Legendary Shield, Legendary Helmet)
and give them
to the owner of the bar, you can get ten free meals there. After the tenth
meal, you can get a free
Platinum Coin by talking to the bar owner again.
The meals and their effects are as follows (the first two are especially
valuable,
as they give a greater boost than the stat-raising items sold at
Hobbes' shop do):
Pollywog Souffle (50 Pollywogs):
+2 Strength
Gudon Liver Soup (30 Gudons): +2 Defense
Minced Fire Blob (50 Fire Blobs): +10 HP
Mushroom Soup (60 Fungies):
+10 MP
Magic type [Super]: To get the [Super] spell effect, build up your MP to
about 115 in the Underground Ruins,
and use Flame (Red-Normal) to melt all
three ice blocks in the ice cavern. This will also net you the Rare Wine.
Magic
Type [Power]: Return to the Underground Ruins, and search the body of
the Skull Beast. You'll get [Power] from it
automatically this way.
Magic type [Circle]: To get [Circle], use Graviton (Black-Power) on the
rock trapped in
an alcove along the cliffs in Carona Forest, and jump
across to claim it. This can be very difficult, but it is possible.
Magic
type [Hyper]: Return to Raging Mountain after completing the Tower of
Maya, and defeat Wylaf once more. He will give
you [Hyper] as your reward.
Rod, the Blade Star: You can fight Rod at various points in the game, with
him using
various weapons. Here's an overview of each weapon, and at what
point each is used.
SILVER BREEZE - Twin shortswords.
The key here is to use Wildfire on him
repeatedly (Red-Wide). It knocks him back, and does multiple hits to boot.
Sometimes
Rod will knock himself out (literally), which will give you a ton
of free hits and pretty much guarantee your victory.
It's fairly rare,
though, so don't count on it. Rod uses Silver Breeze from the start of the
game on up to just
before you leave for Gamul Forest. Defeat Rod 5 times
with Silver Breeze to get a Gold Coin.
GOLDEN GALE -
Twin scythes. The Wildfire tactic works even better with
Golden Gale. Rod uses Golden Gale from after Gamul
Forest on up to before
you take Prima Doll to the lakeside. Defeat Rod 5 times with Golden Gale
to get a Gold
Coin. Note that your first fight against him with this
weapon (to get a ride to Gamul Forest) doesn't count.
BLACK
TORNADO - A gigantic hammer. Wildfire doesn't work quite as well,
but Flare (Red-Power) or Icicle (Blue-Power) should
do quite well. If Rod
slams down his hammer and fins pop out, run the other way as fast as
possible, unless you
want to have your defense lowered. Rod uses Black
Tornado from the point after saving Miria in Carona Forest to just
before
entering the Underground Ruins, an extremely small frame of time. Defeat
Rod 5 times with Black Tornado
to get a Platinum Coin.
DARK HURRICANE: A segmented scimitar of sorts. Rod seems deadly with Dark
Hurricane,
but he's really not. Just about any spell will do well against
him, especially if it's a fast spell. If he
starts charging his water
cannon, use a fast-but-powerful spell to disrupt him. On replays, Rod is
very easy in
this form, as he runs at you frequently, and Valiant acts as
a shield that does massive damage to things that run into
you. I think you
get the picture. Rod uses Dark Hurricane from after the return to the
Underground ruins
to just before entering the Tower of Maya, also a very
small frame of time. Defeat Rod 5 times with Dark Hurricane
to get a
Platinum Coin. Every 5 victories afterwards that you fight against him
with Dark Hurricane nets you a
lesser coin (Gold, then Silver, then
Bronze). He stops giving coins after Bronze, but you can keep fighting him
regardless.
Misc.
Secrets [SQSECRET]
----------==
* There are coins lying about the town at various points in the game.
Note
that not all times of appearance are known, nor are all of them exactly the
same for both scenarios (although they're
quite close, in all cases). They
are as follows...
Silver Coin - Found in the back alley, in the dark corner
next to Hobb's
shop. Only there before going to Carona Forest.
Silver Coin - Found in the grassy fields, near
the cave with Rod's ACV.
Only there before going to Carona Forest.
Bronze Coin - Near the fountain in town. Appears
after returning from the
lake ruins.
Bronze Coin - Down by the docks, along the uppermost pier. Appears after
returning
from the lake ruins.
Silver Coin - Down by the docks, on the far right past some crates.
Appears after returning from
Carona Forest.
Gold Coin - Upper-right portion of the docks, in front of the wooden plank.
Appears after returning from
the lake ruins.
Silver Coin - In the path leading to the back alley. Appears after
completing Raging Mountain.
Bronze
Coin - In front of the path leading to the docks. Appears after
returning from the lake ruins.
Silver Coin - In
front of the red banner in front of the hotel. Appears
after returning from the lake ruins.
* By talking to
Johnny Wolf and then to Rod while Prima Doll is following
you, you can run about with all three of them trailing you.
This only
works while on the grassy fields where Rod fights you, though.
* After winning the game in either scenario,
you can save again, and load
that save to play the other scenario. After beating the second scenario,
every time
you win the game from then on out (including that time), you'll
get to watch a special second ending, which acts as an
epilogue of sorts.
* Just a few small bits of information... The four ateliers around the
Carona area that
Rue and Mint visit were owned by various magicians:
Cadomon (Carona Forest's atelier), Elroy (the Underground Ruins atelier),
Yordaf
(the Ghost Temple), and Ginema (Gamul Forest).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Beastiary [BLIST]
=====--
Monster
Name Locations HP Weak Point Value
Pollywog Carona Forest ~15 None 10G
Raging Mountain
Saber Tiger Carona Forest ~25 Fire 30G
Mandola Carona
Forest ~20 Fire 15G
Smokey** Carona Forest ~50 None 100G
Blood** Carona Forest ~75 None 200G
Stinger Carona
Forest ~20 None 20G
Ghost Temple
Gargoyle Carona Forest ~35 Thunder 50G
Ootang Carona Forest ~50 Fire 40G
Gamul
Forest
Raging Mountain
Nightmare* Carona Forest (atelier) ~100 None 1000G
Cursed Crossways
Gudon Underground
Ruins ~50 Ice 40G
King Ant Underground Ruins ~75 Ice/Fire 50G
Skull Beast* Underground Ruins ~100 None 2000G
Cursed
Crossways
Duke* Underground Ruins ~100 None N/A
Belle* Underground Ruins ~100 None N/A
Imp Mel's Atelier 1 None 20G
Fungie Mel's
Atelier 1 None 20G
Cockadoo Mel's Atelier 1 None 20G
Starlight Duke Mel's Atelier ~150 None N/A
Puppet Ghost
Temple ~50 None 20G
Underground Ruins
Specter Ghost Temple ~80 Fire 70G
Raging Mountain
Underground
Ruins
Skeleton Ghost Temple ~60 None 50G
Underground Ruins
Chimera* Ghost Temple ~200 Ice 2000G
Cursed
Crossways
Duke* Ghost Temple ~150 None N/A
Hexagon/Belle* Ginema's Atelier ~125 None N/A
Gamulian Gamul Forest ~40 None 20G
Wabbit Gamul
Forest
Tower of Maya ~60 None 100G
Cloud Whale* Gamul Forest ~200 Fire 4000G
Cursed Crossways
Trap Master* Carona
Forest ~200 None N/A
Fire Blob Raging Mountain ~50 Ice 50G
Bubba Raging Mountain ~150 None 90G
Hexagon/Belle* Raging
Mountain ~125 None N/A
Belle* Raging Mountain ~125 None N/A
Duke* Raging Mountain ~150 None N/A
Wylaf* Raging
Mountain ~300 Ice N/A
Little Bat Carona Forest (cave) ~15 None 25G
Gorotan** Mel's Altier ~250 Wind 5000G
Psycho
Master* Carona's church ~225 None N/A
Pumpkin Tower of Maya ~30 Ice 20G
Witch Tower of Maya ~50 None 150G
Arm
of Death* Tower of Maya N/A None N/A
Trap Master* Tower of Maya ~300 None N/A
Raging Mountain
Maya(?)* Tower
of Maya ~300 None N/A
Atenacius* Book of Cosmos ~300 None N/A
Mode Master* Raging Mountain ~300 None N/A
Shaolon Valen's
Fortress ~75 Wind 150G
Behemoth Valen's Fortress ~150 None 250G
Hell Hound Valen's Fortress ~100 None 150G
Jinn Valen's
Fortress ~125 Thunder 200G
Psycho Master* Valen's Fortress ~325 None N/A
Arm of Death* Valen's Fortress ~400 None N/A
Doll
Master* Valen's Fortress ~400 None N/A
Valen (form 1)* Valen's Sanctum ~500 None N/A
Dew RedMoon* Valen's Sanctum ~300 None N/A
Valen
(form 2)* Valen's Sanctum ~500 None N/A
submitted by B pierce 2001
|
