Carbon Ocelot's Xenosaga: Episode I Walkthrough

Chapter 1

Intro
Our story opens sometime in the future, as archeologists uncover the remains of a great civiliazation. Under the direction of Dr. Masuda, the team discovers sometime large and powerful. We'll find out exactly what sometime later. Don't you love it when they do that? ;) Anyway, 4000 years later, we join the saga under the direction of Shion.

Meet Shion and KOS-MOS
Walk Shion over to KOS-MOS (hereafter writen Kosmos for simplicity). Kosmos is the one with long blue hair. Press circle to talk to her, and go through the quick tutorial. Important: During the fights, watch for that Golden Egg looking thing. If you kill an enemy while that is in the little rotating window, you can get extra points used to level your characters up. After you've run all the scenarios, you'll fight an actual battle to get the hang of it. After that, it's time to move on.

The Encephalon
After watching wuss-boy, er, I mean Alan complain for a bit, you'll have control of the two characters in the Encephalon area. Pull up the menu and read your mail by going to the U.M.N. menu option. You can learn a litte more about points, armor, A.G.W.S. and items.

From the main screen in the Encephalon, head left until you are near a ladder. Stand near it to get on, and climb to the top. At the top, press right to get off the ladder. Walk close to the window and use the R1-R2 buttons to select the deal inside. Press square to detonate it, then blast the door in the same way. Run over to the guy to start the battle. By detonating things near the enemies, you can get advantages such as strike first, lower armor, etc. In this particular instance (RED barrel), you'll get 1 extra AP for each character. If you're the type of person who likes to max-level your characters (or just grind your way to super easy boss battles), you should know about the red ones. After the battle, open the chest and head back down the ladder.

At the bottom of the ladder, run right and down the ramp. At the far end is a truck you can blow up. Do that, then go up the ramp that you can now get to. At the top, you can destroy a door and get more goodies inside. Afterword, go figh the robot back toward the beginning.

Head forward and through the door on the far right, then up the stairs. Be sure you're killing the enemies when the spinning wheel is on the Golden Egg looking thing. After you've gone up the stairs and around to the left, you should be able to break a box and go down a screen. Break another box on that screen for a Revive .

Important: How to build powerful characters. You saw the red barrel here, right? That's a clue to use this spot to level your characters. Here's how. When you come back to this screen from the one where you got the Revive , quickly run up, blow up the barrel, then engage the enemy. Both Shion and Kosmos should start the battle with a full 1 Boost Gague. You can use this to "Boost" when the spinner is on the two Gold arrows to ensure one of your characters kills an enemy on the Next turn - the one with the Golden egg. (Or maybe it's a coin - it's hard to tell.) You can earn 2x, 4x, or even 10x the points! This battle will net you XP, T.Pts, E.Pts, and S.Pts. When the battle is over, you can run down to the screen where you found the Revive , then back up here and do it again. This is an excellent place to learn about the battle and points systems, as you'll earn plenty of health kits you can use to restore 50 HP. Repeat this process at least a few times so you get the hang of it. Once you have several T.Pts, S.Pts, and E.Pts, go into the menu and learn how to use them. You can unequip the Scope accessory from Shion via the Characters menu, then extract the Search Eyes skills from that and Set it. Now you can see how many HP the enemy has left without having the accessory equipped. If you like grinding up characters, I really recommend doing this for Kosmos' Blue Ring and Kobold Ring accessories as well. Not all accessories have Skills you can extract. After you've learned the skills from each accessory, you'll want to unquip it. This allows future characters to extract the skill from it. To make this go faster, head to the Characters screen and swap out Kosmos' weapon. The Missle weapon can attack all enemies at once. Technically these are called Sub-Weapons. These take 6 AP points to use, so have Kosmos guard one round in battle so she'll have 6 AP on the next round. This is the attack you use the circle button to perform, but it's only available as the first action (since it takes all 6 AP). While you're on the character screen, you can select Use T.Pts to level up specific attributes for your characters. This is a bit of an unusual mechanic, in that you can only do this a few times for each attribute, but it allows you to make your characters practically invulnerable early on in the game. I really like doing this. :) After exploring these menus, go to the Ether menu and select Use E.Pts. You can learn new Ethers (think spells) and even transfer most of them to other characters. For now, you're mostly interested in the Medica -> Goodbye -> Boost 1 -> Queen's Kiss chain. Boost 1 allows you to grant any character the ability to boost during battle, which is a great way to get that Golden Egg. Don't forget to use Set to equip the newly learned Ethers. Feel free to continue fighting these guys over and over until you get bored. I found an hour or so of doing this while watching football on another screen made the rest of the game WAY less frustrating. Remember - Kosmos can kill off all enemies at one, and you can earn up to 10x the T/E/S.Pts per battle if you kill them on the Golden Egg.

When you're ready to move on, head left from the junction and go through the door by approaching it and pressing the Circle button. If you haven't been grinding, make sure Kosmo has at least 50 health. Don't worry about Shion; she'll be in an A.G.W.S. for this battle. When you start to head up the stairs, you'll watch a short cut-scene and then you'll fight. Shion will become a big robot; this is normal. If you have the boost ether skill, you can have Shion exit the A.W.G.S. and use that to boost either Shion or Kosmos. This can help ensure you get the Golden Egg and the extra points it generates.

After the battle, save your game at the save point and head down the ladder. At the bottom of the screne, head down one screen (toward you). Break the boxes to fight some enemies, and be sure to examine the red door with the circle button. This adds it to the list of Segment Addresses. More on this later. Anyway, once you've seen it, head back up and save again. This area is actally a good one to level up in. Those monsters below give OK XP, and you can always restore if your guys die off.

When you're ready to move on, the door to your right leads to a room where you can obtain the Mission Key . It's the blinking blue think toward the bottom edge of the room. Use circle to examine it. After that, examine the door on the far right, and head down the stairs. Use the Characters menu to unequip the Blue Ring and Kobold Ring from Kosmos, then examine the buttons to the righ of the grill to the left of the bottom of the stairs and use the Mission Key . Make sure your characters are OK health-wise, then head in. If you haven't been grinding, have Shion board an A.G.W.S. at the start of battle and use melee attacks (square).

The Woglinde
After the loooong cut scenes, you'll have control of Shion again. You are on the Vector ship Woglinde There's a save point toward the bottom of the screen. Use that, then talk to everyone. Don't forget to go up the stairs in the back and talk to Janice. Now go talk to he guy repairing the dive unit if you want to go back into the simulator to get you present. If you do decide to go back in, you can walk quietly by holding R2 to bypass the enemies. Head to the place where you saw the little girl (in a cut scene) and blow up the red box. Open that chest for a Battle Passport . Just so you know, you can use your A.G.W.S. to avoid taking damage in this area. It's almost invulnerable to these guys. You can exit the simulator anywhere you see the E.V.S. spinning symbol - just like the place you entered. After you've done whatever amount of leveling up you want, exit and head through the door on the far right.

Talk to everyone en route, and don't forget to take a look at the map in the first hallway. This will help orient you so you can see where you are going. Next, head down and talk to people. Eventually, if you keep walking around, Allen will catch up to you. After that conversation, head down and slightly left and talk to the guys by the containers. You'll be able to blow this stuff up and get goodies later, so find out where it is. ;) Going straight up the corridor from there, you'll pass a red door. Be sure to examine it.

The next door up (it's blue) is Shion's room. Head inside and save, then look around and find the data. Head back out and down the left corridor. At the end of the hall, go in the door and talk to everyone. Eventually you'll have control again. Talk to everyone and head out the door at the top of the screen. If you are following along in the "emails" section, be sure to return immediately to receive one of the "Hack This" emails. On the next screen, talk to the guy on the left by the drill. He'll explain how to drill to you, and you can use the drill to clear a path. By way of thanks, he'll give you a Drill Passport that you can use later for a minigame.

On the next screen up, you can go in the first door on your left to save. Be sure to talk to everyone. Just past that is a little alcove to your left. Warlk around it to receive one of "Miyuki's Secret" emails. A little farther up, you'll find a map you can use to check your location. Talk to everyone here, then go up one screen. You'll meet Sergeant Swaine, who'll tell you about his research into Segment Addresses. Ask him to tell you about his "research" and you'll get his Segment File . Be sure to examine the door by him, that's segment 7. Eventually, you'll find KEYS to these as well, and you'll be able to come back and open these doors to collect the special prizes inside.

A little further up, you can talk to some guys who will challenge you to a foot race. The race is easy. Just run away, around the large collumn at the top of the screen, then come back. Touch the medkit there before they touch you, and you'll get to keep it. This is kinda important later on. A little further on, you can go left and up to get to the hanger. You can talk to the pople here and buy stuff, or you can go up into the hanger and get in the simulator. You can fight and get serious ponts. Don't waste you money on armor, though. They've only go what you already have now. By fighting in the simulator, though, you can level-up, get good T.Pts for your Tech-Attacks, and earn a Medkit-S for every enemy you defeat.

Strategy Hint 1: Unless you really need to, don't use the A.G.W.S. Your character will magically replenish both Heath AND Ether at the end of every turn. And you may need your A.G.W.S. later on, so you'll want to make sure it's not totally destroyed. Also, if you learned the Boost ether earlier, it's very helpful here. You can boost on the enemy's turn to get two turns in a row! This means you can ensure you always kill off the Mech when you can get extra points. You can earn up to 180 T.Pts and S.Pts from these battles! If you've leveled up your spell ray, you can use the Triangle, Triangle, Circle combo to do lots of damage here. If you didn't level grind a lot in the simulator with Kosmos, this is the next best place to do so. You can level up your Spell Ray Tech Attack to ensure you can beat the next section without trouble. In the Tech Attacks menu, use your T.Pts to first change the speed from LW to HI, then to change the wait from A2 to A1, and then to A0. Third, level this up to at least Tech 03, and preferably Tech 05. If you do this, you're pretty well guarenteed to have the power you'll need later on.

Strategy hint 2: Even though you and the enemy take turns if you attack, you can guard multiple times until you get two turns in a row. If you must use your A.G.W.S., only call it on a turn where you have the red circle or golden egg. If you have anything else, continually guard until you get two actions in a row. After calling it, guard on Red and Attack on Egg. This will ensure you get a minimum of 36 T and S points each time.

This is probably a good time to explain some things. Use the menu to view and explore a few things. You'll want to see how you can use the "Ether" menu to learn new ether skills and transfer ether skills to oher characters. If you learn new Ether Skills, don't forget to equip them! You'll also want to see how to use the "Character" menu to unequip weapons, armor, and accessories. After you've unequiped the Scope accessory, go into the "Skills" menu and see how to extract the Search Eyes skill from it. Don't forget to equip your new skill! You have a limited number of Ether Skills and regular Skills you can equip at any time, so come back here often to look for good matches, depending on what's going on in the game. To start off, I recommend you know the Medica and Goodbye skill, and that you have the Search Eyes skill learned so that you can unequip the Scope . You'll want to have access to that later on. Go back to the Character menu and select Shion. See the option in there called "Use T.Pts?" This is one of two places where you spend T.Pts. You can raise abilities here. The other place to use T.Pts is under the "Tech Attacks" menu option. You use T.Pts there to level-up your Tech Attacks. I recommend playing in the A.G.W.S. simulator long enough to get enough T.Pts to level up the following things for Shion:

• Abilities: STR, VIT, EATK, EDEF, DEX, EVA: MAX.
• Lightning Blast. Speed: HI, Wait A0, Tech 01.
• Spell Ray. Speed: HI, Wait A0, Tech 02.
• Skills: Extract and Set the skills from your Scope , Blue Ring , and Kobold Ring .

When you're done playing in the A.G.W.S. hanger, head back to where you ran the foot-race, and go to the upper-right exit. You'll find Segment Address 16 in the hallway here. Continue right and down, going around a circle, and eventually you'll find the elevator. When your ready to go on, you can go up here. If you want to do other stuff first, feel free.

After your trip to the bridge, you'll be given an opportunity to claim your package from Miyuki. Go directly to the A.G.W.S. hanger and get it. You won't be sorry! Once you've got that, you'll have time play around a bit, and when you're ready to move on, go back to Shion's room and rest.

The Gnosis
During he nap, you'll see the creepy girl again, followed by fun with the Gnosis and Kosmos. When you have control again, you'll need to get to the room where Kosmos is. I'm going to do the rest of this in numerical order, so you don't leave something out and get killed. After your first battle, you do NOT want to fight the Gnosis anymore.

1. Go into your room and save.
2. Walk toward the Gnosis and get into a battle. Try to attack and learn that it's fairly pointless. You'll see some fun cut scenes.
3. Run through the right-hand doorway and either close the partition or duck into the room just beyond the partition switch.
4. Exit that room and talk to the guy in the lower right corner of the screen.
5. Head up and use the control switch on the right to turn on the video screen. This will distract the Gnosis and let you get past.
6. Head further on and SAVE in the control room. Talk to the guy there, then go left and ahead.
7. When you get close to the next gnosis, head back to the control room. The Gnosis will follow you, then continue past.
8. Exit the control room and watch the cut scene. Good morning Kosmos. ;)
9. When you have control of Shion again, head left and forward. Go through the doorway.
10. You'll see three weird thing, with a Gnosis behind them. Climb the ladder and press the airlock switch.
11. Go back down the ladder, and head down. Talk to the guy in the bottom left corner. He'll send you to the hanger.
12. Go to the hanger and head right. Talk to the guy there. After you get the plugin, talk to the guy on the left for an idea of how to get past the Gnosis on the next screen down. If you need to buy supplies, though, you can do so now (from the guy on the right) - but you may want to wait for a few more things below.
13. Head up to the back of the hanger for 1x Escape Pack , 2x Frame Repair A and 2x Frame Repair Z .
14. Now head down to the screen with the gnosis by the yellow things. Those yellow things are energy nets. Walk around to the left until one of the Gnosis sees you, and breaks a box trying to get you. After that, Go stand close to the energy nets - this will draw the Gnosis into them, where they (the Gnosis) will get stuck. You'll get 200 Gil and 2x Veil .
15. Go back to the airlock area, blow up the large block to access the ladder, then blow up the two boxes near the top of the screen for more Gil and another Revive .
16. (optional) Head back to the control room and save again. Becareful not to blow up the glass door int he back, as this will unleash guys who will kill you.
17. Take the vaporizor plugin back to the guy who needs it - well, I guess he doesn't need it now. Head a little further down the corridoor and blow up the obstruction in your way..
18. Continue down. When you see the gnosis coming after you, run around the far column and then run back down (just like the racing game earlier). Be sure not to get TOO far ahead of them, or they may end up going around BOTH sides of the column - insta-death. :(
19. After you get past them, you'll see Sargent Swaine. Talk to him, then use the Decoder 7 key he gives you on the door across the hall from him.
20. After exploring that room, head back past Seargent Swaine and blow up the thing in the middle of the room for a Bio Sphere . The plant on the top left has an Ether Pack . The plant at the top right has nothing.
21. Head down one screen (throught D-04) and watch the cut scenes.
22. When you have control again, search the body to get his key card. Inside his room (the upper door on the left) is a SMP53AG (it's a A.G.W.S. weapon).
23. In the next room down, you can save. You can also hear the guy get a saying right. Not an applicable one, I'll grant you, but you have to take what you can get, right?
24. Once you've saved, head down through door D-03 and watch more cut scenes. Are you on the edge of your seat, yet?
25. When you get control gain, you'll be in battle. I got an SMG99A out of it.
26. Did you notice when Kosmos blew out the window, that her hair blew AWAY from it?
27. You'll get a VX-10000 series A.G.W.S. from Allen after the cut scene, and you can equip the SMP on it's right shoulder (if you have it).
28. If you didn't do it before, you can also unequip Kosmos's rings and have Shion learn the skills contained in them. Blow up the stuff near by and get the items inside, then blow up the yellow box and attack the Gnosis.
29. Head right and slightly up, then use the red switch in the little control room to opn the partitions. This will give you access to Shion's room, where you can save.
30. Blow up the thing in the middle of the next room up for a Bio Sphere . Next, blow up the spark and kick some gnosis butt.
31. (Optional) You can go up and around to pick up he stuff you missed before, or you can simply head down to the next screen. If you chose to go down, jump to the next item. Otherwise, you can get 2x Revive from the middle-room decoration on the next level, a Med Kit S and an Ether Pack S by the hologram controller. From the vending machine by the control room, you can't get anything. From the chest INSIDE the control room, though, you can get Decoder 18. If you head all the way to the lower right corridor, where you met Mister Diller, you can find a chest containing a Stim hidden in some boxes. Anyway, head back to door for segment 18 to get a Coat * Lightning, and save at Shion's Room. Note that this accessory is Skill level 3, so you can't extract the skill from it yet.
32. After saving, head down and fight the three floating Gnosis (Gremlins).
33. After that battle, head down a little bit and go blow stuff up in the cubby to the left - just off screen. It's where the crazy guy was. You can get 2x Escape Pack and a Gnosis. Oops. Well, they're easy to kill.
34. Further down, you can blow up the lockers on either side of the corridor. You can get 3x Revive .
35. If you are ready to leave this area (you will not be able to return), heal up Shion and Kosmost, then head further down. If you have the Queen's Kiss ether, be sure you have enough ether points to cast it. You can get a Skill Upgrade Z from an enemy here.
36. When the next battle starts, you'll be fighting some pretty powerful enemies. If you have it, use Shion's Boost ability to make sure you are attacking at the best spots (hightest liklihood of getting extra points).

Moving on
Watch the cut sceens and head to Chapter 2.