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Chapter 3
Durandal
A WHOLE bunch of cut scenes (some *very* creepy ones) later, you'll
finally you'll end up as some dude in an A.G.W.S. These bots can't seem
to harm you *too* badly, so just take 'em out. I'd use the square, but
that's just me. ;) You'll watch some more cut scenes, and then you are
Jr, Mary, and Soldier. Head down the ramp at the upper right of the
screen, then down the lower right edge of the next screen. There are
people at the end of the corridore who tell you to be careful. Right.
Since when is attacking an enemy ship the beginning of careful
behavior? Heh heh. Anyway, head through the doorway leading right (it's
near the end of the hall). Blow up the thing here for an Antidote , a Med
Kit S, 2x Ether Upgrade A , and 2x Tech Upgrade A . Don't forget there is
stuff on BOTH sides of the walkway.
At the first branch in the path, head up. There is a small power unit
nearby that will disable the lasers. Go past the lasers and head up
again. Blow up another power unit. You'll see another explosion. Head
back to the first power unit and pass it. Follow the path until you come
to a flashing light. Press the switch there and the door will open for
you. Head through the door here. Don't blow up the panel. There are
enemies hidden in there. If you go down just the door labeled "4"
though, you can get 2x Skill Upgrade A . Continue heading down; you'll
get ambushed (by two groups). You'll follow the path down and left, then
you'll come to a door. Head through it and blow up a box for 2x Frame
Repair A.
Leave that room and continue left, then follow the path as it curves
up. There's a door on your right here. Go in and examine the flashing
light; operate the Door No. 4 switch. Backtrack, and head through Door
4. Head right (ignore the door at the top for now) and go down at the
next path. Blow up some boxes here for a Cure-All and a Bio Sphere . At
the bottom, on the left is a door. Head inside and save, then leave. Go
up just past the 3 people there, and take the path to the right. Blow up
the plants here for 2x Tech Upgrade A and 2x Skill Upgrade A .
Continue right. See the blinking thing next to the door? That's a
booby trap. If you try to go through it, you'll get in a battle. If you
WANT to do that, you can, but I don't really recommend it. Head a little
further right and blow up the box the door was connected to. After that,
come back and head inside. The guard will mumble something about Card No.
3. Leave, and head right again. See the booby trap? Head down a little
and blow up the appropriate box. Be sure your guys are ready for a
battle, then head inside. This guy jumps into an A.G.W.S. when his HP
drops from 120 to zero. The A.G.W.S. only has 800 HP, though, so this is
an easy battle. Be ready: Have JR jump into his A.G.W.S. and just wail on
him. He's not that tough, and you get a Frame Repair Z or A out of the
deal. In the far right corner of this room is something to blow up. Do
so, and get the 2x Skill Upgrade A stored there. You will also find
Segment Address No. 11 hidden here. You can decode this now and get the
Coat * Ice (that is, if you picked up the segment 11 key on Pleroma).
Just down from where you blew up the second booby trap, you can blow
up a panel for 5x Ether Upgrade A . Keep walking around the corner to the
lower left, and you'll fight some more U-TIC soldiers. After you defeat
them both, continue left. Through the door at the end of this hallway,
you'll find a control to open door 5. Once you do that, you can through
door 5, and save in the room to the left. After saving, head back down
past door 5 and all the way to the hanger.
There's a box you can blow up at the far right to get a Cure-All .
After that, head left and go down the stairway. At the end of the walkway
between the left most A.G.W.S., you'll find a Frame Repair A . The next
walkway to the right has nothing. The next has 2x Skill Upgrade A . The
next has an Ether Upgrade S . The last explodes and causes a guard to come
running down the stairs after you, so I don't recommend getting that.
There is a chest just up from there, though, and it's got a Tech Upgrade
Z in it. Head all the way back to the left, back up the stairs, and this
time head down the walkway leading to the bottom of your screen.
You'll be ambushed again, so have your HP high enough for that. After
killing them off, head to the bottom left corner of the hallway and get
the Card No. 3 flashing inside. On your way back, head through the door
on your right and blow up the box there to get the U-TIC Card . Go back
to the hallway and head up. You'll have to fight Cyber Crabs this time,
but they're pretty wimpy. Backtrack to the save point past door 5, save,
then head right.
Go past were the three guys were, and the two booby trapped doors. At the far right, insert the U-TIC Card into the
box by the door, then head through the door. Inside the room is a chest with Decoder 16 . Next time you get a chance to
check out the Woglinde, do it. Backtrack to door 3 and go into the little room to the left of the door. Examine the
green flashing light, and use Card No. 3 . Now examine the red flashing light and open the door. See the dead bodies?
Remember how close the save point is? Hmm... Does this suggest a course of action? Save, then head through door three
and through the door at the end of the hall. Congratulations, you've found the bridge. Why are there no people on this
bridge? Wasn't this ship just fighting you? There must have been SOMEONE piloting it, right? Hmm....
If you use the correct strategy, this upcoming battle shouldn't be that difficult. You shouldn't need to buff up
Jr's A.G.W.S. using any extra equipment you're just carrying around ( Auxiliary Armor A , Anti-Beam Armor , EF Circuit A ,
etc), but I guess you can if you want. But you WILL be in the A.G.W.S., so you can unequip most accessories from Jr. I
would recommend equiping a Scope though, if you have two or more handy. Since there doesn't appear to be anything else
you can do at this time, walk to the flashing terminal in the middle of the screen, and operate it. Now you get to
fight something ugly.
Have Jr. jump to his A.G.W.S. as soon as the battle with the Amix begins (your pistols do like 1 point of damage).
Since this enemy has a high probability of counter-attacking via Boost, it's best if you do as much damage as possible
on each attack. Don't forget that you can use W-Action if you have two of the same weapons equiped and 6 AP. Have each
of your characters guard for one turn, then use W-Action on the next. This will help ensure that Mary's attack will be
300+, Junior's 400+, and Soldier's 200+. You can let soldier get killed off if you want. It's not that big a deal. As
long as he gets a few shots in to knock the guy down a bit. If your A.G.W.S. stats get low, you can use the frame
repairs, but I didn't find them necessary if I used this strategy. Also, you can equip one of your Scope accessories
and know when to use the Golden Egg, but if you do that, you'll only have one for the next cast of characters. You'll
get a Frame Repair Z from this battle. Anyway, watch all those cut scenes and you'll be back at the Elsa,
eventually.
Dock Colony
In Japan, there's this idea that if you sneeze, someone must be talking about you. Does that scene make a little more
sense now? No? Well, it was worth a shot. Now that we've gotten control of Shion again (so to speak), let's wander
around the bridge until we get an email with permission from Headquarters to use Tech Attack (1), KOS-MOS' R*DRILL.
Now, let's go find ziggy. Save en route (and get to segment 16 via the UMN simulator for the Woglinde. I'll take a
Stim DX, please), then head into the first passenger cabin. MOMO can tell you right where Ziggy is. I found him in the
room with the other save point. You can talk to other people, but there's not really much else to do here. Exit the
ship through the exit (duh). It's opposite the UMN save point.
When you leave the ship, you should talk to the people around here. One of the ladies here is obsessed with fish.
Or at least, her husband is. This may come into play later. Hint, hint. There are two door on your left. Go trough the
top one and talk to everyone. In the very far left room is a little girl named Luty. Talking to everyone around here
will help you understand her story. There is a side plot that revolves around this. Be sure to talk to the doctor
multiple times AFTER talking to Luty so you know what you need to do next in this side quest.
The other shop is "Talk to me!!" Talk to everyone there, then head past the bottom of the screen and go left. Blow
up enough stuff to talk to the guy there, then blow up more stuff until you uncover segment address no. 2. Head back
up and shop. There is new weapons/armor/A.G.W.S stuff, etc. When you're done, leave the shop and head down. Watch a
quick cut scene, then coninue down and left. Watch more cut scenes and then you'll get email about the U-TIC battle
ship being added to your map. You'll eventually need to head to the bridge, but be ready to fight. That is, you'll be
leaving shortly, so buy anything you think you'll need now. I went to Pleroma to make sure I had enough money. I like
to purchase and equip an HMP33AG on at least one A.G.W.S. (I like to use chaos'). This lets you attack ALL enemies,
and is very useful in the next area.
Cathedral Ship (Nobody gnos)
Just FYI: You may end up with a F*BSHOT at any time now. It's probably
related to how much time has elapsed. Since I play a lot of the card
game, I received it at this time. Also, this next area seems to be all
about using the right characters. I recommend using either Shion or
MOMO, plus chaos and KOSMOS. It wasn't too difficult, and my guys are
level 16, 14, and 16 respectively. Use ranged attacks against these
enemies.
Tell captain Matthews you want to leave. You'll watch some cut
scenes. Then some more. A few more. OK. What are the odds that all
your current combat units would end up in the same place? Wow. that
sure is lucky! Oh, wait. Maybe lucky is the wrong word. Ah. A
"warning alert." That's almost useful information. Anyway, when you
have control of Shion again, save your game. Blow up the columns at the
top of your screen, then get the Antidote and Nightwalker .
You can extract the Sleep Guard skill from that. Cool, eh? Now for
some tips. First, these enemies can put you to sleep, so extract and
equip that skill! Second, you get lots of ether potions from the
enemies here. Be sure to take advantage of the healing spells your guys
have. Third, remember at the very beginning of the game I told you to
level up Shion's Spell Ray to Level 5? Well your Triangle - Circle can
kill off a Cerberus in one round. Something else to keep in mind, You
can transfer Shion's Boost+1 Ether Skill to your other characters. That
means anyone can give anyone else a free boost, and if you're quick you
can basically take complete control of the spinner wheel. You can also
transfer Kosmos' Dex Ether [Ra/Fa/Le] skills, which can allow anyone to
attack all enemies. If you can do both of these, it's worth it!
Continueing further along, you'll meet up with some Cerberus Gnosis.
They've got 500 HP, so concentrate on one first, then the other (that
limits the number of times they can do 50 - 100 pts of damage to your
entire party). From there, head up and go left at the fork. There is a
Bio Sphere , hidden under more blow up things. Backtrack and go right,
pass another round of Cerberus and off the screen.
On the next screen, continue right a bit, then curve back up and
left. When you run into a string of 5 Fairy Gnosis, you're going to want
to damage all enemies. Either have Chaos jump into his AG-02 (A.G.W.S.)
and use the HMP33AG , or Learn and Transfer the Dex Ether Ra Ethers. Make
sure everyone can boost, too. You're going to want to boost your guys so
you can get the Golden Egg on somone who can damage all enemies. Then
try and take them all out at once. It's possible to get a 10x score on
all 5 of these guys. You'll probably have to fight again, but keep
going. You'll watch more cut scenes. After the cut scenes, head up,
past the signs and blow up the boxes there for a Neuro Stim .
After that, go right, past the signs, fight the Cerberus, the Fairy,
the other Cerberus and the OTHER Fairy. Head up and left at the next
fork in the road. Wrap around behind the sign and break a hole in it to
get to the chest. The chest contains a Coat * Fire. Head back around
to the right and down, and this time to down at the fork in the road.
Follow that path until you get to a new screen.
Optional: Third great level-up place. You can go back to the previous
screen and farm the 5xFairy Gnosis. Since these enemies give you all
four types of points, it's a pretty effective way to grind. Don't forget
to use your boosts and multi-enemy attacks. You're going to get lots of
Ether potions, so don't be afraid to use them. I like to have MOMO,
chaos, and Kosmos here. If MOMO doesn't need to attack, she can use
Prayer and get a free item - some of which are pretty powerful! And
since you get all these Ether potions, it's easy money. Just keep going
to the next screen and immediately coming back here to farm these. When
you're ready to move on...
On the next screen, head directly right and blow up the box. That
should expose a ladder. Go up the ladder, Cross the bridge, fight some
enemies, and blow up some boxes. You can get a Cure-All , a chest
containing a Revive DX, and a Revive . When you've got them, return to
the start of this screen, then go down and right. You can use the blow
up item here to get extra damage to the enemies. Anyway, continue
slightly up and blow up a few boxes. Now back track to the beginning of
the level and head up and right, then curve down a little. You should
see a flashing red light on your left. Examine it, and operate the
elevator. Head down from the elevator and go right to get to the next
screen.
On the next screen, take the path all the way right, then wrap up.
You'll fight and enemy, then the path will curve back around left and
split. The upper path has a set of stairs. Take the high road and blow
up something at the far right of the platform; this should form a bridge
back at the bottom of the stairs.
Head left until you see the boxes in the upper-left corner, and then
swap MOMO into your party, if she's not already there. Next, use the
characters menu option to set MOMO as the party leader. The right-most
box should now have a flashing blue light. Have MOMO examine it. You
should now know Tech Attack Magic Caster (steal rare items) and Ether
Star Wind (new path on ether skills). Set your tech attack/ether to use
your new skills. You'll want to use the Tech Attacks menu to allow you
to use Magic Caster in the Low menu slot. In the future, you'll want to
have MOMO use the Ether Star Wind to change outfits, then use the
Triangle-Circle combo to cast Magic Caster. You should be able to do
this twice before she changes outfits again. When you're fighting
powerful enemies, be sure to do this!
Now back track to the bottom of those stairs. If your guys are good
enough (and you are using the right characters), heal up, the head right
across the newly formed brige, but you might want to consider equiping
something to reduce damage you get from fire.
Anyway, fight and kill the Svarozic Gnosis there for Tech Upgrade S
and access to the chest containing a Tuned Circuit . Once you've done
that (if you wanted to), head back to the bottom of those stairs and
this time take the lower path. Cut back to kill off the other Gnosis
here. Blow up a rock to access the path heading back to the left and
under the walkway you just came across, then head up two flights of
stairs. At the top of the stairs are some Ogres. Shion's
Firecracker-Spell Ray combo is great against these guys, too. Blow up
stuff at the far right of this path to get an Ether Pack S and a Med Kit
S, then head all the way right and over to the net screen.
You can probably sneak past the Ogre here, if you want. Continue
going right across the bridge. The path will curve down and right
again; follow it until you get to a save point. And a store. In an
enemy ship. A Gnosis... ship... Doesn't that imply that the Gnosis
ship is actually a weird mutated planet thing, then? Am I supposed to
infer that? I dunno. In any event, if you go to the shop, you'll
notice you can buy a Power Brace and a Guard Pendant (which you've
needed this whole time), and a Snake Hunter . Is someone trying to tell
you something? Good, I'm glad we cleard that up. Have your guys all
learn the skill "Poison Guard" from a Snake Hunter , or buy them all a
ring and equip it. You may have to find some cats to fight to earn
Skill Points, BTW.
As long as we're preparing for the next stage, heal, save, and setup
your A.G.W.S. You want an Axe or a Sword on each of them. You'll need
characters that are good and hand-to-hand combat, so consider Ziggy
instead of KOSMOS if you've not got a powerful R*DRILL attack. Since
mine was powerful, I used KOSMOS. When ready, head into the stores
there. Blow stuff up for a Frame Repair A and 2x Skill Upgrade A .
You'll have to fight a Perun here. Here's a tip: Ether attacks like
spell ray GIVE him HP. BTW: If you bought and equiped an Axe to Shion's
A.G.W.S., you can do 400+ pts to this guy in one shot. It is possible
to get extra pts against this guy, so you might want to try for it.
You'll also get an Ether Upgrade Z from killing him.
After you kill off the Perun, head up the stairs and into the shop
with the broken window. It's marked "Costmary." I don't know why - I
thought "costmary" was a type of flower. Whatever. Heal up, and fight
the plants at the back of the shop. You should get 1000 XP (divided
among your guys) and 2x Cure-All . You'll also get Decoder 15 . At the
back of the shop, around a corner, you'll find the Flower Seed which is
used in the Luty side quest. FYI: I had my characters whittle down
their HP a bit, then managed to have chaos connect a HMP33AG attack that
wiped out 3 of 'em at 10x pts!!!
Anyway, exit the shop and head through the doorway on the left.
You'll go all the way around the parimeter of the walkway here, and go
through a doorway. On the next screen, step on the glowing square and
operate the elevator to go down a floor. Heal up, the head up one
screen. You're downstairs from the area you just walked around. Blow
up the forklift for a Bio Sphere . The brown boxes have a Skill Upgrade
A and 2x Tech Upgrade A . If you can handle a pretty nasty fight, try
blowing up the blue boxes.
The battle with the unicorn lookin guys hiding beind the boxes can be
tough. Have Chaos jump into his A.G.W.S. and use his BMP45VX to damage
the back row, too. If your guys can clear out the front row and get a
path to the back, you can damage the Unicorn. Be warned, though, he can
bring the other guys back. It appears, though, that if you clear out
both guys before his turn, he wont bring them back. You might want to
get them both CLOSE to dead, and then kill them both quickly before his
turn. You CAN get 10x pts on the unicorns. I've done it.
Things you can get from blowing up boxes:
1x Bio Sphere
7x Skill Upgrade A
1x Med Kit MAX (red box in far left)
2x Cure-All
300 G.
1x Med Kit DX.
2x Ether Upgrade A
1x Ether Pack S
In the back right is Segment No. 13. When you're ready to go on, head
back up the elevator and out the door on your lower left.
The path on the next screen leads down and right, the branches at the
bottom. The left path leads around where you can blow stuff up for a
Clock Shield , which contains the skill Slow Guard. There are also Fairy
Gnois guarding a doorway, which you can blow up to reveal a chest
containing a Rejuvenator. The right path leads around a loop that links
up with the left path.
You can also geta Revive by blowing up boxes here. Which ever path
you take, there is a Stribog Gnosis at the far left guarding a chest.
He has 1500 HP, but at least Shion's Spell Ray works on him. Use
physical attacks for the other characters, though. They just seem to
work better. The chest he is guarding contain Decoder 9 . When you are
ready to go on, destroy the rocks guarding a path leading up. Heal up,
get the 500 G and Cure-All hidden in the rocks, then head up.
Watch some cut scenes, then read the signs and head through the door.
You'll fight a lot of Lizard Man Gnosis in this area, so be sure to have
your characters immune to poison. You can blow stuff up here and get a
Revive , and 2x Frame Repair A . You can blow up a weird pirate thing
holding a chest and get an Ether Pack MAX. At the end of the hallway,
open a door and head up.
Go slighly up and left to find the ever elusive save point. ;) Took a
while this time, didn't it? Save your game, read the signs, and blow up
the three things you can. The elevator here won't work until you've
blown up the safety clamps on both sides on each of three levels. Now
head through the door in the upper left. On the next screen, head up
the left isle and blow up the plant there for a Frame Repair Z . In the
lowest right cubical is a Magical Hat .
Head up the rightmost stairway. Press the button to drop the ladder
there and also blow up the right clamp on the elevator. Go back out the
door you came in, head back down, and this time go up the stairway on
the far left of the room. Blow up the remaining left clamp on the
elevator, then go up the ladder you just dropped. Blow up the two
clamps on this elevator, too.
The elevator should now drop to the lowest level. If it doesn't,
you've failed to blow up a clamp somewhere. Go back and look for it.
Before going down there, though. Blow up the thing to your right, and
go through the hidden door. You'll find segment 9 here, to which you
should have the key. If not, look up a few pararaphs and see where you
missed it. Head inside and get the Robot Part Left Arm . Backtrack to
the save point, save, then get on the elevator to the lower level.
You should end up near a ring. If you time your walking around
properly, you can avoid any of the Gnosis here. If not, well, these
guys are tough, but they are worth it, point-wise. I'll assume you are
opting NOT to attack the guys. Take the right path. At 3 'o-clock, you
can blow up a barrier, and something it's protecting. Blow them both
up. Continue around and do the same thing at 9 '0-clock. There's a
Veil in here. Continue aroundand enter the elevator at 6 'o-clock.
Watch the scary cut-scene, then head up toward the top of the screen.
Examine the panel on the right and press the button. It's important to
take a moment to prepare for this. You'll want to steal twice from the
upcoming enemy, so prepare MOMO's special suit, or have Shion in the
part. Also, max out your ether and HP. If you're using any of the Dex
(Fire/Ice/Lighting) skills, set the Lightning ones, as you'll be
fighting enemies that are vulnerable to that. When you're finished
preparing, enter the chamber. Say what you like about this game, but
there are some weird freakin' cut scenes. ;) You now get to fight
Oudogogue, Gargoyle, and Oudogogue. Using Magic Caster to steal from the
Gargoyle can net you a Commander's Crest , which grants you +1 AP/turn.
That's pretty powerful this early on in the game! A second steal nets
you a Silver Crown , letting you power up your Max EP. The Oudogogue
enemies only give you Frame repair stuff, so I recommend using MOMO's
quick double-steal which I mentioned a few paragraphs up.
If you kill off the little guys first, you'll just make the other guy
more powerful. On the other hand, if you DON'T kill them off first, they
will heal him and hurt you. So... I recommend going after the little
guys. Also, your A.W.G.S. are powerful, but they're really slow
compaired to your characters at this point. If you find they don't work
well for you, don't be afraid to abandon them! Meteor shot is OK, but
not great. Cyber Kick works well, as does Spell ray. AXE11AG does 400+
damage, so if you do use the A.G.W.S., I'd recommdn using those; after
your mechs are really damaged, discard them before you hit 0, and attack
using your guys instead. If this battle is too tough, load the most
recent save, then backtrack to the optional level-up area I mentioned
before and level up a bit. I just barely beat these guys with level 18
Shion, Ziggy, and Chaos.
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