Carbon Ocelot's Xenosaga: Episode I Walkthrough

Disclaimer

Walkthrough Notes

Points to Remember

• There are 4 types of points in this game: Experience Points (XP), Tech Points (T-Points), Ether Points (E-Points), and Skill Points (S-Points). XP automatically levels up your character, but you must MANUALLY use the other points.
• Use the A.G.W.S. simulator on the Woglinde early on. Use this area to learn how to use the level-up system. You don't earn E-Points, but you DO earn S-Points and T-Points.
• Try to get the extra points when you kill enemies. Make sure the battle spinner is on the Golden Egg looking thing. If a battle won't give you the correct pattern, consider using guard or move to change the delay.
• When drilling, use the overhead view. And remember - the farther right something is, you'll need to be lower and farther right to hit it.
• Always read your email when it first comes in. Pay attention to things like: Download this attachment.
• When you first get Skill Points, unequip your Scope and Extract the Search Eyes skill from it. You'll want to equip this item to other characters later.
• When you first earn E-Points, check out the ether sub-menu, but don't spend your points just yet; you'll want to save them so you can transfer your Medica Ether Ability to other characters.
• Any time you see an item in a dashed box, you can hover the mouse over it for more information about that item. Hover the mouse over the box in this line for for a second or two to see an example of how it works.

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.

Chapter 2: Pleroma

Introducing Ziggy
After the worlds second longest set of cut scenes, you'll have control again. This time, however, you're not Shion. You are now Ziggurat Industries "Ziggurat 8" - soon to be known as Ziggy. You're invisible, so don't worry too much about being seen (or heard, actually). Head slightly right and save your game. You don't REALLY want to watch the whole cut scene again if you screw up, do you? After that, head up the ramp and directly right. You can blow up some suff here to get a Scope . From where you get the Scope , head maybe two steps up and blow up the red barrel for 2x Ether Upgrade S . Go examine the A.G.W.S. if you want, then try and go up the ramp to the upper right.

Watch the cut scenes and then you get to have some real fun. You have to make your way right. You'll want to hold down R2 to keep from having your footsteps echo and bringing the enemy running. If you head up the stairs at the top of the screen, you can get a feel for what the layout of the area looks like. Essentially, you'll want to run, er no, walk to the right without walking into a guy. I usually go just watch to see which way the guys are walking, the step into their pattern.

On the next screen to the right, there's a Revive hidden in a box at the bottom left. At the top, there are two boxes. Blow them both up, and they'll reveal a doorway heading left. Go left and walk left (behind the wall) until you get to the chest. There's a Snake Hunter (it prevents poison) in there. Equip it. Just above the chest is a wall you can blow up, behind which is hidden Segment Address 4.

Head back down the hidden corridor and slowly walk past the guard at the top. Just past that fire pit, you can hide in a little walk way at the top, and wait for the next set of guys to go past. Follow him all the way around his fire pit an you can get by without being seen. Go on to the next screen to your right. Just so that you know, in the center of this screen is a hidden chest containing the Segment 11 key. If you blow up the center box thing, you'll find it - but be ready to fight a LOT of guys to get it.

Walk all the way across the walkway and on the next screen, read the sign. Wander to the bottom right corner and listen to what ziggy says about the A.G.W.S. there. You need to distract it. On the lower left is a crain. Hmm... Why don't you try pressing that switch? While the A.G.W.S. is looking at the remains, head back to the right and go down the ladder. (Incidentally, if/when you defeat this guy, you'll get Decoder 4 , which will net you a Theif's Ring from Segment Address 4.) Keep going right on to the next screen.

Watch the cut scenes and get ready to fight. You should be able to take these guys no trouble. My Ziggy started with over 400 HP, though.

Meet MOMO
After the battle and ensuing cut scene (that's Momo, btw), you'll need to find locate the Master Key. Head down the stairs at the bottom left of the screen. On the next screen, you can avoid the people and robots if you are carefull. Go down the stairs and head straight back to the right along the top wall. Just past the car, you'll find some boxes you can blow up, and just down from that is a doorway. Go through the doorway. On your left is a room with six boxes. The lower right is a Bio Sphere . The upper right is an Ether Pack S. The lower center is a Med Kit S. The upper middle is 100G. The upper left is a Revive . The lower left, however, hides a pair of cyber crabs - I don't recommend fighting them. Anyway, head back to the hallway, and go through the first (well, only, I guess) door on your right.

Fight the Remote Activation Unit. Guard, then hit him with the Triangle - Triangle - Circle combo a couple of times. In the chest up and right of where that robot was, you'll find the Master Key. Heal up, then head back to Momo the way you came. Unlock the door to the left of Momo's cell first. There's a save point in there. The next cell over has a Speed Stim in a box. Now go open Momo's cell and say hi.

Try to go back the way you came, and you'll have to turn back. Instead, take the down and left. Have MOMO use her healing ether and have ziggy attack (if you get in battles). The chest in this room has 2x Veil . Anyway, head down and right to the door again. Head into the control room. When the cut scene ends, press the red button on the right hand counter, then head out through the door. Head across the hall and down the ladder.

Watch the cut scene, then head left. Blow up the barrels along the way to get medkits. A little ways on, you'll see a door at the top of the screen. Head through it to the chapel. The chest at the front has an Ether Upgrade Z . At the top left is 2x Ether Pack . On the right is 2x Ether Pack S. When you've collected the stuff here, head back to the corridore and continue left, picking up the goodie (2x Revive , etc). If you aquire 60 Skill points, be sure to get the Poison Guard skill. When you get to the slick pipes, you'll want to use the walk (hold R2) and use the arrow pad instead of the control stick. It's a lot easier that way.

Contine on and pick up the Ether Pack en route. At the far end, BE SURE YOU ARE REAY TO FIGHT, then head up the ladder. Have MOMO use Sheep beam to put the left (Mercurio) and right (Mercurio) enemies to sleep. Have Ziggy use one triangle on the middle guy, then guard to built up his attack to hit the guy in the middle. Don't let Ziggy use his BMP55SX , though. Thi will attack ALL enemies and wake them up. Let the red guy (Zolfo) shoot his subordanents. Remember, Ziggy can throw an Ether Pack to MOMO. If you can keep them all asleep, it's much easier. ;)

As soon as the battle's over, be sure to adjust your items, if you need to. You can get 2x Bio Sphere from blowing up the fork lift and 8x Med Kit S from the chest. Yup. 8x. Wow. There's nothing else to do here or back, so head to the upper right and into the command room. First things first - Save. Use the Battle Formation menu option to place momo directly behind ziggy if you aren't going to level up a bit. Head out the door at the top of the screen, and fight some soldiers. You can level up, then go back and save as much as you want, here. FWIW, I actually head right all the way to the Mecurio A.W.G.S. near the crane. With MOMO behind Ziggy feeding him health kits, it's not that hard to defeat this guy. Use the Decoder 4 you get from the battle on the Segment Address 4 red door a few screens to the left to get a Thief Ring .

When you're ready to go on, save in the control room, place MOMO behind Ziggy in the Battle Formation screen, use items to restore you health and ether. Be aware of what accessories you have equipped. If possible, try not to equip anything you don't have duplicates of so that your future characters can learn them. To get to the next boss, head out the door and quickly go left at a walk. Watch the cut scenes, and get ready to fight. This guy is tough. MOMO will be doing full-time healing. Have Ziggy guard, then attack using his Kicks. Ziggy will also need to heal from time to time. Be aware of what elements he's immune to, and don't use that kind of attack. (e.g., When he's absorbing lightning attacks, don't use lightning fist.) Defeating this enemy will net you 3000 gold, 1200 XP (each), 29 T.Pts, 30 E.Pts, and 13 S.Pts. Oh. And an equipable item.

The Elsa

Now it's time to watch some more cut scenes. Who's that guy by the nurse looking Realian? Hmm... Well, we'll watch more cut scenes. When you are finally back to being Shion, take the curry and head out the lower left door and talk to the Captain. Heh heh. Talk to the bar tending robot here to get the Card Passport . I really like playing this mini-game, but more on that in a bit. Now head out the upper exit. You should receive an email from Vector about the EVS plug-in. You can now use the E.V.S. plates to re-visit places you've been before. The door straight ahead is your first destination. Search the couch cushons here until you find the Disarm Key . The next area up is the passenger cabin. It's empty now, so go around it and head up and slighly off to the right, to save. After that, head left and down, and enter the elevator.

Watch some cut scenes, and then blow stuff up to get an Ether Pack . Ahead and to the right is a door at the top of the screen. In there is 2x Med Kit and 2x Ether Upgrade S . Head down the ladder in that area and keep going down. At the very lower level is another save point. Save and talk to Chaos. Head down one more screen, then get on the elevator. Go left and get on the elevator on the other side of this room. Head up, and go through the door. Watch more cut scenes. And more... OK. Here we are... No wait. There's more cut scenes. When you are back in control of Shion, go out the lower door and down the elevator. At the bottom of the next screen you can get to the hanger, where you can pick up a Coat Beam from the blue chest. When you get back to the A.W.G.S. hanger, you can talk to Tony. He'll ask for your help finding the Hazardous Area Map . The next time you talk to Captain Matthews you can get the map, and Tony will give you a Med Kit DX for helping out.

You can now walk around and get familar with the Elsa. Explore everything, and blow up what ever you can. To the right of the room where you met chaos you can get 350 G from blowing up boxes in the corridoor. Further up, you can blow stuff up to get access to a hidden door. You can get an Ether Upgrade A and 50 G.

Head back to the room where you met chaos and go out the upper door. Blow up some stuff here to find Segment Address 8. In the middle of the room is a flashing green light. Use the key you found to unlock it, and press the button. The slide going right has 200 G hidden there, and the one going left leads to a secret passage. Blowing up stuff in the secret passage reveals 50 G, a Bio Sphere , a Spirit Pendant and a chest with Decoder 10 .

Leave the secret area and continue up and to the left. There are four boxes you can blow up here, which contain a Med Kit , 5x Ether Upgrade A , and a Bio Sphere . Futher along the corridore, you'll come to a door on the far left. This door leads to the Catapult deck. There are lots of things to blow up here. You can get an Ether Upgrade S , locate Segment Address 14, a Fiber Suit , and 250 G. When you've gotten everything, head back through the door on the right, and head up to the door on the upper right - the one that leads to the ladder. Go up the ladder and leave that room. Head left and get on the elevator (note: don't try to get on the cargo elevator yet, that's not possible.)

Head up to the first floor and talk to Allen. It's good for a laugh, if nothing else. Head back past the crews quarters and save again. Notce the "E.V.S." display at the top of the golden thing? That means you can link your simulator up to it! Check out your Drill Passport and Battle Passport . You can also play the card game, but be repared to spend an hour or so the first time you play it. You MUST go through the whole tutorial and be sure you understand it. There are some things you simply won't understand otherwise.

Optional game mechanics: Most importantly, though, the EVS lets you access places you've been before. Go to Menu -> U.M.N. -> EVS and re-enter the Kosmos Simulator. Now that you've got the key, go get that red door you missed earlier (Segment Address 10). You shouldn't have any trouble with these enemies at this point. Technically you can have Shion go to Pleroma and level up, but don't forget the level up dynamics that makes it less helpful early on. It's probably best to wait a bit on that. I guess you can also go back to the woglinde and try and take on some of the more dangerous enemies if you'd like to farm Ether Packs. As soon as you enter the simulator, there are two golems. Personally, I like to wait until the next section when I can come back to the Woglinde as Shion, chaos, and Kosmos - then you should be able to take these on no problem - and they're great for farming all 4 types of points as well as Ether Pack S items. To farm easily, run up from this area to the red door (Segment Address). Pop in and then leave quickly to respawn the Golems. You can now run down (I dodge around the other enemies - they're kind of worthless) and use the Red barrel to get all three characters a starting Boost. This makes the battle WAY quicker and you can always get the Golden Egg. This is probably my second favorite level up spot.

Since the level up mechanics can't really be exploited just yet, I recommend you head to the brige. You'll volunteer to check out the Catapult. Talk to the captain to get the map Tony wants, then head out and down the elevator. Go down the ladder in the upper-right room of this level. When you get to the bottom, head out the door. To your left is the catapult deck, but you probably want to go down all the way to meet Tony for a Med Kit DX. If you talk to the repair bot at the top of the screen here, you can use the A.W.G.S. Tuning menu to upgrade your VX-10000. As long as you're there, get the 5x Ether Upgrade A in the boxes on your left. Now head back to the Cataput Deck, then examine the thing in the middle. You'll see a cut scene that implies you should do something. Don't worry, it's lying. ;) Head down to the bottom of the screen to trigger another email in the Hack This side quest. See the emails section for more information! You can save now if you like, and if you want all the fun of a dentist visit, be sure to stop off and say "hi" to Kosmos. When you're ready to move on to the next thing, head back to the bridge.

Guess who's coming to dinner?
After a bit of a cut scene with Ziggy and MOMO, and even more of a scene with Shion, then more, then more. A little more. A little more... OK. Time to go. When you first appear as Shion, Kosmos, and chaos, you have the opportunity to leave the bridge and visit the save point and store. However, you can also dive into the environment simulator and revisit places you've been before. I like to head to the Woglinde and farm Golem enemies (see above) to get lots of points and Ether Pack S items. When you're ready to move on, make sure you unequip all interesting accessories and take the Elevator to B1. Be sure to check any and all boxes as their contents have magically restocked! At the bottom of the elevator, start blowing stuff up. Here is a list of everything you can get. Finding all the boxes is left as an excercise for the reader. ;) 3 x Ether Pack 2 x Bio Sphere 1 x Escape Pack 4 x Antidote 8 x Skill Upgrade A 2 x Ether Upgrade A 2 x Ether Upgrade S 2 x Frame Repair A 2 x Med Kit S 3 x Escape Pack When you run into the corridor, you decide to use the magnetic floors. Head up and go down the ladder. At the bottom of the stairs, you'll become Ziggy and MOMO. Be sure to check your position, equipment, skills, etc, then head toward the bottom of the screen. Don't forget to blow stuff up on the sides and get more good stuff. Besure to take advantage of MOMO's Ether "Life Shot" between battles if you need to heal up. If you farmed some of the Ether Pack S items earlier, this are shouldn't be difficult. Go out the door, and head right. You'll meet up with Shion. After a bit of cut scene, you are all 5 guys. Go to the menu, and choose "Battle Formation" to chose who you want in the party. I chose Shion, Chaos and Ziggy. You can run around and do some leveling up, if you want. These enemies keep coming back. When you get to lab one, you can save. Don't forget, you can head right and get more stuff over there. Talk to the ever-obvious Cherekov, and head down.

You can't go down either the left or right sides, so head down the elevator, then go down the center of the A.G.W.S. (You can walk around to keep from getting attacked, btw.) Be sure to heal up just before heading down past this screen. Check you're using the equipment you want, and that Shion has the ability to use her "Shock Blade" with some combination. It will do "Slow" against M type enemies if you use the default BXS001V ammo. Look at Charcters -> Shion -> Equip and Tech Attacks -> Shion -> Use T.Pts. Be sure you have everything in place, then head around the platform and attack the DOMO Carrier. Use characters that can take the damage he'll deal out, and don't let him place his tremor attack in the critical hit slot. That just sucks. Also, don't use the A.G.W.S. I recommend Shion, Chaos and Kosmos. Let Shion and Chaos (or Kosmos) build up three (at least) boosts, then attack him back to back, over and over. Be sure to use the boosts to jump in if he's about to "tremor" too. If you transfer Shion's medica skill to KOSMOS, everyone can heal using ether, too. Chaos can heal everyone, though, and he can take a lot of damage. That's why I think he's a good one to have along.

You'll get Anti-Beam Armor when you're finished. Then you'll watch a bunch more cut scenes, and eventually get control of Shion, Ziggy and MOMO. Head up and right into the kitchen, then head up and left from there. Enter each of the octagonal cabins. Decline to call it a night, though. Feel free to stop off at the UMN store (grey spinny thing) and sell off your Scrap Iron , and you'll probably want to save your game again. Show them the bridge, then head down the elevator. Show them the catapult deck, both labs and the hanger. At the far end of the Catapult Deck, you should receive an email if you are following the Investment Emails. You may have to visit Ziggy's room (see below) and get the dividend before you can trigger this email - I'm not certain. See the Emails side quest area for more information. Just up and right from the yellow save point in the room that MOMO and Shion nominate for Ziggy to use, you'll get an email, if you are following the Investment Emails side quest (see the emails side quest for more infomation). Despite the fact that you didn't get the boxes in the hanger when they refreshed, you can't get them now. Don't forget to show them Hanger 2 (where you fought the DOMO Carrier). Head back up to the area where the crew cabins are and save at the save point by the bridge. You can use the E.V.S. to revisit any area you missed, and you can take MOMO and Ziggy with you. It might be worth it to try and get the things you missed on the Woglinde, or to farm Golems with these characters, too. After you've shown them around, head back up to cabin 2 (the lower one) and "Call it a day." Watch a bunch more cut scenes, then...

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.

Chapter 4

Hello, Jr.
After a LOT of cut scenes, it'll be time to REALLY be confused. Heh. When you finally get control of Shion, talk to everyone, and head left. Talk with Allen for a bit, then keep going left. You'll find out that "Inside the Cathedral Ship" has been added to the EVS before you can even leave the Zohar hangar in the isolation area. If you've been doing things right, you may end up with a Code Disarm Key Plug-in on the next screen. It may take a little longer, though. Continue left until you come to a train.

If you are doing the email side quests, be sure to take the train to the Hangar first. I got an email for the investment side-quest there that included the code disarm plugin.

Take the train to the Resdential Area. Head left from the station and follow the right wall until you reach the Game Room. There's a save point here. At the far right is a chest containing a Cassino Passport. Congratulations. You can now make some real money. See the Casino section for more details. I spent about 2 hours here (well, actually in the Elsa, located at the dock area; see the casino area for more information) and made a half-million G, then I decided to play some drill!

Anyway, the Residential area is made up of 3 areas: The shuttle area, the first residential area (to the left of the shuttle area), and the 2nd residental area (left of the game room). In the first residential area, head left and talk to the people there. The room on the far left from the shuttle area is where you can get some rest. If you leave that room and head up, you can blow stuff up for 2x Booster Pack . At the end of that little hallway, you'll find the game room on the right (with a save point) and the entrace to the 2nd residential area on the left. The 2nd area looks much like the first. You can get a Med Kit S nd 2x Ether Upgrade A in the left room, though. Just blow stuff up. You can blow stuff up here for a Med Kit DX, 2x Ether Upgrade A , and an Ether Pack S. In the room at the upper right is a Med Kit DX and a shop.

Once you're finished pillaging the residental area, you can wander around the ship and talk to people if you want, but there isn't anything else to get (yet). Head to the park. Go up one screen to the actual park. You'll be treated to (surprise!) a cut scene, then you'll have control of Shion again. If you invested in Alkimia, you may get your dividend (24,000G) if you try to leave via the right-hand exit. (Not to long after that, you'll probably get another email if you're doing the hacker side quests. If you've been getting the Namco spam, you'll probably get another one when you next get to the residential area, too.) There's something you can find here later on, but I can't find it now. I'll tell you again when it comes up later. Talk to people if you want, then head to the Residental District. Head to Shion's room (The one to the left of the entrance). I usually save at this point, before heading to the room.

After a few cut scenes, and wholy mixed-appopriateness music, and a bunch more cut scenes, you'll be in control of Shion again. Head to the Dock (you might wanna save en route). After a bunch of cut-scenes, you can once again head out. You start out on the beach. Try to leave, and you may get an email, if you've been following that part of the guide. Be sure to check out the email section of the guide so you don't guess wrong. ;) Anyway, leave the beach (I don't think you can do anything else here, yet).

At the bottom of the screen where you select where you want to go, head to the bottom to the A.G.W.S. parts facility. I went as MOMO and got stuck at the opening. Talk about annoying. I had to reset the playstation and start over back at my most recent save game. Actually, this turned out to be something more sinister. There's an incompatibility with my PS3 (80 Gig version) and this game. Let's move to the PS2 for this part of the walkthru. >.<

The window to the left of the entrace sells A.G.W.S. weapons, accessories, and card packs. You may want to take this opportunity to upgrade your frames and generators. Be sure to Restore FHP if you upgrade. I had plenty of cash from playing poker, etc, so I maxed everything out. XD Continuing left, you'll find a stairway leading down. Take those stairs and you'll start [Professor's Giant Robot Training Hall] Chapter 1.

Robot Acadamy: Chapters 1 & 2
Welcome to the Robot Acadamy. Talk to this guy for a bit, then leave by going back up the stairs. When you get to the next screen, just turn around and come back. If you've followed this walkthrough, you should have both Robot Arms. Talk some more, blow up 10 things (unfortunately, there do not appear to be any prized hidden inside), and then go talk to him again. You'll get "Throni Blade." You can now go into your menu and equip this as an ether attack. This is all you can do for now, so go ahead and head back upstairs.

Buff up your A.G.W.S.
Since you are here, feel free to buff up your A.G.W.S. If you've been following what I said earlier, you should have enough G to max out all three of your A.G.W.S. for weapons, armor, frames, and generators. Be sure to swap out all your " Auxiliary Armor A " with Auxiliary Armor B . Now, go and play the "Game" on the far right.

Q1: What is the name of the parts shop on the dock colony?
A1: Talk to Me

Q2: What is the name of the eccentric professor at the Foundation Robot Acadamy?
A2: Professor.

Q3: What kind of clohing is hanging second from the left on the wall at the cleaners?
A3: Smelly-looking purple t-shirt.

Q4: Who's all fired up about the drill?
A4: Holgar (you have to scroll to see this option).

Q5: What's the name of the girl that can't speak at the Dock Clinic, the medical clinic on the Dock Colony?
A5: Luty.

Optional: Luty and the Tech Upgrade Z
Did you manage to pick up the Flower Seed while you were on the Gnosis Cathedral ship? If so, you can complete the Luty side quest now. Leave the Foundation via the shuttle in the upper right corner of the city map. You won't be able to wander around the Durandal yet, but if you talk to Captain Matthews by the Elsa, he will take you to the Dock Colony. Head into the Clinic and talk to Luty. You'll give her the seed. Keep talking to her until you repeat yourself.

Return to Captain Matthews and head back to the Durandal. As soon as you get there, talk to the captain again to re-visit the Dock Colony. You'll notice the flower has grown a little, so talk to Luty again. Repeat the trip to the Durandal and back one more time and the flow should be fully bloomed. Talk to Luty and you'll get a Tech Upgrade Z .

Fun fact! Do you want another A.G.W.S.? While you're there at the Dock Colony, head to the Talk To Me shop and buy one! They also have various odds and ends for your others as well.

City Sector 26 and 27
Head to the middle of the screen, to City Sector 26 & 27. First a note of caution - if you want to do complete the Luty side quest as early as possible, don't talk to the girl in the Inn and trigger the sleep scene. OK - with that understood, head left and enter the 2nd door you come to (Our Treasure). At the right of this shop is a save point. SAVE! When you're saved, head back to the beginning of this area and go into the Ironman. Talk to the lady who looks sad on the far left to hear about her Engagement Ring . You will miss out on the Luty side quest if you do. Instead, head one screen left to the next part of town.

Head to the far left of this area and go up the stairs and into the dry cleaners, be sure to examine everthing. You should be able to find a PM Card B and a Fish Detactor. At the far end of the shop, blow up a bookshelf to get 2x Ether Upgrade S, 1200 G, and reveal Segmet Address No. 3. Since you can't get into that yet, exit at the top right of this screen and head to the next area.

If you talk to the guy by the punching bag, you'll see something weird. In that same room is a blue box you can blow up for a Tech Upgade A. Important: Don't blow up the Pink Bug, though (It's hiding in another blue crate.) Talk to him and ask for a "Great Story." He'll tell you about a segment key on the ground shaded by a potted tree. Oh yeah. And don't blow up the car in the middle of the room. That's just rude. ;) Nah, you can get an Esape Pack if you blow up the car.

Once you have the fish detector, head back to Our Treasure and save (if you got the PM Card B , you might open it up, too), then head to the beach. Yup, the beach. Since you have a fish detector, you can catch fish. You're looking for an Engagement Ring , remember? You can also get a Speed Stim and a Med Kit . Once you have them, head back to sector 26 & 27 and talk to the lady in the Ironman to get Segment Decoder 8 . Save your game, then open your card packs, if you haven't already. If you've done everything you want to here, talk to the girl at the hotel and you'll go to sleep. After that, return to the Durandal via the shuttle.

This is a chance to play around a little, if you want. If you talked to the pink thing in the box you can get Decoder 1 from the Park area. Just go there, and then head to the bench on the right hand side. You should see a flashing blue light toward the far end. That's the decoder. You can save your game in the Casino if you want. While you're at an EVS point, be sure you buy (or win via Card Passport ) a bunch of Ether Up and Health Up items. These will make the upcoming areas MUCH easier. I went into this area with 99x MedKitS and 99x EtherPackS. If you took the trouble to get the Throni Blade, you NEED to stock up here - it turns the next area into a point gold mine. When you're ready, go to the dock, past the escalator, and hang a hard righ to the Elsa. Talk to Allen - you can't get to the lower level to use your new decoder yet anyway.

After a LOT of cut scenes, you'll fight a couple of federation soldiers. It looks like you'll fight as just Chaos. His modified Heaven's Wrath worked fairly well. Head up and right, and open the chest in that room for an Equip Item. Trust me, you want your stuff back. ;) You can also buy stuff here, if you need too. Head through the door on the lower right, and continue right if you want to save in the game room. After that, the lower left room has an Armory Key locked inside. Very useful!

You'll need to fight your way past a bunch of guys. When you get to the train, head to the Hanger (the park is closed). Kill off these robots, and open the armory door here. Blow up the boxes for an MSS54 (ammo: Ziggy's Physical Attack + 12), a Frame Repair Z , and a chest containing Decoder 5 . After that, head to the dock. Fight the robot just below the train station, and head down the emergency access hatch. Use the ladders to get inside the Elsa. Watch the cut scene involving the worlds most useless "cargo hatch." What? They're carrying groceries? How small is that thing. Once inside, head up and right, and down the ladder. Now go down and left. Use Decoder 8 to open Segment Address 8. Go in and get the Robot Part Left Leg that's there. Now head to the maintence bay. Pop down to Lab #1 and save. Go down one screen and take the two lifts so that you arrive in Lab 2 (were Kosmos sleeps). Watch the cut scenes and listen to the girl humming "What child is this?"

There was a lot that happened during those cut scenes, so I hope you didn't miss it. You at least caught the little girl's name, rigth? Anyway, when you again have control, you'll be Ziggy, MOMO and Jr. Step 1: Be sure to equip you most current weapons/skills/T.Pts, etc, OK? Step 2: Save. Head to the right, and try to stay out of the searchlights, if you want to avoid battles. If you follow the bottom edge of the screen, there is a chest with a Coat * Sword. If you blow suff up, the search light fix on that point. If you blow stuff up, you can find a Ruby Helmet, 5x Bio Sphere and 5x Med Kit DX. I was able to avoid all the search lights. Head to the far lower right to leave this area.

You'll watch a bunch more cut scenes. OK. Who decided that loud angry piano music was a good idea? On the bright side, Allan isn't participating in battles with you. It's a quandry, isn't it? Half the time I'm thinking, "Why the heck isn't he HELPING?!?" But the other half of the time, I'm just as glad to not have to look at him. Freakin' weeny. Anyway, make sure you're up to the task of hurting Gnosis, and head to the playground. Hidden behind the slide is a pole you can blow up with a Frame Repair Z . A simialr pole on the other side contains a Defense Shield . Head forward and enter the building. There's a save point on the immediate right. Blow up the animals onthe walkway for 5x Ether Pack S, a Blade Soul , 3x Bio Sphere , a Rejuvinator , Gnosis Bugbear (Oops, that's an enemy, lol) and 5x Revive . Continue on past the fallen bunny statue (examine for a laugh), and you'll come to a new screen.

Head down and left, and fight the Bugbear and Kobolds. I found this to be a great time to learn about the Throni Blade's power. If there's a golden egg on Shion, you can get a LOT of pts. Set both Throni Blade and Boost 1 in Shion's Ether menu. Next, have Shion Boost on her first turn, and then she'll be able to boost in just before the golden egg, so she can ALWAYS get really high point values on these enemies with the Throni Blade. You can use this time to level up Chaos, too. When he hits level 20, he gets the Angel Blow attack, which damages all enemies. At the bottom right of this area is a chest containin a PM Card E . If you come across a human, it's really a larval doll in disguise; be sure to HEAL him quickly, using medica or other items - and this enemy can confuse your team, so be ready for that, too.

Blow up a block at the far left top and go down the resulting man hole. Head forward and around the corner. On the next screen, press the button just ahead of you, then head DOWN the next flight of stairs (you can save if you want). You'll head under the overpass and fight a troll Gnosis. These guys have 1200 HP, so use your powerful attacks. You'll find segment Address No. 5 here. This is handly since you just picked up the key on the Durandal, right? Right?!? There's a Double Buster here. When you get it, equip it or learn it for Shion. Now instead of doing square, square, circle, you can do square, circle, circle. That means your tech attacks can connect TWICE in one turn. I don't know about you, but *I* think it's worth it.

My level 22 shion can do over 1200 pts of damage in ONE turn. On your way back, unlock the other door by presing the button at the top of the stairs. Just above the right most doorway is a hidden doorway leading to a sign. Blow up that sign for a chest containing a guard cleaner, because, hey, why wouldn't you find A.G.W.S. paraphanilla in Kosmos' dream world? ;) Now save, then head back to the manhole and go down the OTHER one. I keep a bunch of Bio Sphere and ether restore items on hand so that I can go through this last little area at least 3 or four times. The point really add up, and I like to have level 25 guys when I leave here. Besides, you get all the skill points, ether points and tech points, too.

While doing this walkthrough, I got Shion up to level 26 before heading on. Chaos is at level 25. When you get down the other manhole, you'll see things swarming around in the area below you. You can ignore them for now. Head across the bridge to the bottom of the screen, and blow up the box there for 5x Ether Pack S. This also opens a passage way that leads left and back up. If that door thing was unlocked, it would lead to the hallway you were in when you went down the first manhole. Anyway, go back across the bridge and head right, then down. Kill some stuff here, then press the button that it's hiding.

Cross the bridge leading down from here and head right. You'll fight some monsters and then head up. That enemy is a pair of Larva Dolls. QUICKLY use your healing potions and/or ethers. From here, you'll go down some stairs to your left, and head up the path below. You'll go off-screen, and come to as Junior.

Back to Jr.
When you return as Jr., move MOMO to the back row, then head left into the store front and blow up the box at the back for a Rejuvenator. MOMO can put the enemy pilots to sleep here, just FYI. ;) Head down and left. Go down into the subway. When you first enter the subway, take the stairs down (the top ones are not blocked) and make your way left to the save point. Save, then head up and back to the right. There's a doorway in the jumbled wreckage there. To the left of the doorway is a box you can blow up for 2x Bio Sphere . Go a little farther left, and you can blow up a window. See that doorway hidden in the back corner? That's important. Head back to the right and go through the door, then head left. Examine the red door to find Segment Address No. 15.

Remember that key you got in the flower shop? You can use Decoder 15 here to access a chet containing an angel ring. This item cuts the ether cost by 1/2 for all spells. Cool, ne? Head back to the save point, then up to the top of this screen. Go left down the stairs here. At the bottom, blow up some benches for a Veil , then fight the mechs here. Head down the stairs and then right. Fight another group of mechs and blow up a box here for 5x Neuro Stim . Head back to the save point, save your game (unless you wanna do this again if you screw up), and then go down the stairs there.

Don't blow up the bench in the middle of the platform unless you really want to fight a bunch of Kobolds. Blow up the box at the far left for 2x Frame Repair A , then head down the stairs that just appeared. A ramp on the left leads up to a Larva Doll. Have MOMO use life shot to quickly get rid of 'em, then make your way left, forward, and down and left. You can blow up a vending machine here to reveal a chest containing a Red Topaz , which keeps an enemy from casting Veil on you. Veil causes ether effects down 25%, so it's good to not have Veil cast on you.

Anyway, make your way back across the ramps, and this time head right. Fight the mecha here (you didn't forget that MOMO can put them to sleep, did you?) Continue right to get to the next screen. There is a ramp on the far right here (past a bugbear with some kobolds). Head up the ramp into a train car and blow up the back wall for an Ether Pack S. Continue right and down another ramp. Kill the Gnosis here and climb the hidden ladder in the back. You'll fight another Larva Doll here (you know the drill; heal 'em). Blow up something at the far left of the cat walk, and it should fall and break something below. Now head back to the the train car, down the ramp, and off to the upper left. Open the chest that is now revealed for a Venom Block .

Head back to the train car, and this time go out the back. Go up a ramp, acros another train car, then down a ramp to fight another Bugbear/Kobold, then head to the top of the screen, and right to get to the next screen, which should look familiar. You've finally managed to *almost* hook up with Shion and Chaos. Head right, then up and around some debris. You'll have to fight these gnosis of course. When you go under the 2nd bridge, you'll be able to blow something up or 4x Frame Repair A . Follow that wall to the right and up, so you can go up a few stairs. Next, go up a small ladder and through a door. There's a chest here with Decoder 12 . No go back through the door, down the ladder and stairs and head right. Go up the ladder here.

Watch a bunch of cut scenes, and you'll be back to Shion. Set immunity to poison, save your game and head up and right. Remember to use the Boost/Throni Blade trick from earlier to seriously level-up here. Fight the gnosis here and head downish. If you run into some basilisk, don't forget your Throni Blade. Blow up a rock and go through a hidden tunnel to get to a camp fire area. There's a chest here with a PM Card D . Go back the way you came, and continue right to get to the next screen. You'll see a bunny in the back ground getting juice from carrots.

On the next screen, follow the path around and to the right. Fight the Troll and continue following the path. After you Cross a log bridge, you'll curve around underneith it. Head left across the little path here. Beat up some Kobolds (and a bugbear), then blow up two things on the left. Go through the cave that opens up, and blow up something else. Go across the water, and wrap around to the left. Blow another hole in the rocks, and head into the pond in the middle blow up the collumn in the middle to get the chest containing the Blue Topaz .

Head back the way you came, and continue right to get to the next screen. Go up and watch the bunny play near a stump, then run into his house. You can fight a troll here to get an Ether Pack S, then head down around and to the left. The enemies here are numerous, but between the Throni Blade and Chaos' Angle Blow, I didn't have much of a problem with them. Anyway, go to the far left (by the waterfall) and blow something up to get a bridge. Cross the bridge and head around and through the tunnel. Go left across the bridge here and blow up the carrots for some S. Carrot Juice. Head back *past* the cave, and blow a hole in a tree to the rigth for 2x Frame Repair Z .

Head back through the tunnel, and curve around to the left, under the waterfall, across the bridge, and back to the right, where the bunny was playing on the stump. Put a carrot juice there. You'll hide behind some bushes. Just wait until you can move Shion, and run toward the door when he's distracted running around. If you get there before him, he'll let you inside. Open the chest here for Decoder 3 . It does not appear you can watch TV, take a shower, sleep, or open the 'fridge. Just get the key and leave. Head left under the bridge, and go behind bunny's house, then head around to the right. If you get stuck, you might be *directly* behind his house, in which case you need to go back and take the little path leading toward the top edge of the screen.

Watch a bunch of cut scenes. When you have control of Shion again, there are a lot of things you *could* do. For example, you could take your guys through the disturbing vortex there and then down the ladder on the next screen. This will take you back down the path Jr, Momo, and Ziggy just came through. Or, you could go back to the left and take everyone back past the bunny. Other than leveling up, the only real benefit you get here is if you go ALL the way back to the beginning in the park, put MOMO as your party lead, and have her crawl under the pink play structure to get the PM Card A . In case you're curious, Shion was at level 30 in my game and had just acquired Rain Blade. This is what I save up her T.Pts for.

When you're ready to move on, head right and Cross a bridge. You're going to be fighting something huge, so be ready. Make sure your A.G.W.S. are all sufficiently healed up (Dont' worry about HP and Ether, you'll be healed in a minute). Set your guys to block confusion. Head down and right, then enter the church through the front door. Watch more cut scenes, then save your game, examine the door on the far left, and talk to Febronia. Anyway, when you are ready, head through the door on her left and you'll watch some cut scenes.

This is a bit of a fun battle. Tiamat has 6,400 HP, and can do some serious damage. I used Queen's Kiss and stole a B-MAX Circuit (want your A.W.G.S. to be able to boost?) Then Psyco Pocket stole Revenge Power (Auto-Boost when attacked if you've got a "Counter+10" skill is equiped). Looks like that's all there is to steal, too. If you'd rather not use those skills, you can have MOMO in the party insted of Chaos and she can use Star Wind to change form, then use Magic Caster to steal. I got Revenge Power first and B-MAX Circuit on the next action. Doing this frees up Junior and Shion to attack while MOMO steals, and after she's finished MOMO can also jump into an A.W.G.S. if needed.

Anyway, The throni blade can do 500 pts of damage to this guy, but if you've spent time leveling up Shion and have Rain Blade, I've been able to do >1000pts in a single attack before. I don't recommend Chaos' Heaven's wrath. If he's in your party, use the A.W.G.S. If two of your guys get K.O.d, the battle will become MUCH harder. Don't let that happen. Did you notice that the three guys you are walking around as are all potential A.G.W.S. pilots? Does that suggest a course of action to you? Hmm... When fighting him in your A.G.W.S., use the LG10AG and PB55AG . Do NOT have CHAOS kill this guy off. You MUST use Shion or Jr., but NOT while in their A.G.W.S.!!! Basically, he's an amalgomation of Jr. and Shion's bad memories, so each of them has to kill him. He'll reset to about 1500 HP after the first one, so be ready. If you have your guys set properly (to see his HP remaining, etc) you should be able to get some serious Pts out of this. I got him on a Pts x4 *and* leveled up both Chaos and Jr.

Once you kill him off, you'll hear the same What Child is This piano music and get an interesting cut scene or two.

Chapter 5

Wake up!
After a ton of cut scenes, you'll get control again, and you'll find out that there are new maps added for the Encephalon. Head to the game room and save. You might want to open you PM Card D and PM Card E packs, for Level 10 Kosmos and Level 10 Chaos. You may also want to hop into the Driller Game and complete all four missions. The Swimsuit you get from completing mission 4 is a pretty powerful item. Equip that to a character to receive 25% more T-Pts with each battle. Eventually you should receive an email about Kosmos getting extra power. Don't forget to download the attachment and equip it the next time you meet up with KOS-MOS again.

Finding Allen
First off, head to the park if you don't already have Decoder 1 . I know, he's not there; you're actually looking for something else, first. There's a key you can find on the upper right edge of the right-hand sitting area. You can get Decoder 1 . Next, head to the dock. If you didn't do the optional Luty side quest before, you can do it now (see Chapter 4 section.) If you didn't have the money to buy the new A.W.G.S. the last time you were there, you can probably do that now after selling off all those Kobald Blades. To find Allan, head to the Durandal's Dock and catch a trip to the Foundation colony. Once you get there, head to Sector 26 & 27, and head straight for the Dry Cleaners. Yup - the Dry Cleaners. Decode Segment Address No. 3 for Robot Part Right Leg .

In case you're curious, you can't get on the roof in this section yet, but if you want the next big robot summon, leave this area and head to the A.G.W.S. Parts Shop and Foundation Robot Academy. Now that you have both legs, you'll be treated to a new scene, and you'll come away with the dominion tank. Be sure to set it in Shion's Ether menu. There aren't any new A.G.W.S. parts here, but you may want to get your frames repaired if you've been using your A.G.W.S.

Return to Sector 26 & 27, and this time go to the Ironman Bar and Cafe. Talk to Allen (he's by the poster, being a poser, heh, heh). You'll watch some cut scenes, then the fun will begin. You'll get control again on the bridge of the Durandal. Head to the lower level of the bridge, and then to the dock. Hop on a shuttle to Foundation, and head for sector 26 & 27. You've got to rescue 13 people here. If you haven't already, don't forget to sell off all the stuff you got in the last area. All those kobold blades, etc.

Person 1: Ironman
Head into the Ironman and beat up all the gnosis you can get to (not the one behind the counter). Now talk to the guy by the poster (twice). Leave the ironman and head next door.

Person 2: Our Treasure
Head in and save, then talk to the dying guy on the floor. He said his treasure is inside, and the code... photo... birthday... Walk around behind the counter to get the Swimsuit from the chest there. Equip this to a character to get 25% more T.Pts from your battles. Anyway, now head up stairs, one room right, and up the ladder. Read the birthday on the poster to your left. It was October 28 for me this time. While you're here, blow up a box on the right for a Tech Upgrade S . Head back down the ladder, and blow up a box for a Battle Gear . Continue right until you come to a switch. Push it, then head back left. Go back to the ground level of our treasure, and fight the troll in front of the safe. Enter the combonation (for this game, it was 1028, or october 28), and open the door.

Person 3: Ironman
Head back to the iron man, and make sure the crank out front has been used, so that the awning is covering the doorway. Then, blow up all the boxes behind where the elevator used to be for a Tech Upgrade S . There's also a guy hiding here. Talk to him. Head behind the counter and open the chest on the far right to get the Wooden Idol . If your guys are getting "cursed" too often, this can help solve that.

Person 4: Trash can
Leave the Ironman and head back to our treasure. Save, then head upstairs. Head right, and go up the ladder. Head out the door on the lower left. Walk off the left side of the platform, and you'll start sliding down. Hold up and left, and you should be able to reach a small platform above a smokestack. Go left, and follow the resulting catwalk. There's a chest in the middle of the water tower area with Decoder 13 in it. Head back to the right, and this time just walk right. You should fall down into the trash enclosure. Blow up the trash bins for 1000 G and a dude. Talk to the dude, and then leave. You should have 9 left now.

Person 5: The Statue
Head left to the next area, and kill the gnosis where the statue is. One smack of the Dominion Tank took the out for me. Blow up the statue to drop the old man, er woman, er man? I guess it's a man; I saw a beard. Whatever. Leave the statue area and head farther left. Watch out for the gnosis here. He does a slow sting attack that can do 300+ damage to your guys! Be sure to heal up when you're finished.

Person 6: The Bakery.
Note: Unless the ladder is already down by the bakery, you'll need to lower it. See the Dry Cleaners below in order to get up the ladder in the Dry Cleaners so you can get access to the upper floors of the Bakery area. Go up the ladder to the top floor, and run left across the dropped down platform. Press the switch to fix the platform. Take the ladder back up, and this time go through the door in the middle you can now access. Fight the bugbears and talk to the baker. These guys really seem to like to boost and heal, so be sure to concentrate your energy on individule guys. When he's saved, blow up the racks to get 1000 G and access to the slide. Don't go down that, though.

Person 7: Dry Cleaners
Head back out the way you came, and take the path around the left. Blow up the bookshelf in the back right corner to get a Skill Upgrade S . Go through that doorway, and out the other side. Head through the upper doorway to the laundry. If you run across the Larval Doll, don't forget to heal them. Think Medica and Med Kit S. Talk to the lady behind the counter, then blow up the desk to the right for 2x Ether Upgrade S .

Peron 8: The Dry Cleaners Ladder
Climb the ladder behind where the desk used to be, and head to the upper right. You'll be fighting higher level Larva Dolls, so you might wanna think about transfering Medica/Medica Rest to other characters, if you want. When a Larva Doll's HP drops to zero it will die on the NEXT turn, so kill them on the boost up slot just prior to the Golden Egg for maximum points. When they die, they are immediately replaced by enmies who can be killed on the Egg. Blow up the door at the far right of the screen. Talk to the kid. Blow up the gate to the left here, and head down.

Person 9, 10, and 11: The Garage
Guard against poison, and head left. Go around the bakery (using the two left doors) and take the path leading up and right from the ladder. Head down outside (yup, not through that door yet), down the stairs, and into the door marked "East 6." Blow up the car (again) for a Rune Crystal . This prevents EP Overconsumption. Go attack the Gnosis in the back right corner. Talk to Johnny there. Blow up the box and talk to Mina. When they leave, followg them outside, then head up the stairs. Now head through the door on the upper right corner of the screen. Talk to King, and he'll leave.

Person 12: A cat.
From where King was, head left across the bridge, then forward and back to the right. Fight the Larva Dolls here (using healing ether/items), then push the button they were blocking. You can force these guys to transform using simple med kits, btw. Once the bookshelf opens up, head all the way around the catwalk and go inside. Head left, up the stairs and kill the guys here. Go left and blow up he door, the talk to the cat.

Person 13: Backdoor of the Dry Cleaners
Head back down the stairs you just came up, and go back around the catwalk toward the switch. Don't actually go to the right, though. Head left through the doorway, and down the hall. At the far left, you'll enter the Dry Cleaners. Blow up a shelf at the bottom left for a Cure-All , and kill off the larva dolls here. Talk to the lady there. A message should appear saying you've rescued everyone.

Leaving
Head back out the way you came. When you leave the hallway, be sure you're holding the "down" direction, or you'll fight a Larva Doll as soon as you emerge. For yucks, go blow up the car again. So... Who rebuilt it? Heh heh. Anyway, go back down the bakery ladder and head right. Go past the mayor and save in Our Treasure. Head up the stairs and ladder to the roof. This time, you'll step off the catwalk on the *right* side, and this time walk "up and right" while you are sliding down. You can blow up something here to expose Segment Address No. 1. Use the key from the park scene, and go inside to obtain Robot Part Head . Drop down and blow up a planter to the right to obtain an Ether Upgrade S. Go back to the save point, use a Bio Sphere , SAVE, then try to leave.

You'll be fighting a Gigas here. He first divides into two guys who are each 2800 HP. If you are lucky enough and Shion gets in a first attack before they split, have her steal! Have Shion steal until you get 2x Soul and 2x Spirit . In the mean time, Jr. should use Misty to render them unable to use their Gnosis powers. When those have both taken effect, then he can join in on the stealing. Chaos can use items/ether to heal Shion and Jr. until they are done stealing. When you've got all 4 items (or 5 if you were lucky at the beginning), have Shion use medica all to keep your guys from dropping under about 400 HP. Then do your best. Don't forget, you can have your guys jump into their A.G.W.S., if you need.

Oh, before I forget - that Soul and Spirit you just stole? You can extract skills from those that finally unlock level 5. THAT means you can extract from the Swimsuit and the Angel Ring .

Happy Robot Head
You'll probably want to save again, if you've done everything right. Before heading back to the Drandal, head to the A.G.W.S. Parts Shop and Foundation Robot Acadmy. After Assistant Scott leaves, you'll get the Seraphim Bird. Be sure to set it in your attack. Leave the shop and head to the Launch Pad and watch the Gnosis attack cut scene. Then you'll watch a few other cut scenes.

MOMO?
When you arrive on the Durandal, just head back into the shuttle and you'll go back to the colony. You'll look around and not find MOMO. If you try to leave, you'll just be told she wouldn't have gone back. Head back to the Durandal, then hop on the train and head to the Residential Area. Head toward the rooms, then watch a bunch of cut scenes. Welcome to the freak show. Pop quiz: How many hours worth of cut scenes does this game have? Answer: Um... Er... Too many? ;)

Chapter 6

Saving MOMO
Leave the bridge, and head to the dock. You can board the Elsa there. First things, first. SAVE YOUR GAME. You can do a lot of extra stuf here, but let's not get too carried away. You want to make sure you've got everything you need for your final battle. You'll want to make sure you do a few things first:

• Give the Flower Seed to Luty. (See Luty Side Quest below).
• Visit the Gnosis Cathedral Ship and open the locked door there (See below).
• Buy a better A.G.W.S. You can buy an AG-04 for 50,000 while aboard the Dock Station. You can also by a VX-4000 for 30,000, but it's only slightly faster than your VX-10000 or VX-7000, but it's got lower stats for everything else. On the other hand, if you need an extra A.G.W.S. to have for extended battles, it's an OK addition to your arsonal.

Luty Side Quest
Once you have the Seed, head to the dock colony. You'll have to find Captain Mathews and tell him that's where you want to go. Head into the clinic and talk to Luty. She's looking at a vase along the far wall. You'll need to actualy leave and come back before this flower will bloom. You can't just hop in the E.V.S. and "go" somewhere.

Return to the Cathedral Ship
Now that you have Key 13, Head back to the Cathedral ship by selecting it from the E.V.S. submenu at any EVS Equiped Save Point. The door is located behind the unicorns in the lower level of the tower. You'll have to fight a lot of guys to get there. When you do get there, you can get a Samurai Heart (Increase Counter rate). Once you have this, you can safely leave, unless you left early on your first pass through here. There's another exit point further on, so if you want to level up a little bit, you can head for it instead of backtracking. Just lead out the left exit and past the rocks in your path. You'll go past some Lizardman and Fairy Gnosis. Your guys should have "all enemy" attacks at this point, so this should be fairly safe and quick. Head through all the enemies, and down the elevator you unlocked on your previous pass. At the very, very bottom is the exit.

Saving MOMO
Now that you've handled all the side quests for now, it's time to head to the Song of Nephilim. Talk to Mathews on the bridge of the Elsa, and watch a brief cut scene. When you dock, head left out the hatch (see, the Song of Nephilim has it's own atmophere that makes it easy for people to breath... out in space... or something...) and board the Song of Nephilim. Watch a cut scene. Figuring out what to do at this point is fairly elemental. Head left and, I'm sure this will shock you, you DON'T have to watch a cut scene on the next screen. Head left one more screen. This is your first puzzle. Figuring out how to get to various floors.

First Tower: Elelator go up!
OK. There are 7 floors here, and you're on number 1. Depending on how much weight you remove, you'll be able to change the height the elevator reaches. For every 3 boxes (not stacks - actual boxes), you'll go up one floor. When you watch the elevatr going up, you can see the number of boxes to the right of the floor number. It's fairly straightforward. You'll want to avoid floors 2, 4, and 7, though; there's nothing here but enemies. When you get to a floor, you can head right to go back down, or left to fight and get stuff. All floors a laid out the same - two doorways where enemies might lurk, and a box at the end - with either a prize or a monster-in-a-box you'll have to fight. Well, some might be empty, but that's no fun. ;) After you get stuff from each floor, just head down the chute on the far right to get to the next floor. Here's a run down of each floor. Don't forget, you can call the Seraphim ether summon for Shion, now.

Floor 2: Nothing
This floor takes three boxes to get to, but you can skip it, unless you wanna fight for no prizes. There are plenty of places to do that in this game, though, so I recommend skipping it.

Floor 3: Switch
Blow up 6 boxes (not stacks, some stack have multiple boxes), and press the blue switch to start the elevator. Go through the passage and head left. Kill off the guys here, blow up the box at the end of the passage for a Med Kit DX, and head down through the door on the lower left. Walk around up and left, and press the button there. Watch a cut scene, and then head back into the tower, past the enemies, over to the right, and down the chute. Heal up, if you need too.

Floor 4: Nothing
This floor takes 9 boxes to get to, but you can skip it, unless you wanna fight for no prizes. There are plenty of places to do that in this game, though, so I recommend skipping it.

Floor 5:
This floor takes 12 boxes to get to. Blow them up, head inside and go left. Kill off some enemies and blow up the box at the end of the hall to reveal a chest containing Decoder 14 . (That's one for the door on Elsa's Catapult Deck.) You can get Speed Shoes now, if you want. Head back down the chute.

Floor 6: Leaving
OK. Level 6 isn't quite the same as the others. Use 15 boxes to get here. There are no enemies on this floor, so head around to the near right and blow up the box for a Neo Armor Alpha (that's the greek symbol alpha, if you we uncertain). There are two exits leading leftof here. One goes just left (and leads to the third tower), the other goes left and up (and leads to the second tower). Take the exit leding up and left, and head across the bridge to the second tower. See "Second Tower" below.

Floor 7: Nothing
This floor takes all 18 boxes to get to, but you can skip it, unless you wanna fight for no prizes. There are plenty of places to do that in this game, though, so I recommend skipping it.

Second Tower
In the very center of this tower is a save point. Go save. There are five exits here: 12 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 4' o'clock (you came in here), 8 o'clock, and 10 o'clock. You can ignore the bottom two. They lead to the other towers. You came through one, and the other doesn't have it's bridge enabled, yet. Don't press the button in the middle of the tower, until after you've enabled the bridge. First, lets go through the 12 o'clock passage (straight up). Just off to the right here is a chest containing a Cross , which gives damage -10%. If you extract that skill, enable it, and ALSO wear the Cross , you'll get DMG -20%, which is pretty usefull.

Backtrack, and go through the door at 2 o'clock (upper right). You probably don't see anything here. Put MOMO as your lead member of your party, and you should see a shinny blue thing here. Grab it and you'll learn Tech Attack "MOMO's Kiss." You'll also learn Ether skill "Starlight." Be sure to equip these. Welcome the newest member of your part: Sailor MOMO! Be sure to experiment with her new found abilities. ;)

Now head back to the center, save, and take the 10 o'clock path. Fight the enemies here, and head down the ladder. Fight the enemies here, and go up the first ladder you come to; blow up the barrel here for a Soldier's Honor , which prevents attack disable. Head back down and go right, then down the ladder here. At the bottom, head left to the end of the path, and go up the ladder here. You'll pass a ladder that leads down; we'll come back to it.

Go up the ladder and across a bridge. Before you go into this next area, though, let's do some prep work. There's a naty enemy here. The Athra 26 Series enemy is a Bio type enemy, so Momo's probably not the best choice. This enemy has 3000 HP and has the ability to become immune to your best ether attacks. Because of this, you'll want to select characters that can do physical damage as well as decent ether attacks. I recommend Shion, KOS-MOS, and Ziggy. Prep by enabling Dominion Tank for Shion and Gate for KOS-MOS. You can Steal a Revive DX from this enemy, so you may want to enable something to allow you to steal as well.

When you're ready, head right through the doorway and blow up a bunch of boxes. The first box is empty, the 2nd has a Defibrilator Vest (prevents Instant KO), the 3rd has a Neo Armor Beta (that's a greek symbol beta), and the fourth has this really nasty enemy. Use your most powerful ether attacks first. I used Dominion Tank and Gate (Gate missed, btw), and then had Ziggy steal (I transferred Psyco Pocket to him from Jr.) After that, I was able to connect with Spell Rain before he enabled his Morph Defense. This knocked him down to 500ish HP, at which I switched to using healing and physical attacks. KOS-MOS R-Drill was extremely useful here, as was the Knuckle - Lightning Blast combo. That's all it took to kill him off, and I got it on the Golden Egg slot for a 2x Pts. I got no loot from this battle.

If you don't want to use this same set-up, consider replacing Ziggy with chaos, but don't use your A.G.W.S. If he casts stop on it, and you'll be stuck. He totally rendered Shion useless like this once. I wasn't prepared for that battle and it was really tough. I used MOMO's Miracle star attack, and had Chaos beat him up with the "hand" accessory. He dodged everything else. He practically killed my guys off, too. You'll get Decoder 2 from killing him off, which you can use when you are again allowed to leave this area. Blow up the last box to get access to Segment 12. Head inside and get the W Hammer Rod for MOMO (confusion attack to B & G!) Heal up and head back across the bridge. Go back down the lader, and head for the ladder we skipped earlier. Go down that one too.

At the bottom of this ladder is a platform with exits at the bottom left, bottom center, and bottom right. The bottom left and bottom right ones go to a dead-end (for now), so take the bottom center and push the bottom. This lowers a ring that you can walk on. Go back out, and take the lower right path. Blow up the power cell here. Now do the same thing on the lower left door, but be sure to prepare first.

You'll want a party capable of fighting Rianon Se, a pretty hard Gnosis enemy. That means Shion, KOS-MOS, and probably chaos. You MUST be able to steal here - you'll be grabbing a Shield Armor , which means you never have to worry about status abnormalities again! Heal all the way, and have your guys full ether, too. If you think you might have trouble, you can head back up to the top and save again, but that's a lot of back tracking. He's got 5600 HP, so be sure to use powerful attacks. Be aware, though, that his power-up abilities are based on the total number of HP you've got, so stay out of the A.G.W.S. for this battle!!! He can do 500 HP of damage back-to-back, so have a healer handy! I suppose if you bring MOMO into this battle, you can place her behind someone to keep that character from being pushed to the back. Don't bother having MOMO cast stuff at him; it's not worth it. If he blocks your boost use Clear-All to help out. He might also suck out a bunch of HP from one member, so be ready. He's not impossibly tough, but he IS time consuming.

Start off by using Supreme Judgment to keep his HP drains from doing so much damage, and consider Down Force to limit the power of his physical attacks. I also started off with a Shion Dominion Tank attack, which only hit him for 800 and caused a boost counter that (thankfully) missed. You'll want to steal twice - once to get the Shield Armor (do NOT pass this one up!) and again to get the Boost Pack . He can cast something that will eliminate all status abnormalities, so be ready to cast Supreme Judgment again. I found Rain Blade and R-Cannon to work pretty well. Don't be afraid to use a Revive DX, if you need it. You can get a point multiplier when you kill him, but don't get everyone killed while trying for it! I got nothing for killing him off. >.> Grr. When you have the Skill Points available, be sure to extract Skill: All Guard from the Shield Armor so your characters don't have to worry about status abnormalities any more.

Head down past where you fought that enemy, and go outside. When you get there, youll see a button to your right. Press that, and you'll extend the bridge to the third tower. Head to the bottom left of the screen, and step on the pad just past the blinking light; it's an elevator. Ride the elevator to the top, and head to the upper right corner of the screen; use the save point unless you want to do those battles again! Finally, head back out through that door, and Cross the energy bridge leading to...

The Third Tower
Head through the door on your left. The upper right one leads where you came from, and the right exit leads to a dead-end, for now. Head left and go down the ladder in the middle of the room. Blow up the top three crates to your far left. This creates a bridge you can go across and get to a barrel. Blow it up for a Field Ring (it prevents stop; don't you wish we had it two main battles ago?!?). Head back across and all the way to the lower level. Use the trap at the bottom to render the guys here unable to use their big skills, and mop up with them.

Blow up the rest of the boxes on the left, and head across to the next area. Go up the ladder here and blow up three boxes. Go over to the third area, and head up the ladder there. Cross back over to the second area and blow up something in the far right corner. This should get you a Skill Upgrade S . Now blow up something on the lower left corner to expose a hole. Jump down for an Ether Pack DX. Blow up the door there for a Med Kit , then walk all the way around the floor there to open a chest containing Decoder 17 (you haven't found the location for this, yet).

Blow up the thing above the ladder, hop on, and go all the way to the bottom. Blow up he rest of the boxes on the left, then blow up the trap and kill off the guys there. Blow up the barrel for an Ether Pack DX. Run back across the brige and take the stairs that lead down. That will reset the boxes. Come back inside, go up the ladder, and blow up three boxes. Head across the bridge, down the ladder, and out the stairs at the bottom left of the screen. Go left one more screen. See how all the columns here are flashing and making noise? Listen to the pattern, then go back to the other room and blow pieces off the colmns, until the sound the column makes matches the corresponding sound. If you mess it up, don't wory. Leave via the right and doorway and the puzzle will reset. It should be 3 blues, 1 green, and 4 red (might have to do it in Green, Blue, Red order). This will open the door. Go outside (down), around the path, press the switch, and go through the doorway. Stand on the triangle, and maybe press circle. You'll go up.

Moving on
I really recommend saving here. Go out the upper right exit and save in tower two.

Optional: While I wouldn't recommend it, if you need some supplies or weapons, or whatever, you CAN head to the Elsa. Return to the Third Tower, and go out the door to the right. Go all the way to the right, down the chute on level 6 of the First Tower, and head to the Elsa via he lower right. You still can't leave, so you don't really need to bother talking to Mathews.

When you area ready to move on, return to the bridge between the First and Third Towers of The Song of Nephilim, and use the elevator with the pretty colors. At the bottom, prepare for an attack before you go through the door. Chose your party wisely. I chose Jr., Shion, and chaos. I'd recommend not using Kosmos, and setting your party to use non-beam weapons, unless you've got them leveled up quite a bit. I had Shion's Rain Blade at level 15, so that was able to do some damage. I also have chaos' Angle Blow pretty high level, so that worked well. When you're ready, go inside and watch the freak show. He prattels on for a while, then shion says, "Huh?" For some reason I found that funny. Eventually, you'll fight him. By this point in the game this battle probably isn't that hard. It's probably just time consuming.

The first thing this guy did for my battle was disable attack on my guys. (so I can't use their tech attacks.) I used a bunch of cure all potions, and went to it. Using Queen's Kiss I got a couple of good Mech upgrades off him. After this battle is over you'll be treated to (subjected to?) a bunch more cut scenes, then you'll be facing a new opponant. Be sure to heal up and restore your ether before jumping into this next battle. When you're ready, head forward and talk to the weird guy dressed in all purple with the plague doctor mask.

The first thing I did was boost Shion in and steal a Master's Pendant . He pretty quickly disabled my tech attacks after that, so I had to use a Cure-All on everyone to get them back. Be careful, though. He transforms when you first kill him off, so don't think you'll be totally safe. I was also able to steal a Gemini Clock and a Samurai Heart after this tranformation. With chaos, Shion, and Junion in your party, this shouldn't be too difficult a battle. When you're finished watch the cut scenes then...

Chapter 7

Things to do
After a large number of mind warping cut scenes... Eventually, you'll have control again. Leave the bridge via the elevator and head to the Elsa. We're not heading to Proto Merkahba yet, though. You should get an email or two letting you know a few things. Kosmos can use R Dragon, and the Song of Nephilim is added to the map. Head to the dock, and board the Elsa. You can buy a new gun for Jr. here, and a new weapon for Momo. There is also a new set of armor for everyone. If you want to buy a really cool A.G.W.S., make 300,000 G somehow.

Luty & Segment 2
Save, then head to the Dock Colony. Head to the Clinic, and talk to Luty. You should see the plant budding. Now head to the basement of the Talk To Me store next door to the clinic. Use the decoder and head inside. You'll obtain Robot Part Body . This is something you'll want to give to the Professor, I would think. If you have an exta 300,000 G lying around, you can pick up an AG-95 at the dock colony. It's got FHP 6000, PARM 120, AGL 05, DPOW 130, EARM 000 and WAGL 00. Anyway, when you're done shopping, leave the colony, and then come back and talk to Luty. If the flower isn't blooming, you didn't wait long enough between visits. When it blooms, you'll get a Tech Upgrade Z . You can also buy cooler A.G.W.S. weapons from the Talk To Me shop now.

Cards, etc
If you go back to the casino at this point, you can exchage coins for additiona PM card packs. You can get PM Card F - PM card P. When you open these in the Card Game, you'll receive: PM Card F: AG-05 PM Card G: Third Armament PM Card H: Testament PM Card I: AG-04 PM Card J: Phase Transition Cannon PM Card K: Invoke PM Card L: Destiny PM Card M: Dammerung PM Card N: So Weak! PM Card O: Rhine Maiden PM Card P: Unknown Armament

Level Up
The encephalon area with the search lights allows you to quickly kill off enemies and earn extra T Pts. This allows you to make sure you guys are maxed out on their skills. Make sure you get the Golden egg when you kill off the group, and you can get over 100 T. Pts for the group (on x4). By the time you have reached this point, your guys should be able to handle whatever they throw at you.

For actual levels, use the last battles before Albido to level up your characters. These are the battles where four Gnosis are on one walkway about two screens after a VERY long elevator ride down. Look for it futher down.

Erde Kaiser
After you retrieve the Robot Part Body from the Segment Door on the Dock Colony, return to the Foundation and go visit the Professor at the A.G.W.S. Parts Shop & Foundation Robo Academy. You'll getthe Kelbim Dragon. You can't do anything with it. Try to leave, and (if you've picked up all the parts) you can get a scene where the Professor tells you he can't do anything without Assistant Scott. Head to City Sector 26 and 27. Go into the Ironman and talk to Assistant Scott (he's at the front counter). You'll end up with the Erde Kaiser. Don't forget to equip it to Shion. Oh yeah, it takes ALL 12 pts!!! There are more weapons for your A.G.W.S. here too, btw.

While you are at the foundation colony, Stop b City Sector 26 and 27 and blow some stuff up for more goodies. You can blow up the trash cans for a Skill Ugrade A. There's a PM Card B in the laundry area. Blow up the desk leading to the ladder (in the dry cleaners) for a Skill Upgrade S. Blow up all the boxes in the Ironman's elevator area for a Tech Upgrade S.

Drill Game

On to the Proto Merkabah
When you're ready to head out, go to the bridge and talk to Matthews. You'll watch a bunch of cut scenes (by now I'm sure that shocks you to the core). You'll have control in a few minutes. Head outside the bridgeand save. Head off the Elsa, and inside Proto Merkabah. By this time, my guys were level 40, so I'm going to assume these battles aren't that tough for you. if you find them too tough, be sure to look into the section earlier on leveling up. First things first, set your guys to Poison Guard. You do have Erde Kaiser now, right? And the Angle Ring? Good. Equip those and Boost Pack to Shion. You should be able to walk through nearly any battle you want now (be sure to win on the Golden Egg). Oh, you'll need some Ether Packs, too. Be sure you stock up before leaving the Elsa.

At the first fork on the catwalk outside the elsa, head down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, go left and blow up a bunch of boxes and fight some enemies. Next, follow that same level up and around the right, then left. Fight some enemies here, and blow up a box to find a chest with Defibrillator Vest. Return to the stairs and take the other path. It should lead straight up the middle. Take that, and kill some enemies. Head through the doorway at the end of the walk.

On the second screen, head right and up, until you come to a spot where the catwalk is missing. Go right (there are two walkways here; take the low one). Blow up some boxes to get 2x Frame Repair A , 2x Ether Pack DX and an enemy. Go past those boxes, and down the ladder. Fight the enemies at the bottom of the stair, blow up boxes just down from there (for 2x Bio Sphere and 2x Frame Repair Z), and head up and right. Blow up some boxes for 2x Ether Pack DX, then fight another enemy.

Continue up a little, and press the yellow button (from the back). Go left, and press another yellow switch. Head down, past some blue cars, and left. Press two more yellow switches over here. From the lower switch, head right and blow up some boxes for 2x Med Kit DX. Go up past the blue cars, and use the 2nd yellow sitch to raise the last platform (you had to lower it before to get to the rest of the switches). On your right is a escalator heading up. Take that, and head back to the left. You should now be able to follow the catwalk all the way to the elevator.

When the elevator stops, you'll find yourself in a switchback staircase, on level 40. Go up to level 41 and head left, and into the room here. Examine the green glowing thing to learn a little bit about Realian history. Go back to the stair case, and head up to level 42 (fight an enemy en route). You can fight an enemy in the back right corner of level 42's attached room, and you can learn about psycological disorders. You can't get past the barrier here (yet) so head bakc to the stairway and up to level 43. The right room on level 43 has a chest containing 2x Frame Repair Z . The left most room has a save point (hint, hint) and a bunch of info on the station.

When you get to level 44, you'll fight some Gnosis. Blow up the door in the middle back of the room for a Rejuvenator, then fight enemies and open the chest for a Dragon Rod. Continue left and fight more enemies. There are two doors on the left of this room, but only the bottom (blue-grey) one is unlocked. Go thru and head down to level 43. Blow up a box in this room to reveal Segment Address No. 17. Decode it and head inside for the "BLOOD9" item (Junior's ultimate weapon). Leave this room and head right.

There's a red switch here that you can use to open the hallway between the two areas. Open and use the save point in the control room, then head back to the left stair case and continue down. On level 42, head right and fight the enemy. The switch here opens the door on level 44. Once you hit it, though, you'll have to fight the enemy again. Leave the level, and head down to level 41. Fight an enemy and head into the room here. Go to the far right, and head down - exit through the door here and open the chest for an M Chip Guard . Now head all the way back up to level 43, save, then head up to 44 and go through the door you can now get through.

Head rigth and beat this robot. Blow up the box in the back corner to open a secret doorway. Blow up some barrels fro a Chakra Shield (prevents EP damage). Head back left and defeat another robot, then go down and "Jump Down" to start another batte. I busted out the Erde Kaiser for my first shot, and the battle was fairly easy after that. You get Fast Circuit 25 , Fast Circuit 50 and a Frame Repair A . You'll also get Decoder 6 . When this battle is over, head up and left o fight a couple of enemies. Again, Erde Kaiser is your friend. Continue left and head through two sets of doors. In the next room, head right and remove the locks on the door.

Ignore the door (for now) and go just up ahead Blow a box up there, and go down the ladder. At the bottom, blow up more boxes until you find the final segment register. Congratulations, you now have all the segments and their associated items. Head back up the ladder, and go up and left (around the hole in the middle). Head into the middle of the hologram, and examine the controls. After the cut scene, head through the door at the top of the screen, and then through the one on your right. Head through the door at the top of the screen here. Watch the cut scene. When it's over, you'll be thrust outside. Don't bother heading back. Go right instead. Use the elevator at the bottom of the short stair case, here.

At the bottom of the elevator, save. Get reay for some battles, then head left two screens. Use the elevato, and some gnosis will materialize on you trip down. Kill them off, and just be patient. You'll be in some fun fights. When the train stops, head right, and through the door at the top of the screen. There are four sets of enemies here. Kill them off, but don't go through the far door. (Well, you can go through it, but don't go too far in - just use it to leave-and-reenter the screen so you can fight more guys. Level up here for best results.) That's the end of the game. This is your last chance to do anything else you might want to, like run around and get leveled up. If you want to play the next game in this series, or if your characters are less than, say, level 50 - I'd relly recommend heading back at least to the top of the weird elevator and doing this whole area again. If you want to be more exotic, head all the way back to the Elsa. I usually walk up and down this corridor for a while, getting more and more powerful. Every few fights, I go back up the elevator and save. When you're ready to go on, head through the door at the end of the stairway, and keep going on! For reference, I get all the skills/eher/etc before going on. My guys were all over level 85.

Albido Begone
I'm going to assume you want to play the next game in the series, too, so I'm guessing you've leveled up here AND that you have the Erde Kaiser. I waited until I got all my guys all their skills, ether things, etc, then I went on. Head past the are with all Gnosis, and walk down the catwalk toward the large deal in the middle of the screen. After a cut scene, you'll be treated to a battle with Albedo. Since you probably have Erde Kaiser, just use it and waste him. If you don't have it, be creative. ;) You'll learrn a little bit more about Jr's background. Perception = pain? Weird. "feel my pain for yourself" What a dumb battle cry. lol. One Erde Kaiser and he's gone. There are parts of this cut scene that are just too corney.

The Last Stand
Albido can show me the world. "Shining, shimmering, splended! Tell me, princess... Oh wait. SOrry. I go side tracked. Once Albedo is beaten, he will summon massive Gnosis-Reactor monser, and KOS-MOS will switch to maximum output mode. Because apperntly Kevin from Vector was a freakin' sociopath. "OK... This code will ensure KOS-MOS only uses maximum output once! Yeah, that's a great feature!" Whatever. Anyway, start out with an Erde Kaiser and then use your best attacks. Feel free to use all your good items on this battle - you don't have another one. But if you've been reading this walkthrough, you're alredy aware of that.

Everyone has to have a good line to go into battle, then it begins. Actually, most of those lines are pretty dumb. He's got around 15,000 HP, so just wail on him. If he summons another guy, beat that by using "all enemy" attacks like Rain Blade. After this thing dies, you'll get a whole lot of cut scenes. You'll get a fun explination of almost nothing. Take a close look at some of the people you'll see during this scene. Some of them will appear in the next game. If you would like to mock along with me, read the next paragraph. :D

Why does MMO glow when she searches? If there's no time, why should we hurry...? Does anyone else want to slap MOMO when she starts whining like this? Come to think of it, given the opportunity, I'd rather slap Shion. "You better make it back! Or I'll kill you!" Oh, sorry. I like the "ending-ish" music, but it's completely out of place. In typical Matthews fasion: "What?" lol. And again, "What?" I wish I was able to "look with my heart." Take a good look at the name of the ship. Elsa Van Braun was Hittler's mistress (for those of you that want a weird bit of history). And more of Matthew's best dialog, "Huh? What? Hey!" And now for suspension of disbelief. HOW much does KOS-MOS weigh?!? I like Tony, lol, but does anyone else think that's just a bit too much like the Millenium Falcon coming out of the Death Star? And more Matthews, "Ya moron!" Another "What?" from the captain... Hey look! It's KOS-MOS with her fire-proof hair! All we need now are those funky blue eyes... Woah, check that out. She does, lol. And what's that? Wings? Apparently KOS-MOS is the Angel of Reentry. Now, then. I wanna slap Matthews. How did they survive? The answer, my friend - is blowing in the wind. It's KOS-MOS of the fire-proof hair! w00t! Sorry, I think my lack of excitement got carried away by my sarcastic need to make sense of a rather confusing scene. Don't worry, though. You'll understand when you've played the other episodes. At least I hope so. Otherwise I'm gonna go beat up some game designers somewhere.

FYI: The dude at the grave is Shion's brother. Pop in the other disc and you'll meet him. Save your game data (no really, save it!) and get ready for Episode II. The walkthrough for THAT game is coming soon. Or if you really liked it, start again. :)

EMAIL

Throughout the game, you'll receive various email. Some of them just let you know a little more about the game mechanics, some appear to be spam, some are investment opportunities, and some are regarding a hack that's taking place. There are certain places that you have to be at certain times to receive the emails, and missing them can mean you miss out on some cool opportunities. The two biggest things of note are the hacking emails and the investing emails. I'll cover each of them in their own area, but I'll also cover them here so you can refernce them all in one place.

Hack this
There are a total of 8 emails you receive about a hacker on the loose. You are asked if you want to participate in helping to catch this guy. Below is a list of emails and appropriate replies. You get a lot of money for this, so you may want to think twice about skipping it!

1. In Chapter 1 (under the heading "The Woglinde," you walk through room where a bunch of realians are being fixed. As soon as you are done helping out, leave via the door at the top of the screen, and then come right back into the room. Just run around in circles if it doesn't come right away. :D It should be titled "Tracking Coorperation Request." When you get it, you'll be asked to assist in tracking down the hacker. Reply with "I Will Help You."
2. When you first have control of Shion in Chapter 2 (under the heading "The Elsa"), wander around the ship with the curry in hand. Just outside the door to the bar, you should receive an email titled "I Would Appreciate Your Help." No reply is needed.
3. When you finish investigating the catapult (chapter 2, under the heading "the elsa"), you should receive an email titled "Intruder Confirmed." Your rabbit will talk with you for a bit, then you'll discover he's been hacking from space. See next email...
4. You should recieve a follow-up email immediaetly with 3 options to choose from. Your A.I. thinks the hacker is on a "Cargo Ship on Asteroid Lutz." Reply to that email that "Cargo Ship Seems Suspicious."
5. After you find Momo on the Durandal, you should receive an email with more information. The guy's name is Lev Vandevorst (alias Snake Charmer). For your assistance, you should receive a Code Disarm Key Support Plug-in. Notice how the A.I. is convinced this case is completely closed. LOL. You probably suspect this is foreshadowning, don't you? ;) Anyway, be sure to download the attached file so it can be installed.
6. When you leave the Kukai's Private beach, check around for another email - this time from the hacker's sister! (Sooo you have a SISTER...) "Nishikigi Flower: Snake Charmer." You should get some clues about where she is. You should receive a decoder from the investment side quest, too, and that combined with the one above should help you figure out where she's hiding. The hints for mine were "There is a bridge. There is no fountain. There is a casino. There are environmental bugs, floating aroundin a dimly lit area. There are no prison cells." From that, I guessed "Durandal," which was the 2nd choice.
7. When you finally beat the Encephalon level, you should get an email when you get to the train (as you leave the Residential area of the Druandal). It's a little confusing, but as you probably guessed, your reward will eventually follow.
8. You should get the reward for catching both these guys when you beat the Sog of Nephilim. Not that you likely need the money, by this time, unless you really want a more powerful A.G.W.S. or something. ;)

Invest in WHAT?
Throughout the game, you'll receive emails asking if you want to invest in various companies. I found it's a good idea to invest - you can get some great discounts, some free items, and even a cool weapon for KOS-MOS. You have for opportunites to invest, but you have to be in a certain place to get the email, and a certain place to get the award from the company as well.

1. On the Woglinde (Chapter 1), take the right-hand path past the elevator. On the next screen over, head up and pass to the left of the plant in the glass case. Spend the 500 and reply immediately with "I Will Invest in Vector." To receive your reward, take a detour through the crew quarters with the key (See chapter 2 under the heading "The Elsa" and you should receive an email titled "Dividend from Vector" with Ether Pack S x5 attached. Don't forget to download them!
2. On the Elsa (Chapter 2), as soon as you hear it's time to check out the Catapult, leave the bridge and detour to the right where the save point is. See where it where says that "people hve been speculating that the beam weapon Vector Industries has been developing will make use of the Rigel particle accelerator?" That's your cue to invest 1000 in Venture Link. A little later on, you should see a reply (likely while showing Momo and Ziggy around) titled "Divident from Venture Link." Head to the room with the other save point - not the one near the bridge (one screen down from the slide deck switch). It's where Ziggy hangs out. Wander around, if you need to. You should get a 4000G dividend (as an attachment that you don't need to download).
3. Just after the email above (Chapter 2), take MOMO and Ziggy to the Catapult Deck and head toward the top of the screen. You should get another email offering investment choices. Note that Vector Com. has a partnership with Venture Link, whom you previously supported. That's a clue to invest 2000G in the company. Go ahead and reply "I Will Invest in Vector." When you get to the Durandal, you should see your reward.
4. At some point, likely during chapter 4, you should receive an email with a Code Disarm Key Plug-in for your investment above.
5. When you are supposed to be looking for MOMO (at the very beginning of chapter 4), head to the Hangar and explore the whole area. you should receive an email about investing. You'll find out that investing in Alkimia will help facilitate the development of new technologies! You better have the 6k! Reply with "I will invest in Alkimia."
6. At some time during Chapter 3 or 4, you should receive your reward. I got it at the dock colony around 31 hour and 30 minutes into the game. In fact, that was BEFORE the final email above. [I dunno if that means anything will be different later. It may seriously limit the output of the device if I haven't completed the needed investments.]

Miyuki's Secret
Shion's friend Miyuki has a tendency to like to experiment, it seems. Be sure to check out the emails she sends you and reply promptly (and correctly.) Your reward for this is the KOS-MOS weapon F-Scythe.

1. You'll receive the first email (titled "Secret Email") in chapter 1, on the Woglinde, look around the little rest area alcove just up and left from the guy complaining about loosing his key.
2. When you have visited the bridge, you should receive an email from Miyuki titled "Here's a Sprinkle." When you get it, immediately download the plug-in.
3. Much later in the game, you'll automatically receive an email when you've completed the Gnosis Attack on the Kukai Foundation.

Segment Addresses

What are they?
Segment addresses are left over technology from construction of various things.

Segment 01
Door: On the Roof of Our Treasure. Walk "up and right" to get to it.
Key: After talking to the Pink Bug in king's wharehouse on the Foundation Colony, search the right hand sitting area of the Durandl Park.
Item: Robot Part Head .

Segment 02
Door: On the Dock Colony, behind the junk in the basement of Talk To Me!!
Key: Kill a really nasty enemy in Tower Two of the Song of Nephilim.
Item: Kelbim Dragon (Robot Torso)

Segment 03
Door: Hidden behind a bookshelf in the Dry cleaners on the Foundation Colony.
Key: Beat bunny in a foot race in the forest encephalon.
Item: Robot Part Right Leg

Segment 04
Door: On Pleroma, up a corridor hidden behind two boxes.
Key: The A.G.W.S. that you fake out using the crane (two screens right from the door).
Item: Thief Ring (increase rare item aquisition by 10%).

Segment 05
Door: On Miltia, during the ecephalon. From the opening playground scene, it's through the locked gate to your left. You'll have to come aroud at that gate via one of the manholes where the Kobalds are lurking.
Key: Durandal Hanger; during imprisonment scene.
Item: Double Buster . You WANT this.

Segment 06
Door: Planetarium on Proto Merkabah.
Key: Defeat large robot on Proto Merkabah
Item: Trauma Plate (Prevents Critical Hits)

Segment 07
Door: In the first chapter, on the Woglide. You'll find the door when you talk to Sargent Swaine.
Key: You can obtain he key from Seargent Swaine on the Woglinde, during your first encounter with the Gnosis.
Contains: Robot Part Right Arm .

Segment 08
Room: On board the Elsa, hidden behind some cabinets.
Key: Give the Engagement Ring to the lady in the Ironman bar.
Item: Robot Part Left Leg

Segment 09
Door: On the 3rd floor of the office complex within the cathedral ship.
Key: Guarded by a Gnosis near the end of the Cathedral Ship level.
Item: Robot Part Left Arm .

Segment 10
Room: You can find Segment 10 in the opening scene encephalon dive on board the Woglinde.
Key: On the Elsa, in a chest hidden down a flight of stairs. You have to found the Disarm Key on the couch first.
Item: 2x Booster Pack (Boost +1 in battle).

Segment 11
Room: When you first control Jr on the U-TIC ship, you'll find this just past Door No. 4.
Key: On the U-TIC hideout on Pleroma, you'll find the key hidden in the center ofthe "Echoing" corridore.
Item: Coat * Ice.

Segment 12
Door: In the second tower of the Song of Nephilim, behind a series of five boxes in a row.
Key: As Jr, on Miltia, in the sewers, behind a locked door.
*Item: W Hammer Rod (MOMO's weapon: Causes Confusion for Biological and Gnosis enemies)

Segment 13
Door: On the Gnosis Cathedral Ship, behind the Unicorns, Segment 13 is hidden behind some boxes.
Key: On the roof of the bakery in the Foundation colony. Get there vai the their floor of Our Treasure, after the Gnosis have invaded.
Item: Samurai Heart (increase counter rate!)

Segment 14
Door: On the Elsa, this door is behind a barrel on the Catapult deck.
Key: Floor 5 of the first tower of the Song of Nephilim.
*Item: Speed Shoes . This gives the wearer +25% speed increase.

Segment 15
Door: On Miltia (in the encephalon dive) as Jr., hidden in the subway, just up from the save point at the bottom of the stairs.
Key: You get the key by defeating the Hydra inside the Flower Shop onbaord the Gnosis Cathedral Ship.
Item: Angel Ring (reduce EP consuption by 1/2).

Segment 16
Room: You can find Segment Address 16 on the Woglinde, in the corridor two screens right from the E.G.W.S. hanger.
Key: Use the U-TIC Card on the U-TIC ship when you first meet Jr.
Item: Stim DX

Segment 17
Door: Proto Merkabah, Research Lab 43rd Floor
Key: In the Third Tower of the Song of Nephilim, in the 2nd area, third floor.
Item: Junior's ultimate gun: BLOOD9.

Segment 18
Room: You can find Segment 18 in the cooridor of the Woglinde, near Shion's Room.
Key: You can get Decoder 18 on the woglinde AFTER you first aquire Kosmos.
Item: Coat * Lightning (requires skill level 3).

Casino

About
Gambling via the "Poker" game in the casino is the fastest (in my opinion) way to rack up cash. I earned over 30,000G in one bet! Once you get the Passport (see below) You can use the E.V.S. save point on the Elsa to play, as it's near a shop plate.

Getting Started: Casino Passport
You cannot do anything until you first obtain the passport. The Casino Passport is located in a blue chest in the Game Room. You'll find the Game Room in the Residential section of the Durandal. Until Shion boards the Durandal, there is nothing you can do. When you have finished the long cut scene, and you are trying to find Momo, you can detour to the residential area.

Find the shop by going up the stairs, the take the first right, the next left, then a couple of rights. There's a shop in the room at the end of the hallway. Sell off any Med Kit , Ether Pack , Revive , and Cure-All you happen to have. Now go back the way you came, following the wall to Shion's left. You should pass a sign telling you where the game room is.

Grab the chest on the far right to get your Card Passport , then head left to the E.V.S. plate and save in a new slot (kinda important, actually). Go into the menu and select Casino Passport from the Key Items area. You'll be playing Poker - don't worry if you don't know how to play poker, it's not really poker at all. If you are really serious about making money this way, I strongly recommend you take the train from the Residential Area to the Dock and board the Elsa (farthest right).

• When you first arrive, you'll need to swap out some of your money for chips. Select the top option (Exchange), say purchace coins and buy the largest batch you can (you probably don't need more than 1000, honestly).
• Next, select Poker on the right, and choose level 4.
• Play the game to earn more coins, using the guides below (start with beginner, then go on to advanced). I usually do this for 30 minutes, and earn around 100,000 coins.
• Return to the Exchange menu and trade 9900 coins for 99 Recovery Sets. Be sure to keep at least 1000 coins available for use when you come back next time!
• Exit the Casino and go to a grey shop plate.
• Sell off all 99 of your Med Kit , Ether Pack , Revive , and Cure-All for 10,890G.
• Repeat steps 3-5 as long as it takes to sell off all but 1000 coins worth. This usualy takes me about 10 minutes.
• Note that Aces are ALWAYS played LOW. That means you cannot get a 10,J,Q,K,A straight or a Royal Flush (despite the look of things).
• You can, however, get an A,2,3,4,5 straight.

Beginner Strategy
Select Poker, then Level 4, and say "Yes" that you want to play 100 coins per round. The list to the bottom left explains that standard hands win you more coins at the rate specified. Starting out, you want to look for two or more of any card. Use the select function to change from "DRAW" to "HOLD" under these cards.

If the cards that come up have no pair options, retain only the face (10, J, Q, K, A) cards. Use the "Draw" option at the bottom to go on to the next phase.

When asked to go "Double or nothing" ALWAYS say "Yes." Here are the double-or-nothing rules you should follow:

• Never throw away a valid hand. If you are just starting out, resist the urge to throw away, for example, if you have [3H, 4H, 5H, 6H, 6D], don't throw away your [6D] and try for another Heart. Since the real money is made double-or-nothing, you've gotta get there first.
• ALWAYS bet LOW on a King and HI on an ace.
• If you have less than 1000 coins (but more than 100 coins), only bet HI on 1, 2, and 3.
• If you have less than 1000 coins (but more than 100 coins), only bet LOW on J, Q, and K.
• If you have more than 1000 coins, *always* bet "HI" on Ace, 2, 3, 4, or 5.
• If you have more than 1000 coins, *always* bet "LOW" on 9, 10, 7, Q, or K.
• If you are on one of the first three card slots, always bet on 6 or 8 as well; don't bet on them if you are on slot 4 or 5.
• If you are on the 4th or 5th slot, don't ever bet on a 7 (it's a 50-50 chance), and only bet on 6 or 8 if there's less than 1000 coins at stake.

Advanced Strategy
This area contains a few notes for more expert players. Wait until you've made some serious coin following the beginner's area before you try this area out.

• Pick a direction (I pick HI) and *always* guess that on a 7, unless you are on slot 4 or 5.
• If you have no pairs, always go for a flush or straight if you are one card away.
• You cannot get a Royal Flush. Aces are played LOW every time. I've had a Royal Flush dealt to me TWICE and the game called it a loss. You can imagine how bitter and filled with thoughts of rage I was. :D
• Your odds are only sightly better for an inside straight draw (e.g., 4,5,7,8) than for an outside straight draw (4,5,6,7). The reason is, you'll get to the HI/LOW round with any pair as well as the straight card. Do the math - it's only a 1 in 48 chance less.

Rewards
During the course of playing the game and exchanging your coins, you'll notice there are an awful lot of things you can earn in addition to just the Recovery Pack that I suggest. By all means, feel free to get a few dozen Card Pack #2 additions (on the durandal is the first place you can get them), the various game art, etc. The following is a list of items you can get from the exchange. With the exception of the Recovery Set, Escape and Rest Set, and the card game accessories, these are all "One per customer" items (so you can't stock up on Revive DX, for example).

• Recovery Set: 100 Coins
• Escape and Rest Set: 150 Coins
• Golden Dice: 10,000 Coins
• Bravesoul: 15,000 Coins
• Revive DX: 18,000 Coins
• Stim DX: 12,000 Coins
• Design sketch 01: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 02: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 03: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 04: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 05: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 06: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 07: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 08: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 09: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 10: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 11: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 12: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 13: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 14: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 15: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 16: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 17: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 18: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 19: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 20: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 21: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 22: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 23: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 24: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 25: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 26: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 27: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 28: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 29: 2000 Coins
• Design sketch 30: 2000 Coins
• Starter Set (Card Game): 400 Coins
• Card Pack #1 (Card Game): 100 Coins
• Card Pack #2 (Card Game): 100 Coins

Card Game

Starting
To start playing the card game, as soon as you are summoned to the bridge of the Elsa, head to the galley first. You can get a card passport with a starter pack (worth 400 G) from the bartending robot. Once you have that, head to the E.V.S. plate (save point) right before you get to the Bridge. Go to the menu, page right once and select Card Passport from the menu options. This will take you into the U.M.N. section that allows you to play the card game.

Staring Out
There are a few things you should know when playing the card game.

1. The card game takes a fair amount of time and patience to learn.
2. You MUST use the tutorial to learn how the system works; unless you have played a LOT of CCGs (collecable card games) it won't make any sense at all.
3. You don't actually lose your cards if you screw up. This is totally unrealistic, but VERY cool. I guess the game mechanics are setup so that, if you are willing to spend the time and money to get your card packs leveled-up, you deserve a break.
4. As an extension of the above rule, don't bother with the Exibition rounds, unless you don't have a lot of time - but refer to the first rule. If you get knocked out of a turnament in the 5th round, you'll STILL get the consolation prize of the 4 packs you won in the previous rounds. If you WIN the tournament, though, you can get cool stuff. I got a Tuned Circuit the first time I played, and 2x Promotional Card: Swimsuit MOMO (I know, it's weird) the next two, followed by Swimsuit Shion (not as cool as it sounds) and then another Swimsuit MOMO. The tune circuit is worth 1500 G; the Swimsuit MOMO cards are odd. ;)
5. If you play a Gnosis card, you MUST kill of a human that DOES NOT have a "E" symbol on it. I've had to kill off my Level 10 Shion twice because I forgot this rule, so DON'T forget it.
6. If you exit a tournament using the start button, you will forfit all of your earnings up to that point. This does not apply when using the "X" button during the pause between rounds (when you see the tournament lineup on the screen).
7. Most upper-level cards require you to have at least one human on the board, so don't forget to stock up with a lot of them.
8. Many of the best event cards require two Mech type units; KOS-MOS counts as one.
9. When Shion is one the BATTLEFIELD, you can play both KOS-MOS and VX series cards without cost. Note that standby DOES NOT count - she must be in play.
10. Swimsuit Shion doesn't count as "Shion" for any of the cards that require her. This applies to the cards above as well as the Lv 10 Shion card. This does not, however, mean that you can place it on the board if there is another Shion in play, however.