Xenogears speedrun Notes by KadMony Version 3.00

Contents General information ................................................................................................................................ 5 Author.................................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 5 Timer ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Autofire................................................................................................................................................ 5 Differences between Japanese/US versions ....................................................................................... 6 What is the ‘official’ category name for Xenogears speedrun? .......................................................... 6 Any thoughts on a 100% run? ............................................................................................................. 6 Specific techniques .................................................................................................................................. 8 Combo acquisition ............................................................................................................................... 8 Glitches ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Skips ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Speedrun complete description ............................................................................................................ 12 New game.......................................................................................................................................... 12 Split 1 : Mountain Path ...................................................................................................................... 12 Split 2 : Omen .................................................................................................................................... 13 Split 3 : Musha MK............................................................................................................................. 14 Split 4 : Blackmoon Forest ................................................................................................................. 16 Split 5 : Rankar ................................................................................................................................... 17 Split 6 : Dazil ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Split 7 : Grahf ..................................................................................................................................... 18 1

Split 8 : Cargo Cutscene ..................................................................................................................... 18 Split 9 : Bartholomew ........................................................................................................................ 19 Split 10 : Balthazar ............................................................................................................................. 20 Split 11 : No-Load bug Remove ......................................................................................................... 20 Split 12 : Calamity .............................................................................................................................. 22 Split 13 : Fatima history ..................................................................................................................... 23 Split 14 : Hideout Attack .................................................................................................................... 24 Split 15 : Bledavik .............................................................................................................................. 26 Split 16 : Kahran Ramsus ................................................................................................................... 32 Split 17 : Sophia’s portrait ................................................................................................................. 33 Split 18 : Zzzzzzz ................................................................................................................................. 34 Split 19 : Elly ...................................................................................................................................... 36 Split 20 : Vanderkaum ....................................................................................................................... 37 Split 21 : Nortune .............................................................................................................................. 38 Split 22 : Baptismal Ceremony .......................................................................................................... 38 Split 23 : Battle arena ........................................................................................................................ 39 Split 24 : Sewers horror ..................................................................................................................... 40 Split 25 : Redrum ............................................................................................................................... 45 Split 26 : Wiseman ............................................................................................................................. 45 Split 27 : Sigmund .............................................................................................................................. 46 Split 28 : Train Nortune ..................................................................................................................... 47 Split 29 : Rankar R.............................................................................................................................. 49 Split 30 : Dominia .............................................................................................................................. 50 Split 31 : Goliath Factory ................................................................................................................... 51 Split 32 : Boss Goliath factory............................................................................................................ 55 Split 33 : The Thames ........................................................................................................................ 56 Split 34 : Dominia 2 ........................................................................................................................... 58 2

Split 35 : Elly’s hypnosis ..................................................................................................................... 58 Split 36 : Ramsus Miang Thames ....................................................................................................... 59 Split 37 : Ethos headquarter .............................................................................................................. 60 Split 38 : Orphanage .......................................................................................................................... 62 Split 39 : Reaper’s Ship ...................................................................................................................... 62 Split 40 : Bloody ................................................................................................................................. 65 Split 41 : Zeboim Era .......................................................................................................................... 67 Split 42 : ID......................................................................................................................................... 72 Split 43 : Stein .................................................................................................................................... 74 Split 44 : Babel tower ........................................................................................................................ 74 Split 45 : Ramsus Miang Babel tower ................................................................................................ 76 Split 46 : Maria babel tower .............................................................................................................. 80 Split 47 : Shevat ................................................................................................................................. 80 Split 48 : Achtzehn ............................................................................................................................. 87 Split 49 : Gaspard limiter remove...................................................................................................... 87 Split 50 : Nisan’s secret Mausoleum ................................................................................................. 88 Split 51 : Shakhan .............................................................................................................................. 93 Split 52 : Shot fail ............................................................................................................................... 93 Split 53 : Sargasso Point .................................................................................................................... 95 Split 54 : Emeralda............................................................................................................................. 96 Split 55 : Into Solaris .......................................................................................................................... 96 Split 56 : Cain/Krelian meeting .......................................................................................................... 99 Split 57 : Shower time ..................................................................................................................... 100 Split 58 : Solaris Food factory .......................................................................................................... 102 Split 59 : Citan revealed................................................................................................................... 105 Split 60 : Grahf & Executioner ......................................................................................................... 108 Split 61 : End of CD 1 ....................................................................................................................... 108 3

Split 62 : Vendetta ........................................................................................................................... 110 Split 63 : Sufal Mass......................................................................................................................... 111 Split 64 : Anima Dungeon 1 ............................................................................................................. 111 Split 65 : Elements ........................................................................................................................... 114 Split 66 : Anima Dungeon 2 ............................................................................................................. 115 Split 67 : Hammer ............................................................................................................................ 118 Split 68 : Larry-Deus ........................................................................................................................ 119 Split 69 : WTF................................................................................................................................... 120 Split 70 : Gazel end .......................................................................................................................... 120 Split 71 : Opiomorph ....................................................................................................................... 121 Split 72 : Sophia’s sacrifice .............................................................................................................. 122 Split 73 : Krelian’s faith lost ............................................................................................................. 122 Split 74 : ID....................................................................................................................................... 123 Split 75 : True Weltall ...................................................................................................................... 123 Split 76 : Into Merkava .................................................................................................................... 125 Split 77 : Toward Deus ..................................................................................................................... 129 Split 78 : The End ............................................................................................................................. 130

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General information Author I am KadMony, French Mathematician and speedrunner living in Paris. I decided to produce notes for Xenogears’ speedrun in order to allow as much people as possible to get into that gaming experience. I usually stream live speedruns on my twitch channel www.twitch.tv/kadmony. The versions 1.XX and 2.XX of the notes were dedicated to the old route of the game, which I had produced previously, by learning the Japanese route of the game and adding a lot of optimization and improvements. For this 3.XX version I completely reconstructed the route, with massive changes, both in the money route, in the menuing and the strategies. This new route is faster (between 5 and 10 minutes, more precisely) than the old route of the game. Since for Boss Fights and Dungeons a short video is often more enlightening than a long and tricky text, I will soon upload videos on youtube describing all the essential parts of the run. Find those on my YouTube channel : www.youtube.com/KadMonillify.

Acknowledgements Thoses notes arise from a bit of time, work and energy, at least enough in my opinion to make me want to express my gratitude toward Akenais, Djartklom, LePetiteMuxouie, Liveug, m00gle, Nam’, NwarDez_79, Rudyxx and the amazing people I met on twitch for their support.

Timer Since the first first Xenogears speedruns which were performed in Japan, runners have settled the following rules. The timer is started when hitting ‘New game’ in the main menu, and stopped once the ‘Xenogears Episode V, the end’ has appeared, at the end of the game. This does not match with the standard ‘New Game -> last input’ set-up which is usually chosen in RPG speedruns, but this is what came out from Xenogears community.

Autofire As always when speaking of RPG speedruns, autofire is accepted and used when running the Japanese version of the game, while the speedruns on the US version are only mashed with bare hands (unless official gear allows its). The huge amount of textboxes in the game makes a consistent mashing one of the main ingredients to get a good run.

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Differences between Japanese/US versions Apart from the opportunity for Japanese runners to use autofire controllers during their runs, there are several differences between the Japanese and the US versions of Xenogears : -

the textboxes are designed to put text on letter by letter. In practice and notably because of the amount of text contained in the game, there is around 4 hours of pure textbox time difference between the two versions.

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several bugs which appear in the Japanese version of the game were fixed in the US version and thus won’t be discussed in the sequel (i.e. Maria Nisan’s second stair skip, Equipment duplication, Iron Mail glitch…).

What is the ‘official’ category name for Xenogears speedrun? I assume the run should be called RTA any% glitchless. Xenogears will probably only be run in RTA for two reasons : first, the no-load bug remove forces the player to soft-reset and launch the game again (see the glitches section for a more precise description). Second, the famous Larry-Deus bug during CD2 freezes the game in a very consistent way, and running the game hoping to get a perfect Larry-Deus seems both pointless, uninteresting and too optimistic since no setup is known yet to avoid this bug. The word glitchless is meaningful in the Japanese version due to the numerous glitchs which do not appear in the US version (equipment duplication glitch, just to mention one). It also has some meaning in the US version, because of the no-load bug (see the glitches section for more details). The no-load bug can be used and can change some important points in the main strategy. However it makes the battle system become quite inconsistent in many places, and as shown by the Japanese runners, a glitched run would only be some minutes faster than a standard one. People thus tend to play it manly and just do the run properly.

Any thoughts on a 100% run? It’s an interesting question to look for meaningful rules toward a Xenogears 100% category. Of course and in order to make things interesting, this is not in my opinion a matter of adding some nonsense grinding at the end of the run. Some interesting points which could be added to such category would be :

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Traders Card

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Alpha Weltall (Slayers Robe)

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Emeralda grown up

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Dragon/Dunemans island

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Combo grinding?

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Wedding dress

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Battle Arena

Specific techniques Combo acquisition We first give some general insights on the Combo learning of Xenogears. Learning combos in Xenogears does not rely on the experience points but only on the way the character attacked since the very beginning of the game. Learning combo is not only important for the sake of humans fight, but also essential since human combo determine the acquisition of Gears combos. A character learns a combo when he has performed a fixed number of actions since the beginning of the game (and if he has enough Ap/lvl). For example, Fei acquires his Raijin combo after having performed 30 x ∆ and 10 x X. There is some slight subtlety here : attacking with ∆+∆ will not give 2 x ∆ but only 1 x ∆1 and 1 x ∆2, the ∆s must thus not all be counted together. Even though no general formula is known at the moment to completely determine Combo acquisition (see Elly’s Screamer learn in Bloody’s fight) the system is well understood and in this run all the combo acquisition is optimized, you will only have to perform the actions as explained. Here is first a little table with all the combos which will be specifically acquired during the run, and then the time/actions related in the run.

Fei

Citan

Raijin ∆+X

Ukigumo ∆+X

Senretsu ∆+∆+X

Shinrai □+X

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Bart Rhythm Shock □+X

Elly Screamer : ∆+X

Fei : 

Raijin : the most technical combo acquisition, we refer to Split 3~4 for more details



Senretsu : the combo is acquired in two steps : first add 1 x X and 4 x ∆ in Blackmoon Forest’s Rankar fight after getting the Raijin to dump Fei to 11 x X, 34 x ∆. Then in the Cargo ship semi-forced fight (see Split 8~9) add three ∆+∆+∆+∆+∆ to learn Senretsu at the end of the fight, ensuring the Gear Combo Reppu for the next Bartholomew Gear fight.

-

-

Citan : 

Ukigumo : acquired in the semi-forced Cargo ship fight (see Split 8~9) by attacking the right guards with ∆+X, ∆, ∆+X, ∆, ∆+X. Acquiring it prepare for the pre-Bledavik combo grinding fight and also gives Heimdal the Kentsui combo, very useful in Bart’s hideout Gebler intrusion.



Shinrai : acquired in the combo grinding fight before entering Bledavik (see Split 14~15 for more details). The reason we want Citan to learn it here is to prepare already for Redrum fight.

Bart : 

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Rythmn Shock : the combo is acquired in three steps. First, Bart does 2 x X in the stalactite cave. He then gets some more □ and X in the combo grinding fight before entering Bledavik (see Split 14~15 for more details). Finally Bart gets 4 x □ and 4 x X in the unavoidable fights during Shakhan’s castle intrusion. Through this process Bart gets Rhythm Shock right before Ramsus fight, which is essential.

Elly : 

Elly learns her combo screamer in only one turn, attacking Bloody with a ∆+X in Reaper’s ship (see Split 39~40). It is essential to learn Screamer for the Elements fight in Ethos dig site / Zeboim era. Indeed with the Screamer combo and the Lunar Rod, Elly has a hundred percent chance to put Seraphita into sleep (see Split 41~42).

Glitches Although the run has far more skips than glitches/bugs, there are still some very important (and mainly negative) glitches which occur in a run. -

The No-Load bug The no-load bug is a very intriguing glitch which occurs on all Xenogears run. Since the game was not designed to be single segmented, some very strange things appear if you play through the game far enough without save/reloading. The stats of the game get at one point completely screwed, some Gears loose stats, equipment is also affected (Stier gets a 99999 Frame, other Gears loose stats…). The bug already appears in the first Ranker fight, and is even more visible in Bart’s hideout, where his colleagues get 0 attack if the no-load bug is not removed. Although we don’t have discovered all the effects of the no-load bug, many investigations have been already made, and the only known way to remove the bug is to Save the game, reset and Load the game

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again. The usual place chosen to do this swift soft-reset is usually in the stalactite cave, near Balthazar’s house. -

Nisan’s Intrusion Guards glitch During Nisan’s intrusion (see Splits 49~50) the party is being attacked by Shakhan’s guard. It appears that in some situation (e.g. if two guards are hit at the same time, or if their sprite clip together) finishing one fight actually makes the two sprites both disappear. It is thus possible to reduce the number of fights in this sequence. This certainly is an interesting gain of time, however there is no consistent setup known to get this glitch in each run. The glitch is in fact usually done by luck even on standard playthroughs.

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RodG’s glitches There are several glitches involving the Rods which can be equipped by Vierge. For example, if Vierge is equipped with a RodG which does some additional effect (element-based, abnormal status…) then saving and reloading the game, the effect is cancelled until the player toggles a Gear Menu. Another important place where we must get rid of glitched RodG, is the fight sequences versus the Elements in Babel Tower (see Splits 51~53). At this point if Vierge is equipped with, say, the StoneRodG, Vierge will heal Marinebasher. The only RodG which is not affected by this bug is the FlareRodG, this is why we buy it in Shevat and equip it upon entering those fights.

Skips The run is full of skips, whose gain of time is between 5 seconds and 15 minutes. Here is a short list of those skips with a short description and the related section.

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Moutain path warp (New Game~Split 1) : warping optimization to get directly into the Mountain Path from the other side of Lahan.

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Aveh desert skip (Splits 6~7) : warping optimization allows to get out of Aveh desert in three screens, usually with 0 or 1 random encounter.

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Maison/Citan skip (Splits 12~13) : in&out to avoid following grandpas Maison and Citan walking upon entering Bart’s hideout.

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Elevator/kids skip (Splits 13~14) : in&out when the kids use the elevator down to skip the cutscene and don’t wait for the elevator to come back up.

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Bledavik enter skips (Splits 15~16) : in&out upon entering Bledavik to avoid Bledavik introduction. Escape the load zone of the ‘free room’ cutscene thereafter.

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Maria’s stairs skip (Splits 16~17) : in&out to warp the little Maria on the top of Nisan’s cathedral stairs (works for first floor only on the US version).

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Zzzz plan skip : launch a menu during Citan’s dialog box during the second part of the plan to be warped at the end of the sequence (see split 18).

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Nocturne box skip (Splits 28~29) : jump over the boxes as good as possible to get directly on the other side of the room.

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11 monk HQ talk (Splits 37~38) : talk 11 times in a row to the right Monk toggle Fei being healed (see Split 37~38 for more details).

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Thames 2 skip (Splits 40~41) : 10-15 min skip : while leaving Ethos HQ, don’t go to protect the Thames but head directly toward Ethos dig site.

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Forced fight skip (Splits 41~42) : avoid the load zone of the first forced fight in Ethos dig Site.

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Zeboim escape cutscene skip (Splits 42~43) : right after ID’s fight, get out of the room fast enough not to let the cutscene load.

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Babel Tower rope skip (Splits 43~44) : jumping far away in the water from the top of the first floor of the Babel tower, get into the warpzone toward the relay station.

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Babel tower relay station cutscene skip (Splits 43~44) : avoid the loading zone of the cutscene in front of the relay station’s door.

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Babel tower train cutscene skip (Splits 43~44) : avoid the load zone of the cutscene near the first ladder inside the train.

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Babel tower Floor 2 first Level Skip (Splits 44~45) : get on the right pixel floating in the air and jump to clip directly on the second floor.

Speedrun complete description New game The first cutscene is the only one you can skip during the game. Mash X. Taking control, hold ↑ + mash ∆ Take the hidden money below Fei’s bed and get out (do not rest). Upper floors ↗+ mash X => Dan Exit ↗+ mash X dodge the little fence by hold → a bit. If the little kids playing outside bug in front of Alice’s house, reset. Inside Alice’s house hold ↑, meet Alice upstair. End of the cutscene hold ↓+L+mash X, to get out of the house with the good camera angle. Outside ← to dodge the old woman then ↗ and exit the right place to be warped to the mountain path.

Split 1 : Mountain Path Go ← take the bottom path jump/jump before the bridge. Grab the Spider : jump toward the tree and then again to get it instantly, mashing X. 12

Citan’s house : ↗ and L x2 => enter and talk to Yui : ↑ don’t mash X to avoid talking to Midori. Look for Citan at his workshop outside.

Split 2 : Omen End meal cutscene : ←, return to mountain path ←. Camera optimization : look toward East on the bridge. Intercepted by Citan over the bridge : 1 step ↘, then → and yet ↘ again to get right after the tree and get down. Then go ↓ to come back to Lahan.

Cutscenes coming back to Lahan.

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Boss : Musha MK (150 HP) Booster instant, X , ∆ kill each one. Can either go for ∆ first to go faster or begin with X to play safer, since the foes often dodge or guard.

Split 3 : Musha MK Long cutscene, end up on World map ↙ then ← after 1 or 2 steps while mashing X. Enter Blackmoon forest ↗, don’t move camera and head toward the trunk.

No need to jump to reach hob-gobs’ trunk, just stick to the right. Dodge the big rock thereafter and meet Elly. One of the most technical part in Xenogears Speedrun is the Raijin learning which must be performed in the first hour of the game.

Raijin learning strategy : The main objective in the beginning of the run is to learn the Raijin Combo in the Blackmoon Forest, right before the Rankar fight in order to get the Raigeki Gear Combo. Recall that to learn his Raijin Combo, Fei has to perform 30 x ∆ and 10 x X. There are two places on which random encounters occur : the first is the Mountain Path leading to Citan’s house, and the second is the Blackmoon Forest. I will describe here the most common random fight RNG, and we will discuss backup strats after. -

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Mountain Path : two random fights should occur here. Be sure to get 2 x X in there and finish off the foes with ∆ attacks. Take advantage of the Hob-Gob which use their absorbing

attack to put on as much ∆ as possible. If everything goes standard, you should have get 2 x X and between 7 x ∆ and 12 x ∆ from those fights. There are several outcomes inside Blackmoon forest, which we will describe briefly after. The most common positive RNG is as follows.

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Blackmoon Forest : you get one random encounter before toggling the Hob-Gob fight in front of the big rock. Even though the MushaMK Boss gave some experience points, you should probably still be at level 4 here, i.e. you should only have 3 Ap points per turn. Here we describe the good setup (we deal with the backup strats after). The good setup is that Fei reaches level 5 (and thus gets 4 Ap per turn) at the end of the first fight inside the Blackmoon Forest. This will happen for sure if you get Armor Grubs (Insectoid enemies) since they give a lot of experience points. If you meet 4 x Jackal and got enough experience points in the Mountain path (i.e. not 1/2 x Hob-Gob fights -,-), you will also get to level 5. Now we assume that Fei gets level 5 after the first fight of the Blackmoon Forest. There are several forced fights before the Rankar Boss Fight : 4 x Hob-Gob in front of the big Rock, 2 x Forest Elf when defending Elly and 2 x Forest Elf + 2 x Dive Bomber when exiting the forest. The standard strategy is here to kill the 4 x Hob-Gob and the 4 x Forest Elf in two turns with Fei’s ∆, ∆+X and thus get 16 x ∆ and 8 x X. That means that you should begin the Hob-Gob fight with the 2 x X of Mountain Path and 14 x ∆ (e.g. getting 7 x ∆ in Mountain Path and 7 x ∆ fighting an Armor Grub).

All this said, you should get your 30 x ∆, 10 x X at the end of the 2 x Forest Elf, 2 x Dive Bomber fight and thus get the Raigeki combo for the Rankar fight. Since we add even more ∆ and X in the Rankar fight (see below) having performed a bit too much of actions is not a problem at all. Of course this good setup won’t occur each time, thus we now describe some non-standard events which can occur and how to get rid of them : -

Not enough encounters/experience points in the mountain path : Stick to the strategy and just put as much X and ∆ as possible in the Mountain Path. A good outcome can occur (i.e. getting an Armor Grub fight in Blackmoon forest) and if you get level 5 before the 4 x Hob-Gob Rock fight, you can still recover from this beginning by adding more hits than usual, for example taking advantage of misses and Hob-Gob absorb attack. If things go even worse and you don’t get enough experience points in the early Blackmoon Forest, just add another 4 x Hob Gob forced fight, either in the first or the second part of the Forest.

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You didn’t get level 5 at Blackmoon Forest first encounter or even didn’t get any : Similarly to the previous backup strategy, just try to add as many X and ∆ as possible in the 3 forced fights of the Blackmoon forest and hope for misses or absorbing attacks. If luck does

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not go on your side and you still don’t get enough moves, just add one 4 x Hob Gob battle, either in the first or second screen of the forest. This is in fact probably the fastest strategy, but requires so much luck that it becomes meaningless if not working on a multisegmented run.

Split 4 : Blackmoon Forest Come back with Elly go ↓, instantly launch a menu.

Menuing : -

Elly : Empty – Empty – Empty

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Fei : Martial Wear – Ether Stone - Empty

Go down and first block hit R x 3 to adjust camera, and reach the end of the zone by jumping on the item.

End of cutscene, ↑ to meet Rankar, heal before the fight.

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Boss : Rankar (480) First part of the fight as human. Add 1 x X and 4 x ∆1 at most in order to reach 34 x ∆1 + 11 x X at the end of the fight. The second part of the fight depends on the level of the ATB bar of Fei at the end of the first phase. -

If more than 80%+ of Fei’s ATB bar is filled, then go for Booster, X,∆+∆. Then Rankar goes for his slow spell, thus you have to booster again and finish him by using X,∆+∆. This is the slow pattern since you have to waste a second turn for booster and spend a whole bar slowed.

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If the ATB bar of Fei is below 80% or less go for X, then let Rankar slow you and then after go for booster and kill him using X,∆+∆. Slightly faster than first option.

Split 5 : Rankar After the cutscene hold ↓ to launch the Gebler’s ship cutscene. Get out of the forest and hold ↑ to go toward Dazil. No need to move camera. Both entries of Dazil lead to the same place, thus go for the closest one.

Split 6 : Dazil Go to Dazil’s Ethos Workshop (↑ then 1 or 2 R between bridges). Get out, and go for 1 x R and → after the cutscene. Skip the load zone of the buggy cutscene by jumping over the amphora, going toward the renting buggy room. Go back to the world map with Fei alone : hold ← to go into the desert. Desert skip : -

Hold → through the first screen.

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Hold ↗ during the second screen.

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Hold ↖ during the third one.

You get attacked by two troopers after some cutscenes.

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Boss : Trooper (180HP) Booster on the first turn. Hit on of the two foes with a □ attack, then use ∆+∆ to kill the second one. Finally use X to finish the first one.

More cutscenes.

Split 7 : Grahf Boss Wyrm : 200HP First turn Booster and then cast Guided Shot Ther until Wyrm dies. Depending on the RNG, the Ether statistic of Fei can be at this point between 10 and 13. If Fei has 11 or 12 Ether, then guided shot deals 70~80 damage, and thus Wyrm is killed in 3 turns. If Fei luckily gets 13 Ether stat, then guided shot deals 100+ and Wyrm is two-shot.

Split 8 : Cargo Cutscene Coming back to the transport ship, hold ← and talk to Citan to toggle more cutscenes. Control back, go ↑, then ↗ and then hold → toward the ladder. On the upper floor’s entry don’t move and push R x 1 during the short dialog. Follow the ↘ / → path to reach a semi-forced fight versus guards.

Semi-Forced fight : Aveh guards The fight can be avoided by jumping over the load zone. We however take advantage of it to learn both Senretsu (∆+∆+X) for Fei and Ukigumo (∆+X) for Citan. In order to get those two combos, Fei kills the 3 left guards using ∆+∆+∆+∆+∆. On the other hand Citan kills a first right guard with a ∆+X, and then kills the two remaining right guards with ∆, ∆+X to get the 5 x ∆, 3 x X needed.

Take the ladder at the end of the corridor and go through the nightmare platform 18

. Boss : Bartholomew (800 HP) As often, go for Booster at the first turn. Bart will at his first turn use Wild Smile, decreasing dramatically the Accuracy stat. To prevent too much misses, kill him thereafter using ∆, ∆+□. One can also kill him using Guided Shots, which becomes a faster strategy if Fei misses more than 2 attacks.

Split 9 : Bartholomew Getting controls backs into stalactite cave, hold ↙ and jump two times over crates. Then right after the second jump go L x 2 and ↑ to reach the big rock blocking the way. Examine it and push it with Bart. In the next room, hold ↓ and open the chest containing a Gold Nugget. Continue then holding ↖ to go to the next room and launch get into the menu as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Weltall : Empty – Empty – Empty

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Brigandier : Old Circuit – Empty – Empty

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Put Bart get out of his Gear.

Go through the second and third rooms holding ←. In the fourth room go ↑ and then ↗ while jumping to reach Balthazar’s house. During the stalactite cave flee all fights and be sure to make Bart use 2 x X (we need this to learn combos in the sequel). This can be achieved either in a fight versus Medusoids or versus a Nomad Fix bot. The Medusoid give Exp but no money, the Nomad Fix Bot money but no exp… Nomad Fix Bot is thus safier, but I usually take the risk to go for Medusoids.

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Split 10 : Balthazar Get inside Balthazar’s house. After the first discussion hold → and talk to him again. Talk to him a third time thereafter in order to do some Gear shopping. Get next to the exit while he talks about his offers, choose options 3/1 and adjust camera by pressing L x 1. Shopping : -

Sell all Gear parts

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Buy engines for both Weltall and Brigandier.

Exit Balthazar’s house, use the save point outside to put Bart on foot again and remove the no-load bug, by saving, soft resetting, reloading the game.

Split 11 : No-Load bug Remove Go ↓ and jump toward the north-eastern exit.

Fifth room go ↖ / ←, no need to play safe here, since you can’t fall down. Sixth room, hold ← from the beginning and adjust camera angle by pressing R x 3 when necessary. Next room, go for → and ↑ to activate the sensor. Go thereafter through south-west to the previous path leading to Balthazar’s house ( ↖ / ← ).

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8th corridor starts with ↖, adjust camera with L x 1 at some point and get out holding ↑. 9th room, hold ↑ and then go →. At the end both deactivate the sensor and open the chest containing an Iron Gwhip, return to the ← exit, leading to the usual path toward Balthazar’s house. 10 th room enter Balthazar’s house and speak to him twice so that he opens the gate. Getting out of Balthazar’s house, go ← and ↓. Open the menu as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Put Bart again on foot

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Equip the Iron Gwhip on Brigandier.

Next room go ↓, get into the gondola to activate the power supply, then come back with the gondola and take the elevator. Bottom of the elevator : hold ← and a bit ↙, then jump ←, take care and avoid the little grid.

Down the second elevator hold → to meet Calamity.

Boss : Calamity (2500 HP) Both Brigandier and Weltall use Booster at their first turn. Fei thereafter goes for the usual X, ∆+□, while Bart goes for a Wild Smile on Calamity and then starts also his X,∆+∆ sequence. Repeat combos until Calamity is defeated.

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Split 12 : Calamity After killing Calamity go → toward the exit of the stalactite cavern. Cutscenes. Control back in Yggdrasil, hold ↓ toward the Gear shop.

Gear Shop : -

New engine for both Weltall and Brigandier

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Sell Brigandier’s first Weapon (500G)

Go to the bridge and talk to Sigurd.

Bart’s hideout after some cutscenes. Skip Citan/Maison following by get in&out of the dorm (↑). Get into the south-west door ↙ to talk with Maison. End of the discussion hold ← and then ↓ to shop downstairs.

Shopping : -

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Items : 

Sell Scales, Eyeball, Gold Nugget



Sell all accessories (check you have more than 8000G after these sells).



Buy 2 x Speed Star and some Aquasol/Aquasol S. Be sure to keep a more than 6000G after these.

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Accessories : 

Buy 5 x Speed ring

Hold ↓ outside until you reach the projection room, camera adjustment L x 2. and talk about Fatima’s history.

Split 13 : Fatima history After the cutscene hold ↗ and in&out again in the dorm to skip the elevator waiting. Take the elevator down and keep on toward ↓ to get intercepted by Bart.

End of the cutscene ↖ and take the second elevator down to the paddocks. Once there go ↗ and talk to the mechanic facing Weltall, looking toward West for camera optimization.

End of the custcene go ↗ and take the elevator, once up head for the dorm (↑). 23

Once inside hold → and mash X to sleep : options 2-2. Awaken by alarms go ↑ then ↘, out and take the elevator down. Cutscenes followed by some fights. The menuing in stalactite cave (Old Circuit on Brigandier) as well as the Z9 are meant to reduce misses in those.

Boss : Swordknight (800HP) Don’t go for Booster. Bart goes for X and one of his allies also goes for X, the other charges. Brigandier finishes with ∆+∆. Boss : Aegisknight (700HP) Putting Heimdal either on Booster or not at the first turn is equivalent here. Just go for ∆,∆+∆ until Aegisknight is defeated. Boss : Wandknight x2 (620 HP) Still no need for Booster here. Brigandier and Heimdal kill each of their facing opponent with a X,∆+∆. Boss : Clawknight (600HP) To prevent any miss, put Weltall on Booster on his first turn. Then kill Clawknight with □,∆+□. Boss : Schpariel (4649HP) On their first turn put Brigandier, Weltall and Heimdal in Booster. Brigandier goes for Wild Smile on next turn and then the usual X,∆+∆. Weltall and Heimdal chain respectively X,∆+□ and X,∆+∆ until Schpariel dies.

Split 14 : Hideout Attack Taking control back hold ↑ and talk to Sigurd (option 1 to leave Bart’s hideout). World map hold ↙ and head a bit toward Bledavik. Don’t go to close to it and get out on the road toward Nisan. Once outside menuing instantly.

24

Menuing : -

-

Gears : 

Brigandier : Empty – Empty – Empty



Heimdal : Empty – Empty – Empty



Weltall : Old Circuit – Old Circuit – Old Circuit



Put both Bart and Citan outside of their Gear.

Human : 

Bart : Speed Ring – Power Ring – Speed Ring



Citan : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Before entering Bledavik, grind combo in the desert. Citan has to add 10 x □ and 12 x X to his total, while Bart has to add 3 x □ and 4 x X. We thus make Citan (resp. Bart) attacks 2 turns with X (resp. Bart attacks 1 turn with X) and then does □+X 10 turns (resp. then Bart does □+X 3 turns). At the end of the fight Citan learns Shinrai (we’re preparing here for Redrum). Bart does not learn Rhythm Shock yet, he will get it once the needed 3 x □ and 4 x X will be added, during the 2 forced fight during the infiltration of Shakhan’s castle, right before Ramsus. Everything is calculated so that Citan and Bart finish their grinding at the same time.

Description of the enemies lying in the desert :

25

-

4 Sandmen : not good enough to grind all combos. Need a second fight.

-

3 Sharks : not good enough to grind all combos. Need a second fight.

-

2 Tin Robots : the best fight here with the one with Spear Trooper. Citan and Bart attack one which is finished by an X of Fei. They thereafter grind until enough on the second one which

is killed by a ∆+∆ of Weltall. Sufficient to grind combos and gives valuable money. -

1 Spear Trooper : high defense, killed by X,∆+∆,X from Weltall. Sufficient to grind all combos for Citan and Bart, gives valuable money and can drop C-Circuit+1.

-

2 Troopers : similar to the 2 Tin Robot fight, gives less money though.

-

1 Tin Robot and 4 Sandmen : no attack with Fei here

Split 15 : Bledavik Hold ↑ while entering Bledavik in order to skip Bledavik introducing cutscene. On the map of Blevavik adjust camera with 2 x R and come back to the main place. Once inside hold ↑ and then →, jump over the shops and adjust thereafter with R x 4 in order to avoid the free Hotel guy and his cutscene. Head to the weapon shop.

Weapon Shop : -

Buy the Whipasnappa for Bart

Leaving the weapon shop, launch the menu as soon as possible.

Menuing :

26

-

Bart weapon : Whipasnappa

-

Citan : Empty – Empty – Empty

Out of the weapon shop, go ↖ toward the sewer’s manhole. Talk to the old guy sitting backward, then check the manhole. Keep on toward North-West while he speaks and hold ↓ in and after the stairs to find the secret passage leading to the hide&seek kid. Talk to the hide&seek kid and answer « no ». Then leave the place by taking the secret passage, then ↖/← toward the Northern exit.

Hold ← in Bledavik’s map and enter Shakhan’s square. Shakhan square go for ↑ and reach the exit (option 1). Bledavik’s map, go ↑ to reach the arena. Cutscene entering the arena, hold ↗ and mash X to sign up for the tournament. While signing up, adjust camera with R x 2. Come back to the hold man near the manhole. Get through Shakhan’s square, enter the main place again and jump ↗ toward the old man. Talk to him (option 2) and while he speaks adjust camera looking toward west.

27

Once he has finished his speech, go toward the other side of the place, go ↗ toward the door. Inside the house hold ↖ and go upstairs. Upstairs hold ↘ to go through the window. Outside hold ↖ and mash ∆ to get inside the hotel through its window.

Cutscene with the nun, when finished hold ↘ and mash X to talk again to Citan, get some rest (option 2). The next day choose option 1 and go ↑ toward the arena (no need to get inside Shakhan’s square this time on Bledavik’s map). Inside the arena go ↗, go through the first guard on his right and through the second guard on his left. Right after ↗ and mash X to get inside the tent and talk to Dan. 28

Come back controlling Bart, get out of the hotel through the window ↑. Outside either hold ↘ or try Rudyxx’s jump over the fence and go ← toward the closest manhole. Open it and get inside.

Back to the tournament.

Boss : Gonzales (400HP) Usually Fei has around 160HP at this point and we want Gonzales to kill him. Gonzales counterattacks to deathblows with a 120 attack, and counterattacks to normal attacks by 2 different attacks. The first deals around 30 damage, and the second around 60. Fei thus goes for a Raijin at first turn, and then a ∆ attack. If Fei is not killed after his second attack, add another ∆ so that Gonzales finishes the job.

Right after being defeated by Gonzales, a menu opens up.

Menuing : -

Fei : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Returning to Bart inside sewers, hold ↓ and O from the very beginning (very important if you don’t want to be held by the first high tide and loose around 1 minute). Adjust camera angle by L x 3 and go through the first fence, straight forward. Take the left turn going ↖ inside it and adjust with L. Keep on straight forward and follow left. When turning right, R to avoid losing too much time with the high tide. Get along the following holding ↗ without any camera adjustment. 29

Once in the final fork, go ↑ only once in the middle path. Just hold ↑ until going below the gate. Onc out of the sewers, go ↓ and then ↙ toward the ladder, avoid the grandfather and take the second ladder in order to exit the place.

Inside Shakhan’s castle, enter holding ↘, and get through the south big door between the guards. Don’t jump in the middle of them, otherwise you will waste speed and can get caught. In the next room go ↑ and take the left stairs up. Adjust camera angle of 180° to take the big door up going ↑. Outside go → and take the first door on the right. Out of the room right away and go to the next right door a bit further before being caught. Inside the room, go for ↗, adjust camera angle by L x 2 and get out through the second door. Back in the corridor, go → and take the door at the end. 30

Inside the big room, take the first staris to the right and adjust camera angle by R x 2. Upstairs go throught the begining of the next stairs, adjust again with R x 2 end jump over to face the first unavoidable fight.

Forced fight : Aveh Guards 1 Kill each of them with a □+X attack. Beware of their high damage (use Aquasol/Aquasol S bought in Bart’s hideout if needed).

In the next room hold ↖, and go to the second forced fight at the door of Margie’s room.

Forced fight : Aveh Guards 2 Again kill each of them with a □+X attack. With the 4 x □ and 4 x X added during these 2 forced fights, Bart should learn Rythmn shock at the end of this fight.

Right before Ramsus, launch a menu. 31

Menuing : Heal with aquasol/hob jerky if possible, place Speed Star in position 2.

Boss : Ramsus (350HP + 800HP) Highly RNG-dependent boss, just hope he does not get into defensive stance. If it’s the case then just wait/use ether. First phase of Ramsus is played with Bart only, and Ramsus has here 350HP. Bart should deal 140+ damage with a Rhythm Shock (□+X) combo. Bart begins his first turn with such a Rythmn Shock, then Ramsus makes his first turn dealing high damages to Bart. Bart has then 2 turns to do Rhythm Shock (□+X) two times and thus finish this first phase without healing. Second phase of Ramsus is 800HP, and now you get both Bart and Fei. Just as for the first phase, Bart just goes each turn for Rhythm Shock (□+X) (unless Ramsus is in defensive stance). Since Fei has 3 Speed Rings, he should have 2 turns before Ramsus’ first turn. Thus Fei’s puts a Speed Star on Bart at his first turn and then heals Bart at his second turn. In the sequel Fei either goes for Senretsu (∆+∆+X) or heals if necessary.

Split 16 : Kahran Ramsus Elevator, hold ↑ and reach the end of the corridor. Flee cutscene with Elly : L x 1 camera adjust during prevent lags. Elly’s room, escape from Bledavik. Control back on Yggdrasil, go ↖ then ↑ to get inside through the manhole with ↓. Inside hold ↓ then → and mash X to talk to Chuchu. Get on the elevator and go to the second door in the corridor to talk to Margie. Rename Chuchu in « ? » : O,↑,X,↓,X. Talk to Chuchu right after and give him the spider to get an Ether Veiler. Go back to the bridge and talk to Sigurd to go toward Nisan. 32

World map go ↑ then ↖ and get to Nisan through the secret passage. Cutscenes, Nisan map ←. Enter of Nisan ↖ camera adjust L x 1, go straight forward talk to the old Women, then to Margie and head toward the cathedral. Nisan’s map ↑. Enter of cathedral cutscenes, then just hold ↗ and mash X to talk to Margie in front of the stairs. Margie stairs skip : get in-out-in of the stairs corridor. Get upstairs and exit with ↖. Follow Margie with ↓, cutscenes. Follow then after Margie by walking ←. Go straight into the door as soon as possible.

Split 17 : Sophia’s portrait Cutscene, then talk again to Margie with ↑. Lacan cutscene, get out of the room ↑, then stairs → and adjust camera to prevent lags and get out of the cathedral with ↑. Hold ↑ on both Nisan’s map and inside the city to encounter Maison on the other side of the city, in front of the rent house. Get inside, more cutscenes. Bart-Sigurd reality explanation : all 4 options must be done. Be careful not to launch a second time on of them. -

« Where is Solaris? » ends up with Citan’s : *I came much after Sigurd but I also escaped in the same way.*

-

« What are Lambs? » ends up with Sigurd’s : *So they support their country by stealing landdwellers.*

-

« Who is that man? » ends up with Sigurd’s : *Even I, a test-subject, was changed by his ideals.*

-

The last option ends up with Bart’s : *Damn*. SECOND OPTION.

Out of the house go ↘ and talk to Bart other the bridge. Adjust camera with 1 x L to optimize the next cutscene. 33

End of the cutscene hold ↓ and mash X to get into the ancients’ house.

Split 18 : Zzzzzzz Never-ending-boring-plan, launch a menu during the second explanation, while Citan is talking. Menuing : -

Fei : Glasses – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

-

Bart : Empty – Empty – Empty

-

Citan : Empty – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Ending up in the rent house, hold → and mash X to talk to Bart. Right after Margie, Fei-Citan-Bart cutscene get control with Citan ↖ to get out. Get away from Yggdrasil through the ladder… more cutscenes Bart-Sigurd, Ramsus-Miang-Grahf, Bart-Franz, Elly-Gebler. Control again in the rock/platform pre-Elly. Begin holding ↑. Get then to the exit North-East).

Next room, go ← and adjust camera R x 1 for the first jump.

34

Get into the menu through the save point.

Gear Shopping : -

Weltall : Frame, Armor, Fuel

-

Buy : 3 x C-Circuit

Hold ↑ to get out. Outside hold → to launch cutscene.

Boss : Wandknight (620HP) Go for Booster first turn, then kill each with X,∆+∆. Boss : Clawknight (600HP), Swordknight (700HP), Aegisknight (700HP) Booster on the first turn. Kill first the middle one with □,∆+□, the upper pink one with X,∆+□ and 35

finally the Aegisknight with X,∆+□,X. Boss : Vierge (2400HP) Booster on the first turn, then go for X,∆+□ until the end.

Split 19 : Elly Next screen go for ↘, adjust camera angle with R x 1, menuing as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Weltall : C Circuit – C Circuit – C Circuit

Cutscenes, take control of Bart in Bledavik’s sewers hold ↑, other cutscenes. Controls back in Yggdrasil with Bart and Citan, hold ↙ to get out and come back to Fei.

Rush part 1 : For a more enlightening description : www.youtube.com/KadMonillify Mash X to take control of Weltall and hold ↖. Go for ↑ at the fourth vertical line. Turn around yourself to manipulate the speed of the foes and go straight forward until the end of the zone.

36

Rush part 2 : The second part is less tricky than the first, mash X and hold ↗ until being in front of the big wheel/caterpillar to hold ↑ until you reach the Keifenzel. Then turn around it through the right and go straight forward to escape the zone.

Boss Fight : Main gun (1800HP) Put Weltall on Booster on his first turn. Then simply attack the main cannon each turn with the standard X, ∆+□ sequence until it is crushed, ignoring the right and left cannons.

Boss Fight : Dora (3000HP) The fight is split into two phases. In the first one the defense of Dora is huge and after a fixed number of attacks, his armors gets broken. Since the ∆ attack turns are faster than the X turns, and since the first phase is more a matter of attacking fast than dealing damage go as follows : -

entering the fight, Weltall is put on Booster and then goes for the ∆, ∆+□ sequence until Dora’s armor is broken. On their side the other party members attack with ∆ also until the armor goes down.

-

once Dora’s armor is crushed, Fei attacks with the usual X, ∆+□ until Dora falls. On their side his colleague attack from now on with X.

Split 20 : Vanderkaum Cutscenes Grahf,Bart,Ramsus, Ramsus-Miang, Yggdrasil shut down, ID-Bart, Ramsus-Miang, RamsusID.

Boss : Id (99999HP) Charge and let ID kill you.

37

Split 21 : Nortune Cutscenes Sigmund, executioner, awakening Nortune Pre-Baptismal ceremony, hold ↓ and mash X. Option 2.

Split 22 : Baptismal Ceremony Boss : Leonardo (500HP) Hit with ∆ and let Leonardo kill Fei… Rank D hype -,-.

Awakening ↑,then → to go upstairs. Upstairs, ↘ until block then ↓ to get out. Go ↘ then → toward the bar. Hold ↑ at entrance, and after the little cutscene ↖, then ← to talk to Hammer. End of the discussion go ↑ and get out. Out hold ↘, jump over the little fence and try getting out of the district to toggle a cutscene End of the cutscene hold ↘ and X in order to come back to the bar. Back in the bar Rue cutscene. Exit go ↖ and adjust camera angle L x 3 to come back to the dorm. More cutscenes. When trying to put off the collar, choose option 3. Cutscenes Gazel, come back in Nortune go ↓ and upstairs. More cutscenes. Go ↘, get out and go out of D-block with →. Nortune map go → toward the battling arena. Getting in toggles cutscene. Talk to Rue, Option 2. In all the pre-battle menus, go ↑, X .

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Split 23 : Battle arena Battle Arena fight : Ganador Back-dash with double ← and mash R to end up the fight.

Awakening, talk to Hammer, buy items then accessories (Items 2/1, then accessory 3).

Hammer shop : -

Items : 

-

Buy 5 x Zetasol, 6 x Mentsol, 20 x Omegasol (2,2,1)

Accessories : 

Buy 2 x Metal Jacket, 2 x Metal Helmet, 1 x Guardian Ring

Mash X to end up Hammer’s dialog. Go to the Battle Arena, talk to the second hostess (beware avoiding talking to the first one). Fights 2 and 3 : just kill fast. On the way back to sleep in the dorm : hold ↓ in Battle Arena. Nortune’s map, hold ← and get inside D-block. Once inside hold ↓ and mash X to get in the restaurant/dorm. Sleep at the dorm, in the morning come back to Battling Arena, win fights 4 and 5. Come back again to the dorm and sleep. Awaken by Rico. End of cutscene go ↖ and get out through the west door. Take the ladder up and go → toward the sewers. No need to adjust camera. Before entering the sewers, launch a menu.

39

Split 24 : Sewers horror For a more enlightening description of this zone : www.youtube.com/KadMonillify Enter the sewers en go →. No need to adjust camera in this first room. Observe the first crime scene.

Go toward North-West and go to the lower floor.

On the lower floor hold ↘ + R to make ¾ of 1 turn just as in the screenshots.

40

Follow near the very same wall and follow it until the last little bridge.

Observe the cat-machine twice with X to find the keys.

Come back to the entrance of this very lower floor, then go ↖, jump over the flood and follow ↙ to get the Cool Shades in the chest.

41

Go to the upper floor and reach the sewer distribution room by entering inside using the keys, on the upper floor go ↖ et L at the beginning. Pictures should be more illuminating than long text here. Take the chest in the little room.

Come back in the main sewers and aim to the right murder spot by going pass through the old mutant grandpa.

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Before checking the murder scene, some menuing is needed.

Menuing : -

-

-

Characters : 

Rico : Metal Jacket – Power Ring – Speed Ring



Fei : Metal Jacket – Power Ring S – Speed ring



Citan : Cool Shades – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Gears : 

Weltall : Old Circuit - Old Circuit – Beam Jammer



Stier : Old Circuit – Empty – Empty

Items : 

-

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1 Omegasol / 2 Speed Star / 3 Zetasol / 4 Mentsol

Heal party.

Check the murder scene and go for Redrum fight. For a more enlightening description on Redrum boss fight : www.youtube.com/KadMonillify Boss : Redrum (4242HP) Once Redrum gets less than 2000HP he gets in a second phase where he does his attack « Murder », which instantly kills one of the members of your party. We thus intend to grind AP, put Redrum with just more than 2000HP and then kill him in 1 turn, not allowing him to make any of his murders. Redrum has 4 main types of attacks : -

A strike attack which deals massive damage. We remove here Metal Vest on Citan since his high HP poll allows him to handle that (even though such an attack on him need 2 heals to be forgotten).

-

The ‘bloody Rain’ attack which deals little damage to party but heals Redrum.

-

The ‘breath’ attack which give confusion on the first target and poisons the second target.

-

The ‘murder’ attack which instantly kills an ally. If the strategy goes well, we won’t see this attack.

Redrum starts the Battle with a unique breath attack which confuses 2 members of the team. Citan is immuned to confusion due to his Cool Shades and is quite fast, thus he will cure confusion. The beginning of the fight is quite straightforward : Citan uses the needed Mentsols to heal confusion. He then puts a Speed star on Rico. Both Fei and Rico use their first turn to boost their attack with spells, using Iron Valor and Steel Fist, respectively. Now the real fight begins : -

Fei grinds AP to 25, putting 4 turns of ∆ to reach 20 AP and then 5 turns of Senretsu ∆+∆+X.

-

Rico grinds 25 AP, putting 6 turns of ∆ and then 1 turn of Rico Rocket ∆+X.

-

Citan heals HP/confusion when necessary and grinds up to 20 AP, putting 5 turns of ∆. Once reaching 20 AP, Citan has to take account of the number of time Redrum healed himself with his ‘Bloody Rain’ attack : after reaching 20 AP, Citan adds 1 Jinrai (□+X) if Redrum made 3 or 4 ‘Bloody Rain’. Citan adds 2 Jinrai (□+X) after reaching 20 AP if Redrum did 5 or 6 ‘Bloody Rain’. If Fei’s attack RNG is really bad, don’t be afraid to play a bit safer, and make Citan to 24 or 28 AP in stead of 20.

Once the party’s AP is Fei 25 - Citan 20 - Rico 25, wait the next turn after Rico getting to 25 and launch the final blow. Redrum should have attacked at a point where all the team member’s ATB bar should be at least half-filled. This means that the three characters will have their turn before Redrum next turn. Then just use the Combo ability of the 3 characters and use all their AP to kill Redrum before he can even get into his second phase.

44

Split 25 : Redrum Cutscene out of sewers, Citan, Elly-Gebler

Menuing on the way to the dorm : -

Fei : Glasses – Empty – Speed Ring

-

Citan : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Control back go ↙ and adjust camera with L to go to the dorm. More cutscenes. Awakening go ↓ and come back to the Battle Arena Win the 3 fights in Battle Arena and enjoy more cutscenes.

Boss : Wiseman (888HP) Guard and let Wiseman kill Fei. Even though Wiseman’s attack is Ether (and thus its damage are not divided by two when guarding) the computation of its damage rely on the Defense of Fei. This is why we unequipped Metal Jacket previously.

Split 26 : Wiseman Cutscenes Wiseman,Hammer,Citan. Controls back in the dorm again, go for the last time to the Battle Arena. Win vs Stier. Cutscenes Elly/Room of the Champion, get out to meet Sigmund. To do that hold ↗ downstairs until block and ← to go out of the bar. Get into the Kaiser’s palace through Nortune’s map. Once inside the corridor after the escort go → and take the North-West door. Inside, jump → and get out ↓. 45

In the next corridor go ← and go to the next room. Earn a valuable Power Magic with the mini-game inside : hold ↖ and mash X. Follow the pictures to get the hook to the right position.

After taking the power magic, come back to the first corridor and take the big elevator. Once up, hold ↖ and mash X to enter Sigmund’s organ room.

Split 27 : Sigmund In the Sigmund organ’s room talk to him ↖ then ←. Cutscenes with Rico. Control back in Rico’s remembering room. 46

Get out ↖. Cutscenes. Get out of the palace (elevator then full ↓). Cutscene with Hammer. En of the cutscene hold ↙, get down and get to Nortune’s map in ←. Nortune’s map, go ← and get back to dorm. More cutscenes. Get some sleep in the little room (hold ↑ inside and mash X, options 2/2). Awakening, get out of the little room, next room → until block then ↓. Get inside the D-block up and jump on the train.

Split 28 : Train Nortune Jump other the wagons and get out of the train, not much to say here. Adjust camera when falling from the ceiling by R x 2. Go up using the boxes. Second room go south and take the last door.

In the next room jump over the gap and skip the little box pushing thing. Next corridor, hold ↗ and when turning adjust camera angle by L x 3 (very important). Get into the next door in ↗.

47

Next room, wait for the little cutscene and take the Frame HP on the shelf. Come back then after to the door from which you entered in this room. Adjust camera in the corridor to get out of it through the East door, holding ↑. Boxes room ← then ↖ and mash X. Next room hold ↙ and mash X.

Next room ↙ until block then ← and mash X. Next room go ↖, mash X to open the door and get outside. Next room go straight forward and while going down the stair adjust camera angle by R x 2.

48

In the hangar hold ↗, activate the button two times and mash X to get on Weltall.

Prepare for the next fights by some Gear shopping on the other side of the hangar.

Gear Shopping : -

Weltall : Engine – Armor (both most expensive)

-

Buy : 1x Resp Circuit

Take the closest elevator to enjoy some cutscenes.

Boss : Rankar R (800HP) No need to Booster, kill him with X, ∆+∆.

Split 29 : Rankar R Boss : Aegisknight R (1600HP) The X (resp. □) attack must deal more than 300 (resp. 150) damage, otherwise it means Aegisknight guarded. Weltall is put on Booster at turn 1. Kill then Aegisknight in 4 turns with X, ∆+□, □, ∆+□. If 49

Weltall didn’t deal enough damage, just keep on standard combos. Boss : Swordknight R (1800HP) Booster on first trun and then the standard X, ∆+□ until he Swordknight dies. Boss : Clawknight R (1500HP) Booster on first turn, then □, ∆+□, ∆, ∆+□. If Clawknight guards the first □ (i.e. it deals less than 150 damage) replace the ∆ by a second □. Boss : 2 x Wandknight R (1800HP) Both Weltall and Stier go for booster at first turn. Damages are split here for optimization : Fei and Rico both attack their respective opponent with an X at their second turn. They then both use their ∆+□ on Fei’s opponent to kill it. They thereafter kill Rico’s opponent. Boss : Dominia (7500HP) Straightforward fight : put Weltall and Stier on Booster and go for X, ∆+□ until Dominia falls. If at some point the super-Aerod cannon pops, just ignore and keep on hitting Dominia.

Split 30 : Dominia Come back cutscenes, walk ↖ (Hammer blocks). Outside go ← then ↙ and ↓ to get out of Nortune (option 2). Nortune’s map, hold ↓. World map go →, get out of the Gears to get through the forest and head toward Goliath factory.

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Split 31 : Goliath Factory Enter go ↖, menuing as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

-

Characters : 

Fei : Glasses – Empty – Empty



Elly : Empty – Guardian Ring – Ether Stone

Gears : 

Heimdal : Resp. Circuit – Empty – Empty



Vierge : Power Magic – Def Circuit – Frame HP 10

After second turn hold ↙.

Go straight forward ↑. Next room keep on ↑.

Forced Fight : 3 x HarquebusMK10 Elly one shots two of these ennemies (with Anemo Bolt). Fei and Citan kill the remaining one with two X attacks. 51

Forced Fight : 3 x NeoMushaMK100 Elly one shots two of these ennemies (with Anemo Bolt). Fei and Citan kill the remaining one with two X attacks.

Keep on ↑ for more forced fights.

Forced Fight : 2 x HarquebusMK10 Elly one shots one of these ennemies (with Anemo Bolt). Fei and Citan kill the remaining one with two X attacks.

Get out of the room ↑.

Yet again even more forced fights in the room following the corridor.

52

Forced Fight : 2 x HarquebusMK10 Elly one shots one of these ennemies (with Anemo Bolt). Fei and Citan kill the remaining one with two X attacks.

Keep on ↑ and get into the most trollish fight of the area.

Forced Fight : 2 x Hatamoto + 4 x Mecanic The fight is quite simple but very RNG-dependent since Elly has the bad habit to fail her magic spells. Elly begins the fight by casting Anemo Burn in order to kill 1 x Hatamoto and 2 x Mechanic. Fei and Citan swiftly kill the 2 remaining mechanics (with a ∆ and □ attacks, respectively). Finish off the remaining foes with combos and Anemo bolts from Elly. In case Elly fails her magic and does not kill the 1 x Hatamoto, 2 x Mechanic, get rid of the mechanics as fast as possible not to waste too much time and try again Anemo Burn if needed.

At the end of the room take the left elevator mashing X. Once up there hold ↘ and adjust camera angle with a L x 1. Next screen mash ∆ and go → to active the switch. Come back to the previous platform.

Mash the jump button when coming on the previous platform to gain some centimeters. Coming back through the previous elevator, adjust camera angle by R x 4. Next room, hold ↙ and activate the blue switch to reach then next room.

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Next corridor, go ↖ and adjust camera angle by L x 1. Don’t jump entering the next screen, hold ↖, activate the blue switch and get out with ↙.

Next room, hold ↙ and launch menu as soon as possible. Menuing : -

Use Elly’s frame HP to heal Vierge

-

Vierge : Power Magic – Def Circuit – Empty

-

Use Omegasol on Elly.

Final room of the Goliath Factory, hold ← to start a boss fight.

Boss Fight : Fis-6 (6800HP) Weltall and Vierge are put on booster on their first turn, while Heimdal starts by casting Fuseii on Fis-6 on his first turn and then only charges. Weltall goes for the usual combos X, ∆+□ while Vierge spams Anemo Bolt.

54

Split 32 : Boss Goliath factory End of the boss, hold ↖, cutscenes. Inside the Goliath talk to Elly, Hammer, Rico, Citan to launch more cutscenes.

Boss Fight : Grahf (5000HP) Here put only Vierge in Booster at her first turn. Vierge does Anemo Bolt and Weltall and Stier go for □ attacks until Grahf is defeated. Scripted fight : Grahf won’t attack Elly.

Grahf-Hammer cutscenes, control back inside the Goliath, menuing as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

-

Gears : 

Weltall : Old Circuit – Old Circuit – Empty



Vierge : Power Magic – Empty – Empty



Stier : Empty – Empty – Empty

Character equipment : 

Rico : Empty – Empty – Empty

Go ↗ and talk to Citan. Cutscenes Bart, Ramsus, Gazel, Thames. Awakening, Elly go → and jump toward the rusty platform. 55

Control back with Citan inside Yggdrasil, get out →. Back in the meeting room hold ↓ and R to get upstairs and go to the bridge to talk to Bart. Control back with Bart ↙, go talk to Citan in the Gear shop and to Rico in front of his Gear in the hangar.

Split 33 : The Thames Enter ↑, some shopping.

Shopping : -

-

Armor Shop : 

1 x Penguin Coat



1 x Dervish Dress

Item Shop : 

4 x Speed Star

Exit ↖.

Go ↙ direction supply entrance. Once inside, go ↑ and adjust camera angle with R x 2, go then ↖, get over the boxes, through the knife and jump around at the end to open the chest containing the Lunar Rod. Continue ↖ to go to the Gear shop. 56

Gear Shop : -

Sell all parts except the Old Circuit.

-

Buy 6 x D Circuit, 8 x E Circuit.

-

Weltall : Engine – Frame – Fuel

-

Vierge : Frame – Fuel

-

Brigandier : Frame – Fuel

Take the elevator, mash X to get to 4F. Once there, ↗ and X to talk to the Captain. Go ← toward 3F. Next room, go ↖ and talk to the Captain, cutscenes Captain-Kelvena-Captain. Control back, go → toward 4F, cutscenes.

Menuing : -

57

Gear : 

Weltall : Old Circuit – D Circuit – D Circuit



Vierge : Power Magic – E Circuit – D Circuit

Now into the elevator go 1F. Entering the bridge, hold ← and mash X, cutscenes.

Boss Fight : Dominia (2800 HP) Bart does not attack and only charges. Elly does Anemo Bolt each turn and Fei goes for booster, followed by one cycle of X, ∆+□.

Split 34 : Dominia 2 Controls back ↙, more cutscenes Thames, Elly-Miang. Come back inside Yggdrasil ← to get back into Thames’ 3F and enjoy more cutscene End of the cutscene go ↑ and mash X to go back to the Yggdrasil (B2F double ↑). Once inside the Yggdrasil go to the meeting room. Meeting room, hold ↘ and jump. Elly’s hypnosis cutscene.

Split 35 : Elly’s hypnosis End of the cutscene hold → and mash X to talk to Citan 3 times and get warped to the meeting room. Go → and head toward Yggdrasil’s infirmary. Talk to Elly and after some dialog boxes launch a menu during the loading. Menuing : -

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Gears : 

Weltall : D Circuit – D Circuit – D Circuit



Brigandier : E Circuit – E Circuit – E Circuit

-

Use Omegasol on Elly

-

Put Speed Star in position 2, Zetasol in position 3.

Boss : Dominia (3000 HP) No booster here, it’s the good time to check wether Elly’s and Bart Ether are good or not. Elly spams Anemo Bolt and Bart uses one time his Yggdrazil’s charge. Fei goes for ∆, ∆+□, which should be sufficient. If Dominia gets killed before Fei’s combo, that means Ether RNG is good and thus you will get a fast kill on the next fight. Boss : Ramsus and Miang (4500HP) Fei and Elly are put on Booster, Elly goes for Anemo Bolt each turn, while Fei goes for X, ∆+□, ∆, ∆+□. Bart does one Yggradsil charge and then charges. If this fast kill strat can’t be achieved, then just stick to the same strategy, but instead of making Bart use Yggdrasil’s charge, just make him charge for the whole fight and let Fei keep on dealing damage until the end of the fight.

Split 36 : Ramsus Miang Thames Control back with Elly ,hold → and X to take the elevator to F1 (Deck). Go to the armor ground ↗, cutscenes with Billy-Jessie. Exit → to the elevator B2F to talk to Sigurd on Yggdrasil’s bridge, looking toward North.

World map, hold ↖ until passing to the left of the Western Island, then go ↑. Hold again ↖ right after the 2nd island/beach.

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Go to Nisan by the secret passage, once inside go ↑. Nisan’s map ←. Head directly to the itam shop.

Nisan’s Shopping : -

-

Sell: 

Items : Scales , HP Drive, STR Drive



Accessories : everything but Penguin Coat, Dervish Dress, Power ring S, Speed Ring, Metal Helmet

Buy (78400 total) 

Accessories : 2 x Speed Ring, 2 x EtherDoubler

Come back to the Yggdrasil. Path ↑, than world map →. Go toward the Ethos headquarter : from Dazil’s beach hold ↑ and change to ↗ when switching side on the world minimap.

Split 37 : Ethos headquarter Entering Ethos headquarter hold ↑. Second step adjust camera angle with L x 1. 60

After the first door hold ↗, L and mash X to talk to Billy. Take the second left door of the corridor opened, avoiding Billy. Go down the stairs ↑. Go ↙ and reach the infirmary.

End of the cutscene, go upstairs en hold → while mashing X to enter a room. Talk 11 times to the monk and get out of the room to trigger a new cutscene. Taking control with Elly as a leader, come back to the infirmary. Warped back in the Yggdrasil, go talk to Sigurd and leave Ethos headquarters to Orphanage. Camera adjusting during the journey toward orphanage : look toward south east. Launch a menu right before entering into the orphanage

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Split 38 : Orphanage Entering orphanage, hold ↙ and jump. Go ↙ as in the picture to get directly to the house.

Inside the house go ↓ and mash X to talk to Billy. Cutscenes. Control back go ← then ↑ and get into the door. Go through the corridor in ↖ and take the last door. Next room, hold ↑ and mash X to push the shelves. More cutscenes. Controls back, go ↓ and come back to the Yggdrasil. Inside go ← and go to the meeting room. Meeting room go ↘ and talk to Sigurd. More cutscenes. Control back in the dorm, hold ↖ and get out. Come again to the meeting room and speak to Billy. More cutscenes.

Party change : ↑X↓XO (Bart <-> Citan)

As soon as controls are taken back, exit Yggdrasil through the ladder and launch a menu. Sort de l’Yggdrasil par l’échelle on part sur ↙ pour navire de transport.

Split 39 : Reaper’s Ship Upon entering, hold ↘ and mash X to get in. 62

First room, hold ↓ until block, then hold → and take the ladder. Outside, ↘. Get down and there hold ↑ until reaching the wall. Go through the meat bags going ↙ followed by ←. Go down a bit and activate the level B switch. Come back adjusting camera angle by 3 x R and take open the chest containing B&JM10S Ammo.

Go into the corridor and take the chest in the last door on the left, containing a ShotG60 Ammo. Hi five time the door to get throught it and continue straight forward.

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Before jumping into the hole to launch the fight versus Bloody, launch the menu.

Menuing : -

-

Human equipment : 

Billy : Change first and last gun, Holy Habit – Speed ring – EtherDoubler



Elly : Lunar Rod – Speed Ring – EtherDoubler – Etherstone



Citan : Speed ring – Speed Ring – Power Ring S

Gear : 

-

Item : 

-

Vierge : Power Magic – E Circuit – E Circuit

Omegasol on Elly

Heal if necessary.

Boss Fight : Bloody (4242HP)

Even though the fight seems tough at first glance, Bloody is really slow, and there should not be any problem. Still on his first two turns Bloody will kill two party members, and if bad RNG occurs here, some time can be wasted. It is essential here to make Elly attack Bloody once with ∆+X, so that she learns her Screamer (∆+X) combo, needed for Zeboim’s upcoming fights. Here are the actions of all the party members, described separately, during the first phase of the fight : -

Citan buffers his Ap bar by attacking Bloody with ∆ and raises with Zetasols.

-

Billy attacks Bloody with his Hell Blast (□+X) Combo.

-

Elly attacks Bloody with ∆+X at his first turn and then casts her Aqua Ice Ether. If Citan gets murdered by Bloody, let her use a Zetasol to raise him.

Once Bloody has done his two first turns of Murder, the second phase begins. Since Bloody is extremely slow, he should not get more than two turns before being killed. The second phase strategy is quite straightforward : 64

-

Billy keeps on attacking with his Hell Blast (□+X) Combo. In the case where Elly was killed in the first phase, he casts a second time Goddess Call on her.

-

Elly keeps on casting Aqua Ice on Bloody.

-

Citan uses a Speed Star on Billy and Elly. He then heals team if needed with a RenkiSazanami and dumps his Ap bar until it reaches 25. He then Uses his Combo ability (5 x (□+X)).

To sum up : raise after the murders, attack once with Elly to learn her combo, put Elly and Billy in haste and deal as much damage as possible until Bloody dies.

Split 40 : Bloody Go ↓ and mash X to toggle the next cutscene.

Boss : Giant Wels (7000HP) Elly casts Aerods on her first turn, then one Anemo Bolt. Citan charges and Billy spams Square attacks until Giant Wels is defeated.

After the fight, talk directly to Sigurd and head toward the Ethos headquarter. Go Ethos HQ on bourre dans un premier temps ↑ puis quart de tour gauche L x 2 après l’île triangulaire. Don’t hold ↑ when entering. Upon entering, launch a menu. 65

Menuing : -

Elly : Speed Ring – Etherdoubler – Dervish Dress

-

Omegasol on Elly.

-

Heal everyone.

Going toward the lower floor, you meet some forced fights. Forced fights : Not much to say here : Elly kills the enemies with an Anemo Bolt, so does Billy with a □+□ or a □+□+□ attack. On the other hand Citan usually kills enemies with a Shinrai (□+X) but can let them alive if bad RNG occurs. Just kill all the foes as fast as possible and add some ∆+∆ turns for Citan to finish those if he was not able to kill them.

Go next to the infirmary but this time continue straight forward and adjust camera angle by 4 x R. Take the farest door. Next room after the corridor, go ↗ and mash X to get down using the elevator. Once down take the first available door to toggle some cutscenes. End of the cutscenes get out with ↑ and ↗.

Another forced fight just like the previous ones. Apply the same strategy. More cutscenes, get out going ↘… and enjoy more Ethos, Thames&Wels cutscenes.

Party change : O (Nothing)

Control back hold ↑ toward Sigurd. Thames skip : don’t come back to the Thames here, head directly toward Zeboim ↘. 66

Upon entering Zeboim/Ethos dig site, launch a menu.

Menuing : -

Heal party

-

Omegasol on Elly

-

Citan : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Penguin Coat

-

Billy : Holy habit – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Split 41 : Zeboim Era Once inside go ← and take the elevator down. Next room skip the guard holding ↑, then ← to get to the elevator. Cutscenes. Once down ←, then ↘ toward the exit. 67

Bridge, hold →, then ↗ on the next stairs.

Next room hold ↑ then ↗ after the semi-block to get out. There are several forced fight in the area which look like the forced fight faced in the Ethos HQ. However since the HP poll of those enemies is shorter, we were able to replace the Power Ring S of Citan by a Speed Ring S.

Forced Fight : 4 x Gebler Guard (160HP) Citan kills with □+X combo, Elly with anemo Bolts and Bily with □+□+□ attacks.

Next room hold ↘ and mash X for a force fight and get out through the elevator. Elevator hold ↑ to get out, go through the red corridor an then → for another forced fight. Get out ↘ and pass another red corridor. Next room hold ↙. In this corridor, take only the first forced fight and take the stairs down ↙. Another red corridor then hold ↖ for a short cutscene.

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In this new corridor go ↗, after the forced fight take the door toward stairs down. Down the saitrs check the door, and come back to the last corridor.

Once inside hold ← and mash X, get into the room and deactivate the security system.

Go back to the previous stairs, go through some red corridors and toggle Elly’s cutscene.

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Go ↙ toward the Elements. Menuing as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Omegasol on everybody

Boss Fight : Tolone (2500HP) and Seraphita (2000HP) With our Ether-based team, Seraphita is really dangerous since she can leak Elly’s and Billy’s Ether Points. We thus setup a strategy so that Seraphita will not be able to get any turn before being killed (besides her first turn which is scripted). On each of their first turn, Tolone and Seraphita cast an elemental magic on the whole team, which kills the party if we don’t strengthen elemental defense very fast. However Citan is sufficiently fast to save us from this deadly outcome, and casts Renki and Suiseii (bottom right magic) on his first two turns. Tolone and Seraphita then cast their spells, and the party survives with low HP. Billy then casts Goddess call on Elly in his first turn, while Elly attacks Seraphita on her first turn with her Screamer combo (∆+X) to put her into sleep. Use Citan’s Renki, Sazanami in his third and fourth turns to get the party in a better shape. In the sequel let Seraphita sleep quietly and attack Tolone. Citan attacks Tolone with ∆ to dump Ap which will be useful to wake up Seraphita later with a one-shot. Billy attacks with X+X and Elly casts Terra Lance until Tolone goes down. Once Tolone stops fighting, Citan should be at 20/25 Ap. If it is the case attack Seraphita with Billy’s X+X, Citan’s Combo (just mash Jinrai) and Elly’s Ether Aqua Ice. If Citan has less than 15 Ap Citan adds one ∆ and attacks with his combo the next turn. At any rate Seraphita should be down without being able to get a single turn.

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Comeback adjust camera angle to get out in ↑. While coming back to the entrance of the zone, some cutscenes with Fei are toggled.

Take the previous stairs ↖. Get out holding ↙, and go through a couple of corridors. The path is straightforward, take the elevator ↓.

Go through the save point and launch as soon as possible a menu to prepare for ID’s battle.

Menuing :

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-

Omegasol on Elly

-

Heal party

-

Elly : Metal Helmet – Ether Doubler – Dervish Dress

-

Billy : Holy Habit – Metal Helmet – Ether Doubler

Get toward the bridge and meet ID.

Boss : ID (3000HP) The pace of the fight is very RNG-dependent. ID is very fast and deals high damage but his HP poll is quite low. Citan’s HP poll is high and we put Metal Helmet on Billy and Elly so that they can survive to ID’s combo, which occurs at his third turn. There is however a possibility (around 15%) that ID at his third turn uses 2 combos on the same character, which means you’ll loose a character and some time. If this bad luck occurs, then use a Zetasol and still stick to the strategy, which should ensure killing ID before his second combo turn. Citan’s speed is insane here. At his first turn he puts a Speed Star on Billy, and at his second turn he uses his Ether Fuuseii (↓) on ID. Fuuseii Is considers mainly as a defensive spell dedicated to raise Elemental Defense, but since the spell also weaks the opposite Elemental defense, we use it here to decrease ID’s defense versus wind en maximize Elly’s Anemo Bolt power. Billy casts his Ether Goddess Call on Citan to make him even faster. Citan gets his third turn right before Elly’s first turn, and he uses this turn to use a Speed Star on Elly. Elly casts Anemo Bolt on ID, and Billy casts Goddess Call on himself. Now that the introductionary part of the fight is over, it’s time to deal damage. Citan heals the party after ID’s second turn and until the end, Billy attacks each turn with □+□+□ and Elly casts Anemo Bolt. Once Citan then begins dumping Ap with ∆ attacks and heals if necessary. The second combo turn of ID comes at his eighth turn, and he uses during his 4-7 turns either his kick attack (~100 dmg, single target) or his vortex attack (~75-100 dmg, multitarget). Be sure to launch Citan’s combo when he reaches 20 Ap and keep on dealing damage with Elly and Billy to kill him before his second combo turn.

Split 42 : ID Skip the next cutscene by holding ↘ to get out of the room before it is toggled. Getting out of Ethos Dig Site, launch a menu

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Menuing : -

-

Characters 

Citan : Empty – Empty – Empty



Billy : Empty – Empty – EtherDoubler



Elly : Metal Helmet – EtherDoubler – Ether Stone

Gears : 

Renmazuo : E Circuit – E Circuit – E Circuit

Next room, go → and take the elevator. Cutscenes when getting out, controls back outside of Yggdrasil : hold ↑ until block and go ↗, then ↖. Get into Yggdrasil through the manhole, hold ↗ inside. Check the Weltall in the hangar to toggle new cutscenes.

Party Change : ↓↓X↓↓XO (Bart <-> Rico)

After setting up the party, it is finally time to get rid of Stone. Boss : Alkanshel (13000HP) The fight is split into two phases. The first one is scripted and there is nothing to do except charging and wait for the cutscene introducing the second phase to take place. There are two different strategies, depending on the Ether RNG of Billy and Elly :

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-

Standard strategy : put Elly only on booster and cast Aerods each turn. Rico only charges and Billy spams □ attacks (2 turns of □ should be sufficient unless your Ether RNG is really crappy).

-

Fast strategy : this strategy is worth if and only if both Elly and Billy have good Ether RNG. In this case only Billy is put into Booster, and he goes for □, □, and then □+∆ combo. Elly spams Aerods but is not put on booster, and Rico charges. This way Elly should only use 2 times Aerods, hence saving some time.

Split 43 : Stein Cutscenes Jessie, Meeting room, Shevat talking Party Change : O (Nothing)

End hold ↑ and talk to Sigurd to go toward Babel Tower.

Split 44 : Babel tower World map hold ↓ and ↘ and mash X after the little island. Upon arriving Babel tower hold ↑ and get inside. There are now random fights inside Babel Tower, we are thus going to do as less battles as possible by avoiding the load zones of the fights. For a more enlightening description of the zone, go www.youtube.com/KadMonillify Enter hold ← and while falling go ↖.

Some jumps follow to get up, don’t forget the last one to avoid the first battle zone. The go ←, jump again 2 times to escape the next battle zone and reach the rope.

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Avoid another battle zone right after by jumping ↑. Once there get up to the tube, and jump in the void into the rail station load-zone to skip the second rope cutscene. Once the little cutscene is finished hold ↑, and once blocked R2+L2 to get out of Gears. Then hold → and mash X to get inside.

Get out ↘ jumping. Out hold ↙ and ← while falling, get inside the shuttle.

Inside go ↖, Jump on the tiny box space. Jump then ↖, and skip the cutscene by jumping ↓. Take the ladder and adjust camera angle by R x 1 get in. Up, activate the shuttle.

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After some cutscenes, meet Ramsus and Miang yet again.

Boss : Ramsus and Miang (5000HP) Elly one shots Ramsus with a single Aerods. Both Billy and Fei charge. If Elly’s Ether RNG is really crap, just finish with a □ attack of Billy.

Split 45 : Ramsus Miang Babel tower And of the cutscene hold ↗, and hold ↑ in the next corridor, hold ↗ after the corner. Get down out of the Gears and go into the control room.

Activate the farest computer to the left in the control room. Get out of the control room, hold ↓ and jump to go south, follow the corridor. If in this corridor the team faces a random fight which consists of two Conjurers, don’t flee but kill them. Billy kills them with a □, while Elly kills them with an Anemo Bolt. Next room, hold ↘ and jump over the hole. In the next corridor, adjust camera with 4 x R and then continue straight forward.

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Enter of the second part of the Babel tower. We refer to www.youtube.com/KadMonillify for a more enlightening description. One very important point is is that the first level can be skippend with the so called Babel Tower Floor 2 first level skip. This skip involves a pixel perfect jump which is much more easy to explain in a YouTube video, thus head for my channel to discover it. Begin holding ↓, and stick to the wall to follow the path and walk in the void, thus escaping another fight loading zone. Get back on the line and fall on the first elevator.

Forced fight : 3 x Traffic Jam type (345HP) Elly kills them all with Aerods.

Once up there, skip the next battle zone by walking on the white zone and follow the path until reaching another elevator/forced fight.

Forced fight : 3 x Traffic Jam type (345HP) Elly kills them all with Aerods.

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Will going up adjust camera 1 x R, go → and jump. When reaching the big stairs jump ↘ to avoid another battle zone, jump right after directly on the elevator with ↓/↘.

Forced fight : 3 x Traffic Jam type (345HP) Elly kills them all with Aerods.

Once up go to toward North and fight the forced fight under the arch.

Forced fight : 2 x Conjurer (880HP) Elly and Billy kill the two conjurers with Anemobolt and □ attack, respectively.

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The fight versus de two conjurer scan actually be avoided by a very dangerous jump, which does not seem very reasonable to do in single segment.

Head toward North, don’t take the hidden chest and fall ↙ on the elevator.

Forced fight : 3 x Traffic Jam type (345HP) Elly kills them all with Aerods.

Once up fall → and open the chest containing a Waterveil AR. Get up with some jumps and hold ↗ while falling to get on the elevator.

Forced fight : 3 x Traffic Jam type (345HP) Elly kills them all with Aerods.

Avoid finally the last corner with a jump ↘ to avoid the last battle zone of the tower. Go up using the pipe

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Split 46 : Maria babel tower On the top of the tower hold ↘. Boss : Seibzehn (6000HP) As for Ramsus, Seibzehn vanishes after a single Aerods. Let thus Elly take the show, and if she is really bad and doesn’t do it, finish the job with a □ attack of Billy.

After some cutscenes, the team enters into Shevat.

Split 47 : Shevat Once inside ↑, toward the elevator. On Shevat’s map ↖ and then mash X to get into the main city. Once inside go ↑ then ↖, fall next to the dog. Keep on holding ←, and take the nearest elevator.

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Down there hold ↘, get inside the house and go ↙. Upper floor jump →, take the first door and adjust camera angle by 1 x R. Hold ↖ in the room to observe the wooden horse.

Get out ↖ jump to get down again after the little cutscene. Get out of the house ↑ and take ↑the elevator again. Once up hold ↖ to exit the main city. Shevat’s map, hold ↙ and mash X toward the white statue. Once in the palace, hold ↑ toward Zephyr. Cutscenes, then go back to the first room of the palace and go ↘ to the first room in order to get some rest. After waking up go back and talk to Zephyr again. After some cutscenes, mash X to take Maria in your party, replacing Billy. As soon as controls are taken back, launch a menu. It is essential to check here that Maria has 30 EP. Maria’s EP value is RNG dependent and in the case where Maria has only 29 EP, hope to grind some Gimmick fights in the Shevat Maze so that Maria reaches this level, which is essential on the way to Nisan’s intrusion, the subsequent place visited after Shevat. Getting out and going through the corridor, take advantage of the Orange Chuchu to do some important shopping time. This is the last important shopping time before the end of the game. If for any reason you don’t seem to be able to buy everything, just sell a bit more items (Glasses, weapons, drives…). The strategy is however safe and you shouldn’t need more money, unless you forgot about something previously. Continuing with the Ether-based strategy, we have to buy Etherstones, Power Magic, while the Gears are essentially tuned up to defend Shevat’s generator. We also buy RodG for Vierge both to ensure 81

Maria’s lvl 48 strategy in Sargasso (see splits 53~54) and to avoid the RodG bug which arises in Babel Tower (see splits 51~53).

Shopping : -

-

Weapon/Armor : 

Sell Accessories : sell everything but Speed Ring



Buy : 1 x War Mail, 10 x Etherstone

Gear Parts : 

Sell parts : sell everything but Old Circuit, D Circuit, E Circuit, Frame 50HP



Sell Weapons : sell everything



Weltall : Engine (second most expensive)



Vierge : Frame



Heimdal : Engine, Frame



Buy Parts : 11 x Power Magic



Buy Weapon : ThunderRodG, Flare RodG

Note that we go here for UG’s Generator 2 strategy, which is a bit yolo. If you have enough money and want to play a bit safer, buy the most expensive Engine for Weltall. Take the elevator back to Shevat’s map, hold ↘ to the second elevator. Now enter the Shevat maze. In this zone don’t escape the fights involving three Gimmicks. The experience points earned will be important in the ‘Maria Level 48’ strategy, which will be discussed in the sequel (see Sargasso point section). If you meet such opponents, just kill them using Guided Shot of Fei and ∆+∆+∆+∆+∆+∆ attacks Elly. Once entering Shevat Maze, launch a menu as soon as possible.

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Menuing : Check if Maria has 30 EP -

-

-

Characters : 

Fei : Speed ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring



Elly : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring



Maria : Etherstone – Etherstone – Ether Doubler

Gears : 

Weltall : Old Circuit – Old Circuit – Old Circuit



Seibzehn : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic



Vierge : Flare RodG – Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic

Heal party

If Maria’s EP is lesser than 30, take the Economether in Shevat’s Maze and equip it, replacing an Etherstone, until she reaches the needed amount of EP max. First room ↗ to get to the door. While going down the stairs adjust camera angle with 2 x R and get out in ↘. Take the western path toward a big elevator.

Once out hold ↘ and jump in the hole. Activate the switch and jump over the platforms to get on the other side. Go down the ladders and jump over the elevator.

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Once up go ↗ and take the first door for more stairs.

Once down follow the path and reach North-West to be on another elevator. Down go again to the other side jumping on the turning platforms.

Follow then the unique path which goes through 2 more stairs room until you reach the end of the Shevat maze. Before exiting, be sure to launch a menu.

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Get outside of the maze through the manhole and head West toward the hangar to toggle cutscenes. Cutscenes Hangar, Zephyr, Achtzehn.

Protection of Shevat’s generators : 1 : Elly ↓↓+X 2 : Fei X 3 : Billy ↑↑↑+X 4 : Citan ↓+X

After some cutscenes, option 2 to start the fights. Generator 1 (Elly) : Vierge kills all with a single Aerods.

Generator 2 (Fei) : We go for UG’s strategy here, which is quite fun. Put Weltall on Booster on the first turn, then kill all the 3 opponents with a X attack. Clearly, Welltal should be killed as he takes 1000 damages by attack and has only 6000 HP. However since we equipped 3 Old Circuits on Weltall entering Shevat’s maze, his evade is very good and he should dodge enough attacks to survive.

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Generator 4 (Citan) : Put Heimdal on Booster on its first turn. Kill the two little opponents with Heimdal’s second and third turn (with X attack). Finish after the central opponent with some standard X, ∆+□ combos.

Generator 3 (Billy) : Before getting into the fight, do some menuing : -

Billy : Etherstone – Etherstone – EtherDoubler

-

Renmazuo : Power Magic – Power Magic – E Circuit

Use Jessie cannon to kill the central big opponent instantly. Finish then the two little remaining opponents with □ attacks. Fast strat : if Billy’s Ether is greater than 39, put only 1 Etherdoubler on him. Put Renmazuo on booster on his first turn, and then kill the middle opponent with Jessie Cannon on the second turn.

After some cutscenes, Chuchu faces Achtzehn.

Boss : Achtzehn (3000HP) Scripted fight which cannot be lost. Just attack each turn with Chuchu’s X and hope as less misses as possible.

Boss : Achtzehn (12000HP) Don’t put Seibzehn in Booster in this fight. Use simply Seibzehn’s special option Missile Pod each turn until Achtzehn is defeated.

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Split 48 : Achtzehn Short cutscenes.

Split 49 : Gaspard limiter remove

After some cutscenes, control backs in Shevat’s dorm. Go ↙ toward the central elevator. On the way launch a menu.

Menuing : -

Fei : War Mail – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

-

Maria : Etherstone – Etherstone – Etherstone

-

Elly : Etherstone – Etherstone – Etherstone

Shevat’s map hold ↘ and mash X to get to the elevator.

Hold thereafter ↓ to another elevator, then ↓ again. Come back to the Yggdrasil and talk to Sigurd. Once back in the World Map go R1 + ∆ + → and get toward Nisan. Enter Nisan ↙. Nisan intrusion must be done killing a certain amount of guards. The way we get rid of them is heavily RNG-dependent. For each of these fights, Elly casts Anemo Burn or Thermo Dragon to get rid of all Shakhan Guards. If Elly ‘fails’ her magic, finish them off with Maria’s Ether Graviton Gun. Use right after the fight a Omegasol on Maria in case Elly fails again in a subsequent fight. There is a glitch called the Nisan Guard glitch which allows to reduce the number of encounters during Nisan’s intrusion. The way the glitch works is clear : if either two Guards are touched at the same time or if their sprite are superposed when launching a fight, then they clip and both vanish in one fight when coming back to Nisan. Unfortunately no consistent setup is known to ensure the glitch in all the runs, even though the glitch occurs even usually in standard playthroughs. More cutscenes inside Nisan follow. 87

In the meeting room add Maria to the party Maria (Option ↑↑ X). Taking controls back outside, launch a menu before going to the mausoleum.

Menuing : -

Maria : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

-

Bart : Metal Helmet – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Get to the new point on Nisan’s map. And meet Margie here. Get down the stairs and then hold ↗ and mash X to toggle some cutscenes. After opening the Mausoleum, hold ↑ and get in.

Split 50 : Nisan’s secret Mausoleum When entering, a forced fight toggles.

Forced Fight : 4 x Shakhan guard, 2 x Monk Let Maria cast her Ether Graviton Gun to kill all the opponents instantly.

After some cutscenes, hold L and ↖ to get into the elevator. While going up adjust camera to look toward North, get out ↓. Go ↘ and get to the end of the corridor until reaching the first Jasper door. Get out ↑. Next corridor, go ↗ and take the right/right path to get to another elevator. Once up hold ↖ and take the path up to take the door at the end of the corridor.

88

Corridor hold → and take the second door. Next corridor take the first door on the left wall.

Get out hold ↓ and mash X to get into the hangar Inside hold ← and take the first exit to discover Andvari. Hold ↑ and observe the Gear, cutscenes.

End get down the stairs, hold R until the camera blocks and get out. Hangar ↑, next rooms simply go ←, ↑, elevator ↓ right path, elevator followed by ↑ to go to the machine room. 89

At the end of the cutscene observe the marked computer to toggle more cutscenes. When controls back talk to the Nisan inhabitant to do some shopping.

Shopping : -

Items : 2 x Sigmasol, add Zetasol until 5, 2 x White Star, 10 x Speed Star, 2 x ElementAero

Before leaving the room and in order to prepare the very dangerous fights of the area, launch a menu. In the next corridor you will meet some forced fights, the strategy is always the same here : try to escape from the fight with Bart and Fei, and if it doesn’t work, use Maria’s control to kill all the enemies. Don’t forget to use an Omegasol on Maria after!

Menuing : -

Omegasol on Maria, put Speed Star in position 2.

Come back to the Andvari, this time the team is trapped in the last corridor before the hangar.

90

Forced Fight 4 x Shakhan Guard, 2 x Monk: Let Maria cast her Ether Graviton Gun to kill all the opponents instantly.

Cutscenes Bart-Sigurd using the Jasper. At the end hold ↓, mash X to go toward the Andvari and launch a menu as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Characters : 

Bart : Metal Helmet – Wizardry Ring – Body Guard



Maria : Etherstone – Etherstone – EtherDoubler

Cutscenes when reaching the hangar, followed by a boss.

Boss Fight : 2 x Neo-Etone (3300HP) Maria instantly kills the two opponents with her Special Option Grav. Cannon. 91

After cutscenes come back in Nisan’s house. Talk to Billy and launch a menu as soon as possible to get the EtherDoubler back.

Menuing : -

Billy : Speed Ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Talk they right after to Elly which will join the party.

Menuing : -

Elly : EtherDoubler – Etherstone – Etherstone

-

Vierge : Power Magic – Power Magic – E Circuit

Adjust camera to get out of Nisan looking toward West. World map get into Gears and hold to get to the cavern where Shakhan is.

Enter → and get a first forced fight.

Forced Fight : 2 x Neo Etone (3300HP) Elly instantly kills the two opponents with a single Aerods.

Go ↗ toward gate 1. 92

Boss Fight : Shakhan No need to put any Gear in Booster here. Both Weltall and Brigandier only charge, while Elly casts Aerods each turn until Shakhan is defeated. In this note I only describe the simplified menuing of the run, so 3 turns should be necessary to get rid of him.

Split 51 : Shakhan End of the cutscene, hold ↓ get out to toggle more cutscenes. Controls back with the Yggdrasil, go L + ∆ + ← and head toward Babel Tower. More cutscenes. Hold ↗ when entering and come back to Billy.

Party Change : ↓X↓↓↓↓XO (Bart<->Maria)

Come back in Babel tower go ←. Getting into the control room, some cutscenes.

Boss Fight : Bladegash (4000HP) and Marinebasher (5000HP) Elly annihilates both of Dominia and Kelvena with a single Aerods.

Split 52 : Shot fail Boss Fight : Skyghene (5000HP) and Grandgrowl (6000HP) Maria kills both Tolone and Seraphita with her special option Grav. Cannon.

93

Boss Fight : Bladegash (4000HP) and Marinebasher (5000HP) Elly annihilates both of Dominia and Kelvena with a single Aerods.

Boss Fight : Skyghene (5000HP) and Grandgrowl (6000HP) Maria kills both Tolone and Seraphita with her special option Grav. Cannon.

At last Billy manages to aim to the gate. Cutscene gate down, Gazel. Come back to Yggdrasil go ↑ and mash X to talk to Sigurd. Controls back on the World map, hold L, ∆ and go toward the Thames. Upon arriving ↗ go 4F.. After some cutscenes come back to the Yggdrasil (elevator Dock up/up). Once inside, talk to Maria for some party change.

Party Change : ↓XX↓↓↓↓X↓↓XO (Elly <-> Citan, Maria <-> Bart).

Go back to the bridge to talk to Sigurd, and launch a menu as soon as possible. Menuing :

94

-

Weltall : D Circuit – D Circuit – D Circuit

-

Vierge : ThunderRodG, Power Magic – D Circuit – D Circuit

Split 53 : Sargasso Point Sargasso point is the place where Maria’s lvl48 strategy, which we describe now, must be settled. We want Maria be at level 48 at early CD2, so that she is able to kill the bosses Sufal Mass and Elements in one turn. The last fight in which Maria takes part before the second CD is the Boss Fight versus Emeralda in Sargasso point. There are only two places in which Maria can get experience points : the first is Shevat maze, in which we killed Gimmicks and the second is Sargasso Point. In order to reach level 48 at the end of Sargasso Point, Maria must have more than 570598, before entering into the fight versus Crescens. If Maria needs more experience points, just grind a few fights in Sargasso Point, using mainly Vierge’s Aerods. Upon entering hold ↑ and mash ∆, first fork take the right path. Second room ↑ again and take the left path. Third room, hold ↑ and mash ∆ to avoid the high tide. Continue through two corridors and go up to open a switch/chest. Come back ↓ to the previous fork and this time go right.

After some screens launch a menu right before entering the Gate 2. Menuing :

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-

Weltall : Power Magic – Power Magic – Empty

-

Vierge : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic

Boss : Emeralda (14800HP) Emeralda dies in one turn : Weltall charges, Vierge casts Aerods and Seibzehn uses the special option Grav. Cannon.

Split 54 : Emeralda Cutscene discover of Solaris, Citan’s sword, Jessie-Citan Controls back in Shevat’s dorm, ↙ go talk to Zephyr.

Split 55 : Into Solaris Upon entering launch menu as soon as possible, go ← until block, and then ↖ to get into the capsule.

Menuing : -

Elly : Battle Dress – Silver Beret – Speed Ring

-

Citan : War Mail – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

-

Fei : EtherDoubler – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

Controls back hold ↓ and mash X to get to the elevator. While the elevator goes down hold L to adjust camera. Go on the over side of the district and take the last elevator (10.4.1).

Elly is inside the capsule, hold ↓ and mash X to get out. 96

While going down adjust camera angle by holding R, and take the first elevator after the turn (12.3.6). Enter ↖ and talk to Samson. Get out as soon as possible and take closest door next to the exit.

In the Solaris maze, begin with ↑, and take the second elevator adjusting camera angle by 4 x L. Once up there go ↙ then ↓ to get in another room filled with automated guards. In this room go directly ↘ and follow the wall, adjusting camera angle by 3 x L.

Finally get out in ↖, keep on ↖ in the next room and take the elevator. After the second control, which follows the second elevator, get out, the camera looking toward North. 97

Once inside the city, go ↗ to get out in the street. Once outside, go ↘, followed by ↗, ↑ on the central platform. Continue → to enter the turning door.

Inside take the elevator, then ↘. Once up, go ↘ and enter the room, speak to the lady (Option 1) to get an access to the ceremony. Get out of the building, and once in the street go ↓ then ↙, talk to the guard to get into the Cain and Krelian’s ceremony.

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Split 56 : Cain/Krelian meeting After some cutscenes, the Solaris escape begins in the sewers. Some guards gradually appear while fleeing inside Solaris sewers. It does not seem possible to get away from the sewers without any encounter, and if making no mistake, only 1 battle should occur. The forced fight are quite straightforward, Fei is equipped with an EtherDoubler so that his Ether Guided Shot kills the guards in on turn if they decrease their Ether defense. When facing guards, just stay defensive until they either low their Defense or Ether Defense. Kill them in the second turn. Here is a little description of the fastest path : -

Take the second little path to the right

-

Jump on the top of the box and run down, don’t try to jump over otherwise some time can be wasted

-

Stick to the left wall and fall down before taking the ladder

-

Go left-right-left and don’t take the next little path.

-

Go fast through the ropes

-

Don’t jump over the last ladders.

While exiting hold ↖ and enter in the big house. 99

Hold ↑ in the garden to get in. Cutscenes.

Split 57 : Shower time

After the shower cutscene, hold → to get out. Go to the hall ↘ and jump down ← to get in another room. Once inside hold ↙ and adjust camera angle by 1 x R to talk to Elly’s mother. End of the cutscene get out and take the stairs up to Elly’s father office. Once inside hold ← and check the computer for more cutscenes.

Controls back in Solaris’ Plazza, go up and head toward South-West to get out of the city. Next room hold ↖ and get arrested by Citan.

100

Next go ↖ and adjust camera angle to look toward the elevator. As always, take the second elevator. Come back to the very beginning of Solaris, following the inner wall.

Once in Solaris’ third district, hold ↖ and get into the manhole. Once down hold ↗ a bit and mash X to open a new path, cutscenes.

Elly joins the party, head to the North-East door for more cutscenes.

Come back with Fei-Citan-Elly, hit the button and get into Solaris’ food factory. First room, go to the only door and the very end. 101

Next room, ↑ and take some ladders up. Next room, instantly jump ↓, ↙ and push the metal thing into the hole. Head toward North-West and get into the secret entrance. Next room, hold ↓ until the end to reach the foor. Then hold → and mash ∆, followed by ↗ to eat some food in another cutscene.

Split 58 : Solaris Food factory Get inside ↓ and get on the other side taking the ladder.

Get into the control room, and send 3, End then 3, 4, End to unlock the main path. Get out and jump on the main path to reach the other side of the room. 102

Entering the next room toggles some cutscenes. Take the door on the other side of the room and get into an elevator.

Adjust camera angle taking the elevator to get out in ↑. In the large room hold ↖ and head toward the big door. Hold ← until the end of the corridor and get into the door holding ↖.

In the first green room, almost only hold ↗.

In the next room hold ↗ to reach the first ‘cage room’.

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Stick to the same direction since the camera angle will automatically adjust to North-West. Go straight forward (←) out to get into corridor, then ‘cage room’ number 2. Get out of ‘cage room’ number 2 and hold ↗, take the South-East door up. Inside go ↙ and go down to check the computer. Get out and head for the right, adjusting camera angle by L x 2.

In the next room go ↓ and take the right stairs up. Get out ← and hold this direction to get passed 9 rooms.

104

After the first door which block the entire corridor, take the left path at the fork. The sound code is : ↑↓↑←→ input with X. Get ↑ toward the second green room, to reach the upper floor.

Once on the upper corridor, hold ← until the very end South-East door. Getting inside, hold ↖ to toggle cutscenes. Take the chest behind to get a Speed Ring S, and come back to the main corridor. Once there hold ↓ and go South-West until you reach another door, toggling even more cutscenes.

Split 59 : Citan revealed Once in the darkness hold ↑ and take the subsequent door. Cutscenes Gazel, Krelian-Elly, freed by Citan. Controls back hold ↓, cutscenes Elly, Citan-Jessie-Kahr. Controls back hold ← then get out ↓ to reach a room containing both a Memory Cube and a Party Change Cube. Party Change : ↓X↓↓↓↓XO (Citan <-> Bart)

Hammer shop : -

Buy Matchlock, ShotG70 Ammo (90), MatAero Ammo (below 90, 150).

Take the South-West door ↙. 105

Take the second door on the left in the corridor, ↘ South -West. Next room, hold ↓ until reaching the farest South-West door ↙. Follow the South-West corridor, and then in the big room go West/South-West. Take yet another South-West corridor.

Then hold ↓ (South), ↓ (South) , ← (West), ← (West) , ← (West), ↓ (South), ↓ (South) and X. Get out in ↙ (South-West), and toggle more cutscene. Meeting again the whole party in a new room, launch a menu as soon as possible.

106

Menuing : -

Billy : Speed ring S – Speed ring – Speed Ring

-

Citan : Speed ring – Speed Ring – Speed Ring

-

BiIly weapon MatchLock / ShotgunG70 (first/last).

-

Heal party

Leave the room to toggle more cutscenes.

Party Change : O (Nothing)

Boss Fight : Grahf (6666HP) and Executioner (4444HP) This fight highly depends on RNG, more precisely on the attacks Grahf will choose during the two turns he will get. The strategy is quite straightforward : Fei, Citan and Billy are insanely fast, we thus aim at killing first Executioner (to avoid her death spell) before she can get a single turn. Grahf is then killed in a quite similar way, except he will get two turns. Grahf has 3 attacks : two combo/Naphtali attacks which deal far too much damage on the target to survive, and his super Guided Shot attack whose animation is long but does not much damage. Surviving his attacks and thus not wasting time using Zetasol is thus just a matter of RNG here. The setup is as follows : as always everybody’s put under haste in some way, and both Executioner’s and Grahf’s elemental defense against wind attacks is weakened (using White Star and Citan’s Ether Fuuseii). Billy’s AeroAmmo allows him to deal good damage with his Nut Crack (∆+∆+∆+X) combo. Fei won’t attack in this fight and act as a support character, using Speed Stars on his allies and ElementAero on Citan, allowing him to do even more damage with his Amagumo (□+X) combo. We detail in the sequel the pattern of the first phase of the fight for each of the party member separately for the sake of the text to be more easily read : 107

-

Citan puts a Speed Star on Billy at his first turn. He then casts his Ether Fuseii on Executioner and builds up his Ap bar to 25 with some ∆ attacks. Once at 25 he uses his combo option and hits Executioner with Amagumo (□+X) five times.

-

Billy casts his Ether Goddess Call on Citan on his first turn. He then goes for a Nut Crack (∆+∆+∆+X) combo on Executioner on his second turn and starts thereafter to build Ap up with ∆ attacks on Grahf.

-

Fei uses Speed Star on him and on Billy on his first two turns. He then uses a White Star on Grahf to weaken his Wind-Elemental defense. At his fourth turn he uses the item ElementAero on Citan right before Citan attacks with his combos.

If RNG damages is ok, Citan’s 25 Ap and Billy’s Nut Crack (∆+∆+∆+X) should be sufficient to kill Executioner, which should not have had the time to get a single turn. Getting rid of Grahf goes in a quite similar way : -

Citan builds up again his Ap bar to 25, going for ∆ attacks. He then puts on himself (or Fei puts, this is not important here) an ElementAero on himself and hits Grahf with Amagumo (□+X) five times through his Combo option.

-

Fei puts a Speed Star on himself, then on Citan, then on Billy. He also can put the ElementAero on Citan if necessary. He then just defends and wait for Citan and Billy to do the job.

-

Billy builds up his Ap bar to 25 with ∆ attacks (his Ap bar should be non-zero at the beginning of this phase since he only did one Nut Crack (∆+∆+∆+X) on the first phase). Once he gets to 25 he hits Grahf with Nut Crack (∆+∆+∆+X) four times through his Combo option.

If RNG damage is ok, the 5 x Amagumo, 1 x Nut Crack should be sufficient to get rid of Executioner, and the 5 x Amagumo, 4 x Nut Crack should be enough to kill Grahf. However if bad RNG occurs and for example Executioner survives, just hit her with the first ∆ attacks of Billy instead of attacking Grahf, in order to finish her.

Split 60 : Grahf & Executioner Cutscenes ID breaks Solaris, ID-Elly, Cain-Citan, ID-Citan, conciliabule démoniaque, Fei-Elly, Elly-Fei Yggdrasil, Gazel-Krelian, Elly-Fei-Ramsus, end of CD 1.

Split 61 : End of CD 1

108

Start of CD2 : Controls back inside Taura’s house go ↙ then ↖ and mash X to the dining room. Leave the room. Roof cutscene with Fei and Elly (…).

Come back into Taura’s house ↘. Entering, hold → and get ↘ back into the laboratory, cutscenes. End of cutscenes hold ↑ and mash X to get back in the dining room, cutscenes involving Shevat agent.

Cutscenes Weltall & Balthasar-Gaspard-Melchior, yet again on the roof (…), Citan-Taura, GazelKrelian-Ramsus encounter with Vendetta.

Boss Fight : Vendetta (12000HP) No need to put Weltall-2 into Booster. Ignore completely Vendetta defensive stance and hit him with the Flaming Hell Special Option each turn. Two turns should be enough.

109

Split 62 : Vendetta Cutscenes Elly on chair, Wels release, Elly-Fei on chair.

Non-avoidable Menu : ↓X (Nothing)

Boss Fight : Ft. Hurricane (15000HP) Use Booster on the first turn, and then go for Yggdrasil Charge Special Option (9999 damage), ∆ attack (1000+ damage) and X attack (4000+ damage).

Cutscenes Fei on chair, Gazel, Krelian-Miang, Mutant-Malakh Project, agregate mutants.

Non-avoidable Menu : Check is Maria’s Ether is greater than 40 -

Party Change (Option 2) : X↓↓↓X↓↓X↓XO (Maria <-> Fei, Emeralda <-> Elly)

-

Standard Menu (Option 1) : 

Emeralda : Dervish Dress – Empty – Empty



Citan : Speed Ring – Empty – Empty



Maria : Etherstone – EtherstoneLG – Ether Doubler

Boss Fight : 4 x Sufal (1300HP) and Sufal Mass (4800HP) If you did correctly Maria’s level 48 strategy in Sargasso point, she should have her spell Robot Punch (↓) at this point. Again there are two different strategies, depending on Maria’s Ether RNG : 110

Standard strategy : Citan uses Speedstar on Maria at his first turn, emerald guards. Citan attacks Sufal Mass with a □+X combo at his first turn, and Maria kills the boss with a Robot

Punch Control. -

Fast kill : Citan uses a Speedstar on Maria on his first turn and then guards, Emeralda also guards. Maria one-shots Sufal mass with her Robot Punch Control.

Split 63 : Sufal Mass Cutscene PV ‘let’s give blood to dying guys’, Sophia-Fei on chair, Cain>Gazel no Gaetia, Fei on chair.

Party change : ↓X↓X↓↓↓↓X↑XO (Billy <-> Citan, Maria <-> Elly)

Split 64 : Anima Dungeon 1 Entering Anima Dungeon 1 go ↗, get into Gear and launch menu as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

-

111

Human : 

Fei : EtherstoneLG – Speed Ring – Speed Ring



Billy : EtherDoubler – Etherstone – Etherstone



Maria : Speed Ring S – Etherstone – Ether Doubler

Gears : 

Weltall : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic



Renmazuo : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic

Get inside the building in human form. Once inside, go → and take ↖ the second door to the left.

In the small corridor hold ↗ and get into the next room. Once in the dark room, go → and jump to check the fuse. Come back to the first corridor and this time go to the farest door in →. Inside the room, hold ← and mash X to grab… a fuse…

Come back to the dark room and put the fuse. 112

Activate the computer to unlock level A protection get out in ↗.

Next room go ↑ and once the fork reached go ← (jump at the middle) until reaching the last door. Deactivate security by entering the following code in the computer.

Computer code : 0,3,2,0

Activate the second computer get back in the corridor and hold → to the first door.

Once down the elevator, go ↘ and take the North door, inside hold → and mash X to activate another computer. Come back to the previous room and take the central elevator.

113

Once down add the following inputs to the four computers.

Computer inputs : 4 South 2 East 5 North 8 West

Activate the left box to release the lock (Option 3). Take the central elevator down (beware not to mash X). Once down hold → and launch menu as soon as possible.

Get on the next room in →. Next room, hold → and get through the erectile doors. Next room hold ↘ and mash X to activate the Anima Relic.

Boss Fight : Tolone (2000HP), Dominia (4000HP), Kelvena (2500HP), Seraphita (2000HP) Maria takes the show again here. Fei uses a Speed Star at his first turn on Maria, who kills all four Elements casting her Ether Robot Punch (↓).

Split 65 : Elements After some cutscenes, fight again versus Elements ‘Power Rangers’ … -,-.

114

Boss Fight : G Elements (45000HP) Billy is the only one put in booster in this fight. Fei and Maria spam each turn their Fire Hell and Grav. Cannon, respectively. Billy attacks each turn with □ if Ether RNG is not too crap, Element-G should die at Billy’s third □ attack. If it’s not the casejust replace this third □ by a □+∆ combo to finish the job.

Cutscenes Elements, Gazel, Ramsus-Tolone, Elly on chair, Ramsus in Nisan, Gazel-Miang-Ramsus, Fei on chair.

Party Change : ↓X↓XO (Billy<->Citan)

Split 66 : Anima Dungeon 2 Controls back hold ↑ to push the big rick, menu as soon as possible.

Complete nonsense puzzle #1 :

115

-

hold ↗ and check the second pillar.

-

check then pillar 3 mashing X (one dialog box at the same time) until the ‘the unseen is true too’.

-

check the first pillar and go right behind a bit (cross on the screenshot) to make the first

stone fall from the ceiling. -

check the hidden side of pillar 1 to make stone 2 fall from the ceiling.

-

use the fallen stone to get onto the second pillar and jump toward the ceiling from there to make the last stone fall.

-

put the three stones in the holes.

Get out and jump →. Next room go ↘, little jump and get out of Gears to reach the door.

Get to the end of the corridor →. Next room, hold ↗ and fall in the last trap to get to the secret door holding →.

Next room stay in the middle of the platform, jump on the new platform when it’s down and get into the East door.

116

Complete nonsense puzzle #2 :

The water level is 10, solving the puzzle means make it go to the level 5. You only have the right to add/remove 3 or seven. The fastest way is then just 5 = 10 -3 -3 -3 +7 -3. You thus have to : -

step 3 times on the floor button 1

-

activate the 7 switch and step the on the floor button 2 once

-

Activate the 3 switch and step on the floor button 1.

Don’t take the lower door, come back in the last one and fall down. Take the West path and come back to your Gears.

Get in and take the door down, opening the chest next to its which contains an EtherDoubler.

Next room, hold ↑ and jump to get to the door in human form. 117

Get into the erectile corridor and launch a menu as soon as possible.

Menuing : -

Characters : 

Fei : EtherstoneLG – Etherstone – Ether Doubler



Elly : Etherstone – Etherstone – Etherstone

Go ↗ and mash X toward the anima Relic, cutscenes.

Boss Fight : Hammer (48000HP) Elly : Aerods – Booster – Charge Billy : Charge – Booster – □ attacks Fei : Booster – Fire Hell – Fire Hell Once Hammer “isn’t feeling good”, flee from the fight.

Split 67 : Hammer Cutscenes Fei on chair, Ramsus kills Cain, Gaetia key, Fei on chair, Fei-Elly. End of the argument get to the lower door as shown in the screenshot. Fei-Elly cheesy time, Elly Nisan, Entering Eldrige

118

Upon entering the Eldrige Party forced menu. We put here Citan in the party so that he won’t take part in the scripted fight versus Naphtali, which will allow us to gain some time.

Forced Menu : -

Party change (Option 2) ↑X↓↓↓↓↓XO (Maria <-> Bart)

-

Open Menu (Option 1) 

Weltall-2 : Power Magic – Power Magic - FrameHP50



Seibzehn : Power Magic – Power Magic – FrameHP30

Boss Fight : Larry-Deus (40000HP) Citan is pu her the team to get the next boss battle faster.

Split 68 : Larry-Deus Cutscene PV entering Bethleem-Razael, another scripted fight.

119

Boss : Alpha Weltall Attack Alpha Weltall with X each turn, and charge with Fei or Maria if they have less than 6500 HP.

Cutscenes Grahf-Fei, Elly Nisan, Elly on chair, Elly comes, Chuchu crucified, Elly pwns, Elly-Krelian, Fei on chair.

Split 69 : WTF Forced Menu : Options 2, 2 (Nothing)

Cutscenes Krelian-Gazel, Krelian kills Gazel-Project Noah.

Split 70 : Gazel end Cutscenes Fei on chair, Fei-Wiseman, Fei on chair, into Mahanon.

Party change : ↓XX↓↓↓↓X↑XO (Billy <-> Citan, Maria <-> Bart)

Once down, open an menu to prepare for the next fights. Menuing : -

Character : 

-

Gear : 

120

Maria : Etherstone – Etherstone – Ether Doubler

Weltall-2 : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic

 -

Seibzehn : Power Magic – Power Magic – Power Magic

Put Sigmasol in position 1

Now check the stats of all the team members. We are going to use the Ether Drives we got before in the game to adjust the Ether/Ether amplification of the team and thus deal as much damage as possible in the sequel. Consider the following values : Fei’s Ether : 34

Billy’s Ether : 45

Maria’s Ether : 43

Get into the path, more cutscenes.

Boss Fight : Amphysvena (28000HP) In a normal playthrough, the sequence of Amphysvena and Opiomorph is considered as one of the toughest fights in the game. However the Ether manipulation we did allows us to take them out in a quite impressive way. No need to use Booster here. On his first turn, Amphysvena puts Weltall-2, Renmazuo and Seibzehn at 1 HP. Just don’t efin care and attack on the first turn with Fei’s Flame Hell (9999 damage), Maria’s Grav. Cannon (around 7500 damage) and □ attack of Billy (around 4000 damage). Fei does another Flaming Hell on his second turn to finish the job.

The team has only 1 HP still ? No problem, get on and face Opiomorph.

Boss : Opiomorph (25000 HP) Again no need to put Gear on Booster here. Use Flaming Hell, Grav. Cannon and Jessie Cannon each turn until Opiomorph dies.

Split 71 : Opiomorph Cutscene Ramsus, Krelian Miang killed, PV true Miang out, PV Deus physical manifestation out since persona in, Merkava out. 121

Forced Menu : Options 2, 2 (Nothing)

Cutscenes Citan on chair, Citan-Zephyr Shevat’s betrayal, Sophia’s sacrifice.

Split 72 : Sophia’s sacrifice Cutscenes Citan-Zephyr, Citan on chair, Fei subconscious, Roni-Rene-Lacan-Krelian, Sophia-ReneRoni-Krelian-Lacan, Krelian-Sophia sacrifice yet again, Krelian faith lost.

Split 73 : Krelian’s faith lost Cutscenes Miang-Fei, Fei into Zohar, Citan on chair short

Forced Menu : -

Party change (Option 2) : XX↓↓↓X↓XO (Rico <-> Citan, Maria <-> Bart)

Cutscenes Fei’s subconscious, placenta Gear out.

Boss Fight : ID (30000 HP) Rico : X - ∆+□ Maria : Grav. Cannon each turn Billy : Booster – □ – □ – □. If ID is not dead at Billy’s third □, just replace it with a □+∆ combo.

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Split 74 : ID Cutscenes Wiseman-ID, Fei subconscious, room of coward, Karen<->Miang, Fei subconscious, back to Khan-Id, back to subconscious Karen death, back Khan-ID, back yet again Karen’s death, Abel-Kim, Grahf contact, Wave existence, cutscene Zohar-Kadmony, back wave existence.

Forced Menu : Options 2, 2 (Nothing)

Cutscenes Awakening Xenogears, Fei-Khan-Grahf, Fei-Grahf Boss Fight : True Weltall (15000HP) Again no need to put Xenogears on Booster here. Cast the Ether Radiance (↓↓) each turn until True Weltall is defeated. If the Ether RNG of Fei was ok, two turns should be enough.

Split 75 : True Weltall Cutscenes Grahf ends, Kadmony, into Merkava plan, Fei on chair, cutscene boring plan attack, short Fei on chair. Controls back in the hideout go ↑, menu as soon as possible.

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With any reasonable explanation, Billy now gets a new Special Option, Jessie Blasta, which is very powerful and will replace the usual Jessie Cannon from now on. In the main room go ↖ until block, then ← toward the shop.

Accesories Shop : -

Buy 5 x EtherstoneLg

Get out in ↙.

On the World Map hold ↖ and mash X to get into the Yggdrasil, head directly toward Merkava and be careful not to get into Yggdrasil to avoid some long cutscene.

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Split 76 : Into Merkava Upon getting in, hold ↗ to fall down inside. Once down go ↗.

First room : There is not much to say here, just follow the following direction at each intersection. →, ←, →,→, ←, ←

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Jump in the hub in the North-East room.

While falling down in the pipe hold simply ↖ to reach a safe spot.

Main room : The camera usually adjusts its angle when taking an elevator, so we will mainly assume in the sequel that the camera is always adjusted looking toward the North. Upon arriving adjust camera angle with L, take the first elevator down. Go through the south corridor, then take the elevator up. Keep on the ↘ and activate the switch up on the next pillar. Adjust the camera again to look toward north and follow the path opened by the switch. It leads to a light switch, activate it.

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Once done come back to the pillar on top of which the first switch was. Follow then the ↖, ↙ paths, take the elevator down and follow the path to get out of the room through the south exit.

In the first hub go →,↓,←,↓, and get out through the South exit.

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Coming back in the big room, follow the path, take the Elevator up and activate the West switch. Come back and take the elevator down, follow ↙ and take the elevator up, follow then ↓, elevator down and ← to take the West exit of the room.

In the second duct get into the North-East exit.

Follow the last path, take the elevator and jump into the red hole.

Falling down in the tube, don’t move until the 7 first traps are passed, then go ↘.

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Once entering Mahanon, launch a menu to prepare for the final fight. Party Change : ↓XX↓↓↓↓X↓↓XO (Billy <-> Bart, Maria <-> Citan)

Menuing : -

Gears : 

-

Renmazuo : E Circuit – Pilot Shield – Power Magic

Characters : replace the Etherstones by EtherstoneLg : 

Fei : EtherstoneLg – EtherstoneLg – Ether Doubler



Billy : EtherDoubler – EtherstoneLg – EtherstoneLg



Maria : EtherstoneLg – EtherstoneLg - EtherDoubler

Save… and go !

Split 77 : Toward Deus Hold ↑ and get into Deus. No need to get any menu nor fight the four orbs, just get directly into the Main thing.

Boss Fight : Deus (70000~HP) Deus starts the fight with 70000 HP. However since we didn’t kill any of his orbs, there is a non-zero probability that he heals 4000HP in his first turn, making him get 74000 HP. In this fight only Billy is put into Booster, and he goes for his Jessie Blastah Special option each turn. Maria and Fei spam Fire Hell and Grav. Cannon each turn until Deus is defeated. There is some ‘fast-kill’ strategy for this fight : replace one Fire Hell of Fei by a guided Shot. This allows to keep some EP for the next boss.

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Cutscenes, prepare for the last fight.

Boss Fight : Urobolus (50000HP) Even though it is actually possible to die versus Urobolus, it sure won’t happen. Put Xenogears on Booster on his first turn, and cast five times his Ether Radiance. If Radiance deals 9999 damage, finish Urobolus with a ∆ attack, else finish it with a slightly stronger attack, or even another Radiance. Use Sigmasols to get EP if needed.

Split 78 : The End

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