Drakengard Weapon Unlocking and Boss FAQ James O'Donnell jeodonnell@gmail.com Release History ------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/6/04: #1 - First release 3/8/04: #2 - Some corrections on a few weapons provided by slimstunna. Some general tips on gameplay aspects added by myself and X Crono X. Boss strategy for the 2nd ending, based off of tips from X Crono X. Boss strategy for the Black Dragon, who shows up a few times. 3/9/04: #3 - Corrections on Edacious and Skull Banquet, courtesy of Sharon Ongena. Corrections on Devilscale, thanks to Strade22. Thanks to slimstunna for helping to finally clear up King's Blood. 3/10/04: #4 - Corrections on Crimson Hood, thanks to slimstunna. Some formatting improvements. 3/18/04: #5 - Some boss tips on Black Dragon and Ending 3 Final Boss, submitted by Mark Reed. A weapon level-up tip by Fox Boy. Boss tip for Ending 1 by John Chao. 3/24/04: #6 - Correction on Devilscale, thanks to Jamic. Correction on Victor's Spoils, thanks to Warren Pierce. 3/29/04: #7 - Correction on Sorrow's Companion, thanks to Chris. Correction on Holy Mace thanks to michealbolton. Some extra notes and corrections by X Crono X and Jaek. Various corrections/additions by myself. At this point, all weapons have been confirmed on this list by myself, and many others. Added an index of weapons by their type. Added a list of weapons that can only be obtained by normal, thanks to X Crono X. Boss strategy for the fifth ending by CoolCloud. Corrections on Sorrow's Companion, Lovekeeper, and Victor's Spoils by Subsane. 4/14/04: #8 - Corrections on Holy Mace thanks to MrSpock128 and Brandon Easley. Corrections on fifth ending boss thanks to Peter Shafter and MrSpock128. New boss tip for third ending boss. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Index ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1: General Notes Section 2: Ground Missions (Story Mode) Section 3: Event Missions Section 4: Ground Missions (Free Mode) Section 5: Aerial Missions (Free Mode) Section 6: Weapons that Can Only be Obtained on Normal Section 7: Index of Weapons by Type Section 8: Boss Strategies Part 1: Various Chapters - Black Dragon Part 2: Chapter 8 Verse 2 - Wyrm Part 3: Chapter 8 Verse 7 - Final Boss (Ending 1) Part 4: Chapter 9 Verse 3 - Final Boss (Ending 2) Part 5: Chapter 9 Verse 6 - Final Boss (Ending 3) Part 6: Chapter 13 Verse 3 - Final Boss (Ending 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1: General Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------- -All these weapons are confirmed for NORMAL difficulty. If you have a problem, the first thing you should try is to set the difficulty to Normal if it is on Easy. This solves 99% of 'missing weapon' problems. -Some verses or chapters require that you have met certain pact partners. To meet these partners, go to the Mode Select screen, and select Story. Page through the different chapters and search for any verses that are orange or black. Highlight them until you find a mission you can fulfill criteria for (ie, perhaps you need to replay x mission under y time limit.) Keep doing this until you've unlocked all the verses/chapters. -In ground missions, if you have problems getting a weapon treasure chest to appear, just kill everybody in the area, and then kill some more. :P -Enemies drop orbs at 17 hits, 36, 57, 77, and 100. The orbs are health if you have taken damage (small health at 17, and increasing health beyond that) or a red fireball magic orb if you are at full life. The orb at 77 is always a red combo orb. 100 hits gives you a black orb that makes you do much more damage. A regular orb drops at 150 hits. -Treasure chests on the map hold two things - full life, or weapons. On event maps, chests ONLY hold weapons. On ground missions, all the chests that have spawned by default hold life. Whenever a chest holding a weapon spawns, you will be notified. If it is hidden, you will be given a clue as to its location. Otherwise, it will show up on your R3 map as a blue box. -You never need to restart your game for any reason, ever, period. If you missed a weapon in one chapter, you can always go back to get it. Go to the mode screen (quit a mission, pres triangle when on Chapter Map Select screen, or when you first loading a game,) and you can select Story or Expedition. Choose story, and you will be able to go to any Chapter/Verse in the game. -Verses you have completed are in white. Your current verse is in Yellow. Orange verses are unlocked but have not been played. Black verses are unlocked. Select a black verse to display the criteria for unlocking it. -Unlocked shots on the dragon do much more damage than locked shots. However, locked shots build magic gauage faster. -You can strafe and dash at the same time on the dragon, which makes evading certain homing projectiles easier. -Chapter 11: Finding Manah - Verse II of Chapter 11 requires you find Manah in Verse 1. Fight your way to the target, and defeat the target enemies there. Then, after you defeat them, do NOT go to the red door. Instead, go back downstairs and you will run into Manah in one of the rooms down there. -To defeat the Grim-Reaper like enemies in aerial stages, charge up locked-on shots while they are holding their scythe. Once they throw it, let the salvo loose. They will block all shots you fire while they hold the scythe, so once they throw it, fire away and start dodging/dashing. -There is a compass on the map screen, in the bottom right corner. The shoulder buttons rotate the map, and the right stick pans it around. -When you encounter the enemies with a 60 second timer over their head, use magic when they glow red and normal attacks when they glow blue. They drop an orb that adds an amount to your kill counter equal to the highest chain you got on them. -Dragon level-ups are story based. Level 2 is reached at the end of chapter 3. Level 3 is reached at the end of chapter 7. The Chaos Dragon is acquired at the end of Chapter 9 and Chapter 11. -Enemies that are immune to magic are NOT immune to your allies magic. (Tested with Leonard.) Charge up Leonard's magic by holding triangle, and let a salvo loose. Energy will gather in his hand, once it finishes, you can fire again. You can fire repeated salvoes this way and the enemies will be unable to harm you. This is especially useful vs. the Red Spike Shield troops in later stages (the ones that charge you with their shields up) and vs. the grotesqueries in Chapter 12. -Make sure you are on normal difficulty to unlock weapons. If you started your game on easy mode, no worries. Just go back to the title screen and select Normal difficulty from the Options menu. -If an aerial mission does not mention wether you can use magic or not, you can. -To quickly level up weapons, max out the weapon "Windsinger." The magic attack for this weapon creates a tornado around you. However, this tornado credits kills to whatever weapon you are equipped with. So, activate the magic, then equip another weapon, and run around, letting the tornado kill off enemies. This can level up weapons like Hymir's Finger very fast! -After completing the Final Boss for the fifth ending, you unlock a special aerial Free Expedition over Tokyo, to shoot down 5 fighters of the JSDF. To beat this mission, use the level three dragon and locked shots - the Chaos dragon has slower lock shots that won't be able to hit the jets. Upon beating this mission, you can use the Sukhoi Su37 (which you may remember from AceCombat04, whose development team included some current cavia members) in Aerial Free Expeditions. On the dragon select screen, highlight Chaos Dragon, and press down. You will highlight a '???.' Select this to use the jet. It is much faster and stronger than the dragons, and it uses homing missiles instead of fireballs for locked-on shots. The normal shots and magic attacks are the same as the level three dragon. Caim still rides mounted, straddling the windshield instead of the dragon's neck :) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 2: Ground Missions (Story Mode) ------------------------------------------------------------------- -Bonebreaker: Chapter 1 Verse 2 = Beat the Stage. -Skald's Song: Chapter 1 Verse 8 = Destroy ALL enemies on the southwest portion of the map. -Glory's Bane: Chapter 1 Verse 10 = Destroy the 4 fat silver enemies in the center area of the 2nd floor. The chest will appear in one of the armories, though it wont show up in the map. -Knight's Vow: Chapter 1 Verse 10 = Show up in a room in the 2nd floor. I think it's the NE stairs to the 2nd floor. If not, just take all the stairs to the 2nd floor. -Tyrant's Hammer: Chapter 2 Verse 3 = Destroy ALL targets BEFORE reaching the bridge. And then destroy the regular enemies on the bridge. -Wisdom: Chapter 2 Verse XIII = Destroy ALL enemies in the narrow valley in the northcentral part of the map. The chest will appear near a rock across the bridge where the healing chest is. -Crimson Hood: Chapter 3 Verse XIV = Kill all the initial targets. Kill about half the targets that appear around the prison to make the enemies spawn near the west cave. Head to the cave and kill the single, non-target heavy knight who is inside. When you kill him, the hidden treasure chest will appear inside the prison, on the east side. Make sure you leave at least one target alive before you claim this weapon, or you will accidentally complete the mission when you try to grab the weapon. -Fheng's Glaive: Chapter 4 Verse 5 = Defeat all enemies in the narrow path in the hill. -Holy Mace: Chapter 5 Verse 3 = Destroy lots of enemies in ten minutes. The number and location isn't certain yet, people have reported different amounts. It appears you need to kill off enemies in the area around you, and possibly the enemies around the catapults. I personally unlocked it by killing as many enemies as fast as I could (200) with the dragon, but you may go on foot and use allies as well. -Flamberge: Chapter 6 Verse 4 = KILL all enemies on the 2nd floor. -Moonfire: Chapter 8 Verse 4 = Kill the 4 target undead knights to get the 4 keys. The chest appears in one of the side streets. -Poisontongue: Chapter 10 Verse 3 = Before you go up the stairs to the 2nd floor, the box WILL appear. Just backtrack to find the chest. You MUST get close to the stairs to the 2nd floor. -Widow's Death: Chapter 10 Verse 3 = This chest is out in the open in the 2nd floor. Note that you can ONLY get this upon replaying the stage after getting Poisontounge. -Lovekeeper: Chapter 10 Verse II = Kill all the troops in the third room from the end, then run all the way back to the first small room in the center of a rectangular hallway. The chest is in there. -Slaughterism: Chapter 10 Verse II = Destroy ALL enemies in the 2nd floor. The box WILL appear somewhere in the 2nd floor upon doing so. -King's Blood: Chapter 11 Verse 1 = You will need to follow a set path to get to the empty room in the NE corner on the initial floor. Following the set path will spawn enemies in that room. Kill them to get the weapon. The path is, head north through the eastern corridor in the room you start in. Head to the east room, then head north till you reach the intersection just prior to the empty room. Do NOT head to the empty room yet. Instead, head to the next intersection westward. Then head north, and then east, and the enemies should spawn. -Edacious: Chapter 11 Verse 1 = Kill the targets on the first floor. Then, instead of heading to the door, go back upstairs. The round room will now have a blue highlighted treasure chest in it. -Devilscale: Chapter 11 Verse II = Go to the large room at the South end of the map on the third (top) floor. This is the same room you started in, in Chaper 11 Verse 1. Rush to that room and kill everyone with in that room, within approximately 5:00. Dont' waste time on enemies until you get to that room. The treasure chest will appear in that room. -Skull Banquet: Chapter 11 Verse II = The box will appear after 15 minutes of play time. It will appear on the top floor, in the room at the south end of the eastern North/South corridor. -Takamasa: Chapter 12 Verse 3. = Destroy all the ghost babies in the corridors. Note that there are 3 DIFFERENT places where reside. -Baberith's Tears: Chapter 12 Verse 3 = Kill ALL the ghost babies. -Souldouser: Chapter 12 Verse 6 = It WILL appear when 15 minutes have passed. -Carrion Maker: Leonard's Regret Verse 3 = Kill ALL knights on the furthest part of the map BEFORE killing all targets. -Apostate's Misery: Leonard's Regret Verse 6 = KILL ALL the kid soldiers on the map. You MUST traverse the WHOLE map to find them all. -Dragonhook: Seere's Prayer Verse 2 = It's located on the south-central nook in the map. -Philosopher's Staff: Seere's Prayer Verse 5 = KILL ALL 264 goblin leaders and red goblins in 6 MINUTES. You may summon allies. Try Leonard or Arioche. -Twin's Fang: Seere's Prayer Verse 8 = KILL ALL goblin leaders on the map. The box will appear by the coliseum gates. -Hymir's Finger: Seere's Prayer Verse 10 = Kill ALL 10 waves of enemies in less than 5 minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 3: Event Missions ------------------------------------------------------------------- Iron Scraps: Chapter 2 Verse V = It's inside one of the huts. Maiden's Kris: Chapter 2 Verse 6 = Inside one of the damaged hut. Swordsmasher: Chapter 3 Verse 7 = Go approximately NW. The box is next to a stone. Wolf's Plauge: Chapter 3 Verse XV = inside a burning build SW of your starting point. Ravenfeeder: Chapter 4 Verse VI = Walk to the upper left area from your starting point. It's between some trees. Nobuyoshi: Chapter 5 Verse 6 = Talk to the soldier on the ground TWICE. Foul Blade: Chapter 9 Verse 2 = It's located in a side street towards the end of the map. Sorrow's Companion: Chapter 10 Verse III = Located directly left of your starting positiion. Reaper's Scythe: Chapter 11 Verse 2 = Upper right portion of the map on a small bridge. Keep heading NE across bridges until you cant go NE anymore. It will be on a broken bridge heading east on the last platform. Demonbane: Leonard's Regret Verse 4 = It's located out in the open next to some stairs. Get this BEFORE you kill the ghosts. Battlelust: Seere's Prayer Verse 6 = Run NW to a bluff and then NE to find it. Ride the walls NW, and when they turn NE, follow that. It will be behind a big brown rock. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 4: Ground Missions (Free Mode) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Greed's Reward - Crimson Mountains; Impassable Valley = Kill ALL 5 black ogres. Windsinger - Crimson Mountains; Coliseum = Kill 9 of the 10 waves of enemies in 9 minutes. You may summon an ally. I suggest Arioche. Writheheart - Forest of the Seal; Imperial Garrison = Let 25 minutes pass. It'll appear next to the final target. Ozmandias's Might - The Ocean; Inside the Ocean Fortress = Obtain ALL 10 keys from the chests. Upon doing so, the weapon chest will appear in the 1st floor. There are seven keys on the first floor, two on the second, and one on the third. Treasure Builder - Imperial Capital; Altar in the City = View the portraits in the wall in this particular order: 1st picture on the right, 1st picture on the left, 7th picture on the right, 7th picture on the left. Here is a diagram by slimstunna. Simply walk close enough to the portraits that you are touching them. ........10............10 .........9............9 .........8............8 ....4th->7............7<-3rd .........6............6 .........5............5 .........4............4 .........3............3 .........2............2 ....2nd->1............1<-touch this 1st ..............CAIM..... Sorrowborn - Imperial Capital; Destroyed City = Reach the far end of the map within 2 minutes. Just move STRAIGHT to the far end of the map with your dragon. Stormgiver - The Sky Fortress; Inside the Sky Fortress = Kill 150 enemies to make the box appear in the 2nd floor. Magi's Sorrow - The Blue Mountains; The Highlands = Kill 1250 enemies to make the box appear. Executioner's Song - The Winter Wastelands; Hidden Mountains = Kill ALL 10 ogres in the winding canyons on the eastern portion of the map. Spiked Wisdom - Desert of the Moon; Temple of the Desert = Let 20 minutes pass. The chest will appear in the prison. Dragonstroke - Silent Forest; Valley of the Faeires = Kill all enemies around the shrine. The box WILL appear inside the shire upon doing so. Victor's Spoils - Silent Forest; Elf Village = Cross the bridge and head south to find a bunch of enemies in a narrow strip of land. Kill them all and find the chest at the end of the strip. Hunter's Joy - Castle of the Godess; Castle Environs = Kill all enemies in the NE valley of the map. Robber King - Castle of the Goddess; Castle Keep = Kill all enemies in a certain room. The stairs that lead to the room is found in one of the 3 stairs in the 1st floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 5: Aerial Missions (Free Mode) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Deathdance - Castle of the Goddess - Kill ALL enemies including the towers. Butcher's Joy - The Silent Forest - Kill ALL ENEMIES in 2:30. You may use magic. Mermaid's Feast - Desert of the Moon - Kill ALL ENEMIES in 3:00 withOUT the use of magic. Injustice - The Winter Wastelands - Kill ALL enemies in 3:20. You may use magic. Guardian's Sorrow - The Blue Mountains - Kill ALL ENEMIES in 3:20 withOUT using magic. Broken Dogma - The Sky Fortress - You MUST have at least 75% HP upon beating this mission. You may use magic. Scream - The Imperial Capital - Kill ALL ENEMIES in 5:00 and have at least 50% HP. Pupil's Club - The Ocean Fortress - Kill ALL ENEMIES in 3:40 and have at least 25% HP. Dragonstorm - The Temple on the Ocean - Beat the mission in 8:00 with at least 25% HP and NO magic usage. Soldier's Sword - Forest of the Seal - Beat the mission in 4:10 withOUT magic. Mage's Promise - The Crimson Mountains - Beat mission in 250 SECONDS. You can use magic. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 6: Weapons that Can Only be Obtained on Normal ------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: This list is not necessarily comprehensive - these weapons are confirmed for Normal difficulty, although other weapons may also require it. Hymir's Finger Windsinger Greed's Reward Treasure Builder Writheheart Ozymandias's Might Poison Tongue Widow's Death Lovekeeper Slaughterism King's Blood Edacious Devilscale Skull Banquet Takamasa Baberith's Tears Souldouser Apostate's Misery Dragon Hook Philosopher's Staff Twins' Fang Dragonstroker Carrion Maker ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7: Index of Weapons by Type ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hammers (4): Tyrant's Hammer Souldouser Dragonstorm Treasure Builder Maces (9): Mage's Promise Carrion-maker Holy Mace Dragonstroke Pupil's Club Spiked Wisdom Iron Scraps Sorrow's Companion Skull Banquet Pole Axes (8): Widow's Death Fheng's Glaive Windsinger Reaper's Scythe Twin's Fang Sorrowborn Devilscale Apostate's Misery Axes (6): Bonebreaker Executioner's Song Lovekeeper Crimson Hood Foul Blade Poisontounge Staves (4): Wisdom Magi's Sorrow Edacious Philosopher's Staff Spears (10): Knight's Vow Balberith's Tears Wolf's Plauge Stormgiver Robber King Broken Dogma Battlelust Victor's Spoils Ozymandias's Might Mermaid's Feast Long Swords (14): Moonfire Slaughterism Skald's Song Hymir's Finger Flamberge Nobuyoshi Takamasa Demonbane Caim's Sword Soldier's Sword Guardians' Sorrow Injustice Greed's Reward Writheheart Swords (10): Glory's Bane Kingsblood Hunter's Joy Deathdance Scream Ravenfeeder Dragonhook Butcher's Joy Maiden's Kris Swordsmasher Total: 65 Weapons, 64 of which must be unlocked. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 8: Boss Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 1: Various Chapters - Black Dragon ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Black Dragon shows up several times over the course of the game, and each battle is largely the same. When he floats around in circles, try to lead a few unlocked shots on him. When he darts around, get ready to dodge, as he will be launching a projectile attack on you. If he ever flies far off into the distance and creates a big runic circle, he is generating a magic attack. Try and fire off a magic attack of your own, if you have on ready. If not, turn to face him as fast as you can and fire some unlocked shots at him. If you hit him in time, it will interupt his attack, although he will probably still retaliate with an unguided projectile. When he's charging up a magic attack, he is very open to attack himself, so make use of these opportunities. A magic attack will stun him for a bit which should allow you to fire a couple extra free unlocked shots. Also, when he is floating around in circles, charge up some locked shots. They won't hurt him much, but they will build up your magic gauge. Additionally, they will stun him briefly, and if you're quick on the draw, you will be able to hit him with an unlocked shot while he is being hit by the lock-on shots. Here's an alternate strategy by Mark Reed - Notice that everytime you use lock on shots all he counters with is dodging all of them while shooting random counterattacks. Well, you might hit him, but you'll do almost no damage. That's why you should try and avoid using any lock on shots as they will more than likely result in much more damage done to you. The main thing to do here is stay close, while he's going in a circle, shoot as many unlocked fireballs as possible in the spot you'll think he'll be going. If you get a successfull hit (which shouldn't be hard if you're close) you have the chance of taking off one whole point! Strafing is also a very good idea here as his attacks can be very annoying to be hit by. Only use your special when he goes up to do his (a blue circle around his face). If you get this one right you could take anywhere from 3-5 points off. A HUGE help. This guy's not too tough if you stay close and keep firing! The moment you stop shooti! ng is the moment he's going to start letting off tons of shots. Keep him guessing and put alot of shots around to where he has no where to go and you'll be fine. Good luck! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 2: Chapter 8 V. 2 - Wyrm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ignore the little guys, they do negligble damage. Just charge Wrym, and dodge if he shoots anything at you. Use only unlocked shots - they do a ton more damage, and this guy is impossible to miss. Keep doing fly-bys. Whenever he goes into a ball, shoot him with unlocked shots. I don't know if it makes him come out faster but it seemed to help. He heals when in ball state so get him out asap. When he is a floating skull, just shoot random unlocked shots at him. Then he'll go back into a ball. Just keep repeating this over and over until you beat him. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 3: Chapter 8 V. 7 - Final Boss (Ending 1) ------------------------------------------------------------------- This battle is hard, so its not a bad idea to go back and level some. I didn't need to, but it woulnd't hurt to do so. OK, first the basics. She has 3 attack modes here that occur when her life is depleted by one-third. Since she is gigantic, only use unlocked shots, as they do much more damage. Second, save all of your magic for her third form. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE. Don't start using magic until she begins her ridiculous stage 3 attacks, as it will be very hard to use regular shots then. You will probably have 2 magic uses saved up by then which will expedite things greatly. Form 1: Nothing too tricky here. She encloses herself in a bubble, does some gestures, and launches fireballs at you. When she begins her spell, fly to the other end of the map and just hang out there. Once the fireballs are right next to you, strafe (R1/L1) and dash (X) to avoid them. It helps to do both (in that order) to prevent them from making a sharp turn an nailing you. Once the fireballs are gone, just charge at her and throw some fireballs of your own at her. Sometimes you'll get unlucky and she'll throw a lot of fireballs at you; don't worry, just be patient and wait for an opening. Eventually, she will summon a bubble with runic circles all over. This is your queue her second stage is starting and you should fly to the other end of the map to avoid some serious pain. Form 2: She will start releasing expaning horizontal runic circles from her body. If you hang out at the edge of the map, they will dissipate right before they hit you. However, you can't really snipe her - it seems you can only do damage when you are closer to her. Don't blindly charge her however - those circles do about 30-40 damage, and typically, they will stun you long enough to get hit by one or two more. Bad news. So, theres two ways to go about this - the fast insane way, or the easy patient way. I myself did #2 here. -Method 1: If you are very confident of your flying abilities, dash in on her. If a circle comes near you, dash downwards or upwards quickly (coupled with a strafe for good measure) to evade. Once you get close, launch a few shots at her, then dash back to the other side. -Method 2: You'll notice after a while there is some sort of vague pattern to her attacks. Sometimes she gets pissed and launches circles all over the place in kind of a wall. Other times, she will only launch a couple, and only from one part of her body. Wait for these openings, and dash towards the open area. I myself just waited on the upper half of the sceen (easier to hit her torso) and once she started launching runes from her feet, I dashed in and fired off shots at her. Overall, this form isn't too bad once you get the hang of it and learn the patterns. Eventually, she'll have some more "Grr, grr" dialouge. Now she's really pissed, run run run! Form 3: This form is unbelievably annoying. She launches runic circles, but at various angles. This often makes it impossible to close in on her. However, since they are diagonal, you can strafe them, but its difficult as they are very wide. First order of business is to close in and launch both the magic attacks you've stored up. This will do a lot of damage to her, almost killing her. Stay cool, and just do the same as the last form: wait for an opening, then dash in and launch a couple shots. If you stay patient and wait for openings, she is very beatable. Just don't get overexcited when shes at low health and end up dashing into her circles: they tend to come in groups now, so you could be looking at 60-100+ damage. Once you deal the last bit of damage, the screen will blur out, and you'll see her falling. Put the controller down. Congratulations! You've earned the first ending, so sit back and enjoy it. Grab a tissue too. :P Here's an alternate strategy by John Chao - I discoverd this really "cheap" way of beating Manah by accident after a couple frustrating lost battles.. ok, it's sort of like a bug When the battle starts, just fly towards manah and, "fly underneath her skirt as if to sneak a peak" = =" as perverted as that sounds, it's almost a guaranteed victory ( you won't see anything, by the way) Once you're there, you're pretty immune to manah's attack in her first 2 forms, and u will rarely get hit by her rune circles in the third form. Oh, once you are under her skirt, just turn and face up, since you are stuck between her skirts (front and back piece) u can just stay there and unleash alll ur rage and frustration~! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 4: Chapter 9 V. 3 - Final Boss (Ending 2) ------------------------------------------------------------------- OK, I had a lot of problems with this boss at first, when my attack was a bit under 120. I levelled for a bit, collecting weapons from aerial stages, and when I came back, my attack was just under 140, and I was able to beat her. So, when in doubt, level up a bit. Unlike the other final bosses, she does not have multiple forms or stages. So she is just the same at low life as at full. IE, no big super attack to worry about when shes down to the last dots of life :)Even so, she is still fairly difficult. She has 3 main attack patterns: Attack 1: She will hold still and launch two waves of magic at you - a vertical wave, followed by a horizontal wave. When she charges the attack, launch an unlocked shot or two. Then, once the wave gets close, strafe at the last possible instant to dodge the attacks. The waves can do a lot of damage, especially if you get caught by several at once. So, it may take a few tries learning the strafe timing. Attack 2: She will fly around in a large circle, occasionally shooting horizontal waves at you. Hold R2 and lean in to the direction she is going, and when she fires magic, dodge it in the direction you are turning at the last possible instant. Dashing at the same time helps, as I find these attacks are much harder to dodge than when she is stationary. If you are really good at flying and shooting and dodging simultaneously, try launching a few unlocked shots ahead of her. Otherwise, just hold down R2 and try to get some locked shots charged up/fired. Attack 3: She will curl up, then summon a ring of swords around her. You need to take these swords out ASAP. They will stay out for about 5-8 seconds before she uses an attack with them. Before then, you need to use locked shots/magic attacks to remove those swords. She is immune to damage while those swords are out. After a while, the swords will turn on their end and point at you. A second or two later, all the remaining swords will launch out at you. It is possible to dodge them, but extremely difficult, and nigh impossible if more than 2 or 3 are out. These swords do a lot of damage so it is imperitive you get rid of them as quickly as you can. I recommend saving your magic attacks to clear out these swords, as magic doesn't seem to do much damage to her (not much more than a single unlocked shot, in any case.) Just follow this pattern until you manage to kill her. If you consistently have problems with her (as I did) just level up your dragon for a while. Finally, the screen will blur out, and she will fall to the earth. Congratulations, you've earned ending number two! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 5: Chapter 9 V. 6 - Final Boss (Ending 3) ------------------------------------------------------------------- First off, get Hymir's Finger and max it out. Chapter 1 Verse 8 is an easy place to do this. Once maxed, it has an enormous 62 Attack. Additionally, having Nobuyoshi along and maxed out helps too, but it is not necessary. Form 1: The Chaos Dragon will stay at one end of the hall and launch dumbfire projectiles at you. However, they are stopped by the columns. The projectile launched from the Hymir's Finger finishing move goes through them. Hide behind a column where she can't see you, and charge up ten attacks, and use his finisher for the eleventh. Just make sure you're pointed at her and you'll do about one and a half life-dots of damage. Keep repeating this until she flies to the other end of the room. After a bit, she will begin using a new set of attacks. Form 2: Now she will start to use firebreathing attacks. These are not stopped by the wall, however, they are short range. Hide behind a column (just in case she throws out a fireball instead) and repeat the earlier process. Continue this until she is at about half lifebar. If done right, you will have taken zero damage to her 50%. Not a bad deal. Form 3: She will now begin to throw homing projectiles at you, so our method of launching projectiles from behind columns is no longer workable. These projectiles home in on geometric paths. Bunny-hop your way to her, and use jump attacks if she has her head reared back. You might luck out and she will bring her head down for a bit. Beat on it. If you find its too difficult to use Hymir's Finger here, use Nobuyoshi. Charge up a magic bar and use it on her for Susano's Veil. Although she is immune to magic, she is not immune to the extra damage caused from freezing from this magic attack. This can help expedite things greatly. If your life gets low, there is a treasure chest in the SE corner containing a full life orb. Keep beating on her till shes at one quarter life. Form 4: Almost there! Now she gets really pissed and starts launching homing fireballs. When the lock-on appears around you, start rolling around all over the place to evade. If possible, jump in and attack her when the dust settles. After a few hits, she will fly across to the other side of the screen. Get ready to run at her, and do a jumping dash attack. This should hit her, and might even stun her a bit, allowing you to land a few beefy Hymir's Finger swings. If things get really tough, remember you have allies. Try summoning Leonard a few times and try using his magic attack on her (remember, magic immune enemies aren't immune to allies magic.) Continue this until she falls dead. Congratulations, you have earned the third ending! Here's another alternate strategy by Mark Reed - Before you begin the battle make sure Caim's sword is maxed, this will be the most important part. Remeber, she's magic resistant, so save your magic for later. Also, if you run into health troubles (as most probably will) there is a treasure chest with full health in it in one of the corners on your left. Here's how I did it, and good luck. Form 1: She'll do that thing where she stays still and shoots fireballs at you. Easy enough, stay out on the middle of the floor and as you move up keep hitting L1 or R1 to strafe (If you get into any immediate danger hide behind a pillar, as the fireballs can't harm you there). As soon as you get up to her head give it a few good whacks until she tries to do a combo where again, all you have to do is strafe (R1/L1) and it shouldn't hurt you. Since Caim's sword doesn't do a lot of damage make sure that when she runs you're all ready moving to the other side...the key word is strafe, and you should be fine. After all this fun you'll reach ... Form 2: Now this part can be one of the hardest if you don't know how to get away without being knocked around like a rag doll. First off, get behind the pillar closest to her (you'll have to be at the far edge of it because the fire likes to come around somehow and knock you down, causing a ton of frustration) after she gets done with one blast STRAFE as fast as your little legs will take you to the opposite side of her and she'll reload, this is where you need to strafe afap (as fast as possible) to the other side of her, you need to be touching her for this, so the fire won't harm you. After that when she's getting ready to go for another one just crack her skull open with some combos. Keep hitting her until she want's to do that combo again or fly to the other direction. Pretty soon you'll be at ... Form 3: All right, this form was probably the most anger causing one because trying to dodge all the things she has follow you made it impossible to get to her before she ran away. This is where you use your magic (cometdance). The thing she'll be doing here is she'll take off and these little ball things will go all around the room trying to smack you around while she sits on the other side of the room staying still. This is probably the eaisest form to beat. AS SOON as she takes off use cometdance and all the balls should be gone (you can also physically attack them, but that's not so much worth it as they'll usually dodge and smack you around) if there are any left feel free to cometdance again to get rid of them which should leave you plenty of time to just go around and lay Caim's sword on her again. So, after that completely annoying phase you'll reach the most dangerous, the most anticipated, ... Form 4: Probably the most dangerous phase because the fireballs that were so fun to dodge in the beginning are now homing fireballs. Excellent. Again, (L1/R1) strafe Caim as much as you possibly can, sometimes even that's not enough, but remember, be getting as close as you can while strafing. As soon as you're close enough lay some hits on her until she goes to the other side. AS SOON as she goes into the air be running to the other side and a running attack or a jump attack will help here. She'll more than likely try a combo like she does everytime, just strafe it again until you can finally lay her down. You've beat her! Congrats and enjoy the ending. As a side note: Any attack of hers can be interrupted by a physical attack of yours, this can be VERY helpful. Here's another boss tip, by Aneesh Roy - Make sure you have Hymir's Finger for this battle. It is great if you can level it up, but I use Level 1. Form 1: This one is not too difficult. She stands there and shoots fireballs at you. In the beginnning, just run straight at her. When she shoots a fireball, change the course of your running to the left or right just enough to avoid it. When you get to her, jump and hit her (X square). While her head is down, keep jumping and hitting her (so you can use the slow weapon faster). As soon as her head rises up, roll out of the way ( L1 or R1). She will either try to attack you or fly to the other side of the room. If she does attack, continue hitting her as soon as she is done attacking you. When the dragon flies to the other side of the room, follow her as fast as you can and continue with the same method. Form 2: Now she introduces a new attack. It's just a different fire breath. Continue the method in Form 1. As long as you roll correctly, you should be able to dodge the fire. Form 3: This time, the dragon will release lots of red glowy-things that will go out in a few directions. Continue the fighting method used previously, but you also have to dodge the glowy-things wihle you're running for the dragon. If you need to, jump (X) to avoid the glowy-things, but the overall method should stay the same. Form 4: Normally, she will target in your direction and fire a bunch of homing fireballs. But if you can get to her quickly enough, (make sure her head is low), she won't even get a chance to fire. But if she does get to fire, take the hits, and then she will briefly lower her head. That's when you strike and keep hitting her (always use jump-strike when using the Hymir's Finger) until the dragon dies. If you need to, (you probably will), get the treasure box in the left corner of the room if you are about to die. Note: The dragon is also a great way to level up Caim. Also, instead of rolling, you can also use the block (L2) when the dragon attacks, but note that you will take a bit of damage from it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 6: Chapter 13 V. 3 - Final Boss (Ending 5) ------------------------------------------------------------------- In this unusual boss battle, you must create rings of the same color the boss does. Triangle emits a black ring, and Square creates a white one. The first two waves aren't too bad, but the last part of the last wave is very tough - you'll need many practice runs before you are able to successfully complete it. One trick is to pause the game, look at the next couple rings, and then unpause it and fire the rings. Then pause it again, look at the next segment of the pattern, and repeat. If you ever miss a ring, you will be stunned for a second and all of your rings will disappear - this means death towards the end. Also, your life constantly drains, but it regains whenever you fire off a ring. Make sure after you finish the last pattern, you fire off a ton of black rings to max out your life. Here is the full attack pattern, thanks to CoolCloud. Wave 1: W W W W B B B B W B W B W B B B B W B W B W B W W W W WAVE 2 : B W B W B B W W W W W B W B W B B B W W W W W B W B W B W W B W B W B W W W W B B W W B B W W B B W B W B W B W B W W WAVE 3 : B B W W W B W W W B W W W W W B W W W W W B (Here's the long one) B W B B W B W B W B W B B W B B W B W B W B W B W W W B B B W B W B W W B B B W W W B W B W B W W B Upon beating this mission, you will earn the fifth ending, achieve 100% story completetion, and will unlock a special free mission in Tokyo - highlight the top left of the screen on the Free Expedition select screen to play it. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7: Final Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------- My final stats after beating the Tokyo Free Mission: Level 55 HP: 326 Dragon XP: 826310 Total Kills 25778 Time 25:32:46 Attacks: 39880 If you have any difficulties on the bosses or weapons, ask around on the message boards or email me at jodonnell@mac.com This FAQ should only appear on: GameFAQs.com NeoSeeker.com IGN.com If you see this FAQ on another site, please let me know so I can take appropriate action. Big thanks to slimstunna on the GameFAQs message boards for collecting all the weapon info. This FAQ wouldn't be here without his help. Thanksto X Crono X for some boss tips, weapon corrections, and general info. Thanks to michaelbolton, Chris, Jamic, Warren Pierce, Sharon Ongena, Subsane, MrSpock128, Brandon Easley, and Strade22, for corrections on various weapons. Thanks to Aneesh Roy, Mark Reed and John Chao for some boss tips. Thanks for Fox Boy for the weapon level-up trick. Thanks to Jaek for some info on Orbs. Thanks to CoolCloud for the Final Boss ring pattern. Thanks to MrSpock128 and Peter Shafer for corrections on the final boss pattern. Thanks to cavia for developing a beat-em-up even when Koei already has a strong established franchise. Thanks to Enix, now Square-Enix, for having the guts to publish something so bold and different. -------------------------------------------------------------------