-=Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity=- *Survival and Boss Guide* =================== Quick Key Search (Just type Boss and a number. Such as Boss4 will bring you to Golem: Alpha): Viper (First battle)- 1 Linea (or ????)- 2 Viper (Second Battle)- 3 Golem: Alpha- 4 Viper (Third Battle)- 5 Jade (Second Battle)- 6 Echidna (Optional)- 7 Jade (Third Battle)- 8 Golem: Beta- 9 Ventus- 10 Humus- 11 Choire (First battle)- 12 Aqua- 13 Flamma- 14 Choire (Second Battle)- 15 Nebula (First battle)- 16 Nebula (Third battle)-17 Echidna (Second Battle)-18 Choire (Third Battle)- 19 Viser- 20 Dignus- 21 Nebula(Forth Battle)- 22 Dies Irea- 23 Unique Battles: Jade (First Battle) and Saving Gallant: UB1 Viser at the Cathedral: UB2 Nebula and Lumena: UB3 Quick key searches for Sections are in the table of contents under Sec#. =================== Table of Contents: Intro- I This is where I talk a little about my self, and a few pointers you might need before continuing with the guide. Sec1 How to Win Any Standard Battle- II How dumb is the enemy AI? Well, your question can be answered here. Sec2 Boss Battles- III This is the meat and tofu of this guide. This is all about bashing up bosses. Sec3 Tough/Unique Battles- IV If anything I came across seemed different or harder than the standard “Kill all enemies on the map” I’ll put it in here. (Such as saving a person) Sec4 Tips/Tricks- V Well, you run into some while playing the game, so why not share the knowledge? Sec5 Contact/Other- VI Wanna know how to get a hold of me for some clarification or some tasty tidbits to add to the guide? Well, this is not the place to go. This is all about how to make a fishing pole from a soda can, a cork, some fishing line, and a fishing hook. Sec6 ====================== I. Introduction: Sec1 Greetings, my name is Frozen Atari, and you either like reading game guides, or you’re stuck on a boss. Don’t you worry; I’ll help with both. I’ll try and make the guide not a total bore, and I will try and give as much information on boss battles as possible. I will also give a few pointers with battle tactics, how to use classes, how to solve unique-type battles, as well as giving a few general tips. If you’re looking for help on a standard “beat all the guys on the screen” you have also come to the right place, I’ll tell you how to beat ANY standard battle in Stella Deus, yes it can be that easy. Also, before continuing, I would suggest that you should be familiar with how Stella Deus plays, if you are not, bust out that lump of paper Altus shoved in the game case and read it. Alternatively, you can use the very helpful tutorial included in the game. This is my 4th Strategy guide that I’ve written, so hopefully I’ve been getting better at it, well, lets move on to winning battles, shall we? (Unless you’re gonna be skipping that part, you know I put a lot of work into it, so read it! ) I also do not give suggested parties; you should be able to beat any battle with a balanced party. ===================== II. How to Win Any Standard Battle: Sec2 For those who are experienced Strategy Epic players, you may not need this part, for every one else, listen up, because what I will write here will echo through the rest of the guide. Ok, the key to wining any standard “kill every thing” battle is the very simple and effective “Lure maneuver”. Simply, all you have to do is use the enemy’s A.I to your advantage. Many recent Strategy Spics have simple A.Is, most of the time. The working of the AI is like this: “Is the player close? If yes, move using the quickest way and attack. If no, stay.” So, as you can see, the enemy AI can be REALLY easy to trick. This way of this simple thinking also backfires big time with Stella Deus, as they will move right up to you, even if they do not have enough AP to attack, just asking to be hit. So, what you do each battle is first pick out one or two targets, check their movement, than use a one or two people as lures sitting right in their farthest movement space, and have the other party members wait (make your turn go off after the enemies’ turn.). When the enemy gets close, jump it with every thing you have to kill it quickly and effectively. After that, heal (yeah, like you’re going to need to) and pick the next target. Really, it’s that simple. Yet always keep terrain, escape routes, and the enemies’ level in mind, because if you get careless, it can cost you the battle. (Or at least a few allies) Yet, there are smarter A.Is in the game is standard battles, but the principle is the same. All the enemy does is wait until you get close enough so it can attack you once… the Lure tactic still works, its just that you’ll get a nick instead of not getting hit at all. The “point man” should be someone with good Defense or really high evade, and never use Spero. (after all, if he gets killed the game is over.) Another AI is what I call “hunter” AI. They start out hunting down people when the battle starts off or when an event is triggered, like killing a few enemies, or a boss gets attacked; they will not just wait for you. Yet, they are still the same as the rest: They will get so occupied with trying to get to you, that they will ignore figuring out if they have enough AP to attack. Like the other AIs, they will stay and keep hitting the same person, no matter how low their own HP is. Now, this tactic works against fighter-type classes, but what about Archers and mage type classes? Well, you can either get really close and bash’em up, or you can use other mages and archers to counter them. (For the best result, use archers against mages and mages against archers.) Also, they will rarely run away, so you can keep pelting spells and arrows at the enemy until it dies. Like fighting close combat troops, use numbers and singling out to win the day. Also, make sure you use the classes accordingly. Keep mages out of the fray if you are facing strong enemies, and have fighters out in front. Yet, fighter classes don’t really differ that much in Stella Deus, as the weapon and skills seems to be the main defining factor for every class. Even than, not every gets the same skills, but any one can learn all of them. (So it’s really boils down to weapons) As a general rule, keep mages light, as having long legs and long range attacks makes mages pretty useful in Stella Deus. (unlike other Strategy Epics.) On the flip side, you can go crazy on fighters, having hulking brain bashers is just the thing you need for Lure tactics. Give them the best weapons and armor you can find/buy first, and buy the nice stuff for mages later. The only fighter you should treat differently is the Archer, or any character with a bow. Keep them light, and use them more like mages. (Keep them away from strong enemies, find high ground, blah blah blah) Other than that, you’re pretty much set for battle. =========================== III. Boss Battles: Sec3 Obviously, this is the section to go to if you’re having some trouble with a boss, hopefully I have sound advice, and if you need and clearing up, or want to add any thing (such as a completely alternate ways of defeating a boss) feel free to email me. (Address is at the bottom of the guide) All boss battle has the same objective: Kill the boss. Which means you could skip the boss’s guard and try to kill him/her…. But that is typically suicidal, you silly samurai. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss1 : Viper (LV4) Suggested level: 2-3 Ok, this is your first fight with a boss, and it can either be really easy or really difficult, depending on how you approach it. If you go out and try and kill him, he will trash your ass in one turn. It is time to start practicing with a soon to be familiar lure tactic on this boss. Also, you get to use Linea after Viper finishes his first turn. Have her run to every one else quickly, and don’t try to attack until your party meets up with her. After that, find a good place and use her skill and arrows. Viper is really strong, and has a fear zone, so use the lure tactic to your full advantage so that you will not get hit that much, after all, he has basic AI. Simply keep every one close, and fight as one, than run. Try and use only one attack, because if you use any more, you most likely will get smacked with an ax or feared. If any one does get nailed pretty bad, use Adara to heal. If she runs low on MP, use a herb and continue to have her support.(If you wish, you can have Adara summon a few spells to help out here and there, they can shave a good amount of Viper’s HP.) If any one gets feared either have them run away (not to far) or get close to Linea to have her use a Badge of Courage on the ally to remove Fear (she has four, so use them how you like). After Viper hits about ¼ of his HP, the battle will end. Yeah you won! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss2 : Linea (LV 4) and Guards (LV 3-4) Suggested Level: 3-4 Yep, she helped you then she attacks you. She also has a bodyguard with sprites… You know, she’s a real hypocrite: She says not to kill sprites, but then she chucks a few at you for them to die… Any way, this battle can go two ways, just like the last one, and it all matters how you start out. Do not get close to the cliff where Linea is, she will start putting holes into your mates with her skills and arrows, not good when you have a lot of enemies to chop through. Stay at the bottom of the map and use the lure tactic to take on the enemies one by one. After her cohorts are dispatched, make your way to Linea. She will use skills until she runs out of MP. Try and get close to corner her, that way, when she runs out of MP, she can’t attack those who are directly in front of her. Obviously, Refill your HP with Adara when you get low. You might want to pack up on extra Curative items just in case Adara does not make it. After you corner her, hack and slash your way to victory. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss3 : Viper (LV 6) and Gaurds (LV 4-6) Suggested Levels: 4-5 Ok, this looks REALLY tough, but it’s not. Use the lure tactic as you descend the cliff, and make sure you take on as few enemies as possible. The enemies in this battle have “smart AI” and will at least try and get one attack in before you slice them up. Have Adara save her MP (unless you need to cure) for Viper. When you get to the bottom and killed off Viper’s retinue, you can start working on Viper him self. And really, this is just like the last time you fought him. All you have to do is just keep hitting and running, because his AI did not change. Like last time, the battle will end when Viper gets low on HP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss4 : Golem: Alpha (LV 7) Suggested Levels: 5-6 Yep, you’re fighting legos. Killer legos, but legos nonetheless. Now, the Golem is quite tough, for one it is very strong, has good defense, and is killer in both close and at long range. Hitting and running may not work that well, mostly because of his Movement penalty Area effect he has. Yet, it is one of the few choices you have with your party. At the start of the battle you get to control Avis, and he’s pretty good, not a good choice for this fight, but still a good fighter. Have him run away to meet the rest of the party. I don’t know if the battle will end if he dies, so keep him away from the fray. This also means you want Spero away from the fray, because the golem is more than capable of dismembering him in one turn. When you get close, have Grey and who ever else you have to start using physical attacks on the Golem, and have Adara and Linea (or if you packed a mage) use spells on the magical abomination (magic works quite well on it.). Have Spero and Avis use items to refill the girls’ HP if they get shot with the golem’s cannon, as the golem will keep shooting at the same target until he or she dies. Also, have the two spell casters have a few herbs to replenish their MP if it gets low. The Lure tactic will not work at all on the lego man, it’ll wait until it is able to use 2 or more attack on a person, which will cripple or kill any unfortunate soldier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss5: Viper (LV 8) and Guard (LV 7-8) Suggested Levels: 7-8 One more time kids! “Good mooorning Mr.Viper.” “Hey kids, today I’m going to teach you how to kick my ass for a third time, hyheh heh heh heh heh!!” Ok, so you’re in a forest, and enemies on both sides surround you, things don’t look good, eh? Well, that can change if you know how to do things. First, take down the enemies on your side of the bank, using the lure tactic will help you greatly in this battle. After those guys are bashed, the Mage, fighters, archers, and clerics will start coming across the stream. I split my force into two parts to take on the threats at once, one took on the enemies coming from the closest to Viper, and the others took on the three soldiers coming across the wide end of the stream. After you smack Viper’s men, move onto Viper him self. He has two soldiers with him, one has the HP recovery zone skill, and the other is bare. Take down the one with the recover skill first by luring, the last thing you need is a healing boss. Viper and his two buddies basically will move as one, so you have to take on the threat as one. Once again, I “split” my force to take down each soldier with three people on each. After nailing the two soldiers you can finally start trashing Viper. As always, use magic, luring, and hitting and running. This time though, you have to drain all of Viper’s HP to win, which should not be too hard, even though he has over 1,000 HP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss6 : Jade (LV 14) and Guard (LV 13-14) Suggested Level: 14-16 Woah, tough one here. I wouldn’t be surprised that this is the first boss fight that would stump many players. Any way, first thing that you noticed is that you have a long way to go, second thing is that you can only have 4 other people out… why? You have to protect Lumena and Prier, who are two clerics, yippy. This is why this fight can be tough; you can’t fill out your ranks with whom you want. First, have every one take one way up and don’t spit up that party. When you get to control Lumena and Prier, Have them take a step forward, there should be an item there. You might also catch the attention of the Ax man and fighter on the other steps. (Yet, I hear that if you don’t move the two clerics, nothing will happen to them, but I like for them to get to safety as quickly as possible.) Don’t worry though; if you have the Clerics lure the ax man and fighter, the fight can go by quicker. Next, have Lumena and Prier go to the circular pillar at the top of the steps of where your party is trying to get up. Stay there until the ax man and fighter catch up. Yes, the Nox will attack you, but he can’t kill you if you use your health spells/effects right. Ok, now after you smack the ax man and the fighter (don’t use skills or team attacks yet) have Lumena and Prier go and meet the rest of your party, if you can, try and get behind the main force. Now, have these two ladies heal your part whenever you’re low, and with Lumena’s HUGE HP recover skill, the party can be kept healthy, for you are going to need it. After that, spank the other Nox, ax man, cleric, and fighter. Now Jade starts to take interest. No matter where you are, He’ll start homing in on your party. Keep Lumena and Prier safe, and try not to get right in the thick with Spero. If any of these people die, and the game is over, yeah, that can really suck. So now you have three people taking on 3 Noxes, and Jade. Ignore the Noxes, right now you need to end the battle quickly before Jade smashes your party, so start focusing on Jade… that is harder than it sounds. Jade has monkey on fire fast Evade, and the Noxes all have dark skills. So on average you have about a 20% of hitting Jade, loads of joy. He also has a bunch of HP, good power, and a liking for team attacks with his Noxes. So, remember all those team attacks you saved? Start using them. Team attacks always hit, and you really need the burn a bunch of damage on him. After you use up your team attacks, start using spells and skills that always hit. (Yes, you can miss with skills, or the enemy “guards” it.) If you wish, you can prepare by taking skills that cause and protect against dark, as well as Hit raising skills to help nail a few more hits into Jade. As always keep an eye out for HP, Lumena and Prier should be able to keep every one healthy. You thankfully don’t need to kill Jade, or his weasels with a bondage fetish. All you have to do is get Jade to about ¼ life, and the battle will end. This is the first really hard battle in the game, and it may take a few tries to beat it. If you don’t succeed after a few times, try and Level up a bit, and always keep a cool head. I beat Jade at LV 14, and I highly recommend any one but the more experienced Strategy Epics players try for at least LV 16 before taking on Jade and his lovely stairs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss7 (Optional): Echidna (LV 16) and Guard (LV 14-16) Suggested Level: 15-17 Pretty standard. Not only is Echidna the standard sexy, big ego, female villain, but the fight is standard too. Ok, I should tell you that the way to fight Echidna is by choosing the first choice when you meet her in Talbena. Choose the second, and you’ll fight a standard battle in which you are surrounded. Now, in this stage you can use some areas to your advantage, namely the tents and boxes. The tents give you extra attack, and Boxes (Or “Trees” as they are known) give you extra defense. Any way, climb your way out of the hole you’re put in and start getting close to the Soldiers on the shortest path to Echidna. Ignore the rest of the enemies; they won’t attack unless you get close. Each of the soldiers has the “End Turn” EZ skill, which can really suck if you step into it. After you clean up the soldiers, the Mage should be running up to you. Break him and move on to the fighters. The fighters have an “HP recover” and “HP drain” Effect Zone skills, yeah pretty fun. They also don’t attack unless you are really close, so don’t trying luring them at a great distance. Nuke them with magic and start working on the foxy lady in black. (Don’t get too attached to her, boys. She’s only pixels and a poor voice actor after all.) The lady named after an egg-laying mammal has “San Skills” EZ, which stops you from using skills, no big deal. Physical attacks will work well on her, as she has low physical defense. Lure her next or onto the tent, this way you get a nice Attack bonus against her and start nailing her on all sides. By the time she gets hurt, a Thief and Cleric will stop picking their own noses and start helping her out. You can kill them if you like, they won’t have a big influence on the battle either way. Any way, when she is surrounded, she’ll become a very easy target. Just keep pounding her and pounding her, even though is looks like she can take the pain, she really can’t. Her high HP is off balanced by her poor defense, making her very easy to subdue. As always, keep an eye out for dropping HP, you don’t want to lose a person in a battle this easy. Echidna will call off the battle when she hits ¼ HP, just like Viper and Jade. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss8 : Jade (LV 19) and Guard (LV 18) Suggested Level: 18-19 Ok, lets play a drinking game; every time Spero says an exclamation or a question and it sounds like a statement, take a shot. You’ll be so hammered you won’t what to do during this fight, but incase you remember that you can read, I’m here to help you through this boss battle. Ok, now you’re way past the point of being familiar with this set up: One boss, lots of guards, time to kill every one who has a different opinion than you. Now, since you are in a desert, your movement is cut a little, although if you have good movement (20 or under) it should only be a small problem. First, take out the guys on the hill next to you; you don’t want a cleric and an archer pissing you off later in the fight. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use spells or Team attacks on them. You need all the automatic hitting skills saved up for Jade. After you grind the hill billies up, start moving to the second batch of baddies on the other side, not the two ax men with Jade, you’ll deal with those armored tomatoes later. Also, try not to get into Jade’s movement space; you don’t want a long legged boss after you when you still got a 3/4s of a force left. Start to clean the guys on the left up, it should not take to long. After you buried them in the sand, move to Jade. Yet, after you defeat the rest of the force, Jade once again will wake up and come to kill you. When he and his guard come into range, start cleansing the Ax men first; they pack quite a punch. After that, start burning down Jade. Jade, like the last time, has insane dodging skills. Jade also has a huge movement space, thanks to his “Ignore Geo effect” Skill, and packs a big Dark EZ skill. Its time to start busting out those spells and team attacks. If you have any MP recover items, now is a good time to use them if you run out of MP for your mages. After you used up all your resources, start bashing him the old fashion way. You may have at the most, a 22-33% of hitting him, so try and get him in the back as much as you can. This time, you have to remove his entire supply of HP, and with enough luck, you’ll mash up Jade. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss9 : Golem: Beta (LV 24) Suggested Level: 23-25 Ph34R t3h p1Nk g013m. Ok, this battle can be done very easily. First off, make sure you pack a few magic users, cause you’re gonna need that arcane knowledge to get through this battle in an easy going matter. If you want, give Spero or Grey a spell to help out, nothing like a little range to make a character even better. Ok, you also get to control Tia, nya, in this battle… but she won’t much help. She only has attack skills, and nothing really good to help hurt the golem. So have her heal and run, and hopefully the golem will go after the party. If the golem does go after the party, first, get a character to go and block off the path to the main party. Why you ask? Because now the golem is a real easy target and cannot reach the bulk of your party to use physical attacks. Now, start nuking him with magic, and if you want, pack a few evade up skills to help dodge the golem’s beam cannon. If it goes after Tia, have her lead it back to the party and have her get healed. Than just do the same as a stated above. Even though the golem has over 4,000 HP, you should be able to cremate it quite quickly. It also has fear, but the skill has low range and should not pose a problem. All you have to do is keep blasting its lego ass with magic, and you’ll win the battle. Yep, it’s that easy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss10 : Ventus (LV 27) Suggested Level: 26-28 Holy crap, the boss’s protection is broken, data drain it! What, don’t get it? Well, the quest of finding four elemental powers to save the world is old news in the lands of Epics. But hey, at least you’re not fighting a bird, a tornado, or a woman with a big scarf dangling around her body. Ok, now this fight can be easy, or it can be so difficult that you might die in a few turns, it all matters how you play. And how you play is by bringing along 2 or 3 people that can heal.(I did fine with just two) The healers should know a small healing spell (like quick cure or heal), because all you’ll need is that small boost of life giving alchemy to make the fight manageable. Before I go on, I should tell you why you need two healers; it’s all because of Ventus’s big ass area spell. This attack is magical in nature, and has an attack radius of 61… sixty one! This will typically catch every one around him, and will deal about 200 to each character. With the quick cures, you should be able to recover close to 200 HP, basically nullifying the maelstrom. Ok, now on to fighting the boss. First, you gotta go after the green orb of death, because he’s not coming down of his throne. He’ll just sit up there and caste his wind spell over and over again. You should have your mages/archers stay down at the bottom, they don’t need to go up there, and you can heal just fine from the bottom. When you get up at the top, start bashing him with skills and physical attacks, but do not use team attacks. Every time I tried to use one, it simply failed. Ventus also packs nice evade, not blazing Jade evade, but nice evade nonetheless. If you wish, pack an Accuracy Up EZ and Acc up Skills. If you have some one with San Skills that could work too, because now Ventus can only use physical attacks, and his regular attack sucks. To be really nasty, have the third member pack an EVA up EZ skill and corner him, now that’s just nasty. If you don’t have a flexible group of skills yet, the fight is still easy, just keep healing every one. If you can, try and pack the healers at the bottom with the HP Recover EZ skill, because now they can recover them selves with out using any resources. The boss fight may be a tad long; after all, Ventus has a garage load of HP, yet removing it all is quite simple, just keep hacking at him. After you show Ventus that humans will always be better than sprites, he’ll fork over the “power of the wind”. …. Can you guess what it is? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss11 : Humus (LV 31) Suggested Level: 30-31 Remember the last fight? You don’t? Well, if you forgot, the guys and gals behind Stella Dues thought that it would be cool if you did it again. The differences are few and far between: The level is a tad higher, the big spell now stones (load up on the Anti-stone skills, Cure all spells, and Purity EZ), the ball sprite now has a counter skill instead of an evade skill and…. Uhmmm… every thing is yellow. So, yeah. If you took a gander at how to beat Ventus, than you pretty much know how to beat Humus. Hmmm… I hope this does not become a trend… But my Atari sense is tingling… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss12 : Croire (LV 31) and Guard (LV 30) Suggested Level: 31-32 Ewok Village? Elven Town? The lost boys tree fort? I’ll let you make up hackney comparison. Ok, this is pretty damn strait forward, this is a typical gauntlet situation and boss at the end, time to kill every thing. Ok, first, get every one up the steps and take out the Axe Knight, but don’t get to close, or Croire will start nailing you with skills and arrows through out the rest of the battle. After you nix the axe man, slowly start inching your way to Croire. Lure the enemies to you and take them out one by one as you move thru the twisting walkways. Try not to use too many attack spells, because they might come in handy when you want to crush Croire. Also, try and keep out of Choire’s attack zone, being nailed by arrows when you still have opponents to chop down can be annoying. After you mow down the walls of meat, its time to move on to Choire and his two buddies. One of them is a Cleric with San Skills; nail him first. If you have an Archer, use arrows to kill the cleric quickly while you have the fighters go after the Axe man. After you toss them in the drink, its time to clobber Choire. When you get in range, Choire will keep using his attack skill until his MP is empty, than he’ll move on to regular attacks (which have a 10% of fearing). Heal when blondie nails your party with his skill, it can leave a mark. Also, Fairfax here has an HP absorb EZ Skill, which can burn 200+ damage off of one of your party members and add it to his own, ow. Try and stay away from his vampire like skill if you can, but don’t fret if you can’t, just heal the victim and try to remove as much of Croire’s HP as possible. Chroire will withdraw from the battle when he hits about ¼ Hp. Pansy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss13 : Aqua (LV 33) Suggested Level: 32-34 Hm… Nice original name for an elemental representation of water. Also, surprise surprise, we have the same character sprite, in the same map (but green-blue) and the same type of attacks! This time though (get ready) the attack sleeps! Wow! Any way, this guy moves around more than the last ones, so expect not to go far, even though your party if split into two groups. Aqua is equipped with a nifty “Sleep” EZ, so pack Anti sleep skills, Purity EZ skills, Status clearing spells, and Gnome Leggings (if you have the weight to spare). When you start out, you will have to put two people on the bottom, due to the starting area configuration. Just chuck your mages/archers down here if you wish. Alternatively, you can pack a fighter with the “Jump +1/+2” skill and hop right on up to help smash Aqua. Other wise you will have to run up the steep cliffs, and that takes time, time that could of been used for kicking the only connection between the physical and spiritual realm’s ass. Like the other great sprites, Aqua will sit around and caste its big ol’ spell that damages and sleeps all of your party members. (Yawn) Just get up close and start bashing him with Skills, spells, and regular attacks (but not team attacks), just like his siblings. After the battle you will inherit the naturally Aqua Man-tactular power of water. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss14 : Flamma (LV 35) Suggested Level: 33-35 Uhm…ok. I beat the elemental phantom with only three people… and only two of them really did any thing, so this is a disappointingly easy fight. (I started with out putting the rest of my force up, woops) Either way, I would suggest you pack a full force. If you have a character with the Jump+1/+2 skill, put it on! (Silver Anklets work well too) Other wise, you are going to spend a lot of time winding around the hexagon structure. When you start, your force will be split into two parts, be sure to put a healer in each. You also want to pack Anti-fear, Cure-all spells, and Purity EZ, because this near carbon copy of the other sprites has fear causing abilities. Flamma will go after one slice of your force and start casting his burning spell over and over again, so try and get other force over to help out. Flamma also has weak DEF and average EVA, so pummeling him into oblivion will take only a short time to do. Yet, he also has Counter 30%, but if you attack him from above with a spearman, he will not be able to counter. (It’s too high for him, heh heh) Other than that, you should know how to take down Great Sprites by now. So, that’s it, if you want, this a good time to show your little cousins/ younger siblings/significant non-gaming other how to play a Strategy Epic with such an easy fight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss15 : Choire (LV35) and guard (LV34-35) Suggested Level: 34-36 Woo! Tangent! Choire here is up in Archer heaven: he has a wall of meat (and legos) to help him out, a winding path to reach him, and he is really high up. Nice view, eh? But wait, there’s more! Choire also packs his big ass attack skill, and a Stone EZ! Yet, we don’t have to worry about him just yet. Just be sure to equip any Anti-stone skills and jump skills/item. Now, when you start out, you are down hill, both literally and figuratively. First, you can’t use Linea (booo) and you have to use Avis… It’s not that Avis sucks or anything, it’s just that it would really help if you could have Linea. Now first, dump both the Vigor nuts Avis has: this will increase his movement, which is quite helpful. Next, start to lure the guards in and start bashing them up. I would use attack magic lightly, because you are going to need some extra MP against Choire’s arrows. After you cream the guards start moving to Choire. You have to take the stairs on the right, that is, unless you packed some people with Jump +1, that way you can jump right up the cliff. If you do have some people with Jump+1, (three people is good enough) have them start breaking up the guards on the left, and have the other three members take the long way. Try not to get into Choire’s attack zone just yet, but make sure you kill his guard off before going after him. If you don’t have any one with Jump +1, just move as a group. It may be more painful, but it is the only choice you have. (See, this is why you want to save MP.) Choire will start pelting every one with his skill; just heal as you go. He’ll keep of raining arrows until he runs out of MP, than he will start taking down the stragglers with regular arrows. If you have MP recovery items, now is a good time to use them. (Your mages should be bushed by now) Ok, go up the large flight of stairs and kill the guards if you have not already and start beating the crap out of Choire. Physical attacks work well, and if you have any skills and team attacks, use them! At this point you want to slash the arrer boy up as quickly as possible. Now all you have to do is keep your warriors healthy and you should win, after all, Choire only has puny arrows left. Thankfully, you only have to remove ¼ of his HP and than he’ll turn yeller and runa’way! Oh yeah, 10 points to who ever knows where “Woo! Tangent!” comes from. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss16 : Nebula (LV37) and guard (LV36) Suggested level: 35-37 Hmmm… Just look at this group: You got guys in binding masks, guys in bandages, and a gal brandishing a whip and revealing clothing, looks like they came from “Hot Lip’s Leather and Whips” down on 6th street. Any way, this fight is perhaps the straightest battle you will participate in yet. As you can tell, it’s a very easy path, and taking down the guards are not a problem. Now, the problem can be Nebula; she’s got a handy stone EZ on, so hopefully you haven’t chucked those anti-stone skills off just yet. Now, Nebula has high evade, again, not that lord of the dance Jade evade, but good evade nonetheless. If you wish, pack dark and ACC up skills to help balance the equation to take her down fast. Speak of taking her down, she has poor defense and average Magic Resistance, so don’t be shocked to much about that high HP. When you kill off all her guards, use your fighters to surround her, and start beating the living crap out of her. The only thing you have to worry about is her special attack. It does not deal a load of damage, but it does Dark and Sleep, so be sure to have someone who can cure status effects around. So, after you remove ¼ or her HP, she’ll say the safety word and run. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss17 : Nebula (LV40) and guard (LV39) Suggested Level: 38-40 This battle brings up more questions than solving them: Where does Nebula get new skills when you didn’t have time to change them? Does Nebula have a Zealot-O-Matic? When did she have time to level up? Does this battle seem familiar? Well, I at least have one answer: Yes, this battle will seem familiar. First though, we have to make our way to Nebula. Ok, start out by luring in the enemies closest to your starting area this won’t be too tough. After slapping the first wave around, move up to the cross section. Ok, now what I did here was split my force and went after each side… This was a bad and good thing. If you wish, you can take each side as a whole, but it will take longer to do. If you do wish to split up the force preplan who will go after what side. For the left side, make sure you take Anti-stone, for the archer on the top has a nasty stone skill. (and due to the Laws of Epics, if an enemy can do a status effect, it will be successful. If you can, it will rarely happen.)The right side can be equipped how you normally have them. Start working up the stairs to defeat the archers, but you’ll realize some thing by now: Nebula packs a big area spell! Try and keep every one healthy as the scantly clad villain uses an all to familiar Great Spirit tactic: Stay in one spot and caste the same spell until you run out of MP. Now, after you bash the archer on the right side, run down the steps and go up stairs that lead to Nebula, grinding up enemies as you go. The left side party can simply jump over and start taking out Nebula’s MP recovering Archer and nab a few hits on her. Now, when you get to Nebula, start smacking her around, and try to surround her if you can. Do not line up your party; her whip can attack two people at once like a Spear. This time, you have to remove all her HP and show her that revealing leather does not make good armor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss18 : Echidna (LV41) and guard (LV40) Suggested Level: 39-41 Some things never change, ya know? The sun always rises, grass is green, and Echidna will always be a sorry excuse for a boss. On an odd note, if you take a gander at Echidna’s rank, you’ll find she’s a “Swordsman” … Makes you wonder, or not… Any way, this fight is as easy as burning an orphanage down. First, lure the Soldiers to you, and take care of the mage on the left. After you take down this wave, move to Echidna and try to lure her to you. Don’t worry about her attacks, they deal about 100 at most. This time, magic will work well, and physical attacks burn loads of damage off. She also has a nasty habit of countering… but using spearmen and archers will counter this defense. Even when she counters, you can still slap a pile of HP off of her. Other than that, just keep hacking at her. Sure, some of the guards will wake up and start homing in on you after she takes the first punch…but they are to far away to do anything. Well, all but that one archer… but who cares? The battle is going to end in a few turns anyway. She also packs two Ax men… but ignore them and focus on Echidna, that’s all you have to keep in mind. After you beat her leather bound ass by removing all her HP, she’ll fork over a nice katana. Also Spero’s voice actor actually tried during one of his lines at the end! My word! What will happen next?! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss19 : Choire (LV 42) and Guard (LV41) Suggested Level: 41-42 W-what happened? Choire was such a pain in the ass the last two times… Now look at him. His area skill was changed in for another skill that targets one enemy and sucks up all his MP. I have no idea how much it deals, but must do a lot. (My character blocked the attack) Either way, one whollup attack won’t help him in this fight. Not only that, but you can get to him in a few turns. Any way, when you begin, trash the soldier on the stairs, just lure and hack away. (Do not go to him, Choire will start flinging arrows at you.) Then, knock out the mage and axe man that are the nearest you as well by luring. Now, cross the river. By now an archer will be attacking you across the stream. Use magic or another Archer to kill him, and now the end begins. Choire will get off his ass and run down the steps to kill you. He’ll use his Skill on the closest person next to him, so pick some one with High evade/defense to guard/take the hit. Now Choire is defenseless, and is just another archer with a sloppy Sleep EZ. If you wish, pack Anti-sleep skills to counter this. Use about three party members to crush Choire, and have three others (preferably with good movement or ranged weapons) tie up the other enemies who will wake up and start hunting you when blondie gets a bruise. You don’t need to kill all the guards, all you have to do is spank shoulder pad’s ass into oblivion, which should not take long due to his low defense and HP. After this fight, you should go and get the rest of the Legendary Weapons if you have not done so all ready; they are very helpful and will hasten the next final fights a lot. If you do not have them, go to the Guild and pick new red quests that need 500 to enter and pay nothing in return. You need to be LV 42-45 to have a good chance at completing these quests, but they are well worth it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss20 : Viser (LV 43) and Alchemic Guard (LV 42) Suggested Level: 42-43 You know what I thought when I first entered this fight? “Oh crap.” That changed to “oh, well that was not too bad.” at the end of the battle. Well, Viser packs the top of class with him: Alchemists and Golem: Alphas… Wait, only Alphas? Yep, and they are a true push over now. First, split your party into two; pincering Viser is just the thing to make this battle go by quicker. On the left, I would suggest you take a mage and an Archer, for the golem at the top has a big End Turn EZ Skill on. When you split the party, run up and take down the mages on each side, then move to the golems on the steps. By now you should past the point to know that using magic on golems is like putting water on fire. After you break the block boys, move onto the next set. On the left, have your ranged characters focus on the End Turn EZ golem, if you don’t, it can be a pain later on. By now, Viser will wake up and start chopping up your buddies. Now, he’s not terribly strong, or that great in magic, or even good in Defense… Yes, he’s that bastard child of Epic classes known as the Mage-Knight. Which, to this day only Final Fantasy (yes, the first one) has gotten right. Yet, Viser does pack a Counter 30% skill, and MP recover, but this does not help the fact that he is easy to subdue. Now, have the closest people start picking on Viser, and have the rest clean up any messes left lying around. Viser packs two big area spells, well one is a Skill, but who cares. Neither of them will rack a load of damage, perhaps 200-350 at most. So just heal and proceed to eviscerate Viser. So, who’s next? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss21 : Dignus (LV 44) and Tyrant Guard (LV 43) Suggested Level: 45-46 Now, that’s a sword. Still, I have no idea what was going through Dignus’s head after he said his little speech… But who cares. This battle can be a tough one, as every single enemy on the field matters. If you don’t kill every last one before you fight Dignus, it can really hurt. Ok, take out the soldiers closest to you by luring, which should not be to hard since they have Movement 14. After you bash their heads in, move to the archers. Use Magic and Arrows to purge them, and then lure in the Ax men. Yet, the Ax men move with Dignus, so getting them is getting Dignus as well. Try and kill off the guards as quickly as you can, use team attacks and skills if you have too. Now, while you are fighting the Ax men, Dignus should start playing a role in the battle with his mighty area Skill. The skill has a big area effect and it stones and fears… ow. Pack any Anti-all skills you have before going into the fight. (Or at least Anti stone) Also, after every time he castes his skill, HEAL. I cannot stress this enough. When Dignus runs out of MP, he’ll start to sink his tyrannous sword into your party. It’s a little more bark than bite, but it does pack Curse. (Has a 30% chance of dealing all status effects…Yeow! ) Dignus also has Counter 30%, making him a little tougher. Yet, Dignus has a weak mind, and using attack magic will reward you here. Use all the distance you can by Team attacking and by using skills, because you don’t want a lot of damage dealt to you at this point from countering. You must remove all of Dignus’s HP to win, but in typical Epic style, the fight does not end with the main antagonist’s death… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss 22 : Nebula (LV 45) and Zealots (LV 44) Suggested Level: 45-46 Again… Why won’t she just give up? Ok, this is very strait forward: first, lure the Nox in and bash them in. Use magic and arrows to soften them up first, than use physical attack to finish them. After you wash them away Nebula should be using her skill that attacks every one. This does not deal a lot of damage, but is annoying. While slogging through the area skill, cut down the priests and move to the red head in leather. Nebula packs a nasty Curse skill like Dignus. Don’t use spells on her, she has uber-magic resistance. Just get close and start nailing her with she comes back with only 1 HP, so it should not be much to worry about. After you nix her, you are on your way to the last battle: Dies Irea. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boss 23 : Dies Irea (Level is based on Spero's Level. Thanks to Julian for finding this out.) Suggested Level: 46-47 (Yeah,yeah. But you'll be around this level when you make Nebula croak) Last boss, time to get things over with. He has an unknown amount of Hp and a Scrooge McDuck vault full of MP. He also has 13 evade, interesting. Now, Irea here has a counter all skill, which is all you have to worry about skill wise. He also packs four nasty skills, but he typically uses a big area spell that deals a good amount of damage. He also is the only character I have ever met with a 3x3 character base, which I think is a first for grid based combat. Any way, just go up and start bashing the hell out of the boss. Although when he nears ¼ HP, he’ll caste a spell that cuts damage by half. Yet, it is just not enough to keep up with your attacks. Really, that’s it. Use magic, use skills, use team attack, or use regular old attacks. All you have to do is keep every one healthy; there is no status effects to worry about, no real environment to traverse, no guard to distract you. Just be a nice fat level and go kill a god. Have fun! =================================== IV. Tough and Unique Battles: Sec4 This is where I tell you all about really tough non-boss battles, or battles that has a different way of winning than normal. If you have tips, or battles I should put up, give me an Electronic mail message by using the interweb. (Alternatively, if you have different way/or additional tips of beating the battles, give me an E-mail as well.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unique Battle.1- Saving Gallant: UB1 Enemies: Jade (Boss) LV 9, Guard LV 8 Suggested Levels: 8-9 Where: Hydor Ok, this battle seem a little tough, you got the man named after a car all the way on the other side of the map, and you have to make sure he does not die. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is not as hard as it seems. At the beginning of the battle, you get to control Gallant, the Ax man. He’s kinda slow, but really tough and strong. First thing you want to do is check the two Archers Attack range, and try and keep out of them. The next thing you want to do is NOT have Gallant go after Jade and his rouges, you’ll get cut up and the battle will end. Also, they won’t come after you unless you get into their movement space. Also, don’t try and kill the Archer near Gallant, the Cleric will just heal him. Just go and wade in the water. The next thing you want to keep in mind is that you do not need to kill Jade, or every one on the map for the matter. Just kill about half the force and the battle will end. Basically, go to the area where the Ax men and Archer is and start chopping them up, it’s right next to you where you start out, than head for Jade. Jade has a Spear man at his side and will go right after you when you enter the middle of the bridge, kill him and half of jade’s force should be gone. Then the battle will end… that’s it, now go and beat it. Now! Stop reading this and go; Jade is not going to kill all his men for you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unique Battle.2- Golem Rush: UB2 Enemies: Viser (Boss) LV 18, Golems LV 12 Suggested Levels: 11-12 Where: Cathedral Level 2 Viser loves legos. Ok, Viser summons 5 Alpha Golems at the start of the battle, three in front of him, 2 flanking your deployment area. First thing first, split up your force. Make sure you have at least 2 people who have magic, other wise it can be a tough fight (If you don’t know, magic is effective against golems) Divide your force into two teams on three to take down the flanking Golems. Do not come in contact with the golems’ movement area up on the stairs, the last thing you need is to fight more than one golem at a time. This time around, the golems are not insanely hard to topple, but they are still no mere lego towers. Use magic, team attacks, and special attack to take them down. Luring will help as each golem start taking on one person at a time. Also, despite the golem beam looking really thick, you can block it. Slap on Evade bonuses to help take no damage from the annoying beams. Now, after you spank the flanking golems, move to the golem line. Luring will help, and if you can, try and only get one out, if you don’t its not a big deal, you only have one more golem to kill to win. So pick a golem and concentrate all your resources on one mash of trash. After you nix the third magic-powered engine, you’ll win the fight. Like the fight with Jade, you don’t need to kill Viser to win. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unique Battle.3- Nebula and Lumena: UB3 Enimes: Lumena (Boss, LV 39), Nebula (Boss, LV39), Zealots (LV38) Suggested Levels: 38-40 Where: Lacuna Shrine Two bosses, yes two! One looks like a goodie goodie, the other is a little naughty. Now, neither of these ladies is really tough; they both have low defense, attack, and kinda stupid. Ok, first thing you have to do is split up your party. Have one take the left, the other take the right. Start bashing the Nox and Priest on either side and move forward to get the Fanatic’s attention after you nix the bondage freaks. Try and move the party as one, that way you don’t have to face two fanatics at the same time. After you unbandage the fans, the other guys and gals will wake up and start hunting you down. The thieves should be no problem, but try and take out the archers first. After you spank the archers and thieves, Nebula and Lumena should be right on top of you. Now this is the reason why you want the party to be spitted up; apart, these two are nothing, together they can be a pain in the ass. These two don’t deal a great amount of damage, so you can stay right next to them and take the pain. Lumena will start healing once she hits ¾ HP, so just keep hitting her to keep her occupied. Now Nebula can attack FOUR TIMES! Yeow! Even if they do only 140+, that can add up to a lot… Oh yeah, the attacks poison and dark, so keep a mage with a status clearing spell around the party. Nebula also has an HP/MP damage EZ, so be sure to keep your fighters healthy. If done correctly, the battle will end when one of ladies hit ¼ HP. If you do get Nebula and Lumena to cooperate, just focus on one. Even with Lumena’s mighty healing abilities, she can’t keep up with six people team attacking and bashing. =================================== V. Tips and Tricks: Sec5 This section is devoted to all the little things I find in Stella Dues that is good to know. It’s packed full of information and nutrition! Yum yum! If you have any good pointers, Email me and I might slap them on and give you credit for your contribution. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Feared? Run!] Crap, you’re feared. Happens a lot when you fight Viper, right? And who the hell carries those heavy Courage Badges anyway? Well, All you have to do is run to the edge of your movement area and fear will typically wear off when you finish the character’s turn. Yep, that’s all you have to do, than you can wait or run right back into the fray! [Good Items Through Fusion Early on] Want good stuff now? Use high rank items like Badge of Courage or Whistles when you use the guild’s fusioning arts. Some of stuff you can get are: Oak shoes and a badge of courage gives you a feather hat, Short sword and whistle gives you a Composite bow, Copper and whistle gives you Power +10%, Cap and a Whistle gives you a Halberd, and a Pointed Hat and a Badge of Courage gives you Ring mail. All these items are Rank 2 and 3, and they are very powerful when starting out! Try out other combos to see what you can get! [The Spear] Hands down, this is my favorite weapon, both in video games and in life. Now, just like all the other good Strategy Epics out there, the spear is a good weapon for attacking enemies right out of counter range, and also being a very flexible and a strong weapon over all. Another use for the spear is attacking two enemies in a row, which is as cool as watching a monkey drive a tiny car, in a fez nonetheless. Yet remember you can also attack allies like this, so keep that in mind. Although, it seems that you do not gain as much EXP/SP as you do normally, unless you kill one of the targets. [Party Time] Think your war band is a little thin around the edges? Well, to pick up some extra fighters early on take these quests in the Guild: “Defeat Punks”(Red), “Thieves” (Red), “Thieves 2” (Red), “Lancer” (Red), Arm Wrestling (Yellow, Spero’s STR must be over 20 to win), and Trouble Priest (Yellow). You need to be LV 2 or 3 to have a good chance at winning the red battles, and the extra warriors will give you some extra flexibility in the early battles. [Boss Basher] Like getting the most out a turn against a boss? Well, if you’re in attack range of the boss you can attack just enough so that when you take your next turn, it will be before when the boss goes. This is pretty useful, as you can get 1 or 2 more extra attacks out of a character before the boss goes. You can also do the same with movement, getting 1 or 2 more spaces closer. You can do the same for regular battles… but that just makes the battle longer than they need too. [I Need Money/Levels/SP] Catacombs. That’s why they are there, and every floor level reflects the enemies’ Level. While slogging through this gray graveyard, remember to use team attacks as much as you can. You still get bonus money and some times spoils, just like in regular battles. =================================== VI. Contact/Other: Sec6 If you have any errors to point out, additions to the guide, questions, or free copies of the record “Now I Have You, Smack!” by Robert Schellium, E-mail me at: JosephStalen@hotmail.com Any thing you send in will get credit if I put it up. Please let me know if you want your E-mail displayed or not. (Also, make sure you include your Neo Seeker name, if you have one) Special thanks: Julian- Julian figured out that Dies Irea's Level complements Spero's current level. So if Spero is LV 50, Dies Irea will also be 50. So make sure every one is around Spero's level when you face him! Stella Dues: Gate of Eternity © 2005 Altus